What are your most or least favorite changes that SOE has made over the last year?

[Deringer]

This week's question is ...

"What are your most or least favorite changes that SOE has made over the last year?"

As always, respond here or e-mail us at [email protected] or call us at (415)787-3224!

[MerlO]

Least: Harasser, in particular ES-H weapons

Most: OMFG, better late than never

[GreyFrog]

ES MAX abilities.

[Chewy]

Agree with MerlO. Giving a NS vehicle ES weapons is one of the worst ideas SOE has had so far. Should have been the same as the Sunderer and limited to NS weapons.

Only way to fix it now is to make all of the weapons useable for all factions. I don't see how you can get the Modified to be anywhere as good as the Marauder without buffing AND nerfing the hell out of both. It's a NS vehicle, make it neutral and go from there.

[BlaxicanX]

Harassers and Vanu MAX's.

Don't mind harassers as a concept- they're just too durable and too powerful for how fast they are. A single AP round from a Prowler or Vanguard should one-shot them even at full-health.

Vanu MAX's are just not fun to fight against. You either one-shot them with a missile launcher or you die horribly. There is no challenge nor entertainment in fighting them.

[Ghoest9]

Nerfing the ability to blow gens behind lines.

They ruined the way that 1 or 2 guys who knew what they were doing could get a head of the zerg and really shift the course of a a map conquest.

They also ruined a lot of fun small fights between a few defenders and special ops attackers in these bases.

[DirtyBird]

Least Favorite: Falcon nerfed to oblivion and they aint finished yet afaik.

Most Favorite: Learnt along time ago not to sing the praises of anything for fear of it becoming the least favorite.

[Timithos]

Worst: Their decisions to keep maintaining deplorable, non-defensible base design. This is the absolute worst thing for me in this game. They think that facilities should be balanced fights between attackers and defenders, versus giving the defenders the advantage to repel an overwhelming force. This was Malorn's recent opinion on the matter. And also that a base that was too defensible would cause too much frustration and harm the "fun" factor. However, empirical evidence suggests that defensible bases are extremely fun as the most popular fighting ever has been Bio Labs (currently our most defensible base only due to two unimaginative choke points), and the old Crown. If people were really not having fun, they wouldn't fight at defensible bases at all, versus the reality of players making them the most popular spots in the game.

Best: Optimization

Best: They moved from being absolutely horrible at bug squashing to being adequate since April.

Best: Despite the community's over zealous weapon balance nerf & buff cries, they understand that balance is precarious thing that needs tweaking and not extreme changes. They seem concerned and put a lot of focus on balance. They may not always get it right, but for the most part their balance fixes get closer to target, not further. Their balance changes may not be popular, but for the most part they were the right thing to do. However, introducing OP weapons to boost sales and then nerf them later is not a very scrupulous practice. Let's hope that practice is over with.

Worst: Their lack of imagination on how to make a base defensible. Walls & choke points seem to be the only tools in their tool box. I could rattle off almost two dozen tools in my base design tool box.

Worst: Instead of enhancing the hex system which the community provided all of the solutions for them, they went with lattice. What is to blame for getting lattice? 1/3 of the blame is on esports, 1/3 was poor optimization that lead to player population drops so they thought the solution was to funnel fights down lanes instead of optimization, and 1/3 of the blame goes to PS1 vets crying out for some sort of lattice system so the dev team barfed something up for them.

Worst: eSports became a poison that is still affecting our poorly defensible base design and capture mechanics to this very day. (Latest example: Test server Freyr Amp Station) We're given facilities that are like fighting in an FPS arena game where bases are nothing but obstacles equal to both sides of the fight as if we're in an airsoft/paintball arena; where bringing 55% forces to the fight is just like pressing the automatic win button.

[typhaon]

Worst: ES MAX abilities are poorly implemented. And it's not a change, but just SOE's general inability to react to balance issues in a timely... reasonable... even lazy manner. They simply haven't done anything, at all.

Best: Spawn room changes.

[Timithos]

Best: Spawn room changes.

What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.

[almalino]

Best: Alerts

Worst: Harasser

[camycamera]

worst? well, i don't know, i mean, i like the new base designs for Esamir and stuff, but i HATE how they didn't change up the spawn rooms! they put walls everywhere to stop tank spamming the spawn room, good, and it made it that bases were for infantry only in most cases (like in PS1), BUT in the end, especially if you're in a zerg steamrolling bases, it ends in just farming! i was expecting PS1-esque spawn rooms, but i'm guessing we wont see that for all bases any time soon.



another minor gripe would be the changes to projectiles, if i'm not mistaken they changed them in GU10(?) from real bullets to straight baby lines.

oh! i also forgot about this one. the changes they made to my god damn striker. yes, i'll admit it was OP, but now it is UP as fuck, and as soon as something goes in front of the target, or the target goes 500m out EVEN IF the missiles are right behind them, they fly straight up the air. it is INFURIATING, they need to fix this. my outfit does not sit on top of mountains w/ strikers raining down hell as much anymore :(

my favourite change(s) would be lattice, the Esamir bases (yup, contradicted myself there), the almighty Harasser (yes, the ES weapons and the vehicle itself is OP. but it is still as fun as hell damnit!), the AV turret (still OP but still awesome),anchor for my prowler and the SMG's.

edit:
What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.
i like the change, but it needs more tunnels, and underground bits. and the gens need to be shifted around, like in PS1.

[ringring]

Best: Alerts, flawed though they are.

Worst: Going live 1 year ago with so many broken or missing mechanisms.

[Emperor Newt]

Worst:
- Harassers (not Harassers as an idea but the current implementation is just outright bad).
- The ongoing implementation of air/air and air/ground interaction which is just not really fun for anybody. At least pilots can have some fun with their rotating/wiggling contests they call "dogfights" :p (and I would actually welcome if they could do so without ground AA interfering)
- Also that SOE tends to make weapons obsolete by introducing better alternatives (eg Artemis vs SMGs). And it doesn't look like SOE has any plans on fixing those. Which really is a bummer, especially when people paid cash for them. Dear SOE, making shitty weapons cheaper is not a fix.

Best: OMFG seems to be nice although I didn't notice much. Except that my client crashes much more often now... But hey. Wouldn't be an SOE update if everybody would be happy ;)

[typhaon]

What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.


Spawn rooms used to have fewer doors, smaller doors, no tunnels, no teleporters, and generally were more exposed.

[Kalee J]

Most Favorite: The animation additions to the Lasher and inclusion of the ESRL's for some old school Planetside feel. O: MFG's positive affect on my frame rate was also a plus.

Least Favorite: The changes to The Crown. I have good memories of epic combat before they made it easier to conquer. I much preferred the old Crown, because taking could a real accomplishment and morale booster.

[VikingKong]

Favourite: OMFG. The game is a lot more enjoyable without the big frame drops. And a special mention must go to the SMGs. The Infiltrator class has fast become a favourite of mine since buying the Blitz.

Least: Gotta be the Harasser. It pissed in my Cheerios more times than I care to remember. I was looking forward to it, but what we ended up with is just not fun to play against.

[Vashyo]

Best:
- Lattice, thanks to it I can easily find lasting battles
- Optimization, is nice to have

Worst:
- Old continents rework, I'd rather they just focus ALL their manpower on making MORE NEW CONTINENTS than rework the old ones, those can be reworked when we have 12 continents and PS1-like system in place, imo.

[Whiteagle]

Nerfing the ability to blow gens behind lines.

They ruined the way that 1 or 2 guys who knew what they were doing could get a head of the zerg and really shift the course of a a map conquest.

They also ruined a lot of fun small fights between a few defenders and special ops attackers in these bases.
Ghoest, you just did that to farm certs...
And it wasn't "fun" it was a pain in the ass to have to double check EVERY goddamn base to make sure it wasn't compromised, let alone hunting down one cloaker hoping about in an ESF.

What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.
Wow, you're REALLY new aren't you?

Alright, in the beginning Spawn rooms were little more then standard buildings with a Faction shield on the doors...
ONE fucking exit, NO pain field to force people out when it changed factions, no windows so you couldn't actually see what was going on.

You'd end up having enemy Engineers sitting in front of the tubes with Turrets out to mow down any idiot who'd spawn in.

Bases now are LEAGUES better than "Bases" back then, the ONLY hold overs from that era are the Facilities and they are FINALLY overhauling those.
Seriously, you never had to defend five fucking shacks in the middle of the dessert with a point out in the damn OPEN…

Honestly, the only changes that get me hot under the collar are those favoring ESFs in Air/Anti-Air balance...
Lock-ons get their tracking nerfed, the Skyguard still is rather worthless, and Bursters got nerfed hard to make the Skyguard look better.
Meanwhile, Rocket Pods are getting beefed back up to primary farm weapon, and Airchav's STILL complain if anything can actually touch them.

Harrassers in my opinion set the bar for what all ground vehicles SHOULD be.
Now that they are putting cover in to keep the tanks OUT of the Point fight, I wouldn't mind tanks being a wee bit more tanker...
Of course, it would also be nice if they finally decoupled Main Gun Control from the Driver, so MBTs would actually have a reason to take on a Gunner.

[Mordelicius]

This week's question is ...

"What are your most or least favorite changes that SOE has made over the last year?"

As always, respond here or e-mail us at [email protected] or call us at (415)787-3224!

Worst: No Deploy Zone. There are so many candidates, but to me, it really boiled down to the farcical faction balance vs the intrusive No Deploy Zone. Whereas, Faction Imbalance is not sustainable unless they want to kill their game, No Deploy Zone seem to be already set in stone. And it has so many downsides, it's ridiculous

I view it not only as Dev gameplay interference and a terrible precedent. But it forces attacker Sunderer wipe on and on and on. The fact that they are changing the bases to accomodate Sunderer parking begs the question: Why not just change the base design in the first place?

Lastly, NDZ reduces the game's unpredictability (one of PS2 great strengths). Everything that can happen but aren't allowed to happen in the totality of the areas of all the NDZ in all continents are forever gone. Imagine putting NoStepZone circles in a basketball court and attackers can't step on it. Everything that can happen starting when a player steps on those are eliminated from possibility. Or simply put, a 6 sided die is less predictable than a 2 sided coin.

Logic states that if defenders can plop down Sunderers, attackers can too. Better yet, they could have given us Sunderer No Deploy Jammer. Make it an AMS sidegrade. I've been asking for it as an alternative since they've announced it on the Roadmap. Instead, everytime I see a red circle on the ground, I just picture a Dev hand cupping the ground and saying: "you can't park here". Hands off I say! Give us tools to stop them from parking, anything from a spawn jammer to nanite-stakes-to-the-ground that we deploy ourselves. Anything. This unnecessary, magical circle is not a player tool but Dev heavy-handed encroachment on gameplay.

Runner Ups:
- Faction Imbalances (one year of socially engineering TR and especially VS will come to an end soon. Maybe :lol:. Also, SOE logic: VS always underpopped, give them buffs; VS always overpopped, add faction recommendation system so NC and TR would get more players).
- Gameplay Imbalances (eg Harassers, UBGL, old HE, old Fury, old Dalton, etc etc.)
- Shortened Battles (summation of all changes leading to short-lived fights: eg. sunderer wipes, spawn camping, shorter cap timer, new scu/gen mechanic, spawnpoint logic, etc)
- The Crown (from the most famous/infamous and interesting base in PS2 to that base in the middle of Indar)
- New Biolab Spawn ( It's a spawn camp deathtrap)
- Crashes to desktop since OMFG (still not fixed)
- Devs no longer post on PSU
- Continent Cap/Uncap threshholds (capping and uncapping continents used to be a meta EVENT for the server; the changes made it utterly moot, pointless and irrelevant).
- WDS Preseason PS2 has a tradition of running all these competitions while the faction balance is out of whack. And the WDS is no different. The TR was winning easily due to their striker + AV/AI combo (Fracture, Vulcan H, Marauder H, etc.) so they essentially rigged the scoring allowing VS to steal the 'win', since the TR was demoralized by the new self-correcting scoring system:rofl:. Us NC are third place as usual.
- Roadmap (source of pain for SOE and players alike. Why a pain for SOE? Players get mad at SOE because it gives them unrealistic expectations)

Best: Lattice. The hex system would have killed PS2 because it was nakedly implemented. If they had a base lock timer system, the hex would have been sufficient. The trouble with a naked hex is players simply avoid tough bases and simply back cap with impunity.

Runner ups:
- OMFG (It was well worth the wait and delay of other game developments, imo)
- VR Room (all they need to add is moving infantry and floating aircrafts. Right?)
- Play Test Server (another excellent addition.)
- Alerts (great feature, although frequency should be reduced)
- ADAD spam reduction (exploiter's delight)
- Nerfs (Magrider, HE, Dalton, etc.)
- Tutorial (Newbies are no longer totally confused, just half confused :D)
- New Infantry/Vehicle Combat gradients (I like their new focus on separating Infantry and Vehicles in base fights. examples: Walls in Esamir, the future dome shields and now the new Amp Station layout in Freyr PTS).

[camycamera]

Most Favorite: The animation additions to the Lasher and inclusion of the ESRL's for some old school Planetside feel. O: MFG's positive affect on my frame rate was also a plus.

Least Favorite: The changes to The Crown. I have good memories of epic combat before they made it easier to conquer. I much preferred the old Crown, because taking could a real accomplishment and morale booster.

i miss the crown fights as well, but it was for the best. remember when an entire faction would hold the crown with half their pop even if they had no friendly territory around them? it was hilarious and sad to watch on the map.

[Eggy]

Best: Harraser. They are what all other vehilces should be based/balanced around. Theres a point to pulling one and they REQUIRE more than 1 person to be combat effective.
They did need toning down/altering slightly but the list of nerfs on test will just make them never apear on the battelfield anymore. So we go back to mass 1 man MBT spam.
More vehicles and more lag.

Worst: Esamir (base changes in general). Vehicle users forced to abandon vehicles to participate in base fights, yet infantry players not forced to use vehicles to move from base to base.

[Whiteagle]

Imagine putting NoStepZone circles in a basketball court and attackers can't step on it. Everything that can happen starting when a player steps on those are eliminated from possibility.
Uh, that actually does exist...
They're called the Center Circle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_court#Center_circle) and Key (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_court#Key)...

[Timithos]

Ghoest, you just did that to farm certs...
And it wasn't "fun" it was a pain in the ass to have to double check EVERY goddamn base to make sure it wasn't compromised, let alone hunting down one cloaker hoping about in an ESF.

They fixed that. The xp for destroying turrets and generators was greatly reduced, and repetition detection caused the xp to shut off. And it's also a shame that defending engineers were subject to the same level of repair repetition detection as attackers were. It should be relaxed. So I agree with ghosts' fun being ruined.


Wow, you're REALLY new aren't you?

Alright, in the beginning Spawn rooms were little more then standard buildings with a Faction shield on the doors...
ONE fucking exit, NO pain field to force people out when it changed factions, no windows so you couldn't actually see what was going on.

You'd end up having enemy Engineers sitting in front of the tubes with Turrets out to mow down any idiot who'd spawn in.

Bases now are LEAGUES better than "Bases" back then, the ONLY hold overs from that era are the Facilities and they are FINALLY overhauling those.
Seriously, you never had to defend five fucking shacks in the middle of the dessert with a point out in the damn OPEN…

Honestly, the only changes that get me hot under the collar are those favoring ESFs in Air/Anti-Air balance...
Lock-ons get their tracking nerfed, the Skyguard still is rather worthless, and Bursters got nerfed hard to make the Skyguard look better.
Meanwhile, Rocket Pods are getting beefed back up to primary farm weapon, and Airchav's STILL complain if anything can actually touch them.

Harrassers in my opinion set the bar for what all ground vehicles SHOULD be.
Now that they are putting cover in to keep the tanks OUT of the Point fight, I wouldn't mind tanks being a wee bit more tanker...
Of course, it would also be nice if they finally decoupled Main Gun Control from the Driver, so MBTs would actually have a reason to take on a Gunner.

I've been playing since Alpha. And the spawn rooms are still so horrible in the game now, that all those changes don't matter. I'm certainly envious you have the memory to remember all of that though. Lack of a pain field was a pretty big deal now that I remember.

If Freyr Amp Station C spawn room gets implemented in all small outposts on all continents, then we will actually be able to use phrases like "Leagues better".

[Timithos]

Best: Lattice. The hex system would have killed PS2 because it was nakedly implemented. If they had a base lock timer system, the hex would have been sufficient. The trouble with a naked hex is players simply avoid tough bases and simply back cap with impunity.

They did have base lock timers. But they were causing a bug, so instead of fixing the bug, they just removed the base lock timers. Then they abandoned hex. Then they stripped hex of adjacency influence mechanic. Then they stripped it of the 0/6-6/6 capture point mechanics. And they've never eliminated single-player ghost-capping.

[JeremyClaws]

I think the worst change would have to be the ES max abilities. They are unbalanced, too straight forward for their uses, and they are uninteresting. Except for the Vanu max ability. That is interesting to play, but is the most unbalanced concept so far.

[Mordelicius]

Uh, that actually does exist...
They're called the Center Circle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_court#Center_circle) and Key (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_court#Key)...

the old defensive 3-second rule is not permanent and only in place if offense is not nearby to prevent defense from camping around the basket. If the offense is there, defenders can be there too. That's at least how I remember it.

The NDZ is permanent and enforced at all times. If the 3-second rule is permanent, there would be no dunks or layups lol, which was exactly my point. All the possibilities from within the NDZ has been removed.

They did have base lock timers. But they were causing a bug, so instead of fixing the bug, they just removed the base lock timers. Then they abandoned hex. Then they stripped hex of adjacency influence mechanic. Then they stripped it of the 0/6-6/6 capture point mechanics. And they've never eliminated single-player ghost-capping. Really, wow. That would have been better :(

[ringring]

the old defensive 3-second rule is not permanent and only in place if offense is not nearby to prevent defense from camping around the basket. If the offense is there, defenders can be there too. That's at least how I remember it.

The NDZ is permanent and enforced at all times. If the 3-second rule is permanent, there would be no dunks or layups lol, which was exactly my point. All the possibilities from within the NDZ has been removed.

Really, wow. That would have been better :(

No the lock timers didn't cause a bug.

What happened was that we'd attack a base, get a hack, it would get resecured (just) then we would win the base by killing all enemy and then have to wait 5 minutes for the lock timer to expire before we could put the hack on again.

All it lead to was sitting around for no purpose.