Ugg New gameplay changes in patch-

[FearTheAtlas]

Originally posted by {BOHICA}Navaron
get ready to see a spike in cloakers-

get ready for a spike in darklights too...

[PR24]

Originally posted by OneManArmy
well maybe its time for some people to realize this games not about fucking XP!!!! this ain't your mommas level fest of a dungeon sleeper....

god damn. I'm almost to 16 again and theres only 20 levels. you sure as hell won't play long if thats all you care about

Leveling is for RPG people. Go play EQ is you want a long drawn out leveling system.

[Hamma]

I thought this was a great post in the beta forums by Lith, not everyone can see it. So I will go ahead and quote it here

Might as well rename this LevelGrind, insteed of PlanetSide.
The XP system was fine the way it was before. Yes people could 'whore' exp, and get top level much faster then the orignal 'vision' of planetside, but so what?

it was FUN.

I find it horribly annoying to be sitting there, waiting for 3 certs so I can finally fight MAX armor with my AV weapon, capping base, after base, with no one fighting, no defence, no offence, just capping.

The Lattice system helped some of the issues. We could fight one another, some defence exsisted, but its still non-exsistant.

There is no reason to defend.

Now there's no point in even being in a squad.

My squad goes to cap a base, I stay behind to get the AMS, by the time I get to the SOI, the cap has been going 5 or so mins. I lose out on a huge chuck of the exp. Yet without that AMS, we would have lost the hack.

Im a medic, and im running around healing people best I can. I tend to stay behind after a cap and heal people. By the time I get to the next base, the cap has been running a while, and I lose out on some of the EXP. Yet without my skills, we would have lost the cap on that last zerg rush, if I hadn't raised that MAX from the dead.

Im a sniper, and I follow where enemies are coming from. If I snipe from the walls, im killed constantly, so I am forced to move, the best spots tend to lye outside the SOI because the towers are so close to the edge. I hold off steathers that could stop that hack in secret, I knock health off enemies like water, I hold that bridge against 5 or 6 soldiers north of the SOI, stopping their reinforcements to take back the tower. I lose most of the exp because im not in the SOI.

Im a Reaver Pilot. I chase down enemy tanks, and without me the inital assult would have failed. I hunt down the AMS that lies south of the Tower outside of the SOI. When I die I must respawn far away and fly back. I lose huge amounts of EXP, yet without me the AMS would not have gone down as quickly, and they might have regained the tower.

Im the Ant Driver, I run power to the base we're capping thats at 10% power. Without a galaxy, which I cant find anymore because the drive causes them to lose exp, it takes me 10-15 mins to run the ant. I try to keep it full on the inital rush but I tend to be a large defenseless target, and rarely do I survive with a full tank before the base is hacked. I lose most if not all the exp, yet without me the hack would never happen.

Im the galaxy pilot. I get my crew there, and I deliver ANTs, without which we would never take the base to begin with. I lose most of the EXP because of the nessisary ANT runs, yet without me that tower would have been twice as hard to take, and the ANT would have not made it in time.

If this goes into release, im not playing the game. I quit Level Grinds when I quit EQ. I dont play for the expierence, but when that is effectivly the only way to level, to get the certs nessisary to do my job *by level 12-15, you have all the certs you need* I feel jyped if I dare do something that HELPS MY TEAM.

Fix this, you have 6 days.

[PR24]

Yes, that was a nice post Hamma

[Airlift]

I can get to the beta forums, but I choose not to since it is the same to me as the official forums before they let all those people into the beta. However, I agree 100% with what Lith is saying.

The issue they needed to address was not the overall rate of advancement, but rather the fact that the best experience came from finding the largest zerg you could and just following it around for points. However, in trying to fix the overall rate, they are fucking the donkey.

[BeerJedi]

Hamma,

That was a very good post, i missed that one in the beta forums.

Last night, I have a feelin' i'm the lucky one that got 2000 BEPs during a base cap last night, but i was also lucky enough to have never died. I ran out of ammo several times, was weilding looted weapons, and had medics and engineers repair me quite a number of times.

Now, I am surprised by the base capture change: the last version, people shared EXP within the squad leading to huge amounts of teamwork. People were very willing to be non-combatants cause they were being rewarded for their efforts.

Frontline Combat was existing. sat night, TR literally had to fight from ridge to ridge, tree to tree, across a plain to cap a base on amerish that the Vanu held and NC wanted also.

I can't think of a better fire fight and end game right there. Defenders got great EXP if they successfully stopped a hack.

At BR5 - a player is combat effective - At Br12-15 a player usually achieves the core of what he wants, BR20 give the player room to tweek and goof off on their certs.

Slowing down the EXP is one thing, and I can agree to that process, it "gives goals."

But you can't remove the reward of capturing bases. That is the key to this game, and now the current EXP doesn't lean toward that process anymore.

[Kikinchikin]

indeed take this system off. It's goofy. As that guy said earlier if an ANT driver goes out to get power, he can get back right b4 the hack ends, and still win the points, cuz he DID play a KEY role in saving the hack. reaver pilots can hover in air space right b4 the hack. sniplers can help until hack is about to end then move into the SOI. pls change itback!. it was so great b4 why mess with a great thing.

[Jarlo]

Outstanding post by Lith there. I would like to add the tank driver to that list whose job it is to block enemy spawn from returning to the base, this often means positioning between the nearest tower and the base and looking for AMS-- that menas 0 exp from cap. Good luck finding a gunner for that job.

[mikkyT]

Well my response on the beta thread was almost the same:

What about the poor guy who went to get a new galaxy, flying back to the base and didnt get their in time...
It should be shared between the squad!

What about the guy who was defending the AMS or capping a tower outside the SOI which had just been re-captured by the enemy.

It should be shared between the squad!

What about the recon scout who the leader instructed to scout the next waypoint/base...

It should be shared between the squad!

What about the NTU level that is currently sitting at 10 or 20% and desperately needs an ANT run. To save time the squad leader instructs one of his drivers to get an ANT and fill it up and to get back to the base ready for when the cap is complete.

IT SHOULD BE SHARED BETWEEN THE SQUAD!

You have just created a perfect reason for someone to turn around and say a big phat "NO" to your squad leader. NO Im not going to get a new galaxy until AFTER the cap. NO Im not going to scout the next base till AFTER the cap. NO Im not getting an ANT until AFTER the cap.

Im all for fixing the exploit whereby if an INDIVIDUAL can sit in an SOI and get exp just for being there.

But making it so that squads don't share the exp is nerfing the support role of many classes.

If your squad is fighting in the SOI, the exp should not be individual. If you are an individual then it should be individual.

[Airlift]

The problem with simply making it share is that you get the best experience yield by dividing your squad up and having each member participate in a different cap. We're peeling the exp system away layer by layer and each change is just revealing new (imo Worse) problems and exploits. This was much less of an issue when experience was easy to get and was less the focus. With each patch increasing the rarity of good point hauls, you are adding MORE player focus on experience, which is contradictory to the stated goal of making the game less focused on experience.

With the new system, the people who will get good experience are:

1. The Forward Observer who remains hidden outside the base but inside the SOI. He gets there before the hack and waits, simply reporting conditions back to the squad. He stays in the SOI but avoiding danger for the entire duration of the 25 minute window, and collects a monte haul.

2. The Sniper who skirts the base at the edge of the SOI and takes down easy targets, displacing between kills to keep from being sent out of the SOI. He does very little to assist in the actual cap, but collects his monte haul.

3. The lone stealth, who simply avoids all contact in order to a) keep as many enemies alive for as long as possible and b) keep himself in the SOI for as many slices as possible. At the end, he collects his monte haul.

4. The AMS driver, who picks a spot in one of the 4 principle directions (to take advantage of the square minimap) at the extremity of the SOI. Finally, we're talking about someone who is at least directly helping the cap, but he's probably not going to set foot in the base since there is no advantage to doing so.

We've already heard who doesn't get experience, which is a bunch of people who are supporting the cap in very important ways (but unfortunately for them, all outside the SOI). Now we're getting an idea on who will be getting the experience. When the best gains are from leeching, most people will choose to leech.

[Mold]

I dont think SOI's and base hacking should have anything to do with gaining experience. Just improve the experience per kill and give other incentives to capturing a base. Other then the dropship center, noone ever cares about capturing a base like the bio lab so they can get advanced medical terminals. They do it because its next in the lattice and they get exp.
Either that or share the exp for capping a base throughout the continent with every active player.

[MilitantB0B]

Nooooo! I liked the old system that counted unique kills!! This will promote wusyness and general sissyness. I hope this doesn't go into release, it may make me change my mind about buying this game, will have to see how all this turns out though. Cya GameSide.

[Kikinchikin]

how can you tell if ur in the SOI???

[headofdog]

What about a factional pool of exp? The TR, VC, and NC would each have a common pool of XP. As each faction losses or gains bases, choke points, etc, the pool would be adjusted. Players would hold a % of this common pool based upon their performance. Performance would be based upon kill/death ratio, hacks, heals, repairs, and so on. A player could call upon the number of XP up to their % to buy certs at any given time. Just my 2 certs worth.

[Kikinchikin]

The problem with all these radical changes is that in case ur forgetting, we're 6 days away from release date. They can't implement huge changes in that time.

again i ask how can you tell if ur in the soi?