Excuse for no platoons?

[Bad Mojo]

Originally posted by 1024
THrough color coding. They talked about this in...i forgot. i think the voice interview a while back. They said that each squad would keep their #'s, but have a different color.

This sounds like the best solution. But who knows. There are colorblind people who play.

[Happy lil Elf]

How anticipted it is doesn't make it any more or less difficult to add to the game.

Never said it was my dear boy, just that it would be more appreciated than virtually any other addition. Thanks for putting words in my mouth though

How you designed your outfit doesn't make platoons any more or less difficult to add to the game.

Never said that either, only gave an example of how long people have been waiting on this feature. Thanks again for trying to make it seem like I said something I didn't.

And I'm really curious how you know that the PS dev team has had plenty of time to add it? Do you work there? Can you see them twiddling their thumbs and saying, "Let's add platoons later, I'm tired of working."?

Did I ever say that either? No didn't think so. Way to assume things Mojo! You get a cookie What I said was they've had ample time to add this feature, all of beta and almost two months since. It was said it would be in by release and then one mentioned once or twice since release.

Six months is a long time to add a feature Mojo, quit pretending it's not. Yes adding platoons is tricky. So is programming a MMOFPS. Trickiness and/or difficulty are not excuses. How tricky do you think adding cones of fire was? Or flight physics? Or vehicle physics? Or getting V-pads to work? Or designing maps that large that flow well?

Making a game is tough. That's not an excuse for saying something will be in by release and then still having it missing almost 2 months after release. Where is my quote on that? I dunno, where are the Beta boards?

But adding a bomber that needed almost no balancing before it was ready to go live was easy right? No wait that's right you called it "adding a vehicle".

In short, Shhh. Adding platoons is not some monumental task of doom.

[Bad Mojo]

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf

In short, Shhh. Adding platoons is not some monumental task of doom.

I'll be sure to play your MMOG. When is it going to be released?

Regardless. The point is that platoons are a great feature that everyone wants. The tide is turning and people are starting to expect things that SOE or the Devs didn't promise. Which means that somehwere, someone's expectations have been set too high. Which is why I would like people to understand the ramifications of adding platoons, since some people readily trivialize it. Platoons are not easy. Platoons are on the way. That's all there is to the issue. Platoons aren't "late".

[Happy lil Elf]

Ok the "Shh" comment was meant to be good natured but I guess I'lll play along.

I'll be sure to play your MMOG. When is it going to be released?

Ditto, although if your MMO takes this long to impliment something you claimed would be in on release or "shortly thereafter" I probably won't pick it up

I understand what you're trying to say. The problem is you're wrong. We were told, in beta, that platoons would be in by release. Then it changed to shortly after release. Now it's hardly mentioned at all, at least by the Devs. No I can't quote that because the beta forums are, unfortunately, no longer in existance along with all the Dev posts that they contained.

No adding platoons isn't some somiple swtich flip. But it's also not the hardest thing that's faced this Dev team and they've devoured problems in adding content before. What I tihnk people would like to see is the Devs devour the problems in adding this and get it in as soon as possible.

The players do expect things. For the most part though those things are things the Devs said they would be giving to us.

[Bad Mojo]

Originally posted by Happy lil' Elf
Ditto, although if your MMO takes this long to impliment something you claimed would be in on release or "shortly thereafter" I probably won't pick it up

As I've said before, I'll totally agree that platoons are long overdue and the dev team has been shirking it's promises if one person can provide me with some proof that this promise was made. I've looked in the official forums, I was in the open beta, I've never seen or heard from anyone other than players that this was promised.

[Happy lil Elf]

Right. But who would you hear it from? The Devs aren't about to say "Yeah, so remember when we said we'd have Platoons in by launch? Well the thing is we're not gonna, and it's going to be awhile before we're even close to putting them in.".

There are people who remember when they said they'd have them in by launch, they're arguing with you right now Although technically what I believe was said was something ot the effect of "We plan to have platoons implimented by launch and I see no reason why they won't be.". Now I know you're about to say "Yeah, that's hardly a promise" but keep in mind when using your beta tester Dev-English translator, that's about as close to a promise as a Dev will make

I think what annoys most of us is we don't get any updates on the progress they're making. A simple "Some issues keep cropping up with Platoons and we want to squash them before they go in" would go a long way. I'd rather hear about what they're working on rather than the Thresher is getting a boost. I think the problem is Spork really doesn't want to comment on anything until he's basically positive that something is going to change. With how much is planned yet to come it would be really nice to get some real updates on how those aspects are coming instead of simply being told what's in the next patch.

Obviously there are reasons we're kept in the dark to some degree but that doesn't change the fact some more updates would be nice.

[Yogi]

Originally posted by Bad Mojo
Show me where SOE promised you platoons and I will gladly agree they have falen down on their agreement.

This happened way back in beta.

[Deadfist]

Platoons would be really nice. I hope it's coming soon, and not just in the exp. Give the Dev team credit, they've been real busy putting in lib/skyguard/balance changes/upcoming medic love.

[AsylumX]

EverQuest anyone?

Considering there's not a whole lot of difference between the grouping in EQ and in PS (minor changes as far as looks go, and i wouldn't think very major ones in the programming either). They have a raid feature in EQ, 12 groups can get together, and it's like many others said, Platoon Leader will have SLs invite their squad and invite them into the platoon, bxp would be shared and all that crap, just use most of the ideas from there. Sure those questions still stand (but honestly they aren't that hard to answer and i don't think it would be extremely difficult to answer any questions that would have an effect on the gameplay, if there's a community outrage for something, change it).

Now...to the main argument, programming the platoons in. SoE is messy as hell when it comes to programming, and most of the time when they release expansions it does include things that were supposed to be implemented months, or even years ago. I've read through EQ forums excessively, and although i'm not going to dig through old posts (i don't want to start playing that game again, lol) and i've seen many experienced players, associated with devs, say that instead of modifying code that's been there already, they code over it...add another function or two at the bottom and change what something does. This causes major glitches in gameplay and they usually aren't fixed for a week or two. Then those fixes cause more problems and so on. Don't be surprised if you never see platoons, or don't see them for a year or two, and when they're implimented expect to see some major problems for the first month or two.

I haven't played PS yet, so if any of my views are skewed, correct me on them and i'll see if i can maintain some of my arguments. Just going on some of my previous experience with Old Verant/SoE, and what i've read on these forums as far as the exp and grouping/squad system works.

Just my 2 cents

AsylumX

edit: SoE has a really bad rep for horrible customer service, and horrible game designs and balance after release. Lots of "lies" and misrepresentation goes on, so don't be surprised. As much as i hate SoE i'll still get PS due to what people say about it. As bad as the company is, MMO games are way too addictive.

[1024]

Ok i idndt read any of these last essays, becasue i see as this:

They said they were going to have platoons even before they released BETA. Still no platoons?


...





thread over.

[Happy lil Elf]

Obligatory post thread over post

[Tryndamere]

How anticipted it is doesn't make it any more or less difficult to add to the game.

How you designed your outfit doesn't make platoons any more or less difficult to add to the game.

So your argument is that Sony has not added platoons to the game because it is too difficult for them to program?



:lol

[Hamma]

Right up until mid beta it was on the "to do list" for release features, that suggests they had already started work on it before the game was even released.

So who knows why we havent seen em yet

[MaestroBabeh]

Mojo wrote:
That's all there is to the issue. Platoons aren't "late".

Then Mojo wrote:
As I've said before, I'll totally agree that platoons are long overdue and the dev team has been shirking it's promises

Hmm, make your mind up!!!!! Hypocrite!