[Planetside] NC R&D Breakthrough.....

[Filan Fyretracker]

now declassified for battlefield use is the Super Phoenix Missle (http://www.solarflare.tv/planetside/superphoenix.jpg)

[Trastero]

So, how is the new expansion for PS?

[Erling E.]

Now that almost looked real :-)

[Coffee]

Big boom.

[Necrosaro]

The biggest change coming to Planetside is the consolidation of the two east coast server and the two west coast servers. They claim that there closing one east and west coast server to give the people what they want, which is bigger battles. But the truth is allot of people quit and the servers now are getting too empty. Merging the 4 servers into 2 will help allot. They make allot of balance changes that piss people off too much which makes them quit. I haven't renewed my subscription which expires in January because of the interlink facility benefits. It makes infiltrators useless.

[Naelaen]

SOE overestimated player numbers, Johari in particular has always had a low population rank.

They claim subs are steady.... but they would say that, wouldn't they :)

[Keiran]

Yeah, people are leaving... It's a great game, but unless you have a good outfit to play with, it doesn't have the longer lasting appeal of an online rpg.

[Kaylen]

I loved it when it first came out, and I'm glad I moved on to other things before people started leaving.. It's a shame, really. It's the most solid MMOG I've ever seen.

[Naelaen]

Planetside just needs to find a way to give itself long lasting appeal. Hell if it was free people would play it all the time (as people play games like Counter-Strike and Unreal Tournament now). It's an awesome game, and I don't believe the exodus is as bad as people cry it is on the forums. There is one, but those with big mouths want us to believe it's much worse than it is, simply because they want everyone else to feel the same way they are.

All it needs is time.

[Rifter]

I think if there was more diversity to the game, something more to do other than chase after and recapture certain buildings and outposts, that the game would have a longer-lasting palette of gamers. Perhaps if they introduced more objectives, or gave the players more control around their enviroment/faction, that it would be a lot more with-standing. If they also introduced more certifications, vehicles, and weapons, or gave them more to accomplish as far as customizing your character, that people feel more attached to their characters. After you've reached BR 16, it becomes too repetitive and therefore, after that, there really is nothing to keep you in the game because you've basically reached the top of the ladder, and have no where left to go.

The number one thing keeping Planetside down, is the lack of content after said BR 16, above, in my opinion.

[John Dyne]

Wait. Have they introduced the orbital death laser stuff that you're supposed to get at CR3 or CR4? That always seemed awesome, to be able to pinpoint an area on the map and spell your name with a giant, government sanctioned ion cannon.

'Sir! The Vanu are advancing!'
'One moment, private. I have to cross the T's.'
*random screaming*
'Now, what is it, private?'
'Err.. nothing sir.'

[Kaylen]

I think it's CR5, but I could be wrong. I knew the first guy to get them (on my server). He said they lagged everyone out of the game, there were so many giant explosions of death, but I never had a chance to see it.

[Volas]

Planetside, plain and simple, Sucks. Period. There is no discussion regarding this matter. The game was literally thrown out into the market by Verant/Sony just to rake in more cash. There is no story, no plot, and no POINT to the entire game. NOTHING. There isnt even a real reason to LEVEL (i use that term loosely) a character. If you want different skills.. just create an alt and choose them for free, other then some crappy augmentations and MAYBE leadership skills, there is no real reason to waste your time.

Defend your base? Why? They cant touch your "Sanctuary" so all you have to do is leave till they get bored, then go retake your base and rake in exp. As for "Bigger Battles" yeah right.. IF you wanna walk there.. and IF the area lets you in.. thanks to the retarded "100 person Limit".. even if thier IS a decent fight going on, unless you have the luck of the irish, you wont see it.

13 Bucks a month? For what? Unreal Tournament? No thanks, I'll pass. I played that game for the free trial period, realized its totally repetitive, pointless, and lame, then returned it to EB, got my money back, and bought something more useful... a pair of socks.. used ones.. with holes.. green in color... and i felt that i had spent my money more wisely.

[Kaylen]

Planetside, plain and simple, Sucks. Period. There is no discussion regarding this matter.

That is your opinion, not a fact. It should not be delivered as such. I enjoyed it, and would pay more than the charged price for that kind of server stability.

It's also not "100 person" limit - it's percent. Not person. It's too keep one faction from completely dominating a continent. Even though they do this anyway, it's possible for the other factions to gather the exact same number of people and drive them out (or try to).

[Volas]

LOL Ok Kaylen, I'll tell you what i'll do,

I'll use my standard home computer, and provide a permanent host for U2k. In exchange, you can pay me 20 a month. u2k has more content then planetside, more things to do, and i'll host your own private server. Lemme know, i'll tell you where to send the payment.

[Kaylen]

I don't like Unreal Tournament. And I'd never pay for a private server.

Sorry.

[Filan Fyretracker]

Lodestar and Recert patch went to pub test today. /grin.

[Velenka]

Ah, Planetside :) I loved being in beta (thanks Woody!). What I don't remember is.... which 2 GU forumites ran my ass over on the first day? Anyone remember? I think maybe one of them was Raven...

[Kaylen]

Wasn't me. I tried to hook up with the /GU people, but I think I started playing after everyone had mostly left.

[Velenka]

I remember playing with ya :) You schooled me (and nearly everyone else) big time in.... what were they, rank points? .. within our outfit.

[Kaylen]

Are you sure? It's likely, as even in that one large guild I was racking up the kills and what have you, and I don't go around turning down tributes to my supreme awesomeness, but I'm not sure I was even ever in your outfit, though I tried to send tells to a few people.

But then, I do have a horrible memory, and I was going around with some group of people in beta, unless that was my imaginary friend flying the Gal.

[Keiran]

Unreal tournament is more of an arcade game, where reflexes and knowing where the "goodies" are is what counts. Planetside is much more tactical, and less twitch based. Being able to outthink your opponents is a more valuable asset than fast reflexes. You would do much better comparing the play experience to Battlefield 1942 than Unreal. Also, while I'm not familiar with how many people can play an Unreal game, I would suggest that it is far below the number of people that play in even a mid-sized battle on Planetside. The battles with max population on a continent defy description, and are incomparable to any other game.

In game rememberance:
We, the Vanu Sovereignty, massed together to retake Amerish. This was done easily, because there was no resistance. Looking for a fight, we pushed on to Amp Station Mont on Solsar. We took Mont in a mid-sized battle. We pushed on towards the NC sanctuary and were stopped cold by the full weight of the NC army, who had gathered to resist us. The battle was harsh, but we were still moving forward, slowly, our maxed out army vs their maxed out army. Then Mont, our beachhead on Solsar, came under fire from the rear. The TR had shown up, and guess what? Their army was at maximum population as well. Realistically, we had no chance, sandwiched between them, outnumbered 2 to 1.

What followed was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. This was not just an infantry fight, all three sides had significant armor, air, and infantry forces in attendance. If you've ever been in a fight like that, you know the advantage actually favors the attackers, because they can surround the fort and prevent an ANT's arrival, (supplying energy that the fort needs to respawn it's soldiers and supply them with weapons/vehicles).

4 times, we made Ant runs through the narrow gap where the NC and TR didn't quite meet, with our Reavers supplying escort. Not just 2 or 3, but dozens of AMSes, (vehicles brought by the attacking army to enable their soldiers to respawn) were spotted and destroyed. 8 AMSes alone were hijacked and despawned by a single infiltrator, who let us know through broadcast when his count went up, to our cheers and laughter.

We were led by two generals, one who worked to destroy Amses and defend the fort while the other continually made provisions for the next Ant run. Turrets were destroyed, repaired, destroyed again, in endless action. Tanks performed driveby runs on the base, taking heavy fire, but not daring to enter, because of the mines that liberally festooned each entrance.

Note that through all this, we also successfully held the tower, which is quite a feat. Towers are very difficult to hold onto when an army is outside, but letting them go provides the enemy with a respawn point.

We held out for three hours. Given an equal amount of skill on each side, we would have been driven out in 45 minutes at most. We lost the base, but our fight was incredible, and there was no doubt in anyone's mind who had fought harder and better that night.

I challenge anyone to produce a show of that kind in Unreal, or any other tactical shooter. I don't believe it can be done in any other game.

This, experiences like this, are why massively multiplayer games like Planetside are worth paying a monthly fee for.

[Raven00x]

I think i was the Designated driver in our outfit...so it was probably me an' ryyger that skooshed you once or twice.

I loved cruising around in my galaxies, getting a squad and doing the ol' Hell Bent for Leather screaming combat drop of doom on an occupied base (unless ofcourse, they had AA guns. then it was more of a "sneak close but outside of AA range and drop them gently on the ground) but...i couldn't see paying that much money every month for planetside, espescially when i still had a vested interested in EQ.

[Realmreaver]

Planetside, plain and simple, Sucks. Period. There is no discussion regarding this matter. The game was literally thrown out into the market by Verant/Sony just to rake in more cash. There is no story, no plot, and no POINT to the entire game. NOTHING. There isnt even a real reason to LEVEL (i use that term loosely) a character. If you want different skills.. just create an alt and choose them for free, other then some crappy augmentations and MAYBE leadership skills, there is no real reason to waste your time.

Defend your base? Why? They cant touch your "Sanctuary" so all you have to do is leave till they get bored, then go retake your base and rake in exp. As for "Bigger Battles" yeah right.. IF you wanna walk there.. and IF the area lets you in.. thanks to the retarded "100 person Limit".. even if thier IS a decent fight going on, unless you have the luck of the irish, you wont see it.

13 Bucks a month? For what? Unreal Tournament? No thanks, I'll pass. I played that game for the free trial period, realized its totally repetitive, pointless, and lame, then returned it to EB, got my money back, and bought something more useful... a pair of socks.. used ones.. with holes.. green in color... and i felt that i had spent my money more wisely.

You know you might have a point but the way you speak of it is not an unbiased one but reminds me of someone who works for another corperation trying to downplay it so theirs would make money. Might not be good but nothing beats SWG in sloppyness. *back to FFXI I go... sigh*

[Radical Edward]

I remember I was the Maxer in the outfit, along with Phoenix. I think I had the most outfit points for a few days too. Good times, I might have to check out the new expansion for it. Does anyone here have the expansion and if so how is it?

[Trastero]

Ed, I've been asking the same question for about a week. I've yet to get an answer. heh Better luck to ya!

[Tenolein]

I'm with Kaylen on this one. The game was a great game. You can't tell me that Counter-Strike or Unreal Tournament has the battles that I've played on Planetside. Granted, I only played for about a month before I had to uninstall it because of the graphical requirements that it needed that I lack. The point being, if you have the patience and the tolerance, Planetside is one of the best FPS online game ever, and as we all know, it's a MMOG. Mind you, I only made it to BR8 CR2. The only reason I didn't make it further was because I don't lack ingenuity and I had fun messing, driving or flying around the continents. Same reason why I'm such a low level character in EverQuest.. Most my time is spent having fun, roleplaying, ect. instead of the often repetitive 'farming' or 'camping'. Of course, that's what games are for, having fun, right?

Uk2.. I have no idea what that is, so I can't state anything about that.

[Tenolein]

Holy cow, talk about a ton of people beatin me to the punch.. Heh.. Sorry!

Keiran, I totally agree. If it wasn't for my computer being a crappy pile of machine, I would have played it much long than just a month. I know exactly what your talking about. Meanwhile, I cannot remember what server I played on, but I was Terran Republic. I had a friend who was Vanu(or whoever had the lashers) and we'd log on, meet up in a uninhabited continent, and he'd hook me up lethally with em. All I had to do is take out and loot some Vanu for the ammo, and I'd be pretty decent. One of the best battles I've seen was one over a bridge. Vanu held the base on one side, we held the other, and not one tank, vehicle, plane or infantry could make it half way before biting the dust. It went on for quite awhile before Vanu recalled to a different continent due to a huge NC raid outside Vanu sanctuary. It was said before, you cannot be good with 'twitch' gameplay in Planetside, and you cannot see a horde of 50+ infantry, backed by tanks and an occasional respawn-on-wheels, in any other game. Amen brother!

[Filan Fyretracker]

http://www.solarflare.tv/planetside/loadstar2.jpg

its big its slow its ugly. i like it!

[Kaylen]

What the hell is that?

[Filan Fyretracker]

the lodestar, aka the flying Pickuptruck

[Kaylen]

Hmm.. maybe I should re-activate my PS account.

[Raven00x]

hmm.....certainly does look interesting


and they're doing cert groupings instead of individual certs, so i can be more flexible? hmmmmmmm...air support...fly out the troopers and tanks, and then bomb them to kingdom come all on one cert...

[stuman89]

seriously?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

cert groups!!!!!!!!!!! yayayayayayay!!!!!!!!

the only problem i had w/ planetside was that u were restricted to very few things but that would possible make me buy it

[John Dyne]

I remember that I was the all-around Jack in the outfit (Drahsil's Dragoons). I know I formed it, and had the highest BR for awhile, because I could use all three MAX suits and a tank.

[Aeria]

Volas..seeing as you are so smart and able to host a server...would that server be able to host 2k people at once? Would that server be able to insure that I would be fighting in a major battle with over 150 other people ..including aircraft and tanks and infantry...would your server also give me the thril of victory as I bombed into oblivion the enemy's last spawn point and you can actually see a breakthrough along an actual front of battle that has been hard fought for for hours on end? On your server will I get to defend a base against a major armored assault in a sand storm where visability is crap and you just hope that brown mass your fireing at is a tank and not a pile of rocks. On that server...will I and 8 Others be able to drop from a troop transport onto the top of an interlink facility and work our way in to sabotage the gens then stay and hold it to break the enemy's defences all over the continental front? No? Hmmm...UNREAL then SUCKS!!...there is no argument...Of course this is my opinion. But I think game,set and match was just declared.

[Tenolein]

LoL Aeria. My thoughts exactly, except for the Unreal sucks opinion... Cuz I love that game too. PS and all the UT games are 2 completely different games... Apples and oranges.

If you all decide to try out Planetside again, I'll activate mine for another month too. Just let me know, via PM or the threads what server your gonna be on.

TERRAN REPUBLIC ALL THE WAY!!!!

[Keiran]

Yeah, Unreal isn't bad. I greatly enjoy it as a means of honing my reflexes, but I wouldn't turn to it for straight gaming fun like I would other games. Well, maybe at a LAN party, but not a game I would just get online and play against strangers with.

[Tenolein]

Exactly. Heck, when UT first came out, it was the summer of 2000 I believe... Maybe '99. I can't remember. All I DO remember is in my friends basement we'd have his puter, his brothers puter, my puter and 2 other puter's set up on a LAN. We'd play that game a whole week, only stopping, taking turns mind you, to eat, work,and piss. I'm serious, I didn't sleep for a week. We'd set up the server to add bots after we all joined, so when we played Capture the Flag, we'd always have a fun team.. Talk about some fun games.. Even now, when I go online and play CTF maps, like Facing Worlds and other main maps, I own. I'll die every now and then, but for the most part, I'd own every map, every 'turn'
Ahh.. The great memories of UT. =)

[Keiran]

I loved Facing Worlds, but it was tough to regain the initiative if the other side won the initial sniper battle...

Great potential for getting that echoing Mmmmmonster Kill though. I have heard that when you get up to about 15 of them in a row, you hear another line, but in my infrequent attempts to confirm it, I haven't been successful...

[Tenolein]

I can confirm that for you. I haven't heard that line. And I have gotten 50 in a row. I'm not kidding when I say that either. -=spawn=-BOOM-=off with the head=- repeatedly. Unless it's a new patch that's added that line, it doesn't exist, as when we played it, it was LAN only, we said screw the internet. That week of no sleep has gotten me so good at that game, that when I went online to play it yesterday for shits 'n giggles, I owned. I cannot believe how well that one week has gotten me so good at that game. Heh

[Keiran]

Ok, I wasn't putting much faith in it's reality, thus my halfhearted efforts at it. :) It was one of those friend of a friend kinda rumors, heh.

[Radical Edward]

It looks like a flying higgins boat to me.

**edit didn't see there was a 3dpage.

[Kosuth]

Planetside was the game I thought would be great to play. I started playing just after the Skyguard and Liberator were introduced. I played for about 2 months then took a break because of the serious FPS issues in the game and my PC is well above the recommended requirements. I played it again when core combat came out but quit after the month since the FPS issues still existed and battles were not to be found and not being able to get to the darn caverns was a big downer.

Planetside used to be great with the fact that it was simple. YES the game had a simple concept BLOW OTHER PEOPLE TO KINGDOM COME!! All people need to blow others up is a fricken sweet gun. I played Vanu and was an infiltrator. Boomers are my favorite way to kill people.

The game has such potential but they squished it with the bugs in the game. However, my favorite fun bug is the one where the water showed up in the bottom of towers.

In reality if the FPS issues are ever addresses I might come back since the game is very very fun.

[Keiran]

Kosuth, did you try setting the graphics to 16 bit instead of 32 bit? I was getting horrid fps with 32 bit, but after setting it to 16, it was much better. I hardly noticed the graphical difference at first, and not at all after 5 minutes. (I understandably had more important issues to deal with, like incoming fire.)

[shaizan]

I have and continue to enjoy Planetside. To answer the question posted way back on page one. CR4 is the first rank that you get an Orbital Strike. At CR5 the radius of the OS becomes significantly larger. A commander can call down his OS once every three hours.

In my experince I've found two broad categories of PS players. The UT frag'em all twitch type, and the more tactical strategy outwit and out play the other guys type. The UT folks generally only care about kiling often, fast, and as many as possible. If the southern half of the contitnent is being overrun and back hacked they're not concerned at all so long as there are targets in front of them.

The strategy folks on the other hand work with CR5's/their outfits to out wit and out fight their opponents. They are the guys that go behind enemy lines to blow generators at tech plants and hold the downed gen to deny the enemy resoruces. This does not net a lot of kills and can be an exercise in waiting as the enemy comes to you. Some folks do not have the patients for such a style of play.

Also, to answer the gentelmen's question about the expansion, yes, I do have it. On the surface and on paper Core Combat looked like a good idea. It was touted as 'urban style' combat. I think this was bit of a misnomer, however. I think 'Urban Style' gave folks (self included) visions of building to building and street to street fighting. However, the designers meant a more 3-D environment in the form of the CC caverns. Almost all of the caverns are made of rock-like textures. These areas do not in any way resemble cities, but are bascially large caves. I think they would have been better off saying 'Sub-Terranian style' combat.
Due to this misconception, folks were dissappointed. (again, self included)

Yes, CC did add more weapons and vehicles to the game, but their availaiblity is limited. You can only get them in the caverns, or you need to go through a series of hoops I wont detail to get a module to bring up to the surface and install in a base. So, it's a bit of a pain to get ready access to the weapons unless you're in the caverns. Also, you can still remain quite competitive without CC weapons at all. Once brought to the surface the modules that are installed will work for a set period of time then stop. During that time the enemy can (and often do) steal charged modules and run them to their bases. Stealing a module is much more efficeint than acquiring your own. These things hurt incentive to go into the caverns.

Not all caverns are open at the same time. The caverns are on a constant rotating scedule of opening and closure. The idea was to spread the battle around the globe by rotating the cavern availabilty. Unfortunately, it annoyed more folks than anything.

Bascially, CC was an expansion that just did not add alot to the original game of Planetside. It was a good idea on paper, but it's execution was not the best. (IMHO of course)

However, the recent sever merger and changes to certs are really good for the game I think. The addiition of the Lodestar is good as well. Planetside is, as many have noted, a game with tremendous bredth, but not alot of depth. The biggest thing going for it that sets it apart from other FPS's is it's scale. A scale that can only be achieved in the MMO format. In that respect it had no peer I can think of. What other game lets you take part in a war where there are a couple hundred or more folks duking it out? I think the devs saw the scale of the game as their biggest advantage as well. Hence, the decsion to merge the servers to keep the population up as much as they can.

I'lll keep on playing until I'm bored, of course, and hopefully, the devs (who have been on a winning streak of late) will stay on that streak, and I'll be playing for good bit yet.

:)

Shaizan, Vanu Soverignty
BR 17, CR 1
Outfit: The Final Stand, Markov (formerly Johari)

[shaizan]

Oh, and Filan, before I forget...is'nt that explosion what a JH does already?

[Filan Fyretracker]

nope i dont use JH, im exclusive Phoenix. Bane of MAXs and anything else with armor. most fun is that darklight works through the missle so sometimes i like to chase infils with the missle.

[Zeal]

I miss playing my infiltrator...

Back in beta when it was laggy, I was door lag for at least 25 people at a time...

(Max walks into a door, I'm in Doorway)
Max:Darn Door lag...mebe if i back up
(max backs up...I walk in...he walks out)
Max: There we go
Me: Sucker...
(Tower has been hacked)
Me: Ninja VANISH!

I had some good times...

[Tenolein]

LoL Zeal! I did that a few times. That was great times with infiltrators.. =)