Smed's Blog

You know what ticks me off?

All of these upcoming MMOFPS titles are really muddying the waters about what constitutes "Massive" (Global Agenda, Huxley, Parabellum, I'm looking at you). It seems like half of them are just 16v16 or 32v32 games of Unreal Tournament with a virtual lobby tacked on. Please don't do that with PSide Next.

While I was eagerly waiting for my closed beta discs for Planetside to arrive, I had imagined a lot of terrain fighting. I thought of tanks and Sunderers, Galaxies roaring overhead, an AMS backbone and a slew of support vehicles rolling across thundering plains to ultimately take some bloody hill.

But instead what I saw basically boiled down to two types of battles: Tower fights, and Base fights. Still, you guys had managed to create a _very_ fun core game, so I wasn't disappointed. But after a while, it became sort of monotonous. That's probably why I ultimately quit. There wasn't a lot of variance aside from those half dozen-ish base types and 2-3 tower types. I have particularly fond memories of some bridge battles but there was no real reward for them. I'd much rather be fighting for 2 hours on a bridge and getting no major reward than hacking a base and sitting around for 8 minutes with 60 other players while the Hack goes through, only to move on to the next, probably boring, base stomp.

For me, it's all about the meta-game. I want to see better organization on the player side of things. It seems like the current state of the game has waaay too many folks giving conflicting commands in global chat. I'd like to see some in-game mechanism for global commanders to collectively decide where to attack next, or where to defend.

Don't get me wrong, I love Pside too. Heck, I resubbed last Sunday just because I'm psyched about Planetside Next.

(deleted and recommented when I wasn't distracted [playing PlanetSide :P])

I read through that awesome RPS posting (didn't they play with us that one time for outfit wars? Good times 'I was there!') and it was one of the best reads I've had lately, I'll certainly share it with my outfit. (GotR)

I especially enjoy the hatred for opposing factions he conveyed. The line "Every time anyone on our side passed close enough for it to open automatically a haze of that dumb___ blue energy ____ the Barnies use in their weapons was let into the tower like freezing air on a cold day." touched me and made me realize the TR and NC hate me just as much as we hate them.

Fostering virtual hate for an opposing gaming faction is an amazing thing to achieve and PlanetSide does it far better than games like WoW or Huxley or what have you, ever could.

Most of my "I WAS THERE, MAN"'s come from events with my PS outfit (most of which are captured on my youtube/xfire)

_I'm glad you see your game just as I see it, the first and still only true MMOFPS. I'm nothing but optimistic for PS Next. I had no idea staring at one thing for 15 minutes could be so fun until I played this.

Well...I think Hossin is dying down, time to gear up for Cyssorside for a few weeks. :D

Yumil - VS - GotR

Also: Sorry for hijacking your blog with a comment bigger than the original post, I just get so passionate when someone mentions PlanetSide. :P

I was playing Planetside from very close to the launch playing as VS on Werner, and even though it's been over 6 years since then I can't think of a single Multiplayer game that has come even close to matching PSide when the game was at it's height.

Which makes it all the more sad to see how the game has dropped in both player population and support from SOE. I understand why the game doesn't receive as much support as say EQ, but PSide firing on all cylinders is something utterly unique as the articles you posted shows and that alone deserves more support in my eyes.

About PSide Next, the one thing I hope for beyond all other things is that SOE listen to the players before making massive utterly game changing decisions, Core Combat and BFR's being the prime examples. As a player when these things were launched it seemed to me that the developers had decided to do them regardless of feedback from the playerbase and as a result they resulted in further reducing an already decreasing player population.

Planetside is special. Anyone who's played it has some story to tell, what other game can say that? Keep what makes PS1 special and support the game and PS Next could be a huge hit.

With respect to Core Combat, I completely agree. It was the wrong direction. At that time we were dealing with a new game and we thought we had the direction right. In hindsight, we didn't at all.

BFR's are another story and I think more debateable. They were in our heads for a long time. Friggin Giant Robots :)

The 20/20 vision that comes with hindsight is often the best prism to plan for the next thing. Hopefully we get it more right this time, but I'm still pretty happy overall.

Smed

A few things I'd like to say:


The reason why that The Glorious 1% Battle was so cool and epic, was because something was at stake.
Perhaps it could be possible to make PS2 so that there's something at stake. But I think you'll have a hard time doing that and still have PS2 differ from mmorpg's.
Because PS2 SHOULD differ from all the standard stuff out there.



An issue that I might have with getting to the "MASSIVE" stage you're aiming for (and rightly so) is that players might become to anonymous. Feel insignificant.
Ideas to counteract that:
-Make sure an individual can still have some impact on a battle.
-Compensate with increased options and focus for outfits. Give them their own identity/specialization. Like real life units have. But don't decrease Empire Fundamentalism of course. (TR FOREVER!)

I love massive to the point of being anonymous.
It should take two or three people at least to do ANYTHING. :P
Then all you are really is your group or outfit.
Most people already have that down already in PS, by putting their group tag in their name...I don't know them specifically, but I know their group.

Good to hear! I never thought about PS without the Sanc, but waiting for the Hart sure gets frustrating sometimes. Its like waiting for the subway.

PS Next is on its way to being bigger than before. I picture bigger battles, bigger vehicles and more of them with grunts obviously being just as important. Can't wait hear of its creation process and hope it begins soon.

I eagerly anticipate any news regarding a new PlanetSide game, Mr. Smedley. SOE's PlanetSide is one-of-a-kind and I love playing it to this day. I believe that the community shares the same passions as you do about the game and we will try our best to give you positive feedback regarding how to keep the game fresh and as good as possible. Please dont let the developers for PlanetSide Next release a concept like BFR's into the game without the players' input first. It seems to me that that drove away a majority of the original PlanetSide's population.

I have to agree with what everyone else says when they dont believe that you "love" PlanetSide. This game REEEEEALLY got the shit end of the stick, and I do blame you. But I forgive you if you can make things right again, by starting to give PlanetSide the attention it deserves while PlanetSide 2 is in development.

You should consider removing BFR's for a short period of time as an "old-school" event. This will also give everyone a clear indication of whether or not BFR's are better or worse for PlanetSide. I first played PlanetSide long after BFR's had been out, but I can see why they had a major negative impact on the game. You guys also HAVE to update the PlanetSide game engine, the performance is just unacceptable for a first person shooter. DirectX 9 please. There are plenty of efficient game engines for FPS'es that already exist that you could use.

PlanetSide Reserves should ALWAYS be around. Honestly, I dont think that alot of people want to pay to play an FPS when there's so many hundreds of thousands out there for free already. PlanetSide, in it's current state, is most definitely NOT something that I'd consider paying money to play, let alone $15. Also, raising the price on a monthly fee for a game that already received little to no development was just STUPID. This game needs actual developers again, dont fire them!

If you love PlanetSide, I'm sure you'll agree that alot of the ideas presented are for the better. I really hope that you are planning on giving this game the treatment it deserves. You can bring it back to life, you're the head-honcho, and I hope you do what's right for your paying customers.

PS2 would indeed be a good thing, but I do have a few concerns.

Massive must mean up to 300+ people in a battle.

Must have 3 teams, anything less will be a shortcut to mediocrity.

Don't annoy us with an alt revenue stream of ingame advertising. (we would already be paying a monthly fee to support the game)

Don't annoy us with an alt revenue stream of micro-transactions.(we would already be paying a monthly fee to support the game)

Don't try to make this for tomorrow's computers.(EQ2 and VSoH come to mind)

Do consider hosting a site like the new Cosmos coming out for DUST514 where clans can plan upcoming events. Include a clan event calendar.

I mightily disagree with this statement: "Don't annoy us with an alt revenue stream of ingame advertising."

If in-game McDonald's billboards mean I pay less (or nothing) per month to subscribe, then bring on the adverts!

See subject.

"Damn I love PS"

If that were true, if you really loved the game and wanted to see it prosper and grow the way we - your paying subscribers who anguished and nerd-raged for years over the piss-poor treatement Planetside received, you would have ensured that Sells Only Everquest (SOE) did a better job of marketing and promoting the game instead of stealing away resources from Planetside and sending them to EQ.

How dare you. You can sell your thick line of crap to the kiddies who were 12 when the game came out and are just now able to buy their own cigarettes, but we grown folks who were (and still are) absolute die-hard fans of this game will always remember the sub-standard treatment the game got.

How it came out that things couldn't be put into Planetside after Core Combat flopped because developers and artists were pulled away to go work on Expansion #37 for AwfulQuest. How we fans had to create "Grassroots Marketing" so that the game would continue to see new players and have a pulse. How we saw maybe two magazine ads for the game, one announcing beta and one announcing BFRs. How the marketing rep at SOE Fan-Faire 2006 said he'd done more for Planetside in 6mos than anyone had ever done (still not enough).

For shame, John Smedley.

I just hope that you don't repeat the same mistakes with Planetside 2.

QFT

That article almost moved me to tears.


Whenever I talk to another gamer about some game that we have played together, like Call Of Duty or whatever, we both can relate and say how it is an enjoyable game and etc. However, when I meet someone who really played PlanetSide, I feel like we have know each other forever, and that it is a glorious reunion of the few and proud warriors of Auraxis. We have fought together, lived together, and been neglected together.

PlanetSide is a war for a planet, not a game where you shoot at each other.
PlanetSide is where you play the role of you, not of a level 52 night elf.
PlanetSide is where every action you make has some sort of consequence for real people on all three armies, not an incrementation of some experience point field in a database.



"He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Auraxi'.
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Forseral.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And PlanetSide's Auraxis shall ne'er be forgot,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in the Aukland Fluxfields now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon the day of the one percent."

TR forever!

-TheSniperSteve

Seriously, the sanctuary comes at pos. no. 78 on a list of problems, that starts with downloadable hacking tools, CSHD, Warping Chinese Players, all the 'Brewko-incidents', the total lack of marketing and, not to forget, every single patch in the past few years that would always ruin the game a bit more.

Even the bad content somehow manages to keep people coming back (even if as many go)and Planetsides pulse above flatline. BFR's had to happen, the attraction of that "Big Friggin Robot" is just to good for marketing - did it have to be as overpowered when it came out? No. Just like anything else though, the dry tests usually come up short because the lack of skilled players involved with the development and/or testing. Even though the issue of favorites might come up (even though they already do with merits and benefits for some players while others get banned with no warning for routine c chat) there needed to be an outreach to those who can PLAY the game not just write about it (as those who post these exceptionally long posts about events, play styles, or other players are typically the ones victim of skill-set deprivation. Most of the content was as much communities fault as the devs however. The deafening roar of people who are just whining because they cant get an air-to-air kill is as much to blame as those who developed the content. Personally i have to appreciate that they even touch this game as it is so incredibly outdated in so many areas.

tl:dr? Planetside is a great game, but it's shortcomings are as much a result of time as it is anything else. It's outdated, but as a previous poster said it's the meta-game that is so impressive as the dynamic environment and the incredibly SOCIAL aspect of this game leave any round based or even some RPG's in the dust & have, honestly, created a few real life friendships.

Man so many good comments, i just wanted to say I was so happy to hear the news of PS2 BUT and a BIG BUT dont F-it up PLEASE!!!!!

Planetside too this day was the best gaming experience i have ever had in my 15 years of gaming and would love to have that feeling again!

I loved you Planetside!

KALU
=SMF=

Planetside to me was a game that had an incredible potential, and actually DID live up to that potential in brief, fleeting moments of awesomeness. The rear line raids I did with Black Widow Company, and the epic battles I was on the front lines for with 666th Devil Dogs (shout out to EvilPig, you rock man!) was the stuff of legends. No other game I have ever seen comes close to the experiences Planetside had back in its hayday.


I won't lie, I was very upset over how PlanetSide turned out, and pretty much swore off anything to do with SOE. But just this afternoon, I was over at a Thanksgiving dinner with some family friends, and their boys had a copy of PlanetSide installed, that was recently bought. Being the vet I was, I gave them some pointers on the finer arts of sniping, load outs, and even lightning driving. Then it got me thinking back to the good times PS was, and the fact that no other MMO or FPS has done (or come close!) to the great fights and raids that happened in PlanetSide.

Despite all the balance problems, the lag warping, the glitches, and the other problems (ie Core Combat, BFRs, etc), I realized what PlanetSide's biggest problem was: it was too ahead of its time. Had we had had the video cards and bandwidth we do now, PlanetSide would have done much better than it did. Unfortunately, a very ambitious idea was squash due to a combination of bad timming, bad politics, and some very stiff competition at the time (World of Warcraft is a juggernaught), and therefore PlanetSide never really got its chance to shine.


Well, let's hope that PlanetSide: Next REALLY lives up to what it should be. I'm rooting for it!

The point of Planetside, at launch, was it's simulation of mass military engagement. It was having to manage armor columns, air support, resource management, and all other aspects of a military engagement. Players had to keep an eye on what continents they held, and where they were going.

And SOE dropped the ball, big time, in Planetside. The game went from a campaign MMO to a session based MMO... and lets face it, when all the game is doing is session play, that's putting it square in the targets of Unreal and Quake.

Building another Planetside and completely skipping the military simulation aspect is just going to keep all the older players away. Everybody who left in disgust after BRF's. Everybody who stared at the Caves and went "what was Sporkfire smoking and was it legal?" Everybody who went "Empire specific vehicles would have been nice... 4 years ago."

Oh, and don't forget to actually keep updating the game. It's a little disgusting that Planetside, despite being launched after Windows Xp launched, has problems running under both Xp SP3 and Vista / Win7. It's a little disgusting that there's still no Linux client. Most other MMO's (World of Warcraft, WarHammer, City of Heroes, and Eve Online for example) have figured out they need to support the Linux segment, even if it's just paying Transgaming to make a Mac port against Cedega / Cider.

Would I be interested in another Planetside?

Yes.

Would I be interested in another Planetside that has learned nothing from the past years?

No.

je.saist
Gamenikki.com
Mepisguides.com

"you won't find any other FPS where you can have a 100 vs. 100 battle raging."


don't you work for Sony? im sure you heard about MAG.

and can we have a list of your characters in game in planetside, because none of us veterans remember you.

You've got me for the next one. I still talk to my old "Skull Squadron" and we still tell war stories.

I actually liked some of the travel times though. The anticipation of waiting to drop, or driving to the next base made the battles feel better. Maybe I'm in the minority and I'd happily give it up for another war story about a three hour long tower defense.

Ahhh! The look has changed! And all the comments have been wiped away. ^_^ It's quite surprisingly different, yet still nice.

Anyway, been reading your blog for a little bit John. Very excited to hear about the Planetside revival and the movement towards the sequel. It's kinda scary, as I just wrote a post about how people should pick up Planetside on Direct2Drive because it was included in the 5 dollar sale. :D

PS really offered a very unique take on the MMO, and it really is the only game in its genre right now. So many games have gone the MMOFPS route, but none have done it in the way Planetside has chosen to do it, which makes me very excited to see what the team will come up with for the next game.

The renewed focus on action and getting back into the fray will be very fun, to say the least, but it does make me concerned about possible issues like zerging. The respawn buffer was a nice deterrent against that type of play, to a degree. Obviously, zergs will occur no matter what you do, but a constant stream of reinforcements jumping back into the battle quickly might lead to sides simply brute forcing an area. The death buffer system at least gave the side with fewer numbers an advantage as long as they didn't keep losing men at a rapid pace.

Either way, very much looking forward to the game. Excited to see how far you can push the concept with today's technology behind you.

Or the comments were hidden from me until I posted a comment. -_-; Silly LiveJournal...

First, I'd like to say that I'm very excited for a new Planetside. I started playing the original around 1 month after release and played until 2006. The game was excellent, it did things that not many other games attempted.

However, what eventually drove me away was the declining population, BFRs, and lack of substantial updates. Declining population was to be expected as time progressed, so thats somewhat forgivable, but not when its caused by the other two factors. I know I'm not the only one who didn't like BFRs and the lack of updates. The updating issue speaks for itself. BFRs drastically altered the balance of the game, and destroyed the original mechanics the game was designed around, one/two people should not have that much power. Had BFRs been in the game since launch, it may have been different, but since they were thrown in quite a long time after launch, they turned a lot of people off including myself.

Things I think need attention for the game are:

- Empire balance needs to be handled better(I had characters for all 3 empires, and I don't care what the VS die-hards say, they were the overpowered empire not the underpowered empire, Lasher 2.0, Magmower, etc)
- More frequent updates and patches. Drastic vehicle and weapon updates (mainly something like a BFR type update) should have more community input before implementation.
- Keep at least 3 empires, maybe introduce a fourth.
- If sanctuaries are kept around, maybe introduce the possibility of short length sanctuary strikes under certain conditions.
- More empire specific vehicles and weapons.
- Keep evolving the playstyle as time goes on. What I mean is that I'd like to see fresh playstyle ideas (like the capital system) introduced from time to time, but have these new playstyles in addition to the existing ones.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to add my thoughts, because I want the Planetside Next to succeed and be as fun as Planetside was when it first started out.

"you won't find any other FPS where you can have a 100 vs. 100 battle raging. And we pulled this off 5-6 years ago."

World War II Online and Cornered Rat Software did this before Planetside did.

And Planetside is also NOT the world's first MMOFPS, WWIIOL is.

hmm. technically you are probably right, but I put WWIIOL into the sim category not the FPS just due to the pacing. I've played it a fair amount.

Smed

First I'd like to say I loved Planetside from the very moment I stepped into it. Thank you John and SOE for creating such a fantastic world!

I played a great deal of Planetside during very early closed beta and early release, particularly. These days were the game's golden ages. I was a CR5 commander in beta and live. The command system was great, but I think you need to keep playing at least semi-hardcore to maintain it. As young teenagers and children got command rank, it started to get out of hand. So many people have CR5 now on Planetside it disgusts me.

I would have to agree with other posters in saying that Planetside has truly become session based. When I utilized the command system early and put together some of the very first 'raids,'the game was truly a simulated war. Massive. Commanders were almost playing a macro heavy RTS game. I'm not saying that small micromanagement based squads are bad, but you actually had the option to play with these massive armies.

This wasn't the best screenshot I found of this, but if you were on during the last days of beta on Markov, you should remember this: http://mrzioto.com/games/ps/bfb.jpg

Sanctuary:
It works, believe it or not. Early in Planetside, it was used as a hub to organize squads, plan missions, create raids such as in my screenshot. Since the game has become so session based, it is now seen as an obstacle. One early change I remember is when they broke up the Sanctuary into 3 separate areas, obviously at the time for performance reasons. This contributed to killing the social aspect of Planetside. Another thing, in the early days, people actually cared about being in an organized squad. No one wants to zerg and die over and over. Planetside used to be a game where your squad actually paid attention to chat and listened to instructions. To get high command rank fast, I needed to work with a good squad. Nowadays, you are LFS from logging in, get invited to a squad almost instantly, and proceed to zerg. Even without voice chat, I was able to make a very organized squad.

More 'end-game' situations: Giving enemy tech for capturing home continents was a start. Why not add Sanctuary raids?

HART:

Lessen the cooldown to 30-60 sec, possibly instant. Perhaps to conteract abuse, limit the amount of times you can use it, or add a few minute cooldown after using it, etc. Still a great system.

Battle Rank:
It worked out. Certification points need to be scarce. Having a ton of certification points was bad for the game. Why? Because if you had a large amount of points, you could do almost anything on your own. Having low cert points helped contribute to the MMO factor. You needed that solid Medic, or that Galaxy pilot to get from Point A to Point B, etc.

Hackers:
I can't say how demoralizing it is to play modern day Planetside. There are hackers on almost everyday that are playing just blatantly. Who knows how many toggle on randomly to get a great K/D, but are careful about it. With paid undetected hacks, whose to stop you? Even people blatantly warping and destroying generators take several hours to be removed from the game world. They come back with another free trial and are at it the next day. Please do something about hacking from the start. Put a real emphasize on development: How can we make this game hack free? What kind of systems can we implement to quickly remove hackers and exploiters from the game?

Positional Shots:
The game should have a higher skill cap, enough said. Not being able to shoot headshots is one of those things that really ruin the immersion and fun of a FPS. I beg that with newer technology you can make this happen!

Bases: Give us more of a variety. VASTLY edit the floor plans. Give us more interaction other than command consoles and generators.w

Environment based battles: Bridge battles were some of the funnest times in Planetside! Make sure environment makes for a different variety of battles again! Islands, bridges, craters, etc.

Music: Great job in the original! The tracks are great, and I love how the music can change based on resecures, etc. Please deliver again!

(cont from above comment)

Visuals: Awesome, and the best part is my framerate back in 2003-2004 wasn't awful, even without a top end computer! Do this again and you have gold.

Beta testing and release date: Don't get pushed around on this. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not release this game until it is DONE! Planetside was NOT. It was the shell of a game with more potential than any MMOFPS ever created.

Thank you for reading!

Naeadil
TR Markov CR5 - Beta/Release
DROW Planetside Former Team Lead

For me Planetside is something new I've gotten into, although years ago when I first saw it on a friends computer (no PC back then) I was impressed by the scale, it was like watching a movie with base assaults and I was so impressed I subbed a few years later just based on seeing that action.

But there is also another draw to it, I love Sci-fi, and Planetside feels like Sci-fi.

Unlike too many supposedly sci-fi games in comparison which just look and feel like US army with a couple of ray guns which to me is a dull concept, Planetside feels futuristic yet immersive and that adds a lot to my enjoyment.

So I'm hoping they can capture that feel again in Planetside 2, along with keeping the other things that makes it was it is along with the extra goodies we can do today such as rag doll physics, more hit boxes, critical damage (e.g. knock out cooling systems and need a engineer to fix etc), and destructible terrain etc (even if it needs special weapons to deconstruct fortifications).

Not sure how the battles can be encouraged to be fought over the entire map, maybe allow for entrenching, altering the terrain etc, and command directives to encourage people to take and hold? Getting that command to work better between total strangers will be interesting to see.

Personally I never found the sanctuary a problem here, but that's one thing I find exciting about games. Whenever planetside next appears I know I'll be getting something new different and hopefully better then I could imagine.

Thanks Smed and the rest of the team at SOE for producing such a great game (and I'm a fan of EQ2 too).

I love PlanetSide too- me n' my friends have been waiting for a continuation for years.

It is a great thing that you want to make. I play PS for 3 years and surely love it. But i will ask you only one thing:
big armies, outfits and platoons are great but do not forget single players. I usually play in small squad with my friends, and our most beloved vehicles are Thunder and Enforcer. So do not forget 2 and 3 mens vehicles! And make much more of them!

More vehicles - there are already plenty, but an even greater variety would be amazing.
Bigger vehicles - Mobile spawn units that can launch ground and air vehicles. Anti-grav carriers and supertanks come to mind. Smaller fighters and larger bombers - More aircraft types to choose from that have different advantages. This will really help a player who identifies with a certain vehicle and wants to use it all the time not just because of how it looks but the way it performs - ie WW2 turn and burn fighters VS boom and Zoom fighters.
More complex vehicles - The current majority of vehicles are drawn from real-world dune buggies and such. Add 6 and eight wheeled beasts to the mix and the game look seven more futuristic. Hoverbikes, tracked vehicles and antigrav units of varying sizes and crews as well.
Sanc - this is actually a very good meeting place to form raids. The only annoying factor is the the Hart, but that's not too bad, only when yo miss it
BFR - they need to be bigger and have larger crews. They should be siege engines unable to go into courtyards but able to duke it out through the toughest bombardments(unless attacked by a coordinated grunt unit a la current BFRs).

Keep maxes, they rock

I loved Planetside. What drove me away, finally (besides the TRx hackers), was the monotony of the battles. All the bases looked the same, felt the same, and had the same types of terrain in their immediate vicinity. Same with towers.

My opinion is that there must be more variety with base types, terrain, and reasons to fight in places other than in the immediate area around a base. Caves didn't do it, because they were very restrictive. Open land battles over an area with the objective of fighting towards an objective that is perhaps smaller than a tower, but still useful, could accomplish this.

Client side hit detection has to go. Getting killed by some jack-ass around the corner just because he's got a laggy connection sucks big time.

BFRs were unnecessary. As much as I enjoyed running around in them, they were too powerful, and filled a niche that was already filled - tank killer. They weren't superb at anti-infantry, they were OK at anti-air (but 2-3 reavers would still kill a BFR reliably), but against tanks they were beasts. However, we already had anti-tank weapons, both in smaller vehicles, bombers, reavers, and hand-held weapons. They were discouraging to the average gamer - a single guy can hardly do anything against a BFR before being stomped on or otherwise killed (excepting EMP grenades, which I almost never encountered), whereas that same single guy can do quite a bit more to a tank. Regenerative shields only added to this problem.

A communal system for commanders to vote on the next target would be AWESOME and incredibly useful.

A higher cool-down timer on orbital strikes would be useful, too. Those things got far too common late in the game. Some factional variety in orbital strike effects might be cool, too.

More anti-cheat protection would be great, as well as more participation by the admins/mods to catch cheaters. TRx proclaimed PROUDLY that they cheated, and released YouTube videos of their cheats (many of which wouldn't have worked if client side hit detection wasn't there). Nobody ever did anything about it, and that is beyond sad.

Can't think of anything else at the moment - those are my biggies. Regardless, if there's a big launch, I'll be playing again.

You're a complete tool. TRx are completely legit players. They don't cheat. If one is proven to be a cheater they get kicked. Just because they're better than you doesn't mean they cheat.

If you take EVIDENCE (aka. VIDEO) of them cheating take it to their website and post it. trxclan.com/forum

I love Planetside since it came out in May 2003 and you can count on me for PLANETSIDE 2.
By the way if you can improve Planetside I will love you forever but that doesnt mean I won't kill you in Planetside 2 if you're not a Terrran Guy ; )

AgentOrange, Terran Forces, Veteran from Werner

One of the biggest flaws I seen in planetside was the lack of field artillery. Yes we did have the flail but it was horrible and just junk for the actual field artillery missions required of field artillery. That and it required a vehicle mod just to pull one which was horrible. I mean you make one of the most important instruments in war fare one of the rarest pieces of equipment. I am an infantryman in Americas army and field artillery is our best friend. The infantry is regarded as the queen of the battlefield and artillery is called the king of the battle field and always has been. America began using artillery in 1775 during the revolution, during this time an artillery man was paid more than the infantry and even the cavalry. In 1784 when the army was abolished all but a detachment of around 80 men to guard government stores. Those men were artillery, thus artillery is the only MOS that has been in continuous service. In WWI field artillery was the most dominant force in trench war fare being responsible for 75% of all combat casualties. In WWII field artillery was just as devastating. General Patton was quoted saying, “I do not need to tell you who won the war. You know, the artillery did.” May of 1953, 280 mm gun called “Atomic Annie” and fired the first nuclear shell down range. Artillery has been known to break mens will to fight and has been a determining factor in every engagement in history. Except the Panama war due to the tree canopy. There is no way you can have a massive FPS war game with organized armies and not included field artillery. I hope to see militaries most important tool included in planetside next.
There has been numerous times in the planetside universe that I have wanted to be able to call in for artillery. Artillery plays a key role in military victories especially infantry due to these particular missions.

Counterbattery fire: delivered for the purpose of destroying or neutralizing the enemy's fire support system.
Counterpreparation fire: intensive prearranged fire delivered when the imminence of the enemy attack is discovered.
Covering fire: used to protect troops when they are within range of enemy small arms. Defensive fire: delivered by supporting units to assist and protect a unit engaged in a defensive action.
Final Protective Fire: an immediately available prearranged barrier of fire designed to impede enemy movement across defensive lines or areas.
Interdiction fire: placed on an area or point to prevent the enemy from using the area or point.
Preparation fire: delivered before an attack to weaken the enemy position
Suppression fire: that degrades the performance of a target below the level needed to fulfill its mission. Suppression is usually only effective for the duration of the fire.

Different types of artillery are also varying.

Mortars- would add a unique aspect to them since infantry squads could pack these and deploy them as needed out of their back pack.
Howitzers- typical gun, 105mm or 155mm cannon
Naval Artillery- battleship 12” cannons used in destroying other ships or weakening costal defenses
Self-Propelled Artillery- Howitzer cannons mounted on a tracked vehicle
MLRS multiple launch rocket system- Shoot and scoot tactics, very powerful rocket launching tracked vehicle capable of taking out a whole grid square (1km by 1km)

"In WWI field artillery was the most dominant force in trench war fare being responsible for 75% of all combat casualties."

Exactly. No one wants to die to this crap 75% of the time, it's a game. Flails were up there with BFRs as one of the worst additions to PS.