Reserves, done right - Page 3

DviddLeff · 2011-03-03, 12:03 PM

Here is my system:

Free Trial: Maximum BR6, CR0, Cannot lead squads
Box/one time fee purchased only: Maximum BR10, CR3
Subscription: Maximum BR 20, CR5.
Once a player has been subscribed for three years, they get to carry on without paying further subscriptions.
Alternatively players could spend the equivalent of a years subscription to become a lifetime member, with the same opportunities of a subscribed player, but no recurring cost.

Free trial is through steam, thereby requiring a credit card.

Traak · 2011-03-03, 12:28 PM

Want to see PS REALLY rock? Bundle it with gaming towers and laptops. Play free for three months. Heck, that would make it financially feasible, encourage cheatlessness, as you could be banned and kiboshed from the game if you cheated, and expose it to a much wider audience.

What will make PS really rock is numbers. We need more people. What we do not need is the SAME people who are already playing to have access to any kind of free (thus unlimited in number) accounts. This does not increase the userbase, it increases the cheaterbase among people who already play the game.

morf · 2011-03-03, 01:28 PM

I guess everyone has their own ideas on what would make a good trial/demo, but it looks like there's pretty much a consensus that free players should be placed on the empire with the lowest pop. This would solve a major problem that caused a good number of people to leave planetside.

Traak · 2011-03-03, 01:41 PM

Great. Put up a server that has new players only. The moment they want to pay, they get transferred to the REAL server.

DviddLeff · 2011-03-03, 01:49 PM

A major point of having the free trial is to keep populations up.

Timantium · 2011-03-03, 01:59 PM

What if the reserves weren't allowed to carry any weapons, only big shields that I could hide behind. Or we could spawn them in as trees, rocks and other things that we "need" in the game.

If we make them all do mundane stuff like drive ANTs and fill NTU silos until they sub for the game, why would they ever sub for the game OR sign up for a free trial?

Originally Posted by PsychoXR-20

Forcing people into doing roles they don't find entertaining is not the best way to find new customers.

This.

Originally Posted by Traak

Nah, raise the game cost to 50 bucks a month, and nobody plays AT ALL. Then we will see who has ONE accounts, or ONE. Not ANY, that's for sure.

Fixed

Azellon · 2011-03-03, 02:15 PM

I gotta admit, PS Reserves made me pick the game up for a while again to see if it had become any better.

Reserves will increase bodies, which is exactly what the game needs, so saying no to having the Reserves at all, or suggesting ludicrous ideas about how to restrict them, is detrimental to the game we supposedly like playing. A poplocked battle that takes hours or even days (Cyssor bridge battles anyone?) is and has always been vastly more entertaining than a small skirmish. Reserves going to low pop empires will increase the likelihood of these battles. Requiring a credit card is smart and will turn off a lot of hackers, going through Steam is also smart.

I would say shove them into the larger battles to bring those battles closer to full. Squads will go off on independent ops frequently. I've had IA drop me where one person was shooting at CE stuff. I've had IA put me in the middle of nowhere with nobody around. That sucked bad.

Hamma · 2011-03-03, 02:22 PM

There is a whole lot of non-constructive posts being made in this thread. If you do not have a legitimate constructive post to make then please do everyone a favor and don't reply.

morf · 2011-03-03, 02:53 PM

Guys I'm not saying that they are just here to plug undesirable roles, just whatever is needed. They might be gunning a prowler one minute, riding in a juggernaut the next, and stomping around in an AA max the next. They get to experience it all. Hell if an empire is under pop I wouldn't mind if it spawned a tank full of reserves now and then. BF2 has been discussed a lot here and this is what gave me the idea, if you're in a squad and you die and your leader is in a chopper, you spawn right there in the chopper. It's fun because you get back into the fight quicker. Like I said, very similar experience to a traditional fps.

Nowhere did I say that reserves would not have fun, nor would they be fodder. A reserve can and will melt your face at some point. The loadout profiles would contain the same weapons and armor as other players are using for the particular role they spawn as. This idea let's them sample all of the roles psn has to offer and at the beginning and end of a session they could throw in an advertisement to let them know what they are missing, namely, the freedom to play your favorite role 24/7. Most game demos give you a single level to play if you are lucky.

Always having a gunner for your vehicle is a huge convenience benefit. More people could cert for gals and transport would be more available. Why wait around? Convenience attracts a lot of different types of players. World of warcraft proved this. Most of it's predecessors had excessive death penalties, travel was made intentionally hard, you couldn't level without a group and if your class was not desirable you could spend 4 hours finding one (I'm looking at you, everquest) - people said you had to have penalties, frustrations etc. or the victories wouldn't be as sweet. Boy were they wrong.

There are millions (literally millions) of people out there who will play any game just because it is free. I'm pretty confident that something like this would crush some of the most popular free options.

Timantium · 2011-03-03, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by morf

Guys I'm not saying that they are just here to plug undesirable roles, just whatever is needed. They might be gunning a prowler one minute, riding in a juggernaut the next, and stomping around in an AA max the next.

Yes, you are. Define "undersirable roles." What if I want to run ANTs and fill silos all day? You are telling me I would have to gun a prowler or ride in a juggernaut instead of doing what I want to do?

Anytime you tell me what role I have to play and I don't get to choose for myself, that is automatically an undersirable role. Ever wonder why that role might be "needed" in the first place? It's because nobody wants to do it. And on a side note, I would never want some scrub freeloader auto-spawning in my magrider. I'd rather drive off a cliff.

If I have no choice of my role, then that is not me playing a game, that's a game playing me. People do what they are told all the time, at work. Nobody wants to come home and be controlled like this in a game. The game is supposed to be an escape from this type of control.

I would rather be stuck in reserves training against VR units or other reserves in VR training than spawn in the passenger seat of the worst galaxy pilot in Auraxis. Everybody likes your "make them play the lowest pop" idea, stick with that and move on.

**EDIT**
Another thought, how would we start new skirmishes and open new continents if the system was auto-spawning groups of reservists at the points of need? I would hate to go through the trouble of trying to open a new continent and get flooded with tons of free accounts auto spawning on top of me because they system detected hot spots.

Azellon · 2011-03-03, 04:04 PM

That's why I suggested having them spawn where populations were already high, but one side is smaller than another. That way they truly are "reserves" called in when the full-timers don't have quite the numbers they want. This is the way IA should work imo. I don't want to hit IA and drop to where one person is hacking a base to gain a foothold. I kill him and it's over. Boring.

morf · 2011-03-03, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by Timantium

What if I want to run ANTs and fill silos all day? You are telling me I would have to gun a prowler or ride in a juggernaut instead of doing what I want to do?

Not if you subscribe. You can drive ANT's off a cliff all day long if that's your fancy.

Originally Posted by Timantium

**EDIT**
Another thought, how would we start new skirmishes and open new continents if the system was auto-spawning groups of reservists at the points of need? I would hate to go through the trouble of trying to open a new continent and get flooded with tons of free accounts auto spawning on top of me because they system detected hot spots.

Crushed by a squad of reserves? Assuming the pops are even (which they should be) all you need to do is sit back for a minute and wait for your reserves to arrive. There, you have the battle you wanted, faster than ever.

I hadn't really thought about this before, but it's a good way to stop people from sitting on the highest pop empire and ghost hacking bases.

I understand your mentality about keeping the game simple. PS was and is a great game, but it had flaws and it lost a ton of players that it didn't need to. A new game is a chance to keep the things we liked about PS and for the devs to solve some of the complaints from last time around. I've seen people complain about low pops, necessary roles that no one wants to fill, ghost hacking, and population imbalance. No system is perfect, but if someone has a better idea to address these issues I'd like to hear it. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way, I'd really like to hear it.

Timantium · 2011-03-04, 03:17 PM

Originally Posted by morf

I understand your mentality about keeping the game simple. PS was and is a great game, but it had flaws and it lost a ton of players that it didn't need to. A new game is a chance to keep the things we liked about PS and for the devs to solve some of the complaints from last time around. I've seen people complain about low pops, necessary roles that no one wants to fill, ghost hacking, and population imbalance. No system is perfect, but if someone has a better idea to address these issues I'd like to hear it. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way, I'd really like to hear it.

I think the general consensus is positive for the reserves being forced into the empire with the lowest pop. That is certainly fine with me. The thing I do not want is to control how the reserves help in the fight. So here is, as you requested, a NEW idea

Certainly, let reserves try out different roles that will help them demo the game. Instead of forcing them into a tail-gun seat or spawning them at a recently captured base with a gluegun and a map of the turrets, lets give them a pulldown menu that shows "needed" roles that are generated from players macroing for gunners, passengers, etc.

Then, they can pick which of the "needed" roles they could try out. Also, they could tooltip over any of those roles (or perhaps an inactive list of "typical" roles) to get a description of what the role is and how to fill it effectively. If they just want to run around and explore, let them.

Traak · 2011-03-04, 04:25 PM

If Sony can control the cheating, reserves are a great idea. If they can't, well, we have bigger problems, I think. My main concern is the multiple-account holders using their little reserve pet to spy on an empire he is SUPPOSED to be fighting FOR.

Sifer2 · 2011-03-04, 04:46 PM

Morf is correct that there are millions who will play something just because its free. Though i'm not sure if these are the kind of players we want. An even if they were I still doubt this random spawning system would convince them to subscribe. Which is what is important from SOE's view.

Also how would this system even know what is needed? Filling gunner slots is simple I guess. Until they jump right out cause they wanted to do something else. But how does it know an AA max is needed? Does some CR5 just build them like its an RTS? Play for free an be a unit in some players RTS lol. If its left up to a computer who knows what kind of crazy spawns we will get.

A better system is probably BR6 no ability to lead squads. An being limited to joining the lowest pop Empire/Continent. Possibly no access to certain vehicles/weapons. Maybe no achievements/badges either.