T-Ray Q&A with ISK (Addressing vet concerns) [Archive]

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Nyctalgia

2012-10-31, 06:12 PM

Hey guys!

Last week I was streaming my merry way around when T-Ray popped into my streams chat. After listening to our members banter for some time he started answering questions in the chat and eventually hopped on TeamSpeak to discuss the game and its future.

He stayed for about 50 minutes and I thought you guys would like to hear what he said as he addressed a few concerns from a bunch of PS1 vets.

YouTube Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjdQx_-hWU8)
Podcast (audio only) (https://rapidshare.com/files/2975276555/PlanetSide%202%20-%20T-Ray%20Q%26A%20with%20ISK.mp3)

T-Ray has also started popping in and playing with me while streaming, so if you take a peek (http://twitch.tv/nyctalgia1) while I'm streaming you might catch him.

Outfit is Immortal Serial Killers (http://www.immortalserialkillers.com).

RodenyC

2012-11-01, 06:50 AM

Lol he said Planetside 2 is gonna be about what the players think what's best for the game. Can't take the devs serious anymore.

McFeeble

2012-11-01, 06:55 AM

Lol he said Planetside 2 is gonna be about what the players think what's best for the game. Can't take the devs serious anymore.
Why? They listen, consider feed back and implement changes in areas we have concerns, they dont just blindly make changes based on whine from what I can see. I never seen a dev team interact so well and so far have avoided the mistakes ghostcrawler made with wasting time on the forums trolls - who is the closest comparison I know off.

RodenyC

2012-11-01, 07:13 AM

Why? They listen, consider feed back and implement changes in areas we have concerns, they dont just blindly make changes based on whine from what I can see. I never seen a dev team interact so well and so far have avoided the mistakes ghostcrawler made with wasting time on the forums trolls - who is the closest comparison I know off.

Lol no they don't.What have they listen to and changed?The metagame?Suppose to be in the game regardless.Have they fixed bases yet?Have they actually addressed the real issue of driver actually being a driver?Same with Sancs.All the reasons they've said are because of their own personal opinion.That's why I can't take them serious anymore.

Sturmhardt

2012-11-01, 07:54 AM

Why? They listen, consider feed back and implement changes in areas we have concerns, they dont just blindly make changes based on whine from what I can see. I never seen a dev team interact so well and so far have avoided the mistakes ghostcrawler made with wasting time on the forums trolls - who is the closest comparison I know off.

They are releasing the game in 3 weeks, that should suffice to prove that it's not about the game or the players. I have not seen anyone I have a good opinion of who says "Oh yes, the game is ready, release it!". Not once.

€: + What RodenyC says. They are not really responding to the community that much, usually they are just doing what they want, they often don't even explain why. That is something Smed is really good at. Someone has a good idea and he is like "I disagree. We do it my way." Not a single argument. That can be very frustrating.

Bear

2012-11-01, 08:07 AM

They are releasing the game in 3 weeks, that should suffice to prove that it's not about the game or the players. I have not seen anyone I have a good opinion of who says "Oh yes, the game is ready, release it!". Not once.

€: + What RodenyC says. They are not really responding to the community, they are just doing what they want, they often don't even explain why. That is something Smed is really good at. Someone has a good idea and he is like "I disagree. We do it my way." Not a single argument. That can be very frustrating.

If you're waiting for this game to be "finished" it never will be. MMO style games are NEVER actually finished. Yes there are still a number of bugs to be fixed and yes there's still things to be changed but this game will NEVER be finished. There are some days where there are 2 or 3 patches rolled out to fix bugs. There's a massive team of coders putting in some crazy hours right now. I think the game will be fine.

World of Warcraft is the most profitable and most played MMO ever. It was also a completely bug filled mess at launch. Many of the quests were broken, some of the game play mechanics didn't work and there was no endgame. Everyone seems to forget that when WoW launched Blizzard (who is famous for holding releases "until finished") had a hell of a time just keeping the servers up. You couldn't log in at times, when you did the lag made the game unplayable and there were times when the game was simply unplayable. When WoW launched the end game was Dire Maul. Year after year new content was added that was broken and patched. Over time, everything got fixed, the same thing will happen with PS2.

If you watch Higby's Amerish preview video there is no way you can say they're not listening to the community.

Sturmhardt

2012-11-01, 08:19 AM

Well I really hope that they will dare to change big things after the release.. otherwise this is not gonna be my game for the next 2 years.

But let's not make this thread about the early release again, that was not my point of discussion. I still believe it is at least 3 months too early - but I will not go into detail why, because a) This was done 999999 times before and b) I just wanted to point out that nearly everyone thinks it is too early. Your opinion is pretty rare. If they listened to all the players saying it is too early, we would not have the release in 3 weeks. I just pulled that as an example that they maybe don't have the best player experience in mind.

Btw, I also never saw anyone write why it is a good idea to release so early. They just do it. Originally they had plans to release it in early 2013 if I remember correctly and they wanted to do an open beta. They never explained why they want release so early now, they just said they could do it and we should not worry. Well to be precise Smed said that... so we know there is only a 50% chance it is actually true :p

My point is, that I don't get the feeling that every action taken is in my best interest (as a player of this game).

Bear

2012-11-01, 08:34 AM

Btw, I also never saw anyone write why it is a good idea to release so early. They just do it. Originally they had plans to release it in early 2013 if I remember correctly and they wanted to do an open beta. They never explained why they want release so early now, they just said they could do it and we should not worry. Well to be precise Smed said that... so we know there is only a 50% chance it is actually true :p

My point is, that I don't get the feeling that every action taken is in my best interest (as a player of this game).

I don't think any ever said it was a good idea, it's being released on the 20th because that's 4th quarter. SOE is a business and they want some money on the books for this game in 2012. This game needed to be out for the 2012 holiday season and SOE wasn't going to do a 1st or 2nd quarter 2012 release.

Keep in mind, internal testers are also 2-3 builds ahead of where we are. I've heard that the build they're currently testing is virtually bug free.

McFeeble

2012-11-01, 08:56 AM

Lol no they don't.What have they listen to and changed?The metagame?Suppose to be in the game regardless.Have they fixed bases yet?Have they actually addressed the real issue of driver actually being a driver?Same with Sancs.All the reasons they've said are because of their own personal opinion.That's why I can't take them serious anymore.

Well off the top of my head they listened about S-AMS, spawns options for squads, shotgun balance, CR channel, optimization, araxium, night vision, lib HPs etc and are experimenting with esamir bases to see how it affects game play and again this will happen with Amerish, I havent even bothered looking at patch notes and these things are obvious to me, sorry you just seem to be hating.

They also acknowledge other things like meta game, what do you want we only will have 3 conts, you can only do so much in the very tight schedule they have, somethings will have to wait, as others take priority (hopefully FPS) over piffle such as driver = driver options.

As much as I dislike buzzcut he pretty much nailed it in a video response to these types of concerns in the general section on the PS2 forums.

Sturmhardt

2012-11-01, 08:57 AM

I don't think any ever said it was a good idea, it's being released on the 20th because that's 4th quarter. SOE is a business and they want some money on the books for this game in 2012. This game needed to be out for the 2012 holiday season and SOE wasn't going to do a 1st or 2nd quarter 2012 release.

Keep in mind, internal testers are also 2-3 builds ahead of where we are. I've heard that the build they're currently testing is virtually bug free.

Yup, it's a business decision. For the company, not the players. That's what I'm saying. I just hope they will keep the development up as is until the game is where it needs to be.... and not drag all the guys off to EQ Next as soon as PS2 is launched.

Btw: I don't believe in the magic build ;)
Why would they have a really advanced build and not release it to the masses? As far as I understand the system, we are always one build behind the internal testing tops. They develop a new one, then they release it through beta and we can play it.... while they develop a new one and we get it 1 week later... that cycle goes on and on. As a developer you want to do as little redundant work as possible, so you will always try to keep all versions as close as possible. It does not make sense to release a very old version of a game to beta testing.

Mox

2012-11-01, 09:08 AM

Oh god. TRay dont know what a llu run is. He think it is something like an ant run.

By the way the devs may listen but they do what they want. And mostly thats not what the players want.

Dagron

2012-11-01, 09:11 AM

If you're waiting for this game to be "finished" it never will be. MMO style games are NEVER actually finished.

The devs keep saying that over and over like a mantra... it seeps into people's minds and they start repeating it too, failing to see the difference between "the game will never be done" and "the game is good enough to be launched".

When we say that the game isn't done, we mean it isn't done enough to be released. The MMO norm may be to release a jumble of bugs and imbalances, but that doesn't make it a good move. It influences people's opinions on the game and spreads a reputation of "just another MMO done by amateurs".

WoW survived that and grew a lot, but that's not the norm. There are tons of MMOs that come out like that and only survive limping on with a much smaller population than they could have had. PS2 would suffer the most with that, because it needs a lot of people to work, it's not like the run of the mill MMORPG where you can quest for hours and only find 2 or 3 people without feeling there's something missing from the game.

Sorry for insisting on the release date whine, but it's just really frustrating to see people mindlessly repeat "relax, it'll be fine because they said it will be".

RodenyC

2012-11-01, 09:26 AM

Well off the top of my head they listened about S-AMS, spawns options for squads, shotgun balance, CR channel, optimization, araxium, night vision, lib HPs etc and are experimenting with esamir bases to see how it affects game play and again this will happen with Amerish, I havent even bothered looking at patch notes and these things are obvious to me, sorry you just seem to be hating.

They also acknowledge other things like meta game, what do you want we only will have 3 conts, you can only do so much in the very tight schedule they have, somethings will have to wait, as others take priority (hopefully FPS) over piffle such as driver = driver options.

As much as I dislike buzzcut he pretty much nailed it in a video response to these types of concerns in the general section on the PS2 forums.

You named things that are supposed to be done without a say so.Optimization and balancing?Out of that list the only one that I agree they did listen too is the S AMS.Everything else were things that should had been fixed regardless of what the community said because it was either a balance issued,a bug issue or a optimization issue.

Again the metagame is something that should had been there from the start.The community shouldn't have to say anything about meta game.And I agree that they are on a tight schedule(they wanted a november release I would had been cool with mid 2013 release) so yes there are things that should be priority.However it's the fact that they're are thing that the community want that the devs just flat out say no to because and I quote Smed" honestly it's better this way".

Crator

2012-11-01, 10:04 AM

Again the metagame is something that should had been there from the start.The community shouldn't have to say anything about meta game.

You don't know, resources are the meta-game. :doh: /sarcasmoff

Fara

2012-11-01, 10:08 AM

IronMole

2012-11-01, 10:12 AM

McFeeble

2012-11-01, 11:58 AM

Brown nose much?

99% of the things they've changed by 'listening' to us should have been in the game from the start.

Also - once again SOE haven't held on to their words - BFR's being one of them...
Lol im totally anonymous and have zero interaction with devs outside the forums, which I use a different username on, so I dont follow the brown nose comment, but I know what you mean about the BFR - reason I left ps1.

I have to also disagree with the 99% point too, its a real beta for a change not a demo release, game "starts" November 20th, think otherwise and your wrong.

basti

2012-11-01, 12:22 PM

SixShooter

2012-11-01, 12:40 PM

Fara

2012-11-01, 12:41 PM

I have yet to see any BFR in the game that is actually working and not just an easter egg.

So what the hell are you talking about?

Chat @ 32minutes T_Ray talks about BFR's & how they would possibly be manned by like 5 people.... first thing that comes to mind is Power Rangers & 2 tanks, 2 sunderes, 1 lib, 1 aircav coming together to create the greatest fighting BFR/Zord the galaxy has ever ..... etc.

Listen to what he says, he makes reasonable sense in that IF and i stress IF they decided to re-introduce BFR's to PS2 it would not follow the same broken path used in PS1

PredatorFour

2012-11-01, 12:55 PM

I have to also disagree with the 99% point too, its a real beta for a change not a demo release, game "starts" November 20th, think otherwise and your wrong.

Errr ... No. It`s not a real beta at all. They said they were going to have a `propper beta` but are now releasing the game far too early. A real beta wouldve been about a year for a game of this magnitude, taking the original into account too. Wouldve given the devs ample time to work their magic and not rush a gem of a game.

Geist

2012-11-01, 12:58 PM

Chat @ 32minutes T_Ray talks about BFR's & how they would possibly be manned by like 5 people.... first thing that comes to mind is Power Rangers & 2 tanks, 2 sunderes, 1 lib, 1 aircav coming together to create the greatest fighting BFR/Zord the galaxy has ever ..... etc.

Yep, making the same mistakes as last time. Rare in an MMO is not rare at all. If they go down this route, it's going to cause the same problems as last time, with it being extremely overpowered or underpowered for the price. I have no faith that something like that could be properly balanced(and I have a lot of faith in the dev team).

Honestly, if you want big robots, and I have said this many times before, make it a light reconnaissance vehicle, lightning-level weapons, can go over rough terrain and\or low walls easily, and lightning-level armor or less. You get the bipedal walker fix that is easily(or at least easier) balanced vehicle than the giant monster 5 person walker that can destroy everything in its path.

basti

2012-11-01, 01:31 PM

Good stuff ISK and T. Hes reallly jumping around the streams and Teamspeaks. :)

Comments:

2-Ways: I think he misunderstood the question, assuming you mean something like set up 2-way wars, means E Sports.

2 ways will naturally happen once there are 6 continents and the foodholds go away on every continent. The continent metagame just makes it happen, naturally. Just that the third empire could hop in and screw things up, exactly like in Planetside back in the day. ;)

Autodrive: OH GOD YES PLEASE!

PS1 bases style: Oh please. Want to see that carnage in there. :D

LLU: Higby mentioned on his Amerish stream that they want to do it, but first want to get their current mechanic right before they add new ones.

ISk Style / resecures: I guess that will naturally happen once we actually see the capture status on the map. Right now we just dont know where to go with our Gals. Also, the upcoming Continent metagame propably makes resecures more important again, to keep your continent locked.
Also, command chat allows to share intel to know were help is needed, once there is a good bunch of people using it its propably rather easy to find the right target and drop da crap out of a base. ;)

Galaxy use: Upcoming: G-ams allows spawning for the galaxy owners squad, and apperently also sqad spawning right on the flying galaxy.

Maxes/AA: its just that AA in general is to powerful. Skyguard can rip a ESF to shreds, and the dozens of AA turrets everywhere dont help as well. What makes it even whorse is the low amount of Air in general, means AA has less to shoot at, and whenever a aircraft appears, all AA will target him.

Artillery: Love artillery, love the multi crew idea mentioned. Basically what the flail should be all along. One dude designates the target at the frontline, one dude fires, one dude has to directly support the Artierlly (running between base and artillery to supply ammo? Like a ANT run between base and Artillery)

G-AMS: See above, last things i know.

Resecure drama: I miss it, seriously. It was awesome to make last second resecures, it was even more awesome to get pushed out of the CC, and prevent the enemy from resecuring in the last second. I want that back, badly. Maybe different capture mechanics in the future will make that possible.

T-Ray is awesome and we love him: Aye! :D

BFR: Its just an easter egg, a simple rip out of PS1 and place it in PS2, exactly the same mesh.
And BFRs enter Planetside 2 on the day hell freezes. The day after that, i will be flying over to SD and smack someone in the face. NO BFR! EVER!
I know they would implement them right, but just the simple fact of those things being around would make me mad. Rather have Heavy Battle tanks!

Defensable bases: HUNKER DOWN!

Release date: Wait and see. If it runs without crashing every few minutes, and has somewhat good performance for me, then im fine. Also, fix the bugs and it will be perfect. Cant delay it forever really.
Also, finally able to go in full time without upcoming wipes. ;)

Lasher: GIVE US THE PURPLE BALLS! GO GO GO! PUNCH SOMEONE IN THE FACE T, THEN HUNKER DOWN! :D

Dude at the end (I know that voice. Losty?): DUDE! :D

Dragonskin

2012-11-01, 01:53 PM

If you watch that 1-hr long interview that someone else posted.. sorry don't have the name... then Higby specifically mentions that they put the BFR in Esamir to make PS1 vets shit their pants... and a lot of you guys are. You guys got trolled by the Devs... it's just an easter egg.

Higby also goes on to say that they are thinking about adding in smaller vehicles like dune buggies and how they realized some vehicles from PS1 should not be recreated.

This vid...
Hey guys! My name is JP McDaniel. I'm a youtube content creator generally known for my involvement in ESPORTS, creating shows State of the Game and Real Talk.

Yesterday I had the privilege of interviewing Matthew Higby for a one-off Planetside 2 event on my Twitch channel. A lot of people requested for the interview to be cut and posted on it's own, so I did just that.

I'm not sure if you can have the video embed on the forum (literally my first post here) so I've just put it as a link below.

We cover a lot of topics within the interview (I apologize for not having a proper topic timestamp) including the Nov. 20th release date, some upcoming features, and he also kills an entire outfit with a couple galaxies... with some interesting outcomes.

Thanks guys and hope you enjoy the content!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6KP_VEtJWU

Hamma

2012-11-01, 03:01 PM

The negativity in almost every post is starting to get a bit stupid.

Soon there will be a thread about Higby killing babies.

maradine

2012-11-01, 03:22 PM

He can't run from the truth forever.

SixShooter

2012-11-01, 05:34 PM

The negativity in almost every post is starting to get a bit stupid.

Soon there will be a thread about Higby killing babies.

I've been thinking that about most threads lately.
:cheers:

Sifer2

2012-11-01, 07:42 PM

I have yet to see any BFR in the game that is actually working and not just an easter egg.

So what the hell are you talking about?

Well the solo MBT's are basically diet BRF right now. A solo operated vehicle that takes a lot to bring down, and can kill pretty much everything if you take advantage of seat swap into turret for air. The NC one even had a shield lol. Thankfully none of them can fly....yet.

maradine

2012-11-01, 08:04 PM

Well the solo MBT's are basically diet BRF right now. A solo operated vehicle that takes a lot to bring down, and can kill pretty much everything if you take advantage of seat swap into turret for air. The NC one even had a shield lol. Thankfully none of them can fly....yet.

Magburner. Ridgeline. Photo-op.

McFeeble

2012-11-02, 05:01 AM

Errr ... No. It`s not a real beta at all. They said they were going to have a `propper beta` but are now releasing the game far too early. A real beta wouldve been about a year for a game of this magnitude, taking the original into account too. Wouldve given the devs ample time to work their magic and not rush a gem of a game.

Pretty sure its beta, struggling to see how it is anything else, please explain. The suits pushing up the release date for Q4 $$$ is a different point entirely and does not mean they had no real beta... Imo I think the release date should have been called open beta (with shop) instead or something similar, just to give some room for the bugs that will no doubt be about still, which is a missed marketing strategy. Hopefully it wont be too bumpy a start! :)

Crator

2012-11-02, 10:42 AM

Open beta for a F2P game in my mind is: Cash Shop with possibility of character wipes. If character wipes occur then Station Cash used to purchase things in the shop would be refunded. Would have been nice to have that happen but I guess they don't need it? Or they just ran out of time to do something like that.

GuyFawkes

2012-11-02, 04:25 PM

Lol no they don't.What have they listen to and changed?The metagame?Suppose to be in the game regardless.Have they fixed bases yet?Have they actually addressed the real issue of driver actually being a driver?Same with Sancs.All the reasons they've said are because of their own personal opinion.That's why I can't take them serious anymore.

If you turn your own phrasing around to the same from the developers perspective you may be able to appreciate their point of view.

for example

We're changing the metagame, we're improving bases, just look at Amerish. We're addressing the driver/gunner concerns by adding in certifications so people who want to can have that as an option. We feel sanctuaries drag people away from the fight but once we have more continents that the 3 at launch we can start to implement the idea of home continents in due time. All the things we are doing is to evolve the game and make it an enjoyable experience for everyone wanting to play, but players of the original have their own opinion and dont want to evolve. The Game is evolving despite them. Thats why we struggle to take them seriously any more

RodenyC

2012-11-02, 05:11 PM

^Can you provide the source of that quote?

GuyFawkes

2012-11-02, 11:20 PM

^Can you provide the source of that quote?

Thats easy, the source was yourself:rolleyes:

You gave an unfounded opinion, which I quoted. The 2nd highlighted box is your own opinion replaced with details openly available in a format so you get an insight as to the flip side of what you were saying.

Psu is becoming the last bastion of freedom for the guy carrying a cardboard with 'the end of the world is nigh' written on it, but no one is listening:(

cellinaire

2012-11-03, 12:30 AM

Errr ... No. It`s not a real beta at all. They said they were going to have a `propper beta` but are now releasing the game far too early. A real beta wouldve been about a year for a game of this magnitude, taking the original into account too. Wouldve given the devs ample time to work their magic and not rush a gem of a game.

It was a real beta while it lasted. How can a rushed date make all the efforts in Beta phase totally meaningless?

And yeah many things they changed / added recently should have been there in the first place...so what? How can that kind of logic make all the changes we've been watching so far entirely meaningless? If they really not listened this time, then the state of this game should be far more worse right now. Far more worse.

I'm f***ing not trying to be a SOE fanboi, but cold truth or not, some of these comments in this thread are ridiculous.

PredatorFour

2012-11-03, 07:18 AM

It was a real beta while it lasted. How can a rushed date make all the efforts in Beta phase totally meaningless?

Never said it was meaningless at all, you completely misunderstood me whilst falling off the high horse.

some of these comments in this thread are ridiculous.
Too true.