News: E3 Gamespot hands-on demo & Higby Interview

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by meiam

The one things that worry me is the fact that apparently you can buy in game resource with money, all fair game to me, but it kinda take away from the idea of denying empire certain resource. The more they show the less there seem to be any reason to target specific hex... in fact the more they show the less there even seems to be a reason to even capture hex.

Didn't see where you could buy in game resources. Side grades can be bought with in game resources or station cash but I think you still need certs for some of that stuff too.

So things like grenades, maybe maxes, vehicle modifications will still require specific resources from in game and those 4 types of in game resources are not purchasable.

Consumables, like grenades, possibly maxes, certain mods on vehicles will use these in game resources after you have done the one time unlock/character.

I'd be surprised if they let us buy in game resources for money. I hope there isn't a way to trade these resources as that just promotes the farmers...being free to play you'd probably see account logging on all over the place just to collect resources to then on sell. This would be very sad in deed.

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by meiam

2:14 would like to disagree with you

No it doesn't disagree with him/her. What he said is araxium (spelling) is the in game resource that can be used to purchase the side grades which is a one of cost or station cash can be used instead. Where araxium and the other 3 in game resources are important is for consumables which includes grenades, probably maxes, vehicle upgrades.

So for like a laser sight on your rifle you can buy it once for your character using araxium or station cash. From then on you never pay anything to use that laser sight.

For grenades you'll have to use in game resources which are only obtainable from in game every time you buy them. Every time you what a special turret you've unlocked for your tank you'll also have to spend the in game resources and if you don't have enough of them then you can apply that turret to your tank.

I'm pretty sure araxium is the generic resource for all 3 factions. Then there will be 1 resource for each faction which is used for faction specific upgraded consumables. So a upgraded turrent might cost you something like 50 units of resource x to put on a tank you are spawning. If you don't have 50 of those resources you don't get to spawn the tank with that turret and you have to just use the stock turrets.

This will promote people not just chain calling fully upgraded tanks and not taking care of them. You'll probably see a lot more tactics like running in and attacking then retreating to repair because it makes more sense resource wise.

To reiterate Matt doesn't say anywhere in there that you'll be able to buy in game resources. Just that some things can be bought with in game resources or station cash. Some people will buy all their stuff with station cash to leave as much resources for the consumables as possible. Others will spend araxium and save their real world money, others won't even bother getting things like cosmetic upgrades at all.

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by Shogun

i have a question about the out of game data flow and apps!

how is this thing protected? can everybody access everybodys infos via this datastream? if not, do we have to provide our account and password to the app to be able to access what we are supposed to access?
how are we going to be sure not to give our info to an evil hacking pirate appwriter?

They'll probably do a similar thing to EVE. For character specific data that is deemed not public you'll probably either be able to generate a key that others can use to see that data, which you can delete at any time. This means you could generate 1 key and anyone using that key could look at your info that you've given that key access too.

I'd be very surprised if any of this data is anything but read only. Like what certs you have, what upgrades you've bought, access to K/D information.

Smart app writers might be able to write apps that can track players if those players have given out keys that allow access to location information but that is easily mitigated by either not giving out your access keys, knowing where your app you are using came from, changing your access keys periodically, etc.

Key point will be things like:

• Never install an application on any device that you don't trust the producer of the application.
• Change your access keys periodically if you give the key out incase the key has made its way to the wild internet some how.
• Limit what information you allow the key to see.

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by kaffis

It's already been stated that the game (or perhaps PS2's own website, if that's the preferred interface for this) will allow you to either make your information public or private. We don't know how granular these options will be -- will it be all-or-nothing, or can you choose some things to be public info and others to be private?

However, if it's public, it'll be available for apps to access with the APIs Sony is building.

It hasn't been confirmed, but it's pretty doubtful that those public APIs will include any login widgets, because allowing 3rd party apps to legitimately accept login info opens the door for malicious apps to fake the interface and instead capture your info.

To this end, I'm glad to see the announced 1st party app, which will hopefully include all those things we want a mobile app to do which would require logging in. Things like the VOIP, managing cert spending while not in-game, etc.

Then, we can include the community in all the purely informational stuff, allowing them to come up with customized UIs to present the information or innovative new ways to process and collate it.

This is exactly why the "EVE" approach of using access keys is most likely.

IE You generate a key using PS2 web site that has access to different info on your character. You then provide that access key to anyone you want to be able to see that data. If that key makes it out into the wild then you can always delete the key, making any attempt to use it fail.

as compared with giving specific people in game access to your data. This is because this approach would mean those players would have to log in via the app using their in game credentials which is a security nightmare.

EVE's method is very flexible and doesn't allow any account security problems. But again you have to remember that even if PS2 uses this method that you never install an app that you don't trust the source of. This is because even though the data is accessed using a key and the data doesn't expose any userid/passwords it doesn't mean that the app, besides doing what it says it will do, isn't doing something like keystroke logging and waiting for you to log into PS2 or even the SOE forums and transmit that to the writer of the app.

[DEA]

Lots of UN-answered questions for sure. Regardless the stuff looks promising.

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by Coreldan

It was one of the video interviews with at least Higby sometime before E3. Sadly don't have the link at hand and no time to search it either, maybe someone else does

I remember him saying the same type of thing. He also said that while the API could give a strategic advantage to inventive programmers he believed that since everyone has access to this info that it would so make its way out into the wild and everyone could use it if they wanted to.

This would be things like now in PS1 where if you watched the map closely you'd see the signs of people back hacking, draining bases, cloaker killing behind the lines, etc.

If a programmer was really cleaver they might be able to track other players in a limited fashion by watching where they are killing others. But this all depends on if location information is provided with the kill stats. Even so if you are a sniper and head shot someone your position won't be given away...just where the player you killed was when they died.

[WNxThentar]

Originally Posted by infy

Without boost i can see it taking some time to unlock certain weapons, i know i didn't have the patience to unlock the heroes in LoL by playing without boost and what not. Support the game. Don't be like this player "TITICO", he's what you would call a true f2p warrior. Only paid for one game these last 3-4 years?

You have 2 parts to this. First is some side grades will require certain certifications to be able to purchase. Second is you'll have to spend some station cash or in game resources to make the one off purchase.

The amount of in game resources you accumulate is based of a few things.

• Combat, by being involved with capturing points, killing players, etc you gain resources
• Terriorty held gives you resources over time. So the longer your empire holds a piece of land the more of what ever resource that land produces you will get.

Certification points Matt thinks will typically amount to about 10 minutes of game play time. More if you are off line. Less if you are really good at the role you are playing. This is, of course, subject to being tweaked.

This might seem a lot but while some low level certifications will only cost 1 cert point. Some of the higher ones may cost hundreds and as an MMO they'll be introducing new stuff that will have new certification trees. So adding in 1 vehicle to the game could cost potentially thousands of cert points to fully master.

I imagine that Araxium isn't going to be much of an issue for most players. If you are very active you'll probably be earning it at a pretty quick rate. If you don't play much then you'll probably not be using much of it but still accumulating it while off line because of the lands your empire controls.

I imagine that it is the faction specific resources that will be the ones you'll be trying to manage more by either controlling or denying other empires from getting.

Remember you don't need all the side grades for a weapon. There might be a dozen different type of sights but many of them might not work with your play style so you won't be buying everything.

I think they have a good balance going here so far.

[Noivad]

Best Info about PS3 ever. Would have liked more info on Time to Train Vehicles Skills up all the way, Eve online can take months Real Time to train, but other then that excellent cross section on everything and very good comments well.