Recent Interviews

[Hamma]

There have been a ton of new Core Combat interviews on the news recently.

But, what do you want to hear? What questions do you have that remain unanswered? Please post them here, and I will work my best to get them answered.

Of course, we cant ask all your questions, but we will do our best.

[Valcron]

Dallas:

I'm concerned about the longevity of the Captured Artifacts empires get from the Caverns. Specifically if one of these items are destroyed, will it then disapear? What is determined on how long they stay? Will a hack make them disapear? I guess my main question is this, if we fight underground for 2 hours, and just to have these modules disapear on us in a few minutes will absolutely be the suck.

[Everay]

are they planning any new vehicals or weapons that are not in the expantion and instead will come out for free?

[Happy lil Elf]

Why are non expansion people not going to be able to use expansion equipment that's been looted?

With the issues PS has currently with items beyond a persons view being drawn unneccsarily are you concerned there may be major FPS issues in the urban settings?

How compact are the urban settings?

Is the architecture style for the urban settings extremely alien (rounded, odd shapes) or is it more like modern day city settings with identifiable buildings?

Are the buildings/structures completely fleshed out with multiple rooms and entrances or are they more on the simple side?

How is the Lodestar coming along?

How are Platoons coming along?

Base benefits are rumored to roll out to test soon, is there any truth to that?

Does it seem balanced that the Reaver has more armor than the Lightning given the Reaver's increased manuverability?

Do you feel the Empire specific tanks are equal given the Prowlers need for a larger crew and it's larger profile?

Are there any plans to create "Heavy" tanks at some point whether it be through free additions or another expansion?

Have countermeasures for aircraft ever been discussed as a defense against locking weapons?

Are you guys concerned at all about the server populations, particularily on the less populated servers such as Johari?

Wow, I can usually never think of questions

*Edited for length*

(I went into detail on a few because I remember the last interview where a few questions were asked but never answered because the he wasn't sure what was being asked )

[Hamma]

Just remember if your question is like 2 paragraphs long chances are I wont ask it

[Squeeky]

I am curious about Platoons, i miss PlanetSide

Need to get my Damn CD's back

[Valcron]

Was mine okay hamma? I tried to keep it short and to the point.

[Zatrais]

What happened to the whole TR and NC's reluctance to use Vanu (the race, not faction) tech weaponry? Isn't having them, after doing just great whit plain ol lead, turn around and use Vanu tech weapons a slaughter of the storyline and what the factions represent?

[BDMJ]

How many players can the cavern battles support before becoming too crowded and locking the entrance?

[SmokeJumper]

I'll answer a few of these here, as long as they pertain to Core Combat (I'm doing a quick flyby while waiting for a change to save, so I'm not sure when I'll be by again to check this thread out). Here goes:

a) Pop locks haven't been figured out yet for the caverns. It's different than aboveground because the interior spaces "suck up" people (you can't see them, so they're not an FPS-drain), but the caverns have more "static" objects (non-moving) that add poly budget. Therefore, until we get some big fights down there, we're only guessing (albeit they are educated guesses) at fps issues. I expect them to be similar to continent levels.

b) Platoons are being worked on now and should be out "soon".

c) Occlusion code (where you talk about objects being drawn "unnecessarily") also costs CPU in order to determine which objects need to be drawn. Often, such occlusion code is more expensive than merely drawing the objects. This is the case with the situation you've heard reported elsewhere. PlanetSide draws what it does because it's cheaper that way.

d) The "buildings" in the caverns are crystalline and VERY different than what you see aboveground on the continents. There's also a heck of a lot of them. The environment is very dense and the challenges are more interesting due to the 3D-style environment (ceiling buildings, ground buildings, and even some hovering ones).

e) Modules can be stolen. They can be destroyed. And they also time out after a certain length of time (still testing to find the "sweet spot" on that timer, but currently it's 48 hours or more).

[NoSurrender]

Are their any plans to weapons that are effective against tanks because its very hard to kill a prowler with just a phoenix because the TR use the prowler very effectively now...

[Squeeky]

Hey Dave,

Nice to see you around here! I guess they're keeping you busy eh?

[X-113]

What if the continent above the caves is locked? Will players below the locked cont be trapped?

Are there spawn points down there? Or are we gonna have to load twice every time we die?

Is there a magma filled cave? (its illegal to make a game or exp pack without a lava level now )

If a module is taken from its spawn point underground, does it spawn again before the first one degrades?

What kind of hazards will there be in caves? (Beyond other players)

All I can think of for now. And its nice to see that the devs are still alive.

[Ludorious]

X-113, I can ansewer one of your questions.

In the Game Cronicle interview, Dallas Posted this pic:

[X-113]

Pulsy-glowy crystals of doom. Nice.
I still want to know if we'll have bottomless pits or random exploding geysers and rock slides and such.