It took 10 hours on the road, 36 hours of no sleep, 192 oz of energy drinks, and 1 car battery but The Black Watch was able to make it to Sony Online Entertainment's PlanetSide 2 community day in San Diego. And boy was it worth it. Besides being some of the first in the world to get a crack at PlanetSide 2 , we snagged an exclusive interview with Creative Director, and fellow NC, Matt Higby. Higby was generous enough to sit down and answer some questions from our community.
Tech with Higby. Wearing a suit and chewing on dog tags = WIN
The Black Watch: How important will resources be in the grand scheme of things? Will there be enough for a player to spawn vehicles indefinitely or will there be a point where you will have to conserve and spend wisely?
Higby: You gain resources by two different means: Actively by completing missions and passively by controlling territory. There will be a Cap on the amount of resources a player can have. It will work like a faucet and drain. If a player can figure out a way to make his faucet bigger than his drain, in theory he would be able to spawn as many vehicles as he wants.
The Black Watch: Will resources be locked to each character or will they be able to be traded to other players?
Higby: Resources will be locked to each character but there has been discussion about allowing players to trade them in the future.
The Black Watch: Will there be significant balancing after launch or do you feel the certification system will take care of most balance issues?
Higby: There will be regular balancing but it will occur only if needed. Balancing will be based on a number of factors including community feedback, but,we won't change things just because some players are saying something is too good or too bad. Take Starcraft 2 for example. If people are saying Mutas are OP, we don't want to go and change them right away. We want to give people a chance to find a counter for them and that is where the side-grades in the certification system will come into play.
The Black Watch: How will the grief system work to deter players from creating alt accounts and sabotaging the opposing faction?
Higby: The grief system will work similar to the system in PlanetSide 1- a player performing negative actions on a regular basis will be penalized for team killing.
The Black Watch: How important will the role of logistics be in getting troops to the battle?
Higby: Logistics will be Very important. One of the big defining features of this FPS is logistics. They will play a very important roll.
The Black Watch: Are there plans for future expansions?
Higby: No, but new content will be released regularly. PlanetSide 2 will be a combination of big content releases as well as smaller releases of new features throughout the game's life.
The Black Watch: What do you see as your main competitor?
Higby: Possibly the next game from Dice. The only thing that compares in scale is Eve but PlanetSide 2 is a 100% different type of game. Nothing else truly does what PlanetSide 2 does.
The Black Watch: How long will beta last?
Higby: If it were up to me it would last as long as possible but the reality is we have to release it some time. The game will launch when it is ready.
The Black Watch: Will PS2 be released this year?
Higby: PlanetSide 2 is slated for release this year but ultimately we will release it when it is ready.
NC from head to toe
We would like to thank Matt for taking the time to talk with us and SOE for throwing such a fun and successful event. Stay tuned to tbwgaming.com for more Planetside 2 updates as well as some exciting contests in the near future.
-Tech
2012-07-18, 04:15 AM
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