Matt Higby doing a Q&A at reddit!

[coLMinigun]

Thought u guys might be interested in this.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/il5og/hey_rplanetside_im_matt_higby_the_creative/

[Dreamcast]

Link?

[Bags]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/il5og/hey_rplanetside_im_matt_higby_the_creative/

Q: How will squad spawning be balanced?

Matt: Oh, wow. I'm a big fan, dude. I'm super geeked you replied to this. heh. Squad spawning is really tricky to balance, no doubt. What we haven't talked about are things like the requirements to do it (needs a relatively advanced spec'd squad leader in your squad to use) and it will be on some kind of cooldown based on the squad leader. It's definitely not designed to be your primary respawn method.


Q: Why was veh hacking removed?

Matt: No problem, man!

Couple reasons, the one you mention is one, another is because we really want to push the empires to be very different in PS2, and getting ahold of enemy weapons and vehicles makes it a lot more of a balance nightmare.

Keep in mind that from a technical perspective, having to make VS and TR specific texture variants for an NC vanguard is as expensive to our texture budget as having two unique vehicles too (assuming we'd want to do it right, with a full skin not just a decal swap, which we would). Our texture budget is already stretched with all the unique armor, vehicles, weapons etc. I can't think of any other AAA fps game that would have anything close to our texture requirements.

You'll have fun as an Infiltrator in PS2, I promise.

Q: How will the command system work? Going from the fact commanders will be able to create custom missions for squads and such, will there be a more merit-based system for commander-ascension? Or the same command-experience system in Planetside 1 which ends up with more commanders than actual soldiers?

Matt: it's not based on CR like in Planetside. There are a couple paths to being a commander. One is through the cert tree, there will be several leadership related skill trees that you can progress through - progressing these means sacrificing progressing in other, more direct combat orientated roles, so those players who want to be commanders will have to be dedicated.

You'll also be able to access some of this stuff through the outfits system, more details on that portion in the future.


Q: Sup matt. Big fan of planetside(since i got into beta) and still currently subbed. Got a question or two for ya.
First off, that vehicle(assuming mag rider type) firing in the trailer, Is that's just some alpha type effects and will be redone? ^^
The class system, if you choose to start certing into max(or wuteva) will I have the capability to do anything else or will it be very specialized(only a max user for your outfit). Basically how much variety can you have in your certs/classes?
Will the reaver/mosq still have the same roles as ps1 & how different is the flight system?
nyways <3 for making the game ive been wanting for ever.
TR 4 LIFE

Matt: We're definitely still in the meat of the development cycle, which means that more passes are being done on art, systems, balance, particles, etc.

the cert system is really, really free-form. You can be as specialized or generalized as you want to be. If you want to put all your advancement time into Reavers you can do that, and you'll have a more maneuverable, durable and powerful vehicle with plenty of options for secondary weapons and fun gadgets. If you want to spread your certification across lots of different things and be more of a jack of all trades, go for it.

The flight mechanics are a lot more realistic than the flying camera PS1 vehicles. We're using PhysX for all our vehicles.

Q: Several of my friends who played the original extensively are wondering if veteran Planetside players are going to see any benefits carrying over into the sequel. I know they're the first pick for beta, but is there anything else in the works? Other sequels (specifically EQ2 and GW2) have offered veteran players the opportunity to reserve character and guild names in the sequel, as well as other benefits.

MAtt: We'll be taking good care of Planetside players who join us in Planetside 2.

Q: What kind of "sandbox" aspects will be included? I heard about the outfit bases, but will there be the ability to make whole "towns"? Will there be aquatic bound vehicles this time?

I will be asking a lot of questions, I must know everything as the first Planetside is the sole reason I started studying game design.

Matt: Much of the sandbox gameplay is stuff we're talking about for post-launch, I feel like it'd be a bit premature for me to talk too much about it right now. I do like boats, probably won't see them at launch, though.

Q: If (post == legitimate) { echo "So when's the beta / release?"; }

Matt: As soon as we're ready.

Copout answer, but honestly, I want to get the game out there and getting played more than anyone, and we're busting our asses to make that happen - but no one wants a rush job, right?

Q: 1) BFRs? Dear God say no. 2) When can I expect a release date/beta? 3) Any rough idea on what the hardware requirements might be 4) any chance of a ps3 release (cross-platform with pc!!) 5) Seriously....why NC? VS for life. 6)Any thoughts on boats/ships/sea combat? 7) which reminds me, can you elaborate at all about the differences between classes...that's all...for now.

Matt: 1. no bfrs
2. can't say much about dates right now, sorry!
3 we're gunning for 4-5 year old machines as our low end. More on exact system specs soon as we lock it down
4.I'm already busy enough trying to get ps2 ready for launch and all these people are already asking me about ps3? Jeez people.
5. suck it, barney
6. I think it's awesome, boats rule
7 The classes are designed to give a specific combat role to soldiers on the battlefield. This helps a few things: 1) makes enemies immediately recognizable, you see someone and you'll know what sort of bad things they'll be able to do to you 2) helps players understand their purpose a bit better. We'll have familiar classes like Medics, Engineers, Heavy Assault, Infiltrators, and MAXs. Each of these will have significant room to specialize and tailor to your playstyle


Q: Can you swim?

Matt: Yes, although I cannot surf. I'm looking off my balcony at some surfers right now and it's making me jealous.


Q: Why the move away from the mechanic of certifications in the first Planetside, which was one of the best things about the game?

I loved Planetside, played for several years, and I'm happy that Planetside 2 is in development, but the news I've read makes it seem like a vain attempt to cash in by transplanting ideas taken from the biggest MMOs on the market today, and not an advancement of what made Planetside great.

Some aspects of certifications in the original Planetside were great. The freedom to grab whatever cert you wanted, instead of being restricted by some arbitrary experience tree or bar for a particular piece of equipment, was extremely gratifying. I really hated imprinting, Command Rank, and medal-restricted certifications because they took the opposite path.

There are some people who like to continuously "earn" things in an endless steady progression, and MMOs usually cater to these people. But FPS games are by and large competitive in nature, and being prevented from executing some strategy because requisite equipment hasn't been "earned" is extremely irritating, almost punishing. I enjoy the feeling of getting more skilled at playing the game, and I'd rather the game reward me for that, instead of punishing me less as time goes on.

Matt: I have for years used the Planetside cert system as an example of an absolutely ingenious and well-executed system, so I'm right with you on it's brilliance. It works incredibly well to let players grow in meaningful but horizontal ways. Our system does a lot of the same things, but we've got a lot more stuff to unlock and the depth lets us have some power growth (~20% total potential power growth from a 5 minute player to a 5 year player is our goal) and long term reach goals for players.



Q: Will there be meaningful Day/Night Cycles?

Will Hitboxes become important in PS2?

Matt: the engine supports day/night cycle really, really well. We definitely want to take advantage of that.

yes

Q: I have to ask, quick knife or equip knife? (One stab one kill?)

Matt: We're still deliberating. Some of the discussions about this have almost ended with people getting stabbed. Passionate debate.

Q: As an outfit leader, will I need to spec in leadership just to create/control my outfit?

Matt: Nope, we moved away from this because it sucked if you're in a huge outfit and the leader with all the outfit leadership skills quits.

Outfits DO have a skill tree though, it's progressed similar to the player progression (outfit leaders and designated officers can decide where the time based skill unlocks go), and it unlocks things like max outfit size, outfit customization (visual and gameplay related). We really want outfits to feel like army divisions, i.e. when you see someone who is in the 101st airbourne you know that's a badass paratrooper. We're going to allow you to specialize your outfit in, for instance, Heavy Armor so when you come rolling over the hills in your decked out, customized Prowlers with outfit level bonuses and the "Jownzorz's Javelins" logo on the side all the troops on the ground know that the serious tank drivers have arrived. That's the goal.

edit to add: the other cool thing about this is it creates the aspiration for anyone on your empire who is interested in driving tanks to want to join your badass outfit too.

Suggestion: Suggestion for when you make new planets. Don't just make new terrain. Make the planets different. Different gravity, atmospheres, etc, that also has vehicles and armors unique to it. A gas giant planet with floating cruisers, all air, and jetpack infantry. A moon with low gravity and no atmosphere where you can jump 100 yards. A venusian hell hole with such bad weather flying machines are completely out of the question and even infantry armors are like MAX units. A water world with little land mass, that is devoted almost entirely to sea battles.

Matt: cool ideas =)

Q: Why add power growth?

Matt: well, we (game developers) put this stuff in because people, in general, like feeling like they're getting more powerful. meaningful character progression is integral to keeping many people interested and motivated in games. Planetside 2 will always be about player skill first and foremost.

Q: Will that span on to environmental effects? Like in Planetside, but because the option to turn them off existed, being able to see the awesome sandstorms was a disadvantage to the people who didn't have to see it. ..Basically, will stuff like sandstorms and other weather effects exist (and be permanently turned on for all player)?

Matt: We've got a really cool weather system design, I'm hoping we can squeeze it in for launch. Gameplay affecting things like volumetric fog/clouds shouldn't be able to be toggled.

Q: n regard to number 7

I understand the points you make, but I feel you are underestimating the player base with that decision. What made the original Planetside great was that your character could be one of those classes specifically or a little bit of each. It was something the old game did well, and what you're planning on implementing, I fell works better for a game of a smaller scale, such as TF2, COD, or Battlefield. This is because in those games, combat remains relatively stagnant; while in PS, the conditions are constantly changing. For instance, the fight can change between short and long distances, vehicle based to indoors, high ground to low ground. In the original PS, you could vary what you did across classes, in order to better fit the situation. Let's once again use the sniper as an example. For a far range battle, you could set up your inventory with a lot of ammo, and no support equipment, since you would have a relative distance between you and your allies. Then, when the battle moves closer, you can switch it out with more support items, and less ammo, maybe ditch a sidearm or something, either way, you could trade off something, in this case ammo, in order to obtain something else, support. The way it seems your taking the game is that, you are what class you are, so be it.

Now, in regards to the "helps players understand their purpose a bit better." In the first game, you made your purpose; there was no reason to fence you into a specific thing, and their shouldn't be now unless you feel the player base is incapable of deciding their best play style, or that the game would become too unbalanced as a result of someone being able to snipe you and heal their teammate. Anyway, I'm not saying that implementing a COD/Halo/Battlefield system will not work, but just pointing out, the old game had a really good open system.

Matt: What you're describing is basically what we're doing. You can switch classes, loadouts, etc situationally. Either when you respawn or at equipment terminals.

I agree the ps1 had a great system, we're definitely keeping the spirit of that system in ps2. What you won't have is a dude that looks like a medic rolling around with a rocket launcher, or a light assault dude with a jump jet who also can use a chaingun. We're offering a lot of cool, divergent gameplay styles that in a completely freeform style system would be way, way too easy to stack and exploit.


Q: Can you confirm that there will not be face blood splatters ala Call of Duty?

Matt: you guys don't like the strawberry jam???

Q: If I have heavy assault(example) will I be able to heal myself at all, or am I 100% dependent on a medic / engineer??

Matt: you'll probably have at least some capacity to heal yourself, but this is something we're actively designing and iterating at the moment.

[Bags]

I AM NOW UPDATING VIA GOOGLE DOCS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DAqjmgQptK1zVwhiWa-6prWH0NlKot3NJo_Umvg8n2g/edit?hl=en_US

Q: 1. Thresher?
2. You say that the offline skill training system is there to help friends keep up with each other. But, from what I understand, you still need battleranks, which dictate how many certs you can have trained, and (I think) how high your cert tree is unlocked. How does the offline skill training assist when you still need to be playing to unlock cert points/cert trees? Are battleranks relatively fast to level compared to training the certs?
3.Can we talk with enemies? I've made some very good friends with people I've fought.
4.Working off of #3, why no multiple empires per server so I can play with those friends? Empire hoppers can be balanced with restrictions on moving to a high population empire(plus it can be used to entice people to move to a low populated empire). The answer you or someone else gave is spying, but this is planetside.. Go play eve, where spies can cost you months or years of work. People can learn opsec same as in EVE.
5.How 'locked in' are the loadouts for classes? Can a medic use any infantry weapon? Can any class carry a heal tool, but they just don't get bonuses like a medic would? Many people enjoyed weird things. I've seen cloakers with advanced medic rez a gen hold before.
6.Is there a customizable inventory so you can vary how much stuff you bring? Carrying extra medkits, extra ammo, an extra gun, stacking ammo into a MAX for a gen hold?
7. Will there be a proper Infantry AA solution? Specialized AA weapons, alternate fires on AV weapons, etc?
8.MAX customization? One of my fondest wishes for maxes was a utility slot that let you pick which special you got. Jump Jets, overdrive, and shields each had pros and cons, and different situations they would be useful. A more varied MAX weapon selection also wouldn't have been amiss.. :D
9.Thresher?
10. Will we be able to recert? I know, you want to hook people with RPG elements to get their money, but I really loved how you could mess with your certs whenever you felt like on the first week of a new alt. Could that be tied into the resource economy? Pay for redistribution of cert points? Then indecisive people like me could jump around to different things, by choosing to spend our money there, instead of on weapon upgrades.
11. Will there be a subscription? One of the things that keeps me out of PS right now is I just don't play enough to justify the $15 a month. Can you do like prepaid phones do, and buy, say, 30 hours for $15 or something(which don't expire)? Then I could hop in a few hours a month and play around when I felt like if I wasn't bigtime into the game anymore.
12. When you talked of outfit certs, you mentioned they could specialize. Would a reaver certed pilot in a reaver outfit have better reavers than a reaver pilot in a tank outfit? Or would the reaver outfit pilot just not have to cert them things for himself? Are the bonuses in addition to personal certs? Or do they replace them? Also, I'd recommend having an internal hierarchy for this. Few outfits will want to be all max/infiltrator/etc. They'd have an internal squad for this.
13. I can understand no 3rd person for infantry, but why no 3rd for vehicles? It really helped maneuvering around invincible obstacles and avoiding squishies who were apparently never taught to look both ways before crossing the courtyard. If definitely no 3rd person vehicles, can we get trackir support for the driver view?


Matt: wow.

1 - I'm not really ready to talk about exactly which vehicles will be in the game. I can say that we're carrying over many from the original. Since we're still balancing, tuning, and adding to and removing from the game, saying what will be there at launch is a good way for me to potentially disappoint folks. Threshers are pretty awesome, though.
2 - Battlerank is character based, unless you never actually participate in combat you'll be BR 20 (our current max, not necessarily our final max) long, long before you max out a skill tree. Once you're BR 20 the entire skill tree will be open to you.
3 - We're not restricting cross-empire communication currently.
4 - The current plan is to lock you to one empire per server. This isn't something that we're going to be dogmatic about, if we find compelling reasons to open it up we will.
5 - You'll see many weapons cross classes, you just won't see heavy weapons on light classes, or max weapons on heavy classes, etc. Some weapons will be more locked down than others.
6 - I answered this somewhere else, there will be the ability to customize loadouts, but it won't be an open freeform inventory.
7 - Yes, our goal is to have fully balanced Air-to-Ground, Ground-to-Air and Air-to-Air gameplay, that includes viable infantry anti-air.
8 - MAXes will be as customizable as everything else, you'll be able to select abilities, utilities, weapons, etc.
10 - I think you'll find that the base game is pretty open in what it lets you explore, the time you put in will be to specialize down those paths. Right now there's no plan to allow for recert.
11 - Can't get into business model quite yet, sorry
12 - The spirit of the design is to let you unlock some really cool, unique bonuses through outfit specialization. Here's a completely fabricated, not-actually-in-the-game-so-please-don't-expect-it-to-be-or-call-me-a-liar-when-it's-not example: Your heavy armor focused outfit can unlock the ability to use seige mode on your vanguards, now you can setup outside a base, deploy your tanks and while suffering a firing rate penalty you can attack over a greater distance with aoe bombardments. This is ability would be completely unique to NC outfits that have specialized in heavy armor.
13 - If we do allow 3rd person for vehicles it would be for maneuvering only, you wouldn't have a targeting reticle in 3rd person.

Q: One of my main concerns so far concerns the class system/inventory management. In the original PS, once you purchased the cert for something, you could use it with any other thing you wanted; i.e. you could have both have a sniper rife and a healing tool. So basically, is that sort of inventory management still going to be left up to the player, or are you going to to limit the influence on what any character can be at any given time and preset a player's load out because he wants to be "sniper" or a "medic."

Matt: Players will be more fixed into their roles in PS2. This allows us to do some really fun role-specific mechanics that if allowed to be combined would make for really broken gameplay. In a more restricted system we can let you use and see lots of really cool, unique abilities and weapons in the game.

Q: Is there still inventory/backpacks? What is the shooting mechanics like? planetside 1 had COF/cone of fire.
Is there still going to be animations for getting in and out of vehicles?

Matt: Inventory won't exist in the same way as it did in PS1. There will still be loadouts, but you won't have to manage inventory space to trade-off ammo for medkits, etc.
bullets are simulated objects, they have physics, drop over distances, travel time, etc. There is cone of fire, recoil, all that snazzy stuff.
There aren't animations for getting into or out of vehicles.

[Der Baron]

Q: How will the command system work? Going from the fact commanders will be able to create custom missions for squads and such, will there be a more merit-based system for commander-ascension? Or the same command-experience system in Planetside 1 which ends up with more commanders than actual soldiers?

Matt: it's not based on CR like in Planetside. There are a couple paths to being a commander. One is through the cert tree, there will be several leadership related skill trees that you can progress through - progressing these means sacrificing progressing in other, more direct combat orientated roles, so those players who want to be commanders will have to be dedicated.

You'll also be able to access some of this stuff through the outfits system, more details on that portion in the future.

================================================== =====================


Awesome. Especially the part I quoted. This is really pretty much the best way to balance CR - having to sacrifice direct combat-oriented skills.
Maybe these guys actually know what they're doing ;)

[Bags]

I'm a bit bummed that we won't be able to use enemy weapons, but oh well.

[Death2All]

I'm a bit bummed that we won't be able to use enemy weapons, but oh well.

Ouch, that kind of hurts to read. Looting weapons and stealing enemy vehicles was amazing. I'm really surprised it's not in it....Yet anyways..

[coLMinigun]

Wow sorry I forgot the link guys, guess that was a bit harsh lol.

But yeah, great information there. Very nice of him to do this for the fans.

Soe is starting to come through for me :D

[BorisBlade]

Yeah i much preferred the inventory management over other games. Oh well nothin huge. I do hope they stop goin for CoD type crap. that game plays so terribly. Mindless zergfest into the instant death and respawn every 10 seconds. But we got beta to iron those awful aspects out. =)

[Bags]

I like everything he said minus the "no enemy weapons". That combined with one empire per server per account is evil.

[coLMinigun]

That is confirmed? Wow, that kinda sucks, I get the idea to stop faction hopping...but their old system was decent at stopping it.

[Bags]

That is confirmed? Wow, that kinda sucks, I get the idea to stop faction hopping...but their old system was decent at stopping it.

Yeah, I don't remember which Q and A session it was but they confirmed it.

[basti]

GJ getting this to us Bags. much <3 :)

[Bags]

If the formatting is too much of a pain to read for anyone let me know. Anything related to a big issue (inventory, squad spawn, CR5) I bolded to make stand out.

[MgFalcon]

MAtt: We'll be taking good care of Planetside players who join us in Planetside 2.

This.

[2coolforu]

Planetside community, GET IN THERE AND ASK QUESTIONS!

[PsychoXR-20]

He didn't actually say you couldn't loot weapons, just that it's a balance issue. I cant think of a single FPS, (SP or MP) that doesn't allow you to pick up your enemies weapons and use them. Unlike vehicles, weapons don't need empire specific skins (I suppose technically vehicles don't either, and it could actually be used to your advantage if they ddn't magically change colors). Enemy weapons are usually some of the most effective weapons since they are the weapons your enemy will have the least amount of experience fighting against.

[basti]

I just noticed, hes trolling people a bit (can you swin? ^^)

[Bags]

Updated with new info.

[basti]

Bags, ask about the insta gib knive stuff and headshots that came up here on the forums!

[Volw]

He didn't actually say you couldn't loot weapons, just that it's a balance issue. I cant think of a single FPS, (SP or MP) that doesn't allow you to pick up your enemies weapons and use them. Unlike vehicles, weapons don't need empire specific skins (I suppose technically vehicles don't either, and it could actually be used to your advantage if they ddn't magically change colors). Enemy weapons are usually some of the most effective weapons since they are the weapons your enemy will have the least amount of experience fighting against.

Actually, in this case it might be different.

Seems like PS2 'unlocks' will focus mostly on mods and upgrades, they probably don't want people without specific unlocks to operate 'better' weapons.

I'm not a big fan of it but it does make some sense. I remember having some VS 'friends' drop a stockpile of Lashers (oh the Lasher 2.0 days) :D

[Gogita]

"7. The classes are designed to give a specific combat role to soldiers on the battlefield. This helps a few things: 1) makes enemies immediately recognizable, you see someone and you'll know what sort of bad things they'll be able to do to you 2) helps players understand their purpose a bit better. We'll have familiar classes like Medics, Engineers, Heavy Assault, Infiltrators, and MAXs. Each of these will have significant room to specialize and tailor to your playstyle"

I have been thinking of what is exactly meant with classes. Maybe what is meant with it is that when you pick a certain class, you are still free to take whatever loadout you want, but only the skills of your class will be activated or some kind of bonus to your class will be given. For example medic, if you choose this class when spawning, the points that you have invested in medic skills will be activated or that you will have some kind of bonus when healing/rezzing. It will probably also change your appearance slightly as Matt said "makes enemies immediately recognizable" (probably some big red cross with white background).

[Bags]

Bags, ask about the insta gib knive stuff and headshots that came up here on the forums!



Registered and asked.

[basti]

Someone Else ask then, NOW! I have no clue about reddit as well! :D

[2coolforu]

I have a reddit account so if anyone wants anything asked just say, no guarantees on an answer

[Gogita]

I have a reddit account so if anyone wants anything asked just say, no guarantees on an answer

Ask if the instant knife is an instant kill attack or not

Ask if there are any kind of headshots in the game

[dsi]

It is insanely easy to sign up for Reddit guys, "Register in seconds" literally means seconds, and you don't need an e-mail address either.

Also, he responded to my knife based question (posted at almost the same time as Bags, heh):
Q: "I have to ask, quick knife or equip knife? (One stab one kill?)"
A: "We're still deliberating. Some of the discussions about this have almost ended with people getting stabbed. Passionate debate."

[Gogita]

Quick update on the knife issue


Q:I have to ask, quick knife or equip knife? (One stab one kill?)

A:We're still deliberating. Some of the discussions about this have almost ended with people getting stabbed. Passionate debate.

EDIT:
damnit, too slow....

[Bags]

It is insanely easy to sign up for Reddit guys, "Register in seconds" literally means seconds, and you don't need an e-mail address either.

Also, he responded to my knife based question (posted at almost the same time as Bags, heh):
Q: "I have to ask, quick knife or equip knife? (One stab one kill?)"
A: "We're still deliberating. Some of the discussions about this have almost ended with people getting stabbed. Passionate debate."
Mine was more specific. I don't think he answered the OS1K part.

[Firefly]

Thanks for posting this/giving the heads-up.

[NCLynx]

That's something we should voice strongly for, enemy weapon use. They don't need to retexture them, they didn't change colors when we picked them up in the original they don't need to in the sequel. As long as we have the correct cert/class w/e we should be able to use it. (Maybe it would revert back it's original uncustomized state?)

[Firefly]

That's something we should voice strongly for, enemy weapon use. They don't need to retexture them, they didn't change colors when we picked them up in the original they don't need to in the sequel. As long as we have the correct cert/class w/e we should be able to use it. (Maybe it would revert back it's original uncustomized state?)
If they're already doing it, which I think they alluded to, then we don't need to voice-strongly-for. Amirite? I mean, we should at the very most keep an eye on the subject and make sure these people do our game right.

[Bags]

I asked

"Can you confirm that there will not be face blood splatters ala Call of Duty?"

and

"When you guys said there will be increased lethality, can you give us an idea of how increased?

Because going down in 2 - 3 shots ala COD doesn't seem like it would work with the # of players or be very planetside-ish. Plus medics would be fairly useless."

Doubt he can answer the second one at this point.

[Bags]

Updated my post.

[Bags]

"you guys don't like the strawberry jam???" :D

[Higby]

following both of these threads is giving me a headache. haha!

[Firefly]

following both of these threads is giving me a headache. haha!
Ours is better.

[Bags]

It's like Q&Aception.

[Bags]

He's taking a break guys.

[Lunarchild]

following both of these threads is giving me a headache. haha!

Hah, looks like you'll be answering questions for a while for sure :D

[NCLynx]

Higby should have never said he'd answer all our questions if we didn't get them answered during the panel! =P

I'm sure we might run out sooner or later ...

Personally I'd like to know more about inventories, I hope we get to choose what we bring instead of a set loadout for each class/every player.

[Raymac]

I'm on information overload right now. This is fan-freakin-tastic. To go from absolute radio silence, and then the level of interaction we've had the last few days. Just awesome. Oh yeah, and in all that interaction, Planetside 2 is sounding like the game of my dreams. I don't care if I'm over-hyping it. I'm thrilled right now.

[Bags]

Edited for lies.

[Bags]

Edited for lies

[Bags]

Anyone subbed want to let these guys know the answe to their question? :( http://forums.station.sony.com/ps/posts/list.m?topic_id=88000027847

[Bags]

Edit: was lies

[2coolforu]

No jackhammer. NC will focus more on railgun tech.

The guy who said this isn't Higby. There are two Ias0m, one with an 'L', the real higby and one with an 'i' a faker.

Check the overviews

Real higby http://www.reddit.com/user/las0m

Faker http://www.reddit.com/user/Ias0m

[Bags]

The guy who said this isn't Higby. There are two Ias0m, one with an 'L', the real higby and one with an 'i' a faker.

Check the overviews

Real higby http://www.reddit.com/user/las0m

Faker http://www.reddit.com/user/Ias0m

Thanks, just saw that. Editing.

[2coolforu]

Years of Planetside hackers using i's and l's together to confuse you about their name has given me some kind of super sensitivity to it. The faker also said there was no voice comms and that we should resub by next weekend, he was also the one saying headshots were in so those features are still unverified

[Bags]

Removed the lies.

[Bags]

Sorry, I'm new to redit. I thought it wasn't bringing up his other messages because that's how it worked.

I was wondering why his name wasn't as blue as Matt's...


Here's no hoping he's not accurate as I haven't liked any of his answers :p

[2coolforu]

Heh, he deleted the post where he said he was in the know and speaking for Higby. Looks like hes given up, 1 x faker destroyed :)

[Bags]

Heh, he deleted the post where he said he was in the know and speaking for Higby. Looks like hes given up, 1 x faker destroyed :)

Yeah, I figured it would end one of three ways

1.) "lol i trol u"
2.) "No i srsly am" *continues to post*
3.) actually gives proof

Guess he went with #1.

[Sirisian]

Did you guys report the posts? I did. Too bad you can't explain why when reporting posts.

[Gandhi]

I'm pretty sad to see vehicle hacking isn't in anymore. Balance issues are one thing, but wouldn't it be possible to simply recolor the textures in the shader? At least that would avoid having to load a whole new set of textures. Since it's a relatively rare case it might even make sense to write a separate shader for hacked vehicles, if you want to keep things really optimized in the unhacked case. But that's just some ideas, obviously I have no idea how things are implemented in the engine.

I think it's worth trying to keep in though, it really added some variety to the game and a great sense of accomplishment when bringing home that purple Vanguard.

[Goku]

I'm pretty sad to see vehicle hacking isn't in anymore. Balance issues are one thing, but wouldn't it be possible to simply recolor the textures in the shader? At least that would avoid having to load a whole new set of textures. Since it's a relatively rare case it might even make sense to write a separate shader for hacked vehicles, if you want to keep things really optimized in the unhacked case. But that's just some ideas, obviously I have no idea how things are implemented in the engine.

I think it's worth trying to keep in though, it really added some variety to the game and a great sense of accomplishment when bringing home that purple Vanguard.

Sounds more like a budget issue if anything. I would not be shocked to see this implemented into the game eventually with a major update. While I do find the current expert hacking of vehicles speed a bit much, I had no problem with the ADV. Hack one. It was nice driving around in enemy vehicles from time to time. Thats not even mentioning the value it has to capturing AMSes and such.

[kklkit]

Has anyone asked about the concerns regarding uncapturable foothold?
-Can we camp the foothold?
-How larger is a foothold?
-Can we capture a continent like we could in the original PlanetSide?
-If not, what is the condition required to shift the fight from one continent to another?
-Since each faction has their own foothold on each continent, I guess there won't be 1 on 1 (faction) fight?

[LostSoul]

Has anyone asked about the concerns regarding uncapturable foothold?
-Can we camp the foothold?
-How larger is a foothold?
-Can we capture a continent like we could in the original PlanetSide?
-If not, what is the condition required to shift the fight from one continent to another?
-Since each faction has their own foothold on each continent, I guess there won't be 1 on 1 (faction) fight?

I'll try to answer this to the best of my knowledge so far, but do please correct me if i'm wrong.

-Can we camp the foothold?
Yes and no, some footholds will be bunkers/tower/facilities/open landscapes and I imagine you will be able to "camp" some them easier then others -as in defending those points with (a) smaller squad(s)-.

But with the territorial control system i doubt you want to sit still and "camp".


-How large is a foothold?
They are still working on the hex-grid, and the sizes might vary over time, territories will be able to shift arround.

-Can we capture a continent like we could in the original PlanetSide?
I highly doubt this, since each faction will have their own foothold the best you can do will be "locking" them in their foothold.

-If not, what is the condition required to shift the fight from one continent to another?
It looks like they have opted for a more open approach where the fight evolves over multiple continents at the same time. What it looks like to me is that you'll just be able to go to a continent with your squad (or solo) and start conquering.

-Since each faction has their own foothold on each continent, I guess there won't be 1 on 1 (faction) fight?

Its possible ofcourse, multiple war fronts on the same continent versus the different empire.

Just imagine the footholds as big circles in a triangle, where these circles overlap each other different fights will happen, some will be versus 1 empire, and some would be versus both opposing empires.

[basti]

When my outfit heard about the "its next to impossible to capture an entire continent", we all just did this:

http://files.sharenator.com/challenge_accepted_RE_Dragkyre_Vs_Nightmare_Our_mi necraft_Challenge-s325x265-177836.png



And theres a shitload of other outfits out there that did the same.

Higby, add a mechanic to allow us to capture entire continent. Otherwise WE will do it the hard way. :P

[Goku]

When my outfit heard about the "its next to impossible to capture an entire continent", we all just did this:

http://files.sharenator.com/challenge_accepted_RE_Dragkyre_Vs_Nightmare_Our_mi necraft_Challenge-s325x265-177836.png



And theres a shitload of other outfits out there that did the same.

Higby, add a mechanic to allow us to capture entire continent. Otherwise WE will do it the hard way. :P

This it will still happen. You will only need overwhelming force and I do not see that being a problem depending on the time of day or the organization of a group.

[Tvayda]

I don't have a reddit account and it seems people were posting questions for others if someone would be kind enough to post this for me, I'd appreciate it. So here goes:

I've been a PS1 player for years on and off, and have always been heavy into the AirCav side of things since I have always wanted to be and am now in the process of becoming a pilot for the Air Force so my questions are all about Aircraft stuff for PS2.
1: When it was mentioned in the Q&A that aircraft will have real physics and be able to do barrel rolls and loops and stuff, does that also include galaxies being able to drop their rear ramp and let whatever they are carrying be able to fire out the back and then just roll out and deploy a 'chute or landing jets or w/e you all decide to use if they wanted?
2: How realistic is this physics engine? I mean, a 747 can technically do a barrel roll in real life (its been done, ive seen it), granted while losing tons of altitude and with no passengers, so will galaxies/other large aircraft function the same way?
3: will all aircraft still be VTOL (vertical take off/landing) like in PS1?
4: What will the altitude ceiling be like/ how will it function? Meaning will it be like in PS1 where it immediately forces you down, or will it be more realistic where it stalls your aircraft and you eventually start falling out of the sky and need to restart the engine or eject?
5: In some of the art shown for PS2 there are giant flying fortresses like in BF2142 with the titans, will those actually be in game?

And I think I'm done for now. Thanks again for deciding to make PS2, I'm really stoked about it and good luck with development.

And thanks to whoever reddits this (if anyone does).

[Bags]

Higby is back!

[basti]

MOAR INFOS! :D

[Bags]

Updated my second post.

[basti]

As you propably follow this here as well higby:

There aren't animations for getting into or out of vehicles.


DUDE! NOT COOL!
And if you guys need 3 more month to put those animations in, they really are nessesary to let planetside be planetside. That stuff really really was awesome in planetside, and we want it back! :)

[Bags]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DAqjmgQptK1zVwhiWa-6prWH0NlKot3NJo_Umvg8n2g/edit?hl=en_US

I put it in a google docs. Someone let me know if it works.

[Bags]

Oh god, I want this!

"12 - The spirit of the design is to let you unlock some really cool, unique bonuses through outfit specialization. Here's a completely fabricated, not-actually-in-the-game-so-please-don't-expect-it-to-be-or-call-me-a-liar-when-it's-not example: Your heavy armor focused outfit can unlock the ability to use seige mode on your vanguards, now you can setup outside a base, deploy your tanks and while suffering a firing rate penalty you can attack over a greater distance with aoe bombardments. This is ability would be completely unique to NC outfits that have specialized in heavy armor."

lol

[BorisBlade]

As you propably follow this here as well higby:

There aren't animations for getting into or out of vehicles.


DUDE! NOT COOL!
And if you guys need 3 more month to put those animations in, they really are nessesary to let planetside be planetside. That stuff really really was awesome in planetside, and we want it back! :)

What?!?! Seriously?!?! PS NEEDS THE ANIMATIONS!!!! It was a very cool part of the immersion and it also stopped the idiotic and lame instant hopping in and out of vehicles you get in BF. And thats paired with switching gunner seats without gettin out, a terrible idea that has no place in PS either. In BF it was very lame, I would drive my vehicle in switch to a gunner seat and roast people while coasting forward then switch back and drive away. Or drive into a fight, instantly bail out, shooting the second i bailed with my rifle as they are still shooting my vehicle. Most often klling them before they realize i got out, then run back over and get back in the vehicle and leave. Its idiotic to say the least.

[BorisBlade]

Oh god, I want this!

"12 - The spirit of the design is to let you unlock some really cool, unique bonuses through outfit specialization. Here's a completely fabricated, not-actually-in-the-game-so-please-don't-expect-it-to-be-or-call-me-a-liar-when-it's-not example: Your heavy armor focused outfit can unlock the ability to use seige mode on your vanguards, now you can setup outside a base, deploy your tanks and while suffering a firing rate penalty you can attack over a greater distance with aoe bombardments. This is ability would be completely unique to NC outfits that have specialized in heavy armor."

lol

Sounds like they just need to put artillery in. Kind of over the top for a mod to a tank.

[LostSoul]

Sounds like they just need to put artillery in. Kind of over the top for a mod to a tank.

Works quite well in Starcraft 2 :)

[Bags]

Siege tanks would be beyond badass.

[Grimster]

Siege tanks would be beyond badass.


OMG, that is a dream come true for a Vanguard driver like me. I hope this will happen. :D

Have to say that they are really catching up for lost time and are answering a lot of questions.

Impressive and nothing you see that often with other games. At least not this kind of communication with the community.

Five stars to you Matt. :)

[Higby]

Sounds like they just need to put artillery in. Kind of over the top for a mod to a tank.

Keep in mind, that's just a totally off the cuff example of the types of interesting mechanics we're thinking about adding to the outfit progression lines. I don't want to give away actual designs too early, so I'm just pulling fake ones out of thin air.

[Bags]

Keep in mind, that's just a totally off the cuff example of the types of interesting mechanics we're thinking about adding to the outfit progression lines. I don't want to give away actual designs too early, so I'm just pulling fake ones out of thin air.

It's too late for that, disclaimers be damned siege tanks are now canon in PS2.

:p

[Grimster]

Keep in mind, that's just a totally off the cuff example of the types of interesting mechanics we're thinking about adding to the outfit progression lines. I don't want to give away actual designs too early, so I'm just pulling fake ones out of thin air.


Aw crap. :cry:


I knew it was to good to be true. :)

[BorisBlade]

Keep in mind, that's just a totally off the cuff example of the types of interesting mechanics we're thinking about adding to the outfit progression lines. I don't want to give away actual designs too early, so I'm just pulling fake ones out of thin air.

Oh i fully understand that, just seems cooler to keep the advancements to where they still play like tanks, not artillery. =) And i have to comment even if its not a real idea, just puttin my steering imput on the convo thats gonna result from the idea.

But I really like the advancement system (with the idea that increased power is low, but its more about variety and customization), but keep our enter/leaving vehicle animations man!!! Those were much more important in a fight than you think. And added alot to the immersion. I dont want people instantly hoppin in and out, really creates some bad gameplay.

You just need that delay animation that keeps the cheese factor gameplay out. It just feels so fake when you magically appear outside a vehicle instantly then the next second are magically inside again.

[Cadiras]

I don't have a reddit account and it seems people were posting questions for others if someone would be kind enough to post this for me, I'd appreciate it. So here goes:

I've been a PS1 player for years on and off, and have always been heavy into the AirCav side of things since I have always wanted to be and am now in the process of becoming a pilot for the Air Force so my questions are all about Aircraft stuff for PS2.
1: When it was mentioned in the Q&A that aircraft will have real physics and be able to do barrel rolls and loops and stuff, does that also include galaxies being able to drop their rear ramp and let whatever they are carrying be able to fire out the back and then just roll out and deploy a 'chute or landing jets or w/e you all decide to use if they wanted?
2: How realistic is this physics engine? I mean, a 747 can technically do a barrel roll in real life (its been done, ive seen it), granted while losing tons of altitude and with no passengers, so will galaxies/other large aircraft function the same way?
3: will all aircraft still be VTOL (vertical take off/landing) like in PS1?
4: What will the altitude ceiling be like/ how will it function? Meaning will it be like in PS1 where it immediately forces you down, or will it be more realistic where it stalls your aircraft and you eventually start falling out of the sky and need to restart the engine or eject?
5: In some of the art shown for PS2 there are giant flying fortresses like in BF2142 with the titans, will those actually be in game?

And I think I'm done for now. Thanks again for deciding to make PS2, I'm really stoked about it and good luck with development.

And thanks to whoever reddits this (if anyone does).

Posted it for you.

[Tikuto]

Higby is back!
he pro with t-ray. Double Team.

[Bags]

Woot:

Q: If the xp system is largely the same, will there be an assist system of some sort? Nothing was more frustrating than getting a tank to 10% only to have a reaver swoop in and KS. That or some sort of xp system based on damage would be cool.
Any plans for a "priority" based kill spam Ala TF2? It'd be really nice for your kills, your squadmates' kills, and their deaths to hang around in the kill spam longer than some random dude's death to a spitfire.
[Experience, killspam]
Matt: yes and yes

[Bags]

he pro with t-ray. Double Team.

Er I don't see T-ray anywhere.

[Tikuto]

Er I don't see T-ray anywhere.isnt t-ray the african-american?

[Bags]

isnt t-ray the african-american?

He's not in the reddit chat I mean.

[dsi]

Q: "are you taking in the feedback here? Can we actually affect the development of the game at this point, or, how much is set in stone?"

A: "Very little is 'set in stone' some things are closer to being finalized than others, but we're very interested in feedback and integrating thoughts and opinions from the community into the game. Some of the things I'm seeing are illuminating and will definitely affect some decisions going forward." (http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/il5og/hey_rplanetside_im_matt_higby_the_creative/c24sepx)

[Bags]

Updated google docs.

[Death2All]

I've been trolled by that "Ians0m" guy a lot. Note the "I" not the "L".

I really wish he'd do this Q&A on PSU where it's an easy to read forum and people can clearly tell it's him by his colored name instead of the colossal clusterfuck of a website.

[Bags]

I've been trolled by that "Ians0m" guy a lot. Note the "I" not the "L".

I really wish he'd do this Q&A on PSU where it's an easy to read forum and people can clearly tell it's him by his colored name instead of the colossal clusterfuck of a website.

Yeah, I'm kind of confused why he didn't just do it here and ADVERTISE that he was doing it here on reddit.

[Warruz]

"10 - I think you'll find that the base game is pretty open in what it lets you explore, the time you put in will be to specialize down those paths. Right now there's no plan to allow for recert."

No Recerts sounds like a big oversight

[Cadiras]

Yeah, I'm kind of confused why he didn't just do it here and ADVERTISE that he was doing it here on reddit.

Reddit is an extremely popular site and a thread like his gets noticed by more than just hardcore fans that browse the PSU forums.

[Bags]

Everyone go tell him no no no no to "no recerts" now.

[basti]

Why? We dont even know if we really need them at all.

[Bags]

Reddit is an extremely popular site and a thread like his gets noticed by more than just hardcore fans that browse the PSU forums.

Yes. Do the Q and A here. Advertise about it on Reddit. There you go, best of both worlds.

[Bags]

Why? We dont even know if we really need them at all.

Because I don't want to have to constantly re-level to try out different aspects of the game. I want to play planetside not grinditside.

[Warruz]

Because I don't want to have to constantly re-level to try out different aspects of the game. I want to play planetside not grinditside.

This

You cant have a game like planetside then add in RPG esc elements and not be able to reset them. Imagine WoW without talent resets, hell im playing ME2 again atm and they even let you change them.

[basti]

Because I don't want to have to constantly re-level to try out different aspects of the game. I want to play planetside not grinditside.

I agree completly with you. But we still dont have all details about the entire system.

For example: If i train "light assault" in the medic tree to level 2, do i also have "light assault" in the heavy assault tree on level 2? Means, is Light assault always light assault, no matter what class i am?
for what exactly do i spend my cert points? And if i spend 10 points in one skill tree, can i still spend those 10 points in another tree?

[Bags]

We don't have the details but I'd like them to know we don't like it before they finalize anything.

[basti]

I think your to late there. The basics of the system are already finalized, thats why they could tell us about it (you dont tell peopel stuff you might not do in the end, just makes ppl mad).
But adding a option to just reset your learned certifications is a very easy task. You may loose the time you spend on learing the skills, but you can start again with your br 20 character rather than just having to start an entire new toon.

[Sirisian]

Yes. Do the Q and A here. Advertise about it on Reddit. There you go, best of both worlds.
That's why I asked this question (http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/il5og/hey_rplanetside_im_matt_higby_the_creative/c24ni8l). There are dedicated systems for answering questions and voting upon them and such to get feedback.

I'd prefer more polls. It's nearly impossible to get a good view of what the community feels about things without a poll. You end up with a very small minority being very loud and projecting a biased view toward a topic.

[Bags]

False alarm guys, no need for recerting. Basti was right. hehe

You're never stuck, capped or locked in to anything with the PS2 cert system. Recerting isn't necessary because there's no restrictions on how many certs you can have trained at a time, just how many you can take advantage of on any given loadout.

[basti]

And there we go:

"You're never stuck, capped or locked in to anything with the PS2 cert system. Recerting isn't necessary because there's no restrictions on how many certs you can have trained at a time, just how many you can take advantage of on any given loadout."


As i understand it: You have 20 cert points at br 20. You can put those 20 points into Healer, those 20 points into Driver, ect.

[Volw]

I think your to late there. The basics of the system are already finalized, thats why they could tell us about it (you dont tell peopel stuff you might not do in the end, just makes ppl mad).
But adding a option to just reset your learned certifications is a very easy task. You may loose the time you spend on learing the skills, but you can start again with your br 20 character rather than just having to start an entire new toon.

My speculative understanding of the system.

There are skill trees, to go down a skill tree you need a specific BR level. To unlock specific skills, you need to 'train' them.

Now, it's not necessary to respec as the trained skills won't be lost. It will be possible to train multiple skills (or certs) and then pick and choose from within the class selection screen.


Edit: Doh, too late. Again!

[Warruz]

And there we go:

"You're never stuck, capped or locked in to anything with the PS2 cert system. Recerting isn't necessary because there's no restrictions on how many certs you can have trained at a time, just how many you can take advantage of on any given loadout."


As i understand it: You have 20 cert points at br 20. You can put those 20 points into Healer, those 20 points into Driver, ect.
yeah this comes down to a misunderstanding on the system.

then perhaps this is a misunderstanding between the old and new system.

This is how i think it will work/what they are getting at. You train your certs much like eve online training system, so at some point you will learn them all. And you can Assign X amount to a load out, of which you can swap in and out depending on what ya want?

[waldizzo]

Very good information. This has done a great job clarifying some of my concerns. Thanks Higby for taking the time to answer these questions. Also a thank you to Bags for putting it all together in the google doc.

[CidHighwind]

Perhaps the wrong section, but some of the answers Matt has provided were in regards to a potential PS3/PC crossover, and during the Fan Faire I heard a similar question pop up - both responses were dodgy, but to me sounded like SoE have something they don't want to reveal... I personally only want PS2 on a PC, as that is where this type of title thrives, but...

Question/Speculation: What are the chances this is a PS4 launch title in addition to PC launch? --- It would perhaps explain why so many resources from other SoE projects have been focused towards PS2.

[Bags]

I don't care as long as my experience doesn't get butchered for console players.

[Volw]

Question/Speculation: What are the chances this is a PS4 launch title in addition to PC launch? --- It would perhaps explain why so many resources from other SoE projects have been focused towards PS2.

yep, I've been thinking about that as well.

Especially when Smidley mentioned they look even beyond PS3.

Knowing current consoles are not capable to handle PS2, I'd assume he means next gen stuff.

Important bit:
PSide2 won't be released for another year or so and PStation4 is rumoured to be released end of 2012. Having PSide2 as one of the launch titles makes a lot of sense.

[Bags]

yep, I've been thinking about that as well.

Especially when Smidley mentioned they look even beyond PS3.

Knowing current consoles are not capable to handle PS2, I'd assume he means next gen stuff.

Important bit:
PSide2 won't be released for another year or so and PStation4 is rumoured to be released end of 2012. Having PSide2 as one of the launch titles makes a lot of sense.

Fuck. I would be so pissed if the release date was pushed back so console kiddies could play it.

[Volw]

Fuck. I would be so pissed if the release date was pushed back so console kiddies could play it.

I'm almost 100% it will be a separate release. Porting code takes time, after all.

And I honestly don't think they will dare to group console kiddies with PC players. Unless they give them 100% extra HP and auto-aim.

[Sifer2]

I really hope the game is not multiplatform. Let Planetside 2 be made for PC an let it take advantage of it to the fullest. Not holding anything back cause console can't keep up. If they want to make a separate Planetside game using the engine but designed for PS3 then I wouldn't give a rip. Just don't hold back the PC game is all I want.



As to this Q an A. There were some good answers in there. I feel a lot better about some things now especially the squad spawn. There was also some disappointments though.

I hate that we wont get real inventory management. If I want to carry more ammo or different ammo, or medkits. Let me decide what I want. I really don't understand why they think less inventory customization would be a good thing. I see no good reason.

I'm also really disappointed at hearing there wont be vehicle entry an exit animations. That was one of the coolest things about Planetside to me. I'm not even kidding. When I played Battlefield games it was one thing I missed a lot. I hate the stupid looking teleport into vehicle mess. Seems a small thing but it matters to me.

An the big one. No recerting? Are they crazy? No way that wont get changed so i'm not even worried. There might be bigger limitations on it like the need to slowly retrain into a different skillset over time. But no ability to recert at all is just broken. Especially since when people start playing how do they know what it is they really want to be yet?

[Bags]

Matt has said they are going to listen to feedback, and nothing is set in stone. So write up a great reason for inventory management and post it in that reddit thing. I already linked him to a PS forum thread about it. No one wants to see it gone.

[Volw]

An the big one. No recerting? Are they crazy? No way that wont get changed so i'm not even worried. There might be bigger limitations on it like the need to slowly retrain into a different skillset over time. But no ability to recert at all is just broken. Especially since when people start playing how do they know what it is they really want to be yet?

It's not there cause it's not needed. Read the thread before QQing please ;-)

"You're never stuck, capped or locked in to anything with the PS2 cert system. Recerting isn't necessary because there's no restrictions on how many certs you can have trained at a time, just how many you can take advantage of on any given loadout."

[Sifer2]

I see you posted since I wrote mine up saying we do get recerting after all. Or rather than the system just works differently so its not needed. That's funny cause that's what I initially assumed it worked like when they announced it being similar to Eve. But then people on here told me I was wrong an that it was still based on certs lol.

So its like I first thought then. It's like Eve where the longer you play the more roles will be open to you. That makes me real curious how long on average it takes to fully learn a class then. If it takes 2 years to learn everything then that will help give the people who love character progression something without really breaking balance since you can only be one class at a time.

[Sifer2]

It's not there cause it's not needed. Read the thread before QQing please ;-)


Oh looky another post popping up while i'm writing. An this one dissing me. lol

This forum is starting to move fast.

[morf]

meh, if implemented right the PS3/4 crossover might be okay, so long as it doesn't affect the PC version. Maybe make the PS3/4 version free to play, so we always have fodder to shoot at.:lol: Plus it's tons of free marketing for the vastly superior PC version. I brought this up a long time ago, but limiting f2p people to only playing the lowest pop empire would make sure the pops were always balanced.

[Volw]

Oh looky another post popping up while i'm writing. An this one dissing me. lol

This forum is starting to move fast.

Getting in the mood before bed time! ;-)

All this crying about PS2 features (including f.. logo!) makes me a sad panda.

[Forsaken One]

I'm also really disappointed at hearing there wont be vehicle entry an exit animations. That was one of the coolest things about Planetside to me. I'm not even kidding. When I played Battlefield games it was one thing I missed a lot. I hate the stupid looking teleport into vehicle mess. Seems a small thing but it matters to me.


Where did you see this? I REALLY hope this is not the case. One of the reasons I kinda dislike Battlefield is the magic button that ports people in and out if vehicles.

[Volw]

Where did you see this? I REALLY hope this is not the case. One of the reasons I kinda dislike Battlefield is the magic button that ports people in and out if vehicles.

It's on reddit.

It's a shame really, but I understand the fact it's expansive to implement.

Mind SOE is in a bit of a financial trouble right now, so I personally don't care about bells and whistles as long as we get it.

[Sifer2]

Yeah the good thing about MMO's is they can add stuff over time. So hopefully vehicle entry/exit animations will be patched in later.

[Bags]

Yeah hopefully.

[Forsaken One]

It's on reddit.

It's a shame really, but I understand the fact it's expansive to implement.

Mind SOE is in a bit of a financial trouble right now, so I personally don't care about bells and whistles as long as we get it.

well it said the animations won't be in right? someone ask if its going to take 5+ seconds to enter or exit a vehicle then. I'm not going to bother with the game if I'm going to have asshats who can "press the magic button" at the last second of their vehicle being hit, port out of it, then make a run for it/cloak/try to shot me/whatever instead of dieing like a man or exiting way before the vehicle's death.

Edit: I want you to have to stop, hold the exit button while not doing anything else for around 5 seconds in the least to be able to exit a vehicle. I also want you to have to stand exposed and hold the button for at least 5 seconds where you want to enter it to get in it.

also someone please ask as well if you are going to be able to "own" your vehicle, meaning lock it. kick people out of it, etc. another thing I hate about BF is a stupid tard getting in my vehicle and not being able to boot them.

[CutterJohn]

Wow, he answered my huge wall of questions! Thanks Matt!

[Der Baron]

uhh.. there is one thing that I totally forgot, but did anyone ask whether or not we'll get that huge number of voice macros again?

You know, V-V-B and the rest. They were awesome! Honestly, they could just re-use the same voice macros from PlanetSide.

[Higby]

Wow, he answered my huge wall of questions! Thanks Matt!

You bet. I appreciate all the questions, it's helping me understand where you guys are coming from too. =)

[Higby]

uhh.. there is one thing that I totally forgot, but did anyone ask whether or not we'll get that huge number of voice macros again?

You know, V-V-B and the rest. They were awesome! Honestly, they could just re-use the same voice macros from PlanetSide.

We're definitely going to have voice macros. More than in PS1. Many will be automatic, many will be activatable.

[2coolforu]

Epic winning

[Bags]

We're definitely going to have voice macros. More than in PS1. Many will be automatic, many will be activatable.

Fantastic
Fabulous
Outstanding

The question of the hour: Can we loot enemy hand held weaponry on the fly? And if not, why? I can understand not wanting to retexture vehicles, but guns don't need new textures.

[Tergeron]

Matt, whats the chance of you inviting Jace Hall to the studios again so we can see you use the "heavy hand" and some transformers in the future?

[ZeroOneZero]

I have a question which concerns pilots and drivers alike.

Q: Is the environment destructible in PS2? Of course not the facilities or towers but trees and other massive rocks? I'm a galaxy pilot and I can't tell you how many times where I just touch a tree branch and it manages to flip my galaxy upside down(sure it can be funny at times). Or even better, tank drivers can't even steamroll over a tiny pebble and leaves us out in the open for attacks.

But that's my 2 cents. Thanks for answering all those questions Matt, I can't wait for the end product. Peace. :D

[Dorest0rm]

Havn't got the time to scroll thru the Reddit thread, but i read vehicle enter/exit animations are being removed. Tbh the animations made it more fair so you just didnt hop in and start shooting away.

[Dreamcast]

Are you guys considering headshots?


Atleast headshots that will only work on other snipers?

[Warruz]

Il toss 2 questions in.

1) What can we see in terms of artillery ?

2) What can we expect to see in deployable weaponry such as MG Nests? Mobile Artillery? and how will it be implemented if so?

[Rbstr]

You guys turn every thread he's in into a Q&A and you'll ruin it.

[Bags]

You guys turn every thread he's in into a Q&A and you'll ruin it.

This is the Q&A thread. Seriously though, you can't expect players to not pester devs, especially when the 8 year sequel has just been announced.

If he's made the choice to post here I'm sure he's come to accept that he'll be barraged with questions.

[moosepoop]

We're definitely going to have voice macros. More than in PS1. Many will be automatic, many will be activatable.

GREETS GREETS GREETS

HEEEEEEEELP

[2coolforu]

GREETS GREETS GREETS

HEEEEEEEELP

I AM ATTACKING THEIR MEDICAL TERMINALS

AFFIRMATIVE

ATTACK THEIR GENERATOR

NEGATIVE

I AM REPAIRING OUR EQUIPMENT TERMINALS

GETTING BETTER

[SKYeXile]

Need more info about the netcode and if its still possible to play competivly from Australia...arg...!

[Sifer2]

If were allowed to ask him questions I would like to know more about the footholds. How big are they? Is there any Sanctuary like features such as VR training or implants to them? Hell are implants even still in the game?

[Rbstr]

This is the Q&A thread. Seriously though, you can't expect players to not pester devs, especially when the 8 year sequel has just been announced.

If he's made the choice to post here I'm sure he's come to accept that he'll be barraged with questions.

Oh...crap, this is what tabs will do to you sometimes.

[CutterJohn]

We're definitely going to have voice macros. More than in PS1. Many will be automatic, many will be activatable.

So.. Click a button while pointing at a hacking terminal and you shout 'We need a hacker!", etc? Spotting would also be nice, even if only for squad. I'd looove a context sensitive spot button that gave location details..

*click*

"Incoming Vanguard! 2 o'clock! 150 meters!"

"Incoming Reaver! Northwest! 300 meters!"

"Incoming Troops! Backdoor!"

Obviously it would need a cooldown to prevent spam.

[Jennyboo]

You bet. I appreciate all the questions, it's helping me understand where you guys are coming from too. =)

Was a great honor to get to meet you at the Fan Faire and to get to ask you some questions one on one :D Well with Hamma of course :)

[Hamma]

Are you guys considering headshots?


Atleast headshots that will only work on other snipers?

I've got the answer to this in the Q&A tomorrow. ;)

[morf]

I've got the answer to this in the Q&A tomorrow. ;)

Booooo for teasers. Who do you think you are, John Smedley?

[moosepoop]

anyone know if we get xp for kill assist? the kill stealing in ps1 is really annoying

one time i accidentally stole a bfr kill as a cloaker with a pistol. the other guy got really mad.

[Hamma]

Booooo for teasers. Who do you think you are, John Smedley?

Hey it's not often I get to do that. :lol:

[Effective]

The biggest question for me, is game balance. I know he said he has a full-team dedicated to game balance and that players skill will be very important. But to me that leads to the question of how certain mechanics in PS1 will change.

Certain things like corner camping, special assault, max units, killing infantry with aircraft, and a few other things, require little to no effort in PS 1.

So what changes can we expect in PS2 for these things? We know there is no 3rd person, but that buffs cloakers who use boomers (what noobs don't use third person to check corners for boomers?). I'd like to comment on game balance, but I have no details to work with. So I can't just come out and say, max units have no decent counter, like I can in PS 1. Details, details, details, details, we all need them!

[morf]

anyone know if we get xp for kill assist? the kill stealing in ps1 is really annoying

one time i accidentally stole a bfr kill as a cloaker with a pistol. the other guy got really mad.

Yeah he said on reddit there will be some form of damage/xp sharing

[moosepoop]

Yeah he said on reddit there will be some form of damage/xp sharing

cool thanks bro

[Captain1nsaneo]

I want to say thank you to Mr. Higby for talking to us and answering questions. This barrage of questions is due to our love of the game and hope for the future.

My current question is if the engine can handle moving bases? I ask this because I hope for Iowa class battle ships later in the game that are boardable. Maybe when planets come out we could run around on the hulls of enemy capital ships during space naval battles attempting to breach the airlocks to get at their internals. I've not seen a system that supports mobile bases or large destructible bases before and I know Forgelight is supposed to be able to do some great stuff.

[Bags]

My current question is if the engine can handle moving bases?.

Towers have landing gear. Take from that what you will

[CutterJohn]

Towers have landing gear. Take from that what you will

I think he means something you can walk around and fight on while its moving. The towers I am assuming will just be dropped from orbit, THEN fought over.

[Bags]

I think he means something you can walk around and fight on while its moving. The towers I am assuming will just be dropped from orbit, THEN fought over.

Maybe.

[NCLynx]

Will there still be a VR training facility? I really liked weapon testing and still go back to VR training rooms to mess around on occasion. Certainly helped me learn how many shots on average it would take to kill someone and the effect of how far/close the enemy was to you.

[morf]

cool thanks bro

Anytime, chief.

[Marsman]

Will there still be a VR training facility? I really liked weapon testing and still go back to VR training rooms to mess around on occasion. Certainly helped me learn how many shots on average it would take to kill someone and the effect of how far/close the enemy was to you.

Good question - wondered that myself. We do know they are eliminating the sanctuaries so I dunno what they have in mind for any type of training or new player introduction.

One of the things I thought would have been nice for sanc's if they had stayed was to have an area where simple NPC AI's were present to practice combat. Towers were in sanctuary but they had no real purpose. A simple base, or tower stocked with NPC's from the other 2 factions would have allowed troops to try out weapons in a "real" environment. Would have been a nice addition to the VR area to practice tactics like base infiltration/hold or tower drops. One could do this on the existing sanc towers, but without live weapons, or anything to fight against, it didn't really provide much substance. We'll have to wait and see what they come up with as far as new player orientation, but would love to see some sort of limited NPC practice area to give players a real sense of what they'll be up against in the "real" world.

[NCLynx]

Have waypoints been cleared up yet?
Will they be there at all?
If they're in the game, personal WPs? Will we be able to set more than one personal WP if we do have personal WPs?

[Bags]

The biggest question for me, is game balance. I know he said he has a full-team dedicated to game balance and that players skill will be very important. But to me that leads to the question of how certain mechanics in PS1 will change.

Certain things like corner camping, special assault, max units, killing infantry with aircraft, and a few other things, require little to no effort in PS 1.

So what changes can we expect in PS2 for these things? We know there is no 3rd person, but that buffs cloakers who use boomers (what noobs don't use third person to check corners for boomers?). I'd like to comment on game balance, but I have no details to work with. So I can't just come out and say, max units have no decent counter, like I can in PS 1. Details, details, details, details, we all need them!

Well, one nice thing is they say they will be able to track everything, such as how often a gun is used, how often it's fired, avg shots to kill, etc.

So they can look at the numbers to see if something is broken.

[Bags]

Updated google docs.

[CidHighwind]

Silly Highwind, this forum is for questions that HAVEN'T been answered.

Problem has been rectified

[Bags]

Except for the fact that ya know, AMS have been confirmed.

[CidHighwind]

My apologies :rolleyes:- what interview/location can that info be found? This would make me quite a happy camper :groovy:.

[Bags]

My apologies :rolleyes:- what interview/location can that info be found? This would make me quite a happy camper :groovy:.

I don't even know any more to be honest. It's one of the thirty minute videos on gametrailer. They just confirmed AMS; they didn't give any details.

[Volw]

What I'd love to see is Sunderer turned into AMS.

That is the pre-release Sunderer, not the nerfed one that's been around for years.

[Hamma]

You should put it on our Wiki Bags.. ;)

[Bags]

Where on the wiki?

[Hamma]

You would have to create a new page somewhere, it would require some formatting work on your behalf though you couldn't just upload it there. Up to you :D

We hope to rebuild our FAQ with links to all the press as well as any information we know. It will be a rather massive undertaking.

[Bags]

Maybe tomorrow then.

[SKYeXile]

yea but so many of those press articals, tell the same story.

probably best to start a new PS2 wiki on PSU, i dont think the syndicate one is that popular.

[2coolforu]

Did Matt say when he would be hopping into Reddit again? I know that he has work and stuff now but it's been relatively quiet today.

[SKYeXile]

I would give them atleast 2 weeks before they drop anymore real info.

[Bags]

Did Matt say when he would be hopping into Reddit again? I know that he has work and stuff now but it's been relatively quiet today.

He said he'd check back periodically. No idea if that means he'll drop by for 20 minutes aday, or if he'll answer a couple questions a week, or what.

He did however drop by and an answer a Q six hours ago, around noon PST, so maybe he did it during lunch?

[SKYeXile]

He said he'd check back periodically. No idea if that means he'll drop by for 20 minutes aday, or if he'll answer a couple questions a week, or what.

He did however drop by and an answer a Q six hours ago, around noon PST, so maybe he did it during lunch?

Wont somebody PLEASE think about the hit detection!

[Bags]

If I asked him I'm sure they'd just say what type they're going to use, which we already know.

[SKYeXile]

ill ask myself then, though i expect no proper response.

[Hamma]

yea but so many of those press articals, tell the same story.

probably best to start a new PS2 wiki on PSU, i dont think the syndicate one is that popular.

We intended (and still intend at the moment) for our Wiki to cover both. Whether or not that works well remains to be seen.

That being said, any content that is added there I will link from the main FAQ Bags, I haven't updated that yet but will be in the coming days.

[BorisBlade]

So if air vehicles are now more like real aircraft and not VTOL's then do you take off from a runway? and does that mean you have to then land in one meaning you cant hover to land where you want to repair or cap somethin. And you couldnt hover near a "loadstar" repair style vehicle.

Or, does that mean we get airplane style vehicles and ones like a helicopter.

Bombers should be like airplanes obviously. Vulture would be your A-10 Warthog style plane. But a reaver should be a heli style vehicle, gotta have heli style vehicles even tho thats basically what reavers were, just up the difficulty to fly em if needed. And if the galaxy is gonna be a spawn point then im guessin its airplane style. We need some kind of transport you could land to pick up people, then leave. Still could use that half squad transport/attack vehicle, think black hawk or somethin but in a PS form.=)

The "floating camera" term seems to imply it was not real flying, but its basically a helicopter or VTOL, makes perfect sense. No probs with those, you can always make it harder to control if needed. Think i remember the Desert Combat mod for BF1942 that had a hard to control heli.(it was a bit overboard on the difficulty tho) I couldnt fly it to save my life back then, for whatever reason if i could even stay airborne i was happy, but my roomie could thread it thru a needle if need be. So we had him flyin us all over. Its cool to have need for the good pilots but that was overboard. We would watch the other heli's take off then crash one after the other, maybe 1 in 10 people we would see take off could actually fly it, and i dont mean they were good. I just mean they didnt crash 15 seconds after take off.

[SKYeXile]

i imagine they will still hover, but they will have more physicls behind them, like they said mass will effect tanks, im sure it would be the same with aircraft, a reaver and a skeeter maybe able to stop and turn fast, weave through canyons, but a lib wont, also when stopping or turning we would see feel the g's when coming to a stop. I beleie also we wont be stuck on those like 75 degree angles the reaver a skeeter could look on, i expect they willbe able to barrel roll and flip, at appropriate speeds. I doub we will see stalling, this should still be an arcade shooter afterall, not a simulator.

[Evilmp]

this should still be an arcade shooter afterall, not a simulator.

On the contrary, in this particular instance, I believe it would be cool for aircraft to stall out. It would be much better than the way they manage the height cap in PS1.

[Zulthus]

On the contrary, in this particular instance, I believe it would be cool for aircraft to stall out. It would be much better than the way they manage the height cap in PS1.

I agree. While highly unlikely, since I'm looking foward to flying, a detailed cockpit view and realistic flying features would be nice. Stalling would be amazing.

[Captain1nsaneo]

The flight ceiling is there to force aircraft to stay in the range of AA when it's manned by someone with low view distance. PS can handle aircraft up to around 78901.8m as is. It also helps force dogfights. I could see it turn into a hard stall line where the engines go out but you keep your momentum rather than the current one that kills your afterburn speed boosts if you hit it.

Interested in how the rest of the air physics works out and definitely looking forward to running a lib and gal. The weapon systems for the new reaver are also interesting as it seems to now be a two man aircraft, probably won't be the same rocketpod setup. Also with all this talk of the gal being like a C130 does that mean that we might get an actual AC130 style gunship? *drool*

[Volw]

We have Galaxy Gunships now, so probably the same in PS2.

[Goku]

We have Galaxy Gunships now, so probably the same in PS2.

The galaxy gunship was more of an afterthought that got put into the game. Honestly I would rather them scrap the entire idea of the GG. I would much prefer a modern style GG like the C130 that has the heavy machine gun and basically what is a tank gun in it on one side. The current one has too many angles for coverage.

[Sirisian]

The current one has too many angles for coverage.
Do a barrel roll. :) I hope the VTOL jets on the planes can go upside down. It'll help when flying... upside down.

[SKYeXile]

i do hope the flight engine is prettygood though and allows for some good manoeuvres, anything to end the turreting.

[hippieschuh]

well I hope its not so complicated as the one in bf2, I realy hate air vehicles in bf2.

They are terrible to control with a mouse. I loved to map the Ascend/Descend function to the thumb mouse buttons in PS1.

[Firefly]

I'd like to know about Alliance implementation, whether they plan on doing it or not and if so, what they can do. This was something they talked about in Planetside but never did.

[basti]

Any, an outfit alliance would be good stuff.

There will be big, big outfits with several different divisions doing different stuff. They will most likley split up to gain benefits.

[Firefly]

Any, an outfit alliance would be good stuff.

There will be big, big outfits with several different divisions doing different stuff. They will most likley split up to gain benefits.
That's currently what my Outfit is discussing - we have a couple of different divisions, and I'd like to be able to get them the maximum amount of benefits per team. However, without knowing how the outfit cert system will work, I'm reserving judgment on both outfit cert and splitting up. I do know that in WAR there was a guild that did exactly that - they used the alliance function to run multiple guilds as part of an incorporated mega-guild. They seemed to make it work.

[Higby]

Another skills tree question that we haven't gotten a chance to answer yet...

If there is any one question I would like you to answer if possible is the ease of changing classes. My point is this from your recent reddit quote

"You're never stuck, capped or locked in to anything with the PS2 cert system. Recerting isn't necessary because there's no restrictions on how many certs you can have trained at a time, just how many you can take advantage of on any given loadout."

Does this mean in some way that BR or Cert points are shared across classes? (BR 7 means BR 7 Engy/Medi/Heavy assault) So if me and my air cav group start owning this base then EVERYONE in the base can just roll AA maxes to counter us with no re-cert timer or equivalent? If so then I must point out that this will heavily influence gameplay for the worst as it is too easy to just change from BR7____ to BR7____ that easily upon spawning at a terminal..


If you're BR 10, that's on your character. Classes don't really have RANKS, they have CERTS which are locked or "gated" by the player's overall rank. So, if you're BR 10, you aren't automatically a level 10 AA Max since a level 10 AA max doesn't actually exist in a meaningful way. But, you have access to unlock level 10 AA Max CERTS, those CERTS would still require time to train and unlock.

So, while you can switch into a variety of roles, you'd be playing them completely untrained until you put some time into advancing all of them.

One final note: More advanced roles (Such as MAX or Liberator) may require advancement down a specific skill tree to unlock, for instance you may need to spend some time training Heavy Assault to unlock MAX skill trees, that way everyone can't just spawn an untrained powerful vehicle / weapon and still be very powerful with it despite not having any of the bells and whistles unlocked. This is something we're still playing with internally, we're doing a lot of iteration on these systems - when they're totally locked down you guys can expect to see a full expose on them get released.

Again, huge thank you for the questions and feedback guys... It's really awesome to have this community as a sounding board, sanity check and idea farm on some of these things.

[artifice]

Another skills tree question that we haven't gotten a chance to answer yet...




If you're BR 10, that's on your character. Classes don't really have RANKS, they have CERTS which are locked or "gated" by the player's overall rank. So, if you're BR 10, you aren't automatically a level 10 AA Max since a level 10 AA max doesn't actually exist in a meaningful way. But, you have access to unlock level 10 AA Max CERTS, those CERTS would still require time to train and unlock.

So, while you can switch into a variety of roles, you'd be playing them completely untrained until you put some time into advancing all of them.

One final note: More advanced roles (Such as MAX or Liberator) may require advancement down a specific skill tree to unlock, for instance you may need to spend some time training Heavy Assault to unlock MAX skill trees, that way everyone can't just spawn an untrained powerful vehicle / weapon and still be very powerful with it despite not having any of the bells and whistles unlocked. This is something we're still playing with internally, we're doing a lot of iteration on these systems - when they're totally locked down you guys can expect to see a full expose on them get released.

Again, huge thank you for the questions and feedback guys... It's really awesome to have this community as a sounding board, sanity check and idea farm on some of these things.

Will we be limited to the number of classes we have access to? Meaning, will we be restricted to say only 3 classes and then switch between those classes at any time? or will we have access to all classes?

[Manitou]

That's currently what my Outfit is discussing - we have a couple of different divisions, and I'd like to be able to get them the maximum amount of benefits per team. However, without knowing how the outfit cert system will work, I'm reserving judgment on both outfit cert and splitting up. I do know that in WAR there was a guild that did exactly that - they used the alliance function to run multiple guilds as part of an incorporated mega-guild. They seemed to make it work.
Interesting, we may discuss this as well.

[Volw]

Matt, a small question / request.

Are outfit scores going to be calculated the same way as they were in PS1?

I'm from Renegade Legion and we held the top spot on NC Werner pretty much forever with outfits 3x - 4x times the size of us way behind us in rankings.

It would be nice if relatively small, specialised outfits would be valid yet again, instead of favouring massive, zerg outfits, like most of the MMOs sadly do.

Cheers,
Volw.

PS: I don't care about the score, it won't make my penis any larger. However with the new resource system in PS2 I would still like to know if small outfits won't get shafted! ;-)

[basti]

Another skills tree question that we haven't gotten a chance to answer yet...




If you're BR 10, that's on your character. Classes don't really have RANKS, they have CERTS which are locked or "gated" by the player's overall rank. So, if you're BR 10, you aren't automatically a level 10 AA Max since a level 10 AA max doesn't actually exist in a meaningful way. But, you have access to unlock level 10 AA Max CERTS, those CERTS would still require time to train and unlock.

So, while you can switch into a variety of roles, you'd be playing them completely untrained until you put some time into advancing all of them.

One final note: More advanced roles (Such as MAX or Liberator) may require advancement down a specific skill tree to unlock, for instance you may need to spend some time training Heavy Assault to unlock MAX skill trees, that way everyone can't just spawn an untrained powerful vehicle / weapon and still be very powerful with it despite not having any of the bells and whistles unlocked. This is something we're still playing with internally, we're doing a lot of iteration on these systems - when they're totally locked down you guys can expect to see a full expose on them get released.

Again, huge thank you for the questions and feedback guys... It's really awesome to have this community as a sounding board, sanity check and idea farm on some of these things.

Neat. But i see a big problem right away: Time.
No matter what you do, at some point i will be master of all classes. This may take years, but it is possible.

edit: just to clarify: i understand that right that until i put some time onto training for a "class" (we need a better term, really!), im just able to use the basic stuff? Like, for example Magrider requires you to train lightning first?

[Volw]

Neat. But i see a big problem right away: Time.
No matter what you do, at some point i will be master of all classes. This may take years, but it is possible.

Yeah, but still, you will be only able to play one class at a time.

So you will be equally 'certed' against a newish person that only specialised in one class.

[Lunarchild]

Neat. But i see a big problem right away: Time.
No matter what you do, at some point i will be master of all classes. This may take years, but it is possible.

edit: just to clarify: i understand that right that until i put some time onto training for a "class" (we need a better term, really!), im just able to use the basic stuff? Like, for example Magrider requires you to train lightning first?

They can always make more certs you want to spec in...

[Rbstr]

I don't really see a problem with someone that's played years and years having a wide variety of specialisation, as long as it remains compartmentalised.

There's also easy remedies without instituting hard caps, like make each additional skill take longer...this can be as crazy as say: up to 45skills they train under a day, after that they creep up to months or years long.

[Firefly]

Alliances yes or no?

[Hamma]

They can always make more certs you want to spec in...

There is also adding other things to do. :D They intend to go Sandbox with this which means tons of possibilities beyond what we know PlanetSide is now.

[basti]

Problem is that by the time you notice that everyone got everything TO THE MAX (:D), its already 2 late.

The problem would be that a new guy would lack those certs completly until he is done with one class. But if the "max 20% difference" is really the case, then the issue would be minimal. Wait and see i guess, im pretty sure it will be good. :)

edit: very good point hamma. :)

[Zerikin Loukbel]

So, does this mean you could potentially train all the certs at once? Is there a cap? Are there diminishing returns the more certs you have on training speed?

[2coolforu]

some kind of exponential training time increase similar to EVE's increase between levels 1 and 5 seems necessary to stop people becoming experts in every field.

[Volw]

some kind of exponential training time increase similar to EVE's increase between levels 1 and 5 seems necessary to stop people becoming experts in every field.

It doesn't matter even if people become experts. Can only choose one class to play at a time, plus it seems like it won't be possible to 'equip' all of the class skills at the same time anyway.

[hippieschuh]

Sorry to ask the same question again I just dont quite understand yet.

In PS1 I got, for example 5 different "classes" using Certs.

tank driver, reaver pilot, mechanic and MAX

I could switch between those "classes" everytime I want/had access to Terminal.

Will I be able to do the same in PS2?

I dont want to wait a very long time just to switch back to tank because reaver got boring or isnt suited for the situation.

(letting "Advanced" Skills / bonuses aside!)

[Raymac]

Sorry to ask the same question again I just dont quite understand yet.

In PS1 I got, for example 5 different "classes" using Certs.

tank driver, reaver pilot, mechanic and MAX

I could switch between those "classes" everytime I want/had access to Terminal.

Will I be able to do the same in PS2?

I dont want to wait a very long time just to switch back to tank because reaver got boring or isnt suited for the situation.

(letting "Advanced" Skills / bonuses aside!)

Short answer...Yes, it sounds like thats exactly what they have planned, but we'll get more detail on their new skill point system soon enough.

[Volw]

Sorry to ask the same question again I just dont quite understand yet.

In PS1 I got, for example 5 different "classes" using Certs.

tank driver, reaver pilot, mechanic and MAX

I could switch between those "classes" everytime I want/had access to Terminal.

Will I be able to do the same in PS2?

I dont want to wait a very long time just to switch back to tank because reaver got boring or isnt suited for the situation.

(letting "Advanced" Skills / bonuses aside!)

You can switch between classes every time you die. So it's less restrictive than PS.

On the other hand, you won't be able to 'mix' classes. So as a medic you *probably* won't be able to stroll around in rexo + ha. And as a rexo + ha, you won't be able to heal as efficiently.

[wormywyrm]

Is anyone else bummed there wont be animations for entering vehicles? That was the sort of polish that I loved about Planetside 1. I can't stand how in other MMOs you cant see your character get on your horse (and in most games the horse disappears when you dismount).

I hope the vehicles don't disappear when you dismount.

It will be lame to see people run up to a galaxy and disappear as they 'enter' the vehicle.

[Lunarchild]

Problem is that by the time you notice that everyone got everything TO THE MAX (:D), its already 2 late.

The problem would be that a new guy would lack those certs completly until he is done with one class. But if the "max 20% difference" is really the case, then the issue would be minimal. Wait and see i guess, im pretty sure it will be good. :)

edit: very good point hamma. :)

That, and apparently they have a "vision (http://gucomics.com/comic/?cdate=20020612)" and a 3 year plan ^^

[MgFalcon]

Alliances yes or no?

I like this idea.

[Dorest0rm]

I like this idea.

Alliances would be a pretty good idea.

[Sirisian]

The need for alliances could show a flaw in the outfit idea though. It sounds like SOE wants outfits to be only people that play the same way. However they implemented classes so that everyone plays differently. Kind of seems like if you wanted a well rounded squad you can't be part of an outfit that expects to be fully specialized in something. I see outfits as a bunch of random people that don't know each other just in it because they all fly reavers and the outfit leader said he'll put all the points into that.

Kind of wish there was an outfit system that was more neutral to play style. Unless you have enough skill points to fill multiple tree of skills or something. Or skills that are chosen affect a wide range of classes and vehicles. Should be interesting to see the trees I guess. The idea of Alliances sound like an outfit system for grouping players and specializing their skills, but that would boil down to "oh hey bob what extra bonuses do you want?"

[Rbstr]

Maybe, they needed some kind of unit of player groups to allow larger sized groups of people to work for bonuses that furthered all of them.
TONS of outfits billed themselves as good at Z or Y play style, it's a logical place to start for [groupofplayershere] benefits.

I would imagine outfit bonuses would benefit goup-playstyles more than specific classes. Bonuses could be categorized for things behind-the-lines groups, light infantry, mechanized infantry, air support. Broader categories where outfit skills can be allocated to many of the roles that exist within them. Air cav obviously needs little in the way of medic bonuses, where it would be highly important for the behind the lines group.

Even if you simply had outfit skills that go to a single class, you could mix and match to how you operate and it won't likely be "pick one category of bonus and deal with it"

Even in that case what's the alternative to alliances...you could assign players to certain divisions within an outfit, which each have their own set of bonuses?
Well that's really the same thing as some kind of official alliance structure and simply a semantic difference

[Malorn]

Alliances & permission system for access to alliance chat & alliance officer chat (for outfit leaders and designated officers).

I'd also be interesting if outfits could belong to more than one alliance. In that sense alliances could sort of become like special interest groups within the empire. Have an alliance of air-support or tanks, have another alliance for handling territory defense, etc.

That would also help alleviate inter-alliance drama and bickering and keep it a little more free-form.

This + Missions would ultimately remove the need for CR5 chat and globals/continentals.

Maybe call them "Battle Groups" or "Divisions" or something like that rather than alliance.

I think that's exactly the sort of thing PS2 needs to facilitate free-form organization among outfits and abolish the need for CR5's.

We'd probalby need a few different charter types for these, such as autocratic where one outfit manages the group, and free association, where one outfit creates with another but anyone can join and it only exists as long as two outfits belong to it. Could even do an oligarchy-like thing where a few different outfits rule and approve new member outfits, remove existing outfits, and approve new ruling outfits (this is the closest I think to a joint alliance that would help remove ownership drama). In that way outfits could form their own loose associations in whatever manner suits them to build their empire's social structure.

Really good topic actually. I'll think on it some more and write up something in the next day or two.

[Firefly]

If they're doing outfit specializations where outfits can specialize in a specific role, then logically you have two options (if you care enough to spec):

1) run an extremely specialized outfit that focuses on one discipline, and thereby get the max amount of benefits
2) run an outfit with a few disciplines - like, infantry and armour and MAX - and obtain less benefits than a single-spec outfit

If this is the case, you will definitely see outfits that split into smaller outfits and spec each according to a discipline. This is why alliances now become incredibly important.

It's also a dumb fucking idea to force an outfit to specialize in one single discipline. Even bailure outfits that focus strictly on one style of play - flying their little Mossies over a target and bailing out to do some infantry combat - are going to need to do a bit of spec'ing in air combat. Because if an enemy outfit which spec's in strictly air combat is sitting between them and their target? Yeah it's probably gonna be a goddamned turkey shoot.

I'm very much against having to split my outfit into two, three, or four different mini-outfits just to spec my guys in the best path that will help get an edge. In PvP combat, ANY edge is an edge. Yes we could be all relaxed and chill and just let our skills and teamwork and coordination compensate, but I'd prefer to do that *AND* have my little percentile bonuses. At the very least I'd like to have some way to link all of us together.

[nathanebht]

The need for alliances could show a flaw in the outfit idea though. It sounds like SOE wants outfits to be only people that play the same way. However they implemented classes so that everyone plays differently. Kind of seems like if you wanted a well rounded squad you can't be part of an outfit that expects to be fully specialized in something. I see outfits as a bunch of random people that don't know each other just in it because they all fly reavers and the outfit leader said he'll put all the points into that.

Kind of wish there was an outfit system that was more neutral to play style. Unless you have enough skill points to fill multiple tree of skills or something. Or skills that are chosen affect a wide range of classes and vehicles. Should be interesting to see the trees I guess. The idea of Alliances sound like an outfit system for grouping players and specializing their skills, but that would boil down to "oh hey bob what extra bonuses do you want?"

Was thinking the same thing. I love driving tank. So I'm going to be in a specialized tank only outfit. How does this make sense when a mixed approach will work best for taking objectives? Be part of a certain outfit to get the correct outfit bonuses but for the most part be playing with other outside people?

On a side note, I really hope PS2 will have that mini-tank. Forget the name but I :love:'d that thing.

[Bags]

Lightning. Was always fun to drive.

[Malorn]

There might be more granular specialization. For example "aircraft"-oriented outfits might be able to specialize in specific aircraft. Infantry may be able to specialize in particular roles - MAX might specialize in specific suits.

So I would imagine it's possible for a combination of roles. For example an outfit like The Enclave could specalize in a few infantry roles, AI MAX, and Galaxies, which is precisely what they used a lot in 2003-2004. So they may not have to get everything in the specialization tree and might be able to cherry-pcik based on role & vehcile + some general things that apply to all of the roles/vehicles in a group.

[SKYeXile]

Another skills tree question that we haven't gotten a chance to answer yet...




If you're BR 10, that's on your character. Classes don't really have RANKS, they have CERTS which are locked or "gated" by the player's overall rank. So, if you're BR 10, you aren't automatically a level 10 AA Max since a level 10 AA max doesn't actually exist in a meaningful way. But, you have access to unlock level 10 AA Max CERTS, those CERTS would still require time to train and unlock.

So, while you can switch into a variety of roles, you'd be playing them completely untrained until you put some time into advancing all of them.

One final note: More advanced roles (Such as MAX or Liberator) may require advancement down a specific skill tree to unlock, for instance you may need to spend some time training Heavy Assault to unlock MAX skill trees, that way everyone can't just spawn an untrained powerful vehicle / weapon and still be very powerful with it despite not having any of the bells and whistles unlocked. This is something we're still playing with internally, we're doing a lot of iteration on these systems - when they're totally locked down you guys can expect to see a full expose on them get released.

Again, huge thank you for the questions and feedback guys... It's really awesome to have this community as a sounding board, sanity check and idea farm on some of these things.

i think im still mega confused...

but what i think you're saying is: say im BR20, lets say I can have 10 loadouts, in each loadout i can select 20 skill points worth of certs(of however many i get at BR20)

So i could essentially have:
A pilot loadout
An indoor gruntloadout
a max loadout
a medic loadout
a ground support loadout
an air support loadout
an infantry sniper/outdoors loadout
an engineer loadout
a thumper spamming loadout
a cloaking loadout

However, i can only be putting my accumulated points overtime into so many tress/specialisations/classes, so maybe only my pilot and infantry indoors loadout is anygood, but the rest are rather basic.

Am i assuming correct, because this is what its sounding like, and it sounds like thats to many options.

[Malorn]

...Liberator...

SWEET! Implicit confirmation that Liberators are back! Hell yeah! My second favorite vehicle after the beloved Vanguard :)

Ok back to discussion...

[dsi]

I really don't see the point of Outfit Alliances when the game isn't a FFA like Eve Online is, there are already 3 Alliances in the game, NC, VS, and TR.

[Malorn]

i think im still mega confused...

but what i think you're saying is: say im BR20, lets say I can have 10 loadouts, in each loadout i can select 20 skill points worth of certs(of however many i get at BR20)

So i could essentially have:
A pilot loadout
An indoor gruntloadout
a max loadout
a medic loadout
a ground support loadout
an air support loadout
an infantry sniper/outdoors loadout
an engineer loadout
a thumper spamming loadout
a cloaking loadout

However, i can only be putting my accumulated points overtime into so many tress/specialisations/classes, so maybe only my pilot and infantry indoors loadout is anygood, but the rest are rather basic.

Am i assuming correct, because this is what its sounding like, and it sounds like thats to many options.

From what Matt describes, this is sort of what I believe it looks like.
http://www.liberty-clan.com/gallery/certexample.jpg


(Ranks and cert tree is purely for demonstrative purposes)

From what he describes, roles may be orthogonal to the giant cert tree and each cert may be bound to multiple roles.

So in the example above, the "Pilot" role might have access to all of those certs (and some infantry certs, etc), but if you don't train the cert you won't be able to use it.

Someone who is BR 2 cannot train for Liberator, but they can train up to Galaxy. Once they get BR 3 they can then train Liberator. But if they want to go the Reaver route they'd have to go down a different branch in the tree and likely not be a Liberator pilot.

[Malorn]

Also, I'd be willing to wager that the time it takes to train a skill may have the BR as a factor. So a skill at BR 1 may train very fast, while a skill at BR 10 might be significantly slower. Its probably non-linear so noobs can get up to speed with the basic certs in a matter of minutes while veterans training their super-advanced-reaver-cert takes weeks or months to complete.

[SKYeXile]

i was thinking something the same Malorn, until i read:

"So, while you can switch into a variety of roles, you'd be playing them completely untrained until you put some time into advancing all of them."

in order to switch to a variety of rolls, i would essentially have to have the certs to afford them, you would think.

[Volw]

@Malorn:
Yep, sounds reasonable. They've mentioned it will take at most 24 hours to train a skill, so I'd suspect getting a few low BR skills is going to be fairly quick. Will probably allow creating a semi-decent class within one playsession.

[Captain1nsaneo]

I really don't see the point of Outfit Alliances when the game isn't a FFA like Eve Online is, there are already 3 Alliances in the game, NC, VS, and TR.

Alliances as in outfits on the same side that want to work together. So a VS outfit wants to work with another VS outfit they'd make an alliance with each other that would (in theory) give the outfits a way to easily communicate. Such a thing would be impossible across battle lines like between a TR and NC outfit.
The reason this is in our minds is that with the new outfit specialty system larger outfits are going to want to be able to best serve all their members at once but will be unable to do so as they won't be able to work up two different tech trees at the same time. Thus the compromise would be to create several outfits under an alliance. Each outfit in the alliance would be specialized for a part of the outfit tech tree and members would go between outfits in the alliance as their interests dictate. This isn't idle chatter either, I know I've had prior conversations about this very thing with old outfitmates.
Seems like a way to prevent this would be to make there be multiple types of outfit points that are acquired by members actually doing this or that type of fighting or support. Those points would be spent on the upgrades alongside a time to train cost and/or a resource cost.

I'm still confused about the new cert/class system. I think it's mainly the use of the word class as I can pull up around 3 different examples of class mechanics from FPSs and RPGs and they're radically different from each other. The current explanations make me share Sky's worry about people being able to do too much at the same time. It also inspires the worry that too much of the game will be locked up behind cert level requirements and training times thus creating a significant 'End Game' where before the end game was just a few vehicles (Vul, BFR, FV) allowing people out of the tube to experience most of the game.
My real fear is that this system will prevent people from finding out what they love doing. For example, if the pilot tree requires me to fly or work through using mossies before I can use a lib or gal and I don't like flying mossies but I would enjoy libs and gals I'll never know as I won't spend the time flying mossies. I may find something else I enjoy but I'll miss out on something I would have really enjoyed.

And once again I seem to have written a wall of text. Sorry guys.
Btw, I'm ok with the shop selling game affecting items as long as the affect is negative.

[Malorn]

i was thinking something the same Malorn, until i read:

"So, while you can switch into a variety of roles, you'd be playing them completely untrained until you put some time into advancing all of them."

in order to switch to a variety of rolls, i would essentially have to have the certs to afford them, you would think.

The diagram I posted above is not consistent with that statement.

I think the confusion is that a "role" is part of the cert tree. It makes more sense to me if a role is not part of the tree, rather it is a set of nodes in that tree. Doing so allows easy sharing of certs across multiple roles without causing complication in the cert tree.

Example:
Suppose you have 4 certs: Medium Assault, Heavy Assault, Buggies, and Vanguard. They appear in the tree in whatever way you want (it doesn't matter).

The role for "Vanguard Driver" could be defined as the set of certs that includes Medium Assault, Buggies, and Vanguard.

The role for "Assault Infantry" could be defined as the set of certs that includes Medium Assault, Heavy Assault, and Buggies.

If you are missing a cert in the role, or you aren't high enough BR to unlock that cert then you simply don't have it. That woudl explain why you could switch into roles but not have anything certed. In the MAX example they'll have prereqs to fill before that role could even be used to prevent newbies from just spamming MAX and making it more of an advanced set of infantry certs (those prereqs might not take long to cert, so a dedicated newbie to max would still be possible depending on what BR levels the prereqs and max suits appear in the cert tree).


They might provide views of the cert tree, such as a view of the cert tree filtered by a specific role or set of role. So it might dim out all of the certs in the tree not in the role you specified. Each cert might also have a list of roles to which it is applicable. That + filtering could allow some pretty powerful tools for viewing the cert tree without complicating it.


This gives them a lot of power, even with Squad Leader certs. Squad Leader may itself be a role that cherry-picks various certs from across the trees to sort of build a decent soldier, but it also picks up a lot of stuff in the command tree. They could even have a "Commander" role that goes even deeper in the command sub-tree and has fewer non-command abilities. (Imagine a commander who basically only has pistols, but can drive a few vehicles and has tons of command bonuses, orbital strikes, and that sort of thing). There's a lot of flexibility in this design. They can make new roles on-the-fly and if a cert is a balance issue in a given role they can simply remove it. (Don't like mosquitos dropping with HA? No problem, just make sure neither appear in the same role.)

[Bags]

No upgrade today sadly :(

[WellWisherELF]

Because if an enemy outfit which spec's in strictly air combat is sitting between them and their target? Yeah it's probably gonna be a goddamned turkey shoot.


Air vehicles won't be able to "sit" anywhere anymore, they're taking a more realistic approach towards air physics/combat.

[Firefly]

Air vehicles won't be able to "sit" anywhere anymore, they're taking a more realistic approach towards air physics/combat.
It's a figure of speech, not meant for pedantic analysis.

[Volw]

I might get crucified for this.

I think Outfit specialisation is really cool and it will bring a completely new level of interaction between outfits.

PS Today:
Since there is no specialisation everyone has tanks, air and infantry. Sure some outfits prefer one role than the other, but in general they are fairly diverse.

If there is a need for Reavers, people bring Reavers. If there is a need for tanks, people bring tanks. Fairly straight forward.

PS2:
Firstly, specialisation will cause some drama, because in order to get better toys for their favourite role, players will be somewhat forced to seek specialised outfits.

What it brings to the table in terms of interaction and dynamics is outfits will be almost forced to cooperate. You will have a tank outfit asking air outfit for CAS or Air Superiority. Then they might need an infantry outfit to clear buildings.

So end of the day, we *should* end up with a very interactive system and I think it's a benefit to the players as well. I for example, love to fly stuff, so if I join air outfit, I will be able to do just that most of the time.

Mind the advantages of being in a specialised outfit don't prevent from playing as other role. They only provide an incentive to specialise.

[Firefly]

I might get crucified for this.

I think Outfit specialisation is really cool and it will bring a completely new level of interaction between outfits.

PS Today:
Since there is no specialisation everyone has tanks, air and infantry. Sure some outfits prefer one role than the other, but in general they are fairly diverse.

If there is a need for Reavers, people bring Reavers. If there is a need for tanks, people bring tanks. Fairly straight forward.

PS2:
Firstly, specialisation will cause some drama, because in order to get better toys for their favourite role, players will be somewhat forced to seek specialised outfits.

What it brings to the table in terms of interaction and dynamics is outfits will be almost forced to cooperate. You will have a tank outfit asking air outfit for CAS or Air Superiority. Then they might need an infantry outfit to clear buildings.

So end of the day, we *should* end up with a very interactive system and I think it's a benefit to the players as well. I for example, love to fly stuff, so if I join air outfit, I will be able to do just that most of the time.

Mind the advantages of being in a specialised outfit don't prevent from playing as other role. They only provide an incentive to specialise.
Unless they bring in alliances, at which point general-purpose and/or combined-arms outfits are going to create mini-outfits and then ally up.

[Volw]

Unless they bring in alliances, at which point general-purpose and/or combined-arms outfits are going to create mini-outfits and then ally up.

Most likely. Even if so, it will create an easier way to cooperate with other outfits and make battlefield a lot more organised.

Cause now we'll be seeing proper platoons using their specialisations instead of a random zerg.

[Malorn]

I hope the specialization for outfits works like "Tactics" worked in Warhammer Online. I liked that system.

Basically in warhammer you had a set of tactics that modified behavior of things, sort of like glyphs in WoW (they took the idea from Warhammer).

You could only have a limited number of tactics at a given time and most of them were tradeoffs or minor bonuses.

Outfit specialization might be like a set of tactics that applies to all members of the outfit. Outfit certs open up more potential tactics and going down a specific tree grants more specialized tactics.

Then the outfit leader & officers can set the tactics for the outfit based on those avialable to them. Supposed they had like 5 tactics they can choose...

Sample tactics:
* Rapid Air deployment - reduces air vehicle timers by 1.5 minutes for the entire outfit (affects all vehicles)
* You want some of this? - infantry weapons damage is increased by 15%, but rate of fire is decreased by 10%.
* Runs like a machine - resource costs for the entire outfit are reduced by 10% (affects all upgrades)
* Incoming MAX Units! - reduces MAX suit timers by 1.5 minutes for the entire outfit
* Move it, soldier! - Infantry speed for the outfit increased by 5%

If this is how they implement it, I can see minor bonuses like 5% more damage, or 5% more speed or what not as entire outfit bonuses being acceptable when its scoped to specific things. I think this is OK to have a flat bonus mainly because the outfit doesn't get ALL of the bonuses available to them and instead they must choose which set of bonuses they want. This adds some minor differentiation among outfits and makes them make hard choices.

Additionally, new players who join the outfit would immediately get the benefit, so it isn't really a penalty to new players, nor does everyoen converge on the same set of bonuses. So this could be a good way to add differentiation and specialization with something tangible without screwing up game balance.

They could do this tactics thing with individuals too, though I think the outfit level is better. Should also be a reasonable timer delay between changing outfit tactics, like once per day or something like that.

[Firefly]

I hope the specialization for outfits works like "Tactics" worked in Warhammer Online. I liked that system.

Basically in warhammer you had a set of tactics that modified behavior of things, sort of like glyphs in WoW (they took the idea from Warhammer).

You could only have a limited number of tactics at a given time and most of them were tradeoffs or minor bonuses.
Heh. One time where I can say "you're welcome".

[Chufty]

If this is how they implement it, I can see minor bonuses like 5% more damage, or 5% more speed or what not as entire outfit bonuses being acceptable when its scoped to specific things. I think this is OK to have a flat bonus mainly because the outfit doesn't get ALL of the bonuses available to them and instead they must choose which set of bonuses they want. This adds some minor differentiation among outfits and makes them make hard choices.


I like this idea. It sounds like they're gunning for much more Outfit features this time around so I wouldn't be surprised to see this sort of thing in the outfit cert tree, which has already been confirmed.

Love your choice of names too :D

[Kurtz]

Outfit specs seems to be more geared towards the PS1 later years rather than the first few months of PS1. Same with Alliances. Neither of these seems necessary with the ridiculous pops we'll have in the early days of PS2 although I can see some purpose to the outfit specs.

One person posted, and I would tend to agree, that this would force large outfits to splinter off into 3 smaller outfits just to get the maximum benefits.

This will effect outfit points and leaderboards etc...

So the best solution would be to have DIVISIONS within an outfit.

special forces, infantry, air force and armor division. These divisions could access the different perks.

In the first few days of PS1 I ran an enormous outfit on Emerald that prided itself on having air, armor and infantry divisions and we were extremely good at organizing our attacks. When we came over a hill, we weren't just an armor threat...we were a threat at every level.

The fun was in the precision organization...pushing in our air first, then supporting them with armor to help clean up the AA...finally we'd drop our special forces in to take out gens and our infantry to take towers and hack cc's.

Towards the end of the games prime, when game play changed and quick response small elite outfits were popular - the game dynamics forced the outfits to adapt or become obsolete. While there were still large outfits overwhelming the elite outfits with sheer numbers, they usually couldn't get some of the key objectives done...primarily because large outfits were general grossly mismanaged and disorganized while smaller elite forces ran like a well oiled machine.

Thus the need for alliances.

I just don't see the need for alliances early in the game. Sounds like an afterthought for bad continent design. Which brings me to my next point.

Perhaps I misinterpreted an interview but I don't like the idea at all of being able to cap a base with a mossie and not having to get out of the vehicle. This is how I interpreted some of the wording in interviews I saw. I could be mistaken but want to be clear on the matter.

I liked the original PS1 design where it was clearly best to use Air to transport troops on certain continents, but tanks and large ground vehicles were sufficient on others. But no continent was exclusive to any style of play until the caves and the Battle Islands.

There shouldn't be "Air only" continents or zones where its just a dog fight 24/7. (I am a pilot and the idea of this still bothers me.)

For one, all the pilots may be lured to this "air only" continent and not want to play with the rest of the outfit causing a division within the outfit.

secondly, see Paragraph 6. Every battle should be decided in the air first...once air superiority is established that lays the foundation to the ground attack.

I would be against the idea of protecting an "all armor" continent by simply not letting air in for some (insert lore) reason. I am also against infy only battles...if you don't want EPIC go play the 1000 other FPS out there. I am not saying that this is planned, but I thought some language eluded to it.

I like the idea of an open grass continent where tanks cam dominate the landscape and them having an easier time navigating, but they should always be susceptible to a formidable air attack. I liked PS1s diverse terrain that gave certain types of attacks and transportation an advantage but never made any unnecessary.

Rock Scissors Paper was key to making PS1 great.

Sounds like PS2 is going to be everything I was hoping it to be, I just hope that we make sure that it will never be for Console and that we always remember what made PS1 great.

Faction Loyalty was the first and foremost thing that made PS1 great and I am so glad that the dev team is sticking to their guns on that one.

[Malorn]

The Division Idea is a good one.

I too see how the specialization of outfits will hurt larger outfits. They shouldn't have to break up to work around the game mechanic. The game mechanic should take them into consideration.

Building on the tactics concept I posted about earlier where an outfit chooses which benefits it wants out of a set of benefits it has certed, it could be that Outfits have a certain amount of divisions (based on outfit size / activity perhaps, maybe fixed at 3 or so) and each division is allowed a tactic set. Each member can only belong to one division within the outfit. That would allow larger outfits to not require splintering to be effective.

However, time learning outfit certs is still real-time, so small outfits will be able to go deeper into the specializations while larger outfits have to move around and pick up different things from different trees. This will still slow the progression of large outfits. That might be unavoidable, but long-term they should be able to have specialized divisions

[Aractain]

Dosn't an alliance just defeat the purpose of exclusive specilisation in outfits? Isn't that just like having one outfit with all the benifits (with the exception of only certain people can get the buffs)?

[Malorn]

Alliance is for cross-group coordination and social structuring. You don't have to manage people in other outfits, you just have to coordinate with their leaders. They're autonomous units. That's the point.

There wasn't any form of alliances in PS1, but CR5 chat ended up functioning as one giant alliance chat and was utilized for coordination.

I'd like to see it formalized as a flexibile in-game-chat for communication & coordination. Its little more than a pair of chat channels with outfit-level permission control over who has access to the chat, and outfit control about which members within the outfit have access to the chat. I had a post about it earlier in this thread with more articulated details.

If we have that we don't need CR5 chat and we don't need CR5s.

[Desoxy]

Dosn't an alliance just defeat the purpose of exclusive specilisation in outfits? Isn't that just like having one outfit with all the benifits (with the exception of only certain people can get the buffs)?

Well, if players want to coordinate while one group as perk A and another group has perk B, then the game should not hinder them. Noone keeps them from forming a larger outfit outside of the game anyway.

All outfits really do in terms of balance (at this point) is making sure each player will only receive at most one outfit bonus.

[Bags]

Updated with a new answer.

[Firefly]

Updated with a new answer.
Eh?

[IceyCold]

So, headshots with a sniper rifle do 200% dmg, effectively a one shot kill; but a chaingun would do 0% bonus damage for a headshot.

I don't know, on one hand since we know ballistics and bullet drop will be featured in the game that would make sniping and actually achieving a headshot a bit of challenge; but still this is something that will need to be tested out.

But glad to hear that more pray and spray guns won't be able to get a random lucky headshot.

[Bags]

Eh?

Q: About the specialization trees, I accept that for example my skills in driving a tank won't help me in a MAX loadout, but do I have the option to improve the "spec tree" for every aspect of the game on one character? In another answer you talked about the option of being "jack of all trades" but given enough time can "JacK" effectively master all the trades over the MANY years? Time is important and for a LONG time picking which skills you care most about will be critical, but the idea of true infinite growth interests me. At what point does it break down into "just make a new guy (character) to do 'that'."
[Certification system]
Matt: Given infinite time and no expansion of the skill tree on our part you could conceivably train every cert in the game.

Q: What exactly is the planned Damage bonus for headshots? Will any Infantary weapon be able to One shot Kill?
also, can you make sure that we playtest this properly during beta? Means sometime with headshots, sometimes without. Just to see the difference in gameplay, and if they are a addidion to the gameplay or just a source of frustration.
[Headshots]
Matt: The system allows us to have different damage bonuses for each weapon. This way we can make it so that sniper rifles give a 200% bonus making them OSOK on headshots and chainguns get a 0% bonus making it make no difference. Other guns like pistols or assault rifles might be somewhere in between based on how rewarding we feel precision should be with each of those weapons/weapon types. Vehicle weapons will likely have a 0% bonus.
Exact balance for this is not final, but that's the general idea that we're going with and we'll tweak as necessary.

[Hamma]

:thumbsup:

[Firefly]

Ah. Thanks. I thought someone had asked about Alliances.

This is actually now a crucial piece of information, at least for me personally.

[Hamma]

Saw Higby lurk tonight, but didn't post :O Hopefully he will give us some info on it :)

[Bags]

I was going into information withdrawl.

[Rbstr]

TBH, I'd rather have some extra damage on the so called "random lucky shots" from spray and pray weapons than sniper rifles getting a bunch of bonus damage (though I'm not closed to that). People are going to aim at heads but the neat thing about a head is that it's smaller than a torso so they're going to miss more.

The reason for headshots on the scattery-stuff: Say you sneak up behind 3 dudes with a chaingun, they're completely unaware. You'd normaly have no chance, the recoil dooms you very quickly...but if you take the first guy out right away miracles can happen. So plant that fucker right in the back of someones head and let it rip...I feel like you deserve a chance of pulling some crazy out of the hat.
Those shots are aimed as carefully as anything, they deserve the same considerations.

Sometimes you just get WTF-ed. Sometimes you pull off a "Holy shit"
It happens once or twice in a blue moon. And yeah, it's not something absolutely skill based, but it brings some unpredictable element.

[Bags]

Bringing an "unpredictable element" isn't something devs should strive for. I don't need crits to take out three people that I catch with their pants down with my mcg, tbh.

Can you imagine jack hammer with crits? /shudder

[Sirisian]

I just asked the best question ever. (http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/il5og/hey_rplanetside_im_matt_higby_the_creative/c25ip1p)
If that is possible and we have locational damage can you imagine taking out an engine or something with that strategy. It would be a sweet thing for cloakers or even players to sprint up to a stationary tank and do that. Blowing up a planes engine would be even cooler.

[SilverLord]

I absolutely love the headshot mechanics clarified.

[Death2All]

Bringing an "unpredictable element" isn't something devs should strive for. I don't need crits to take out three people that I catch with their pants down with my mcg, tbh.

Can you imagine jack hammer with crits? /shudder

Indeed.


One of the more irritating things from TF2 regarding crits is when you get the jump on a Soldier and he just spins around gets a random crit rocket that insta kills you. I really don't like the added element of luck being added to any game, but add that into Planetside with thousands of players shooting all with the chance to score a critical hit and would be very irritating.