Universal Characters

[Sturmhardt]

Originally Posted by basti

This again?

DIdnt i tell you folks ages ago what this would do to the game? Loosing right now on server A? LETS HOP TO SERVER B LOL!

This would be the same effect as Faction hopping had in PS1. Dont bloddy do it!

This.

But I like the idea of only one regional server and multiple instances of each continent with connected warp gates!

.sent via phone.

[Helwyr]

Originally Posted by basti

This again?

DIdnt i tell you folks ages ago what this would do to the game? Loosing right now on server A? LETS HOP TO SERVER B LOL!

This would be the same effect as Faction hopping had in PS1. Dont bloddy do it!

I agree with basti on this one, it's the wrong direction for PS2 to be heading.

PS2 already leans too heavily toward the shallow FPS style of its roots, much more than PS1 did. PS2 needs now to push more towards the MMO heritage of Planetside. With depth, consequences, persistence, and community.

[Rolfski]

Originally Posted by EVILPIG

As I have always said, I wish PS2 had just made one server.

THIS has been pretty much my vision on PS2 from the beginning and Eve Online has already proven it is possible (last weeks real time battle between 3000 spaceships saw 30.000 USD of virtual space hardware up in smoke).

But for now I would love universal characters playable on any server. DON'T make it premium-only though. That would be a big mistake as it would effectively prevent outfits from doing all-out raids on other servers.
The continuous population fluctuation it will bring to servers I don't see as much as an issue. You do need some kind of tracking tool though to get an idea where your team mates or favorite outfits are playing.

[Baneblade]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

In the discussion before tech test I suggested choosing a character name then selecting your faction and server but separating BR and certs for each faction character. It got flamed pretty hard for destroying server communities. I prefer having one name when I play, not "SirisianNC" and "SirisianTR" which is my current names for my other faction characters.

That said I'd probably play on the same server, but it would give me the option to play on the US west server with some friends without making a character from scratch.

I would happily delete my TR/VS alts if I could use my name universally.

[Stanis]

I've always found that persistance leads to accomplishment.
That means a fairly level and stable playing field.

You need both the respect and knowledge of your enemies to get the sense of progress or victory when the outcome is achieved.

The styles of play are different between US and EU servers.

Lets just imagine possible actions over a weekend when players are free to move around:

1. <faction> is doing badly. Server population of <faction> drops below 20%
2. <faction> is doing really well on <server>. Population of <faction> on <server> hits 50%

Global populations of a single faction over about 40% are really bad.

1. <factionX> has some cool kids that organise an event. <factionY> responds by three big outfits coming over for it.

Any outcome or result is grossly skewed because "the UberSoldiersOutfit turned up".


A persistent world needs a Consistent and Stable enemy otherwise victory or defeat is meaningless.

In PS2 right now - it might be excellent. There is very little persistence or consistency to the game except the instabiliy of hexes and the ring around the limited number of continents.
If we get that oft mentioned metagame - this will severely effect the metagame.

Imagine if every weekend was like the merge of the remaining PS1 servers onto Emerald.



There is a signficant different between free accounts that require time invested in each character, and the ability to just move a character.

This is a really bad idea I reckon.

[HiroshiChugi]

If I remember correctly, Combat Arms and many other online shooters had account bound characters. You just choose which server you want to check out, and you are allowed to jump between servers without logging out then back in. It's not really that much of a problem... It gives more diversity in playing, as you do not know what to expect on each server since who plays on them will fluxuate so much.

[Sledgecrushr]

If soe can fix the rendering issues this universal character system would bring a lot of fun to the game.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Helwyr

PS2 already leans too heavily toward the shallow FPS style of its roots, much more than PS1 did. PS2 needs now to push more towards the MMO heritage of Planetside. With depth, consequences, persistence, and community.

I feel like this is based on a false idea that people would move between servers to fight everyday. What I enjoy most is defending bases or fighting in large battles between bases. Like people that play on private servers I'd still join my main server everytime to play with my outfit. It would be speculation to assume everyone would or wouldn't do that.

This is more a design issue also as mentioned in other threads. If SOE can't find a way to queue players into a server to balance populations with incentives then there's a fundamental flaw in the game that needs to be taken care of. Currently you gain far more XP when defending so I can see why people hate attacking maybe. I think the population XP bonus is helping a lot though with lower population factions. I'll join fights just for that 16% population XP bonus.

That said I think basti is completely wrong with his assessment. Notice for instance how we can have characters on the same server and people had apocalyptic scenarios for that. Nothing changed and everyone who said it would be game breaking was proven wrong once again. I'd speculate we'd see the same thing with servers. People will notice it and not use it. Or they'll use it for good to leave low population servers which are dying.

[EVILPIG]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

That said I think basti is completely wrong with his assessment. Notice for instance how we can have characters on the same server and people had apocalyptic scenarios for that. Nothing changed and everyone who said it would be game breaking was proven wrong once again. I'd speculate we'd see the same thing with servers. People will notice it and not use it. Or they'll use it for good to leave low population servers which are dying.

I agree with this. Multi-empire per server has always had people screaming about spies ruining the game, when it can be done with multi-account anyways. Even if people did "spy", what could they accomplish? NOTE: Griefing has nothing to do with spying and is a whole other ban-able issue.

On the other hand, not only may people choose to play on higher popped servers at any given time, those who prefer it could go to low pop servers if that suites them. Most of all, just having the option to take your characters you've invested in and play with different players would be awesome.

[Shamrock]

Its an interesting idea, and if it could provide another revenue stream without incurring disproportionate admin/technical costs then it would be worth a shot.

[Climhazzard]

Originally Posted by basti

This again?

DIdnt i tell you folks ages ago what this would do to the game? Loosing right now on server A? LETS HOP TO SERVER B LOL!

This would be the same effect as Faction hopping had in PS1. Dont bloddy do it!

It seems preferable to me to let people continue to enjoy the game than to force them to either suck it up or log off in frustration.

[shamE]

So if I joined a server that was once pretty good and then died or joined an outfit that ended up being full of douchebags or an outfit died and I'm stuck on that server, what should I do? Fuck me right? This is definitely a good idea, we to be able to switch our characters over to another server if we need to and there should be a cool down.

[Sledgecrushr]

This just makes so much sense. Ive been playing a little space marine recently. Even though there are only a couple of games available they are at least full. And if the game isnt full you are able to switch to one that is full. And this one thing I think planetside 2 has wrong. So you spend time and money on a character and if youre server isnt full...you cant leave. Soe please allow us to transfer servers so we can enjoy this game the way its meant to be, with 2000 people shooting at you.

[camycamera]

i would love universal characters so i can go and get myself shot on camera by some famous guy on youtube