Did you play Planetside?

[Taranatar]

Basically the title says it all, of course, say what you think/thought of the game and what could be done with a similar genre in the future.

Yes, this is mostly a reminiscing thread.

To be honest it's probably one of my most favorite mmo's, one I never regret starting up again for a few weeks or months. There was just so much wrong with it towards the end when I quit (November 2005). BFR's were one thing, but once you knew how to take them out, were easy.

My all-time favorite thing were either massive bridge battles, or getting 3-4 "bang-busses" and pulling right up inside an enemy base and (much to their dismay) dropping the gen for no reason.


Oh, and if you played on Emerald, I was EchoTheDolphin/EchoStorm of Band of Bros, VS.

[Vorph]

I enjoyed it in beta, but many of the changes they made shortly before release ruined the game imo. Been too long to remember exactly what the changes were, but I remember quitting in disgust rather than buying the game as I'd planned.

I'd definitely like to see something like it in the future (Huxley, maybe, but I'm not too optimistic about Webzen's ability to make a good game), especially since almost all non-high-fantasy games have done such a shitty job of implementing guns so far and sci-fi/cyberpunk/world of darkness type stuff is all I'm interested in now.

[VariaVespasa]

I still play a couple of times a week for a couple of hours at the end of the day. Its still entertaining, even if I do suck as infantry. :P

[Kevincheese]

Loved it when I played with my friend. Best times we had were probably when we went out and backhacked where there wasn't even any action going on, the Islands on Oshur in particular, and got some action going on. AMS was win in those situations.

Definitely had some issues later on though, BFRs being foremost. Caves were pretty fun though, especially with the guns they put in just for inside.

[Faille]

I enjoyed it a lot in Beta, though the introduction of the Matrix system seemed to really hurt the game long term. It never really seemed worth paying a monthly fee for though, especially since since the Desert Combat mod for bf1942 came out around the same time I think.

[vynde]

to the people that loved/liked beta but not the release, what was better in there?

[Nanaki Ikanan]

Beta was one of the most fun I've had playing a game, ever. But the retarded changes they made less than a month before release made me never want to play the game again.

Lots of little things, and of course, taking away the ability to 'ninja' bases, really ruined a lot of the fun. The whole 'lattice' system, I think it was called, was beyond retarded. Yeah, it made for more large-scale battles, but part of the fun was ninjaing bases with 2 or 3 guys, or taking almost an entire island by yourself while all the enemy teams were kept busy elsewhere.

I can't remember all the things they changed, beta was a long time ago, but I remember quitting the game about a week before release because they took almost everything fun out of the game.

[Kodylan]

Originally Posted by Nanaki Ikanan

Beta was one of the most fun I've had playing a game, ever. But the retarded changes they made less than a month before release made me never want to play the game again.

Lots of little things, and of course, taking away the ability to 'ninja' bases, really ruined a lot of the fun. The whole 'lattice' system, I think it was called, was beyond retarded. Yeah, it made for more large-scale battles, but part of the fun was ninjaing bases with 2 or 3 guys, or taking almost an entire island by yourself while all the enemy teams were kept busy elsewhere.

I can't remember all the things they changed, beta was a long time ago, but I remember quitting the game about a week before release because they took almost everything fun out of the game.

To be fair, you could still 'ninja' bases. The lattice system also offered quite a bit of tactical gameplay(dropping key generators on a continent could be the difference between victory and defeat). I will agree that beta Planetside was ridiculously fun, though. I mostly loved the large-scale feel of the world, even if you were running small squad stuff, it just felt so massive. Some of the things the game actually lacked at release were eventually implemented, like benefits for holding continents, but they also came with stuff that wasn't needed - BFR's, many balance passes that completely ruined the fun of certain aspects of the game, etc.

All-in-all, it was a good play experience, and I definitely don't regret buying it(or even paying a subscription for the time I played it post-release). It's a shame Sony didn't market the game more in its infancy, it really could have been a successful game; I think part of its pitfalls were the fact that the developers of the game didn't see much support for it on the corporate end, so their desires to continue improving it faded. Examples of this being the lead designer resigning a year or so after release to persue other opportunities.

I think what the game lacked was a solid tournament system - something to pit guilds against guilds and such - and also varied gameplay. The bases became pretty bland after a while, because a Bio Lab on Oshur was the exact same as a Bio Lab on Hossin. New base designs were something they'd been promissing since before SmokeJumper resigned, and I still don't think it's come to fruition.

[AngryGerbil]

I didn't play it but the concept seems great.

Everything I read about it told me that, although the concept was great, the implementation was not (at least not to the standards that would squeeze a monthly payment out of me).

I never played UO or Meridian. Everquest was my first graphical MMO (Gemstone had a good idea but it just plain wasn't fun, or graphical....text gets fucking boring). Cutting edge people (whom I thank for being cutting edge because I refuse to be) played all that shit and I read their reports and their reviews and decided that I had an idea of what an MMO should be and that no game had yet met that idea, until EQ. EQ was the game that finally found in me the realization (at least, for the most part) of what I had always had in mind.

WWII-Online and Planetside are similar. They are precursers in my mind. I have an idea of a great and grand MMOFPS (with RPG elements) but as of yet no game has achieved it. Many have come close. Many have great ideas. Eventually a game (and technology itself) will allow for the game I have in my head.

Planetside has probably come closer than anybody, but it still doesn't quite have what I'm looking for. The irony is that I'm not exactly sure what it is I am even looking for in an MMOFPS, but I know that Planetside, WWII-Online, Battlefield, and DoD aren't quite it. Each game has raised the bar, but the bar isn't quite high enough for me, personally.

In the end, when the game I imagine is finally made, I will have no choice but to give props to the "not-quite-it" games like Planetside who paved the way.

No, I don't play Planetside, have never played Planetside, and have no desire to play Planetside in the future, but I can respect it for what it is/was and tip my hat.

[Zanna'Dar]

Every time I start playing PS I get sick of it in a few weeks...Then I install it again 2 months later..It's fun only for a little while for me...Rather play battlefield 2 which can be a lot of fun after having played for so long....(Yeah it's not an mmo)

[Calroon]

Never played the beta but been playing it a few months later on due all access pass. Still got mixed feelings about it. The huge base battles / takeovers when you go with several platoons are absolutely fun. A bit disappointed that there's no PS2 or anything announced, guess BF2142 has to do it even tho 64 people maps aren't the same. PS is something you can play every now and then but not really anything for months, thus it's nice being in all access pass.

[Regime]

Originally Posted by vynde

to the people that loved/liked beta but not the release, what was better in there?

Honestly best memory I have is playing TR and me and FattyFat were fucking shit up with stykers (when they owned all ass) during bridge battles than switching (exo suit) to sniper rifle.


That is...my best memory

Fuck bases

Bridges battles > all

[KianwanCT]

Played it, loved it but whole outfit moved to WoW and its just not the same when your used to playing as part of a squad and then have to go solo.

[Digo]

What killed Planetside:

1. Terrible rating system. Zerg outfits would be the top-rated simply because they had 500 members, even when my outfit of 20 people had a kill:death ratio that was about 500x better than any other outfit on the server and could single-handedly defend or take a base from a zerg. If there is no way for players to be recognized for their accomplishments or a competitive scoreboard, there's no reason to keep playing an MMO. You may as well play CS for free.

2. CS is sum-zero. PS was not. See my previous statement about no rewards for outstanding performance. In an MMO, you must have character rewards and some kind of quantifiable improvement to your character. Sure, you can pilot more vehicles as you play longer, but your guns won't do more damage and your armor won't absorb more damage. You need SOME kind of alternate reward structure if you won't upgrade items or the ability to use those items more effectively.

3. No visual distinction between outfits. No tabards. No battle-standards. No flags. No emblems. Nothing. If PS gave outfits the option to accumulate outfit points and cash those in for avatar upgrades (say, the ability to make your armor look like Warhammer Space Marines), people would have stuck it out longer. There was just no incentive to keep playing once you'd capped every base on every continent and played around with all the weapons.

[Quineloe]

I'm saving myself for the MMOFPS World of Starcraft