Planetside 2 at SyndCon - PlanetSide Universe

John Smedley and Matt Higby were at Syndcon and revealed some interesting details about PlanetSide 2. There was a live demo of the game, or at least the Forge Light engine.

“We can build in extra detail where it is needed,” said Matt as he pulled the camera in and out of landscapes and models. We saw the heat shimmer of super-heated air under vehicles, reflections of light off armor and the sun light striking the canyon at sunrise. There will be spotlights at night, on towers and on vehicles as well.

Click here to head over and read the entire article. And as always hit up the comments link to discuss!

96 comments

2011-08-15 10:27 AM

Source: FPSGuru

Latest Comments

2011-08-15 11:42 PM

Lonehunter

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by nathanebht

Why get depressed about having only one continent on release. That continent is going to have who knows how many territories.

I'm just used to so many more. I like a variety of terrain, landscape, and weather patterns. I'd rather have a whole continent of jungle, arctic, or desert, then all of them rolled into one continent.

2011-08-16 12:38 AM

Talek Krell

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by Bags

Yeah, that's what I thought he meant. Like I have normal MCG, but you can buy the green MCG for $5 and it just looks green. But you can unlock the green mcg with an achievement or something.

That does rather make sense. I wonder if you'll lose it on death though?

2011-08-16 12:46 AM

Lonehunter

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by Talek Krell

That does rather make sense. I wonder if you'll lose it on death though?

I don't think anything progression related will (or should) be lost in death. This isn't a loot or even inventory based game. Once you've earned or bought something you should be able to use it when ever you respawn or switch classes.

2011-08-16 04:22 AM

Talek Krell

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

That logic is fine for unlocking things, but we're talking about store purchased customization. It doesn't affect balance.

Hm. In that context though it will probably persist through death. They've been talking about using customized armor and vehicles to set yourself apart, and in that context it wouldn't make sense to have to rebuy it every time you died.

2011-08-16 04:37 AM

Malorn

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

I hope they at least make an appearance at PAX in...about 10 days.

2011-08-16 03:02 PM

NapalmEnima

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by Lonehunter187

I understand that many of the Fancy Upgrades will be purchased with resources... I don't know if you can spawn with them (make sense, particularly with their desire to increase the pace of gameplay). Various "favorites" may be grayed out when you cannot afford the Extra Bells And Whistles (or they may just have an extra "you won't have X/Y/Z, are you sure" dialog when you ask to spawn with that particular favorite).

Or you may have to go hit an upgrade terminal after spawning in order to buy such things.

2011-08-16 04:50 PM

Shogun

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

i sooo loved the cert/terminal weapon and vehicle aquirement system of planetside 1! its unique and i just hope this system in ps2 will be much like the old one.

2011-08-16 04:51 PM

EASyEightyEight

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

I imagine the system will stay simple. You set up your load out, bells and whistles and all, and then if you're resources are depleted, it will just have to leave out what you can't afford. There will probably be terminals in the field for in-field swapping too.

I'm under the impression they want to streamline most processes so you're spending most of your time fighting, not fretting over what you can or can't get right now.

2011-08-16 05:47 PM

NapalmEnima

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Quite a few gaming news sources are picking up/rehashing the FPSGuru article. Little or nothing in the way of additional commentary.

Meh.

2011-08-16 06:49 PM

opticalshadow

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by Quovatis

It will get old fast, though. As was pointed out, even a huge continent like Cyssor gets old after a while, especially if that's all we have for the first 3-6 months after release.

they might give beta just the one cont to work out the bugs that all landmass would share (steel turnips, rock formations that make it impossible to get out of) and once beta ends they can patch up the others and get a few more off.

atleast thats my hope. either that or we get an NA or EU sized cont (going of the basis that ps1's largest was smaller then AU)

2011-08-16 09:00 PM

kaffis

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

When it comes to the cash shop "maybe" selling guns (that will be available in-game for no money), I imagine that it *might* shake out like this:

You can buy a cert for a limited time/1 life, etc. But you still have to pay in-game resources in whatever the normal way is (to upgrade it, whatever).

But this way, if your outfit decides to run an "All Prowler Night!!!" when they normally fly Reavers, some of the guys just toss $2 in the store, and you guys get to drive prowlers for an hour for a nice change of pace.

I wouldn't consider that "selling power," because it's not like prowlers are hard to get, and it's not like you can base an entire character off of constantly throwing money at the game.

2011-08-16 10:21 PM

Sirisian

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by kaffis

stuff

I hate to be the guy to say "read everything in the information thread before posting", but it saves a lot of time. The money shop is cosmetic only.

2011-08-16 10:34 PM

Zulthus

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by Sirisian

I hate to be the guy to say "read everything in the information thread before posting", but it saves a lot of time. The money shop is cosmetic only.

I also hate to be the guy that says "read everything before you post", but SOE said they might end up selling guns in the cash shop that you can normally get in the game. Which I am totally against, by the way.

2011-08-16 10:38 PM

Bags

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by Zulthus

But he could have just meant skins. It's way too early to freak out about this.

2011-08-16 10:43 PM

Sirisian

Re: Planetside 2 at SyndCon new information revealed

Originally Posted by Zulthus

I read that totally different the first time.

At FanFaire 2011, Smed had alluded to a cash shop, and he did the same here at SyndCon, reassuring the audience that they would not be selling power. If a weapon can be bought in the cash store, he was quick to assure us that it would be attainable in the game as well. Definitely though, one of the things that will be sold would be customization.

I thought he was just alluding to custom skins. Reading it again I see what you mean. Actually buying a gun a player doesn't have access to. Interesting.

// edit bags beat me to it. Anyway does this mean Smed lied?