Just a few Qs regarding PS2

[cellinaire]

Hello there folks =) first time post here. I've known PSU for over 5 years and a long time EQ2/Asheron's Call 2(which died years ago)player myself, but finally decided to join this ship. Very very excited about PS2 myself.

Ahem, so what I want to know is :

Is '333 vs 333 vs 333 per continent' the new 'thousands' (have seen no firm evidence supporting this information yet, though)? Quite small than what I expected, based on Smed's words.
If it's true, then I really don't have an idea why they're advertising their technology can handle 'thousands' when they simply can't. I guess they should change that info(from 'thousands' to 'hundreds') to rectify misleading informations on the net.
(and yeah, thousands of players across the continents is already possible with PS1, I guess)

And from what I could gather from the net, the upcoming ForgeLight engine boasts 'seamless on a level you've never seen before'. Really confusing(especially when you guys say "only loading when travel to another continent").

Can a red name(...err I mean blue) clarify this? plz

[Volw]

Thousands per server and during q&a Smedley said they are aiming at 1000 per continent.

Which is not a confirmation, just what they want to achieve.

Are we really going to start nitpicking even on how they word stuff? Wonder what's next.

[cellinaire]

Hmm if I sounded like nitpicking, then really sorry about that.


But misleading information is still misleading info, I'd wager.
( I've read almost every Dev Q&As on the net and many articles from ZAM, RPS, Massively..etc for last two days, but to my surprise I've never seen them including "Thousands per server"in their sentences. Not a single one. So I wanted simple correction of infos, if possible.)

[Volw]

Hmm if I sounded like nitpicking, then really sorry about that.


But misleading information is still misleading info, I'd wager.

It's not really misleading - marketing talk, so to speak.

It could be argued whether thousads is meant per server or per continent.

Still PS1 featured 500 player battles and they were spectacular. Considering they're aiming for twice as much, they should be no less spectacular. Worry not! ;-)

[cellinaire]

Aye then. I think I really need to calm down and get out of over-expectation. Thanks :lol:

[Gandhi]

Eh we're all hyped about the game and most of us are trying to read between the lines with every bit of information that comes out of SOE, me included ;)

I guess that's why most devs shy away from giving information 'unofficially', you end up getting things like "hitboxes will play a role" turning into "dev just confirmed headshots are in PS2!!"

[SKYeXile]

the evedence is in PS1 and MAG, sony have in the past proved they're miles ahead of their competitors when it comes to technology(cept in hack prevention) they put 500 people in 1 battle 8 years ago, why not a thousand today when PC's are like 20x more powerful and broadband is everywhere.

[Dorest0rm]

If there IS going to be a 333 vs 333 vs 333, i wonder what will hapen if you put them all together and launch a couple of OS's?
Server crash? :D

[2coolforu]

Servers are pretty powerful nowadays, we have come so far in data storage and multicore architecture. Nowadays we have Solid state drives and there are plans for even faster data storage methods that make SSD's look like snails, we can write and store data faster and at a lot less cost per gigabyte, fibreoptics and high-speed internet are widespread throughout the gaming community.

When I started playing Planetside I had dial-up and a 32 mb graphics card which probably didn't even have a few megaFLOPS of processing power now I and many others have high-speed (or at least high speed relative to dial-up) internet, large amounts of RAM, multiple processing cores and dual graphics cards; 1000 players is hardly an unbelievable amount.

[NCLynx]

If there IS going to be a 333 vs 333 vs 333, i wonder what will hapen if you put them all together and launch a couple of OS's?
Server crash? :D

1000 OSes, years from now remember this post we're doing this someday.

[Raymac]

I have the same question as the OP though. I must have missed something because everytime I've heard Smed or Higby talk about the number of people playing, they say "thousands per continent". So I'm not really sure where "one thousand per continent" came from?

Whether it's 1000 or many more, it's still going to be epic, but I've only heard them say "thousands". If they said something different, could someone point it out because I must have missed something and I want to read everything. :)

[Volw]

I have the same question as the OP though. I must have missed something because everytime I've heard Smed or Higby talk about the number of people playing, they say "thousands per continent". So I'm not really sure where "one thousand per continent" came from?

Whether it's 1000 or many more, it's still going to be epic, but I've only heard them say "thousands". If they said something different, could someone point it out because I must have missed something and I want to read everything. :)

Media Q&A, Smedley was asked about pops and he said they're aiming at 1000.

[Raymac]

Media Q&A, Smedley was asked about pops and he said they're aiming at 1000.

No, at the Fan Faire Q&A, he said thousands.

[Hamma]

They are aiming to have as many as possible, much of it will depend on play testing and beta to nail down an amount.

But suffice to say, the epic battles and player numbers we are familiar with will be in there.

[Tikuto]

But suffice to say, the epic battles and player numbers we are familiar with will be in there.

Log into the game to see masses of Outfits rallied and organized in an open field from where they all take-off with the commandment of the designated player-Commander.

FUCK YEAAAGH!

[Vancha]

No
Yes.

The Fan Faire Q&A and the media Q&A are not one and the same.

[Raymac]

Yes.

The Fan Faire Q&A and the media Q&A are not one and the same.

Right on. I thought it might be something like that. Do you know where I can find information from the media Q&A as opposed to the Fan Faire one?

[Lunarchild]

No, at the Fan Faire Q&A, he said thousands.

Total active players per server... At the media Q&A he said a thousand per continent.

[Lunarchild]

Right on. I thought it might be something like that. Do you know where I can find information from the media Q&A as opposed to the Fan Faire one?

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/developer-round-planetside-2/717180

[Vancha]

Right on. I thought it might be something like that. Do you know where I can find information from the media Q&A as opposed to the Fan Faire one?

http://www.gametrailers.com/game/planetside-2/15161

If that's where he says "thousands", then I guess the FanFaire Q&A is where he said "thousand" (and vice versa).

Edit: Somehow I blanked Lunar's post entirely.

[Raymac]

Thanks for the heads-up, guys. You know, that was the 1 thing I think I didn't double check was the Dev Panel before the Q&A. I'll watch it again when I'm not at work.

Whether its 1 thousand or several thousand, it's still going to be really epic. I'm just trying to guess at how epic.

[MgFalcon]

My good-ass-question of the day: Will they keep the same server names for each region? I would love to be fighting on Emerald again!!

[basti]

There will propably alot more servers, but i really really hope that there will be a werner again, and that veterans have a higher priority to get on that server. I want to see the guys of Druckwelle, LDD, Vanu Corp, ISK etc to fight Mercs and all those other enemys again. During all those years we fought alongside and against each other, relationships started to grow. I really want to once more hear mates yelling "Oh, theres braveheart and the mercs, lets make them feel miserable."

[MgFalcon]

There will propably alot more servers, but i really really hope that there will be a werner again, and that veterans have a higher priority to get on that server. I want to see the guys of Druckwelle, LDD, Vanu Corp, ISK etc to fight Mercs and all those other enemys again. During all those years we fought alongside and against each other, relationships started to grow. I really want to once more hear mates yelling "Oh, theres braveheart and the mercs, lets make them feel miserable."

Very true, you never really got this kind of sense of community from other MMO's

[Bags]

Yeah. What I loved about PS was when you saw someone you usually knew them.

"oh that's DT fuck"
"oh it's AT prepare for maxes"
"Oh NIC set up camp don't pull air"

etc.

Whereas in wow in PVP bgs it's just a bunch of people you'll never see again.

[Lunarchild]

Yeah. What I loved about PS was when you saw someone you usually knew them.

"oh that's DT fuck"
"oh it's AT prepare for maxes"
"Oh NIC set up camp don't pull air"

etc.

Whereas in wow in PVP bgs it's just a bunch of people you'll never see again.

Max crash to the gen! (yes I'm in AT :D)

That said, I heard somewhere that they might look into making it into a single-server structure down the road :) Would be awesome I say!

[basti]

Well, they could try, but with changing population its almost impossible to do that. Eve has that, as you propably know, and they long ago hit a point where a second server would have been useful. Having a few thousand guys in Jita isnt fun, and CCP spend alot of time and money to make big fleet fight and systems like Jita somewhat playable. They are still spending alot of efford to improve the server software just a tiny bit, even if its just 0.5% performance gain.
But the difference is: In eve, you can have countless people in the same system. In planetside 2, there will be a hard limit. You cant allow 5000 people on the same continent, it would cause half of the players to have 1FPS while the rest of the guys is lagging like fuck, not to mention that a war with 5000 people isnt going to be fun unless the game is actually ment to be capable of having that. And with a limited number of continents, there are just so many people that can fit on the server. What do you do if you have 20 continents, each capable of 1000 players, but have 21000 people wanting to play? 1000 players would simply be unable to go somewhere.


Unless SOE just goes completly crazy and adds enough places where optional fights could be. Optional because if they get deserted, they would make ghost hacking become an issue.