Just a thought about cities.

[BraavikStal]

Auraxis has a very large population yes? Well where are the cities and towns. The various factions seem to be fighting over relatively unpopulated areas and bases in the middle of nowhere. It just seems logical that they should at least be fighting over a city or two. Don't get me wrong I am incredibly excited for the game and can't wait to start playing.

I was just wondering if they are thinking about adding city or town environments later on down the track?

[haticK]

i just assumed it was all about the resources. kind of like how we have war over oil.

[vVRedOctoberVv]

Shhhhhhh! You're not supposed to think about stuff like this!

[Littleman]

If they're going to introduce cities, the only way to do it right is to dedicate a continent to looking like a city.

Sky scrapers acting as cliffsides and plataeus. Rubble acting as hills. Streets will act like... well... they'll act like streets! Bases would be vital portions of the city - amp station = power plant, bio lab = nature preserve/park(?) tech plant = factory.

I wouldn't expect players to be capable of entering most if any structures. Maybe smaller one and two story buildings (like convenience stores) at most, and the rest will basically be concrete/glass walls (as opposed to rock.)

[Daemonn]

The bases/outposts are the "cities". Auraxis was only recently terraformed and built upon. The faction war started before they even landed. Who's gonna build cities or villages during a boiling rebellion? They just barely have all the bases up and running...

[BraavikStal]

i just assumed it was all about the resources. kind of like how we have war over oil.

But we still fight in cities in our current wars. Population centres nearly always build up near resource areas.

The bases/outposts are the "cities". Auraxis was only recently terraformed and built upon. The faction war started before they even landed. Who's gonna build cities or villages during a boiling rebellion? They just barely have all the bases up and running...

I was under the impression that humanity had been on Auraxis for quite awhile before this current round of hostilities broke out.

[damijin]

I don't know the lore for PS2 or even PS1 that well, but I believe the ship that travelled through the wormhole to Auraxis was a military ship of the Terran Republic back on Earth. We are all first-generation soldiers (I think?) so the additional factions are all trained military/science/government/etc in some way or another, even the ones who don't directly fight.

Cities, if they exist, would be highly militarized. Unless I'm totally off and we've been fighting for generations on this planet. In which case, I suppose there could be more city-ish cities somewhere.

Edit: Nevermind, quick wiki sorted me out. We've been here 300 years. Is immortality still the same as in PS1 lore? Are we dying and ressurrecting or...?

[SFJake]

If they're going to introduce cities, the only way to do it right is to dedicate a continent to looking like a city.

Sky scrapers acting as cliffsides and plataeus. Rubble acting as hills. Streets will act like... well... they'll act like streets! Bases would be vital portions of the city - amp station = power plant, bio lab = nature preserve/park(?) tech plant = factory.

I wouldn't expect players to be capable of entering most if any structures. Maybe smaller one and two story buildings (like convenience stores) at most, and the rest will basically be concrete/glass walls (as opposed to rock.)

Gameplay wise, I'd love a continent like that, though I'd see no appeal to it if all buildings could not be entered. Its definitively a big part of the appeal of urban environments to enter buildings. Though I can certainly see how that is a lot of work.

[Renegadeknight]

I would love to see an urban continent. Would be a whole different style to the current continents.

[vVRedOctoberVv]

Yeah, the only way to do it right would be to have an "urban continent". By the way, if they did that, and then made 90% of the buildings completely unenterable = fail. If it's just going to be giant cubes all over the map, even if they're pretty cubes, that would somewhat defeat the point of having the "city".

[Blackwolf]

I think it most likely that cities are underground structures beneath the foot holds. Soldiers, for obvious reasons, wouldn't be allowed. After decades of violence above ground in a ruthless and grueling un-ending war, entering civilian populations might be a bad idea.

[Gugabalog]

The population are currently still in orbital Space Stations for the most part. The **** hit the fan when the expeditionary personnel tried to colonize, and that was only on one continent.

[vVRedOctoberVv]

@Blackwolf

Heh, yeah. They have problems rehabilitating soldiers who have only been doing it a for a while, in much less intense instances than this.

But Gug is right. Most folks are still in orbit, I think.

[foam]

It would be epic indeed to see galaxies dropping off sniper teams on tops of buildings.

The bases compared to PS1 look incredible, and have a lot of variety instead of the same base template over the whole continent.

I look forward to different variety and features in future planetside expansions. Some things may include

-City-like continents
-Naval warfare
-Space warfare
-etc

[Blackwolf]

I think instead of cities they could just add a new base type, sort of a residential base designed for housing a population. Would make more sense with bio domes being designed for food production and tech plants for research, now you have population centers.

Individual apartments would probably be locked up tight to prevent looting or, you know, death by gunshot? Would be cool to fight in long corridors again with doorways to hide in and such. Include food court areas with various diners or food distribution centers and what not.

[Gugabalog]

Wait wait wait. WHERE ARE THE VANU CITIES?????

I mean surely they had cities or something if they built all the nano-infrastructure.

[Buren]

I can't imagine the tech is here at the moment to make appropriately sized cities. If they tried, it would likely be a poor attempt and come up short. Better not to have any at all for the time being.

Maybe with the scaling capabilities of ForgeLight it will be possible to add as a new continent later on down the road.

[Harasus]

Guys, all the humans came to Auraxis 170 years ago. There were maybe 60 000 of them back then, although my memory is a bit shady. The entire population on Auraxis now would be maybe 100 000 - 200 000 total.

Cities are unlikely to exist, at all, with such a small population.

And no, not everyone in the expedition came from the military. The majority were probably scientists and civilians of all kinds.

[Gugabalog]

Yea. It seems like it would be similar to the canyon, only with alcoves dug into the cliff faces.

[Littleman]

Gameplay wise, I'd love a continent like that, though I'd see no appeal to it if all buildings could not be entered. Its definitively a big part of the appeal of urban environments to enter buildings. Though I can certainly see how that is a lot of work.

Yeah, the only way to do it right would be to have an "urban continent". By the way, if they did that, and then made 90% of the buildings completely unenterable = fail. If it's just going to be giant cubes all over the map, even if they're pretty cubes, that would somewhat defeat the point of having the "city".

Unfortunately, they couldn't allow players to enter most buildings, that would be murder on everyone's systems. Sure, it seems cheap, but they're there for effect and as terrain, not to give infantry 20+ floors x buildings of vantage points.

The alternative is to simply except the clusters of smaller buildings around towers and bases as the urban environment.

[Solidblock]

The TR on the space fleet also implemented a curfew after the NC took over a small military vessel. Even 2 centuries wasn't enough for them to lift this curfew and thus cities would simply be an invitation to organise and revolt. Cities are almost always the starting point of a revolution.

[NikTeccon]

As the comments on this topic are quite old: Does anyone know if there a plans for a "Megacity-Continent" or mothership map, or even adding cities/civil infrastructure to the current continents, or something else in this direction?

[ringring]

As the comments on this topic are quite old: Does anyone know if there a plans for a "Megacity-Continent" or mothership map, or even adding cities/civil infrastructure to the current continents, or something else in this direction?

Very very recently they demo'd a concept of a city battle isle. I believe they intend to develop it.

It was essentially based on a grid pattern using existing assets. A lot of people watching went 'wow' but I thought that it may not fight very well. They need to think it through carefully.

[Canaris]

this is from a recent WIP blog about a urban map
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOarUSoSF2c

and here is the latest discussion about new conts on PS-U.
http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=58273

[Calista]

Could call it Isle of Cod!

[Baneblade]

We are fighting over control of the nanites.

[Rivenshield]

Wait wait wait. WHERE ARE THE VANU CITIES?????

I mean surely they had cities or something if they built all the nano-infrastructure.

/blinks, rubs eyes

Your sig hurts my head.

You did that on purpose, didn't you? You annoying purple bastard... yes, YOU WERE RUNNING AROUND CAPPING RANDOM TOWERS TEN YEARS AGO just to piss me off and now you have your SIMULATED 3D BRAIN-HURTING SIG for the same reason! And you always know when I'm reloading...! YOU ONLY ATTACK ME WHEN I'M RELOADING! I HATE YOU! I HATE -- !

/froths at the mouth
/dies of Vanoob-related aneurysm
/respawns
/starts frothing at the mouth again

Oh, and uh... yes, an urban environment would be pretty neato. Maybe with one or two places on intermediate floors you could access and fight over, like the basements in the old PS1 bases, and a roof you could stand on. Block after block of blasted and decaying civilian housing, left over from the days before everyone became a constantly reincarnating militant with a life expectancy of thirty seconds....

[Canaris]

another WIP with the urban map at the start
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc-JfSbjdXs&list=TLNfnWJX1VONJF4RNqEHgZdbRp7lo9wscz

wow look at how much they've done with the concept from the other WIP, seriously great job Devin and the level designers :thumbsup:
There's so much potential there. I was looking at the tunnel you made and I just wanted to throw a "parking garage/ basement entrance" idea for some of the important buildings.

[ringring]

I don't get the excitement over this. It's a City, which we've seen before in other games.

The question is how it will fight and it seems to be the answer is not very well.

For a start they've thrown out all the lessons of all the previous maps they've built. The city is a huge map with no obvious fighting lines, your enemy could come from anywhere and any direction. To me it looks like a recipe for an enormous fight that will last forever without coming to a conclusion.

[Babyfark McGeez]

I watched the start of that "WIP" video Canaris posted and i was wondering (again) why they don't release that map editor for us to fool around with?

Considering the maps are still wank for the most parts and the game still lacks even the minimum amount of maps to create a "proper" intercontinental lattice (And i really don't see that improving in any foreseeable future - how long did Hossin take them again?) the community could really improve this game.