Constructive Criticism (No Whinging-ish)

[zedapollo]

I've been playing the beta for a few weeks now and I've noticed a few problems that don't seem to be mentioned that often or at all on the forums. So just want to see whether I'm a retard and don't understand something or whether others think it's a problem too.

1) Vehicles take so little damage, from fighters to galaxies.

It's ridiculous that a lightning can only take 2 AT rockets or even one accurate strafing run from a fighter and it's gone. Even the MBTs take very little damage. I know they don't want to make all the vehicles OP and get rid of infantry play but at the moment it's kind of silly. My idea would be to increase the armor on practically all vehicles but do it in an intelligent way such as increasing front and side armor. This way well trained infantry units could still take them out by flanking etc. I would also increase the number of rockets that heavies carry to 7 or 8, giving them a better chance.

2) There seems to be a lack of ammo.

When I play with my outfit or a well organized group it's not really a problem, but not everyone has the opportunity/ability to play like this. So maybe a AOE ammo ability for engineers like the medic's heal ability? Another simpler option would be to simply increase the ammo capacity of infantry.

3) Teamkills by vehicles.

Now this one is really annoying. I like the idea that drivers need to look where they're going and worry about TKs but I'm constantly getting driven over by tanks whilst I'm besides them. Unless the tank is heading directly towards you, I don't think they should be able to kill you. It seems as if just brushing against the side of a slowly moving tank will instantly kill you. It puts me off trying to repair friendly vehicles because I know I'll get TKed.

4) The map/deployment screen.

Firstly why is the deployment screen different to the normal map view? It makes it extremely difficult to see where any fighting is actually going on. I'm constantly deploying into areas where there appears to be a lot of people and you'd assume that therefore there's fighting going on, only to find that everyone's just standing around. I also don't understand why once I'm at the deploy screen I don't have the option of spawning anywhere where there's a spawn point. It seems that after dying that your spawn choices are limited to a certain range around where you died.

Not only is the deployment screen terrible for presenting where combat is actually happening, but so is the map itself. The exclamation points don't really represent where the actual fighting is, only a grid reference. Wouldn't it be easier to just show all enemies that have been marked on the map? Then people could make informed decisions on where to spawn rather than simply guessing and eventually getting lucky.

5) Instant action.

The timer on this should really be reduced to about 10 minutes, at least then it would make up for people spawning into areas with no fighting.

6) Gaining points for support roles.

A lot of the time when I'm playing medic or engineer, I don't seem to get any points for doing a lot of actions. For example I'll heal friendly units or repair a tower and get no points. I assume that this is a bug and that once its out of beta that it will be fixed.

Also the medic tool needs to be reworked. It's extremely difficult to revive people at times because if anyone walks near the body, the medic tool stops reviving and you have to start again. Shouldn't the tool just lock on to whoever you're healing/reviving and no matter if someone walks in front of you, just keep working on the original target? I've seen a lot of medics that purposefully walk in front of other medics just to get the points for reviving someone.

7) The minimap.

There needs to be an option to expand the minimap so that you can see further, rather than having to open the map all the time. This is essential for flying and driving at high speed, otherwise you accidentally go into enemy territory etc.

8) Waypoints.

I know that the waypoints system is a bit buggy at the moment, beta is beta and all that. There should be the option to add multiple waypoints as well as name them, not just as a squad leader but as an individual too. This would make driving and piloting MUCH easier, as you could set a route and defend a certain number of points. Another cool addition would be the ability to add "regions" (can't think of a better term right now) to the map. For example I could drag out a circle around a tower and then I could make sure to stay within that area to defend the tower while flying etc.



I have more but I think that this wall of text is big enough already . All comments are appreciated. Having said all of this I still think that PlanetSide 2 is one of the best games I've played in a long time and it's not even out of beta yet It has the potential to be outstanding.

[xuur]

1) I like the idea of the lightning being a wee bit tougher, but cant totally agree until I cert a little more armor to see if that helps. but yes, right now its like stepping on a raw egg

2) Im usually dropping ammo anywhere I am where a fight is occurring, but more than one would be nice. maybe theres a cert for that, I dunno

3) agreed. if youre trying to help out by repairing a tank mid fight, its kind of frustrating to be run over by your own folks by simply standing next to it. cant imagine it does much for the people doing the squishing either

4) agreed. the maps could be far more informative in as far as whats going on in a zone youre wanting to drop into.

5) yeah, I could go for that.

6) dunno. not clear about what things grant points vs not. Ive wondered the same

7) yeah, the mini-map could use a zoom feature

8) dont know about that one. having a final destination seems to be plenty as its pretty easily moved. a squad leader could set it as a rendevous then move it to the next point relatively easily. having additional waypoints might tend to confuse folk who dash off to the final ahead of the rest of the squad sort of defeating the purpose of primary waypoints vs the final

well spoken points in any case.

[Dagron]

I like that the Instant Action has a long CD. If we could IA every time we needed to, what would be the point of the big map? It would be just like having a bunch of instanced bases we could hop in and out of, not very different from all the other FPS games out there.
I actually wish the CD was much bigger. When people first logged in they could jump right into a fight, but later on they'd be forced to either waste resources on vehicles if they want to lone wolf or do the smart thing and stick together (and pilots would have to learn to be a little more careful not to leave people behind). A full gal landing on a base is better than 1 guy drop podding alone all over the continent.
Also, having to travel occasionally is a factor in strategy, how quickly reinforcements take to get to a base, if they can be ambushed, etc... not to mention that sometimes it promotes some interesting situations, like 2 convoys accidentally bumping into each other in the middle of nowhere.
The only problem i see is when the IA is on CD, the gal pilot just left me at a tiny outpost without even a flash console and the squad doesn't drop a beacon when they get to the next base... it takes all of that combined to force me to walk miles to find another base to spawn a vehicle to try and catch up.

Other than that, i kind of agree with most of your other points, except maybe with the ammo part. The certs aren't there yet, we don't know if it will still be an issue when they are. :P

[ringring]

1. I agree, vehicles are too fragile. But how fragile will they be they have armour upgrades? I don't know. Perhaps they need an upgrade anyway.

2. I don't agree. Logistics mean you have to do something. In addition, some future certs do increase carrying capacity, e.g. rockets for HA.

3. Yep, annoying. But you should take some damage - then ofc what do you do about it, hunt for a medic, weapons term? It's still going to be annoying.

4. The map still need work, so agree.

5. I don't agree, instant action is meant to getr you into the fight and to join your squad initially, but not to circumvent travel.

6. A bug I expect.

7. I believe this is on the development list as are quite a number of hud enhancements.

8. It appears that multiple waypoints are in the command cert tree. PS1 had drawing on the map I think there is something equivalent if not precisely that, but yea it would be good.

[brighthand]

I just want to say that I like the fact that running out of ammo, in this game, is a very real posibility. It makes me value sticking with the team, and appreciate when ammunition is doled out. I seldom run out of ammo in other games so it is something I don't think about; but in this game, ammunition is a valuable resource that has me rationing it, trying to survive, and wanting to hone my pistol skills more, since sometimes, a pistol is all I end up having.

Instant action needs to have a long cool down, as it is not meant to be a means of transportation, but rather a way for first time logins to get into a major battle if thats how they want to play. I for one never use it, because there are usually Galaxies running squads into battles, and the ride is more fun. If instant action were more readily availible, then transportation and logistics would be underminded, and people will miss out on one of Planetside's defining characteristics: logistics.

The rest of your points seem legit.

[Helwyr]

I agree, your first 3 points especially

1. Ground vehicles should be tougher, and making them tougher will not harm outdoor infantry battles so long as there is rough ground, cover, and structures for Infantry, and IRNV gets removed or adjusted. Air not ground vehicles is what screwed over Infantry in PS1.

2. Dependence on ammo from Engineers just isn't good gameplay, There needs to many more ways of resupply. Likewise being dependent on Medics for health as Infantry. As you say it works fine for organized squads, but for everyone else it's dysfunctional. I really can't imagine that the Devs plan on catering exclusively to those in organized squads, so it's something that needs to change.

3. Yes the infantry TKs on vehicles is just silly, it's as though they have a death field around them or something. The damage needs to be tied to vehicle speed, mass, and direction of impact. Small bumps should just clip a bit of shields and bump the infantry out of the way.

[ringring]

re: ammo resupply, don't forget sundy/ams is coming - Id expect them to be more common than gals, more easily available and have higher survivability.

[GuyFawkes]

I like the map idea

I don't know how they would change this, especially with all the camo stuff they plan on selling, but all I see is multiple shades of grey people running around , grey/purplish, grey/redish. grey/bluish. I miss the old ps1 color recognition. I will probably have to live with it, but having a + or a spanner above medic or engineer etc for friendly players would help a lot.

Mentioned by others in other threads, but having squad colors over vehicles , outfit colors and so on would be helpful. I was playing with my son, he told me he was in a prowler waiting for me, and there were like 10 in the warpgate area. Walking and locating someone while staring at the minimap to find them in an area full of metal objects wanting to mow you down isn't fun.

I think the vs max design is awful, What happened to the great concept drawings? We ended up with a retarded slippy the slug dude.

[zedapollo]

Wow I really didn't expect this much feedback, especially when it's so kind :P In regards to being able to see where fighting is going on, I had another few ideas.

-Map Pulses/Colouration-

I'm going to struggle to word this one I think, but stay with me...

I'm imagining a system where in-game events are displayed clearly on the map so that people know where the fighting is going on. My idea is that when certain indications of fighting occur such as a certain amount of friendlies dying, shots fired, vehicles destroyed etc it is indicated on the map itself. It could be indicated by a pulse or the map becoming a darker shade or something similar (for the sake of simplicity I'll stick with pulses in this description). This way you could quickly look at the map and see exactly where the fighting is happening.

This system would be handy because the accuracy of the pulses could be modified easily by changing the number of deaths or shots fired required to trigger a pulse. It could even be based upon the number of players online at the moment. So it would function with anything from an almost empty to completely full server.

The same system could be applied to squad and platoon leadership to make it easier to spot where more soldiers are needed. It would make the battles much more responsive because people would have more information to make informed decisions. Where as now some areas can be taken almost without players noticing, because the exclamation points are so inaccurate.

Just a thought