MMOFPS

[HairyHeretic]

Not sure if anyone else here ever played Planetside, but it was my first foray into online gaming. It's still a game I enjoy, though the numbers have been steadily falling, and the game not treated that well by Sony in terms of updates.

I recently got sent a link for something that looks like it could be Planetside 2. No idea if anyone else enjoys this genre of game, but what the heck.

http://azuretwilight.org/index.php?welkin

There are a number of youtube videos showing it off. It's still in the beta stages, but it looks like it has a lot of potential.

[Jeramiahh]

I played PS during it's beta... good concept, but it had one, glaring flaw: it didn't offer anything any one of a dozen other FPSs offered, and it asked a monthly fee for it. It's the same problem hitting Tabula Rasa... as Yahtzee so eloquently puts it, the FPS genre is aimed at the hyperactive, twitchy, twelve-year-old on crack, and the MMO is aimed at the older, patient, more number focused person.

It'd be like putting P-Diddy and Journey in concert together.

[HairyHeretic]

I'd have to disagree with that. My outfit on Planetside I'd say was averaging mid to late 20s in age, most of us in 20s and 30s. And what PS offered that the other FPSs don't is scale. 64 players on one map doesn't cut it when you've been in a 3 way battle with 300 people out there.

[Jeramiahh]

Oh, I agree PS was fun, to a point. Nothing like having your spawn point camped, when, suddenly, a very heavily armored soldier-robot thing walks out and begins mowing people down. I, personally, didn't think it justified the cost, but that's just me. Then again, I prefer smaller scale battles, anyway.

[HairyHeretic]

Having a max pop out of a binded AMS could certainly be useful alright. I really enjoyed the big battles, but then I was a dedicated sniper, and those big battles just meant more targets for me  ;D

Looks like a few of my outfit are interested in checking this new one out anyway. Hopefully something good will come of it.

[King_Furby]

there are a few free to play MMOFPS with option for paying to get optional upgrades but they lack the polish of games like planetside. I loved plantside reservers a 6 month trial but the monthly fee was a little steap for me.

[magnamos]

I was totally into Neocron II but it was... well.. dead. With me beeing from Europe it was hard to meet any person at common onlinetimes for me. That was no fun.

I enjoyed Tabula Rasa very much. I like the whole Setting, the Backgrondstory and everything around it. The mixture of Characterclasses and the rate of improvement. It's almost one major update a month with new content and all. Not even Blizzard can keep it up at that rate and they got much more players and financial support. With Content my Mainfocus is on Gameplay. I get nothing out of running through the same level on and on just with different enemies, a slightly different tactic to beat these enemies and green instead of purple walls. NC seems to be more creative in general regarding these things.

Before all that I was enjoying Tribes and Tribes 2 a lot. With Tribes Vengance the glory ended. It was still fun but the community didn't accept it as a Tribes Title since it was only franchise.

This Planetside 2 thing looks definetly worth a try. The reason I missed out Planetside was that I, when it came out, was without an Onlinelink and when I got that Link I lacked the money to pay for an MMO... unfortunately. I think now I would get into a load of highlevel and superequipted Characters with no chance of survival ;)

[HairyHeretic]

Actually, you wouldn't.

That was the nice thing about PS .. everyone has access to the same equipment and has the same ammount of wounds. A high level character can access more of it at once, but the only thing that a new player won't immediately have access to is the BFRs.

A BR1 has a good chance of killing a BR25 character.

[magnamos]

Actually, you wouldn't.

That was the nice thing about PS .. everyone has access to the same equipment and has the same ammount of wounds. A high level character can access more of it at once, but the only thing that a new player won't immediately have access to is the BFRs.

A BR1 has a good chance of killing a BR25 character.

Uhm....what?

I guess I'm in need of a MMOFPS Dictionary here. What the Hell is a BR? Is it something like your Rank which allows you to get other Equipment or something?

[HairyHeretic]

Yeah, BR is Battle Rank, and CR is Command Rank.

As your BR goes up, you get more cert points, so you can have the skills to use more vehicles / equipment at the one time. But given you can decert and recert pretty much daily, it doesn't take long to try out everything and find the things you liked.

Me, I suck as a close range fighter. On the other hand, I have about 3200 sniper kills (and probably another 1000 on top of that before they started tracking kills for merits). I also do medic, engineer and occasionally hacker or transport. Sniper is my all time favourite activity.

[magnamos]

So you can't mix the skills and become a medic with a Sniper Rifle? You have to pick a class and stick with it until you decided to change it?

[HairyHeretic]

Sure you can. You can spend your cert points any way you like, and every 6 hours you can uncert one thing and either spend those points on something else, or keep them, uncert something else later so you can spend all the points on a more expensive cert.

There are no classes. Everyone can do everything, as long as they spend the cert points on it. I just tended to specialise in the support skills and sniping.

[magnamos]

Makes sense. Usually a Supporter is in the back and a sniper should be too for his own sake. Though I got some experience with a Frontline Supporter in City of Heroes and especially Tribes. I know these Games can hardly be compared but the concept stays the same. Is there something like a Farmer in Planetside? Someone who deploys and maintains frontline assault equipment? Turrets, Mortars, Inventorystation, Medistations etc.

[HairyHeretic]

Probably the engineering tree. Basic engineer you get mines, spitfires (sentry turrets), motion sensors and .. something else I can't remember offhand. Combat engineer gets boomers (remote detonated explosives). They then added two more additional engineering branches which give cloaked spitfires, EMP mines, deployable turrets, cloaking bubbles and a few other goodies. To have them all at the same time would cost about 10 cert points (3 for enf, then 2 for CE, then 5 for both adv eng, or 3 for a single one of them).

To take the higher level skills, you need to have the lower ones already certed.

All medical stuff comes from the medic skill. Basic medic (3 cert points) you can heal people. Adv med, 2 more cert points, you can rez.

Inventory stations would be the AMS, which is a mobile spawn point and inventory station inside a cloaking bubble, for 2 points.

[magnamos]

Is there something like a heavy armor? You know the big ugly fatties with an energycore on there back and who keeps laughing under enemy fire until someone places a detonator on his back, he can't reach there.

[HairyHeretic]

MAX suits. Anti infantry, anti armour and anti air configurations, 3, 3 and 2 cert points respectively, or 6 for unimax (all 3).

You have several different armour suits.

Infiltrator suit: You're a Predator. Sit still, you're invisable, the faster you move, the easier you are to spot, but its unarmoured.
Basic armour: 100 points of armour
Rexo (Reinforced Exoarmour): 200 points of armour, more carrying capacity, but less agile and slower than the previous two.
MAX: 600 or 650 points of armour, but again slower and less agile than the others. Best for close quarters combat.

[magnamos]

Allrighty now tell me there are Jetpacks and I'm hooked :D

[HairyHeretic]

The Vanu Soverignty MAXs have jump jets. Limited duration burn, and they have to recharge after each use, but they have them. The New Comglomorate get force fields, and the Terran Republic get lock down .. can't move, but increased rate of fire.

Each faction has their own specific armour, vehicles, weapons and so on.

[magnamos]

I guess the MAX of the Vanu is faster too but can't take so much of a licking. The MAX of the New Comglomorate has less Armor but in a short combat Situation it's superior to the other MAX because his shield recharge faster. Finally the MAX of the Terran Republic is slow as hell but once it's locked down, it's hard to remove it the unhealthy way?

It definetly sounds REALLY interesting. Though I think I will go back to Tabula Rasa first. They made new Pistols and the new Pistols can dual wielded. It perfectly suits my Logo-Commando (Please note for all those who don't know what a Logo-Commando is, you can consider it an INT-Warrior xD )

[HairyHeretic]

Actually their base armour value is all the same. The VS can jump, the NC have the shield (limited capacitor, same as the VS jumping) and the TR lock down. Speedwise, they're all about the same.

Its a good game, but my outfit just drifted away from it, and with WAR coming up I decided to quit as well. I may go back after a while, and see how it is again.

[magnamos]

So the Energy (no matter if shield or Jumpjets) won't recharge on it's own by some Generator or something? I thought the Lockdown had unlimited uses and wouldn't it be only fair if the other MAX specials would have unlimited use aswell? I understand that it can be bothersome to kill a MAX with a shield over and over again just because you didn't managed to keep 'em under constant fire. Oh well, when I see it's cheap somwhere I may get it. There is a 30 Days Testtime included in every Version, right?

[HairyHeretic]

There's a capacitor which builds back up for the shield and jump jets. There's no time restriction built into the lockdown, but frankly its the weakest ability IMO. The others can still move and act, the TR maxes are stuck in place, and it takes a second or two to unlock before you can move again. Thats plenty of time for an experienced player or two to pump a decimator rocket or two into you.

Plus your fire arc is restricted to about 120 degrees. Its ok if you're on defense inside (at least til the shoot and scoot rocket launchers come out, at which point you unlock and get your ass under cover for repairs), but the others are more versitile.

Not sure if the shops are still selling it.

http://www.amazon.com/Planetside-Aftershock-Pc/dp/B0002WRSJ2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1221908554&sr=8-3

Amazon has it. Aftershock was the pack most recently brought out, which includes the Core Combat add on (I believe) and very likely gives a free month.

[magnamos]

Yay, I will be on vacation starting tomorrow but when I get back I think I will order it and have a look.

[HairyHeretic]

http://planetside.station.sony.com/ is the official site. You'll be able to read up on the factions, vehicles and gear there.