Dev AMA on Reddit notes

[Roy Awesome]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1ryk1u/notes_from_todays_ama_sorted_by_category/

Mid December patch details

ZOE will get a balance pass in the December Patch (Movement and timer work)
Christmas Event in the works
NC will be getting a look at in the next balance update.
Don't expect LMG changes
Bolt Action range not locked down. With the Nanoweave nerf, it's actually looking like a buff for snipers in general
The roadmap will return before the end of the year.
Mouse Sensitivty issues on Test are getting worked on.


Next-year future plans

Updates are slower because there are numerous live issues to work through before they can add new features
Some kind of progression not tied to gear or player power in the works. It's hard but they are thinking about it
The final phase of the ESF update was pushed to next year
LA may be getting a dual-wield weapon ability in the future.
Cross Continent features are exciting
Players will log into the game in the deployment screen
Players will be able to change contienents from the deployment screen
Attacker drop pods will land outside of bases, defender drop-pods inside the base
Possible squad based in-vehicle spawning options coming.
GPU Particle effects will return when they fix them
Higby doesn't like lock-ons. Neither does the community. Cool.
Higby wants flamethrowers
The ANT will most likely be the Sunderer with an ANT module for the resource revamp.
Sorting players in squads, drawing on the map, RTS-style unit selection, banning from platoon, cycling squad list on hud are planned, but keep getting bumped for higher priority things.
Outfit recruitment with ingame advertisement, outfit base capture, and outfit decals are coming soonish.
Amerish revamp in 1-2 months
Hossin before next summer
Implants are still in the future plans.
A better way of tracking mastery with certain weapons is coming
Doubtful on BR restricted cosmetics. Perhaps if they add a new slot for it
New alert types in the works. Details on the roadmap when it gets updated
Amerish Lattice and Road revamp are done, with bases in progress now. On Test server soon maybe.
Planetside 2 on PS4 release date: "Sometime after now but before the end of the world. If I'm wrong then crap." - Arclegger
Mission System will be highest priority next year. It's pretty close to being done, they just need to add in UI stuff. It'll come out in phases.


Long term future plans

They are trying to create a stable and fun ground game before they get Epic like space or naval warfare
In a year from now, they are confident that they will grow the game beyond what we have now.


Level Design & Future Continent details

Malorn mapped out a layout for Cyssor, making it look like PS1 Cyssor. Wont be seen anytime soon
Searhus will have lava and a volcano and stuff
Searhus will have lava and a volcano and stuff
Xander is spending more effort to create fun field fights
They REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoy door-to-door grind fests (sarcasm, they hate them)
'New Amerish is going to be rad'
Vehicles spamming capture points is not intended. File a bug report if you see a place where it's possible and they will fix it.
Future direction involves lots of lattice rings, large outputs in defensible anchor points, and small outposts that support small groups
Nexus is pretty much done, needs intercontinental metagame
New building for bases: https://twitter.com/XanderClauss/status/405522326155829248. Coming after the Amerish revamp
Malorn with the mega post on level design theory for PS2: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1rxjym/we_are_the_planetside_2_dev_team_ask_us_anything/cds1hxu
Arclegger wants to make more biolabs
Intercontinental Lattice and Continent locking are not mutually exclusive. You may see either feature at any time
# of terminals on Indar reduced because of performance. Feedback requested on whether the gain was worth the cost.


Misc stuff

Some sound tweaking, but nothing like the VS pass
Small chance for VGS. It's too complicated
Server population cap DID change after OMFGp1. They had server-side performance problems and had to lower the cap. The cap will be raised again when those issues are fixed
"When people get really mad about the game they're doing it from a sense of passion for the game because they like it and want it to succeed. Some of it may be harsh sometimes but you can't let it get to you otherwise you wont last on the internets."
Higby using devhacks is his favorite thing about the game
E-Sports isn't an 'Instead' thing, they've put 0 development hours into it
They are mostly trying to build the community around e-sports, not force it with game mechanics
Population is pretty good across servers.
They watch all the planetside 2 streams. They get good player feedback from it that they would have a hard time getting otherwise.
Higby is the best drunk boxer because he can out-drink everyone
Asymmetrical balance is a pain in the ass, but nobody on the team wants to see it go.
They have very intensive stat-tracking, such as what's getting the most kills on a harasser against infantry being wielded by players with over 75% accuracy and driven by pilots with over 200 hours in harassers"
Population issues are usually exacerbated by player perception, but they are working on things to fix it
Performance work took priority over everything, which is why we haven't seen any metagame stuff
Muldoonx9's favorite small feature is the Saved By notification
Arclegger helped make a chinese-only kung-fu hustle game.
UI in Scaleform saves them a ton of time (and money). Only things that make a ton of sense will be put into C++ code (like names over players)
Their fridge had gross old brocolli in it.


Canned stuff

No plans for soundtrack updates.
No plans for cross-faction cosmetics
No on Artillery or Bombers, they don't want to add more 'i couldn't do anything about that' deaths
Indar was once going to have a crashed alien ship. Creating Amerish and Esamir tooke the resources away from doing that
Rotor based VTOL flight felt archaic in the theme of PS2.
Most of the super sci-fi concepts were from before PS2 was full figured out as a game.

[ChipMHazard]

Thanks for making a list, Roy. A lot of answers to shift through otherwise.

[Binkley]

I really hope they do some harasser/vulcan balancing in the Dec. update.

[OCNSethy]

Whoa... thats a lot to digest.

Thanks Roy - appreciate it.

[maradine]

:love:

[bpostal]

I'm glad to hear the mission system will be a priority.

[Ghoest9]

i want hacking more than any of the stuff they talked about.

[HereticusXZ]

Excited for alot of this stuff, especially the mission system! But what does "Bolt Action Rifles won't be Locked Down" mean? That there won't be a a 150m damage limit? or are they getting a prone position lock-down similar to the TR max ability? anyone know?

Also it bugs me the ANT Module will be in the Sundy and not a vehicle of it's own... the Sunderer's getting really friken boring with it being the "end all, do anything" vehicle...

What happened to those tease pics of a new vehicle or the idea of the Deliverer being the new ANT? :(

[Roy Awesome]

Excited for alot of this stuff, especially the mission system! But what does "Bolt Action Rifles won't be Locked Down" mean? That there won't be a a 150m damage limit? or are they getting a prone position lock-down similar to the TR max ability? anyone know?


Here is the full post: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1rxjym/we_are_the_planetside_2_dev_team_ask_us_anything/cdrxx64



We haven't locked down the distance we'll be cutting off OHKs with BASRs yet, we've been tuning around 150m, but that's not set in stone. Keep in mind with the nanoweave changes that this will mean that all headshots within that range would be OHK, whereas previously it would be much lower based on people's extensive equipping of nanoweave. These changes in concert will end up being a buff to most snipers in the range they generally play in (which is way, way lower than 150m for BASRs), and will make long range sniping less of a dice roll ("hope this guy isn't running nanoweave!") than it is now.

[Ruffdog]

Thanks Roy but....oh my god. The red!
At least they're talking....to reddit. Will be interesting to see Nexus, mind, and all this other stuff, but wow you'd hope popping out future conts from now will get quicker.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1ryk1u/notes_from_todays_ama_sorted_by_category/

Mid December patch details

ZOE will get a balance pass in the December Patch (Movement and timer work)
Christmas Event in the works
NC will be getting a look at in the next balance update.
Don't expect LMG changes
Bolt Action range not locked down. With the Nanoweave nerf, it's actually looking like a buff for snipers in general
The roadmap will return before the end of the year.
Mouse Sensitivty issues on Test are getting worked on.


Next-year future plans

Updates are slower because there are numerous live issues to work through before they can add new features
Some kind of progression not tied to gear or player power in the works. It's hard but they are thinking about it
The final phase of the ESF update was pushed to next year
LA may be getting a dual-wield weapon ability in the future.
Cross Continent features are exciting
Players will log into the game in the deployment screen
Players will be able to change contienents from the deployment screen
Attacker drop pods will land outside of bases, defender drop-pods inside the base
Possible squad based in-vehicle spawning options coming.
GPU Particle effects will return when they fix them
Higby doesn't like lock-ons. Neither does the community. Cool.
Higby wants flamethrowers
The ANT will most likely be the Sunderer with an ANT module for the resource revamp.
Sorting players in squads, drawing on the map, RTS-style unit selection, banning from platoon, cycling squad list on hud are planned, but keep getting bumped for higher priority things.
Outfit recruitment with ingame advertisement, outfit base capture, and outfit decals are coming soonish.
Amerish revamp in 1-2 months
Hossin before next summer
Implants are still in the future plans.
A better way of tracking mastery with certain weapons is coming
Doubtful on BR restricted cosmetics. Perhaps if they add a new slot for it
New alert types in the works. Details on the roadmap when it gets updated
Amerish Lattice and Road revamp are done, with bases in progress now. On Test server soon maybe.
Planetside 2 on PS4 release date: "Sometime after now but before the end of the world. If I'm wrong then crap." - Arclegger
Mission System will be highest priority next year. It's pretty close to being done, they just need to add in UI stuff. It'll come out in phases.


Long term future plans

They are trying to create a stable and fun ground game before they get Epic like space or naval warfare
In a year from now, they are confident that they will grow the game beyond what we have now.


Level Design & Future Continent details

Malorn mapped out a layout for Cyssor, making it look like PS1 Cyssor. Wont be seen anytime soon
Searhus will have lava and a volcano and stuff
Searhus will have lava and a volcano and stuff
Xander is spending more effort to create fun field fights
They REALLY REALLY REALLY enjoy door-to-door grind fests (sarcasm, they hate them)
'New Amerish is going to be rad'
Vehicles spamming capture points is not intended. File a bug report if you see a place where it's possible and they will fix it.
Future direction involves lots of lattice rings, large outputs in defensible anchor points, and small outposts that support small groups
Nexus is pretty much done, needs intercontinental metagame
New building for bases: https://twitter.com/XanderClauss/status/405522326155829248. Coming after the Amerish revamp
Malorn with the mega post on level design theory for PS2: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1rxjym/we_are_the_planetside_2_dev_team_ask_us_anything/cds1hxu
Arclegger wants to make more biolabs
Intercontinental Lattice and Continent locking are not mutually exclusive. You may see either feature at any time
# of terminals on Indar reduced because of performance. Feedback requested on whether the gain was worth the cost.


Misc stuff

Some sound tweaking, but nothing like the VS pass
Small chance for VGS. It's too complicated
Server population cap DID change after OMFGp1. They had server-side performance problems and had to lower the cap. The cap will be raised again when those issues are fixed
"When people get really mad about the game they're doing it from a sense of passion for the game because they like it and want it to succeed. Some of it may be harsh sometimes but you can't let it get to you otherwise you wont last on the internets."
Higby using devhacks is his favorite thing about the game
E-Sports isn't an 'Instead' thing, they've put 0 development hours into it
They are mostly trying to build the community around e-sports, not force it with game mechanics
Population is pretty good across servers.
They watch all the planetside 2 streams. They get good player feedback from it that they would have a hard time getting otherwise.
Higby is the best drunk boxer because he can out-drink everyone
Asymmetrical balance is a pain in the ass, but nobody on the team wants to see it go.
They have very intensive stat-tracking, such as what's getting the most kills on a harasser against infantry being wielded by players with over 75% accuracy and driven by pilots with over 200 hours in harassers"
Population issues are usually exacerbated by player perception, but they are working on things to fix it
Performance work took priority over everything, which is why we haven't seen any metagame stuff
Muldoonx9's favorite small feature is the Saved By notification
Arclegger helped make a chinese-only kung-fu hustle game.
UI in Scaleform saves them a ton of time (and money). Only things that make a ton of sense will be put into C++ code (like names over players)
Their fridge had gross old brocolli in it.


Canned stuff

No plans for soundtrack updates.
No plans for cross-faction cosmetics
No on Artillery or Bombers, they don't want to add more 'i couldn't do anything about that' deaths
Indar was once going to have a crashed alien ship. Creating Amerish and Esamir tooke the resources away from doing that
Rotor based VTOL flight felt archaic in the theme of PS2.
Most of the super sci-fi concepts were from before PS2 was full figured out as a game.

[camycamera]

nice job.

[Rolfski]

Nice job pulling that list. I'm really disappointed by the insanely slow map release schedule though. Waiting 1,5 years for a new map release, are you kidding me?
How are they expecting to keep this game fresh enough for a generation that's used to new DLC map packs every three months? This is unacceptable and could possibly loose them their critical mass to sustain this game imo.

[Badjuju]

Nice job pulling that list. I'm really disappointed by the insanely slow map release schedule though. Waiting 1,5 years for a new map release, are you kidding me?
How are they expecting to keep this game fresh enough for a generation that's used to new DLC map packs every three months? This is unacceptable and could possibly loose them their critical mass to sustain this game imo.

Rather have them make the current contintinents enjoyable before releasing another with poor base design. Reworking conts, lattice, and other changes are responsible for the hossin delay.

[Roy Awesome]

Nice job pulling that list. I'm really disappointed by the insanely slow map release schedule though. Waiting 1,5 years for a new map release, are you kidding me?
How are they expecting to keep this game fresh enough for a generation that's used to new DLC map packs every three months? This is unacceptable and could possibly loose them their critical mass to sustain this game imo.

I mean, arguably the Indar and Esamir revamps were 'new continents'. People wanted these continents done right, so more time had to be taken to do them right in the first place. Hossin got delayed because of that.

[HereticusXZ]

Thanks Roy for the link.



Doesn't sound like to me like there changing there minds on the 150m OHK limit to Snipers. "Nothings set in stone" translates for me anyways as just another way to dismiss the topic about a range limit, brushing it under the rug.

Las0m pretty much answers what will end up being done in that the majority of Infiltrators are engaging the enemy in and under 150m according to this data that only SOE knows and I'll bet that's true with your common new guy who vastly out numbers the dedicated Infiltrators.

[almalino]

Why people constantly asking for new continent when anyway the only continent everyone play is Indar?

Do we want another empty continent on the map? I see no reson for that. Please first fix the game so that other 2 continents that are already in the game attracts players and only then start adding more continents.

[Rolfski]

Why people constantly asking for new continent when anyway the only continent everyone play is Indar?

Do we want another empty continent on the map? I see no reson for that. Please first fix the game so that other 2 continents that are already in the game attracts players and only then start adding more continents.

If you have been playing on the same bloody maps for over a year you want something fresh, simple as that. Alert systems that discourage Indarside won't change that, nor does lattice overhauls.
Not getting fresh map environments is probably one of the bigger reasons people are getting tired of this game. No to mention that no fresh maps = no continental lattice and no strategical depth this game so desperately needs.

So no, I really couldn't care less about some amp station overhaul if that means postponing fresh maps plus the never delivered strategy layer for this game for another fricking 6 months.

No continent map or base design will ever be perfect so get over it. Don't let these endless base iterations stop devs from delivering what is really important for the continuity of this game: Fresh content and new, more meaningful ways of playing.

[almalino]

No continent map or base design will ever be perfect so get over it. Don't let these endless base iterations stop devs from delivering what is really important for the continuity of this game: Fresh content and new, more meaningful ways of playing.


Roflski, imagine dev added a new continent . People will play it first month because it is new and then will concentrate back on Indar. Why do you think new continent suddenly will make people play on all continents and enjoy the game?

It is like BF3. It has tons of maps added constantly but people plays only on 2-3 most interesting ones. Do we want the same on Planetside 2? Many continents but only 1 is always populated?

[Calista]

He didn't really say they have done zero work towards e-sports did he? Unbelievable. I guess he is laughing so hard at the money they are taking in from the current steaming pile of stagnation that these fools will buy anything.

[Rolfski]

Roflski, imagine dev added a new continent . People will play it first month because it is new and then will concentrate back on Indar. Why do you think new continent suddenly will make people play on all continents and enjoy the game?

It is like BF3. It has tons of maps added constantly but people plays only on 2-3 most interesting ones. Do we want the same on Planetside 2? Many continents but only 1 is always populated?
There's a balance to strike between improving current content and adding new content. So yes, you should always improve current maps. But you should also at the same time add new maps from time to time or people will simply get tired/burned out by the game and run away.

Releasing Hossin as the first truly new continent 1,5 year after launch is just a ridiculous pacing. I have no other words for it. Remember, it took them 18 months to design 3 new continents. Now they need another 18 months to deliver just one.
Same goes for intercontinental lattice. It belongs to the core promise of the game and taking so long to deliver it is a shame.

[Babyfark McGeez]

Hossin / Intercontinental warfare before summer?

Well fuck this shit, checking back on this trainwreck in summer then.

[NewSith]

Appreciate the work, Roy, however @SOE:

I myself don't see this list including anything definite, and thus it's not inspirational at all. A lot of waffling there, really. And I don't see the point in AMA if they intend to only answer questions that allow vague answers.

PS Not being negative here, consider it my AMA feedback.

[Maidere]

Why people constantly asking for new continent when anyway the only continent everyone play is Indar?

Do we want another empty continent on the map? I see no reson for that. Please first fix the game so that other 2 continents that are already in the game attracts players and only then start adding more continents.

Intercontinental lattice. Game doesn't have enough players to populate all continents at the same time.

[Vashyo]

Roflski, imagine dev added a new continent . People will play it first month because it is new and then will concentrate back on Indar. Why do you think new continent suddenly will make people play on all continents and enjoy the game?

It is like BF3. It has tons of maps added constantly but people plays only on 2-3 most interesting ones. Do we want the same on Planetside 2? Many continents but only 1 is always populated?

You definately didn't play PS1 judging from your post, and your comparison to battlefield makes me sad, those types of games are small round-based arena shooters.

The idea of getting new continents and intercontinental lattice is that people don't fight in every single continent 24/7, but push other factions off the continents, warp gates and all. If you push the enemy out of Indar, we won't be fighting there at all. Most continental battles will be fought by 2 sides not a 3way tug-of-war of randomness, but real strategic progression that directly increases your chances of victory as the enemy loses terrain, since there isn't allways another faction stealing terrain behind your back.

This is what most of us vets miss and new players miss out on.



@the list
I'm disappointed cause of two things, the time it takes to do all this and some of this stuff isn't really my cup of tea but will push things I want much further in time. Intercontinental warfare and Hossin are badly needed. Makes me worry about getting future continents in a timely fashion.


Dual-Wield will likely keep the dudebro gamers happy for another week, yay...


Unless christmas event has double XP, I likely won't be playing


They have my sympathies for having so many issues, but it just means that the tedious gameplay will stay tediously repetitive without anything new for a long long time. For now though I will play some other games and just hope enough people play the game and keep it alive and healthy. (Looking at you, console gamers)

[typhaon]

I mean, arguably the Indar and Esamir revamps were 'new continents'. People wanted these continents done right, so more time had to be taken to do them right in the first place. Hossin got delayed because of that.

The problem is... everyone's experiences and wants will differ.

While I typically look at the work done on Indar as positive - I see the time and effort spent on "New" Esamir as mostly a big waste.

[ringring]

The 'before summer' for Hossin is disappointing especially when you consider inter-continental lattice and the two other Battle Islands and working warpgates are necessary for me to return.

I'm guessing this time next year sad to say.

[maradine]

Why people constantly asking for new continent when anyway the only continent everyone play is Indar?

If there were a better all-around continent than Indar, people would be playing on it. Perhaps that's what people want out of a new continent.

[Lonehunter]

Bolt Action range not locked down. With the Nanoweave nerf, it's actually looking like a buff for snipers in general
I have a feeling they forgot to check the person who wrote these actually plays

[Canaris]

• E-Sports isn't an 'Instead' thing, they've put 0 development hours into it
• They are mostly trying to build the community around e-sports, not force it with game mechanics


really!?!...... :rolleyes:

Nexus is pretty much done, needs intercontinental metagame

cos this quote just says you lied to us, not cool at all. You dumped the developer resources needed for the big continents into these battle isles that are directly for E-sports

apart from that little gem, the rest of those are about what I expected from the Dev's overall, not to sound bitter or petty but I hope the ZOE nerf is like a sledgehammer to the VS's balls :p

[typhaon]

If there were a better all-around continent than Indar, people would be playing on it. Perhaps that's what people want out of a new continent.

Better continents are better. But - while this game lumbers along without a continental endgame (1+ years) - there will always be a favorite continent.

Alerts notwithstanding... players are stuck with 3 separate games to choose from... and the other two just aren't as good as Indarside.

[maradine]

That's probably the best assessment of the situation.

[ShadoViper]

The content release timeframe is pretty depressing. I guess it's better than nothing and I'm glad they've given us an update, but it doesn't look like I'll be checking back in on the game until summer at this rate.

[DirtyBird]

Next year future plans and beyond are to be taken with a grain of salt.
They may have been valid at the time of writing but that was yesterday. :D

Thanks for the notes Roy.

[Roy Awesome]

Appreciate the work, Roy, however @SOE:

I myself don't see this list including anything definite, and thus it's not inspirational at all. A lot of waffling there, really. And I don't see the point in AMA if they intend to only answer questions that allow vague answers.

PS Not being negative here, consider it my AMA feedback.

I would like to point out that quite a bit of the definition is taken out by me simplifying text into a single line.

If you have any things you would like direct link to the text to, let me know I can re-find it. Quite a bit of these seem ambiguous when I simplified it, but in truth the meaning is pretty concrete.

[Carbon Copied]

So PlanetSide 2 finally (may) achieve it's selling point pushing one and a half years after "release"? Good times - roll on next summer hey?

Only a couple of things I extract with thoughts on:


The Good


No on Artillery or Bombers, they don't want to add more 'i couldn't do anything about that' deaths.


Attacker drop pods will land outside of bases, defender drop-pods inside the base.



The Bad


Arclegger wants to make more biolabs.
(Comes with the caveat to be moved to The Good as long as he doesn't do anything like the ones he's already "improved")

No plans for soundtrack updates.
The ANT will most likely be the Sunderer with an ANT module for the resource revamp.



The What The Fuck


Players will log into the game in the deployment screen
Players will be able to change contienents from the deployment screen

Has it really become that much of an effort to walk up to a terminal/redeploy now? Fuck me if they keep this gem of a "feature" in game next summer...

Cross Continent features are exciting

No they're not; its fucking paramount to the game going anywhere.

Possible squad based in-vehicle spawning options coming.

Why? Are people that inept they can't manage pick ups and AMS logistics that they now need effectively a mobile AMS tootling round?

[Rivenshield]

I still want sancs. And my Spitfires back.

/folds arms, looks stubborn

I'm tickled we're getting ANT's, though. Little by little, the benign neglect of the past year and a half begins to reverse itself....

[Sonny]

Great summary Roy, thanks so much for taking the time to do that.

Shame about Hossin, pushed back so far. But looks like they've got a lot on their plate at the moment with other issues so can't be too upset.

Disappointed that no one has commented on expanding the PS2 lore, but I guess that's not even on their priority list.

Sonny

[DOUBLEXBAUGH]

So at least 2 more years until PS2 has half of what PS1 had at it's launch?

[BlaxicanX]

PS1 was ass for about the first half of its lifespan.

[capiqu]

I want to see all the planetside Cont come back. Thanks Malorn.

[blampoet]

Excited for alot of this stuff, especially the mission system! But what does "Bolt Action Rifles won't be Locked Down" mean? That there won't be a a 150m damage limit? or are they getting a prone position lock-down similar to the TR max ability? anyone know?

Also it bugs me the ANT Module will be in the Sundy and not a vehicle of it's own... the Sunderer's getting really friken boring with it being the "end all, do anything" vehicle...

What happened to those tease pics of a new vehicle or the idea of the Deliverer being the new ANT? :(

YEAH... what he said.

AND, great summary... thanks!
lots of stuff i can now stop whining about, and other stuff I can concentrate on and whine even harder ;)

[ringring]

PS1 was ass for about the first half of its lifespan.
Is 'ass' good or bad these days, I can't keep up.

[Whiteagle]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1ryk1u/notes_from_todays_ama_sorted_by_category/

Next-year future plans

Higby doesn't like lock-ons. Neither does the community. Cool.

Well fuck you Higby, Confirmed Airchav...

Long term future plans

They are trying to create a stable and fun ground game before they get Epic like space or naval warfare


Understandable.

[Timithos]

Great summary Roy, thanks so much for taking the time to do that.

Shame about Hossin, pushed back so far. But looks like they've got a lot on their plate at the moment with other issues so can't be too upset.

Disappointed that no one has commented on expanding the PS2 lore, but I guess that's not even on their priority list.

Sonny

There were a question or two about lore, but it wasn't summarized above.

[Timithos]

really!?!...... :rolleyes:



cos this quote just says you lied to us, not cool at all. You dumped the developer resources needed for the big continents into these battle isles that are directly for E-sports

apart from that little gem, the rest of those are about what I expected from the Dev's overall, not to sound bitter or petty but I hope the ZOE nerf is like a sledgehammer to the VS's balls :p

And the whole abandonment of the hex system and focus on the lattice system is something you can rest half the blame on from esports focus. (The other half is vets requesting some sort of lattice system, and the devs threw-up something.) That major change drew away a lot of dev resources that is certainly not zero time spent on esports. Enhancing hex would have cost less staffing resources. Now we're stuck with a restrictive lattice that already has been relaxed and they're indicating they'll relax it further included within the resource revamp. They wanted to funnel these fights in part because they thought people would want to spectate more for potential esports.

Nexus battle islands were developed because of esports. There was no initial plan to place these as interconnection between continents. But now that they spent so much development time in them, they're going to use them.

We can only guess how many weeks and months Planetside has been set back from the schedule it should be on right now due to esports. I surmise that if you look to see what Planetside looks like in January, that's what it should look like now.

[Timithos]

I thought I knew how reddit worked in prioritizing threads, but now I'm confused. How does the AMA Dev reddit thread get pushed down to topic 187 with over 900 interest votes and over 1600 comments? Did the moderators turn the scoring off?

[Roy Awesome]

I thought I knew how reddit worked in prioritizing threads, but now I'm confused. How does the AMA Dev reddit thread get pushed down to topic 187 with over 900 interest votes and over 1600 comments? Did the moderators turn the scoring off?

I hate to bump this dying thread, but I'm sure I heard this question asked before.

You should read this article: http://amix.dk/blog/post/19588

It explains how reddit works pretty well. Time makes things go away, not activity.

[libbmaster]

And the whole abandonment of the hex system and focus on the lattice system is something you can rest half the blame on from esports focus. (The other half is vets requesting some sort of lattice system, and the devs threw-up something.) That major change drew away a lot of dev resources that is certainly not zero time spent on esports. Enhancing hex would have cost less staffing resources. Now we're stuck with a restrictive lattice that already has been relaxed and they're indicating they'll relax it further included within the resource revamp. They wanted to funnel these fights in part because they thought people would want to spectate more for potential esports.

Nexus battle islands were developed because of esports. There was no initial plan to place these as interconnection between continents. But now that they spent so much development time in them, they're going to use them.

We can only guess how many weeks and months Planetside has been set back from the schedule it should be on right now due to esports. I surmise that if you look to see what Planetside looks like in January, that's what it should look like now.

Incorrect. Lattice had absolutely nothing to do with E-sports.

Lattice was pushed by PS1 vets as the solution to the hex system's biggest failing, which was also it's biggest selling point: mobility.

Under the hex system, the zerg always attacked where there were no defenders. This makes sense, and seems like a good idea, IF YOU DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT.

See, the problem was that the enemy zerg was thinking and doing the exact same thing. So, instead of rushing to defend the Territory under attack by your zerg, the enemy zerg would go the other detection and attack the territory you just left, because they were being "tactical" and were "diverting the enemy zerg", even though they weren't, because the enemy was never coming, because they were doing and thinking the same friggin' thing..

So, basically, hex devolved into zergs circling around each other on the map endlessly while achieving absolutely nothing because the territory that they captured was going to be recaptured by the enemy when they left to go recapture the territory that the enemy was capturing right now.


So the lattice was hailed as the the way to fix this, and SOE agreed.

Unfortunately Instead of hearing what the players were asking for which was "Remove all of these IDIOTICALLY small and exposed groups of ramshackle huts, make the major facilities actually worth fighting for, make them actually able to sustain a fight and then connect them with lattice", SOE heard "Take the hexes and draw lines on them LoL".

So now, instead of having a pointless and repetitive game of glorified "whack-a-mole", we have a pointless and repetitive grind where we wait five minutes in the middle of a massive traffic jam for an outpost to capture, make the thirty second drive to the next tiny cluster of buildings, rotflstomp the defenders inside of a minute, and then wait another five minutes in the middle of a massive traffic jam for the outpost to capture while LoL-podders and Zephyr Libs repeatedly rape the "spawn shack" where the defenders are curled up on the floor quietly sobbing.


TL;DR: Hex was dumb, "new" lattice is a poorly implemented hybrid system that is a band-aid fix and thus no fun. E-sports didn't affect that, because E-sports affects nothing.


Also, I'm not usually this bitter, it's just that it's late, and you said something wrong on the internet, so it was serious.

[Timithos]

Incorrect. Lattice had absolutely nothing to do with E-sports.

Lattice was pushed by PS1 vets as the solution to the hex system's biggest failing, which was also it's biggest selling point: mobility.

Under the hex system, the zerg always attacked where there were no defenders. This makes sense, and seems like a good idea, IF YOU DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT.

See, the problem was that the enemy zerg was thinking and doing the exact same thing. So, instead of rushing to defend the Territory under attack by your zerg, the enemy zerg would go the other detection and attack the territory you just left, because they were being "tactical" and were "diverting the enemy zerg", even though they weren't, because the enemy was never coming, because they were doing and thinking the same friggin' thing..

So, basically, hex devolved into zergs circling around each other on the map endlessly while achieving absolutely nothing because the territory that they captured was going to be recaptured by the enemy when they left to go recapture the territory that the enemy was capturing right now.


So the lattice was hailed as the the way to fix this, and SOE agreed.

Unfortunately Instead of hearing what the players were asking for which was "Remove all of these IDIOTICALLY small and exposed groups of ramshackle huts, make the major facilities actually worth fighting for, make them actually able to sustain a fight and then connect them with lattice", SOE heard "Take the hexes and draw lines on them LoL".

So now, instead of having a pointless and repetitive game of glorified "whack-a-mole", we have a pointless and repetitive grind where we wait five minutes in the middle of a massive traffic jam for an outpost to capture, make the thirty second drive to the next tiny cluster of buildings, rotflstomp the defenders inside of a minute, and then wait another five minutes in the middle of a massive traffic jam for the outpost to capture while LoL-podders and Zephyr Libs repeatedly rape the "spawn shack" where the defenders are curled up on the floor quietly sobbing.


TL;DR: Hex was dumb, "new" lattice is a poorly implemented hybrid system that is a band-aid fix and thus no fun. E-sports didn't affect that, because E-sports affects nothing.


Also, I'm not usually this bitter, it's just that it's late, and you said something wrong on the internet, so it was serious.

I can't agree that esports had nothing to do with it. Plenty of devs were talking it up earlier this year, so plenty of devs had esports on the brain. Some of the biggest spectated games on Twitch TV are MOBA games. You can see the influence of MOBA with the lattice designs - the lanes. It wasn't nothing. It wasn't much, but it wasn't nothing.

I think the lattice should be tied to resources, bonuses, xp bonuses, and vehicle access. And that holding each sector increases all the bonuses over time for that sector. I don't think the lattice should tell you where you can and cannot fight, or at least in the lightest restrictive sense possible. (like major facilities only)

[Timithos]

I hate to bump this dying thread, but I'm sure I heard this question asked before.

You should read this article: http://amix.dk/blog/post/19588

It explains how reddit works pretty well. Time makes things go away, not activity.

Interesting - so reddit is an open source code. I wish the Planeside subreddit moderators would reduce the emphasize on time then. It is set too high. It's a real shame this thread died in under 3 days. The moderators should have at least stickied it for a couple weeks.

[BlaxicanX]

I can't agree that esports had nothing to do with it. Plenty of devs were talking it up earlier this year, so plenty of devs had esports on the brain. Some of the biggest spectated games on Twitch TV are MOBA games. You can see the influence of MOBA with the lattice designs - the lanes. It wasn't nothing. It wasn't much, but it wasn't nothing.



That isn't a logical connection at all, though. The lattice and MOBA "lanes" have absolutely nothing in common besides "they're both lines".

Competitive PS2 won't even interact with the lattice, because competitive PS2 takes place entirely on battle-islands, which are a single-hex. So there are no hex-to-hex capture mechanics in MLG PS2.

I concur that the lattice is entirely the fault of PS1 vets pushing as hard as they can. However, I'm also of the opinion that the lattice, even as we have it now, is much better than the old hex system.

[Emperor Newt]

The only thing I miss about the hex system is that you can no longer sit in a zerg galaxy/sundi and getting a lot of certs while doing your dishes. Which basically is the pre-lattice zerg in a nutshell.

[Rivenshield]

So now, instead of having a pointless and repetitive game of glorified "whack-a-mole", we have a pointless and repetitive grind where we wait five minutes in the middle of a massive traffic jam for an outpost to capture, make the thirty second drive to the next tiny cluster of buildings, rotflstomp the defenders inside of a minute, and then wait another five minutes in the middle of a massive traffic jam for the outpost to capture while LoL-podders and Zephyr Libs repeatedly rape the "spawn shack" where the defenders are curled up on the floor quietly sobbing.

This, pretty much. The entire concept of the invulnerable-yet-vehicle-spammable spawn-outhouse is a disaster. It's humiliating for the defenders and frustrating for the attackers. It's boring. It ISN'T FUN.

They need to provide covered walkways to adjacent buildings, have two doors total, get rid of the one-way shields, and make spawn tubes destructible. That's a kludge, but it'd work. It'd nudge gameplay closer to what we had a decade ago, which was arguably much better thought-out than what we have now.

In other news, Higgles is pushing the idea of bringing back the Galaxy as a spawn point -- if only for your squad. So once every other squad has one, we'll have invulnerable spawn points you can neither see nor shoot at parked on top of every goddam building raining attackers on your ass. Again. Like beta. Wheeee....! Dynamic gameplay FTW!

And apparently the un-mannable giant metal fences -- NOT walls, just these giant Tesco barriers you can neither see over nor defend properly -- on Esamir are here to stay. So are the lame-ass 'Non-Deployment Areas' or whatever they're called. More kludges deriving from lousy base design. More frustration. Park your AMS in a necessarily exposed area just *outside* the deployment zone and join the angry trail of army ants raging around the big blank fence-thing, trying to find their way in! Run for a minute and a half and circle three-quarters of the way around the tower and and die instantly from rocket spam! Wheee! More fun! And they doubtless wonder why Indarside remains the only game in town....

I concur that the lattice is entirely the fault of PS1 vets pushing as hard as they can. However, I'm also of the opinion that the lattice, even as we have it now, is much better than the old hex system.

If that's partially my 'fault', I'll happily shoulder the blame. I couldn't access the WG queue for love or money last night (again), so I wound up on Amerish with the Terran Republican Guard and one other big guild, steamrolling the smurfs... in circles. Dash back and forth, take this, resecure that, ghost-hack the other, wait for five minutes, move on, move back... this tightly-organized vehicle zerg with nothing to attack except an enemy that played virtual Viet Cong with you by popping up anywhere at any time. I logged after about twenty minutes and had my little Two Minute Nerdrage wondering why one continent out of three was STILL lattice-less after six months. Why the Planetside franchise was still driving down the middle of the street and straddling both lanes, including the one with big obsolescent potholes in it.

Pardon the wall-of-text ranting, but Jesus! This is all of a piece. It's the result of the almost palpable pushme-pullyu tug of war between two competing schools of thought on the dev team. The Dynamic Gameplay faction, while they have some fresh ideas that have worked nicely at the gameplay level (generating big field battles by letting everybody pull armor, flying light infantry, etc.) keeps fucking up the big picture (lousy base design, no metagame, no sancs, no way to WIN) and having to backtrack and apply Band-Aids to the wreckage of their pet theory.

Then the Traditionalists try and salvage something and are only allowed to succeed halfway (the lattice superimposed on a hex map with no Spheres of Influence being the most visible result. As are the Tesco barriers and the non-deployment areas, I guess). Wash rinse repeat, on almost every aspect of game design for the past year and a half. If I were Malorn I'd have died of a goddam aneurism by now.

I cannot farking *believe* the sheer time and money and development hours Sony has wasted and continues to waste reinventing, un-inventing, and trying out different shapes of wheel.

/holds head, groans

[Wahooo]

Putting blame for things being slow to develop on those who wanted, then got a lattice over the hex is a bit misplaced.

Had they listened and put in the lattice in early Beta it would not have caused the slow down this far along. The Dev team ignoring that feedback and pushing along with the Hex only to see its failures after 6 months... then retroactively trying to replace it with the long requested lattice is the problem. BUT the change from Hex to Lattice still isn't that much to blame because as the Hex was it would have needed changes, lots and lots of changes and resource system overhauls. So really we are in the same spot we would be REGARDLESS of whether the bitter old PS1 vets got a lattice or not, shit would have been pushed back as the broken down territory system was going to get worked on and require dev time no matter the direction it went.

Still don't understand exactly why Hossin is going to take a year to come off the PTS.

[Crator]

Not sure I remember players saying they wanted lanes. Perhaps some had the idea? No, players (PS1 vets) wanted lattice (no lanes required). The devs put in the lanes. I always thought the main bases should have direct lattice links (like in PS1) with the smaller outposts/towers in-between not attached to the lattice. With that framework, place the outposts/towers properly on the map and shape the terrain to make the progression towards the main bases that are linked by the lattice fun. The issue here was time the devs didn't have. They already had to reshape a lot of the terrain to make the lattice work properly (once they decided that was what the game needed). They didn't have time to go back to the drawing board to properly place things to make the lattice work like it did in PS1 imo.

PS1 maps had strategic locations, that you could capture, spread out; Sometimes too spread out. PS2 maps have locations that you have to capture too close together. But really, there's nothing to drive you to want to go in any one direction on a map in PS2, other then the arbitrary lane that you are forced into by spawn choices or terrain. You just fight, and pretty much in the same areas thanks to the lattice lanes and constant 3-ways. The inter-continental lattice and continent locking, with empire home continents, and without 3-empire footholds, is what gave PS1 that feeling of progression/winning/ownership, and what PS2 is missing. There were reasons to hold on to a continent or cave in PS1. You got benefits, good ones, from having them. And those benefits were fed via the lattice links to the main bases and through the inter-continental lattice links. This gave a reason to go and attack or defend a continent/cave because if you lost it you would loose those linked benefits via the lattice connections.

A major issue with PS2 is that there's a constant 3-way always happening. That wasn't the case in PS1. Yes, there were 3-ways in PS1 and do you know what resulted from it? Stalemates. Where all 3 empires could not advance on each other. Sometimes those stalemates went on for days. That's how it is in PS2 all the time, with the lattice. Without the lattice and with hexes, it was wack-a-mole.

The PS2 hex adjacency system allowed for better progression across a map. It however didn't help an empire hold on to captured terrain for long. The PS2 lattice+lanes system hinders progression across a map but does help empires hold on to captured terrain. Catch 22. But a balancing act the devs have been playing with throughout the game's life. Hopefully one day it will all come together nicely...

[Roy Awesome]

Interesting - so reddit is an open source code. I wish the Planeside subreddit moderators would reduce the emphasize on time then. It is set too high. It's a real shame this thread died in under 3 days. The moderators should have at least stickied it for a couple weeks.

We can't. It's not something that's available to us unless we run our own website, which is never going to happen. Any change to that code is going to effect the whole billion page-view/day website.

[Mox]

Once upon a time..... nice fairytale. I belief it when i see it.

[War Barney]

Woo finally it looks like NC is going to stop being the worst faction. Hopefully this balance will include a complete overhaul of the NC MAX as theres huge streams of evidence showing how bad it is right now