Just found these two pics on Tony Park's blog

[stargazer093]

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/5433/74b067afjw1dhc9qlt97dj.jpg

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8818/74b067afjw1dhca2ftz7tj.jpg


can you guys see the pic?

[Sirisian]

Interesting. I'm glad they went back to continents.

// I still can't figure out what I'm looking at in the second picture. Some bases surrounded by water? Looks promising.

[Traak]

EDIT:

I went to the actual site, downloaded the large picture, THEN flattened 'er out with GIMP. Click on the 'nail, then click again to get a full-blown pic.

Looks like different base icons, one looks like a chemical tank with a hose going to and from it OR a battery with a cord and plug coming from it, one looks like multiple smokestacks on a factory, another looks like the top view of a tank or a stylized castle, a la a rook in chess.
The central base zigzag symbol reminds me of the electrical engineering symbol for an electrical resistor.
And, like someone noted later on down in this thread, a warpgate in the water! LOL I didn't even notice until I read down further that the round things were warpgates!


4km maps. How big are the ones we have now?
Will there be a gigantic megamap, but where we only see/map 4km at a time, a moving display, as it were?
Water, water everywhere, but is there a drop to drink/boat on/swim/submarine under?
Biospheres? How are biospheres significant, as opposed to just saying "terrain" or "environment"?
Planetside2 Massive Warfare seems to be the name. Sony has this domain name www.planetside2.com and it just redirects back to a Sony page.
Notably, planetside3 domain does not go anywhere.

[Sirisian]

In case others didn't notice. Here's the large full versions:
http://ww3.sinaimg.cn/large/74b067afjw1dhc9qlt97dj.jpg
http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/74b067afjw1dhca2ftz7tj.jpg
Right click view image on the second image and zoom in with ctrl+ and you'll see factory images. (Tech plants?) There's also things that look like power plants. Meh might be just placeholders.

The possible waterfall sounds nice. I bet we can extrapolate the whole game from this one image.
Enhance!
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7900/planetsideconcept.png

[Aractain]

If that is accurate...

Biospheres would probably mean putting desert, hilly, cyssor and forest into the same map. (seems like it on that map too)

4km x 4km, isn't that... the largest map size of BF2? Although most of its maps were more like 1km x 1km of playable are 2 x 2 on the bigger tank/air maps.

I would amend his slide with "Pretty big" instead of 'Massive'. :P

Oh yeah, and is it me or does that look like some one drew it on a napkin in 5 minuets scanned it and photoshoped some crap on it? That bottom base looks like a cup of coffee also...

[Zapalot]

looks to me like were getting boat certs, or something like that...awesome idea ^^

[Lorgarn]

This looks pretty interesting. Great work with keeping us updated. :)

[otomotopia]

The text is even more interesting.

Met with the SOE partners in the United States; very excited because they told me new developments for Planetside Next: the content of the game is good, andthey feel the original name no longer suitable. They officially changed its name to Planetside2. Bring you more news later.

[Tikuto]

Uh oh... Didn't someone about PlanetSide from SOE says the name with a "2" on the end -- PlanetSide 2 -- wouldn't work because of their EverQuest 2?

Here's the important Google Translate quote of Tony Park on his blog (http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&u=http://weibo.com/the9tonypark):
they feel the original name no longer suitable, so officially changed its name to Planetside2.

I do not like it.


I'd rather they change the name of the old one or just put it in the "PlanetSide refuse" bin and keep the original "PlanetSide" for the new PlanetSide. It's their stuff after all. What harm could it do? Who'd fret over the confusion of both the better of the older game... ?

[Nephilimuk]

4km by 4km seem a little small - are they not the same size of the mini conts that replaced Oshur?

I would much rather have something on Cysors scale

Oh happy birthday Planetside at least you fans still love you....

[Firefly]

What the fuck is that, a Warpgate in the water??

[rnc100]

Thanks for the post looks interesting, map size brings a question to mind in regards to how massive are they aiming for in terms of players on the map.

[BorisBlade]

Well thats 2.5 miles, honestly thats prob what we have now and its many times bigger than the BF maps. You have to understand that vehicles in PS move slow as hell. Their speed is in KPH which may be misleading if you are used to seeing MPH. A prowler for example moves at 33mph top speed. That means 5mins at full speed with no bumps or turns in a straight line. Realistically, 8 mins side to side at full speed in a relatively straight path. That seems about right for anything short of Ishunder which is quite massive but also has alot of empty space. (not a bad thing tho)

Also, keep in mind that if a map goes from 1 km across to 2, its 4x bigger, so the BF maps which are maybe 1km, compared to 4km...at minimum 16x bigger area than those maps.

Distinct biospheres just means the same as old ps where each cont had its own biosphere or climate. Aka, snowy conts, desert conts, jungle, temperate, etc.

[BorisBlade]

Im hoping thats a zoomed in view of a map. I hope we dont get some invisible border crap like in bf/cod. I'm assumin its normal conts, but who knows. Kills the immersion when its just pieces of some area you cant even get to.

So little info, all this speculation is gonna drive us nutz. =D Seriously hope E3 has some info.

[Traak]

The text is even more interesting.

Met with the SOE partners in the United States; very excited because they told me new developments for Planetside Next: the content of the game is good, andthey feel the original name no longer suitable. They officially changed its name to Planetside2. Bring you more news later.

You, sir do NOT suck.

[Robert089]

Can anyone make out that blue writing on the white board? All I could make out was CHINA, FREE and TECH.

[Raymac]

Well, this is very interesting indeed. It's kind of hard to tell what we are looking at, but the rough quality of it makes me think the map is either a very early draft of the real map, or it's just a made up example of the general idea behind the maps.

Also 4km x 4km sounds like a pretty decent size, but I'd like to know what that is in relation to the current maps. If it's like Oshur islands, then it will not even be close to "massive" enough and it will be the biggest disappointment in my gaming life.

I still have faith that they will stay true to the massive scale. SOE has said thats what made Planetside great, so they want to keep that or go bigger. Could it be another lie, and PS:N is just another Global Agenda? I guess, but they can't be THAT stupid....right?

[Logit]

I still have faith that they will stay true to the massive scale. SOE has said thats what made Planetside great, so they want to keep that or go bigger. Could it be another lie, and PS:N is just another Global Agenda? I guess, but they can't be THAT stupid....right?

I think it's pretty safe to say when it comes to stupid, SOE sets the bar preetttyy high.

[opticalshadow]

4km seems like a mossy or wasp would cross that cont in like a minute flat

[Sirisian]

The size change could be a move to keep the battles more compact. (I mean currently most of the battlefield is rarely used. You fight in one spot for a few hours). Or it's because the larger maps won't work with the PS3's hardware. :rofl:

[Lonehunter]

What the fuck is that, a Warpgate in the water??

Would make sense with some water vechs

[opticalshadow]

The size change could be a move to keep the battles more compact. (I mean currently most of the battlefield is rarely used. You fight in one spot for a few hours). Or it's because the larger maps won't work with the PS3's hardware. :rofl:

CURRETNLY thats true, but the thing is when ps came out, during year 1, most of the battle field was used. making maps smaller based on the current player pop would be a massive mistake.

[Sirisian]

CURRETNLY thats true, but the thing is when ps came out, during year 1, most of the battle field was used. making maps smaller based on the current player pop would be a massive mistake.
I got the game when it came out. Even at max population fighting was generally pretty localized to one base or tower with 266 people spread out in an area.

However! I see your point. We're supposed to be having larger battles so why would the maps shrink? I want 1000 players at least. :(

[Espion]

Also 4km x 4km sounds like a pretty decent size, but I'd like to know what that is in relation to the current maps.

The original conts ranged in size from 4x4 to 8x8, with old oshur probably being the closest in size to 4x4.

Old oshur, fors, amerish, cery, esamir, solsar... all the smallest conts and all the most fun to fight on. Sounds good to me.

[opticalshadow]

I got the game when it came out. Even at max population fighting was generally pretty localized to one base or tower with 266 people spread out in an area.

However! I see your point. We're supposed to be having larger battles so why would the maps shrink? I want 1000 players at least. :(

idk i was on marokov and i remember spending quite a few hours in transist battles across ishandar and cyssor and forseal (the three conts my outfit spent the most time on) where it would be 20 prowlers and air force and scatted other troops all pushing inbetween towers or bases. back then we didnt want to take towers first because it gave us away, and we had to avoid all the main roads to not get detected or lose half our guys on mines, mossies took point with wraith riders to make sure the cost was clear as 100+ troops skirted bases to avoid detection, and set up forward field bases.

maybe i was just lucky, but i remember year one spending almost as much time in the wilderness fighting as in bases.

[BorisBlade]

I got the game when it came out. Even at max population fighting was generally pretty localized to one base or tower with 266 people spread out in an area.

However! I see your point. We're supposed to be having larger battles so why would the maps shrink? I want 1000 players at least. :(

133 per side are current pop lock numbers, it used to be closer to 500 total if all three empires pop locked it. (the exact number is escaping me atm) So that space was used alot. Plus having some bases closer and some farther and the terrain between them really changes how each fight plays out and adds to the variety.

The cont size on most conts was about right. Ish may be a bit big but it also had a ton of bases. Knowing vehicle flight speeds, you could do a few timed runs on a few conts to get a rough idea on the current sizes. And i hope to god they arent doin anything based on what a crappy PS3 can handle, those things are so massively outdated and old its not worth the loss in quality. The abysmally low RAM alone holds em back big time, not to mention the ancient graphics cards they have. (7800 gt approx)

[Redshift]

mossies fly at 119 kph without burners, 4x4 would take 2 mins to fly accross or 2.8 mins to fly diagonally, no idea what that means in relation to current ones though :P

[Firefly]

The text is even more interesting.

Met with the SOE partners in the United States; very excited because they told me new developments for Planetside Next: the content of the game is good, andthey feel the original name no longer suitable. They officially changed its name to Planetside2. Bring you more news later.
Ni hui shuo zhongwen ma? Or did you use Google Translate?

Also don't forget the bit up at the top. "#Planetside2 today for the first time since the exposure of its contents I share with you a map, which is "planetside2" R & D." I dunno what he means by R&D. I mean, I know what R&D stands for but I'm not sure what he means in context by inclusion. He could mean it's in pre-development or development.

4km seems like a mossy or wasp would cross that cont in like a minute flat
Close, but way off on the speed. Anyway, it does that now. So this is irrelevant, really (sorry).

mossies fly at 119 kph without burners, 4x4 would take 2 mins to fly accross or 2.8 mins to fly diagonally, no idea what that means in relation to current ones though :P
I don't know what the current map sizes are - and by that I mean the actual usable area. Continents don't take up the entire zone, there's still the water on the edge of the map before you fall into the sea.

[Raymac]

The original conts ranged in size from 4x4 to 8x8, with old oshur probably being the closest in size to 4x4.

Old oshur, fors, amerish, cery, esamir, solsar... all the smallest conts and all the most fun to fight on. Sounds good to me.

It's sad, but I don't remember the details of old Oshur that well. Memories lost to beer hops and bong resin I guess. But yeah, I always have a soft spot in my heart for the gigantic Cyssor-side, but Fors and Amerish etc. are a good size and always fun battles. Hell my first realization that PS was my favorite game of all time was during a massive battle for Cetan that lasted for hours and hours. A place like Searhus feels a little on the large side, but alot of that space is rarely used, even in the glory days.

Basically, I'm more anxious to see the maps than I am about anything. I'd like to see more bottlenecks and tactical terrain, and if this sketch is any indication, it looks like thats what they are going for. I'm really hoping we get to see the landscape sooner rather than later.

[otomotopia]

Ni hui shuo zhongwen ma? Or did you use Google Translate?

Also don't forget the bit up at the top. "#Planetside2 today for the first time since the exposure of its contents I share with you a map, which is "planetside2" R & D." I dunno what he means by R&D. I mean, I know what R&D stands for but I'm not sure what he means in context by inclusion. He could mean it's in pre-development or development.


Close, but way off on the speed. Anyway, it does that now. So this is irrelevant, really (sorry).


I don't know what the current map sizes are - and by that I mean the actual usable area. Continents don't take up the entire zone, there's still the water on the edge of the map before you fall into the sea.

I used my 2 years of mandarin to re-translate it. And he meant that this is an early, 'in testing' version of the map-as in not meant to be taken as fact, even conceptually.

[GTGD]

ugh this just makes me want access to the beta even more. pity that it probably won't be until next year...

[BorisBlade]

ugh this just makes me want access to the beta even more. pity that it probably won't be until next year...

I highly doubt it will be that long. Honestly they arent developing any single player story/missions or any NPC bosses or mobs or any AI or anyting other than multiplayer. No reason the game should take as long as most FPS's.

[Baneblade]

As long as they don't name it PlanetSide Extended... I don't fucking care what it's called.

[lostabyss]

my first thought when i saw the map was "... tunnels?" which could be pretty neat if done right, well not necessarily tunnels, but perhaps trenches... now i want players to have trenching shovels so we can all hunker down into mountainsides :D it's not OP, it's nuke-bait.

[Tikuto]

I highly doubt it will be that long. Honestly they arent developing any single player story/missions or any NPC bosses or mobs or any AI or anyting other than multiplayer. No reason the game should take as long as most FPS's.

That's what I believe too!
It shouldn't take them long like most modern games, I suppose. Some literary fiction may be a necessary stimulator though, like before, it may not going to be much.

[Traak]

I like this from Smedley's blog:

What Planetside Next means to me

We all have our vices. For some gamers RPG's really do it for them. One of the things I've always loved about SOE is that we built our company on the core idea of making games across many genres, and that includes the world's first MMOFPS, Planetside.

I love Planetside. I really do. It's an amazing game. you won't find any other FPS where you can have a 100 vs. 100 battle raging. And we pulled this off 5-6 years ago.

There's a great description of a Planetside battle here:

www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/09/05/planetside-the-1/


I really couldn't sum it up any better than that. To me the idea of a massive firefight on that kind of scale is why I'm a gamer.

Planetside had a lot of really great things about it, but it also had some frustrating things. The whole Sanctuary concept is something that slowed things down too much. We also didn't get people back into the action quickly enough.

But the core of Planetside - massive battles with vehicles and infantry was something we nailed really well.

To me, Planetside Next means we get a chance to take the essence of everything that was fun in Planetside and make it a lot better. Massive battles on a scale no other FPS will touch. None of this 64 player stuff. REALLY MASSIVE. With much better organization, and a tight focus on making sure the action is always going on, with awesome graphics.

Damn I love Planetside. I really do.

Smed


Of the gamers, by the gamers, for the gamers, huh, Smed? Funny how Sony can be moving further towards that while the whole of, for, by the people thing is being flushed down the terlet by the U.S. gummint.

[Raymac]

I was thinking about these pics last night as I was going to bed, and I had a realization. Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but the different shades that we see on the map, like the dark section in the lower right that many of us assumed was water...I believe they actually just show elevation differences.

Dark = Low elevation
Grey = Mid elevation
White = High elevation, with shapes showing the peaks.

I don't think this map shows any water at all, just a 3D map using only black & white.

[Logit]

You know what would be great? If we didn't have to do all this speculating and the people who apparently "love this game" would just fucking say something about it.

Radio silence? Yup yup, another SOE lie.

[Raymac]

You know what would be great? If we didn't have to do all this speculating and the people who apparently "love this game" would just fucking say something about it.

Radio silence? Yup yup, another SOE lie.

Chill, if they are still working on the artwork, do you think they want their first impresion to be a sketch that looks like the one on this thread? Would you be showing that off for the whole world to see, or wait until you have some pretty shineys?

EDIT: Plus, Sony has had bigger fish to fry lately. They'll be touting their new games at E3 to help people forget the "unpleasantness".

[DviddLeff]

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7900/planetsideconcept.png

I notice a few things:

Warp gates: likely no single massive map
4 base types; factory, swirly thing, crate and a teapot.
Faint lattice lines shown
Possible tower spots designated (look at the raised plateaus in the NE for what I am talking about)


Now my questions:

What the hell are the base icons?
What are the icons in the water?
What is the logo in the bottom right corner?
Hossin?

[Aractain]

Im kinda hoping this is a long outdated concept idea that was massively improved since because on that map there is still no reason to fight anyware but the bases, ya knows?

[Firefly]

[
What is the logo in the bottom right corner?



That's what's called a compass rose. See the arrow and the "N" in the centre? It tells you which way to orient the map or, at the very least, which way is north.

[Rbstr]

I really, really doubt that we'll get a single world.

The technical challenges of that are immense. Take a game like EVE (AGAIN!) you get 1k people in a system, shit doesn't like it. Even when the basic operations of combat are more simple than a FPS in terms of calculation (targeting and random chance instead of hit detection).

4kmx4km isn't huge, but it also isn't small. It's about 2.5 miles to a side or 6.25 square miles. LA Noir, for instance, is 8 sq.mi. I don't recall original PS sizes...but I'd bet the map sizes are similar.
I think that's OK, PS map sizes were fine, the problem was how they organized things within them. Bigger could be cooler, but we'd just end up with faster vehicles. You can't have it take 30mins to drive a tank between bases.

That's definitely water, you can see the coastline sketched out. Seems like this continent is sort of an water/land inverted Cyssor.

I really worry that the land is just cut off on the edges though. That would really break immersion. Continents being surrounded by ocean that ends in a wall is one thing but the land can't simply stop.

All of you "We want navy" dudes should be happy, though. If this isn't really out dated is practically confirms watercraft, lots of hovering stuff or lots of amphibious vehicles.

[Raymac]

That's definitely water, you can see the coastline sketched out. Seems like this continent is sort of an water/land inverted Cyssor.

All of you "We want navy" dudes should be happy, though. If this isn't really out dated is practically confirms watercraft, lots of hovering stuff or lots of amphibious vehicles.

The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced it's NOT water. The Dark is lower elevation, Grey is mid elevation, and White is high elevation. The "coastline" along the lower right is really a cliff with a few pathways much like we see on Searhus or Ceryshen. Otherwise, you are going to have a warpgate in the middle of the ocean? You are going to have rivers and lakes surrounding all the bases? I don't think so.

Think of it like this, you are put in charge of drawing a 3D map, but you only have black & white, no color. You wouldn't draw a typical topographic map because you'd have lines running everywhere. You would use a grayscale system like this to show elevations.

Sorry to be Captain Buzzkillington, but my money is on no naval units based on what we see on this map.

[Robert089]

The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced it's NOT water. The Dark is lower elevation, Grey is mid elevation, and White is high elevation. The "coastline" along the lower right is really a cliff with a few pathways much like we see on Searhus or Ceryshen.

So what are all those fish about?

[Rbstr]

What you say is certainly possible, however, if this guy was trying to convey topography he should be fired. Three shades is not nearly fine enough (especially when you can do gradients as demonstrated in the picture) and white is nearly always the lowest level on a topo.
Plus...it looks like a coastline and rivers. Which seems like something you'd want to avoid..if it isn't, you know, a coastline and rivers? (he shouldn't have had the dark gray, in the land-only case. The dark and light are never against one another, so the contrast simply wouldn't matter, and it's where the problem comes from, otherwise)

The reason that doesn't make sense is because all along the white/dark interface you have sharp line drawn with then a gradient white to gray. It looks exactly like a beach. Go look at an elevated picture of a coastline.

Then you've got the little rectangles, which I'd conjecture are towers, that only exist on the white portions. You have meanders and the classic river delta going on.
The base-looking icons seem to me like they're icons plopped on top of the map and simply covering up the islands they're on, especially if you check on the left, where you can see

Why would you draw the plateaus/bowls on the upper right by hand if you're already using gray scale for elevation?

Do you not remember the original PS's nonsensical water ways on hossin and cyssor?

[otomotopia]

The bottom right looks like a delta. I think it's rivers.

[BorisBlade]

yeah i think that dark almost black color is prob water, esp with teh coastline effect. The other tho is prob just terrain type or elevation indicators. otherwise why not just make those the same color as the darker ocean areas. Now of course it could just be an even lower area elevation wise, who knows. Its all just speculation at this point. Its like when scientists looked at mars a hundred years ago, they saw canals and indications of what they thought were cities and signs of intelligence. Thats kinda where we are right now. We have no clue at all and could all be completely wrong....or maybe there are martians on Auraxis after all!

[Vancha]

I understand our need to analyze any little bit of information we can get on PSN into the ground, but I think this picture's being taken a little too seriously. It looks far more like a concept than something way into development.

[opticalshadow]

I understand our need to analyze any little bit of information we can get on PSN into the ground, but I think this picture's being taken a little too seriously. It looks far more like a concept than something way into development.

im sorry but they starve us of information, and we have no choice but to apoint this as the end all to map designs for the entire game until were told otherwise.;)

[Rbstr]

im sorry but they starve us of information, and we have no choice but to apoint this as the end all to map designs for the entire game until were told otherwise.;)

We're not information starved.

We're being impatient about a game that isn't really even "official" yet.

There's a big difference.

[Aractain]

Well right now Arma3 has more info than this game and it was just anounced and launch is probably over a year away...

When are we going to see PSN? If its this year they are doing it wrong.

[Raymac]

I guess I'm on my own on this one, but it still makes more sense to me. If the dark gray is water, then the light gray is water because of the "delta" area. If the light gray is water, then nearly every base is surrounded by water and connected by rivers. This would essentially destroy the usefulness of infantry since you would need a boat. That just sounds extremely unlikely to me.

At first glance, I thought it was water too, but the more I thought about it, the less sense it made for all that to be water. If you guys think the bases are going to be surrounded by water, so be it. Thats just not very logical to me. (Insert Sony = illogical joke here)

[Tiberius]

:lol: You guys crack me up.

Just wait till you log ingame to see what the map looks like lol

[Tikuto]

:lol: You guys crack me up.

Just wait till you log ingame to see what the map looks like lol

*HYPOTHETIC REACTION OF LOG-IN*

:jawdrop:

[Rbstr]

This would essentially destroy the usefulness of infantry since you would need a boat. That just sounds extremely unlikely to me.

Bridges? Or perhaps the difficult access is the point? (You're also forgetting the supposed larger role of the Galaxy)

Bases on islands existed in the original as well. The drop ship on Hossin, one an Amerish IICR.

[opticalshadow]

We're not information starved.

We're being impatient about a game that isn't really even "official" yet.

There's a big difference.

concidering the big man stated that the game is being made, id concider it official. he may be lying, it owuldnt be the first time. but they have gone out of their way to prove otherwise.

so id say were information starved, we know its in the works, or atleast we were told that it was, and we got a few screens so far, and here we have some screen about ingame content perhaps. unless they tell us anything about it alls we have is what we have. so the only assumptions we can make are the ones they give us information to lead to.

[Noyjitatps]

Kinda looks like esamir or something.

[Redshift]

Kinda looks like esamir or something.

It's a black and white drawing projected on a white board, of course it looks like esamir :P

[Brusilov]

Planetside 2? well thats the most stupid name ever... :S PS 2.0 would be somewhat okay but just 2 is plain silly :(

[Raymac]

Planetside 2? well thats the most stupid name ever... :S PS 2.0 would be somewhat okay but just 2 is plain silly :(

You're kidding, right? Calling a sequel "<name> 2" is not something new or original. There's kind of a long history of it. In fact, I think it would have been cheezy if they called it 2.0

Did you think Battlefield 3 was a stupid name? Or Super Mario Brothers 2? Or the Godfather Part 2?

Planetside 2 is vanilla, but not stupid.

EDIT: Also, is it really "official" when it's not directly from SOE?

[TacosWLove]

Nice to have some more info! btw:

1) That is definitely water, who cares that its the same shade of grey as the area by the bases, that the thing with gray scale, you cant change the color! I hope we get warships!

2) Smedley is quoted in these forums (too lazy to pull it up) but he said the battles are going to be bigger then anything out there right now ".. period." So then yes, thats more then the current(and always has been) 399 player count. Previously there was no reserved spots for each empire, thats the only thing that changed, not the player count.

3) hurry sonys 3.2 billion loss doesnt mean there cutting this game.. yet! nice to see pop locked conts in Ps1 though :)

Keep it coming

[Tigersmith]

Fantastic news. i still would love to hear more about the Gameplay and features then actual screenshots

[Jamini]

What I see in that picture


1. Dark Grey - The dark grey on the south eastern side is almost certainly water. It appears we have at least one aquatic WG and an island base. If it's not water, than it's probably low elevation.

2. Grey - Canyons. Specifically, steep canyons like what you see on Ceryshen. The walls of the canyons here would help streamline combat a bit and possibly ward off a predominance of air in that area.

3. White - High Elevation. The tops of the canyons and the cliffs above them. probably relativly open area that favors tank and air combat.

4. Icons, likely base icons, with faint lines drawn between them

-4.a. Shield - Mostly early bases, going by the links. Something like an AMP station maybe for benefits?
-4.b. Factory - Three are visible on this continent, all of them either one or two links into the map. I'm thinking these are probably tech plants.
-4.c. Gaget thingy - Mostly out-of-the way bases, none of them in a direct path for any advance from the WG to take. I'm thinking Biolabs or something similar. Supporting type bases.
-4.d. Swirly thingy - Only one on the continent. I'm thinking it's probably the capital or a base with a powerful benefit (like a DSC)


My Thoughts on this map

1. Aquatic Combat
2. The Lattice will still remain
3. A focus on making combat rely less on air dominance
4. More base variety (The southern "AMP" station looks like it's directly on the water. Maybe a floating base?)
5. More densely packed maps: This particular map doesn't look much bigger than the northern section of Amerish, but the way the canyons are designed would have much more of it being used at any one time?


I'd say keep your eyes open and look for something substantial during the Fan Faire

[otomotopia]

Did anyone else think that the renaming I pointed out could simply be localization?

[monody]

Just wanted to ask.

Why would there be rib-cages noted in the water?

At least I'm pretty sure those are rib-cages from the looks of it, denoting skeletal doodads and what-not.

You sure this ain't a desert continent?

[Raymac]

Just wanted to ask.

Why would there be rib-cages noted in the water?

At least I'm pretty sure those are rib-cages from the looks of it, denoting skeletal doodads and what-not.

You sure this ain't a desert continent?

Well I'm the 1 person who doesn't think it is water. BUT, if it is water, then those symbols could be representing waves.

Frankly, I have no idea what they are, and I think we're picking apart this rough sketch way too much. (and I'm as guilty of that as anyone)

[Aractain]

I still think this isn't anything more than a "This is the kind of idea they are going for" sketch.

We need info and SOE... what? Dosn't have any to give? Who knows?

[millo]

4x4 km looks like a bit cramped.
Just went in game and took some rough measurings of the size of the maps by flying around with a mossie and a stopwatch :D

Hossin looks like being 7.15x7.15 km (from the area where you start losing power link, so there's one more grid column per side).
Your average Battle Island looks like being 3x3 km.

So we're looking at slightly bigger than a battle island, something more than half of an average continent size.

Didn't bother measuring cyssor o searhus... Also i don't really like the square edges of the map, i liked the self confined isles more (even though you ended up wasting lots of space with seas).

[TacosWLove]

4x4 km looks like a bit cramped.
Just went in game and took some rough measurings of the size of the maps by flying around with a mossie and a stopwatch :D

Hossin looks like being 7.15x7.15 km (from the area where you start losing power link, so there's one more grid column per side).
Your average Battle Island looks like being 3x3 km.

So we're looking at slightly bigger than a battle island, something more than half of an average continent size.

Didn't bother measuring cyssor o searhus... Also i don't really like the square edges of the map, i liked the self confined isles more (even though you ended up wasting lots of space with seas).

did you figure out how big each square is on the grid by chance? Seems like a reasonable size for how many bases they had and if they up the player count that smed said, this could be quite fun!

[Gaff]

As someone pointed out previously, Smed had said in the past that they were unlikely to use the name PlanetSide 2 because they tried that with EverQuest 2 and found that people saw EQ2 the newer version of EQ, which hurt their sales of the first game since they were trying to sell both simultaneously.

I suspect that this could well mean that the original PlanetSide is going to be killed off in favour of PlanetSide Next / PlanetSide 2, since it's likely that Sony have been running it at a loss for quite some time now.

This would explain why they would be willing to use the name PlanetSide 2.

[basti]

Planetside 2 is not just fine, it fits perfectly. And im certain Sony just sees this the same way as i do: THe Moment Planetside 2 reaches beta, Planetside will be dead.

YOu got to rememver that the entire "we cant call it planetside 2 because of everquest 2" reasoning they came up is rather crap. Everquest and everquest 2 are very very different games. They share some aspects, but most of the stuff is just different, they are in fact ages apart, because everquest 2 was never ment to be a sequel to everquest.

Now, planetside 2 is in fact ment to be a sequel, smed himself said that on these forums here. And you call a sequel "game name 2", simply because you want to attract those guys from the first game, while telling everyone else that this game is a sequel of a game that was worth to get a sequel. :D

About the map: Thats a concept art, taken out of a presentation that is not ment for public eyes. It holds little information. Read what you want, but dont take anything as fact there.

[Sifer2]

I'm leaning towards it being canyons instead of waterways. It would not seem to make much sense having all these bases in the water. It looks to me like they are making the map more of a choke point fest. Probably an attempt to force some ground fighting on the way to the bases instead of everything happening only at the towers/base.

Secondly it looks interesting that there are all these different types of controllable structures. Makes me wonder how that will be used.

Though I am very worried about the scale. The map doesn't sound that big an if it is very small canyon type map designed them i'm scared the reason might be to try to fit it onto the PS3 which can't handle long draw distance or something. I really don't want it held back so they can make a console port.

[Infektion]

wow... them being canyons would make an insane fight!

[Raymac]

Though I am very worried about the scale. The map doesn't sound that big an if it is very small canyon type map designed them i'm scared the reason might be to try to fit it onto the PS3 which can't handle long draw distance or something. I really don't want it held back so they can make a console port.

I've been kinda thinking the same thing. There seems to be a disconnect between John Smedley's claims that Planetside 2 could be even more massive than the original, and the 4km x 4km Oshur Island sized maps that are being mentioned now. One of the two will be wrong, and I hope it's the powerpoint, because I want massive, like Christina Hendricks' chest massive.

For me, this 4km x 4km raises the question, how big are the maps in the PS3 game MAG?

[Firefly]

That map may not be the full thing. It may also be a cavern. We don't know what the fuck it is, or where the fuck it is, or how much the fuck it is. I hate to piss in the collective Cheerios, but we don't know shit about shit. Except for one thing: this is a map. That's all it is. It may not even reach Retail. It may be scrapped. It may be locked out to players (orbital platforms, anyone?). It may be shelved for expansion.

[otomotopia]

That map may not be the full thing. It may also be a cavern. We don't know what the fuck it is, or where the fuck it is, or how much the fuck it is. I hate to piss in the collective Cheerios, but we don't know shit about shit. Except for one thing: this is a map. That's all it is. It may not even reach Retail. It may be scrapped. It may be locked out to players (orbital platforms, anyone?). It may be shelved for expansion.

This map was also shown to the Chinese publisher. Therefore, the 'official name change' may purely be localization to appeal to that audience (Planetside: Next may have a weird cultural mistranslation, or Planetside:2 may have a better marketing effect), along with the map size and design. I know that I'd be severely disappointed if that was all that any map was.

[kklkit]

That map may not be the full thing. It may also be a cavern. We don't know what the fuck it is, or where the fuck it is, or how much the fuck it is. I hate to piss in the collective Cheerios, but we don't know shit about shit. Except for one thing: this is a map. That's all it is. It may not even reach Retail. It may be scrapped. It may be locked out to players (orbital platforms, anyone?). It may be shelved for expansion.

Well said, sir.

[Hamma]

Thanks guys for posting this up. We totally dropped the ball here and didn't get this posted as quickly as we should have. This community rocks ;)

[Tikuto]

This community rocks ;)
This community rocks ;)

:groovy:

[FreedomShot]

Anyone else worried that all they can show us is a drawn image on a board. No actual map of a cont, it is very very first stages at the moment.

How the hell can we trust anything Sony say now when Smedly was convinced that PS 2 would come out in March? Or a beta even? It was an out and out lie as you can see that they are still at the drawing board stage.

I would be saying end of 2012 minimum now for release.

[Logit]

Anyone else worried that all they can show us is a drawn image on a board. No actual map of a cont, it is very very first stages at the moment.

How the hell can we trust anything Sony say now when Smedly was convinced that PS 2 would come out in March? Or a beta even? It was an out and out lie as you can see that they are still at the drawing board stage.

I would be saying end of 2012 minimum now for release.

Apparently you don't know who were dealing with here.

[Logit]

That map may not be the full thing. It may also be a cavern. We don't know what the fuck it is, or where the fuck it is, or how much the fuck it is. I hate to piss in the collective Cheerios, but we don't know shit about shit. Except for one thing: this is a map. That's all it is. It may not even reach Retail. It may be scrapped. It may be locked out to players (orbital platforms, anyone?). It may be shelved for expansion.

This.

I don't think we can read too much into 1 picture of a map we know absolutely nothing about.

[Rbstr]

How the hell can we trust anything Sony say now when Smedly was convinced that PS 2 would come out in March? Or a beta even? It was an out and out lie as you can see that they are still at the drawing board stage.

Because a beta and/or game was NEVER promised in March.

[NYRampage]

Agreed. My comment is that it looks terribly primative for something that was supposed to have a beta already out (now postponed to later this year?).

Anyone else worried that all they can show us is a drawn image on a board. No actual map of a cont, it is very very first stages at the moment.

How the hell can we trust anything Sony say now when Smedly was convinced that PS 2 would come out in March? Or a beta even? It was an out and out lie as you can see that they are still at the drawing board stage.

I would be saying end of 2012 minimum now for release.

[Lonehunter]

Because a beta and/or game was NEVER promised in March.

Yeah, not "promised", only casually commented that it may happen. It was a great way to get PS1 subs to skyrocket, and then not be able to take the blame for it.

But anyway, keep in mind even this still isn't an official press release. Wasn't it just on some guy's blog? Once again we get info about the game through someone other then the PS staff, lol.

Maybe they're trying some new marketing tactic, where the company does nothing, and it's all up to the community to make it to go viral.

[Raymac]

Maybe they're trying some new marketing tactic, where the company does nothing, and it's all up to the community to make it to go viral.

It's not a new marketing strategy. It's one of 2 marketing strategies which are used in gaming.

-The first is the slow burn. Look at games like Star Wars: The Old Republic. We've been hearing about this game for years with nuggets of information released from time to time hoping to build a groundswell of excitment.

-The second is the late push. You still develop the game over a long time, but you keep the information from being released until the last moment. Some people will clamor for information, but you withhold nearly all of it until you have a polished product that you show off to the world just before the game is released. Half-Life Episode 3 is a PERFECT example of this.

So, it seems to me that Planetside 2 is more of the latter. Even though I want to see stuff now, I'd rather the developers down there in San Diego be working on making the game better than getting pressured to rush assets so they can shoot them over to the marketing guys for yet another trailer.

[Aractain]

Half-Life Episode 3 is a PERFECT example of this.

Okkkaayy......... ...........

So how long have we been waiting for that again?


See you in Battlefield 3 ... and 4? lol

[Raymac]

Sure, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Madden 2012, yada yada yada. Yearly games get released yearly. Valve could put out a new Half-Life game every year just like other franchises, but is that what we really want?

Battlefield 3, MW3, etc. may come out before Planetside 2, and they should be good games, but no game that has been announced comes close to what Planetside 2 will have to offer so it's a poor comparison.

Yeah, the $64,000 question about Planetside 2 is "When?" and hopefully between E3 and Fan Faire, we should get that answer.

[Rbstr]

Half-Life Episode 3 is a PERFECT example of this.

According to a recent piece on Valve's development cycles/styles Ep3 isn't even in development.
http://www.develop-online.net/features/1184/The-Valve-manifesto

just an FYI :) It's a good read at any rate.

[Raymac]

I give up

[Rbstr]

...You should remember I'm mostly on your side with this release date/information thing.

People are way too concerned at this stage...about marketing, of all things.

Better to have a game announced when it's time...instead of a Duke Nukem Forever purgatory.

[CyberRiot]

I'm looking at the SouthEast corner of the map, as seen in this picture (http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=92&d=1305819867). Being an experienced gamer and map-reader, I'd wager that the FISH icons I'm seeing indicate either a body of water, or a bunch of pet stores.

[Firefly]

Well, I *WAS* fapping but reading this thread and its degeneration into yet ANOTHER thread about marketing and he said/she said/what was said/what wasn't said promises just made my cock go limp quicker than being asked to mercy-fuck Sputty's mom.

[Raymac]

Well, I *WAS* fapping but reading this thread and its degeneration into yet ANOTHER thread about marketing and he said/she said/what was said/what wasn't said promises just made my cock go limp quicker than being asked to mercy-fuck Sputty's mom.

You do that while on this site? Thats gross, dude. Why can't you pleasure yourself to pictures of japanese midget amputee pr0n like the rest of normal society?

[Firefly]

You do that while on this site? Thats gross, dude. Why can't you pleasure yourself to pictures of japanese midget amputee pr0n like the rest of normal society?
Because I hate Japanese people.

Fucking Pearl Harbor. You sons of bitches. I hope you lose the war. DOMO ARIGATO MISTER ROBOTO.

[Peacemaker]

Firefly, could you mercy fuck sputtys mom? She needs it man.

*Just in case you regained your composure*

[Fishsticks]

The whole point of having large maps in Planetside is to give the players a choice where they fight, regardless of how often those certain spots are active. It would be dissapointing for me to be stuck in a much smaller environment because some designer felt I needed to be pushed head-on into a confrontation. I learned that lesson playing Age of Conan, where everything felt linear and compact.

[GTGD]

Are you guys sure that map isn't just depicting a swamp like on Hossin?

[Logit]

Are you guys sure that map isn't just depicting a swamp like on Hossin?

I think this thread proves were not sure of anything really.

hell, we can't even be positive that this map will be in the game at all.

[Rbstr]

The whole point of having large maps in Planetside is to give the players a choice where they fight, regardless of how often those certain spots are active. It would be dissapointing for me to be stuck in a much smaller environment because some designer felt I needed to be pushed head-on into a confrontation. I learned that lesson playing Age of Conan, where everything felt linear and compact.

If the is no reason to be in or use a location fights will not happen there.
This was a problem in the original game. A lot of the neat geography was never really used because it...had no use.

[Firefly]

Firefly, could you mercy fuck sputtys mom? She needs it man.
I've been known to give a dog a bone.

[MgFalcon]

I'm very disappointed they are calling it "Planetside 2"

"Next" even sounds cooler, not to mention bringing in a crowd unaware of the first.

[Rbstr]

That's just not the kind of thing you get "very disappointed" at.

Missing out on that awesome job.
Someone shooting your dog.
Rain, on your parade.
Your son being a ballerina.

Not the name of a video game.

[BorisBlade]

I'm very disappointed they are calling it "Planetside 2"

"Next" even sounds cooler, not to mention bringing in a crowd unaware of the first.

PS next made no sense for a full on sequel, and sounded dumb. PS2 makes more sense. And people dont have to be familiar with the prequels. Look at GTA 3, the number of people who played GTA 1 or 2 before GTA 3 came out is less than played planetside 1.

Also keep in mind it may have a subtitle attatched to it. I dont think its the "Planetside 2: Massive Warfare" thing, but could be that or a million other things.

[Aractain]

Look at GTA 3, the number of people who played GTA 1 or 2 before GTA 3 came out is less than played planetside 1.


LOL?

GTA1 and 2 both massively out sold Planetside.

[BorisBlade]

LOL?

GTA1 and 2 both massively out sold Planetside.

lol no, maybe after 3 came out and people went back and got the others. They werent that good of games at all. And gta 3 literally sold thousands of times more copies and became a household name. It wasnt well known before 3 at all, thats the point. Random mediocre quality series gets a sequel thats of the level of gta 3 which sells like no other and spawns its own genre. Dont need a well known name to do well, just make the game well and ADVERTISE IT WELL and you'll sell.

I remember seein my bro playin GTA 2 and thinkin how terrible it was and wondering how he could stand it. When i first heard about GTA 3 i was thinkin it was more of the same and wonderin why anyone would make more of that same crap...luckily it wasnt more of the same. =)

[Rbstr]

You're projecting your belief onto everyone else.

You're right, GTA 3 was far more popular, but that's because 1 and 2 raised expectations and 3 delivered on them.
GTA1 and 2 were both successful games.

[Noyjitatps]

I really hope the game world isn't going to be smaller. They really just need to reuse all the current zones but make some improvements to them. Perhaps make one big world but you can use the same warpgates to get around quicker.

[Traak]

They really just need to reuse all the current zones

No. I want all-new zones that are less boredom-maximizing. More that are above plane maximum altitude. Trees that are so dense you can barely fit between them. Terrain that actually offers the soldier some advantages.

Eliminate maximum-uberstupidness Desolation, specifically designed for tank battles, but no tanks are allowed.

[LordReaver]

I don't know if someone did this already, but this is approximately 4km

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6323/4kmi.jpg

[Grimster]

So what smaller maps but more players to make it more massive?

If thats the case I don't really like it. :)

I always loved the immensely large maps in Planetside. I hope we still see them in Planetside 2.

[LordReaver]

Here is 4km on Oshur

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/7/oshur4km.jpg

The distance from one turret to another on an AMP station length wise, is about 200 meters. So 4km is like having 20 AMP stations lined up length wise.

My rough estimations for current cont sizes in km are (I'm not including minor islands.).

Amerish = 5.8x6.5
Ceryshen = 6.1x5.9
Cyssor = 7.6x7.3
Esamir = 6.8x7.4
Forseral = 6.8x6.2
Hossin = 6.8x6.2
Ishundar = 7.5x7.0
Oshur = 5.6x5.5
Searhus = 6.7x6.9
Solsar = 4.7x7.2

[Shogun]

they cannot call it planetside next any more, because sony is awaiting "PSN DOWN!" headlines every week from now on, and reusing such shitty initials for a new game could have negative impact on the game.

and the map the chinese showed off looks like a joke. its just a sketch and therefore it says nothing about the game. if this particular map would already be in developement, they would show a screenshot of some type and not such a shitty sketch. so its a raw concept at the best. nothing i would expect to see ingame.

the sad thing about this is, that this shows how far the developement really is. its safe to say that soe has nothing to show except the rendered fake-screenshots of some units. for if they had something real to show the chinese would not have shown this scribbleshit

[Baneblade]

I would hope that PS2 would have bigger maps, not smaller.

[BorisBlade]

I would hope that PS2 would have bigger maps, not smaller.

Actually they were big enough. You make em any bigger and you just end up with people spread out too much and alot of wasted space. You want plenty of room but i think any bigger and its too much unless you are upping the cont population caps alot and giving more reason for multiple fronts. Honestly i think the maps should vary between some of the fun smaller battle islands up to some searhus sized stuff. (searhus is my fave map, love the variety of terrain.)

You could go one step down from searhus and it could work, 6x6 for the biggest maps is about as small as i would want tho. (searhus is about 8x8) The conts should again vary in terrain types to allow for varying gameplay. Some work better for troops some better for ground vehicles and some are great while some not so great for air, and all in between. The size variations are just another tool to mix up gameplay. The longer distances and harder land navigation on ish is totally different from playing somethin on Hossin or forseral. And cery and its nasty cliffs and high elevation is much different than its snow partner of esamir. And searhus has all kinds of various gameplay all on one map.

[Firefly]

This map was also shown to the Chinese publisher. Therefore, the 'official name change' may purely be localization to appeal to that audience (Planetside: Next may have a weird cultural mistranslation, or Planetside:2 may have a better marketing effect), along with the map size and design. I know that I'd be severely disappointed if that was all that any map was.

No.

http://t.qq.com/tonypark

Meeting all day with SOE partners and the United States, I am very excited because they told me Planetside Next new developments: the content of the game is good, they feel the original name is no longer suitable, so they officially changed its name to Planetside2. Bring you news later.

At 08:34 on May 19 from the iPhone

[BlazingSun]

They must have locked up several marketing guys and creative directors in a conclave for several weeks, to come up with that name. 'Planetside 2' .. that is genius!

[duomaxwl]

http://t2.qpic.cn/mblogpic/982c5f4064fff3916048/460

From Park's blog.

[MrGreenJeans]

A "DUCK"

[PsychoXR-20]

I wouldn't take to much stock in the "4km by 4km" continents. That's the exact same sizes PlanetSide said before it was released and look what we have now, Cyssor is nearly 8km wide. Some will be larger, some will be smaller.

[Hamma]

I don't understand this guy at all - they tell him stuff and he just spouts off. What gives with this dude? :lol:

[Firefly]

I don't understand this guy at all - they tell him stuff and he just spouts off. What gives with this dude? :lol:
Plausible Deniability.

Smedley made some grandiose claims which, thus far, haven't really taken shape at all. I'm wondering if Corp. Legal said "hey, you better cut that shit out" or if something seriously delayed the game.

But this way, they have a dude who can "leak" stuff and then, when it turns out that it was more smokescreen, SOE can say "Oh, that? Yeah, that's um... localization... yeah... that's the ticket!"

[Westy543]

Re: Map size

They said they wanted 333 per side IIRC, that's nearly 1000. The maps can't be getting smaller. Maybe the above is a testing map for small scale balance.