On a whim, and reminded by my 'Highpoint of 2006' post, I popped into Planetside last night, for a bit of a look about, see how the old dog is getting on. Going with lowest population team as usual saw me on my Vanu Sovereignty Light Infantry/Repair guy, and as usual after a long period of not-playing, I sucked mightily, and for the next couple of hours got quite convincingly humiliated left right and centre.
For their part, the remaining players still dukeing it out on Werner must have been, in some tiny way, thrilled to have an opponent that couldn't actually hit the side of a barn, for a change, as one of the cruellest ironies of Planetside's design became harshly apparent once more - the more you play in a continuous span, the better you get at it, and if you need to take time off or drift away ever, you're screwed. It certainly rewards player reactions and tactical skill - there's no denying that, but it also rewards ruthless persistence equally.
This all tends to mean that players either get really good, or leave through frustration, lack of time, or lack of dedication, leaving an ever smaller and tighter playerbase, which becomes more and more difficult for the potential new player to break into and compete with. I've no idea how this can be fixed - clearly a player who is actually very *good* at a game, should be allowed to do well, but at the same time, a game like Planetside *needs* new blood (if nothing else, to merely replace normal and expected player churn), and if the average level of player skill just keeps on going up and up, it becomes harsher and harsher for the new, (or in my case, returning), player to cope.
I finished 4/20 K/D in the end, rather dissappointing, but ended up with 40ish Assists, mostly from my repair gun and pistol. I often use Engineering as a way to compensate for my uselessness with a real gun. The actual battles seemed as hectic as ever, and as long as you take a bit of effort to keep within the tightly focused tornadoes of actual action, you'd hardly know the numbers are down much from the state of play six months back.
But looking at the world maps shows a noticeably quieter Auraxis, and distressingly, there were no Empire Continent Locks at all - almost unheard of at Prime Time.
My main weapon of the night was the Pulsar - the VS Empire Specific Medium Assault Rifle. It's not a bad gun, being very accurate, and having a fairly decent rate of fire, but I've no idea how it stands after the usual few months of buff/nerf cycle. It seemed not to be doing a great deal of actual damage though, and left me quite dissatisfied. The built-in Anti-Armour mode was a bit of a red herring too, making me end up plinking at tanks and taking stupid risks for not much appreciable impact.
In the end, I just thought 'Sod this for a game of Soldiers', and respecced into Special Assault, figuring that if every other bugger was going to be grenade spamming me, then I might as well respond in kind. Thumper users are a bit of a hated subculture in what remains of Planetside's population. The Thumper is basically and indirect-fire splash damage weapon, firing EMP, Frag or Plasma grenades in either contact detonation or timed fuse mode, and as such, is the bane, and indeed, correct counter, to campers and ambushers, able, if used skillfully, to flush the buggers out, or kill them if they don't move..all from the saftey of a position that is well out of the line-of-sight of the enemy.
Understandably, this tends to be regarded as something of a coward's weapon, and the splash, burst nature of the grenades makes the gun a lot easier to use in 'Boom! Headshot!' terms...as long as the grenade lands near-ish the enemy, it'll hit them. It was interesting to see though, that it does have a certain skill requirement of it's own - projectile ballistics, most notably - any idiot can just shoot grenades at a on-rushing Heavy Assault Trooper, but it's the trick-shots that hold the art - bouncing timed grenades into doorways, or over walls, or to the right spot on a stairwell landing that you can't directly see. And of course, given the rather hyperactive nature of your own team's Heavy Assault Troopers, doing so in a manner that doesn't get them, or yourself, killed by your own grenade helps too. The Thumper, in the hands of the inexpert, is a Friendly Fire nightmare.
All surprisingly skilled work, and something that I think I'd like to learn. The Rocklet Rifle, also granted from the Special Assault category, seems to have it's own quirks and perculiarities to learn as well. That is, assuming I can find the energy to put myself through it all again. I came away from play after only two hours or so, and was pretty harshly owned throughout, albeit in a very impersonal fashion. Swapping to the Thumper helped somewhat, but even with that, it was difficult to giddy myself along, and make myself keep playing, and I know it'll take months of that to get myself back on 'form', let alone competitive in any way.
I still like Planetside of course, but it's a demanding Mistress, and I'm just not sure I have enough time, energy and effort, to give it at the moment, or indeed, any more...