where is the strategy in this game?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by elkikko92, Mar 21, 2020.

  1. elkikko92

    Look the continent map: you see enemies and your faction having battles in the same territories for HOURS and HOURS!!!
    It's all stagnation. Every continent is so big (I like), but we see battles on 5-6 territories per continent.
    Planetside 2 has much potential, but actually I am bored (and angry)!
    Let's discuss the actual lattice system: I think it's important to improve it (or change with something else)
    Do you agree? And why?
  2. Yavimaya

    Well the game's been out for nearly 8 years, why hasnt one of the factions won already? Stagnation!

    Seriously many players have been playing for a long time, and for many of them the game is more about individual performance than whatever their faction is doing.
    There are also plenty of other reasons that people arent that interested in the strategy layer; maybe they're dumb, maybe they're focused on farming, maybe thats just not their cup of tea, it doesnt matter.

    Additionally, if a particular continent is deadlocked for some period of time, well that just sounds like a fairly balanced continent. Thats far better than some servers where a single faction wins the vast plurality or majority of alerts because they're just that overpopped.

    The lattice is fine. We've arrived here after much trial and error. Here's a discussion of before and after, and Im sure you can find more. https://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside...as_old_map_hex_system_worse_than_new_lattice/

    Finally, PS2 is a somewhat hierarchical game. If you're interested in strategy; join an outfit, prove your leadership ability, get promoted to a leadership role, call the shots yourself. The strategy more or less exists, its just not always as evident if you're a goon.
    • Up x 1
  3. Demigan

    Because the stragetic options in the game kill the gameplay that players like.

    Since the game's inception it was bases like Biolabs and The Crown that attracted the attention of all the players. This was where they were guaranteed to get the experience they wanted: Massive fights with so many players it makes a 64 player match seem small.
    The strategy in the game is based on both avoiding and breaking those type of fights. Ghost capping or zerging a point with triple the amount of players and then redeploying to the next base. Also look at what happens if you finally take a base: A few defenders move to another fight and suddenly the attackers are outnumbering the defenders and have vehicle superiority. The only exceptions are bases like Quartz Ridge and Indar Excavation where there's enough time to spawn and engage the attacker vehicles allowing for better and more balanced vehicle fights between bases.

    To try and win you need to make the game as boring and stupid as possible. That is what's wrong with the strategy, that's why it's not there.

    There's more wrong ofcourse. Like how most spawnbunkers are designed as chokepoints against the defenders, rather than places where you can stage an effective counter-attack. Or how the attackers get virtually infinite time to attack the base but the defenders get mere minutes to recapture the points without solid ground to actually retaliate. Or how many features in the game favor the attackers like the new resource points that are only rewarded for attacking bases but not defending.


    To solve this we need to re-align the goals of the game to make sure they encourage (good!) fights. There also needs to be more done to make defending enjoyable, and fighting while being outnumbered should also be fun rather than a hated point in the game. When you are outnumbered the game should open up with options! Let players drop-pod in so they don't have to spawn in a spawnbunker that is going to be surrounded by enemies who use it as a chokepoint against you. Let players spawn in vehicles outside the base somewhere so they can mount an effective counter-assault on all fronts. Make things cheaper or even costless if you are outnumbered (for a minimum amount of time). Allow players to influence the capture time if they are outnumbered, for example each kill made outside of the spawnbunker will add a few seconds to the capture timer allowing defenders to stop a capture without actually holding the point. Make being outnumbered fun. Make sure that when players are capturing a continent that the fight continues rather than stops for a few minutes while you move and set up at the next base.

    Then and only then can we start thinking about adding depth to the strategy. Like making redeploy less effective and using PMB's as teleport stations to ferry people around. Or allowing players to build and maintain their own lattice-links, which would also be a nice continent-opening sequence where players are encouraged to capture neutral territory by building their own lattice-links to modify the frontline borders before the continent opens up completely.
    • Up x 5
  4. elkikko92

    I think actual lattice system is good for little continents, not for planetside 2 maps, because a lot of territories are not used and we see the same battles in 4-5 territories each continent.
    Maybe hex-system can be improved with a solid metagame and different capture system.
    I remember that the main problem of hex-system was the players are not encouraged to begin a battle in a territories without enemies: this is the problem to fix, making better the gameplay if there are not enemies.
    Also ghost-capture was another problem to fix.
    If you fix this, I think hex-system is better than lattice.
  5. Scrundle

    It's strategic to suicide C4 that AMS and break the attack.
    It's also a dick move.