News: Lunch interview with Higby: Complete

[Bags]

@ Higby:



Okay, I typed up what higby said. It's in my sticky and here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1.../edit?hl=en_US

[Raymac]

So much to digest there. (pun intended, sorry)

Thanks for asking my question. I really like what Higby had to say about base design. I'm really looking forward to the first glimpses of it.

[Bags]

I think I liked everything he said.

That's a first! Even more pumped now.

Okay, I typed up what higby said. It's in my sticky and here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1.../edit?hl=en_US

[Sirisian]

(Missed the part where he said it might take hours of gameplay to get an upgrade). Not sure what time it was at).

[NapalmEnima]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

(Missed the part where he said it might take hours of gameplay to get an upgrade). Not sure what time it was at).

Relatively late IIRC. It had to do with permanent resource purchases that were high ticket items vs a slow steady drain for little stuff like a night vision scope per respawn. No examples of what those high-ticket items might be.

One of my own questions didn't make the list: scriptable gui customization al a WoW? Derp.

[Raymac]

I can't tell you how disappointed I am that I won't be able to upload pictures of my junk. I'm not sure I'll even play this game now.

[Captain1nsaneo]

He said it could take hours to get the resources to unlock a weapon vs spending a smaller amount on getting mod for a tank.

Also: "Thinking about letting you shoot out of a sunderer with your own gun."
BATTLE FORTRESS WOOOO!

Not happy about the reduced number of players needed to man tanks and aircraft though. Don't like the idea of MBTs only taking 1 person to drive them. Number of people required to man vehicles is part of their balancing. Let me put it this way: would you like to both gun and drive the thresher at the same time?

[FIREk]

Originally Posted by Captain1nsaneo

Not happy about the reduced number of players needed to man tanks and aircraft though. Don't like the idea of MBTs only taking 1 person to drive them. Number of people required to man vehicles is part of their balancing. Let me put it this way: would you like to both gun and drive the thresher at the same time?

I think buggies will be gunned by a separate player - this is pretty much certain, as this is how it works in BFBC2.

I can't argue with the logic behind "if you leveled up the certs to drive a tank you deserve to gun it, not some random guy". Also, i you're zerging in a tank, and end up with a lame gunner, you might as well have never rolled the tank out in the first place.
Guess this means tanks will be a lot softer targets now?

[Graywolves]

Thanks for the doc, Bags

[CrystalViolet]

Admittedly, I'm very liberal about the devs making changes to the original formula, but I've gotta say this interview above all others gives me faith that Higglesworth knows what he's doing.

[Captain1nsaneo]

At the very end Mr.Higby mentions a self kill command. PS used to have the command /suicide, it was removed because players would make a macro for it and hit it just before they died denying BEP to whoever killed them. If PS2 is to have such a command I'd recommend adding a timer to it similar to instant action.

[Brusi]

I'm guessing the google doc isn't opening, cause it is in high demand?

Anyone else having problems?

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Brusi

I'm guessing the google doc isn't opening, cause it is in high demand?

Anyone else having problems?

>3 viewers

I'll copy paste it for you

Information from PSU Higby Lunch Interview:

• Drivers gun their own vehicles too
• Can spawn in flying galaxy; has equipment terminals, and can spawn maxes
• Each continent will not by 100% one environment
• Trying to use as much space as possible on each continent for fighting
• Big marketing push planned
• Spawn tubes still in for deconstructing
• Death screen allows you to look at certs and choose class; equipment terminals let you change class
• MAX can heal somehow in PS2
• Hacking is in PS2; mechanism is not some mini-game, focus on action
• Boomers in PS2 in some form
• Data of play time and play trends mined from PS1; but not how many bullets have been fired and the like
• Equipment timers still in
• Resources never limit what vehicles you can pull; tanks will not require grass!
• Resources used to add modifications to vehicles, such as mortar/better AI/etc on tank for secondary gunner
• Resources can unlock things forever; not a 100% constant drain of resources for everything
• Choose between saving for an upgrade and adding small things to weapons / vehicles (with resources)
• Place turrets, someone mans it (not auto), such as a heavy machine gun, you get xp for their kills, but you can use it yourself (you get more xp if you use it to kill)
• Different engineer lines in the trees such as an explosive line
• Classes are nailed down; not ready to reveal
• Tested with entire dev team (50+) and with bots to test load / latency
• Auto-Missions: help new players that login for first time; puts big shiny things on screen to give high priority missions, autosquads you based on preferences (outfit/anyone/never): this is the automatic side, allows to do population balance
• Player Missions: SL, OL, officers allowed to create missions; "infiltrate/capture" base, outfit mates will see these as higher priority mission
• Resource poor empires can still pull all vehicles / weapons; pretty much impossible to lock down an empire or one continent because of other open continents
• Resources earned passively based on territory that your empire owns on the continent you are fighting on
• Can pick up resource canisters from crashed vehicles, just a few resources
• No specific plan for server transfer function, but not hard to add
• To get to the end of a skill tree (some are more in-depth depending on if they are core class skill trees or vehicle/ class), so can take anywhere from days to weeks
• Only one character can train per account at once offline (F2P so make as many as you want!)
• Probably add Facebook integration kind of stuff, but not a requirement to play the game, can use it to send information about capturing a base
• Group transports keep everyone together, nice to sit back and take a breathe while en-route, Sunderers in game, will have some unique aspect - some cool stuff, very well armored at the moment, but up to the person speccing the vehicle, maybe adding gunports to shoot out of (jackhammers!)
• Reaver is one seater
• Empire specific fighters confirmed
• Hot dropping from mossies: yes
• Bases are completely different from PS1 bases; no more room hallway room hallway, much more open and cyclical; one of the bases feels a lot closer to sort of level design in Call of Duty
• Bases designed to be captured in the end
• In-game rez, medics healing ray increased by progressing down class, no stimpack thing, mostly about healing and resurrecting
• Time to kill variable, general faster than PS1, slower than Bad company, much slower than Modern Warfare
• Shields replace armor, shields regen if you don’t take damage, health takes full damage, no BLOODY SCREEN health heal, different types of shields (regen slower, higher max, faster regen timer)
• Medkits in PS2
• Character creation has relatively limited face customization, but weapons / vehicle / armor / undersuit has a lot, most of the time you will have a helmet on
• Developer sprint cycles are one month
• F2P chosen as that is the direction of industry, maybe a box price, maybe not
• Enemies probably can’t see into footholds; footholds will not move or rotate
• No hacker class
• TR max face no longer exposed
• Not sure if music composer has been picked yet
• Lots of ways for air vehicles to hide such as in cloud = literally invisible
• Higby loves me
• Plan to take care of PS1 players in PS2, some benefits for PS1 players
• Right now can’t pull bullets out of a dead player’s backpack
• Spawning happens
• No DX9, using DX10+ (he thinks)
• Hopefully a ton of servers at launch
• Flying and hovering works very well, requires you paying attention to the game, hard to be precise, transition isn’t so great though; easy to learn, difficult to master
• If shot in an open air vehicle, hurt the player most likely
• All stuff is WIP
• In-game voice, can set ignores on people, lots of voice macros, some automatic (I’m taking fire!), some manual (hotkeyed)
• Cannot hear enemies via vivox voice
• Hopes weather system is in at launch; lots of weather effects
• Change classes at terminal and respawn
• 3 year dev plan is already being planned, want to allow players to decide which features are more important for the 3 year dev plan (expect to see within a couple months)
• Higby loves naval warfare
• Uncapturable footholds are like a base, well more like a fortified warpgate
• Trying to figure out how salvaging will work; if it’s an actual item, or just get resources
• No seat switching at the moment
• Grenade killing depends on type of character and grenade
• Yyyyes to empire specific heavy assault weapons
• Beta as soon as ready
• Jet-troops will not be medics / engineers, agility but can get cut off
• All classes allowed at BR1
• There will be a max killer class
• Auto-run for MAX is still in
• MAXes are on timers
• MAXes cost no resources
• There will be merits hopefully
• You will be able to allow people to apply for your outfit
• Might be a self kill command, probably not a good strategy to use it
• Galaxy can hold ten people
• Buggies on list of things to put in, hopefully

[NapalmEnima]

Originally Posted by Bags

• Can spawn in flying galaxy; has equipment terminals, and can spawn maxes

But only if the gal pilot has progressed that far in their cert tree.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Spawn tubes still in for deconstructing

And transportation.

We need to ask if there will be "matrixing panels" in PS2, and what spawn locations will be available when you're dead/deconstructed.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Death screen allows you to look at certs and choose class; equipment terminals let you change class

*A* terminal will let you change class, I didn't specifically ask about equipment terminals allowing class changes. Might be a standard equipment term, might not.

Originally Posted by Bags

• MAX can heal somehow in PS2

Huh? They'll have health kits like everyone else, if that's what you mean.

We need to ask about MAXes resupplying their allies.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Player Missions: SL, OL, officers allowed to create missions; "infiltrate/capture" base, outfit mates will see these as higher priority mission

Missions from higher ranking players give larger XP bonuses. No mention of resource bonuses for completing missions.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Resources earned passively based on territory that your empire owns on the continent you are fighting on

I fear this will encourage folks to bail on losing continents for continents where their empire is winning.

The auto-mission system can certainly compensate for that.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Can pick up resource canisters from crashed vehicles, just a few resources

Higby mentioned the crashed Galaxy as a "point of interest". I suspect there will be quite a few, perhaps one per hex? Encouraging exploration.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Group transports keep everyone together, nice to sit back and take a breathe while en-route, Sunderers in game, will have some unique aspect - some cool stuff, very well armored at the moment, but up to the person speccing the vehicle, maybe adding gunports to shoot out of (jackhammers!)

The way this is written could lead someone to believe that gun ports are part of the way the driver specs their Sunderer. They're under discussion from a design perspective. May be optional if they add 'em, maybe not.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Hot dropping from mossies: yes

Hot drop from all air: yes

Originally Posted by Bags

• Bases are completely different from PS1 bases; no more room hallway room hallway, much more open and cyclical; one of the bases feels a lot closer to sort of level design in Call of Duty

closer to CoD design in that there are multiple lanes that are "porous". You can switch lanes in various places and they can "interact" (blow the shit out of each other) to some degree.

I imagine something like a warehouse with several large aisles running its length, but you can still take frequent side paths between the aisles.

Originally Posted by Bags

• In-game rez, medics healing ray increased by progressing down class, no stimpack thing, mostly about healing and resurrecting

"Buffs" under discussion, but Hard To Balance. I suspect they'll be part of the Three Year Plan.

Originally Posted by Bags

• TR max face no longer exposed

With the default helmet. I suspect helmet appearance may be more than cosmetic. We'll see.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Higby loves me

And IDukeNukem1

Originally Posted by Bags

• Right now can’t pull bullets out of a dead player’s backpack

Still discussing what dead folks leave behind. There's a salvage bullet point later that this could combine with.

Originally Posted by Bags

• All stuff is WIP

Work In Progress. Mostly. Classes are nailed down.

We know of:
Infiltrator
Light Assault
Heavy Assault
Medic
Engineer
MAX

AV may be a separate class, may not.
Ditto for sniper.

Originally Posted by Bags

• Grenade killing depends on type of character and grenade

Lots of potential grenade types on the drawing board.

Originally Posted by Bags

• MAXes are on timers

Not a certainty.

And that's it for my feedback. THANK YOU for typing all this up.

[nathanebht]

Originally Posted by Bags

Information from PSU Higby Lunch Interview:

• Resources can unlock things forever; not a 100% constant drain of resources for everything
• Choose between saving for an upgrade and adding small things to weapons / vehicles (with resources)

• Can pick up resource canisters from crashed vehicles, just a few resources

• Enemies probably can’t see into footholds; footholds will not move or rotate

• Right now can’t pull bullets out of a dead player’s backpack

• Trying to figure out how salvaging will work; if it’s an actual item, or just get resources

Pulling out the bullets I find interesting.

First 3 provide some new info on resources. I'm wondering if crashed vehicles are a special map feature or just a dead player vehicle.

No clue what this stuff on footholds is about. Can anyone explain?

Ammo must be limited since he is talking about pulling ammo off of the dead. Guess the infinite ammo question is now answered.

Salvaging? Don't remember any prior discussion of "salvaging" something.