Christmas wish for SOE: A Roadmap

maradine · 2012-12-25, 11:08 AM

Dear SOE:

Hi. I really like your game. I like playing it solo, and I like playing it in groups. I'm worried, however, about how long it's going to last. A lot of really smart people have identified a lot potentially lethal flaws in it. Maybe they're all being chicken little. Or, maybe they're all spot on and we're in trouble. I don't pretend to know myself; lots of problems look fatal when they effect your favorite pet issue, but aren't systemic. On the other hand, there's server populations, which are our only window into the true performance of the title. Are they shrinking? It looks that way. Maybe revenue numbers tell a different story. I don't know.

Which brings me to my personal crux - I am not inclined to throw any more money into something that may be a flash in the pan. This is, of course, a self-fulfilling prophecy: if people hold on to their dollars while awaiting signs of success or failure, no money comes in. Planetside is not a philanthropy, and that means the game fails. Developers get reassigned; infrastructure gets spending frozen. At my former studio, we liked to call that "maintenance mode." We sent a few games there a year. They don't come back.

So how do you entice investment while success is a quantum superposition? Communication. That's what works for me, anyway. I want to know where you think you are, where you think you're going, and how you think you'll get there. What I want is the Planetside 2 Roadmap.

It doesn't have to be particularly detailed. It doesn't have to have hard dates. It can change every week for all I care. You can miss targets repeatedly, and I'll still forgive you. It does however, need to contain the delta of what you think the game is now, and what you want the game to be, and when. It needs to be written by someone at Higby's level (I know, give the guy a break), and it needs to receive a free pass through the PR/corpcomm machine. It needs to be divorced from personal egos and stock prices, and represent the naked truth, what ever that truth might actually be.

That is, at least, what I want this holiday from the world of the Internet, where every problem is the end of existence as we know it. Also, cats wear bread on their heads. Happy holidays from me and mine to you and yours, and I'll see you next year.

~mara

TL;DR - publish a roadmap already.

yadda · 2012-12-25, 11:21 AM

Dear SOE:

Fix player culling

I'm tired of getting hit by invisible infantry with lock on launchers that I have no way to fight against and invisible lib fire that even if I did see I couldn't fight against but it's still annoying going into lib territory unknowingly and getting popped by an invisible lib in an area I previously thought was safe.

Signed, a very annoyed tank driver

Ruffdog · 2012-12-25, 01:01 PM

There's three things which may have already caused irreparable damage.

1. Seven dollar guns. I know it's not a charity but Smed wanted lots of purchases multiplied by low cash outlays, rather than rare purchases of large outlays. God help us if he wanted the latter. It's scared many people off on principle alone.

2. Eight servers per region. Premature as hell. Enough threads about this and what this has done for pops.

3. Three continents on release. Three empires on three maps equals path of least resistance mentality for the most part. Xp awards for the conquering of non populated lands is basically mad.

A roadmap would be good. This game could be epic but there's too many schoolboy errors at the moment.

maradine · 2012-12-25, 03:29 PM

Of course, then we'll argue over the roadmap incessantly.

GLaDOS · 2012-12-25, 03:38 PM

I'm pretty sure Smed has said they're releasing exactly that in early January, for the community to pick at. It might have been Higby, actually, I'm not sure.

Rolfski · 2012-12-25, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by maradine

What I want is the Planetside 2 Roadmap.

Well, ho, ho, ho. Lucky you, your Christmas wish will be fulfilled. Santa Smedley will present us a road map in January :-)

maradine · 2012-12-25, 03:46 PM

And all I had to do was wish!

bpostal · 2012-12-25, 05:04 PM

Originally Posted by maradine

Of course, then we'll argue over the roadmap incessantly.

At least it'll be based on facts, not speculation

And yes, I really really really want to look back in a year at these doom and gloom posts and call myself an idiot for worrying about nothing. I honestly do.

Dkamanus · 2012-12-25, 10:35 PM

In early january it seems to come out, along in the same month with a performance patch. Just ask for more stability, the new maps and better Metagame mechanics. That'll make me more inclined to keep playing, as stuff are starting to get old.

AThreatToYou · 2012-12-25, 10:36 PM

What I want most out of this roadmap is "More unique weaponry for each faction". I'd apply for a job at SOE just to get that done.

Hey, there are a ton of much more pressing issues, but everyone else seems to have those handled.

thegreekboy · 2012-12-25, 11:36 PM

Originally Posted by AThreatToYou

What I want most out of this roadmap is "More unique weaponry for each faction". I'd apply for a job at SOE just to get that done.

Hey, there are a ton of much more pressing issues, but everyone else seems to have those handled.

I think the major metagame issues and the defensibility issue is a little bigger than weapon models to be honest.

Electrofreak · 2012-12-26, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by AThreatToYou

What I want most out of this roadmap is "More unique weaponry for each faction". I'd apply for a job at SOE just to get that done.

Hey, there are a ton of much more pressing issues, but everyone else seems to have those handled.

Pretty sure they said that they'd let players design weapons and vehicles at some point and, once they're approved, get a percentage of the profits. The specific term for this crowdsourcing eludes me at the moment.

maradine · 2012-12-26, 12:36 AM

Originally Posted by Electrofreak

The specific term for this crowdsourcing eludes me at the moment.

"valving"

Ghoest9 · 2012-12-26, 12:37 AM

Originally Posted by Ruffdog

There's three things which may have already caused irreparable damage.

1. Seven dollar guns. I know it's not a charity but Smed wanted lots of purchases multiplied by low cash outlays, rather than rare purchases of large outlays. God help us if he wanted the latter. It's scared many people off on principle alone.

Except you know - most people arent paying $7 for the "$7" guns.

Dkamanus · 2012-12-26, 01:00 AM

Is player studio gonna be used for camos as well? I want to outfit my outfit (lawl) with some custom uniforms =x