Spectator mod

[Arktype]

Hi everyone,

First of all, i would like to say that i have been a big fan of Planetside 1. Played it for a couple of years until 'life' catched me telling me: ' dude you got to pay your rent'

Anyway, I am new to this website that i didn t know back when i played PS1. I have read a couple of messages, seems like the community still the same :) Still awesome, fearless, ready to get dirty at any time of the day and night ! I cannot wait to see those famous strategies some of the main players back in the day used to come up with =).. getting all excited in front of my computer, turning off all lights... a headset on my head... sweating the 2 liter of coke cola i drank in just 1 hour... having a smoke while waiting the 1 guy in our squad always late... swearing at the god damn driver who can t drive strait... and of course ... crapping my pants every time a good sniper was around...well good times right ? :D

This is why i was wondering about a good spectator mod. Allowing even to record! This would be a great way to allow the community to produce some fun video, a sideway to advertise the game, but by the gamers.

Since a few years i produce videos for games such as Flight Simulator. A god mod or 'spec mod' is a the perfect tool to make video such as this:

FSX - Mirage 2000 Patrol over Switzerland - YouTube

This was made entirely with flight simulator and a 'spectator' add on.
Now imagine that you could do this in planetside2, recording huge battles, following organized squads etc... I would personally love producing a video of that type, wouldn t you ?

Regards to all my fellow old 'comrade' ;) That generation is much older now... Let see how we will manage not to lose our job when ps2 get released :p

[Zulthus]

Well, it would be good for movie purposes, but would be abused like fuck by spies. I dunno.

[Zekeen]

The problem with a spectator mod or such, is groups could use it to spy on enemy positions without getting in danger, far more quickly and effectively than in playing the game. It would be IMMEDIATELY abused, no way around it.

A more mild way would be to do it like Final Fantasy 11 did. It had various camera spots in the world that would give feedback to a website for players to get to see in game without being logged in. A sort of subscription recruitment tool, but if PS2 had some fixed spots to show off the occasional battle, it could help lure in new players and just be fun to watch a battle from the sidelines.

[Atheosim]

Seems like a tool that feasibly could only belong to officials. Although the potential to make awesome videos is great, the potential of unfair spying is deal-breaking.

[Arktype]

Yes i totally follow what your guys are saying. Now. what if there was a way to feed the information with 10 min delay. You could simply join a spectator mod, basically another server transferring all the information that happened 10 min ago on the 'main server live'

10 or 15 min... this isn t an issue.

The spectator mod would have a couple of options such as

1) different channels automatically generated based on the different fights going on around the map
2) following an active squad
3) True spectator mod : God mod allowing you to move as you wish


The other main asset of this idea is the Esport that it becoming more and more important each year. What if this ' SP2 Live TV' had commentators, like Starcraft2... League of legend and many other games have ? It would bring SP2 to a new level of realism. Allowing people to enjoy watching a game of SP2 as much as watching a soccer game on TV. I know i do enjoy watching commentators like Totalbuiscuit on SC2 and other games.

[Mechzz]

We've had this discussion a couple of times. Its rejection seems to come down the fear of spying. Which is a bit odd given the flame wars pointman got for suggesting spying would be a problem :rolleyes:

Still, that aside, I think if the spectator was a neutral flying camera then it would be a cool idea to stream big battles on a 10-15 minute delay. That would greatly improve my work day :D

[Arktype]

Another suggestion, a FOG generated automatically based on your faction, you can only spectate locations where your factions is fighting from. This with a 10 min delay... I don t see the point of spying anymore, even with a 10 or 15 min delay... it would be pointless and probably faster to send a scout 'in game' :D

[Zekeen]

Another suggestion, a FOG generated automatically based on your faction, you can only spectate locations where your factions is fighting from. This with a 10 min delay... I don t see the point of spying anymore, even with a 10 or 15 min delay... it would be pointless and probably faster to send a scout 'in game' :D

That seems a bit hard to do really, and you'd still be able to spot for allies in an odd way.

For a closer thing, I suggested an idea a while back, of a radar type modded Galaxy with viewing Cameras underneath, for VIP passengers, to let commander type players give orders from the sky while being able to view far down below.

Only problem is that would only be a camera for the riders of said Galaxy.

Really, the only feasible options are fixed cameras or an NPC mobile camera that just skirts along the continent on a fixed path.

[Fable]

Sometimes getting rid of the interface is enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_fhfT9JEaM

[Gogita]

10 to 15 minute old information can still be very useful in Planetside. Also, I think this is slightly hard to implement due to the size of the maps of Planetside. I'm not exactly sure how recording of a match is done in games such as Halo or Battlefield, but the maps of planetside are way and way bigger. Imagine all the data that needs to be saved.

Sorry man, even though it would be very cool to have a spectator mode for filming, the disadvantages and issues of spectator mode are too big in my opinion.

[Notser]

Higby and a good bit of SOE love competitive multiplayer so I'd imagine they would like to do something that would allow for spectating. He said something in a interview that he'd like to see planetside players streaming and having fun with the game. Plus you can't stop someone from streaming, probably just have to accept that information will be out there to a select few that would assist with army locations and objectives.

Accepting that there will be information available through these methods along with alt accounts, I think SOE will just implement something for fans to use for saving/sharing planetside 2 with others.

[Mechzz]

10 to 15 minute old information can still be very useful in Planetside. Also, I think this is slightly hard to implement due to the size of the maps of Planetside. I'm not exactly sure how recording of a match is done in games such as Halo or Battlefield, but the maps of planetside are way and way bigger. Imagine all the data that needs to be saved.

Sorry man, even though it would be very cool to have a spectator mode for filming, the disadvantages and issues of spectator mode are too big in my opinion.

For the Europeans/Germans:
Does Pro7 have some sort of gaming shows? I remember about 10 years seeing a show on german tv where they were playing some FPS online, but not sure if it was pro7 or sat1?

Anyways, I think an edited highlights package would get many more viewers on that sort of show since you could lose all the "boring" bits when everyone's just kicking back and drinking beer and not fighting each other. Just imagine if Planetside goes mainstream - it may replace Match of the Day in the hearts of British fans.

Oh, and for game data storage, I have friends at the Large Hadron Collider - go Google their storage capacity.

[Toppopia]

For the Europeans/Germans:
Does Pro7 have some sort of gaming shows? I remember about 10 years seeing a show on german tv where they were playing some FPS online, but not sure if it was pro7 or sat1?

Anyways, I think an edited highlights package would get many more viewers on that sort of show since you could lose all the "boring" bits when everyone's just kicking back and drinking beer and not fighting each other. Just imagine if Planetside goes mainstream - it may replace Match of the Day in the hearts of British fans.

Oh, and for game data storage, I have friends at the Large Hadron Collider - go Google their storage capacity.

I'm sure they can give us some of their petrabytes of storage, they don't need all of that for themselves. :lol:

[Mechzz]

I'm sure they can give us some of their petrabytes of storage, they don't need all of that for themselves. :lol:

Actually, maybe I could let Higby sneak a copy of the beta server side stuff onto their servers. Would eliminate all lag/stuttering issues at a stroke. The fact we may cause a black hole that would swallow the earth would be a price worth paying imo.

[Toppopia]

Actually, maybe I could let Higby sneak a copy of the beta server side stuff onto their servers. Would eliminate all lag/stuttering issues at a stroke. The fact we may cause a black hole that would swallow the earth would be a price worth paying imo.

Oh boy. Thats only if Higby accidently loads the server into the operating controls of it. But that sounds entirely possible. Then every time a base is lost the machine turns on or off. And creates 1 particle of anti-matter at the same time. So that will help regulate how often we can capture bases.

[Shogun]

in the dev interview about planetside memories smed (i think) said that they had a flying invisible cam for devs.
so they have it for ps2 as well.

we just have to find a way to make it accessible to video-makers without the risk of exploiting it. maybe outfits can buy some camera time for big events and only one player will get camera control while a gm or mod is watching and making sure he is filming some action and not floating around the enemys command center instead.

or outfits can buy camera time including the cameraman. so no player will use it, but a gm who is going to film the action for the outfit.
not the best solutions, but come on, start to think and find better ones!
a freeflying camera would allow for sooo great videos!

[Lorgarn]

Having this tool available with, as some of you have already mentioned, a short delay is actually feasible. Some games already have this very function with even less of a delay and it works great. It's impossible to "scout" anything since that information might actually turn to your disadvantage as much as the other way around. You have no idea if that information is valid, it's so unpredictible which makes it a total waste to try to use and exploit.

However, if it can be made without too much of an effort I have no idea. I'm no programmer/developer afterall.

[Fable]

I think Battlerecorder-like spectator would actually be the best option. For those unfamiliar with it, it records everythink that happens on the battlefield.

The only difference would be that players (and even better - officers only) would choose when to start recording, so it wouldn't record 24/7 and it wouldn't be so demanding on storage space.

[Fable]

Having this tool available with, as some of you have already mentioned, a short delay is actually feasible. Some games already have this very function with even less of a delay and it works great. It's impossible to "scout" anything since that information might actually turn to your disadvantage as much as the other way around. You have no idea if that information is valid, it's so unpredictible which makes it a total waste to try to use and exploit.

However, if it can be made without too much of an effort I have no idea. I'm no programmer/developer afterall.

Imho, problem with this aproach is, that if you would try to do some machinima video like this, you will ask the people on stage to do something, but you (as spectator) will see it with let's say 15 minutes delay. Now, if the scene went wrong or something you would have to wait another 15 minutes to see the result.

And I don't really see any other use of spectator mode other than making machinima videos, if we don't count spying, which we obviously don't want.

[Shogun]

on the other hand spying will already be possible through a lot of other ways, so a flying camera wouldn´t change a lot.

you can grab all gamedata and make a planetspy app for your smartphone that shows you every players position, weapon, health and whatever you like. so what´s the problem if you can also fly around in a camera?

[Fable]

you can grab all gamedata and make a planetspy app for your smartphone that shows you every players position, weapon, health and whatever you like. so what´s the problem if you can also fly around in a camera?

I've seen you guys talking about this already. I don't like the idea of this, but if it gets implemented, there's no reason NOT to have spectator with free camera.

[Gogita]

you can grab all gamedata and make a planetspy app for your smartphone that shows you every players position, weapon, health and whatever you like. so what´s the problem if you can also fly around in a camera?

Wow wow wow... I'm not an expertise in this field, but I'm sure you should not be able to gain access to real-time data of position, weapons etc.

[Gandhi]

Wow wow wow... I'm not an expertise in this field, but I'm sure you should not be able to gain access to real-time data of position, weapons etc.
I don't think that will happen. I mean it's one thing to export data about which hexes belong to who, how many people are online, what the current favorite weapon is per faction and so on, but to actually export real time position information of every player is ridiculous even just from a technical standpoint.

[Shogun]

quote from higby on the gameindustry interview:

Matt Higby: For the game itself, we're focused primarily on PC. But we have made plans and we've talked a bunch about how we're planning on externalizing tons of data. So, every piece of data about the game is gonna get put out via JSON feeds and via XML feeds. So all those app makers and people who are making web apps and stuff are gonna be able to make tools for PlanetSide 2, because we're gonna be sure to release every single piece of data. Basically everything. Capture status of the map, what weapons people are using, all that kind of stuff.

[Gogita]

Dang... they better limit the data that is accessible from that. Player location would be the worse thing they could give away.

[Hamma]

This was also in our PSU interview with Matt last week (external data) he talks a bit about that. Should be out Tuesday.

[kaffis]

quote from higby on the gameindustry interview:

Matt Higby: For the game itself, we're focused primarily on PC. But we have made plans and we've talked a bunch about how we're planning on externalizing tons of data. So, every piece of data about the game is gonna get put out via JSON feeds and via XML feeds. So all those app makers and people who are making web apps and stuff are gonna be able to make tools for PlanetSide 2, because we're gonna be sure to release every single piece of data. Basically everything. Capture status of the map, what weapons people are using, all that kind of stuff.
None of that says real-time, though.

I read that as "we'll be releasing all kinds of statistical data to the public. Your apps can access data to look up the preferred weapons of your favorite Planetside celebrity/that guy that killed you just now, so you can see that 50% of the time, they use weapon X with attachment Y, 20% of the time they drive vehicle Z, etc." You know, all that stat tracking stuff that got shown off at GDC. Just everybody's, open to the public via external APIs.

On the subject of spectator mode -- if it's feasible and reasonable, technologically, to log the game state and make it available on a delay, I have no problem with it. If it will detract from the gaming experience (by causing some features to be impractical, or degrading server performance, etc.), the game needs to take priority over machina.

If it's not feasible, then I have no objection to an unarmed version of vehicles, for instance, that have a toggleable UI, or toggling off all infantry UI. You'll still be targetable, but feel free to watch the fight while vulnerable.

[SgtMAD]

it should be up to individual players/outfits whether or not they are filmed or being observed,if an outfit wants ppl to know what they are up to, let THEM make the movie.

this kind of set up would end up being abused ingame.

[Arktype]

I understand the problem with spying. Someone here already raised the issue of people streaming live while playing. This will already become an issue since that anyone will have access to those streams.

Since there is no way, now that live streaming used by many players, that we will be able to stop the spying.

So having an alternate server running only data with 15 min delay would i believe make everyone happy. And it s probably a pretty simple thing to do, dev wise..