Thanks for the heads up that there is a free reactivation.  I'll have to see how it is now.  I was unaware of the complete server merge.  They had merged some of them last time I played but not all.

That was the only major down fall to the game, off hours.  There wasn't much going on during the very late night/very early morning and no NPCs to fight while waiting for it to pick up.

I think that is one reason I really like early iterations for World of Warcraft's Battle Ground "Alterac Valley".   I enjoyed the NPC addition to the PvP.

Ok off to download to fire it up, thanks again.  I'll be on my main Vanu characters... although I had some on each faction on different servers.  Curious to see how that works out when I log in.  Vanu is the only ones I really care about though.

EDIT:  It figures I run into this post though as just a few weeks back I deleted my saved key binds and what have you for PS.

1 hour and 20 min for download to finish... not bad.  I'll play tomorrow I guess.

I think a lot of people would still be playing if it wasn't next to impossible to get it to run on Windows Vista. I've tried just about every fix possible from running it under Windows XP SP2 among others and the game continuously crashes when entering the game.

SOE would rather be lazy and make $0 from potential customers than attempt to rework the game to allow Vista users to actually play this game.

Originally posted by Rhoklaw

I think a lot of people would still be playing if it wasn't next to impossible to get it to run on Windows Vista. I've tried just about every fix possible from running it under Windows XP SP2 among others and the game continuously crashes when entering the game.

SOE would rather be lazy and make $0 from potential customers than attempt to rework the game to allow Vista users to actually play this game.

I'm running it on Windows 7 RC 64 bit, but I have  to run it as Windows XP SP3 in  compatibility mode.

Have great memories of this game, and also had my biggest noob moment in it...

We (VS) were fighting to take a terran base and I saw a terran soldier shooting one of our BFGs from behind so I tried to help, but I had picked up the heavy terran gun and wasn't used to its recoil so I ended up killing the terran and blowing up the BFGs since its reactor/generator was damaged pretty bad already.

It's my firm belief that to this point, planetside is STILL the only "True" mmofps. All the others talking about being mmofps do not have any kind of open landscape. Planetside was able to make huge and diversified alien planets and yet still have very concentrated battles spanning across the the continents.

It was amazing to be fighting in the mid-way between two different bases and maybe have another base to the south being taken and another force coming from in-between. Many many many variations on the ever changing battles. Planetside was simply great. '

It is really a shame that planetside has been so neglected, it did have alot of potential, and SOE just screwed it over. This among other things is breathing proof that SOE is not a company that should be handling interactive entertainment for the masses because when it comes to the consumers, we are not interested in your corporate handling. These companies KNOW they are putting out something that is for long term entertainment and enjoyment yet they still treat it like a pie-chart which just needs to stop at some end.

They need to care "At least a little", which they show countless times they dont by sticking their head up their asses. I love how planetside is litteraly one of the ONLY forum topics that anybody who has played talks about "good old times' and fond memories. This game actualy "Had those moments" that stay with you. Other games are fun, but it takes a MMO of a higher caliber to give you a sense of nastalgia.

Originally posted by Teala

OMG I miss Planetside.      SOE could have really done some great things with this game and instead they blew it.  They continue to neglect it and now I understand it is rampant with cheats and hacks.     As I have said so many times in the past if I had the money to buy the rights to Planetside I would and then I would rework it and re-release it.    The game is just that awesome!

Would be awsome to have some accumilative fundraiser from the community to pitch in for all those who are interested in getting the rights bought from under SOE. Sadly no such thing has happened.

I too have a soft spot for PS. I actually dont like fps games, never have, but for some reason PS was always a blast. I was pretty terrible with most of the guns, though I couldnt get enough of the thumper. Then I found the Magrider. "A hover tank?" I said to myself, "I gotta get me one of those". Little did I know that my expertise with a trackball turned my hovertank into a floatng death machine. I might have been terrible with guns, but damn was I good at running people over. A good gunner was all I needed to wreak havoc all over the battle field. To this day I still chuckle at finishing all my traffic citation awards. I ran down a LOT of pedestrians to finish that. I may have to get on and play it again for old times sake. Careful though if you arent wearin purple when I get back, chances are youll be the victim of a hit and run.

I really really miss when being a CR5 actually made you a reputable person in the game. Back when liberators where just released was when I started and got CR5 within a half year or so. Still the only CR5's around where the ones who actually led groups often to get there and knew how to play well. So you had a well know chain of command. Was a fun tradition to OS the guy who got CR 5 too. When I got CR5 I remember being getting OS'd by a few oldschool players from markov like Cogburn, manslayer, notraget. Ahhh good times.

Till this day the funnest times I had where in my old outfit "The legendary rebels", which we did alot of skrimish CTF between 2 bases on capped hossin when we had it. Also another fun outfit was when Prox12 was made on NCmarkov. prox12 used to be TRmarkov, VS johari, or something like that. But I had the joy of co-leading NCprox12 till we where the 2nd largest outfit in all the servers next to 666th. We where very active to and had a whole bunch of divisions for spec-ops, tank, gen droppers, ect.

In the end the leader left and gave me lead after he got fed up with the complains other outfits game us because we had a couple bad apples in the outfit. So he left and founded the origional KWA "Kill whores anonymous" Which got to about 80 members tops and was more of close knit outfit. After that I ended up quitting but when I came back KWA only had like 1 member, but there was another KWA with alot of members that was a imitation outfit because nobody from it was from the origional KWA yet they still argued that they thought of the name first loool. To top it off their outfit is quite well knows for not playing very smart.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

How can you ask a silly question why Planetside is ignored by SOE, Smedley is in charge.  That guy made his contribution to the industry with EQ and has not done one mentionable thing since.  He has lead SOE into the doldrums.  Without doubt the most clueless individual in the industry at this point in time.

And you are right Planetside could be a great game with a little bit of attention, there is no competition in it's niche at the moment.

I can't figure out what the suits at Sony are doing when all they see is a steady decline at SOE?  What was once a golden star in the genre is now a lackluster lead one.

Well my friend, the problem is, that he sertainly isn't the only clueless person in the industry. That's for sure.

With John Smedly. The problem is, that he probably is the owner of SOE and so can't get fired. Otherwise he would have been booted by shareholders long ago. (just like what happened with Gaute G. and Mark Jacobs for example).

And it's not only in this bussiness, but in every bussiness branch. Where you have clueless CEO's running a company into the ground and hardworking employees pulling the short end of the stick by getting fired to cover up the CEO's clueless decisions.

Could Matrix Online under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

Could Vanguard: Saga of Heroes under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

But so could the following games been saved, when better CEO and project management decisions would have been made:

Auto Assault, Asheron's Call 2, Tabula Rasa, Matrix Online (when it was still under Warner Entertainment and Monolith), Warhammer Online, Age of Conan (altho this one is slowly coming around really), Dungeons and Dragons Online, etc, etc, etc.

So really... how sad the truth might be. John Smedly is sertainly not the only clueless person in the bussiness. Unfortunately.

Cheers

PlanetSide rocked and still does!

One of few games I really WANT to come back to with some clan mates time and time again. It's simply the best MMOFPS out there and one of the greatest PvP experiences I've had in any game. 3-way battles galore!

Unfortunately you realise quite soon that you can't do much vs. the zerg when you're a small outfit. So every time me and my mates have quit PS it's been due to the zerg outrolling everything. PS deserves much credit, however, due to it being the ONLY game (I know of anyway) that actually has tried doing constructive things to combat the zerg problem in a MMO!

Fun game, good times, crazy action!

Here's hoping for a PlanetSide 2 or some other goood MMOFPS with glorious 3-way fights and constant battle for control!

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by Ozmodan

How can you ask a silly question why Planetside is ignored by SOE, Smedley is in charge.  That guy made his contribution to the industry with EQ and has not done one mentionable thing since.  He has lead SOE into the doldrums.  Without doubt the most clueless individual in the industry at this point in time.

And you are right Planetside could be a great game with a little bit of attention, there is no competition in it's niche at the moment.

I can't figure out what the suits at Sony are doing when all they see is a steady decline at SOE?  What was once a golden star in the genre is now a lackluster lead one.

 

Well my friend, the problem is, that he sertainly isn't the only clueless person in the industry. That's for sure.

With John Smedly. The problem is, that he probably is the owner of SOE and so can't get fired. Otherwise he would have been booted by shareholders long ago. (just like what happened with Gaute G. and Mark Jacobs for example).

And it's not only in this bussiness, but in every bussiness branch. Where you have clueless CEO's running a company into the ground and hardworking employees pulling the short end of the stick by getting fired to cover up the CEO's clueless decisions.

Could Matrix Online under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

Could Vanguard: Saga of Heroes under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

But so could the following games been saved, when better CEO and project management decisions would have been made:

Auto Assault, Asheron's Call 2, Tabula Rasa, Matrix Online (when it was still under Warner Entertainment and Monolith), Warhammer Online, Age of Conan (altho this one is slowly coming around really), Dungeons and Dragons Online, etc, etc, etc.

So really... how sad the truth might be. John Smedly is sertainly not the only clueless person in the bussiness. Unfortunately.

Cheers

yeah but this thread is about SOE and not the mmorpg industry as a whole. SOE has alot of games with great potential that are sitting in limbo between death and barely breathing. The other studios of the games you listed are succesfull and have had very successfull mmorpgs. (NCsoft, Turbine, funcom, etc etc etc.)

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Well my friend, the problem is, that he sertainly isn't the only clueless person in the industry. That's for sure.

With John Smedly. The problem is, that he probably is the owner of SOE and so can't get fired. Otherwise he would have been booted by shareholders long ago. (just like what happened with Gaute G. and Mark Jacobs for example).

And it's not only in this bussiness, but in every bussiness branch. Where you have clueless CEO's running a company into the ground and hardworking employees pulling the short end of the stick by getting fired to cover up the CEO's clueless decisions.

Could Matrix Online under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

Could Vanguard: Saga of Heroes under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

But so could the following games been saved, when better CEO and project management decisions would have been made:

Auto Assault, Asheron's Call 2, Tabula Rasa, Matrix Online (when it was still under Warner Entertainment and Monolith), Warhammer Online, Age of Conan (altho this one is slowly coming around really), Dungeons and Dragons Online, etc, etc, etc.

So really... how sad the truth might be. John Smedly is sertainly not the only clueless person in the bussiness. Unfortunately.

Cheers

 

yeah but this thread is about SOE and not the mmorpg industry as a whole. SOE has alot of games with great potential that are sitting in limbo between death and barely breathing. The other studios of the games you listed are succesfull and have had very successfull mmorpgs. (NCsoft, Turbine, funcom, etc etc etc.)

EverQuest 1 and 2 are still doing well and are profitable games.

SWG isn't doing all that bad either and is still profitable. I know many vets with their eternal grudge don't want to hear it.

I don't like SWG in it's NGE incarnation either, but plenty of people still seem to enjoy it. Good for them and let them. Who are we to judge them.

Turbine isn't that holy at all. They completely neglected a great IP and runned DDO into the ground in favor of LOTRO and now turned it into a F2P game in a desperate attempt to resurrect it.

NcSoft isn't that holy either. They could have done a lot better with CoX and instead it only get's minimum updates to keep it's small but dedicated fanbase.

Cheers

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Well my friend, the problem is, that he sertainly isn't the only clueless person in the industry. That's for sure.

With John Smedly. The problem is, that he probably is the owner of SOE and so can't get fired. Otherwise he would have been booted by shareholders long ago. (just like what happened with Gaute G. and Mark Jacobs for example).

And it's not only in this bussiness, but in every bussiness branch. Where you have clueless CEO's running a company into the ground and hardworking employees pulling the short end of the stick by getting fired to cover up the CEO's clueless decisions.

Could Matrix Online under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

Could Vanguard: Saga of Heroes under the hands of SOE been saved and turned into a profitable game? YES! Absolutely yes!

But so could the following games been saved, when better CEO and project management decisions would have been made:

Auto Assault, Asheron's Call 2, Tabula Rasa, Matrix Online (when it was still under Warner Entertainment and Monolith), Warhammer Online, Age of Conan (altho this one is slowly coming around really), Dungeons and Dragons Online, etc, etc, etc.

So really... how sad the truth might be. John Smedly is sertainly not the only clueless person in the bussiness. Unfortunately.

Cheers

 

yeah but this thread is about SOE and not the mmorpg industry as a whole. SOE has alot of games with great potential that are sitting in limbo between death and barely breathing. The other studios of the games you listed are succesfull and have had very successfull mmorpgs. (NCsoft, Turbine, funcom, etc etc etc.)

 

EverQuest 1 and 2 are still doing well and are profitable games.

SWG isn't doing all that bad either and is still profitable. I know many vets with their eternal grudge don't want to hear it.

I don't like SWG in it's NGE incarnation either, but plenty of people still seem to enjoy it. Good for them and let them. Who are we to judge them.

Turbine isn't that holy at all. They completely neglectic a great IP and runned DDO into the ground and now turned it into a F2P game in a desperate attempt to resurrect it.

NcSoft isn't that holy either. They could have done a lot better with CoX and instead it only get's minimum updates to keep it's small but dedicated fanbase.

Cheers

See ... i can pick and chose all the games that have failed with SOE as well just like you did with the other companys, but i wont yet, i'll let you read my post again. And by successfull i usually mean around 150-200k+ subscription. Very succussfull i reserve for 400k+. (just to give you an idea of what i mean) EQ and EQ2 are "successfull" but afaik they are losing subs slowly. SWG isnt, its not just "vets" who are angry, but betrayed customers who are getting tired of so much attention put on to the TCG. Once they can bring 4 or more servers into "heavy", will i believe it really is doing well.

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by tvalentine

 

yeah but this thread is about SOE and not the mmorpg industry as a whole. SOE has alot of games with great potential that are sitting in limbo between death and barely breathing. The other studios of the games you listed are succesfull and have had very successfull mmorpgs. (NCsoft, Turbine, funcom, etc etc etc.)

 

EverQuest 1 and 2 are still doing well and are profitable games.

SWG isn't doing all that bad either and is still profitable. I know many vets with their eternal grudge don't want to hear it.

I don't like SWG in it's NGE incarnation either, but plenty of people still seem to enjoy it. Good for them and let them. Who are we to judge them.

Turbine isn't that holy at all. They completely neglectic a great IP and runned DDO into the ground and now turned it into a F2P game in a desperate attempt to resurrect it.

NcSoft isn't that holy either. They could have done a lot better with CoX and instead it only get's minimum updates to keep it's small but dedicated fanbase.

Cheers

 

See ... i can pick and chose all the games that have failed with SOE as well just like you did with the other companys, but i wont yet, i'll let you read my post again. And by successfull i usually mean around 150-200k+ subscription. Very succussfull i reserve for 400k+. (just to give you an idea of what i mean) EQ and EQ2 are "successfull" but afaik they are losing subs slowly. SWG isnt, its not just "vets" who are angry, but betrayed customers who are getting tired of so much attention put on to the TCG. Once they can bring 4 or more servers into "heavy", will i believe it really is doing well.

Ehmm LOTRO doesn't have 400k+ subs. It's succesful and doing good, but not that good (Im still subbed myself).

People already getting fed up in how the LI system is implemented and Jeffrey Steefel being clueless and trying to force a Radiance dominated system to our throats, while the majority of players is against it! Not to mention that the whole game lvl50+ has turned into one horrible faction grind fest. Grind faction here, grind faction there. That's all there is lately in LOTRO.

So Turbine doesn't have any very succesful games either. Succesful one. Yes.

When it comes to NcSoft. They might have succesful P2P games in Asia, but on the western market they fail horribly. I hope for them Aion will finally be a succesful P2P game for them on the western market. Time will tell.

Funcom... well they don't have any MMO with 400k+ subs either.

Cheers

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by tvalentine

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by tvalentine

 

yeah but this thread is about SOE and not the mmorpg industry as a whole. SOE has alot of games with great potential that are sitting in limbo between death and barely breathing. The other studios of the games you listed are succesfull and have had very successfull mmorpgs. (NCsoft, Turbine, funcom, etc etc etc.)

 

EverQuest 1 and 2 are still doing well and are profitable games.

SWG isn't doing all that bad either and is still profitable. I know many vets with their eternal grudge don't want to hear it.

I don't like SWG in it's NGE incarnation either, but plenty of people still seem to enjoy it. Good for them and let them. Who are we to judge them.

Turbine isn't that holy at all. They completely neglectic a great IP and runned DDO into the ground and now turned it into a F2P game in a desperate attempt to resurrect it.

NcSoft isn't that holy either. They could have done a lot better with CoX and instead it only get's minimum updates to keep it's small but dedicated fanbase.

Cheers

 

See ... i can pick and chose all the games that have failed with SOE as well just like you did with the other companys, but i wont yet, i'll let you read my post again. And by successfull i usually mean around 150-200k+ subscription. Very succussfull i reserve for 400k+. (just to give you an idea of what i mean) EQ and EQ2 are "successfull" but afaik they are losing subs slowly. SWG isnt, its not just "vets" who are angry, but betrayed customers who are getting tired of so much attention put on to the TCG. Once they can bring 4 or more servers into "heavy", will i believe it really is doing well.

 

Ehmm LOTRO doesn't have 400k+ subs. It's succesful and doing good, but not that good. People already getting fed up in how the LI system is implemented and Jeffrey Steefel being clueless and trying to force a Radiance dominated system to our throats, while the majority of players is against it! Not to mention that the whole game lvl50+ has turned into one horrible faction grind fest. Grind faction here, grind faction there. That's all there is lately in LOTRO.

So Turbine doesn't have any very succesful games either. Succesful one. Yes.

this could be true, i was going off the last

i was going off what i heard last from LOTRO that they had over 500k subscriptions. Although i give them a pass for all the awards they've won in the past 2 years with LOTRO.

When it comes to NcSoft. They might have succesful P2P games in Asia, but on the western market they fail horribly. I hope for them Aion will finally be a succesful P2P game for them on the western market.

lol picking and choosing again, a subscription is a subscription

Funcom... well they don't have any MMO with 400k+ subs either.

they probably dont have one over 400k, but i wouldnt rule out AO or AOC. Both games are getting better and climbing. Also wouldnt be surprised if they have over 150k+ subs

Cheers

tbh the only true fact we have is aion's subscription numbers, the other 2 are our own opinions. And like i said this thread is about SOE, mentioning any other studio or game is going off topic. The facts we do have with SOE are:

Matrix is a failure, and forgotten by SOE

Planetside is failing/failure (depends on who you ask) and is forgotten by SOE

SWG has a bad history, and had the TCG attached to make the community angry. Has 1-3 heavy servers. Will have to wait and see once SW TOR is released. Has SOE support

EQ1 still kicking, although with every new mmorpg release i see EQ losing numbers, also the TCG did not help. Still has SOE support

EQ2 still kicking but failing, has SOE support

Free realms, to early to make an observation.

Vanguard never fully recovered, quite a bit of a clone to the EQs, but has a big world. Failed and has SOE support.

There only impact on the market as it stands is EQ1 and EQ2 (dunno about free realms yet). The agency and DC universe look to be the same themepark mmos we've been getting since 04. With a company as big as SOE you expect more. They have the money and resources to made great games, its just their direction that sucks. They look out for themselves and making money, which is what you would expect from a big company. Funcom is moving on, they are developing new and unique games, turbine ..... i dunno ..... NCSoft is developing multiple mmos and their newest game aion is a huge hit. SOE is developing F2P games and games targets towards a younger crowd (besides DCU). DCU is their only real contender in the next few years. They have alot of games with alot of potential but neglect them or take them in the wrong direction. I dont see any of their current games making a comeback anytime soon, something i cant say for the other 3 companys we've mentioned.

Its every humans responsibility to get onto this game and help increase its population :) Show the damn devs what a treasure they are sitting on.. best damn game ever made, all categories.

poor matrix is dead now could planetside be next?

Originally posted by benasato

poor matrix is dead now could planetside be next?

With 41 people being fired over the weekend. I wouldn't be suprised.

But then again, SOE just took over Matrix Online, because they had to in order to get the DC Universe IP from Warner Entertainment. So it suprised me they let it run that long, as they never ever had the intention to fix and improve it.

Cheers

I used to play planetside with friends when it first launch the playerbase back then was huge and the battles where just has huge but around the launch of core combat an exapansion pack you had to pay for which cost the same as the game and now they give away free lol, alot of players left around the corecombat launch and then the game kinda was left alone and there was 1 or 2 updates since then but nothing major. Like the article said SOE has left this game in the back of their minds and forgotton about it.

If the was to add new gameplay elements to the game or just add new classes and run some event drop the subscription price by half they might breath some life into the game.

I loved Planetside and it's still fun toay so go give it a try using the station launcher trials and increase the population cause thats what makes it even better, having giant battles. Just a shame SOE havn't ever added anything major to the game since the crap expansion of core combat.

what a lot of developers dont get is the older a game becomes the less justified the monthly fee is . like all such other mmos change to different payment model , reduce the subscription or make it free to play and it ll breath new life into a game .

i dont like codemasters/turbine but at least they get it .

Originally posted by googajoob7

what a lot of developers dont get is the older a game becomes the less justified the monthly fee is . like all such other mmos change to different payment model , reduce the subscription or make it free to play and it ll breath new life into a game .

i dont like codemasters/turbine but at least they get it .

If a game is properly maintained, continueisly updated and receives expansion packs. Then there is no need to change it subscruption model.

The fact here is, that Planetside is on life support, doesn't receive any updates anymore! And SOE continueing to charge full monthly subscription fee.

Big difference!

Planetside had really an epic theme to it, and a unique style of gameplay. I'm playing now, and I've played it (with a couple breaks of course) since the game was released. The game is still great many people left thinking that  BFRs ruined the game, along with all the bending and shifting crap (their expansion) but it really is just as good as the old days now and a lot people still play.

K so according to my subscription planetside is active.... guess its a few come bk month or something lol but yeah if i remember correctly planetside doesn't like vista and the never released a fix so i will not be downloading it.

I played it pretty much at release and lasted 2 months. I really don't remember much about it except that it was one of a very few games that actually annoyed me to have paid money for. I genuinely disliked the whole experience of playing it.

The complaints I had back then (glitchiness, featureless expanses, repetitive combat, largely headless chicken style of other players, all the depth of a muddy puddle etc etc) were probably resolved or improved over the following years but I never went back to it.