Large infantry battles (arenas?)

[General M]

As I'm sure you all know, PS2's scale will be massive and some of the screenshots we've seen reinforce that. However, while I like vehicles and am looking forward to that side of the game very much, I was wondering whether we are likely to see any large scale infantry (maybe plus buggies)?

Obviously, most outside, open-ground combat should be and probably will be fought by vehicles, would it be possible for some outside areas to be "fenced off" from vehicles, leading to an arena style combat, maybe something like 100v100v100 gameplay. For me personally, being part of that would be awesome because it's man against man, squad against squad scenarios.

Any thoughts/ideas about it?

(BTW don't know if this was already a feature in PS1)

EDIT: Tl;dr - still large scale battles, occasionally without as many vehicles and more focused on infantry

[Bags]

Why does it seem to be everyone's fetish to make the scale of combat in PS2 tiny in some way?

[Aurmanite]

They tried this in the original with bad results. Not necessarily because it's a bad idea, but it's hard to implement in a game that is focused on 'the war'.

Smaller islands with smaller bases/objectives could be a possibility depending on the over all population.

[Tikuto]

[General M]

I don't quite get the hostility, all I'm proposing is a hex or two within the game that is open but without vehicles, what's terrible about that?

[Tikuto]

Originally Posted by General M

I don't quite get the hostility, all I'm proposing is a hex or two within the game that is open but without vehicles, what's terrible about that?

Space Combat could do some justice there.

• Indoor of an orbital space station: infantry combat only.
• Outdoor of a orbital space station: vehicle combat only.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Tikuto

Space Combat could do some justice there.

• Indoor of an orbital space station: infantry combat only.
• Outdoor of a orbital space station: vehicle combat only.

As Higby or Smed said before the combat is already split 50/50 or something with indoor base combat and outdoor vehicle combat.

[FHMathew]

The way I see it right, This is meant to be a war. In a war you have endless scenarios that come in all sorts of different ways, I would think that the PS2 team want to make and feel the whole game like one big war YES OBVIOUSLY where anything can happen at any time.

Who's to say there wont be a scenario where there's no tanks around or any vehicles just infantry fighting over an open area or whatever area. You just don't know what scenarios your going get into when you first start up the game and play, That's the beauty of this type of game. The way they are developing the maps and the mission system to spread the fight everywhere who knows there could be endless scenarios your going to fight in. So I wouldn't worry to much about having little specially made areas for only infantry to fight in it just doesn't make sense in a massive scale war scenario.

[Hmr85]

Everybody else on here has pretty much laid out why arena/zoned areas is a bad idea. With that said there will be plenty of area that infantry will be able to fight in that Vehicles will not be able to get to. So I wouldn't worry about it.

[ShazMyBot]

Originally Posted by Tikuto

Space Combat could do some justice there.

• Indoor of an orbital space station: infantry combat only.
• Outdoor of a orbital space station: vehicle combat only.

Dude, I would die if we had some sort of Shattered Horizon-style zero gravity combat.

Something with thruster packs, debris fields, and orbiting stations.

[Lonehunter]

Large infantry battles certainly can happen outside. It all depends on the terrain. What if they have forests so tall and thick that no vehicles can drive in them, and no aircraft can see through the canopy? I've had some excellent Cloaker vs sniper duos in open terrain.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by General M

I don't quite get the hostility, all I'm proposing is a hex or two within the game that is open but without vehicles, what's terrible about that?

Urban combat and jungle combat should do this fairly well without arbitrary limitations.

[sylphaen]

It will be all about map design. Put a base in the middle of a forest and you will see more infantry than vehicles around. It will also depend on weapon balance.

There are ways to make vehicles not interfere. PS1 Jamming mechanics along with AV were a way to keep vehicles away while troopers shot at each other.

I do not think there is a need for any kind of arena: battle style will vary based on the location and configuration of the map.

[Mastachief]

Arenas are bad. Planetside is a persistent open world putting restrictions in destroy the point in the game.

Battle islands are the perfect example of this, a percentage of players avoided these area due to forced gameplay styles.

The devs have already said that the maps have been engineered to funnel people into areas and to create certain areas for infantry and such like.

[DayOne]

We will probably see natural 'arenas' within the game, places that only infantry can actually get too.