What is the most important part of Planetside?

Xyntech · 2011-10-02, 07:58 PM

I think that the most important part of Planetside is the huge number of players all fighting together.

I tend to look at everything that the developers and other players say about PS2 from the angle of "Will this help Planetside 2 have more players or fewer?"

I want to have as many players as possible at launch and I want them to stick around for a long time as well.

I say bravo to the developers if they attract new players from more casual games. They will provide us with more targets to shoot at, plus a fair number of them may stick around for a while if their mind is opened to a deeper level of underlying game play that they never found in other shooters.

So do I WANT kill cams? Not really, but they could be fun. Do I want solo MBT's? Not even slightly, but I wouldn't mind them at all if they were well balanced. Do I want a Planetside 2 where pop lock is rare and it's hard to find a really big battle? NO. FUCK that.

A graphics and net code overhaul would not attract a lot of new players. I think Planetside 2 will be able to. This is where I am coming from any time I am arguing in favor of something that will be different from the first game.

Maybe with a little understanding we can figure out if we agree on any of the core principals that we think will make or break PS2.

So what do you think is most important?

ThGlump · 2011-10-02, 08:30 PM

I say teamplay. But sadly they are trying to get everyone from other shooters, so they are killing teamplay for easier killwhoring.

Crator · 2011-10-02, 08:34 PM

Speculation. You don't know that.

But yes, I agree, team play and massive scale combined with ground troops, and air/land vehicles that allowed that game-play to be dynamic, along with the persistent qualities and 3 empires with specific gear suited to each, was the most defining factors imo.

Xyntech · 2011-10-02, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by ThGlump

I say teamplay. But sadly they are trying to get everyone from other shooters, so they are killing teamplay for easier killwhoring.

Team play has gotta be up there on the list of importance, I'm with you on that. I'd like to point out the game Team Fortress 2. It's got the word Team in the title and it has a lot of classes that benefit greatly by team work, but what you end up with on public servers are a bunch of solo players zerging the objectives.

There is always a really good way to guarantee victory in TF2 though. Teamwork. Even just a couple of players working closely together can often turn the tide of a battle and if you are playing on a server where both teams are using teamwork, the experience is very intense and competitive.

I don't really support the idea of forcing mandatory team work, because that is going to narrow the appeal of Planetside 2 and contribute to lower populations. The zerg was always a part of PS1 and it sounds like there will be plenty of tools to help funnel the zerg and actually make them work for the team, even if they don't realize it.

In my mind, encouraging team work and making team work be synonymous with victory are how to approach it.

I'm excited to see how some of the new features play out in regards to rewarding teamwork.

Bags · 2011-10-02, 09:42 PM

Size and teamwork.

Hamma · 2011-10-02, 10:05 PM

That's what she said!

Originally Posted by ThGlump

I say teamplay. But sadly they are trying to get everyone from other shooters, so they are killing teamplay for easier killwhoring.

And yea, you don't know this yet so it's total assumption. You can attempt to speculate at that based on what we have heard but that still doesn't tell the whole story.. we won't know for sure until beta hits.

Anyway - number of players FOR SURE is the biggest thing, and followed up by teamwork. In PlanetSide even small squad tactics could make a MASSIVE difference.

basti · 2011-10-02, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by ThGlump

I say teamplay. But sadly they are trying to get everyone from other shooters, so they are killing teamplay for easier killwhoring.

Err, no. They know as much as we do that a big killhwhoring game with thousands of players wont stand a chance against COD and the others.

nomotog · 2011-10-02, 10:45 PM

Ya team play or to put it another way massed team play. So long as they have that it works.

Captain B · 2011-10-03, 12:07 AM

Massed and COORDINATED teamplay (not just running in groups, but with purpose and goals and coordination to achieve tasks set by leaders and empire).

Massive combat scale (lots of infantry, ass and air).

Support roles outside of healing/reviving (all games have that). That was one of the coolest parts of PS was the upgraded turrets and how they actually saved the day more often than not.

CutterJohn · 2011-10-03, 12:45 AM

Originally Posted by Xyntech

but what you end up with on public servers are a bunch of solo players zerging the objectives.

That sounds remarkably like another game I'm familiar with.. Names on the tip of my tongue.. I think it starts with a P.

Ah yes. Planetside. Thats it. Have you played that game? Its pretty interesting. You can roll with a team if you want, which can be fun and rewarding, but theres also always a ton of randoms just running around slamming their heads into each other, repeatedly. Apparently trying to direct them makes herding cats look easy.

NapalmEnima · 2011-10-03, 01:06 AM

1: SCALE. Hands down.

2/3 combined arms/teamwork. To acutally combine the "combine arms" requires teamwork, but you can have teamwork with just infantry (or just air), and you can have air/ground/infantry with not particular coordination.

PS gives the unique opportunity to have combined arms at a huge scale.

People can and do have a good time "soloing with the zerg", as infantry, air or ground. But I think they're missing out on what makes PS truely great.

As long as PS2 gives us an updated taste of that epic gameplay, I think they'll do just fine.

BorisBlade · 2011-10-03, 01:13 AM

My fave parts of PS, the gameplay aspects. I'll play 64 man PS over 1000 man battlefield anyday. Epic scale is nice, but if the gameplay is just the standard bf/cod stuff then i could care less about the game.

The vehicles were my fave part, and were a huge step over any other game. The awesome teamwork and the feel that its an actual vehicle, not just a buff like BF style veh's are, really added a entirely different feel. Much more of an epic and community/social based playstyle. Some great stories come from my zillion hours driving. Its sad to see that great idea PS1 pioneered scrapped and them taking a step back with the BF style stuff, hopefully thats changed.

The much more tactical TTK times were second on my list, aka you dont instantly die, you can take a few hits then react and have an interesting fight. Its much more tactical feeling than just runnin along, instantly dieing never seeing what hit you, and respawning, adnauseum. (yes the netcode and often exaggerated CoF made it too long in ps1, but it still needs to be much longer than BF.) This may work out ok tho, atleast im tellin myself that =D. Having played BF3 beta and its god awful MW ttk (lost interest in the game completely now), im very glad ps2 wasnt ruined by goin that route too.

The epic size fights were cool, but just as important was the terrain. Huge open areas with so much variety. No more boring coridor maps, no more repeating the same tired little bitty map in a deathmatch. Lots of new and interesting stuff all the time.

And finally the customization, i dont mean gettin too crazy with it like PS2 does which can actually limit variety in that you can customize one vehicle to do a bazillion roles so that you dont need but a very few of them. But i mean seeing all the differnt vehicles and various specs, yes it got outta hand with too many certs, anything past br20 just was too many certs. It was a good system that needed some tweaks and more options to focus down trees to keep people more specialized. The new system isnt too bad in that regard other than the aforementioned issue and the fact that with no cap on certs you can eventually get everything, so just a simple class change at spawn/terminal means you can do anything at all. Kinda half specialization and half br 40. The attactments and version choices and even weapon choices tho could help with customizing too. In other words, I cant really say yay or nay on this til i see it in action and get all the details.

Azren · 2011-10-03, 01:21 AM

"Rock-paper-scissors ballance"

Sirisian · 2011-10-03, 01:48 AM

The scale is pretty much the major thing for me even more than the teamwork.

The times when you'd be bombing a bridge or sniping and just seeing all the red dots on the map and green dots. That was impressive. That and the traded fire. You'd be on the ground and just so many rounds of ammo and tank shells would be passing around. It was also nice since all the bullets look different so you knew "hey there's snipers shooting at people".

Xyntech · 2011-10-03, 02:55 AM

Originally Posted by Sirisian

The scale is pretty much the major thing for me even more than the teamwork.

The times when you'd be bombing a bridge or sniping and just seeing all the red dots on the map and green dots. That was impressive. That and the traded fire. You'd be on the ground and just so many rounds of ammo and tank shells would be passing around. It was also nice since all the bullets look different so you knew "hey there's snipers shooting at people".

I loved when you would have three or four bases and all of the land in between flooded with troops. So much to do in that kind of environment. It never felt like you were being forced into any roles because every weapon, vehicle and armor could find something useful to do at all times.