PlanetSide 2 features 8x8 kilometer continents
Sony Online Entertainment reveals that the upcoming massively-multiplayer shooter PlanetSide 2 will include continental-sized, 8x8 kilometer battle maps.
Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming MMO-shooter sequel, PlanetSide 2, will apparently feature gigantic maps that are approximately 8x8 kilometers in size. Furthermore, the game's maps are being structured to support competitive shootouts between unbalanced teams. To get a better idea, it's possible to encounter a scenario where you and about twenty or so teammates try to defend a base against an onslaught of around 200 attackers.
PlanetSide 2's creative director Matt Higby recently told PC Gamer UK that the game will be set on a number of eight-by-eight kilometer continents on the planet Auraxis, and that some of the game's weapons will be effective at a range of up to 1 kilometer (just shy of 1,100 yards). Long range combat, ahoy!
To put the scale of things in further perspective, Higby pointed out one of the individual courtyards for one of PlanetSide 2's sprawling city-like "facilities," noting that one of those areas "is the size of a Modern Warfare level." Each of these massive play areas is also being hand-crafted to serve as the epic battlegrounds for conflicts between the game's three factions: The Terran Republic, The New Conglomerate and The Vanu Sovereignty.
Higby also hinted that players will be able to encounter some scenarios where the odds are greatly stacked against them, but not unattainably so. "You're going to be fighting in battles sometimes when it's 200 people fighting against 30 people," he said, "because there's only 30 people defending that base and then suddenly 200 people log in from the other group and go do it."
Of course, balancing these situations is key to ensure that they don't immediately degenerate into one-sided slaughters. "That's something we have to take into account when we do our level design, so we've been spending a lot of time whiteboxing bases, figuring out what we want specific areas to look like," Higby explained.
It was also announced a short while ago that PlanetSide 2 will be a "free-to-play" title, and is due out for PC "late this year or early next year."
[Ed. Note: This post was edited for accuracy.]
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Shacknews
replyJeff Mattas posted a new article, PlanetSide 2's maps are four square miles each.
Sony Online Entertainment reveals that the upcoming massively-multiplayer shooter PlanetSide 2 will include continental-sized, 8x8 kilometer battle maps.-
How does that compare to Planetside 1?
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Math is wrong. 8 kilometers = 4.97 miles. So 8 km. * 8 km. = 64 sq.km. = 4.97 mi. * 4.97 mi. = 24.7 sq.mi.
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:: insert highly inappropriate joke here about the asian guy correcting everyones math ::
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What's sad is that I'm really a white guy that like the Dragon/Tiger username.
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This post was edited for accuracy.
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I don't think that's what he's talking about. That situation already exists in Planetside 1, and they account for that by continental bonuses for lopsided fights, and empire level bonuses for underpopulated empires.
Those bonuses are usually additional XP, but occasionally additional health, too. With the resource mechanic in Planetside 2, I imagine you'll see increased resource generation if you're underpopulated on a certain continent. -
Oh come on, no "one sided slaughters" is just dumb. This is the same mentality that creates dustbowl and goldrush in TF2 because it is so unbelievably hard to attack even with significant advantage.
People love to have what they perceive as a "fair fight" so the most dominant maps played in TF2 are the ones that provide long games for no reason other then making games look close. Put those same teams on maps that have no forced mechanics to slow down the pace and there is just utter domination by one side. -
One sided fights aren't fun though. What usually happens with games like this, is one faction attracts the most aggressively minded players and that faction steamrolls everyone else. Then players of other factions switch sides or quit the game, and all of a sudden there's no one left to fight.
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To put the scale of things in further perspective, Higby pointed out one of the individual courtyards for one of PlanetSide 2's sprawling city-like "facilities," noting that one of those areas "is the size of a Modern Warfare level."
Excellent. That would place them as just slightly bigger than current PS1 base courtyards.
So it sounds like this game is BIGGER than Planetside 1....yesssssss -
They're calling that a "continent"?
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New twitter image that just got posted new AMP Base http://yfrog.com/z/nzjsqpfj
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[deleted]
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And another: http://www.planetside-universe.com/media/main/psnext/screenshots/trcommlink.jpg
Looks awesome.
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Uhh.. no. 4.97x4.97 miles. So, assuming you could move in an entirely straight line along a flat plane at a constant rate of 60mph exactly parallel/perpendicular to the boundaries of the map, it'd take 4.97 minutes. On any land based vehicle though, I reckon you'd probably average 30-40mph and have to travel through more like 7/8 miles of land to traverse it, so more like quarter of an hour to cross the world.
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