Planetside 2...it`s alive!

dexterward on 9/7/2011 at 12:33

Great news for all those 5 or 4 people that still believe such odium as persistent world MMOFPS is a possibility. (http://kotaku.com/5819356/how-planetside-2-will-blow-the-roof-off-the-massively-multiplayer-online-first+person-shooter-genre) Kotaku has an interview with Planetside 2`s creative director Matt Higby.

It`s all a bit vague, with mention of skill trees, classes, Eve Online etc. Of course the most important - release date - is still missing. But no matter, it`s been 8 years and there are no serious contenders on the horizon, so it`s good to hear they`re still working on it (especially (http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/04/04/soe-layoffs-affect-timetable-for-planetside-next/) in spite of recent layoffs at Sony )

I`m not actually really qualified to talk about it - i haven`t even played the first one (when I had hardware I didn`t have proper broadband, and then when i had broadband I didn`t have proper hardware :/). But I was always a great fan of the concept (after we got bit tired of Quake deathmatch this was the Next Big Thing on the horizon), and then couldn`t help but get excited when reading about these epic battles (ok,ok, flawed - but still).

So, hoping it will all work out for them eventually. Might even play it this time....

EDIT: (http://www.planetside2.com/) Trailer here

DaBeast on 9/7/2011 at 15:36

Nice to see they're actually doing it. Not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not, maybe I'm just getting old :(

SubJeff on 10/7/2011 at 19:34

I played the original, trials only but several times, and when populated well it was great. That game gave me the best online war stories ever and I'm looking forward to the new one.

I'll definitely be on it and it would be great to set up a TTLG crew.

I call dibs on the cloaking device.

Avalon on 11/7/2011 at 07:09

Planetside was AWESOME during beta / early into the live launch when there were tons of people around. Every point of interest could explode into massive warfare. Then as players left, it just got super boring very quickly.

I think the downside to a FPS game like Planetside is that, unlike MMOs such as Warcraft, they can't use solo/raid gameplay and storylines to keep players coming back. It's just a shooter. Unless they change the format and make it as much about killing NPCs with a variety of "PvE" gameplay as about shooting other players, it's always going to suffer from most players quitting once they've had their killing frenzy fix.

Bakerman on 11/7/2011 at 09:54

Quote:

they can't use solo/raid gameplay and storylines to keep players coming back. It's just a shooter.

Right, but tell that to MW and Halo - though those are exceptional examples. I don't see it being beyond possibility that they mix it up a bit, but I guess that's just wishful thinking...

dexterward on 11/7/2011 at 10:36

No storylines perhaps, but:

[quote=]This resource-based economy is what fuels the constant struggle between the three rival factions, and this time around the fighting covers more than just strategically placed facilities. "Every square inch of the game's terrain is contestable, valuable real estate," [...]
And in case the struggle for resources isn't enough motivation, the game also features a robust mission system featuring both computer generated and player-created tasks. Using this new system, veteran players will be able to issue custom-built missions to their underlings, giving them the ability to easily coordinate large groups

I guess missions=raids. For some also progression in ranks and commanding underlings could be a hook, myself I like the idea of constant warfare over territory in which you make a difference. This could be quite addictive.

Avalon on 11/7/2011 at 17:02

Quote Posted by CCCToad

Anything that follows the formula of the original Planetside should be great. However there's one red flag: talk of "instant spawning" on your team-mates with no waiting.

Its something that just doesn't belong in a game like this. If one guy's team-mates can all instantly spawn right on top of him, then how is it going to be realistically possible to take and hold land? One of the key things that made the original Planetside was that combat had a bit of a slower pace to it. If you killed one guy, he wasn't going to just re-appear in the same spot a few seconds later. Instead he'd have to make his way back into battle from the nearest base/tower or APC.

I'm not sure if they ever changed this, but spawning was one of the things that drove me insane in Planetside. Somewhere during beta they decided to add very long spawn timers, which were still present when I tried playing a few months into launch - I don't mind spawning somewhere else, but when my timer to do so is up to 15 MINUTES because some asshole repeatedly killed me the second I exited the pod at every base I tried, it makes you want to bomb a church. On one hand, it adds a strong desire not to die - on the other hand, given that you can't always control your death in games like this, it adds an even stronger desire not to play.

ALSO

Quote Posted by Bakerman

Right, but tell that to MW and Halo - though those are exceptional examples. I don't see it being beyond possibility that they mix it up a bit, but I guess that's just wishful thinking...

I was actually thinking about that - but then again, how many people do you know who play these games regularly for years at a time, rather than the occasional weekend shoot-some-people-with-a-couple-of-friends? That's the kind of audience MMOs need to succeed, players who log in for hours at a time every day, and either continue to do so for months, or are replaced by new players as quickly as the old players leave. I think without a change to the straight shooter format, Planetside 2 would probably go the same way as the original - massive launch, followed by a dwindling player base and subsequent server merges once everyone's had their fix. I think most shooter fans probably fired up a Planetside trial whenever the urge kicked in, but usually you're done by the time the trial runs out.