Is PS2 going to cheapen itself?

Squiffy · 2012-06-05, 05:28 AM

Something has been niggling in the back of my mind for sometime and with the launch of a golden weapon through FB, I just wanted to see what others thought.

Are we going to see Planetside 2 cheapen itself and find players running around the battlefield with gimmicky adornments like TF2?

30 station cash for a jauntily angled top hat maybe? If you join this outfit, you must purchase the headcrab ornament?

I can understand it in TF2 as it's a "comic" game but I've got to admit that even before it went free to play, I really didn't like it. It seemed to take over from the devs creating gameing fundementals.

Planetside, although not a realistic war simulator always felt that it was trying to be believable in its approach to the world and combat.

So, with the edition of a "golden gun" and zebra/giraffe/loveheart camo decals, are we starting a slippery slope to ridiculousness?

I read with interest the thread about Outfit specific decals and always wished that this was available when playing PS1. I still hope that considering they have stated they will have 24/7 team to stop cheating, surely they can have a team vetting uploaded images, but my concern is that the company will push "funny" and "enjoyable" customisations on us that will rubbish the look of the game.

SKYeXile · 2012-06-05, 05:30 AM

F2P games always just have this cheap feeling to me it think alot of the time because you cant really tell what somebody has earned and yea the stuff is always tacky..i dunno i cant explain it.

WOT does not have the felling though, but most others do.

Squiffy · 2012-06-05, 05:33 AM

tacky...

Thats the word I was looking for

Toppopia · 2012-06-05, 05:35 AM

As long as that gold camo is available in game then the gold gun doesn't matter, and we know that zebra camo can be effective on a cloudy day, it actually blends quite well in clouds, and people will argue that in real life in WWII ships and planes had ridiculous camo, one plane was even pink because it camouflaged in the sky so well. Or something.

ringring · 2012-06-05, 05:38 AM

PS1 had a sword!

Figment · 2012-06-05, 05:42 AM

http://youtu.be/s5b2ZQ0-7tM?t=1h33m25s

Aaah submarine camo.

Squiffy · 2012-06-05, 06:18 AM

I haven't seen that film in years!

I suppose me including the "camo" in my initial post isn't entirely fair as pointed out above although I would say that when you look at real world military adornments, in general, the effect is to personalise the vehicle and that it continues to have the overall gray/black/green that every other vehicle in that unit has.

I'm ex-Airforce and although I did not work with aircraft, I do know that the regulations in place and the hoops to jump through to stick something on the side of your aircraft were numerous as I was interested in the history of the British squadrons and how they came about their unit insignia.

As I said, the ability to have Outfit Ident would be fantastic! Rolling up with the Outfit surrounding me, looking left and right to see known outfits entering the fray and coordinating attacks with them would be awesome but I'm worried that with F2P's running around with a peanut husk for a helmet and wielding a skinned Jackhammer making it look like a bow and arrow, the whole feeling that I experienced in PS1 would be destroyed.

I suppose there would be a "us" and "them" evolvement where veterans and new serious players would "ignore" players running around jazz up like pillocks, more interested in what they've got/look like then playing the game.

I know the F2P model is generating huge amounts of cash for companies atm and ultimately that is the goal for SOE (and rightly so) but something doesn't feel right with this FB give away.

Xaine · 2012-06-05, 06:33 AM

Compared to PS1, yes. Its going to feel cheap.

It has to cater for idiots, dumbing it down.

They've already taken away alot of stuff that made the game interesting.

I'll still play it and love it, but yeah.

Winfernal · 2012-06-05, 06:42 AM

Originally Posted by Xaine

Compared to PS1, yes. Its going to feel cheap.

It has to cater for idiots, dumbing it down.

They've already taken away alot of stuff that made the game interesting.

I'll still play it and love it, but yeah.

Elaborate...

Coming from an "idiot" that never played the original PS.

What did they remove? How is PS2 catering for idiots? I'm curious.

Praetor · 2012-06-05, 06:43 AM

Originally Posted by Squiffy

Something has been niggling in the back of my mind for sometime and with the launch of a golden weapon through FB, I just wanted to see what others thought.

Are we going to see Planetside 2 cheapen itself and find players running around the battlefield with gimmicky adornments like TF2?

30 station cash for a jauntily angled top hat maybe? If you join this outfit, you must purchase the headcrab ornament?

I can understand it in TF2 as it's a "comic" game but I've got to admit that even before it went free to play, I really didn't like it. It seemed to take over from the devs creating gameing fundementals.

Planetside, although not a realistic war simulator always felt that it was trying to be believable in its approach to the world and combat.

So, with the edition of a "golden gun" and zebra/giraffe/loveheart camo decals, are we starting a slippery slope to ridiculousness?

I read with interest the thread about Outfit specific decals and always wished that this was available when playing PS1. I still hope that considering they have stated they will have 24/7 team to stop cheating, surely they can have a team vetting uploaded images, but my concern is that the company will push "funny" and "enjoyable" customisations on us that will rubbish the look of the game.

You bring up some really valid points that I have been concerned about myself. When I saw the Zebra camo in one of the recent videos, it was really disappointing & my first thought was "TF2"...

I'm going to do a longer reply later today as I'm at work at the moment.

Xaine · 2012-06-05, 06:54 AM

Originally Posted by Winfernal

Elaborate...

Coming from an "idiot" that never played the original PS.

What did they remove? How is PS2 catering for idiots? I'm curious.

PS1 has a much higher penalty for death, for a start. Not only did it take you longer to respawn, but you spawned further away and there were less spawn points. If your squad dropped into an enemy base and you died, you couldn't get back to them at all, unless you spawn at a nearby base and take a vehicle there.

You can't completely kick an empire off a continent in PS2, you could in PS1. This allowed for a real goal and a feeling off accomplishment when you did it. Where as in PS2 it just looks like its going to be a never ending fight over the same 3 bases between your and another empires foothold. This is removing alot of global strategy from the game, and making the whole meta easier.

The cert system worked differently, and made you think a little more carefully about what you chose. I'm not saying the new one is bad, but its less complex and the choices you make don't really have any downsides.

No more inventory system, or trunks. Which was more depth they didn't really need to take out.

On every cont. there was a drop-ship centre, which was the only place you could spawn Galaxies and Galaxy Gunships, apart from your sanc. In PS2 you always have access to them on the cont. you're fighting on. Keeping a galaxy alive used to be a priority because it was a pain to get one back, now it doesn't matter. Get a new one from right next to you.

ANTs as well, you used to have to supply bases with power by driving special vehicles and recharging the base's energy. Thats gone.

In general, its making the game easier and is removing the need for alot of teamwork. You'll still need teamwork and logistics to win, but alot less, and so alot less co-ordination.

I just feel like its bringing the skill ceiling down.

But then again, i'm a Darkfall/Eve Online/Mortal Online player, so i like the type of 'all or nothing' environment where if you fail you can actually lose something. Makes combat about 9 million times more interesting. All of that was my opinion, none of them are bad features really.

Also, just because you didn't play PS1 doesn't make you an idiot. When I said idiots, i mean the hoardes of F2P kiddies that are going to come running in, teamkilling each other, spamming LOLOLOL NOOBBZZ in the chat and generally making the game an uncool place to be.

Qel · 2012-06-05, 06:57 AM

I know what you mean about TF2, even though it is essentially a cartoon I do think they went a bit overboard with the item stuff.

With PS2 I'm hoping we get stuff as mentioned which allows your outfit to have a recognised colour scheme or badges, maybe some armour colours or camo but none of the silly stuff like funny hats except perhaps as temporary wearables for seasonal events if they bother with that kind of thing.

Warborn · 2012-06-05, 06:57 AM

Originally Posted by Winfernal

Elaborate...

Coming from an "idiot" that never played the original PS.

What did they remove? How is PS2 catering for idiots? I'm curious.

It isn't. Planetside 1 was for idiots as well. People like to take modern, superior gameplay design choices and pretend that they're "dumbing down" of the game when they're just refinements of game design learned over time.

Anyway, you can pay money to get hearts and zebra stripe paint jobs on stuff. Yes. If your concern is that people will be running around looking stupid with a bunch of goofy cosmetic shit on them, the answer is yes.

Winfernal · 2012-06-05, 06:57 AM

Originally Posted by Xaine

PS1 has a much higher penalty for death, for a start. Not only did it take you longer to respawn, but you spawned further away and there were less spawn points. If your squad dropped into an enemy base and you died, you couldn't get back to them at all, unless you spawn at a nearby base and take a vehicle there.

You can't completely kick an empire off a continent in PS2, you could in PS1. This allowed for a real goal and a feeling off accomplishment when you did it. Where as in PS2 it just looks like its going to be a never ending fight over the same 3 bases between your and another empires foothold. This is removing alot of global strategy from the game, and making the whole meta easier.

The cert system worked differently, and made you think a little more carefully about what you chose. I'm not saying the new one is bad, but its less complex and the choices you make don't really have any downsides.

No more inventory system, or trunks. Which was more depth they didn't really need to take out.

On every cont. there was a drop-ship centre, which was the only place you could spawn Galaxies and Galaxy Gunships, apart from your sanc. In PS2 you always have access to them on the cont. you're fighting on. Keeping a galaxy alive used to be a priority because it was a pain to get one back, now it doesn't matter. Get a new one from right next to you.

ANTs as well, you used to have to supply bases with power by driving special vehicles and recharging the base's energy. Thats gone.

In general, its making the game easier and is removing the need for alot of teamwork. You'll still need teamwork and logistics to win, but alot less, and so alot less co-ordination.

I just feel like its bringing the skill ceiling down.

But then again, i'm a Darkfall/Eve Online/Mortal Online player, so i like the type of 'all or nothing' environment where if you fail you can actually lose something. Makes combat about 9 million times more interesting.

I see, thanks for explaining!

Keep in mind that some things can change during the alpha/beta, though!

How did you kick an empire of the continent?

Thomas · 2012-06-05, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by Winfernal

Elaborate...

Coming from an "idiot" that never played the original PS.

What did they remove? How is PS2 catering for idiots? I'm curious.

This coming from a PS1 Vet.

They aren't catering to idiots, they haven't dumbed down the game. The gameplay mechanics and focus has changed from PS1 which is a great thing because PS1 mechanics would not go down well with most audiences today and the game would die and all these 'vets' that want this to be PS1-Remastered would have nothing to play.