PS2 Community Day - Page 3

Doxy · 2012-07-14, 10:28 AM

Man, it sucks to be in Canada. Nothing like this event ever happens here.
WE NEED SOME LOVE =]

Wizkid45 · 2012-07-14, 11:57 AM

Here's my take away from Community Day.

First, thanks to everyone involved in setting this up, they did so in like 3 days and it turned out great. Shout outs to all the devs who were there to chat and help us figure the game out, Virrago for keeping us company in the line to play, Danicia and Linda for being so awesome, and Higby for letting me stand around and watch people play and answer our questions. I'm missing others, but everyone involved was awesome.

The game: Awesome. It's has some polishing to do, but it's completely playable right now. I played a lot of VS and some TR, but tried pretty much everything for both empires. The spawning system needs quite a bit of work IMO. Right now with that spawn list it's just super confusing where to spawn. It tells you how far away points are, and a name, but you only know where that actual spawn point is if you click it and see where it is on the map. It's just time consuming and confusing in the heat of battle. Also, there's no real indication of where vehicle facilities are, so I would spend 5 minutes running around just to find where I could pull a vehicle. There isn't anything in the form of hotspots in game yet, so you really have no idea where the fight is and where to go besides a control point that isn't yours hoping there are enemies there. After playing the game, my suggestion would be to move back to more of a spawn window like in PS1, where it's mainly the map with the list being much smaller of to the side. Have it be something where you see the entire map, and bases that you can spawn at have a spawn indicator. Now say within that base there are 4 spawn points, if you're all the way zoomed out and you click the base, have it zoom into the base so you now can see those spawn points and make your decision from there. Something much more interactive and user friendly, rather than having to scroll through spawn points in a list, or zoom in and out in a little window to find a spawn point. Also, have an option for little icon overlays on the map indicating that specific facility (have a tank icon over where you pull vehicles, spawn tube over equipt. terms etc) because there really is nothing to indicate otherwise right now (if you get close, a little icon will appear on screen in the direction of the facility, but that's after you've run around to get close). The Biolab is sick, and huuuuuuuge. I can easily say this game feels much bigger than PS1.

Air: I've seen some people say it's hard, I didn't think so. If you can manage an aircraft in BF3, you'll rule the skies in PS2. They fly pretty much like a BF3 aircraft does, but are much more forgiving and easier to manage. The lib is pretty sweet, much how you would expect a gunship to be. The Scythe is odd in that it defies the laws of physics, allowing hairpin turns and ultra maneuverability. Definitely a fun vehicle to fly. I didn't get to fly a Gal, but they are HUGE and I was told that it was a little tough to fly as such.

Vehicles: The Magrider is an awesome tank. It moves so smoothly and fluently and its extremely easy to have precise control over it, unlike the original mag which can be finicky. The driver weapon is pretty cool and I definitely dont miss the PS1 variant. Also, you know in action movies where the guy driving the car can spin a 180 and keep driving in reverse like nothing happened? The mag can do it with ease, it's sweet. The lightning, really fast little tank that packs a punch. Doesn't feel quite as outclassed as it does in PS1. The Prowler is fun, it's powerful, but it's really hard to see out the front of it compared to the Mag, the entire bottom of your field of view is blocked by the front of the tank which makes climbing hills difficult or seeing infantry in front of you difficult because you can't see them. Overall, I feel that the way tanks move right now is perfect, you can FINALLY climb a hill without slowing down to 5 kph, getting stuck or just sliding backwards. Feels like just the right amount of power. However I know they wanted to make it so you could cert into having more torque and power and whatnot, so it may need to be scaled back a little for that (I love it where it is, but just being honest).

Infantry: All of the classes play really well and are all fun in their own sense. You really get used to having jet packs in light assault, and feel weird without it, same goes with a head gun for medic or the extra armor for a REXO. The weapons feel great and I love the iron sights. The beamer is actually worth while now, it works much like a pistol in BF3. It's reload is pretty cool; all reloading animations are cool. I liked how sniper rounds leave a trail the color of your empire for a few seconds before being blown away by the wind.

MAX Units: Awesome. Dual Quasars is the way to go! I got in an intense firefight with a bunch of other VS and TR in part of a building and boy did it get my adrenaline going. I think I killed like 9 TR that walked in with no health (no engineer to repair me) and kept going till I ran out of ammo. New things: they can crouch (awesome!) and jump. They still have run mode, but you have to hold down the sprint key. Overall movement is ok, but I feel they're a little too slow walking around right now. You literally can't keep up with anything or even run away if your being shot because infantry move so much faster in comparison. Infantry can run right by you and leave the room before you can kill them, so I had a problem with infantry just running away and they'd be loooong gone by the time I got there. We'll have to see how it works out with more than 30 people because it could just be from the low numbers that I felt useless at times from the movement speed. A super sprint ability like in Section 8 would be very nice to have, because it can be a long run between points. Something where you go into a really fast run mode, but are stuck in basically a straight line and take damage if you hit something would be cool.

HUD: Special abilities, health and ammo are displayed as circular rings around your crosshair. It's really weird to get used to, but it's pretty neat. I'd explain it, but it would be really difficult, you'll have to see for yourself. There's a reload timer in the form of a circle that forms right around your crosshairs like in BF3, very nice. I'm not quite sure how a platoon will be displayed in game, because squad members are displayed next to the minimap like BF3. You have VOIP through your squad, and it's super awesome. Forming a squad is a super difficult and bugged task currently, but I'm sure it will be worked on in the future so I wont get into details.

Misc: Drop pods are cool, you can steer them a little bit to aim for things

Spawning on a friend (really long timer BTW) results in you drop podding in, just be sure not to land on your friendly tank or they may get mad at you. They currently will blow a tank up, I feel it should just to damage, not destroy it, especially friendlies. I say this because I could see a whole squad waiting to spawn, have a cloaker sneak into a vehicle formation and then all dropping on that guy as a makeshift OS killing the vehicles from landing on them.

Also: The dog tags and T-shirts are legit, really really nice quality stuff

Hamma · 2012-07-14, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by Dogbolta

Shouldn't be an issue where stuff is posted but my humble apologies.

It's not a problem! Posting in text sometimes it's hard to get across what you are trying to say. Didn't mean it in a negative way!

Hamma · 2012-07-14, 12:15 PM

Great rundown Wizkid45!

Arovien · 2012-07-14, 12:16 PM

I was there with some Cybernetic Punks members starting at @6:10PM (local time)

I've heard conflicting reports regarding the Tuesday NDA. I'd love to talk about my experience but i am a bit confused here... Can those who played talk about their experiences? I only signed a faction roster (no info there regarding NDA) and no one said anything about waiting til Tuesday while I was there.

Wizkid45 · 2012-07-14, 12:19 PM

Thanks Hamma. I'm sure more will come to me as everything sinks in haha so I'll post anything else for you guys that I can think of. If you have questions I'll do my best to answer them. You guys won't be disappointed, the game is literally a dream come true.

SUBARU · 2012-07-14, 12:43 PM

Yes,good info Mr.Wiz.That was the first time somebody talked about the re-spawn problem,trying to find the place you want to spawn at.Does sound like it needs a tweek.

I have the same problem with the pods,You dont need an os just use the pods.Even the griefers could use this to kill friendly

**Danicia** · 2012-07-14, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by Arovien

I was there with some Cybernetic Punks members starting at @6:10PM (local time)

I've heard conflicting reports regarding the Tuesday NDA. I'd love to talk about my experience but i am a bit confused here... Can those who played talk about their experiences? I only signed a faction roster (no info there regarding NDA) and no one said anything about waiting til Tuesday while I was there.

No media posting and all, but you are welcome to discuss your impressions of the game and the event. And thanks for the kind words! It was great to meet heaps of people from PSU, redditside, and my peeps, AT! #Vanu4lyfe

Maticus · 2012-07-14, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by Wizkid45

Here's my take away from Community Day.

First, thanks to everyone involved in setting this up, they did so in like 3 days and it turned out great. Shout outs to all the devs who were there to chat and help us figure the game out, Virrago for keeping us company in the line to play, Danicia and Linda for being so awesome, and Higby for letting me stand around and watch people play and answer our questions. I'm missing others, but everyone involved was awesome.

The game: Awesome. It's has some polishing to do, but it's completely playable right now. I played a lot of VS and some TR, but tried pretty much everything for both empires. The spawning system needs quite a bit of work IMO. Right now with that spawn list it's just super confusing where to spawn. It tells you how far away points are, and a name, but you only know where that actual spawn point is if you click it and see where it is on the map. It's just time consuming and confusing in the heat of battle. Also, there's no real indication of where vehicle facilities are, so I would spend 5 minutes running around just to find where I could pull a vehicle. There isn't anything in the form of hotspots in game yet, so you really have no idea where the fight is and where to go besides a control point that isn't yours hoping there are enemies there. After playing the game, my suggestion would be to move back to more of a spawn window like in PS1, where it's mainly the map with the list being much smaller of to the side. Have it be something where you see the entire map, and bases that you can spawn at have a spawn indicator. Now say within that base there are 4 spawn points, if you're all the way zoomed out and you click the base, have it zoom into the base so you now can see those spawn points and make your decision from there. Something much more interactive and user friendly, rather than having to scroll through spawn points in a list, or zoom in and out in a little window to find a spawn point. Also, have an option for little icon overlays on the map indicating that specific facility (have a tank icon over where you pull vehicles, spawn tube over equipt. terms etc) because there really is nothing to indicate otherwise right now (if you get close, a little icon will appear on screen in the direction of the facility, but that's after you've run around to get close). The Biolab is sick, and huuuuuuuge. I can easily say this game feels much bigger than PS1.

Air: I've seen some people say it's hard, I didn't think so. If you can manage an aircraft in BF3, you'll rule the skies in PS2. They fly pretty much like a BF3 aircraft does, but are much more forgiving and easier to manage. The lib is pretty sweet, much how you would expect a gunship to be. The Scythe is odd in that it defies the laws of physics, allowing hairpin turns and ultra maneuverability. Definitely a fun vehicle to fly. I didn't get to fly a Gal, but they are HUGE and I was told that it was a little tough to fly as such.

Vehicles: The Magrider is an awesome tank. It moves so smoothly and fluently and its extremely easy to have precise control over it, unlike the original mag which can be finicky. The driver weapon is pretty cool and I definitely dont miss the PS1 variant. Also, you know in action movies where the guy driving the car can spin a 180 and keep driving in reverse like nothing happened? The mag can do it with ease, it's sweet. The lightning, really fast little tank that packs a punch. Doesn't feel quite as outclassed as it does in PS1. The Prowler is fun, it's powerful, but it's really hard to see out the front of it compared to the Mag, the entire bottom of your field of view is blocked by the front of the tank which makes climbing hills difficult or seeing infantry in front of you difficult because you can't see them. Overall, I feel that the way tanks move right now is perfect, you can FINALLY climb a hill without slowing down to 5 kph, getting stuck or just sliding backwards. Feels like just the right amount of power. However I know they wanted to make it so you could cert into having more torque and power and whatnot, so it may need to be scaled back a little for that (I love it where it is, but just being honest).

Infantry: All of the classes play really well and are all fun in their own sense. You really get used to having jet packs in light assault, and feel weird without it, same goes with a head gun for medic or the extra armor for a REXO. The weapons feel great and I love the iron sights. The beamer is actually worth while now, it works much like a pistol in BF3. It's reload is pretty cool; all reloading animations are cool. I liked how sniper rounds leave a trail the color of your empire for a few seconds before being blown away by the wind.

MAX Units: Awesome. Dual Quasars is the way to go! I got in an intense firefight with a bunch of other VS and TR in part of a building and boy did it get my adrenaline going. I think I killed like 9 TR that walked in with no health (no engineer to repair me) and kept going till I ran out of ammo. New things: they can crouch (awesome!) and jump. They still have run mode, but you have to hold down the sprint key. Overall movement is ok, but I feel they're a little too slow walking around right now. You literally can't keep up with anything or even run away if your being shot because infantry move so much faster in comparison. Infantry can run right by you and leave the room before you can kill them, so I had a problem with infantry just running away and they'd be loooong gone by the time I got there. We'll have to see how it works out with more than 30 people because it could just be from the low numbers that I felt useless at times from the movement speed. A super sprint ability like in Section 8 would be very nice to have, because it can be a long run between points. Something where you go into a really fast run mode, but are stuck in basically a straight line and take damage if you hit something would be cool.

HUD: Special abilities, health and ammo are displayed as circular rings around your crosshair. It's really weird to get used to, but it's pretty neat. I'd explain it, but it would be really difficult, you'll have to see for yourself. There's a reload timer in the form of a circle that forms right around your crosshairs like in BF3, very nice. I'm not quite sure how a platoon will be displayed in game, because squad members are displayed next to the minimap like BF3. You have VOIP through your squad, and it's super awesome. Forming a squad is a super difficult and bugged task currently, but I'm sure it will be worked on in the future so I wont get into details.

Misc: Drop pods are cool, you can steer them a little bit to aim for things

Spawning on a friend (really long timer BTW) results in you drop podding in, just be sure not to land on your friendly tank or they may get mad at you. They currently will blow a tank up, I feel it should just to damage, not destroy it, especially friendlies. I say this because I could see a whole squad waiting to spawn, have a cloaker sneak into a vehicle formation and then all dropping on that guy as a makeshift OS killing the vehicles from landing on them.

Also: The dog tags and T-shirts are legit, really really nice quality stuff

I am so very very jealous of you <3

Broadside · 2012-07-14, 01:34 PM

@Wiz, the Max does already have a super sprint ability, you just have to hit F. It takes like 30 seconds to recharge.

As for the spawn system, I actually think it's just fine. It's just tough for new players because they don't know the positions of every base on the map, but after a couple hours of playing I memorized all of the spawn points near Hvar, which is the tech plant where we were told to go.

Now, in terms of not knowing which base spawns which vehicle, I agree with you on that. It took a while of scouting before I found out where exactly everything was.

Oh, by the way for any devs reading, I know you put in the 10 minute spawn timer in on vehicles to try to get us to test the certs and implants specifically for spawn timers, but it took about 5 minutes to realize that you left admin commands on so we were able to spawn infinite Mosquitos all day. Sorry for breaking that :P

Hatchak · 2012-07-14, 01:40 PM

did the grief system was still off during that test?

SteinB · 2012-07-14, 02:06 PM

Had a blast at the community event!

The people that showed up early got treated to a tour of the development building, got to see the game being made and talk to the people as they were doing it!

All of the SOE staff were awesome and pretty much spoiled us. Free pizza (and it wasn't crappy pizza hut or dominos either) drinks, and candy were provided throughout the event. When the heat got bad they brought out tents to shade those standing in the long lines. Several raffles were done where people won T-shirts, shoes and autographed magazines. The staff was constantly circulating and answering questions, just can't speak highly enough about all of them.

I got in four 30 minute play sessions, a few people got in five sessions. The graphica are just mind-blowing. The detail in the terrain is unbelievable and the areas are huge! We were not restricted to an area like those at E3 were and some people got a look at the Biolab facility. The devs told us a few admin slash commands so we could get to the action faster for the event.

A really awesome day, thanks for having us over.

Wizkid45 · 2012-07-14, 02:51 PM

Originally Posted by Hatchak

did the grief system was still off during that test?

There was no grief in game.

Something I just thought of: It seemed kinda easy to kill people with vehicles. Like I pulled a mag and was driving in reverse to pick up my buddy and I bumped him as I was slowing down and it killed him. I ran over a couple infantry with a lightning with ease as well.

TechTBW · 2012-07-14, 02:52 PM

I just woke up after the 36 hours of sleeplessness that was our adventure to SOE. I have a few things to say about our experience but I will try to be brief. Community day was simply amazing. 3 members of The Black Watch were able to make it. We left home about midnight prior and arrived in the early morning. Once employees started showing up, it immediately became apparent how cool these guys truly are. Everyone was sincerely and genuinely happy to see us and cared about what we had to say. We have attended community events for other game developers before and never have we encountered such nice folks.

One of the first people we met was John Smedly who thanked us for being there and grabbed some shirts for us (NC FTW). Soon after, we got to meet Tony 'RadarX' Jones who I would like to personally thank for being extremely accommodating and went out of his way to make sure we got everything we asked for (thanks brother, you are THE MAN). Later I got a chance to talk with a dapperly dressed Matt Higby who was super generous for answering all of my questions (stay tuned for more on that

). I could go all day listing everyone from the art team to QA but everyone was just so cool to talk to. After Josh Hackney gave us a very informative tour, I now know how Charlie felt walking through the chocolate factory.

Without saying too much, the game is coming along VERY nicely. The action was fast paced. The animations, environments, and level design was all top notch. The scale of the game is huge and feels larger than anything I have ever played, and this is coming from an EvE veteran. All I have to say in summery is this: BF and COD will soon have some real competition. I even think that the boys over at CCP should be wetting themselves as I see PS2 being the premier sci-fi/military action based game which blurs the line between genres. Free to play? Are you kidding me? This game could easily net a box price and sub fee, and I only got about an hour in total to try it out. If they ever implement a crafting and economy system, other MMOs would lose a lot of subs.

Overall, SOE threw one hell of a successful event. The game is going to be amazing for vets and bring a lot of fresh blood in. I hope that they continue to host these kinds of events in the future.

-Tech
The Black Watch
Tbwgaming.com

Hatchak · 2012-07-14, 03:02 PM

did the grief system was still off during that test?