The Neuro Report - E3

[Neurotoxin]

DAY 1

Greetings PSU Community!

I'll be putting up a few quick reports regarding my experiences with PS2 at E3 this year.

So far I got to meet a few folks from the team, play for a decent amount of time, and collect some awesome swag.

In general, PlanetSide 2 plays really well right now. Gameplay is pretty smooth, physics feel pretty good, and the amount of variety and customization available to players is quite immense. There's clearly a lot of room for everything to go, but the game as it is right now is pretty amazing already.

Here's an explanation of the screenshots added below:
1 - Zebrider. Need I say more?
2 - Laminated gameplay controls sheets were at every station.
3 - When you first access the Vanu vehicle cert tree, this is what you see. A clean slate, ready to be trained into an killing machine. Also, the Scythe graphic looks like a horned viking helmet.
4 - Quick glance at the Lightning cert tree.
5 - Her beamer and my finger bullets are gonna take this place over like a couple of gangsters.
6 - Guess who?
7 - No this isn't Nanite Systems new open-cockpit BFR. Its just damn awesome so I put it in anyways.

Below is something I wrote in a separate post regarding my experience and the quality of gameplay seen on the streams:

Flying physics are way different, so kudos to everyone who was flying around.... made it really easy for my dual-flak VS MAX to take down galaxies, liberators, mossies, and reavers. Galaxy took basically all my ammo and reloads to destroy, lib took a couple dual-firing clips, and the smaller ones were a lot easier.

I tried Heavy Assault a bit too... I was able to do alright with it. The ability to gun down a MAX with a pulsar is awfully nice (just gotta aim at the head and make every shot count) but every aircraft was loaded with countermeasures so AA with the fission was really not happening (lancer may have been better for AA). I did alright with a Magrider, took out a prowler, but I also got rammed by a prowler that I think destroyed us both.

Infil has awesome potential, but I feel like its going to be extremely limited without the certs unlocked. I felt like I was walking around with a big "shoot me" sign when I was uncloaked in the field (which was most of the time) and the inability to use any rifle aside from the sniper was kinda annoying, because it was 90% vehicle combat and 1/3 the infantry was in MAX suits.

Anyhow, don't fret about the quality of players on the streams. Between people seeing PS for the first time, and job-headed suits that are impressed by anything pretty regardless of their ability, the lack of keymapping familiarity (some things are moved around), and the lack of Light Assault users dropping ammo for other classes, the streams aren't going to contain the best gameplay.

Also, the internet was kinda shaky all day. Not for SOE specifically, but for all of E3.

Alright that's all I have for now. I'll check for questions and comments before I leave tomorrow morning. I have some footage too, but I'll probably upload it on Friday.

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Day 2

Long day, good day. I got interviewed about by Adam Clegg (I think it was on the live stream)! Video Game Live was awesome too.

Anyhow, I got an opportunity to check things out, and access everything that had been asked about.

Flight Physics - After trying it out in more depth, I found that the flight physics are quite awesome. A and D turn hard on a scythe, so banking isn't really needed. Full 360 degree vertical maneuverability, meaning you can be completely upside down and still control the aircraft properly (though liberator engines don't like this as much). Aircraft can really do amazing stuff now, its awesome. I'm sure I didn't cover everything here, so please ask specific questions and I'll try to answer them as best as possible tomorrow.

Cloak Duration - Currently 10-15 seconds not sure if moving makes it burn faster or not. There are certs to alter and modify the shield.

HA Shield Duration - It was explained that it isn't how long it lasts so much as the amount of damage it can sustain. It felt like it naturally wore off after about 15 seconds though, but I may be mistaken about that.

Medic - It seems really awesome, but I couldn't unlock the certs for revive grenade or nanite grenade to see its fullest capacity. It didn't appear to have a way to toggle between targeting allies vs targeting self. I used the class ability a couple times, but it didn't appear to do anything... then again I wasn't using it near friendly corpses. The Pulsar that I had as a Medic appeared to be different than the ones I had for other classes, like it was a longer range model or something. I may be mistaken, though.

Engineer - Also awesome. Flak sprays and hits air well, but direct damage from the engineer turret does more damage than flak, so I was able to post up in a corner and run the turret til I got bored of using it to take down air. The ACE doesn't appear to do anything else right now, though. Beyond that, the animation for the nanite repair process looks kinda neat.

Grenade functionality - What we see now is basically a working version with no features. Press the button, hold the button, no difference. No cooking, no strength control. This is not how it'll be in beta, this is literally just enough code to make a functional grenade toss, and I appreciate them putting it in. There is also no way to hold the grenade in your hand instead of a firearm or tool. I say don't worry on this, because it is clearly in a limited state.

Spot Player - Just as the grenade just has the most basic and featureless demonstrative functionality possible, so did spotting. Mash 1, anything within 300 meters that you can see lights up with a nametag. This is obviously not how it is intended for the final run, and will likely undergo considerable cone and range limitations before beta begins.

Feel & Recoil - I felt like most anti-infantry weapons spray and require tapfire or bursts, anti-vehicular are all slow (slow travel speed and / or rate of fire) projectiles with heavy kick, and AA is mostly accurate flak sprayfire. In general, I didn't feel confident holding down left-click for too long with any high RoF weapon, even dual Quasars. If I recall correctly, it does pull the weapon up a bit, instead of simply addressing recoil with bloom. I couldn't really tell if mods were doing what they said they would (aside from scope) so I didn't get a feel for how much each variation actually changes everything.


Additional notes:
Don't disrespect sidearms, not for a damn moment. There were a few players (mainly NC) who I met pistol vs rifle and smoked them. They draw really fast, so its better to go to than a rifle from a tool. They tighten up quickly after shots, so its easier to get headshots and make every shot count. At 20m or further I'd prefer a rifle, but inside of 20m I think I take the pistol instead. And yes, pistols can be accessorized with upgrades too.

SOE was giving out these nifty lil collapsible stylus pens for touchscreen devices.

PSU meetup failed to happen (or at least I somehow missed it if it happened anyway). Oh well, maybe next year!

Alright I'm back up in 6 hours so I'm cutting the post here and logging off. I took pictures of all the cert trees (except weapon-specific ones) and I'll post them tomorrow. If I see any more questions or requests before I leave tomorrow morning, I'll do what I can to get answers.

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Day 3

Best in Show from GameInformer, what a great way to wrap up E3. I'm really happy for the PS2 team and all of SOE, and I'm happy for fans who are eager to play. This is going to be one helluva great game.

So I had seen a question about experience. I got confirmation that all experience point values in the live alpha demo are just there to represent that tasks provide different amounts of experience. They are in no way set in stone, or even close to what the values will actually be by the time beta has arrived

MAX AV vs AI was interesting, but again it still needs to undergo balancing. I fired what seemed like 15 direct hits of some very powerful AV weapons on a MAX, and it was still standing and firing back. However, I can take out a MAX by spraying it in the face with direct fire from a rifle.

Don't ask me about shotguns, as I have no answers. There were no infantry shotguns for us to use. Didn't seem like they would be too useful in that particular zone of the continent.

One more comment about air - I saw a fella jump on and pwn with a scythe. He'd been a top-25 ranked BF3 pilot (maybe still is) and said it was basically like easy mode for him because the Scythe handles so well.

I dunno what more I have to say... other than whats on these new pictures!

8 - Yay, two Vanu. Plus I have an orange cape!
9 - That beamer is sweet. She really liked her armor, too.
10 - More Vanu. Special thanks to Danicia for all the awesome coverage, and making sure that everyone got all the awesome swag that was available!
11 - More Vanu. I got a chance to ask TRay about biodiversity across a continent, and he showed me (on the map) where there's highlands and dry flats and other areas that'll be different.
12 - More Vanu. Margaret Krohn did a fantastic job with the live streams. It is awesome to have a talented game designer who is also able to do cool things with the community!
13 - Natsume's giant inflatable cow for Harvest Moon. Has nothing to do with PS2 though, NC ate all the wildlife on Auraxis because they are savages. Then again, that was AFTER the TR shot all the wildlife to clear the land for development (because they are savages too).

As for the certification pages, I'll be adding all those images in a new post.

[Neurotoxin]

I'll have to try it again tomorrow. I was told later a bit about how it works:

A and D are now turning and not strafing from what I understand.

Moving the mouse left and right allows for banking in those directions.

W and S are still acceleration / deceleration.

More details tomorrow night.... probably way later though. I'm going to see Video Games Live perform again, even though there's something like 5 parties going on too.

[Brusi]

Thanks Neuro!

I'm really interested in knowing if "Switch Fire Grip" means switch from left-handed to right-handed, or just switch from regular rifle grip to the auxilary underslung launcher or something!

Being able to switch from left to right-handed depending on what type of cover you are aiming around would be a really cool feature.

[Envenom]

Great post. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[The Kush]

Thank you!

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by Neurotoxin

I'll have to try it again tomorrow. I was told later a bit about how it works:

A and D are now turning and not strafing from what I understand.

Moving the mouse left and right allows for banking in those directions.

W and S are still acceleration / deceleration.

More details tomorrow night.... probably way later though. I'm going to see Video Games Live perform again, even though there's something like 5 parties going on too.

I think cyco was referring to the physics comment, not the default controls. Controls are going to be remapped to whatever we're comfortable with anyway.

[Death2All]

Did you get to fly the Scythe? How did it handle? How long did your cloak last when you activated it(As Infiltrator, obviously)? How long did the Heavy Assault's shield last when you activated it? How's the recoil on weapons? Did you play Medic? If so, what was rezzing like, if you did that at all?


Sorry to bombard you with questions.

[Bags]

Cloaking seems to last ~10 - 15 seconds from what we've seen today.

[Malorn]

From the Gamespot video I also saw slow MAX health regen, which I'm fine with. Looks like it takes over 1-2 minutes for a max to fully rep, which means it's no replacement for an engineer but makes it so you aren't direly reliant on one for every minor ding you might suffer. That's good to not put too much stress on the engineers to rep up everything and they can focus on the serious damage and let the light damage heal itself. I like where that is going.

[MacXXcaM]

So there's insta nade throw... Can you also select a grenade as weapon and throw it by pressing left mouse? This is pretty important for me.

Any words on spotting?

[Malorn]

Originally Posted by MacXXcaM

Any words on spotting?

The picture of the control scheme showed a "spot player" key.

[Brusi]

Yeah, i'd also like to hear your opinion on the spotting system

[MacXXcaM]

Originally Posted by Malorn

The picture of the control scheme showed a "spot player" key.

That's why I mentioned it. I believe BF3-like 3D spotting was shown off earlier and many people including myself aren't that happy about it.

[ringring]

Originally Posted by Neurotoxin

I'll have to try it again tomorrow. I was told later a bit about how it works:

A and D are now turning and not strafing from what I understand.

Moving the mouse left and right allows for banking in those directions.

W and S are still acceleration / deceleration.

More details tomorrow night.... probably way later though. I'm going to see Video Games Live perform again, even though there's something like 5 parties going on too.

oh oh, sounds ok for right handed people but not for lefties like me.

[ringring]

Originally Posted by Bags

Cloaking seems to last ~10 - 15 seconds from what we've seen today.

Aye, but perhaps it changes and is much longer when weapon holstered, player is stood still and crouched etc.