So.. I'm going to SOE Next week. Top Issues?

[Hamma]

So Jennyboo and I will spend a couple days at SOE next week and then of course SOE Live 2012. What are some of the major issues you guys would like to know more about?

[Crator]

Well, if they haven't fixed it by the time you get there, the biggest issue I can think of is: Population balancing between continents. What are the plans to fix it?

[Cryofire]

The biggest issue for me personally is that in a proper fight, my fps is 8, oh well, I suppose that's better than last week, last week I had below 1 fps in a proper fight. And in warpgates my fps can reach to 50.

[sylphaen]

I second the server population/continent population balance concerns.

I am also curious about their medium-term/long-term plan for the evolution of continents, their facilities and overall map interaction/gameplay. Will we have a framework to structure combat/strategy (e.g. PS1's lattice)?
(hex contiguity+resources currently doesn't cut it)

[Zulthus]

I have some time to throw together a list...

Bases

They need to be much more complex. They don't feel like a base, and the placing of spawn rooms is terrible. Everything is too open and prone to vehicle camping, especially the spawn room. Once the enemy pushes you out of the main base you're pretty much done. Spawn rooms need to be underground, below the main base. There needs to be some sort of infantry combat indoors with places that are easily defensible. As it is now, enemies can come from anywhere around you and it's just a giant clusterfuck.

Different capture mechanics. Hack/hold and LLU were nice, since there was only one control console you needed to defend. Having 3+ objectives to hold is no fun because you're constantly running back and forth to cap them. I haven't seen any sort of defense of these points. It's fine that some bases have it, but not all of them should. It is getting annoying and boring.

Bring back the Dropship Centers and Interlink Facilities. Give each facility its same benefit from PS1.

We need the Lattice system. Instead of massive battles, there are lots of small ones spread thin all along your empire's frontline. The lattice will give each empire a direction in which to capture territory.

The World

ADD SANCTUARIES. We desperately need them. Footholds are just home to AFKers who soak up resources/auraxium and take up slots on the continent, preventing other people from playing there. We also need the extra buildings and a cease fire area. The one building in the warpgate isn't cutting it. People TK and throw grenades just to get to terminals because the density of people is so high. Add in the HART system again, but lower the timer significantly.

Once Amerish is added, give each empire a home continent and allow continents to be 'captured'. Hopefully sanctuaries will be in by that time, so 2 out of the three warpgates on the continents can be broadcast warpgates.




I'll continue this later, I have other things to do.

[Hamma]

Originally Posted by Zulthus

ADD SANCTUARIES.

They hate sanctuaries for some reason so this would fall on deaf ears.

[GuyFawkes]

Originally Posted by Hamma

They hate sanctuaries for some reason so this would fall on deaf ears.

I fear you are right, but in practice the reason for having footholds ie getting back into the fight quickly, will always be defunct as long as people can earn anything from doing nothing.

I can log into any server, on any faction and I guarantee there will be more people in there staring at walls than the first hotspot I go to.

If they dont bring in sanctuaries, they really must put an end to passive gains while inside the warpgates at least.

[Baneblade]

Originally Posted by Hamma

They hate sanctuaries for some reason so this would fall on deaf ears.

They hate e/e animations too. Silly devs, fluff is crucial.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by Hamma

They hate sanctuaries for some reason so this would fall on deaf ears.

I've seen a few good arguments for them. Saying "we need sanctuaries!" isn't going to get very far, but explaining why they are needed might.

So far the arguments in this thread for sanctuaries are not very convincing. The AFKing is a resource/auraxium issue, not a foothold issue. Even if there was a sanctuary people would still AFK in the warpgates or somewhere remote on the continent. The problem is Auraxium gain, not the foothold system. I believe Cutter put it well many moons ago... Foothold = Sanctuary + Warpgate - Loading Screen.

If you want a sanctuary back there should be a reason why the sanctuary should be its own continent. The only real problem that I believe a Sanctuary addresses uniquely is population distribution and allowing people into the game when the continents are locked so they can at least socialize or get into a continent queue like in PS1. Effectively it becomes a lobby in the game, though it could serve multiple purposes. There are other possibilities like having zero resource costs in the sanctuary so you can always pull vehicles or having a super fast resource recharge rate while there so you can use it for staging / recovery purposes, or just to learn how to drive vehicles without having to wait for the resources (a way to get the same result as VR training).

I see sanctuaries as more of a scaling issue and handling population changes throught the day or between continents. It could also give people a place to come back and have fun.

The downside to sanctuaries (and the reason why I believe they do not like them) is that it's another layer removed from the action. I've already seen several videos and testimonials from friends that they get into the game in this warpgate and have no idea where to go or what to do. Sanctuary can't be something people start out in or get easily transported to - we really need new players to start out in the action as soon as possible. The game is boring until they see the massive combat. Sanctuaries are another way for a player to end up in a place without action and not being able to figure out how to get out of that situation because they need to understand how warpgates work. Warpgates are bad enough for a new player to get stuck, if they happen to end up in a sanctuary chances are that is a player that will get lost, bored, and quickly grow tired of the game.

So they need to serve a necessary purpose and they need to not be boredom traps for new players who stumble upon them.

[EVILoHOMER]

Originally Posted by Hamma

They hate sanctuaries for some reason so this would fall on deaf ears.

I think the Warp Gates are acting like Sancs anyways. I found Sancs to be boring areas that I only ever went to if I got sent there because the cont was taken over when I logged in or because I went through one to get to another cont quickly.

In Planetside 2 you have a home base at the Warp Gate and each gate will lead to every single Island I'm guessing. It's a far better system but it just needs to let you take your vehicles through the warp gate instead of having to run to the terminals.

I just cannot see any people benefiting from Sancs other than people who seemed to like them in the original.

[GuyFawkes]

Bringing sanctuaries back. Footholds are a failed experiment in my eyes. Cause more problems than they were intended to solve. At least if someone goes afk in sanctuary it dosen't affect continent population. If you are in sanctuary or a warpgate you earn no resources or points. No resources are needed in sanctuary to access vehicles or equipment, but a timer is still present at all times wherever you are.

Removal of Auraxium as a resource, instead make it an accumulative player based commodity directly related to points earned in game. Make killing, support, capping points, and strategy all have equal weighting for points.

Removal of kill:death as a default statistic, and replace it with points. keep the kills but remove the death part, its a negative stat that discourages effort. You can still have it in there, but make it an option rather than default exhibit.

Make BR count, its quite useless right now. I think giving people a points and cert bonus for levelling , as well as what they have now is the way to go. Unlock vehicles at set battle ranks, atv by default , lightning at br2, vanguard at br8, and so on. You unlock something and have a nice bonus of certs to spend on your new toys. As it is you get access to everything at br1 , and the rest of 'progress' is meh from then on. No limit to BR.

I'd like to bring back armor color changes as you level, berets and backpacks. I know theres the cash shop, but having small nonsensical rewards have that kudos pat on the back type of encouragement to keep playing.

Resources. Where to start with this one? They should be a finite entity shared among the empire according to that population, not everyone gets x amount every tick for being online. Thats also why I want auraxium removed as a resource. Reward people for playing, jumping ship with 4th empire should have a negative effect not be encouraged by the game. You join the 40% empire but you all have to share the same bag of M&M's. Less enemy to fight = less points to earn=less auraxium.

Resources shouldnt be given just for being on a continent. These resources need to be logistically moved from base to base with an additional pipeline lattice, which can be defended, broken and countered. It also allows movement of resources between continents via warpgate connection. This is where they can add the old ps1 logistics and meta game in, without changing the hex or anything. It would be a simple tactical map overlay representing the lattice. It also gives a way for a empire trying to enter another continent a means of gaining resources without using the global 'per tick' nonsense. People taking down a resource link earn resources for themselves, and likewise defenders get a bonus for resecuring.

If you take a base or defend it, give them a resource, cert and xp bonus for doing so, according to the size and length of the fight and the amount of points you earn while there.

Allow people to use certs so they can reduce the resource cost for their chosen specialisation. Also allow them to turn excess of whatever they rarely use into the resource they want, same again, certed. For example,you rarely use catalysts so turn them into polymers, not 1:1, maybe 1 polymer from 3 catalysts. Limit this to per character, not per class.

Classes. I'd like to see them tweak this. You can choose to play all the classes as is now, and put certs into general ones that affect all of them, but once you cert into a particular class, that locks your certs to that class until you get to some magical point where you can then unlock a 2nd class, and so on. Link classes to relevant vehicle types. This is all to reduce the amount of magrider type spam that exists in the game. Plus you need a Battle Rank to gain access to them. For instance, you would need to be BR8, and have certs in engineering or heavy assault to use a magrider. You would need to be BR6 , engineer or light assault to use esf. Or BR2 ,medic or infiltrator to use an ams.
You can still play all the other classes as is now, but need to commit to certain ones to unlock vehicle relevant to your class via certs.
Bring in a 24 hour reset timer also.

Edit: a nod to Eliminatorr :bring back the wishlist :P

[julfo]

Originally Posted by GuyFawkes

Bringing sanctuaries back...

Removal of Auraxium as a resource, instead make it an accumulative player based commodity directly related to points earned in game. Make killing, support, capping points, and strategy all have equal weighting for points.

Removal of kill:death as a default statistic, and replace it with points. keep the kills but remove the death part, its a negative stat that discourages effort. You can still have it in there, but make it an option rather than default exhibit.

These 3 things are, in my opinion, crucial. They really need to get this right, and I have complete faith in them to do so. And pretty much the rest of what GuyFawkes said as well, there's no point me rehashing it and adding my superlatives; he said it how it is.

[bullet]

Originally Posted by GuyFawkes

Bringing sanctuaries back. Footholds are a failed experiment in my eyes. Cause more problems than they were intended to solve. At least if someone goes afk in sanctuary it dosen't affect continent population. If you are in sanctuary or a warpgate you earn no resources or points. No resources are needed in sanctuary to access vehicles or equipment, but a timer is still present at all times wherever you are.

Removal of Auraxium as a resource, instead make it an accumulative player based commodity directly related to points earned in game. Make killing, support, capping points, and strategy all have equal weighting for points.

Resources. Where to start with this one? They should be a finite entity shared among the empire according to that population, not everyone gets x amount every tick for being online. Thats also why I want auraxium removed as a resource. Reward people for playing, jumping ship with 4th empire should have a negative effect not be encouraged by the game. You join the 40% empire but you all have to share the same bag of M&M's. Less enemy to fight = less points to earn=less auraxium.

Resources shouldnt be given just for being on a continent. These resources need to be logistically moved from base to base with an additional pipeline lattice, which can be defended, broken and countered. It also allows movement of resources between continents via warpgate connection. This is where they can add the old ps1 logistics and meta game in, without changing the hex or anything. It would be a simple tactical map overlay representing the lattice. It also gives a way for a empire trying to enter another continent a means of gaining resources without using the global 'per tick' nonsense. People taking down a resource link earn resources for themselves, and likewise defenders get a bonus for resecuring.

If you take a base or defend it, give them a resource, cert and xp bonus for doing so, according to the size and length of the fight and the amount of points you earn while there.

These issues but mainly the concepts of Footholds/Sancs/Cont Locking/Continental conquest. How do they plan on adding Continental conquest in if they don't have sanctuaries? I feel sancs were the key element to continental conquest. You had to kick the opposing factions from the continent and send them back to their sancs.

Auraxium is another huge concern of mine. Auraxium basically = Money. People actions are controlled far too much by the passive auraxium gain. Malorn made a great post on the official forums about different ways of doing auraxium gains but I think the general idea is to tie the gains to player actions. I'd like to know how they plan to fix the masses who jump ship for free auraxium, or the auraxium whores who camp warpgates for hours on end.

[ringring]

Sanctuaries - but as others have said they go together with a bunch of other issues, ie more continents with a conquest and a global strategic met-game.

@malorn .... (congratulations btw) ... I see the point about getting people (especially new people) into the action quicker but I'd argue that there are other issues to consider and are more important.

Is loading up in sanc and pressing esc+I quicker that loading up in a foothold and pressing esc+I? No I don't know that it is.

Or, as happens now, you load up and you speak to your outfit and your first question is -- this always happens now -- "which continent are we on?"

And for new people .... the first thing you do when you initially log in is to orientate yourself ...... many games have a 'bootcamp' type thing which introduces you to the basic controls and concepts; and wouldn't be good to have a VR? This type of stuff is best done in a safe zone.

There again there are many things in the game that are non-friendly - only one example if which is trying to navigate your way around facilities, how do I know which building are which?



Anyways.
The main issue right now is Auraxium gain (I'm sure Marlorn has ideas).
Ask about the status of the fourth continent. Is it Searhus and has conceptual work started.
Ask about the heavy infantry weapons, ie Lasher, Jackhammer and MCG ..... also ask what will be the effect on TTK? These weapons are supposed to have a quicker TTK than the other weapons, how how will they fit in game and are we going to see an even quicker ttk's overall?

[psijaka]

Originally Posted by Crator

Well, if they haven't fixed it by the time you get there, the biggest issue I can think of is: Population balancing between continents. What are the plans to fix it?

^ this. NC were at 91% and Esamir was entirely blue up to the warp gates at 0800GMT this morning. A game killer - top priority.

I like the hex system, by the way. Has a lot of potential.