August issue page 34. Not a lot of new stuff,just some new info about Galaxy drops. Worth checking out. It does say Higby is considering how to implement MAX drops from Galaxies and he is concerned about how the balancing would work. He is looking into it more before any decisions are made. Also some talk about stealth Galaxies and not sure if that would be a good thing do to "other gameplay implications". Thats a Higby quote.
Another new item,Galaxies will give experience to the pilot when people spawn from them once they are deployed,so there is the incentive to deploy them as spawn points.
Another bit about possibly creating a synchronization button so a Galaxy pilot can signal all troops to drop,and troops can also see where to drop via a camera mounted under the Galaxy. Also,drop speed can be increased by the pilot gaining certs for this.
Also,so far PS2 has been tested internally with 120 players and "thousands"using AI simulation at 60 FPS. According to Higby.He did admit that was on "Pretty beefy" hardware.
He (Higby)did say they are working on low end optimazation and "Networking is not one of our biggest concerns".
Higby said "Our biggest concerns are framerates and getting as many players as possible with as many customizations as possible and as many vehicles moving on your screen in a way that you can actually still play and get 60 fps".
Sounds like they are making progress and things are moving pretty well. Higby generally seems to be very confident that they will be able to hit 60 fps with thousands of players fighting over a small area of the map. I trust they will get this right. Higby did say all the experience they had with netcode from thier previous MMO's is why he is confident they will get this right.
Thats the meat of the article, I quoted Higby with most of this but the article is worth a read. Also,there are some nice pics of a Galaxy drop in progress.
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2012-06-30, 09:19 PM
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