Server is too low pop for intended gameplay

[Ace]

I get it now. The game is dying and that is why there is rarely large fights, barely anyone pulling anti air, barely any teamwork, barely any players. Most of the fights I see are on one front while the other fronts are literally empty of players. This is why the air power is so over powered, the fights are smaller than they used to be and this means the counter to air is no longer sufficient in small battles. There is also a lack of sqauds sometimes zero sqauds on the faction. But mostly just battles on a single territory tile and everywhere else is zero allies and enemies easily steamrolling captures with no resistance.

The few remaining players are either clustered in one tile or spread too thin to be effective at defense or offense. Only ever one continent open at a time too I forgot what it's like having large battles and more than one continent which was the entire attraction of this game which is now gone.

Even during the the most active hours still barely rises above 100 total players in the whole server meaning you get to face the same toxic sweaty veterans over and over. 34 NCR, 21 TR and 41 vanu players. Planetside really has fallen and fallen far.
Goodbye planetside 2 was a good long game but no longer what it used to be and has far too few players for the maps and balance to work anymore how it used to.

As a reminder there used to be a regular 1000-2000+ peak players last year and for several years before now and its now 400+ peak players and most of the time way less actually playing at other times 50-150 players. This decline in average player amounts seems to have began in April 2022 and the rate of decline in players increased significantly in may 2023.

The last time there was over 1000+ players in the server was November 2022...

Uninstalled and not looking back. The bullying also contributed to my decision to leave from in game and on forums.

[Ritual Botânico]

it seems they prefer to sink following the same course rather than change their route

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by Howard:

I get it now. The game is dying and that is why there is rarely large fights, barely anyone pulling anti air, barely any teamwork, barely any players. Most of the fights I see are on one front while the other fronts are literally empty of players.

Maybe. Depends on your server and depends what time of day you play.

I had this game in 2014, or so, and you'd still have these bare bones off periods late at night where there was nobody on.

Regarding the teamwork, you really need to get a mic and get an outfit that does that. Not all do that, but there is a substantial difference in both game enjoyment and competency of the players when the players are working as a team under a good platoon lead.

Regarding total players...they used to have more total servers. That's true.

It wasn't always more total players on any one server. But while the game engine is supposed to be able to handle 2000 players at once, they've never gotten that to work. The record is like 1600-ish on the same map/server and that crashed it shortly after. See the wikipedia for more.

[Ace]

Originally posted by Chronocide:

Originally posted by Howard:

I get it now. The game is dying and that is why there is rarely large fights, barely anyone pulling anti air, barely any teamwork, barely any players. Most of the fights I see are on one front while the other fronts are literally empty of players.

Maybe. Depends on your server and depends what time of day you play.

I had this game in 2014, or so, and you'd still have these bare bones off periods late at night where there was nobody on.

Regarding the teamwork, you really need to get a mic and get an outfit that does that. Not all do that, but there is a substantial difference in both game enjoyment and competency of the players when the players are working as a team under a good platoon lead.

Regarding total players...they used to have more total servers. That's true.

It wasn't always more total players on any one server. But while the game engine is supposed to be able to handle 2000 players at once, they've never gotten that to work. The record is like 1600-ish on the same map/server and that crashed it shortly after. See the wikipedia for more.

Connery averaging 100 or so players 400 ish peak not even in the daytime for connery its from people joining higher ping servers than their usual lowest ping server. Daytime connery is 100 or so people duking it out mostly veterans by the kill stats level 80 and up normally. Its active when everyone near connery is asleep and it still only reaches less than 500 people peak.

But the average normal experience is just 100 people with empty fronts and one battle and no sqauds. Usually the team with 40% or more players dominating the other two teams keep in mind this is like 40 vs 30 vs 30 with a single continent I have not seen any of the others unlocked at the same time.

I used to play this from 2014-2017 and quit for a while and came back to a sad empty amusement park compared to the game then and the gameplay feels wrong somehow like its not possible to play the game as intended. Its too empty and devoid of the intended players to be there on all fronts.

Connery is more active while everybody who is intended to play on connery are asleep than when they are awake. The people connery is intended to serve are only using it up to about a max of 150 daytime players unless your telling me these ramping up spikes in activity at night for connery to about 200-400 players max are everyone never sleeping every night. Unlikely. It is more likely people awake at normal times for their area.

You can see for yourself here when you sort by 7 day period on the graph its obvious the pattern:

https://ps2.fisu.pw/population/?world=1

[Drny]

Riiiiight? They should have pulled the plug long ago and end this pay2grind nonsence.
But as long as people keep sending money to 'nowhere' the game will keep creeping around. Being pure waste of space in free2play market.. I think ppl deserve large battles with microtransactions with something better than game with an engine out of 2001 xDD
But PS2 community are bunch of xxxxxx anyway xD

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by Howard:

You can see for yourself here when you sort by 7 day period on the graph its obvious the pattern: https://ps2.fisu.pw/population/?world=1

Regarding your data. You are correct that the total server pop is lower than it was, but your linked data doesn't clarify which continent the players are on, nor if they are trapped in waiting ques.

Does 1000 people mean that 1000 people were playing in the same fight? Or does it mean we have 400 in Indar, 400 in Esamir, and the last 200 either in ques or fighting in Kotyr (the old continent for players under level 15)?

I don't see the fights as particularly smaller than they used to be, during peak hours. But I'm not waiting in ques, because of it. And Kotyr is gone, so there's none of those nasty eternal players in there any more (there would always be some that just kept remaking their level 1 character to play against noobs, not unlike the WoW scene back before they revamped their PvP).

[Ace]

No it means it used to have more than one continent unlocked. The game now barely has a single territory tile actively being fought over most of the time the front is empty and there are no sqauds and there is a usually 100-150 people playing every day during connery daytime hours. Nowhere near how it used to be. The game I knew and played is gone the players are gone and its obvious now. Yeah I haven't had a single queue but that isn't a good thing. There is not enough players playing for the game to work as intended the map is too big for 100 player average during daytime. Maybe you don't play connery during daytime but its basically dead except one fight most of the time.

The last time there was 1000 players in connery was november 2022 almost a year ago. The entire attraction and point of planetside 2 was the high amount of players but now its just the same as most other multiplayer servers in normal games without such ridiculous capacity.

Now the game feels like fitting teams of 30 odd soldiers against eachother into a giant map. Its ridiculous like putting a tiny item into a giant empty box for shipping.

[JVonD]

Here's a hint: Server pop wasnt an issue at 2000 people. The real problem was people didnt need subs to get instant access to battles. So in reality they lowered the pop to keep more sub players.

[Ace]

Originally posted by DreilDrag:

Here's a hint: Server pop wasnt an issue at 2000 people. The real problem was people didnt need subs to get instant access to battles. So in reality they lowered the pop to keep more sub players.

That is kinda sad. What year did they do that? I don't remember this existing because it would regularly reach 2000 or more and reach a queue limit which was normally a short time because people ragequit regularly.

Its such a sad state just the one barely populated 100 player continent usually lasting hours or days on the same continent never having alert triggered for those nice rewards.

No more multiple continents, rarely ever any sqauds, barely any players per team usually 20-50 players per team, giant empty map with greyed out zones all over forcing you down a narrow path, completely undefended empty front lines, one battle on a single tile, or worse a thin uncoordinated defense, basically guerilla warfare just to get kills or capture points and run away as infil stalker, spread out all over getting warpgated easily by the one faction usually VS with some teamwork and overpop usually 40-50 % or 40-50 players.

[Diabloben68]

its sad because PS2 was one of the greatest games I have every played. I had years into it, thousands of hours. I dont know what happened, other than I think being free to play made it so there was truly no punishment for cheating.

With all that said, its just an old game now. I remember playing this about 11 years ago and eventually everything has to die.

[Buggsy]

The nerf to construction was the last straw. It appears a larger portion of the playerbase wanted to play "Minecraft" than previously thought. Perhaps half the players want to be more constructive in their playthrough. So expect the pop to drop another 25% after the happy-go-lucky try-hards give up on construction over the next 6 months.

Construction is suppose to offer defensive gameplay for players that just want to relax and not zig-zag lag exploit 24-7, or maybe just take a break after hours of zig-zag lag exploiting and relax. For me I was only interested in a defensive gameplay dynamic in a game where offense is way way way too easy with players dropping on top of you, behind you, on your flanks, cloaked; there is just way too much envelopment to be enjoyable, there is no "frontline", just a random moshpit of morons who think their ability to point a mouse in the right spot quickly enough is talent.

It's all too damn random, we need defensive tools so a smaller number of players on prepared ground can defend against a larger number of players. I know I know I know that's not 1337 talent, but it what the game needs.

[☃]

The IP and netcode just needs to be either sold off or given into public domain. The franchise is dead though, because the franchise went with hiring a "genius youtuber super pro player" and making that person a lead developer somehow.
No one would probably trust the Planetside Name itself for a true 3rd installment because of all the miss-management with the IP in general and constant cash grabs with reskins of items and junk that then even may get pulled from the market because of personal reasons between parties. The Player Creation Marketplace was really just actually a Developer Creation Marketplace, where asset developers just happened to claim to be players also, just because they PLAYED the game one time or what ever... and a way for developers to make even MORE money from the players.
Planetside as a game was great for as long as it lasted, and all I can do is salute everyone that played. I can't say that I can salute the developers the same...

[Suicide]

Go to Soltech, there's so many chinese killing each other. go for NC or TR, ignore VS, too low on pop.

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by Buggsy:

The nerf to construction was the last straw. It appears a larger portion of the playerbase wanted to play "Minecraft" than previously thought. Perhaps half the players want to be more constructive in their playthrough. So expect the pop to drop another 25% after the happy-go-lucky try-hards give up on construction over the next 6 months.

Out of curiosity, what was construction before the nerf?

And why on earth would they want to deny "minecraft" from being the focuse of this game? That's a much more successful game title...

[☃]

Originally posted by Chronocide:

Originally posted by Buggsy:

The nerf to construction was the last straw. It appears a larger portion of the playerbase wanted to play "Minecraft" than previously thought. Perhaps half the players want to be more constructive in their playthrough. So expect the pop to drop another 25% after the happy-go-lucky try-hards give up on construction over the next 6 months.

Out of curiosity, what was construction before the nerf?

And why on earth would they want to deny "minecraft" from being the focuse of this game? That's a much more successful game title...

Construction before which nerf? There has been a few. The last one in "fortification" is just the one that made all the buildings not mesh to the terrain or to each other anymore. And also made big hits to the way repairs are performed on bases making it impossible for rep modules to keep up with even a single tank shelling the object. OH and also the removal of AI modules for turret defenses making them basically completely useless. I know I forgot a few things (or more), but that is the jist of the worst.

[☃]

Bunch of really bad changes intermixed with one or two decent things... by a developer that then quit and walked away.
And a bad continent to go with it. No one likes Oshur, especially not now with that change to Mirror Bay, and no one especially likes the construction "improvements".
Wrel was just completely and utterly out of touch with the very playerbase he came from. And the game suffered for it in such a way as that the population is so low now that the game does indeed NOT function the way it was intended so many years ago.