PlanetSide 2 Editorial

[Hamma]

http://www.planetside-universe.com/news-what-planetside-2-must-do-2541.htm

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

Judging by his "Improve Indoor Fighting" section the author wasn't very good at the game. There is defiantly things that could be done to make indoor fighting better, but what he describes is mainly user error.

The rest is just what a lot of us have been saying since 2004 to fix the original PS. Fix lag (ADADAD warping), better balancing, don't sell power in the store, actually market the game unlike PS1.

[Senyu]

My concerns are also the F2P and the marketing. I think they will market it much better this time and hopefully it will be enough to spread. But the F2P model still worries me. There is so much that can go wrong with F2P, just have to wait until they release the details

[Goku]

My concerns are also the F2P and the marketing. I think they will market it much better this time and hopefully it will be enough to spread. But the F2P model still worries me. There is so much that can go wrong with F2P, just have to wait until they release the details

F2P is needed for sustained pops. I am all for that. No reason to have this game die just a few years after launch like PS did due to only having a sub.

[Crator]

Always good to see more press for PS2!

[Zulthus]

F2P is needed for sustained pops. I am all for that. No reason to have this game die just a few years after launch like PS did due to only having a sub.

I don't think sub fees had anything to do with the death of PlanetSide. It was all BFRs.

[Crator]

BFRs and balancing issues. And not listening to the community about such things right away.

F2P should defiantly sustain big populations for longer periods of time. No reason not to try this model out. A lot of bigger name gaming companies are fitting proper models to work for them now.

[Goku]

I don't think sub fees had anything to do with the death of PlanetSide. It was all BFRs.

There was multiple reasons for the game dying out. Among the major ones being BFRs, but I still think the sub was the final nail in the coffin. How many FPSes do you know of requires a sub? Next to none as far as I know. I cannot tell you how many gamers I know refused to even try PS due to the monthly sub. If SOE can do F2P and get most people to spend a few bucks here and there on the game it will be far more successful then the original in terms of pop and revenue. Hence why they are doing this.

[basti]

There are many reasons for PS not being as succesful as it could be, but that doesnt matter at all.

Planetside 2 is a FPS. Means you go for FPS players, and FPS players are unlikley to pay a monthly sub, because they never did that before. On top of that, the subscription model is dying. Free to play seems to be the way things are going, and jumping on that train is not a bad idea, especialy because it will allow a lot of people to try the game properly.

And as someone got BFRs out already: would you stop the mindless hatred already? BFRs propblem arent that they are BFRs, the problem was that they were completly overpowered and changed battles way to much because of their power.

[Mastachief]

my major worry with f2p is hacking

I will add for all these people that keep quoting "other fps games dont require a sub" firstly they are not MMO and secondly who do you think pays for the servers that you play on?

[Mirror]

The only additions to the game that SOE got right were the Liberator, Skyguard, Lodestar, HSR, Vulture and Router. Idk there might be a few others.

They never ran proper tests for most of the additions and so they were added with a lot more fire power than they were meant to have. This was why BFRs failed so badly and well because they completely ruined game play when they were indestructible.

[Zulthus]

I also read in another article that Vivox is integrated, and I would have to individually mute people. Since this game is going F2P, I forsee one of my biggest annoyances are the whining and crying 8 year olds that begged their mom to buy the game for them. I hope the voice chat in-game is removed. (Not TS3, vent, etc. ofc)

[Senyu]

Just so I see where people stand, are you meaning F2P as in the sense you buy the game once 50$ and do not pay a subscription. Or just completly free gameplay like LoL?

[Goku]

Pretty sure there will be a way to disable it altogether. I haven't read much into this system. Is it something like everyone with in X distance can hear you or is it meant for squad/platoon setups? Either way I do not plan on using it most likely. With the wide spread use of TS3, Vent, and Mumble by Outfits I think it is a waste of development time.

[Mastachief]

I dont get the local voice thing either, in the monolith event in 2005 we had 170 nc in mont on solsar defending against poplocks from both vs and tr. atleast 60 of us at the back door imagine 60 halo kiddies spaffing local voice chat you'd spend you time muting them

[basti]

In most cases, people will just turn it off quite soon. But i hope it cant be turned off at all, just to annoy the crap out of you. Or, in fact, to make you understand that not everyone is a 8 years old idiot yelling into his mic. The very few who are can get muted within secs, and with a proper report function, they will soon be muted for everyone for ever.

Ingame voice is absolutly nessesary for an FPS.

It needs Squad/Platoon chat, mission chat (those guys on the same mission can talk with each other, especialy the commander to everyone), and local voice chat.

[Mastachief]

Have you played modern FPS games? 90% are these little hitlers. Have you looked at CR5 chat since early 2004?

Also the confliction this irritation would cause with outfit coms would be an ass.

[Duddy]

I would imagine that if Vivox is used to provide integrated voice chat that it will be restricted to squad/platoon only. That way if someone is annoying everyone, they can be kicked and/or there are less people you have to deal with (by muting) at any one time.

[Mirror]

Better be a way to turn it off completely.

I have a mumble server that works wonders..it means I can hear the people that matter.

[Mirror]

I dont get the local voice thing either, in the monolith event in 2005 we had 170 nc in mont on solsar defending against poplocks from both vs and tr. atleast 60 of us at the back door imagine 60 halo kiddies spaffing local voice chat you'd spend you time muting them

A high pitched voice comes over comms and says "So I found my first pube last night" only to be congratulated by 58 people and ignored by the 1 person who muted them all.

:no:

[SgtMAD]

I'm with Mirror on the voice crap,who needs to hear everyone within a base soi(or whatever range)it wil just prove to be a huge pain in the ass.

[Duddy]

I'm with Mirror on the voice crap,who needs to hear everyone within a base soi(or whatever range)it wil just prove to be a huge pain in the ass.

Whilst that may be a valid reason within itself, it isn't a good justification for exclusion of voice in its entirety.

There is something to be said for providing what is such an essential feature (voice is far superior to text for communication in a fast paced game) to those who don't know how to/are unable to use a 3rd party alternative.

This said, an option to exclude oneself from it entirely would surely be appreciated by some (for reasons such as you stated). Those who use 3rd party options would continue to do so, those who didn't would use the integrated option, perhaps moving on when they found out that 3rd party software is usually a better experience.

[Zulthus]

I'd put it this way, I have absolutely no problem at all with integrated voice chat as long as there is a button I can check to disable it forever. The only people I would ever want to hear in-game are my RL friends or my outfit members.

[Captain1nsaneo]

I don't see why there can't be channels for voice like we have channels for local, squad, and platoon. Only allow the player to listen and transmit on one with hotkeys to switch between them or mute voice chat. This allows people to just never deal with local voice chat if they wish and weed out people that talk too much in squad by kicking them instead of everyone having to mute individually.

Also:
And as someone got BFRs out already: would you stop the mindless hatred already? BFRs propblem arent that they are BFRs, the problem was that they were completly overpowered and changed battles way to much because of their power.
This^

BFRs have been nerfed to now be pitiable, heck they even nerfed player's abilities to alter their hotkeys. (Run mode used to be ~ but changeable, now it's locked to Q. Doesn't sound bad until you realize that Q used to be strafe left and E strafe right, ~ is now strafe left but it's unnatural and more importantly unadjustable.)

[NewSith]

Have an Awesome Marketing Team

That's a good suggestion.

[nathanebht]

I also read in another article that Vivox is integrated, and I would have to individually mute people. Since this game is going F2P, I forsee one of my biggest annoyances are the whining and crying 8 year olds that begged their mom to buy the game for them. I hope the voice chat in-game is removed. (Not TS3, vent, etc. ofc)

I don't think what you envision with integrated Vivox is going to be a problem. 8 year olds are playing consoles. In my experience with pickup groups in various FPS, well you might occasionally have to mute people. Just join a good outfit instead.

Integrated voice chat is key to getting teamwork going in pickup groups. The lack of people having microphones is a bigger problem than mic spam.

[nathanebht]

Judging by his "Improve Indoor Fighting" section the author wasn't very good at the game. There is defiantly things that could be done to make indoor fighting better, but what he describes is mainly user error.

The rest is just what a lot of us have been saying since 2004 to fix the original PS. Fix lag (ADADAD warping), better balancing, don't sell power in the store, actually market the game unlike PS1.

The lack of advertising for PS1 was a valid point. However, I don't think the author has been following the material being released by the devs. The F2P model is apparently going to be about cosmetic stuff and paying to unlock certs.

[Zulthus]

and paying to unlock certs.

no

[Trolltaxi]

Free to play, play to win would be awful, and I don't think that people that are interested in such a wargame (definetly more than a shooter like cod or bf) would pay for a hello kitty badge on their rexos.

I think we will be 'forced' to pay in an indirect way. I think outfits will need a lot of resource to evolve, and those resources will come from the game (territory held by the outfit, k/d or assists/d of the players, damage caused etc.) and ... you can pay RL cash for outfit resource. So you won't get Magik Ninemill of Auraxium + 1 bullets, but your outfit will be able to keep providing you +1% bonus for your reaver. This way you can justify your expense with "Hey, I'm just paying for the team, not for myself, it is valid and money well spent!"

[NewSith]

This way you can justify your expense with "Hey, I'm just paying for the team, not for myself, it is valid and money well spent!"

I usually justify my expenses on p2w items with "Hey, it gives good advantage..."
Works the absolutely same.

As for the HKitty - I'd like to have one HK bag for my female agile. (To walk around and pretend I'm 19-year old lesabian looking for threesome)

[Redshift]

to make you understand that not everyone is a 8 years old idiot yelling into his mic.

We invited some random into SR's TS years back, he then proceeded to sing a song, this song was entitled "pick the booger off the floor". Proximity voice will be muted by most players instinctually

[Redshift]

The editorial makes some good points but tbh he gave the original a bit of a slating, more than it diserved tbh, complaining about rubberbanding in a game designed for dial up?
I agree about the indoor combat though, i've always though bases should have had more areas like the vbay, but with more entrances

[raw]

Let's not forget that paying to win is, after all, good (http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win).

[Mastachief]

I usually justify my expenses on p2w items with "Hey, it gives good advantage..."
Works the absolutely same.

As for the HKitty - I'd like to have one HK bag for my female agile. (To walk around and pretend I'm 19-year old lesabian looking for threesome)


HEHEHE yes personally i want pink shorts. But i suppose if we are not spending $180 a year on subs you can budget that into mods and such.

Also its not just these 8yr olds its other people that can be irritations too you only have to look at command chat to understand this and certain people have very irritating voices.

[Whoknowswhat1]

People are forgetting about skills in command. Maybe a certain command skill, and the equivalent of CR4 or 5 will allow you to broadcast your voice in a friendly SOI. i think in certain circumstances it could be a great idea... dont worry too much about muting people that annoy you these days, Most to all modern games have the ability to mute people you dont like.

[Espion]

Everyone knows the trick to proper strafe-warping is spamming ADAD like you're playing mario party on N64, this guy really knows his stuff

[Talek Krell]

BFRs have been nerfed to now be pitiable,
How is a single person vehicle that can best a main battle tank and fly to be considered pitiable? It's all beside the point, in multiple senses of the phrase, but "wha?".

[Tatwi]

I would imagine that if Vivox is used to provide integrated voice chat that it will be restricted to squad/platoon only. That way if someone is annoying everyone, they can be kicked and/or there are less people you have to deal with (by muting) at any one time.

The vivox chat in SWG and EQII has only one default channel, guild chat. The entire system can be disabled in both games by unchecking a single box in the options menu. Why anyone would think that Planetside 2 would be any different is beyond me.

[KernolKlusterFk]

I remember in the Sanc. in Planetside SOE used to have ads (some animated) inside the HART waiting rooms. I think that would be a great way to generate revenue for a F2P game. Maybe they could expand on that.

[Redshift]

I remember in the Sanc. in Planetside SOE used to have ads (some animated) inside the HART waiting rooms. I think that would be a great way to generate revenue for a F2P game. Maybe they could expand on that.

Filling up the HART in Sanc with ads, may not work to well in PS2 :rolleyes:

[KernolKlusterFk]

Filling up the HART in Sanc with ads, may not work to well in PS2 :rolleyes:

Obviously I didn't mean them to do it in HARTs in PS2. Encase you didn't know there wont even be Sancs in PS2. I meant they should have ads in other things in the game, like on the loading screen they can slap on a big ass ad. And inside Major bases like in the spawn tube room, they can place it over the terminal were you get your weapons and shit.

This idea is perfect for if PS2 was to be F2P, because F2P means more people playing hence more people viewing the ads.

[Redshift]

Encase you didn't know there wont even be Sancs in PS2.
I know It's hard to get sarcasm across in text, but that comment was laden with it.....


I meant they should have ads in other things in the game, like on the loading screen they can slap on a big ass ad. And inside Major bases like in the spawn tube room, they can place it over the terminal were you get your weapons and shit.


If you force people to watch an ad on logging on you'll see numbers drop,

[Marsgrim]

The article reads like it was written by someone who played PS for a short amount of time at a certain point in the games development.

Whilst he has some legitimate points re. the net code and most definately the marketing, most of the rest of the article displays a lack of long term experience in the game. For example, he complains about base fights but thinks tower fights were fun when they were far more congested, the fight is aorund one stairwell in a tower.

Secondly, the Lasher and the VS - we had Lasher 2.0 for almost a year. Everyone knew it was unbalanced yet Raijinn - apparantly the game defeloper at that stage - did nothing as he played VS. Remember when the JH triple-shot insta gibbed rexo?


EDIT: Also on the marketing disaster, PS2 is going the same way - just look at the PS2 website and the lack of further game information shown there. Indeed the very fact that the Developers are more active on this website than the official forums they own is another marketing own goal. People looking for PS2 information are going to go to the PS2 website and the PS forums before anywhere else.
Balance issues so blatent DO need to be adressed immediately.

[kamikava]

If you force people to watch an ad on logging on you'll see numbers drop

Or just increase the amount of people paying to have the ads removed. I can think of at least 5 pieces of software on my computer who have a free version which show you ads, and a premium version with the ads removed.

I think people expect to have adverts in F2P, these companies have to generate revenue from somewhere and advertising is fine with me, i get it on the radio, i get it on the TV, i get it on the internet, i get it on the software i use, why not on my games too? If i get something for free, i expect a certain amount of advertising.

One thing more, i would like to see some kind of credit card & address verification when creating an account. (which can get blacklisted) I think this would be an effective deterant to casual cheaters. I dont want a game where someone can get banned and have a new account up and running in 5 mins. This is IMO my biggest fear for the F2P model. Yes we want it easy to create an account but i dont want fecking hackers, THEY PISS ME OFF GODDAMMIT! :mad:

[Shogun]

i´m all for ads on the login screen or even the certification windows, etc. but keep the ads of the maingame. the approach they tried to take on ps1 to put up big advertisement screens in the gameworld was bad because ads are offtopic and kill the atmosphere of the game.

what i would totally love to see are customized ads. if a NC REXO soldier on an ad screen shows me a soda can of a certain brand, and tells me never surrender, never drink another soda, this would be cool. but totally normal ads would suck ingame.

but i agree with everything that was mentioned in this "what ps2 has to do" article!
indoor fights were not too bad for me, but i was one of those medic-engineers who enjoyed repairing the indoor cannonfodder right from the start. because of my horrible lag, i never even tried to be a grunt. the lag was not so gamebreaking for supporters, so i took that route.

i just hope SOE reads this article! especially the part about PR for planetside.
just look at world of warcraft. they had a massive pr campaign even with iconic celebrities running on tv internationally. planetside needs that from the start. put in the biggest mass battlescene you can produce during beta and show it off to the world.

oh please smed or matt, please please comment on this article and share your views and ideas about this!

[Canaris]

Yeah I flogs me a dead horse but QFT:
Don’t Sell Power-ups

Now that it has been announced that Planetside 2 will be free-to-play, SOE has to make the players a promise.

Under no circumstances can they sell players anythingthat gives them an advantage over anyone else.

My friends recalled me to play some of the new APB with them, assured me I'd love it.....it was fun up until the point people started buying those over powered guns and once again ruined the game, glad it was F2P too didn't feel like a rip off this time around.

[Tigersmith]

i´m all for ads on the login screen or even the certification windows, etc. but keep the ads of the maingame. the approach they tried to take on ps1 to put up big advertisement screens in the gameworld was bad because ads are offtopic and kill the atmosphere of the game.

what i would totally love to see are customized ads. if a NC REXO soldier on an ad screen shows me a soda can of a certain brand, and tells me never surrender, never drink another soda, this would be cool. but totally normal ads would suck ingame.

but i agree with everything that was mentioned in this "what ps2 has to do" article!
indoor fights were not too bad for me, but i was one of those medic-engineers who enjoyed repairing the indoor cannonfodder right from the start. because of my horrible lag, i never even tried to be a grunt. the lag was not so gamebreaking for supporters, so i took that route.

i just hope SOE reads this article! especially the part about PR for planetside.
just look at world of warcraft. they had a massive pr campaign even with iconic celebrities running on tv internationally. planetside needs that from the start. put in the biggest mass battlescene you can produce during beta and show it off to the world.

oh please smed or matt, please please comment on this article and share your views and ideas about this!

Ill pay 10 dollars a months for no ads at all.

[Sentrosi]

And I'm sure there will be a model like that Tigersmith. I would pay that to keep my game ad-free.

[kaffis]

Have you played modern FPS games? 90% are these little hitlers. Have you looked at CR5 chat since early 2004?

Also the confliction this irritation would cause with outfit coms would be an ass.
Which is why there needs to be excellent in-game voice options.

I've never considered 3rd party com options to be superior to in-game ones. Yes, there are probably some games out there that have shitty quality, or are bandwidth hogs with their voice coms.

But 3rd party solutions are a non-starter unless your play experience is completely insular, and never interacts with people outside a specific group (like an outfit).

In the event that it's NOT completely insular, or that your insular group wants to interact with and coordinate with outside people or groups (inviting nearby people to fill out your platoon, pick up groups, alliances with other outfits, etc.), 3rd party voice solutions are a royal pain in the ass to work with. You have to share server information, often including passwords and/or setting up login credentials for the guests, who have to take time out of playing to enter that data while alt-tabbed. Then, they have to alt-tab to adjust volume levels for individual users, etc.

Heck, even within those insular communities, things like channel organization is a nuisance that takes time and attention away from the game.

Contrast with an in-game solution of sufficient quality and feature set. Now,
channel organization can be done automatically on the fly, with squad, platoon, and outfit (and potentially outfit officer) channels being set up by default, just by virtue of assembling those groups in-game. No time or attention need be directed towards managing channels, or server information. Nobody gets excluded because they haven't downloaded your 3rd party solution of choice, and nobody has to shell out the money to lease a host (or, I suppose if you want to be technical, that money is rolled into the cost of the game, and/or the hosting duties can be delegated to clients that have sufficient bandwidth and processing power to spare).

The in-game solutions have the capability to deliver a better quality experience, every time, by virtue of being integrated into the game. They have access to featuresets that 3rd parties can't deliver because they aren't integrated. In short, integrated solutions can deliver a lot of value to the game and the play experience with a fairly low (especially when you're partnering with an established system rather than building one from the ground up) investment of development resources.

[Scow2]

There was multiple reasons for the game dying out. Among the major ones being BFRs, but I still think the sub was the final nail in the coffin. How many FPSes do you know of requires a sub? Next to none as far as I know. I cannot tell you how many gamers I know refused to even try PS due to the monthly sub. If SOE can do F2P and get most people to spend a few bucks here and there on the game it will be far more successful then the original in terms of pop and revenue. Hence why they are doing this.
Anyone who plays online on the Xbox 360 pays a subscription fee, or at least did.

I wish there was a better way for me to figure out how to give them my money... I can't bring myself to pay subscription fees, and I can't bring myself to purchase most F2P addons.

Personally, I don't mind being able to pay an "Elite subscription" and get slight edges such as faster/cheaper Vehicle/weapon acquisition, faster XP gain/skill training (It's not like there won't be people higher level than me anyway, and I still reach a level-cap at some point), and/or extra character slots. Just a bit more versatility, and nothing a non-subscriber can't acquire with extra time, or remain competitive without, and if I run out of discretionary cash, I can revert to the slower progression/wait times.

[BuzzCutPsycho]

I'm strongly against any F2P model that sells anything other than cosmetic upgrades. A "pay-to-win" scheme is the death of any game for any serious players.

[Scow2]

I'm strongly against any F2P model that sells anything other than cosmetic upgrades. A "pay-to-win" scheme is the death of any game for any serious players.

I don't see how faster character advancement = "pay to win"

Now, if paying increased the level cap, that would be one thing, but letting you catch up to a level of ability on par with other free players isn't.

And less wait time for vehicles/weapons for me just means more experience for everyone, because I'm absolutely terrible at the game.

As for anyone else... it doesn't make the guns any stronger, or vehicles any tougher. Just less downtime between getting a chance to use them.

[Shogun]

Ill pay 10 dollars a months for no ads at all.

if they don´t give you THAT option, they are stupid. paying customers get adfree game. like in most software nowadays

[SgtMAD]

Which is why there needs to be excellent in-game voice options.

I've never considered 3rd party com options to be superior to in-game ones. Yes, there are probably some games out there that have shitty quality, or are bandwidth hogs with their voice coms.

But 3rd party solutions are a non-starter unless your play experience is completely insular, and never interacts with people outside a specific group (like an outfit).

In the event that it's NOT completely insular, or that your insular group wants to interact with and coordinate with outside people or groups (inviting nearby people to fill out your platoon, pick up groups, alliances with other outfits, etc.), 3rd party voice solutions are a royal pain in the ass to work with. You have to share server information, often including passwords and/or setting up login credentials for the guests, who have to take time out of playing to enter that data while alt-tabbed. Then, they have to alt-tab to adjust volume levels for individual users, etc.

Heck, even within those insular communities, things like channel organization is a nuisance that takes time and attention away from the game.

Contrast with an in-game solution of sufficient quality and feature set. Now,
channel organization can be done automatically on the fly, with squad, platoon, and outfit (and potentially outfit officer) channels being set up by default, just by virtue of assembling those groups in-game. No time or attention need be directed towards managing channels, or server information. Nobody gets excluded because they haven't downloaded your 3rd party solution of choice, and nobody has to shell out the money to lease a host (or, I suppose if you want to be technical, that money is rolled into the cost of the game, and/or the hosting duties can be delegated to clients that have sufficient bandwidth and processing power to spare).

The in-game solutions have the capability to deliver a better quality experience, every time, by virtue of being integrated into the game. They have access to featuresets that 3rd parties can't deliver because they aren't integrated. In short, integrated solutions can deliver a lot of value to the game and the play experience with a fairly low (especially when you're partnering with an established system rather than building one from the ground up) investment of development resources.

its like you don't have any experience with vent/ts/mumble at all,I could take the time to pick this apart line by line but why bother.

by its very nature an outfit is insular,its set up like that for a reason but if you don't know or can't figure it out,I am not going to take the time to explain it all.

it takes less than 5 minutes to set up any third party voice system, I have been inviting ppl on to Ht's vent server for 8 years now and haven't had near the difficulty you are talking about.

[kaffis]

I have experience with Vent and TS. Including some fun with version mis-matches when they do updates, and having some half-dozen servers saved.

Still, 5 minutes is > 0 minutes spent configuring voice when you join a squad.

I welcome line-by-line arguments against my points. I consider them solid, and, as I said, I've got experience with 2 of the 3 systems you've mentioned, including self-hosting both in the past. If you don't feel up to picking them apart, that's fine -- but don't declare victory without engaging.

[Redshift]

Both systems are useful tbh, ingame voice is handy when you just want to jump in a squad and vent/TS is better for outfits.
Wow did a similar thing, the ingame was a bit crappy but good for PUG's vent/TS was still used by most guilds because of the better quality and control