2 very simple yet important questions.

Atuday · 2011-08-02, 10:59 AM

I have 2 questions that once answered I will be able to sleep soundly knowing that the devs of planetside 2 are the coolest people on earth.

The first is an easy yes or no question. Will the HUD be as customizable if not more so as the first planetside? This may not seem important to some but for others who can be a bit OCD this matters a lot.

The second question is harder and has to do with what drove me away from the first planetside. When an empire develops tactics that allow them to gain an edge in combat such as NC sitting at the end of a hall and spraying gauss gun ammo, or the vs using max crashes to break through a siege and people complain about weapon balance because of this. Will the devs then alter the weapons like they did in the first planetside or tell the players to man up and develop better tactics? I got so sick of one week having the power to lash with a lasher to the next week having to use a suppressor because all of the vanu guns got nerfed. How do you plan to avoid this?

Sorry for the question being so jumbled I just couldn't think of a better way to word it. Also as a VS player I will admit the lasher started off overpowered but I will also complain that it got nerfed and the noob hammer never did. I guess a good follow up question might be what is being done to remove the devs bias from affecting gameplay?

Bags · 2011-08-02, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Atuday

it got nerfed and the noob hammer never did.

So nerfing triple-jack wasn't a nerf?

Logit · 2011-08-02, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by Bags

So nerfing triple-jack wasn't a nerf?

There was a secondary fire mode on the jack hammer?

morf · 2011-08-02, 11:07 AM

Its not a nooobhammer its a skillhammer, l2p.

Bags · 2011-08-02, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by Logit

There was a secondary fire mode on the jack hammer?

I'm not sure what you're trying to convey with this post.

Highwind · 2011-08-02, 11:47 AM

Originally Posted by Atuday

...When an empire develops tactics that allow them to gain an edge in combat such as VS sitting at the end of a hall and spraying Lasher Orb ammo, or the NC using max crashes to break through a siege and people complain about weapon balance because of this. ...

Fixed it for you. Thats how it went down on Markov, as I remember it at least (wth is a VS max crash, never seen it, it was always NC scatter maxes doing that. VS AA max roof camping, now that I've seen)

Bags · 2011-08-02, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by IDukeNukeml

His over all post I agree with.

Stop bitching about balance and learn to adapt.. If it's completely over powered.. then ya... but I seen no problems in beta with any of the balance.. at all...

I could kill then, I can kill now...

>implying people don't bitch about imbalances

**Malorn** · 2011-08-02, 12:27 PM

The jack got several nerfs, ranging from damage-per-pellet decreases (this happened at least twice), to changes in the spread and pellet damage degradation. They also tweaked the rate of fire and introduced a delay on the triple-shot once people started using it to effectively instagibbing people by firing one normal shot, switching and firing a triple shot instantly to put 4 shots on the target in the span of a second or less.

Thoreaux · 2011-08-02, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by Malorn

The jack got several nerfs, ranging from damage-per-pellet decreases (this happened at least twice), to changes in the spread and pellet damage degradation. They also tweaked the rate of fire and introduced a delay on the triple-shot once people started using it to effectively instagibbing people by firing one normal shot, switching and firing a triple shot instantly to put 4 shots on the target in the span of a second or less.

And add to that at least one MCG buff and some Lasher.... uh, tweaks and we're finally at a rough equilibrium. (or at least we're as close as we're ever gonna get)

Those changes were necessary and all, but the lesson here is: if it needs to be nerfed, do it in beta. After release, only use the buff-stick to solve your problems, lest you be run down by a screaming horde of whaaambulances.

Sovereign · 2011-08-02, 01:01 PM

The balancing in beta is always preliminary and sets the framework for future "tweaks"...

With that said we still don't even know if the same weapons from the first game are even going to handle the same way they did previously.

Logit · 2011-08-02, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by Sovereign

The balancing in beta is always preliminary and sets the framework for future "tweaks"...

With that said we still don't even know if the same weapons from the first game are even going to handle the same way they did previously.

This. Ive been bitching about balance as much as the next guy for weeks now..mostly the "10-20%" non sense.

But until we actually see how everything pans out, we really have no reason to complain. It seems pretty clear to me Higby understands our concerns on the topic of balance, and Beta will prove to be a fairly large aspect of the finished product.

Or so I hope.

Atuday · 2011-08-02, 03:14 PM

Wow really people?? I just through some of that stuff in as an example and you guys really latched onto it like a bunch of 6 year olds with a tooth ache.

Thanks for IDukeNukeml, Sovereign and Logit for a relevant comment. At least there are a few people who can keep on topic rather than bitching.

Thoreaux · 2011-08-02, 04:08 PM

Will the devs then alter the weapons like they did in the first planetside or tell the players to man up and develop better tactics? I got so sick of one week having the power to lash with a lasher to the next week having to use a suppressor because all of the vanu guns got nerfed. How do you plan to avoid this?

Bitching, you say?

Planetside is now better balanced than it ever has been. This is a good thing. The things that got nerfed or buffed DESERVED to be nerfed or buffed, and the game is better for it.

Getting there, however, was absolute hell. Mostly due to people like yourself, who (with no perspective on overall game balance) raised holy hell whenever the devs tried to touch their shiny OP toys. I remember the days of surgile quad-shot Jackhammers, and the long-looooong arguments on the official forums with people who's only argument was, "lol, learn to skill, noob." Anybody remember Malodorous from the official forums? Yeah, he was right, and in the end his side of the argument won, because they were right, and the MCG got buffed. (and the lasher too, sorta...)

This was the origin of the term "Forumside", because arguing to have your equiment buffed and the enemy's nerfed was just one more front of meta-warfare. The point of my little rant, however, is that all of this was ugly, took forever to happen, was bad for the community, and that the constant balance tweaks so late in the games life-span drove people away. The takeaway lesson for the devs is, "If you have to adjust balance, listen to the players making a good argument, and do it quickly, in beta. Otherwise, people get too attached to one OP thing for you to change it. If you break this rule, you divide the community and will drive players away."

NapalmEnima · 2011-08-02, 05:03 PM

I'm hoping the reams of data they have access to from PlanetSide will help them Balance Stuff in PlanetSide 2.

That's unique information that no other company can match.

Atuday · 2011-08-02, 05:36 PM

Again thanks to those who post constructively rather than with accusations and complaints. I am amazed every one is focusing on only one question when I am pretty certain this thread is about two questions that I thought were important. If you want to complain about game balancing from planetside one PLEASE GET THE FUCK OUT AND GO TO THE PROPER FORUMS YOU SMALL MINDED LITTLE TROLLING SHIT HEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!