Just found these two pics on Tony Park's blog

[Robert089]

Can anyone make out that blue writing on the white board? All I could make out was CHINA, FREE and TECH.

[Raymac]

Well, this is very interesting indeed. It's kind of hard to tell what we are looking at, but the rough quality of it makes me think the map is either a very early draft of the real map, or it's just a made up example of the general idea behind the maps.

Also 4km x 4km sounds like a pretty decent size, but I'd like to know what that is in relation to the current maps. If it's like Oshur islands, then it will not even be close to "massive" enough and it will be the biggest disappointment in my gaming life.

I still have faith that they will stay true to the massive scale. SOE has said thats what made Planetside great, so they want to keep that or go bigger. Could it be another lie, and PS:N is just another Global Agenda? I guess, but they can't be THAT stupid....right?

[Logit]

Originally Posted by Raymac

I still have faith that they will stay true to the massive scale. SOE has said thats what made Planetside great, so they want to keep that or go bigger. Could it be another lie, and PS:N is just another Global Agenda? I guess, but they can't be THAT stupid....right?

I think it's pretty safe to say when it comes to stupid, SOE sets the bar preetttyy high.

[opticalshadow]

4km seems like a mossy or wasp would cross that cont in like a minute flat

[Sirisian]

The size change could be a move to keep the battles more compact. (I mean currently most of the battlefield is rarely used. You fight in one spot for a few hours). Or it's because the larger maps won't work with the PS3's hardware.

[Lonehunter]

Originally Posted by Firefly

What the fuck is that, a Warpgate in the water??

Would make sense with some water vechs

[opticalshadow]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

The size change could be a move to keep the battles more compact. (I mean currently most of the battlefield is rarely used. You fight in one spot for a few hours). Or it's because the larger maps won't work with the PS3's hardware.

CURRETNLY thats true, but the thing is when ps came out, during year 1, most of the battle field was used. making maps smaller based on the current player pop would be a massive mistake.

[Sirisian]

Originally Posted by opticalshadow

CURRETNLY thats true, but the thing is when ps came out, during year 1, most of the battle field was used. making maps smaller based on the current player pop would be a massive mistake.

I got the game when it came out. Even at max population fighting was generally pretty localized to one base or tower with 266 people spread out in an area.

However! I see your point. We're supposed to be having larger battles so why would the maps shrink? I want 1000 players at least.

[Espion]

Originally Posted by Raymac

Also 4km x 4km sounds like a pretty decent size, but I'd like to know what that is in relation to the current maps.

The original conts ranged in size from 4x4 to 8x8, with old oshur probably being the closest in size to 4x4.

Old oshur, fors, amerish, cery, esamir, solsar... all the smallest conts and all the most fun to fight on. Sounds good to me.

[opticalshadow]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

I got the game when it came out. Even at max population fighting was generally pretty localized to one base or tower with 266 people spread out in an area.

However! I see your point. We're supposed to be having larger battles so why would the maps shrink? I want 1000 players at least.

idk i was on marokov and i remember spending quite a few hours in transist battles across ishandar and cyssor and forseal (the three conts my outfit spent the most time on) where it would be 20 prowlers and air force and scatted other troops all pushing inbetween towers or bases. back then we didnt want to take towers first because it gave us away, and we had to avoid all the main roads to not get detected or lose half our guys on mines, mossies took point with wraith riders to make sure the cost was clear as 100+ troops skirted bases to avoid detection, and set up forward field bases.

maybe i was just lucky, but i remember year one spending almost as much time in the wilderness fighting as in bases.

[BorisBlade]

Originally Posted by Sirisian

I got the game when it came out. Even at max population fighting was generally pretty localized to one base or tower with 266 people spread out in an area.

However! I see your point. We're supposed to be having larger battles so why would the maps shrink? I want 1000 players at least.

133 per side are current pop lock numbers, it used to be closer to 500 total if all three empires pop locked it. (the exact number is escaping me atm) So that space was used alot. Plus having some bases closer and some farther and the terrain between them really changes how each fight plays out and adds to the variety.

The cont size on most conts was about right. Ish may be a bit big but it also had a ton of bases. Knowing vehicle flight speeds, you could do a few timed runs on a few conts to get a rough idea on the current sizes. And i hope to god they arent doin anything based on what a crappy PS3 can handle, those things are so massively outdated and old its not worth the loss in quality. The abysmally low RAM alone holds em back big time, not to mention the ancient graphics cards they have. (7800 gt approx)

[Redshift]

mossies fly at 119 kph without burners, 4x4 would take 2 mins to fly accross or 2.8 mins to fly diagonally, no idea what that means in relation to current ones though :P

[Firefly]

Originally Posted by otomotopia

The text is even more interesting.

Met with the SOE partners in the United States; very excited because they told me new developments for Planetside Next: the content of the game is good, andthey feel the original name no longer suitable. They officially changed its name to Planetside2. Bring you more news later.

Ni hui shuo zhongwen ma? Or did you use Google Translate?

Also don't forget the bit up at the top. "#Planetside2 today for the first time since the exposure of its contents I share with you a map, which is "planetside2" R & D." I dunno what he means by R&D. I mean, I know what R&D stands for but I'm not sure what he means in context by inclusion. He could mean it's in pre-development or development.

Originally Posted by opticalshadow

4km seems like a mossy or wasp would cross that cont in like a minute flat

Close, but way off on the speed. Anyway, it does that now. So this is irrelevant, really (sorry).

Originally Posted by SRxRedshift

mossies fly at 119 kph without burners, 4x4 would take 2 mins to fly accross or 2.8 mins to fly diagonally, no idea what that means in relation to current ones though :P

I don't know what the current map sizes are - and by that I mean the actual usable area. Continents don't take up the entire zone, there's still the water on the edge of the map before you fall into the sea.

[Raymac]

Originally Posted by Espion

The original conts ranged in size from 4x4 to 8x8, with old oshur probably being the closest in size to 4x4.

Old oshur, fors, amerish, cery, esamir, solsar... all the smallest conts and all the most fun to fight on. Sounds good to me.

It's sad, but I don't remember the details of old Oshur that well. Memories lost to beer hops and bong resin I guess. But yeah, I always have a soft spot in my heart for the gigantic Cyssor-side, but Fors and Amerish etc. are a good size and always fun battles. Hell my first realization that PS was my favorite game of all time was during a massive battle for Cetan that lasted for hours and hours. A place like Searhus feels a little on the large side, but alot of that space is rarely used, even in the glory days.

Basically, I'm more anxious to see the maps than I am about anything. I'd like to see more bottlenecks and tactical terrain, and if this sketch is any indication, it looks like thats what they are going for. I'm really hoping we get to see the landscape sooner rather than later.

[otomotopia]

Originally Posted by Firefly

Ni hui shuo zhongwen ma? Or did you use Google Translate?

Also don't forget the bit up at the top. "#Planetside2 today for the first time since the exposure of its contents I share with you a map, which is "planetside2" R & D." I dunno what he means by R&D. I mean, I know what R&D stands for but I'm not sure what he means in context by inclusion. He could mean it's in pre-development or development.


Close, but way off on the speed. Anyway, it does that now. So this is irrelevant, really (sorry).


I don't know what the current map sizes are - and by that I mean the actual usable area. Continents don't take up the entire zone, there's still the water on the edge of the map before you fall into the sea.

I used my 2 years of mandarin to re-translate it. And he meant that this is an early, 'in testing' version of the map-as in not meant to be taken as fact, even conceptually.