http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...lS5MYgM#t=117s
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Originally Posted by Matthew Higby
So we've brought all those modern FPS elements that today triple-A FPS players, people playing Battlefield, people playing Modern Warfare, have come to expect and love and we've put them into the world of planetside.
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1. This "modern FPS" has done nothing remarkable worth noting (let alone putting in your game) other than dumbing down the genre in order to make it more accessible for causal players.
NOTE: "Accessible game" is not same thing as "simple game". A properly made game can be complex, yet still accessible to players who want to just jump in for the first time and do something, ignoring the complex bits - this is what the makers of Battefield, DICE, failed to understand, stripping the franchise off its core features.
2. If you're new to FPS, if you have been playing FPS games just for a couple of years, then yes, you may love these modern elements. But if you, like me, have been playing first person shooters for 10 or 15 years, you'll most likely hate them. Dedicated gamers are tired and sick of modern FPS elements. For example, if you're taking elements from Battlefield 3 which adopted 1/2 of its features from CoD, you're basically taking elements from CoD. This is how nearly every developer out there thinks. FPS market nowadays, is full of the same game and lacks originality because everybody said somewhere in mid-process "Well, CoD is successful!. So let's make this bit and those bits like CoD. People will be familiar with that and like it." Seriously, don't you see how contra-productive this can become? Even people who have been playing first person shooters since CoD 4 - the game that spawned many of these elements) are getting tired of the same gameplay over and over again, would sure love to see and welcome something fresh.
Why am I concerned? Well for the start, the gunplay of PS2 shown so far looks awfully like CoD, that means it looks just like in most generic first person shooters and it doesn't stand out. I dare you to do something about that - looking at Battlefield 2 AND BF2 mods instead of Battlefield 3 might be a good place to start.
3. Catering to your core audience is the most important thing to do. If they're happy, then the whole community will be. If your whole community is happy, then they'll be helpful and friendly to newcomers. If they're not, they'll spread hate.
You might think that you're doing "triple-A FPS players" a favour by putting in features and game mechanics they're familiar with. The opposite might be true. Numerous games have failed trying to
grab the call of duty audience by mainstrimizing their gameplay (e.g. Homefront, Operation Flashpoint: Red River,...).
To sum up, even those who love Call of Duty, don't starve for another one or anything overly similar. After all, we're just people. We love to learn and experience new things. And there's been enough of Call of Duty elements everywhere. Being another game to implement them is in no way a key to success.
I beg you not to overdo it in this area.
4. All modern FPS have one thing in common - they're all meatgrinders. Personally, I'd like Planetside 2 to have more tactical organized gameplay heavily featuring teamwork, but from what we've learnt so far, it's turning out to be a meatgrinder. Surely, Planetside 2 had huge maps, but then they might not be big enough for 2000 players and I'm saying this as someone who's got years of experience focusing primarily on games with open landscape battles. I've played games which had 4x4km maps, 64-128 players and there's enough action. 2000 might require bigger maps.
I'm especially concerned about infantry gameplay inside bases and run'n'gun gameplay between portals. It might resemble mainstream shooters too much, but with even more players and less control, meaning you can't influence much when you're getting ganked by 30 people at a time.
5. Which brings me to another thing and that's traveling. Matt Higby said in an interview that they wanted reduced pointless travel times and they were going to achieve that by spawning closer to action. Traveling certainly isn't pointless to everyone. Besides the fact the it can be very "romantic" and allows you to enjoy beautiful environments, it brings natural pauses that make the game more teasing, tense and more fun in a long run. It also gives you time to rethink your next move. Fighting in a meatgrinder 24/7 isn't what people enjoy, however they do tend to do it just to rank up faster.
TL;DR:
- taking inspiration from modern fps (mainly BF3 and CoD) = not good. Going further back in time and taking some elements from there = far better.
- maps very likely to be too small for 2000 players => meatgrinder ALERT!!
- traveling essential to provide players with diversion and regular breaks from combat