Prestige System in PS:N

[PsychoXR-20]

I think a prestige system, like the CoD games have, would work very in PlanetSide. Once you reach BR20 you would have the option to prestige and be brought down to BR1, with a couple extra perks. This is the way I imagine it would/could work.

BR1-20 work as normal. 7 and 14 would grant you color upgrades. At level 20 you could prestige back to BR1, keeping your BR20 color scheme, and gaining the CR1 shin guard (I assume CR is going to work much different), from this point every time you prestige you get another armor upgrade. By the 5th one you would have all the armor upgrades, shin guards, armor guards and backpack. The 6th one would change you color scheme, and the next 5 would change the armor upgrades to match and so on and so forth.

The reason I would put the old CR armor into this prestige system is the CR armor is very visible, you could do it with a merit, but merits are hard to see, and in the heat of battle, they are the absolute last thing you are looking at. The CR armor however is very visible, and seeing a guy in full CR gear means he's leveled 120 levels, just like now it would be a indicator of experience.

Every prestige would also grant you an additional favorites slot, and perhaps some extra locker space. Nothing game breaking, but a nice reward for those who put in the effort.

A lot of people enjoy having that goal of a next level, and currently when you hit max BR, that goes away. Sure, they could just add more BR's like they did in PlanetSide, but then you end up with empty levels, and players who have far to many certification points. A prestige system would allow for hundreds of levels without ever having empty levels and without players ever having to many certs.

There would also be the added challenge that some may enjoy of being brought back to level one and being forced to work with minimal certification points.

The nice thing is that this would be totally optional. You wouldn't be at any more of a disadvantage if you choose not to do this, nor would you be at any more of an advantage if you did do this. The only reward is that you can show off a bit.

[Bags]

As long as my TR rexo looks a lot like my current Br25 CR5 at the end I'm game.

No to the perks though.

[Raymac]

Yes to all of it. Make any "upgrade" you get from prestiging be merely cosmetic, and open up an additional favorite slot every other time you prestige. Thats it, no special buffs. Adding a favorite slot just adds convenience, not power. I'd love to see this idea, especially as an alternative to just raising the BR cap to 40 or 50 or infinty.

[Furret]

Definitely would be a good improvement, as long as it doesnt change game mechanics. Colored guns for instance? Instead of having your gun be gray and stupid looking, you could make it silver (shiny) gold (gold) or your empires colors?

Obviously favorite slots are a good bonus for all of your hard work.

Only problem is if you cant tell if someone is just a BR whore (no offense to anyone) or a commander. If the armor 'upgrades' are different, there wouldn't be a problem.

It would probably make the game more fun, because you'd be farmin teh newbs having a good 'ol time until some guy decked out in 10th prestige BR20 armor comes up the stairs and outplays you.

[KayOneElRoy]

Absolutely not, I hated it in CoD and I'll hate it in Planetside.

It just encourages rank whores and exp farming/exploits. Say you can prestige 10 times. A lot of people will just exploit different glitches/cheats in the game (much like they do in CoD) in order prestige faster. Also if any weapon happens to be OP'd it will be widely used, and the prestige mode will only encourage empire hoping (to alternate characters) with each new patch (and new exploits that come along with those patches). It will not promote better game play, it will only interfere with it.

What it could do is provide a certain degree of re-playability, but Planetside can do this in different ways such as an achievement list (like CoD 4 had, with no prestige included.). You could unlock different cosmetics/emblems/color schemes/weapons skins from completing achievement categories 100%. This will enhance re-playability, and it will reduce BR whoring (as BR points won't be useful once you reach the top level). It will also encourage using all of the different vehicles and weapons in the game for an extended amount of time, instead of only using the weapons with the highest killing potentials.

Perhaps they could include an achievement list prestige reset, but they should never add an exp based prestige reset.

[Raymac]

Absolutely not, I hated it in CoD and I'll hate it in Planetside.

It just encourages rank whores and exp farming/exploits. Say you can prestige 10 times. A lot of people will just exploit different glitches/cheats in the game (much like they do in CoD) in order prestige faster. Also if any weapon happens to be OP'd it will be widely used, and the prestige mode will only encourage empire hoping (to alternate characters) with each new patch (and new exploits that come along with those patches). It will not promote better game play, it will only interfere with it.

What it could do is provide a certain degree of re-playability, but Planetside can do this in different ways such as an achievement list (like CoD 4 had, with no prestige included.). You could unlock different cosmetics/emblems/color schemes/weapons skins from completing achievement categories 100%. This will enhance re-playability, and it will reduce BR whoring (as BR points won't be useful once you reach the top level). It will also encourage using all of the different vehicles and weapons in the game for an extended amount of time, instead of only using the weapons with the highest killing potentials.

Perhaps they could include an achievement list prestige reset, but they should never add an exp based prestige reset.

I honestly don't think you'd see that very much in Planetside. I don't know if there was ever much of a problem of people exploiting for xp even in the early days. Frankly, you get tons of xp just playing the game.

Plus if some people are off in some corner doing some sort of brand new boosting exploit that never showed up in 8 years of the game, what effect would that have on you or any of us? So they didn't "earn" their pretty armor, so what?

Gaining experience has been in the game since the beginning. If boosting was ever a problem, it would have shown up by now. No reason to think some cosmetic treats would be the genesis of that.

[PsychoXR-20]

Lets not forget that if people found some exploit to farm XP (which in turn means either farming kills or bases, the only sources of XP in the game), they will abuse it regardless if there is XP involved. Why do people hack in PS? It's not for the experience, I can tell you that much.

As for certain weapons being overpowered, again, if weapon A is the most powerful gun in the game, everyone will use it, even if they are BR20, BR25, BR40, or BR 1,000,000. It makes killing people easier, which buffs their stats, makes other people angry, and makes them feel good about themselves. People don't magically stop using the best weapon just because they aren't earning XP anymore.

[KayOneElRoy]

True, but what would a prestige mode add to the game that a well thought out achievement list would not?

Assuming boosting and exploits will be unaffected by a prestige mode, and assuming that the overall use of the power weapons will be unaffected, the only thing a prestige mode will add is some re-playability (until people become bored of it).

A list of achievements will add just as much re-playability if it is well thought out and it takes some time to complete. It can also be made to bring just as much "prestige" to someone who as completed all of the achievements as any prestige mode could bring. (for example in cod 4 prestige mode only gave you a symbol, but the achievement list gave you golden guns and red tiger camo's).

What an achievement list can bring to the game that a prestige list cannot bring is the incentive for people to use all of the different weapons, and use them enough to know each weapons individual strengths and weaknesses. In my opinion this brings more flavor and variety to the game, prolonging the game play much more than any prestige mode ever could.

I refused to prestige in cod 4. Instead I just worked to complete every challenge the game offered (granted it could have offered more). What I got out of it was a complete understanding of every single weapon in the game. I developed unique favorite weapons for different situations, and i could scavenge off dead bodies very effectively. It did not matter what weapon they had, I could use it to its potential. All prestige mode ever encouraged was people simply whoring the m16 (by far the most dominant weapon of cod 4) or the M40A3 in order to power level through prestiges.

Now with CoD MW2 I was talked into prestiging over and over again. What happened was I got into a pattern of using the same weapons over and over again. I got bored with the game extremely fast as there was no incentive for me to use variety of different weapons :zzz: (as any achievements i worked for would reset upon prestiging). There are plenty of weapons in CoD MW2 that I never truly used enough to master.

Now, I'm just saying I do not want this function. If it is in the best interest of the majority of players and it is included in PS:N, I will simply never prestige. People will have to simply suck on my 5 silver stars (or whatever is going indicate that I have never prestiged in PS:N) :)

[DviddLeff]

Personally I don't like prestige in CoD; I much prefer the star system from Bad Company 2.

Prestige is all well and good, but as people have said it just encourages people to use what they are best at exclusively... the star system encourages people to use every weapon and tool, to get an overall knowledge of the game and really understand every weapon.

http://bfbc2.statsverse.com/stats/pc/Vindicore/#infantry

In BC2 I got everything unlocked and then spent the next month getting every gold star I could with every different weapon (ok sure I didn't get one for the under-slung shotgun...). This gave me a much better ability to dominate with any weapon, understand how an enemy was likely to play depending on what tool he was using and then once I had killed him, use his weapon to maximum effect.

The prestige system is just a way of continuing progression almost indefinitely once people hit the level cap. The level cap itself should be high enough that it takes a while to get there. I teach in a secondary school and a fair few kids invested way too much time into Black Ops, taking days off school to play it and playing for 40 hours in the first 3 days it was out so they could be the best out of their friends. Yet when I talked to them about it they just used the same load outs every time they played... and consequentially burned out pretty quick.

Regarding visual upgrades, keep the current system. However I would like to see outfit rank be displayed on a character (with a system to limit the percentage of outfit members in the top ranks).

[BlazingSun]

All this just for little visual boosts? I'm sure there is a better way.

[basti]

Err, what? Copy Cod just out of the box? Are you crazy?
No. No on so many levels. And especialy no to go from max BR to lowest BR, for whatever reason. Those at max BR are the guys that do more useful stuff than just farming along...

[Lonehunter]

Prestige doesn't belong in any FPS. It was CoD's way of letting the players level longer while not having to actual design those "levels", it's just like recycling. As you can level and work towards something you have more reason to play their game. There's much better ways to unlock things when it comes to game design, even if they're just cosmetic.

[Rbstr]

"Exploiters/cheaters might find ways to abuse it" Is a copout and shitty reason not to implement something that might be cool. Exploits and hacks shouldn't be dealt with by removing neat features.

Remember this isn't the same exact 8 year old game we're talking about(though many seem to have problems remember that), it should have modern anti-cheat technology in it.

That being said, I don't find this something to be particularly interesting. So you have enough play time to go br20 and back 5 times? That's not "prestige" it's just having no life.


(ok sure I didn't get one for the under-slung shotgun...)

Oh dude that one is easy. That shotgun is a fucking beast when you have a clear shot (in hardcore, at least). Any time you round a corner and the like use it because you can aim it from the hip adequately and if you catch a guy in the chest he's done for. I think it's far more useful than the grenade launcher.

[DviddLeff]

Hmmm I may have to finish that one off then, not sure I tried it on hardcore... :D

I did prefer hardcore servers as it was oh so easy to get kills with even the crappy weapons.

[Traak]

And, the bigger your prestige, then the bigger your codpiece, if a male player, and bra if you're female, so we could tell by looking who was straight pimpin' yo!

[Hamma]

Interesting ideas I agree there should be more character upgrades and visual customizations. 2011 is a much different time than 2003 in terms of video games. People expect allot of the features we talk about here. Although I must admit I'm not sure if a prestige system is the answer to make it happen.

Rbstr again makes a good point in that you cannot limit game features in fear of hackers. Modern cheat prevention technology as well as this being an MMO you have even more ability to stop people from hacking.