My Launch Impressions

[Hamma]

http://www.planetside-universe.com/news-launch-impressions-2913.htm

PlanetSide 2 Launch Impressions - YouTube

Let me know what you guys think :)

[Hamma]

First video I used my capture software to record footage instead of Fraps. Results are pretty awesome ;)

[Crator]

Good points Hamma! All of them... Stats tracking thing, we need some nice interfaces that glorify promotion of the meta-game!

[Serpent]

Crashes and major server freezes into speeding the game up to catch up all over the place, happens pretty often for me. 60 FPS for me, on low settings, yes, but I don't understand what's going on with the crashes etc...

[Fizzgig]

This game is phenomenal!

[Hamma]

Good points Hamma! All of them... Stats tracking thing, we need some nice interfaces that glorify promotion of the meta-game!

Good point :D

[Rago]

Nice Video, i like it.

Lets see where it brings us,.. ^_^

[Ritual]

So far everyday the server's melt for a few hours. There is a lot of lag, where vehicles don't explode, grenades don't explode, players warp or don't appear right in front of you, etc.

Other then that pretty smooth launch. Besides the whole implant thing which hasn't affected me since I have not used any trial weapons yet.

[Sunrock]

Re: Leader boards does not promote team play...

I do not agree that leader boards would in any way not promote team play. The main reason for them as I see it is to give you a benchmark of how good you are doing, but mostly to see if you are improving your game play. Improving your own game play benefits the team in the end of the day.

But I can see the problem with them though if people start to put too mush value of being rank #1 on the server as it might not be the best way for the team to rack up allot of kills without progressing the war effort. But the problem lies in the players mindset and not in the game feature as is.

But as a tool to help you improve your game play it makes the game more fun to play IMO.

[getembees]

Good call on the issues with new player experience. This isnt something too easy to accomplish, but it will really help this game in the long run as new players continue to come into the game over time.

I wonder if a "beginners archipelago" is in order. A place that new players can opt to go to, where they perform training and tutorial tasks. Maybe allow small battles separate from the continents. I'd hate to lose potential players simply because they never got their hands held during their first few hours of play. (Love fragging noobs, we gotta draw them into the fight!)

[Babyfark McGeez]

Oh yeah, this new player experience...it was so obvious this would be the worst possible way to do it, yet they went with it...ahwell hopefully they get the well deserved criticism from the new players over on the ps2 forums.

But overall a very impressive launch, agreeing with you there. Haven't personally seen such a smooth launch aswell.

Now let's hope they add stuff fast, i keep hearing from players the game is fun, but shallow. And that is not sounding very good. If PS2 wants to maintain interest it needs more than shooting, i don't know for how long the novelty factor of the "epic scaled" battles will last for the masses.

Edit: And let's face it, besides the fact they managed to cram in 2k people on a map (which is undoubtly impressive) PS2 has currently no real innovation or genre progression when compared to other shooters or ps1 (RTS elements, RPG elements).

[Sunrock]

Before I got invited to the beta for PS2 earlier this summer I had never played Planetside. It took me 3 minutes to figure out how to play this game and how to use and read the map.

But think about it CoD or Battlefield has the same learning curve too. Besides Battlefield's conquest play mode is identical to PS2... No one can say that they loose allot of players because there audience is too stupid to understand those games.

TBH I think that many of you here underestimate the intelligence of the majority of the world population. Or think this game is more complicated then it is.

Sure having tutorials in all honor is good. The more playable tutorials you have the better. But there is nothing really complicated game mech going on in this game.

[Babyfark McGeez]

You're right and i agree about the learning curve not being really high (then again i was used to most things from ps1).

But the thing i will constantly nag about is that hotdropping into a random location and adding you to a random squad. That's such a stupid way to start a game that it is beyond me how a professional dev team greenlit this...let alone go out of their way to change it into this in the first place...

To sum this abomination up:
- No time to set keys (!!!)
- No time to fiddle with the graphic/sound/whatever options
- No time to get the hang of classes, equipment or vehicles / aircraft
- No time for...anything
- New people not knowing that there is a safe warpgate to do the above
- Additionally often dieing in under ten seconds

[Helwyr]

Completely agree with the comments on new player experience and meta game. The dropping of newly made characters usually into a firing squad is terrible all on it's own.

Partially disagree with the "you must join an Outfit to truly enjoy this game." I accept that's true for some players, I even recommend it to some that seem that type. However, it's blatantly overstated in your video, and for some of us we like to mostly play outside of a squad, and "lone wolf" as it's often labeled. Don't assume everyone that does that hasn't experienced organized teamplay and doesn't care about their Empire doing well.

Stats... you do see the irony in you ranting about stats and then plugging the new API ;)

If people don't like stats, they can just not look at them. I actually like K/D stats for the reason many do not, the fear of death. Shooters including Planetside lack any real loss, unlike Sandbox MMOs like DFO and EVE. If K/D stats can add just a little more sting all the better IMO. I don't think this is detrimental to teamplay either.

[Crator]

Before I got invited to the beta for PS2 earlier this summer I had never played Planetside. It took me 3 minutes to figure out how to play this game and how to use and read the map.

But think about it CoD or Battlefield has the same learning curve too. Besides Battlefield's conquest play mode is identical to PS2... No one can say that they loose allot of players because there audience is too stupid to understand those games.

TBH I think that many of you here underestimate the intelligence of the majority of the world population. Or think this game is more complicated then it is.

Sure having tutorials in all honor is good. The more playable tutorials you have the better. But there is nothing really complicated game mech going on in this game.

But just think about how many more people you would retain, right out the gate the first time they try it, if there was a more guided tutorial.

PS2 does a little more then just the first IA drop pod to teach people now though. Haven't seen many mention it but since launch they added a few pop-up dialogs to certain menu items that give a detailed description of it.

I HATE having to go search around for info about a game (i.e. SWG turned me off in this regard). You could say, "Past experience from other games!". Yes, true, and typically game developers build their games that use systems from other games because of familiarity purposes. But what if this new game that came out has something in it that no other game has? Or does it differently? You must tell the players about those things! And what about players who are completely new to gaming? Should they go play a less advanced game first to build knowledge on how games work then come back to play this one?

[ringring]

Nice video and comments hamma.

I think your view of the launch may be dependant on the amount of problem your server had and clearly some servers had more problems than others.

I play on Miller which has had major problems, that being said I've always had faith that they would sort them out.

re: leaderboard, personally I'm never going to trouble the scorers, as they say. But I think the leaderboard should stay. As suggested on reddit there should perhaps be variants for support play, e.g. no of revives, no of gen repairs / or overloads or something.

I also think a person going for the kills is a valid playstyle as the territory capture playstyle and PS should be about more than 1 or 2 playstyles, both can happily live alongside each other.

The big things that's missing, as we've all discussed many times is the grand meta-game. We're all presently fighting in constant big three-ways, how soon will we continue before we get bored?

Lastly, I agree with you about the camo's and customisation. I didn't think I would beforehand.

[Hamma]

While you are working today - listen to my video. ;)

[VaderShake]

While you are working today - listen to my video. ;)

I am at work and I just watch the video.

Nice points Hamma, as a new PS player I agree with them all.

One funny thing I find is how it seems many people are still losing sight of how much of a benchmark game this really is in FPS history and are simply nit-picking it to death. Not to mention it just came out! The biggest discussions my group has when we are playing is about where this game will be in a year and what else can be added to it. It's quite mind boggling.

[Valcron]

Man, when did you get on SOE's payroll? This video review is pretty embarrassing.

[RodenyC]

Meh gotta agree with Valcron.Your opinions but still,I had my hopes set low after everything the devs said and they still came out a little short.

[Qwan]

Cool vid bought up a lot of good points, I have to agree on you with a lot of them. I mean for the launch I had no problems and Im east coast playing on a EU server, I downloaded and logged right in. I did get the VET Emblem which I wear on every uniform :D its my standard load out. I didnt get the alfpha one but I have the beta one. There are still alot a bugs, but the game is still worth my monthly subscriptions, I hope every one does take you advice and join an outfit. Id does add to the games fun, nice vid man, Im gonna make my girl watch it as part of her PS2 newb initiation.

[Hamma]

Man, when did you get on SOE's payroll? This video review is pretty embarrassing.

When did you be come one of the least useful users on this forum? Thanks for your useful (ignorant) opinion. You are free to have your own opinion which is one that thinks this is battlefield 4. But don't accuse me of being paid off, it's insulting and disrespectful to what I've done for this community.

The video is my opinion on the game which is overall positive like most reviews that have come out so get over it and just leave this community. You obviously don't like it.

[Eduard Khil]

My only problem is a considerable ammount of frame loss in large battles, I am about 10-15 frames lower than I was on mid beta, the game still needs to take advantage of the GPU more. I don't know if this is anywhere related to me being unable to uninstall the beta due to the uninstall bug, maybe some registry settings are doing something to my graphical settings.

There are also a few game bugs that are game breaking and need to be tackled immediately, the MAX HP while playing any grunt bug and lock on missiles (A2G, A2A) simply not hitting their target after barrel rolls, mostly happening against VS scythes and extremely rare with a reaver and possibly the mossie.

Asides from some of the stuff they missed from the old panetside, stuff which they "should" add eventually according to a post I saw in the beta, I just want performance to be decent, I think I speak for the great majority of their soon to be clients when I say this, alot of people are discontent with the performance while having really great rigs.