The Planetside Stories Book Project

CidHighwind · 2012-01-08, 07:15 PM

So maybe this idea is dumb, and if it is, let me know, but I feel like this is something I could work on putting together to both preserve PS1, and also to build a little excitement for PS2.

The idea is simple. People post their ONE BEST PS1 moment in this thread, and then it could be compiled into a format that is easy to access and download. When people ask what happens in PS1, people can direct them to the book of war stories.

Most people I encounter have trouble realizing what PS1 is, and don't truly understand the SCOPE of experiences people can have. This is my attempt to remedy it.

To participate, if you'd like, all I would ask is that you, instead of simply saying, "my favorite experience is driving the loady." Describe one very specific moment, and write it sort of like you are recalling a war story. If you aren't a very good writer, that's fine, I would encourage individuals on here to help edit and add adjectives and description.

Thoughts to improve the project? Feel free to post them here. Want to help? Post here or send me private message!

Efforts on this project will be shifted towards:

www.Planetsidestories.me

New blog. Please send all war-stories to the E-mail on the original blog post!

basti · 2012-01-08, 07:23 PM

A book of war stories?

LETS DO THIS!

MooK · 2012-01-08, 08:11 PM

I could write fiction about the war stories. The unfortunate part is that I can't specifically remember an entire instance from start to finish.

Although, the one thing I always come back to is how much dedication I, and my fellow outfit members had for this game. We scheduled, recorded, and reviewed something we called "Tactics Night" where we actually went through the various tactics and methods for playing effectively as a team and making use of all of our best strengths. I specifically remember these nights, and still have the recordings. Writing it out as a tale might prove a better story, but doubtful to be exhilirating and captivating.

acosmo · 2012-01-08, 08:40 PM

i have plans to write some planetside 2 fiction sometime soon. a story about a group of combat engineers on a mission behind enemy lines. their objective is to lay mines undetected in order to support an assault on the region in the near future.

MpS · 2012-01-08, 11:49 PM

Acosmo I believe you missed the point, I think that he means we write stories about our experiences of specific battles in Planetside. If we each tell the tale of a particularly epic battle and then show people this book it could help bring a lot of attention toward planetside 2, claiming this is the kind of epic stuff that will be seen in it.

I for one love the idea! If you get around to putting this together send me a PM I'd be happy to write up a story for this.

acosmo · 2012-01-09, 12:10 AM

yeah i know. my memories aren't so fresh though. i remember driving (fully operational) prowlers in a column of three and weaving my tank at max speed through a forest with my outfitmate talking to me in my head "look forward, plot a path ahead of yourself."

SuperMorto · 2012-01-09, 07:16 PM

Love it! Im not a reader really, but like the idea!

LongBow · 2012-01-25, 06:56 PM

took a while ... for me to remember where I left this =P

7, Its Lucky For Some

As with all good stories mine starts with the world in peril, an impossible mission and two idiots stupid enough to think they can do it!

A tower is a small position that provides both rearmament and respawns, as well as this its natural height makes it ideal for snipers and Anti-Air units; and, just like on any other day, the TR wanted what we had …

“The call” came to us through general chat, that a massive wave of tanks and AA was flanking through cover towards the tower that was sustaining the final push onto an interlink, now we probably wouldn't have gone in with just the two of us normally – but the warning came from someone we were calling Tom after we saw him crash not once but twice by flying full speed into Auraxis'es legendarily tough trees!

Regardless, we broke off and began hunting for this 'massive armour column of death' … Knowing that AA gunners look up we chose to fly low, best if we were to get spotted for it to be an over eager tank gunner than someone that could really do some damage!

And that … that was when I ate humble pie – seven prowlers and a sky guard weaving their way through the trees around a single AMS. While realising we had bitten off more than we could chew apparently the Sky Guard saw us and sped forwards … knowing there is little chance when running from an AA position we both instantly opened fire.

Normally we would be back in the respawn tubes discussing our epic failure and deciding each other was to blame … but not this time … today it seemed fortune had smiled the low angle, the fact the sky guard was moving directly at us and “pure skill” caused every single rocket to strike home...
… even so, that should not have been enough with no shields the sky guard should have torn through us … but AA gunners look up!

Dead before he fired a shot … with the AA taken care of we began basic evasion manoeuvres like scissors flying between the tanks focusing our fire on the AMS … with the tree cover and the help of a prowler gunner who finished the job on the AMS... (the kill steal wasn't from a Reaver!?!) … the biggest threat to the tower evaporated and we began the slow process of killing or routing one of the under manned prowlers, then rearming and returning for the next.

Now that could be it 7 kills each, a key point held and the impossible achieved … but that's just a killing spree …

“strange though, an for attack this organised you would just expect a gal drop ...” famous last words or what? … Patty (my wingman) practically screamed at me when the inevitable “incoming enemy aircraft” spam hit.

Wonderfully they dropped right as an outfit lead MAX crash was about to begin, the poor guys never stood a chance!(that’s when a lot of heavy infantry gather and charge a single point like a base door all at once forming an unstoppable train of pain).

That did nothing to stop the air escorts though, so that was two of us against four mossie's and three Reavers … this was going to hurt, and it did … it wasn't easy but with good use of cover, confusion and control we were 0:4 by the time Patty finally succumbed to the air : bullet ratio.

Eventually it was me vs two Reavers – better odds than I stared with but little ammunition remained so it would take 15 minuets of ducking and diving to reach a friendly base – guns now completely dry one damaged opponent left and only a single hit away from death.

200m from the base its shield was still up and my afterburner as ready as it was ever going to be – so I broke from cover, 200m is normally only a few seconds but this time it felt like an eternity.

Whoever my opponent was he had been waiting for this, he unleashed a full salvo of rockets towards me, as the first raced passed me I was 150m from the base, I broke left counted to three pulled up, counted to three broke right and one by one each shot fell short.

So 100m from safety, a rearmament, and some serious bragging rights, the Terran reloaded, 2 or 3 shots, that's all he would have, 4 if I did something stupid …

and for the first time ever it seemed I had filled my quota for bad decisions – but my luck had to be running on empty by now!

The first rocket came on time, “no fancy tricks just get in there” I pulled down left … it missed I continued the second was close but the ground was getting closer, I pulled up – and he predicted the third shot came, it missed, over me by an inch...

… I was sweating and exhausted as I passed though the shield, perhaps I would just let him get away … and then the third shot came … again … as I had dodged it and dove through the shield the rocket continued above my Reaver and hit a spot on the shield just ahead of me – the splash caught my tail and over 25 minuets of glory ended in a generic explosion.

Me: “so close but so far...”
the Terran: “yeh unlucky mate!”

Number 7, apparently its lucky for some …. but not for me!

=========

Ash

Any game can make winning fun ... Planetside is different ... Planetside can be at its best, even when your me!

Raymac · 2012-01-25, 07:54 PM

Great Idea. I always love reading and hearing people's Planetside War Stories.

There is a pretty good thread here on the PS1 forum with some great memories you can pull from.

http://www.planetside-universe.com/f...ad.php?t=35794

and the following is my own personal favorite war story.

Originally Posted by Raymac

Was fighting on Ishundar, in my reaver as usual. We were defending Dagon, but I had spawned down in Akkan so I could pull my reaver fairly easily. As I'm flying on over to Dagon, I'm just relaxed, leaning back in my chair. I hear the sound of another reaver next to me so I take a quick glance. Sure enough, there is another reaver flying next to me towards Dagon.

Literally a comedic pause later, I do a double-take and realize the other reaver is TR. Before I have time to 'oh crap' make some quick manuevers to get the drop on him, I hear something else. This time it's not just 1 reaver, but many. I had inadvertantly flown right into the middle of a whole squadron of about 7-8 TR reavers. The funniest thing is, they must have all had their heads buried in the map because nobody noticed me.

So a real slyly slip back to the back of the group and lined up a shot on the trailing reaver. I fire off a quick burst from my guns. He reacted too late so he started to turn just in time to blow up.

No reaction from the rest of the TR so I pull in behind the next reaver in line and it was a carbon copy from the last kill. The TR pilot starts to turn then, boom, splash 2.

Still no reaction from the group. so I line up behind the 3rd one, and they finally noticed something was wrong. As soon as I fire a burst from my guns at him, he makes evasive manuevers and I can see the rest of the group start to do the same, all of them looking to kill me. I knew that if I got into a turret fight, I'd be toast, so I kept my speed up and since I was in a 'target rich environment', I just kept turning and firing my guns at everything in my way.

After finally taking out a 3rd TR with still only minimal damage to myself, I was full of over confidence. I had thought about hitting the deck and afterburning away since I was still outnumbered, but when was I going to get another chance like this again? So I kept flying and shooting in just a crazy intense dogfight that still had me outnumbered by about 4 to 1.

Just then, I heard the unmistakable sound of a gunship arrive at the fight and figured with that much lead flying around, I wouldn't make it much longer. But just like in the movies, the cavalry arrived and 2 NC reavers saw what was going on and joined the fray. So I took a position above and behind the gunship and switched to rockets and rained down hell until it finally blew up.

After all was said and done, I realized I almost single handedly stopped a minor air cav assault before it ever reached Dagon...thanks to ALOT of luck.

CidHighwind · 2012-02-19, 02:13 PM

I posted this on Reddit as well, but I wanted to let everyone know that this project is still very active, and that I am still looking for war-stories from any and all. I currently have 21 war stories and about 16 pages worth of material (minus one page for the Forward as seen below.)

The following is the Forward from the book. I hope you enjoy. Constructive suggestions are always welcome.

The Forward: "The Moments Too Difficult to Capture"

Ask any Planetside veteran, and they’ll most likely tell you that they have the greatest memories of any first person shooter while playing Planetside. Ask them what that memory is, and more often than not, they won’t be able to put it into words. This has, unfortunately always been a curse that plagued both the game and its population for years. To have a game experience so visceral, so real and so full that its player base had difficulty explaining why their friends should join them short of their friends experiencing it themselves. At the same time though, it was not impossible to achieve an effective description. As a result, I began to think back on the times when people were successful. This book has come about as a result of trying to find those descriptions. To try my best to capture the memories of Planetside veterans in a way that those who never experienced the game can understand and relate to. To permanently enshrine those moments in text. To provide a way for others to experience Auraxis through the eyes of those who were there. It may be foolish, and it may, eventually, prove to be an impossibility, but it would be nigh criminal to not try.

With Planetside 2 announced and beta seemingly coming within the next few months, if not sooner, the urgency of this piece is even greater. Very soon, the original Planetside will likely die off, and, hopefully (and vaguely sadly), be replaced competently by Planetside 2. Here, we arrive at the second goal of this piece. To expose exactly what Planetside 2 can be. One of the true, but unfortunate facts about the original game was that it was too good to be true for its own time. Unlike Everquest, which seemingly hit just as the market for MMORPG’s was opening up, Planetside hit the FPS market like cold-cuts before sliced bread. It was ambitious, it was brilliant, it tasted great to those who experienced it, but there was nothing there to support it. The internet couldn’t truly handle the huge battles, and subscription gaming wasn’t yet widely accepted as viable to the online gaming crowd. Even so, Planetside began a unique revolution in online gaming. The MMOFPS is something that had never truly been tried, and hasn’t been replicated since. Tribes had attempted something similar, but not to the degree that Planetside was as much a tactics sim and a war sim at the same time. The Call of Duty and Battlefield series have successfully filed in what was once the Doom, and Quake niche. Planetside doesn’t fit into either of these camps. It spawned empire loyalty, it spawned real comradery amongst the factions. It created a war. One that had real implications to its participants, despite it’s never ending cycle of exchange. No fight was ever actually the same, and unfortunately, only a few thousand individuals ever got to experience it.

When one considers the size of the FPS market, console or otherwise, the Call of Duty and the Battlefield series are what most gamers think of. Millions of copies of these games are sold, and yet, when someone bumps into a fellow Planetside veteran, those conversations are less about the great round they had, and more about the entirety of an nine year saga. These are nearly real life war stories. Events that mean something beyond the three or four hours they were played in. They are stories about individuals who contributed to the larger cause. Imagine for a moment if a Battlefield or Call of Duty type crowd, while personally recognizing the contributions both of these series have made to the FPS genre of course, were exposed in mass to the gaming experience that was Planetside. The idea of teamwork and tactics, combined with the massive scale and persistence of a real war would make ‘modern warfare, or ‘bad company’ sound like a joke. And why not? Why can’t Planetside 2 become this game? There is no reason. And when one recognizes this fact, it becomes very clear that another Everquest moment may be in the making. With technology finally up to par with the ambitions of the game, and the market for online gaming moving towards free models, combined with a ravenous market for FPS games, the idea of an MMOFPS takes on a ‘this is next’ type of appeal.

But enough about where the series could potentially go. This book's purpose is to provide veterans a way to look back on their war. It is also supposed to provide those who don’t know what they missed a way to contextualize their own desires, and to realize that the Planetside series is what is next. I personally hope that this will generate enthusiasm for Planetside 2, but genuinely only wish to accurately capture the moments as presented to me. As a result, the following will simply be a collection of war stories, no matter how long or short, complex, or simple. Stories are mildly edited for spelling and grammar errors as seen. Beyond that, this is the story of Auraxis, as seen during Planetside 1, seen through the eyes of those who were there – the veterans – the moments that are, at times, too difficult to capture.

yonman · 2012-02-19, 02:58 PM

yeeaah, how about I post these when there's an actual medium and not spam ye old'e forum

yonman · 2012-02-19, 02:59 PM

yeeaah, how about I post these when there's an actual medium and not spam ye old'e forum

yonman · 2012-02-19, 03:01 PM

yeeaah, how about I post these when there's an actual medium and not spam ye old'e forum

Bags · 2012-02-19, 03:05 PM

Why not make a blog or tumblr or something and just have people email in their stories and stick em up there? seems easier than making some weird pdf available for DL.

yonman · 2012-02-19, 03:06 PM

yeeaah, how about I post these when there's an actual medium and not spam ye old'e forum