Planetside 2 in the works

[Zensal]

Looks like SOE has decided to continue the Planetside franchise, and they are taking player feedback on what they would like in the next iteration.

Planetside Universe

Survey

Bring back the 300 player battles and actual objectives in an FPS.

 

[slugg]

I really did enjoy the concept of PlanetSide. I tried a 1 week trial around when it came out and I had a blast. Back in the day, I just didn't have any money and I never got into it. Eventually I just ended up forgetting about it.

How did this game do, originally? Did it fail?

 

[Zenoth]

I played it for around a year, that for me was back in summer 2005, until the summer of the following year. I remember most of my friends playing it as well telling me that I happened to play the game at a moment when there seemed to be a considerable number of players simply quitting it, and that the best years for the game were 2003 to 2004, at which point it was quite popular. But its popularity dwindled fast, apparently. I myself never noticed the actual drop in the number of players, but I kept seeing chats about how "better" it was "just a few months ago".

I chose to play for the Terran Republic, I thought it was fun, especially sniping, or leading a group of buggies at enemy bases and proceeding to its invasion, thinking about that retrospectively it was great fun really, I liked it, but I had to quit due to lack of financial resources since I had other priorities back then and I only worked during the summer, but I did not regret trying it and paying for that for about a year. If there's a sequel I might be interested, but I will have to chose to play only one massively-multiplayer game at once, either Old Republic of PlanetSide 2... that could be a tough one for me.

In my book, and for the time I have played it, I wouldn't say that PlanetSide "failed", but I don't know what happened after summer 2006 when I had to quit, I never followed any news about it after that. And to this day, PlanetSide and Star Wars Galaxies have been the only two massively-multilplayer games I've ever played (I only played Galaxies for three months).

 

[brandonb]

slugg,

Planetside is still running today, however there hasn't been a patch since 2006/2007. It does not run in Vista. Since it's not actively being maintained or expanded, population has dropped, mostly because people can't run the game.

SOE business model is to pump whatever resources into whatever games that are making money. The more subscriptions = more resources. Since they have not had any resources on Planetside in years, my guess is that the game has only enough subscribers to keep it afloat (pay for servers, bandwidth) as they have basically nobody supporting the game right now.

My guess is it will be on the chopping block soon.

Planetside was indeed fun at the time. I played for awhile but quit, not because the game was bad by any means, but because I don't believe they understood balance. Which frustrated me.

I remember firing my anti air gun at a flying craft and unloaded nearly ALL my ammo on it, and they turn around and shoot me with one missile and I'm dead. There was other similar issues with the game, it was like you were firing blanks alot of the time. However I loved the concept of the game and it was fun, provided you knew what you were doing and played the right things. But the mech warrior guys ruined it with the expansion. That made me quit.


EDIT: The link provided had the message:

We were able to speak with John Smedley tonight CEO of Sony Online. While we could not get any specific information about the all-but-confirmed PlanetSide 2, I was able to get some feedback on the current PlanetSide:
1. A new patch is coming. We're going to be fully Vista compliant among other things and bug fixes / anti-hacking work.

2. Planetside fans will be happy We have big things planned in the next 12 months. We're working on something new that's really cool.
Some awesome news for the current game!! As always PSU will be your #1 source for any new and upcoming information about PlanetSide 2 so stay tuned!


Sounds like Planetside is doing better than I thought.

 

[blurredvision]

My brother and I played Planetside for a few months when it first came out. I had a lot of fun with it, although I died a lot and didn't accomplish much. I'll keep an eye on a sequel if they announce it.

 

[minmaster]

what were the subscriber rates for the original?

 

[TridenT]

I remember enjoying it. I do remember it had a very much similar grinding element to it if you wanted to level and you couldn't perform in attacks. (Charging up bases, taking over some places that are not guarded... things like that) But, it really was troublesome because it really isn't a solo person game... It requires that you know people... and I mean, you need to be playing with people you know right as you logon if you want to actually get anywhere and do something meaningful. I would constantly try to take over big bases by myself when no one is there, but when your base is under attack(i.e. turrents are being taken out) then everyone can look at their map and know. So, there would always be some people who would come and try to rage on me.. Sometimes they succeeded and other times they failed. (Usually they could rage on me though because they were built to pwn and I was built to hack bases and be stealthy...)

It had its ups and downs, but it was an enjoyable experience.

Oh and one of the big downfalls of this game were, you needed a great internet connection and a great system at the time. I remember being in fire fights and it just lagging and getting like 0.3 fps. Huge fights though.

 

[Zensal]

Originally posted by: minmaster
what were the subscriber rates for the original?

12.99 IIRC

Originally posted by: TridenT
I remember enjoying it. I do remember it had a very much similar grinding element to it if you wanted to level and you couldn't perform in attacks. (Charging up bases, taking over some places that are not guarded... things like that) But, it really was troublesome because it really isn't a solo person game... It requires that you know people... and I mean, you need to be playing with people you know right as you logon if you want to actually get anywhere and do something meaningful. I would constantly try to take over big bases by myself when no one is there, but when your base is under attack(i.e. turrents are being taken out) then everyone can look at their map and know. So, there would always be some people who would come and try to rage on me.. Sometimes they succeeded and other times they failed. (Usually they could rage on me though because they were built to pwn and I was built to hack bases and be stealthy...)

It had its ups and downs, but it was an enjoyable experience.

Oh and one of the big downfalls of this game were, you needed a great internet connection and a great system at the time. I remember being in fire fights and it just lagging and getting like 0.3 fps. Huge fights though.

Yeah, it was only okay until I found a great Outfit. Breaking stalemates by Galaxy dropping on the CC room, or holding generators until the zerg can take a base. Good times.

Lag did get a bit unbearable sometimes, but connections have gotten better. I do remember both my upstream and downstream data just from Planetside filling my 1.5mb/512kb connection. And ridiculously low fps, even with a 3000+ @ 2.8GHz with a modded x800gto.

 

[Mogadon]

Great game, i'd love to see a second one.

It's still going these days, not as many people though and they've consolidated the available servers, I still jump on from time to time.

I've run it fine in Vista and Windows7, just have to use compatibility mode.

 

[Zensal]

Yeah, I think they are down to 2 servers. Gemini for NA and Werner for EU.

What the game needed from the start was a little marketing. They had like a $20 budget for that.

 

[Malak]

My beta testing experience with Planetside was far more enjoyable than my subscriber experience to any other MMO. Unfortunately at the time, paying for a sub didn't seem appropriate and eventually it fell off my radar. I have often hoped for a sequel so I could start again.

 

[AbAbber2k]

The MMOFPS idea is awesome, and Planetside was a pioneer in that regard, but IMHO the game itself didn't have staying power. If I recall, it ran like crap on beefy machines when it was released, in part because of the number of people/particles/etc flying around on screen. Only my friends with the newest and best rigs could handle it, and my modest gaming rig just couldn't cut it in large battles. Eventually we got bored and my clan stopped playing. Then I heard they released an expansion that added mechs to the game and totally killed it, because there was no reason to play anything else.

Hopefully they learn some lessons. I really want to see a good MMOFPS out there.