As terrible as pr-nerf pretty much everything was, at least it made the game feel bigger. Tanks were powerful, gals were powerful, ESFs were powerful, and it made being an infantryman dangerous, but it also made it meaningful. People used to just stop and pick you up if they needed a gunner. Supporting armor pushes (especially before everyone had their timers fully certed) used to feel more important. Shelling used to feel WW1-esque, big, deadly, and imprecise, and it felt amazingly atmospheric, even if it was broken damage-wise. Strategic maneuvering of forces, and close-knit pairing of attack and logistical (read: moving players with sundies) vehicles used to be more worthwhile.
Was ESFs killing players inside buildings with splash from rocketpods outside the doorways terribly broken? Yes. Would I go back to it? Probably not. Did HEX produce fewer bad fights than good? Yes. Would I go back to it? Probably not. Was HE Prowler spam straight-up unfair to newer players? Yes. Would I go back to it? Probably not. Was the old Crown a terribly designed meatgrinder? Yes. Would I go back to it? Probably not. Was the graphical intensity of the old effects far to ambitious? Yes. Would I go back to it? Probably not. Was having no resources because you were 20% server underpopped beneficial to, well, any part of the game? No. Would I go back to it? Probably not. However, although the removal of pretty much all of the above, as well as everything I didn't mention, was, by all measures, an incredible improvement to the healt of the game, we lost part of the soul of the game embedded in those broken beginnings. A game where (all to only some degree) territory mattered, transport mattered, strategy mattered, teamwork mattered. A game where breaking an opposition of tanks took coordination, patience, and daring, and felt like a true accomplishment. A game where" keeping watch" was an actua, worthwhile roll, and where command comms was actually worth putting up with. A game where, occasionally, people actually used proximity comms. A spectacle of overwhelming, chaotic beauty; a spectacle of sight and sound. A game where running in the open felt dangerous, and riding in a sundy felt safe. A game where, when the base was getting shelled, it felt like an actual war, like the true hell of the trenches; and you had to grit your teeth and keep going, like a true soldier, even though, like a true soldier, you felt fragile as glass inside.
Was the old Planetside broken? Yes. Without a doubt. Have we come a long way since then? Yes. However, we lost something, some crucial" feel" of play, to the old game. Slowly, everything became just a little more hollow, to the husk we have today. The old game was a charred black steak, and the new game is a neat, prepackaged, industrial snack food. The first was more then a little repulsive, and incredibly difficult to force down, but it satisfied you. It felt hearty, and left you wanting more. The second is prepared correctly, cooked correctly, and salted correctly, but carries no flavor, and leaves you feeling just as empty as you were to begin with. It goes down easy, but you may as well be eating anything else, or, perhaps, even just air.
The new resource system has been out for, what, a little over half a year now? Lattice a year and a quarter of Amerish, and a year and three quarters as of Indar? HEAT nerfs a year? Influence system two years? Two years ago, there were times when I starved, when the bitter sting of charred meat was too much for me, but I miss those days now. I miss feeling satisfied, feeling satiated. It's been so long, and though I can't say I'd give up the luxuries we have now, I feel we could have found a way to bear it, had we known what we would lose in fixing those problems.
Could the devs find some way to breathe new life into the game, while still maintaining the new changes? Maybe. Maybe with new resources, maybe with new objectives, maybe with redesigned and recontextualized vehicles, maybe with new tools and utilities, maybe with all sorts of things. We can be hopeful, we cam be doubtful, or we can be indifferent, but the game will move on regardless. Old is gone; soon new will be old, and it will be gone as well. I just hope we find what we lost, and learn to see it as it truly was, both in its good and its bad.