Improvement: Social "MMO" Ideas

[Immigrant]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

Seems kind of unnecessary to pull people out of the game for that. We have voice comms in the game for talking already. Why should someone have to use the forums? Especially the length SOE is going to with allowing voice communication outside of the game.

You can always gather in the foothold and chat with those who are willing via VOIP. No need for additional content, it would just ruin the game if not very well implemented, would take a lot of space and draw the people from fight... all bad things. Maybe they'll throw in a few emotes to further that experience, everything beyond that would be a complete waste of time imo.

Also it would create that famous problem - "sorry guys I can't help you defend the base I'm reeling a big one/chugging a beer/playing darts with my homies right now!"

[RandomNPC]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

Seems kind of unnecessary to pull people out of the game for that. We have voice comms in the game for talking already. Why should someone have to use the forums? Especially the length SOE is going to with allowing voice communication outside of the game.

Because the game is about a waging war. The voice chat feature isn't developed for you to tell us about your day, it's for communication related to the fight.

If you want to join a squad with your buddies to role play and ignore the fight so be it, but that's not what the game is, and you shouldn't expect them to develop a spaceship bar room for you to relax in just for funzies.

Not every MMO is meant to be a social relaxing chill out game. Perhaps this isn't the game for you.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Rexdezi

what you're asking for is an MMORPGFPS... something like Mass Effect Online in first person or something like that. PS2 is not that game.

It could be. I've never played Mass Effect. Does it have ATV type races in its multiplayer or something that you can start? Personally when you're playing an FPS like Planetside you're already role playing a faction. It's not hard to miss when watching videos of other Planetside vets talk about the game.

Originally Posted by Immigrant

Also it would create that famous problem - "sorry guys I can't help you defend the base I'm reeling a big one/chugging a beer/playing darts with my homies right now!"

You know how I mentioned in the original post that some people in the community fixate on ideas? This is what I was talking about. Open ended conversation means discuss and bring up topics. It's fun to list off all the things you wouldn't want in the game, but it's easier to just list off things you would want. Playing darts for instance doesn't really fit into Planetside. It's why someone suggested shooting targets and why I suggested a holographic target system that players could initiate. Random one-off ideas that are simple to put into the game without requiring a huge overhead.

Originally Posted by RandomNPC

If you want to join a squad with your buddies to role play and ignore the fight so be it, but that's not what the game is, and you shouldn't expect them to develop a spaceship bar room for you to relax in just for funzies.

I'm gonna assume you didn't play the game for these 9 years. The gameplay only gets you so far. In the game we had to start knife fighting to pass the time. Or we'd hold cease fires with the factions and meet up on TS and hang out in a tower. It's a huge part of forming a community that other people were stressing a while back. More than just the core gameplay.

Also I'm against separating anything from the continents. So a spaceship bar room (unless you mean in the uncapturables?) seems like a wasted effort. It's on par with people's idea of adding outfit housing to the game because SWG had it.

Was really just looking for easy things that would work over the long term. It might sound overly generic, but Planetside was just an FPS game. Just feel like at this point it wouldn't harm them to expand things. Maybe not for launch but later to bring in more MMO type social stuff. (I think they removed emotes. We had like 2 of them in PS1).

[Rexdezi]

if i walk into a base and see some fanatics and rebels just chilling and chatting... youre all going to die. if you want that social stuff please do it where you wont be taking up server space. someone who wants to play the game for what the game is intended to be might not get into a server because youre too busy fucking around playing darts or whatnot

[Purple]

if my friends in game want to kick back and talk they can do so while shooting the bad guys.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Rexdezi

if i walk into a base and see some fanatics and rebels just chilling and chatting... youre all going to die.

That's pretty much what I'd imagine in a F2P game. See in Planetside 1 it only took a few weeks to hit the level cap (it was basically a training period) so killing people was mostly just to pad your k/d. Now with the current system it would be a lot more tempting to take the kill.

Originally Posted by Purple

if my friends in game want to kick back and talk they can do so while shooting the bad guys.

Oh yeah definitely. That would be an option for players. I wasn't suggesting this would replace the combat PvP combat in the game. This would be like something extra outside of the core gameplay that players could do. At no point would they be forced to use any of the features if that makes sense.

[shdggsdv]

The thing I would love is on cliffedges you could have a tower or something that's no-pvp and functions only as a place to sit down and watch the beauty of the fight.
I work a lot but I would absolutely love to watch some of the fights in Planetside 2 while i work (since i watch things on a computer near me while i work) and think this would be perfect for me, i imagine i could do that for hours and just love it

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by shdggsdv

The thing I would love is on cliffedges you could have a tower or something that's no-pvp and functions only as a place to sit down and watch the beauty of the fight.
I work a lot but I would absolutely love to watch some of the fights in Planetside 2 while i work (since i watch things on a computer near me while i work) and think this would be perfect for me, i imagine i could do that for hours and just love it

You might prefer this thread instead. It describes how SOE should record all the battles 1:1 and allow players watch them with a delay. Basically so you can go throughout the games timeline and watch all the battles as they played out throughout the years up to present time. People mostly wanted it so they could record battles in their own time from different angles without being restricted to the in game player's camera.

[disky]

I just love it when fanboys rage.

The only reason I would disagree with non-combat activities is because they might distract people from the main attraction. In a game that requires other players to achieve the desired effect, this is important. But that doesn't mean that there shouldn't be something to do when you'd like to take a break from the fighting.

It makes sense to have minigames that improve player skill, like the previously mentioned vehicle races and shooting ranges. You could expand the range to be an accuracy challenge, like skeet shooting. I would also like to see some aircraft proficiency challenges too, like the ring challenges in Pilotwings. People could be graded on these and receive rewards for high scores.

Activities like these not only provide players with a place to gauge their overall skill outside of combat, they provide them with a way to test the changes they've made to their characters in a controlled environment.

[Machine]

We don't fish we pistol duel.

[Dagron]

We don't duel, we pistol whip people loitering in a poplocked continent.

[Rexdezi]

Originally Posted by Dagron

We don't duel, we pistol whip people loitering in a poplocked continent.

This

[disky]

You guys are hardcore.

[Ratstomper]

There is something to be said for the little extra things that just make the game a little more interesting or fun. I remember playing EQ1 and fishing (and occasionally spilling beer when you reeled in your catch). It was just a nice little touch that made you chuckle.

PS1 had events from time to time. The Cowboy event on one continent made it so you could only use certain weapons/vehicles. Everyone wore cowboy hats and basic armor or putting christmas lights on the trees on Esamir during the holidays and having player models wear ES santa hats. Silly, but still fun.

EQ and WoW both did it to pretty good effect. WoW even has devoted quest systems and achievements associated with events. I wouldn't mind some things like that popping up in PS2; maybe some holiday/event specific achievements.

[WiFiN]

Oh lol! So many overzealous "HARDCORE FPS DSJFJSDLKJD" preachers!

Tell you what. No matter how hardcore you are, sometimes you'll find yourself in a position when you have to wait. Wait for your outfit-mates to group up, for some certain event like an organized attack on an enemy base. And instead of just fucking around while being bound to some specific location you can enjoy it with the others.

Yea, definately it should not be a fun fare or a goddamn casino, but a firing range at the outpost, ATV dirt track or even a Mass Effect-style bar with strippers in the foothold will definately add to the immersion and find it's audience.