Multiple continents at launch!

[FIREk]

Just thought I would announce this to everyone who might have missed the Twitter thing or missed this bit of info in the summaries on the forums.

Praise and rejoice - despite the original statement, there won't be just one cont to fight on on day one! :)

[Mirror]

One cont at launch would be annoying as starting a new fight would be difficult. As long as there is like 4 conts at launch then we will be pretty good while others are designed and released.

Also with empire footholds located on the cont then there would have to be at least 3 conts with each of those 3 conts being that empires "home" cont.

[FIREk]

My biggest fear, when the number of conts at launch was "officially" one, was this:
- a continent can support up to 2000 players at a time,
- there are 5000 players registered on the server (with only one cont),
- there's a peak of activity and the continent is at capacity, with 2000 players fighting on its surface,
- what happens with the surplus players?

[Valdae]

I never saw this as a problem anyways. Not with command orientated directives.

[Crator]

The surplus goes an plays on another server?

[GTGD]

The surplus goes an plays on another server?

Sorry if we don't want to have to log onto a server with a higher ping just to be able to play the game.

[FIREk]

The surplus goes an plays on another server?

That's the obvious response, but what's the point of persistence if you may have to go play on a different server?

[Malorn]

I expect at least 3 continents....temperate, desert, and arctic. I'd like a 4th - Hossin with its temperate wetlands.

Now I know that a continent could have all of those on it at once, but i enjoyed how each continent had its own feel in PS. I'd rather have large areas that are of a specific climate than have little bits and pieces of them spread out over a continent.

Searhus would be another good one.

I guess I would like to see at least 5...

Searhus, and its volcanic temperate nature
Amerish/Forseral/Cyssor-like temperate continet
Solsar/Ishundar-like
Hossin-like wetlands
Ceryshen/Esamir-like arctic with mountainous regions

Each of those could have variance in climate, liek the north or south end of Cery/Esamir could be temperate, sort of like a Fjord or the nordic regions with the solid snow & ice further north.

The temperate places could have open grasslands and rocky mountainous areas like Forseral did. The Desert areas could have oasies or coastal regions that have a lot more green, sort of like California where you have almost pacific-northwest style mountains and forests in the north, desert in the south and east, mountains, and some coastal regions.

I just hope we get a significant amount of arctic combat, desert combat, and temperate combat. BFBC2 did a good job mixing that up and I hope we get the same in PS2.

[BorisBlade]

Most likely the conts will be closer to Searhus. Multiple "themes" aka biomes on each cont. Its a better route esp if they plan on havin us fight over all the areas on the cont and not just bases. Easier to make each area unique and fun by allowin them to put in more terrain types.

That doesnt mean each cont is just a hodge podge of everything, but it means they arent gonna be all desert or all snow lowlands or all snowy mountains, or all swamp, etc. You can mix it up appropriately. You can still have conts that for example are mostly ceryshyen like with hard to navigate mountainous terrain, but it could break into smoother areas like Esamir. And as the elevation changes it could turn into desert mountains or more open grassland/tundra etc. Without being limited to one terrain type you can get alot of variety on each cont while still keeping them unique.

[Brusi]

I think the example Higby gave was this:

We want the continents to be varied. So you might have conifer forest, Glacier, and alpine peaks.

Sounds like they will be more or less keeping with a certain theme, but varying enough to keep things interesting.

[Grimster]

Minecraft biomes anyone? :D :D

Only game I know where a sand desert can have a winter biome as its neighbor. :D :D

[FIREk]

Minecraft biomes anyone? :D :D

Only game I know where a sand desert can have a winter biome as its neighbor. :D :D

Let me fetch my Auraxium shovel and pickaxe. :)

[Mod]

Also with empire footholds located on the cont then there would have to be at least 3 conts with each of those 3 conts being that empires "home" cont.

From earlier comments, I got the impression that on every continent there would be a foothold for each empire. From that I think the idea of a "home" continent is probably not needed. Although I wouldn't be suprised if players 'adopted' one as a home even if this is the case :)

[FIREk]

A "home space station" functioning as a Sanc would be both reasonable and useful. :)

[SgtMAD]

well now there will be more than one cont so we should be fine

[FIREk]

well now there will be more than one cont so we should be fine

True, BUT:
1) Not everyone will want to shoot stuff all the time, and every MMO needs a social hub. Especially one in which you can show off customizations earned, or bought for real-world monies. ;)
2) Assuming I only want to hand out, or whatever (not shoot stuff), I presumably can do that only in one of the staging areas, effectively robbing my faction of 1 population slot.

I made a writeup of the space station idea, if anyone's interested:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37388

[SgtMAD]

True, BUT:
1) Not everyone will want to shoot stuff all the time, and every MMO needs a social hub. Especially one in which you can show off customizations earned, or bought for real-world monies. ;)
2) Assuming I only want to hand out, or whatever (not shoot stuff), I presumably can do that only in one of the staging areas, effectively robbing my faction of 1 population slot.

I made a writeup of the space station idea, if anyone's interested:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37388

thats funny, I play these games to kill shit, not to make it some coffee clatch where I show off stupid colors on armor and run around in sanc showing ppl how pretty and special I am because I bought some fancy srmor.

I'm sure that kind of playstyle has its place,I think its called "The Sims"

if they start designing this game with the idea that instead of playing I want to hang around then we truly are fooked

[Bags]

If you want to show off your pretty gears and lootz you can feel free to stand around in the footholds while the rest of us play the game, I'm sure.

[NapalmEnima]

if they start designing this game with the idea that instead of playing I want to hang around then we truly are fooked

Not Worried.

The hacking question for example: No minigames. Action first!

This is a shooter being made by people who LOVE SHOOTERS. While some degree of socialization will always be possible when you're not right there on the front line, I suspect that if people want to Hang Out, it'll be at the footholds. The people making the game want us to shoot stuff, and have a great time doing it.

If some folks want to hang out and chat, fine. I'll be busy Blowing Stuff Up.

[FIREk]

(snip)

Hate all you want, but you must keep in mind that PS2 will be, among other things, an MMO. Global Agenda is a shooter (although an instanced one), yet the social hubs are always packed. Most are people are probably just waiting for the matchmaking system to work and get them into a fight, but still...

I'm not a fan of people leaving their characters AFK in Stormwind to show off their penis-enlarging levitating pauldrons of omgwtfHUEG, but it's also an aspect of the MMO genre. Also, when I see someone with a cool customization, I may decide to buy it, which might give SOE some extra monies in the long run.

No one here wants SOE to design PS2 as a social game. They keep repeating that it's a shooter, first and foremost. I don't know how anyone could argue that introducing a robust social element (or just any social element) is counter-productive. You know, since it's an MMOFPS and stuff.

[Bags]

Hate all you want, but you must keep in mind that PS2 will be, among other things, an MMO. Global Agenda is a shooter (although an instanced one), yet the social hubs are always packed. Most are people are probably just waiting for the matchmaking system to work and get them into a fight, but still...



Global Agenda is terrible now. Don't use it as an example of anything.

[SgtMAD]

well most of us here are here because we liked PS,we sure aren't here because we hope and pray that we will be able to sit in a foothold/sanc and preen about my pretty new armor or going afk while I twitter pictures of brand new pretty armor.

I hope SOE doesn't waste valuable dev time trying to make this game more "social",we want a game that is compelling and fun to play,and by play I mean kill shit on a massive scale, not posing and posting SS's of their new outfit.

come to think of it my first outfit was a lot like that,they would have us hart into the fight and 15 minutes later have everyone recall to sanc and pose for goddamn pictures,they did this crap constantly.

the outfit was named Wolfen Recon,I started calling them Wolfen Recall in /O,after about a day of this crap I left.this was back during the last week of May 03,I then ended up in Ht and then was promoted to OL by early 04 and I can promise you we have never recalled to sanc to pose for a damn SS