GU12 Feedback: Gameplay Interference

[Mordelicius]

Post your GU12 feedback.

Here's mine:

GU12 is easily the worst update they've ever concocted. It's pure gameplay interference. The Developer hands are where they shouldn't be. If there is a 4th faction, I'd call this 5th faction interference. Of course I'm talking about the


No Deploy Zone for Sunderer AMS - There are so many things to say about this that I don't know where to really start.

In basketball, I remember there was a 3-second rule where the defender can't camp under the basket if they aren't defending anyone. If they do, the ref will count to 3. If they are still there, they get a warning. Henceforth, on each and every iteration of this violation, the offense gets a freethrow. This No-deploy zone we got is permanent with no counter. You get the idea if that was implemented permanently in basketball.

On top of that, it's also a bad precedent (a tantamount to a slippery slope). The amount of community resistance they received didn't matter (watchout, they are trying to pass off a VS helmet as NS as well). All the reasoning in the world couldn't stop it. All the 2 votes against : 1 vote for ratio didn't count either. Another sad aspect is that they've been pushing this for months and yet they couldn't offer an iota of rationale thrust behind it: not a single word!

It's so bad that looking for the advantages out of it is like looking for the positives, of say, Malaria.

Planetside 2 is about massive combat on an epic scale, we've heard about it and it's all true up to now. This artificial 'mechanic' inhibits the potential of every single fight. I'm gonna fire off one by one the effects of this so far

Medium-Long Range Battles - Most of the fights have now degenerated to medium-long range fights. As i've predicted in previous threads, the defenders already know where the opposition is coming from. All they have to do is point their weapons in the general direction (especially in a tower). And with the base designs (lacking covers) and low TTK, it either bob up and shoot or charge and downright get massacred. And then the sunderer blows up. Which leads us to the next point:

Walk & Wipe - It's not just the size of the No-deploy zone is bad, its' the lack of cover. Sunderers end up in the most awkward places far away from the points. This is especially true in tower fights. Two days ago, we wiped 3 times on the tower, I just logged out in disgust. There's nowhere to put the sunderers: either put it in an exposed building and repair spam or stash it away in a faraway cover.

Anytime we even get close to getting two points, the Sunderers will explode and the whole frontline will collapse in a complete failure cascade (the attacker will then regroup in tedium while the defenders wait in boredom repeating this cycle ad nauseum) Again, this point leads us to:

Shortened Battles - The battles are much shorter now. The long, protracted meatgrinder fights are gone. I call these zones the no-fun zone. No good fights ever come out of it. (I've also read, they are shortening the cap times in PTS, so this probably part of a new PS2 theme).

The other day, the Vanu were so confident they will take Peris amp station during an alert (outnumbering us at least 2:1), that they've been talking trash. They took A point and was sure to capture the base when we got reinforcements. Just like that in one single push, they wiped on A. And as a movie director would say "Cut!", the action stops, almost eerily. We moved to the walls, while they try to push in new sunderers from the tower satellite to no avail, it was already over. It's all easy pickings. The battles are turning to Wack-a-Sundy. This point finally lead us to

Battleflow Disruption - combine all that and you got a very uneven battleflow. Walking, Medium/Long range shoot outs, Sundy hunting/defending, Wiping, regroup tediously. Repeat the short fights cycle.

For a game that prides itself on epic, large-scale battles this is not a step backward but a tumble one floor downward. This limited the gameplay potential by that much. All the creative things event that players do or happen under zone has been restricted. Remember the suicide Sundies (storming in out of nowhere) that has about 15% chance of sticking/deploaying under heavy fire, you won't see that anymore. All the unpredictable stuff that can happen, an anything goes feeling is gone. And it's as predicted on my previous posts about this. All those potential, exciting things that can happen without the No-deploy zone are all gone.

The Developers should be giving us tools to fight each other. Not unnecessary, unwanted, unrewarding mechanics that restricts us from fighting, by limiting combat scenarios. I honestly don't believe the Developers play their own game enough. If they did, they won't even consider implementing this, much less bulldoze it through much community resistance (They ought to just discontinue the Roadmap program. It's just a source of pain for both sides. It promulgates lofty expectations, and player feedback over there are worthless and wasted when they simply overrule on a whim).

They could have given us Jamming Sunderers that actually do the same thing but actually can be interacted with by the players while giving the clashes more depth.

MLG related? - I've thought and thought what could be the driving force behind this. Initially, I figured it was to prevent spawn camping. But then again, in an even 1:1 fight, the attacker is disadvantaged because, defense spawn point is invulnerable and players can shoot out of it, while a Sundy/Spawn beacon can easily be destroyed. In a 2:1 fight, will it make much of a difference? No, the current base designs naturally conduce spawn camping, so it's unavoidable.

So what could it be the reasoning behind this? Since, the Developers have been mum about it for months and from the beginning, and basically offering nothing (I know they will say 'they don't have to'. Fine), i'll just go and guess then.

The closest thing I've come up is that this is MLG related. I'm really anxious to see the Battle Islands. First thing, i'll do is get a Sunderer and check all the no-deploy zones and check if it's perfectly calibrated to the surroundings and base designs. In a 48 vs 48 with many bases, i'd imagine a Sunderer parked too close will be advantageous to the attacker. There would be a shortage of players and there won't be enough DPS to take it down. Whereas in the live, continental servers, there is a much higher player limit, and DPS isn't an issue.

As a final summary this no-deploy 'mechanic' is a self-inflicted wound for PS2. They've literally garroted their own advantages and what separates them from the pack.

Some posts about the No Deploy Zones before it was rammed through with poor consideration:

http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...t=55611&page=2
http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...t=55611&page=4
http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...ad.php?t=53073


Faction Recommendation - It's nowhere near as bad as the No-deploy zone. I simply disagree. It artificially balances the server population (they will still gravitate towards the OP faction in the long run). Sure, it saved a server like Mattherson. I much prefer they balance the factions and limit 4th faction activity/reward specially during alerts. These are the fundamental flaws in the system.

A player switching faction during an alert should not get a cert reward. When a player logs out, they should get a message: "Switching factions during an alert will not confer a cert reward at the conclusion of the alert. Click ok to continue".

I'll still say the MLG will fix any underlying faction imbalance. It will be a debacle if they leave all the balance as is. If they normalize all gears, the OP faction will suffer not being used to normal items.