A Night of Planetside

Certs, Gaald, and I spent an evening in Planetside, and seem to have come away with differing opinions. After logging in I put together a squad, and was fortunate enough to quickly find someone who knew what they were doing but were willing to be patient with us. Slowly adding players, and finishing with a squad of nine, we organized with other squads to slowly push across the continent. With a variety of skills, tactics, and clever ways to die (not to mention the constant chatter of vulgarities spewing from Gaald over GV), we helped take several bases, and a host of towers. While Planetside lacks any over-reaching goal, and I still wonder at how long I might remain interested in the game, the strategies and sense of sometime organized warfare was really original and fun. While Planetside has some faults, it did give me several 'Gaming Moments' over the course of the evening that made me stop and take note. It definitely shows potential.

The best thing I can say is that having finished, I've already plotted some strategies for my next session, and more importantly my next character. It's got a steep learning curve, but once you develop a feel for it, there's something there.

That pretty much sums up my feelingstowards the game so far. Once you start to get a handle on who can do what and how things work the chaos factor lowers enough that you can find the fun in there. It does have its rough spots which I don''t think will be ironed out by the time it goes live but as it stands I may like it enough to buy it. We''ll see how I feel after a solid week of playing under my belt and an idea of how much they will be charging for the game.

Tomorrow I''m going to try the in-game voice chat and see how that that pans out. If it works well I''ll be one happy camper.

I am a few hours from finishing the download.

Is there only one server?

If we truly can have an FPS MMO with all the bandwidth issues of an action game, this bodes well for the future.

We may see the end of the autoattacking level treadmill. It could be replaced with action RPG''s like Zelda, Diablo, Dark Cloud and Dynasty Warriors. That is truly going to be a revolution.

Its not that they cant do it now. It just didnt seem to make fiscal sense since you can cram more people into a given bandwidth with slow methodical gameplay. If server costs have come down so much that MMO action games are viable, more power to them!

Fang, we play on the Markov server and we are on the Vanu Sovereignty (I think I butchered that word) team. Join ussssssss..

I will give Planetside one thing. It''s interesting.

Unfortunately you tend to die a lot and accomplish nothing when you first start to play the game which I found really frustrating. It is also really hard to tell when you start to shoot someone or something how much damage you are inflicting on said person or thing. Hell its hard to tell if you are even hitting you''re target in the first place.

Another annoying thing I find is that when you are attacking someone you can be running circles around some of the heavier slower guys and for some reason still get shot by them when you are fully behind them. Obviously a server issue and hopefully something they will fix, but still very annoying!

It''s these things that last night made me spew the never ending obscenities over voice chat.

The game play itself can be very tedious. Especially if you weren''t smart another to certify in one of the flying vehicles instead of the land ones. Yesterday I spent most of my time trying to keep up with the rest of my squad who would be going from base to base capturing targets one after the other, while I tried to navigate my way through the mountainous terrain in my dam buggy. I would often find myself showing up after all the action had taken place and just waiting to get the points once the base hack had completed (which takes 15 minutes real time, after the hack is complete). You can forget certain certifications if you feel the way you went with your character is working out. I don''t know how much you can forget or how often because I haven''t tried it yet. It does however take 24 hours to forget something, and as far as I can tell that would be real time. Another problem with not having tried to forget something is that I don''t know if you get back the same amount of points you put into it. I may give that a test the next time I play.

Another annoying factor was the trying to make sure all the bases were taken over. There is a lot of opportunity for a squad of people to warp onto a continent and fly to a base that is unprotected or just as worse a tower nearby one of the bases. There are so many and unless there are a few brave souls who are willing to spend a tedious amount of time protecting a base far from the front lines more often than not you will find yourself trying to reach these bases from the front lines before all hell brakes loose. This of course makes it very, very, very difficult to take over an entire continent if there are plenty of enemies playing the game as well. Constantly going back to bases you have taken over earlier in the game is also very tedious work as it makes you seem you are never gaining any ground. One thing they have implemented from what I understand is that you can only capture targets already connected to other targets you own. This thankfully stops someone from sneaking by you and getting to the other end of the continent and making it a two front war.

Planetside isn''t all bad though. The game is truly team based. You can''t be a hero all by yourself and accomplish anything. Luckily people are more than willing to help out and join a squad for that same exact reason. I was able to connect to the in game voice chat and I was pretty impressed with the sound quality I heard over the chat. It isn''t even that hard to connect to the in game voice once you figure out where to go. Unfortunately I wasn''t able to have anyone hear me and I think that was due to the way I had my microphone plugged into my system through the retail version of Game Voice (command console). The battles can also be fun if you happen to have a spawn point setup near the actual target you are trying to acquire. Unfortunately doing battle is pretty repetitive as the bases and towers all pretty much have the same layout, and as far as I can gather capturing the bases and towers is all you do in the game, when you aren''t trying to figure out which way you want to level up your character.

Well that''s my rant. I think if you have a chance to try it out you should. Certis and Elysium I can already tell are thinking about buying the game when it hits retail. Since Elysium is thinking about buying the game you can pretty much guarantee he will buy it.

I am still holding judgment over the game. I am going to hopefully play it a few more times and level myself up a bit and see how things work out once I get past the early, early stages of the game before I pass total judgment over it.

Well the whole beta sign up process could be a little more streamlined. 2 accounts, 2 reg keys, dxdiag.txt submital, a near infinite loop of webpage redirection...

And whats with this 3 hour patch download I''m now subject too? What the hell 3D game installs into 2.7 gigs and then has a 3 hour patch using DSL?

As far as I can tell you get back the same amount of points when you forget a certification. It does take 24 hours. But you do seem to loose them right away, bad combination IMO, but perhaps that changed with open beta.

I would find this game more interesting if you could DESTROY bases and towers giving it a siege aspect rather then the endlessly circle jerk warfare we all came to know and loath in DOAC. Without a lot more dynamic nature to the world or visceral combat (I find the combat to be very lacking when compared to most modern FPS games, lack of prone, lack of lean, lack of knowing your damage ratio, lack of ammo, general cookie cutter balancing making some guys invulnerable to joe soldier, generally under powered weapons blah blah). Anyway it''s a neat game but still nothing to get me to put out every month... I would play it for the box price but a monthly fee? What for? So it can track my certifications? Feh.

I find the combat to be very lacking when compared to most modern FPS games, lack of prone, lack of lean, lack of knowing your damage ratio, lack of ammo, general cookie cutter balancing making some guys invulnerable to joe soldier, generally under powered weapons blah blah

This is one of my major gripes with the game, the nuts and bolts of the combat system is lacking a lot of the staples for FPS gameplay. I can''t see any reason for not including the very basics like going prone and *gasp* peaking around corners.

I also wouldn''t mind a bit direction and motivation for capturing bases. The way it works right now is fine if you''re playing ""rounds"" but right now it simply never ends and once you do capture them all you get a feeling of ""now what?"" rather than any real sense of acomplishment.

I guess what I''m saying is, I''d like a more dynamic world to shoot people in.

Ok Im in I played around for a while. Did some training to get to level 3.

I like the lasher assault rifle and the shotgun fires pretty good. Oh man are the vehicles tough/awkward to pilot.

No way in hell im gonna be a galaxy pilot. Id prolly get everyone killed! I got pretty good at navigating in between the trees with the mosquito and the slightly more armored variant.

They should definitely let someone hop on the back of the little ATV even if it were just for retrieving a wounded soldier or some small ammo resupply.

The weapons are definitely sparse on ammo and clip size is small. I hope it doesnt become too frustrating in heavy fighting.

Anyways when are you guys going to be on tonight? I''m itching for my first fire fight!

Well, I got a problem... When I get to the ""Choose/create character"" screen, right after selecting a server to play on, my game practically freezes. It goes from normal to like 1 frame per minute, so I can''t even choose the ""next"" or ""previous"" or ""quit"" buttons. Any ideas?

It was working fine yesterday... And I don''t feel like reinstalling and spending 2 hours patching again

Well I was just in trying to figure out how the ingame voice chat works. I still haven''t solved the problem of not being able to speak but I think I made a major step forward before I left the game. Apparently there was a whole other game menu that has more options available just for voice chat.

Believe it or not it wasn''t under the sound options. It was under Game options!

"Certis" wrote:
I find the combat to be very lacking when compared to most modern FPS games, lack of prone, lack of lean, lack of knowing your damage ratio, lack of ammo, general cookie cutter balancing making some guys invulnerable to joe soldier, generally under powered weapons blah blah

This is one of my major gripes with the game, the nuts and bolts of the combat system is lacking a lot of the staples for FPS gameplay. I can''t see any reason for not including the very basics like going prone and *gasp* peaking around corners.

I also wouldn''t mind a bit direction and motivation for capturing bases. The way it works right now is fine if you''re playing ""rounds"" but right now it simply never ends and once you do capture them all you get a feeling of ""now what?"" rather than any real sense of acomplishment.

I guess what I''m saying is, I''d like a more dynamic world to shoot people in.

The beta forum answer to this is that they felt prone and lean slowed down game play to much. I was not impressed with this answer. Anyway something else that really feels like it''s missing is a since of flinching or oomph if you will. When somebody snipes you in BF1942 or in Q3 Urban Terror or SF2 or what not you really feel both as the sniper and the victim. Getting hosed down with a an automatic weapon in planet side doesn''t even make me wince much less want to flee for my life. I''m not really sure what it''s missing, but it''s tangible. I thought it might be gore but BF gets the same effect without getting all gory (though I still miss it a bit).

Well they just took down the server with about 5 seconds warning. *sigh*

I was right in the thick of it taking no prisoners too. We had just spent hours dismantling a base and were looking to expand.

Then BAM in came 4 Galaxies to the base we just took over. I died defending a tower. I respawned and took out my starfire MAX turned the corner into a viscious infantry fight. (about 10 on 10 in a tight stair well) I was pounding mostly enemies though Im sure I injured some friendlies that stepped in front of me. I was working on my 4th kill in seconds when they shut the server down. OMG that sucked! I didnt even get a chance to thank my squadmates.

So I think I''m BR 6 now. Do I have to go back to sanctuary to ""train""?

I guess talk about luck but after I trained starfire MAX and donned my armor I asked for a group and was instantly joined and whisked away on a galaxy transport. We came under fire and had to hot drop at our first destination. It was a total rush!

I killed a lot of vehicles. Close to ten! I even made a Galaxy turn tail when it tried to drop too close to our squad.

I want to try an infiltrator suit on a wraith. It seems a lot of people want to be the invisible hacker.

I want to try a Reaver pilot with missiles too!

Yeah, servers can go down with little notice right now. Ah the life of a beta tester. But, Fang does go on to describe the kind of experience that leaves me pretty enthusiastic about this game. Yeah, there are elements I''d like to see added, adjusted, or improved, but I''m getting a more viceral feel off this than perhaps others are. I''m not sure I agree with all the complaints (after all, unprotected bases should be easy to lose, and maintain control over an entire continent should be a tricky proposition), but there are enough of them that I''m still leery of the monthly fee. I''m reserving my endorsement until I see information about what that fee will be, because - regardless of what I might decide personally - I don''t think I''d advice someone on a budget to choose Planetside with a $12/month fee. There''s just not enough long term benefits in game to justify it. Sure it''s fun, no question in my mind that it''s fun, but so are a host of other games without the additional cost.

Anyway, I''m too exhausted tonight to play tonight, as you might be able to tell from this wandering half coherent post. Maybe we could organize a Planetside night next week, when everyone can still play for free.

Okay. After three attempts I finally got it downloaded and installed. I''m going to go in and try and figure out how to go through some of the training. If any of you wanna drop in and say hi, I''m on Markov server in Vanu. My game name is MrSway. I don''t even know how to communicate in game, but I assume you can give me a /tell.

/t = direct tell

/s = squad tell

/b = broadcast to a large area (I dont know how big)

There are VR training buildings in the Sanctuaries you start in.

If you go into the vehicle one be sure to drive around to both the ground and air vehicle creators.

Press ""e"" to take off/elevate in an aircraft.

Press ""c"" to lower altitude.

Press ""k"" to activate cloaking with an infiltration suit.

The shuttle buildings in the Sanctuary have terminals that allow you to spend your certification points.

"fangblackbone" wrote:

/t = direct tell

/s = squad tell

/b = broadcast to a large area (I dont know how big)

There are VR training buildings in the Sanctuaries you start in.

If you go into the vehicle one be sure to drive around to both the ground and air vehicle creators.

Press ""e"" to take off/elevate in an aircraft.

Press ""c"" to lower altitude.

Press ""k"" to activate cloaking with an infiltration suit.

The shuttle buildings in the Sanctuary have terminals that allow you to spend your certification points.

Does joystick support work yet? been a while since I played... I kept wanting to use it for the flight vehicles, stuck in my craw that it wouldn''t.

Not for my sidewinder it doesn''t. Pain the ass. I could only set my Hat and my Buttons, the joystick itself was usless.

"Gaald" wrote:

Not for my sidewinder it doesn''t. Pain the ass. I could only set my Hat and my Buttons, the joystick itself was usless.

*sigh* thanks I was thinking about hopping back in but I should wait. Anyway a friend just hooked me up with his SWG account some I''m giving that my beta loving for a bit... I''ll post some impressions once I can get in for more then 5 minutes without the server dumping me or the cliet crashing. UI is actualy very cool IMO.

Well, I''m downloading this dammit! All this talk of Gaald''s incessant profanities, mobile powered armor, and heavy lag is drawing me in.

It''s only going to be five hour download! Ha! Fileplanet is exceptionally slow for me this morning.

I''ve said it before:

Being in a squad with people who know their roles and are organized, takes this game to the next level.

If you play a game to ''win'' or to get to the end game as quickily as possible, this ain''t it. I liken it to a Sims War kind of thing, where you enjoy (mostly) everything you''re currently doing and not trying to rush to battle rank 20.

Sure, there ''can'' be a steep learning curve, but that depends on what you want to do. After basic training (VR training) you can just load up a Max and go at it. You won''t be a good one, not till you understand that you''re either an anti-infantry, armor, or air Max, and that means you are in a certain role. Knowing that a NC scattergun Max is going to turn on their shield and try and close in on you as fast as they can, or that a TR Max, once locked down, is an easy attack from the sides, will make your playing much more enjoyable.

I''ve been in this thing for a month and half, I think. I still haven''t done everything.

As for paying monthly for it, assuming they can deal with lag issues, how can you not expect to pay? All those players cost money to handle, and I believe SoE when they say they will be constantly providing additions. This is much more worth my monthly cash then any ''smack-a-mole'' piece of crap out there. If you''re bored in PS, you must not be doing something right, b/c the model of the game itself provides tons of things for you to be doing, when you want to do it, and consequences to the many other players out there when you do it.

Paying to play AC2, or DAoC (among others) is a boring waste of time (imho).

Btw, to unlearn a cert you lose the skill right away, and 24 hours later have the exact number of points back that you gave up.

Also, instead of traveling all over, make sure you bind yourself to a close tower or friendly AMS or respawn back to your Santuary, learn any certs you want, and take the HART to whatever location you want.

I''ll be happy to address any questions regarding the game.

I don''t think anyone''s complaining that they shouldn''t charge for the game. I think what you''re seeing is more of a value judgement. Everyone knows they have to charge a monthly fee for a MMOG, and anyone who expects otherwise is kidding themselves. I think people are wondering if this gaming experience warrants _their_ $13 a month, or if they''ll feel just as satisfied playing BF1942 or such. For me, I haven''t decided yet. A lot of it has to do with whether the lag and framerate issues clear up.

Here''s my take on pricing. Ever notice how a magazine subscription often costs less than the paper it''s printed on? Advertising pays for most of the production costs of any magazine. The more ads, usually, the lower the price. Why can''t Sony do the same for PlanetSide? If I''m paying $50 for the game itself, there is no way I''m going to want to spend an additional $12 per month. It''s not even a consideration for me at this point, especially for the amount I''d be able to play. Now let''s pretend PlanetSide is brought to you by Coke ""Keep it Real!"" and Gillette all for $4 per month. Throw big commercials up while I wait for patches to download and I won''t mind. Heck, put a giant Tide detergent flag at the top of every base. How much do we have to pay for television? Why should we foot the bill for Sony to maintain the game after we already bought it?

Don''t be too surprised if be surprised if this type of game does go that route and still charge you 12 per month.

"Gaald" wrote:

Don''t be too surprised

Yeah, no kidding. Like the way movie prices went up and now we get to watch commercials before them? Well then I just stop playing the games, just like I stopped going to the movies. I can play bitter gamer just as good as the next guy.

Well, if PS comes out with comercials, they will be cooler then any other comercial on any other game.

If they would just release the list of ""content"" they plan on adding to the game by the end of the year I might, just maybe, buy it. Until then, this game is not even close to be worth 12/month.

"Yo" wrote:

Being in a squad with people who know their roles and are organized, takes this game to the next level.

This is true of ANY team based fps game and introduce something like Team Speak and there you go. Some of the newer games really reward squad based cooperation very well. SoE has packaged it well though.. over all, no argument there.

"Yo" wrote:

If you play a game to ''win'' or to get to the end game as quickily as possible, this ain''t it. I liken it to a Sims War kind of thing, where you enjoy (mostly) everything you''re currently doing and not trying to rush to battle rank 20.

Here you have one of my problems, it''s stale mate warfare, nothing every really changes you are just battling back and forth over the same patch of mud again and again. Who can bring themselves to care for any prolonged period of time about that? You can''t make a difference in the war because the war can''t end and there is no dynamic component such as raising fortifications or pushing to new worlds etc. There could be some supply chain management and what not but boy that is would involve some boning sh*t they way things work now, just like guard duty or any other lame but necessary chore for things that can''t care effectively for themselves like bases.

"Yomm" wrote:

Sure, there ''can'' be a steep learning curve, but that depends on what you want to do. After basic training (VR training) you can just load up a Max and go at it. You won''t be a good one, not till you understand that you''re either an anti-infantry, armor, or air Max, and that means you are in a certain role. Knowing that a NC scattergun Max is going to turn on their shield and try and close in on you as fast as they can, or that a TR Max, once locked down, is an easy attack from the sides, will make your playing much more enjoyable.

I found the need for this training crap to be annoying and boring, and you essential get penalized for skipping it by not having the extra levels. Any time I''m not doing something fun and interesting I''m getting a poor return on my entertainment dollar, I''m probable more sensitive to this in an FPS like game but really I''ve come to that view for all MMP''s these days.

I totally agree with needing to know the strengths and weaknesses of different equipment, but it tends to be a bit rock/paper/scissors for my taste. The PS system does definitely reward you for knowing... and definitely punishes you for not.

"Yomm" wrote:

As for paying monthly for it, assuming they can deal with lag issues, how can you not expect to pay? All those players cost money to handle, and I believe SoE when they say they will be constantly providing additions. This is much more worth my monthly cash then any ''smack-a-mole'' piece of crap out there. If you''re bored in PS, you must not be doing something right, b/c the model of the game itself provides tons of things for you to be doing, when you want to do it, and consequences to the many other players out there when you do it.

Paying to play AC2, or DAoC (among others) is a boring waste of time (imho).

Well to each their own, course you happen to pick two there that I don''t care much about, but frankly I still don''t buy that they are delivering something ""worth"" a monthly fee versus what is available for free. In the current for free on-line games you always know where stand against somebody else, because you are fresh and equal and only your skill knowledge and team work will make the difference.

I actually think that PS dose not compare well to games like Ac2 or DAOC etc because they are so radically different, so you can say you feel you wasted your money comparably but that is all about the experience you where looking for from the game. In those type of games I''m looking for a very different fantasy Roll play immersion experience with heavy exploration that I can share with a few real world friends and have be unique. They all deliver this horrible but so does planet side, just for different reasons obviously :).

I do think a strong case could be made for this being an environment where cheating could be much more difficult then a lot of the FPS games out, and that could be a selling point, but it is not that way today (just grab a sniffer).

"Yomm" wrote:

Btw, to unlearn a cert you lose the skill right away, and 24 hours later have the exact number of points back that you gave up.

Yeah... and where the hell is the fun in that exactly. Stupid design choice IMO.

"Yomm" wrote:

Also, instead of traveling all over, make sure you bind yourself to a close tower or friendly AMS or respawn back to your Santuary, learn any certs you want, and take the HART to whatever location you want.

But I want to travel and explore the world... but wait that is less efficient therefor it must be punished *argh* again, not what I consider good design but whatever. I might just be looking for something PS is not meant to offer in that regard. Expectations are such a mixed bag...

"Yomm" wrote:

I''ll be happy to address any questions regarding the game.

I think it''s cool that you like it so much, I thought I was going to like it more then I do. Try not to take other people not likely it as much personaly it''s just not a perfect product for everyone just because they like FPS too.

[/quote]

Btw, to unlearn a cert you lose the skill right away, and 24 hours later have the exact number of points back that you gave up.

They changed it? You could always get the points immediately after you unlearned a cert BUT couldn''t unlearn a second cert for 24 hours.

My impressions after a pretty full day of PlanetSide:

There is a lot of fun to be had playing this game. The options available to the new player are very refreshing. I don''t feel restricted as a brand new player like in many online games. I liked driving the Harrasser when I was trying out the different vehicles so I dropped a couple points into it and, just like that, I get to do it in-game. You don''t have to be level 30 to fly a troop transport. You can go anywhere in the world you want if you get the urge to explore. You can load up a Harrasser into a Galaxy and hot drop IN the Harrasser INSIDE a base! That was a highlight for me last night.

The squad-based gameplay is wonderful. The game makes it very easy to team up and become a cohesive unit. Everything from the big numbers representing your squad-mates on the map to the highlighting of their name onscreen when they type or say something just adds to the team experience. The voice chat might have been the cause of some of my lag, but even that was implemented very well. However all was not roses.

The game is a massively multiplayer online first person shooter. You get points for shooting others. If that is the core game, then that should be the best-developed portion. It is not. At least it wasn''t on my computer. I''ve got a P4 1.7, 512 DDR, Radeon 9500 Pro and it went slideshow on me during a 30-person firefight. Maybe that''s just an ideal battle size, but even when I''m going one on one the framerate takes a noticable hit. If I could get points for shuttling important personnel between bases in my Harrasser, I would be much more supportive of the gameplay. But if it''s an FPS, I should at least be able to play it as such.

I also have a couple minor gripes about the FPS aspect. The guns all feel sort of underpowered. I don''t need a gun to do tons of damage as long as it ""feels"" like it''s doing tons of damage. I understand explosions can get expensive if there are a lot on the screen. But if you''re not going to let me see how much life the enemy is losing, at least give me some indication he is actually taking damage. Give me some noticible damage decals and skins or something. Also, there shouldn''t be any warfare going on around spawn tubes. On paper it''s a good tactical strategy. In practice, there is a lot of loading on the player''s machine at that time and it''s just not fun to load into a corpse.

And, of course, the big complaint. What is there to accomplish? This one is more of a concern to me at some times than others. When compared to MMORPGs (which I don''t think is a valid comparison) the game seems futile, even when compared to the realm vs. realm in DAOC. The relics in DAOC affect the skills of the realm that owns them. It''s not just a fight for territory. I''m sure we''ll end up seeing something like that added into PlanetSide. We''ll probably also see bases ""owned"" by outfits. Those in a big enough outfit will likely be able to hold bases for weeks at a time. These features would go far in adding purpose to the game. Other times I feel like any point beyond just playing to have fun would be moot. The game has stats and a rudimentary skill system and experience points. That''s more than enough for a FPS. I think people are mainly concerned with the lack of any way to make any sort of difference in a world that is basically persistent. This also stems from the fact that most MMOGs up to this point have been of the RPG variety.

It seems that the majority of players will agree that PlanetSide is a good game. The hesitation always occurs at the subscription portion. I don''t doubt that PlanetSide will be remade several times over the course of time, just like we''ve seen with EQ and its expansion and evolution. It''s not specifically PlanetSide that I''m refusing to spend $12 a month for. I''m not planning on paying that for any game with the possible exception of World of Warcraft.

Only 45% left on the download! Woo-hoo!

I''m actually kind of hankering to try this game. I''m leaning towards ground attack aircraft (IE Apache or A-10 game equivalents) or straight up Anti-Armor. I have a couple of questions...

1. Are the MAX powered armor in the anti-vehicular role effect against other MAX units?

2. What sort of variety do you really see in the game? Do people tend to stick with one type of unit or do you really get a combined arms warfare?