Spectator mod

Arktype · 2012-05-27, 01:25 AM

Hi everyone,

First of all, i would like to say that i have been a big fan of Planetside 1. Played it for a couple of years until 'life' catched me telling me: ' dude you got to pay your rent'

Anyway, I am new to this website that i didn t know back when i played PS1. I have read a couple of messages, seems like the community still the same

Still awesome, fearless, ready to get dirty at any time of the day and night ! I cannot wait to see those famous strategies some of the main players back in the day used to come up with =).. getting all excited in front of my computer, turning off all lights... a headset on my head... sweating the 2 liter of coke cola i drank in just 1 hour... having a smoke while waiting the 1 guy in our squad always late... swearing at the god damn driver who can t drive strait... and of course ... crapping my pants every time a good sniper was around...well good times right ?

This is why i was wondering about a good spectator mod. Allowing even to record! This would be a great way to allow the community to produce some fun video, a sideway to advertise the game, but by the gamers.

Since a few years i produce videos for games such as Flight Simulator. A god mod or 'spec mod' is a the perfect tool to make video such as this:

This was made entirely with flight simulator and a 'spectator' add on.
Now imagine that you could do this in planetside2, recording huge battles, following organized squads etc... I would personally love producing a video of that type, wouldn t you ?

Regards to all my fellow old 'comrade'

That generation is much older now... Let see how we will manage not to lose our job when ps2 get released

Zulthus · 2012-05-27, 01:28 AM

Well, it would be good for movie purposes, but would be abused like fuck by spies. I dunno.

Zekeen · 2012-05-27, 01:31 AM

The problem with a spectator mod or such, is groups could use it to spy on enemy positions without getting in danger, far more quickly and effectively than in playing the game. It would be IMMEDIATELY abused, no way around it.

A more mild way would be to do it like Final Fantasy 11 did. It had various camera spots in the world that would give feedback to a website for players to get to see in game without being logged in. A sort of subscription recruitment tool, but if PS2 had some fixed spots to show off the occasional battle, it could help lure in new players and just be fun to watch a battle from the sidelines.

Atheosim · 2012-05-27, 01:37 AM

Seems like a tool that feasibly could only belong to officials. Although the potential to make awesome videos is great, the potential of unfair spying is deal-breaking.

Arktype · 2012-05-27, 01:46 AM

Yes i totally follow what your guys are saying. Now. what if there was a way to feed the information with 10 min delay. You could simply join a spectator mod, basically another server transferring all the information that happened 10 min ago on the 'main server live'

10 or 15 min... this isn t an issue.

The spectator mod would have a couple of options such as

1) different channels automatically generated based on the different fights going on around the map
2) following an active squad
3) True spectator mod : God mod allowing you to move as you wish

The other main asset of this idea is the Esport that it becoming more and more important each year. What if this ' SP2 Live TV' had commentators, like Starcraft2... League of legend and many other games have ? It would bring SP2 to a new level of realism. Allowing people to enjoy watching a game of SP2 as much as watching a soccer game on TV. I know i do enjoy watching commentators like Totalbuiscuit on SC2 and other games.

Mechzz · 2012-05-27, 01:52 AM

We've had this discussion a couple of times. Its rejection seems to come down the fear of spying. Which is a bit odd given the flame wars pointman got for suggesting spying would be a problem

Still, that aside, I think if the spectator was a neutral flying camera then it would be a cool idea to stream big battles on a 10-15 minute delay. That would greatly improve my work day

Arktype · 2012-05-27, 01:58 AM

Another suggestion, a FOG generated automatically based on your faction, you can only spectate locations where your factions is fighting from. This with a 10 min delay... I don t see the point of spying anymore, even with a 10 or 15 min delay... it would be pointless and probably faster to send a scout 'in game'

Zekeen · 2012-05-27, 02:04 AM

Originally Posted by Arktype

Another suggestion, a FOG generated automatically based on your faction, you can only spectate locations where your factions is fighting from. This with a 10 min delay... I don t see the point of spying anymore, even with a 10 or 15 min delay... it would be pointless and probably faster to send a scout 'in game'

That seems a bit hard to do really, and you'd still be able to spot for allies in an odd way.

For a closer thing, I suggested an idea a while back, of a radar type modded Galaxy with viewing Cameras underneath, for VIP passengers, to let commander type players give orders from the sky while being able to view far down below.

Only problem is that would only be a camera for the riders of said Galaxy.

Really, the only feasible options are fixed cameras or an NPC mobile camera that just skirts along the continent on a fixed path.

Fable · 2012-05-27, 03:49 AM

Sometimes getting rid of the interface is enough.

Gogita · 2012-05-27, 04:05 AM

10 to 15 minute old information can still be very useful in Planetside. Also, I think this is slightly hard to implement due to the size of the maps of Planetside. I'm not exactly sure how recording of a match is done in games such as Halo or Battlefield, but the maps of planetside are way and way bigger. Imagine all the data that needs to be saved.

Sorry man, even though it would be very cool to have a spectator mode for filming, the disadvantages and issues of spectator mode are too big in my opinion.

Mechzz · 2012-05-27, 04:16 AM

Originally Posted by Gogita

10 to 15 minute old information can still be very useful in Planetside. Also, I think this is slightly hard to implement due to the size of the maps of Planetside. I'm not exactly sure how recording of a match is done in games such as Halo or Battlefield, but the maps of planetside are way and way bigger. Imagine all the data that needs to be saved.

Sorry man, even though it would be very cool to have a spectator mode for filming, the disadvantages and issues of spectator mode are too big in my opinion.

For the Europeans/Germans:
Does Pro7 have some sort of gaming shows? I remember about 10 years seeing a show on german tv where they were playing some FPS online, but not sure if it was pro7 or sat1?

Anyways, I think an edited highlights package would get many more viewers on that sort of show since you could lose all the "boring" bits when everyone's just kicking back and drinking beer and not fighting each other. Just imagine if Planetside goes mainstream - it may replace Match of the Day in the hearts of British fans.

Oh, and for game data storage, I have friends at the Large Hadron Collider - go Google their storage capacity.

Toppopia · 2012-05-27, 04:19 AM

Originally Posted by Mechzz

For the Europeans/Germans:
Does Pro7 have some sort of gaming shows? I remember about 10 years seeing a show on german tv where they were playing some FPS online, but not sure if it was pro7 or sat1?

Anyways, I think an edited highlights package would get many more viewers on that sort of show since you could lose all the "boring" bits when everyone's just kicking back and drinking beer and not fighting each other. Just imagine if Planetside goes mainstream - it may replace Match of the Day in the hearts of British fans.

Oh, and for game data storage, I have friends at the Large Hadron Collider - go Google their storage capacity.

I'm sure they can give us some of their petrabytes of storage, they don't need all of that for themselves.

Mechzz · 2012-05-27, 04:26 AM

Originally Posted by Toppopia

I'm sure they can give us some of their petrabytes of storage, they don't need all of that for themselves.

Actually, maybe I could let Higby sneak a copy of the beta server side stuff onto their servers. Would eliminate all lag/stuttering issues at a stroke. The fact we may cause a black hole that would swallow the earth would be a price worth paying imo.

Notser · 2012-05-27, 04:15 AM

Higby and a good bit of SOE love competitive multiplayer so I'd imagine they would like to do something that would allow for spectating. He said something in a interview that he'd like to see planetside players streaming and having fun with the game. Plus you can't stop someone from streaming, probably just have to accept that information will be out there to a select few that would assist with army locations and objectives.

Accepting that there will be information available through these methods along with alt accounts, I think SOE will just implement something for fans to use for saving/sharing planetside 2 with others.

Shogun · 2012-05-27, 06:19 AM

in the dev interview about planetside memories smed (i think) said that they had a flying invisible cam for devs.
so they have it for ps2 as well.

we just have to find a way to make it accessible to video-makers without the risk of exploiting it. maybe outfits can buy some camera time for big events and only one player will get camera control while a gm or mod is watching and making sure he is filming some action and not floating around the enemys command center instead.

or outfits can buy camera time including the cameraman. so no player will use it, but a gm who is going to film the action for the outfit.
not the best solutions, but come on, start to think and find better ones!
a freeflying camera would allow for sooo great videos!