Something im worried about.

[ChrisL]

Im a Planetside virgin so to speak. I never played PS1 so maybe vets can reassure me. But with so much space to fight over, how likely and often will we get ocassions in which we are able to participate in MASSIVE battles? IE the 2000 player battles that are always talked about and like the trailers showed?

This game is like my dream come true for a game. BF games look like specs of dust beside the scale of this game and it makes me weep with joy. To be standing among you fine folks as 1000 of us line the walls of a fort for the oncoming enslaught heading our way...it will be incredible.

[Mox]

Thats a good question. Since there is no lattice grid, it isn't sure we'll see a lot of zerging.

[Quantum Spices]

I'm assured there will be no lack of huge battles taking place, as long as there are 3 outfits in different factions, there will be huge fights!

[Ivam Akorahil]

the empire priority system should ensure you have at least 2 or 3 hotspots at anytime with large scale battles taking place

[XxAxMayxX]

their will be something like 2,000 players per server and the frontline bases will probably be populated by 3 quarters of that so unless you go all the way to kingdom come you willl most likely find a fight.

[Rivenshield]

I'm worried about the population density problem too. Not only are the bases twice as big and this distances between them greater, we have three XBAWKS HUEG continents instead of eight-ten smaller ones. The smaller conts in old PS were 166x3, and later 133x3... but they filled fairly rapidly, and they were all linked together by the lattice system. That channelized the zerg, and you were guaranteed to find a knock-down king-hell fight.

What I've been privately figuring is that yes, there will be two or three bases per continent that each empire will be trying to claim as its own.. but in order to get the same degree of awesomeness, you need twice as many people. To *improve* on the awesomeness, you need half again that many. So 133x2x1.5 = about 400 combatants per empire per continent, or 1200 total. They need to deliver that many minimum or see this new game collapse, IMHO. If they can't, simply sawing each continent in half would be the best quick fix there is.

All told, I'm a lot more optimistic than I was a few months ago, though. Don't worry, OP -- you'll get your epic battles, one way or another. And I promise you something else: what PS1 vets call the 'Oh My God' moment... that moment when you look out and see a couple hundred people coming to kill you, and your monkey brain freaks out, and you feel that one stark moment of irrational physical fright.

I promise you epic, OP. And I promise you fear. One way or another. The new Planetside is in good hands.

[Stardouser]

It depends on what you're getting at. If you mean that there must be 2000 people within range to shoot at, I don't think anyone has ever claimed 2000 per battle. What they have said is 2000 people per 8X8km continent. 2000 players in the same square kilometer(ie, the same battle, that is to say, the fighting at Zurvan and the fighting at Hvar are actually separate battles) could cause slowdowns or crashing even with today's technology.

[ChrisL]

BTW are there gonna be any large aircraft capable of transporting like 30 men at once?

It would be epic flying over with 30 people...all nervous with excitement. As we reach the battlefield at night, suddenly all hell breaks loose, the transport door opens, the senior commander player yells good luck, and we all get dropped over the battle, every colour of laser imaginable firing all around.

[Comet]

I think Galaxies are getting a cert that allows you to carry 2 squards ChrisL. I think. If that pans out and they change squad size to 12 players, you're looking at 24 per galaxy potentially.

Make sure you have air superiority before making that drop!

[Rivenshield]

Originally Posted by DjEclipse

"Out of bounds" being triggered to shrink the map during low pop is the only obvious solution as of right now that my tiny brain sees.

Nah.

Saw one continent into thirds. Have each fragment serve as a de facto home continent. Then saw the other two into halves and connect everything via rotating warp gates. That way you can fight different enemies from different directions every once in awhile. That'll keep things fresh. That'll keep the population density up.

I mean... in the beta footage we watched the other day, I got awfully tired of watching Higby zerg his way up the same damn hill and hide behind the same damn tree for half an hour. With the existing system -- I hate to say it -- each empire will be fighting the same enemy over the same terrain FROM THE SAME DIRECTION for all freaking eternity. That'll get real old real fast.... and it's something old Auraxis didn't shackle us to.

[Zar]

Originally Posted by DjEclipse

"Out of bounds" being triggered to shrink the map during low pop is the only obvious solution as of right now that my tiny brain sees.

horrid Idea. As a person who work's night's id rather fight on a massive field then play on a small map cause i work night's. I doubt server's will ever reach less then 3000 people at one time anyway and small tactical fight's are part of this game as well so no we won't be doing that least I hope not

[Carnage]

I don't think there will be any issue, the Map may be huge, but fighting will be done along border lines (the meat grinder lines) of each empire, so that narrows the area down a lot.

[Electrofreak]

The old servers could only hold a few hundred players at a time (300-something I think?) and the maps were nearly as big, and we had MASSIVE battles. PS2 increases the total player count on a map by many times.

Players tend to gravitate towards large battles, and it tends to snowball... a target-rich environment can make for some pretty sweet kill streaks.

TTK is what has me worried. In PS1, the TTK was long enough that if a few people started shooting at you, you usually had a chance to get your butt behind cover or at least fire back. From what I've seen, the TTK in the Beta seems too short given how many people we're going to be packing into a battlezone.

[Rivenshield]

Originally Posted by Electrofreak

From what I've seen, the TTK in the Beta seems too short given how many people we're going to be packing into a battlezone.

I agree. That's another pet concern of mine. But it's an issue to be straightened out in beta, if it's an issue at all.

[Wumpus]

You all are being a bit ridiculous with this unfounded worrying. You remember Planetside's lattice system where what bases your faction controlled determined which bases you could attack next right? Well Planetside didn't implement the lattice until a month before end of beta (about a month after I started playing the PS1 beta back in March 2003).

It was a HUGE improvement. Before it, base back-hacking was rampant and resulted in smaller battles over bases with a segregated population. After the lattice, you could easily tell from looking at the map where the enemy was likely to attack next and you could solidify your defense. Unfortunately this usually meant defending the base itself and most major battles were played out between the base and it's nearby towers.

The hexagonal territorial control system of PS2 is light-years ahead of the lattice. Now you'll have a reason to battle over the land between bases and you'll be able to easily see from the continent map where the front lines of your and your enemy's forces are likely to be. Savvy commanders can engineer a feint where entire platoons can appear to be launching an attack in one area only to have them hop in a Galaxy and attack a completely different section of the map.

Mark my words - in the same way the lattice system forced sides together for massive battles - the hex territory system is a natural evolution of this. Expect some major battles as we've already seen in some of Higby's live feeds recently.