Planetside 2 a worthy sequel?

[Vertoxis]

considering this has been time and time again said to be a TRUE BETA TEST.. not a Marketing beta like many recent games have been doing...

There are many changes to come and bug fixes....

Wouldnt surprise me if stuff like Sphere of Influence so people cannot drop directly on bases and such will get placed in the game...

Remember ... play and do things like dropping on bases as much as possible.. because if it becomes a glaringly effective strategy ... to the point of no one using anything else.. trust me it will get changed.. thats what a beta is for

[brighthand]

Originally Posted by Vertoxis

considering this has been time and time again said to be a TRUE BETA TEST.. not a Marketing beta like many recent games have been doing...

There are many changes to come and bug fixes....

Wouldnt surprise me if stuff like Sphere of Influence so people cannot drop directly on bases and such will get placed in the game...

Remember ... play and do things like dropping on bases as much as possible.. because if it becomes a glaringly effective strategy ... to the point of no one using anything else.. trust me it will get changed.. thats what a beta is for

Are you referring to Gal drops, an iconic tactic of the first Planetside? If so, then preventing direct drops on base would probably degrade the game.

[MrBloodworth]

Originally Posted by Vertoxis

considering this has been time and time again said to be a TRUE BETA TEST.. not a Marketing beta like many recent games have been doing...

Never, in my 20 years of beta testing have major systems been revamped in beta.

I'll believe it when I see it.

[Duskguy]

im new to planetside, but i've been a BF player for a while.

worried about the game being completely F2P and (possibly) the station cash shop.
-no initial cost means anyone can play. while this invites more players, i worry about those younger gamers. i've been on xbox for the past 5 years and can say with confidence, little kids can ruin the game (random needless trash talk, music playing over he mic, simple bad play)
-dont like the fact that the shop COULD turn into a buyers win thing, even if they dont give weapons. if there is an in game equivalent that is maybe not as great or doesnt last as long as the station cash version, i wouldnt mind at all

looking forward to the large maps and large player base.
i admit there will likely be lots of zerg battles, but i dont think PS1 players need to worry about that especially since while the front lines look like they would be the zerg battles, you could drive/fly around and take a new point.
in addition to being able to go around, being that there are lots of players, the main zerg can be at the front and outfits could flank around.

i believe outfits working together to coordinate will lead to that strategic fighting mentioned as being in PS1. and will be key to who can get the upperhand (at first). having an outfit or two with a few platoons organizing attacks across a large front behind the main lines could force the enemy to give up those facilities or lessen the defense of the main battle.

[Goldeh]

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

Never, in my 20 years of beta testing have major systems been revamped in beta.

I'll believe it when I see it.

20 years worth of beta testing eh? They must have you chained up to the computer or something

[VaderShake]

As a gamer for over 30 years I think everyone would be better served if they looked at PS2 being it's own game. Franchises often struggle with producing "true sequels" unless the just cookie cut the same technology with the same content plus a few new bells as whistles which eventually gets boring or is forced to change with technology upgrades.

PS2 takes a big leap in it's vision and aspiration over PS1 and is it's own game that will appeal to who it appeals to. I hope it keeps the PS1 vets and adds a large crowd wanting more than current FPS's have to offer.

[Noctis]

It's not a sequel, it's a 10 yr after re-do.

[NePaS]

Originally Posted by brighthand

Are you referring to Gal drops, an iconic tactic of the first Planetside? If so, then preventing direct drops on base would probably degrade the game.

He means drop podding.

[MrBloodworth]

Originally Posted by Noctis

It's not a sequel, it's a 10 yr after re-do.

[Program]

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

This concurs with my feelings as well. Other than large battles, im not seeing much Planetside.

All the bases seem to be arena style designs. With no doors to direct or change the flow. The "Breach and siege" game is gone. Coupled with lack of an SOI, no fronts to base assaults. The Continents themselves are little more than server selections with the advent of each empire having a home base on each. There will be no GLOBAL movement of fronts.

The most positive thing I can say, is the art is fantastic, and the shooting looks solid.

Yeah, I agree with your here. I've never played the original Planetside, but I do notice a distinct lack of walls when comparing the PS2 facilities with the original bases. I also wish there were an open class system, an inventory, and that the game offered a bit more player freedom.

However, the shooting looks great and it's a gigantic game!

[Deadman]

I've been playing games for a very long time and I am a [sadly, unsubbed vet] ex-PS1 player and when I came back to PS1 during the free month they gave us I was still very impressed with it all. There are some things I personally felt could be improved and these are just my opinions so any true long term players please keep that in mind before flame-throwing me to death.

- The base layouts where not siege friendly. The bottleneck corridors when attacking or defending just became too cluttered and ended up just being a grenade spam fest.

-Once you capped a facility an invading army just sat and camped it for 15 minutes until the hack came through. This is fine but 99% of my experience the opposing faction would cut their loses and rally to defend an adjacent base. So, as an aggressor, you would often have to sit and wait jumping up and down or knifing each other out of boredom. Incentive to reclaim a facility from an invading force needed to be greater.

- BFR's should have never been implemented. Personally I stayed away from the caves as well.

On the flip side of things:

Accessibility is a buzz word thats been floating around for a while now when Devs talk about their latest projects, but I think accessibility is a double-edge sword.
I've played a number of games that are (strange as it might sound) too accessible. I dont particularly mean dumbed down or designed for bad players I mean the elimination of certain aspects, choices or "work" that add to immersion of a game. Its sometimes ok if it takes time or "work" to accomplish something because its part of the journey or adventures you have. e.g a platoon leader may sound out a recall to sanctuary to organize a Gal drop. This takes time and with today's standards is not convenient and is too time consuming when players just want to stay in the action. Its a logical counter-argument but in PS1, even that was fun.
You would recall, climb in a Gal spot, chat a bit and get assigned a target then, when everyone was ready, you would all set off as one deadly force. You can still do this in PS2 by all means but I suspect it might be less common due to squad spawning if its not implemented correctly. This is just one small, and possible too vague, concern of many when I look at how other developers have made their games a little too convenient.
Its very hard to say what is a positive and what is a negative addition to a game though. Blizzard are doing "accessibility" wrong for example (for anyone who plays their games).

[LampShade]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

I agree with this. I can't help but feel there will be no room for strategy, only directing the flow of the zerg. It is hard to speculate on this subject without seeing what objectives there are though.

This goes along with the driver=gunner thing... I liked the fact that the driver wasn't the gunner in PS. It really made it so you had to communicate and work together rather than just jump inside a tank and go blow stuff up. Logistics is similar.

Originally Posted by Deadman

- BFR's should have never been implemented. Personally I stayed away from the caves as well.

You would recall, climb in a Gal spot, chat a bit and get assigned a target then, when everyone was ready, you would all set off as one deadly force. You can still do this in PS2 by all means but I suspect it might be less common due to squad spawning if its not implemented correctly. This is just one small concern of many when I look at how other developers have made their games a little too convenient.

BFRs were terrible, totally agree.

Myself and my out of LOVED the caves. It was a good change of pace that we would do maybe 1 out of every 3 or 4 times we played, not every time by any means. I think we actually had a "cavern night" once a week.

I hope the Squad spawn does not become OP. They should NOT have ways for people to increase the Squad spawn time, IMO. It should be constant for everyone. Or if increased, increase it by only like 5-10%, nothing significant like 30% or god forbid 50%....

Maybe instead of "Squad Spawning" This would by done via galaxy when the Galaxy is mid-air. This would require someone to be piloting the Galaxy and would also require some defense to ensure it doesn't get shot down... So in other words, it's very difficult to get a Galaxy to stay afloat for long over an enemy base that is well defended. People can continue to "squad spawn" from the galaxy until it is shot down...

[RoninOni]

Originally Posted by Otleaz

I agree with this. I can't help but feel there will be no room for strategy, only directing the flow of the zerg. It is hard to speculate on this subject without seeing what objectives there are though.

During some of their interviews they talked about a mission system created by players... so players who certify into a "command tier" will be able to create missions other players can accept.

It's not in yet, so still in development and who knows exactly how it will work and what types of missions you can give, but I'm hoping for a fairly comprehensible system allowing for scouting/patrol routes, troop transport and escorts, etc allowing tactical minded players to help focus their forces into more organized actions than the pure zerging that you currently see in the streams.

If they pull off this mission system right, I already have a few designs on it... a couple of ideas to do some fun, sidegames even. It's going to be hell to manage even with a good system so I'm hoping for a great system

@Lamp: Galaxy's can be deployed to offer squad spawn.... so there is that.... though it's buggy at times in the current build from watching last nights Higby stream. NBD ofc as it's beta... beta is beta ... but yah, I think they need to increase the delay on re-squad spawn (they might have superficially lowered it since gal spawns seem glitched, who knows)

Additionally, I think they need to put a 5-10 min wait timer on MAXes.... if you die in a MAX you shouldn't be able to spawn in another right away.

Finally, I understand how imbalanced BFR's were in PS1, but that doesn't make them a horrible concept... I'd like to see them return actually but they'd need to be balanced better. Couple of ideas.... #1 you can always nerf their armor and firepower #2 Give a much higher resource cost and wait time than any other vehicle #3 Limit their ground speed so they'd primarily be used for defense.

I mean hell, I have hopes for PS2 that will add even more powerful vehicles than BFR's honestly... if and when they add Naval combat between continents I'd like to see massive carriers that would take an IMMENSE resource cost (Outfits would need to pool resources to buy one for the outfit). Carrier Captains could enter the bridge to layout a course or could take the wheel for manual control (but it's a big honkin ship and not that maneuverable). The carrier would have vehicle spawn terminals, maybe long range artillery for shelling coast lines (or more likely those go on the battleships), and lots of ship to ship and AA gun posts. Losing a Carrier would be a HUGE blow to an outfit. Then there would be battleships that could be manned by 3-6 players, submarine 1-2 man underwater fighters, and troop/tank landing craft to take landing parties from the carriers. (Primarily to land tanks as Troops would be more apt to ride Gals from the Carrier). There could even be a few "Oil Drilling platforms" off the coasts to give more for naval crews to combat over.

Then allow the 'HQ' on each continent to actually be capped/destroyed, so a Faction forced off a continent would need to embark on a DDay to re-establish a foothold.

[Deadman]

I agree the BFR's could have been altered to a point where they were less frustrating to have around. Im excited about the prospect of new powerful and impressive looking titans of war in the future, however balance is the primary concern.
Limit the number of them on the same map? Players whine. Limit them to only the highest ranked players? Players whine. Inevitably the devs cave in from all the bitching on the forums and allow everyone and their mother to drive around in death machines. The game morphs into the next Mechwarrior game but one that feels very unengaging and stale.

So you would have to consider adding these cool things but not having 6000 of them roaming around at the same time and somehow keeping the playerbase happy (most players want access to everything these days without wait). Your idea of a outfit resource pool could well solve that as long as it was designed so it wouldn't go out of hand.

[SUBARU]

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

This concurs with my feelings as well. Other than large battles, im not seeing much Planetside.

All the bases seem to be arena style designs. With no doors to direct or change the flow. The "Breach and siege" game is gone. Coupled with lack of an SOI, no fronts to base assaults. The Continents themselves are little more than server selections with the advent of each empire having a home base on each. There will be no GLOBAL movement of fronts.

The most positive thing I can say, is the art is fantastic, and the shooting looks solid.

Well said