Outfit member Cap - Page 3

**Malorn** · 2012-04-03, 01:36 PM

Outfit wars are a joke. I get how they add value to an otherwise dead game, and I get why some people want them for epeen measurement, but the greatness of Planetside was it's MMO-ness and its persistent world.

You can't measure outfits against each other because they specialize in different things. Apples and Oranges. How do you measure paratroopers vs an outfit specializing in armor and ground support? You can't, and you don't need to because each plays their part in the war.

When you take out the rest of the war you create a competitive environment that isn't Planetside, thus rendering any result of "outfit wars" meaningless. The Outfit wars was a different scenario, where different skillsets and tactics would prevail - unlike real Planetside where many more factors and circumstances exist.

War has a bigger picture - resources, territory, continent-wide strategy, and adaptation to the ambiguity of war. That is Planetside. Each outfit has their own role in that mess, whether it is how efficiently they kill or how they play the metagame and cripple an opposing empire's resources or production capacity. Maybe they bring air support or armor, and because of those things territory can be captured.

Trying to put every outfit into a fabricated scenario to see which outfit is best is not measuring the effectiveness of an outfit at Planetside - it's measuring the outfit's effectiveness in that specific scenario that will never occur naturally in Planetside. It's also a scenario that has no significance in the "big picture" of what's going on around the world on different continents. Sometimes a delay is a victory. Sometimes you don't fight even odds. Sometimes your objective isn't the same as your opponent. Outift wars measure none of these things, making it a joke in my eyes. Purely an epeen measurement for outfits clinging to a dead game. That's fine, but don't make it out to be more than it is. If you want instanced scenarios of clan matches...well Battlefield and COD offers that for you. Have fun!

Me, I like the metagame and the massive persistent world and the strategy elements and the unknowns and the ambiguity. Dealing with all that and making a difference is what makes a truly great Planetside outfit and player.

BuzzCutPsycho · 2012-04-03, 01:39 PM

I've observed that only insignificant outfits care about outfit wars. If I want to do an organized arena style match I'd do it in a game designed for such a thing and not PlanetSide.

Duddy · 2012-04-03, 02:05 PM

Coming from an outfit that both the warring sides here would probably consider useless, a predominately sniping oriented outfit, I find this discussion amusing. What people seem to forget is that what happened in the game was truly the sum of its parts.

By which I mean to say all sorts of different outfits did different things that contributed to not only an individual empires success, but to the gameplay experience for everyone.

As Malorn quite rightly pointed out, trying to exclusively measure worth seems pointless in the grand scale. Every player and outfit had a role to play regardless of their ability, fame or efficiency. Exxon-1 is a good example, their support play (particularly in vehicle fights) made them a prime target. Were they as well known as other outfits? No. Did they make a big difference? Hell yeah! Were they good players? Hell if I know!

To some extent each empire was like a sports team. Sure you had your star players that made clutch plays which people tended to remember but you also had a lot of the grunt work being done by the rest of the team who possibly didn't get the fame for lack of individualistic achievement.

Ultimately I'm grateful that the original game allowed for diverse different play styles to contribute towards the same goal. I'd be disappointed if there ended up being a "right" format that everyone aspired to.

BuzzCutPsycho · 2012-04-03, 05:51 PM

Man I bet the third person stair camping was intense! Truly a feat only achievable by the most skilled players. But please, I must know... what was the A/D strafing like? Did you guys scrim on the test server to get your warping down to a science?

It must have been a sight to behold!

Dart · 2012-04-03, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by BuzzCutPsycho

Man I bet the third person stair camping was intense! Truly a feat only achievable by the most skilled players. But please, I must know... what was the A/D strafing like? Did you guys scrim on the test server to get your warping down to a science?

It must have been a sight to behold!

Oh look, it's the leader of the self-proclaimed best Outfit in history of Planetside using sarcasm. Classic!

BuzzCutPsycho · 2012-04-03, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by Dart

Oh look, it's the leader of the self-proclaimed best Outfit in history of Planetside using sarcasm. Classic!

GUYS DON'T WORRY ABOUT THAT RANDOM AIR TOWER. DELTA TRYHARD HAS GOT IT UNDER CONTROL.

SkitzoSniper · 2012-04-03, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by BuzzCutPsycho

Man I bet the third person stair camping was intense! Truly a feat only achievable by the most skilled players. But please, I must know... what was the A/D strafing like? Did you guys scrim on the test server to get your warping down to a science?

It must have been a sight to behold!

If you are seriously still complaing about that then you must have gotten seriously butthurt a few times. In the games last years it was the strafe that seperated the good from the great. Guys like Commandirka who had amazing strafes(and accuracy to boot). It was an exploit that was taken advantage of, and you had to adapt or die. Did it ruin the game? In some ways, yes. But in others it just gave it a new angle to try and get better at.

Effective · 2012-04-03, 06:49 PM

Because people who warp are hard to kill!

./sarcasm

SKYeXile · 2012-04-03, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by Effective

Because people who warp are hard to kill!

./sarcasm

yea...also people fail to understand if they're warping a shitload for you you can generally bet that everybody is warping a shitload for them.

**Malorn** · 2012-04-03, 07:20 PM

PS for all we loved it, was a second rate shooter at best with poor mechanics. It was awesome because of the MMO and persistent world aspect and having the freedom to go where you want do what you want. As far as skill as a shooter it was quite terrible. Most any game out there is a better measure of skill. It's really sad when "skill" in a game boils down to how well you can glitch out the game and how well you've learned to adjust to the glitching.

But organization, tactics, that's something Planetside had unlike any other game out there, save maybe WWII Online.

Dart · 2012-04-04, 04:43 AM

Originally Posted by Malorn

PS for all we loved it, was a second rate shooter at best with poor mechanics. It was awesome because of the MMO and persistent world aspect and having the freedom to go where you want do what you want. As far as skill as a shooter it was quite terrible. Most any game out there is a better measure of skill. It's really sad when "skill" in a game boils down to how well you can glitch out the game and how well you've learned to adjust to the glitching.

But organization, tactics, that's something Planetside had unlike any other game out there, save maybe WWII Online.

Completely agree. Skill in PS was past a certain level of competence, sure almost entirely to connection -predominantly as a result of issues with it's design. The only 'skill' in PS was situational awareness. Our put another way, know which gun our vehicle to use at which time, in relation to your precise location and the actions of everyone around you, in order to achieve your objective.

Artificial member caps are silly. If certain leaders want to prioritise quantity over quality , let them! Limiting their numbers will only mean less kills for the rest of us while they get so big they won't be able to organise a piss-up in a brewery.

Nalan · 2012-04-04, 05:49 AM

Outfits shouldn't have caps, it should be up to the outfits to set their own goals according to how they can manage their members effectively and efficiently with whatever structure they choose. Some outfits will simply be member heavy with no organisation and some will be uber organised and with a few elite members. The outfit should be free to choose their own cap rather than outfit having to try to work a way around it.

DviddLeff · 2012-04-04, 10:25 AM

No reason for a cap. As others have said if you want to organise a full population lock to strike one place at a time there should be nothing stopping you from doing so.

If you want a "good" fight, and by that I presume you mean a balanced fight, go play Battlefield, CoD, CS, etc; Planetside has strategy and a major part of that is force concentration.