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SOE Launches Planetside Fodder Program 52

Posted by Zonk from the go-shoot-someone-but-not-someone-real dept.
RobinH writes "Sony Online Entertainment hopes to recruit more players to its aging MMOFPS title Planetside with the launch of its new play-for-free version Planetside: Reserves. According to a story in Gamasutra, 'The freeplay option limits players to a "battle rank" of six, with higher ranks only available to those with a paying account. PlanetSide is already part of the Massive in-game advertising network, and has been running billboard and other adverts since August 2005, presumably helping to fund the game's continued operation via this alternative model.'"
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SOE Launches Planetside Fodder Program More

SOE Launches Planetside Fodder Program

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  • So...it's just a demo? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:17PM (#15004821)
    "The freeplay option limits players to a "battle rank" of six, with higher ranks only available to those with a paying account..."

    So, it's just a traditional demo version, right?

    • Well...traditionally a demo version, even multiplayer, wouldn't allow to play with the regular players. I downloaded this over the weekend, as I was interested in trying out Planetside. Me and my brother hooked up with a crew of regular players and we fought in a largish battle.

      The game is actually quite fun. It reminds me of a watered down Tribes with experience points.

    • Re:So...it's just a demo? (Score:4, Informative)

      by ptbarnett ( 159784 ) on Monday March 27, 2006 @03:44PM (#15005073)
      So, it's just a traditional demo version, right?

      Not entirely. The Reserves play on the same server as everyone else. They can continue to play until the end of the demo period (March 24, 2007 -- no matter when you start).

      All of the areas, vehicles, and weapons are available to the Reserve players. The BR 6 limitation just means they won't be able to "learn" more than a handful of certifications at any one time. But, you can "forget" a certification every 6 hours, so you can re-cert (almost) as often as you want.

      You start with 7 cert points at BR1, and you'll get an additional one for each BR until BR6. At BR6, you get your first "implant" instead.

      The only real handicap for a Reserve player is that paying subscribers will go to the head of the queue (in front of Reserve players) when a zone is population-locked (i.e. there are already 133 players from your empire in that zone).

    • A sort of demo, the Battle Rank limitations means you can't build an "all-around" character. My 'toon is BR25/CR5 (command rank)I have a lot of options in a fight. Fly a plane, drive a tank, lay mines, call down Orbital Strikes...etc. All that and I'm still regualarly owned by some noob with a Suppressor (Assault Rifle). It's a fun game but with a steep learning curve, do the ingame training.
  • I guess people have this strange assumption that they will jump on a server with people that have been playing a game for 2 years, and think they can do well against them. Just to let you know, you probably won't. The best way to learn is to hook up with an outfit. Assume you will die a lot. But, you can spawn in near by. Not a big deal. This is a fun game. Just not a simple game, like Counter Strike.
    • This is true. Planetside, like the Tribes/Tribes2 games, are a bit more complex than most FPSes. Plan on spending some time in the VR training, and asking questions. Many outfit leaders are looking to swell their ranks and bringing in someone new who is willing to learn can be a great thing.

      Personally, compared to the other MMO games I've tried, I like the way Planetside is set up. I am not worried about reaching Level 60 so I can get epic weapons and gear, I don't need to grind away before being able t
  • Seems a lot of 'fringe' MMOG going free, like Shadowbane [ubi.com] for some unknown PR reasons, instead of turning off the lights.

    1) Release MMOG
    2) Give it out for free
    3) ????
    4) Profit

    Not sure what they hope for.
    • Planetside is hoping for people to move up to paid accounts, and is selling in game adverts. SB is hoping to get people to come back and eventually buy Shadowbane 2.
      • Shadowbane was one of the worst griefing experiences I ever had. I like the care bear love of WOW.
        • Umm, that was the whole POINT of shadowbane- full PvP, all the time. It wasn't meant to be a 6 million seller like WoW, it was supposed to sell to a certain market segment (PvP). Its not griefing when thats the point of the game- to kill other people and destroy their towns.

          As for WoW- it was fun for a while. Then Battlegrounds and honor killed world PvP, and raid loot became so powerful that if you didn't do MC and BWL every week you couldn't PvP effectively at all. Thats when I quit.
    • They're not going free, not at all. Look at the facts:

      1) Fodder accounts are limited to BR6. That's *nothing* - you can go up to 24 at least if you pay.
      2) Fodder accounts are time-limited - and what's more, they all expire at the same time. If you sign up now, you still have almost a year; if you sign up in early 2007, you'll only have a few months.
      3) Fodder accounts are not able to use many of the better vehicles.

      Also, keep in mind that you're competing against players who are more experienced (both in in-
      • You're not getting conned, you're getting something for nothing. Sure, your something isn't as nice as the something given to people who are paying, and sure they're only giving it to you hoping it'll increase your desire for the non-free product, but so what? It's not like they're being underhanded about it.

        If you're the least bit interested in Planetside, now you can try it out for free for a while. If you like it and want to pay to get more out of it, great! Everyone's happy. If you don't like it, then r

  • I've been playing this game on and off since it was in beta three years ago. Few games provide me with as much rage or entertainment. SOE has made mistake after mistake compounded with bad ideas. But, the core idea of the game is so interesting and the variety such that I keep playing. Really, once you get into it and find a good group to play with, there just isn't any game like it.

    For new players, the game will SUCK for about two weeks. The game is a lot more complex than you think.

    For example:

    If you
    • Now, how many shots will it take an NC in heavy armor with heavy assault to kill you? One. Cause the NC have magical guns. (not really, they just kill me a lot)

      LOL. You should hear what the NC say about the TR and VS heavy assault weapons. :-)

      The secret to success with the NC heavy assault weapon (basically, a big-ass shotgun) is to close on your target. At close range, it's awesome when it works. Unfortunately, there's a lingering bug that causes you to "miss" at point-blank range, and it's been th

  • Battle rank 6 gets you practically nothing, even with the shifts last year to make starting players more powerful. I was beginning to hold my own by rank 12, before my outfit collapsed and I lost interest. If they can get people to play this, it will only result in more kills for the real players. It's ridiculous the ammount of carnage one small, experienced team can exact against a horde of zerglings. Almost makes me want to restart my combat engineer for the sheer joy of laying minefields and autoturr
    • Indeed, Combat Engineers can create carnage as well.
      And you can be one at BR2.

    • Fodder is _NOT_ quite right. You'll hear the term "FodderSide" quite a bit, but it's not that simple. As others have stated, this game is not as simple as you might think. Once you start to learn your way around the game, there is depth and subtlety and nuance.

      Unlike most other MMOGs, PS allows newbies to contribute and play right along side hardnened veterans, and do so in a meaningful way. At rank 6, you will have 11 certification points to spend on equipment and vehicles. This is enough to pick a role yo
      • I think I might give it another go It was a fun game.
        I haven't played it for over a year now.

        I used to be our outfits air commander.
        Although I did almost loose that title when I flew our entire squad into the side of a mountain range.
        Hmm this means I'll probably have to join another outfit doesn't it ?
        And work my way up again.

    • Re:Fodder is right (Score:3, Informative)

      by RobinH ( 124750 )
      Here are some great combinations you could have with 11 cert points (BR6):

      Heavy Trooper:
      - Reinforced eXosuit (3), Medium Assault (2), Heavy Assault (4), Misc (2)

      Grenadier/Support:
      - Reinforced eXosuit (3), Medium Assault (2), Special Assault (3), Engineering (3)

      Sniper:
      - Medium Assault (2), Sniper (3), Misc (6)

      Pilot:
      - Air Cavalry Scout (3), Air Cavalry Assault (2), Air support (3), Misc (3)

      Armor Driver:
      - Armored Assault 1 & 2 (3), Ground Transport (2), Engineering (3), Flail (artillery) (1), Misc (2)

      Comba
  • Well, I've done my best to polish up my installer over the weekend.
    Put in about every detail I can think of for the trial.

    It's a 1MB web installer.

    Completely simple, compatable, and just about perfect in every way :)
    http://www.greyfalcon.net/psinstall.zip


    I'm also the guy who ran the installer last year when we had only 7 day trial keys.
    http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/05/ 1713229 [slashdot.org]
    Got about 7,000 downloads off that marketing push

    As for the Devs, we've got a new Producer, really cap
  • A little confused.. I dl'd the client.. and when I try to log in.. it tells me I need to active an account with an account key? what gives...
  • got it to work

    Install the game.. but you have to change your shortcut

    For your current shortcut for Planetside you need to do the following.
    Right click the shortcut.
    Click on properties.
    Then on the target add this line.
    "C:\Program Files\Sony\Station\LaunchPad\LaunchPad.exe" /game:planetside /batch:2007908 /plan:426
    Start in should show.
    "C:\Program Files\Sony\Planetside"


    • Yeah, SOE likes to give you little puzzles to solve before you can play. Next week you'll be asked to name which planet Andvari is on.

      I'll be playing in about an hour. If you post on www.PlanetsideSyndicate.com what server and username you'll be using I'll be happy to give you a hand learning.

  • Before it was only booted up in trial account creation mode the first run. I just changed it so that it boots in the trial account creation mode for all the shortcuts. Since they could just make a trial account, then upgrade it to paying 2 seconds later. Good catch.

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