What the heck happened to this game?

[dethred]

I must admit that I actually really liked this game when I stopped playing it a couple months ago. Circumstances beyond my control prohibited me from playing it for any length of time, and well... there's no point in hopping on for 30 minutes here and there.

I just started playing again a few nights ago and I saw some improvements, but mostly it's just a disaster.

Performance/FPS - it's now at a quantifiable level commonly known as shit. Where I was once seeing 100% butter smooth performance from everything on max settings and a "Ultra" config in the Usersettings.ini file, its now noticeably poor on standard high settings (yes its a clean .ini file now). Visually, the graphics quality appears the same, but the shocking decline in performance is just an unmitigated disaster. This is 100% down to the software, as my gaming system remained essentially untouched during my brief Hiatus.

Gameplay - Where there used to be some decent battles and fun things to do in places like towers (camping the spawn jumps up top, or defending the staircases), its now just dreary and both sides just patiently wait for the point to flip and everyone still in the spawn to auto-suicide.


General gameplay - This is where it has completely collapsed in my opinion. I played for FOUR HOURS the other night, and it took until the 4th hour before I actually shot at an enemy with a gun. The entire defense mechanic of the game has been ruined, and now once the enemy sees a Zerg approaching, they just quick deploy to another area of the continent. Sure, its great for racking up certs... not having to fight for anything, but it ruins the entire game. This strategy is a natural progression of the inept structuring of the points system which overwhelmingly favors the attacker. The attacker also usually has the numbers advantage, which is still not resolved by making bases more difficult to capture.

So in essence: No real incentive to hold onto a base, its almost impossible to defend the base for which you have little incentive to defend, and-its-easier-for-the-attackers-to-take-the-base-that-is-almost-impossible-to-defend-for-which-you-have-little-incentive-for-even-defending-in-the-first-place. Whew.

At least when the game was relatively new and the populations were high, you would get spectacular battles and memorable moments therein. Now its just a matter of attaching yourself to a Zerg and go cap as many empty bases as possible... so you can get certs to upgrade the gun you've been working on... so that it fires a few shots every few hours.

Not to mention, all the weapons for which I used my paid-for-with-real-fucking-money Station Cash have been rendered ordinary or weak at best. Spend 3000 SC on liberator unlocks? Too bad, the liberator, which was pretty-well balanced in December, is almost completely useless. So much so, that in the four hours I mentioned above I saw TWO (2) liberators, and not once had the inclination to use one myself.

TLDR: In Short, if the game is going to devolve into a merry-go-round of Zergs capping empty bases, and no one is willing to defend a base, then what is the fucking point of the game?

[Chewy]

PS2 is a MMO that is still's first year of life. Things are going to change and for the better with hope.

OP as fuck things got nerfed, bases got defensible, and the gameplay on even squad levels has grown to heights that wonders can be had each night. Playing a MMO at launch is NOTHING like playing the same MMO months after. Adapt or not, your choice.

[p0intman]

Base defensibility is not permitted, didn't you know? they don't want people to have to have large groups fight against each other because that might constitute 'all of the empires resources' to take one spot.

[Sturmhardt]

Base defensibility is not permitted, didn't you know? they don't want people to have to have large groups fight against each other because that might constitute 'all of the empires resources' to take one spot.

Plus I think their tech just doesn't really support big fights :p

.sent via phone.

[ringring]

I think the things you've identified were there several months ago nothing has changed in that respect.

[Vashyo]

Just wait for the new hex-system change, that's what I'm mostly doing atm. Though gotta do some cert grinding over the weekend when double XP starts.

[ChipMHazard]

I think the things you've identified were there several months ago nothing has changed in that respect.

Changes take time. And we are going to be getting some rather substantial changes, hopefully we will start seeing the gameplay change for the better soon enough.

To dethred: It didn't devolve into anything, it's been like this since launch. Players simply learned how best to gain certs.
Performance wise, there isn't much that can be done from our side besides updating drivers, fiddling with the ini and OCing.
Might want to try out Ailo's advice:http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=52189

[Sledgecrushr]

Hey if you dont mind me asking, whats your ingame name?

[Assist]

4 hours for you to shoot someone?
Liberator's are useless?
Ghost capping to gain certs quickly?

No wonder you quit, you seem to be playing a completely different game. I'd try www.planetside2.com , it's free and it's the exact opposite of what you claimed. Well, except for the performance issues.

[Silent Thunder]

4 hours for you to shoot someone?
Liberator's are useless?
Ghost capping to gain certs quickly?

No wonder you quit, you seem to be playing a completely different game. I'd try www.planetside2.com , it's free and it's the exact opposite of what you claimed. Well, except for the performance issues.

Pfaahaha, the way you summed it up actually reminded me of BattleGrounds Europe. Now THERE'S an MMOFPS where nothing happens. Which was a shame, because when it did manage to get going, it really got going. Shame most of the battles were ghost capping in towns 1/4 the size they were in real life. Imagine playing on Indar with 50 people total. Wonder if it got any better after they went f2p...

[CzuukWaterson]

TLDR: In Short, if the game is going to devolve into a merry-go-round of Zergs capping empty bases, and no one is willing to defend a base, then what is the fucking point of the game?

This is not the case on Waterson. There are some empty flips from time to time but for the most part since the merge nearly every zone is contested. Continent caps are taking on the average about 8 hours. Nobody can get Indar because nobody can locked down Amerish or Esamir fast enough to make the push.

[hashish]

Yea i think OP is just on a really shit server, at a really shit time lol... Try come on miller sometime you'll see what this games really about :)

[Silent Thunder]

Maybe they're on the AU server? I've heard some really bad things about the state of their population numbers.

[Rolfski]

I'm having a hard time understanding OP, the issues he's mentioning (besides from fps issues for some) were even worse months ago.

Tower defense and spawn camping was LESS fun months ago because of all the air and armor shelling the heck out of it.

While there's still not nearly enough incentive for defence, at least they added a 15% XP bonus to it and bases have become more defensible. Months ago, you could overrun places like Ti Alloys and Crossroads easily, now not so much. In fact, a continent like Indar has become impossible to take on the most competitive servers, unless you do some alliance alarm clock ops.

As for zergs running around each other, that must be on some empty server. Go to a server like Miller and you will see frantic fights on all continents.

Regarding weapons balance and air in particular, that was just horrendous months ago. Everything was dominated by armor with HE rounds, ESF's with rocket pods or Liberators with Daltons or Zephyrs. You would hardly see any infantry fight because there was no point fighting on foot as you would get shelled instantly. Infantry vs vehicle balance will always be an issue but it has certainly improved.

So except for servers becoming more empty and always lingering performance issues, I would hate to go back to 4 months ago.

[Hamma]

I'm finding a hard time figuring out why someone needs to create a new thread with their list of issues every day. :lol:

[Micro]

I'm finding a hard time figuring out why someone needs to create a new thread with their list of issues every day. :lol:

Yep, it's like 80% (don't have exact data) of the threads created since PS2 launched are this kind of threads...

[Binkley]

Ugh. And they're not even new issues, just the same gripes over and over.

[Sledgecrushr]

I must admit that I actually really liked this game when I stopped playing it a couple months ago. Circumstances beyond my control prohibited me from playing it for any length of time, and well... there's no point in hopping on for 30 minutes here and there.

I just started playing again a few nights ago and I saw some improvements, but mostly it's just a disaster.

Performance/FPS - it's now at a quantifiable level commonly known as shit. Where I was once seeing 100% butter smooth performance from everything on max settings and a "Ultra" config in the Usersettings.ini file, its now noticeably poor on standard high settings (yes its a clean .ini file now). Visually, the graphics quality appears the same, but the shocking decline in performance is just an unmitigated disaster. This is 100% down to the software, as my gaming system remained essentially untouched during my brief Hiatus.

Gameplay - Where there used to be some decent battles and fun things to do in places like towers (camping the spawn jumps up top, or defending the staircases), its now just dreary and both sides just patiently wait for the point to flip and everyone still in the spawn to auto-suicide.


General gameplay - This is where it has completely collapsed in my opinion. I played for FOUR HOURS the other night, and it took until the 4th hour before I actually shot at an enemy with a gun. The entire defense mechanic of the game has been ruined, and now once the enemy sees a Zerg approaching, they just quick deploy to another area of the continent. Sure, its great for racking up certs... not having to fight for anything, but it ruins the entire game. This strategy is a natural progression of the inept structuring of the points system which overwhelmingly favors the attacker. The attacker also usually has the numbers advantage, which is still not resolved by making bases more difficult to capture.

So in essence: No real incentive to hold onto a base, its almost impossible to defend the base for which you have little incentive to defend, and-its-easier-for-the-attackers-to-take-the-base-that-is-almost-impossible-to-defend-for-which-you-have-little-incentive-for-even-defending-in-the-first-place. Whew.

At least when the game was relatively new and the populations were high, you would get spectacular battles and memorable moments therein. Now its just a matter of attaching yourself to a Zerg and go cap as many empty bases as possible... so you can get certs to upgrade the gun you've been working on... so that it fires a few shots every few hours.

Not to mention, all the weapons for which I used my paid-for-with-real-fucking-money Station Cash have been rendered ordinary or weak at best. Spend 3000 SC on liberator unlocks? Too bad, the liberator, which was pretty-well balanced in December, is almost completely useless. So much so, that in the four hours I mentioned above I saw TWO (2) liberators, and not once had the inclination to use one myself.

TLDR: In Short, if the game is going to devolve into a merry-go-round of Zergs capping empty bases, and no one is willing to defend a base, then what is the fucking point of the game?

Ive reread this again and I cant really find anything I agree with. I play on Connery and its a low pop server and we have amazing fights.

[Crator]

Plus I think their tech just doesn't really support big fights :p

.sent via phone.

But, size always matters!

EDIT: I think the issues OP brings up have always been there. At least the underlying reasons for those issues. It's just the playerbase has worked around those issues by doing what they have to do, which is zerg from base to base and not really defend, because it's not easy to do...

[Rahabib]

...
Not to mention, all the weapons for which I used my paid-for-with-real-fucking-money Station Cash have been rendered ordinary or weak at best. Spend 3000 SC on liberator unlocks? Too bad, the liberator, which was pretty-well balanced in December, is almost completely useless. So much so, that in the four hours I mentioned above I saw TWO (2) liberators, and not once had the inclination to use one myself.
...
They really should have balanced better during the beta, but balance will always go on as long as new items are introduced. The problem is that since each item is tied to actual money, any balancing they do will piss someone off. If they had a working resource system, they could use that as an easy way to balance without pissing everyone off, but the resource system is a joke, so rather than making a lib cost a bit more so you use it less they gimp it so you just never want to fly it.

Oh well.

[Timealude]

Plus I think their tech just doesn't really support big fights :p

.sent via phone.

I think its more of everyone else machines cant support big fights. :lol: