News: Community Q&A With Higby

[mr sandman]

i have never played planetside and i was wondering if it would still be worthit to get the first planetside.

[dsi]

Originally Posted by mr sandman

i have never played planetside and i was wondering if it would still be worthit to get the first planetside.

It'll get your hopes up for PS2, so no.

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

Higby, its pretty important for vehicles too. Nobody ever gunned from third person in tanks/atvs/lightnings/etc, it was just beneficial for driving through trees and avoiding squishing friendlies in a base. And popping out with a vehicle is nowhere near as effective with infantry, since vehicles have actual inertia and acceleration times, something infantry lacks.

All the more reason to separate gunning and driving and letting drivers focus on driving instead of trying to split their attention and falling off cliffs (*cough*GDCVideo*cough*). It's like SOE is trying to go in two directions at once with vehicles when the game is going casual-only everywhere else. Sadly they'll probably fall onto the casual side (casualside?) when they realize that they need to make a choice

[Graywolves]

My experience with spotting makes me feel like it just makes people all shoot at the same guy and handicaps the guy who was spotted. It's like a crutch that's only 2 feet long. Yeah it does something but the players relying on it are gimped.


There are some things that some players just need to be told. A lot of people don't understand to check their mini-map frequently or to simply look around.


Spotting solves nothing.

[Owalpo]

Originally Posted by Graywolves

My experience with spotting makes me feel like it just makes people all shoot at the same guy and handicaps the guy who was spotted. It's like a crutch that's only 2 feet long. Yeah it does something but the players relying on it are gimped.


There are some things that some players just need to be told. A lot of people don't understand to check their mini-map frequently or to simply look around.


Spotting solves nothing.

It will be helpful in the open landscape. It will allow battle lines to be formed. If my squad knows where some enemies are they will attack them in a formal way. If they don't they are just going to scramble in like chickens with their heads cut-off.

And if it is limited to squad only it will benefit everyone as you along with everyone else will get exp.

[Graywolves]

Originally Posted by Owalpo

It will be helpful in the open landscape. It will allow battle lines to be formed. If my squad knows where some enemies are they will attack them in a formal way. If they don't they are just going to scramble in like chickens with their heads cut-off.

And if it is limited to squad only it will benefit everyone as you along with everyone else will get exp.

Or you could just shoot at the enemy, that usually lights up where they are. Communication works too.

[Owalpo]

Originally Posted by Graywolves

Or you could just shoot at the enemy, that usually lights up where they are. Communication works too.

It will benefit players with out microphones. And give players without one ability to help their squad.

A little red marker goes a long and better way then "uhhzf ovr theer them rocks!!!>>"

If you are in a massive battle and you are a squad leader and want your squad to single out a group of people or vehicles the ability to target them for your squad will be faster and easier then having to call it out or type out. Especially if your squad is scrambled.

You can't say the tanks to the northeast if half your squad is busy in other matters a couple dozen meters away from you.

And like I said before we don't don't the extent of their 3D spotting. Don't even say the GDC video as Higby already said the kill cams in the demo where not final either.

Also remember, they don't just put this stuff in for shits and gigs. There are reasons. Video game makers don't put 'Pointless' things in.

[dsi]

Originally Posted by Owalpo

It will benefit players with out microphones. And give players without one ability to help their squad.

A little red marker goes a long and better way then "uhhzf ovr theer them rocks!!!>>"

If you are in a massive battle and you are a squad leader and want your squad to single out a group of people or vehicles the ability to target them for your squad will be faster and easier then having to call it out or type out. Especially if your squad is scrambled.

You can't say the tanks to the northeast if half your squad is busy in other matters a couple dozen meters away from you.

If you don't know how to communicate (mic, text, or radio system) that's your problem. Game mechanics can't fix bad players, they can only bring everyone down to the same level.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by Owalpo

It will benefit players with out microphones. And give players without one ability to help their squad.

A little red marker goes a long and better way then "uhhzf ovr theer them rocks!!!>>"

If you are in a massive battle and you are a squad leader and want your squad to single out a group of people or vehicles the ability to target them for your squad will be faster and easier then having to call it out or type out. Especially if your squad is scrambled.

You can't say the tanks to the northeast if half your squad is busy in other matters a couple dozen meters away from you.

As long as 3D spotting is squad only, it will be fine. But until I see SOE confirm that's how it will work, I feel like we have as much chance of getting it to be squad only as winning the lottery.

[Owalpo]

Originally Posted by dsi

If you don't know how to communicate (mic, text, or radio system) that's your problem. Game mechanics can't fix bad players, they can only bring everyone down to the same level.

I don't how a system could bring everyone down if it is simply to used to figure out where people are. If the system is squad only and as soon as you lose LoS the target disappears then it doesn't bring anyone down. It helps those who don't have a microphone and those who don't want to die typing or use a generic radio system "Over there!". Ya that will help.

[Yutty]

one of things i hated in bf3 was looking up at the sky and only seeing a orange helicopter icon. Pretty lame shooting at a icon, sounds like 3d spotting is gonna be staying for the noobs who find it too hard to spot things with their eyes and need a icon to shoot at.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by Owalpo

I don't how a system could bring everyone down if it is simply to used to figure out where people are. If the system is squad only and as soon as you lose LoS the target disappears then it doesn't bring anyone down. It helps those who don't have a microphone and those who don't want to die typing or use a generic radio system "Over there!". Ya that will help.

3D spotting doesn't just help you figure out where people are, it tells you where they are with such precision that you can shoot at the 3D marker and not the player. Also, if the player moves, the marker moves with him.

2D spotting also helps those who don't have microphones. The way this works is, you see the enemy on your 2D minimap, and you point yourself in that direction. You know where they are, but you still have to spend a moment looking for them to actually get your eye on him. And if he's not in line of sight, you have to actually travel around the obstacle to look, or else ignore them and play the objective. 3D spotting goes the extra step of giving you something to simply place your aiming sight on and fire.

[Owalpo]

Originally Posted by Yutty

one of things i hated in bf3 was looking up at the sky and only seeing a orange helicopter icon. Pretty lame shooting at a icon, sounds like 3d spotting is gonna be staying for the noobs who find it too hard to spot things with their eyes and need a icon to shoot at.

If you ever played Planetside then you know aircraft rarely stay around to long. And by time a aircraft got into a populated area everyone and their mother would be shooting at it. So spotting only lasts as the person who spotted has eyes on the target. That icon would go away really fast.

Air vehicles are not the main problem for spotting other aspects are.

[Ertwin]

Originally Posted by Owalpo

So spotting only lasts as the person who spotted has eyes on the target.

Now there's an idea. If you're spotting someone, you have to keep them in your sights or the marker goes away. Possibly making it so you can't shoot while spotting.

[Owalpo]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

3D spotting doesn't just help you figure out where people are, it tells you where they are with such precision that you can shoot at the 3D marker and not the player. Also, if the player moves, the marker moves with him.

Yes that is bad 3D spotting I know. I have covered this with you before, you are better than that.

What I am saying is a better more appropriate 3D spotting alternative that I would think would do well for the game.

Lets say for example it's limited to squads.

Squad leader has eyes on a tank. Tells his squad he wants it gone. So he spots it. Tank gets out of the squad leaders line of sight and the marker goes away.

Now you might say that is pointless. Why have the spotting system if it goes away the second the person who spotted it loses sight of it?

Simple, to allow players who don't want to talk, who don't have mics, who are deaf, who have lung cancer, who are socially awkward, what ever the case may be. It will allow them to communicate to their squad enemy locations, but it will not make everyone a homing missile running towards a orange dot on screen.

It gives PS2 a larger community, a stronger and more intelligent community at that. Would you rather have all the above people giving no tactical help or at the very least some? I take the latter.

[Stardouser]

Originally Posted by Owalpo

Yes that is bad 3D spotting I know. I have covered this with you before, you are better than that.

What I am saying is a better more appropriate 3D spotting alternative that I would think would do well for the game.

Lets say for example it's limited to squads.

Squad leader has eyes on a tank. Tells his squad he wants it gone. So he spots it. Tank gets out of the squad leaders line of sight and the marker goes away.

Now you might say that is pointless. Why have the spotting system if it goes away the second the person who spotted it loses sight of it?

Simple, to allow players who don't want to talk, who don't have mics, who are deaf, who have lung cancer, who are socially awkward, what ever the case may be. It will allow them to communicate to their squad enemy locations, but it will not make everyone a homing missile running towards a orange dot on screen.

It gives PS2 a larger community, a stronger and more intelligent community at that. Would you rather have all the above people giving no tactical help or at the very least some? I take the latter.

That definitely may be a better implementation of the mechanic, but two things:
1. People 2D spotting is not "no tactical help".
2. There's no proof that 3D spotting brings a larger community, as any game that has ever had 3D spotting simply has it, period. There have been no massive community wide polls(although SOE could do it for sure through the beta interface), and no controlled studies have been performed on the issue, in other words, games that did or did not have it could just as easily have been more or less popular because of other features. Also, it doesn't make the community stronger or more intelligent, because the skills you have to have to find the enemy with your own eyes will not be developed if you don't have to find them with your own eyes.