Outfit vs Outfit

[Synapse]

I never got to see how this worked in PS1 so forgive me for my ignorance.

It would be great to drive more rivalry and competition between outfits in opposite factions. I'd like to know I'm fighting against a squad of the legendary XXXX outfit, etc, especially if we win :D.

Even better would be to have actual rivalries, where an outfit shows up to contest a base, their rivals on other factions will also show up just to fight against them.

All this really requires is more information, not new mechanics.

1. Will there be ways for outfits to go directly up against each other without having to chat and workout an empty battleground in advance?

2. Could you have a notice for each team what outfits have a squad or more in the fight at their current base, so you could at least see who you're up against?

3. If a particular outfit is responsible for the cap of a base or outpost, why not announce that it was their squad that did it?

[Bags]

They had outfit wars on a special server once or twice during the original PS. Might see something like that again, hope if so it's infrequent.

For the second part, I don't think they should give away information like that. Certain outfits have certain tactics (IE azure twilight spammed maxes) and knowing who you're up against without visual confirmation is kinda cheap and removes an element of surprise.

[SKYeXile]

you're aware planetside is an open map split over 3 different zones, there are no battlegrounds or instances like WAR etc yea? (just clarifying your terminology)

This was never a problem in planetside, i would be good if it did display enemy outfit names or tags(im pretty sure it didnt...been awhile..there were no tags anyway)

but over time you knew who you were fighting, you didn't need any other stuff, you could make a name for yourself and outfit pretty well in PS1.

[Bags]

but over time you knew who you were fighting, you didn't need any other stuff, you could make a name for yourself and outfit pretty well in PS1.

Yeah, with planetside's fairly low pops you eventually learned who was in what outfit. It also helped that a few ran with their own tags (88s, TRx, some members of DT had DT in their name).

Good sense of community. If you fight the same people over and over, you'll naturally learn who is who. It's not like WoW where you queue for a BG and you fight a bunch of people you'll never see again.

[Graywolves]

You will build rivalries and come to know names to respect and fear.


They did do outfit wars in the original Planetside which was run directly by the CSRs with the players directly sent to a no longer used continent.

Higby has talked about doing a competitive game mode in the future but that is a long time from now. It won't happen for some time after release.

[Redshift]

I'd like to see outfit wars return, but not too frequently

[SKYeXile]

I'd like to see outfit wars return, but not too frequently
I hear some outfits lost, therefore outfit wars didn't prove anything.

[Nabeshin]

I hear some outfits lost, therefore outfit wars didn't prove anything.

Don't forget that the winners of the Outfit War's got nothing whatsoever which made it even more pointless. If they are going to do it again, should at least get something for it. Though now that they have resources I suppose that could be a reward.

[SKYeXile]

Don't forget that the winners of the Outfit War's got nothing whatsoever which made it even more pointless. If they are going to do it again, should at least get something for it. Though now that they have resources I supposed that could be a reward.

You weren't a fan of the shafting? and you call yourself a Vanu.

[The Kush]

They had outfit wars on a special server once or twice during the original PS. Might see something like that again, hope if so it's infrequent.

For the second part, I don't think they should give away information like that. Certain outfits have certain tactics (IE azure twilight spammed maxes) and knowing who you're up against without visual confirmation is kinda cheap and removes an element of surprise.

I was part of that in PS1. Those were some fun times. And somewhere the devs talked about post release developing an outfit battleground that you could duke it out on between outfits. Hopefully they set this up tournament style

[Nabeshin]

You weren't a fan of the shafting? and you call yourself a Vanu.

I happen to be a Vanu that likes gifts and shiny things.

[Bags]

Yeah the outfit I joined for it got destroyed but I got a few merits for participating anyway.

[Gogita]

Higby mentioned before that there was going to be a focus on outfit specialization and recognition. They want to have in such a way so that if for example a tank-outfit arrives, other people will know that it is the notorious outfit "x".

I can imagine that outfits of different empires will notice as well. Just imagine 2 outfit specialized tank columns of different empires running into each other and both of them recognize each other.

I think after the game has existed for a while, some outfits will stand out and will automatically get into fights with other outfits in the battle.

[Redshift]

Don't forget that the winners of the Outfit War's got nothing whatsoever which made it even more pointless. If they are going to do it again, should at least get something for it. Though now that they have resources I suppose that could be a reward.

Dunno we got the right to mock other people for failing hard :P

[Skepsiis]

I was one of the players who formed and lead the outfit furious angels next generation (known ingame as fang, and later furious angels when we had to change our name) who finished top on werner in the outfit wars event.

After a while you do learn to recognise the better players from other empires and eventually you also start to notice the outfits that run together. For us as werner VS we had the most respect in terms of player skill for the soul reapers on TR and the mercs on NC.

Now something i can tell you from experience is that it is very very rare to find yourself in a direct confrontation with a rival outfit without any interference unless it is artifically arranged (like outfit wars) which would require all the competeing players to be removed to a private zone and taken away from the main game. And this would be fine as an unusual event/tournament that doesnt hapen very often.

But something we did do was actively seek out and target known players whenever we came across them so i think some game mechanics to support and maybe track this would be a good start.

Being able to declare a rival outfit ingame could be a cool feature. Something that highlights their players with a subtle visual clue like a coloured glow or a mission to clear them out of an area that generates when they are active in an area.

Hopefully the game will be tracking outfit stats like kills/captures/vehs destroyed/deaths/hotdrops and a good feature would be to have tools to compare outfits performance. Not just overall totals but also average rates per player so the smaller elite outfits get recognition over the massive outfits. Id like to see some kind of bar chart layout ao you could easily compare multiple outfits in different statistics.

This kind of stuff can all fall into place on leaderboards of course but should have scaleable time settings so you can check 'of all time' or just 'last week' or even 'yesterday'.

To support rivalries and competetition certain stats could be shown like counters for how many kills each outfit has against each other or total damage done, specifically your outfit vs theirs type of statistics.

There could also be bonus incentives to go after your rival outfit, especially if you both have each other tagged as rivals at the same time (or maybe exclusively so?) to create an outfit war status that somehow encourages confrontation between the two outfits

The customisation that has been mentioned in the past from the developers sounds like it will certainly help outfits to secure a more unique identity and help in achieving recognition both amongst their own empire and the rival factions and i look forward to this being implemented.

I think it would also be good to have leaderboards and the ability to compare across servers as well (so long as they have the same server rules)

Being able to compete in some tournaments across servers would be welcome too (with home and away games to compensate for locational differences).

[Marinealver]

It is kinda hard to get a sense of rival outfits as you just end up fighting the entire empire. Too bad there isnt a way of like destroying say a squad or or something. Mabey if it tracked if you take out every bound spawnpoint for the outfit that might be one way.

[MgFalcon]

My favorite kind of Outfit vs Outfit conflict was the same empire ones... Ohhhhhh one could wrack up A LOT of greif points in the course of 10 minutes! :lol:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Redshift]

For us as werner VS we had the most respect in terms of player skill for the soul reapers on TR and the mercs on NC.


Yea player wise we respected Mercs and FAnG :rolleyes: the most of their respective empires

[wraithverge]

as a TR I do have to say evilpig and the 666th made me rage quit a few times. I am a horrible grunt, but man I cherish the memories of me boomering him back to the spawn tubes.

so yeah, trust me you learn to fear and respect if not outright loathe certain outfits... and the chance to kill them keeps you playing more.

[Ale]

Outfit vs Outfit? It happens organically.

Orisha gen down, C22.
Dagda purple, DT.
Blue tower in a TR versus VS fight, SG.
Red tower in a VS versus NC fight, LxG.
Attack Solsar and Hossin, Liberty and 1cmm and then the NC zerg respond.
Attack Amerish, the entire VS zerg respond.
Attack The BI's, TRx and then the TR zerg respond.
6 Gals appear at 1:30 left on your hack?, Enclave and Sturm.
VS slllllooooowwllly winning on Ishundar?, GOTR / AT raid.

You just need to know what to look for, or which hornets nest to kick. With the ability to create custom uniforms, this stuff will be even more obvious at first glance.

However, there is one thing I would suggest adding that really fits into this theme: custom outfit flags / battle standards that show the outfits logo and can be carried by players. This gives outfit leaders a visual tool with which to rally units that might be bigger than platoon strength.

They could also provide minor buff to an AOE around the flag. This flag would have the outfits logo and one AOE bonus of the outfit leaders choosing, which can be upgraded with rank. Off the top of my head, an infantry based outfit might pick a 2% Infantry shield buff, whilst a tank outfit might take a 2% faster vehicle regen buff.

The Standard bearer themselves might get something like an extra 100hp on their shield but, considering they are holding a massive flag in lieu of a weapon, would only be able to melee with the flag itself.

The flag could be planted and picked up freely, so outfits can rotate the role of standard bearer. Planting the flag gives a visual queue that you've claimed this hilltop; base; ridgeline or outpost. I can see orders being given to take hills that have Zero strategic value, just to take down a bitter rivals flag.

The flag would drop if the player holding it was killed, and it could be captured by they enemy if you're wiped out. With One per outfit at any given time, ladies and gents, we now have endgame content.

Allowing outfit standards to be placed at a base, not unlike PS1 mods, that grant defenders an SOI wide buff, would create "Outfit Bases" with no need for complex ownership systems being coded in.



My favorite kind of Outfit vs Outfit conflict was the same empire ones... Ohhhhhh one could wrack up A LOT of greif points in the course of 10 minutes! :lol:


We few, We lucky few, Disband of brothers.

That all kicked off because TO was trying to fight 1cmm, in a duel, away from any interuptions, on the island near Caer, Forseral, which BoB claimed to own. Irony.

[Sardus]

One thing planetside 1 did not lack was outfit rivalry (even on your own side too). It may not had been structured or organized, but it was very much alive.

[Sardus]

However, there is one thing I would suggest adding that really fits into this theme: custom outfit flags / battle standards that show the outfits logo and can be carried by players. This gives outfit leaders a visual tool with which to rally units that might be bigger than platoon strength.


Haha, warhamemr styled flags mounted on the outfit leader's back?

Pro: A small buff for your oufit
Con: KILL THAT GUY FIRST

[HeatLegend]

I personally dont like the idea. It'd be cool if you just talked between two outfits and said: Hey lets all go to this outpost that your team has and see who wins.

[ringring]

you're aware planetside is an open map split over 3 different zones, there are no battlegrounds or instances like WAR etc yea? (just clarifying your terminology)

This was never a problem in planetside, i would be good if it did display enemy outfit names or tags(im pretty sure it didnt...been awhile..there were no tags anyway)

but over time you knew who you were fighting, you didn't need any other stuff, you could make a name for yourself and outfit pretty well in PS1.

This is true ......
outname names did only appear over friendly people and I always thought it would be good if they appeared over enemy. Although you would get to know which outfit a certain group belonged to it would help.

It often happened in PS that you were attacked and on investigation you called on command chat that it was such and such outfit, it would definately provoke a response, not all of it complimentary. :p

Although I fought in quite a few outfit wars matches, it wasn't my thing.

[Rumblepit]

I was part of that in PS1. Those were some fun times. And somewhere the devs talked about post release developing an outfit battleground that you could duke it out on between outfits. Hopefully they set this up tournament style


i was looking for this interview to post on this thread. they said something about 40 v 40 or 60 v 60 not sure offhand , its been quite a few months since i saw it. i would expect to see a feature like this , very common in mmos and fps games.they also stated many times that they are into esports. cant have any competitive gameplay in a open world.

lmao i found this link while looking for that interview.
matt higby karoake - YouTube

[MCYRook]

Outfit Wars were pretty fun as a special event, but it's not something I would want to regularly have in PS2, as it takes people out of the actual game too much (and not just for the duration of a match either).

Indeed there is plenty of room for outfit rivalry, although you will pretty much never have an even, "tournament-like" situation to duke it out and definitely show who's bestest. But then again, that is one of the defining traits of Planetside - that it's never a "fair and even match", but always an asymmetrical thing that can completely change at a moment's notice.

[Rumblepit]

Outfit Wars were pretty fun as a special event, but it's not something I would want to regularly have in PS2, as it takes people out of the actual game too much (and not just for the duration of a match either).

Indeed there is plenty of room for outfit rivalry, although you will pretty much never have an even, "tournament-like" situation to duke it out and definitely show who's bestest. But then again, that is one of the defining traits of Planetside - that it's never a "fair and even match", but always an asymmetrical thing that can completely change at a moment's notice.

i welcome a feature like this, im a huge esports fan and a competitor ,modern games pull from all servers when features like this are added into a game, thus they dont really hurt server pops. also it is a great tool for outfits to use to train and hone skills, work on tactics ,team work, communications .

can you name a new mmo that dosnt have a battleground of some sort. or a fps game that dosnt have outfit/clan/wars?if there are any they are few and far between .

[asdar]

I think outfit wars is something to do if the game doesn't work well. If it is working then everyone should be busy getting things done.

The average player will get on and say, "I want some quick action," and head over to the tournament area. Then the population will go down over the rest of the map.

If they just do it once in a while then people will want it more, and some will leave because they can't get it. The alternative is that they do get it and that's a slippery slope to the end of a persistent world fighting.

Purely a bad idea if what you want is to try and conquer a living world. It would be fun, too fun and then you'd split the world. Be careful what you wish for and all that.

Edit: stat keeping, or designating an enemy outfit as your nemesis is something else. I'm ok with all that as long as it's not intrusive to the game.

[Rumblepit]

I think outfit wars is something to do if the game doesn't work well. If it is working then everyone should be busy getting things done.

The average player will get on and say, "I want some quick action," and head over to the tournament area. Then the population will go down over the rest of the map.

If they just do it once in a while then people will want it more, and some will leave because they can't get it. The alternative is that they do get it and that's a slippery slope to the end of a persistent world fighting.

Purely a bad idea if what you want is to try and conquer a living world. It would be fun, too fun and then you'd split the world. Be careful what you wish for and all that.



Edit: stat keeping, or designating an enemy outfit as your nemesis is something else. I'm ok with all that as long as it's not intrusive to the game.



dont think a 1 man outift would be allowed to que, if this was the case there mite be issues. features like this only reward the players with rep and rank, and some money if its picked up by els and you get sponsors.:)

[Malorn]

I dont' see outfit wars being particularly useful in Planetside 2. It's a bogus sham to provide interest in a dying game.

On one hand you can have an outfit that really just does tanks - and they're very good at tank battles and coordination and contribute greatly to their empire in providing that armor support. You can have another that's all about air assault infantry that specializes in taking bases. And you can have smaller outfits that are specialized in defending outposts or attempting to resecure facilities. You can't really compare those outfits or put them in direct competition with each other. They all do different things and serve different purposes. They also have vastly different sizes and different specialties. You can't have a fair comparison between these outfits without narrowing the scope of the outfits to specific tasks, for which certain outfits will be more suited than others which isn't a fair competition.

And then there's other aspects like the competition itself being a staged mock battle and not a true unpredictable conflict with ever-shifting circumstances. That fundamentally changes the situation. You can have players and outfits that thrive in such circumstances but since they don't occur naturally in PlanetSide the competition isn't reflective of the effectiveness of the outfit.

Competitions between outfits will always favor certain outfits that do particular things well and are of a particular size. I don't think game developers should be promoting one style of outfit over another by having such competitions.

The best competition is normal and natural PlanetSide. You don't need staged competitions to have outfits go at each other. It'll happen normally in PlanetSide. Staged competitions are more of something to keep people interested when the game is dying and there isn't much else going on. When PlanetSide was thriving and healthy such things weren't needed - you got your rivalries and your competitions indirectly through daily conflict.

[asdar]

dont think a 1 man outift would be allowed to que, if this was the case there mite be issues. features like this only reward the players with rep and rank, and some money if its picked up by els and you get sponsors.:)

I didn't really mean 1 man outfit. I just used singular as an example of getting online and instead of working and looking for a fight, which if you've played you know what I mean, you would gather whatever number of your outfit was online and fight outfit vs outfit. It would be fun, like CoD and BF3 are fun, for a while then you get bored.

The problem is that you can't coordinate the times you want a larger population in game as opposed to in the tourney area so when you go back to fighting other outfits are still fighting vs. The enemy of PS2 is low population. (and total domination)

A reward system would be even worse to me. A sure way to tick of every normal to casual and split the population.

I don't see any way that this would improve the overall game. If I want tournament style I'll go play BF3.

[Hmr85]

I was never really a fan of the outfit wars. I don't hate it, I just never cared for it. Anything that draws outfits away from the game imo is a big no. If you want instanced/arena fights there are other games out there like LoL or WoW for that. If you want massive war with thousands of players there is PS2.

With that said, I am not entirely against it. I realize other players want this. But if it is incorporated I am of the opinion that it should be every few months or longer not a every day or ever other week type of thing.

[Kurtz]

/who Check if a player is online or team sizes


In the early days of PS1 many outfits would have pretty intense rivalries. The way we could tell if we had ousted an outfit once and for all from an attack was to do a /who command. We would see player names on a different continent we knew we had repelled the invasion.

I agree with Malorn, forcing competition is a cheap tactic for dwindling populations.

[Hmr85]

I dont' see outfit wars being particularly useful in Planetside 2. It's a bogus sham to provide interest in a dying game.

On one hand you can have an outfit that really just does tanks - and they're very good at tank battles and coordination and contribute greatly to their empire in providing that armor support. You can have another that's all about air assault infantry that specializes in taking bases. And you can have smaller outfits that are specialized in defending outposts or attempting to resecure facilities. You can't really compare those outfits or put them in direct competition with each other. They all do different things and serve different purposes. They also have vastly different sizes and different specialties. You can't have a fair comparison between these outfits without narrowing the scope of the outfits to specific tasks, for which certain outfits will be more suited than others which isn't a fair competition.

And then there's other aspects like the competition itself being a staged mock battle and not a true unpredictable conflict with ever-shifting circumstances. That fundamentally changes the situation. You can have players and outfits that thrive in such circumstances but since they don't occur naturally in PlanetSide the competition isn't reflective of the effectiveness of the outfit.

Competitions between outfits will always favor certain outfits that do particular things well and are of a particular size. I don't think game developers should be promoting one style of outfit over another by having such competitions.

The best competition is normal and natural PlanetSide. You don't need staged competitions to have outfits go at each other. It'll happen normally in PlanetSide. Staged competitions are more of something to keep people interested when the game is dying and there isn't much else going on. When PlanetSide was thriving and healthy such things weren't needed - you got your rivalries and your competitions indirectly through daily conflict.

QFT

and I agree with you 100%. Very well said.

[SuperMorto]

This was tested on a multi stream a few weeks back and we will be doing it again this weekend.

This is the NC Blue Lions against the VS AzureTwilight.

Planetside TV's first eWar "the Auraxian cup round 1" - YouTube

We are actively promoting the outfits and battles between them. This is 3 platoons VS 3 Platoons. We will carry this into Planetside 2 as well.

Its called the Auraxian Cup, it was just a testing night to see if it could be done. About 100 people turned up to watch and take part. And this was in a 9 year old game.

The outfits to me are what makes this game what it is. As I see Planetside as a game that should be played in a group. and the outfits are who really changes the meta game. they are the ones who come up with the ideas and have the ability to see them through.

[Synapse]

Higby mentioned before that there was going to be a focus on outfit specialization and recognition. They want to have in such a way so that if for example a tank-outfit arrives, other people will know that it is the notorious outfit "x".

I can imagine that outfits of different empires will notice as well. Just imagine 2 outfit specialized tank columns of different empires running into each other and both of them recognize each other.
I think after the game has existed for a while, some outfits will stand out and will automatically get into fights with other outfits in the battle.

This is exactly what I'm talking about in the OP. For those of you who say it happens automatically, it happens BETTER if you support it.

I definintely want there to be legendary outfits with legendary tactics, and others who seek them out to challenge them. A pair of tank specialist commanders seeking each other out is a great example of that!

[SKYeXile]

I dont' see outfit wars being particularly useful in Planetside 2. It's a bogus sham to provide interest in a dying game.

On one hand you can have an outfit that really just does tanks - and they're very good at tank battles and coordination and contribute greatly to their empire in providing that armor support. You can have another that's all about air assault infantry that specializes in taking bases. And you can have smaller outfits that are specialized in defending outposts or attempting to resecure facilities. You can't really compare those outfits or put them in direct competition with each other. They all do different things and serve different purposes. They also have vastly different sizes and different specialties. You can't have a fair comparison between these outfits without narrowing the scope of the outfits to specific tasks, for which certain outfits will be more suited than others which isn't a fair competition.

And then there's other aspects like the competition itself being a staged mock battle and not a true unpredictable conflict with ever-shifting circumstances. That fundamentally changes the situation. You can have players and outfits that thrive in such circumstances but since they don't occur naturally in PlanetSide the competition isn't reflective of the effectiveness of the outfit.

Competitions between outfits will always favor certain outfits that do particular things well and are of a particular size. I don't think game developers should be promoting one style of outfit over another by having such competitions.

The best competition is normal and natural PlanetSide. You don't need staged competitions to have outfits go at each other. It'll happen normally in PlanetSide. Staged competitions are more of something to keep people interested when the game is dying and there isn't much else going on. When PlanetSide was thriving and healthy such things weren't needed - you got your rivalries and your competitions indirectly through daily conflict.


Outfit wars combined all that, you needed air teams you needed defense and you needed assault with ground and air combined, you also needed a great deal of support players. If outfits dont want to adept to the situation thrown at them, then they're gonna loose and they're really not that good then are they? and probably shouldn't have entered a competitive tournament to begin with.

I agree thats its a little staged and not really in the essence of planetside, but outfit wars was not some Tower vs AMS 5v5 assault/defend, it was 30v30 against 2 tech plants, what you know from playing regular planetside still applies except your not fighting organised random's, your fighting an enemy thats coordinated and prepared for you.

In the original outfits were unprepared and played like they would normally, i imagine if they were held regularly there would be all sorts of different plays and strats made out and the whole thing would be come rather meaningless in the context of how things play out in the open world, but it would be interesting to see how it develops.

[Synapse]

I dont' see outfit wars being particularly useful in Planetside 2. It's a bogus sham to provide interest in a dying game.

On one hand you can have an outfit that really just does tanks - and they're very good at tank battles and coordination and contribute greatly to their empire in providing that armor support. You can have another that's all about air assault infantry that specializes in taking bases. And you can have smaller outfits that are specialized in defending outposts or attempting to resecure facilities. You can't really compare those outfits or put them in direct competition with each other. They all do different things and serve different purposes. They also have vastly different sizes and different specialties. You can't have a fair comparison between these outfits without narrowing the scope of the outfits to specific tasks, for which certain outfits will be more suited than others which isn't a fair competition.

And then there's other aspects like the competition itself being a staged mock battle and not a true unpredictable conflict with ever-shifting circumstances. That fundamentally changes the situation. You can have players and outfits that thrive in such circumstances but since they don't occur naturally in PlanetSide the competition isn't reflective of the effectiveness of the outfit.

Competitions between outfits will always favor certain outfits that do particular things well and are of a particular size. I don't think game developers should be promoting one style of outfit over another by having such competitions.

The best competition is normal and natural PlanetSide. You don't need staged competitions to have outfits go at each other. It'll happen normally in PlanetSide. Staged competitions are more of something to keep people interested when the game is dying and there isn't much else going on. When PlanetSide was thriving and healthy such things weren't needed - you got your rivalries and your competitions indirectly through daily conflict.

Since I'm DA OP I'm going to declare the privilege of double posting.

I definitely am not asking for instanced outfit wars or any kind of fair or balanced e-sports things.

I agree with nearly everyone else in the thread, that's a bad fit for this game.

What I do want to see is just a way to know which outfits are in the battle you're in, and if they're kicking ass like capping points or spawn tubes etc.

As people say there is a natural tendency for outfits to have a reputation, why not put that on steroids by annoucing the feats of an outfit on the battlefield, or at least which players are part of it.

After all, I think all of us think it would be pretty cool to be part of the "Feared and Respected Outfit X" whom everyone knows because they seem to roll with super air support(tank support, cloakers, MAXs, etc) every time.

A little bit of information shared with people in the opposing team would go a long way to supporting and building those reputations that make the game so much more interesting for all of us.

[Malorn]

Sky I get that you're going to defend the outfit wars given that your group won a few of them and I don't mean to diminish that great accomplishment. I know your guys worked hard and earned what they won, as did all those who participated.

But they still promote a certain style of play or generalist outfits instead of promoting outfits that are specialists. From what Higby and crew have discussed, they want to give outfits the freedom to go their own way. I don't think that having staged matches or competitions encourages that. Instead it encourages outfits who thrive in just the competitive situation that is staged. That's not to say the players don't have skill but it doesn't do well to say what outfit is "better" than other outfit.

To provide an example, in PS1 my outfit Liberty went up against the Enclave quite a lot. We were completely different outfits with different objectives. We still went at each other but it was each on our own terms playing for our own ideas of success. To the Enclave, locking down the only tech plant on the continent and causing a bunch of troops to relocate to the backfield allowed other Terran troops to advance with a tech advantage agaist the now tech-deprived NC while they held down a fortified position. That was success, and the longer they held it the more success it was. In our case, uprooting them was success, even though it was really a pyrrhic victory, as uprooting them usually meant we lost a base somewhere else while we were dealing with them. But each walked away believing we had "won" the day.

From a player perspective different players enjoy and are good at different things. I don't think the game should favor one over the other by having competitions. I really don't believe PlanetSide is an e-sport type game. It's a perpetual persistent war where each outfit has their own style and niche and plays the game according to their own measure of success. By promoting certain measures of success they inadvertently advertise that certain outfits are the "correct" way to play and others aren't.

Comparing our two outfits would be like comparing apples to oranges. We did different things. We had different impact to our empires.

However I also understand that in the twilight years of Planetside the game was dull and boring and not a lot was going on. I can see in that environment that outfit wars can offer something new and exciting.

My context is the days when such things were not necessary because you had all sorts of specialist outfits playing with and against each other every day. You didn't have to have competitions because you had them daily in wild, chaotic, uncontrolled environments. Every day was a great battle and a great story. I'm sure you remember those days too. I honestly hope PLanetSide 2 never gets to the point where we need outfit competitions to keep things interesting.

[Graywolves]

If a competitive scene did come in it might be possible to have specialization brackets. Armor wars, Infantry, Combined-Arms.

I think there's an entire spectrum of possibilities that we haven't scratched the surface of but I understand many players' sentiments that it would take away from the main gameplay.

[Skepsiis]

Yes outfit pride and loyalty were a big part of the game when i was playing.

The good thing with outfit wars is that it removed any interference and random events and made it a pure and fair competition between evenly equiped outfits. This way if you were beaten then it was clearly by being outplayed by the other team. A lot of top outfits would like a chance to prove this, and different match rules could be played to favour particular gameplay (like lots of aircraft or whatever).

However i do agree that it shouldnt be a regular thing, it would detract too much from the main game. About twice a year imo, maybe just once. You would want this to be a special event that you could maybe allow people to spectate and gets done and dusted quite quickly.

Competition should definately be encouraged between outfits in game though because intense rivalries and boasting rites and fun for the people involved and it strengthens the team spirit of the game.

A tank specalist outfit could be awarded a medal or honorary title for having the most tank based xp like kills and repairs. This gives them someway to prove they are the top dogs when it comes to tank warfare and other outfits could strive to take that away from them by performing better.

You could have an outfit stats page that shows your top enemy outfits based on kills, and another to show how many oufits have you in their top 3 'killed by you' stat.

This can all be expanded in the future to include things like outfit alliances and politics... And this could set the stage as a good foundation to introduce sandbox game mechanics for outfitswhich i think is on the cards post release. So you can target specfic territory held by your enemies or defend you allies outfit base when it comes under attack.

But yeah, bottom line is that i think outfit competition should be encouraged and supported but in such a way that it doesnt detract from the overall mmofps. First person shooters are usually very competitive and i think most of the playerbase will welcome features that allow them to show off their teams expertise. Keep rewards that effect gameplay out of it and then the players who dont give a shit can carry on as if it wasnt there.

[Rumblepit]

well this mite not be the game for those that dont want this,its been said time and time again,this will be a sandbox game, outfits at some point will be able to build their own bases, they will have to defend those bases from other outfits. outfit wars will be in ps2 for sure, how they implement it?we will have to wait and see.

[Malorn]

Coping with unexpected events and random battlefield chaos is an important part of what makes a great outfit. Those things happen all the time in PlanetSide. Removing them from a competition is removing a vital part of what makes a great PlanetSide outfit - adaptation, resilience, and the ability to improvise. Good outfits and leaders can anticipate these things and manipulate them to their own benefit. They are a tool and an important part of warfare. Its very rare to have an even match, and that's something every outfit has to learn how to deal with and anticipate.

[Skepsiis]

You can clearly demonstrate an ability to adapt and show strong leadership in a tournament style setting. The difference being that it actually is a fair fight because you have equal resources. Winning a tournament isnt about being just a great outfit, its about being the best outfit.

[The Kush]

Outfit wars

Those were some good times in PS1

Anyone here from the LOL NC on Markov?