Planetside vs WW2 Online

[Spheresus]

I used to play WW2 Online and liked the game but it had problems that I could no longer tolerate. WW2O as you know is a MMO game but it's set in WW2 and it's a simulator type game with FPS action if your a soldier.

WW2 Online had 3 problems that killed it for me.

1) The world was too big. You could rarely find a big exciting battle because their were not enough members online to cover the world map. Too many targets, too much open space and not enough players meant that the battles you do find will be small in nature.

2) Soldiers are rare. Nobody really wants to be a soldier because you often get stranded and it takes about 20 minutes to walk to a town, just to get shot from no where by either a sniper or a tank that zoomed in on you and killed you from say 500 meters. That is not fun.

3) Battles have their player limits. If say 100 people are relatively close to each other in a big battle from both sides, people will start dropping from the battle. The engine or net code can't handle more than 100 people at a time in the same place.

I envisioned that WW2O will have huge epic battles with hundreds or thousands of soldiers attacking and defending towns, army bases or even hills. There would be dozens of vechiles engaged in mortal combat while hundreds of soldiers fight it out.

Instead it's about less than a dozen tanks going at it and a few other vechiles and guns and thats it. I've only been on a few battles that had any thing close of what I enivisioned and those are rare and far between.

I hope PlanetSide can can deliver on huge battles and at least semi-realistic combat, like maybe something like Counter Strike realism or Day of Defeat, it doesn't have to be Ghost Recon or Operation Flash Point.

[Camping Carl]

Probably more similar to C&C Renegade or Tribes 2. But I think we would all be very suprised if this game turned out like WWII online. I think hamma can clear up these sort of concerns for you. He has gotten to play planetside, unlike the rest of us.

[Hamma]

I was in a battle where (around) 100 people were all fighting for one base.

[Led]

How big was the base, Hamma? Was it all fully fleshed out inside? Or was it just a one way shot to the main console, or a whole lot of extraneous, worthless rooms?

[Hamma]

The bases are are as vast as the outside. I didnt experience a ton of indoor combat. But all bases are different, some have the control console on the upper level, others lower.. and its usually a few halls or stairways before you get there. Not right inside :

[DiscoDuck!]

how long does it take to hack a base? are their base turrets inside and outside of base that can be controlled like in T2?

[Hamma]

It probably takes 30-40 seconds to hack it, once hacked the base is disabled for 15 minutes (not owned by either side) which allows the enemy to fight, and possibly retrieve the base.

There are unmanned turrets on the base walls, however they do not function unless you have control of an AMP station - which provides intel for unmanned turrets. Base turrets can be human controlled, ie you can climb inside.

I am not suer on deployable turrets however.

[Warborn]

In Dark Age of Camelot, it's not that uncommon for 200+ to be involved in the same battle. We've really had MASSIVE fights in that game, and the death spam (when someone dies, you get a "Person A was killed by Person B" message in your chat box) was unbelievable.

[Spheresus]

Well I think from what I have been hearing that big battles will be possible in PlanetSide. It will be awesome to be in a pitch battle and all of the sudden your squad decides to charge and you charge right with them firing your gun and narrowly being hit by fire.

I also look forward to the smaller more covert battles where your small squad takes on a lightly defended bases to out flank the front lines and wreck some havock on your enemy. Also hit and run raids may be small in nature as well.

Hamma since you played PS already can you describe how the combat is like. Is it semi realistic or is it all out arcade like unreal tournament or quake?

[Hamma]

I definatly would not describe it like UT or Q3 - nor would I call it realistic, although thats what its closest too.

If i was to say anything, it would be that PS is a game of its own.. it can be paced however you want to play. This is what makes it unique and imo, what will make it a huge hit.

[Flashingfish]

As for the point about never finding a battle because the world's too big...

Commanders can place "hotspots" where they think there is action. This will encourage players to go there and fight.

Also, if you're a sniper in the middle of nowhere and you kill a lone wolf, you will get extremely few BEPs compared to someone who is really in the thick of it with 100 other people. The BEPs you are awarded are determined by the danger factor; i.e. how many enemies in the direct vicinity. (sorry to burst your bubble vanu snipers ;p)

Hopefully this should result in huge battles =]

[Zarparchior]

I don't know if that is the case... If that's been mentioned I must have been catatonic. Which is entirely possible.

I do know that you get full BEPs for each kill in a squad:

You pitch your tent in a forest by yourself and wait for the rare lone passerby? You get 10 BEPs for killing his dumb ass.

You and your squad find some rare lone passerby and for kicks your medic whips it out (his pistol, doink ) and caps his dumb ass. Everyone in the squad gets 10 BEPs.

Of course, the exact amount I made up and is just so you can use it to compare to the kill you made by yourself. Why would the devs do this? Simple: This is a TEAM game, Mr. Dumass. The point is to go with the rest of your Empire and squash the other Empires. There is no |33+ rare equipment, no skill levels or certain MoBs which give you more EXP than usual. You, in turn, are nearly forced to "group" with your Empire all the time! Isn't that sweet?

You naysayers may say (try attempting that 5 times fast ) "Wait a second... that means we'll get uber amounts of BEPs and cap out too soon." If you only need 2000 (200 kills) BEPs to cap out, yes. It would go fast. Of course, if they're forcing you to group don't you think they'd adjust how much you need accordingly?

Using the above numbers, methinks 2000 BEPs will get you to Cert Level 2.

[Spheresus]

Ok as long as the game play is not arcadish then I'm not worried. I don't want to see enemy soldiers jumping and doing flips in mid air while capping people in their heads with rail guns or shooting them in their mouths with rockets all while in mid air and screaming out "N00B'S!!!"

I also don't want to see an uber realistic game where you get sniped from a "rifleman" that is 400 meters away and you die from 1 shot that hit you in the shoulder.

I like the games that mix the two elements of realism and arcade but are a bit more to the realism side. I like to call these types of game "fake realism". Where the important parts of war combat are represented in a believable fashion while the boring parts of war are eliminated from gameplay.

[Sandtaco]

I don't think we will have to worry about that jumping thing, the closest tihng to it is the VS MAX's jumpjets.

[ft-Marauder]

My major problem with WWIIO was driving 20 miles to a (*&%()@#$ battle and dying with one shot from a hidden tank. Argh. It got very, very annoying and I finally just gave up.

When you did get a good battle going on with combined arms, it was very satisfying... But it was rare enough that it wasn't worth the $10 per month.