Planetside 2 flaws
Crashing
General bugs
New player experience
Lack of tutorial
Lacking variety/options due unlock system
Base design turns into meat grinder
Unable to test out weapons
Population balance
Should go over every single one but game been out long enough.
Magrider – Thoughts
Recently been playing loads of planetside 2 getting much better feel for the game as a whole.
You can find my various thoughts on the game listed under planetside category pretty big faults with the game. Core of the game can be rather fun at times even with these faults helps put off new players. Faction of choice Vanu Sovereignty playing on Ceres European Playstation 4 server. Vanu Sovereignty faction get various benefits with specialist vehicles along with weapons. Main battle tank is called Magrider Vanu get an hover tank.
Admitting my hate now love
Willing to admit that I hated the Magrider at first for various reason I could not make the tank work and would die. Took me hours to work out how to use it along with upgrading it. Could be I gotten better with time or something else but I did serious hate it that much I was thinking of switching. Leaving the Vanu over one vehicle was bit silly so decided to keep at it. Soon I found started to love the thing with my results improving.
Comparing tanks
New Conglomerate Vanguard – Best armour strongest main gun but cost of speed and acceleration. Vanguard special ability activation of an tank shield base health is 4,000 but shield adds 2,000 on top for 6 seconds. Defensive style of tank which is designed to bust up armour.
Terran Republic Prowler – Opposite of the Vanguard fastest top speed, quicker reload time lower protection due armour resistance. Offensive ability anchored Mode lower reload speed higher projectile speed.
Vanu Sovereignty – Magrider – Takes traits from both takes combining both of them into one tank. Main gun 2nd highest damage mobility to match it armour wise middle of the pack. Mobility does not equal matching prowler speed instead does better job hill climbing. Unlike the other tanks limited by tracks can move side to side. Main turret requires whole tank to move in order to aim result front is always facing your target. Turret does have the lowest arc in the whole game meaning you can hit other tanks before they see you. Downside comes with slow reload speed and velocity. Magburner does give you major boost in speed for temporary period of time.
Okay it looks rather bad for Mr average. Does nothing great just does everything average apart from one or two minor things.
Mr average?
Mr average in many respects with some serious downsides fighting other tanks head on results in death. Vanguard rips you to pieces with sheer damage, prowler burst damage is high enough to win. Magrider must exploit lack of mobility getting behind taken by surprise you can burst down the other tanks. Extra mobility over the environment with stealth allows you to win. Against lighting tanks you can exploit the mobility or take them head on. Still risky to take on lighting head on unless it the skyguard platform.
Below are some examples from last night….
Example 1
Magrider hides within an valley fires to the hillside which somebody tank. Vanguard follows magrider into valley after being hit. Magrider moves up the valley edge firing down on vanguard main gun can’t aim high enough to hit the magrider. Vanguard pops the shield trying to escape dies seconds later.
Running stealth allows the magrider to get into positions like the one above. Driver of the vanguard should have avoided that situation. Vanguard may have better armour with damage potential but can’t do much against burst damage with extra mobility. Vanguard would been harder to kill from the hillside but still facing quite a task against the magrider.
Example 2
Magrider located to side of the road hidden behind the hill. One lone prowler racing ahead on the road is attacked by the magrider from behind. No cover for the magrider apart just open road. Prowler turns the turret to face the magrider who dodges one or two shots. Hit from behind by the magrider the prowler dies.
Example 3
Vanu has an armored column moving forward hits another armored column. Main battle tanks start firing on each other Vanu are dodging shots keeping distance. Small group of Vanu try to flank around using armour and heavy assaults. Magriders flanking around weaken the armour letting the front armour finish them off.
Combined elements of the magrider allow the Vanu to win. Head on the tanks suffer but that mobility keeps them alive just a bit longer.
Example 3 front armour is best option with stealth being used on the flanking force. Best results of the magrider requires you to exploit using the environment with some sort of element of surprise. Vanu main battle tank is rather versatile allows you to burst damage but glass cannon compared to the other tanks.
Weapon velocity
One of the roles I told about with the Magrider was being able to snipe vehicles long range using hill climb to be annoying. However….the main guns suffer from Low weapon velocity. Combined with bumpy nature of the main gun which is worse on console. You can provide support from further ranges but not a fan of that play style myself. Can be very powerful hanging back just at the outsides of one of the big battles.
Gunner
Benefits of the gunner can’t be underestimated for starters it provides you with much need extra awareness. Extra damage is just the bonus that awareness which helps the most.
High entry barrier
Magrider is just works better with upgrades some of the best ones are upgrading your weapons followed by tank upgrades. Default main weapon is okay, secondary gunner you get light machine gun which is average. Very useful against people trying to C4 you but against other tanks no.
Pros and cons
Pro
Cons
Sooooooo…
Magrider looks on paper rather bad however in practise the versatile nature combined with tactics means you can do some serious damage. Front armour is good for moving with the zerg, stealth is good for flanking. You can hill climb to avoid fire or hide on hills to rain fire down. Not sure which upgrade is better racer or rival. Overall I would say the tank good but does have high learning curve. Still think Daybreak games should buff the main turrets so they have fastest velocity in the game given reload speed makes sense. Instead of forcing one playstyle I taken the best of both worlds being aggressive defensive so attacking when it suits me. Tank suits my playstyle aggressive flanking with some clever tactics over sheer force.
Improving planetside 2
Free to play game planetside 2 is rather fun game does have some big faults just going to focus on 3 big issues for the moment. Core mechanics of the game rather decent but poor design choices with bad player feedback. Creates very unfriendly experience to new players which slowly turns into an wall. Result new players disappear from the game due to the high barrier of entry with high barrier of entry due to design choices. No secret the game on every platform is suffering with rapid declining playerbase rev ensues suffering become obvious. New creative director Jens Andersen admitted that fact on reddit AMA which you can find here.
Other big issues spawns, population balance, resources, UI, base design along with much much more.
Game progression: Grind is real!
New players are faced with serious grind in order to be useful various options locked out with linear grind progression system. Easy way of solving this would be giving players options by default like anti vehicle weapons. Reduce the grind due to letting players experience other options.
Would love to use aircraft to attack ground zerg armour but I can’t. Would love to do anti armour tank role but again can’t. Until I grind the certs away to unlock these items. Want to snipe instead of using semi auto sniper sorry you need to unlock that. Not being able to pick SMG for the infiltrator class.
Planetside 2 allows players to experience range of different experiences but gates them behind a brick wall. New players should be given basic options which allows them to be useful instead of being forced on tread mill for basic parts. Basic weapons super powerful compared to other items on the store which means game is not pay to win. Simple case of ungating options from players anti vehicle, certain weapons.
Lore: Lack of…
Another big weakness of planetside 2 lack of lore, issue here why should player care about the actions. Even call of duty has some sort of lore explaining why you’re playing team death match. Absent from this game just get some basic voice overs meant to help teamplay. Game fails to explain what each faction is doing or drive behind it. Factions gain certain benefits due to history but again not explained. You don’t know the name of your own commanders or even told the planet you’re fighting on. People complain about call of duty being skin deep but the game has far more lore completed planetside which is explained.
Some solutions adding more voice lines once base is taken explaining some of the lore. Soldiers could start talking between each other about how the battle is going. Commander could come into the fold see something interesting could be done with something so basic. Objectives could be worth some sort of lore voice tape loads of potential things you could do from design point of view.
You can find some of the lore on outside sources according to game credits award winning comic book reader worked on the project. You would not know that unless you took the time to look into it. Understand that writing for video game rather hard to do given how interactive the story needs to be.
Tutorial: The wall
Game does feature basic voice introduction but lacks any sort of tutorial. Koltyr starting place for new players with some basic outputs designed to teach players the core mechanics of the game. Player interactive however is required in order to teach you. Game forces you to work out how things work over telling you sometimes does not explain. Non existent tutorial with one time voice over introduction. New players faced with wall forced to work out what is going on right now.
Progression, lore and Tutorial.
Minor changes to the progression system would help with lore taking centre stage plus bigger tutorial. For myself the progression is one thing holding me various time which has caused me frustrating times. Lack of lore creates range of issues from with feeling that battles are meaningless. On the tutorial almost quit the game due how badly explained first couple of hours. Not sure sure creating list of solutions would be enough given how the game has already launched. Good to see that creative director Jens Andersen understand game not in very healthy state but I fear they are going to move on to another title.
Wasted a bunch of certs but here what going to invest into other next month or so. Thinking weapons on vehicles are worth more right now compared to anything else. Investing into classes far better compared to investing into weapons.
Infiltrator:
Ability: Hunter level 2 or Nano level 1
Nade: EMP [Not unlocked]
Utility: Restoration Kit [Not unlocked]
Shield: Ammunition belt level 1 or Nanoweave level 1
Tool: Recon Dectation device or Motion spotter both level 1
Sniping load out and SMG close range infiltrator. Need to unlock XM98 along with Sirius SMG.
Combat Medic:
Ability: Nano gen maxed out
Nade: Regen [Not unlocked]
Utility: Restoration Kit level 1
Shield: Nanoweave level 4 or Ammo belt level 2
Medic loadout and infantry killer.
Engineer:
Ability: Anti infantry turret
Nade: Sticky nade
Utility: Restoration Kit or tank mines level 1
Sheild: Flak level 2 or Utility pouch level 1
Flak repair engineer and anti vehicle engineer.
Hindsight wasted bunch of certs on some other upgrades.
Heavy Assault:
Ability: Nanite Mesh level 4 or Resist level 2
Nade: Concussion [Not unlocked]
Utility: Restoration Kit
Shield: Nanoweave level 4 or Advanced shield level 3
And…..muntions punch level 1 with C4
Pulsar LSW meant to be good middle range LMG. Lancer just looks cool!!
What about light assault?
No idea on the what is the best setup thinking shotgun or SMG.
Vehicles:
Below you can find my feedback for Planetside 2 with solutions.
Now ranked 32 on planetside 2 so put some time into the title so far.
List of feedback:
Feedback: Spawns
Problem:
Spawn point is destroyed player spawns some place else
Solution:
Let the player pick the spawn point
Feedback: Map UI
Problem:
Spawns points disappear with unclear what bases are spawn points.
Solution:
Add icon showing which bases are spawns
Feedback: Squads
Problem: Can’t see other squads on the UI or near you, allow players to team up with other squads by displaying near by squads.
Solution:
Feedback: Joining squads
Problem: You need to be invited to squad to join it. Also can’t join up with outfit members unless you’re friends.
Solution:
Feedback: Tutorial
Problem: Game Tutorial system is currently basic does not teach players the core gameplay mechanics.
Solution:
Feedback: Faction population balance
Problem: Faction population
Certain factions can have far bigger populations against the others. No reward for underpopulated factions.
Solutions:
Population based bonus for underpopulated factions.
Certification points
Battle cash
Re spawn time
Nanites
Sharing character information
Time for some more planetside 2 thoughts did post some quick thoughts which you can find here.
Planetside 2 is a MMOFPS or in simple terms massive online world in which every area is a battle for control. As a result each player is nothing more than a simple prawn in a much bigger battle. Title is free to play which thousands of players can do battle on a single map. 200+ players attacking a single point or defending happens almost daily. Sony studios now defunct Zipper Interactive tried to do the same concept with MAG but was unable to take off. Planet side 2 however has been able to keep going not without issues. Design of the game is one with a core focus on teamwork. Each player can pick a specialist class with a defined role. Engineers build along with repair, light assaults take on other infantry. What you pick as a class forces you into a role you can customize. Engineers can go into heavy repair spec. Unlike so many modern games which let you do anything your class defines your job.
Teamwork
Core element of planetside 2 is based on teamwork with the gameplay mechanics reflecting that. Capturing areas requires more than one person in order to be successful. Armour units need repairs along with ammo. Health lacks any sort of regeneration need a medic class in order to heal you. Long list of gameplay mechanics which are designed to promote teamwork.
Art design
Each class is easy to tell the difference and fraction so you know what sort of weapon you’re going against. Very helpful to a player important visual clue which helps keeps the game competitive. Recent modern shooters have dropped this little clue in order to lower the skill. Something which I noticed very quickly found it also rather helpful.
Fractions
Total of 3 with each one having their own weapons. Certain fractions focus on power others focus on rate of fire weapons and accurate weapons. Only issue with the fraction system can make battles unbalanced with certain ones having a higher population compared to others but they do get a bonus.
Business model
Like most free to play games rather hard to earn credits very slow…
However the business model does not mean that you pay to win with the starter guns being rather good along with anything else. Of course a fully upgraded tank makes short work of a non upgraded one.
The ugly
At times the game can crash for no good reason some framerate issues which appear during big battles.
Spawn system is against new players should be able to pick whatever base you want to spawn from or make it more friendly.
Overall
I like planetside 2 but marketing wise the PS4 version has been pretty limited when it comes to marketing.
Also the spawn system is pretty bad makes you want to cry.
