[Video] Implementing Ideas from ETQW into PS2

I put together this video as a way to show you guys a couple of ideas from ETQW that I think could be implemented to great effect in Planetside 2. I decided to use the video format so you guys could get an idea of how these tools look and work in the game in which they originated, and how they could potentially operate in Planetside 2.




What do you guys think? Could some or perhaps even all of these ideas work for Planetside?

I used to play ETQW a while back and I liked it. Mostly because of how the two factions were so different from each other (for example on strogg side there were two buttons to convert ammo to health and health to ammo)

But most of all, what they had were clearly defined classes. Each with their own objective type. PS2 lacks the priority objectives of ETQW, as you mentioned the infiltrator, that class is most of all left out there to "do their own thing". And everyone hates when they "do their own thing". And I can bet that the mere IDEA of infiltrators getting to better sniping positions causes blood vessels to pop and light assaults to grow red with envy as their shtick has been outdated.

But as for the shield... I think the devs had something like that back in Alpha for the medic. I'm seriously hoping they replace Triage with some sort of deployable shield. maybe not full-on as in ETQW but damage mitigation.

Yes, the ammo to health conversion is one of the main things that I think gave the strogg their slight edge in terms of overall games won, with strogg having somewhere around a 65% win rate back in ETQW's heyday.

Personally, I think the teleporter would be a great device for Infiltrators that would allow them to get to good high ground vantage points without completely negating the superior mobility of the Light Assault. Like I discuss in the video, you could make it so they only get like two teleporter beacons per loadout, or maybe put it on a long refresh timer, something like 3-5 minutes.

As for the medic, yes, triage is pretty useless, I haven't even certed it yet. I think the tactical shield would be a much more useful utility for medics. I would like to see it have full damage mitigation though; as we see in the video it doesn't take too much rifle fire to disintegrate it.

Ahhh.. another ETQW player. I loved that game. RTCW was good too. I developed my medic skills in that game.

Nope, GDF Medic Trains were equally powerfull, tbh
The win/loss discrepancy was due to maps, they slightly favored Strogg in the long run.

There are still hardcores playing ET:QW.
We have a big TR outfit on Miller coming from ET:QW background, OCB, great group of guys (at least the ET:QW ones I know, they have grown quite a bit since coming to PS2 )

This game was an underrated gem, one of my top 3 FPS, I'd say.

Though implementing ideas from ET:QW in a persistent MMOFPS may not be as straightforward as it seems.

The Covert Ops / Infiltrator class can also hack the identity of fallen enemies. Making them look like a generic soldier of the enemy team. They can't shoot while disguised, and they have some visual/auditory giveaways, but they can sneak up to enemies and OHK knife them (this action immediately removes the disguise).

I could see a variation of this for PS2 Infiltrators. It could be an alternate to Hunter and Nano cloaking.

Nice one! I love that. If I'm not mistaken the disguise taken was that of the enemy, meaning even their name. I think there was even a tooltip that said "If you see yourself on the battlefield, shoot him!"

Also the strogg wins were map based. Remember that map with the crashed strogg ship? I still remember sad feeling of seeing the strogg jettison out of their flyer and hurl himself at the opening to win the match....

i would not want teleportin infiltrators in planetside2 ....

#1 I think that all the "high ground" goes to waste with infiltrators as they are now. Light Assault is the only class that can access 90% of the best positioning in PS2.

In terms of game mechanics, I think that the teleport/climbing rope concept can be streamlined and made more tactical and strategic at the same time by making it a limited range line of sight tool with limited ammo. My idea is to have a range limitation of 100m or so, and simply have a marker on the player's screen similar to how one would deploy a MANA turret for instance. Once the marker is green (in range, in line of sight) then the player activates the teleporter, it has a 5 second warm-up and then teleports the player. The teleportation is accompanied by a thunderclap to alert other players that someone has teleported in the vicinity. Faction specific sounds are also a possibility here.

#2 I think the deployable shield is a great idea. For PS2 I think it should be considerably more durable in comparison to the ETQW design due to the massive volume of fire in PS2, and it should be deployable only outside of buildings. Otherwise there's too much opportunity for griefing. The shield should take the place of the MANA turret, be single use, cost resources to use and have a cool down timer as well to prevent spamming. The shield would be a great tool to allow infantry to advance across open fields of fire where there is little to no cover between bases etc.

Yes, I think it should be an engineer tool, but I also think the MANA AV turret should be removed from the game and replaced by this shield.

Thoughts?

that made me think that the medic should have some sort of deployable health dispenser

True enough about the maps, more attacking maps for strogg. That said, I still think Strogg had the better stuff overall, only by the slightest of margins though.

I actually still play on a weekly basis with clan TAW (The Art of Warfare).

Here's a video of mine from back in the day:

Really good ideas overall-

1) The problem I have with it being a line-of-sight dart teleporter is then you can't lob it up onto hilltops that you can't see directly. They could perhaps make it a toggle function where one would be a dart and the other would be a lobbed beacon similar to a grenade.

2) Yes, I agree make the shield a bit stronger, but not by too much, maybe 4 times as strong. Keep in mind that infantry can still pass through the shield, it only blocks small arms and explosives. It would maybe be interesting if it slowed down MAX units 50% as they pass through it, this would also make it a strategic resource to stop slow down incoming MAX crashes.

3) I don't agree with taking out the AV Mana turret, I think it just needs it's range limited a bit and better graphics tracking so you can actually tell where they are coming from.

Oh yeah, I definitely think the tactical shield should go to the medic and not the engi; engi's have a ton of utility already as it is.

Brink also had something similar (developed by the same team?). Too bad it had some awful design choices like maps and symmetrical balance and such. (Also 4 active skill restriction because of consoles)

Splash Damage was a mod team from Quake3 that went pro when they were brought in to work on the expansion for RtCW. That ended up becoming the popular free stand-alone game known as Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.

Brink was intended to be SD's first major title that was all their own IP. Unfortunately, it was a flop. I still liked it, but it didn't deliver on the promises and expectations. A real shame. Parkour + team shooter should have been a winner.

I hear that there is a new Wolfenstein game coming out. Let's hope it's not as bad as the last one.

Unfortunately no MP. It will be a straight up SP game. It's not like they could screw up MP any worse than Wolf2009.

I think they did mention the possibility of the engineer having a shield the plop down. But I agree with the above posters that it would be much more valuable for a Medic. I don't think they'd do the teleport thing because I can see it just being a pain in the butt but it definitely is interesting. Anyway glad you focused on tools rather than trying to make PS2 a pure twitch shooter, which in my opinion, shouldn't be.

ET:QW was mixing twitch & gameplay super nicely.
I don't have much experience in the competition department, but some of the comp games I've witnessed on it blew the crap out of anything I've seen done in PS2 so far, in terms of teamplay, synchro, and rehearsal, while maintaining high twitch level. This game has shown me twitch & tactical are far from being incompatible, as it is far too often pictured in discussions.

Maybe so but I already played the hell out of Quake, Unreal Tournament, Tribes & CS when I was younger. I personally don't think PS2 should be a high twitch level game. There's plenty of that already. I don't think twitch & competition have to be synonymous. I actually want a medium paced, more tactical teamplay game with more drawn out firefights (BF3 being a middle ground between traditional twitch and something like ARMA, but not CoD style). I wish we had more movement in the game such as leaning and barrier/cover usage, heck even suppression. I've personally had enough of skill only meaning quickest mouse movement. But to each his own.

Not saying there isn't stuff that can be used here for inspiration though.

1) Teleport - Cool idea but as you mentioned it would have to be limited in use somehow so it wouldn't get ridiculous like in Unreal Tournament (TP kills anyone?)

2) Flying grenade - OP and frustrating as hell imo. Wouldn't you flip your table if you were killed by one of these things? MAV + phoenix in one? No thanks :/

3) Shield - This should definitely replace triage, I agree. There would have to be some sort of limitation though so that you don't stack 983291831209831 medic shields in one place. It would have to be on timer or expendable through ammo.