How SOE have failed to balance the game properly and the real reason behind it

[stargazer093]

PS: This post isn`t by me, it`s from some guy in Chinese community, I merely translate it because the content really is interesting

so here it starts:

Ok, so we all know that currently, the game`s balance suck. This happens because SOE is balancing the game via a cycle of nerfing everything until everything become suck so they are balanced. For example, infantry is just weak atm, they don`t feel like 27th century infantry at all. Yet, why so many people are still complaining about infantry being too strong? Answer: because at the moment, tanks and ESFs suck ball. For tank, it can be taken out by a couple of RPG shot from HA behind rocks, and it does not have any significant advantage on firepower and mobility. It simply doesn`t feel like a modern day tank at all. As for ESFs, the speed and the handling and the armor, facing a sea of AA, need to say more?

A simple solution would be just stop this nerfing and then nerfing cycle, and start to actually make everything more powerful, let the players who use them FEEL the satisfaction of using them. This, of course would create some short-term balancing shitstorm, but in long-term, players will have more fun when using something strong and powerful to fight against something else that is also strong and powerful, and SOE can sell more weapons and other stuffs because players will be more willing to purchase stuffs too. Plus, considering SOE have done the opposite every since day one, I seriously doubt that they can`t handle this one.

But, why SOE has done this at the first place? Now we are talking. The real reason why they failed to balance the game properly is because they had choose the wrong MATHEMATIC MODEL for massive warfare. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the arch-villain behind everything!

What is the goal of Planetside 2? Crown? Spawn Farming? Tank spam? NO! The purpose of Planetside 1 and Planetside 2 is massive warfare and massive warfare alone! Can`t you see that on the subtitle? "Size Always Matter". Yes, the single and only goal and purpose and characteristic that make Planetside 2 is its beautiful, prolong, and heart-shaking massive warfare in huge maps. It is what SOE had planned all-long, from engine to map (let not talk about base design atm...plz) to class to everything are made for it. HOWEVER, SOE has failed to realize one thing, different size in war will lead to different type of mathematic model.

Throughout the history, there has been two different type of mathematic models for simulating war: Lanchester's laws and Monte Carlo method. Lanchester's laws is for determine strengh/number relationship in large scale warfares, focus on macroscopic level of war. Monte Carlo method is for simulate small scale tactical firefight, focus more on microscopic level, on each single soldier. Both models are completely different from one another. Planetside 2 is massive warfare so obviously it should be based on Lanchester`s Laws, and small scale firefight such as BF, Cod, CS or other stuffs on Monte Carlo method. Since they are based on different models, they should have different notion and direction on balance. The key for BF3`s balance lay on each classes` individual performances, so the small scale firefight can go like the developers expected. HOWEVER, Planetside 2 is completely different in term of scale of warfare, so the key of balance is the NUMBER of soldiers participated, NOT the individual performances. In Lanchester`s Laws it is the number of soldiers that lead to strengths. Without balancing the number of soldiers in the field first, other things simply DOES NOT matter that much, it is like doing sculptures in a boat during a thunderstorm, there is no way anything can work properly!

So the fact have spoken, SOE got the mathematic model wrong in the first place. They are so busy making PS2 an e-sport to earn fast cash, so they spend their limit time and effort on balancing individual performances of classes and equipment while neglect completely the most important aspect of this game: number of players. The result is obvious, the more they balanced, the more the players got pissed off, thus more and more quit, because they didn`t balance what they are supposed to balance, all they had done is to balance for small scale firefight. The thing is, as they balance more, what they have done is in fact, destroying the whole reason that made Planetside 2 attractive to players, so they would stay in game and keep playing!

Sadly, SOE doesn`t seem to have realize the seriousness of this, they still believe that they should go to the direction of Monte Carlo method, they are still struggling on those so-called balance, which are in fact small things that will immediately become neglectable when there is enough number of soldiers on a large enough battlefield, and they are still nerfing those that actually make the players to stay. This is a cycle, a bad one. The more they nerf (balance, they call it), the less the players. The less the players, the less the large scale battles. The less the large scale battles, the more small scale firefights. Finally, the more the small scale firefights, the more the complains about the small, nearly useless things were directed to SOE, so they start the nerf cycle once more. If they keep doing this, one day the server will simply be empty. At last, game over, literally.