Wow, this guy called it 3 years ago

Guys, guys, let's reduce the tensity here. OP, you have a point, I must say that. Lots of games SOE has made did end up as failures. However, how will making a thread about it help the devs? I know that they should be aware that they're not doing enough to make the game better, but that doesn't mean we have to openly express our hatred for what they're doing. Instead, we may as well say,"Oy, devs, nice job doing X, but Y could be a bit better."
This game is simply the best one I've ever played in my life. After a horrible experience with PS1, I almost wasn't getting PS2. But what if it was better? That question crept into my mind, and I decided to install this game. F2P, I like that! Okay, that's one good thing. I then spawned at my first fight. Hmm, I said. The tutorial was ACTUALLY useful! Then I saw a vehicle terminal. Forget that, I'm not "certified" to drive one. I accidentally used a weapons terminal, and there was a highlight: All I had to do, was have enough certs, and get WHATEVER I wanted. No longer was I limited by certification tiers. I could buy whatever I want, whenever I want, and maybe, I thought, maybe the same goes for the VT! And there it was, the Magrider. One of the things I actually liked about PS1 was how good the Magrider was. VERY disappointed with it now, but oh well. I went to the point, and realized I no longer had to waste my time hacking it! I could take it while being able to defend myself! What joy is this? And the best part: NO BFRs. By God, this game is sick!
I may not be a member for this game, but I'll play it for as long as I can. The only thing that'll stop me, is when Planetside 3 comes out

You're wrong in the sense that PS1 did reach mainstream popularity... for PC gamers.

The game maintained a loyal fanbase for many years.

SOE tried to capitalize on that fan base in order to propel it into the console arena (no pun intended) in an attempt to compete with the current games by offering an alternative FPS with an established legacy and we agree on that point (which I allude to in my original post.)

The game has slowly been turned into some semblance of a "lobby" arena console shooter over the past two years in order to prepare the game-play code for the PS4 given that the PC version has ended up as a simple game-play beta for the console version.

The fact that the updated and modified code for the PS4 version was instituted for the PC version prior to its (PS4) release recently is a testiment to this.

Just so you know... SOE didn't exactly run Earth & Beyond... That was Electronic Arts. Electronic Arts is its own bad and f-ed up practices. Not saying SOE is better, but let's put the proper criticism towards the proper people.

Sorry, but I completely disagree.

I actually prefer the state of the game just after launch then what we have now.

Just my point of view.

Well, this is true... PC gaming has slowly been dying off. Look at most of the gaming stores... Do you see 'walls' of PC games? Not anymore, you barely see even a rack of a PC game. Most of them are now either X-Box (One, 360 and maybe just plain X-box), Playstation, Wii, or the portable players.

The current gen FPS games that are featured prominently are headlining the Consoles and not so much PC. Destiny, the Bungee/Studio 343 games is headlining purely for the PS4 at the moment.

Star Wars Galaxies was suppose to be playable for the console, but looks like they gave that up... KoTOR is pretty close to a Console like game.

And don't forget... PC rigs are not as 'stable' as a console... Although I prefer PC games over consoles because you have more control than a game pad in most respects and can do other things on a PC that you won't be able to do right now with current gen Consoles.

Lastly, they want to capture the Halo type groups... Planetside did come out after Halo did, but also Planetside is the only MMOFPS to my knowledge... And also the first to break free from the traditional FPS model of 'rotating maps'. Even Tribes, its predecessor, still rotated maps, despite having much larger maps, and even over Tribes 2. Halo has a strong group, with Call of Duty, Medal of Honor and Battlefield close to it.

This is how I feel too. It feels like the game went through the usual development cycle of
tons of people + big hopes of a new engine with new potential for content, dreams, and ******** promises --->
much smaller core team that will continue to dwindle to a "live" team and lots of "we just don't have the man power to do that" I'm already hearing things that sound like that last quote, and the lack of Roadmap doesn't help.

I was hoping for the meta-game closer to PS1 (generator drops to nullify tech plants, more than 3 large base types, power levels for bases), with new vehicles like PS1 but more (liberator, flail, non-lightning skyguard, empire-specific buggies, empire-specific troop transports, loadstar, BFRs), strong faction differentiation, new weapons like PS1 but more (three Core Combat weapons) and base-capture features like PS1 but more (capture the flag) along the way.

I wanted an improved PS1 but with even more content. I wanted at LEAST as much as PS1. Instead, we got a better-looking, better-shooting shell of PS1. And that's what still burns my *** and makes me agree with the OP. Sure, we have a bunch of new helmets, vehicle pictures, etc. but that was supposed to be the icing on the cake in my mind. Hell, quite a bit of that icing was player-created which reduced what the team needed to do itself. We have fewer continents than I expected, fewer large base types, fewer vehicles, less faction differentiation, fewer mechanics, and now I see the team dwindling again.

I can't knock some of the other additions PS2 has, like jet-packs, teleporters, an infantry-only base, weapon choice, side-grades, etc. That's OK to good content. But the content that I really wanted is not there, and doesn't look like it is even coming.

That is by far my biggest disappointment with this game.

Stopped reading here. If you honestly believe that, I will find it difficult to take much else you believe seriously.

PC gaming has moved online. Retailers do not have the same pull anymore since most PC gamers perferm services such as Steam.

Console = physical, PC = cloud services.

As a new player (started 2 months ago) I'm really interested in what things were screwed up royally recently. Could someone please bring me up to speed?

Let me be the first person in your life to inform you that your opinions are not facts.

You liked The Crown? I thought it was crap. I avoided fighting at the crown because it was a freakin' meat grinder. God forbid you have to come down off the peak and secure the bridges, because you know, you might actually DIE trying to do that.

You don't like Amerish, Hossin, and Esamir? I LOVE them. The continent creation process has obviously improved at an exponential rate in MY opinion. Hossin, even in its unfinished state in light-years ahead of Indar. The fact that you think Hossin is friendly to air is laughable. I get more AP kills against air on that continent than any other.

"Old weapons have been ignored" - Like what for example? Ever hear the phrase, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it,"? I don't know what you are expecting the dev team to do, but frankly it they spent a lot of time building models for gun that have been in the game for two years, I'd be kinda pissed. That's a LOT of work, not just with modeling, but texturing, and animating but it's obvious you don't think about such thing because of this:

"Their approach to the meta-game" - Let me tell you something pal: EVERYTHING they've done has been at OUR request. The Lattice, that was a community demand. And they went back and rebuilt EVERYTHING to accommodate the fact that we just can't stop zerging like morons. The resource revamp, that was a community demand. And yes, they've rolled it out in phases - that's the ONLY way to get proper testing on this stuff. You could keep a change on the PTS for a year and it would generate the kind of metrics needed to make an informed change because it wouldn't get the massive population applied to it. And so they'd rolled out this massive rebuild of the entire game in chunks. And no, they aren't done yet, so maybe you should act like they are.

As for base design. Stop expecting the base to do all the work for you. The defenders need to be just a numerous and organized at the attacked. I've seen MANY examples of outfits that like to resecure bases at the last minute by having a plan of attack and executing it with precision. The stomp the attackers and drive them right out. It's not the base, it's the players. The bases are supposed to be "neutral" in that the give very little defensive bonus.

Finally, it's easy to arm-chair quarterback and act like you've got all the answers, but you obviously DON'T. The one truth in all of this is "You can't make everyone happy all of the time," and well son, it's doesn't look like today is your day. So you can go pout in the corner for all I care. But if you're gonna come in here and act like you could do better, then let's see you do it. As for your little reddit naysayer, I'd say he couldn't be further off the mark. The dev team has been outstanding in communicating with and implementing the features we want to see.

This has only been my opinion, and I express it only to show that you aren't the voice of us all.

Well for starters bases were connected to every area around them, there were no lines ( lattices ) forcing you to only go to certain bases.

Also, almost every weapon in game has been nerfed to the point that very few, if any, stand significantly apart from one another. The gap used to be much more pronounced than it is now.

There used to be three separate resource pools, one for aircraft, one for armored vehicles and lastly one for equipment ( grenades, C4, etc...)

Engy AV Turrets used to have a lot more range than they have now, and even the ability to lock onto targets. And they used to do more dmg.

So much more........