Friday Night Ops Follow-Up March 8th

**Muldoon** · 2013-03-08, 09:53 PM

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Good interview with Alex, always good to hear someone who knows what he's talking about

... Not that I understood all that much of it, heh. Always good to hear something about the inner workings of PS2.

This would be a great place for me to explain what you didn't understand.

ChipMHazard · 2013-03-10, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by Muldoon

This would be a great place for me to explain what you didn't understand.

So Hoffmeister,
After having rewatched the shown with a far more clear mind I want to revise my previous statements. Don't know why I thought parts of your interview were hard to understand, I blame my tiredness.

On the note of you guys using the metrics to deem when a sale is required. Have you guys ever thought about promoting specific sales to players with a specific playstyle. Like you mentioned putting rocket pods on sale, could you then make those sales more apparent to players who would be interested in that (new players with more time on ESFs or players who don't really use ESFs). Would that be possible?

Chinese anti-indulgence system. What is exactly is that and how does that play into your job, do you have to recode a lot of things?

Since you've added on the Forgelight tools to such a degree, are you going to help with EQ next given your experience with the engine?

Still don't really get programming languages like c++ (I had no idea there were so many until I looked it up). Glad I'm just a gamer:P

Oh and one last question: Do you always look at it encoded?

Hamma · 2013-03-10, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Heh aye, no second chances or guesses for that flying Magrider. Console command --> Banned.

Oh and you also missed TRay getting banned by the Twitch bot.

Whoops! haha.

Also, welcome Alex!

**Muldoon** · 2013-03-10, 10:33 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

Whoops! haha.

Also, welcome Alex!

Thanks Hamma! Glad to be here!

**Muldoon** · 2013-03-10, 10:33 PM

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

On the note of you guys using the metrics to deem when a sale is required. Have you guys ever thought about promoting specific sales to players with a specific playstyle. Like you mentioned putting rocket pods on sale, could you then make those sales more apparent to players who would be interested in that (new players with more time on ESFs or players who don't really use ESFs). Would that be possible?

The nudge system is in it's earliest stages. All we have is what I mentioned, which is double or half off station cash, and that's not even in yet. The things I said after are merely speculation of where it could go. The system can be set up for that, but currently isn't. Ideally, we will take it where it makes SOE money and caters to what players might want to buy.

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Chinese anti-indulgence system. What is exactly is that and how does that play into your job, do you have to recode a lot of things?

In China, it is considered unhealthy to play games for hours at a time. In order for a game to launch in China, it must have an anti indulgence system to stop or discourage players from playing longer than the government set standards. We do things like stopping kill tracking and not awarding XP to meet these standards.

I did not program the system. Another more senior programmer did. I've just been supporting it. It interacts a lot with XP, so I've added some stuff here and there. Largely the CAIS just got attached to many other systems and datasources, as opposed to needing whole new files. The guy who wrote it would likely have a different answer to that. But I haven't needed to write a lot for it, I just needed to find the places to squeeze the CAIS numbers in, and make it do the right math when it's there.

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Since you've added on the Forgelight tools to such a degree, are you going to help with EQ next given your experience with the engine?

I will be on the Planetside 2 team for the foreseeable future. The last time I worked on any tools was a couple months before launch. And I usually don't work directly with the engine, I work at a higher up level than that.

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Still don't really get programming languages like c++ (I had no idea there were so many until I looked it up). Glad I'm just a gamer:P

Check this out: http://www.codecademy.com/

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Oh and one last question: Do you always look at it encoded?

I'm not sure what you mean by encoded, unless you're making a matrix joke. In which case all I see is a nudge here, an xp kill over there...

ChipMHazard · 2013-03-11, 04:42 AM

Originally Posted by Muldoon

The nudge system[...]

Ah ok. The nudge system kinda reminds me of Minority Report. Hopefully it won't go as far as nudging players ingame like say... When someone is trying to take out an MBT with an ESF nosegun a rocketpod advertisement pops up

"I see you're trying to take out a tank. You know, if you had been using rocket pods you would already have killed 10 and been home in time for tea and biscuits *wink wink, nudge nudge. Say no more.*"

Originally Posted by Muldoon

In China, it is considered unhealthy to play games for hours at a time. [...]

I say! Unhealthy? Silly barbarians, killing VS is good for the soul.

So the system won't actually prevent people playing past a certain point, they just won't get anything from doing so. From what I've head/read about other games having that restriction I thought it would log you out after a certain amount of time had passed, heh.

Originally Posted by Muldoon

I will be on the Planetside 2 team for the foreseeable future. [...]

Well that's good to know.

Originally Posted by Muldoon

Check this out: http://www.codecademy.com/

My thanks. May the day never come when you regret showing me how to start coding.

Originally Posted by Muldoon

I'm not sure what you mean by encoded, unless you're making a matrix joke. In which case all I see is a nudge here, an xp kill over there...

I'm glad you got the reference

Oh and why haven't you been given a dev tag yet?

ringring · 2013-03-11, 04:51 AM

In China, it is considered unhealthy to play games for hours at a time. In order for a game to launch in China, it must have an anti indulgence system to stop or discourage players from playing longer than the government set standards. We do things like stopping kill tracking and not awarding XP to meet these standards.

I thought you guys already had this, normally called a memory leak .... no, no, don't hit me, I'm only joking.

At one point ...
Muldoon : 'players often ask me why we can't have the chat system from Planetside 1' ......... etc.
Maggie/Luperza/Purrfectstorm: (looks at the camera) 'and we want that too'...

What were you referring to by 'chat system'. Did you mean the text chat box, ie /s, /p, /c and then contalls OR did you mean the voice macros - which is one of my bug bears.

**Muldoon** · 2013-03-11, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by ringring

What were you referring to by 'chat system'. Did you mean the text chat box, ie /s, /p, /c and then contalls OR did you mean the voice macros - which is one of my bug bears.

I wasn't referring to the voice system, I meant the chat bar in the upper left. Someone asked why it wasn't in PS2 like it was a simple copy paste job.

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Oh and why haven't you been given a dev tag yet?

I guess I would have to bug Hamma for that, wouldn't I?

ChipMHazard · 2013-03-11, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by Muldoon

I guess I would have to bug Hamma for that, wouldn't I?

Indeed, might I suggest poking him with a pointed stick?

MrBloodworth · 2013-03-11, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

Indeed, might I suggest poking him with a pointed stick?

Make sure to turn on the secondary mode though...oh, Waite.

Hamma · 2013-03-11, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by Muldoon

In China, it is considered unhealthy to play games for hours at a time. In order for a game to launch in China, it must have an anti indulgence system to stop or discourage players from playing longer than the government set standards. We do things like stopping kill tracking and not awarding XP to meet these standards.

Holy crap I've never heard of this - that is crazy.

**Muldoon** · 2013-03-11, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by Hamma

Holy crap I've never heard of this - that is crazy.

I found some articles that lay out what it is in other games. Here and here. Which, it is much less scary than what this guy thinks.

And many thanks to Hamma for my sweet developer colors.