So what do you want?

[Firefly]

Anyone ever play Mechwarrior 4? I enjoyed the fuck out of some city combat.

[Furret]

Definitely cities.
Maybe one capital city, one or two minor cities, and then the regular bases spread throughout the continent.
The base is either at the highest point of the city, or at the center.

And destructable trees wouldnt work. The whole planet would be a wasteland

[Kyonye]

Yeah, destructible trees would only work if battles were based on Instances. Because then I would spend the entire first couple of months trying to bring down every tree, just so no one else can have the fun in doing that.

One thing I didn't like was that all continents were islands. I'd prefer some connected continents (like earth). This way, you don't need to use a warpgate to get places. You could fly/run/drive to another continent. It makes it more realistic.

[Furret]

I can just see a bunch of people running around in MAX suits AV-ing every tree...
It'd be pretty hilarious to watch

[Penda]

Well just registered here after hearing of the mere possibility of a new Planetside . Theres actually alot I'd like to see and its a bit on the long side but who cares its exciting after all this time to have even a glimmer of hope!

1) First and foremost is an extensive and determined marketing campaign, not only in the months leading up to release but long after it as well. Planetside had next to no marketing outside of PC gaming magazines and that swiftly vanished a few months post-release. Core combat had even less.

2) Secondly, I would really really like it to be in the same setting as the first game. The NC, TR and VS are good factions with good concepts for a FPS. What I would like is for them to return, with their differences refined a bit more so we don't end up with a 'common-pool empire' like the VS initially but without compromising their uniqueness at all (in fact enhancing it). I appreciate this is difficult to do but it should be sought after in my opinion.

3) I would like Auraxis to return obviously, preferably as one planet with everything we are used to (warpgates, rebirthing, the bases etc) but not necessarily identical. There are several things I'd like to see in this regard.

• Reshape the world. If the new game picked up the NC-TR-VS conflict then it would presumably be after the original so war has been going on for awhile. Rather than remake Auraxis exactly as is now, change it around. Have the planet littered with ruined bases from the original, with some still in existance, some new ones built and others just bombed out husks.
  
  • Different Base layouts, add more variety, make some bases compact like the originals and make others massive fortifications with mutiple rings of defences inside and out.
• Along major land routes between some bases (not all) have fortifcations and chokepoints established. By this I mean pillboxes, more towers, trenches, bunkers even walls to form large defensive structures to give people places to hold the line at. Since this is a harmless what if post, make them destroyable but with massive amounts of health and likewise repairable but only very slowly so once an invading force has broken through they can rebuild them for their own use but repairs can't be done as effectively whilst under attack.
  
• Have a few new continents, preferably linked to one another rather than 'islands' but have each 'region' function the same as a normal continent. Put heavy chokepoints/forts (not bases) along the land borders between each 'continent'.
  
• As part of the above, add faction capitals. Lots of people want urban warfare and how I always imagined it for the original was adding a new continent for each empire. As a rough explanation, put the only enemy usable warpgate at one end of the continent, put a large city at the other end where members of that faction recall to/cert at/ HART from etc, bases/fortifications in between and let the other empires invade it if certain objectives are met (e.g hold continents x,y,z and caverns a,b,c). This would allow for the urban warfare everyone wants, add some uniqueness to the factions (with the different cities) but not make it more common than the open battles/base assaults we have now. If an empires capital is taken then they respawn/recall to Sanctuary which could be identical to now except only used for training/as a retreat point if the capital is taken. Add in some bonus' for taking the city/defending it and you've got some really nice battles going. Probably far from practical but no harm in throwing it out there.

3) Mostly gameplay/mechanics stuff but: -

• No NPCs, just don't go there, I have yet to play a FPS where people actually liked bots.
• Better hit detection.
  
• More variety in armour/appearance. Optional camouflage/armour patterns for each empire, but keep the empire colours on key points regardless (e.g shoulder pads/shinpads, boots). Maybe even a armour between pyjams and agile which is only a breastplate over standard vest/trousers?.
  
• No empire swapping (one empire, per account, per server), no Black ops.
  
• Achievements - yeah I know a bit gimmicky and everyone does them now, but they're a fun laugh and a nice way to see how your doing in the game + an easy way to maintain enthusiasm for those who love to chase them. Possibly add entirely non-gameplay effecting items/appearance options to certain achievements ranging from the merit ribons to berets/armour styles.
  
• Artillery - We had the flail which was okay, but I'd really like a full blown range of artillery. Everything from AA guns, through AT guns to Howitzers. Give each faction one of each + a common pool selection, and make them towable by the transport vehicles (e.g sunderer (?), deliverer, harrasser etc)
  
• Heavy Bombers - The Liberator was fine as a close support bomber, but I'd love to see some old fashioned Lancaster/B17/B52 style heavy bombers carpet bombing from high altitude.
  

4) Day/Night system where it actually does get really dark at night but on something like a 6 or 12hr cycle as opposed to a real 24hr one. Better weather.

Bit excessive I know got a bit carried away (weee PS2 *cough*)but flame away, we've got a long time to wait....

[Dorest0rm]

Easier color coding for macro's, squad names etc.

Gliding out of aircraft.

Instead of dropping down when bailing, you should glide forward and be able to glide to ur location, like a gal dropping passengers 50 meters before a BD, so the troops glide towards it instead of on top.

[ANaKeR]

Three factions but instead of islands for each of them.. have a floating sanctuary for each faction like the ship in the movie District 9.

[Dorest0rm]

Originally Posted by ANaKeR

Three factions but instead of islands for each of them.. have a floating sanctuary for each faction like the ship in the movie District 9.

It'd be so awesome to just jump off that with a bunch of tanks

[Furret]

I'm not sure why you would want a floating base. The sanctuaries should definitiely be invadable, assuming the empire who's sanc is getting invaded has lost every single CC on the planet.
No towers, no bases, no nothing.

Maybe the sancs have radar, but they're open to all until every last troop is cleared out.
And have a 5-6 hour timer, at which point everyone is kicked out, the empire who got shoved back into their sanc gain a point, and the empire regains their two home continents.

Example.
TR and VS decide on a temporary alliance to wipe out the NC (Bad idea). The entire map is cleared of NC Control Consoles, and the NC sanctuary is opened.
The possible ways this battle can go are as follows:

1) The NC, with the advantage of infinite respawns, tons of vehicle terminals, and only three bases to defend, hold off, and kick off the TR and VS. If they do so in 6 hours, the NC retake control (completely; towers and bases) of their home continent and one cavern, do not gain a point, and the massive battle resumes.

2) The NC hold off the assault for the 6 hour limit, when the NC retake control (completely; towers and bases) of their home continent and one cavern, do not gain a point, and the massive battle resumes. The NC are given one point. (Points are bad)

3) The TR and VS manage to wipe out the NC forces even at their own sanctuary, at which point the empire that captured 2/3 of the control consoles loses a point, the NC gain a point, and the NC retake control (completely; towers and bases) of their home continent and one cavern, do not gain a point, and the massive battle resumes. (Losing a point is good)

Assuming the first time any sanctuary has been invaded, the scores would stand:
TR -1
VS 0
NC 1

At this point, the game also shifts so that the NC are given a temporary 5% exp boost, and a permanent 1% exp boost (6% boost for 6 hours). The TR are given a -1% exp 'boost' and a temporary -5% exp 'boost' (-6% for 6 hours).

Instead of exp, SOE could also edit the amount of damage each empire does.

Just to go slightly more in-depth, the VS could "sanc" the NC again, and while the VS are doing that, the TR "sanc" the VS.
The scores would be:

TR: -2
VS: 0
NC: 2

Obviously, this would lead to a -2% 'boost' for the TR and a 2% boost for the NC (re-activating the temporary 5%)

Sanctuaries are complicated, and I think the 'home' team should be given an overwhelming bonus during and after their sanctuary is invaded.
I don't think "sanc-ing" would happen all that often, maybe only when servers fail, or if the VS and TR actually allied (not very likely).

But it would be a hell of a motivation to fight for your sanctuary because losing would result in a point (that are hard to gain and lose) that would last forever.
Maybe the threat of having your name be posted along with all of the other members who failed in the defense.

[Kumoblade]

I'm hoping they actually use a good developement platform for the game that has decent physics. (if they used Euphoria or Endorphin for Animation behaviors instead of prefixed animations, that would be incredible)

Some things that I'd like to see.

1 living, Breathing planet (not literally) at first With a weather and day/night cycle. It could be divided into Very large zones (10-20km) with very high flight ceilings (honestly, I'd love to be able to take out enemy satellites used for oribital strikes to assist in HQ/Sanctuary Captures)

Urban/city combat. Cities that stretch far into the sky. (preferribly the high tech, Cyberpunk kind, or metropolises like the ones seen in the anime "Metropolis") Flying between skyscrapers 2km off the ground would be incredible. And falling from a platform from that distance would be even greater =P

NO 2 BASES SHOULD BE THE SAME!

Freedom of movement (Goes with physics). No Magnets stuck to the bottoms of vehicles and people. why can't we barrel roll, do loops in a reaver/mosquito to evade attacks? Aerial Combat should take place much higher than what the flight ceiling allows. Flying around in planetside almost seems suffocating in some spots.

A sticky cover system. Some love it, some hate it.

A working economy and resources to improve/tweak your gear and vehicles. This would also give the factions a reason to fight.

To go with the Economy, There should be a somewhat hidden RTS element playing in the background. Faction based NPC harvesters should go out and collect resources. There could be outfit harvesters that could be driven by certified members to collect resources for the Outfit.

As well to go with the economy, Outfit rankings and levels which will determine what kind of allowance an Outfit will have. This allowance is what members will use to customize Gear and vehicles.

Semi-modular/Customizable Vehicles and items/gear that tie in with the economy and resources. Instead of purchasing stuff over and over, I'd propose that vehicle modifications and gear modifications would have an "upkeep" value that comes out of the allowance.

Vehicles should have Targetable locations and weak points.

Every Certification should have a Training course/challenge to go with it to get authorization for the Cert. A mission associated with the Certification that you want.

Great physic/Ragdolls with SOME blood and gore.

And get rid of Client Side Hit detection. Its horrible. Make a great network code and revamp. This is a high speed internet world.

3 Playable Factions + 1 NPC Faction of Pirates/Raiders who attack.

[Kumoblade]

Oof, I just realized I was starting to sound like I was trying to make a Dune MMOFPS. Artreides, Harkonen, Ordos and the Tuskan.. errr I mean Fremman =P

My points still stands though!.

Worm Sighting o__o

[the_k1lroy]

A Dune MMOFPS would be awesome. I would like to see Don Ferrone return to make the music for Planetside next. Planetside 1's music was amazing.

[JackEarthrider]

I haven't been playing this game long, but what is always fun in other FPS's might work here.

That being:
* A few urban environments to fight in (not all urban though)
* Semi destructable environments (certain walls, certain buildings, etc)
* More infantry cover (how many times have you been caught in the
open and then splattered)

Other than that this game seems great by its orignal formats and is one of the most increadible, and epic experiences i've seen in any FPS so far.

[JackEarthrider]

Now that I have played it a bit more I'd say that the Anti-Air is a bit too strong in this game to make aircraft any fun to fly.

That being said I don't think they should be gotten rid of, just toned down so the pilot being fired at has a chance to evade and make another pass. (although the missles are the only truely overpowered AA I have encountered so far).

[Sifer2]

I agree on Urban combat. I agree on making it a single Planet with continents again. I kind of agree on the idea of large warships. Like in Battlefield 2142 the "Titan" gunships were essentially flying bases people spawned from an had big mounted guns on them as it slowly moved around the map. And you could board it, destroy the security panels to gain access to the core, an then destroy it to bring the whole ship down. And it was always fun trying to escape it alive before it blew too haha.


As for my own ideas I would like to see them keep it set in the far alien future. More creativity with weapons an vehicles that way. Though they might consider a more "realistic" style this time. Once again kind of like Battlefield 2142.

I also want them to adopt the free to play but subscribe for bonus features business model. I think to the average FPS player this will be far more acceptable. My ideas for bonus features are as follows:

Free players are Enlisted men and can achieve near or complete BR rank. Subscribers are Officers an can achieve complete BR rank and can also advance in CR rank. They may have access to exclusive Officer lounges an such in Sanctuaries just for kicks. BTW no locking of any certs for Enlisted should occur. They should basically be able to play the core game in its entirety.

Additionally after maxing BR rank subscribers can gain points towards spawning as an Elite trooper. This is sort of like Black Ops was you are like an extra powerful an cool looking soldier of your faction. When you die though the death is permanent an you would need to earn another spawn as an Elite. BFR's if they decide to bring them back could be like the vehicle equivalent of this. I am thinking it would typically take several hours worth of earning points to get another spawn. So it wouldn't be a constant thing to see Elites all over the place.