Okay, okay, I'm guilty of using a clickbaity title. I admit, I don't personally believe that the game is pay to win. The reason I used that title is because as I try to invite new players to join the game, I keep hearing that is a concern. That's what I've heard from the last FOUR PEOPLE I've personally invited (RL friends and coworkers) to try to join Planetside. Every single person said they felt like the game was heavily pay-to-win. I had to explain three major points to all four people I invited : #1 - All guns can be acquired free with certs. Daybreak bucks just speed it up. #2 - Every gun is useful in its own right, and has its own pros and cons. #3 - New players are going to be about 7 years behind the vets in earned certs, and that's going to take time and effort to catch up. Now, I bring this up on the forums because it's VERY IMPORTANT to try to convey all 3 of these points to new players. #1 is simply a training issue, and the easiest way I'd say to convey that would be to 'weight' loading screen tips to show new players more relevant tips about how to unlock guns. #2 is a bit trickier. I know a lot of people get frustrated when they get killed by a gun they feel is too strong because they don't know its drawbacks. That information isn't always conveyed clearly in-game; the damage/distance graph and weapon stats can be a bit confusing to new players, and they may not understand the special characteristics of specific guns. What I think would be a good solution for #2 would be simply a 'sales blurb'. Something that lets you click a weapon and see a single paragraph that explains briefly the weapon's strengths and weaknesses. As for #3, I'm honestly not sure the best way to get around that for new players. At first I thought weighting certs to be a bit more rapidly earned for new players, but I can easily see that causing problems where people create new accounts to farm certs during that weighted period. What I thought instead was perhaps revamping the weapon trial system, and pushing it to new players? Letting them try guns for a longer period of time (Say, 1hr instead of 30m) with a shorter cooldown (14 days instead of 30). I just odn't know if that would be enough or not. That's why I felt like discussing it as a community might be a good idea, to help discuss this as an issue with the game and how it can improve and draw in newcomers to join us.
The real issue is the huge disparity in damage for headshots. Inexperienced players shoot at a target, land two or three body shots. Good player turns, plick plick plink, new player dies. New player, confused, looks at the death screen and sees his gun barely did any damage despite getting the drop on the opponent, while he got absolutely murdered in the blink of an eye. Concludes his weapon is **** and he has to buy a new one despite the Carv he is holding being arguably the best weapon available. "Game is pay to win." Logs off, moans to friends list. Repeat ad nauseam. All this because Higby couldn't balance nanoweave and snipers properly and it's still not fixed.
