Adding "carrots" to PS:N

BorisBlade · 2011-04-16, 11:19 AM

While most of us still playing PS, play for fun. If we all started with max br and never got xp, we would still play because we are here to have fun. However the other 95+% of the population play for goals, whether they realize it or not. Whether its the illusion of gettin somethin better than other people or flexing their e-peen, they will play to get those carrots. The carrots keep the majority playing. Look at CoD vs BF. CoD is nowhere near as good but has a much better carrot system to keep people playing and they do. You cap out much earlier on BF and then have nothin to go for. CoD ends up with much more longevity on its mulitplayer because of this despite being an inferior game in multiplayer.

So we have to come up with some kind of carrot in PS:N. The key difference tho, we dont want the type that just make it a gear grind, we dont want it to make you stronger than the noobie. BR/CR is one type but once you cap out, you need things to continue to work on.

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Ideas:

My ideas are purely cosmetic but still fun, they dont affect balance but give you somethin to show off and look damn cool with em.

Cosmetic armor upgrades. Different armor types and helmets, or helmet-less options. Sort of like a few games such as halo reach did with the various shoulder pads and helmets etc you could earn. In essence you could earn these cool lookin armors but they dont actually do anything but make ya look good. If they add more types of armor, aka pilot suits etc. You would earn different sets for each armor type.

Cosmetic vechile paint schemes. You could earn different paint schemes for your vehicle. Not so much camo, but things that would still be clearly empire colors, but different designs. Let you show off how you specialize in your specific vehicle.

Weapon paint jobs. Not as interesting to me but you could match em up with your armor for some cool looks.

This would be stuff you get with your xp past 20. You would not get these because of merits (merit rewards are down below). Easier to lead your groups when your guys dont wanna run off to play with some vehicle and killwhore, ignoring tactical objectives, only to get a merit. Then you can just work as a team to get your xp and everyone is happy.

Titles.-- This would be for merits. You could be Boris the Conquerer or whatever the title is. You only get the titles via merits. So if you get your x number of knife kills you get Boris the Ripper, get a merit for healing or reviving others and you get Doctor Boris, get your flight kill merits and you get Ace Boris. And so forth with the other merits.

This is a good start imo, but i wanna hear your ideas and comments. If we can get a good carrot system goin we in turn get more players, more dev time, more content and a much better game. SoE knows this, and maybe they can steal a few of our ideas rather than adding the awful carrots that do affect how good you are and we end up with CoD with lots of players which i will never play.

Bags · 2011-04-16, 11:47 AM

There already is a carrot on a stick; the BR / CR caps / Merits. More than enough.

BorisBlade · 2011-04-16, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by Bags

There already is a carrot on a stick; the BR / CR caps / Merits. More than enough.

No thats not even remotely enough, not for a subscription game. Yeah its fine til you cap out then there's nothin. The key to any subscription mmo is to keep a carrot just outta reach, always have somethin for them to go for. Ya gotta keep people playing.

And merits, well they are bleh right now. What do you get for doin em? an extra pixel on your suit you and no one else can see and even if they do they have no idea what those random color badges mean.

There must be some carrots in the game, whether we like it or not, its good for the game to have them as long as they dont affect gameplay. My suggestions are cool and fun and would be interesting enough to keep people playing. But they wouldnt do anything for gameplay. It lets people flex their e-peen and go for gear to show off and look cool, but at the end of the day my shotgun will blow their head off just as well as the noob comin in on day 1.

And when i say gear i mean like if you were tr it would be some variations on your red/black shoulderpads or shinguards or a new helmet. Not some crazy randomly designed WoW style stuff. You would still look TR but with a bit of variety.

And i hear ya bags, i honestly could care less for this stuff, i have the most fun when im at the cap and im not worried about gettin xp, i can focus on fun or doin the best thing tactically even if its crap for xp. But i am in the small 2% that will play like that. These carrots are to help keep the pops high and in turn the continued development of additional PS:N content flowing as long as possible. And also to show what we want in a ps game, carrots that dont make you stronger than everyone else which would just turn it into a WoW fps that we dont want.

Heaven · 2011-04-16, 05:17 PM

I think that more achievments would be great, I like to go for achievments and paly the game for fun as well so im both ways, I think they should have cool vehicle achivements say over 1000 kills in a vanguard you get 1 skull and you can place it on the vanguard somewhere like on the grills and another 1000 you get another and so on, same goes for other tanks and over so many kills with weapons you should be able to get some kind of colour modifacation that let you put your own design on it, and have outfits that can level up and the higher you get you could get some little perks for the outfit, its deffinatly better than keeping the system the same as the old one PS:Next needs something new and exciting to keep playing intrested as well as playing for fun!

Sifer2 · 2011-04-16, 06:24 PM

I agree with you TC but in fact I think we have to go farther than just simple cosmetic unlocks an achievement badges. Since Planetside 1 already has a lot of that an it still isn't enough to keep the game full on players.

I think the gameplay itself needs long term goals. More than just bases you take over today but you come back an all are recaptured by the enemy tomorrow. That's the key difference between an MMO like Planetside and an most other fantasy based one's. You usually have something like raiding with your guild an you unlock more content an better equipment with them.

Gearing up wont work for Planetside it would take something more creative. I hesitate to suggest anything myself not knowing how Next will work in the slightest. I think some element of Empire economy would be worth trying though. Such as you can't just order up weapons/vehicles anytime your Empire has to acquire the resources by holding certain resource gathering facilities long enough. Just something to make the player feel they are accomplishing something of long term use when they play. If not for their own characters power then for their Outfit/Empire.

BorisBlade · 2011-04-16, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by Sifer2

I agree with you TC but in fact I think we have to go farther than just simple cosmetic unlocks an achievement badges. Since Planetside 1 already has a lot of that an it still isn't enough to keep the game full on players.

Actually PS1 doesnt have squat for cosmetic stuff. All it has is remove your helm and a few glasses or a beret. wooptie do. I'm talkin about changing your shoulderpads or breastplates, adding new boots, helms, arm pads etc. Not just, taking you helm off and puttin a hat and glasses on. Plus the various armors could be added to over time and you could have some very cool looks.

And i like the idea of skulls on your tank, just fun little stuff like that is cool, gives ya somethin but its not so uber that your squadmates want to kill whore for it rather than playin smart and tactical and capturing the bases or whatever we will be doin in PS:N.

The outfit stuff could be cool but im hoping that it doesnt encourage zerg outfits and penalize smaller ones. Ive seen way too many of these guild/outfit reward systems encourage the ELH type guilds (was the most massive ps outfit ever and was just a zerg fest) and penalize you for not inviting every retard possible. Thats why im very leery of them, ive yet to see anyone do the guild things well for large and small outfits. And thats important in a game like this, esp if it gives you an advantage, which again im hoping it does not.

Furret · 2011-04-16, 06:42 PM

I think the OP is right on target.

A huge part of PlanetSide is having massive armies. These massive armies look cool, because everyone looks the same. everyone looks the same.

If you've been really dedicated to the game for a long time, having cosmetic changes are the best way to show how you're better than everyone else. I remember a long time ago playing with a few buddies on Ishundar doing a few ghost hacks. A couple of TR mossies showed up and started harassing us. We figured we could take care of em with our ventrillo advantage. First killfeed pops up "xTRxMagicx"
At the time they were a very powerful rogue squad and as soon as we realized who were facing, we up and left the continent. Imagine if you didn't even have to wait that long. The enemy sees your decked out reaver and runs with thier collective tails between thier legs.

These cosmetic changes would be a huge incentive to keep playing the game.

Really solid idea boris.

MgFalcon · 2011-04-16, 09:52 PM

I like this idea a lot... I'm only assuming I can have a Vanu skull pained on my Rexo helmet?

Although I love the idea of personalization (this next part is deff not for kill whore/solo bots), I would find it to be a great element to implement into Outfit ranks. Lets say the OL decides what he wants his Colonels to be flashier than his Lieutenants and gives them a sick helmet/shoulder pad design and makes it uniform code per rank. This, I believe, would provide a nice incentive for outfit progression, as grunts would have regular gear and want to gain respect/cool armor. Also, certain opportunities an OL could reward attendees for specific events such as an Outfit theme night, or a huge battle that was turned because of the Outfit's involvement.

Granted this is taking away individuality in the common member... but this is war soldier, and joining a good Outfit means you will follow orders or be kicked from the organization. Plus this idea would be an option for OL's, if they want to be an outfit of mercenary-esk members floating around with un-uniform design... totally fine!

Mightymouser · 2011-04-16, 10:42 PM

I like the idea of being able to 'personalize' your avatar/weapons. I don't know that it'd really give anyone an extra incentive to do anything; but it'd certainly be cool..

That said, as someone who's invisible 99% of the time, this is more or less a moot point for me...

::is a sad panda-mouse::

SKYeXile · 2011-04-17, 03:42 AM

Yea, I have always felt Planetside needs something else to keep to people most people hooked, personally I'm happy if there is something like planetsidesidestats, we all need something to play for a goal. "Winning at Planetside" as stupid as it sounds, everybody wants that sense of victory. I think overall planetside domination by territory is a discussion for another thread, but yea I think there could be alot added to planetside in terms of "grinds" essentially thats all you're adding, but unlike MMORPG's I dont think PSN's should be required, they could perhaps offer more than cosmetic changes, but still keep them all balanced, how an FPS should be.

Keep the current merit system from PS, that's for sure, but for each merit offer a cosmetic armour upgrade or weapon mod, though we dont know how PS is played, but offcourse you have the option of the regular FPS stuff of, red dot sighs, scope etc, or take a path similar to TF2 and offer weapon mods that say increase the damage per shot, but reduce range or decrease ROF. So a high level character maybe more specialised at a role or a situation, but the game still remains a skill based game.

Planetside really has nothing in terms of customisation, your armour changes colour as you level, we could scrap that and change your armour colour and skin based off the merits you have achieved, specific merits, even for example HA bronze, could unlock an armour skin upgrade. They could also add more merits for killing people while wearing a specific armour.

heres an example of customisation in GA:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cf...357159#3357159

Also we have the options of actual rep grinds, for example:
you could have different reps for the different continents themselves, their terrain(desert, frozen, temperate, tropical) or specific to base design. Have offensive or defensive reps based of if you're attacking or defending a base or have them based off what contents you're fighting on eg: home, neutral, enemy .

There is always the option for crafting, though how that would work with looting in a 100% pvp environment, with a loot system like planetside. You could have something like people have mentioned where CR5s give quests at bases, these quests would then give XP and crafting items (EG: at the base Dagda, a CR5 could give the quest, attack Gwydion, timer, 1 hour, quest rewards would be based of usual base capture XP multiplier, after all we want to encourage PvP. These rewards would then be available at your sanctuary for crafting.

wildcat140679 · 2011-04-17, 05:20 AM

Planetside had a decent amount of carrots, but very little to actually show for of your achievements.

For instance, I focused very much on being a combat medic, all I had to show for was a badge made up out of a few colors, indicating I revived a certain amount of players. Those badges did nothing for me, nor did the help to show off to others, "Hey I'm a Combat Medic, you don't need to tap out"

It would have been much happier if could have received armor customizations and slap a red cross logo on the side of my shoulders and on my helmet.
I don't care that the enemy would be able to ID me and possibly consider me to be a more threatening target than the MAX units next to me.

Originally Posted by BorisBlade

I have the most fun when im at the cap and im not worried about gettin xp, i can focus on fun or doing the best thing tactically even if its crap for xp.

Getting to the max level is another so called carrot, a goal many players will try to achieve before they even focus on collecting those other carrots.

Collecting battle/command xp is an important part of the game and onces your reached your level cap, this stops.

Adding a point decay to the last few battle/command ranks would add an other challenge, you need to work for it if you want to keep hold of that carrot.

kamikava · 2011-04-17, 05:36 AM

I hate to compare PSN to WoW however, i know a lot of people including me very much enjoyed the completely pointless title rewards for completing specific achievements.

Just little single words or phrases which appear before your name so say:

Kill 10000 TR

"TR Slayer" kamikava

Or successfully defend a base 200 times

kamikava "The Defender"

etc. you know what i mean.

Just think they're cool haha

All of these carrots need to be ultimately pointless as any buffs will give unfair advantage to long term players, i think it is paramount that this game remains focused on a players skill not what gear you get for completing achi's. Carrot are just something else that will keep people interested.

Redshift · 2011-04-17, 06:00 AM

Customisable armour would be nice, not a massive amount of control i.e so you can easily tell whats rexo and whats agile but some small things

maybe a choice of a few difference painting paterns/shades abviously no choice in actual colour though,

You have to remember though all that stuff needs sending to everyone and i'm sure that will add to lag and i imagine the major thing they have to worry about with a few hundred people fighting is keeping the lag from adding up

SKYeXile · 2011-04-17, 07:52 AM

Originally Posted by SRxRedshift

Customisable armour would be nice, not a massive amount of control i.e so you can easily tell whats rexo and whats agile but some small things

maybe a choice of a few difference painting paterns/shades abviously no choice in actual colour though,

You have to remember though all that stuff needs sending to everyone and i'm sure that will add to lag and i imagine the major thing they have to worry about with a few hundred people fighting is keeping the lag from adding up

umm im not expert, but i imagine thats more clientside anyway, yea the server needs to tell you what they're wearing, but it does that in planetside anyway, with the limited customisation options, its really more a matter of your client loading rendering so many different armours and skins.

photo shopped some skins anyway :P

BorisBlade · 2011-04-17, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

photo shopped some skins anyway :P

Keep in mind tho, while everyone thinks right off about camo and the like. It doesnt work as well with PS since you need everyone wearing their empire colors. Yeah you could still do it. But do we really want blue or brown or green or grey TR runnin around? I like being able to pick out an enemy based on his colors. Always hated playin the "modern warfare" games as i had to stop on every enemy who didnt immediatly show up with a red name and try to figure out if he was friendly or not...usually by gettin shot first. If every empire could do it then it really comes down to a fight between randomly colored people and you have to wait to see a name in red before you fire. I shoot enough friendly cloakers on accident cause their names havent shown up yet, ill be gettin grief like mad if everyone is randomly colored. =D

Again, they could change that in PS:N but its not what i would like to see.

Now having looked again. It could work fine if you just basically changed your patterns to things like that but kept your empire colors. I do like that, it would work perfectly.