Planetside!
<div class="IPBDescription">Yay or nay?</div> Being the lucky individual that I am, I recently got my greedy little hands on the Planetside beta. All I can say is - wow and yawn.
Let me explain - the game consists of three empires, each with somewhat different equipment. The game is persistent, so you have to go through a character creation dealie, choosing your name, empire, and face. Oh yeah, and you get to choose a horrible voice set. They're all bad, so it doesn't really matter which you choose -_-
Soooooooooo, you spawn in your empire's sanctuary, run around a bit, and eventually discover the different terminals that you can use. For example, the equipment terminal - any weapon/armor/supply that you are certified for can be made at the equipment terminal. And also - the certification terminal! Every time you gain a level, through killing people and capturing bases, you gain a battle experience point. You can use these points to get certificates, such as piloting a certain vehicle, hacking, engineering, heavy weapons training, or MAX armor suit use.
So far, so good, right? You can develop your character however you want, and for picky people like me, you can make a nice little hybrid character. (Hacker/Infiltration/Galaxy Pilot/Engineer)
Now comes the part that will be the rest of your Planetside career - joining a squad, getting into a dropship, and launching off to some base that's not under your control. When you get there, you'll most likely meet no resistance unless the base was just recently captured by the enemy. Your hacker runs inside and does his or her thing while the grunts patrol the outside. If you hold the base for 15 minutes after hacking it, everybody from your empire that's in range of the base gets a ton of experience for helping out.
This is the major problem - you can level way faster if you just tag along on base caps. Killing people generally doesn't give that much exp. This means that during that 15 minutes countdown, expect to see a bunch of teammates show up and just hang around.
But think about it - if EVERYBODY, in ALL THREE EMPIRES is doing this, nothing is accomplished. The bases just change hands every once in a while, as there's absolutely no incentive to stay and defend them after you get your massive exp boost. So everybody pulls out their map, points to another enemy controlled base, and rinse, lather, repeat. Over and over.
Not to say the game can't be fun - the first few times you bail out of a dropship from a mile up are increadible. Piloting vehicles are fun, whether their airborne or grounded. Using the infiltration suit (read: cloaking device) and harassing someone with the knife while they fire wildly is fun ^_^
But there are problems. There are big walking armor suits called MAXes, and unless you're a MAX, you have no chance in hell of killing one. Heck, I sniped one around 15-20 times with armor piercing bullets, and I don't even think he noticed. Oh, did I mention that the MAXes run faster than tanks, generally have more firepower and armor than most tanks, and can be used with way less certifications? =P
That's another thing - the sniping is frustrating. Unlike other models for a sniper class, the Planetside version is weak. If you move AT ALL, even just moving your aim, you have to wait a good 5 seconds before your target reticule centers again. This means that all you can basically do is pick a point and hope that an enemy crosses over it soon. Not fun, especially when it takes 2-3 bullets just to kill a light armored infantry.
Anyway... do any of you have the beta? Are you running into these same frustrations? In the current state of the game, I can't imagine ANYBODY paying monthly for it, as it's already starting to get old after 3 days. However, they're saying a big patch is coming up that'll change some fo the things I addressed. But knowing Verant from Everquest, I know not to get my hopes up -_-
Let me explain - the game consists of three empires, each with somewhat different equipment. The game is persistent, so you have to go through a character creation dealie, choosing your name, empire, and face. Oh yeah, and you get to choose a horrible voice set. They're all bad, so it doesn't really matter which you choose -_-
Soooooooooo, you spawn in your empire's sanctuary, run around a bit, and eventually discover the different terminals that you can use. For example, the equipment terminal - any weapon/armor/supply that you are certified for can be made at the equipment terminal. And also - the certification terminal! Every time you gain a level, through killing people and capturing bases, you gain a battle experience point. You can use these points to get certificates, such as piloting a certain vehicle, hacking, engineering, heavy weapons training, or MAX armor suit use.
So far, so good, right? You can develop your character however you want, and for picky people like me, you can make a nice little hybrid character. (Hacker/Infiltration/Galaxy Pilot/Engineer)
Now comes the part that will be the rest of your Planetside career - joining a squad, getting into a dropship, and launching off to some base that's not under your control. When you get there, you'll most likely meet no resistance unless the base was just recently captured by the enemy. Your hacker runs inside and does his or her thing while the grunts patrol the outside. If you hold the base for 15 minutes after hacking it, everybody from your empire that's in range of the base gets a ton of experience for helping out.
This is the major problem - you can level way faster if you just tag along on base caps. Killing people generally doesn't give that much exp. This means that during that 15 minutes countdown, expect to see a bunch of teammates show up and just hang around.
But think about it - if EVERYBODY, in ALL THREE EMPIRES is doing this, nothing is accomplished. The bases just change hands every once in a while, as there's absolutely no incentive to stay and defend them after you get your massive exp boost. So everybody pulls out their map, points to another enemy controlled base, and rinse, lather, repeat. Over and over.
Not to say the game can't be fun - the first few times you bail out of a dropship from a mile up are increadible. Piloting vehicles are fun, whether their airborne or grounded. Using the infiltration suit (read: cloaking device) and harassing someone with the knife while they fire wildly is fun ^_^
But there are problems. There are big walking armor suits called MAXes, and unless you're a MAX, you have no chance in hell of killing one. Heck, I sniped one around 15-20 times with armor piercing bullets, and I don't even think he noticed. Oh, did I mention that the MAXes run faster than tanks, generally have more firepower and armor than most tanks, and can be used with way less certifications? =P
That's another thing - the sniping is frustrating. Unlike other models for a sniper class, the Planetside version is weak. If you move AT ALL, even just moving your aim, you have to wait a good 5 seconds before your target reticule centers again. This means that all you can basically do is pick a point and hope that an enemy crosses over it soon. Not fun, especially when it takes 2-3 bullets just to kill a light armored infantry.
Anyway... do any of you have the beta? Are you running into these same frustrations? In the current state of the game, I can't imagine ANYBODY paying monthly for it, as it's already starting to get old after 3 days. However, they're saying a big patch is coming up that'll change some fo the things I addressed. But knowing Verant from Everquest, I know not to get my hopes up -_-
Comments
And yes, MAX's are bloody hard to kill. Since I'm a pure driver/enginner, I can't kill anything beside basic troops, but that's why you travel in groups...
MAXs are a problem right now, but it IS in beta, and will be altered later on, it's even stated in the patch notes. I have tried out a sniper and have found that they do in fact suck against hard backed MAXs, but light armor guys are pretty easy to pick off. With hitboxes being huge squares outside the visual models, it's pretty easy to wack someone, even at a super long distance. I've found sitting on a hill 4 miles away with the enhanced vision implant (so I can see X12 instead of X8) lets me pick off my targets at will. The gun is weak against vehicles and the MAX is a vehicle technically, look on your mini map and see that they show up as more of a rectangle than a circle.
For the most part, I see it as an ongoing game of capture the flag. You cap a base, then another and another, while the enemy does the same. So far, I've found it to be enjoyable myself, FPS style killing and the cert system allowing access to more weapons/armor/vehicles or whatever. The whole team based thing was cool how its not REQUIRED but very helpful if you team up. Outfits are pretty neat too <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> Anyhow, I would pay for it when it comes out and so will many other people I'm sure. Maybe as the game gets tweaked and improved upon (*cough* Exclusive Beta version 0.1 is out now), you'll find it more fun <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Anyway, the problem with no defence will be solved when the game has more players.
WOW/YAWN agreed
You're right - as the game stands right now, there's no reason to NOT play a max - they have EVERYTHING, and they get more exp to boot, since you're only awarded for killing and not teamwork-based things like hacking.
Bluh. Hopefully this will be fixed, but meh.... like I said, it's Verant. They guys that have been runnning EQ for 4+ years and STILL don't have things that were INCLUDED IN THE ORIGINAL MANUAL actually working in the game.
and thats the reason it's in beta
so they can improve it
I did accedently TK an allie though <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> I bought a wraith (I think that's the name) and was driving along.. and see a guy running, I pass him a little then I come to a hill and say FULL SPEED!! and charge it trying to get air. As soon as I hit the hill I lagged for about 30 seconds and fell strait down ontop of the poor guy I passed, who apparently cought up during the lag, when he was walking around.. I felt so bad after laughing my **** off. I then got lost in the middle of a storm and the lightning scared me.. then ended up finding myself a bunker after about 20 minutes of wandering in circles.. then when the rain finally clears I find out my base is like 100 feet away but I just didn't see it ><
I preordered my copy cause I feel that even tho the premise is simple zone control, the gameplay itself is a blast when you have a squad of people performing the roles necessary, and all are on Gamevoice. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
<span style='color:red'><b>Loyalty until Death!</b>
EvilAsh
Terran Republic
Citrine</span>
I love and hate the grief system. I love how it prevents idiots from screwing up the game, but hate how it can be abused. Luckily it dissipates quickly enough so that if you do it accidently no harm from the grief system will ever come to you.
Honestly, how stupid do you have to be to walk in front of a Prowler!?
but considering its play style i dont know whever to get planet side or the fabled YE OLDE STAR WARS GALAXIES. I mean have you seen it light sabers fly any veicle in the star wars universe own a shop called Karisien Fried Chiken or KFC (dont steal that idea its mine) own driods assualt a repbel base on hoth (if always wanted to see the other point of view once Star Wars galaxies is out all other MMORPG can go Kaputt its gone but i dunno about MMOFPS it could stay it could flop like a lvl one... oh whats its name its on pokemon stupid fish only has splash that doues around -200 damage oh never mind. I wil kepp an eye on Planet side but with Breed coming out to it might fail in area other can make up.
Go there for info.
They say they will put it at May 19th on the shelves, but I doubt it, and I also don't want to see it released then.