News: Higby Ama on reddit

[basti]

This thread serves to collect the new informaiton from here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment...ames_industry/

The plan is to have every higby quote in this post, and those important ones marked, like this:

Right now MAXes use armor, they're the only infantry class without a shield and do require engineers to support them.


Discuss! I put more stuff down later!

PSU Article:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/p...dit-qa-107.htm

[Bags]

Punkbuster is going to be one facet of our anti-cheating strategy, not the only thing. I don't want to go too deep into this except to say that we hate hackers as much as you guys do, and we'll be doing everything we can to make sure that Planetside 2 is as hacker-free as possible.

Right now we don't have a concept of ANTs, but we still have logistical elements for sure, mobile respawn and resupply and the sort. Our facility capture gameplay is quite a bit different than the first game, though.

The marketplace offerings we showed at GDC aren't representative of the final offerings, you won't be able to acquire cross-factional weapons. We also don't have looting in the game right now, although that's an ongoing debate.

Air vehicles will absolutely be able to equip countermeasures, although they'll be trading other functionality to do so.

We may have to institute a cool down on MAXes although we don't have one at the moment.

Direct rocket hits will probably kill light infantry classes in PS2, but the splash damage is tuned to not be as devastating to infantry as in BF3.

The hit detection is a mix, there are clientside and serverside checks.

Currently no classes are "locked" from day one you can play any of the classes or drive any of the vehicles in the game. You can also freely switch between classes at equipment terminals or when respawning so you're never locked into a class. Each vehicle and class will have tons of customization and multiple roles to specialize in based on certification, so there will be role based things to unlock (i.e. being a surveillance focused infiltrator rather than a sniping focused infiltrator, etc)

Yes, absolutely. We have 6 right now:
Light Assault - quick strike commando type unit
Heavy Assault - strong anti-vehicle or anti-infantry troop
Engineer - combat deployables and vehicle support
Medic - keeps you from being a blood smear on the ground
Infiltrator - sneaky sniper / gadgeteer with cloaking suit
M.A.X - large mechanized battle suit suitable for anti-air, anti-vehicle and anti-infantry depending on loadout

Right now we don't have the concept of continent locking. Each empire has a small foothold on each continent and can fight on them at any time. We're doing this because we want more areas of the world to be under contention at any given time than PlanetSide 1 tended to have. As with most things, this is something we'll adjust in beta if the need arises.

There will be geometry changes possible with the cosmetic customization... we're trying to be careful to not go too overboard here though so that we maintain recognizable class silhouettes.

There are a lot of VS screenshots out there! Tramell is a VS die hard (and die often) so he sneaks in VS screenshots as much as possible.

We do fully incorporate Vivox VOIP in the game client, and we're trying to find ways to make our in-game VOIP solution something that everyone will want to use.

Engineers will have other tricks up their sleeves besides just the turret, being able to place dynamic cover, mines, and the like. Although vehicles will be able to have mine guards, they'll be giving up something to do that, so the assumption that everything will be safe from mines isn't totally accurate. Right now turrets can be placed virtually anywhere, but some restrictions may be added if we find it being heavily exploited in beta.

We will support both SLI and Crossfire.

You select an empire when you create your character and from then on you're locked into that empire. Since Planetside 2 is a free-to-play game there is no limit on the number of characters you could create to try out the other empires, though!

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by Bags

Currently no classes are "locked" from day one you can play any of the classes or drive any of the vehicles in the game. You can also freely switch between classes at equipment terminals or when respawning so you're never locked into a class. Each vehicle and class will have tons of customization and multiple roles to specialize in based on certification, so there will be role based things to unlock (i.e. being a surveillance focused infiltrator rather than a sniping focused infiltrator, etc)

But since there really is no specializing because there is no limit on certs, why couldnt you just be every kind of infiltrator in one? Is there some mechanic that actually makes us specialize that we dont know about yet? Continually saying we specialize when so far everything else we know says that we dont really do that, is confusing and can be very misleading (unintentional as it may be).

Would love for some clarification on this cause i personally love specializing and hate plain simplistic unlocks that function without limits for customization.

[Hamma]

I've posted a news update and an article for those who do not want to brave Reddit

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...mmary-2723.htm

[noxious]

Originally Posted by BorisBlade

But since there really is no specializing because there is no limit on certs, why couldnt you just be every kind of infiltrator in one? Is there some mechanic that actually makes us specialize that we dont know about yet? Continually saying we specialize when so far everything else we know says that we dont really do that, is confusing and can be very misleading (unintentional as it may be).

Would love for some clarification on this cause i personally love specializing and hate plain simplistic unlocks that function without limits for customization.

It's not that hard to envision how the system probably works: the items you select for your loadout modify how the class functions. EX, equip a sniper rifle as your primary weapon and you can only cloak for N seconds and you remain M% visible. On the other hand, if you put a knife in your primary weapon slot, then you can cloak indefinitely and are almost totally invisible.

[ExplodingSilver]

Originally Posted by Bags

...

We do fully incorporate Vivox VOIP in the game client, and we're trying to find ways to make our in-game VOIP solution something that everyone will want to use.

....

Can you please tell me more about voip ?
Thanks

I relate to 2142, because thats what I'm familiar with. In BF2142 squadmates could talk to eachother and squad leaders and commanders could talk on a second voip channel. Has PS2 at least got squad voip ? (and can you set it as push to talk client side)

[NewSith]

Nothing to dicuss on that. I mean they did it right and I doubt there will be people to contend with that.

[Captain1nsaneo]

if we find it being heavily exploited in beta.

He said "IF" ha ha. IF.

[Valcron]

I find most of these answers stuff we know already, I will tell you the idea that every empire has a foothold on continents is absolutely stupid. It will just be sanctuaries for dudes that will come in a rape bases randomly. That's the thing that bothered me in PS1, randomly just go into a continent and rape a base randomly. Total bullshit..

[Aurmanite]

Originally Posted by Valcron

I find most of these answers stuff we know already, I will tell you the idea that every empire has a foothold on continents is absolutely stupid. It will just be sanctuaries for dudes that will come in a rape bases randomly. That's the thing that bothered me in PS1, randomly just go into a continent and rape a base randomly. Total bullshit..

What are you trying to say?

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Aurmanite

What are you trying to say?

I don't think he realizes they are uncapturable.

I asked my question. Thanks for the heads up.

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

I don't think he realizes they are uncapturable.

Actually he realizes this exactly and thats his problem, and i see it as a very anoying problem too but its all stuff that will become very apparent in beta and can be ironed out then. *knocks on wood*

[Knocky]

Originally Posted by Valcron

I find most of these answers stuff we know already...

The good news is that he cleared up that whole who gets into beta first.


Not totally sure how large the initial beta wave will be. Probably in the hundreds - thousand range.

That prioritized queue is a pool, so we'll pull from that pool until it's empty. This will all be based on our project needs. Beta is a really important tool for us on the game dev side and we need to be sure that we're getting our needs met so that we can make the best game possible.

Opt-in signups will be invited later, again, as needed.

[Coreldan]

Originally Posted by Knocky

The good news is that he cleared up that whole who gets into beta first.


Not totally sure how large the initial beta wave will be. Probably in the hundreds - thousand range.

That prioritized queue is a pool, so we'll pull from that pool until it's empty. This will all be based on our project needs. Beta is a really important tool for us on the game dev side and we need to be sure that we're getting our needs met so that we can make the best game possible.

Opt-in signups will be invited later, again, as needed.

We actually knew that already! But yes, clarification/confirmation is good.

[bigcracker]

Engineers will have other tricks up their sleeves besides just the turret, being able to place dynamic cover, mines, and the like.

Like bunkers or walls?but no matter what thats pretty epic

(maybe why they didnt have walls in gdc video cause them lazy engy didnt build any)