News: Community Interview with Matt Higby

[Snipefrag]

This tallied with the dev interview earlier have answered more questions than 3-4 of the more generic ones done at GDC by the mainstream media.. good job PSU !

[JHendy]

Originally Posted by basti

I would be totally fine with having the mag be always a 2 seater, while NC and TR have the option for the dedicated gunner. )

Yeah, me too dude. But I reckon a good number of people would kick up a fuss without considering the tradeoffs.

[Notturno]

I feel like I obtained a wealth of different information about the game I haven't heard anywhere else. It's nice to have an interview done by people with a lot of experience and knowledge about the game already; you guys already know the old stuff, so we're getting to hear about new stuff or things not talked about as much.

Thanks, I watched the whole thing. Totally worth it.

[MrBloodworth]

Drivers also gunning should be the cert, not the other way around. Put back separate drivers and gunners.

[KTNApollo]

Originally Posted by MrBloodworth

Drivers also gunning should be the cert, not the other way around. Put back separate drivers and gunners.

This.

[Aaron]

Higby's lamps obey him xD. Higby, you're just awesome.

Great interview, Hamma!

[ringring]

Originally Posted by basti

Not that easy really. The mesh is set up to have no rotating main turret. In order to change that, they would have to change the mesh. Means they also have to change the UV map, and bang you have to change every single texture.


I would be totally fine with having the mag be always a 2 seater, while NC and TR have the option for the dedicated gunner. The big issue with the driver = gunner is the fact that you cannot drive and gun at the same time without running into stuff. The mag doesnt have that issue, as its main gun is fixed forward.

on top of that, if the PS2 mag is similar to the PS1 mag, then it drives backwards almost as fast as it drives forwards. Means bugging out of a combat zone is easy for us, as we dont expose our butt.

Pre-feckin-cisely.

I can't understand why xyntech keeps going on about the magrider and the driver gun. Of all three tanks the magrider is the most suitable for it. I've driven the current magrider a lot and the configuration simply 'works'.

It is different for the Prowler and for the Vanguard.

[Malorn]

Great interview, thank you Matt and Hamma!

The orbital strike mechanic sounds great to me. It's what I expected it to be with resource costs, cooldowns, and tradeoff decisions.

I was a bit put off by jump pads also but after watching the video they were only really on the walls. I'd prefer we have the means to disable them or prevent use by enemies if we own the capture node associated with them.

Looking forward to each capture point for a facility having different effects also, that's a fantastic idea and brings us back to different strategic locations in facilities like PS1 that needed to be protected (spawn room, cc, gen rom, vehicle pad area, etc).

Lots of options for control nodes to have linked benefits:
* Spawn room
* Ground vehicle terminal
* Air vehicle terminal
* Turret control
* Transporters/Jump pads
* Shields or other barriers
* Control room (radar/spotting effects)
* Engineering/Refining (local resource income modifier)

With mechanics like that each point would have its own strategic value in addition to contributing to facility capture. Lots of possibilities there, love where that's going.

[ringring]

Great job Hamma and Jenny and thanks as always Matt.

I am wary of the spotting ..... thanks Stardouser ... I don't want it to be too overpowered.

The question I have is the almost throw-away comment by Matt on missions. Matt said something like "the way I want to have it is so that when you first log in the first thing you see is a list of available missions that you choose from and then you're auto-squadded" ... or something like that.

Please consider that if is like this it will tend to undermine outfits. For those people who are outfitted the 'on login' should show them something outfit related, like an option to join an outfit squad, the current squad and platoon leader and the location of the squads.

Of course, people don't have to join the outfit squad all the time so the not to option should be open but the default choice should be to join with and support your outfit.

[bjorntju1]

Great job! Can't wait to finally play the game!

[solracseptim]

I definitely like how players who already know the game can use the mission system in to their advantage I think it will go a long way to teaching new players the game as well.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by basti

Not that easy really. The mesh is set up to have no rotating main turret. In order to change that, they would have to change the mesh. Means they also have to change the UV map, and bang you have to change every single texture.

Well it mostly depends on whether dedicated gunner tanks had a 3rd gunner to control AA guns/etc.

If they don't have that option, then the magrider mesh would be easy. Just take off the big gun in front, and replace it with a little mesh that plugs the hole. Then use the turret location that is already used for the gunner slot on normal magriders (the one where AA turrets go, like the one TB gunned for in the night ops video) as the rotating turret and stick a larger than usual gun on it. No UV map changing required, just make a new larger turret based on the already present modification system.

But if dedicated gunner tanks did allow a 3rd seat for controlling a second turret, then it could be more problematic.

Personally, I don't see why anybody thinks that the Magrider is any more suited to driver controlled guns than the other tanks. I've driven a Lightning and a Magrider plenty, and I didn't ever really have much more or less trouble with crashing into stuff in either of them.

A Vanguard can sort of strafe, or drive backwards at full speed, it just has to rotate its body into position first to do so. Your situational awareness isn't any greater in a Magrider. Hell, we recently found out that Magriders won't even turn as quickly as the other two MBT's turrets will rotate, so the other tanks will actually be able to look around themselves to check for obstacles more quickly than the Magrider can.

I'm not complaining mind you. I've always appreciated the value of being able to strafe or retreat in the new Magrider while still keeping your strongest armor facing the threat. I just don't see any reason other than technical difficulties why one MBT should be left out of the dedicated gunner idea, especially when there would be some relatively simple ways to get around the technical issues.

Personally, I'm not even that big a proponent of the 1 driver 1 gunner argument. I just think it would be cool to have the option, and I think that holds true for the Magrider as well. True the Magrider was the only MBT in the first game to have a gun for the driver, but I didn't hear a lot of people complaining about it having a turreted main gun just like every other MBT either. Seems like it would be a fine idea to bring back that option in PS2.

[sylphaen]

Great interview with lots of awesome information. I love where PS2 is headed based on what Higby said.

A bit sad about the driver/gunner thing but the explanation is sensible. Aircav also seems to have a lot of AA waiting for it. Can't Wait to test it out in beta.

Edit: funny little camera edit with the lights, by the way.

[Vashyo]

Glad u asked the 2 questions I wanted an answer to

really happy with the way they're doing the orbital strike, it has to be costly and long cooldown.

Also mission-system sounds really cool, there's barely been any real info on it, glad to finally know more.

Can't wait for beta ^_^

[ExplodingSilver]

good video, imformative