Originally Posted by Vancha
If you'd told me the whole thing would be inapplicable, it wouldn't've dragged on so damn long.
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"The whole thing"?
Regarding AMS, there indeed proved to be no frontline when aircraft were simply going to ignore the ground fight and hop over the enemy. As predicted prior to beta. Introduction of the AMS made frontlines possible.
Regarding Galaxy squad spawning, they put it in now apparently (I've got no personal experience with it as my outfit is dead in PS2 and I don't get into random squads these days: if I log in at all it is to inspect new outpost level designs). From what I gather though, it's pretty much disintegrating the already minor logistical challenges and barriers further, adding reason for calling it "redeployside" on top of the rather easy redeploying. As predicted prior to beta it would give large squads, particularly organised platoons and zergfits a lot of power. Too much power cause the easier it is to redeploy, the easier it is to counter small groups. (I already took issues with HART drop on squad leader and the lack of a SOI anti-dropzone for similar reasons and recall making a thread in beta about reaction times against squads behind front lines, spawn hopping squads and some more things).
Regarding black ops: always said it was pointless with the capture mechanics and inventory systems: no one strike resecures have been in at all, unless they were one strike capture the base too, but always with points in other buildings, so you couldn't protect both the point and the spawn and try getting somewhere. Small crowds never stood a chance to hold with the base design (only offensively ironically if they got to spawncamp). Without attritition being applicable to medics and engineers, larger groups will always win. Pointed that out prior to beta based on early footage and comments.
And infiltration as infiltrator has never had much of a point due to jet packs. Pointed that out prior to beta based on simply knowing there was a jetpack and seeing some of the buildings: the circumference of walls, wall design being easily hopped on to and capture points.
And I could go on and on about what was missing to make certain playstyles and player and outfit uniqueness viable.
I mean it was all kinda obvious and straightforward consequences. I can't really recall ever being far off with a prediction. And yes... I did predict that with all those mechanisms in place, Black Ops outfits were going to be dead soon enough, as they would likely not beat sheer numbers very often unless those numbers were reliant on few destructable spawnpoints. Where an AMS could be taken out with more ease than a Galaxy due to hp... Among other arguments...
For one, I've always harped on number mitigation. Whether it was about engi glue or medic juice running out, or tanks being driven by multiple people or seat switching being impossible or at least delayed, it is all about creating inter-dependency on other players to create advantages, while reducing the amount of targets so it strengthens solo players in other ways than through mere firepower or personal capacity. It's about setting the right player limitations.
I dunno Vancha. I was extremely skeptic of PS2 design decisions from pre-alpha as it would never make the things we liked PS1 for even remotely viable in PS2. :/ So yeah.
It's never been about one mechanism being in or out. It's always about how all the mechanisms interact with one another to create "the whole thing"... The structure of PS2 as a whole has been... Underwhelming to me.
I think one of the biggest issues in the end is that a lot of important game design decisions were based on "player convenience". Too much convenience removes the opportunity of creating a challenge or exploit an enemy's weakness. Take the class system and everyone getting access to all classes, rather than having to make due with a select few. :/
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Yeah. I don't think many people were particularly reassured by it. It felt more like they were saying "okay we've stopped listening now".
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Think the exact words were probably more like: "too many voices in my head aaaaargh make it stop". Or something.
