So I played Planetside for the first time since 2004/05..

[EVILoHOMER]

I have to say the game is just bad now and seems like Sony have left it to die. I looked at the recent patch notes and thing smust be pretty bad when they're still making dumb patches like "The Lasher now works"...... like wtf that patch that broke it shouldn't have gone live in the first place. It isn't like the Lasher is a small part of the game that it might miss testing, thats if SOE do test anything. Seeing as they ruined SWG too with Jedi and then the CU and the NGE and pissed me right off with that.

Several problems I've encountered right away and the main theme is Balance and the engine.

- The graphics are just dated and that would be fine if it was stylized but the games art has always been bland and ugly, back in 2003 you could look past that because they were good for the sized battles we were getting back then.

- Movement feels clunky like it was meant to be an RPG and not an FPS. Things like using Stamina to jump is pretty stupid because it reduces movement and stops it from being fun. Also when using the Sniper Rifle and moving the crosshair about it's just a real big effort to aim with that thing as it isn't fluid like an FPS should be. The vehicles are the worst though and while the aircraft and the hover vehicles are fine, the ones with tracks and wheels are just a nightmare to handle.

- Theres lots of graphical glitches in the game, mainly with the effects but theres a new one that the game never used to have with me and that is the glass on the spawn tubes looks very odd now like weird moving squares or something.

- Water movement is dumb because you walk under it instead of swim, which I thought was plain retarded and atleast thought they would have fixed that and upgraded it to DX9... even EQ has new water effects.

- The Vanu Force Blade still doesn't have the option to turn ont he glow, would been nice to have the glow back in some optional form.

- The UI is very clunky and cumbersome to use, instead of being helpful it often gets you killed and just really annoying to use. I see this being one of the main points that puts people off right away. A new Planetside would have a streamlined and fun UI to use and I'll make the comparison of System Shock 2 and Bioshock because SS2 had a terrible UI that I hated and Bioshock basically got rid of all the crap... though I wish it had a UI.

- Aircraft in the game are now completly pointless. I never see anyone use them against the Vanu and that is being there are too many AA options and they're too easy to access. Instead of Air being fun all you seem to do is constantly run away for Auto Lock on AA fire. You fly to a battle and straight away there it is. This is no fun to me and it isn't like killing someone is easy in them. The Reaver now does crap damage and the movement issue in Planetside makes aiming on a Person with the Mosq very hard. AA fire is needed in the game or Aircrafts would be too powerful but I think there needs to be a balance that makes fewer people have it. The game used to be balanced much better towards aircrafts and we used to see alot more of them.

- Talking about this I find the Striker and the NC's Rocket Cam weapons to be very very annoying. I don't see why they are soo powerful seeing as they're rewarding ALOT for doing nothing. The NC Rocket Cam weapons (forgot the name) is annoying because it has too much range and really I think the damage should become less the further it gets. The Striker is annoying because it can lock on to anything and do lots of damage. I was a Max and this basically made me useless and I don't see it fair that it can lock onto Maxes. The main problem is EVERYONE can have access to these weapons very easily because people have too many certs and things are so cheap.

- Again talking about Max's they're pretty weak and pointless now. Everyone has AV weapons to take them out easily and they don't do much damage to people anymore so it takes forever to take them out and you usually end up dead first. The vehicle Max is pointless because you can do more damage being a normal guy with a AV weapon and atleast you wont have things like the Striker and the Phoenix constantly attacking you. The AA Max is the only real useful one but again with all the AA weapons in the game I find them far too overpowering agains Aircraft, specially the Vanu one. It only takes one to defend the bse from aircraft but usually you have like 5 which makes aircraft instantly pointless.

- There seems to be this build now that can take on anything and be like FoTM build... only I'm guessing with Planetsides lack of patches it is FoTY. This is the Exo Suit (or whatever its called) and then a Heavy Weapon, AV weapon and HEalth + Armour repair. This build can take on people and vehicles (Aircraft too if you're TR) and you can last forever repairing yourself. I find it so overpowered because it covers all bases and everyone is using it. To me a Balance game like this would be only being able to play one role at anyone time. So if you want to go AV then thats the only thing you can do really well or AI.... like the Maxes are setup to do one role really well, though they currently suck.

- The Grief system is just annoying and doesn't add any enjoyment to the game. In Planetside you are more than likely going to hit lots of your own team in a battle because as you fire people run infront of you into the fire. What really pisses me off though is just hearing and seeing the warning because it gives you a headache and you just wish you could turn it off. It would be much better to have a system like Counter Strike or something where people can decide what punishment to give you, like kill you or forgive you. If you keep team killing over and over again with like 10 team kills in a row then disable your weapons for 15 mins. I just hate how it works currently because it seems like it was put in to annoy you and most of the time other people run into you and you gett he grief.

- The pushing when people run into you and the floating when running up or down the stairs really fast still exists which is over annoying.

- BFR's look frigging stupid and wish they were taken out of the game, the reason I quit before was cause I thought they looked retarded. Atleast you can't unlock them anymore because the caverns are always empty.

- Still the same flawed base design in the game and the tower design still sucks. It is easy to capture but impossible to defend for very long. The design currently has no in door fights apart from a 2 min rush to the spawns. I don't understand why the Caverns were even put in the game because while their gameplay is good for infantry fighting, they're all the way underground where noone wants to go cause it looks ugly and takes too long and the fights are always over too quickly. Frigging Remove the caverns and put similar type things on the islands, like cities or something for great infantry fight. You could even build the design so you need to go through the caverns or just make them easier to access. I would love them if they were built seamlessly into the Conts so you could travel straight down there without loading. Then make it so to cap an Island you have to go down there too.



I dunno theres so much wrong with this game and I doubt it'll ever be fixed now. Like I said back in 2003 Planetside was amazing and I thought they'd keep adding kool features to the game and update it. Instead we got Core Combat which sucked and made alot of people leave like the christmas hats that looked dumb during December. Then we got BFR's and that dumb Bending thing which replaced Oshur for Islands that don't work well. What they should have done was have them 4 Islands be one seamless thing instead of 4 Mini ones because then the Battles would last longer. Now the game has been left to die really and it seems buggier and less balanced than ever with less people.


Update the graphics, streamline the UI, fix the bugs, make the game play better with the caverns and stuff, balance the game and then make it a free 2 play mmorpg with lots of advertising of it being like a free 1000 people per battle online FPS.

That would gets lots of people coming and then Micro Transaction it up.

[Baneblade]

PlanetSide hasn't been worth the effort to make a post that big in years.

[EVILoHOMER]

I asked my mate to come into the game and give it a go and he's on Vista and it crashed for him everytime he was about to enter the Sanc. So I tried my Vista machine and it did the same and then I tried another mates Vista PC and it did the same. So I went on the Oboards and apparently it happens to every Vista PC since 2007 and it makes me think........ WTF are SOE playing at?

The game doesn't have an easy to access trial, no advertising on the website for it at all and anyone who doesn't look for the Station launchpad would never know you could get it from there.

The game doesn't work for Vista PC's unless you jump through all these hoops to get it working by following all these guides.


No wonder why the game has died.

[Gunslanger]

wow...evilhomer-i vaguely remember that name! you been on these boards forever! I too played in PS's hayday. I will always remember this game as one of my favorites. I came back to these forums after YEARS and see posts like this. I was hoping maybe to come back and see that gameplay was better and the game was not dead, but i guess not. i knew the graphics would not be up to par with current games, but i figured it might be worth playing. PlanetSide used to be so fun when there were alot of people playing and we had big battles and outfits and...omg, i miss this game. oh well, guess there will never be another PS.

[Gunslanger]

haha, as a matter-o-fact...i think i DO remember you maybe not from these boards! If you used to play on Werner as a Vanu, then we were in the same outfit and actually used to play togeather.

I played a vanu character named Gunslanger...wow, small world! haha!

[EVILoHOMER]

I was in Purple Valor (I think was the name) until someone left the Outfit and then some leader took over that everyone hated because he treated everything like the military and just was a dick. I think LazyX was the original leader and he was well known as he got to 20,000 kills like 6 months before anyone else lol. Then afterwards I joined RISK and the leader Risker is still on my MSN for some reason and he keeps sending messages like "show me your dick"...... lol.


Planetside could be soo good, I mean the game doesn't look too bad but... SOE just don't support it anymore. The Vanu overpopulate everyone else like 3:1 and it makes for unfun battles and there are often small battles on three islands which you don't need with a small population. SOE need to find a way to close all the Islands and open up one at a time so we can have giant 3 ways lol. Also Planetside needs to go free 2 play with Micro Transactions because people play any old shit when it is free and online and just look at Xfire ststas to prove that.


Planetside's community also needs to stage a giant balanced battle on one of the new Oshur Island's and have it go on or hours and film it. Then the best video editors need accept all the community recorded video and cut it down to a 5 min trailer of just massive action.

What I've noticed is there is no video out there that captures the potential size of Planetsides battles and that is what will draw people into the game.



I would ask for the community to do this on the forums and for Planetside's Dev team to help us out with it but I'm in the shit with my Credit Card company cause I lost my Job and I owe lots of money. So I just can't afford even �8 to resubscribe up to Planetside cause it keeps declining Stupid bad economy.

[Naeadil]

I agree with just about everything you posted Evil homer. Great job.

I miss oldschool Planetside.

Oh, one idea I thought of is that might as well make sanctuaries how they were in beta, just have one large area in the middle, because the game is so small now that all the people gathering up to go do whatever will be in one place already.

[EVILoHOMER]

I wouldn't mind seeing what happens when you only open one Island at a time and each gate leads to a Sanc which is reduced in size like you said to just one base instead of three. Then the team with the most bases wins and it locks that Island and opens a Cavern or another Island to fight on. So everyone is fighting in the same spot rather than all over the place. Just turn off the caps and see if the servers can handle it cause I swear the cap has been reduced.

[BizSAR]

I've played the game off and on since closed beta (been here for almost as long, it seems). I most recently resubbed last June after the server merge and it was a blast!

All the things you mention have been in the game mostly from the start. The BFRs have been nerfed enough so that at least now a couple good players can bring one down easily...don't see them as much anymore.

I'm going to re-sub again soon, just becuase I miss it. Hell play it a few months...