News: PS2 PC gamer preview

[Captain1nsaneo]

Let's see if I can lay a concrete reason that there should not be PvE.

The game is based in its mechanics for PvP. From the ground up its build to balance player vs player and the netcode is meant for this too. PvE would change that. In games that add PvP or PvE when the focus of the game wasn't on it before we see that to be good at one requires a whole different load out configuration than the other. For PS2 this might be training skills that do more damage against the AI faction or make you take less damage from them. If we expand the AI faction to being its own thing you will need to have trained a lot of skills that are solely for AI fights to be really good at it. If you do this you'll be less effective against other human players because the time you put into not being jammered by the AI faction they may have gotten further along a skill tree that makes you die.

Environmental AI in the way of birds, crabs, or fish definitely have the potential to bring more life into the game and anything that makes a richer world I'm all for.

As for Environmental AI that can damage you, don't need that. The weather should be able to more than take care of that aspect (lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, active volcanoes, etc).

[Ailos]

I think besides birds flocking out of bushes and the occasional squirrel jumping into your face from a tree, what the game needs are those carnivore plants that eat flies... only big enough and powerful enough to eat a human.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by Captain1nsaneo

As for Environmental AI that can damage you, don't need that. The weather should be able to more than take care of that aspect (lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, active volcanoes, etc).

I just think it can be done without ever becoming the focus. It would only ever be the focus if a group of players decided to jack off and go hunting them down. What's wrong with that? A few of my fondest memories of Planetside had nothing to do with fighting the enemy.

Think of it like Lava pools on Searhus, except that instead of dying when you go into them with nothing you can do about it, you are wading into an infestation of antlions/starship trooper bugs that you can potentially survive if you watch your back and kill any that get too close.

It shouldn't be the focus of the game, there should be no rewards for killing them, they should just be pests that you can kill or avoid.

I wouldn't have them being everywhere either, just in select areas to add flavor to a continent.

Obviously an ai invasion event would be different, but events are temporary, they don't affect gameplay in the long run.

It would require a little extra work to implement the models, textures, sounds and animations for the bugs, but the artificial intelligence should already be taken care of. All the PS2 team has to do is wait for the team working on Everquest Next to finish making a good ai system for Forgelight and then the PS2 team can lift it wholesale.

Considering that this would (in my mind) be much more of an environmental hazard than a focus of gameplay, it should be lower on the priority list, but I'd like to see all sorts of diverse environments, so I'd love to see them put this in sometime after launch.

I am totally against an "AI faction" though, at least in the way that we understand it, as a group of bots pretending and failing to play like human players. AI enemies should be stupid, so that their AI doesn't seem out of place.

Of course, AI faction can have different meanings than we are assuming. The faction could just indicate that they will attack NC, TR, VS alike, but not attack each other.

AI creatures acting as an environmental hazard: Yes
AI bots pretending to be intelligent combatants: No
Mobs that you have to grind to get ph4t l00t and l33t XP: Hell no.

That's my opinion at least.

[Hamma]

Xyntech pretty much covers my thoughts on the issue.

[TheRagingGerbil]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

I just think it can be done without ever becoming the focus. It would only ever be the focus if a group of players decided to jack off and go hunting them down. What's wrong with that? A few of my fondest memories of Planetside had nothing to do with fighting the enemy.

Think of it like Lava pools on Searhus, except that instead of dying when you go into them with nothing you can do about it, you are wading into an infestation of antlions/starship trooper bugs that you can potentially survive if you watch your back and kill any that get too close.

It shouldn't be the focus of the game, there should be no rewards for killing them, they should just be pests that you can kill or avoid.

I wouldn't have them being everywhere either, just in select areas to add flavor to a continent.

Obviously an ai invasion event would be different, but events are temporary, they don't affect gameplay in the long run.

It would require a little extra work to implement the models, textures, sounds and animations for the bugs, but the artificial intelligence should already be taken care of. All the PS2 team has to do is wait for the team working on Everquest Next to finish making a good ai system for Forgelight and then the PS2 team can lift it wholesale.

Considering that this would (in my mind) be much more of an environmental hazard than a focus of gameplay, it should be lower on the priority list, but I'd like to see all sorts of diverse environments, so I'd love to see them put this in sometime after launch.

I am totally against an "AI faction" though, at least in the way that we understand it, as a group of bots pretending and failing to play like human players. AI enemies should be stupid, so that their AI doesn't seem out of place.

Of course, AI faction can have different meanings than we are assuming. The faction could just indicate that they will attack NC, TR, VS alike, but not attack each other.

AI creatures acting as an environmental hazard: Yes
AI bots pretending to be intelligent combatants: No
Mobs that you have to grind to get ph4t l00t and l33t XP: Hell no.

That's my opinion at least.

This is what I was thinking as well.

Be awesome to swoop over a ridge in your gal only to fly into a flock of Auraxian Geese and have to crash land in a nearby lake.

[Revanant]

I think it would be great if engineers could build mechanical cybertigers, whose sole purpose would be to hunt down infiltrators.
--------------
(Scene in)

(First Person View)

*Pistol and HUD in view. Environment is nighttime forest.*

(Cut to Third Person)

*Shimmery human outline moves rapidly through bushes*

[Audio: Branches crackle. Leaves crunch. Suddenly, a deafening and unworldly roar rings out. It sounds as if somebody decided to let a large predatory cat attempt to shift the gears on a semi-trailer while transporting a shipment of working fax machines)

"Please choose respawn location..."

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by Revanant

I think it would be great if engineers could build mechanical cybertigers, whose sole purpose would be to hunt down infiltrators.
--------------
(Scene in)

(First Person View)

*Pistol and HUD in view. Environment is nighttime forest.*

(Cut to Third Person)

*Shimmery human outline moves rapidly through bushes*

[Audio: Branches crackle. Leaves crunch. Suddenly, a deafening and unworldly roar rings out. It sounds as if somebody decided to let a large predatory cat attempt to shift the gears on a semi-trailer while transporting a shipment of working fax machines)

"Please choose respawn location..."

Speaking of Infiltrators, how about adding in some frickin Bloodsuckers from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl?

They are invisible enemies who have good footspeed, can survive having an entire magazine of ammo unloaded into them, and can kill you with one swipe of their claw.

One of the scariest enemies I've ever faced in a single player FPS.

[Captain1nsaneo]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

One of the scariest enemies I've ever faced in a single player FPS.

And the only multi round grenade launcher is in the middle of their nest. Man those things freaked me out. Loved that game.

[ShockNC]

AI should be limited to wildlife and should be treated like meteors currently are in PS.

mostly used for that odd occasion but please, let that be the limit of PVE in PS. if i want to go farming AI, i would play WoW.

[Bojaxs]

why bother even putting in AI if it sole purpose will have no effect on the game and only serves to be a nuisance?

How will AI improve our experience with PS? I don't see how AI will make things in the game any better. It seems pointless to add it.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by Bojaxs

why bother even putting in AI if it sole purpose will have no effect on the game and only serves to be a nuisance?

How will AI improve our experience with PS? I don't see how AI will make things in the game any better. It seems pointless to add it.

How do lava pits help gameplay? You just die if you fall in them.

What's the use of having giant mountains and cliffs? You just have to go around them.

Why have snowy continents, grassy continents, or desert continents? It's all just a bunch of computer generated geometry to fight over, why not make them all look the same?

Forgelight is an in house game engine designed for all of SOE's future MMO's, not just PS2. The dev team doesn't have to worry about developing artificial intelligence for it because AI will already be implemented for Everquest Next.

So why bother putting AI wildlife in? Because it would be fun. Just like fighting on more than one style of continent is fun. It adds flavor to an environment.

I certainly don't want the dev team to waste countless man hours on it, but I'm sure there will be time and resources to multi-task on future additions after the game launches. Wildlife doesn't have to equal not getting ES buggies.

[Crator]

Originally Posted by Bojaxs

why bother even putting in AI if it sole purpose will have no effect on the game and only serves to be a nuisance?

How will AI improve our experience with PS? I don't see how AI will make things in the game any better. It seems pointless to add it.

How can you say it wouldn't have any effect on the game? Ever played PS1 and had to wait out a hack at a base with nothing to do but team kill each other? Well, AI could help with that...