News: PlanetSide 2 Backstory Part 3, Joe Walsh

[FastAndFree]

Also the kid who gets killed at the start, was he called Ken or Ben?

[NapalmEnima]

Originally Posted by Firefly

Was I the only one who kept expecting Don Henley to show up singing Hotel California?

Yes, freak. Just you.


Seems like it has more editorial errors too, though it certainly came out fast.

Issues:
(as caught by Raymac & LZachariah) Searhous instead of Searhus.

The TR were hiding in a (singular) crevice large enough for 6. The TR gun kill 9, wound 3, and lose 4 (two left). Walsh, with at least 4 others, reveals the SEVEN phoenixes, and fires them, killing 4 TR, leaving two (Genny and some kid).

Problem 1: Walsh advances while vigorously giving away his position by firing at all the boulders. Throw rocks? Grenades? Anything but firing that incredibly loud gorilla-on-PCP shotgun you've got there. BOOM-chaka-BOOM-chaka... Derp.

Problem 2: The TR kill 9 (I call BS right there, "Only imperial troops are so precise" my ass), and CAPTURE 3? In the middle of a fire fight? No wonder 4 of them died. Derp!

Problem 3: There were 6 TR with 4 dead. Walsh and his 4 compatriots run away from 2 TR (after killing 4 of them, but only because the TR advanced out of their cover and tried to take prisoners in the middle of a fire fight). Derpy derp.

Problem 4: Walsh and his 4 compatriots (5 total) fire 7 phoenixes. Derptastic. And they're fired remotely... which could just be a New Thing in PS2, or more derpish derpy derpderp.

There's some wiggle room on the numbers here for the NC, but that just makes their running away from the two surviving TR from the initial engagement look that much more foolish. RUN COWARD</Sinistar>.

Now, with the Phoenixes in play, there are "cubby holes" plural, not singular. That's fine, and if it had been "unspecified plural" right out of the get go, the NCs retreat would sound reasonable instead of girly-girl-don't-chip-my-new-yellow-and-blue-manicure-with-your-mean-ol-bullets.

Weapons noted:

• Heavy gauss rifles
• Jackhammers
• Carbines (gauss or common pool?)
• Phoenixes

Other Stuff:

• NC: remotely controlled phoenix launchers, at least one controlled by someone toting a Jackhammer. Class fail, or upcoming CE goodness?
• TR: Holographic cover, HEAP rounds (high explosive armor piercing, standard issue for colonial marines, not for use around an atmospheric processor's primary heat exchanger)

[Malorn]

Lol I like the NC perspective. I'm biased of course, but I love the complete apathy for anyone stupid enough to side with the TR. Gives them that quasi-terrorist feel as I expect that they have no qualms about killing civilians since the civilians are partly responsible for the loss of their own freedoms by voting them away. The pure hate the NC harbor is great.

I only wish we would have seen how the NC view the Vanu. In traditional PS lore they saw the VS as enslaving men with technology and perhaps more of a threat to freedom than the TR. That could still fit, however the TR actually did something to repress while the VS haven't done that yet so perhaps they are currently indifferent. But since the VS broke away and consider both hostile it could be the start of the NC/TR viewpoint change against the VS.

Good twitter topic I think.

[Malorn]

I glossed over the errors, they aren't important to the story. I think by focusing on them you are missing the forest for the trees.

[Shogun]

the information in these story bits is nice (if most of it is even relevant to the game and not just pure fiction for narrative purposes without consequences for us)

what i don´t like about that stuff is that it´s just simple text.
i hope when the game finally gets released, these storys are embedded in some rendered videos, or at least converted to graphical comics.

and i wonder if the background story is something we could skip completely and forget about, or if the game will have actual bits of this story integrated.
ps1 needed no big background story... you could play the game without knowing anything about auraxis and the story didn´t matter at all.
will ps2 be the same, or will we be confronted with some story elements during the fights in some form?

if the story matters in some form, it is great to see, that this time there is a real author working on it. the story of ps1 was a little reTURDed and lot of it didn´t make any sense. the ps2 approach is a lot better.

i would also like to know what information the author has about the game and the stuff inside the game. how much is made up by him just to carry the story and how much is based on dev-facts?

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by NapalmEnima

NC: remotely controlled phoenix launchers, at least one controlled by someone toting a Jackhammer. Class fail, or upcoming CE goodness?

I actually thought they just stashed the Phoenixes to be used later. So they drop the weapons they currently are holding, and pick up a Phoenix to smoke out the TR rats.

[Firefly]

Originally Posted by Malorn

I glossed over the errors, they aren't important to the story. I think by focusing on them you are missing the forest for the trees.

I don't know about anyone else, but I strongly disagree. This isn't fanfiction.net, this is Planetside 2. I don't consider myself a literary snob - I consider myself a fan of the English language, which includes the proper usage and employment thereof. I'm also a paid writer for a video game developer - if my work has errors, I expect my fellow writers, fellow employees, and QC editors to find them. Which is why I try not to make mistakes in the first place. And if they don't catch it, I know fans will - and I expect them to send feedback saying "This is incorrect". I'd rather not get to that point, though. I don't want the fans going "Whoever put this in here is retarded, why would they hire an idiot?" The key word in all of this is "paid writer". Do you get paid to do a half-assed job? Will your boss say, "Hey pal, those fries are still half-frozen!" or will he say "Sell that shit, son!" I very much doubt the latter happens.

Just like people judge you on the internet wehn u make misstakes liek this lol cuz u type liek u txt lololol... expect people to judge a body of written work based on A) its content, B) its accuracy, and C) its proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. And by accepting shoddy amateur work we are devaluing a professional product. To say nothing of setting the stage for further shoddy work elsewhere with the product.

[Baron]

It does seem like those phoenix missiles are fired remotely ...that is, scary :o

[FIREk]

So now the Auraxian TR turn out to be a perverted version of the legitimate, democratic Terran Government. Just wow...

SOE need to dig up some real dirt on the NC and VS now - I love the TR but now they're the baddest of the three bad guys.

[Baron]

Originally Posted by FIREk

So now the Auraxian TR turn out to be a perverted version of the legitimate, democratic Terran Government. Just wow...

SOE need to dig up some real dirt on the NC and VS now - I love the TR but now they're the baddest of the three bad guys.

This is not necessarily true. That is the TR from the perspective of the other 2 factions. It's easy to see how each faction thinks their way of thinking is the "true" way, the correct vision (hello present day religion anyone?).

I'm cool with it.

[Aractain]

TR have real justification for protecting the populations. (because if they didn't, thats what we call terrible writing, so they have).

There was probably zerglings around at night or something. Could have been an elf infestation, anything.

[MgFalcon]

The more answers we get the more questions just seem to emerge....

Anyways with Genny's death I can only assume Sandy will want revenge. Since the Chairman personally came to see Sandy an tell him about the new formation of the VS... we can deduce that sandy is Chairman Scott's right hand man.. his Number Two. As soon as he finds out that his beloved sister is dead (or perhaps captured if the NC somehow got leaked re-birthing tech), the VS will go to war with the NC for killing her, and the TR for throwing her into the fight in the first place. (SOE, hire me if I'm correct please!)

Also a discrepancy I noted: the time; since the story no longer presides on Earth, why is it still following the Earth calendar and day/night cycle?
-1. Auraxis is not orbiting around Sol, but still within the "goldylocks" zone
-2. From statement 1, we can understand that there would be either an increase or decrease in months in an Auraxian Year depending on it's orbit around the Auraxian sun
-3. Auraxis is most likely smaller than Earth (assumption right here from PS1 days, an obvious subject to change) causing the day/night cycle of 24 hrs to shorten
-4. We need two times and dates, Earth time/date (which we know) and Auraxian time/date (which we know a little)

Earth date (since last back story): June 21, 2845
Auraxian date: [Auraxian month] [Auraxian day], 175

[Shogun]

the time-issue depends on the question, if the story that unfolds now happened before the shut down of the wormhole or afterwards. if auraxis was still linked to earth at that time, it is reasonable that earth dates are still used because earthdates are still of importance. if earth is already cut off, and auraxis is all on its own, i agree, that the form of dates should change in some way because there is no reason to translate the local time to earth time anymore.

[MgFalcon]

Originally Posted by Shogun

the time-issue depends on the question, if the story that unfolds now happened before the shut down of the wormhole or afterwards. if auraxis was still linked to earth at that time, it is reasonable that earth dates are still used because earthdates are still of importance. if earth is already cut off, and auraxis is all on its own, i agree, that the form of dates should change in some way because there is no reason to translate the local time to earth time anymore.

But, Genny remembered reading that once they found themselves on the other side of the wormhole with no way to return home, meaning no way to get their creds, they slowly moved apart from the others.

Woot! time for the Auraxian calendar!

[Xyntech]

I like how the NC are really only concerned with the TR at this point in the story. They're just thinking the VS are a bunch of cult like scientists with some crazy notions until...

Suddenly...

The VS are killing everyone! TR and NC alike! Oh the humanity. Why god, why? Those techno-religious nutjobs have finally snapped! Return fire, for the love of...arrgh....

---

So they mentioned the NC having a heavy gauss rifle as well as a carbine. Considering that we have seen some shuffling around of PS1 items for PS2, I see a few possibilities here.

The heavy gauss rifle is either:
The new name (or it's misnamed in the story) for the original games gauss rifle
The NC's empire specific sniper rifle, as a counterpart to the TR bolt driver
Some other new weapon we currently know nothing about

The carbine is either
The new name (or misnamed) for the NC's MA rifle
A common pool rifle
Some other NC specific gun, maybe even their sniper rifle.

I'm kind of leaning towards the heavy gauss being the NC sniper rifle and the carbine being a common pool rifle.

I suppose the heavy gauss rifle could also be some sort of AV anti material cannon, along the lines of the VS Lancer in PS1.