News: Community Interview with Matt Higby

[Xyntech]

Very cool interview hamma, higby, jennyboo. Very interesting and informative. It's very nice to have an interview where the interviewer knows his subject and is prepared with relevant questions, and where the interviewee is so willing to share.

I'm somewhat concerned by where the dev team is at with the dedicated gunner idea. I think it would seem pretty straight forward to remove the fixed Magrider gun and replace the gunner turret with a rotating version of the main gun. Still, I'm interested to see the current system in beta.

The external apps and api's, along with the outfits and mission systems sound really good. I think that this is another aspect that will really make Planetside 2 huge, and keep it thriving for a long time.

[2coolforu]

Higby = a bro

[Hamma]

This is the final interview in our series

[Tcakes]

strong work, thanks for taking the time to make the interviews and the staff for doing them. glad you guys got to check out whats going on

[Gandhi]

Thanks guys, cool interview

I like the dedicated gunner cert, it solves one of my biggest issues with driver/gunner. Any fool can hold down W and charge a tank into the front lines, which makes for really boring driving, but driving a tank well is a full time job in itself. You need good situational awareness, good terrain awareness. Is it more important right now to stick to flat ground to give my gunner a stable platform? Or should I be booking it to run for cover? How should I maneuver to force my target into a tough firing position? Can I position myself so that his friends can't hit me without hitting him too?

Those are the kinds of things that make tank driving fun. If I have the main gun I really can't do those things, I have to focus on shooting instead, because if I don't I'm wasting half my tank's firepower. Even in the Magrider I sometimes felt like I was screwing up if I wasn't firing on our target with the PPA as well, even though I know I should be focused on driving instead.

So being able to cert the main gun to a gunner is great, then I can drive without feeling guilty about focusing on driving. Though I hope the gunner still has the option to switch to the secondary in that case, like how switching between guns on the Vanguard worked in PS1.

[Kato]

I just want it to happen soooooooo bad right now

[xcel]

Higby is such a bro.

[SixShooter]

Great interview, I think you guys did an awesome job and I can't wait for the next community night.

[DviddLeff]

Great work - the past two videos have had some really great questions that have probed right into the matters that we have been wondering about, rather than the general gist that we have seen from general gaming sites.

Particularly the weather (and battle smoke) and missions systems discussion was fantastic.

I can't wait to put out a call to arms via my outfits phones!

[JPalmer]

This interview was awesome. I am a social media kind of guy and the whole twitter thing is sweet. Twitch.tv built in? Holy shit.

That is awesome. I love the phones messages too. I can see it now getting Galaxy missions. Creating a squad at the warp gate, invite some randoms, and head out to the objective. I could do that alllll day.

[Logri]

That was a great interview, nicely done
When I see Matt light up when he talks about PS2 it makes so happy to know that the game is being made by a very dedicated team, and tell me, how can you not like Higby, even if he is NC, he's just such a nice person :P

I also have a question that came to me while seeing this interview.

When you were playing, did you happen to team up with someone?
Reason why I ask is because I'm curious as to the amount of UI info you get when doing so.

I remember many times while in a squad or platoon, the team leader asked "who is a healer/engineer/gam pilot" etc...
When you team up, will you be able to see what class that player is and in doing so, remove the need to ask what class everyone is.

*If anyone else knows the answer, feel free to enlighten me :P

[Athanasios]

Here's a sum up (a bit coded but i guess the meaning is obvious):

edit: *) of course cheating (first question) : multiple approaches/mechanics to prevent it

1) ejection seats, aided landing (eg. shield under gal), drop pods > certs

2) secondary objectives apart from capturing points
-eg. caping a point = disabling turrets in main base

3) night cycle : under discussion

4) infiltrators = "gadgeteers"
-eg. hacking, sabotage, reckon, sensors

5) cert points : can be spent on everything

6) moon phases : now static but as in MMOs you can patch it 2 weeks laters

7) dedicated tank driver : under discussion

8) bailing in the middle of a battle > NOT beneficial

9) weather system : minimal in launch, plans for "killer" weather system post-launh
-eg. storms progressing accross continents, volumetric clouds & fog
-also directly affecting gameplay (eg radars, lock-ons)

10) outfits : full customisation
-eg. ranks, special vehicle addons

11) live stream, sharing info : yes

12) screen spamming : no

13) XML feed for data for everything + control of accessibility of the data

14) artillery : purchasable with resources
-different style for each empires
-different striking patterns possible at will

15) mobile apps & general out-of-game alerts/communication : yes
eg. "we need air-superiority @ Indar : accept / decline" as sms on your mobile or through a PS mobile app

16) rebust mission system to coordinate masses of newcomers to PS

[SniperSteve]

Gahhh--- Just about to leave the house and I see this is posted.. Looks like it could potentially be the most interesting interview yet!

[Fuse]

Originally Posted by Stardouser

Oh no. He was a bit unclear about this but I interpreted this as meaning that he wanted infiltrators to broadcast 3D spots to a wide area. That wouldn't make sense for squad only.

No one else gets this ability. He said that was one of the kinds of things they were considering for an infil's utility. I don't think he said it was in the game for sure, but it was definitely his example of "infil as recon".

Originally Posted by Xyntech

I'm somewhat concerned by where the dev team is at with the dedicated gunner idea. I think it would seem pretty straight forward to remove the fixed Magrider gun and replace the gunner turret with a rotating version of the main gun. Still, I'm interested to see the current system in beta.

What? Seriously, what?! No, you do not remove the driver's gun from the Mag. Period. You call your self Vanu? *grabs torch and pitchfork*

Even Higby knows better, and he's NC. I think what he was saying is that Vanu just wouldn't get the option of certing for the gunner to control the front turret. I'd be fine with that, it seems like it will be useless for us anyways. I hope that's what he was saying. lol


Thanks for the video, guys. That 40 minutes went by way too fast for me, haha.

[duck]

Thanks Athanasios