Maybe it's me....

[Scouse]

....but I'm not "sold" on Planetside yet.


I logon, join a squad, go and fight a battle which is probably nowhere near as hectic as many of the standard FPS's about and move on to the next target.

I get run over by NME that are miles away, there's virtually zero chance of your skill making a major difference in the majority of firefights, the graphics are less-than-stellar (why can't the textures be ten times better? - good textures aren't going to add to lag - any my ninja machine has no problems)....

If it was as fun to play as a standard FPS (eg Tribes) aswell as being Massively Mulitplayer and persistent online then I'd be happy as larry. (However happy he is)...

Not as fun...and pay monthly?

I'm not giving up yet - but it just seems so.........unfulfilling at the moment

 

[Summo]

I agree. I've played it for hours and I'm still not sold. I dare say by the time the beta end I'd have had my fill. I dunno. *shrug*

 

[adslrizla]

You're not alone - I feel exactly the same way. Probably 40%+ of the posts on the beta forums say the same.

I think it's gonna bomb personally - the majority of people will buy it, play it and dump it within the first month. The first month will essentially still be beta anyway given the increasingly desperate attempts in the last 10 days to get gameplay actually working. Basically after a couple of weeks I just think "what's the point?" There's something major missing - the game isn't really much of anything TBH - it's not RPG and it definitely isn't FPS. Falls half-way between I think.

I'm sure many of you intending to buy the game think differently. I'll be interested to hear what you think about it after a month of owning it - I haven't said "playing it" cos I think a good few of you won't.

 

[Silent Shadow]

Don't forget it's only beta

I'm not that impressed either but I will deffo buy the retail version

 

[adslrizla]

It is not beta. It hasn't been beta for a few days. CDs are already being pressed.

What you're playing now is the patch for day 1. You should only have been seeing minor tweaks to balance over the last few days, but given that most of the exclusive beta testers seem to be saying to SOE "nice try but it doesn't work" the developers seem to have gone into panic mode.

It might not surprise people that the guy in charge of PS development is the same guy that was in charge of Tribes2 development. I've never played T2 but I'm informed it was somewhat less than stellar on release? There seems to be a lot of people pointing the finger at him again regarding the way this game has ended up - which doesn't even vaguely resemble what the devs were saying a mere 8 months ago.

I dunno - something is missing for me with this game. Ignoring all the lag and bugs it just seems to be too "middle of the road" to be good at anything really.

/me shrugs

 

[Siven]

Its all Dave G's fault!

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

I'm having massive ammounts of fun at the moment from simply getting in there with a bunch of mates.

We're not especially taking it seriously, but we are running around together having a laugh on comms. I just really enjoy the fact that we have a pilot who sets us down, a MAX guy who covers us, a medic keeping us all alive, whilst they smuggle me in so I can hack the console.

More often than not it doesn't work, but the fun is for me from being there with a bunch of friends. Yes that may well pale eventually, but at the moment it isn't.

 

[adslrizla]

That's the way it should be played Scooba

Do you think that this will last long enough for you to pay them subs? Serious question BTW - I'm just curious as to why I don't find it all that great even when playing with mates. The annoying thing is I can see how it would be great if they made a couple of minor (well semi-minor) changes and lost exp completely

Oh - second question if you don't mind : how long have you been playing it for?

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

I expect I'll sub for a few months and then see how it goes, much the same way as any of the games I play it depends on what everyone else is up to, if enough of us sub, then I'll keep on subbing (if that makes sense)

As to the second question, I've been playing for about a week now, which prolly isn't that long compared to the FP sub peeps.

 

[Gewny]

what makes my go Ahh atm is playing with the cars and air crafts. This part is relly fun.

But I tried a MAX and I got relly disapointed... when points spent to for getting the suit theres nothing more to buy, u cant upgrade weapons or armour. But I bet implants are relly nice for a MAX but hey the poor guy has to lvl 6 times to even se any of it

there needs to be diffrent weaps and maybe modules to add to a MAX suite I think.

 

[adslrizla]

It does make sense.

I'll be interested to see what you think after another week of gameplay because I felt exactly the same as you after one week - after two it was a case of "God almighty here we go again, another pointless base just cos there's a firefight happening".

At that point I started looking hard at the game and realised that 95% of the players were just chasing exp. Then I thought about what the game would be without exp (keep command exp, but modify it) and realised that there really wasn't a game at all

Exp screws the whole game up as nobody really gives a damn about bases. The lattice system is an attempt at a counterbalance to this but it doesn't really work very well. For the 5% of players that try to play the game tactically (as in which base next) they get raped by squads with more certs cos they chased the exp and have enough certs to respawn with the equipment to take care of just about any situation. The recent patches (aka nerfs on exp) are yet another attempt to try to sort this out - instead of just binning exp (which SOE won't stand for as with EQ/etc they have a proven levelling treadmill that works).

Heh - I sound like a right miserable bastard I'm just very very disappointed is all

 

[CliffyG]

I'm getting it cos it's great fun and there will be content added, i'm not looking any further than WOW for longevity though so am prepared to get bored of it in a while, if i don't then great . It has stopped me playing DAoC though and my account has now expired and will not be renewed.

 

[Will]

I have a stupidly large collection of games, and I play 4 of them regularly. Most haven't lasted longer than 2 days. So I will buy it.

And as I'm the MAX who is allegedly covering Scoob, I've been having a great time. Though now I have a few more BR points, I may well change to sniping. One more point and I can have decent armour. Having one rifle just doesn't cut it.

 

[Xtro]

I haven't posted on here properly for a couple of days due to 2 things: work commitments and...EVE.

EVE has gripped me but only as its the nearest thing to Elite at the moment. Its got flaws but feels nice to play and more importantly...I feel there is a game worth subbing for in there.

I was one of the people defending the game from adslrizla's comments originally. Whilst I disagree about everyone just "chasing xp" and I DO think they will add content (daoc had sweet FA at first and can be argued once you hit 50 it has FA now but anyway)...I don't think at present there is much there at all.

This is from a person who's regularly been playing with true friends and can use teamspeak etc - how its meant to be played imo.

After trying the vehicles and MAX's and weapons which did indeed give me many laughs I have lost the will to log on. I still don't care about BEP's or CEP's.

What really did it was this - If I want to play a game online where I can shoot other people up close and personal I can play Medal of Honor Allied Assault. If I want to play a futuristic game where I can use vehicles and jetpacks, I can play Tribes 2. T2 and MOHAA aren't the same of course but they are FREE. PS needs to offer me something more - what we have atm is a game that won't keep the former MMORPG lot hooked for months OR the FPS community. So what's left? A game to play wizzbangwowlookatthatexplode for a few weeks.

I've cancelled my pre-order. I'll keep on this forum and keep a beady eye out to see how you lot get on with it. Any signs of more stuff to do (I don't want a level grind for a start) then I might sub in future.

A shame

 

[Milkshake]

I think Xtro's right.

The trick to this game is to get into a really good outfit. Big or small, organised or a piss-around...you wanna play with people you know.

Games from now on will rarely be about the loner. It'll be about the team. Planetside is no exception.

Nothing like being in a squad with your buddies, jumping on a tower from the top, working your way down covering each other, q0wning along the way

I also think there's gonna be a ton of stuff added later. To me it seems like the groundwork for a game, with one or two things added.

I can see a *ton* of weapons and vehicles being added...and by the way they've made it, it's gonna be real easy to add new continents/areas.

Personally, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Old_Bean]

It's started already....
check this out
http://planetside.station.sony.com/game_updates/future_plans.jsp

 

[Will]

Can someone summarise for people stuck behind work filters?

 

[adslrizla]

PlanetSide will soon be released, but the development team isn't resting. Check out what's on the horizon for updates and additions to the game!

Here's a peek at what you can expect in the near future for PlanetSide:

New aircraft :
Liberator - a brand new common pool bomber
Lodestar -- a vehicle transport aircraft
New vehicle:
Skyguard -- an anti-aircraft buggy
Platoons: Combine up to three squads to facilitate chat, share XP and organize and command large-scale missions with up to 30 people .
Sanctuary Strikes: Strike at the heart of your enemy. By achieving a "lock" on the three continents connected to an enemy sanctuary, launch attacks via the opened warpgates.
Quarterly Outfit Competitions: Conduct special events featuring structured competitions between outfits. Games like "Capture the Flag" and others can be played.
PlanetSide is a persistent world, constantly changing. Updates like this are made on an ongoing basis, so stay up-to-date with what's to come in regular update reports right here.

 

[Will]

Nice one.

 

[adslrizla]

There's no really "new" news there (apart from the bomber and CTF competitions?).

They've been promising platoons for weeks now - I'm not entirely sure how that differs from an outfit anyway - and the sanctuary strikes are in response to the thousands of "For the love of god make something meaningful in this game" posts on the beta forums Hopefully they work out.

Is it just me or does "CTF competitions" in a MMOFPS sound a bit, well... odd?

 

[-Ultimate]

Wel in a platoon i'd assume you'll get xp split across the three squads, you don't get points from a squad just cos it contains someone from your outfit, therefore its different to an outfit.

Anyway theres a point in that load of rubbish somewhere, have fun finding it

 

[adslrizla]

Ah of course. I hadn't noticed that bit. So it's really a "bigger" squad that can split back into smaller squads. Wonder why they're not doing it until after beta.

 

[Will]

They are forcing the gameplay more and more towards squads. That will make the game less appealing to the casual gamer. Then again, the people who are enjoying this more are playing it with groups of mates, so I'm not sure if it will help player numbers.

 

[Old_Bean]

Well lets just hope they introduce more elements that make the game worth sticking with.
Maybe make the bases worth defending. Like give a trickle of exp to defenders when the enemy is within any SOI on the continent or within a certain range of the SOI, and increase that trickle depending on how many enemy are there, or maybe increase it depending on the ratio of attackers to defenders.

More reasons for holding bases are needed. I know the types of bases give certain benefits, but frankly they are a bit weak.

DAOC had the right idea, with relics. Actually increasing skills etc for the entire faction, not just those on the continent would be a good one. It could be limited to one key building on each continent having a major benefit to the faction.

Anyway, speculation is one thing, I'm sure the developers will look at other games and stick some other bells and whistles in it when it looks like it's client base is degrading.

 

[adslrizla]

I do hope so (I'm going to keep an eye on PS to see what happens), but the fact that the devs are now locking/deleting lots of threads on the beta forums isn't a good sign. Most of these threads aren't remotely offensive either, they're just suggestions about how to make bases actually worth something.

Oh and the bases don't do what it says in the manual.

/me hunts


Aha - from the April 25 patch notes :

33) In preparation for some sweeping facility link abilities (in an upcoming patch) some of the existing link abilities have been removed.

- The Amp Station no longer reduces consumption of NTUs by 50%. (This will be replaced soon with the ability to power up vehicle shields.)

- Amp Station no longer increases the size of the SOI when owned. This was as much hindrance to friendlies as it was detriment to drop-podding enemies.

- The Bio Lab no longer causes Medical Terminals to act as Advanced Medical Terminals. (This will be replaced by a more noticeable reduction in respawn timers to all linked facilities.)

- Tech plant still allows advanced vehicles to be purchased at other owned facilities (no change).

- Interlink still adds radar capabilities, but these will be simplified soon to be more understandable.

- Dropship Center will eventually activate all repair/rearm pads at various facilities so vehicles can repair and access inventory at those pads. That feature may be post-release.

Sort of explains why the only 2 bases anyone gives the remotest damn about are the Dropship Centre and Tech Plant eh? I have no idea whether they just forgot about doing what they said they were gonna but I suspect not

 

[Gabrial]

Originally posted by Will.
They are forcing the gameplay more and more towards squads. That will make the game less appealing to the casual gamer. Then again, the people who are enjoying this more are playing it with groups of mates, so I'm not sure if it will help player numbers.

Im not so sure - I know it was only Beta but when I logged in I could be in a squad within 10 mins easily (sometimes with my Gal pilot which is easier I admit).