thinking of getting this installed again as well...

what i ment is if your team/clan/outfit whatever takes over a certain peice of land, do you get any benefits from this? how hard is it to getback/defend?

Every Base has a job now - Tech plants give access to tanks, etc... So holding onto bases is crucial to win the contanent. In the course of a content battle sides will often launch special assault missions to take out the generators on certain bases so that the enemy loses the benefit of the base while the gen is down.

Difficulty is all dependent on how many are on either side at the specific point e.g. if 100 people are defending a tower its going to be a lot harder to take than if 20 are.

also does the area change visually? not just flag colors.

No dynamic changes to the maps. Its not possible with today’s machinery with the amount of players involved.

As for the Lag that existed back in the early days yup completely gone. As I said there really isn't any problem’s now with this game it is astounding what a good job they have done in a year. Just glad I re-found it 2 months ago as enjoyed it every week since.
This comment was edited on Aug 5, 04:50.

The objective is the same but the depth of what you can do and how you can effect the outcome of battles has gotten quite deep. The enjoyment is in the battles, strategies, camraderie, advancement of your character(s) and conquest. Ultimately every MMORPG is "meaningless" if you really think about it. I do know what you mean though as that 'endless chase" feeling you got when it (PS) was released is now buried under gameplay tweaks and new content.

Its hard to verbalize, you really need to play it for awhile to get a good idea of what has changed.

what i ment is if your team/clan/outfit whatever takes over a certain peice of land, do you get any benefits from this? how hard is it to getback/defend?

also does the area change visually? not just flag colors.

DOOM3, i got my copy. what about you?

The single most important thing you need to do is to hook up with other players and plan your attacks. there is absolutely no way a single player can turn the battle by being a lone-wolf type. I know other games claim that but in Planetside its the heart of the game. try to find people using teamspeak or some other voice program. It makes all the difference.

I firmly beleive if Sony took Planetside and used real-world weaponry along with a modern military feel it would be one of the most played games on the internet. there isnt another shooter/multiplayer game that's this deep. none.

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What Would Fred Do?

Hmm. Maybe I'll check it out again myself. CoH is boring me to tears, and my Eve character hasn't had enough willpower to undock for months.

Any first-month'ers know if they keep your old accounts mothballed on the server? I'd hate to start from scratch again.

i've got a fairly high ranking vanu character, the weapons and such are all balanced nicely now.. if anything the TR are getting the short end of the stick lately..I think the latest patch (monday) evened them out.

hmmm... makes me want to check it out again too

i was one of the "in on the first day" peeps... but I got burnt out really quick once I realized my Vanu character was nerfed to hell and back

have they rebalanced those guys?

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Give me slack. Or kill me.

Did they fix the networking code? I was also in the beta, and remember quite well the infamous networking patch which turned the game into a slideshow for a lot of folks like me. Used to have no problems in 60+ player combats. Post-patch, I lagged in anything over 10.

Another returner to Planetside here just backing up what the previous poster is saying. It really has changed a lot in a year, and is a pretty unique and amazing game. Lots of stuff just coming out now - new small maps (Battle Islands), new Vehicles including the BFR's (small / 20 meter high Mechs), and new Bases, and a lot of other things.

It is a great FPS if you like your FPS's with lots of people rather than Deathmatch style. No bugs to speak of, Dev's that listen, its a great MMO and a great FPS.

As to an end goal, still isn't a defined one as such although you can completely unbase the enemy which is sort of winning :-) Doubt there can ever be an end goal as its a MMO's and the one we have now is as close as it can get, even if this one wasn't designed.

This comment was edited on Aug 4, 14:20.

The objective is the same but the depth of what you can do and how you can effect the outcome of battles has gotten quite deep. The enjoyment is in the battles, strategies, camraderie, advancement of your character(s) and conquest. Ultimately every MMORPG is "meaningless" if you really think about it. I do know what you mean though as that 'endless chase" feeling you got when it (PS) was released is now buried under gameplay tweaks and new content.

Its hard to verbalize, you really need to play it for awhile to get a good idea of what has changed.

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What Would Fred Do?

are the battles still meaningless?

Im now looking for reasons to keep my SWG account active

I just got back into PS. I was in the beta but never bought the full version because a.) I had burnt myself out on it and b.) the gameplay got repetitive pretty quickly.

It seems after the past year though they've really done a lot to make the game less sterile and much more fun. When I left there had been some big battles but nothing compared to the scale they have now. Theres the equvilent of "guilds" (outfits) in the game that run 1500 strong (666 devil dogs of the New Conglomerate come to mind) and its a very impressive sight to behold a massive column of tanks, infantry and air support getting together in order to make an organized continent/land grab.

The main reason I got interested in the game again though was the mention of Mechs....that cinched it. Dave G was involved in what are the 2 finest Mecha games ever conceived, mechwarrior 2 and Heavy Gear 2. I just hope they implement locational damage a-la Mechwarrior.

Speaking of the 666 devil dogs, theres a cool video up on Gamespot of this outfit in which they interview a few of the officers. Theres some in-game footage of them preparing for a battle which is quite impressive. It should be the first video at the top of the page:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/planetside/media.html

if anyone ever wanted to check it out nows the time as Fileplanet has a $9.99 special in which you can download the full game and get 1 month of play for free.

http://www.fileplanet.com/retail/planetside/

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What Would Fred Do?