Melissia wrote:
Is there a way to make the game use more system resources? It's only using one of my system's cores... and the game's an unbearable slideshow right now :/


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Planetside's error messages are some of the most useless error messages I've ever seen.

Hello Everyone,

Quick update about some important things.

First off, we expect to be streaming the game live from SOE Live's keynote at 7pm this Thursday September 18th (Pacific). During this keynote we're going to be showing off the 3rd continent Amerish as well as talking about our longer term plans for the game post launch. In addition to all that you can expect us to formally announce the release date (we've always said it will launch in 2012). We've chosen a date we feel gives us a great launch and the opportunity to improve the game to launch standards. We have a lot of stuff in the works that you haven't seen yet but will soon.

Announcing a release date during a beta is always complicated. I don't want anyone to think for a second we aren't aware of the issues with the game. We're very aware because not only do we play it, we take the time to read your feedback and do our best to respond to it and prioritize. We've already had more people playing in the beta than ever played Planetside 1 and we haven't remotely let everyone who applied in yet. I just want to make sure everyone understands we are listening to a broad cross section of people who played PS1 and a lot of others who didn't.

Towards that end I want to give you the top issues we're working hard on. We have a team of over 100 working on this night and day (literally) and just because I list the top issues doesn't mean we aren't working on a ton of other stuff too.

Here are the big ticket things we're working on

1. Performance - this is #1 with a bullet. We have major improvements coming in the upcoming patches. We're aware it's not perfect. As it stands now we know the game needs improving in all areas. We are currently CPU bound which means it's more important what kind of CPU you have versus what kind of graphics card. As I said we have major improvements coming. This isn't magic. It's hard work. Planetside 2 is always going to have a higher end requirement than other similar games because of the scale of fights we have.

2. Metagame - right behind performance is the metagame. We have large plans for this that I think are going to make everyone happy. They all revolve around a 3 continent launch. Yes.. we will launch with all 3 we promised. I'm not going to go into detail on this because we have a big meeting to finalize it all tomorrow and Matt Higby is going to announce the specifics. Please understand this game has a lot of Planetside heritage and a lot of what we're aiming for has this in mind. Also keep in mind this will involve stuff like base benefits and what happens when people "lock down" continents.

3. Weapon balance - still a ways to go on this. We have some really good data on this now and we're zeroing in on making this feel right.

4. Remaining certs - within 2 weeks we expect them all to be in and done. Please note this also includes properly setting the costs. We know there are some bad and unreasonable costs out there. They are being fixed.

5. Changing over weapon sales to cert points - this will also mean the end of Auraxium as a resource. After listening to the feedback in the thread we feel like this is the way to go. Keep in mind when we do this (with this next patch) we will be DRAMATICALLY INCREASING THE SPEED AT WHICH YOU GAIN CERTS. Something like 4X. Again folks, we play the game on non-admin accounts. We see the data. We see the issues. We're fixing them.

6. New player into the action fast - we have a nice mini-tutorial coming that will get a newbie in very quickly.

7. Instant Action mode working properly - It's busted. we get it. It will be fixed.

These are only a very small portion of major changes coming to the game. Since we're going to be announcing the date soon I feel like it's super important that you all understand how serious we are about incorporating your feedback and also how serious we are about launching Planetside 2 as our cleanest launch ever.

As always your feedback is appreciated.

I hope you'll watch the livestream on twitch or the VOD's we'll put up if you can't.

Take Care and look out for Matt's Metagame post probably tmw.

Smed

Hey all -

One of the issues that's been consistently brought up by our beta players is "where's the metagame!?". Good question!

We've been looking very closely at what Planetside 2 needs to have a solid metagame that we can continue to grow from and enhance for years. A lot of your feedback as well as our own observations of how the gameplay of Planetside 2 has evolved is directly shaping where were going with the metagame systems, and a lot of these decisions have required us understanding how the game will play with thousands of players actively fighting, what will motivate them? what will encourage better fights? It's hard to design these types of systems without knowing what gameplay 'needs' must be filled, so a lot of these systems simply weren't possible for us to fully design until we had a few months of beta testing to learn the answers. The improvements we're working towards are across several systems and different scales, but they're all designed to provide a more meaningful, rich, and understandable metagame experience. These changes are going to be coming over the next few weeks, they won't all come at once, but they're all on the way.


Spawning Mechanics and Squad Cohesion

Planetside 2 is a team game, it is simply more fun to play when you're in a cohesive group, communicating and working together with your allies. We want to make sticking with your squad the 'path of least resistance' for respawning into the game. To do that we're adding some mechanics and modifying others.
Spawn beacons will no longer cost resources or use up a tool slot
Squad leaders who are actively leading a squad and have unlocked the beacon cert will be able to place a beacon on a timer
The nearest "hard spawn point" to your squad leader will be available to all squad mates to spawn at regardless of their location on the map
Squad vehicles like Sunderers will be available to be spawned at regardless of distance
Players will be able to "Instant Action" to their squad leader as long as the instant action timer is available.
We're also going to make Sunderers available at more outposts so that a push isn't halted by lack of spawn logistics if your sunderer gets destroyed during the course of capturing an outpost. Along with this we will be putting in radius checks for deploying Sunderers in proximity to others. We want players to be able to get access to spawning logistics when they need them, but not have those spawning logistics be so spamable that bringing 20 Sundys to each fight is the guaranteed path to success.


Base Capture mechanics and communication

Since the start of beta we've been continually iterating and refining on base capture mechanics. Our next round of iterations is going to simplify some of the base capture routine by removing the ticket system. Currently to capture a base you 'flip' a point and then wait for your capture tickets to count up, this is a passive process which currently allows people to flip a point and then move to another base, or flip a point and camp somewhere in the base. We're going to make it so that the time to flip the point is the time to capture the base, that way you know if a base is being captured there are players actively there converting the point. As part of this change we'll also be increasing the radius for capture by quite a bit so you don't have to just stand within a 5 foot radius of the point, but can move around within the outpost of facility to a greater degree. This will convert the current 'race to the finish' system into more of a 'tug-o-war', controlling the point will pull the facility towards your empire. Influence will still impact the time it takes to convert the point, and be really important to successfully capture the base. For multi-control point outposts a similar system will be in place with the control nodes each pulling on the rope. Up to 12 players will be able to influence a single control point, increasing the strength that it converts from 1x to 3x. This should encourage attackers to actively defend control points and the rooms they're in, and remove some of the feeling of 'wack-a-mole' that currently exists in the multi-control point bases.
This change should make the result of the base capture be closer tied to the action of capturing. No longer will base capture event end even when you have the upper hand in the fight due to a ticket flipping over for the defenders. You will win if you have the leverage to win, period.


In addition to the conversion from a race to the finish to a tug-o-war we will be changing how some of the rewards work for facilities.
Defenders will earn bonus experience for actions taken during the base capture, repairs, heals, revives, kills, etc.
Attackers will earn a large XP bonus upon successful capture.
These competing reward goals should give everyone a strong incentive to both attack and defend bases. We're going to make the reward dynamic so the longer the base remains owned by an empire the larger the bounty is for attackers and the more the bonus for defenders grows, this should help to give some real motivations to hold and assault key territories and also to move around the map a bit and not just fight over the same stale base. Large facilities will have a higher cap for both rewards, and they'll scale down with the facility size.


Another key addition will be tactical base benefits. You've been asking for them, and we're going to add them. Empires who maintain an unbroken line of territory control will be able to receive these benefits at any connected facility, outpost or towers. Here's what we're thinking for the facility benefits, you guys who played the original should be familiar with these ideas, but we want to hear your feedback on if you think these will work or ideas for cooler or better benefits if not:

Biolab: Reduced respawn timers at connected facilities / outposts
Amp Station: Overcharged base turrets, longer overload times on facility generators
Tech Plant: Access to MBTs - yes, facilities will be unable to spawn MBTs without a connected tech plant
Another piece of the puzzle will be better communication of the tactical situation on your continent. We are going to be making some enhancements to the map to show the capture status of the region, and better convey security ratings of areas. This is an area we need to make a lot of improvements on so that can easily know where to go to find the fight.

Finally, we need to make Instant Action / Hotspots work better. We're working on the heuristics for instant action to ensure that it's not only taking you where it says it will, but so that the options available are more relevant, with real "action" that you can instantaneously access. This is another tool to help newer players more easily find and participate in big battles.


Intercontinental Warfare

As we continue to add continents to the game, our goal is to make intercontinental conquest a central aspect of the metagame. The back and fourth of campaigning across a network of massive scale continents in enormous empire vs empire clashes is one of the cornerstones of what makes Planetside such a unique game. With our initial three continents we will be laying the foundation for this global conquest gameplay by adding things like continent locks for total continental domination, continent benefits from locking continents that carry over globally, and mechanics to support retaking locked continents.


With the release of Amerish in the next couple weeks (fingers crossed!) we will be adding specific and unique continent benefits to the game, things like reduced vehicle timers or resource costs, increased ammo capacity, faster respawn times, etc. We want these benefits to provide strategic incentives to holding a continent, and as we expand out form the backbone for empire wide prioritization and targeting. This is another area where we're really interested in your input. What type of benefits would you like to see on continents? What would you NOT like to see there? Let us know.


In closing

Finally I want to thank you guys for your support, ideas, angry rants, bug reports and everything inbetween. This game is very unique (in the MMO world and elsewhere) in that making it great is simply not possible without a dedicated and passionate beta community that can not only provide insights into what is missing, test our assumptions, break our game systems and, perhaps most importantly, hold out feet to the fire about issues we're not paying enough attention to. You guys have been fantastic with all your feedback and we heartily appreciate it, and we hope you continue to be our partners in making this the best MMOFPS game in the world for years to come.
Thanks!

First a couple known issues we'll hotfix asap:
Weapons are not purchasable in the marketplace, but are in the Cert trees
The Dalton and Tank Buster, Liberator weapons, are not purchasable from Cert trees
Headlines:

Infantry and vehicle weapons are unlocked with cert points instead of Auraxium
Auraxium rewards were removed from the game
Cert points are earned with every 250 experience points instead of 1000 experience points
Gameplay implants were removed, will return later as a loadout slot
Weapon medals grant cert point rewards

Top Player Bugs Resolved:
Frame rate shouldn't affect fire rate
Infiltrators should not be able to fire while cloaked
Ability system improvements to help protect against abilities getting stuck on or off
Ammo boxes and mines should be more responsive
Fixed an issue where players would get into a semi-dead state
Resolved an issue where players would log in or spawn at a location in the middle of the zone
Platoons should no longer get in a broken leaderless state
Players should no longer spawn at zero health
Removed a case where players could get weapons into an unusable state
The heal and repair tools now have sticky targeting

Weapons:
All shotgun damage and range has been reduced
TR shotgun rate of fire is a little slower, but it is still the fastest shotgun
Projectile drop was slightly increased

Vehicles:
Damage of Rocket Pods, Lightning 75mm, 40mm Grenade Launchers and Liberator 105mm cannon increased against Main Battle Tanks
Flak damage reduced by ~5%
Repair tool is now 25% slower on vehicles
Liberator health increased by 10%
A tuning pass has been done on tank turret controls. They should feel more responsive.
Range of Scout Radar on Flash has been reduced
Galaxy acquire timer is now 20 minutes instead of 30

Certs:
Scout Radar certification is now 4 ranks. Maximum range reduced to 200 meters
Galaxy acquire timer certifications now capable of reducing timer to 5 minutes
Mineguard certifications are now 4 ranks

Misc:
Queues for logging in to full servers or zones (no more having to spam the play button or warp button)
Client performance optimizations

 DeathReaper wrote:


PS1's Stealth suit was a lot more fun. it let you cloak and sneak into places, but you could only have a pistol and knife, or a select few other loadouts. No Heavy weapons, and a limited amount of space for weapons, and it was unlimited in duration.

 Brother SRM wrote:
You can buy a weapon for the Flash ATV. If you want to put a grenade launcher on it, have at. The anti-air missile launcher is in the shop; you can buy it with like 96 cert points along with the anti-ground lock on missile launcher. There is no fly by wire weapon because it was utter bs in Planetside 1. Getting killed by hordes of dudes hiding behind walls was awful to fight against. Aircraft controls take some getting used to, but are solid.

The game is frankly far superior to Planetside 1, as the core shooting mechanics are actually good. Planetside 1, as much as I love it, was largely great in spite of itself. It was a game of hovering murder-turret aircraft that could and would always find you, poor hit detection, weapons that gave almost no feedback to the user, grinding experience, long travel time, generally slow gameplay, and repetitive environments that forced you into horrible indoor tower of death fights and spammy hallways. However, it had great opportunity for teamwork and teamplay, and was frankly like nothing else out there. Planetside 2 does everything Planetside 1 did but far better, faster, and more responsive. I'm proud to be a PS1 veteran who doesn't complain that Planetside 2 isn't Planetside 1.

 DeathReaper wrote:

The weapon for the ATV was useless in PS1, so no big deal that there is not a weapon on it.

We disagree on the Fly By Wire Missile launcher. That thing was great for taking out tanks. The one the NC has now is garbage. (No guidance at all, just fire and forget, that is next to useless).

I liked the Indoor person to person battles. in both games. the hallways were a bit small in PS1, but that was not a huge issue.

I like that PS2 has spawn rooms that can not be camped by the enemy. I also like that the PS2 has hit location detection. PS1 had a random hit location, which was garbage, the location detection on PS2 is far superior.

PS2 does not do everything better than PS1, just some things.

Maybe, but in low settings, the game looks horriterribad

 Melissia wrote:
Frankly, the way you guys are talking about fly by wire, I'm glad it's gone, and I didn't even play PS1.

If I had, I owuld have abused the gak out of fly by wire. Then gotten bored and gone to play something else.