GU12 will feature Amerish Lattice, Pop Balance thingys, and more

[Roy Awesome]

https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/354103334937952256

[VSderp]

pop balance is the only thing im really excited about this update. hopefully we will have good stuff coming.good to hear they realize we have issues

[bpostal]

Amerish lattice will be interesting although I'm kinda surprised they didn't go with Esamir first. I will be glad when they unfuck the alerts. Back to back to back alerts do my head in, especially biolab alerts. They (biolabs) have gone from one of my favorite places to play to the facility that I'll do everything in my power to avoid.
Good luck to the VS on Miller, they need the help with the world pop.

[camycamera]

Yes! Yes! Moar lattice!

[DirtyBird]

Cant wait to open up the map screen and look at the Amerish lattice.
Bout as close as we get to it on Briggs :D

Now what wont make it in GU12 or GU13...
Highest to lowest in terms of votes.

July - Implants
July - Outfit Recruiting
July - Player Made Decals
July - Server Transfer Token
July - Vehicle Update: Empire Specific Fighters
July - Additional Loadouts
July - Esamir Battle Flow Improvements - maybe GU13
July - Streamline Terminal/Loadout UI
July - Minimap and HUD Indicator Customization
July - Amerish Battle Flow Improvements - maybe GU13
July - Improved Introduction for New Players
July - Creating "No Deploy" zones for AMS equipped Sunderers (has about 1200 +ve's but the scores been reset)

[Larington]

I just hope they've taken on board the feedback from many that the lattice system on Indar is too restrictive. Right idea, flawed execution, there should be almost no bases with only 2 links so platoon leaders can still move around and have choices of which bases to go for, just without the complete chaos of the hex system (5-6 links usually) that has you teleporting from base to base doing constant resecures (for those who actually bother to resecure).

[AThreatToYou]

Cant wait to open up the map screen and look at the Amerish lattice.
Bout as close as we get to it on Briggs :D

Now what wont make it in GU12 or GU13...
Highest to lowest in terms of votes.

July - Implants
July - Outfit Recruiting
July - Player Made Decals
July - Server Transfer Token
July - Vehicle Update: Empire Specific Fighters
July - Additional Loadouts
July - Esamir Battle Flow Improvements
July - Streamline Terminal/Loadout UI
July - Minimap and HUD Indicator Customization
July - Amerish Battle Flow Improvements
July - Improved Introduction for New Players
July - Creating "No Deploy" zones for AMS equipped Sunderers (has about 1200 +ve's but the scores been reset)

If that was any attempt at order of likely implemented in July, you got it right lol.

[Crator]

Anyone got any details on what they are doing for pop balance?

[Bocheezu]

They really do need to cut down on the alerts, and also make sure they are randomized better so that the really hard ones don't come one after another. Yesterday, I think Mattherson got the 9 amp station alert, the 7 tech plant alert, AND the 9 biolab alert. Maybe one of those was capture Indar, I can't remember. For me personally, I usually just log off for two hours because I know the alert is going the full time.

[Micro]

Anyone got any details on what they are doing for pop balance?

I'd like to know too.
All I know is that Higby talked with TEST about moving them to Waterson but their responses were pretty mixed so I don't think that's gonna happen. :P

[Crator]

^ Hmmm, Waterson pop is pretty balanced imo. At least during prime-time and weekends. I primarily play there. So it's not really an issue. Most of the time, especially during alerts, there's a queue to enter a continent. I was just curious what they had planned since it will affect everyone in some way, especially during off-peak times.

[wasdie]

I know a few players who are going to leave the game when the lattice comes to Esamir and Amerish. They don't like constantly being thrown into a big battle.

[Rbstr]

^ Hmmm, Waterson pop is pretty balanced imo. At least during prime-time and weekends. I primarily play there. So it's not really an issue. Most of the time, especially during alerts, there's a queue to enter a continent. I was just curious what they had planned since it will affect everyone in some way, especially during off-peak times.


So, you just never look at the world population % then, do you. VS is nearly always sub-30%

[TermiGR]

My Outfit is happy to see the lattice system finaly on amerish and esamir very soon.
We are just playing on Indar since the lattice system was patched in.

[Crator]

^ No, I do, and that's true. I guess I'm just confused what kind of balancing we are talking about. 4th empire prevention? How would you balance pop based on global pop %? Or we just talking pop incentives?

[Dragonskin]

^ Hmmm, Waterson pop is pretty balanced imo. At least during prime-time and weekends. I primarily play there. So it's not really an issue. Most of the time, especially during alerts, there's a queue to enter a continent. I was just curious what they had planned since it will affect everyone in some way, especially during off-peak times.

I have never seen VS with even population compared to TR or NC on Waterson. Especially not at prime time. Mattherson has too many VS, Waterson too little and Connery just about right though this morning I noticed that VS had like 38% at 7 AM CST.

[PredatorFour]

What about giving the underpopped faction slightly more health like the original? That might be fair against the swarms of terrans on Miller:)

[capiqu]

NO Nexus?

[Canaris]

The lattice won't come into it's own until we have a decent amount of continents to play on with their own intercontinental lattice system similar to PS1, everything at the moment is asses to elbows which lattice doesn't like.

oh and bPostal F the Vanu on Miller ;)

[Calisai]

Amerish lattice will be interesting although I'm kinda surprised they didn't go with Esamir first.

I'm betting it was easier to convert, as the terrain was built to basically be a lattice anyway. It was also the last of the three so it had some changes already built-in that the others didn't.

[CrimsonTemplar]

NO Nexus?

Don't look like it seems but I'm not surprised. More likely we'll see it on the Test server in a month or so, before it goes live. Probably it'll be released along with Hossin.

[martingee]

The pop balance needs to be addressed in some form.

Just now, on Cobalt, TR went from been fairly balanced to been 6-7% down to both NC and VS as people switched characters for the alert. World pop was balanced before and skewed the same. Factor in the fact we were been double teamed really just makes for crap playtime.

Whilst I may be whinging from a TR point of view on Cobalt I'm sure the same can be said for other factions on other servers. Perhaps even for factions on my server at different times tho I rarely see TR with a dominant pop unless everyone leaves to do an alert on another continent.

Not sure what can be done that won't screw someone over.

[Hamma]

Missed this, merged with mine and sent out.

[Bucketnate]

I hope it's not seen as a little selfish but it's so exciting seeing myself involved in the community. I know everyone's focusing on Higby's answer though, glad to have the GU coming up soon.

[Climhazzard]

NO Nexus?

There's no place to put it right now. It'll probably be released when they have 2 of the remaining 3 Battle Islands completed, either with or after Hossin.

[o Solei o]

If that was any attempt at order of likely implemented in July, you got it right lol.

Loadouts are already on PTS.

[Zadexin]

I know a few players who are going to leave the game when the lattice comes to Esamir and Amerish. They don't like constantly being thrown into a big battle.

I'm not sure why they are playing this game if they DON'T like big battles. Isnt that the entire selling point of this game? Huge battles, hundreds of players!

Amerish lattice first, really? It must have had the least amount of stuff to shuffle. It practically was already set for lattice as it was. Esamir is just screaming for a lattice setup. I played for 3 hours the other day and had to keep running back to frostfall every 15-30 min for some single derp cap.

I seriously can't wait for continent lattice. I would give up every other weapon upgrade, balance, update etc. to get a continent lattice system in there.

[bpostal]

The lattice won't come into it's own until we have a decent amount of continents to play on with their own intercontinental lattice system similar to PS1, everything at the moment is asses to elbows which lattice doesn't like.

oh and bPostal F the Vanu on Miller ;)

Quite true. And F da VS (but F the NC more)! They used to have a decent world pop when Miller got recommended server status but they just can't seem to sustain it. Please SOE, Give us more targets. We hunger!

[Artalion]

I'm not sure why they are playing this game if they DON'T like big battles. Isnt that the entire selling point of this game? Huge battles, hundreds of players!

Amerish lattice first, really? It must have had the least amount of stuff to shuffle. It practically was already set for lattice as it was. Esamir is just screaming for a lattice setup. I played for 3 hours the other day and had to keep running back to frostfall every 15-30 min for some single derp cap.

I seriously can't wait for continent lattice. I would give up every other weapon upgrade, balance, update etc. to get a continent lattice system in there.

I don't think people mind the size of the battles, so much as the lag that can come with them. For example: there was an alert to secure the bio-labs on Indar. Whenever the TR threatened our single bio-lab, the entire NC population not in queue converged on the bio-lab. My FPS would go from 20-30 down to 0-5. The moment I got away from the bio-lab, the FPS would return to normal. The drop in FPS was intense enough to lag people right out of the game.

It seems kind of silly to have those kinds of alerts on Indar anyway. Most factions will own at least one of any given facility, be it Amp Stations, Bio-labs, or tech plants. A better alert, one which would spread the population around, would be to see who can own the most major facilities.

Back to the Amerish Lattice: I am curious about how Raven's Landing and The Ascent would be incorporated into a lattice system, seeing as both of them are not physically connected to any other base except one another.

[Obstruction]

The lattice won't come into it's own until we have a decent amount of continents to play on with their own intercontinental lattice system similar to PS1, everything at the moment is asses to elbows which lattice doesn't like.


i don't understand this idea.

this isn't about the poster, but the idea, which i see posted over and over. the idea seems to be that continent locking (making maps unavailable?) will somehow make the remaining maps less clogged with 48+ vs 48+ battles.

it's bad enough that we'll have to go to our choice of 4 zergs per continent as it is, but worse when some number of those continents are locked away.

[Obstruction]

I'm not sure why they are playing this game if they DON'T like big battles. Isnt that the entire selling point of this game? Huge battles, hundreds of players!

i think it's because it turns the game into a population contest.

you have some types of players who just sink their teeth in and die and die to the bitter end and they love being zerged. but many other players will move elsewhere if they are badly outnumbered, which causes the imbalance to accelerate.

and there is still the problem of base design favoring attack in almost every fight.

[Canaris]

i don't understand this idea.

this isn't about the poster, but the idea, which i see posted over and over. the idea seems to be that continent locking (making maps unavailable?) will somehow make the remaining maps less clogged with 48+ vs 48+ battles.

it's bad enough that we'll have to go to our choice of 4 zergs per continent as it is, but worse when some number of those continents are locked away.

Lattice breaks up fights, keeps things fresh as you move from cont to cont, gives you dynamic avenues of attack on enemies of choice.
It'll be a long, long time before we see this kind of scale in PS2.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb180/HanSime/NewAuraxianMegaMap_Lattice.jpg

[bpostal]

i don't understand this idea.

this isn't about the poster, but the idea, which i see posted over and over. the idea seems to be that continent locking (making maps unavailable?) will somehow make the remaining maps less clogged with 48+ vs 48+ battles.

it's bad enough that we'll have to go to our choice of 4 zergs per continent as it is, but worse when some number of those continents are locked away.

Let me take a crack at explaining this: It's maneuver warfare (The best kind of warfare) on an global scale.
Besides, it's cont locking via intercontinental lattice or you're stuck with 10 conts, each without the pop to present an actual fight.

[CrankyTRex]

I'm not sure why they are playing this game if they DON'T like big battles. Isnt that the entire selling point of this game? Huge battles, hundreds of players!


Well, it's not so much people don't like big battles as the implementation in PS2 doesn't work very well.

If you don't have awesome hardware, that many people in a confined space makes the game a slideshow. So you're not really playing so much as hoping your character is aiming where you think he's aiming.

It also tends to turn into one big stalemate grind factory. That can be cool to watch, but it gets increasingly boring to play as neither side makes any progress in any direction.

Finally, individuals and small groups don't feel like they can make that much of a difference in that kind of engagement. A small group doing something really smart or playing really well generally is not going to alter the course of that battle. That's been the case in the game at large, but prior to the lattice the smaller groups at least could avoid/split up the Zerg by attacking other territory. Now that is much harder because the lattice denies options for going around.

Personally I think the lattice is a mistake and Amerish's design of using the terrain to drive people was the better idea.

[Larington]

I've noticed the framerates seem to particularly suffer at AMP stations more than any other facility, sometimes find myself wondering if it's curved surfaces like the AMP station pipe/leg things that strain computers in particular, or some hard to pin down issue with some unknown thing in the AMP station, anyway.

[SternLX]

Here's the Amerish Lattice as it currently stands on Public Test Server.
Should give you a rough idea how it will be laid out.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g240/sternlx/PS2/screenshot_20130708-20-04-15_zps2b4c8154.jpg (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g240/sternlx/PS2/screenshot_20130708-20-04-15_zps2b4c8154.jpg~original)

[SadlyJack]

I am excited, I think Amerish is the prettiest continent. The boredom and futility of the hex system was too much for me to bear however and I haven't left Indar since lattice hit. Can't wait for a change of scenery.

[Chowley]

I have to say I dont like the lettuce :p system as is at the moment. Maybe when the continent locking and islands come into the game it might all come together, but as is its too limiting, linear and zerg oriented.

When I join a squad now i feel totally worthless. If youre in an organised platoon then ya, you may have a chance to be useful. It was always nice to go off and fight in a small scale battle at outposts in the past for a change of pace and a break from the explosion spam and the farming.
I also feel like my areas of play are more limited now, I seem to spend most of my time around half way down the map on Indar, its dull! I wont see the stronghold or Vanu Archives until rotation.

Maybe I just need to put more time into getting used to it/more familiar. I absolutely adore Amerish, its a gorgeous environment, the outpost designs are a hell of a lot better, there is a lot of character to the whole map. I dont want to end up hating it :p

[basti]

https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/354674207273136129


<-- Sad :(

[typhaon]

Randomly going to throw this in here... I think there are some issues with the Lattice and population imbalances. I've noticed it can really limit your attacking options as you get pressed.

No way to get around or flank a zerg... you just have to slam your head into it.

[Roy Awesome]

https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/354674207273136129


<-- Sad :(

<-- Happy :)

Amerish lattice was funky. It needed more work to be really good.

Take the time to make it really good rather than slap lattice on and gloss over the issues for 3-4 months while other things get worked on.

[Obstruction]

and no choice but zerg because you end up with 4 places to go.

i barely play Indar anymore but let me take a stab in the dark here.

Regent Rock

Crossroads

Indar Excavation

Crimson Bluff

then Biolabs if you want to count those, but that kinda gets lumped in with alert locations.

from what i've seen either you have enough pop to steamroll or you get them to a tower base and have an infinite standoff. i saw one fight at Regent Rock go 12 hours on Connery.

i know that gives some PS1 people a hard-on but for most of us that gets dull fast.

like typhaon said you basically have to fight zerg to zerg and hope enough of the NC have their mommy pull the plug and send them to bed.

i still don't see how locking continents or having ten of them helps matters. it's still going to be zergs capping empty bases or steamrolling determined "defenders" until they meet a population capable of creating a quagmire.

i know i'm not offering constructive answers either, but i assure you i'd like to get the game moving in a healthy direction for everyone. there are definitely key mechanics at play that i deeply enjoy.

[Crator]

https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/354674207273136129


<-- Sad :(

That is unfortunate however if people are not happy with it then they should refine it before going to live servers.

[Wahooo]

That is unfortunate however if people are not happy with it then they should refine it before going to live servers.

Aye, better right than soon.

A bad lattice map will have the opposite result of what we want from it. I want it now, but will happily wait for something they are happy with releasing.

[AThreatToYou]

Personally I think the lattice is a mistake and Amerish's design of using the terrain to drive people was the better idea.

No, that's the worst idea, because it makes it so much harder to respond to territorial conflicts outside of your operational area due to the terrain blocking. The whole point of lattice is to stop that shit.

If these folks want smaller battles away from the zerg, just go to the opposite link on the same continent or FFS just go to a different continent! There won't be gigantic zergs all the time everywhere.

If these folks want to feel like they influence battles, DO BETTER! If you know what you're doing, a single player can very well make the difference between victory and defeat in those huge zerg battles.

[Timithos]

Hopefully for population balancing they are introducing 24-hour freezes on characters switching on the same server to prevent 4th-factioning. Planetside 1 rules again!

I wish they would keep and enhance the hex system for some continents. Are we that dumb-downed that we can't understand different rule sets? This is still an MMO too. There are some complex MMO's out their with millions of players still.

I'm not a big fan of the lattice system, but next to a hex system that they abandoned months ago, it makes the lattice look falsely great to some players.

I would put in population bonuses and penalties to the point that is would HURT the over-populated ones, and create much DESIRE to be the underdog. People would be leaving over-populated continents and sectors, just to seek out being the underdog for the bonuses, and they'd balance out the population themselves. If you want to play an empire with +10% pop over the 2nd place empire, and battle in a sector with +70% pop... you'll be SCREWED in the xp department.

I don't think they're using the test server like we thought they would. Otherwise it wouldn't be left so broken since they have to copy it over to live servers. You have say a bunch of teleporters & turrets floating in mid-air, then you have a Live game update, then you go back to test and see the same floating objects. Clearly they didn't copy that over. Plus they don't really promote it's use that heavily. The test patch notes are outdated and few. And they're obviously testing Hossin, but we're not testing Hossin. I think they're still primarily testing on their own internal servers.

[CrankyTRex]

No, that's the worst idea, because it makes it so much harder to respond to territorial conflicts outside of your operational area due to the terrain blocking. The whole point of lattice is to stop that shit.


The lattice doesn't change the difficulty of responding to territorial conflicts outside of your operational area, it just flat out removes conflicts outside your operational area.

The actual point of the lattice is just to funnel people into conflict with each other, only it does it in the least subtle and dynamic way possible. It's a band-aid that does nothing to address the underlying problems that make ghost capping and groups avoiding each other ideal behavior.


If these folks want smaller battles away from the zerg, just go to the opposite link on the same continent or FFS just go to a different continent! There won't be gigantic zergs all the time everywhere.


You're right, there aren't gigantic zergs all the time everywhere because all of them are forced to very specific choke points by the lattice. Unless you go to a continent with a very low pop, so long as it has a lattice those battles will be zerg fights because everyone is forced to the same few locations.

More importantly, we already need to have an Instant Action button because people don't want to have to look for a battle at all. Forcing them to continent hop to try and find a battle that doesn't turn their computer into a slideshow is just asking them to quit.


If these folks want to feel like they influence battles, DO BETTER! If you know what you're doing, a single player can very well make the difference between victory and defeat in those huge zerg battles.

Do better? I didn't realize all these people were just slacking.

This is the same issue with "go find another continent." You might as well just encourage them to quit. The numbers and mechanics involved make affecting big battles incredibly difficult even for experienced outfits of players, which translates into people feeling like learning to do better isn't worth the effort.