PS2 Business Model

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by Goku

Easy enough to add just objects later on. Gotta spend money to make money after all.

I was thinking more the rendering itself. If I understood Higby right when he was talking about vehicle hacking he hinted that the engine is already being pushed to the limits in terms of the sheer amount of textures it needs to render in a battle. You can only pump so much to the graphics card before you need to start swapping textures with system RAM again, and if that happens constantly your frame rate takes a nose dive.

In a game where you can potentially have hundreds of characters on screen, with potentially hundreds of flashy cosmetic items, this could turn into a real problem.

[moosepoop]

a set of uniform cosmetic items for outfits is fine.

[Goku]

Originally Posted by Gandhi

I was thinking more the rendering itself. If I understood Higby right when he was talking about vehicle hacking he hinted that the engine is already being pushed to the limits in terms of the sheer amount of textures it needs to render in a battle. You can only pump so much to the graphics card before you need to start swapping textures with system RAM again, and if that happens constantly your frame rate takes a nose dive.

In a game where you can potentially have hundreds of characters on screen, with potentially hundreds of flashy cosmetic items, this could turn into a real problem.

All this will have to be explored. Though I already heard Matt say he wants outfits to be more identifiable between each other and he hinted at armor/vehicle cosmetic difference.

I will admit I don't know that much about programming. If I have to guess I would assume changing a few colored areas on a armor from say Yellow to black, isn't going to make everyone have 10 FPS. I am not talking making backpacks, different shin/arm pads, or even helmets either. That will I know make the FPS go bonkers due possibly more complex designs.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by Goku

All this will have to be explored. Though I already heard Matt say he wants outfits to be more identifiable between each other and he hinted at armor/vehicle cosmetic difference.

I will admit I don't know that much about programming. If I have to guess I would assume changing a few colored areas on a armor from say Yellow to black, isn't going to make everyone have 10 FPS. I am not talking making backpacks, different shin/arm pads, or even helmets either. That will I know make the FPS go bonkers due possibly more complex designs.

Yeah recoloring textures is a pretty cheap operation, and depending on texture sizes you could even pack the cosmetic versions into the same file to avoid having to load them separately.

I do graphics programming for a living (albeit with OpenGL), so when I see things like this the first thing I think is "I wonder how they're rendering this"

[Dreamcast]

I agree.....but I wonder if you f2p enough to support the servers?....I mean if people buy the game which will be around $50 at most, will that enough for the servers and updates to be maintained?


First of I like the subscription model but I understand that alot of people these days don't believe in paying subscription so I understand that F2P might be the way to go



I do like your idea which is similar to LoL....atleast the paying aspect...Sure you can pay and level faster but once you cap, you cap and are equal to other players which I like.


So I do like the fact that nobody is going to be OP because they have more money...also people do like buying skins and things like that.

Also that might be good for casual players who don't have lots of time on there hand, which seems like soe cares about alot since they put offline skill progress.


The only thing I didnt really like is

* Complete character re-spec....I guess because Im used for it to be free but this will be a big cash cow for Planetside since people wont want to create new characters.




Another thing I will be worried about using this sytem, is the future.


SOE already said that resources are important.....I would really hate it if they got greedy and charged on something that could make you actually superior.

[2coolforu]

Originally Posted by moosepoop

i enjoy the game and i am gonna be here as long as i like. i just dont like the subscription fee for a shooter. its bizzare.



nope. reserves means you can play free indefinitely forever. that doesnt make money. microtransaction is the way.

No microtransaction shooter has ever worked, have you played Battlefied Free 2 play or Battlefield Heroes, or maybe even World of Tanks. They suck since they went Micro.

[2coolforu]

Originally Posted by moosepoop

i enjoy the game and i am gonna be here as long as i like. i just dont like the subscription fee for a shooter. its bizzare.



nope. reserves means you can play free indefinitely forever. that doesnt make money. microtransaction is the way.

Reserves don't make money? Yes they do, reserves brought thousands of new players, you merely limit the Battlerank or the amount of skills you can get on a reserve character then people sub after they've played the game for a few months and actually want to advance.

Reserves really upped Planetsides population during one of the most dire times, and sub for an MMO isn't bizarre, its the status quo if you want to have a server than can handle 100,000 unique users all shooting stuff up. That kind of game requires the computing power of a university grade supercomputer.

[moosepoop]

Originally Posted by 2coolforu

No microtransaction shooter has ever worked, have you played Battlefied Free 2 play or Battlefield Heroes, or maybe even World of Tanks. They suck since they went Micro.

lol. team fortress 2 is microtransaction, its perfectly balanced and its the most played game on steam. get with the program.

[2coolforu]

No, Team Fortress 2 is nothing like Planetside. Firstly the dedi's are player run. Secondly it has a 'Free 2 play' aspect very similar to the idea of 'reserves'. Thirdly a large amount of the community hates the microtransactions for being insipid and fourthly it was ran for a large amount of time without any hats. Fifthly the items can be obtained ingame with enough time spent, the money is also not used to fund the game its merely money for valve - we are referring to a payment method used to fund the servers.

Also its not an MMO, so we've no idea whether it would fund servers anyway.

[moosepoop]

MAG doesnt need subscription. global agenda is free to play. also mmofps.

in fact their devs say f2p saved the game.




son, if you irrationally want to give a video game company loads of extra money for no good reason, they will take it. but i would like people to pay reasonable amount of money, still support the company, and not get milked.

[2coolforu]

Originally Posted by moosepoop

MAG doesnt need subscription. global agenda is free to play. also mmofps.

in fact their devs say f2p saved the game.




son, if you irrationally want to give a video game company loads of extra money for no good reason, they will take it. but i would like people to pay reasonable amount of money, still support the company, and not get milked.

And guess what? The MAG servers suck ass and drop you all the time, Global Agenda is basically failing and is instanced small scale combat not 1000 player battles, none of those games has had any success nor do they come close to Planetside in scale and numbers.

Also I love your logic, paying a fixed subscription to get updates and support the game is being milked but having to buy items at exorbitant prices just to stay competitive isn't? Micro transactions for items is basically extorting you into paying cash and half the time they end up being more expensive than regular subs.

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by moosepoop

global agenda is free to play. also mmofps.

This statement is blasphemy.

[2coolforu]

Originally Posted by Raymac

This statement is blasphemy.

Lol yeah, instanced 16 player is massively multiplayer

[Zulthus]

I personally hope this game won't be F2P, if it's good, I want to spend my $15 a month for continued content updates, hacker removal, etc. I'm not sure how to describe it, but to me, the game wouldn't feel... normal to play without a sub... I don't know. I'm talking out of my ass.

[NCLynx]

Originally Posted by moosepoop

lol. team fortress 2 is microtransaction, its perfectly balanced and its the most played game on steam. get with the program.

Team HATress 2 is a damn joke. It's not even about shooting people anymore it's about hats.