Please DO NOT add a party system!

If you do, make it so you can STILL FACE YOUR FRIENDS!

Going against your friends is the one thing that makes LP unlike every other game, that you constantly have fun seeing who is and isn't on your team, and you get a chance to actually play with new people and see how your friends play.

It's the only game where you get to have an amazing time having sweet battles with your friends, and then after the match talking for 10 minutes about how you got that kill or how you got away and such.

PLEASE don't take that away!

Everyone who has stuck with playing LP for any length of time knows that the leader boards are bogus anyway. If you believe leader boards are legit I have some real estate to sell you. Leader board ranking in a video game and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, I’m positive it is not a good idea to harm game play at the expense of a meaningless ranking.

Very true.  For rankings to mean anything, firstly, there would have to be a limit to the amount of games a person can play in a given period of time that count towards their rank.  Even a minimum.  And then, not being so much about how many points a player accumulates from the end of a match, but how well they did in comparison to other players - much like the points earned for killing a player with a higher/lower rank.

Being fair means giving the host control of the match he bothered to setup. If you disagree with the particular aspects of a match you don’t join it, it’s that simple. If you don’t see a match you like, set one up. Give the host the option to manage the way he/she sees fit. If you manage matches well, you will have no shortage of players wanting to join your games.

That simply isn't true, and doesn't work like you say.  People will generally gravitate towards a game that they think will start soon and they feel they can win, while having less patience in a room that they are unsure of.  That is to the detriment of the variety offered by the game.  Really, how hard was it to find games using Machine Guns on Canyon 810 and Island 902, for instance.  Even worse, (most) players feel that they will do better if they start with the 'ultimate' weapon, so that they have no need to move around the map so much.  Hence the poularity of Rifle/Rocket Launcher, Layout 3 and so forth.  Anyway, this just promotes 'clumps' of popular setups in rooms starting straight after they are finished, while rooms with less popular setups (that are by no means any better or worse, or more or less fun to play) will be forced to start short of a full room if they don't want to wait half an hour for it to fill; that is quickly learnt by, and makes them even less appealing to people searching games, and making the room take even longer to find the neccessary players for a full game again.  I just feel that the way it has worked in previous Lost Planet games has spread the player base far too thinly by offering far too many options, forcing players to pander to popular opinion to actually get a game to start in a timely fashion.

There really needs to be a rotation system with maps coupled with the ability to stay in the same room that is on rotation.  It would also be imperative that that is visible before entering the room.

Man, I could debate about this forever...

I believe a K/B system implemented correctly would act as a self policing mechanism that would clean up gameplay. A host that arbitrarily kicks players experiences no upside, since there is no point advantage to do so if done right and kicking like that will give you a reputation very quickly not to bother with your matches.

I think when it boils right down to it the vast majority will use K/B sparingly, and the worst offenders will be weeded out. In playing LP since the beginning I have only done permanent bans on about 2 dozen people. Compared to thousands of players that’s a very small percentage.

A variation on the timed ban might be something to examine, ex. 3 strikes and you’re out rule. This might be better than instant permanent ban for life, and allows for network conditions to improve if it is in fact legitimate network condition causing the problem and will allow for weeding out the truly bad apples.

I think you're pretty-much spot-on there.  Banning for life is really rather stupid.  A way to get around that is, like I was saying above, rooms with rotations/continuous rooms where a player could be banned from the session.  Although, 3 strikes is tricky; how easy is it to kill 3 teammates with one honest mistake, for example!

+1 Map Hazards

Too many hazards would terrify new players way too much.  There are a lot of hazards already in the game, and I think they got the amount mostly right.

+1 Safe Random Spawns

No!  No no no no no!  If anything, safer fixed spawns.  Where, if pinned in your own spawn, the game turns into more of a seige, rather than spawning behind your opponents.  That whole random/safe spawn mechanic added to most recent shooters only acts to make people run around in circles, constantly trying to be behind their opponents' spawn waves to get the most, easy kills.  In short, it would solidify Lost Planet in playing like Halo.

I hope you don't think I'm trolling you here.  Despite not playing Lost Planet for a long while due to Colonies, I remember playing with/against you often, and definitely respect you as a player and your opinion.  I'm just chucking-in my two cents.

Anyway, here's some more quick ideas:

-Advancing spawns on large maps:  Say, on Canyon 810, if a team takes a Data Post that is closer to the enemy spawn, that then becomes the primary spawn point.  I hate to use that as an example, as I absolutely loved the mad-rush you would have to do after dying to make it back up to reinforce your teammates at the next 'base', but I think it would make that whole tactical idea easier to understand for everyone.  (I currently have a smile on my face remembering the way we used to play that map on LP:EC with the **** crew.  It worked as a better wargame than any other I've played, even those that attempted that exact mechanic.)

-Flares/distress beacons:  Like on G.R.A.W. with the 'call for help'.  Deciding on exactly how these should be used is a bit pointless at this stage, not knowing how the game will play, but I'm sure Capcom have the ability to impliment the idea usefully.

...I want to say more, but right now I have to replenish my thermal energy...

Feb 25, 2009 -- 8:43PM, KaosSwirl wrote:

Feb 25, 2009 -- 4:04PM, T wrote:

-More Map Hazards like the maps that changed from night to day and became real foggy. Have one map where a horde Trilids will come out and just start attacking people on both sides. Or a moth will come out once in a while and just drop exploding pods on everyone.

imo the 1st LostPlanet was ruined by people posting up (hiding) in some far off corner and sniping people from 10miles away, having the white outs and day/night cycles really helped in keeping sniping down to a minimum. i would really, really like capcom to do something about this, sniping in multiplayer is my one and only real complaint about the 1st game.

now what i would like to see in the 2nd LP game... id like to see the ability of moving side to side when you grapple a object, instead of the traditional grappling a object and jumping ontop of it.

id like to see one click crouching, it killed my thumb holding down the right thumbstick to stay in a crouch.

for me this game was so much fun because of the cooperative game modes, activating all the energy nodes and the capture the flag with the egg. id really like to see more of these type of modes.

i never really had problems with sniping on maps where there is lots of cover id just roll between the cover and the snipers would never bother me. on frozen wasteland tho sniping can become a problem. and you can already go side to side with the grapple just it takes awhile lol. would be cool if they added in something where your guy could swing back and forth by kicking his legs around. and its easy enough if capcom adds something in the options to toggle crouch mode. nearly everygame that has crouching has an option where you can toggle it on or off so im sure they will add that in this version.

Hello,  First, I do not mind hearing others opinions, or that some disagree with my opinion, so you don’t have to worry about that.

We’ll have to disagree on the host control point; my thought is coming from the perspective of hosting, which I still do regularly on LPEC, no doubt having been host to thousands of matches. My experience has been not so much people going into a match with the winning thought as it is the best equipment set for the map. For example, just about everyone finds it frustrating to do a Canyon 810 match on machine gun when VS’s are involved. At least with a default rocket type you can extend your gameplay closer to spawn, rather than having to traverse the map only to have insufficient firepower to take out the hardballer that just flew over the rise.

I think a good middle ground to be considered would be giving the host the ability to change the parameters of the game up to the point of match start. No voting system, otherwise nobody would host if they thought their game could be taken over by those who wanted to play another game type. I’ve been in matches many a time where the next match would be discussed, changing stage or equipment type. I think that the vast majority could be kept happy by allowing the host the ability to do this. I believe this would also have the effect of players being more civil to hosts in order to play specific game types.

Perhaps clarification is in order on the 3 strikes. The host would have to explicitly do a ban on a player 3 times to enact a permanent (or nearly so, 1 year) ban. And since you play LP you are well aware of those that ruin the game intentionally and those who just happen to be less than coordinated. I must say that there are exceptions to this, ex. someone comes into a match with the explicit reason of running the room, ex. blatant cheating. In that case I really have no problem with a permanent ban, or at least a ban list with the option to remove the ban.

In other games where host controls the K/B, the level of hostility in the lobby is so much less. When players know there is a consequence to their action they usually don’t flip out. LP could get like elementary school in the lobby more than I’d like to think due to the lack of recourse in this regard. I hope Capcom at least gives sensible host K/B a try.

Safer spawn, agreed, I’m not sure how best to implement though since I really haven’t given it much thought.

Flares, not sure either.

Not sure I remember playing with you on LPEC, I can only muster 3-4 matches on Colonies before I go back to the original, I enjoy the game play more.

kick and ban is great but should there not be a love and praise to? for the guys that are steady hosts with great conections?