What are your thoughts on PlanetSide 2 now that you have played?

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Sephirex

I'm am also having an unexpectedly good time with GW2. Not a title I was expecting much out of.

It's not my favorite, but it's like the one game my gf and I like in common (she hates modern shooters, so PS2 ain't gonna work) so I've been playing GW2 only the last week or so. A few of my PS2 buddies got it too, but they don't love Gw2 as much as she does heh.

Hopefully when they patch some new base mechanics into PS2 it will be worth playing again, but atm me and 7or 8 out of 10 of my friends are sitting PS2 out because it's just a boring zerg fest at the moment with short fights.

And performance is marginally better than it was in the tech test, I am still waiting for these optimizations. 20 fps on a 670???

[Tatwi]

I play it a lot, so I must like it.

Well, I dunno. There are things I like and things that are obviously integral to and will never change it that I don't like, but that's the case with any game. Things aren't balanced yet and a fair amount of content isn't in the game or finished yet, so on the whole an honest man can't say what it's going to be like at release. But that said, I really the vehicles, weapons, sounds, and visual style of the TR and I have a lot of when playing. The only thing I don't like about TR is the sounds that the mossy makes, very underwhelming afterburner sound - needs more low end punch!

I prefer the heavy assult class, because I'd rather use a rocket launcher and blow up vehicles than any of those other things that other classes have. Man I love that lock on rocket launcher, even though it misses more often than one would think.

At the moment my single biggest complaint is how awful it is to have the Galaxy as the only mobile spawn point. Even though it can take a lot damage, the reality is that once it's found the enemy will pile on it until it's destroyed. As a result, most times I die I can't spawn anywhere near the battle again unless the battle happens be right at a building we own. Pretty strange when they said that they wanted to lower down time rather than increase it. The game needs a cloaking AMS, because the AMS is all about maintaining the secret of where the spawn point is and that's some really great "player generated content".

I did forget to mention the most important thing: The game plays VERY POORLY on my 2.33GHz Core2 Quad / 1GB GDDR5 GTS450 / 6GB DDR2 667MHz RAM computer. I have to play at the lowest settings, even though the game barely uses my GPU, simply because the game is extremely CPU bound, just like Everquest II. Smed said that framerate is king and that they'll take frames per second over beauty, but that just is not happening. You NEED a Core i5/i7 processor to play the game at steady frame rates in busy locations. I can't go to busy locations, because my FPS drop to 0-15 with massive hitching and stuttering. As a result, I really can't group up with people, because unsurprisingly, people want to go to the big battles. I hope they fix this, because I have no intentions on upgrading my PC until 2015.

[mcargo]

Although the game runs LESS than spectacularly on my rig and still has MUCH work to be done i have already fallen in love with this game! YES its kinda like BF or CoD, and YEs I am a ps1 vet, but making the game the way they have was very wise imho. GoOd business descision as rathher than appealling to 10-20 thousand ps1 players, they can appeal to 10-20 MILLION other players too! Fights are gettign longer and longer as they continue to tweak the capture/ territory sytems respectively, and its really starting to feel like and actual war rather than quick small skirmishes you find in about EVERY OTHER GAME! I say keep up the good work devs. your headded in the right direction imo!

[Comet]

For being in beta the game is amazingly fun and I'll be playing it for a long time to come. I highly, highly recommend this game. Unbelievable.

Join an outfit and make friends, it's much more enjoyable that way.

[RoninOni]

Originally Posted by Higby

Tell the world this. I think were doing something pretty unprescedented (and frankly a little of scary to a lot of people) with how open we've been and how closely we've worked with and integrated our community into this games development. Tell everyone it's what you want out of developers in the future and we (all of us gamers) may get it.

LOVED listening to your guys Dev Meeting Stream.... Do more of those!

As gamers, our best way to tell the suits what we want is with our wallets. For this reason I've begun a new policy of restricting my support to the developers that deserve it.

I've been telling everyone I know that Planetside will redefine the FPS genre

Also... it's prolly a good thing you shut off the servers at 10 or I'd be late to work every single day from passing out around 3-4 every... morning... lmao!

Game is amazing... can barely play much else (and none of them shooters)

EDIT: @Tatwi... uhm, I'm running on an i3 and pull 35-40 in combat on mostly medium settings (dropped shadows, effects and lighting to low. Textures, models & Characters to high) I do have a Radeon 6850 & 8GB ram though (of course, running Radeon means my CPU has to do all the PhysX too....)

[Crysander]

Heres my thoughts:

- Gameplay, while fast, is too fast (I believe the term is TTK?) - I too spend more time rezzing than I do healing and this should not be the case, medics should be preventative and not just the guy who slaps people on the rump, dusts em off and then throws them back into the bullet storm.

- Tanks have too little staying power. I can't TANK anything reliably, one rocket and I'm in the danger zone, two and Im borderline dead. This should only be the case on rear armour or with AT upgrades, not default HA weapons. Saying that - the TR AT MAXs are terrible, buffs seriously needed and I don't even play TR, had fun earlier today just facerolling on them in my VS Magrider, the regular infantry as waaaaay scarier.

- Not saying anything on base capture mechanics per se, as the current build is a placeholder. But the progression (while lots better after the last few days patching) is still scattershot - I too have never seen the walls used for defence, why bother when all the galaxies are landing on them/inside the base? I have however quite often seen ATTACKERS use the wall to rain down fire during an assault.

- While galaxy spawns are fun, the AMS should be brought back in the form of the Sunderer either as default or low tier CERT, with the Galaxy needing deep CERTing to have a spawn on it. Don't get me wrong, the idea is cool, its cool to swoop in and have a 'base' to spawn from during attack, but reduces the galaxies famous role as troop transport and severly reduces the need for armour columns/ground strategy in general. All pushing is done in the air with armour appearing less, and from my point of view, more often used for defence.

- More weapon variation to come, so no comment.

- Further Internal Game Teamwork aspects to come, so no comment.

- Dont like Instant Action as is, was the HART shuttle just not quick enough or something? Just have a 'HART Drop' Signup button instead, which targets the biggest hotspot for your faction and occurs every X minutes, people can wait a few minutes to spawn directly into the action - they can check their equipment and get squadded up. If they dont like it, then they can just spawn at the gate and get in a galaxy. Or as someone mentioned a 'Commander Reinforcements' button for perhaps outfit leaders/platoon leaders/squad leaders. You sign up and the next time one of these guys runs into trouble, they can click a button and -tada- 20 drop-pods for reinforcement.

- I too would prefer MBT to have the driver drive and gunners as second seats. But I can appreciate why this decision was made, even if I dont enjoy it as much.

- Overall game flow is better now with the new hex system In place, will have to see how the new hack and base mechanics work with this once implemented.

- Not enough Indoor elements, but with trench warfare (:O) rumoured for the next continent I shall keep my peace till we see the second continents offerings, as well as any further base changes to come -the last changes have certainly made the bases more interesting to fight for/against.

- I'm not the biggest fan of the class system, but again I can see why this was implemented so I'm not going retread swampy ground.

Despite all of these points, most times I still find myself enjoying the game. This is Beta Testing after all, and I can still see the potential on the horizon. I think as long as SOE listen seriously the what the PS1 vets (I'm not a vet - just a casual PS1 player) say, that despite what seems like most of the new players arguing the exact opposite, the game will be better for it. Of course not all their ideas are solid gold but still, I mean theyve been playing PS1 for what? EIGHT YEARS or something? That game has lasted this long because of those mechanics and their depths that kept the enjoyment and challenge strong. While I'm all for modernising some aspects (the class system, the resources, the vehicles, etc) having more depth from the original PS1 mechanics will leave your game to stand the test of time. Heed their warnings and listen to their advice SOE Devs, I very badly want this game to be the success I've imagined for the last few years!

From the perspective of a VS medic/engi/armour support role whose been playing for two weeks, Crysander out.

PS: My apologies for the massive text wall, I didn't start with this much in mind, and I could probably think up more >.>

Quick Edit with performance in mind: my computer is a year old, but was pretty damn good then, I've had a few occassions with stuttering, and only 2 random dcs the whole time. So I cant really comment other than to say, Its pretty damn good for me (but not for many others). The bandwidth usage is fantastic, I can play while my wife watches things, and even with our terrible british internet speed it causes no interuptions. (unlike LoL that W****S my connection)

[HeatLegend]

I'm so happy they lifted the NDA- I didnt like to browse the Beta-forums much, the interface and masses of posts just confused me haha. This is definitely a place I prefer to the discuss the game at.

The game is brilliant, rolling with the DD's I've played all different roles possible with all sorts of people in very organized manners.

The first few days (after I got in) all players had problems with the Framerate per Second. While alone it was up at 40-50; but when you were engaged in big combat while attacking or defending a base it would drop down to 12 and after a while even 5 fps. But the last couple of days I have been playing the big battles at over 20 fps with some exceptions- it usually stays at a stable 20-35 fps now- and they're not even done optimizing it yet.

Still playing with the Lowest graphics; I can play with medium but I'd rather be sure to have the best performance I can get rather than put the quality up one step. Game looks great.

[icepick]

So far I've only had time to lone wolf it for an hour or so here and there. :P LOVE it already though. What is here is already so compelling. It's crazy.

[CrystalViolet]

This latest patch has been a big step in the right direction. Yesterday I found myself having a lot of fun. Pushing the NC back to their warp gate on west 01 was probably a big part of that.

[MrBloodworth]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

It's doing well, people are batshit insane about wanting cooldowns applied to everything instead of using resources.

Perhaps because resources flow like water. Its not even a restriction right now.

[HeatLegend]

Originally Posted by CrystalViolet

This latest patch has been a big step in the right direction. Yesterday I found myself having a lot of fun. Pushing the NC back to their warp gate on west 01 was probably a big part of that.

FU ^^ We were like 2 hexes away from doing the same to you Vanu scum earlier that day but we had mercy and turned to the TR who were advancing in on our territory to the west! Then you foul beasts teamed up on us and drove us back to our beloved Warpgate.

[Exmortius]

for those who haven't played ps2 yet it doesn't disappoint. game absolutely kicks ass. currently AA was nerfed very hard and their is a ton of aircraft uncontested atm but devs are going to re-balance that. that is the only bad thing atm with combat. game is incredible at night time. there is also i should point out a ton of maxes cause they currently do not have timers and resource costs. dev team is doing a great job, looking forward to getting to esamir soon.

[Kaya]

While I am thoroughly enjoying beta, I would love to give some loose thoughts/impressions on PlanetSide 2 as a game.

Visually/Graphically I think it is superb. Absolutely next-gen stuff. The explosiveness accompanied by the subsequent sonic booms are fantastic and every fire fight is as thrilling as the next. I am a sucker for sci-fi and the environment work (futuristic NASA-like shuttle buildings/terrain/atmosphere) hits all the right nerves in a good way. Better than I had hoped for and a truckload of fun.

The character specialization and certification system is probably the most engaging part of the game for me - it keeps me wanting to play more so I can kill bad guys in more (and cooler) ways. The ability to add night vision scopes and such really adds a new layer to PlanetSide that wasn't there before. There is definitely a new depth/reason to leveling up those Battle Ranks now, and I love it.

And now for the real feedback...

The game mechanics are lacking.

I've only played a smidgeon of other FPS games like Battle Field but I can tell this new "A B C D E F" base capture point system has been lifted from other games. It doesn't feel like PlanetSide. For some reason piling into a room with 5 guys to capture point "A" is really not as fun for me as 1 REK hacker @ CC while 4 others cover him. The suspense, excitement, surprise, and reward of hacking is gone.

Maybe I don't quite understand the base capturing system fully, but a 5minute base lockdown does not satisfy the feeling of base "ownership". Currently, you will wage war for 20mins, hold down the points eventually, and then you own the base for 5mins before it all goes back again. The ability to use a Facility to stage operations is (ie Gal drops forming at Gunuku in PlanetSide 1) seems pointless when a) the base is temporary, b) vulnerable to enemy attack, and c) warpgates are sanctuary. I foresee all major operations coming from the Empire WG now instead of from bases themselves which.. is not conducive to using the Continent as a living breathing thing.

On a grander scale, I think there should be new and varied ways to capture bases other than the simple "A B C" capture point method. For outposts and towers this system is ok, but I would love to see some bases captured old school via 15min hack or even LLU to spice things up. I have played beta for 2 weeks and already the event of capturing a base is losing its appeal. It feels lightweight. Having a "time frame" to capture a base before the defending empire "defends" it is also really annoying. Why would Helm's Deep suddenly be immune to siege just because they've been holding it for 15mins? This is probably my biggest gripe because base capturing is the guiding force / purpose for action of PlanetSide as a game.

Spawning has changed significantly. One of the most defining moments for me in PlanetSide 1 were Galaxy drops, so having Galaxy's now be a spawn point is actually a pretty cool way to promote this event. But I miss that AMS. I miss AMS so much because it allowed for discreet and unique spawning locations in ways that are un-replicable with the Galaxy. Don't get me wrong, I think the Galaxy spawning is cool - but is there not room for both? I suspect the decision to remove PlanetSide 1's staple field-spawn truck (AMS) was well argued and discussed at SOE already.. but I miss it A LOT.

Two sour points I have to mention is the absence of inventory and the new "class" system. I really truely miss the ability to loot a corpse and salvage their remaining ammunition/medkits/glue so that I may continue Rambo-ing across the battle field. Currently, I will run out of ammo without any way to restock on the field. Surree I know engineers drop packs, but they are few and far between especially on open ground. I would really like to see dead corpses drop "some" ammunition. Gone are the days when I could destroy a VS rexo then steal his lasher from his bag and kill his friends with it! I'll have to live with things as they are I suppose.. sad face.

The class system, again, I think this is another design element lifted from other games. I suspect in a perfect PlanetSide 2 world a 12-man squad would comprise of: 2 medics, 2 engineers, 4 heavy assaults, 2maxes, 1 infiltrator, 1 light assault. You would have access to all the perks. But who does that? This isn't terrible but it does force people to play an "engineer" just to get ammo and you "have to" have atleast one guy play medic... I miss the flexibility of PS1 where everyone could do a little bit of everything. This is coming from a lonewolf so I guess these two points are particularly harder to swallow for me.

My final point has to do with hacking. I miss those global CR5 REK checks. I think hacking/jacking vehicles was one of the coolest twists in the game and for infiltrators their bread and butter. I'm not quite sure why it was removed but I think it is another game mechanic gone that almost simplifies the game too much.

TLDR: Awesome combat, gorgeous graphics, lacking game mechanics. PlanetSide is my favourite game of all time. Frankly I'm so glad to see it reborn for this generation - and I will be the first in line to buy it, but it doesn't feel like home. The game feels excessively streamlined for my reasons listed above. PlanetSide 1 struck that delicate balance of "the zerg dictates the fight but every soldier counts" (for ex. 1 infiltrator hacking a tower and as a result the entire empire gains a solid spawn and eventually takes the base). PlanetSide 2 is more of a mosh pit spectacle. I greatly appreciate the Beta, but I think some fine tuning to the systems is needed.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

Perhaps because resources flow like water. Its not even a restriction right now.

I think the 750 resource cap is good, that's enough for 3 tanks and you're out. Though yes, resources seem to flow in to you too fast.

Though vehicle play is off. Tanks need less recoil and bullet drop, but at the same time, infantry need a wire guided AT rocket as a cheaper unlock and the default dumbfire AT rocket needs to fly a lot faster.

[RodenyC]

Originally Posted by Gammit10

The premise, engine, day-night cycle, sound, and particle effects are great, but at the moment there is a lot of work needed for the meta (chess-like/map-moving) game. It currently feels like a shooting game slapped on a good engine with major ideas still needing to be implemented rather than tweaked.

With fast capture times, capture nodes that are exceptionally easy to access (with many out in the open), sprinting/ jet packs for infantry, few base walls, and a faster TTK, the game is more of a large whirlwind of captures and shooting than a strategy/tactics/shooter/vehicle game that PS1 was.

With the original, I can remember hour-long drawn-out fights, the name of all bases, etc. As of the current build base names are irrelevant, as the fight will quickly wrap-up at its current location and resume elsewhere within 5-10 minutes. I really do not see many hour-long fights occurring here. In this sense, it feels more like a very large UT3 with fast-paced decisions yet different capture areas.

As a medic, I am doing much more reviving than I am healing, which is more similar to my games with Battlefield 3 and very different from Planetside 1.

As of right now, it's a modern shooter with some PS-elements (80% modern shooter, 20% Planetside) rather than a re-take on Planetside with some modern mechanics. Some vets, including myself, were hoping more for a much different ratio. I played PS1 over Battlefield, UT, Call of Duty because of the differences.

What's worse is the large number of people in the beta who seem to prefer this, and that is frustrating. The entire game moves exceptionally fast and will likely be a great hit for the monster-energy-drink chugging crowd.

I'm not dogging the devs. If this game continues to play out this way, I will move on and wish them well. However, as of the current date, the game is disappointing to a long-time veteran. That being said, my hope is for continued MAJOR tweaks by the development team, who has been very communicative thus far.

This is how I feel.Battlefield Auraxis.