Planetside 2 Going down the toilet?

[BlaxicanX]

You people are insane. Jesus Christ.

NC IS POPULAR BECAUSE THEY HAD THE BEST WARPGATE.

Re-wind back to January, when TR had the northern warpgate and Indar was owned by the TR for like three months on Connery. TR consistently had the highest population on the servers, Vanu in the south-west had the second highest population averages, and the NC had the least highest population in the south-east.

Then the warpgate rotation.

NC had the northern warpgate on Indar. NC conquered Indar, NC started consistently owning the most territory on Indar. TR was moved to the south-western warpgate, Vanu had the South-Eastern warpgate. NC has the highest population averages (On Connery at least), TR has the second highest population, Vanu has the least highest population.

Notice a pattern here?

When the Vanu start pwning ass and they conquer Indar with their vastly superior warpgate, you'll see the Vanu pop go up. Fact of the matter is, for whatever reason, the northern warpgate is the strongest warpgate to start from, and the south-eastern one is the weakest. People don't like to play as the faction that consistently gets shit on by the other two, so they swap to a different faction for awhile. That's simply the way of the world.

[Rothnang]

I'm not a huge fan of shotguns either.

I said it before, the devs overtax weapon range by a huge amount currently. Having decent range on a gun is nice, but most serious killing happens at short range, because the TTK at long range is so much longer that people can easily get into cover, and you have no way of chasing them behind their cover if you're still 50 meters away.

[Gatekeeper]

Very much agree about pump shotguns and shotgun MAXs, giving them better range but worse damage seems like the logical fix.

That said, I'm still enjoying the game and I do feel like it's steadily improving over time - if you're not enjoying it, just take a break and come back to it in a few months.

[Pella]

You know whats funny about shotguns. And clearly show's people have no clue what there talking about. And start crying nerf.

The Original Shotguns that where introduced, Took & Still take 2 Shots to kill someone within a 5m Range.

Yet you can fire 2 Shells in the same time it take to fire 1 Pump action shell.

And more to the point, If your dieing 10m+ to a pump action shotgun your probably sat still. And should go roll a tank.

Go figure.

[Sledgecrushr]

Originally Posted by TheSaltySeagull

Heavy has the saw which is the best of the default LMGs and one of the best LMGs in the game. I dont think the NC are "OP" but I do see them as the easier faction to start out on because you get access to some of the best stuff right away as your default starting gear.

i dont know if the saw is the absolute best default LMG. Fully certed out the SAW still kicks harder than an unmodified Orion. Played VS all night last night and stomped ass and took whatever I wanted. I think the VS still have it pretty easy.

[Sonny]

On the contrary, I think the game is improving.

I don't think that the shotguns are a big problem, still very situational and they take a lot of skill to use > 10 m range.

I do agree though that the population imbalance is a problem - people mentioned that their style could be a factor. maybe the Vanu players could choose from a few colours rather than just purple, like black or metallic colours? If they looked more like cyborgs or a mix of humans and something out of Alien/Predator I think they would look a lot more badass and people would be more likely to choose them when first logging in.

[Anderz]

Originally Posted by TheSaltySeagull

I dont think the NC are "OP" but I do see them as the easier faction to start out on because you get access to some of the best stuff right away as your default starting gear.

This is true with the NC bolt-action sniper and Max, but from my experience, NC assault weapons easily have the steepest learning curve due to their recoil and drop-off. I don't even think that can be up for debate.

[Snoopy]

A shotgun at anything more than 8-10m aren't really a problem. If you're continually getting owned by them, maybe it's time to switch up your tactics.

Scat Maxes, however, are a problem...

And Reavers are the worst ESF? Please...

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

PUMP shotguns do suck right now(and there is no good way to fix them.)
But thats hardly sending the game down the toilet.

There is a good way, that some of us have been shouting for since beta. The problem is some of the community seem to think that it was fine and there's no reason to change it.

It's the TTK increase we've been asking for and it needs to happen across the board. There's no room to balance these weapons and that has been our complaint the whole time. They can't simply make the Shotguns have a lower TTK because then they become irrelevant to the SMG's. However if the TTK was raised on every weapon in the game, then they have room to fine-tune weapon balance.

Some of us have been asking for this for months, most of the higher end gamers have been asking for this for since beta. The problem is everyone is in love with CoD/BF, what they don't seem to understand is the plan for SoE has always been to introduce new content through releasing new weapons. IF this game was going to stay with the same 50 guns on release then the TTK would of been fine. That was never the plan though and when we end up with 200 weapons there's going to be no real differences between them, other than aesthetic. All of it comes back to the TTK ceiling being far too low in this game from the get go, and now it's going to be a bitch to sell it to the community that it needs to be increased for the sake of balance.

[Assist]

Originally Posted by BlaxicanX

You people are insane. Jesus Christ.

NC IS POPULAR BECAUSE THEY HAD THE BEST WARPGATE.

Re-wind back to January, when TR had the northern warpgate and Indar was owned by the TR for like three months on Connery. TR consistently had the highest population on the servers, Vanu in the south-west had the second highest population averages, and the NC had the least highest population in the south-east.

Then the warpgate rotation.

NC had the northern warpgate on Indar. NC conquered Indar, NC started consistently owning the most territory on Indar. TR was moved to the south-western warpgate, Vanu had the South-Eastern warpgate. NC has the highest population averages (On Connery at least), TR has the second highest population, Vanu has the least highest population.

Notice a pattern here?

When the Vanu start pwning ass and they conquer Indar with their vastly superior warpgate, you'll see the Vanu pop go up. Fact of the matter is, for whatever reason, the northern warpgate is the strongest warpgate to start from, and the south-eastern one is the weakest. People don't like to play as the faction that consistently gets shit on by the other two, so they swap to a different faction for awhile. That's simply the way of the world.

This is purely speculation. For one, Indar was owned by VS on Waterson up to the first warpgate rotation. TR had the higher population(usually 42%+ primetime) during this time, but VS still held Indar for nearly 2 months straight. VS did indeed have the 2nd highest pop on the server at the time, but it was right around the 28-30% mark during primetime. I personally believe the South West warpgate is the best, by quite a large margin. More compact, more defensible, more rewarding, and Arc Bio is still the best holdout base in the game even with the changes.

Fast forward to today on Waterson. VS peaked around 26% pop last night, TR and NC around 37% on average. NC has continued to gain population on nearly every server since the first warpgate rotation, which also happened to be the first few balance passes for NC.

Personally I believe NC is popular because they have no major downside, similar to the TR as the TR/NC populations worldwide are very similar. As much as the anti-VS-ignorant people hate to hear it, the VS have a rather major downside that the community always ignores. We have damage drop-off at range, and it is a big difference when fighting at range. Let me repeat that, as I know most of you will completely ignore it - WE HAVE DAMAGE LOSS AT RANGE. This means, WE HAVE DAMAGE LOSS AT RANGE. Most people would consider it a major downside to HAVE DAMAGE LOSS AT RANGE. I get that some feel our lack of bullet drop compensates for that, but the truth is the bullet-drop on weapons in PS2 is so minimal it's almost a joke. However, when you HAVE DAMAGE LOSS AT RANGE, it tends to create a problem in that you need to hit far more often in order to kill. This is not as easy as most anti-VS would have you believe, as the VS have ***worse*** recoil than the TR, and only slightly better than the NC(we start at a lower recoil on the first shot).
For you people who think it doesn't matter, go to the VR room and test it out. Use the NC/TR SMG on a long range MAX target. Then use the VS, see the ridiculous damage difference. Multiple that times 100 people on each side, and maybe you'll understand. Unlike the other factions, you're at a disadvantage the instant you create a character on the VS side.

[Snydenthur]

Originally Posted by Assist

Unlike the other factions, you're at a disadvantage the instant you create a character on the VS side.

I wouldn't say disadvantage, since the balance isn't that bad. Yes, vs is the worst faction, but only by so tiny margin that it doesn't really matter. What I don't understand though is the hate towards vs. More often than not someone from tr or nc is yelling about vs being overpowered.

And the hate towards purple, what's that about? Are people so insecure that they cannot stand wearing purple even on a game? Or what is behind all the color thing?

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Snydenthur

I wouldn't say disadvantage, since the balance isn't that bad. Yes, vs is the worst faction, but only by so tiny margin that it doesn't really matter. What I don't understand though is the hate towards vs. More often than not someone from tr or nc is yelling about vs being overpowered.

And the hate towards purple, what's that about? Are people so insecure that they cannot stand wearing purple even on a game? Or what is behind all the color thing?

How many people buy the purple sports car over the red sports car?

[Snydenthur]

Originally Posted by Assist

How many people buy the purple sports car over the red sports car?

Not many I guess. I would. Nothing is better than to differentiate from the mass. A lot of sports cars are red, so it's nothing special. Pink would be quite cool too.

I made the faction choice differently though. I though which I would choose in real world. Vanu was the only choice. Would I choose the ones that go for scientific advancements or would I be some conservative. Easiest choice ever.

[LayZ]

Originally Posted by Assist

How many people buy the purple sports car over the red sports car?

I guess it depends on where you are. Were I'm from, purple is pretty stylish but its more in support of LSU than anything.

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by Snydenthur

I made the faction choice differently though. I though which I would choose in real world. Vanu was the only choice. Would I choose the ones that go for scientific advancements or would I be some conservative. Easiest choice ever.

This is the same reasoning as why I picked Vanu.

People seem so fussed by the colours, but minus camo/helmets etc, the Vanu are the best looking faction (aesthetically).