PlanetSide Similarities

[DaLLAMA]

Anyone here think that Huxley is starting to look like PlanetSide??? NOT to say that that is a bad thing, but could it really be that PlanetSide has pushed the bar that far up? I guess that classes are one step up, and "houses" too, but can anyone tell me what makes this game different from PlanetSide. They both have the whole MMOFPS thing down, both allow the player the ability to obtain better stuff as they grow in power, both have tons of vehicals, different terrain, support "classes", and have a tree system for their wepoens. One big glarring differnce i see is the NPC and the face that there are two sides in Huxley and three in PlanetSide. I guess what needs to be disscuesed is, if any, things that could be improved apon from other MMOFPSs.

NOTE: I wish to bash Huxley in no way, this game already has me in its web, there is no turning back.

2ND NOTE: Please, if your going to talk about PlanetSide, know what your talking about.

Thank you for your time.

-DaLLAMA

[Felix12g]

First off, Planetside is slow FPS. You can play for an hour and kill 12 people. Sure you may have shot at a whole bunch, but your kills are low.
The actual fighting is very slow paced. The weapons are so weak you have to empty half a clip unless you're point blank. (Shut up, sniping is 2 clips)

Huxley is UT. It's all about twitch skills.

Second, there are no headshots. FPS skills which is mainly shot placement and maximised transversal velocity (IE move in a wierd fucking direction to make it hard to hit) are pretty much non-existant. Movement speed is low, the gameplay is 2d for the most part. 3d if the guy is on the wall above you (Big fucking deal, D2 had that too)

As an FPS Planetside is actually pretty crappy.

However, what sells planetside and makes it fun is 1, vehicles, 2, you have objectives, 3, it's persistant, you level up and can see results for your efforts, 4, it is MMO meaning you get to play with others and test your skills against them, 5, a few other things, but the first 4 are the important ones.

Third, what you do in Planetside really has no effect on the surroundings. Granted Huxley probably won't have much more impact, but what you can do in cities and how you affect the lay of the land in terms of resources (Don't get your mind twisted around i'm talking crafting shit) and control and you've got a much more interactive game.


Fourth, in Planetside, the biggest gun is the best. Granted this is true in most shooters, but people who have dabbled in mods and perhaps found gems like The Specialists for Half Life, know that games where a pistol very well may beat out a rifle most of the time know that this isn't a good concept for an FPS. It's all about using the right tool for the trade.

Fifth, Planetside is built around restrictions. Telling you everything you can't do and keeping you from doing things. Sure they may be going for realism that you can only have 2 weapons on you, but how fun is that?


Sixth, bots. Planetside had no bots, nothing where you could log in, go grab a mission to kill some NPCs and just have fun blowing away little creatures in the 20 minutes before you had to leave. What can you do in 20 minutes in Planetside? Find a foot zerg? maybe get 2-3 passes over a base of enemies in a bomber?
Hell, most FPS matches are between 15-30 minute games and you wrack up double digit numbers for kills.





This isn't all of the differences, and I probably missed some good ones, but these are some glaring ones.

[RAMPAGE]

Felix definetly knows what he's saying. I've been playing PlanetSide for 3 years+ now, and although I still really enjoy it, compared to UT2k4 its a slowass game.

If I may felix, the only thing I disagree with is that its a bad thing to be limited in inventory space (# of weapons). If a person in planetside is sniping on a hill, and his second weapon (assuming he is in a rexo suit) is an AV weapon for vehicles, I, or any other player, can comfortably run up and kill him knowing that he can't just flip around and instantly pull out a chaingun/shotgun etc. He could switch weapons out, but if he isnt dead by then, well then the person shooting didn't know wtf he was doin.

But, if huxley goes with the UT style of being able to carry all weapons at once, I won't be complaining. I think either style will work.

Another difference I would like to point out is that it was made clear that in huxley, as you gain "levels," assuming thats what they will be called, you will be able to attain new, better weapons. In planetside, at the beginning you could get any weapon, but you were limited on how many certs you could spend, meaning that a good weapon, such as heavy assualt for example, would mean you wouldn't be buying anything else. I personally love PS's cert system, but once again, either way works for me. Im not too picky when it comes to games

I'm still a little unsure about NPC's being involved in an MMOFPS but I gotta admit Planetside has been my big thing as far as FPSs go (not much UT2k4) so Halo is as far as i've gone shooting NPCs in an FPS hehe

[DaLLAMA]

Originally Posted by RAMPAGE

Felix definetly knows what he's saying. I've been playing PlanetSide for 3 years+ now, and although I still really enjoy it, compared to UT2k4 its a slowass game.

If I may felix, the only thing I disagree with is that its a bad thing to be limited in inventory space (# of weapons). If a person in planetside is sniping on a hill, and his second weapon (assuming he is in a rexo suit) is an AV weapon for vehicles, I, or any other player, can comfortably run up and kill him knowing that he can't just flip around and instantly pull out a chaingun/shotgun etc. He could switch weapons out, but if he isnt dead by then, well then the person shooting didn't know wtf he was doin.

But, if huxley goes with the UT style of being able to carry all weapons at once, I won't be complaining. I think either style will work.

Another difference I would like to point out is that it was made clear that in huxley, as you gain "levels," assuming thats what they will be called, you will be able to attain new, better weapons. In planetside, at the beginning you could get any weapon, but you were limited on how many certs you could spend, meaning that a good weapon, such as heavy assualt for example, would mean you wouldn't be buying anything else. I personally love PS's cert system, but once again, either way works for me. Im not too picky when it comes to games

I'm still a little unsure about NPC's being involved in an MMOFPS but I gotta admit Planetside has been my big thing as far as FPSs go (not much UT2k4) so Halo is as far as i've gone shooting NPCs in an FPS hehe

See, I agree with both of you. Good to see people that play PlanetSide too. I too have been playing sence Beta and I do have to admit, it is slow at times. BUT, when its fast paced, I have gotten 100+ kills in an hour. And now that you point out the differences, I only want to buy the crack-like game more, darn you...

I guess my only beef is that if your higher level, you get better gunnes and armor that the lower levels never have a chance of getting. I keep picturing a lvl60 in WoW running around farming the newbs at lower levels. In PlanetSide, that just doesnt matter.

Thank you for the response.

[Radical]

Planetside is not as slow as youve sed felix. only if u log on at 3 am or somet. most the time u can always gauranteee instant actionining to a decent fight. and if you can only get 12 kills in ur hour... u must 1 either have an awful PC/ or crap.

Ive played PS sicne beta. and PS has had somet no other game has had. i wont try and explain it but. its kept me in for long enuff...

And tracking enemies with rifles in PS is a challenge and requires some skill. sounds like ur biggin up Huxley alot considering no 1 really knows wat we're gonna get yet.

Planetside is and will always be in my eyes a great MMOFPS. a great turn out for one of the first of its kind. ''claps SOE'' (despite them beign slow fokers now :P)

[DaLLAMA]

Originally Posted by Radical

Planetside is not as slow as youve sed felix. only if u log on at 3 am or somet. most the time u can always gauranteee instant actionining to a decent fight. and if you can only get 12 kills in ur hour... u must 1 either have an awful PC/ or crap.

Ive played PS sicne beta. and PS has had somet no other game has had. i wont try and explain it but. its kept me in for long enuff...

And tracking enemies with rifles in PS is a challenge and requires some skill. sounds like ur biggin up Huxley alot considering no 1 really knows wat we're gonna get yet.

Planetside is and will always be in my eyes a great MMOFPS. a great turn out for one of the first of its kind. ''claps SOE'' (despite them beign slow fokers now :P)

Couldn't have said it better, Thank you.

[buried]

Planetside is one of the slowest games I have ever played. I've been in wheelchairs with faster movement than that game.

[Coke-a-cola]

I really doubt it's slower then swat 4...now THAT is so damn slow!!!! though never played swat 3,2,and 1 so maybe they are as slow?

[DaLLAMA]

buried,
Please do not bash that which you know nothing about.

Coke-a-cola,
SWAT was ment to be slow. How often do you see a swat team rush in, guns blazing, killing everyone in sight?

All, in all, Huxley will not be slow, so you don't have to worry

[Felix12g]

I guess I should have had some more clarifications. By slow I meant the gameplay was slow. I'm not saying that you don't kill things in planetside, it just takes a while. I've played for an hour and gotten 12 kills. I've played for an hour and gotten over 100. It varies on the night. But by and large those 100 kills are always in a foot zerg. 25 seconds spawns (If you've been fighting any length of time) and another 30second-1 minute run depending where you spawn in before you actually get to the walls of a base, that's slow.
Then take into consideration vehicles. Anybody who's played planetside knows you try to keep your vehicle alive because there's a 3-5 min respawn. (For most) So you go in, shoot up the place for 30 seconds and run like mad. Then you head off to safety, find a nice little corner or Lodestar and repair for another minute-2, then go back and do it again. Maybe killing 4-5 guys. Whereas somebody on foot can go in, kill a few, respawn and be at it again before the vehicle has gotten to the repair spot.

My point in this, vehicles while useful are not good enough. Their weapons are not powerful enough, and their skin is too thin to make what weapons they have useful.
Granted in PS with it's weak weapons they've gotten them relatively balanced, but if i'm in a tank, I don't want to have to run from a single infantry soldier. I've got enough firepower to decimate the entire area let alone a tree with a little fuck behind it.

I don't know how much experience in other FPS' you, dallama and radical, have, but when I speak of weapons taking skill i'm not talking about hosing people down while leading the shots. A planetside weapon doesn't have recoil, it just gets more innaccurate. It's like DoD:Source, even if you learn to control the recoil of an automatic you don't have much advantage over somebody who just sprays and doesn't try.

Take DoD for half life and you see a major difference in the skill needed to control weapons. The specialists and Firearms (2.5) are two more mods that require this. Granted UT has never really been big on the recoil of weapons, but since the vids said that was ingame footage there's clearly recoil and it's definitely something to contend with.


My time with planetside also started during closed beta. I've seen the game evolve over the years and I'm sorry to say it's not gotten better. I'm not saying PS is a bad game, but it's a bad FPS. The rest of the game carries it to make it a decent way to kill time.

However, back to the point of the topic. Huxley is being built as an FPS. Everything they've said and shown has pointed to it being an FPS. I'd probably get this game if it wasn't an mmo just because of the way they have designed the gameplay. These days I haven't come across an FPS that I really like besides The Specialists and UT2k4. The rest feel like a bunch of slugs blowing each other up on a 2d environment.

[DaLLAMA]

Well, I am going to level with you Felix. Your right. That is one of the main reasons why I'm so excited about Huxley. But, in my mind, the facts remain. PlanetSide was good at what it did, even if what it did was not up to some people standards. On the other hand, Huxley will do even better and go up and beyond any thing PlanetSide could have dreamed of.

I guess I just reacted to what seemed like bashing of PlanetSide.

P.S. I did play The Specialists, and I was damn good

[nubs]

Hmm some very weird assertations there....

Planetside was basically 2D ?!?!?1 .. err right, despite it not actually having anything what so ever in it that was 2D and that it used a full polygonal 3D engine with all 3 motion dimensions fully covered ?

Saying planetside is slow paced is also not true, Planetside is best described as "multi-paced" . It could be slow but it could also be exceptionally fast and certainly as hectic as any other FPS game out there, just because you dont move as fast dosnt make the gameplay slower.

The main differences I see so far ....

1. NPC mission based combat.
2. Only 2 player empires.
3. Loot.
4. More relliance on the level based system (hopefully not much more though).
5. Better graphics.
6. Faster movement.
7. Can carry more weapons (bad thing).
8. Faster Spawns (mostly although you could get 2 - 3 second spawns in PS).
9. Fame and reward system, guild halls etc.

Havnt seen enough of the game to comment on vehicle combat and objective capturing, certainly some objectives seemed to be catpured simply by standing on them for a certain amount of time.

I think allowing the player to carry a ton of weapons at a time is a bad idea, takes away the tactical choices and removes all specialisation, and as someone said before, snipers were balanced in PS because .. firstly it was relatively hard to hit someone twice who was half aware of what was going on, and beause if you got caught at close range it was fairly easy to kill them.


The biggest gun did not always win in Planetside either, PS was a rock papers scissors games, ignoring skill the big heavy guns would easily lose at medium - long range against the lighter rifle weapons or special assault weapons. At close range the heavy weapons were best. Then you had the further extremes with the likes of the new conglomerate heavy assault weapon only being effective at very close range, but it being slightly better at very close range than the other heavy assault guns, wich were more versatile.


With regards to how "vehicles were too weak" .. well if you played the game when they introduced the BFRs to it, you will understand entirely why powerful vehicles are a very bad thing, planetside lost a very large chunk of its playerbase because of those vehicles being introduced and they had to nerf them continually to reduce their killing power.

Those comments regarding "im in a tank i shouldnt have to worry about the one guy behind a tree" are also compeltely false. The one thing you DO have to worry about is that one guy, cos hes the one guy who in reality is able to get close to you without you seeing, plant a shaped charge on the tank, fire a HEAT explosive into your vulnerable bits or set off the remote charges laid as a trap. Thats why tanks rarely operate anywhere there is cover, without infantry support. The infantry clear the randoms and the targets tanks cant effectively fight - the tank clears the machine gun nests and sites that infantry struggle to assault without armour.

Planetside didnt get this right either, because pretty much all the AV infantry weapons were accurate at extreme ranges, far more so than anti infantry weapons were, to compensate this they made the AV weapons very weak with lots of ammo. In reality they should have made them exceptionally powerful but they should have taken up huge amounts of inventory space and not carried a lot of ammo for them. Battlefield 2 got it about right, planetside didnt.. but the mechanics still worked because they balanced it to fit what they had. Im not sure what the problem is with the vehicle firepower either, the tanks could kill infantry easily enough, and light vehicles etc they slugged it out against each other fairly evenly.

What a lot of comments here seem to suggest is that people were solo players or played in groups that wern't particualt organised as the gameplay they describe are my experiences of gameplay solo or with randoms, rather than an organised squad or platoon...

[Felix12g]

By 2d I mean the gameplay was very flat. There were walls you could stand on and roofs, there were also vehicles in the air. But for the most part you fought on one plane. The game is 3d yes, but I'm trying to differentiate it from other shooters where things can be coming from anywhere, not just on your level.

Movement is part of the slow paced gameplay of PS, but when I say slow paced I mean the massive amount of downtime that you have while you play it. Sure it can get pretty fun as you blast your way through a base, but beyond that with the rest of the combat system it's very slow. Granted they have to make the base hack 15 minutes to give the other side a chance, but that's just one of the headaches of PS.


More weapons might and might not be a good thing. We have no idea what the handicaps for having many weapons will be, if any. What it sounds like with Huxley is that snipers are going to be very light. If you come up against somebody with a sniper, they'll probably be dead before they can switch weapons. The sniping in unreal has always been much different than other games, higher movement speeds make you harder to hit so hopefully it will all balance out.


Yes, very strong vehicles negate the foot zerg and they needed to be toned down in PS especially with the 25 second respawns. But in this with the fast respawning and the powerful weapons, I really do hope that getting hit with a tank shell kills you. You just get up and do it again 5 seconds later. A vehicle can be strong without having a ton of armor.

As for the guy behind the tree, I'm not trying to say that a lone person shouldn't be able to take out a tank. What I'm trying to say is that a lone guy with AV shouldn't be able to survive playing ring around the rosy with a tank and a tree just because of a small slope where the polies block the damage from registering on a player. Basically when you know a guy is behind a tree and you're blasting away like mad at where he is, it's a tank. He should die.

The main problem I had with the vehicles in PS was that they were so restricted. I realize this is to give the foot zerg a chance and also because of restrictions by the engine, but it makes them feel so gimped. What I like to see in a tank is a rolling mass of death, until you put a couple rockets into it that is. I'm not a big tank driver, I like moving and shooting more than I like gunning, but I still think a vehicle should dish out more than it can take.