Universal Characters

[EVILPIG]

I brought this up in Beta and some fought it hard. Now that we're here, how do you feel now? Universal characters means you get to make 1 character for each empire and when you log in, you may choose what server to play on. Characters and outfits being unique, you could gather and play on any server. It has pros and cons. Some pros are that you'd have a chance to be exposed to every other character and outfit in the game. If your preferred server was lame, you could play on another. Cons are concerns about populations fluctuating so much, though the lack of stagnation would be good in my book.

As I have always said, I wish PS2 had just made one server.

[capiqu]

Universal Character? sounds good. I think premium members should be allowed to have universal Characters. I'm all for it. Would love to see The Enclave VS 666th Devil Dogs and have all outfits have a chance to play against each other.

[Pella]

I can see the happening when they bring in the Esports. But it may be restricted that that competitive mode.

[Tatwi]

They need to do this (as I too have been saying since beta).

I've put $75 into the game through SC purchases thus far, but I don't feel the need to "become a member", because the stuff offered really doesn't do anything for me personally. As a result of not being a member, my money is somehow worth less and I have to wait in queue, even though I have spent more in two months than a person who only bought a $15 membership. There in lies the problem with this "free2play" model.

I'll buy a lot of things in the game and I will spend a lot of money on PS2 over the years, so I really don't enjoy being thrown under the bus simply because I don't happen feel the need to subscribe to the game. This is especially true given the amount of money (and goodwill) I have spent on SOE games over the years.

With account bound or "universal" characters, at least I'd be able to play my character without having to sit in a queue, regardless of subscribing to the game or not.

[Sledgecrushr]

Dude I think we are definitely on the same page. A long freaking time ago I posted about an idea I called one planetside universe. Exactly what EP just said. The pros for this are big.
1- Metagame of moving the entire outfit for an evening raid. I would love to go to Mattheson and shoot at some azure twilight guys.
2- Outfit training, want to get a shit ton of practice moving your outfits around an amp station etc. and work out tactics but you always are getting into a fight. With this you can go to an empty server and get the practice your guys need to be more competitive.
3- Vehicle training, personally i wish I could have some practice in my flying vehicle of choice for longer than a minute before getting shot down.
4-big fights, you cant go to where the biggest fights are at because your characcter with all its unlocks and certs is stuck on one server
5-little fights, sometimes a brother could just use some casual play with friends without being shot at costantly by an entire army.

Im also a big proponent of server and faction allegiance. Like in many other MMOs I would restrict this kind of awesome freedom with both a level and a time restriction. The bottom line is these raids would be allowed maybe twice a week for a few hours at a time and wouldnt be available until you hit a particular level.

I love this idea and I want this in planetside 2.

[Baneblade]

I support this as long as there is a cooldown for switching servers. It should help the pop stability issue some.

[Hamma]

Agreed they should do this, make it a premium feature.

[Tatwi]

Originally Posted by Hamma

Agreed they should do this, make it a premium feature.

Please tell me you don't mean "members only". I'd pay X SC to use it each time, but I still would not feel the need to have a subscription.

If this is supposed to be a subscription based game, then just make it one.

[Ghoest9]

All games should do this.

[Mutant]

Originally Posted by Tatwi

Please tell me you don't mean "members only". I'd pay X SC to use it each time, but I still would not feel the need to have a subscription.

If this is supposed to be a subscription based game, then just make it one.

Surely both "payment" methods would be beneficial. For those who like to hop around it provides extra incentive to sub, and for those who might want to make an occasional switch a 1 off SC payment does the trick.

I do think there would need to be such a restriction, to discourage mass migrations at the slightest whim.

[Stanis]

I've always found that persistance leads to accomplishment.
That means a fairly level and stable playing field.

You need both the respect and knowledge of your enemies to get the sense of progress or victory when the outcome is achieved.

The styles of play are different between US and EU servers.

Lets just imagine possible actions over a weekend when players are free to move around:

1. <faction> is doing badly. Server population of <faction> drops below 20%
2. <faction> is doing really well on <server>. Population of <faction> on <server> hits 50%

Global populations of a single faction over about 40% are really bad.

1. <factionX> has some cool kids that organise an event. <factionY> responds by three big outfits coming over for it.

Any outcome or result is grossly skewed because "the UberSoldiersOutfit turned up".


A persistent world needs a Consistent and Stable enemy otherwise victory or defeat is meaningless.

In PS2 right now - it might be excellent. There is very little persistence or consistency to the game except the instabiliy of hexes and the ring around the limited number of continents.
If we get that oft mentioned metagame - this will severely effect the metagame.

Imagine if every weekend was like the merge of the remaining PS1 servers onto Emerald.



There is a signficant different between free accounts that require time invested in each character, and the ability to just move a character.

This is a really bad idea I reckon.

[Rothnang]

I really want to have a universal character. I'd probably log into the same server as I am right now, because I have no reason to leave, but I really dislike that I can't hop onto another server to join someone who's doing a stream or to meet up with a friend who's also playing. Also I'd like to just use my three character slots for one guy of all factions, instead of having to double up on one if I want to play on different servers.

[Roy Awesome]

It would be nice if they had one regional server (West, East, EU), and have multiple instances of continents. We could have 9 continents (2 instances of each) and logical continent locking without having more continents in the game.

[EVILPIG]

Originally Posted by Roy Awesome

It would be nice if they had one regional server (West, East, EU), and have multiple instances of continents. We could have 9 continents (2 instances of each) and logical continent locking without having more continents in the game.

I suggested this in Beta and was pretty much flamed.

[Sledgecrushr]

Originally Posted by EVILPIG

I suggested this in Beta and was pretty much flamed.

I think some preconceptions are finally being left behind. This kind of addition would create a goal for end game content. This sort of thing might be a game changer.