Will New Content Thin Numbers?

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by xnorb

Whenever possible i'll stay away from the clusterfucks.
I know many love that, but i'd rather fight a 4on4 over a small installment
over an hour than a 200on200 meatgrinding base fight.

If they managed to put 2000 into a continent, I don't expect that 4 on 4 will happen a lot. Maybe it will when we have more breathing room from more continents.

Originally Posted by WildVS

Well buddy, if you find many 4v4 fights SOE has failed to do their jobs. But I agree in principle with what you are saying. Can't stand zerging much myself.

And yet, wait a second. We're going to have US servers and EU servers, the split like that will mean that for the most part, EU servers will wind down a bit at night and same for US servers. So how will time of day affect numbers? Will server/continent populations only get big on weekends, or weekdays from 4PM EST/1PST to 4AM EST/1AM PST?(just making the assumption that PST guys will play at least to around 1AM and EST will start about 4PM)

And does that mean that in the mornings and early day you can find your small battles?

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by WildVS

Well this is where US having east and west coast servers helped. I have no idea what they plan for PS2 but I do know there is no region locking. Have to see how it plays out.

When you say "helped" do you mean that having a clearly demarcated peak time is a good thing? I'm not saying it isn't, just wondering what you meant.

[RageMasterUK]

2000 players / 64 square km = 31.25 players per square kilometer if evenly distributed.

4 on 4 will happen because you can directly influence it!

If you want that type of fight you just need to take your 3 mates to try and back-hack something empty away from the main conflict zone. Eventually defenders will turn up. You will get your 4 on 4. Atleast for a while

Your skirmish might generate interest from friends and enemies. Before you know it the territory you are in might become the no.1 flashpoint on the continent. If you still want your 4 vs 4 at that stage you can fly somewhere else and set up again

For me this is what makes Planetside epic. That you can be fighting a rather subdued battle one moment, and end up in the biggest battle of the continent, without changing position. That a 4 v 4 can become an 8 v 8, and then a 32 v 32 v 32 when the other empire catches on. Then a clusterfuck. And the satisfaction of being there from the beginning and in some cases knowing you were the cause of such massive activity around that area.

When you lean back in your chair, look at the furball of aircraft and malestrom of explosions on your monitor and say "I MAED THIS!!"

-RageMasterUK

[IHateMMOs]

Originally Posted by ringring

Actually Smedley said no to that in his recent interview.

No to what? The other facilities or the continents being available to everyone.

[Neo Hope]

He said no to paid DLC.
it will thin the player balance out:

Originally Posted by John Smedley

We sell DLC in our game, DC Universe Online. That’s great. In PlanetSide 2 we’re making a conscious choice not to sell maps. Why? Because we want the community to stick together. If you look at Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3, or actually the time immemorial of FPSes, here’s what happens. Everybody plays the base game. DLC comes. 80 percent pick that up. DLC comes. 70 percent pick that up. And so on and so on. Two years later, you don’t know what map packs people have and it ends up costing quite a bit in terms of how you get into the ones that people are playing, because you have to buy various DLCs. But for us, with a persistent game world, we don’t want to split up people. We need them in there, because the community doesn’t work without that. It’s pretty basic.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/18/so...a-interview/2/

[Xaine]

If anything, more conts will make it more interesting.

[Sturmhardt]

Every continent will pretty sure be its own instanced server, so they could just lift the popcap for the whole server when new continents appear. Technically its not an issue.

[Sephirex]

Originally Posted by Sturmhardt

Every continent will pretty sure be its own instanced server, so they could just lift the popcap for the whole server when new continents appear. Technically its not an issue.

Pretty much. They could probably pull a Everquest and just swell this thing to massive proportions given enough time. Underwater, In-Space, on the moon, back in time.

Then we'll all just be reminiscing of the good ol' days of 3 continents.

[Redshift]

They won't gate content so no one will be unable to follow a fight, and if they add new conts they'll just lie dormant until attacked, the fight doesn't spread out it just moves sometimes

[NapalmEnima]

Originally Posted by Redshift

They won't gate content so no one will be unable to follow a fight, and if they add new conts they'll just lie dormant until attacked, the fight doesn't spread out it just moves sometimes

On the contrary. PS2 should be able to sustain combat on all continents all the time. Remember: Every empire has an uncap-able foothold on each continent. No lattice here.

Though I suppose that could change on new continents.

Of course PS1 didn't have the lattice system at release either. We'll see.

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by NapalmEnima

On the contrary. PS2 should be able to sustain combat on all continents all the time.

yes that's true, but the OP was asking about new conts spreading out a player base. If a server has a finite player base then adding more continents will cause either spread out fights or dormant continents, i was telling him from the first game's experiences it will probably be dormant conts.

[Sephirex]

Originally Posted by Redshift

yes that's true, but the OP was asking about new conts spreading out a player base. If a server has a finite player base then adding more continents will cause either spread out fights or dormant continents, i was telling him from the first game's experiences it will probably be dormant conts.

If they organize their architecture right, they could increase the player cap with each new continent.

[Trignite]

Originally Posted by Neo Hope

http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/18/so...a-interview/2/

Originally Posted by John Smedly

We’ve nailed it.

Oh no not again

[Redshift]

Originally Posted by Sephirex

If they organize their architecture right, they could increase the player cap with each new continent.

i kinda just worry about each cont essentially being a server and the choices between wear to fight no different to selecting a server, they way it sounds atm it doesn't sound very organic

[Sephirex]

Originally Posted by Redshift

i kinda just worry about each cont essentially being a server and the choices between wear to fight no different to selecting a server, they way it sounds atm it doesn't sound very organic

Pretty much on par with PS1. As long as they keep a strong hub, and keep the continents linked together in a way that simulates a world, they should be fine.