How strong is the incentive to live?

[BeastBuster]

When this game was first announced I immediately started imagining all these epic scenarios in my head. One of these scenarios plays out like this:

The factions have been fighting over a base for a long time and the attackers have managed to whittle away the defense. There is still a small pocket of defenders holding off the enemy, but they are ultimately doomed. It is only a matter of time before the attackers push through and finish them off.

In my head, the defenders would send out a distress call for an air evac, or maybe even some Sunderers could roll in and bail get them out of there. Realistically, I expect that they would just keep fighting, die, and then respawn somewhere else.

I didn't play PS1, but did these kind of evacs occur in the original? If so, do you think its reasonable to assume they would happen in PS2?

Finally, if the answer is no, would people like to see this kind of thing happening?

[DukeTerror]

Wasn't any incentive for an evac or to survive. In fact TR will pride themselves on fighting to the death to hold a base.

Don't see that changing much in PS2. There is a kill streak one will want to preserve for the bonus exp and pride, but not to the point of running away or insisting someone sends you an evac.

[GreatMazinkaise]

Only the weak request evac... get out under your own power or fight to your last remaining health point...

[Yasuo]

Loyalty Until Death!
(no Evacs, hold base untill you die, its the way of the Republic)

[Redshift]

I didn't play PS1, but did these kind of evacs occur in the original? If so, do you think its reasonable to assume they would happen in PS2?


The only place you'd be stuck in defending was a control term or a generator etc, if you're pinned in there there is no way out. You hold them off until more players arrive or you hold out as long as you can.

extraction would be a waste of time as it's faster to die and rez.

I spose we've extracted out of hot bases but it's normally just a gal coming in under fire to grab a squad and head off to another base

[Thunderhawk]

I haven't heard of ever having a team or group of players request an evac because it's getting to the point of being a hopeless case, you just die and respawn elsewhere.

Also, I highly recommend all you "I havent played PS1 so don't know" people to try out PS1 even for 1 month to get a feel of how Planetside functions, it would be a lot better getting experience in the field then asking on forums. And no matter how much PS2 is changing from PS1 (and it is), people that know how to play PS1 will still have an advantage over those that come in from other games having not experienced anything like it.

[MCYRook]

To quote the Defcon tagline, "everybody dies". ;) Some more frequently than others, but dying is no biggie, nothing that you'd need to go at length to avoid.

Speaking of "it would be quicker to just die and respawn" - sometimes people in PS1 would suicide to spawn somewhere else ASAP. It really is the quickest way sometimes, so why not. (Only real downside - other than spawning in a spawn room, which may not be tactically ideal - is, your implants need some time to initialize after spawning. We don't know yet if there'll be anything like that in PS2 tho.)

The only time I'd despawn or recall out of a hot zone is when I'm pretty sure that dying is the only thing I can do there now, without doing any significant damage to them. Or if I don't want them to know I was there in the first place. Evac missions tho? They just don't happen, there's no need for it.

[ringring]

The only time we've evacuated a base was in the scenario when we look at the overall situation, realise we're losing ground and decide our best hope is to fight at that base over there rather than the one we're at.

When we do this it would be generally be before the battle started.

[Troika]

I'd like there to be enough incentive to live that players won't off themselves just to respawn to a different battle site. Maybe losing the exp bonuses from killstreaks and base captures etc. will be enough to do that.

[Baneblade]

The idea here is not to die for your empire, but to make that red fuckin dot die for his... repeatedly.

Adaption of Patton Quote

[DukeTerror]

Planetside is like the greatest tragedy story ever. How sad is it that a Galaxy or Sunderer are worth more than your lives? You even saw often in the E3 stream a TR morale boosting tactic: "Keep shooting the men until morale improves!"

[vVRedOctoberVv]

In fact TR will pride themselves on fighting to the death to hold a base.

Indeed :) Seriously, though... Unless you put a twenty minute respawn timer on somebody, there is literally NO reason they care about dying. This is why, generally speaking, people in war games behave like idiots and battles that would take two days in RL take two minutes in game... Because nobody cares.


Scratch that about the respawn timer. I look forward to the day we each wear a hi-voltage shock harness that zaps us when we die, leaving us briefly incapacitated and pissing all over ourselves. THEN you'll have an incentive not to die. Until then, it's never gonna happen.

[Nemeses]

Wasn't any incentive for an evac or to survive. In fact TR will pride themselves on fighting to the death to hold a base.


But all they did was die :D

[longfire]

I haven't heard of ever having a team or group of players request an evac because it's getting to the point of being a hopeless case, you just die and respawn elsewhere.

Also, I highly recommend all you "I havent played PS1 so don't know" people to try out PS1 even for 1 month to get a feel of how Planetside functions, it would be a lot better getting experience in the field then asking on forums. And no matter how much PS2 is changing from PS1 (and it is), people that know how to play PS1 will still have an advantage over those that come in from other games having not experienced anything like it.

Ive been thinking of buying ps1 off gamefly but is it really worth it knowing its probably gonna be a month or 2 until ps2 beta? :p

[Ninjacalypse]

Ive been thinking of buying ps1 off gamefly but is it really worth it knowing its probably gonna be a month or 2 until ps2 beta? :p

I'm pretty sure the servers are closed now and rarely open only for specific events. There was one recently I believe but I have a feeling there won't be many or more at all of those.

[MCYRook]

I'm pretty sure the servers are closed now and rarely open only for specific events.
What are you talking about? :doh:

[fvdham]

Currently there is one PlanetSide 1 server running.
There are many players on this server until 27 july 2012 because of free passes to vets.
After this there will be less players.
The PlanetSide 1 server will keep running even after the release of PlanetSide 2.

[p0intman]

No Retreat, No Surrender. I've often fought to the last spawn tube on a cont.

I'm pretty sure the servers are closed now and rarely open only for specific events. There was one recently I believe but I have a feeling there won't be many or more at all of those.
servers are still open 24/7.

[Karrade]

Yes I was a proud TR base pusher :) I would often charge in throw a couple of nades or use the flamer, knowing I was going down but the clustered corridor with about 10 or 15 enemy ahead was now completely screwed, and my team would push them back.

I got nothing for it, but the knowledge I earned about 10 meters of base :D - this will change in PS2 hopefully, as now damage rewards exp and people will be a bit less clustered in these layouts imho

Still Spawn to win, is the way to go when it counts just keep the pressure on, especially as you can come down anywhere at present, even right on top of the person that just killed you.

[Flaropri]

Why worry about dying (for the thousandth time) when you've got a Clone prepped and ready to take on all your memories and physical attributes?

[DukeTerror]

The OP did have a good point about wanting to survive and the thrill one gets when surviving a certain death. Just mislead in the idea that would happen in a base defense.

That thrill is going to come from sitting helpless in a galaxy watching it hammered with rockets and throwing out a black smoke. You panic sets in and you finger the eject button, but your discipline holds you until the commander gives the order. The bird arcs over the base walls and the order finally comes, "bail, bail, bail" the entire squad ejects just as the last rocket finishes their task and your team lands to the ground under the cover of falling debris.

[Steel]

Heres to hoping that the bailing mechanism is working.

:lol:

[BeastBuster]

The OP did have a good point about wanting to survive and the thrill one gets when surviving a certain death. Just mislead in the idea that would happen in a base defense.

That thrill is going to come from sitting helpless in a galaxy watching it hammered with rockets and throwing out a black smoke. You panic sets in and you finger the eject button, but your discipline holds you until the commander gives the order. The bird arcs over the base walls and the order finally comes, "bail, bail, bail" the entire squad ejects just as the last rocket finishes their task and your team lands to the ground under the cover of falling debris.

That does sound awesome, I am definitely look forward to that!

I'll just have to adopt the mindset of fighting to the last man haha.

[VaderShake]

When this game was first announced I immediately started imagining all these epic scenarios in my head. One of these scenarios plays out like this:

The factions have been fighting over a base for a long time and the attackers have managed to whittle away the defense. There is still a small pocket of defenders holding off the enemy, but they are ultimately doomed. It is only a matter of time before the attackers push through and finish them off.

In my head, the defenders would send out a distress call for an air evac, or maybe even some Sunderers could roll in and bail get them out of there. Realistically, I expect that they would just keep fighting, die, and then respawn somewhere else.

I didn't play PS1, but did these kind of evacs occur in the original? If so, do you think its reasonable to assume they would happen in PS2?

Finally, if the answer is no, would people like to see this kind of thing happening?

I never played PS1, but I would imagine cases of evac will happen amongst friends and outfits but will be the exception not the rule. TEAM BASE FPS's generally do not boil down to kills and deaths but rather the idea of time, assets, and control or rather how much time do you control the other teams assest in life or death.

For example while and evac might be epic and cool from time to time, but the remaining 10 guys that keep the 50 guys occupied for 10 minutes keep the 50 guys from reinforcing and establishing defences for 10 minutes so the rest of the team can push forward in those 10 minutes. Or if someone wastes a tank for 10 minutes trying to kill 1 guy instead of moving up to engage the other teams vehicles or a larger target.

While being 10 guys being a pain in the ass for 50 to root out will end up getting killed in the long run it's better for your team as a whole if you dig in and wreak havoc before you die.

[Wahooo]

The only time we've evacuated a base was in the scenario when we look at the overall situation, realise we're losing ground and decide our best hope is to fight at that base over there rather than the one we're at.

When we do this it would be generally be before the battle started.

I can recall ONCE with an actual dual phantasm evac similar to what the OP was describing. And it was a case like this, on a pop-locked cyssor. Vterm down though we hadn't 100% lost the CY. No way to respawn to get out of the base we were on. Recalling to sanc would have put us in the Queue to get back on continent, and most of the squad was still bound to a base on a home continent. We were stuck at a bad base, at a losing fight in a bad base and NEEDED to move to Bomazi. Two phantasms swooped in to a clear area of the CY picked up the squad and hauled balls across the continent.

All other times something like this has come up... spawing to a tower to another base and flying out, or just recalling to sanc, or just being prepared and having the squad bound to the correct base.

[NewSith]

There was an artificial method of strengthening the incentive to live in the original game called cave closing. The problem was - the caves were never much of an important asset once they got closed.

[SUBARU]

I do not like dying,its not fun.I avoid it at all cost

[ShowNoMercy]

Ps1 is still up and running, recently we have even been getting pop locks - still pretty fun and is beneficial to play in order to get to know the community.

[Ninjacalypse]

Ps1 is still up and running, recently we have even been getting pop locks - still pretty fun and is beneficial to play in order to get to know the community.

How the hell do you even get a subscription though? All the links on the SOE and the PS1 site and even the PS1 launcher itself don't seem to work.

Edit: Hrmmm, nvm I figured it out. SOE makes it extremely difficult though and charges twice as much for a game key as gamefly does for some reason.

[Tehroth]

They should put xp penalties on for dying over and over. That way people won't keep rushing to be expandable units. That is my only grip with fps, when you die it doesn't matter. Wish a fps would implement harsh penalties for dying.

[Yasuo]

They should put xp penalties on for dying over and over. That way people won't keep rushing to be expandable units. That is my only grip with fps, when you die it doesn't matter. Wish a fps would implement harsh penalties for dying.

terrible idea for planetside, but some shooters have harsh penalties and it works for them (dayz)

[Tehroth]

terrible idea for planetside, but some shooters have harsh penalties and it works for them (dayz)

That is not even harsh...It doesn't take long to find gear in that game. Losing stuff and dying in the game is not a big deal.