News: My Launch Impressions

Hamma · 2012-11-24, 05:24 PM

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...sions-2913.htm

Let me know what you guys think

Hamma · 2012-11-24, 05:26 PM

First video I used my capture software to record footage instead of Fraps. Results are pretty awesome

Crator · 2012-11-24, 05:38 PM

Good points Hamma! All of them... Stats tracking thing, we need some nice interfaces that glorify promotion of the meta-game!

Serpent · 2012-11-24, 05:55 PM

Crashes and major server freezes into speeding the game up to catch up all over the place, happens pretty often for me. 60 FPS for me, on low settings, yes, but I don't understand what's going on with the crashes etc...

Fizzgig · 2012-11-24, 06:14 PM

This game is phenomenal!

Hamma · 2012-11-24, 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by Crator

Good points Hamma! All of them... Stats tracking thing, we need some nice interfaces that glorify promotion of the meta-game!

Good point

Rago · 2012-11-24, 06:35 PM

Nice Video, i like it.

Lets see where it brings us,.. ^_^

Ritual · 2012-11-24, 07:32 PM

So far everyday the server's melt for a few hours. There is a lot of lag, where vehicles don't explode, grenades don't explode, players warp or don't appear right in front of you, etc.

Other then that pretty smooth launch. Besides the whole implant thing which hasn't affected me since I have not used any trial weapons yet.

Sunrock · 2012-11-24, 08:11 PM

Re: Leader boards does not promote team play...

I do not agree that leader boards would in any way not promote team play. The main reason for them as I see it is to give you a benchmark of how good you are doing, but mostly to see if you are improving your game play. Improving your own game play benefits the team in the end of the day.

But I can see the problem with them though if people start to put too mush value of being rank #1 on the server as it might not be the best way for the team to rack up allot of kills without progressing the war effort. But the problem lies in the players mindset and not in the game feature as is.

But as a tool to help you improve your game play it makes the game more fun to play IMO.

getembees · 2012-11-24, 09:13 PM

Good call on the issues with new player experience. This isnt something too easy to accomplish, but it will really help this game in the long run as new players continue to come into the game over time.

I wonder if a "beginners archipelago" is in order. A place that new players can opt to go to, where they perform training and tutorial tasks. Maybe allow small battles separate from the continents. I'd hate to lose potential players simply because they never got their hands held during their first few hours of play. (Love fragging noobs, we gotta draw them into the fight!)

Babyfark McGeez · 2012-11-24, 11:52 PM

Oh yeah, this new player experience...it was so obvious this would be the worst possible way to do it, yet they went with it...ahwell hopefully they get the well deserved criticism from the new players over on the ps2 forums.

But overall a very impressive launch, agreeing with you there. Haven't personally seen such a smooth launch aswell.

Now let's hope they add stuff fast, i keep hearing from players the game is fun, but shallow. And that is not sounding very good. If PS2 wants to maintain interest it needs more than shooting, i don't know for how long the novelty factor of the "epic scaled" battles will last for the masses.

Edit: And let's face it, besides the fact they managed to cram in 2k people on a map (which is undoubtly impressive) PS2 has currently no real innovation or genre progression when compared to other shooters or ps1 (RTS elements, RPG elements).

Sunrock · 2012-11-25, 12:08 AM

Before I got invited to the beta for PS2 earlier this summer I had never played Planetside. It took me 3 minutes to figure out how to play this game and how to use and read the map.

But think about it CoD or Battlefield has the same learning curve too. Besides Battlefield's conquest play mode is identical to PS2... No one can say that they loose allot of players because there audience is too stupid to understand those games.

TBH I think that many of you here underestimate the intelligence of the majority of the world population. Or think this game is more complicated then it is.

Sure having tutorials in all honor is good. The more playable tutorials you have the better. But there is nothing really complicated game mech going on in this game.

Babyfark McGeez · 2012-11-25, 12:28 AM

You're right and i agree about the learning curve not being really high (then again i was used to most things from ps1).

But the thing i will constantly nag about is that hotdropping into a random location and adding you to a random squad. That's such a stupid way to start a game that it is beyond me how a professional dev team greenlit this...let alone go out of their way to change it into this in the first place...

To sum this abomination up:
- No time to set keys (!!!)
- No time to fiddle with the graphic/sound/whatever options
- No time to get the hang of classes, equipment or vehicles / aircraft
- No time for...anything
- New people not knowing that there is a safe warpgate to do the above
- Additionally often dieing in under ten seconds

Helwyr · 2012-11-25, 05:02 AM

Completely agree with the comments on new player experience and meta game. The dropping of newly made characters usually into a firing squad is terrible all on it's own.

Partially disagree with the "you must join an Outfit to truly enjoy this game." I accept that's true for some players, I even recommend it to some that seem that type. However, it's blatantly overstated in your video, and for some of us we like to mostly play outside of a squad, and "lone wolf" as it's often labeled. Don't assume everyone that does that hasn't experienced organized teamplay and doesn't care about their Empire doing well.

Stats... you do see the irony in you ranting about stats and then plugging the new API

If people don't like stats, they can just not look at them. I actually like K/D stats for the reason many do not, the fear of death. Shooters including Planetside lack any real loss, unlike Sandbox MMOs like DFO and EVE. If K/D stats can add just a little more sting all the better IMO. I don't think this is detrimental to teamplay either.

Crator · 2012-11-25, 08:59 AM

Originally Posted by Sunrock

Before I got invited to the beta for PS2 earlier this summer I had never played Planetside. It took me 3 minutes to figure out how to play this game and how to use and read the map.

But think about it CoD or Battlefield has the same learning curve too. Besides Battlefield's conquest play mode is identical to PS2... No one can say that they loose allot of players because there audience is too stupid to understand those games.

TBH I think that many of you here underestimate the intelligence of the majority of the world population. Or think this game is more complicated then it is.

Sure having tutorials in all honor is good. The more playable tutorials you have the better. But there is nothing really complicated game mech going on in this game.

But just think about how many more people you would retain, right out the gate the first time they try it, if there was a more guided tutorial.

PS2 does a little more then just the first IA drop pod to teach people now though. Haven't seen many mention it but since launch they added a few pop-up dialogs to certain menu items that give a detailed description of it.

I HATE having to go search around for info about a game (i.e. SWG turned me off in this regard). You could say, "Past experience from other games!". Yes, true, and typically game developers build their games that use systems from other games because of familiarity purposes. But what if this new game that came out has something in it that no other game has? Or does it differently? You must tell the players about those things! And what about players who are completely new to gaming? Should they go play a less advanced game first to build knowledge on how games work then come back to play this one?