Lower tech?

[FortunadoAE]

I always felt like Planetside's level of technology hurt it more than it helped it. It didn't help that they always ramped up the tech in updates.

Let's revisit Auraxis after things have broken down a bit and a lot of the tech has been lost.

-Let's see some rifles comparable to what we have today. Less magnets and lasers and energy fields.

-Let's see more cloth/kevlar in the uniform design. Plate armor wasn't even a good idea in the middle ages.

-Want to get out of your mosquito? Gotta land. Don't worry, you can still rappel out of your Galaxy.

-All the core alien tech and the vehicle variants? All lost. BFRs are gone too.

-Bulkier MAX suits. MAX weapons that you can actually quickly and easily identify because they have unique silhouettes. Let's see those magnet/laser/energy fields come back in the MAXes, but at the cost of bulkiness.

-VS can still be the tech nerds. Their stuff has gotten bulkier and less effective too, though.

-Internal combustion! Auraxis has changed composition and doesn't provide as much NTU energy. Now they gotta drill for the stuff that's broken up in the core. Like oil, but more sci-fi. Fight over the drilling stations to get vehicles on that continent.

Retro. Steampunk. Awesome.

[Goku]

I always felt like Planetside's level of technology hurt it more than it helped it. It didn't help that they always ramped up the tech in updates.

No technology does not hurt the game. This a FUTURISTIC shooter that takes place far beyond our current time.

Let's revisit Auraxis after things have broken down a bit and a lot of the tech has been lost.

No thanks.

-Let's see some rifles comparable to what we have today. Less magnets and lasers and energy fields.

This is not BC2 or MW2. If you do not like the weapons please go play those games. The technology makes PS unique and way more interesting then carrying a M16 around.

-Let's see more cloth/kevlar in the uniform design. Plate armor wasn't even a good idea in the middle ages.

This I can partially agree with. I could see armored suits, but no as much metal on them. The TR doesn't look like plate armor, NC looks like a knight from long ago, VS is plate armor meeting the 31st century.

-Want to get out of your mosquito? Gotta land. Don't worry, you can still rappel out of your Galaxy.

Understand the point, but there is bailing mechanisms in current aircraft. No reason not to have them be able to bail. Perhaps putting in an actual pilot suit that limits users to MA would be a suitable alternative? Though still having an armor that can use weapons like AV/HA that does not require certs would have to be in place.

-All the core alien tech and the vehicle variants? All lost. BFRs are gone too.

Alien core tech? I never cared for any of the vehicles. Though I think there should be a place for a flail type weapon, but requiring a 2 man team to fire it. On top of having a limit on a cont. Anything more then 10 flails is almost game breaking. Vehicle variants pretaining to Thundies, Raiders, and Auroras? Keep them if so adds more to the game. Delis suck as well. BFRs should be out too.

-Bulkier MAX suits. MAX weapons that you can actually quickly and easily identify because they have unique silhouettes. Let's see those magnet/laser/energy fields come back in the MAXes, but at the cost of bulkiness.

Bulkier as in slower? You can't get much slower otherwise the MAX units will die rather quickly from the onslaught of AV use. Though I would like to have more recognizable features on the weapons. I can't tell the difference between the VS/NC ones from range.

-VS can still be the tech nerds. Their stuff has gotten bulkier and less effective too, though.

Sounds like you are looking to just nerf the VS here. The whole point of the VS empire is to be flexible and use the might of technology to win. On top of making them bulkier the VS are supposed to be able to be quick (Jump jets on MAXes, Magrider, and so on).

-Internal combustion! Auraxis has changed composition and doesn't provide as much NTU energy. Now they gotta drill for the stuff that's broken up in the core. Like oil, but more sci-fi. Fight over the drilling stations to get vehicles on that continent.

LOL. No thanks. Auraxis is built on nanites. If you want to play Earth please go out to RL and do something with yourself.

Retro. Steampunk. Awesome.

Not awesome. Dull and boring.

Above.

[krnasaur]

Lets take the "sci-fi" out if a "sci-fi shooter"? meh.

[Bags]

Yes, we really need more COD style shooters in the market.

[Aractain]

I always liked the low tech TR, middle tech NC and FABULOUS tech vanus.

[Canaris]

I think Goku summed it up nicely and I approve of his post ;)

[Koopak]

Agreed, this is stupid, when i saw it i thought it would be a post on how the tech is not advanced enough (This is common with Si-Fi, we used to think automatic sliding doors would only exist on the enterprise, but now they are everywhere)

But Steampunk? I can get the idea of technology degradeing in a colony disconnected from its home nation (That's what Auraxis is after-all) but that didn't happen and cant happen. Planetside is based off the discovery of Vanu Technology and the Re-birthing process, as long as people cannot die for good, they cannot forget and lose tech, and no one is actively destroying it.

The tech is really base to begin with, aside from the Vanu most factions still use the old fashioned bullet, hell the modern bullet has been around for what? more than a 100 years? longer if ya wanna talk about pre-shell era. In the end this makes sense, a mass driver is a mass drive not much to do with it.

As for Armor, you clearly don't know much about modern body armor, Kevlar don't stop shit, in an actual war Kevlar will not save you, it might stop the bullet from going in you, but it wont stop it from causing Hydrostatic Shock and killing you, more importantly, throw a phosphorus tip on the round (incendiary) and it goes through like the Kevlar isn't there. The only thing that will stop a modern assault rife round withing its effective range is a trauma plate, we used to use Titanium for this, worked fine, now we use Ceramics, they work great as they fall apart on impact and spread out the bullets force, and now we are looking at a gel layer that will do the same by hardening on impact but not have the flaw of being useless after 1-2 hits.

My assumptions about planetside armor? Gel layer takes most hits, the plates are probably advanced trauma plates for additional protection where they wont impede flexibility.

This is a Sci-Fi shooter, nuf said.

sorry for the rant

[Grimster]

Yepp, I second what Goku said also.


I really like that idea with having a specific suit for piloting. That could be a really good idea if for instance pilots were only able to bring MA weapons on them.

[Goku]

Yepp, I second what Goku said also.


I really like that idea with having a specific suit for piloting. That could be a really good idea if for instance pilots were only able to bring MA weapons on them.

Indeed. While I know this does hurt the way some outfits work for certain operations at least the pilot can still bail from the vehicle. Due to not having HA/AV you can add perks to the suit. Increasing movement speed beyond agile is one, so a player can out do a slower more armored opponent that way. This of course makes the use of the galaxy that much more pivotal to game play too.

[FortunadoAE]

Think of it this way: It's set 2,000 years after Planetside takes place.

The world has changed. Two thousand years of war has ravaged the planet's energy supply and the factions cling to what's left to preserve the rebirthing processes and other essential functions.

Each faction desperately competes for access to other energy sources. Solar, nuclear, core materials, and anything else they can manage to control. The extreme length of the war has lead to unique resource issues for each faction. The VS face a shortage of access to metal, resulting in exo-skeletal designs supplemented by energy shielding. The NC, without the luxury of VS's superior energy management but with a wealth of metals available, have adopted massive, brute-force designs. The TR still cling to tradition and have managed to keep their design philosophy mostly the same.

Core shifts and collapses have led to massive earthquakes, with some continents slowly sinking into the planet, forming gigantic canyon systems. Levees and dams have been constructed to keep the ocean from flooding the canyons and destroying the ever-more-valuable bases within. Other continents have seen the opposite effect, being pushed toward the sky and forming mountain ranges unlike anything seen on Earth. Climate shifts have pushed weather patterns on Auraxis to new extremes.

Rebirthing human bodies remains one of the least energy-intensive reconstruction activities. Millenia of constant death has hardened even the softest of Auraxis's soldiers. Armor designs emphasize one thing and one thing only: Battle hardiness. Safety and comfort considerations are a thing of the past.

It's the ultimate war of attrition. Who will last the longest: the TR, the VS, or the NC? Or will they all fall as Auraxis itself finally fails?

***

I think this is more sci-fi than finger-mounted flails and personal teleportation devices. But that's just me.

On the pilot suit: I totally agree! In PS I always thought that pilots should have to wear the spawn armor (the one that seemed completely pointless otherwise). A more badass-looking version of that would be great.

On military tech: C'mon, guys, this is all relative. A lot of the stuff in PS is low-tech compared to what we're flying around. They're already talking about the latest generation of fighter craft being the last to actually have a pilot in it. I don't think Reavers as we see them in the game are in our future.

On tech in general: Technology advances according to limitations. The game wouldn't be lower-tech, it'd be lower limitations. Maybe the flail takes 20x as much energy to create as a tank, so they thought it wasn't worth it. The longer a war wages on, the more practicality becomes a concern in weapon design.

If the game is just Planetside: The Next Expansion With Better Graphics, then it's going to fail. They just don't have enough of a population in the current (and even former) PS players to support a modern game. This isn't 2003, they no longer have a first-mover advantage (or close to it) and there's a couple other great-looking MMOFPSes coming out.

Expect it to be simplified one way or another. I think this is the best way to do it.

[Goku]

I see there being both AI and humans controlling planes in the future. The AI will probably be able to say be a bomber or spy plan by going to X target and drop Y bomb there. Right now we are still far off from even using AI in a fighter plane in my opinion. AI lacks any true intelligence for engaging opponents. When the AI finally can it will have to be self aware and be able to do its own actions, not a preprogrammed flight pattern from someone in DC. That is why I see humans still at least being fighter pilots for the time being. Will all this change at some point? I am sure it will of course as AI will progress a lot in the coming decades. Though with the advances in biology along with other technologies I am sure humans will be able to upgrade themselves to even take on the best of the AIs.

I think PS in its current form excluding some features and adding new ones will be a highly marketable games. Really the final nail in the coffin for PS was BFRs then SOE no longer supporting the game. For only being a DX8 game PS even made even bring higher ends rigs to their knees. Really until the introduction of the Core2 series along with higher end vgas did we see decent performance on high settings in red alerts. My Ahtlon X2 4200+ and 7900 GT SLI often struggled playing this game. My E8400 and 8800 GTS 512 played the game far better, but I still found issues running the game sometimes. Today with the adoption of quad cores and the large increase in video cards I do not think this will be as much of a problem. I think the performance of many computers is what made a lot of people leave as well.

Concerning the rest of your post. My feelings are laid out in my first post in the topic. All of what you describe is not PlanetSide in anyway, it is a entirely different game. That is why I have no interest in seeing these changes come Next.

[FortunadoAE]

We seem to be moving away from pilots-in-planes quite nicely without the benefit of AI.

PS had average graphics when it came out. It's been eight years and it hasn't aged well. If it were marketable in its current form, it'd be, well, marketed in its current form.

The game I describe is more like Planetside than what Planetside has morphed into. It's a return to basics. The game has suffered from feature creep which is too happily fueled by players. They need features that solve problems and make the game simpler, not more complicated.

[Goku]

Tell me how planes are going to be able to engage targets air to air w/o AI? Split second decisions is not something that going to X location and doing Y can handle. I don't see it happening. Last I knew there is NOT any plane in the works for air to air, but only bombing. If there is please link me to it.

I don't think you understood my point. Even on the last gen of DX9 cards PlanetSide ran like crap on them. The graphics may not be intense but with 399 players meshed in one base that is the issue there, not how much the water looks real. My miff with the game is that it ran like shit on systems that were modern back then and probably made lots of people stop playing as a result. SOE needs to make use of the enhancements multithreading offers in quad cores and the better rendering technologies in DX11 (tessellation would be great, so we don't have land features from PS), so it is not as demanding. I am assuming this is a PC title, so it should be doable. DX11 can back track to DX10, so that isn't a problem at least. If you have DX9 card, well oh well. Probably won't run the game at all anyway.

You're game sounds like a post apocalyptic version of PS. That is not PS. Nanites are the source of everything, its not going anywhere. No nanites= no game. A game set that far in the future from the original can't be any kind of sequel. If SOE doesn't want the limitations of PS they should just bring out a totally new MMOFPS that has nothing to do with it then.

[FortunadoAE]

The F22 engages from kilometers away. The air-to-air missiles (which don't have pilots) do 99.9% of the work. You're telling me a pilot couldn't do that remotely? Dogfighting is extinct.

Planetside's technical limitations are just as indicative of its age as its crappy graphics. Game engines have come a long way since PS. Progress isn't limited to the hardware side.

A game set that far in the future is a great sequel. It's a game about endless war. 2,000 years later is something almost no other game can do and look similar. Planetside is the exception and they should use that.

[Koopak]

The F22 engages from kilometers away. The air-to-air missiles (which don't have pilots) do 99.9% of the work. You're telling me a pilot couldn't do that remotely? Dogfighting is extinct.

Planetside's technical limitations are just as indicative of its age as its crappy graphics. Game engines have come a long way since PS. Progress isn't limited to the hardware side.

A game set that far in the future is a great sequel. It's a game about endless war. 2,000 years later is something almost no other game can do and look similar. Planetside is the exception and they should use that.

The F-22's "AI" flight, is irrelevant, If we wanted to shoot down aircraft from miles away with a single button we wouldn't be playing Planetside, its boring, this is a game. Boring things are no good, as for "AI" fact is we are not at the point where we can make an AI that will be effective, it'll be a series of If Then promps and nothing more because actual AI, polymorphic software, if a good ways off and not something i wanna throw on a weapon any time soon.

As fir 2,000 years later, unfortunately this wouldn't happen, Ill list the reasons why.

1. This is first and foremost, the Terran Republic (and i don't mean the red shirts we play as but the nation that first formed the colony) Can and will reopen the wormhole and hes decided to wipe the colony out, they just want us to test their shiny BFRs for them first.

2. The only way the technology will degrade is the loss of access to NTU, however nanites are troublesome little bastards, you see the replicate themselves, this means that you would have to destroy the warp-gates so that they had nowhere to gain the energy they needed to do this, no warp-gates, no planetside, its to fundamental, its the PSU logo for crist sake

3. 2,000 years one of the factions would win, my money is on the Vanu figuring out how the caverns work and going 2012 on the NC and TR and just makeing them not exist, baring that infecting the network and disabling enemy re-birthing.

4. Assuming none of these things happen and the factions remain in deadlock the only remaining force that could cause this collapse 2,000 years later is the Vanu (the aliens) themselves, that is just a weeeeeee bit Deus Ex Machina for me and most people.

[FortunadoAE]

Koopak:

That's what I was saying with the F22. "More" or "less" tech is irrelevant. Gameplay is important. Preserving the illusion of advancement, like PS did, tends to hurt gameplay. A sequel gives them a chance to start over.

1 and 2) These are both story points. Who cares? Any sci-fi writer could cover them in a dozen different ways.

3) Boring. Planetside is about endless war. Let's see it on a bigger scale.

4) A lot can happen in two millenia. Especially with so much energy drain on the planet. We don't know how any of the planetary tech really works. But this is just another story point.

The important thing is: I want more inspired designs and simpler, intuitive gameplay.

Also, the more I look at the released renders, the more I think they're doing something exactly like this. Take a look at the new Vanguard. Is that a step forward or a step back?

[Koopak]

Koopak:

That's what I was saying with the F22. "More" or "less" tech is irrelevant. Gameplay is important. Preserving the illusion of advancement, like PS did, tends to hurt gameplay. A sequel gives them a chance to start over.

1 and 2) These are both story points. Who cares? Any sci-fi writer could cover them in a dozen different ways.

3) Boring. Planetside is about endless war. Let's see it on a bigger scale.

4) A lot can happen in two millenia. Especially with so much energy drain on the planet. We don't know how any of the planetary tech really works. But this is just another story point.

The important thing is: I want more inspired designs and simpler, intuitive gameplay.

Also, the more I look at the released renders, the more I think they're doing something exactly like this. Take a look at the new Vanguard. Is that a step forward or a step back?

Only major difference is now the vanguard looks like a tank, not an SPG. Also did some research (not to be an ass just so ya have it strait) the F-22 is not AI operated, its not even flown from the ground, its not a drone, there is always a pilot it just has a heavily electronics outfit that modifies pilot commands so it doesn't go out of control fro ma sudden jerk that's beyond its ability to handle stately.

As for this loss of tech things vs game play yer point is moot, a pulsar game play wise is still a pulsar if the stats are the same and you just make it look like an m-16, this makes yer argument pointless, there's the story, which you have dubbed irrelevant, and the gameplay, which is its own thing and has nothing to do with technology.

Edit: another bit about the vanguard, a heavy turret just means that the NC weapons designers realized that yhe tiny turret with the 150 mm cannon was an ammo magnet, an unarmored turret is dumb, all the new vanguard is is the NC weapon designers face-palming

[FortunadoAE]

Yes, the F22 has a pilot. Who said it didn't? Did you even actually read my post? My point was that the pilot takes it up and pushes a button. It's the last generation of planes with a cockpit for a reason.

The story has a lot to do with in-game technology. With Planetside, every single addition was tech getting "better" (because they couldn't go the other way, due to story) and in pretty much every case it made the actual gameplay worse. Compounding the problem was the fact that they started too ambitiously. They bit off more than they could chew. The macro gameplay was a mess from the start, requiring complicated systems to fix basic problems. It left terrible first impressions and really hurt the game early on.

The premise of lost technology and resource wars would give them a viable story excuse to go back to the basics of the game. It'd also give them an excuse to come out with some really exciting new designs for the game, and to make major changes to the physical world of Auraxis. What's not to like?

[Baneblade]

I think PSN needs Tin Men, not MAXes.

[Koopak]

I think PSN needs Tin Men, not MAXes.

^this is whats not to like

[Senyu]

wtf i dont even................


take the lasors out of a sci-fi game? lose the hopes now or play something else

[Geist]

Okay, I sort of get where your coming from, your trying to come up with a viable way storywise for some of the recent changes to disappear, like the BFRs, correct?

I always felt like Planetside's level of technology hurt it more than it helped it. It didn't help that they always ramped up the tech in updates.

Let's revisit Auraxis after things have broken down a bit and a lot of the tech has been lost.

-Let's see some rifles comparable to what we have today. Less magnets and lasers and energy fields.

Already done. If you want weapons like that join the Terran Republic, they have plenty of them. Most of the weapons aren't really that "sci-fi" to begin with besides the VS. A better request would be for better detailed models for the weapons, since that's what makes them look unrealistic.

-Let's see more cloth/kevlar in the uniform design. Plate armor wasn't even a good idea in the middle ages.

Do you even know what the armor is made of? Who's to say it's not some kind of plastic or composite, with a gel layer underneath(like someone already mentioned). Kevlar is old, really old, most armor is actually more like what I've described, only with cloth over it. Besides, the armor is very much a part of the style of Planetside, I can't see it, nor want to see it, go away.

-Want to get out of your mosquito? Gotta land. Don't worry, you can still rappel out of your Galaxy.

We've had people jumping out of planes with parachutes since planes were invented. A person having to go down with his plane would be more pre-world war 1 then pre-sci-fi.

-All the core alien tech and the vehicle variants? All lost. BFRs are gone too.

Agreed, but instead of tech-loss due to age, why not an easier, and simple solution, a global nano-virus wipes the templates from all databases. There, that's done, let's go have lunch.

-Bulkier MAX suits. MAX weapons that you can actually quickly and easily identify because they have unique silhouettes. Let's see those magnet/laser/energy fields come back in the MAXes, but at the cost of bulkiness.

Silhouettes could be a bit clearer, agreed, but why would they need to be bulkier?

-VS can still be the tech nerds. Their stuff has gotten bulkier and less effective too, though.

So, nerf the VS more? Why? They already are the weakest empire currently(sorry VS players, but you have to admit, TR and NC dominate more often and usually have more players). IMHO, if the other Empires were to get downgraded, then the VS should stay the same to represent their dedication to technology.

-Internal combustion! Auraxis has changed composition and doesn't provide as much NTU energy. Now they gotta drill for the stuff that's broken up in the core. Like oil, but more sci-fi. Fight over the drilling stations to get vehicles on that continent.

Retro. Steampunk. Awesome.

What the hell is the problem with you? Retro? Steampunk? Don't make me sick. You should be ashamed to call yourself a Planetside Fan.

:no:

[Lonehunter]

I've occasionally wished for an aged-future-sci-fi look, similar to Star Wars.

[Koopak]

As for your comment about the F-22, it will not and cannot be the last piloted Aircraft. For the explanation to that ill adopt Mass Effects names of VI (Smart but not self aware intelligence) and AI (Sentient computer mind)

Drones, piloted from the ground by a signal have the time lag flaw to begin with, which might be very small, and in the case of interceptor duty, that's fine. Until someone starts running a big signal loop on the same frequency, jamming the communication to the drone, it either crashes or falls back to fail safe software.

VI piloted drones that operate autonomously will have flaws, early versions will have faults in the code, situations they cannot handle properly, or cannot handle well enough to beat the human pilot (Despite being able to pull 10X the G forces) Example? modern and slightly pre-modern missiles, they can be dodged, its not easy, its scary as hell, but you can outsmart the missile.

Late VI pilots would be polymorphic in nature and be able to learn and adapt, these same VIs would be just as expensive to train (as they would need training) as a human pilot, and you risk true AI.

AI, well watch a few sci-fi horrors, I'm not saying AI is evil, just that humanity is to young to give birth to a new entity, i doubt we would make good parents.

As someone else already mentioned, the most likely solution is to modify the human body to make up the difference.

Back to the topic of this aged tech concept, Planetsides story doesn't allow for it, advanced nano tech like that in Planetside doesn't allow for it, and above all else this isn't steam punk, this isn't starwars, this is not the falling of a great civilization, this is not the technology dark age, Planetside is not the drama of a dark age, it is the celebration of a military and technology golden age

The tech itself bars a sudden falling, and that falling could only be caused by radicals, who, in an engagement where the empires control the re-birthing process would be stomped flat before they could make a move.

This dark age you describe I get, there is a sci-fi MMOFPS coming up that I have my eyes on.
http://www.play-earthrise.com/

if thats yer thing, its coming, im pretty sure the rest of us want Planetside, and the issues that it had will obviously be fixed if the devs learned from the first run.

Side note about BFRs I <3 them, they just need to be reworked, they shouldn't use the same mechanics as normal vehicles, but their ability act as a rally point and moral booster puts them in the epic list for me.... please don't flame me!

Edit: Just took another look at earthrise, and now that theirs beta footage out... im not impressed

[FortunadoAE]

Lonehunter: I agree and I think we're already going to get it. I'd love to see it taken to an extreme though.

Koopak: Most of the US drones in Iraq/Afghanistan are remotely operated by pilots. Pilots in Arizona. All of your theoretical problems with said drones have theoretical solutions.

Spectre:

-Good point on the TR. There are definitely tech level differences already there. The "tech level" is really irrelevant though, what I want to see are more out-there, imaginative designs.

-You're right, it could be super light and durable plastic in the armors. The fact that it COULD be anything makes it easier to take more design risks though, no?

-I was thinking more energy considerations on the tech loss. More of an atrophy (BFRs cost energy that we could be using for rebirthing, let's stop building those) than an "Oh crap, where'd you put the disk?" Really I guess it's a moot point but resource wars were painfully absent from the game for me. (Unless you consider a "tech plant" a resource. I don't.)

-Actually, I'm a VS player at heart. Right now they're these awkward looking purple machine things and that's why they see lower pops. They're kinda dorky. Bulkier wouldn't mean slower-- it's just a design thing. Instead of a pew pew pew pulsar they'd have a rifle with crazy stuff sticking out of it. They could go the other way too: More compact designs that use crazy tech to "project" armor plating or some such cool-looking thing. PS right now is a middle-of-the-road visual snorefest.

-I had gotten all the way here, through this thread and about to politely reply to this last comment of yours, before I read it and remembered how absolutely dismal the PS community was. Thanks for the reminder, I guess.

[Geist]

-I had gotten all the way here, through this thread and about to politely reply to this last comment of yours, before I read it and remembered how absolutely dismal the PS community was. Thanks for the reminder, I guess.

Lol, forgot the tongue to make people understand it was sarcasm. Just so you know, it was sarcasm. :p

[Traak]

Yepp, I second what Goku said also.


I really like that idea with having a specific suit for piloting. That could be a really good idea if for instance pilots were only able to bring MA weapons on them.

Pistols only. If you they don't like it, they can always just walk. The grunts don't get to whip out a plane and get into it after getting too low on armor HP's.

And, having a slower, less-armored plane to whip out doesn't add any balance, just like using MA for a pilot doesn't. Pistols only.

[Canaris]

Pistols only. If you they don't like it, they can always just walk. The grunts don't get to whip out a plane and get into it after getting too low on armor HP's.

And, having a slower, less-armored plane to whip out doesn't add any balance, just like using MA for a pilot doesn't. Pistols only.

I wouldn't go so far as pistols only for pilots, if something like the standard supressor makes it back into PS-N I would allow them to use it.

[FortunadoAE]

Lol, forgot the tongue to make people understand it was sarcasm. Just so you know, it was sarcasm. :p

Sorry, this thread's just been a bit more... hostile than I expected. I didn't mean to take it out on you.

Traak and Canaris: I agree with Traak. Pistols only! Make piloting a commitment. You already get to zoom across the continent and go wherever you want. It needs more limitations. It's the same reason I'm against easy bailing.

[Canaris]

Sorry, this thread's just been a bit more... hostile than I expected. I didn't mean to take it out on you.

Traak and Canaris: I agree with Traak. Pistols only! Make piloting a commitment. You already get to zoom across the continent and go wherever you want. It needs more limitations. It's the same reason I'm against easy bailing.

The flight suit was already preposed to have less armor than an agile, in PS even coming out of the spawning chamber in the *** you have the suppressor, I'm all for limiting pilots away from MA & HA with agile but not gimping them totaly.
Even with the supressor a pilot had better on his A+ game to beat a agile with HA or MA in a stand up fight let alone a Rexo.
I just don't think pilots warrent 3 kicks in the ass when 2 will do.

[otomotopia]

I'm reading all these nice bits like "take lasers out of a scifi game?! Are you nuts?" and I'm struck by this- out of all the weapons and vehicles in the game, how many were ACTUALLY energy-based? And didn't only one faction have the extreme majority of them? Even for the common pool, how many of the weapons were actually 'laser-like'?

I think we're missing the point of the OP. I think that he does have an excellent idea, even if it was potentially misguided and misworded.

I think the art style should shift away from the polished, *****-and-spam, immaculately maintained, and generally shiny and new look planetside has. It should shift to this rusted-in-storage look that the screenshots for the galaxy and vanguard have. It's obvious that their functionality and design are nearly the same but the vanguard in particular looks like a very slightly earlier design that was thrown into storage. And I looks pretty damn basses too, at least in my opinion.

[Canaris]

I'm reading all these nice bits like "take lasers out of a scifi game?! Are you nuts?" and I'm struck by this- out of all the weapons and vehicles in the game, how many were ACTUALLY energy-based? And didn't only one faction have the extreme majority of them? Even for the common pool, how many of the weapons were actually 'laser-like'?

I think we're missing the point of the OP. I think that he does have an excellent idea, even if it was potentially misguided and misworded.

I think the art style should shift away from the polished, *****-and-spam, immaculately maintained, and generally shiny and new look planetside has. It should shift to this rusted-in-storage look that the screenshots for the galaxy and vanguard have. It's obvious that their functionality and design are nearly the same but the vanguard in particular looks like a very slightly earlier design that was thrown into storage. And I looks pretty damn basses too, at least in my opinion.

Well tbh everything looked ***** and span in PS because it was just rolled off the nanite assembly line brand spanking new, unless PS-N is a wholesale departure from the original concept of nanites building and mantaining everything, when the 3 factions blew the hell out of everything the nanites would regnerate it. It would be a little strange for everything to be rusted and old looking, for the simple fact it doesn't happen on Auraxis.

[otomotopia]

Well remember the cartoons the dev team posted on the website?

And remember how the TR mosquito looks so different from the NC vehicles?

I think there may just be a connection there...

[FortunadoAE]

I'm reading all these nice bits like "take lasers out of a scifi game?! Are you nuts?" and I'm struck by this- out of all the weapons and vehicles in the game, how many were ACTUALLY energy-based? And didn't only one faction have the extreme majority of them? Even for the common pool, how many of the weapons were actually 'laser-like'?

I think we're missing the point of the OP. I think that he does have an excellent idea, even if it was potentially misguided and misworded.

I think the art style should shift away from the polished, *****-and-spam, immaculately maintained, and generally shiny and new look planetside has. It should shift to this rusted-in-storage look that the screenshots for the galaxy and vanguard have. It's obvious that their functionality and design are nearly the same but the vanguard in particular looks like a very slightly earlier design that was thrown into storage. And I looks pretty damn basses too, at least in my opinion.

Thank you. This is exactly what I want: A shift to more interesting designs and a shift (back) to more basic gameplay. The lower tech angle (or withheld tech due to some sci-fi-story limitation) is just a great story excuse to do both.

So NC and TR MAXes would look bigger and bulkier but play basically the same. Their weapons would be larger (and more identifiable) but they'd shoot basically the same. Tanks wouldn't look so sleek and refined, but they'd play the same too.

You'd be able to tell everything apart from farther away, and no longer just by color (color-blind players play too!).

I also think Planetside *started off* as too needlessly complex, but maybe I'm cutting to the bone there. I'd be perfectly happy with PS:N that played like the original PS, just with more interesting designs, pulling from retro/steampunk/history (as much as is appropriate while still being Planetside).

[otomotopia]

The complexity is where I draw the line, though. In terms of art and asset modeling I completely agree-these artistic redesigns are awesome and I hope it also has a place in the game world art itself. Keep in mind I'm not meaning steampunk or rusted out bases, that'd be slightly messed. I think Firefly is an okay reference to this art style the NC have, and I think it's a great idea. I look forward to seeing the other game art re-designed, but their tactical complexity and general feel (at least the ground vehicles) should be familiar. Unless they've come up with something awesome in terms of gameplay feel. In that case, nice job with the art! XD