500v500v500 or 2000?

[Miir]

Has Smed or Higby confirmed that the number of people Planetside 2 will support will be 500v500v500 (or 2000). I know the 500v500v500 came off Tony Parks site and the 2000 came off that other Chinese site. But since there was a bit of a communication break down with those other sites I started second guessing that information.

So I'm wondering if the dev's have actually confirmed a number?

[Brusi]

i think it's safe to say, shitloads

[Sirisian]

500x500x500x500 probably. I mean if you count the AI.</trololo>

[Goku]

Its just boggling my mind how we can even start to coordinate that. Zerg fit is going to take on a whole new meaning!

[basti]

For coordination, numbers mean nothing. THe only important thing is how you do it. You need a proper command chain, and people need to understand where they are in that chain, otherwise its one giant unorganised zerg that screws up everywhere.

[Lonehunter]

It's very simple but actually a good question on game balance.

If 500 people can get in a cont from each empire at a time, even at max capacity every population/army on that cont is equal.

But if you make it a flat number like 2000 that leaves extra spots for the pops to get unbalanced.

[MasterChief096]

I actually wouldn't mind it being a flat number meaning pops could get imbalanced.

[p0intman]

Originally Posted by Goku

Its just boggling my mind how we can even start to coordinate that. Zerg fit is going to take on a whole new meaning!

If you want to begin to understand how thousands are coordinated, I suggest people read up on how alliances conduct warfare in EVE. The scales are still smaller but you're beginning to approach a number that is far bigger than anywhere else before.

You will hit a wall where you're going to need external infastructure to coordinate base assaults and seiges and defense structure between outfits on a scale that is really only approached in the real world or in EVE. You're not going to be able to completely keep this infastructure ingame, it can't be provided because everyones needs are slightly different in such a way that third party apps might be considered. For example, skill training timers, such as EVE-Mon with the api there for characters. Industrial spreadsheets for material counts and such could be looked at for character build timers, and resource allocation spreadsheets to see what is best and what is available.

I say what I do from personal experience, but when you go past a certain number on a battlefield, you'll reach the point where you'll need overall field commanders that are trusted, then you'll need subcommanders to pass that information on to platoon/wing-level command and then squad-level information so people don't get overly confused with where they need to go and where they need to be.

and then at some point, because its human nature in PVP situations, you delve into the meta-knowledge game. Thats its own issue in and of itself and breeds issues that I don't really care to get into with rooting out spies that will use alts/forum names/etc to obtain information on other outfits for their own gain on their own main empire. There are ways to catch them if you really want to, and I don't really care to delve into the mechanics of that because I don't care to breed ideas. When you get above like... 250 people per side, you inevitably run into such things as a matter of us all being humans. It already goes on in some form in ps1.


and when i say character build apps, i mean something like this:

[SgtMAD]

Originally Posted by MasterChief096

I actually wouldn't mind it being a flat number meaning pops could get imbalanced.

yea when we had dynamic poplocks ppl hated it,one side had the main advantage and the third empire was fooked

[Erendil]

Originally Posted by HtSgtMAD

yea when we had dynamic poplocks ppl hated it,one side had the main advantage and the third empire was fooked

Yep, it generally came down to whomever could mobilize their zerg to get on cont first ended up taking the cont since they could fill 50% of the total slots on cont. The defending empire would usually get 25-35%, leaving <20% for the 3rd empire.

So yeah, give me 33%/33%/33% poplocks any day, thx.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by p0intman

I say what I do from personal experience, but when you go past a certain number on a battlefield, you'll reach the point where you'll need overall field commanders that are trusted, then you'll need subcommanders to pass that information on to platoon/wing-level command and then squad-level information so people don't get overly confused with where they need to go and where they need to be.

Chris' analytical skills are really strong.

[Trolltaxi]

I think old PS alliances of outfits will work at the start of the game. But it will work in the long run is beyond being predictable.

We need more info about how outfits and outfit benefits will work. If you can't run an outfit with multiple roles, we will have specialized groups, like aircav or armour or heavy grunt (even solely maxusers or supporters?). Using that would make it easier to coordiante in large scale. (I'd like to see outfits able to do multiple tasks, but if they can't be successful in multiple fields, why would they divide their oufit bonuses?)

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by p0intman

Eve stuff

PS will be nothing like eve since there is none of the long term strategic stuff. People will be able to fight effectively without access to resources. Resources are a perk in PS2. A very good one, but a perk nonetheless. They give access to the sidegrades of weapons and vehicles. You can still pull things with none and get the standard model.

Spies are nothing to be worried about, since a spy disrupting a raid means you're out 15 minutes. Reform, hit a new target. In eve a spy can screw over weeks of effort by hundreds or thousands of players.

And people won't band together in the thousands. Again, its necessary in eve because its your group vs everyone else. In PS you know 1/3 of the players got your back even if you run solo, and more importantly, you can identify them.


@OP: I'd take those numbers as what they are shooting for. Until there is a beta and they run stress tests, they cannot know what the limits are. Could be higher. Could be lower. But even if its 'just' 250v250v250, it would be great.

[Draep]

Newbie question, what is the scope of the current PS? How many players per cont?

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by Draep

Newbie question, what is the scope of the current PS? How many players per cont?

133v133v133