Spectator mod

[Shogun]

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!

[Lorgarn]

Having this tool available with, as some of you have already mentioned, a short delay is actually feasible. Some games already have this very function with even less of a delay and it works great. It's impossible to "scout" anything since that information might actually turn to your disadvantage as much as the other way around. You have no idea if that information is valid, it's so unpredictible which makes it a total waste to try to use and exploit.

However, if it can be made without too much of an effort I have no idea. I'm no programmer/developer afterall.

[Fable]

I think Battlerecorder-like spectator would actually be the best option. For those unfamiliar with it, it records everythink that happens on the battlefield.

The only difference would be that players (and even better - officers only) would choose when to start recording, so it wouldn't record 24/7 and it wouldn't be so demanding on storage space.

[Fable]

Originally Posted by Lorgarn

Having this tool available with, as some of you have already mentioned, a short delay is actually feasible. Some games already have this very function with even less of a delay and it works great. It's impossible to "scout" anything since that information might actually turn to your disadvantage as much as the other way around. You have no idea if that information is valid, it's so unpredictible which makes it a total waste to try to use and exploit.

However, if it can be made without too much of an effort I have no idea. I'm no programmer/developer afterall.

Imho, problem with this aproach is, that if you would try to do some machinima video like this, you will ask the people on stage to do something, but you (as spectator) will see it with let's say 15 minutes delay. Now, if the scene went wrong or something you would have to wait another 15 minutes to see the result.

And I don't really see any other use of spectator mode other than making machinima videos, if we don't count spying, which we obviously don't want.

[Shogun]

on the other hand spying will already be possible through a lot of other ways, so a flying camera wouldn´t change a lot.

you can grab all gamedata and make a planetspy app for your smartphone that shows you every players position, weapon, health and whatever you like. so what´s the problem if you can also fly around in a camera?

[Fable]

Originally Posted by Shogun

you can grab all gamedata and make a planetspy app for your smartphone that shows you every players position, weapon, health and whatever you like. so what´s the problem if you can also fly around in a camera?

I've seen you guys talking about this already. I don't like the idea of this, but if it gets implemented, there's no reason NOT to have spectator with free camera.

[Gogita]

Originally Posted by Shogun

you can grab all gamedata and make a planetspy app for your smartphone that shows you every players position, weapon, health and whatever you like. so what´s the problem if you can also fly around in a camera?

Wow wow wow... I'm not an expertise in this field, but I'm sure you should not be able to gain access to real-time data of position, weapons etc.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by Gogita

Wow wow wow... I'm not an expertise in this field, but I'm sure you should not be able to gain access to real-time data of position, weapons etc.

I don't think that will happen. I mean it's one thing to export data about which hexes belong to who, how many people are online, what the current favorite weapon is per faction and so on, but to actually export real time position information of every player is ridiculous even just from a technical standpoint.

[Shogun]

quote from higby on the gameindustry interview:

Matt Higby: For the game itself, we're focused primarily on PC. But we have made plans and we've talked a bunch about how we're planning on externalizing tons of data. So, every piece of data about the game is gonna get put out via JSON feeds and via XML feeds. So all those app makers and people who are making web apps and stuff are gonna be able to make tools for PlanetSide 2, because we're gonna be sure to release every single piece of data. Basically everything. Capture status of the map, what weapons people are using, all that kind of stuff.

[Gogita]

Dang... they better limit the data that is accessible from that. Player location would be the worse thing they could give away.

[Hamma]

This was also in our PSU interview with Matt last week (external data) he talks a bit about that. Should be out Tuesday.

[kaffis]

Originally Posted by Shogun

quote from higby on the gameindustry interview:

Matt Higby: For the game itself, we're focused primarily on PC. But we have made plans and we've talked a bunch about how we're planning on externalizing tons of data. So, every piece of data about the game is gonna get put out via JSON feeds and via XML feeds. So all those app makers and people who are making web apps and stuff are gonna be able to make tools for PlanetSide 2, because we're gonna be sure to release every single piece of data. Basically everything. Capture status of the map, what weapons people are using, all that kind of stuff.

None of that says real-time, though.

I read that as "we'll be releasing all kinds of statistical data to the public. Your apps can access data to look up the preferred weapons of your favorite Planetside celebrity/that guy that killed you just now, so you can see that 50% of the time, they use weapon X with attachment Y, 20% of the time they drive vehicle Z, etc." You know, all that stat tracking stuff that got shown off at GDC. Just everybody's, open to the public via external APIs.

On the subject of spectator mode -- if it's feasible and reasonable, technologically, to log the game state and make it available on a delay, I have no problem with it. If it will detract from the gaming experience (by causing some features to be impractical, or degrading server performance, etc.), the game needs to take priority over machina.

If it's not feasible, then I have no objection to an unarmed version of vehicles, for instance, that have a toggleable UI, or toggling off all infantry UI. You'll still be targetable, but feel free to watch the fight while vulnerable.

[SgtMAD]

it should be up to individual players/outfits whether or not they are filmed or being observed,if an outfit wants ppl to know what they are up to, let THEM make the movie.

this kind of set up would end up being abused ingame.

[Arktype]

I understand the problem with spying. Someone here already raised the issue of people streaming live while playing. This will already become an issue since that anyone will have access to those streams.

Since there is no way, now that live streaming used by many players, that we will be able to stop the spying.

So having an alternate server running only data with 15 min delay would i believe make everyone happy. And it s probably a pretty simple thing to do, dev wise..