List of PS1 issues that need fixing for PS2

[roguy]

After reading through so many "vets vs newbies", "2003 vs 2012", "true fans vs false fans" and "all PS2 should be is a graphical upgrade of PS1" arguments in pretty much every thread, I notice that PS1 get's put on the pedestal of "near perfect game design" far more often than it should be if it didn't have 9 years of nostalgia behind it.So, I figured it's time to have a discussion about all the things that DIDN'T work in Planetside 1 and are in dire need of revamping/fixing.

*DISCLAIMER*
The following list was compiled off what i can remember from having played the game for over two years from release to ~2007. Furthermore when i say something like "PS1's TTK was too long" it doesn't mean that I believe that all weapons should be OHOK nor does it necessarilly mean that I agree with where it currently is in the PS2 GDC footage. This is just a list of PS1 issues devoid of any PS2 comparisons or any opinion that I or others may have on ways to fix them, in order to remind people that PS1 certainly wasn't as perfect as most vets or people resistant to change would have you believe.


-Bugs: PS1 was hands down the buggiest FPS most people have ever seen on release (runner-ups: SIN, BF2, daikatana). Special mention goes to invincible corpse bugs, upside down galaxies that fly underground, clipping and warping.

-Balance: probably one the most unbalanced game to be released. Buggies and lightnings were always terribly gimped, BFRs and sometimes jackhammers or lashers (depending on patches) ruled the battlefield.

-2 man tanks: Were horribly boring to drive, there simply wasn't anything to do. Especially after the patch that made it so you couldn't really kill people by running over them anymore. Gunning them was always quite fun though.

-Half the vehicles were useless fluff: What's the point of an ATV when you can fly a mosquito? Whats the point of a harrasser when you can drive an assault buggy? Whats the point of an assault buggy when you can drive a MBT? And so on.

-Bad base layouts: Didn't have enough variety, they all looked pretty much the same and having base interiors designed to funnel 300 players through a series of 2 meter wide doors and staircases (aka bottlenecks) is simply awful game design.

-Wonky grief system: that would often punish victims (e.g: intentionally landing a galaxy on top of a tank, tank driver is now weapons locked).

-TTK (Time to kill): Way too high. Some vets like to call it part of PS1's tried and tested "unique" gameplay, even though it was just done that way to cover up the netcoding and lag issues. Tanks having enough HP to require more than TWENTY direct hits from AV rounds to take down was way beyond the realms of stupid.

-Free form class system: Good idea in theory, in practice it was not only impossible to balance (even in other games that had it too like Tribes) but also worked against teamplay by allowing everyone to be everything at once (rexo/HA/AV/adv med/adv eng/CR5 builds...) rather than opening up choices such as, do I want to be a medic or an engineer? a sniper or an anti tank guy?

-The heal/repair system: Most COD, halo or BF3 "haters" point to health regen as one of the worst casualised/consolised features in modern mainstream FPS. Sure, in PS1 you had to have certs and press a couple of buttons to do it, but the mechanic was just as stupid. Even more so, if you consider the ridiculous advantage it gave to players high enough to have both medical and engineering certs.

-The "fourth empire" (aka switching to a different empire when one had an OP vehicle/weapon).

-Hackers.

-The sheer lack of new content and it's terrible quality when it actually happened: BFR implementation, the bending, core combat caves...

-Bad XP incentives: Your team needs you to defend an unsecured base? Just don't, it's way more xp to move on with the zerg. Your team needs you to move ahead of the zerg to secure towers/strategic locations while they cap a base? Don't do it, you absolutely need to be inside the SOI in order to get capture XP. A tank is raping your squad mates? Don't bother, it's easier and more xp to ignore it and keep on sniping infantry.

-Overly simplistic damage modeling: Shooting someone in their toe-nail did as much damage as shooting them in the face. Hand guns would damage tanks...

Feel free to add to the list...