Planetside 2 announces plan to boost "fight intensity" after player feedback

With Planetside 2's World Domination Series Preseason 2 event now well underway, the game masters at Sony Online Entertainment are already announcing rules tweaks to counteract what the developer calls "some undesired player behavior." It seems battles in the massive MMO shooter haven't reached the desired white-hot level of intensity since the WDS Preseason kicked off on Friday.

Leading up to the Preseason, SOE changed player scoring for capturing and defending points among the game's three factions. Even though overall player deaths are up, one side effect of the scoring change has been a drop in the average number of times a player dies during individual capture skirmishes, according to SOE. This fact points to a "significant reduction in fight intensity," according to a new forumabout the issue by PS2 developer Malorn.

"We believe this behavior stems from players avoiding fights in favor of easy and guaranteed WDS points for captures, and that the defense rewards are not lucrative enough to motivate players to defend territory," Malorn writes. "This was not one of the goals of the system and we apologize for the negative impact it has had on your gameplay experience."

To combat the distasteful sight of unmotivated soldiers, SOE is working on a hotfix—to be deployed in the "next few days"—that it believes will make it more lucrative to defend territory. As PCGamesNhas reported, some players are observing giant, "zerg"-like groups of soldierswandering the PS2 continent looking for easy captures and the accompanying point rewards. Intensity, spectacle, and crazy momentum shifts have always stood out to me as the calling cards of a good PS2 match. Anything SOE can do to balance the game in favor of close fights, useful tactical maneuvers, and teamwork rather than mindless blobs farming capture points is a good move in my book.

The WDS Preseason event runs through February 28.