Planetside 2: Second Wind

What a difference a player population boost can make to a server. I had been barely logging into Planetside 2 over the past couple of months due to new releases until last weekend. Suddenly the population on the Miller server has shot up, no doubt thanks to the game being promoted at Rezzed recently and Rock Paper Shotgun frequently running some big community events.

The difference the population boost has made is drastic. The game feels almost new again with constant large scale battles that haven’t been seen since release. And now is a great time for new players to jump in.

SOE have been very busy getting in the key features scheduled on the Roadmap. In one of the most recent game updates, the tutorial was finally implemented. I took a quick tour just to see what it covered and as expected, it covered the full range of basics. It’s voice acted and takes you through a little facility with various training objectives complete, explaining each element along the way. A help option has also been added to all the menu windows to clarify all the individual elements. Planetside 2 isn’t the most complex game, but there’s no doubt that these features will help new players get going in the game a lot quicker.

Another great addition for all players has been the introduction of the virtual reality training area. It’s a simple little box area with some static targets and firing ranges where you can try out any options and set-ups you want before purchase. I’ve found it really helpful on more than one occasion, and it’s certainly allowed me to make much more informed buying decisions for my hard earned certifications. It’s also had a recent update to allow players to try out the aesthetic customisations as well. It was really a feature the game should have launched with, but I’m glad it has made it in after only a few months.

The largest change to game mechanics has been the revamp of Indar. Indar was the first continent created for the game and is currently the only one of the three to be using the new lattice system. Before, you could assault any adjacent territory and begin capping it for your faction; even if the territory you left was under attack itself. Now, the lattice system links adjacent territories in a rigid system where you must have complete control of an area before moving on. At certain points the system branches out, usually around main bases which will have multiple routes in and out, adding to their strategic importance on the map.

At first it may seem like a very restrictive system that denies you tactical options, but that freedom of choice was often used by large outfits to avoid bulky groups of enemies; simply doing large unopposed land grabs by taking undefended outposts behind the front line. It became farcical at points as some outfits would just manoeuvre around each other. Now, the lattice focus players into set attack and defend avenues which helps to naturally create the large scale battles the game is meant to be about. There’s still plenty of scope for flanking attacks and covert operations, whilst allowing players to better predict the flow of battle across the continent.

Other gameplay updates have included the class revamp of the Max suit, although this turned out to be more of a tweak with weapon balances and the addition of faction abilities. The new abilities add a little extra flavour to the class, with Vanu getting the most interesting option. Their max suits with the right certifications can now gain a temporary damage and speed boost, at the cost of also increase the damage they receive. It’s an excellent risk-reward option that’s caught me ought on more than one occasion, as your health is obliterated when you’re caught on the receiving end of angry Vanu Max’s bullets.

New weapons have also started to make an appearance, although many deride the pump action shotguns for their ability to one-hit-kill opponents in close quarters. SMGs added some extra choice for all classes, with Infiltrators in particular benefitting.  They’ve allowed players such as me that aren’t so keen on sniping to have some fun causing havoc behind enemy lines.

There’s been plenty of smaller quality of life tweaks over the past couple of months as well. The UI has gone through a couple of iterations. Players can now customise the colour coding for all enemy and friendly indictors individually. The map for each continent highlights where battles are currently occurring, as well as the status of generators in facilities and how long it will take any point under attack to be capped. Customising your appearance is now a lot easier with quick camouflage selections available. It’s also a lot easier to restock your consumables such as grenades, as they now have a prominent place on the menu rather than been buried under other layers. Weapons stats are now also clearly displayed, showing all the details such as accuracy values and damage dealt over range. This replaced the absolutely useless bar graph system which obscured all the really helpful information.

It’s good to see that SOE have continued to be committed to developing and updating the game at the pace they have. It’s surprising how much the game has evolved over the past six months. Annoyingly they still haven’t delivered any major performance update with many players still suffering from low frame rates in busy areas. The game is still a monster for any CPU that is slightly old.

But if I had one wish for the game, it wouldn’t be performance improvements. It would be for SOE to make sure that new players are attracted to the game and to keep them playing. As I said at the beginning, the difference new players have made is very noticeable. Yet any new player will still have contended with an experienced player base that is much better equipped than them. Overcoming the experience gap will always require time; however SOE can tackle the equipment problem. I think new characters should start out with a least a few suit upgrades for each class. They would no doubt help a new player to be more durable on the battlefield. Hopefully SOE will take some action on this sooner rather than later.

If you’re interested in giving Planetside 2 a go, you can make an account and download the game here. If you want to know more than what has been updated, you can read my first impressions and follow up where I discuss the gameplay in more detail.

Playing with Fire: Community and Developer Interaction in Planetside 2

Most developer interaction with MMOs is a one way street, usually ramming trucks full of promotional material at gamers until release. Only to be followed by a steady stream of patching and tweaks.  There’ll be an obligatory official forum where only the brave tread as it quickly devolves into a cess pit of whining and cries for nerfs!

This is what makes Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) stand out from other developers. When it comes to community interaction, they’re charting some new territory and it could go either way for them. Of course they have an official game forum like everyone else, but they have also gone all in when it comes to social media.

Want to discuss game mechanics? Start an interesting topic on Reddit and you’ll likely attract comments from the game’s balance team. Want to show off your Outfit? Get in touch with Friday Night Ops (FNO) and you could the focus of an SOE live stream. FNO is also great for keeping up to date with the latest game development and includes a live Q&A with the developers.

On top of that, SOE recently released the Roadmap revealing the next six months of updates. But rather than being an elaborate and lengthy set of patch notes, it details the development team’s ideas. Each element is can be discussed and voted on, highlighting the ideas the community wants to see make it into the game. The most popular ideas get pushed up the list and become the top priority for the next month’s major patch.

It’s great for the community to be able to actually affect the game’s development in a way that suits the majority. The Roadmap does have its limitations though. You can only contribute and vote on the ideas that are added by SOE. And it’s noticeable that there’s a lack of meta-game ideas. Ideas that would add more goals and rewards into the game for players to avoid the game stagnating.

Realities of game development also play a big factor in the game’s Roadmap. No matter how many positive votes an idea receives; if it’s a large chunk of content like a brand new continent, it’s going to need some lengthy development time.

Thankfully the Roadmap isn’t a completely inclusive list of game changes. Balance tweaks are rather sensibly kept under tight control by SOE themselves.  Although they have already shown how difficult it can be to balance an MMO in a way that all players agree with. January’s game update took a large swing at the balance of main battle tanks, with the Magrider in particular taking a heavy hit to its manoeuvrability. The defining feature and advantage it holds over the other tanks. Now it was easy to predict that any Vanu player would be annoyed by SOE’s heavy handed approach to the changes, but the feedback was explosive. And SOE got this rammed at them down every avenue they had opened for player feedback. The Vanu population on every server didn’t just dip, it plummeted.

As it has since been revealed by Matt Highby, the game’s creative director; the Magrider had suffered from some poor coding which had exacerbated the nerf. But for me it showed the pressure they had put on themselves by attempting something as ambitious as the current Roadmap schedule.

The amount of content they’re attempting to cram into a few months of development is great for consumers like myself. However the cost of this rapid development is clearly showing in the quality of the game patches. Part of January’s major update was designed to improve performance on lower end machines. The result was the complete opposite, throwing the game back to its launch day instability. Each patch they release has to be chased up by hotfixes to correct the most random bugs. One minor patch rendered all tanks useless for twenty four hours as their shots vanished into thin air. Quite remarkable in a patch that had nothing to do with them.

Of course Planetside 2 is still a very young game and I’m judging it on only three months of development since release. So it’s easy to be critical of any development flaws. But to me, it would appear that SOE are overburdening themselves. All the means they have opened for player feedback has increased the number voices demanding updates and responses. Even worse is the amplified community response to any negatively perceived move by SOE. They would do themselves a favour by putting the brakes on development to focus on creating stable and bug free updates, and then ramp up their community interaction. It will be interesting to see if SOE’s openness pays off for them in the long run, especially as the first round of server merges has just been announced.

Planetside 2: Second Wave

My first impression was written very shortly after release, which puts a slight positive spin on my perception of the game as everything is new. The real test of any MMO is longevity. Can it keep you coming back for more? This year I’ve already been slightly disappointed by Guild Wars 2. It was defiantly the biggest MMO release of the year, yet after a month’s play, I found very little to keep me playing.

So what does Planetside 2 have to offer to hold your attention? In terms of game mechanics, the certification system presents the standard Skinner box found in every multiplayer FPS these days. You put your time in, and get your new guns and upgrades out. Despite being an entirely obvious and transparent system, it still provides little moments of pure satisfaction when you unlock each item.

Beyond that mechanics are fairly standard fair. The vehicles and different classes provide the means for you to mix up your play. Either trying something new or enabling different strategies. Some of my favourite moments have come from swapping class in the thick of battle. If I’m moving to assault a watch tower, I always swap to Light Assault. Being able to jetpack between floors often allows you to flank opponents, like an Eagle swooping in on scurrying prey.

The core gameplay has held up well through a few minor balance tweaks. Each faction has its own distinct approach to weapon design, so it’s important to do your research into the weapon handling before you invest to heavily into a character. Regrettably researching weapons is also advised before spending any certifications. You can free trail weapons, but for only thirty minutes and without any weapon modifications. So you can only get a brief taste before buying.

Sony has shown that they’re happy to throw out a lot of deals for paying customers. In the run up to Christmas there was a series of daily deals that saw fifteen per cent off all items, and the option to buy triple in-game currency.  There have been some pay-to-win accusations thrown around on the game forums. However, having spent the time and effort to unlock and trail different weapons; the choices available are side-grades. The real problem is the few underwhelming weapons that can be bought. Those few items often specialise too much in particular area such as close quarters, and then barely outperform the well-rounded options. This leaves players with buyer’s remorse until Sony gets round to doing a much needed rework.

At the moment, the longevity of Planetside 2 comes from only a couple of different sources. If you’re the sort of player who enjoys the standard multiplayer FPS gameplay, there’s plenty here to keep you going. The certification system is extensive, so there’s always something to work towards. The second reason to keep playing is getting involved in the community. Joining up with an Outfit provides great structure to the game. Co-operating with like-minded people to achieve dominance over the continents is a challenging goal. Although currently there is little reward for doing so, only a minor discount on acquiring particular resources such as vehicles and grenades.

The ‘meta-game’ is set to receive much needed expansion in the future as Sony has hinted at what’s on the drawing board. Possibilities we might see include extra continents, naval combat, a fourth AI faction and low-orbiting carriers acting as mobile bases. Whether or not this all makes it into the game, it shows there are more ideas to come.

For the time being, Planetside 2 still has the ability to stand out. However, as time goes on Sony may need to look at ways of making the game more accessible to new players. It’s hard to bridge the experience gap to veteran players. But the in-game information on territory control and its importance is still lacking. Also there’s a big difference between a player wielding a weapon of choice with a twenty five per cent health bonus, and someone new clutching a stock carbine.

Planetside 2: First Impressions

It’s landed with quite an impact. Plenty of people have turned out for Sony Online Entertainment’s (SOE) revival of its unique franchise, Planetside. Remarkably there have been no real attempts since the original to deliver multiplayer combat on a massive scale. Planetside 2 dwarfs rivals such as DICE’s Battlefield series. Thousands of players battle each other to take control of the planet Auraxis which is split over three huge continent maps.

The launch has had a few bumpy moments, leading to some quick server down time and quick patching. But for the most part, the game has done a good job of getting players straight into the action; giving them a real taste of the gameplay right from the start. Once you’re online; you pick from a choice of the three factions, character gender, name and face. Not a great deal of customisation, but for the most part you’ll rarely see an opponent’s face behind their helmet. The majority of the customisation comes from cosmetic items purchasable through the in-game shop.

As soon as you hit go, you’re given a brief introduction into your faction and the planet being fought over. After that you’re promptly deployed in a drop pod into the heart of a ground battle. I ended up in a close quarters scrap, defending a tech plant from an assault by the Vanu Sovereignty. Having played the beta, I was able to get my bearings pretty quickly and jump into the thick of the fighting. But for a new player; it will be a little overwhelming as none of the mechanics are explained, and there’s no tutorial to get you up to speed either.

This was my biggest criticism of the beta and SOE have done little to fix it. The first time you enter some of the menu screens, you get a pop-up to explain its purpose. But beyond that there’s no explanation of anything. Want to know how to capture that base? How to acquire vehicles? Customise your loadouts? Well you best find an explanation on the internet. There are some very useful video tutorials produced by SOE which are linked to on the game’s launcher. But why isn’t there an in-game wiki or help function? Providing an easy way for new players to get answers would build on the great first impression made by the initial drop into combat.

Most importantly, the game design leads to the natural formation of large scale conflicts between players. This is a big plus for the game. Seeing armoured columns roll out to the nearest battle is a sight to behold.  Objectives are clearly marked on the map, allowing you to set both squad and personal waypoints to advance too. The map also highlights areas of activity and allows you to redeploy reach the front lines faster.

When in range of a base, the current capture situation is displayed above your mini-map. Points are fought over in a tug of war style. Holding key objectives and killing opponents will increase your team’s score towards victory. However in some of the large scale facilities, this system can feel slow. Especially when your opponents are stuck in their spawn point with no chance of repelling you.

Spawning is generally well handled throughout the game. On the deployment screen you’re given an overview of the map with a current list of held locations and what vehicles can be obtained there. Added to this list will be any deployed Sunderers and squad spawn beacons. These are activated by players to create forward bases. Allowing teammates to quickly spawn nearby and support the offensive; rather than having to travel several hundred metres from the closest base.

To try and prevent any spawn camping. Which is always the most infuriating tactic in any multiplayer FPS; team colour coded shields cover the entrances of any base spawn point. This allows defenders to freely fire at any attacking force, without the risk of being killed as soon as they appear. This would be incredibly imbalanced, but clever placement of these areas means defenders still have to leave the sanctuary of the spawn point to achieve anything useful. As soon as the base falls, the ownership of any spawn points changes. This will slowly kill off any stubborn defenders who refuse to die like men and allow attackers entry to gun them down.

The gunplay is well done and up to the standard of any current FPS. There’s a wide selection of gun unlocks for all classes and vehicles. Each provides a unique feel though the combination of recoil, damage and ammunition capacity. Successful hits are displayed through the crosshairs flashing red; which hits a nice balance by being simple and unobtrusive, whilst providing satisfying feedback. There are plenty of additions to attach to every weapon to tweak its performance. However it will take a long time to customise any weapon with all the available options.

All unlocks are obtained through the certification system. Simply get two hundred and fifty experience points to earn one certification point. Everything costs a certain amount, but the order of unlocks is entirely your decision. No horrible, set linear progression system which has been the staple of many FPS recently. You can play however you want to earn experience, and then invest your hard earned points how you want.

Sadly this freedom of choice is let down by how the free-to-play economy is set up. Many useful weapons such as lock-on missile launchers cost a lot of certification points; representing a significant time investment. You can certainly have a good time with the default equipment, but unlocking one new weapon can feel like quite a grind.

Now obviously the time investment has to be fairly steep. SOE would like to make some money and they have to encourage players to get out their wallets somehow. So far developers like Riot have led the way by showing how popular purely aesthetic items are to the consumer. And SOE have followed this format somewhat. There’s already an excellent selection of helmets, body armours and camouflage patterns to buy. These will no doubt make a fair bit of money; nevertheless weapons are purchasable and at incredibly steep cash prices. At the moment, the combination of pricing structure and the default equipment comes across as a bit greedy.

So will Planetside 2 expand its player base and thrive in the free-to-play market? Almost certainly, as it offers an FPS experience like no other. Being part of the fight in Planetside is simply epic, both in the scale of combat and how it’s presented. The sound design is excellent, it puts you into a war where explosions are thunderous and gunfire is everywhere. Graphically it will make your PC chug for middling quality. I’ve ended up playing with many settings on low to keep the framerate high. Especially during night fights where gunfire lights up the sky in spectacular displays.

If you want to jump into the action, the game client is available directly from the Planetside 2 website and through Steam. 

Planetside 2 Preview

Finally, the return of Planetside is almost here with a launch date set for late November. Since the original, MMOs have almost exclusively been RPGs. But now Sony Online Entertainment (SoE) has revived Planetside on an even greater scale and with a free to play model.

It was easy to miss the first the game, which was somewhat ahead of its time when MMOs were still niche. The technology back then could only handle a few hundred players on the same server. Now the battle for Auraxis has been expanded to thousands of players per server, each fighting for one of three factions.

The Terran Republic is the official government of Auraxis, providing law and order, but labelled a dictatorship by their opponents. The rebels known as the New Conglomerate are a rag-tag bunch of fighters with backing of industrial giants. And the Vanu Sovereignty who don’t care for the politics of Auraxis, but instead are focused on finding and utilising the alien artefacts scattered across the planet.

Currently the Beta is still expanding to include all the elements of the final release. At present the majority of the game assets are available to use. With almost all classes, weapons and unlocks being used in the Beta war.

Most importantly the FPS gameplay is solid. Each of the weapons has its own feel that comes from the various elements that define it, such as damage and recoil. The five classes have access to different primary weapons. Infiltrators utilise a deadly mix of a stealth suit and sniper rifles whereas the Heavy Assault carries a powerful light machine gun and anti-armour rocket launcher.

All classes have a personal shield which will regenerate out of combat. Any damage to your health bar has to be patched up by a friendly medic, or by spending resource on medi-packs. Going into battle with both filled makes you an incredibly tough target. Fire-fights are often won by the most accurate shooter as it can take whole clips to take out opponents. It adds a real sense of franticness and desperation to every encounter. Of course if you get flanked you’ll need good reactions to recover. 

Anyone who has played a Battlefield title will feel right at home. Vehicles are the lifeblood of any offensive action. There are several land and air vehicles accessible to each faction, with core vehicles shared between them. Battles are often won with the simple Sunderer. An armoured personnel carrier with two turrets; it has neither the punch nor speed of other vehicles. But it acts as a spawn point for all players who are part of your group, as well as letting you resupply ammunition and swap class. They are the linchpin of any assault; their value usually means they are parked in dense cover to protect them while troops pour out.

When battles get underway, they quickly reach an epic scale as the map alerts all players to the conflict. You soon find yourself fighting amongst armies over key objectives.  In one session, I found myself swept up in a two hour battle for a bridge linking facilities. We were outgunned by the tanks on their side, with no tanks of our own to return fire. Instead we brought a lot of Heavy Assault, running between the large support struts that provided cover. The bridge quickly became an alley full of rockets, their engineers unable to cope with the incoming fire. Sadly we were still outnumbered and unable to push forward off the bridge.

The stalemate was broken by a change in the enemy tactics.  Suddenly our forward squads were being picked off in cover. Their Infiltrators had stealthed in behind our positions while Light Assault troops had jet packed on top of the structure, reigning down fire from their vantage point. It wasn’t long before our position was broken. We were pushed back to our spawn point, and their armoured superiority meant it was only a matter of time before the facility fell. Having lost the battle, it was clear that Planetside 2 was going to distinguish itself in the FPS market. Not only because of its scale, but the fact strategy plays an important role. Planning you actions and acting as a team is the key to victory.

So far I only have one complaint; however it’s a fairly big one. The game doesn’t explain itself. Currently there aren’t any tutorials, so working out how to play beyond point gun and pull trigger has meant searching the internet for answers. The most important part of the game is teaming up with others, which can be simply done by pressing ‘p’ to bring up the party menu. It’s simple and clearly labelled in the key bindings, but you’re unlikely to stumble across it by searching through the menu. Any new player will quickly have a long list of questions they need answers too.

There are a lot of menu screens with many options. All are very functional with little clutter, but your first half an hour will be best spent understanding them. Hopefully the final release will have tutorials included to explain the basics. If SoE want the game to be a success, they need to remove this large barrier to entry so new players can quickly get into battle.

MMOs: The State of Play

You could be forgiven for thinking that 2012 is the year of the MMO, they’re everywhere! With Guild Wars 2 dominating the headlines and reviews, what’s the rest of the competition up to?

Well I’m going to cheat to bring up Diablo 3’s recent patch (Blizzard think’s it’s an MMO). I was fairly critical of the difficulty in my review. There was a clear lack of balance in the difficulty of elite enemies and bosses. To counter the problem Blizzard made a range of changes, tweaking numbers across the board.

Abilities were buffed and enemies nerfed to create a massively improved difficulty curve. I’m still slogging my way through Inferno, but it has become a lot more fun to play. It feels like a challenge again rather than a test of my patience. I still wish they would add an option to start on higher difficulties. As much as I want to play the other classes, I can’t bring myself to play through hours and hours of gameplay that is unlikely to kill me once.

To spice up the endgame content, Paragon levels have been added as well as buffs to legendary items. Paragon levels allow your character to continue gaining power. Each one grants a stats boost and gives you a little extra gold and magic find to help you find the best gear. It keeps the levelling treadmill ticking over. Each one requires a massive amount of experience and there’s a hundred of them! Only a madman or someone who farms items for a living (oh yes they exist) will ever hit the maximum level.

Legendary items have been tweaked to include bonus effects, such as on hit bonuses and special effects to make them stand out. Adding up all the changes does move Diablo 3 towards being a great game. It’s this level of care and attention to their game’s post release, which has earned Blizzard the reputation they have.

But in a galaxy far, far away, things are not looking good. Everyone had predicted The Old Republic’s inevitable slide into a free-to-play model, but it happened a lot sooner than expected. Bioware’s studio that developed the game has shrunk drastically, which is always a shame.

The new system is built around cartel coins that can be earned through play, or bought through the standard subscription. Now almost all aspects of the game have limited access for free, with the option to spend cartel coins for full access. Oddly, the operations are limited to subscribers only, blocking free players from sampling some great content, and potentially paying for more. However the best part of the game is entirely free. The levelling in SW:ToR is easily the best story content in any MMO. Bioware is clearly hoping to use this to draw new players into the game and get them spending money in other areas.

In the world of MMORPGs, WoW and Rift have decided to jump in the same boat. Their new expansions aren’t far from release with all the standard content we have come to expect. More character levels, new dungeons, raids and story. But surprisingly, the granddad of the genre Everquest is about to get its nineteenth expansion. It goes to shows what happens when a game carves out a dedicated fan-base.

And finally, Sony Online Entertainment has let slip the news that Planetside 2 will be released before Christmas. It was announced as part of the ‘Alpha Squad’ package which acts as a sort of pre-purchase. The game will be free-to-play, but the package will grant beta access with in game items and a chunk of Sony’s online games currency on full release. The market has been dominated by MMORPGs for such a long time; it’s exciting to see the return of MMOFPS. The alpha and beta footage released so far has looked fantastic. So fingers crossed for an excellent end to the year.