Improvement: Planetside Desperately needs this to stay appealing and I've always dreamed of it.

[VictoryRose]

Okay, hear me out. But a form of PvE. How many times do you log onto PlanetSide, get a little discouraged about the fact that you need to find a platoon, or at least a good squad, to really have a good time? What if there were some sort of instance where it were you vs. bots. The experience gain would be minimal and most of it would come from completing a mission. These missions could involve whole squads (which would involve a lot more bot enemies) so medics/engineers/Light Assault/Heavy Assault can all learn to work together and players can practice these roles in settings where they won't die instantly.

I know PlanetSide has no PvE, and I understand that completely. But I get so discouraged by the fact I can't just log onto PlanetSide for 15 minutes, have some fun, and go to work or whatever. I also want a way to level up outside of having to find fights, a lot of which can be one sided.

Some things to consider are:

1) How would this benefit the empire? Maybe every mission on that continent adds to a resource pool for a short time?
2) Keep the experience gain to a minimum. We don't want people leveling up in PvE, essentially farming, though they do that in other ways now anyway.
3) How difficult is it to implement? The NPCs don't have to be smart. They just have to fire back. Just think of it. 1 person alone going against a whole platoon to destroy a generator or something. Using med packs, hiding and taking cover between kills. And this is just to kill time until they can do it in the real fight. It's lik VR training.

I really think PlanetSide could adapt something like this and it wouldn't be extremely difficult. It would add so much more replayability and the ability for just 2-3 people to squad up and play and have fun without getting frustrated that their efforts mean not all that much without a platoon, or that their efforts won't just be wiped away once another faction realizes they are stealth capping a continent.

Please at least consider this!

[HiroshiChugi]

This reminds me of a game mode in Combat Arms called Fireteam. It's a break from the norm PvP arenas/rooms and gives players the chance to work together to complete a common objective against AI with varying levels of difficulty. Maybe we can implement this in some way, shape, or form in Planetside 2. I, for one, would ver much like to see this happen.

[VictoryRose]

I'm glad to hear this is already being done in a game. They already want to implement VR Training, this is just an advanced VR training of sorts. Just a break from the going in circles of capping continents (which will not be a bad when more continents are released) but also just the playability and replayability of getting to do missions with your friends and not having to worry about being griefed or overpopulated or underpopulated. Just hanging out with your friends, learning the guns, and there are so many, that you want to buy. And if you tied this to the overall war with Empire bonuses somehow (x number of missions on Amerish-like terrain is +5 air resources for 30 minutes for the empire or something small, but beneficial.

[SoUnreal]

To each his own I guess, but I think PS2 has made it very easy to play and enjoy the game solo. Through beta and just recently getting back into the game I haven't done anything with a squad or platoon other than one or two times. With the drop feature you're instantly in the thick of it with the rest of your faction so I haven't found the need to squad yet.

[Wahooo]

Originally Posted by VictoryRose

Okay, hear me out. But a form of PvE.

I stopped reading here.

Then, in fairness I thought I should read the rest of the post before I made a comment and realized... I should have stopped reading ^^^ there.

No. There are other games for PVE, there are also other games that were sent to their doom once they started to re-focus on PVE content (Global Agenda). It doesn't belong it isn't needed and it would take away from what we have.

PS2 has already made it much easier and after the last patch with improved instant action to log in for a few minutes and shoot some people and log out. LA... drop pod... kill feel happy about yourself.

No PVE, not now not ever.

[Elgareth]

Originally Posted by Wahooo

No. There are other games for PVE, there are also other games that were sent to their doom once they started to re-focus on PVE content (Global Agenda). It doesn't belong it isn't needed and it would take away from what we have.

PS2 has already made it much easier and after the last patch with improved instant action to log in for a few minutes and shoot some people and log out. LA... drop pod... kill feel happy about yourself.

No PVE, not now not ever.

This.
Your Idea takes away 2 of PS2's real selling points:
Permanent PvP, and one big World.
Say you can only play at off-times, when not many people are around...guess what would happen if you introduced meaningful PvE? The last remaining people will go there. Now what happens once prime-time begins? The first people will notice noone is on the map, and go PvE.

No to instances, and no to PvE.
IF you introduce it as virtual training, make the benefit of doing it exactly 0. No XP, no Certs, no Badges, nothing, so people can do it once to train, but after that should concentrate on the real game.

As others said, you already can play very short sessions, kill three guys and log off.

[Baneblade]

PS2 solo play is actually more enjoyable than PS1 solo play, as odd as that might sound.

[Rothnang]

I think it would be nice if you could get away from the fight and just beat down some mobs for a while to grind for certs.

Some days I want to play a game where I can just turn off my brain and grind, where the reward isn't really overcoming a challenge, but just getting yourself some kind of reward.

If you can do that in games where you can actually use the reward you gathered when you're in full competitive mode all the better.

[Neutral Calypso]

Personally I think small doses of PvE or semi-random events would make things interesting. Persistant and predictable PvE, however, would not.

When I say random events, I mean, for instance, an ancient alien artifact gets awakened and runs amok until destroyed.

...then doesn't happen again for a damn long time.

That would make for an intriguing and, most importantly, TEMPORARY pve element.

It might also keep the interest of people who are already growing bored with the SAME OLD GRIND...

...that being said it is WAY too early to be talking about this kind of thing. They need to finish working on sanctuaries and more continents, and the continent-locking system they will eventually implement, ETC. before they even consider such frivolous random PvE events.

EDIT: Rothnang, if you want to grind on mobs, make yourself an infiltrator, fly to a tech plant or a biolab or something that is currently unoccupied, hack a turret, and use that turret to blow up the other turrets. 100 exp a pop before boosts. Don't forget to sabotage the generators when you're done! ...oh yeah, and don't forget to go to the ones that your faction owns as an engineer and repair them all. There, that's your mindless grind that gets you a reward.