Developer Plan 2005

[Strygun]

At the beginning of this new year, one might wonder exactly what's instore for the future of Planetside. Well, we have the exciting answers here, in a team letter from SamhaynePS:

Greetings, Soldiers!
The start of a new year is oftentimes a point of contemplation; both on the past year and what the coming one will hold. For me, the last year has been a blessing and a challenge. I have the distinct honor and unique opportunity to build upon the hard work of the talented crew of innovators that brought us the original PlanetSide. In this new role, I also have the pleasure of interacting with the altogether awesome PlanetSide community.
PlanetSide's community has proven its passion in ****** in the last month with their campaign to spread word of the game they love across the Internet. I and the team applaud these actions. We have all seen the positive impact this has had in game and across ForumSide (you know, the official PlanetSide message forums) and I want to convey the Development Team and Sony Online Entertainment's commitment to support PlanetSide on all fronts. To back that up, I want to share with you some specifics of our planning for 2005.
Spurred on by our fans unbridled enthusiasm, we have tipped over the coffers for a renewed marketing budget for '05 to continue spreading the good word. While ads are good for bringing players in, we know that to keep them and our existing customers, the game must evolve, stay fresh and exciting. Ongoing development is key for fueling word of mouth for as much, if not more, impact.
We have a strong line up of development goals for 2005 to do just that. These include: more ways to advance your characters, new equipment, systems to bolster support oriented players, better systems for command and coordination, along with the completion and implementation of the server scripting engine that we started in '04. This promises a more dynamic world serving up persistent objectives and meaningful reasons for conflict.
You can see evidence of our work toward these goals already in our January activities. We have already announced new battle ranks and a strong suite of merit commendations. Very shortly you will be seeing details of our January event along with specifics of the corresponding game lattice shake-up as a result of that event.
In addition to the above, we are working on an exciting new system we are calling Tournament Mode. The concept behind Tournament Mode is to enhance and extend the large scale strategic and tactical game through more organized competitive game play. The systems for Tournament Mode will allow us to offer ladder style competition, along with options for more casual play style familiar to other FPS gamers, all while retaining the "big" feel that is the war for Auraxis. Also, the systems and work behind Tournament Mode apply nicely to many of the other above stated goals. I have some great memories of my own time spent in serious online, ladder style, FPS competitive play and I'm quite jazzed to be bringing these elements to PlanetSide.
Lastly, we want to reaffirm some ever-present agenda items from our Team. Excellent game performance, a dearth of bugs and a zero tolerance for cheats and hacks are all ongoing principals for us. While some may argue that we haven't hit those marks in the past, we are working hard to insure that we do in the future. We know that, in today's competitive gaming market, there are a lot of options out there of what to play. We want to give our customers every reason to stick with us, and even more to encourage their friends to join them for some serious fun in PlanetSide.
Thank you sincerely for your continued patronage and support.
Alex "Samhayne" von Minden
PlanetSide Producer and Lead Designer

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