News: John Smedley on PlanetSide 2

[Raymac]

The sanctuaries weren't the biggest negative on my list, but I can play devil's advocate here.

Am I the only one that remembers waiting 15 mins for the HART, only to wait even longer for the continent queue? Also why do we need a whole seperate continent just to go to yet another continent. Hopefully this means the "Footholds" will have anything that the Sanc had (i.e. warp to other continents, pull vehicles, room to organize a raid, etc) except they are actually on the battlefield instead of having to zone again.

[Death2All]

Originally Posted by Bags

Hope it stays that way. I also hope the customizations fit the theme of the game. I don't want to see people running around with pink hats and bunny suits.

This please. This might be one of the most important things to me.

I tried playing GA when it was announced with those F2P games on Steam awhile back and I was really thrown off at all the stupid shit they allowed players to buy. Silly dinosaur hats, bright pink armor, etc. It really turned me off seeing that because it leaves the impression that they didn't take the game too seriously.

I'm really hoping that all the customization is merely cosmetic and still fits within the theme of the day.


In contrast, I DO want to see Santa Hats around the Holidays. I miss them.

And maybe some pink bunnies for Easter like they were talking about at the Q&A panel.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by DeeTwoEh

This please. This might be one of the most important things to me.

I tried playing GA when it was announced with those F2P games on Steam awhile back and I was really thrown off at all the stupid shit they allowed players to buy. Silly dinosaur hats, bright pink armor, etc. It really turned me off seeing that because it leaves the impression that they didn't take the game too seriously.

I'm really hoping that all the customization is merely cosmetic and still fits within the theme of the day.


In contrast, I DO want to see Santa Hats around the Holidays. I miss them.

And maybe some pink bunnies for Easter like they were talking about at the Q&A panel.

Oh yeah I'm fine with holiday items, but no stupid shit.

Let people buy serious hats, shades, ear pieces, new logos for their tanks, spikes for their tanks, whatever.

Just no bright colored pastel stuff that is a joke.

[tattonarf2]

Yea, Sanctuaries are at least comparable to COD/Halo/Battlefield matchmaking. You spend 5-10 minutes just staring at a blank screen in those games in PS you could at least grab a tank, change certs, get a good load out, choose a fight while you wait. I can honestly say, I've never heard anyone complain about Sanctuaries, or the HART. In fact, I remember right after the expansion launched and the HART timer was something like 1 minute, the community actually complained and had to go longer. I have no idea where Smed is getting the idea we didn't like the Sanctuaries or that they really hindered game play.

[p0intman]

smed marketing bullshit ITT.

i dont believe a word he says.

Q. If you could play one Sony game for the rest of your life what would it be?

A. PlanetSide for sure.

Bullshit. You've favored everquest for years.

Q. Can you elaborate a little bit on the free aspect that has been mentioned?

A. There will be a cash shop for the game however the goal is not to sell power. For example we would sell things like customization because we would like there to be a massive amount of ways to customize your characters. So people could recognize you or your outfit out of a group. We will not sell a more powerful gun or vehicle.

Bullshit. You sold out with the NGE. Won't forgive you for that BTW.

Q. How important is PlanetSide 2 for SOE?

A. It's important to us and it's one of our big tent poles. We feel strongly about PlanetSide 2 and have dedicated a lot of resources to it.

Bullshit. You went ahed with BFRs and single handedly wrecked PS1.

Q. What are your plans to keep players involved for the long term. How do skills and training play into that? What are your plans for "End Game" for hard core players.

A. We plan on announcing a 3 year post launch vision for the game to go into detail on this. We will take fan feedback and alter the plan and really listen to the community feedback.

Bullshit. Just like you listened to the community with the NGE, amirite?

Basically, fuck anything Smed says til he follows through with it. Toss that entire goddamn interview in the trash, because its worth more there.

[Rbstr]

Originally Posted by pointmanFAF

s
Bullshit. You went ahed with BFRs and single handedly wrecked PS1.

Yes, they intended BFR's to wreck planetside.
They didn't think one of the most requested features would be so poorly received.
You make it sound like they wanted it to fail. Grow up.

[Sifer2]

Like others I don't understand why he seems to believe Sanctuaries were the biggest problem with Planetside. If anything they probably increased the pace by providing a nice central hub to organize an launch from to different areas. Footholds may do this as well so it may be ok in the end. But its really stupid to have parts of the continent you can't take. What slowed the pace of Planetside was probably other things. HART times, long travel to get vehicles, hack times an other stuff.


As for the cash shop I do definitely hate that. I can't help but take the we wont sell power thing with a grain of salt. Since they will eventually sale whatever they can get away with. Like Blizzard with the 20 dollars mounts. I'm with others that I hope we don't get stupid TF2 style customization either. Gold guns, or Ninja outfits or whatever other silly crap they might come up with that doesn't fit the games theme. Keep that **** out.

[2coolforu]

Smedley sounds like a great guy, I agree with a lot of things he said - especially the point about jumping games. When Planetside first came out I played nothing but Planetside for all my free gaming time, I'd' literally have one solid block of Planetside then go to sleep, or even not sleep on a few rare 'I need to get CR5' moments. Since then I've never had such a long multiple year spree of solid one-game gaming.

Currently I can jump between 4-5 games a night with ease, although I've played other games for moderately long periods nothing has appealed to me as much as Planetside. My main criteria for a true brilliant game is that I should be able to do a 24 hour stint without getting bored to hell and falling asleep and very few have passed the test :P

[Bags]

Originally Posted by pointmanFAF

You've favored everquest for years.

.

Do realize that even though he's CEO, he can't favor planetside if it's not financially viable. I used to think "how can you say you care about ps when we don't get any support?" but then it hit me -- he won't stay CEO too long if he drives the company into the ground to support a dying game.

[Hamma]

pointman,

I was wondering why you got banned on other forums now I know why.

Now that we have that out of the way let me say this.

As the actual person who sat down with Smed and asked these questions, as well as spent time with him for a pretty fair amount of time (something he does NOT have to do for a community fan site, I know of no other company CEO that would do this) I can tell you that I believe he is in fact telling the truth.

He wants this game to be a success and is 100% behind it. Proof of that is in the pudding already, all of the support we have received as a fan site including the developer posting. AND things I haven't even spoken about yet.

Now if you want to be constructive, feel free to post again.

[Malorn]

I have been a little confused in the past few months by the way he has released information about PS2 (was it real? is this a scam? why drop pics on twitter? what's going on!?), but this unveiling and information and seeing Smed talk about Planetside has convinced me he's genuinely passionate about it and its success.

Form a business perspective it makes sense. A successful next-gen MMOFPS is a game-changer and gives SOE a unique and untapped niche in the MMO market. I think he knows the mistakes with PS1 and so far I see many indications that they recognize them and are working to correct them. The 3-year plan is something I particularly like to see. He also seems like a genuine FPS fan and that's exactly what we need from a CEO of PS2.

He's also come here to explain the delays in PS2 and given this community a lot more information. He didn't have to do any of that and I for one am grateful that he has.

[2coolforu]

Originally Posted by pointmanFAF

smed marketing ITT.

i dont believe a word he says.



You've favored everquest for years.


You sold out with the NGE. Won't forgive you for that BTW.


You went ahed with BFRs and single handedly wrecked PS1.


Just like you listened to the community with the NGE, amirite?

Basically, anything Smed says til he follows through with it. Toss that entire goddamn interview in the trash, because its worth more there.

Show some respect, the CEO of a huge company just took a large portion of his precious time to give you unique and special treatment. Can you seriously imagine Gabe Newell coming here to give us Episode 3 info if this was 'halflife-Universe', we aren't exactly IGN or PCGamer. It's a pretty huge message to how much this guy cares if he even acknowledges our very existence.

I think you owe Smed a small apology at least.

[DeathToll]

ive been looking so forward to PS2, ever sense i got a questionnaire in my email asking what i would like to see in the sequel. I was a junkie for ps1 and some of the battles i had back when i played ps1 i still remember like they were yesterday.

however i cant tell you how bummed i am to hear ps2 will be free. with my experience free games have hackers galore and never seem to feel quite like a p2p game. i would not be apposed to having an additional shop for pure cosmetic items on top of a monthly payment for those who want it but ONLY cosmetic items should be purchased. there should never be any kind of experience bump or the ability to buy access to certain certifications faster. also cosmetic items should not be over board. it would be pretty dumb if people were running around in rainbow vanguards or pink bunny max-suits. if they allowed players to buy something like an emblem for their vehicles or possibly different armor styles that still went with the theme of planetside i would be fine with that.

it would just kill me to see another MMOFPS fall down the drain. im really afraid that if the game is free 2 play it will only encourage hackers, spammers, farmers, and bots. i know there probably isn't much to farm/bot for in ps1 but with the new resource system in ps2 there may be a reason to do it. if a game is free (even if its just a one time payment for the CD KEY) it allows people to not care as much about being banned so they aren't afraid to hack/cheat. i know your going to do everything you can to stop it but without a monthly fee its hard to believe you will be able to have the staff to monitor everyone in the game effectively.

i know you guys said you were going to listen to the community so please DONT SCREW PLANETSIDE 2 UP BY MAKING IT FREE!!! PLEASE!!!!!!! use the monthly fee for better servers and better community management. a $5 monthly fee would be perfect. and this is coming from a broke college student.

[Malorn]

Back to the sanctuaries topic a bit -

Allow me to brainstorm a bit and propose a new concept that might make sanctuary unnecessary with the conjunction of uncap bases.

I was thinking just now that Smed might have started thinking about the slow HART and the inefficiency of instant action and the slow travel times from getting a vehicle from sanctuary to the destination. All of that does actually slow things down. Now sanctuary was fast for veteran PS users, but what if Smed is thinking of something even faster?

What if Smed's thinking of taking the HART idea and combining it with Instant-action - Instant-teleport from any spawn tube your empire owns to any other spawn tube in the world. Crazy thought right? But it would do wonders for pacing. Think of it as a targeted instant-action button. You dont like the fight you're in? Press butan, pick the nearest spawn to the fight you want to be in, and voila.

If you want to stage, pick an uncap base instead and stage there with your outfit & allies.

Want to roll tanks on some distant continent? Insta-port to the nearest facility and pull a tank. It's a lot faster than pulling a tank from Sanctuary and driving it in. Want to respond to an attacked territory on some distant continent? No need to hop in a mosquito - just instant-port to the nearest base and pull whatever vehicle you want from there.

If they do something like this then I can see why sanctuary is unnecessary, and if they have uncap bases I suppose you could rally at those instead.

Faster travel = faster getting to fights. What travel is faster than instant-travel? It does remove the need for sanctuary....entirely.

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by DeathToll

ive been looking so forward to PS2, ever sense i got a questionnaire in my email asking what i would like to see in the sequel. I was a junkie for ps1 and some of the battles i had back when i played ps1 i still remember like they were yesterday.

however i cant tell you how bummed i am to hear ps2 will be free. with my experience free games have hackers galore and never seem to feel quite like a p2p game. i would not be apposed to having an additional shop for pure cosmetic items on top of a monthly payment for those who want it but ONLY cosmetic items should be purchased. there should never be any kind of experience bump or the ability to buy access to certain certifications faster. also cosmetic items should not be over board. it would be pretty dumb if people were running around in rainbow vanguards or pink bunny max-suits. if they allowed players to buy something like an emblem for their vehicles or possibly different armor styles that still went with the theme of planetside i would be fine with that.

it would just kill me to see another MMOFPS fall down the drain. im really afraid that if the game is free 2 play it will only encourage hackers, spammers, farmers, and bots. i know there probably isn't much to farm/bot for in ps1 but with the new resource system in ps2 there may be a reason to do it. if a game is free (even if its just a one time payment for the CD KEY) it allows people to not care as much about being banned so they aren't afraid to hack/cheat. i know your going to do everything you can to stop it but without a monthly fee its hard to believe you will be able to have the staff to monitor everyone in the game effectively.

i know you guys said you were going to listen to the community so please DONT SCREW PLANETSIDE 2 UP BY MAKING IT FREE!!! PLEASE!!!!!!! use the monthly fee for better servers and better community management. a $5 monthly fee would be perfect. and this is coming from a broke college student.

Please join in on the discussion of the business model in this thread:
http://www.planetside-universe.com/f...ad.php?t=36477

I think I propose a way for them to address your concerns and have a good model. Maybe it eases you, or maybe not. Either way its a good discussion to have.

Also, Smed never said it would be free. He said it would have free elements, but entirely free? I don't think SOE is making PS2 for charity...