News: John Smedley on PlanetSide 2

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by basti

That being said: keep the cash shop light. Dont pull a valve and spam hats and other crap.

Well that's the problem, if you rely on a cash shop for revenue then you have to keep putting new stuff in the store to encourage people to spend money there. More stuff means more employee hours spent on things that aren't really going to improve the gameplay, and more hardware resources devoted to all the textures, models and whatnot that these items need.

[SurgeonX]

I don't see the Sanctuaries themselves as being the problem, in fact they were one of the coolest things I remember seeing when logging in for the first time. Granted, this was at the height the population spikes, but witnessing hundreds of vehicles and infantry organising for a push really enforced the epic nature of PS that makes it so unique.

IMO, the problem was simply the awkwardness and the length of time it took to get everybody organised at the Sanc.
Sitting in a Galazy for 10 minutes because some players were selfishly chasing those last kills wasn't exactly fun.
If there was simply a platoon based instant recall, coupled with instant spawning and manning of vehicles, then you'd be ready to go in a minute.

Hopefully they've considered not just the location for these new staging areas, but the problems around organising everyone too.

[MockZero2]

Saying that there is no sanctuaries is him giving us the best example of how closer the game play is going to be to BF2 or CoD. I'm all for it! It should make the getting organized much quicker knowing there is potential for getting an OS dropped on you if you don't. Or something like an OS I guess. Not to mention Smed was also talking about outfit bases eventually. That is going to be your staging area for your outfit. I am very excited about the sandbox ideas they could be coming up with too. Having your own outfit base and planning a big raid on another huge outfit base like DT for example sounds like a blast.

I'm not a big fan of the cash shop though. I never liked that. I would be much happier with a P2P. Still I would have to look at in a way that I would be paying so much per month anyway so why not throw a little $$ at the cash shop to get some cool stuff. I guess I will have to wait and see what is to come with that before I pass judgement. I want the game to be very profitable just because I want it to stay around with all kinds of new content for as long as it can. Maybe I am just a needy like that though.

[GalacticaActual]

I'm also of the opinion that Sancturaries aren't the problem. The HART is the problem.

If the HART could be traded for something like an instant teleportation system then the only waiting in the Sanc would be for when a raid is forming and while that sometimes can drag on it's nowhere near as tedious as waiting for the HART can be.

One thing that I don't think has been pointed out so far is the disadvantage of the "Foothold" idea. If they work as they have potentially been described, a shielded base area that enemy empires can't enter, then they could make things incredibly difficult for any empires planning a raid.

Imagine a scenario where the TR have just finshed capping Ishundar. The VS decide to mass a counter attack from their Ishundar Foothold targeting the Baal area first. But the TR have set sentries up at the other Empires Footholds and can see what type of forces the VS are massing. If the VS are planning an Air heavy attack, the TR sentry can report back to load up on AA (turret upgrades, skyguards etc etc) and the VS soon find themselves flying into a slaughter.

This wouldn't happen if the VS could mass their forces on a Sanctuary before raining down death from above on the villainous TR (think I maybe have just given away my empire alliegence ).

[Hamma]

Instead of a sanctuary some kind of a staging area, even if it was totally separate from the game world so you could group up your outfit to head out and attack then drop as a massive group (with restrictions of course) and begin your attack.

I tend to agree, I don't think the Sanctuary slowed things down I think it was more the HART that made things slower. Keep in some kind of staging area but eliminate the HART.

[Goku]

I never took advantage of the HART unless I wanted to Nuke an enemy base as it was the best way to get in undetected.

But yes I want somekind of main staging area even if it does not have an HART. Best solution I think is to have a orbital station empires can go to. Just have a warp gate within the station so players can get to their target. I see mass drops with vehicles being OP (dropping anywhere on a cont like the HART) if they were going that route. Easy enough to make a spawn in area with equipment terms and a massive bay. We're not talking about making a whole other cont after all.

[MockZero2]

What about a little beacon the squad leader could throw down allowing people to drop pod in on or or spawn to from the outfit base. This would be only available for you squad or platoon though. It would keep you platoon together giving everyone a nice spawn point, you would still have to keep it far enough back though so people could easily spawn without getting killed or without having the beacon killed. You would also be able to gear up before you spawn in on the beacon from terminals at the base. You would however not be able to re arm or change load outs in the field with it making something like an AMS still very worthwhile to have. This would be a nice fast way to get into the fight keeping your squad close together and something to build on in the skill tree for SL's. Maybe make it to where it cant go in an SOI without training for that, ect ect. If there are SOI's even I don't know. I believe a similar idea is in BF 2142 if i remember right.