The Vindicators met up with Matt Higby for a chat

DviddLeff · 2012-04-08, 01:05 PM

This is reposted from our forums after being written up by Raumkampfer after she, Kurzgan and TheBtron met up with Matt last night. I'll post more details once the guys write it up.

TheBtron, Matt, Raumkampfer and Kurzgan

Deathzero, barneyninja, Thebtron, Kurzgan and Raumkampfer

SOEs pic of Raumkampfer (apparently it looks better on her than Kurzgan!)

1. RESOURCES:

There will be 4 resources, 1 is common pool, and the three others everyone can get but mean different things to each faction. Auraxium lets everyone buy crap from the store to use for load outs. A, B, and C for example mean different things. A gets Vanu air, B gets Vanu vehicles, etc... A gets NC vehicles, B gets NC air, etc. So none are shared. They will be distributed among the hexes and capturing of the hexes captures the resources. So as of now, no, there are no ANTs. So I asked Higby, "So that means you can target certain hexes to deprive the enemy from getting air, or vehicles, etc... Correct?". He smiled a big grin, and said, "Exactly." as he pointed at me, lol.

2. CLASSES

I asked about how he will avoid it so everyone can have everything unlocked after playing for a long time, like the BR 40s now. He said it will make you focus on your load outs. You can unlock everything, but you cant have everything at once. Your medic can't have your heavy assault shit, and your different load outs will vary in weapons and skills available, but it makes you focus on a certain aspect at a time. A medic is a medic, not mowing people down with chain guns.

3. VS MAXES

My big thing was if agile gets jump jets, what special ability will our MAXes get? He seemed excited about this when I asked, and its because they don't even know what it is yet. It's the only one they haven't made a concrete decision about yet. He said there were four things they were thinking of using... One he shared. It's an "overdrive" type of ability, where you go berserk-like with power, but unlike lockdown, you are MOBILE. Needless to say, I giggled with joy.

4. BAILING OUT OF AIRCRAFT

Yes, it's there. You have to cert in it though, which forces you to give up another helpful combat ability such as increased radarbor air to air power. You have a limited load out of certs to improve your air and ground vehicles.

5. GUILD LOGO

Jay and I tried to ask this at the Future of MMOs panel, but didn't get the chance. We pretty much said since you had guild insignia in PS1, and we explained the importance of PS to us and that we had the tattoos, can we input our own logo on our characters in game? This of course meant we'd be established with enough points or whatever to do so, but yeah. He smiled again, and explained that YES, OF COURSE, that's something they want to do. In fact, he wants you to be able to customize your soldier like drawing on a doll as if you were drawing on paper. I have a feeling stock guild insignia will still be there at first, but it will be something you can change once you earn it for sure.

Some other Devs from PS2 complemented the tat and tweeted it too. Higby said, "It must be nice to show that off at a place where people understand it.". We had a great night last night, and I hope I explained things better, and I will say more when I get home. I'm stuck on an iPad in a queue right now for the live taping of XPlay on G4TV.

I just also want to say, that Higby knew us before we introduced the guild. Our logo tattoos and our enthusiasm clearly gave us away. Dave, when we introduced you, he said, "Yeah, I see him all the time on PSU, David Lloyd, that British guy. He's got a lot of great ideas.". At that point I tried to plug the Tactics site, and he replied, "Yup, yup--I've read it."

Jay was so happy with his answers he didn't even punch him (edit: preemptive strike was an option for potential development blunders and/or being a filthy NC). Also I got a pic and a hug! WIN. (edit: Raumkampfer, probably not the guys...)

Stardouser · 2012-04-08, 01:12 PM

I've got a question on Resources, since you've brought it up. I looked in the Info thread and found:
1

How will resources really work? How useful will they be? Who will actually "earn" them - each player, or the faction too?
Hack: Resources can be acquirable by individuals
Higby: resources will help you do everything from unlocking items, addons, or even accelerate cert learning-they're integral

2

Resources earned passively based on territory that your empire owns on the continent you are fighting on

I get the impression that your Empire just receives, passively, as it says, resources simply by owning territory. OK, fine. But how does an individual gain resources? Do you passively get a share of the resources an empire gets? Is it a reward for kills? Or?

Hark · 2012-04-08, 01:13 PM

It's an "overdrive" type of ability, where you go berserk-like with power, but unlike lockdown, you are MOBILE.

A-we-some.

Knocky · 2012-04-08, 01:16 PM

You gain resources passively....however you get bonus resources f you are are actively capturing the hexes.

Hmr85 · 2012-04-08, 01:19 PM

Great questions.

1. The ability to deny the opposing factions a certain resource effectively cutting them off of 1 type of unit is awesome. I could see that making for some interesting game play / spec ops. I'm very excited to hear that.

2.I think that was mentioned awhile back. cool none the less.

3. Overdrive interesting. I'd be interested to see how that would work in game.

4. Was mentioned awhile back. Its gonna be a must have for everybody.

5. As for the Outfit logo I really hope they do this. It will really help outfits be even more unique and distinguishable on the battlefield.

Hamma · 2012-04-08, 02:09 PM

Good Stuff!!

Warborn · 2012-04-08, 02:12 PM

Those were solid questions. Finally, we have some idea about what all those resources do.

Stardouser · 2012-04-08, 02:15 PM

Wonder how this factors into the rich get richer/poor get poorer discussion...and more importantly, I definitely agree with being able to curtail an empire's ability to pull advanced vehicles by denying them resources.

**Malorn** · 2012-04-08, 02:26 PM

So VS get the TR overdrive ability? Yeah not a fan of that, as I think overdrive is what defines the TR (fire-rate & speed, which are the two key advantages of the TR). Lockdown gives fire rate, but at the cost of speed. I had imagined TR benefit was a sliding-scale between lockdown with maximum fire rate, vs overdrive which at the extreme might simply be a speed boost, with customizations to blend the two and get a balance of fire rate boost & speed.

Red Beard · 2012-04-08, 02:28 PM

Hmm...being a pilot primarily; that radar would have to be pretty darn good for me to choose it over bailout. No chance of tossing air-to-air.

Edit:
I thought there was going to be an announcement at PAX? Is it going to be today, or am I totally out of the loop?

Stardouser · 2012-04-08, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by Red Beard

Hmm...being a pilot primarily; that radar would have to be pretty darn good for me to choose it over bailout. No chance of tossing air-to-air.

Wouldn't most dedicated pilots prefer to die with their vehicle than bailout, so they can pull another and get back with another aircraft?

**Malorn** · 2012-04-08, 02:44 PM

My interpretation of the bailout thing is that it's a utility slot.

All vehicles have 3 customizations

* Performance
* Defense
* Utility

The way it has been described it seems to me as though the bail-safely-from-any-altitude is a utility-slot.

Other things that fit in utility slot would be radar & flares. So if you have to choose between flares or bailing, that's going to be a tough call. Someone using aircraft primarily for transportation woudn't have much issue, but someone wishing to bail safely and be effective at air-to-air will be at a disadvantage.

Seems like a good compromise to me, allowing you to turn aircraft into a hotdrop-delivery system or a dogfighter, but if you want to do both you will be at a disadvantage vs a pure-dogfight spec'd aircraft.

Magpie · 2012-04-08, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Malorn

My interpretation of the bailout thing is that it's a utility slot.

All vehicles have 3 customizations

* Performance
* Defense
* Utility

The way it has been described it seems to me as though the bail-safely-from-any-altitude is a utility-slot.

Other things that fit in utility slot would be radar & flares. So if you have to choose between flares or bailing, that's going to be a tough call. Someone using aircraft primarily for transportation woudn't have much issue, but someone wishing to bail safely and be effective at air-to-air will be at a disadvantage.

Seems like a good compromise to me, allowing you to turn aircraft into a hotdrop-delivery system or a dogfighter, but if you want to do both you will be at a disadvantage vs a pure-dogfight spec'd aircraft.

Nice post, I'm sure that said somwhere that the
Hover on a air Vehicle will need a cert too

DayOne · 2012-04-08, 02:51 PM

Nice work guys! Don't think anyone has even asked about the resources yet!

Red Beard · 2012-04-08, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Wouldn't most dedicated pilots prefer to die with their vehicle than bailout, so they can pull another and get back with another aircraft?

In PS 1 I liked having the option of transitioning to a ground battle if I was loosing a dogfight (I never said I was a GOOD pilot!

). Actually I would often load out my pilot with AP rounds, as I liked to try and shoot down the damaged mosquito if he came to try to kill me after I bailed (not easy, but quite fun). This will be a little harder now with defined roles, but in any case I just enjoyed the freedom to instantaneously skydive. Now with resources required though, that may well be too frivolous of an approach, lol. It was just a fun-factor thing for me mainly...However as I said; if the radar is actually USEFUL for getting kills this time around, I would probably opt for that instead.