Planetside 2 - Free to Play MMOFPS

[Elandyll]

Planetside 2 Coming to PS4 - YouTube

Release: expected end of 2013
PS+ required: No

It seems that TitanFall gets a lot of coverage when SOE's free to play MMOFPS that is now confirmed to be coming to Playstation 4 has little to no mention.

This is weird, considering that Planetside 2 is a great Multiplayer FPS on PC, and that it was ranked #3 in the best 25 FPS of all time by PC Gamer (and on PS4 it could very well be the natural successor of WarHawk, see below).

The story behind the game is that 300 years in the future, after a devastating war that left Earth pretty much in ruins, the entire world came together under one banner, the Terran Republic.
A wormhole is found and an expeditionary fleet is sent through it, but it becomes stranded and finds refuge on an Alien world, "Auraxis", where they establish a new colony. Pretty quickly, things fall appart and three factions splinter with the discovery of Alien technology allowing for "rebirth" with traces of DNA - The Terran Republic, The New Conglomerate, and the Vanu Sovereignty are now warring against each other.

Planetside 2 is a Free 2 Play MMOFPS in the sense that there is no monthly fee, you download the game for free, and there is a store for items (atainable in game otherwise) and cosmetic changes.
The game has 3 giant maps called "continents" (soon 4, and a 5th has been hinted to) where (on PC) up to 2000 players can fight it out on one continent (Map) at any time - which would amount to up to 650+ players per side.

INDAR: Desert / High Desert with deep canyons and Dunes
ESAMIR: Icy Permafrost wasteland
AMERISH: Mountainous with valleys with sparse forests
planned: Hossin (Swamp Marshland) and Searhus (volcanic)


There are 6 classes, each with 2 possible specializations:
Light Assault
Heavy Assault
Medic
Engineer
Infiltrator
Mechanized Assault eXosuit (MAX)

Vehicules, both ground based or aircrafts, are a big part of the game:
Ground-
Tanks: Prowler, Vanguard, Magrider
Sunderer
Lightning
Flash
Harasser

Air-
Fighters:Mosquito, Reaver, Scythe
Liberator
Galaxy

Finally, there is an ongoing background story, and SOE has hired Marv Wolfman to write for the game.

http://www.planetside2.com/

Screenshots from the PC version

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[Insomniac01]

This game on pc had so much potential that was sadly not meet. I wouldn't expect anything special unless they update and patch it a lot.

[Elandyll]

To be honest, I haven't played it myself, but I have heard friends talking about it and read a lot of good things about it too. The Metacritic is also very solid at 84%, the reviews being as high as 95 and the lowest being 70 (38 good reviews, 2 mixed).



Depends what you expect from it.It cannot be as "tight" as a COD or BF experience I think given that it's massively multiplayer, but the raves go toward its deep strategic play and the number of players engaged along with its play options (vehicules).

[Insomniac01]

Look at the collapsing player count (admittedly only those playing steam can be seen), that does not bode well for a mp game. Maybe if they can get a descent tutorial system in place, a way to test out guns before purchasing, and the removal of pay to win elements (it take 40+ hours of game time to unlock a weapon you don't' even know if you will like), maybe then the game will be solid. But without that it will start of with a bang and then bleed players which I do not want. I want the game to reach its potential but as it is, it is okay for a few hours and that's about it.

[MrNathanDrake]

Its free... so I'll try it out.

Probably going to get lost in the shuffle since its coming out alongside Killzone and Battlefield.

[Mavrick]

First image of it running on PS4?

[Elandyll]

http://www.gamezone.com/news/2014/08...-status-update

No date yet, but still counting on a 2014 beta.

I wouldnt expect Sony to do anything to their big Destiny rollout, so a November or December beta is probably more likely imo.

[Mavrick]

Would be a nice little Christmas present from Sony

[Snicket]

It's been so long I almost completely forgot about this.

[ariakon]

Originally Posted by Snicket

It's been so long I almost completely forgot about this.

I know, I was all ready to go at launch.

[PA_Kid]

I know some people who played on PC and felt like this was a better long term option than Destiny or Warframe.

Personally I think most people are going to go to and stay with Destiny long term and then Warframe will pick up people who want to mainly PvE and PS2 will pick up those that want to PvP. I think both (WF and PS2) will hang around at a fairly steady lower (but still successful) rate, but I just don't see PS2 shaking things up drastically at this point.

SOE isn't exactly the most nimble or good at capitalizing...

Heck, the H1Z1 things sounds interesting but I would not be shocked at this point to see Day-Z beat it to release and get marginalized.

I wonder at want point the free-to-play dilute themselves too much.

Warframe, Blacklight, War Thunder, Planetside 2, DCUO, H1Z1, Day-Z, etc... Seems like as more and more come out they are going to have to try harder to have something special to draw in and retain players compared to the competition.

[Grim Reaper]

never played this game before. is it online mp only or does it have sp as well?

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by Grim Reaper

never played this game before. is it online mp only or does it have sp as well?

Its an online only title. Not read whether there is a SP but if i'm right, its like Dust514 and mainly just an online PVP style game, but then again, it may be like Defiance which had a combination of the two a la Destiny but on a much bigger scale where PVP is concerned.

[Blufury]

Originally Posted by Snicket

It's been so long I almost completely forgot about this.

Same. Late 2014 isn't a good time with the huge amount of games coming out this holiday. If its just a beta release I probably will just pick up and play casually.

[PA_Kid]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

Its an online only title. Not read whether there is a SP but if i'm right, its like Dust514 and mainly just an online PVP style game, but then again, it may be like Defiance which had a combination of the two a la Destiny but on a much bigger scale where PVP is concerned.

My understanding is PVP only - like Dust514, not like Defiance.

[Elandyll]

Between it being announced as playable at the Playstation experience (12/6/2014) and those new screens of the revamped PS4 UI in game, it looks like Planetside 2 is getting closer by the day.

[Elandyll]

Things are heating up hehe

https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/528245778746060800

Ps2 on Ps4 looking really good. Running on live pic servers now . Helps us test.

http://www.worldsfactory.net/2014/10...ext-few-months

John Smedley @j_smedley
Beta is coming in the next few months

M Wahid Hasib @Wahidhasib
Lol. I think the last guardian will come before planetside 2. Really sad.

John Smedley @j_smedley
it takes how long it takes. Anyone else doing thousands of players in the same map let me know.

Now, it seems to hint at a 2015 Beta, and then ... who knows when for the final version, but SOE is still saying that PS2 is aiming at a 2014 release.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/planets...ion-experience

2014?

2014!

Here's my prediction: Open Beta wil start either during or right after the PS Experience, with a functionning In Game store.
Given that it's an online F2P, an Open Beta is often as close as you get to an actual release date.

[dyne]

I don't understand this quote (in regards to cross platform play)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...anned-for-2014

People don't necessarily want to be able to take a character you've spent money on on the PC and bring that character onto the PS4 without having spent money on the PS4.

Soooooo if I spent a lot of money on a character on the PC, I wouldn't want to transfer it over to my PS4 or play with PS4 people because I didn't spend the money on the PS4?

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by dyne

I don't understand this quote (in regards to cross platform play)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...anned-for-2014



Soooooo if I spent a lot of money on a character on the PC, I wouldn't want to transfer it over to my PS4 or play with PS4 people because I didn't spend the money on the PS4?

I think (could be wrong) it refers to local platform economies... Maybe.

As I in, most items can be attained with in game cash, or use real $$ to purchase in game cash and then buy items. If you bring a character that's been around for years on the PC, it will naturally have tons more stuff than possible on a brand new iteration on PS4 would normally allow.

That and SOE (Sony) would rather you buy more stuff with real $$, of course.


That's my guess.

[Elandyll]

Eurogamer article with takeways mostly being that the Beta is defintiely aiming at end of 2014, and they're still aiming at a solid 1080p60 (they have it right now, except in big fights, aka hundreds of players, which is what they're working on optimizing).

The max number of players per map is about 1200 people. 4 Continents per sever = up to 3600-4800 players per server.

... Let's move on to the PS4 version. When is it out?

Matt Higby: I wish I knew. I know a target, but I don't know the exact day. The reason is, as much as it sounds like we're blowing smoke, we're working hard to release a game that feels like a full-on console experience and not just a port. So it's taken us quite a long time to re-jigger our user interface and our controls. There's a lot that needs to get done.

If we were an FPS it would be easy for us to just take what we have right now, convert our half-a-dozen or so UI screens and be on the console. But we're an MMOFPS and we don't have half-a-dozen UI screens. We have dozens of UI screens and they all need to work well on the console. They all have a lot of depth and complexity, as you would imagine an MMO user interface does. All that now needs to work on a console controller. It needs to be navigatable. It needs to be intuitive. That's been a really large design process, and we've done a lot of iteration to try and make it right.

But our goal is at the end of the day to have our launch on the PS4 feel like a great PS4 native console game, not just a PC port. So it's taking a while.

The official PlanetSide 2 website says the game is coming to PS4 in 2014. Is that still the case?

Matt Higby: Right now our intention is for a beta at that time. We will have some more info about those plans at the PlayStation Experience event on 6th and 7th December.

How will the business model work on PS4?

Matt Higby: The business model on the console is going to be similar to the one on PC. All the rules about the way you unlock items and which items are available to be unlocked via Station Cash - it won't be called Station Cash on PlayStation, we're using Marketplace Cash from DCUO - the items you're able to purchase using that Marketplace Cash will be the same across PC and PS4.

The membership will be slightly different because the PC membership gives you access to all of the other SOE games. The PS4 membership is exclusive to the PS4. But other than that the benefits for the PS4 membership are going to be the same as the PC membership. And the items that are sold are going to be the same as the PC items.

It's going to be very similar to running the game through Steam right now, where you purchase Station Cash through your Steam wallet funds. On the PS4 you'll purchase Marketplace Cash using your PlayStation funds. And once you're in the game you'll use that cash to buy your items.

In terms of the graphics, how do the two versions compare?

Matt Higby: Very favourable. One of the things that's interesting about the way PlanetSide works from an engineering point of view is our bottlenecks aren't really on the graphics. On the PS4 that means we're able to have extremely high fidelity graphics. We're able to use the ultra textures. We're able to use the full particles, the shadow, the lighting, all that stuff, as if it were running on ultra on a PC.

Our real bottlenecks are on the CPU side. From a graphical fidelity perspective, people will be impressed with what they see on the PS4. That's always one of those things people are sceptical about. I see every time we post an article like this I always get called out: 'haha, it's bullshit he's saying it's going to look as good.' It really does.

Again, the graphical fidelity is every bit as high. The slowdowns we have are on the CPU side more than the GPU side. It's because we're tracking and updating so many different players moving on your screen and moving around at once. All that animation and all the audio that's associated with all those characters running around, all of their projectiles being simulated in their client, all those things end up hitting the CPU, not the GPU.

So, generally when our frame-rates are low, it's a CPU problem, not a GPU problem. And that's where we're optimising right now, to get our CPU running faster so the game is running at a more consistent frame-rate on the PS4.

What resolution will it be on PS4?

Matt Higby: Right now we're running for 1080p. We're still trying to shoot for 60fps. We're trying to get a solid frame-rate. So if we go to 30 it'll be because we want to maintain a completely solid 30fps. But that's the optimisation we're working on right now. And we're still grinding on it.

Generally speaking the client is running at well over 60fps. In a really big fight it gets bogged down. That's the bottleneck we're chasing down.


Is cross-platform play possible?

Matt Higby: From a technical standpoint it can absolutely happen. In fact we're playing on the PS4 client against our live servers right now. We have people running around on our live PC servers using PS4s to test and debug, to look at real PlanetSide fights on the PS4 client instead of just simulated ones. So from a technical point of view it's absolutely possible.

From a business and logistics point of view it's probably never going to happen. It has to do with platform exclusivity. People don't necessarily want to be able to take a character you've spent money on on the PC and bring that character onto the PS4 without having spent money on the PS4.

It also has to do with the way we do updates. On the PlayStation there's a process of QA that every update goes through. We won't be able to guarantee that our updates are in sync on the PC and the PS4 because of that. If we wanted to have the game be cross-platform we would need to make sure the servers were constantly in complete sync. But because of the additional layer of QA authentication that patches go through on the PlayStation platform, there's little possibility of us being able to maintain a sync between the PC and the PS4. So a client could connect to one and maybe get something that doesn't even exist on the other one yet. That would cause all kinds of issues.

That makes me sad!

Matt Higby: Yeah, you won't be able to fly around on your console controller killing all the PC players, or vice versa!

What's the maximum number of players you'll get on PS4?

Matt Higby: Right now we have per map limits of about 1200 players. Per server there are four continents. So you can have about 3600 to 4800 players on a single server depending on what the continent locking situation looks like on that server, since we do lock continents to focus players onto different continents.

What will be the situation on PS4?

Matt Higby: Our goal is to get as close as possible to doing that. But the number of players is something we're probably going to have to look hard at as we work on our final optimisation passes. That's something that might get lowered.

The good news is, the way we lower players wouldn't necessarily mean there are fewer total players fighting on the map at once. But it might mean your client's awareness of all the players around you might cut down. So if you're in a huge fight and there are 300 players around, we already have a bunch of heuristics that slice that number of players down and show you the ones that are relevant to you on a moment to moment basis. On the PS4 those constraints might need to be a little tighter.

Hopefully, if we do our jobs right, that won't even be perceptible to you. We already have this culling we do for players in the PC game. Unless you're in the biggest of the big fights, you don't really notice players popping in and out as the culling algorithm regulates how many characters are being sent to your client at once.

So hopefully on the PS4, although we'll probably have a more constrained number of players on-screen at once, the gameplay won't have much of an impact, so you won't even notice.