Just found these two pics on Tony Park's blog

[GTGD]

ugh this just makes me want access to the beta even more. pity that it probably won't be until next year...

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by GTGD

ugh this just makes me want access to the beta even more. pity that it probably won't be until next year...

I highly doubt it will be that long. Honestly they arent developing any single player story/missions or any NPC bosses or mobs or any AI or anyting other than multiplayer. No reason the game should take as long as most FPS's.

[Baneblade]

As long as they don't name it PlanetSide Extended... I don't fucking care what it's called.

[lostabyss]

my first thought when i saw the map was "... tunnels?" which could be pretty neat if done right, well not necessarily tunnels, but perhaps trenches... now i want players to have trenching shovels so we can all hunker down into mountainsides it's not OP, it's nuke-bait.

[Tikuto]

Originally Posted by BorisBlade

I highly doubt it will be that long. Honestly they arent developing any single player story/missions or any NPC bosses or mobs or any AI or anyting other than multiplayer. No reason the game should take as long as most FPS's.

That's what I believe too!
It shouldn't take them long like most modern games, I suppose. Some literary fiction may be a necessary stimulator though, like before, it may not going to be much.

[Traak]

I like this from Smedley's blog:

What Planetside Next means to me

We all have our vices. For some gamers RPG's really do it for them. One of the things I've always loved about SOE is that we built our company on the core idea of making games across many genres, and that includes the world's first MMOFPS, Planetside.

I love Planetside. I really do. It's an amazing game. you won't find any other FPS where you can have a 100 vs. 100 battle raging. And we pulled this off 5-6 years ago.

There's a great description of a Planetside battle here:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008...netside-the-1/


I really couldn't sum it up any better than that. To me the idea of a massive firefight on that kind of scale is why I'm a gamer.

Planetside had a lot of really great things about it, but it also had some frustrating things. The whole Sanctuary concept is something that slowed things down too much. We also didn't get people back into the action quickly enough.

But the core of Planetside - massive battles with vehicles and infantry was something we nailed really well.

To me, Planetside Next means we get a chance to take the essence of everything that was fun in Planetside and make it a lot better. Massive battles on a scale no other FPS will touch. None of this 64 player stuff. REALLY MASSIVE. With much better organization, and a tight focus on making sure the action is always going on, with awesome graphics.

Damn I love Planetside. I really do.

Smed


Of the gamers, by the gamers, for the gamers, huh, Smed? Funny how Sony can be moving further towards that while the whole of, for, by the people thing is being flushed down the terlet by the U.S. gummint.

[Raymac]

I was thinking about these pics last night as I was going to bed, and I had a realization. Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but the different shades that we see on the map, like the dark section in the lower right that many of us assumed was water...I believe they actually just show elevation differences.

Dark = Low elevation
Grey = Mid elevation
White = High elevation, with shapes showing the peaks.

I don't think this map shows any water at all, just a 3D map using only black & white.

[Logit]

You know what would be great? If we didn't have to do all this speculating and the people who apparently "love this game" would just fucking say something about it.

Radio silence? Yup yup, another SOE lie.

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by Logit

You know what would be great? If we didn't have to do all this speculating and the people who apparently "love this game" would just fucking say something about it.

Radio silence? Yup yup, another SOE lie.

Chill, if they are still working on the artwork, do you think they want their first impresion to be a sketch that looks like the one on this thread? Would you be showing that off for the whole world to see, or wait until you have some pretty shineys?

EDIT: Plus, Sony has had bigger fish to fry lately. They'll be touting their new games at E3 to help people forget the "unpleasantness".

[DviddLeff]

I notice a few things:

• Warp gates: likely no single massive map
• 4 base types; factory, swirly thing, crate and a teapot.
• Faint lattice lines shown
• Possible tower spots designated (look at the raised plateaus in the NE for what I am talking about)

Now my questions:

• What the hell are the base icons?
• What are the icons in the water?
• What is the logo in the bottom right corner?
• Hossin?

[Aractain]

Im kinda hoping this is a long outdated concept idea that was massively improved since because on that map there is still no reason to fight anyware but the bases, ya knows?

[Firefly]

Originally Posted by DviddLeff

[
What is the logo in the bottom right corner?

That's what's called a compass rose. See the arrow and the "N" in the centre? It tells you which way to orient the map or, at the very least, which way is north.

[Rbstr]

I really, really doubt that we'll get a single world.

The technical challenges of that are immense. Take a game like EVE (AGAIN!) you get 1k people in a system, shit doesn't like it. Even when the basic operations of combat are more simple than a FPS in terms of calculation (targeting and random chance instead of hit detection).

4kmx4km isn't huge, but it also isn't small. It's about 2.5 miles to a side or 6.25 square miles. LA Noir, for instance, is 8 sq.mi. I don't recall original PS sizes...but I'd bet the map sizes are similar.
I think that's OK, PS map sizes were fine, the problem was how they organized things within them. Bigger could be cooler, but we'd just end up with faster vehicles. You can't have it take 30mins to drive a tank between bases.

That's definitely water, you can see the coastline sketched out. Seems like this continent is sort of an water/land inverted Cyssor.

I really worry that the land is just cut off on the edges though. That would really break immersion. Continents being surrounded by ocean that ends in a wall is one thing but the land can't simply stop.

All of you "We want navy" dudes should be happy, though. If this isn't really out dated is practically confirms watercraft, lots of hovering stuff or lots of amphibious vehicles.

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by Rbstr

That's definitely water, you can see the coastline sketched out. Seems like this continent is sort of an water/land inverted Cyssor.

All of you "We want navy" dudes should be happy, though. If this isn't really out dated is practically confirms watercraft, lots of hovering stuff or lots of amphibious vehicles.

The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced it's NOT water. The Dark is lower elevation, Grey is mid elevation, and White is high elevation. The "coastline" along the lower right is really a cliff with a few pathways much like we see on Searhus or Ceryshen. Otherwise, you are going to have a warpgate in the middle of the ocean? You are going to have rivers and lakes surrounding all the bases? I don't think so.

Think of it like this, you are put in charge of drawing a 3D map, but you only have black & white, no color. You wouldn't draw a typical topographic map because you'd have lines running everywhere. You would use a grayscale system like this to show elevations.

Sorry to be Captain Buzzkillington, but my money is on no naval units based on what we see on this map.

[Robert089]

Originally Posted by Raymac

The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced it's NOT water. The Dark is lower elevation, Grey is mid elevation, and White is high elevation. The "coastline" along the lower right is really a cliff with a few pathways much like we see on Searhus or Ceryshen.

So what are all those fish about?