PS Code of Honor Pact

[Death2All]

I made one of these last year when PS1 went F2P. Decided I'd type one up again.

In a little less than two weeks (from my time of writing this) PS1 will be going F2P. Regrettably, this may be one of the last times we'll ever play PS1 again. It is with that thought in mind that I would like these last few days to be as enjoyable as possible.

This is, obviously, a voluntary list of mostly general guidelines that I personally feel players could follow to make the game more enjoyable as a whole and cease in detracting players from the game. In no particular order of importance, refrain from the following:

1. Ceasing to let fights develop/ending fights too early
This has always been a problem with PS, even in it's zenith. There is a "I HAVE TO WIN" mentality that haunts this game. Players will often times go out of there way to end a fight as quickly as they possibly can (I.E. blowing the gen at a base as soon as they arrive). Some may argue that the defenders should do a better job and keeping the opposition away from the gen, but sometimes that isn't the case.

For the sake of longer lasting battles, please refrain from blowing the gen unless it is absolutely necessary. Personally, I don't feel it's ever necessary to blow the gen, but at the very least, let a fight develop over some time. There's no need to ruin everyone else's fun.

2. Use of lame weapons/vehicles

Perhaps one of the more controversial and subjective rules on the list. Although, I don't think it will be an issue seeing as the last time I checked, Core Combat wasn't working.

Essentially refrain from using Flails, and possibly excessive amounts of Plasma/Thumpers.

I think it's pretty much universally agreed upon that Flails are lame and don't add much enjoyment to the game. Plasma/Thumpers on the other hand, are a little more tricky. I think that it's fine to use them when the time calls for it, for suppressing an area and keeping the enemy held back from pushing up. Unfortunately, more often than not, people Thumper/Plasma spam when the advantage is hugely in their favor and only do it as a means to be an asshole.

Use your best judgement. When in doubt, don't spam.

3. General douchebag behavior

I think this is one of the more obvious ones.

We're all playing this game together, let's try not to be dicks to each other, shall we? Avoid necessary flaming, TK wars, TKing in general. I know it's hypocritical of myself to suggest such a rule since I had a reputation in game as being sort of a dick, but the time's have changed.

4. Abuse of exploits/bugs

This one can kind of fall under general douchebag behavior, but I decide to single this specific aspect out especially.

Last year, mysteriously as the game went F2P, a bug arose that caused the Wasp to do insane amounts of damage to armor and MAXs. At first, only a few people knew of it. Quickly, word got out and suddenly a large amount of people were all flying around, instagibbing players. As a result, this caused the already miniscule and dwindling population to only further fade away.

In essence, please do not abuse any bugs that are gaming ruining such as this. If it weren't very players abusing this bug, the population wouldn't have dwindled so quickly. There is a lot of debate of what an exploit is. A lot of people consider "warping" to be an exploit, but that's something that really can't be helped as a completely new player to game could start playing, strafe his keys at certain speed and begin to warp on people.

I consider abusing a bug or exploit something that you purposely go out of your way to do, so that you may obtain an advantage over another player. Abusing glitches, router bugs, etc. are all detrimental to the game and only serve to do irritate and detract players from the game. There were a lot of people who took advantage of the Wasp. Please, don't do be a dickhead.

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I understand that some people will probably read this and do the exact opposite just in spite of it being suggested, and that's fine. But I would like to encourage as many people as possible to follow through with this list and just try and make the game as enjoyable and frustration free as we possibly can.

I typed this up somewhat tired late at night (it probably shows) so it's not the most thought out post I've ever made. If you have any suggestions (problems/confusion with some rules, ideas for additions to the list, etc.) feel free to post and I'll update the list.

Thanks, I'll see you in game.

[SgtMAD]

alright, you idiots are losing your friggin minds now.

you all have these big dreams for PS but no one is going to play, I was actually logged in when they pulled the plug on the last free time and there wasn't anyone else logged in and it had been that way for the last couple of months.

30 days after this game f2p the server will be a ghost town again and all these silly rules wont mean shit

[BeatCrazed]

Bedzike damn, that's way too harsh. He's kinda being an asshole but you're standing right on the event horizon.

SgtMAD: Eh, we'll see. I'm really hoping that you're wrong about this but if you are right then I won't hold it against you. Also, I wouldn't really call any of these rules silly, would you care to elaborate on what you find silly about them?

[ChipMHazard]

That escalated fast.

Mad, I don't care if you like PS1 or not. Other people do, so perhaps it might be a good idea not to insult them for no reason?

[Calista]

Last time I played there were 2 noobs messing around in a base doing things like shooting at the NTU silo and sniping the wall turrets, blowing gens with punishers etc. I kept killing them and then they logged off. I don't know if they ever came back but I felt bad for possibly running off 1/3 of the TR population that night It's a fine line being an experienced player and deciding whether or not to just let the noobs go and keep them around or shoot them.

[Skittles]

I don't know what you people are thinking is going to happen here, but I sure hope you become a little more realistic with what, WILL happen. As to what you, HOPE, will happen.

And, that goes for ALL aspects of the game. From, how you hope those that log in will play. To the actuality of how many, WILL log into play. Without this going on Steam nothing significant is going to occur beyond you logging in and visiting empty places that you hold in your hearts for fights that occurred years ago.

Think of this as a veterans re-visiting Normandy, Cassino, Sicily, Truk. A lot of lost friends, enemies and emotions in an open empty backdrop really. SOE simply opening up the game to F2P means jackdiddlysquat. SOE porting the game to Steam F2P access with some advertising = success to some extent. But, to be realistic. None of what I just posted will happen but nostalgia for those that take the time to d/l and log on. Which will be very, very small. I'd even say the over/under will be less then 100 people.

[Calista]

It's not going to be on Steam?

[Baneblade]

If they dont even fix the new bugs (that have no legitimate reason to exist), it won't matter if SOE doesn't even try to advertise the game again. They didn't last time either.

[bedzike]

they are going to fix it or else it would of been f2p sooner. they cant put their name on something that has game breaking problems... who are we kidding ps2 has game breaking crashes still. but I believe they had some1 fix it we won't know until the 16th so one that day lets meet cyssor and test the wasp, and striker on solsar.

[Mightymouser]

I don't think the pushed back date has anything to do with PS1; they moved the date for all the SOE All Access Program changes. I highly doubt they made such a drastic schedule change because they want to fix a few bugs in PS1...

[kubacheski]

Originally Posted by Mightymouser

I don't think the pushed back date has anything to do with PS1; they moved the date for all the SOE All Access Program changes. I highly doubt they made such a drastic schedule change because they want to fix a few bugs in PS1...

I gotta agree with mouser on this one. The changes aren't necessarially for the PS1 code so much as the subscription/authentication servers.

As for how the population turns out, we'll have to wait and see. during the free months I really only played for the first few days, maybe a week. Then after realizing that any time I spent on it would go *poof* in such a short time I'd stop.

I am curious to see the populations when it does go F2P. It's just almost impossible to say what will happen. I mean there's really 2 major factors
1) Graphics too dated so people overlook the fun of gameplay.
2) Gameplay too good so people can overlook the dated graphics.

pop goes up or down based on those 2. (I throw bugs and hackers into the gameplay factor as those are negatives to the superior gameplay over PS2)

[Mightymouser]

Originally Posted by kubacheski

I am curious to see the populations when it does go F2P. It's just almost impossible to say what will happen. I mean there's really 2 major factors
1) Graphics too dated so people overlook the fun of gameplay.
2) Gameplay too good so people can overlook the dated graphics.

TBH, I think the main factor will be whether we ever reach the critical mass of players needed to make the game generally fun. Hardcore vets with outfitmates to play with can have fun with 100 people on the server, but in order to be fun enough to attract and keep new players we'll need a quite a few more players.

That was the problem on the last round of f2p, we never got enough players ingame that new players found it fun to play, people just trickled in a few at a time and left when they realized the pops weren't high enough to sustain good fights.

Yogi Berra once said: "Nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded." What we have here is a chance for the opposite problem; not enough people want to play because not enough people want to play...

[kubacheski]

Originally Posted by Mightymouser

... not enough people want to play because not enough people want to play...

Thats quite a catch 22. But I suppose it is THE problem in a game where the only real content is other players.

[Minigun]

I think more emphasis should be put on telling people when to play, as opposed to how to play. Of course people will not fill the server during off hours but perhaps the community could set up peak times on specific days.

Nostalgia Tuesday anyone?

[Atheosim]

How many players can Gemini actually handle at once? Like 3 pop locks maybe? Anyone have numbers? I wonder if they would need to open another server if they put this on steam.