Piki Geek PAX Interview - PlanetSide Universe

Continuing the flood of PAX East Media, Piki Geek sat down with Matt yesterday for an interview.

In terms of that illusive release date the fans are vying for, Higby only responded to my questions about the game’s beta with the vague answer of “in the future.” The core game engine and online technology is built, Higby tells me, but some smaller elements, like gun models, are in need of tweaking. Of course, any title reliant on online play will have to stress-test their servers, so a beta is surely to come soon.

There was also some new information we have not seen before.

There are options to pay small amounts for temporary items like grenades and bonuses if you feel so inclined, but they’ll give you no real advantage over other players. In addition, players can go the extra mile and subscribe to a membership, which allows them to earn resources from their faction’s success even when they’re not even online.

Check out the full article here.

29 comments

2012-04-07 09:30 AM

Latest Comments

2012-04-07 10:33 AM

SKYeXile

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by xXGumpXX

try having some patience , i rather the game be bug free etc on release , i don't wan't it to be like what planetside was like when that 1st came out

yea, thats what beta is for!

but seriously the game looks like its ready to go into beta with the amount of weapons and stuff they have ingame, perhaps they;re still ironing out some physics and balance first, but with the UI looking rather shmick, it cant be too far off.

2012-04-07 10:36 AM

ringring

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by Mod

I was actually just reading through this when I came across this:

Hadn't heard that before...

They'd always said (or for a long time anyways) there'd be offline training but this is the first that I'd heard it was linked to the subscription.

That's fine tbh, we'd wondered what would be the benefit of the sub/membership.

2012-04-07 10:38 AM

xXGumpXX

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

the game is more than likely ready for beta testing , i would be more than happy to wait that extra little bit just to have a polished game , some system requirements would be good to know , i think this game will be more demanding than bf3 , only just , i think this would be good to know so that gives us all time to prepare our gaming pcs ready for release

2012-04-07 10:45 AM

GhundiPI

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Being pretty new to PS2 (actually anything PS related), I haven't yet come across the following mentioned in that interview:

Even more, the outfits themselves have their own upgrade trees, allowing you to specify your group’s abilities.

It totally depends on the implementation on how outfits will be able to accomplish the above of course (I have seen some sparse information about outfit points). But it has been my experience that often such a mechanic, in a competitive setting, discourages forming smaller guilds(outfits) as they would be at an inherit disadvantage compared to their larger counterparts. Which would then remove a good amount of diversification from the game and make it revolve around a few of the largest outfits on each side (and too bad if you're not in it). But hopefully it is balanced in such a way that smaller outfits can keep up if they specialize.

2012-04-07 10:52 AM

SniperSteve

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

The core game engine and online technology is built, Higby tells me, but some smaller elements, like gun models, are in need of tweaking.

O.o So that means we are getting really close. My guess is that once we see 'MAX week' we will be 2 weeks away from first wave of beta.

2012-04-07 11:01 AM

Carbanu

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Think about what we have and have not: Cloakers, Medics, Engys, Heavy, and Light Assault. We still need: MAX, Female Avatars (which they said would announce in a special way), The lightning! (WHERE FOR ART THOU LIGHTNING?!)

As stated above, when we get these IMO the BETA will only be moments away.

2012-04-07 11:13 AM

Magpie

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

May 20th beta is my guess, 10th year of planetside

2012-04-07 11:16 AM

IronMole

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by Magpie

May 20th beta is my guess, 10th year of planetside

Call me crazy, but isn't it the 9th?

2012-04-07 11:17 AM

DOUBLEXBAUGH

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by Magpie

May 20th beta is my guess, 10th year of planetside

What, 10th anniversary? We have to wait another year for Beta?

2012-04-07 11:18 AM

IronMole

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by DOUBLEXBAUGH

What, 10th anniversary? We have to wait another year for Beta?

/wrists

2012-04-07 11:19 AM

SKYeXile

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by IronMole

Call me crazy, but isn't it the 9th?

yea its 9.

2012-04-07 11:23 AM

Eyeklops

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by GhundiPI

Being pretty new to PS2 (actually anything PS related), I haven't yet come across the following mentioned in that interview:

It totally depends on the implementation on how outfits will be able to accomplish the above of course (I have seen some sparse information about outfit points). But it has been my experience that often such a mechanic, in a competitive setting, discourages forming smaller guilds(outfits) as they would be at an inherit disadvantage compared to their larger counterparts. Which would then remove a good amount of diversification from the game and make it revolve around a few of the largest outfits on each side (and too bad if you're not in it). But hopefully it is balanced in such a way that smaller outfits can keep up if they specialize.

One of the leading outfits, by points, on emerald had a player limit of 50. From what I have seen, massive outfits tend to be less efficient per person in regards to points earning.

2012-04-07 11:25 AM

IronMole

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

Originally Posted by Eyeklops

One of the leading outfits, by points, on emerald had a player limit of 50. From what I have seen, massive outfits tend to be less efficient per person in regards to points earning.

It's all dependent on when each outfit was created, who the players are etc... It's not as simple as a clean cut as you've made out.

2012-04-07 11:33 AM

SKYeXile

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

if PS1 is any basis, and nothing special happens with gaining outfit EXP then the largest outfits will level faster, Future Crew is the only sub 100 player outfit to hit 10m in points, and we only achieved that in 2007.

But there are multiple ways to overcome this.

warhammer had a method where members of larger guilds contribute less to the guild leveling, which worked well, my guild of 40 highly active members were one of the highest level guilds on our server, despite been one of the smallest.

or you could have it so that only your top say 10-30 members per day contribute to the leveling of an outfit.

2012-04-07 11:44 AM

DOUBLEXBAUGH

Re: Piki Geek PAX Interview

The outfit bonuses are part of their 20% upgrade maximum. The bonuses probably wont be very significant, so atm I'm not worried if bigger outfits get stuff first.