Todays play experience was worrysome

Babyfark McGeez · 2012-10-25, 08:37 PM

Actually i wanted to write "The community allready blows", but i thought i may be too harsh with that one and i just picked the wrong day / time to play (and i don't recall it being that bad before). Also i played solo tonight.

But what i experienced today made me worry about the kind of people we will end up with here in PS2;

- In ~3 hours playtime i didn't see a single tactical "/re" message aside from my own, only people yelling profanities at each other

- It took me like 15 minutes to get an answer to a simple question (are medikits bugged?). And i only got an answer because after politely asking it for five times i started spamming it in caps (again i was at the wg)

- Nobody defended AT ALL. There was a big zerg going leaving a trail of empty bases behind that nobody guarded. I tried to defend some because it was obvious only pushing forward in a small, thin line would end up in desaster, but eventually i gave up. When i logged out the huge area we had in the beginning was gone, as was the "trail" of captured bases and we were close to being warpgated

So aside from me ranting here, what are your experiences? Is having a CoD/BF kiddie community a concern to you? Is that the tradeoff for going solo? Is dealing with numbnuts the "metagame"?
Or was it allready that bad in PS1 and i just didn't notice it?

Hamma · 2012-10-25, 08:41 PM

I play 95% of the time in an outfit and don't pay a ton of attention to region or local chats really. Pretty sure PS1 was just as evil

Babyfark McGeez · 2012-10-25, 08:46 PM

Hehe well, i will now intentionally not join a squad again tomorrow to see if it's allways like that as han solo.

SKYeXile · 2012-10-25, 08:47 PM

Yea get an outfit if you want people to care about more than themselves.

I care what happens to my pocket healers and ammo squires.

Figment · 2012-10-25, 09:04 PM

I noticed a lot of people are preoccupied with /y cause you can hate tell an entire enemy pop at once.

Fear The Amish · 2012-10-25, 09:06 PM

Piece of advise most outfits that are recruiting run open platoons in the advertisements they will usually announce. Check those out a lot of fun also if your VS on Lythesia Xen of Onslaught runs open platoons almost 24/7 check us out if you get a chance.

Helwyr · 2012-10-25, 09:11 PM

I have none of these issues when I'm solo, which is most of the time. But then I'm actually solo not in a random squad, I'm not trying to directly communicate or organize with other players, and I have proximity voice shut off.

If you want to play in an organized coordinated way with other players an Outfit is the only way to go. Random squads will always be random albeit leaning heavily to the shit why bother side of things.

Oh and the PS1 community as a whole wasn't really any better, Forumside was a terrible place, I think even the Darkfall forums were better.

Figment · 2012-10-25, 09:21 PM

Btw, one reason people don't use region chat is because they don't know the command exists. A lot of people start using it if you tell them how, especially if you include that enemies CANNOT read it. Unfortunately the /re command looks like /reply.

/b for broadcast would be intuitive to veterans and would be shorter and would stand out from /r better.

The thing is, when people use /y and see nothing but that and realise enemies can read it too, they stop using it for tactical purposes. Most players start in the impression that /u is the only thing though...

I've also noticed that /re can be very unreliable, as unlike /yell, it isn't a circle but a random shape based on the hex grid you are in. Hence even if you use it, people 1m away may not hear it, since they are in another region.

As such, the chat system needs an overhaul.

But hey, as long as we have /outfitsay instead of /o...

Galron · 2012-10-25, 09:38 PM

I only play solo. Once you realize that you cant run with the zerg and order around like you would an outfit you learn how to go with the flow.

That's not to say some people in the zerg wont take some direction here and there, but I would not count on it nor get butthurt if they dont respond.

bullet · 2012-10-25, 11:24 PM

Fighting on Esamir today, I think everyone found "The Crown" there. Eisa, I think is the name, was nothing but a huge TDM. The VS let the TR go around the SE side of Esamir and get to our Warpgate while they are just TDMing up at Saerro Listening post/Eisa.

I flew up there to tell them the status. All I got in response was "Awesome", "Who cares, its not like territory does much for us", and "We're here farming, thats the meta game". I quit right after that.

Thats not the Planetside I want to play.

Tatwi · 2012-10-26, 12:41 AM

If the game didn't run like shit, crash to desktop, have the sound cut out, have teleporting players, and the ability to be killed seconds after you've taken cover, then it wouldn't a bad game at all. I didn't enjoy the limited amount of time I played this evening (and I ran with the outfit for most of it).

Beta sucks crap, but launch will totally be cupcakes and sunshine, because then "beta is beta" won't apply. Yay!

Helwyr · 2012-10-26, 04:37 AM

Originally Posted by bullet

Fighting on Esamir today, I think everyone found "The Crown" there. Eisa, I think is the name, was nothing but a huge TDM. The VS let the TR go around the SE side of Esamir and get to our Warpgate while they are just TDMing up at Saerro Listening post/Eisa.

I flew up there to tell them the status. All I got in response was "Awesome", "Who cares, its not like territory does much for us", and "We're here farming, thats the meta game". I quit right after that.

Thats not the Planetside I want to play.

Unfortunately, they're not wrong. In the current build there really isn't anything beyond looking for good fights and "farming" kills.

SOE have already announced their intent to work on the meta game, but I think this may be a challenge as it won't be easy to create a meaningful Planetside meta game while also maintaining an appeal to a broad range of FPS gamers.

Whiteagle · 2012-10-26, 05:11 AM

I really wish my outfit had people on more often... and had more then six guys in it...

Monsta · 2012-10-26, 05:18 AM

I don't understand why you expect a difference in the - PubPlay experience - of PlanetSide2 while this behavior is normal in any other game that allows teams bigger then 12. (uncoordinated teamwork, lack of communication, testing out random stuff)

Just a useful tip: the chat windows isn't visible at all times while squads are are playing, and if I am correct especially not when outfit members selected their outfit-chat-channel as main channel, meaning the chat is only becomes visible when a outfit member types something in the chat.

Apparently your are not playing in a squad, not in a platoon, and not playing in an outfit, but still demanding random players will take the effort to answer random text questions from a little window and is constantly being SPAMMED BY RANDOM PLAYERS TYPED IN CAPITALS.

So please keep in mind, most players are playing in a outfit or at least a squad, they are focused on the squad/platoon/outfit channel and they are using the in game voice, if not they are probably on Teamspeak and are mostly focused on the minimap and the situation on the battlefield.

If you have questions about the game, the latest patch, whatever, then please use the PlanetSide2 forums, like this one. But I highly suggest you take some effort in understanding what it takes to play in (most) outfits. Outfits are like clans, they have sorted out some guidelines and rules for new recruits for joining their outfit. For example you have to be at least 15 years old, taking attendance on mandatory days and times for their members to show up and doing something coordinated in the game. That includes discussing the latest patch.

Figment · 2012-10-26, 05:50 AM

I think the people that tend to always comment outfits this, squads this, etc as being the main source of organisation and blame everything on people running alone and not paying attention...

...haven't played a lot of PS1 or forgot that PS1 was a lot more social than that due to the way the chat was arranged, read and accessed. :/

For one: Chat shouldn't disappear at all (should be an optional setting, not a default).
Second: Chat commands and chat reach are both poorly designed right now.
Third: Kill spam is inconsistent and uninformative and can't be backtracked. More importantly, it's not in the same window as the chat messages, thus where in PS1 it attracted the eye to the chat box, it now diverts it from the chat box.
Fourth: Command is currently underdeveloped, both from a game design perspective and from a player advancement perspective.