Hardcore PS/MMOFPS player suggestions+opinions

[PhaZeBurN]

I'd like to have hear the suggestions and opinions of "hardcore" PS and/or MMOFPS players (I assume we're all PS players here, heh)...

Why?

Well, a few weeks ago I decided to take up a second game design project. This one is a MMOFPS inspired by PS. Essentially, I want to make PS but actually listen to the community for balance, bug fixes, changes, etc. I have already posted a few ideas and think of more every day. This isn't my main project (I'm a graduate student and am developing another game, etc.) so I don't have anything 'fancy' up yet; but, it's enough to get some brainstorming going.

Ideally: I'd like to hear comment/suggestions from everyone on ideas I've already posted.

Additionally: I'd love to hear your own ideas.

You can post directly to the Development Team Forums I have setup for this idea. The link is in my signature. I'm not advertising a game or anything because there is no game - I just want to compile all the best ideas and, eventually, propose the idea to become reality.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

[Sentrosi]

One thing that I like about Planetside is the three empire slant. It gives the game an "all or nothing" mentality to it that I enjoy. Because, if you are not my friend, you are my enemy. I looked over your forums for a bit and I can see if you include a 4th empire into the mix it's just going to muddle things up, IMO.

[PhaZeBurN]

Originally Posted by Sentrosi

One thing that I like about Planetside is the three empire slant. It gives the game an "all or nothing" mentality to it that I enjoy. Because, if you are not my friend, you are my enemy. I looked over your forums for a bit and I can see if you include a 4th empire into the mix it's just going to muddle things up, IMO.

That's a very good point. I threw in a 4th faction just to make things a little different. I know it will throw the triumverate balance off; but, I was hoping it would enable raids where two factions gang up on a third, while the 4th can participate or enjoy a free ride on taking over a continent. This is definitely going to be tested a lot for balance: if it doesn't work, I have plans to merge the two factions that use electricity and radiation into one.

[Kam]

Sounds promising, I'll take a look. =)

[LimpBIT]

Needs more teamwork! Even though planetside required raw numbers to take a place, it would be nice to implement some actual strategies, and easier means of communication through out the game. I was thinking something like localized audio would be cool(if that technology is available).

[PhaZeBurN]

Originally Posted by LimpBIT

Needs more teamwork! Even though planetside required raw numbers to take a place, it would be nice to implement some actual strategies, and easier means of communication through out the game. I was thinking something like localized audio would be cool(if that technology is available).

I agree. The Zerg is fun but tends to make stalemates more often than anything. We are looking into voice-chat for squads etc (like PS) but that is a big server strain and can make lag. Since most clans use TeamSpeak, etc we may not add it. We also looked into "local" audio so you can hear people yelling in a certain area but then it ended up like Halo X-Box Live where you just hear a bunch of jerks cursing, etc. Of course, that is why I'm here - to think of better/new ideas for problems like this.

[Baneblade]

Good luck, but I have no plans to waste effort on an MMOFPS...I'd rather make or help make an MMORPG that doesnt suck total ass.

[PhaZeBurN]

Originally Posted by Sobekeus

Good luck, but I have no plans to waste effort on an MMOFPS...I'd rather make or help make an MMORPG that doesnt suck total ass.

Well, my primary project is a MMORPG that I've been developing for about two years. I don't know if it's something you'd like; but, you can find the public site here: http://www.augreal.net and the Dev Forums here: http://dev.augreal.net

As far as the MMOFPS goes, at the very least we'll hopefully come up with all the best ideas from the community and get a demo version to bug Blizzard with.

[I Hate Pants]

One way to help increase teamwork is to make it so that we need to rely on different players to perform different tasks.

Everyone can fight but make it so that some players specialize in medic and healing and some players specialize in engineering and some in stealth etc.

PS was like this earlier and you could see the teamwork that was going on between the players. But lately Planetside has made it so swapping certs is now easier and now you also get more certs. So you see most players now as jacks of all trades, switch army knives able to perform any task they want without having to rely on other players to help them.

Also make it so that you specialize in certain vehicles, and drivers should get bonouses for transporting players. I hate it how now you can pretty much operate every vehicle in game except for maybe 3 or 4 vehicles, and those tend to be the ones you never even use anyways.


OH and another thing! Make it so that defending a base is just as worthwhile as attacking a base. One reason zergs were so succesfull was because there is really no incentive to defend. I liked how PS started adding force fields and anti vehicle shield to the bases to help defenders out. It's ashame they are probably not gonna bother with those useless bunkers. Having defending commanders would also be nice.

PS devs were gonna add outfit base ownership to the game. But something happened and I don't see it happeing now. That would of given outfits incentive to defend thier base.

[PhaZeBurN]

I'm making "medic" type players by having a certain item be the only way you can heal. Since each armor type has a limited number of item slots, you can't be everything at once. Also, medics and repairmen have extra incentives to level that skill up because only certain (cool) abilities are available to them...for instance, read this post: http://www.areios.net/dev/index.php?topic=36.0 about the Regenerator. the 3rd and 4th 'firing modes' are only available to, say, Advanced Medics and the 4th skill lets you add/remove Implants at a whim (as well as remove implants from fallen soldiers) which is pretty nice I think.

As far as vehicle driving, I will be organizing things like the latest PS patch did (i.e. light assault vehicles, tanks, transports, etc). To make players want to transport (and make those vehicles actually useful) I was thinking that the driver gets a XP bonus for a certain amount of time depending on what transport is used; one that is greater in relation to the number of people being transported. As far as the passengers, their incentive is that transports are the fastest (and safest) ways to get around.

The way I have Bases setup, it is much more difficult to hack them. There are more automated defenses and different layouts to make Zerging less effective.

Outfit bases will be implemented.