PlanetSide Universe - View Single Post - Reality check -- playing PS1 for the past three days
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Old 2012-06-29, 01:11 PM   [Ignore Me] #60
Haro
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Re: Reality check -- playing PS1 for the past three days


Yeah, Planetside was pretty interesting for me last night, on a new server (very sad they closed Emerald, never heard about that) and after... 5 years of being away more or less.

1. Infantry combat... oh man. I decided to load out mostly infantry gear (rexo, MA, HA, AV) because it was a role I never really got to do all that much in the original as a pilot (I was pretty bad back then, but I consider myself a well-above average shooter now.) Yeah, big mistake, that's changing tonight.

I can't even really judge the mechanics themselves just because everything is so buggy, laggy and all around insane. I had a very hard time using the jackhammer, just didn't seem to want to hit anyone even at close range. Had better luck just spamming gauss fire or sniping with the HSR. Explosions and tracers weren't showing up very well, explosion spam was insane, and I felt like it took me forever to kill someone, but I could die in seconds. Needless to say, my KDR was pretty terrible.

Also, tangential rant, I think I'll be glad to see the Phoenix go. I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it. I love sniping maxes with it, especially in base defense, because I can get over hills and single them out. Got a bunch of kills that way. But the thing is damn near useless against vehicles. I fire one round, I need about 10-15 seconds to actually hit something, another couple of seconds to reload, and I'll need to repeat that anywhere from 5-20 times just to kill something. Reavers tend to wipe me out in a matter of seconds, or just fly away, and tanks tend to retreat more often than not. I'm not really buying into the whole longer-TTK is better thing for vehicles. At least, not until I spec out completely for tanks tonight (probably)

2. The game sucks if you don't have an outfit. I can understand why many newcomers didn't really take to it. I had a great outfit, one I helped found, for several years, and that spoils you. I don't really see myself joining an outfit for a game I'll only play for less than a month at most, though who knows, but damn, playing this game solo isn't only hard, it's really terrible. You can't do all the fun, coordinated things like large assaults or vehicles, and the infantry combat isn't good enough to sustain you just for that. Hopefully, PS2 corrects this by being more fun on a basic level and improving the outfit system some how (maybe new-player outfits set up by SOE.)

3. Not going to miss the cert system. I think the bonus of customization (2which we may not really lose in the next game) is a very small benefit of a system that can absolutely pound you if you've picked up the wrong certs. It's bad when players can find themselves in a situation where there skill set really isn't doing any good, and yet they may not be able to change.

4. I'm really sick of Orbital Strikes. I think it was after the third or forth friendly Bolt from the Blue on our own vehicle pad that really put me off. Generally sick of CR5's in general, except for a few like Pointman and Goku, who were part of a very good minority.

5. Transports need incentives. I fought in some infantry combat between bases, and it was quite fun, but if I didn't have an AMS nearby, I hated having to walk several minutes just to get there. And sometimes, you die very quickly. I think Gal spawnpoints and squad spawns will be very helpful with that, and I think both are very welcome additions. We'll also see how distances work out in the new, more spread out continents. But either way, I want to see more benefits for gal and sundy drivers, because we need them, and for more than just squad or outfit ops.

But not everything was bad. I did get very fed up about every hour and disconnected, but I constantly found myself getting drawn back in to that clusterfuck on Searhus. I think I played for the better part of 4 hours. Combat could be very fun at times, even as a foot soldier.

I loved when I saw my performance meter for the first time: 77ms ping at most, and averaging 150 fps, with sustained periods above 200. Times certainly have changed.

But if anything, my PS1 experiences, however fun, have really opened my eyes as to how much PS2 needs to change things. It makes me laugh at the people who claim PS2 is "dumbing" things down, because believe me, there are a lot of dumb things in PS1, and a lot of dumb people (Laka... need I say more? Goku and Pointman know what I'm talking about.) Obvious stuff that often tends to be covered up by how much fun we can have working in groups in such a unique situation as the original Planetside. But at its core, the game needs to change. I'm enjoying myself in this game, but only because I'm not paying for it.
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