News: Firing Line PlanetSide 2 Concerns

Hamma · 2012-03-25, 12:23 PM

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...cerns-2726.htm

Stardouser · 2012-03-25, 12:27 PM

I am concerned about long term objectives but having experience with games that have no vehicle exit/entry animation, I consider it no problem not to have the animation. If a guy bails from a vehicle, kill him. If you are in an aircraft and you force the enemy pilot to bail, that's a victory even if he escapes you. It's not a duel to the death simulator.

Now I know there are more aspects to this than simply people bailing out of vehicles, but how about simply making it so that people who drive vehicles are given a sort of "Crew Kit" that leaves them with a relatively modest rifle and no grenades, no heavy armor, etc? That way, people that bail from vehicles, it's not like they can then continue to run around as MAXs or anything.

Skitrel · 2012-03-25, 12:33 PM

Same as everything else. People are worried because people really WANT PS2 to be a massive blockbuster.

All we can do is wait til beta, see how SOE's ideas play out with the community, then watch as tonnes of changes occur as part of community feedback.

The game they present in beta will be far from the game we see at eventual launch. Something people need to remember right now is that beta is NOT launch, it worries me that people are seemingly acting like it is.

There will be huge changes between beta release and launch, all we can do is voice our pre-emptive concerns and give their ideas a chance in beta. If they work then great! If not, don't worry, they'll change.

Stardouser · 2012-03-25, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by Skitrel

Same as everything else. People are worried because people really WANT PS2 to be a massive blockbuster.

All we can do is wait til beta, see how SOE's ideas play out with the community, then watch as tonnes of changes occur as part of community feedback.

The game they present in beta will be far from the game we see at eventual launch. Something people need to remember right now is that beta is NOT launch, it worries me that people are seemingly acting like it is.

There will be huge changes between beta release and launch, all we can do is voice our pre-emptive concerns and give their ideas a chance in beta. If they work then great! If not, don't worry, they'll change.

I'm accustomed to DICE/EA and BF3, which means, waiting for beta means if it makes it to beta you will have to scream your head off to get it changed and it still may not change. Hopefully SOE isn't like that!

Bazilx · 2012-03-25, 12:47 PM

We should have continent domination/locking! Long term goals up in here!

Bruttal · 2012-03-25, 12:48 PM

"The Point"

Theres deep lore behind what were doing there on Auraxis Besides what do you expect there to be?. If you play another one of these FPS games all you get is 15mins of a map and then it resets sure your stats and gun choices you unlocked carry on with you, but so do they in planetside. I honestly do not think you Understand what planetside is at all sir.

And am pretty sure that Hibby never said there will never be animations he just told us it would take another 6months off release date. that being said 6months is a long time for a F2P witch will only make its money though a cash shop.

I Honestly believe some people just have to nitpick about the first thing they see. and yeah am waiting for one of our own people to trash my post but IDK have fun.

Skitrel · 2012-03-25, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by Stardouser

I'm accustomed to DICE/EA and BF3, which means, waiting for beta means if it makes it to beta you will have to scream your head off to get it changed and it still may not change. Hopefully SOE isn't like that!

That's because their beta is a crunch time bugfix and demo before release. PS2 beta won't be 1 week of poorly organised nonsense.

If it doesn't last at least a few months I'll be surprised.

Bazilx · 2012-03-25, 12:50 PM

Entry/Exit animations, the number 1 bought thing in the shop for sony-bux post launch.

dachlatte · 2012-03-25, 12:52 PM

the only valid point he made about entry/exit animation is immersion. you coud circumvent the delay in ps1 by entering the vehicle and then pressing the hotkey for the map("m" by default) twice and off you go.

and whats up with his concerns for the "long term objectives"? makeing new friends and havin a blast with them, character progression/stats and building a reputation isnt enough? i mean the core concept of the game is an endless war. what does he expect?
is there even any other game with "long term objectives" whatever the hell he means by that?

the game is 100% pvp. players are the content. if he wants any meaningful long term goals he has to set them himself.

it seems the whole point of his article was to create drama

xASUSx · 2012-03-25, 01:00 PM

well do you want ps to come out soon or 6 months from now! that is how long it will take to get the animations in the game.. we dont need them.

Gandhi · 2012-03-25, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by xASUSx

well do you want ps to come out soon or 6 months from now! that is how long it will take to get the animations in the game.. we dont need them.

I really doubt we'll see it released in less than 6 months anyway. I'm leaning toward beta in a month or two and release at the end of the year.

sylphaen · 2012-03-25, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by xASUSx

well do you want ps to come out soon or 6 months from now! that is how long it will take to get the animations in the game.. we dont need them.

Why do people keep talking about immersion ? The article mentions how animations affect gameplay:
"And I know what some of you are thinking. Gameplay is all that matters, and who cares about goofy things like immersion, amirite? Well, the entry/exit animations had a tangible effect on gameplay as well, since they basically prevented players from instantly taking control of a vehicle and escaping a bad situation. The delay affected the pace of battles both large and small, and it added one more tactical consideration that made PlanetSide less of a game and more of a virtual world."

Animations may not be needed but I think a timer is necessary to prevent the cheesiness of instant entry/exit. That does not take 6 months to implement.

Stardouser · 2012-03-25, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by Bazilx

Entry/Exit animations, the number 1 bought thing in the shop for sony-bux post launch.

I don't understand why people would buy animations...to me this is a balance thing first and foremost. People don't want infantry retreating into vehicles to escape gunfire, or insta-bailing out of vehicles and denying a kill. Note that I don't agree with these reasons and don't think we need animations for those reasons, but who would buy an animation for immersion that's going to get them killed if the game doesn't force the animation on them?

Originally Posted by WildVS

Something like WW2OL's campaigns would go a long way to providing some meaning.

Planetside and WW2OL aren't that different in game world except that WW2OL is one contiguous landmass and PS is not. Also I'd say Planetside has resources where WW2OL does not. I too would prefer a larger contiguous gameworld, it would also reduce the need for shards/servers.

One thing that I really like about WW2 OL is how the airfields are quite far away and you have to fly for a good distance to get aircraft to the front line.

Vancha · 2012-03-25, 01:27 PM

I guess I'll just repost the same thing I did there...

Boarding animations: Aye, it's a step backwards. Apparently it was a shock to the devs that anyone still wanted them, let alone saw them as a glaring omission from the game. I expect I've argued the point with Raymac before, but it did add immersion...Yes, you got switched to third-person, but that's still a lot more immersive than vanishing into thin-air. People also seem to talk about seeing others get into vehicles instead of themselves. It's very atmospheric to see people getting in and out of their vehicles before the war party rolls off to another base.

"The point": Ignore the featherers, it *is* an issue. The battle should never "end", but there does need to be a greater meaning attached to battles. One of the more popular ideas is tying in some more of the story of Planetside...Letting the events and winners of battles in-game dictate the direction of the storyline. Having campaigns and goals based on lore etc.

Of course, immersion would help there too. If you feel more like you're there, if you feel more like you've fought for an army instead of played for a fictional empire, it's going to matter more to you.

Shogun · 2012-03-25, 01:27 PM

most betas nowadays don´t deserve the name beta. especially console betas. they are often abused as marketing tools of the final product, cut down to one or two levels. those "betas" are demos, not betas.

a real beta is needed for a big mmo title as ps2. and the devs said it on numerous occasions, that they will use the beta as a very important developement tool. i wasn´t in planetside 1 beta but i heard that the final game changed a lot from the first beta version. and a huge amount of things and gamesystems have been changed due to betafeedback.
so don´t expect this beta to be a preview of the final game where everything is already set in stone.

on topic: i will miss enter animation mostly when watching other players enter their vehicles. on organized mass raids, watching the armys sit up started this unique planetside feeling of taking part in an actual war. watching soldiers run up to vehicles and just vanish there, just will not be the same.
really hope they will be patched in one by one after launch, to give ps2 the polish it deserves.

i am not sure about the longterm goals, but i guess this is something we could discuss better after release, or if the game really gets boring too fast during beta. the game will evolve, we already got a 5 year plan confirmed, so there is plenty of time after launch to add something to the metagame.