Planetside 2 First Impressions

TokyoZeplin · 2012-09-05, 05:11 AM

So I had a chance to finally play a few hours last evening, and played for about 2 and a half hours. I played PS1 quite a bit those solid 8 years ago, and have been looking forward to PS2 for a good year now, since I first heard about it.
After my first playsession, my first impressions are as follows:

The Good:
Relatively few bugs! I didn't really encounter anything at all!

Ground vehicle control felt nice! (dunno at all what people are complaining about!)

Fun enough that I kept playing for 2 and a half hours!

Relatively easy to quickly get into fights - no running for 30 minutes to find a skirmish (which happened to me all the time in PS1, if I spawned the wrong place)

The Bad:
Infantry seems fucked. Why people infantry at all, when you can get a MAX or vehicle instead? :S Hacking is the only issue. Feels like infantry really needs something more to make them worthwhile.

Gun control feels a bit off, particularly recoil and spread.

TR gun sounds (haven't noticed the others) really could use an overhaul.

Aircrafts seem way overpowered atm.

All the factions seem to feel the same. While I only played TR, I didn't really feel like I was playing against another faction when enemies appeared. Just my own faction with a slightly different skin.

Doesn't feel nearly as big as PS1.

The Vanu MAX? LoL

As I had feared, the Hex system, and no "global leaders" so to speak, makes battles very uncoordinated. Small mini battles happening everywhere, but no huge big battles, with one big force moving onwards, happening anywhere.

No "inbetween battles". What I really liked in PS1, in fact probably my favorite thing in it, was the battles BETWEEN bases and towers. When a huge group was moving on to the next target, but had to put up an AMS half way through because the enemy intercepted you. Then sloooowly pushing up towards the next base. Fighting in the woods, over a big hill, etc.

That's my next thing... no AMS. Game needs AMS.

Wack-a-mole base captures. You cap one, move on the next, enemy takes the previous one, go back, recapture, go to another one, enemy captures previous one, etc. etc. Bases should really offer up longer and more profound fights.

Map design. While not outright bad, I wouldn't call it great.

Base design. I really loved the long battles in PS1, slowly pushing into a base. Fighting over the same corridor for 30 minutes.

Seems to take AGES to gain certs and cash to buy new weapons.

The game could definitely be better optimized. On low settings, I still get quite horrible FPS. In BF3, which looks better, I get about double the FPS. But I'm not too worried, since stuff like that usually gets much much better throughout beta.

Probably my biggest concern, is that the game (so far) doesn't really feel "epic". Those looooooong pushes towards a base, loooooong massive fights over a single base, massive infantry forces moving up with vehicle support, etc. At least in my play session last night, it didn't happen.

Now I would never call PS2 a bad game. And it's still in beta. But I wouldn't call it an amazing game right now either. Nonetheless, those are my first impressions of the game.

Qwan · 2012-09-05, 08:08 AM

Hey just thought Id drop in and comment on your thread, your right about one thing, the hack time on bases needs to be longer. I believe it will be made longer as the beta continues to develope. I think the dev just want to test alot of things is why the hack times are locked for like 5 min. I mean over all I have to agree that getting better weapons takes time. You actually have to stay in game and gain points to unlock the weapons and its a slow process if your faction doesnt own enough hexes. I play VS so Im starting to get a feel for the VS max, duel comments against a vehicle does alot of damage, but the reload time is horrible. But I believe they have certs for that. Ive been reading alot of the certs and as your implant slots start to become availible, you can see how there gonna play a big part when it comes to gaining araxium faster and other materials and xp. I was having a big issue with fps initially when I started, I play on the EU server 2 and I live on the east coast, but as the new patches started to come out Im not having alot of problems anymore. To me the game is really doing ok, I find myself having to adjust my mouse sensitivity alot when switching from vehicle to ground troop (its a good thing its just a push of a mouse button). I dont think that the air is over powered, I think its just how you spend your araxium. alot of guys have spent a majority of there points on upgrades like locking missles and missle pods that do more damage. For example Ive spent alot of my certs and araxium on the sunderer (love bus), It now has better armor, zoom, and faster firing guns as well as reload time. I also have lowered my wait time by spending certs and stuff.

The key trick or problem I would say is that some guys actuallly log in and just sit in santuary, while there sleep or at work, and they gain araxium. So when they get back to gaming they have built up some points to spend. (Ive noticed that the game will not kick you unless the server goes down). But being beta Im sure the dev will adjust this issue as well. There are alot of video issues, like the guys with the arm threw his chest or the dead guys moving across the ground. Sometimes when I reload, the animation doesnt show, but it is beta. Me I make it a point to just try everything and just have fun. When they fix all the bugs and adjust game play, I think the epic battles will come, right now its all about running the servers, fixing the bugs and getting a feel for the game.

Dagron · 2012-09-05, 08:29 AM

I see a lot of complaints that it takes too long to get certs and cash, but i think people haven't really realized that it has to be slow, otherwise everyone will have everything they want in a week or two.
In an MMO, people need to have something to strive for, for a long long time, and most people aren't going to obsessively stick with the game because they want every cert in existence. They'll be obsessive about their roles of choice, so it should take them a while to get everything for those roles. I for one want to be a decent engineer after a couple of days only, but i don't want to have everything for the engi class in just a month or two, i want to have things to look forward to for longer than that.

As for people idling to get stuff, that's most likely not going to happen after release (i'm assuming the only reason they haven't implemented an auto logout yet is because they have more important stuff to do first).

Blue Sam · 2012-09-05, 09:32 AM

Infantry seems fucked. Why people infantry at all, when you can get a MAX or vehicle instead? :S Hacking is the only issue. Feels like infantry really needs something more to make them worthwhile.

Infantry are beastly in the right situation, as shown in this video:

http://www.planetside-universe.com/s...ad.php?t=47677

Aircrafts seem way overpowered atm.

Aircraft are basically useless providing somebody has any decent AA, they just get ripped to shreds whenever they go near a competently defended base at all.

Doesn't feel nearly as big as PS1.

That's because we currently have only one continent.

As I had feared, the Hex system, and no "global leaders" so to speak, makes battles very uncoordinated. Small mini battles happening everywhere, but no huge big battles, with one big force moving onwards, happening anywhere.

It's beta. We don't have any big outfits really in together yet. Wait until we do.

No "inbetween battles". What I really liked in PS1, in fact probably my favorite thing in it, was the battles BETWEEN bases and towers. When a huge group was moving on to the next target, but had to put up an AMS half way through because the enemy intercepted you. Then sloooowly pushing up towards the next base. Fighting in the woods, over a big hill, etc.

PS1 basically never had anything happen between bases unless you happened to bump into each other or somebody actually organised it. There's been significantly more in this version than the previous.

Base design. I really loved the long battles in PS1, slowly pushing into a base. Fighting over the same corridor for 30 minutes.

This is a function of (coordinated) numbers more than anything else: there just isn't anybody at the minute with the shear directed manpower to hold a location for that long.

Probably my biggest concern, is that the game (so far) doesn't really feel "epic". Those looooooong pushes towards a base, loooooong massive fights over a single base, massive infantry forces moving up with vehicle support, etc. At least in my play session last night, it didn't happen.

This is because there's very few people in game, and very little in the way of sizeable outfits.

Qwan · 2012-09-05, 12:05 PM

There is one thing that I would like to see, the importance of holding a base. Like PS1 lets say you were pushing on a base, you had access to tanks and heavy vehicles. You run to the vehicle pad to get a tank and BAM!!!, you no longer have access because the other faction took down your connected tech plants generator. I mean I understand were in beta and stuff and you have access to everything from any vehicle spawn point. But will this come into play later in beta or during release. I just like that part of PS1, I was hoping that it would be implimented in PS2. I have noticed that if your hacking a point in PS2 and you lose the hex conected to it, it stops hacking which makes sence. But I think having bases connected to give you access to certain vehicles was a way to turn fights that have become stagnent.

Dagron · 2012-09-05, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by Qwan

... the importance of holding a base...

Agreed. As things are, other than a little extra bit of resources every tick and pride in having more territory than the enemy, i don't see much importance in holding a base. I'd like a more compelling reason to fight for a base we already own, something that made everyone in the warpgate rush out to defend a base we simply "must have".

TokyoZeplin · 2012-09-05, 02:04 PM

@Blue Sam, please don't add in your own personal opinion, as "fact" to what I feel.

1) the link you linked, is this thread.
2) being an insanely crappy pilot, I have to massively disagree. I've very little time trying to learn to fly, and every death has been by suicide, not being shot down by AA, even though it's there.
3) no
4) has nothing to do with outfits
5) you and I clearly played different games, since that happened all the time on my server. In fact, happened all the time around Planetside 1 Day too (unplanned).
6) that makes no sense sadly. Unless one faction is horribly outnumbered, they have the manpower to hold a base. So yeah, no point there.
7) I'm geniunly curious how you know exactly how many people are in-game?

Bittermen · 2012-09-05, 02:31 PM

4) This whole game will be determined by outfits.. seems to me like your letting your personal opinion get in the way.

Good thing nearly everything you mentioned has already been targeted as a problem by the devs and/or hasn't been implemented yet.

TokyoZeplin · 2012-09-05, 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by Bittermen

4) This whole game will be determined by outfits.. seems to me like your letting your personal opinion get in the way.

Good thing nearly everything you mentioned has already been targeted as a problem by the devs and/or hasn't been implemented yet.

Don't get me wrong, if simply big organized outfits fixed this, I would be super happy. I just don't see how a single outfit, communicating solely with it's own members, will change much for the "average joe" if that makes sense

To the rest... well, have they really? You say so, but Blue Sam seems to think none of it is a problem at all.

Tooterfish · 2012-09-05, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by TokyoZeplin

No "inbetween battles". What I really liked in PS1, in fact probably my favorite thing in it, was the battles BETWEEN bases and towers. When a huge group was moving on to the next target, but had to put up an AMS half way through because the enemy intercepted you. Then sloooowly pushing up towards the next base. Fighting in the woods, over a big hill, etc.

Originally Posted by Blue Sam

PS1 basically never had anything happen between bases unless you happened to bump into each other or somebody actually organised it. There's been significantly more in this version than the previous.

I disagree, These battles were common in PS1's prime. Also, say what you want about stalls but I had a lot of fun fighting in them and would like to see these more in PS2. The whole Gal from base to base routine gets old in my opinion.

TokyoZeplin · 2012-09-05, 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by Tooterfish

I disagree, These battles were common in PS1's prime. Also, say what you want about stalls but I had a lot of fun fighting in them and would like to see these more in PS2. The whole Gal from base to base routine gets old in my opinion.

Exactly.

Rivenshield · 2012-09-05, 06:43 PM

Getting punted unexpectedly from one base to the next yesterday by a big Vanu offensive, I suddenly realized what's been bothering me all along: There's no way to resecure a hack.

I'm talking about the main installation, not the little satellite ones. It needn't be fifteen minutes -- maybe just two or three if the enemy holds everything else. As it is there's no warning, aside from the little letter flashing, and it doesn't flash long enough for you to do anything about it.

Also, take the damn shields off the spawn rooms and make the tubes destructible. Some spawns have the floor hatch -- that's fine, enemy LA can jump up and gun you. Nothing replaces the nerve-wracking excitement of trying to shove into the enemy's spawn or hold a hack, and the new Auraxis is much poorer for their absence.

Also twice, bring back the AMS. I spend as much damn time running between spawn points and the fight as it'd take to drive even a slow vehicle, park it, and push the zerg in the enemy's face. Make the Galaxy a spawn via cert tree, not out of the box, and return it to its traditional role as troop carrier. That'll make top-down assaults (as opposed to Gal drops and mass attacks of LA) an exotic capability, not the rule. And bring back sancs with rotating warp gates, so we can fight different enemies in different directions over the same ground.

I'm sorry if all of this makes me sound like a reactionary old fart, but these are elements that can and should be imported from the old game. They add variety and emotion. And that -- not mere scale -- is what separates Planetside from the pack.

VikingKong · 2012-09-05, 07:08 PM

Originally Posted by TokyoZeplin

Infantry seems fucked. Why people infantry at all, when you can get a MAX or vehicle instead? :S Hacking is the only issue. Feels like infantry really needs something more to make them worthwhile.

I would have said the opposite, myself. I rarely bother with vehicles as I tend to survive longer and accomplish a lot more while on foot.

Originally Posted by Qwan

I mean I understand were in beta and stuff and you have access to everything from any vehicle spawn point.

No we don't.

Bittermen · 2012-09-05, 10:37 PM

Originally Posted by TokyoZeplin

Don't get me wrong, if simply big organized outfits fixed this, I would be super happy. I just don't see how a single outfit, communicating solely with it's own members, will change much for the "average joe" if that makes sense

To the rest... well, have they really? You say so, but Blue Sam seems to think none of it is a problem at all.

You've got it backwards. The average Joe won't be changing anything. The big outfits will be. As seen already.

TokyoZeplin · 2012-09-06, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by Rivenshield

Also twice, bring back the AMS. I spend as much damn time running between spawn points and the fight as it'd take to drive even a slow vehicle, park it, and push the zerg in the enemy's face. Make the Galaxy a spawn via cert tree, not out of the box, and return it to its traditional role as troop carrier. That'll make top-down assaults (as opposed to Gal drops and mass attacks of LA) an exotic capability, not the rule.

Please oh god yes!