New Blog via Smed talks ESports, Outfit Bases and More. (Overall Discussion)

[Razicator]

Also a bit more info on PvE (near the end of the link, #5)

I mean we did have the pro-gamer CS guy join the SOE team for balance, but it was still up in the air I believe the extent to which PS2 will be an eSport. Well, check this out. Almost last sentence, #7.

http://john-smedley.livejournal.com/2412.html

What do you guys think? Good? Bad? What do you hope it'll be?

I'm thinking they're thinking more battle-islands-esque stuff, that's what Higby worked on in PS1. Isolated continents for more outfit or squad-based play.

Of course, all eSports games must have a good spectator camera, so I'm hoping for good UI stuff to come along with this. Things like being able to disable your HUD, or to have a noclip mode to fly into the air to record stuff ONLY in these theoretical battle-islands for neutral players.

[Slide Surveyor]

This won't be good.

[Boone]

This won't be good.

Did you even read it? RTS elements in my opinion would be amazing.

Anyway, before people cry in the future and claim promises weren't kept - I want to be crystal clear and say that these are NOT promises these are ideas

[Emperor Newt]

"Mac version (soon after launch)"

Sounds promissing. If so getting PS2 to run under Wine should be much easier ;)

eSports is always a very tough nut to crack. I don't think it is impossible in PS2 or that it would make the game bad/worse. But it has to be taken very carefully. And I think SOE is very aware of that.
eSports is a huge money sink and rewards are not guaranteed.

[Envenom]

I'm down. I think it would be awesome.

[LancerNC]

I'm down. I think it would be awesome.

me too!

[ringring]

Nothing there excited me. I have to be honest.

well, maybe more vehicles.

I wish he'd said more continents (apart from the empty ones for outfit bases).

PS2 needs more continents first and foremost .. the rest is meh.

[Goku]

tuff, that's what Higby worked on in PS1. Isolated continents for more outfit or squad-based play.
.

That sounds like a great option for how to deal with this segment of game play.

[Timealude]

Did you even read it? RTS elements in my opinion would be amazing.

Anyway, before people cry in the future and claim promises weren't kept - I want to be crystal clear and say that these are NOT promises these are ideas

This.

[Pyreal]

1) Player Owned bases - we plan on releasing continents that are empty or partially empty where players can build their own bases. These are open world bases so others will be able to attack them. We're also planning on having these continents heavily resource based with new resource types that will be very rare..and lots of cool new stuff that can be built out of these new resources.

+

2) Harvestable resources - imagine SC II style resource harvesting with physical vehicles doing the mining or the harvesting.


302 Found

+

4) Lots more vehicles and weapons - just what it sounds like. Many of these will take very rare resources to make.

If you need to harvest them, can your harvester be attacked and looted?

Will harvesters need protection? Do we now have mining in PS2? :rofl:

Nothing there excited me. I have to be honest.

well, maybe more vehicles.

I wish he'd said more continents (apart from the empty ones for outfit bases).

PS2 needs more continents first and foremost .. the rest is meh.



Did you even read it?

"We also don't want to charge for things like new continents or new planets (in the future)."

You haven't even played retail and you are already bored with the content? :rolleyes:

[Masterr]

I hope the priorities are

1. weather

2. mac version

3. more vehicles

4. E sports support

5. player owned bases

6. water between continents (down the list bc of difficulty)

7. NPC enemies (invasions)

everything else is meh. (harvestable resources, npc armies)

[Ivam Akorahil]

1) Player Owned bases - we plan on releasing continents that are empty or partially empty where players can build their own bases. These are open world bases so others will be able to attack them. We're also planning on having these continents heavily resource based with new resource types that will be very rare..and lots of cool new stuff that can be built out of these new resources.

LOVE IT

2) Harvestable resources - imagine SC II style resource harvesting with physical vehicles doing the mining or the harvesting.

LOVE IT

3) Water between continents - seamlessly - this is really hard tech, but our goal is to make the whole planet seamless and allow water based vehicles.

LOVE IT

4) Lots more vehicles and weapons - just what it sounds like. Many of these will take very rare resources to make.

LOVE IT

5) NPC enemies - I don't want to call this PVE. That's not exactly what we have in mind. More like a global invasion that goes after everybody. This isn't a bunch of quest givers saying "go kill 10 rats" - this is bad ass aliens that want to gut you.

:O speculation is over thats what he means!

6) NPC armies - imagine as the commander of a base sending an NPC army towards another base MOBA style except it's in the middle of the Planetside 2. This isn't another game mode. It's all part of the same game.

LOVE IT

7) Esports support - we plan on doing this pretty soon after launch. We plan on making this a big big thing and putting a lot of our resources behind it.

BRING IT ON

8) Weather

hooray!

[Stardouser]

Sounds good to me. The only thing I want to know is, this NPC invasion that he wants to do. I DO like the idea, but is it going to be a weekly thing, or a daily thing? Daily would interrupt killing the other scum empires. Weekly or monthly however would be a nice break from the grind.

[Graywolves]

I'm curious about them seamlessly connecting continents on a world with oceans.



I don't care much for the PvE elements. He might not want to call it that but that's what it is, even if integrated with the rest of the PvP world. Absolutely don't want waves of AI attacking like in a MOBA. An every man for themselves invasion type deal could be acceptable on rare occasions but going beyond that would just be taking novelty/gimick too far.

[ringring]

Did you even read it?

"We also don't want to charge for things like new continents or new planets (in the future)."

You haven't even played retail and you are already bored with the content? :rolleyes:

Yes, I read it ....

NPC invasions .. like a Rift? but enough of the digs....

the major thing missing from PS2 is the meta game, especially at the world or inter-continental level. Once it's there the game will be interesting in the long term .. without it, it's just a shooter!

In order for there to be a inter-continental strategy the devs need to resurrect some ps1 concepts such as sanctuaries and links between continents and capturable continents.

At present each continent is uncapturable and exist in isolation from the others.

However, in order for that to happen several additional continents are necessary.

Continents are #1 and in my view until there is a 'grand metagame' having planetside in the game title is a bit of a conceit.

[SpottyGekko]

All these ideas sound amazing !

I just hope that their actual implementation does not diminish the "soul" of PS. If the main game can retain it's focus, all these enhancements and "side shows" will only make the main game richer and deeper. And that is never a bad thing in any game imho.

[Levente]

amazing. love it. holy shit. yeah. omg :rofl: and how about making the animations and sounds awesome to like in bf3, and we are all set

[HorizonBound]

First and foremost, In my opinion (IMO), should be Player-owned continents. This seems like the best idea, and perhaps the eSports thing could use this.
2 outfits-one lsland-time limit. Each team starts with a primary base that everyone spawns at, and the end goal would be to detonate the enemy bases' core. This may be the way
ps2 can have an MLG section

Harvestable resources coud work really well with the 'watercraft expansion' having battleships and the like cost a lot of resources. Giant ships like these should be outfit-only though, with the ability to target in-land targets. Amphibious assault craft (mini carriers) could work similarly, but could allow for transport between continents without them de-spawning. Smaller but faster patrol boats could work as 'water tanks' allowing for effective anti-capital ship raids from land.
Naturally, all the spawning and building of ships shold come with ports on continents which can resupply ships and provide the only spot where you can spawn any kind of ship. There should also be Shipyards on home continents where outfits can build capital ships. The comissioning of each ship should take about a day (in real-time) and the larger, more powerful the ship, the longer the build time.

Anyway, i'm rambling. All of these ideas sound great (except for the AI armies), an i'd love to see them implemented into the full game.

[Taru]

I think these are great ideas. I'm all for new ideas that will keep the game fresh, which in turn will hopefully keep the population high. A couple of those ideas sound like a support player's dream.

[Hmr85]

I like the sound of almost all of it till he said NPC Invasions. Please do not do that. I personally want pure pvp where the opponent is actually a challenge. Shooting at AI is just meh.

[PoisonTaco]

I want seamless travel between continents and naval warfare asap. Then you can have it so empires can lock down an entire continent. Imagine one faction preparing a huge invasion force with naval bombardment, beach landings and galaxy drops.

[Blackwolf]

Great stuff, but I have my doubts on how much of it will become reality for a F2P. It also sounds like they have a number of things planned that might not be taken into account right now. New continents and expanded server sizes should be the highest priority though. 6k players per server is very small and I'm worried about messy server merges.

[Warruz]

I think people might be jumping the gun, most sports that take off have a theme to them in that the teams are not huge. For planetside to make it into e-sports we would have to see something aking to battle islands where the fighting is smaller scale as having an esport that requires 100 people of waring factions isnt going to leave much room in a building.

[PoisonTaco]

I think people might be jumping the gun, most sports that take off have a theme to them in that the teams are not huge. For planetside to make it into e-sports we would have to see something aking to battle islands where the fighting is smaller scale as having an esport that requires 100 people of waring factions isnt going to leave much room in a building.

What if you set it up so that people could watch what's going on in the game?

"Welcome back to Auraxis ladies and gentlemen, let's see how the empires are progressing today. Looks like the TR are trying to take Zurvan back, let's go in for a closer look."

[Hamma]

I'm going to post targeted feedback threads on all the future plans he noted.

[Gortha]

I'm curious about them seamlessly connecting continents on a world with oceans.



I don't care much for the PvE elements. He might not want to call it that but that's what it is, even if integrated with the rest of the PvP world. Absolutely don't want waves of AI attacking like in a MOBA. An every man for themselves invasion type deal could be acceptable on rare occasions but going beyond that would just be taking novelty/gimick too far.

I also don´t like the whole PvE Thingy.
If it happens too often it kills the gameflow and if it´s just once a week/month
the time and money they invested in it isa not worth it. IMHO.

Rest is really awesome. I like the rest of the ideas very much.
Just a Mac-Version is not needed.

[thegreekboy]

1) Player Owned bases - we plan on releasing continents that are empty or partially empty where players can build their own bases. These are open world bases so others will be able to attack them. We're also planning on having these continents heavily resource based with new resource types that will be very rare..and lots of cool new stuff that can be built out of these new resources.

So much win in this

2) Harvestable resources - imagine SC II style resource harvesting with physical vehicles doing the mining or the harvesting.

No. Noone would want to do it. It would just turn into grinding. Unless you found a really ingenious way to have AI vehicles harvest, then form a convoy to transport it, without glitching up or acting dumb, it wouldn't work.

3) Water between continents - seamlessly - this is really hard tech, but our goal is to make the whole planet seamless and allow water based vehicles.

Again, No. Would take away from the experience and get people too far away from the action.

4) Lots more vehicles and weapons - just what it sounds like. Many of these will take very rare resources to make.

Great. More guns and vehicles are always good. Faction specific light tanks, transport aircraft, and ground transports should be first. (aka replace the lightning, sunderer, and galaxy)

5) NPC enemies - I don't want to call this PVE. That's not exactly what we have in mind. More like a global invasion that goes after everybody. This isn't a bunch of quest givers saying "go kill 10 rats" - this is bad ass aliens that want to gut you.

Yes, if done right

6) NPC armies - imagine as the commander of a base sending an NPC army towards another base MOBA style except it's in the middle of the Planetside 2. This isn't another game mode. It's all part of the same game.

Again, if you do it right. Big risk though

7) Esports support - we plan on doing this pretty soon after launch. We plan on making this a big big thing and putting a lot of our resources behind it.

Doesn't really make much of a difference

8) Weather

This is so great it should be number one on this list

9) Mac version (soon after launch).

Obviously, yes.

[Tatwi]

Did you even read it? RTS elements in my opinion would be amazing.

Anyway, before people cry in the future and claim promises weren't kept - I want to be crystal clear and say that these are NOT promises these are ideas

I think the biggest issue for SOE in this project (and in EQN) is that they won't have a third party pulling in the reigns and pushing them to knuckle down on some specific concepts. If they aren't careful, they can get carried away chasing all the cool ideas and never accomplish any of them, because the game has so much potential in so many areas. However, when I look at all the hard work and genuine progress the Everquest II team has made, when it comes to adding new game play systems and content, it's easy to see that the management at SOE is able to focus the company's efforts.

I'd like to see the RTS aspect, it's something that I was always dumbfounded that Blizzard totally missed out on with World of Warcraft. Having an active world to defend, capture, repair, build is so much more personal and rewarding than simply blowing up enemies and owning bases. This is the kind of "community building game play" that will keep people interested in the game in the long term. I know that if I spent my resources sending out a team of miners to get more resources, I'd make for damned sure they were heavily guarded! :)

I'm not so keen on the Rift NPC thing though. I don't think it is a good idea to encourage the factions to place nice and unite against a greater evil, especially if doing so grants great rewards. And if fighting the NPCs did not grant great rewards, they'd be considered no more than a nuisance. This is a tough one to justify.

The seamless planet is a must, really. Anything less is just more of the same and it's been done already any way. I expected it for Planetside 2 and EQN and if it's "hard", well, you should have bought Infinity (http://www.infinity-universe.com/Infinity/). It's not like they couldn't use the funding...

I am on board for everything except the E-Sport thing though, because I can't help but feel that's nothing more than dollars and man hours thrown at a niche of the gaming world that majority of gamers couldn't really give a shit about. It makes me sad that time will be taken away from actual Planetside 2 game development for this. If SOE wants to sub contract a marketing company to handle E-Sports, that's fine, because they would have to meet their metrics and make it work within the frame work of the game itself. But spending man hours on it, for the five or six new players it might bring to the game, it's a complete waste.

[SGTalon]

I can see how some alien invasion events would be awesome. Maybe the 3 factions have to pull together to beat back the alien horde.

But i am sure it would be an event type thing. They have been doing stuff like that a lot lately on other games.

I am sure that it would also involve capturing of alien tech that is now yours and other cool stuff like that.

I mean really think about it, we have a huge battle going on at Zurvan and all of a sudden this huge ships come down and hordes of NPC aliens drop out of the ships and start tearing everything up. I can't see how this would be a bad thing.

[AnamNantom]

Bring in the Vanu Aliens. Have them support, us, the Vanu!

http://anam.tilt180.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/VanuSmiles.png

I can see how some alien invasion events would be awesome. Maybe the 3 factions have to pull together to beat back the alien horde.

But i am sure it would be an event type thing. They have been doing stuff like that a lot lately on other games.

I am sure that it would also involve capturing of alien tech that is now yours and other cool stuff like that.

I mean really think about it, we have a huge battle going on at Zurvan and all of a sudden this huge ships come down and hordes of NPC aliens drop out of the ships and start tearing everything up. I can't see how this would be a bad thing.

The Vanu could have different factions fighting for or against our human factions, perhaps?

[Blackwolf]

I don't like the outfit created bases idea.

I would love it if continents (entire continents) were designed with the ability for outfits to build their own destroyable bases on. But said bases would have to be destroyable rather then capturable in order to allow other outfits the chance to build where they wanted.

[Stanis]

Sounds more and more like Star Wars Galaxies : The FPS.

Which isn't a bad thing.
Can we have crafting too?

I'll gather resources with a fleet of harvesters again and make the very best medical products. I'll even sell them to the enemy, for a small extra charge.

[VikingKong]

Clearly the devs love a good troll post as much as the rest of us. Almost had me for a while there. Such a card, that Smed. ^^

[brighthand]

I can see how some alien invasion events would be awesome. Maybe the 3 factions have to pull together to beat back the alien horde.

But i am sure it would be an event type thing. They have been doing stuff like that a lot lately on other games.

I am sure that it would also involve capturing of alien tech that is now yours and other cool stuff like that.

I mean really think about it, we have a huge battle going on at Zurvan and all of a sudden this huge ships come down and hordes of NPC aliens drop out of the ships and start tearing everything up. I can't see how this would be a bad thing.

I like the sound of making the alien invasion so strong that it forces all factions to work together or die. It has an element of drama to it that is refreshing. -And include Giant death-ray beaming Collossi that wipe out entire tank columns in one sweep!!

[RoninOni]

I like the sound of almost all of it till he said NPC Invasions. Please do not do that. I personally want pure pvp where the opponent is actually a challenge. Shooting at AI is just meh.
OffTopic in this thread but:
My suggestion was to make invasions both rare, and focused to 1/3rd the world at a time throughout the duration, so that players who want to avoid it, can.

This getting messy..

Is PS2 a completed game to be beta tested for weaknesses? Or is the game incomplete with no direction how to finish it??

I dont see this half-assedness in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Step your fucking game up SOE.

derp

#1: A completed game wouldn't be in Beta.... EA/Activision have lied to you

#2: This is future, post launch, continued content that's being talked about here. This isn't some annual release, now buy a bunch of map packs, k, thanks for the extra $50 now buy another $60 game. This will be a persistent and continually supported game that grows with it's playerbase. New continents will be added, new equipment and weapons. And new additional support and meta game.

tl;dr version: :rolleyes:

[camycamera]

i LOVE the idea of an NPC invasion. it would be cool to have all 3 factions (maybe) unite together to stop this invasion.... and then continue to fight again.

and that commander thing with the npc's sounds cool, but i dont know how it would work if they implement it. does each player command a group of npcs, or only a selected few? and i bet these npcs that you control would be some type of cyborgs... that would be awesome, fighting along side them/commanding them :D.

weather would be an awesome idea too, making you have to change tactics (like at night), and having to rely on tech (like at night) such as infra-red and such.

and it would be sweet to see.... UNDERWATER BATTLES :D imagine a water-based galaxy of some sort in the bloody water, or stealth ships, or swimming underwater, or even types of planes that drop torpedo bombs underwater.

the possibilities are endless for planetside 2, cant wait to see what they come up with post-launch :D

[cellinaire]

Not that I don't care about and love this game, but nothing on his article irks me in the wrong way. Easily expected with only few surprises and most of the things would be cool.

(and I still think BFR was a implementation/execution/planning failure, not as an idea and concept.)





...Yeah I know I'm an oddball, but..

[RoninOni]

^Yah, BFR's in concept aren't bad.... they just need to be more carefully implemented, and not the "goto"

If anything is the "goto" it should be tanks...

[Malorn]

I'm normally not brief, but I'll try to cut to the chase.

The first part about what makes PlanetSide 2 different is dead-on. He nails all the important stuff about PS2. I enjoyed reading that.

The second part about the business model is very solid. Its reassuring to me that he is committed to not make the game Pay-to-Win and understands that non-paying customers are providing content for paying customers. This is just plain awesome and exactly how I think it should be. It's Not Pay to Win. It's not eye gouging the customers with ridiculous in-game-currency prices. It's paying for convenience and understanding that games without players aren't fun for paying customers. People like me will definitely pay for convenience. Hell I've already maxed out my Smedbux at 50,000. I'll probably buy more if they have enough worthwhile stuff there. Whales like me with disposable income will more than cover the free players, and those players will keep the game alive and fun for me so I spend more. Great model! This was my favorite part of the blog to read, nice job there Smed I hope you stick to those principles. And shut up and take my money!

Now for my visceral reactions to the future plans (I commented in more detail on some of these in individual threads).

1) Player Owned bases - I like! Looks promising and I like the idea of a sandbox continent where we can make our own facilities to fight over the resources.

2) Harvestable resources - Meh. As long as it's automated harvesting (think moon mining or planetary stuff from EVE). Has potential if it's automated. If it's manual I will want to gouge someone's eyes out.

3) Water between continents - seamlessly - Meh. Don't see the value.

4) Lots more vehicles and weapons - I expect this, and generally it's good. However...there will be rioting if giant robots are involved. You know what I'm talking about. Don't even think about going there.

5) NPC enemies - Fail. Not what PlanetSide is about. Players are the content, you don't need to provide it.

6) NPC armies - Fail. See above. Non-human armies are boring and not interesting.

7) Esports support - Epic fail. Wrong direction. Not what PlanetSide is about. See topical thread for more details.

8) Weather - I truly hope this is one of the first things you add into the game post-launch. Weather adds variety and strategic goodness to the game. It's a great thing to add in sooner rather than later. I really want this!

9) Mac version (soon after launch) - Erm, sure. Gamers don't buy macs but I got no problem shooting mac fanbois. It's therapeutic.



Now for the things I think he should add to the discussion.

* More continents. I'd like to see at least 6 by Launch + 1 year. 10+ by +2 years.
* Global conquest. With more land comes more satisfying conquest. PS1 was unique in that it allowed you to conquer something that stayed yours for sometimes days at a time until someone forcibly took it back. That needs to live on in PS2 as well and 3 continents with footholds doesn't even scratch the surface of your possibilities here.

Generally Smed - don't stop at massive & epic. Keep going. Feeling of accomplishment and conquest was one of the best parts of PlanetSide. Feed into that. The bigger the persistent world and the more cool environments we have to fight over the more fun the game will be. And when you have more territory you can afford to lock some of it away to further add to the persistence. 3 continents is a great start, but you need more.

Persistent world, and more importantly the conquest of that persistent world is something no other game can offer. Keep innovating there. Don't leave any room for competitors. Take it to the next level. Don't try to make PlanetSide something it's not. You have something great here. Keep going, don't get sidetracked.

Overall a good blog, some of those things, namely PvE and ESports have me concerned. Rest of it looks good/great.

[RoninOni]

^I'm shocked you see the value in adding more and more continents for global conquest yet not linking them all together with oceans.

You complain about the uncap warp-gates yet coastal islands and navies are the perfect natural solution to completely removing the warp-gate dependence. Then warp-gates become more convenience and tactical.

[Boone]

This getting messy..

Is PS2 a completed game to be beta tested for weaknesses? Or is the game incomplete with no direction how to finish it??

I dont see this half-assedness in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Step your fucking game up SOE.

Yeah, they're just ideas and they likely won't make it, and if they do it'll a while so relax.

Enjoy BO2 I suppose.

Not that I don't care about and love this game, but nothing on his article irks me in the wrong way. Easily expected with only few surprises and most of the things would be cool.

(and I still think BFR was a implementation/execution/planning failure, not as an idea and concept.)





...Yeah I know I'm an oddball, but..


People have their own ideas how everything should be made anymore. If it doesn't fit..it's a failure, period.

[Warruz]

Not to sure about the whole NPC thing, id like to see events perhaps a meteor crash that contains alot of resources to change the front of the game and things like that but NPC's irks me a little the wrong way.

Outfit bases i also have an issue with being that it focuses more on the outfit then the faction which is what planetside was all about.

Otherwise everything else sounds great especially linking everything with water allowing Navel assaults and coastal bases(Bases over water to).

[MrMorton]

You could do really awesome things with player owned continents and Esports style competitions.

Because all the infer-structure to be able to compete in the big upcoming battle would require time to prepare, you could do something as simple as saying. On day X two weeks from now, control point Y has a cash reward of Z dollars. Whoever controls it at the end of day X gets the prize, until day X this control point will be blocked from capture. ready set GO.

then you would have a two week long rush from all the outfits to build up to get the upper hand in that one day huge battle.

Do you save up your resources to have a huge teched up army on the day of the fight? or do you spend resources early to gain control of surrounding areas to have a better starting point? Which outfit can have the most efficient trades over the other outfits to gain an edge?

Do you use cheap units only to get the best trades? or is using deadlier, higher cost units better?

before the fight, is it better to backhack your opponents bases in order to reduce the resources they can bring to the battle? but who do you backhack? who do you perceive as the greatest threat? can that perception be manipulated by all the teams?


that's an awesome start to a thriving competitive meta game.

[SVoyager]

I agree with most of what you said Malorn, very good post!! This is quite a long read for me also sorry but I took the time to read your entire post and here are my comments on it. The first paragraphs, I agree with you. I am one of those that will probably insist in spending 10-20$ on stuff a month. I will want to buy things and not only to get some stuff in game but to also support it and keep it going.

1) Player Owned bases - I like! Looks promising and I like the idea of a sandbox continent where we can make our own facilities to fight over the resources.

Totally agree!

2) Harvestable resources - Meh. As long as it's automated harvesting (think moon mining or planetary stuff from EVE). Has potential if it's automated. If it's manual I will want to gouge someone's eyes out.

Gotta disagree here. I think its some form of replacement of the ANT. It's a twist in its implementation and I like the idea. I would personally be one of those that would drive it manually. I did a few ANT runs in PS1, while not dedicated to it, it is still fun to do once in a while. I think this is aimed towards those that liked to do ANTs, those that like to have a support role and do less direct fighting (I am one of those, I mostly drive lodestars and repair people for long periods of time in PS1, I rarely fire my gun and while it might sound boring to some, I really like doing that!). It would also add some variety. It could be linked to the mission system they want to use. Enemies have orders to kill the harvester, friendly to defend. I see alot of potential with it. I really love this idea.

3) Water between continents - seamlessly - Meh. Don't see the value.

I see this as a technological prowess. Now they can say that they can have maps 16 times the size of BF maps with no loading, they could even brag about bigger maps and the fact that they are able to blend in all types of combat. About the water between them, I think it would add variety to the game. Its a bit like in PS1 when attacking bases are done in stages. Vehicle fights until reaching the base and infantry fights to control that base. Now it would add another stage to that. Water invasion to reach a continent, vehicles to reach a base and infantry to capture it.

Of course you wouldn't have water fights every hour, which is fine by that. It would just give a change of pace once in a while. IMHO, I think this could be a great idea but careful implementation is required. You don't want PS2 to become a naval game. If you endup having a stalemate on the naval fight, things might become bad.

4) Lots more vehicles and weapons - I expect this, and generally it's good. However...there will be rioting if giant robots are involved. You know what I'm talking about. Don't even think about going there.

Agreed 100%. About the robots, its very clear they don't want them. Smed said it so many times, they just won't make them, period. I don't see why we still mention them. (I know it was a part of having killed PS1 but we should turn the page. They won't make them.)

5) NPC enemies - Fail. Not what PlanetSide is about. Players are the content, you don't need to provide it.

Extreme hesitation for me here. I often thought that if there were some NPC in PS1, it could have retained some pop as fights would be less difficult to find and possibly endup having bigger fights. If you play on low pop hours, you are pretty much screwed. There is one fight usually and you hope that your faction's pop is not splitted on 2 continents or you endup getting your a** kicked on both continents. I see that PS2 could be affected by this too, to some extent should the pop levels don't reach what they expect. So should we add AI to keep the action going? Should we add AI to make an "okay" fight reach big to epic proportions?

Also AI in night fight, how do you code an AI to recognize someone who is hidden under a rock in perfect darkness. The AI could spot people hidden more easily. Bad thing. They AI won't be able to strategize on a large scale, bad thing.

I know that PS should be player driven only and thinking about AI is not an easy thing. Would it benefit us in the long run?

Open mind is required but still, I am really neutral with that idea.

6) NPC armies - Fail. See above. Non-human armies are boring and not interesting.

Indeed agree. Armies is pushing it a bit. 10% AI vs player population might be ok. AI pop maybe could be used to compensate for faction imbalance only. Blending AI in only here and there could be ok, but a whole army, hmm. Nah. You would need some really good AI. Waay too much dev time needed I think.

7) Esports support - Epic fail. Wrong direction. Not what PlanetSide is about. See topical thread for more details.

Havn't seen your thread but I agree with you 100% here. I think it is time wasted. What good will that do? I might be biased as I am a person that couldn't care less about tournaments and things like that. I watch a bit of TB's vids and i see him link to streams of tournaments. Interresting to watch once but really not my thing. Is it the koreans or ppl over there that are really into this kind of thing? Anyway, for me, this is not a good idea.

8) Weather - I truly hope this is one of the first things you add into the game post-launch. Weather adds variety and strategic goodness to the game. It's a great thing to add in sooner rather than later. I really want this!

100% agree with you here again. Weather is a must. If its really hard to implement, I wouldn't mind if it were moved to spot #2 or 3 so to get the easier stuff in faster but still, we need weather!!

9) Mac version (soon after launch) - Erm, sure. Gamers don't buy macs but I got no problem shooting mac fanbois. It's therapeutic.

Haha, yeah im 100% with you here. You can even add a small apple icon over their heads just to make sure I prioritise my targets :-). kidding, macs are fine, I don't really care about them but if it brings more ppl in, okay support that platform. I think they won't like being slaughtered so much tho heh.

Your last 3 paragraphs there is very well said and written, I totally agree with you!! I think that with sea combat, you will get what you wish for about the part of "global conquest". Once a continent is done, get on your ships, drive to the next one. While you leave to assault the next cont, you get the feeling of a job well done, this continent is ours. But yes, more epic, more conquering etc.

Very good post Malorn, thanks! I hope my comments adds to the discussion!

Cheers
SV


I'm normally not brief, but I'll try to cut to the chase.

The first part about what makes PlanetSide 2 different is dead-on. He nails all the important stuff about PS2. I enjoyed reading that.

The second part about the business model is very solid. Its reassuring to me that he is committed to not make the game Pay-to-Win and understands that non-paying customers are providing content for paying customers. This is just plain awesome and exactly how I think it should be. It's Not Pay to Win. It's not eye gouging the customers with ridiculous in-game-currency prices. It's paying for convenience and understanding that games without players aren't fun for paying customers. People like me will definitely pay for convenience. Hell I've already maxed out my Smedbux at 50,000. I'll probably buy more if they have enough worthwhile stuff there. Whales like me with disposable income will more than cover the free players, and those players will keep the game alive and fun for me so I spend more. Great model! This was my favorite part of the blog to read, nice job there Smed I hope you stick to those principles. And shut up and take my money!

Now for my visceral reactions to the future plans (I commented in more detail on some of these in individual threads).

1) Player Owned bases - I like! Looks promising and I like the idea of a sandbox continent where we can make our own facilities to fight over the resources.

2) Harvestable resources - Meh. As long as it's automated harvesting (think moon mining or planetary stuff from EVE). Has potential if it's automated. If it's manual I will want to gouge someone's eyes out.

3) Water between continents - seamlessly - Meh. Don't see the value.

4) Lots more vehicles and weapons - I expect this, and generally it's good. However...there will be rioting if giant robots are involved. You know what I'm talking about. Don't even think about going there.

5) NPC enemies - Fail. Not what PlanetSide is about. Players are the content, you don't need to provide it.

6) NPC armies - Fail. See above. Non-human armies are boring and not interesting.

7) Esports support - Epic fail. Wrong direction. Not what PlanetSide is about. See topical thread for more details.

8) Weather - I truly hope this is one of the first things you add into the game post-launch. Weather adds variety and strategic goodness to the game. It's a great thing to add in sooner rather than later. I really want this!

9) Mac version (soon after launch) - Erm, sure. Gamers don't buy macs but I got no problem shooting mac fanbois. It's therapeutic.



Now for the things I think he should add to the discussion.

* More continents. I'd like to see at least 6 by Launch + 1 year. 10+ by +2 years.
* Global conquest. With more land comes more satisfying conquest. PS1 was unique in that it allowed you to conquer something that stayed yours for sometimes days at a time until someone forcibly took it back. That needs to live on in PS2 as well and 3 continents with footholds doesn't even scratch the surface of your possibilities here.

Generally Smed - don't stop at massive & epic. Keep going. Feeling of accomplishment and conquest was one of the best parts of PlanetSide. Feed into that. The bigger the persistent world and the more cool environments we have to fight over the more fun the game will be. And when you have more territory you can afford to lock some of it away to further add to the persistence. 3 continents is a great start, but you need more.

Persistent world, and more importantly the conquest of that persistent world is something no other game can offer. Keep innovating there. Don't leave any room for competitors. Take it to the next level. Don't try to make PlanetSide something it's not. You have something great here. Keep going, don't get sidetracked.

Overall a good blog, some of those things, namely PvE and ESports have me concerned. Rest of it looks good/great.

[Wreckful]

You could do really awesome things with player owned continents and Esports style competitions.

Because all the infer-structure to be able to compete in the big upcoming battle would require time to prepare, you could do something as simple as saying. On day X two weeks from now, control point Y has a cash reward of Z dollars. Whoever controls it at the end of day X gets the prize, until day X this control point will be blocked from capture. ready set GO.

then you would have a two week long rush from all the outfits to build up to get the upper hand in that one day huge battle.

Do you save up your resources to have a huge teched up army on the day of the fight? or do you spend resources early to gain control of surrounding areas to have a better starting point? Which outfit can have the most efficient trades over the other outfits to gain an edge?

Do you use cheap units only to get the best trades? or is using deadlier, higher cost units better?

before the fight, is it better to backhack your opponents bases in order to reduce the resources they can bring to the battle? but who do you backhack? who do you perceive as the greatest threat? can that perception be manipulated by all the teams?

I love this idea. It is the only way I can see eSports happening.

[wormywyrm]

None of his post-launch plans will hurt the game to me but some of them won't benefit it much.

Why oh why no capital/air-base ships??? It could be awesome. It could add great gameplay, great ways to mix things up, and great meta game strategy. Smed do you want to take some pages from EVE and battlefield? Give us some badass capital ship/BF2014 titans to wage war between. That is what I wanted to see in his list but instead we saw this:

Water between continents sounds good at face value but is it worth it?? What exactly would it be accomplishing? If they add water vehicles to the game I hope that they are hybrid vehicles that are for both land/water.

NPC enemies/mercenaries might be slightly amusing and could fill the gaps we saw in base capture that PS1 had (lack of defenders, especially late at night). Worth it to code in NPCs? No not to me. There's better ways to spend the time IMO.

Esports goes against what Smed is trying to push here when he talks about there not being 'multiple game modes'. Esports would require multiple game modes: end of story. I just don't see it happening for PS2. I know Smed sees other games getting into esports and there is $$ there and free marketing but he is wrong to think PS2 can be that sort of game and I hope they don't pour money into it. Which reminds me, comparing the differences between the 3 factions in PS2 to differences in SC2 races is way out of line because it implies that the different weapons and vehicles will lead the different factions leadership into making decisions in different ways. The meta strategy is amazingly different in SC2 according to race... PS2 has the unit/weapon diversity SC2 has but the meta strategy is not that different.

Weather is ok I just hope they don't hang their hat on it because I think more variables the players can control would be more interesting after the games been out a few months.

His idea that I am most excited about? Player owned bases. But it may be the most technically difficult thing to do as well and easy to mess up. I won't hold my breath. After SWG, I know SOE has the capacity to do it, but will they put down the resources for PS2? I am only looking forward to 2 games right now... PS2 and Archage. The latter because of the city building.

You could do really awesome things with player owned continents and Esports style competitions.

Because all the infer-structure to be able to compete in the big upcoming battle would require time to prepare, you could do something as simple as saying. On day X two weeks from now, control point Y has a cash reward of Z dollars. Whoever controls it at the end of day X gets the prize, until day X this control point will be blocked from capture. ready set GO.

then you would have a two week long rush from all the outfits to build up to get the upper hand in that one day huge battle.

Do you save up your resources to have a huge teched up army on the day of the fight? or do you spend resources early to gain control of surrounding areas to have a better starting point? Which outfit can have the most efficient trades over the other outfits to gain an edge?

Do you use cheap units only to get the best trades? or is using deadlier, higher cost units better?

before the fight, is it better to backhack your opponents bases in order to reduce the resources they can bring to the battle? but who do you backhack? who do you perceive as the greatest threat? can that perception be manipulated by all the teams?

that's an awesome start to a thriving competitive meta game.

Interesting... Def a different take than what I was thinking.

Esports with hundreds of players on each team? I was imagining SC2 matches where the same 30 asian guys duke it out for the big bucks and earn their living off of the game.

Def a risk and an unknown but hey it could get a lot of good press too. I would love if they recorded some of these 'esport' battles and did commentaries etc to post online. It would be like the news feeds we see about EVE politics except way more action-oriented.

[medward]

The NPC thing sounds kind of cool, but only if it's a periodic event type thing. I wouldn't want to log in everyday and half to deal with that. If it was a live event type thing where for a couple days or a week Auraxis is invaded, that would be cool.

[sgtbjack]

1) Player Owned bases - we plan on releasing continents that are empty or partially empty where players can build their own bases. These are open world bases so others will be able to attack them. We're also planning on having these continents heavily resource based with new resource types that will be very rare..and lots of cool new stuff that can be built out of these new resources.

Sounds good to me, lots of challenges to that though

2) Harvestable resources - imagine SC II style resource harvesting with physical vehicles doing the mining or the harvesting.

Cool

3) Water between continents - seamlessly - this is really hard tech, but our goal is to make the whole planet seamless and allow water based vehicles.

Very cool

4) Lots more vehicles and weapons - just what it sounds like. Many of these will take very rare resources to make.

Very very cool

5) NPC enemies - I don't want to call this PVE. That's not exactly what we have in mind. More like a global invasion that goes after everybody. This isn't a bunch of quest givers saying "go kill 10 rats" - this is bad ass aliens that want to gut you.

Sure, if its completely random and not every day/week

6) NPC armies - imagine as the commander of a base sending an NPC army towards another base MOBA style except it's in the middle of the Planetside 2. This isn't another game mode. It's all part of the same game.

I personally hate this idea, just means npcs clogging up the arteries

7) Esports support - we plan on doing this pretty soon after launch. We plan on making this a big big thing and putting a lot of our resources behind it.

Don't care if its rewards only titles and resources, hate it if people get leadership ranked up playing small group warzone/battleground/arena gameplay, these forms of gameplay create garbage leaders. I just want the leaders who advance(and effect your entire faction on that server) to have proved it by leading wars on the continents. If the arena's(or whatever) are hundreds vs hundreds than I rescind my negativity and I'm cool with it.

8) Weather

I want this very, very bad. I want it to effect how you fight and your strategies, forcing commanders to have tactical depth and adaptability

[RoninOni]

RTS elements in my opinion would be amazing.

No, no it most certainly would NOT.

End of Nations is a MMORTS
Planetside 2 is a MMOFPS

The entire draw of PS2 is that all the active combat units, all THOUSANDS of them, are all PLAYERS.


Some outfit base building, and some worker type AI's to perform menial tasks that players wouldn't be particularly interested in performing (structure building, mining, supply convoys delivering materials/resources) are all potential "RTS" elements that could fit into the Planetside formula, while not taking away the single biggest aspect of Planetside (all player battles)

These NPC worker units would even be vulnerable to enemy attacks giving players more to fight over for smaller scale skirmishes than base assaults.

And yes, I know these are just ideas and not definitive plans... ^THESE are my ideas on how to work with the ideas provided.

Oh, and for whoever asked... Planetside WILL have some streaming & spectator functions built into the system. I hope they don't go crazy with instanced outfit battles as again, 1 of the primary features of Planetside is also it's PERSISTENCE which these instanced fights would have nothing to do with.