Planet Side vs BF 2 & 2142?

Citron

When planet side was released it was a unique and refreshing take on the FPS. The massive landscapes and battles were fun and compelling. Although besides the rank up system, the battle for control was never over. And you always felt like it was a repitive system. The graphics, and layout of the game got older and more outdated as time went on. With a few expansions it peaked my interest for a short time. Once BF2 came out however all interest was lost, and now I am an Avvid BF2142 player, although the real quality product still seems to be BF2 but I love playing newer content.

My question is not really PS vs everything else, sorry for the misleading title. Its more about PS and its future? Does anyone have any idea if a PS 2 is in the works? If they took the layout and ground work from the first, added an updated engine and more of an mmorpg skill system feel. Even stat tracking would help. Since there was alot of build up of your character. But it left me wanting for more as what game doesnt in the end? I think they could bring out a massive hit and something that could give the BF franchise a run for its money.

Why no one will back up and support a second PS is beyond me. SOE has the cash and the developers. Although with Vanguard not impressing and them totally destroying SWG I guess we cant hope for much. Just hoping some rumor was out that a PS:2 was in the works!

~Citron~

Darumar

The last responce from SOE on that front was:

MMORPG.com:	Any plans for expansions or PlanetSide 2 in the works?
Thom Terrazas:	At the moment, we do not have any plans for expansion in PlanetSide. We have a dedicated team that will continue to update the game with new content through publishes that players can download when they enter the game upon logging in. As to PlanetSide 2, we’ve got no comment.

Harafnir

Release of Planetside did not go too well. Did nto interest enough players and those that were intereested left quickly. What has saved Planetside this long has been the Station Access. I know when I had Station Access, then Planetside was the game i played the most.

But I can understand the caution of the developers

AranStormah

With the exception of the WW2 online MMO PS was pretty much unrivaled at launch, taking that into account together with how it never really caught on the gameplay probably went over the head of the average fps player. There was too much waiting around and time spent on coordinating. The HART timer was 10minutes, relearn timers ages long and certs too expensive for varied personal transport leading to downtime and too much legging it across continents for new players.



I'm a PS fan and keep coming back for more every time I get fed up on rpgs, which is often , but I'm surprised it lived past BF2 and BF2142 even if the latter is more of a scifi mod to BF2. It proves PS has a base to make a new and more successful game on, but because of the risk the big name companies aren't historically the first to jump on projects like that



If someone said they were making a sequal to PS and I could get whatever I wanted I would ask for a proper physics engine, a better developed command and outfit system, more interactive enviroments and things like more differing maps, bunkers, towers and base designs. I wouldn't want to play with a MMORPG skill system beyond the lateral advancement it currently uses. Graphics come and go and they could use current graphics for all I care as long as the gameplay is improved. Worst case scenario is SoE getting the muppets who modelled SWG and EQ2 and they end up with some laggy pos which they claim you'll need a computer from 2019 to run at max settings, which for some reason people seem to think is a good thing. Where I study programming we call that shitty optimalizing :P



The battlefield series is the closest you get to PS, but they don't really do or offer the same experiences. It'd be nice to have elements like titan modes and such, but 'PS2' could risk ending up being just another team deathmatch if it tried being more like BF.



There is a rumour going around about SoE developing some sort of MMOFPS and that it's not PS2. I wouldn't get my hopes up If you like PS, play it while they still run the servers and enjoy it while you can. That's my two cents.

ZombieBunny

You might want to check out "Huxley", it should fillup your mmorpg/fps needs.

JaerinCosmos

While SOE might have the money to put into development of a PS2 I doubt they'd do so.  Planetside even prior to WoW (and it's massive subscription numbers) was a failure as far as subscriber volume was concerned.  SOE has been rumored to be working on another MMOFPS title however so we'll see if they can learn the lessons from PS.  Hopefully developers interested in making an MMOFPS game will realize that the thing that lead to the decline of PS subscribers was it's gradual shift toward vehicles rather than the far more popular infantry side of the game. 



Oh and lets not forget about the lackluster expansion.  In an MMOFPS you want to have as many people in the fight as possible (lag allowing of course) so the addition of the caverns was a pretty poor choice.



I really think that had Planetside been developed by a company like CCP for instance it'd have 200k+ subscribers right now.  The game was fun as heck but SOE tried applying EQ logic to a game that just wasn't designed for it.

fawdown

I played the beta for PS and even with some enhancements like leveling and other advancements, I saw no real reason to play it over just popping in BF1942, or Call of duty. 

Xpheyel

I felt like PlanetSide was different and fun but not worth the subscription cost except for Sony Station Pass members.

If you play a non-MMO FPS, you run the server if you're paying for it most of the time. If you want to put some stupid mod and run alpha version maps or install an annoying soundpack, well hell that is your decision. The server may not be your property but you can usually control the game to a great degree. If you don't pay, you have to accept whatever rules the server admins pick, play their maps, listen to their annoying soundpack, use their mod, whatever. In that way, PS always seemed like the worst of both worlds to me. You pay for it and you have to play by Sony's rules.

Plus, I usually want to pay for access yes, but also new content. There haven't been many non-Expansion pack upgrades to PS it seems to me (like new continents or something). They run events and balance (and who wants to pay for nerfs?) pretty frequently but that is one of the things that falls under the heading of paying for use, opposed to paying for more development.

Instead, they're trying to command a $12.99 monthly fee. Which seems really absurd to me. Most of all since Guild Wars came along.

Fa|con

I really doubt that a PS2 will be coming out. SOE doesn't really care about it's game or its subscribers. All they care about is money.

jimmyman99

Originally posted by fawdown

I played the beta for PS and even with some enhancements like leveling and other advancements, I saw no real reason to play it over just popping in BF1942, or Call of duty. 

The biggest advantage PS has over BF or CoD is 300+ players fighting over same base. As far as I know, no other MMOFPS can offer that kind of action. Thats a HUGE immersion factor for me. Untill BF can offer anything like that, it remains in my opinion just an advanced CS-clone.

Razorteets

I loved PlanetSide, but shortly after I hit BR20/CR4 (I didn't feel the need to stick around for that last CR), I found myself looking for greener pastures.  I absolutely loved it while I played it, though.  It put an emphasis on strategy and teamwork that other MMOFPSs, and most other FPSs (even BF2 and 2142) seem to lack.



Oh, and I was totally psyched for Huxley until a friend of mine showed me a video of it.  It looks like Quake.  Hooray, MMO Quake. *thumbs down*

mutantmagnet

I've enjoyed PS a lot as a reservist for several months. It did drop off my radar for awhile but I always came back to the forums to peek in and see what minor changes were made. Recently I got the urge to actually get back in the game even though the reservist program is over but $13 is too much compared to what I can do and see in WoW for $15.

What prevents PS from shelling that kind of money is that:

Wow is a bigger more content filled world. As a result I can get challenge from both players in bgs and devs from their dungeons.

When I do fight players in Wow there is a form of resolution. There have been many battles in Planetside where it has been a constant seasaw battle or one side getting rolled over. I could leave knowing the battle was always raging and who won was always determined by whoever and how many was logged in. Setting goals for group combat and seeing tangible results isn't possible. The personal advancements in Certs and ranks though is actually pretty well done even if I would suck at meeting certain requirements.

In wow it is ok to have downtime just by soaking in the scenery, doing joke stunts, talking to people, etc. Planetside from the months I had only people talking and straight up combat. There wasn't anything in the world that compelled you to relax in it and soak it all in.

The list is seemingly small but those fators are quite significant when I compare the two.

Planetside doesn't need to have quests and pve to be a better game it just needs a better world and more varied rewards for larger groups.

For starters the 3 homeworlds should atleast contain a capitol city instead of look like a refuge site for the war torn.

They should just have the server restart after one faction succeeds in defeating the other two factions or set up a time limit and the faction that performs the best during that time limit gets bragging rights and their names in a hall of fame. These type of systems work fine with the text based strategy games I've played such as Dominion, Utopia and Faith. Restarting servers allowed individual kingdoms (teams of 15-25 players depending on the game) and alliances (which raged from as little as 3 to as large as 500 kingdoms composing such entities) to reexamine their strategies in prior eras and prep themselves for future era long wars.

Maybe a reward that carried over for winners and losers beyond bragging rights would be needed but a way to win the game is important.

Logistics should be incorporated into the game. It doesn't have to be something that affects players directly. It can be something as unique as players capturing more planets encourages more npcs to move from their homeworld to populate the new ones. As the npcs flourish they create smaller cities and eventually create a large enough inustry that supports players abilities to have more combat options.

Essentially it needs stuff like this that makes an MMOFPS different from a regular FPS which are in game events that persist while the player is away from the computer and would care enough to keep track of once the log back in.

hercules

Well someone said it.

Yes BF2 looks cool but it does not have 300 people fighting over a base.

Though i think PS is close to death.The increase in fee will not go down with the remaining players as the game has terrible rate of development and almost no CSR.

 

grinreaper

I agree Herc...tho the new eng changes do look pretty sweet

Citron

I didn't have much hope for PS 2 but was hoping there was something I didn't know. I would agree about the BF2 comparison. I am a huge fan of the BF series and play in a competitive clan for both BF2 and BF2142. The games are great! But nothing compared to the mass numbers of players fighting over the same base. It was intense and a ton of fun! Oh well, when PS does go, may it RIP.

 

 

Rollotamasi

The general problem is that with games like BF2, BF2142 the have the same general gameplay as a MMORPGFPS  but allow you to unlock new items faster, and more importantly are free.  Also, Its easier to just jump on a server and BANG, our playing.  I play BF 2142 when I need a FPS fix.  Nice thing is I dont have to maintain another monthly account in addition to my EQ2 account.  I can leave it for 4 months if I want and not feel that I wasted any money, then when I'm ready to play some all I do is start the game, pick a server and I'm fragging.

Jacobin

The thing I like about PS over the BF games is that the vehicle system is much better in that you dont sit there waiting for a spawn, and you can park it and run into a building, then come back for it without anyone stealing it.



I also like how you can customize your weapons layout however you want. I just couldnt get used to the class system in BF2. For instance I want to be able to heal myself and others while at the same time using a bazooka or heavy assault rifle.



Plus theres the numbers difference in that PS has much larger battles.



Im really suprised Sony and other developers are not putting more emphasis on the mmofps genre because I think PS showed that it can be incredibly fun and offer a different mmo experience then the EQ rpg clones.



By the time WOW blows over in like I dunno 1000 years , a lot of people are not going to want to just play the same basic game over again with minor changes (Warhammer, AoC). At least thats how it was for me when I was finished with DAoC in that WoW was pretty much the same game but with worse pvp. People will want a different and probably more exciting mmo experience, which games like PS offer.

kiltak

I played PS when it first came out. PS for all its flaws out strips BF 1942 to 2142 had one element that BF can not duplicate and that is the massive chaos that goes on. I can't speak for every one else but I know there were times in game when I would just stop and look around at all the stracers and bombs people running around shooting each other, it felt like a war zone. It was an amazing site watching 100+ players locked heads with one another.

The downside to PS is that it has a massive learning curve, if your not really good at FPS then your pretty much screwed. The traveling time again is another pit fall to the game. Leveling system again another pit fall to planetside.

I been waiting for at least past 3 years for another MMOFPS but the close thing were gone get is Huxely which looks really bad and won't last 5 sec.

I think MMOFPS be made and draw in lots of players but it has to be done right and has to be executed right. The game has to be developed right and be well polished by release, it would need a good Open Beta so that you can draw peoples attentions (especially the FPS players) to it. Combat needs to be simple and easy so that any one who steps in can pick it up and do well. One the most frustrating parts of PS was that I couldn't make a kill to save my life, I can usually hold my own in FPS but the weapons in PS were a joke. They would have to put a lot more though in to the envoirment, need desert, forest, City, Swamps, just different types of envoirments.

Like said MMOFPS can be done and draw a large crowd but it has to be done right.