Ross Scott

I also love that you referenced Star Trek: Generations in regards to wanting to be in good VR

The Nexus is really the closest analogy I can think of, since I really had some gaming euphoria moments back in 1999/2000 and would like to return to it.

 

Also, what are your thoughts on the Omni? Does it work with a lot of games?

I have no idea, but I think it has a lot of potential as long as the nausea is manageable. This is another reason to really want backwards support for some games that can handle it (maybe using my method), since there are many enormous existing game worlds. I do think sweat could be a concern, you might need a special washable pad to put on the VR device for long term use.

 

Hey, quick and honest criticism - you tend to talk slow, and stretch out your words. I think you've done that a lot more in this video than you have in past ones. I still really enjoy your videos but this slightly hinders them. Now, I'm a pretty slow talker and in fact some of my friends and acquaintances have even told me this. But unlike you, I have an excuse: I talk slow because I think slow. In your case this doesn't apply - you're reading off of a script. Think you can work on that and try to stretch out your words less?

 

Here's one such occurence for reference:

Keep watching for a bit for more ("floating around")

 

Edit: I realize that you might be doing it intentionally for emphasis. I don't think it works - look for other ways to emphasize? The tone you use when you do it is good, but you don't have to also stretch the words when you use it.

 

With that out of the way, that was a fantastic video and surprisingly informative. I'm somewhat excited about VR (and more specifically, 3D) because it has the potential to enhance virtually any 3D game in existence. But I haven't had a chance to even try it, ever.

This stuff isn't perfect. That video is the result of 3.5 hours of recording under strong heat. I was just glad to get it made. I can screw up or forget lines a lot and have to keep redoing them until I get them halfway decent. As for my speed, it could be slightly faster, but I don't think I'd want it dramatically faster, since I am going for emphasis.

 

Ross, I had jobs using 3D vision (on windows 7), I used 3D glasses, I found that Real 3D is possible with NVIDIA drivers and screens. The issue was not the driver but the product, with very certain result and method you could see really amazing crap, depth perception so good you feel like the tip of objects follow you when you move around your head.

The differences I saw between the products that worked and those who didn't (I'm unsure if some of them really even matter) were 4 main ones:

 

1. detailed pictured, that weren't using flat textures (obviously because I'm talking about real life photos), as many amount of details and shadows and bumps as possible in the picture. Im serious, the more happens the better things are.

Flat "3d" textures that only look 3D with a 2D screen just hurts the illusion (if that makes sense)

 

2. Limited color pallet, even black and white if possible, it sounds strange, but when you don't have colors distracting your vision, you're eyes concentrate on how everything different pops out, it works.

 

3. High resolution, as high as it can be. This one is obvious, most games do this alright so I have no complaints there. I'll just add that I think that nothing should be a pure color, everything needs a little depth with texture.

 

4.THIS IS IMPORTANT, possibly the reason many games fail with 3D.

There is a certain way 3D pictures on the screen are placed on each other, they need to have a common area at the right depth. Something that your eye gets its reference point from. Everything that diverts from that area in a certain direction, will seem either deeper or higher accordingly. The best result will happen (at least i think it will) when that point is at the center of your field of vision, it needs to make your character and the immediate area look close, while other things look far. putting that point too far will cause your head to hurt when looking at things that pop out too much, Putting the point too close, will make everything seem far, and barely have any effect. I think the latter is the issue with most 3D games. The way developers implement that point of reference to prevent people from crossing their eyes too hard.

The best way to solve it (at least in my opinion), is to give the user a certain degree of control on it, I don't know how it can be done effectively, but there are many possibilities on how developers can implement this. It can't be too hard.

 

I hope this gives some perspective (pun intended), NVIDIA have terrible idea on what 3d games should look, but they provide the hardware that can work with the right product.

I agree with #4 completely. Honestly, even though it's the same technology, the 3D effect from the Elsa Revelators was NOTICEABLY better than 3D vision, even though Nvidia bought them out and used the same technology. It took a lot of the "wow" factor away and I can't even explain why, but it sounds like you have a better grasp on it. As for flat textures, the illusion is obviously broken in 3D, although again, I'd be thrilled to play something with Quake or Unreal graphics in 3D, so I can scale my expectations accordingly. I'm not sure decent color would be an issue for me. As for low resolution, what I liked less were the lines between the pixels. The low resolution wasn't a huge problem for me, although it certainly does promote nearsighted tendencies since a lot of far off details can't be focused on.

 

 

I use the HTC Vive, and I've been experimenting with a program I found on Steam, called MyDream Swift. I'd compare Swift with VorpX, although as competitors, one may work if the other doesn't.

 

I should say, though, "Operation: Get Ross Immersed" does sound worthy of a forum post. I'm certain that there's at least a few 3D programmers and fans who subscribe to Ross' channel, that could work together to set up the perfect immersion kit, whether it's 3D, virtual reality, or something else.

Does that really work? On their Steam page, they have a picture of what looks like Borderlands, but it looks like the left and right eye are getting almost the exact same image (I did a quick photoshop test):

 

 

It seems like that would only create a flat image, not 3D.

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New video, finally! I've been wanting to make this episode for a month or two, although I was holding off until new videocards were announced last month as it's relevant to this topic (it's discussed in the video). If things had gone a little differently, I wouldn't have made this, because I wouldn't have thought it necessary. Unfortunately, things drifted into rant territory instead, so here it is!

 

This is the longest Ross Rants I've made so far and will likely be the longest for some time to come. I wasn't trying to make it long, I just had a lot to say, some of which you'll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere on the internet. I pretty much unloaded almost all my thoughts on VR that have been building up for a long time now. As you'll see in the video, I'm partially obsessed with the topic and have a love / hate attitude towards the medium that I'm trying to reconcile. Anyway, I hope my drive towards it ignites in other people, particularly 3D programmers.

 

The next video will be a Game Dungeon. I hope to have it out in under a week, but I'll just have to see how it goes.

 

COMMENTS

It's not negativity I'm filled with, but rather pragmatism. Chances of a source code being released are pretty much nil. ID software remains the only company in the industry who is reliably releasing the sources to it's engines. And while it brought the company the unanimous love of all the opensource community, it never gave them any commercial success. The practice of opensourcing your games is not viable in the current videogame industry. So with that in mind, I think it's not fair to call Daybreak "evil". They didn't commit any sins, they probably did what they could, keeping PS1 running even though they could probably shut it down as soon as PS2 got released. The task of committing developers to the end-of-life plans for their games is already very big. But if it includes changing the attitude of the entire industry towards opensourcing their software, then it goes from the "very hard" category right into the "nigh impossible".

Well you mention pragmatism, that's why I plan on researching consumer laws for many European countries in particular. It could be the practice of selling software that becomes unusable with no guarantee at all is actually something fine-worthy. If it is, I hope to contact the EFF, who could then contact the appropriate agencies. If companies started getting hit with significant fines from the EU every time they did this, it might actually end up being cheaper for them to have an end of life plan built into the design, then to continue making games that are designed to die like this. Either that or give up the European market, which would be far more costly.

 

The thing is, I'm not trying to demand every company release source code, server software, or patch their game, or whatever. Those are just proposed solutions. I'm saying we need to have SOME method of allowing the game to exist after the company server is shut down. I'm very open minded with how we get there. More pragmatic options are certainly welcome. Hell, part of what I'm doing is raising awareness of the issue. If I keep at this, maybe in 5 years I can influence how gamers start thinking about this topic to the point that it won't be tolerated. Hell, look at the blowback Microsoft received from the original Xbox One reveal due to how restrictive it was. I would love to see that kind of resistance take place on killing games. However, doing nothing at all is not a solution, and so far that's the only proposal I'm hearing from you.

 

Again, as a developer, pretend you put 3000 hours into an MMO project and think of how you would want to be able to allow people to experience your work in the future.

Is it? It's debatable. I will agree that it's at least NOT WORSE. For example, I'd prefer to not play a game at all, than to play a buggy parody (I was much younger when I played L2 ), but that's me. But then again, better for whom? Certainly not for the developers, who I guess want to increase the number of PS2 players.

I don't think it's as debatable as you think, since one side literally has NOTHING to offer. Of course no one wants to play a buggy game, but it's obvious many players would rather have that, than nothing all. The sheer success of early access games serves as testament to that mentality. Hell, people will buy buggy games brand new for $60.

 

I think you're maybe looking at this from a pure sales perspective. There's not much of an argument to be made defending it that way. I'm looking at it from a culture preservation / consumer rights perspective. With that view, I think this practice is simply inexcusable. I think it's an absolutely terrible precedent that you can pay money for a great game, then the parent company can shut it down at any time because there was no foresight into what would happen once they didn't want to run the servers any more. In other industries, this could be considered fraud. EULA terms are not legally binding documents. They can say anything. I really do think some of these practices violate laws in some countries and I plan on investigating it further.

 

I can agree that some games have been created in such a way that it may be impossible from a legal perspective to keep them functional at all. What drives me insane is that this practice is INCREASING and we're making MORE games like this, rather than factoring in the reality that at some point the server will shut down. You say you're a developer. If you had invested 3000 hours into a major game project that you were proud of, you would still be fine with having that completely shut down in 4 years so no one could ever see your work again outside of some video? That this is somehow a reasonable practice and we shouldn't even consider the possibility of coming up with some sort of end of life plan in the design phase of things? In my eyes, this is a backwards, anti-progress view. I simply don't buy the mantra of throwing our arms up in the air and saying there's nothing we can do, then going on to design new games with EXACTLY the same vulnerabilities.

 

You're speaking "The people who actually fired this game up" like it's a sure-thing to happen the moment the sources are released. Suppose they release the sources. Just dumped the whole thing to public in one giant archive. It requires dozens of people working full-time and knowing what they are doing to just run this thing, what are the chances that a couple of people with no knowledge of the software sort this out at their free time? I'd say the chances are slim.

Your negativity on this is so strong and I'm trying to figure out why. Yes, it's not a guarantee that the community would get the game running, and yes it would take a lot of work. These games frequently have VERY dedicated fans however and giving them code would at least give them a CHANCE to keep things running. Both Planetside and Battleforge have server emulator communities, neither one actually works. If they had the right code, they could actually get that into something playable again. In the case of Battleforge, there's literally no game similar to it. Your attitude on this seems to be "No, it's a lot of work for people to make server emulators, so they should not have access to code and everyone should give up." If I'm misinterpreting that, let me know, but that's an incredibly defeatist attitude to take towards pretty much anything, especially when there have been some success stories in the past (like Warhammer Online).

 

As for other companies getting access to the code, that's not much a threat. If they were to use the code in their own project, it could be outed and they could get sued into oblivion. There are very real risks of stealing code for a commercial project.

 

Well, maybe we have a misunderstanding on the meaning of the word "play" or "enjoy". Being able to run around the game world reminiscing about the times when there was something to actually do there isn't something I'd call "fun". While I support the idea of end-of-life plans for the games, I still think that there are games for which the end-of-life plans are simply impossible.

"Best effort" plans might be a better term then. I think MOST games can have a full end of life plan to that they can be enjoyed after the parent company stops supporting it. In other cases, I think the developers can still do SOMETHING to give fans a chance of keeping a game going in some form. Is it impossible to have the game EXACTLY as it was when hosted by the parent company? In many cases, yes. Is it POSSIBLE to have something maybe 90% as good that won't require any further involvement from the developer? The answer is also yes, as has been proven by many emulated MMO games in the past. I think it's mostly sheer stubbornness and utter lack of foresight that perpetuates this practice.

 

I really suggest you watch my Battleforge video if you haven't seen it already, it explains my stance on things more thoroughly. I did have an oversight in it in that I forgot to account for middleware used in a game, which would make releasing the code thornier, but again, that's not an excuse for NO end of life plan for every NEW game being made.

As an amateur programmer and system engineer (I worked as one for a whooping 20 days ), I disagree on the topic of PS1 kill.

I think you really misunderstood my stance on this and it's not as unreasonable as you seem to think. I'll try and address it:

 

You think of a game as a program. As of a set of ones and zeroes that can be just stored on a hard drive and then easily launched anytime from anywhere.

MMOs are monstrously complex, I never stated anything along these lines. I realize in many cases it's not practical for the developer to patch it, especially dated games. I think coming up with an end-of-life plan for future games is a responsible practice, but not one that the industry is even thinking about yet. It's not AS gargantuan a task if it's included in the game design from the very beginning. For existing games, I'm advocating doing SOMETHING to assist fans who still want the game

 

At the very least, I'm pretty sure that lots of that infrastructure is hardcoded in so many places, that it would be easier to develop a new server software, than to adapt the old one for a general use.

Easier for the COMPANY you mean. The COMMUNITY only has the option of reverse engineering the code and coming up with an emulator, which is absolute hell.

 

When you tell "don't kill a game" you most likely mean "preserve the game in the same state it is now".

No. I have never said that once in any of my videos. Even being able to run around the maps by yourself would be FAR more than what we get, which is absolutely nothing. By "don't kill a game" I specifically mean "don't make it so that the game is COMPLETELY unplayable in any form with no recourse for paying customers whatsoever."

 

You want a gameserver populated by lots of players, you want a flawless technical performance. maybe even some support.

Oh sure, that would be nice, but that's usually a fantasy. I don't EXPECT that level of functionality, but again, I think it's not unreasonable to expect more than absolutely nothing for a game you've paid money for. I think in some countries this practice actually violates consumer law, it's just not being enforced. I'm currently researching that and hope to explore it further.

 

Have you ever played on "pirated" MMO servers? I did. It was "Lineage 2", before it was officially localized here in russia (so it was a "fair" pirating by your terms, we couldn't play it any other way ). Granted that even in it's perfect condition L2 is a korean grindfest, the experience we had was... not the best. Broken geodata. malfunctioning skills, constant server reboots, occasional wipes and fallbacks (the situation when the database gets reversed by 1-2 weeks depending on when the last backup was made). And as the cherry on top - the epic items which server admins were selling for real money (they also wanted to eat occasionally). For 50-100$ you could buy yourself a "kill all" button.

 

But at least we knew it was a pirated server we were playing on. Now imagine all this labeled as "an official PS1 server". How do you think, do Daybreak want this kind of image to be associated with the "PlanetSide" brand? Especially since they still use it. "Oh, you want me to play PS? I heard PS, it's a shitty MMO shooter with laggy servers and a pay-to-win monetary policy. You say PS2, not PS1? Is there a difference? Well, it was made by the same company, so I still think it's shit".

A couple points here:

 

1. A buggy game server is SO much better than absolutely nothing. Say it was an MMO that you just wanted to explore the world. Would you rather have it be a little buggy, or impossible, so you can never experience that world in any form? There's no comparison at all.

 

2. If the company actually cares about their perception of the game, they wouldn't make it completely unplayable. They wouldn't even have to make it the "official" version. They could simply release relevant source code to the community under a license that protects their rights and let the die-hard community sort it out. They could also have a no-monetization clause to make any profiting like the kind you mentioned illegal and enforceable for them to shut down.

 

3. The people who actually fired this game up would likely be a very dedicated crowd, not a casual person wandering in. In the event that the game became more popular to attact more casual players, it would probably be because the experience had become so good it was catching on. In other words, the risk of someone playing the old game and judging the entire company by that are almost non-existent. The risk of never wanting to support a company again because they shut down your favorite game with no recourse whatsoever is very real however.

 

Anyway, I hope that clears things up a little bit. Again, please realize you have some misconceptions on my position on this. I really don't see how this practice can be supported in its current form unless you're comfortable with never being able to play your favorite game again in any form. It's the same principle.

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Here's the stream from the latest Planetside 2 session. This one is higher quality than the last one as I was able to merge two different feeds, so it's at 1080p and has the game sound also, however I can't promise it will be that way next time. The OBS stream got out of sync twice and was out of sync with the other game footage recording at least a dozen times. The webcam feed isn't 100% in sync with everything else, but it's very close. Anyway, this one started off with me bumbling around, but ended up pretty well with a large uphill battle. It never really resolved itself, but there were some good battle moments in it. New video should be coming in a couple days!

 

COMMENTS

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Surprise Dead Game News update! I really wasn't planning on making another episode so soon since I'm in the middle of working on other videos, but seeing as how the Planetside 2 play session is also today, I felt like I had to get this out ASAP. Planetside is shutting down! This definitely gives me conflicted feelings about doing the play sessions in Planetside 2, I talk about it in the video and will no doubt mention it more in the livestream today.

 

COMMENTS

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This is just an update to remind people the Planetside 2 play session is on the 18th at 2pm EST. Assuming nothing melts down, it will be on the Emerald server and you can follow along on twitch.tv/rossbroadcast.

 

In other news, I've filmed the next Ross Rants (3.5 hours of shooting that need to be edited down), but still need to process everything. As much as I'd like to have it be done this weekend, it will probably be until at least Monday due to all the editing involved. I will say I get a little more worked up in this one than previous ones. After that's done, I'll get started on the next Game Dungeon.

 

COMMENTS

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Dead Game News yet again! I have to say, when I started this, I really didn't think the news would be this frequent. The pace games are being killed off is a little insane. I increased my standards slightly this time and added screenshots of a few of the titles, and also used footage recorded by someone else that was sent to me. I'm still open to your game footage being used for some of the videos, but it has to be relatively high quality and not particularly distracting or full of spoilers. Anyway, I hope to have at least two normal videos this month.

 

COMMENTS

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Here's the latest videochat. Nothing too important, mostly just some news that more videos are coming (I'm currently working on 3), and a reminder about the next Planetside 2 session (June 18th, 2pm EST). I tried to be more discerning about which questions got answered and thus was able to get through things a little faster this time. Not much else to say that's not in the video, back to work on the other videos!

 

COMMENTS

First and foremost: Are you still taking sketch artists? We messaged about this a couple years ago for your movie, but communication on that dropped. I was the one who made a quick sketch of the civil protection unit. Also, I was wondering when you will be taking samples for voice acting.

I'll answer this one now. Yes, I can consider people for concept art, though I have a couple promising people already and that's being worked on. I checked your email address and couldn't find the CP shot that you sent me I'm afraid, it might have been under a different name.

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Hey everyone, as an update, I have a few announcements. First, the next videochat with fans will be on June 5th, at 4pm EST on twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I'll put the stream on up on Youtube afterwards. If you have any questions or topics you want covered, either reply to this thread or email [email protected]. Next, I have a date for the next Planetside 2 session. It will be on June 18th, at 2pm EST on the Emerald server. I THINK it will go okay, but if you had difficulty joining last time, I recommend joining a different continent next time and you'll probably still get a chance to play. I'll discuss this more when I do the videochat.

 

In the meantime, I've been catching up on a massive amount of emails and slowly getting more prepwork done for future videos and work done on the movie itself. This month I hope to have another Ross Rants and at least one Game Dungeon, hopefully several more videos, but I don't want to promise anything in terms of dates. I'm looking forward to working on all the stuff I have planned, it's just a matter of grinding through it.

 

COMMENTS

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I've been awfully busy lately on prepwork for more videos, but the news on dead games piled up so much I couldn't put it off much longer. So here it is! I'm kind of cynical on the topic, but the frequency of dead game news is even higher than I was anticipating. I'm hoping it slows down some. I'll have some updates in a day or two, in the meantime, work is being done on the movie and more videos.

 

COMMENTS

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Subtitles: English

 

If you've been following the website lately, this is nothing new you don't already know about, but here's the official announcement video for the two side channels I've set up recently, Dead Game News, and Accursed Farms Junk. MANY more people watch the Youtube channel than come to the site, so I thought I should have a small announcement on it there also. I don't have any other small videos like this planned currently, so the next video will probably be either Ross Rants or Game Dungeon (assuming the next videochat doesn't come first). No time estimate on either I'm afraid, but more is being worked on!

 

COMMENTS

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Some more updates! First, here is the other channel I was planning to launch, Accursed Farms Junk:

 

 

 

It's pretty much what it sounds like. This is the extra content I have lying around that I feel isn't substantial enough for the main channel, but some people might still be interested in it. Besides the intro, I've uploaded some older videos I had lying around where I did some stuff with Tom White from the Youtube channel Weird Videogames. Additionally, the first playsession with fans for Planetside 2 is now up here:

 

 

 

The quality came out a bit low due to issues with OBS again. The sound comes out of sync towards the end also due to OBS also. I didn't feel like editing and repairing it the way I do with the videochats. Welcome to Accursed Farms Junk. I have an idea for possibly increasing the quality on future recordings, but it will take some experimenting. None of the sound to the game is included (just me talking), but I may be able to add that in the future also.

 

The session went better than I expected, although I'm still trying to determine the full story of how it played out. Many people were unable to join me on the continent I was on most of the time, though that was to be expected. I hope those who weren't able to join me were able to still play the game on another continent however. If not, let me know how bad the wait time was. I did end up stopping the game sooner than I planned since we had multiple server crashes, though I was feeling a little worn down from it after about 2 hours, mostly because I'm not used to talking continuously while playing a game. I might be able to build up my stamina in the future however. Anyway, assuming nothing went seriously wrong, we'll have another session sometime next month, I'm still figuring out the date. I think things will flow a little better next time. I initially set a delay on the twitch stream since I was anticipating the stream being used against me, but it ended up not being too much of an issue and I think it probably hurt things more than it helped. I've also been talking with the outfit that helped us (VCO) and have come up with some ideas to make the gameplay more interesting if the normal plan gets a little stale.

 

In the meantime, I should have another small video introducing the new channels on Youtube soon, otherwise, it's back to work on getting future videos out, the movie, another Ross Rants and more Game Dungeon.

 

COMMENTS

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More dead game news! I wasn't planning on having another one quite so soon, but a lot came up. Includes info on some mobile games, a MOBA, Hearthstone element, Disney Infinity, and Project Spark.

 

Also as a reminder, the Planetside 2 play session is tomorrow at 2pm EST (details on it are in the Planetside 2 recruitment video description).

 

COMMENTS

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INTRO

 

 

I mentioned in the last videochat an idea I've been having in my head a little while now of possibly covering the news on games that are dying or being brought back from the dead due to how prevalent the practice of killing games is. Well I've cobbled together and attempt at doing this and have created a new channel devoted to the topic. I plan to announce Dead Game News on the main channel probably some time next week after the Planetside session, but in the meantime you get to see it early by coming to the site here. In addition to creating an intro for the channel (before realizing Youtube disabled that feature), you can see the first episode below:

 

FIRST EPISODE

 

 

Just as a disclaimer, I intend for this to take up an absolute minimum of my time. As long as you don't expect much more than random gameplay footage + me talking over it, you shouldn't be disappointed. I've intentionally created a separate channel for this as the production quality will be lower than what you can expect on the regular channel. I don't expect people to flock to this, my main focus is still going to be my regular videos like Game Dungeon and my ongoing movie project, but I hope this ends up serving as a sort of chronology of just how many games are being killed. Also, to avoid any confusion, this is NOT the "campaign" I was planning to try and get the practice of killing games to end (especially from EA), that's something separate that is going to take more time to plan out. In the meantime, some of you may find this interesting. If you have news on a game being killed or brought back, go ahead and email me, alternately I may be interested in gameplay footage people may want to contribute if I like it visually. News will be updated approximately whenever I find out more of it and am not super busy with something else. On that note, more work resumes on the other videos!

 

COMMENTS

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Here's the latest videochat! Many topics were covered this time, including more news on the Planetside 2 play session, discussion about the Nostalrius server, some other possible video plans, whether I should use twitter (for announcements only) and of course, many fan questions. This session had more technical problems than normal, at one point I thought I almost lost 90% of the chat, but was only able to recover it due to me changing twitch to auto-save just before the broadcast started.

 

COMMENTS

Hi Ross

 

I've been trying to contact you but I understand that it can take more than a year for you to reply to an e-mail, so I hope this way you get the message in time. I will visit Poland in July. Now I don't know where you live exactly, but as a fan I would like to visit you for a beer or something if it is possible.

 

If you see this message, please respond to it. And keep up the good work with your videos!

 

 

Máté

If it's taken me a year to respond, something has gone wrong. Go ahead and send me another email if that's the case.

Well

 

1) max map population is ~600 per faction.

2) If you brought 3k players, you'd fill up over 2 maps at same time.

3) Server theoretically can hold 2400 players per faction and some in VR

4) I really believe Ross is optimistic with player turnout.

5) Yes those two are of Daybreak Games, also Wrel is. There's more actively participating in reddit community, but can't be sure, how many of them are still in the company.

 

Edit: furthermore, you're challenging a community that made organized 240 vs 240 their competitive format. Please be aware you're poking the bear.

I think you're right in that 3000 might be optimistic from my fans alone, however I was reaching out to other communities to join in. As for higher level players coming to get us, that's the whole reason we need more people. If the game is capping us off like this, not only would most of the fans not get in, but those that did would have no chance at all.

Guys, I may have some very bad news. I'm not sure, but looking at the latest update, what we want to do may no longer be possible. I'm looking at this part in particular:

 

"

Continent Faction Population Queue

Any player trying to zone into a continent where their faction has 10% more population than the lowest populated faction will be placed into a queue.

· At least one continent must have over 150 players on it for the queue to be active

· The target continent must have at least 50 players on for the queue to be active

· If the player’s faction is severely overpopulated on all unlocked continents, they will be able to play on the continent where their faction has the least population advantage

"

 

Now the way I read this, it means if we tip the population past 10% of the lowest faction at any point, people will get queued. So for sake of argument, let's say 1800 people are playing before we arrive, 600 per faction. If we bring in 3000 players, I THINK this means only 60 would get in (10% of 600), and 2,940 would get queued. If that's the case I'm not sure we can still hold the event. Am I reading this correctly or misunderstanding things?

Hm, so serious, almost like you forgot that this is the game I don't know about the rest, but I definitely will be there only to hear your (and other people's) comments on the major clusterfucks that will inevitably happen. I mean, what's the point of advertising this as a "playsession with fans" if you are going to distance yourself from the actual playing as much as possible? So I really encourage you to at least setup some one-way voice chat. Twich is not very good at that, because it eats bandwidth for image, that no-one in play really needs, and it has a noticeable lag.

 

I also think that this have some potential as a video feature, provided that the voicechat will be recorded: some funny moments together with people's reaction. This can be fun.

 

Are there any other people with the access to some voice-chat servers? Mine alone won't support several hundreds, but if we divide the load between 5-6 it might be feasible.

I realize twitch isn't ideal, but this is going to be a logistics nightmare with the communication, so maybe there can be intermediaries relaying what I say to the right people. At least with twitch, EVERYONE can access it if they need to (or just want to watch). Plus some people could keep twitch off most of the time, then turn it on if they want to see my location.

 

 

I got about 560 hours played (although haven't played in a year) and I strongly suggest you setup an outfit for everybody. I wouldn't make it mandatory but I would very strongly suggest it to everybody. Reason being is you want to coordinate, otherwise people will just get lost and frustrated because they will not really "feel" the connection. Sure you can have the stream open and running at the same time but that's very chaotic, especially since you hear gunfire from the stream that isn't really near you. Reason for the outfit would mainly be coordination. You want to tell all your little minions where to strike next, even just in the most general sense (continent x - strike south or strike base y). Without an outfit everybody will just feel like a random player without a purpose - you'll need to motivate the troops and such to prevent the army from losing cohesion!

I'm trying to figure that out now, but I definitely don't want to be the one running it. It would be better to hand that off to someone more experienced with new players. I would be fine with them operating independent of me also, though having some sort of communication pathway to the outfit would be helpful as well. There are multiple tiers I'm envisioning for this:

 

1. Brand new players who barely got through the tutorial (I don't expect them to join squads or outfits, that's why I was emphasizing autonomy in the tutorial)

2. Beginning to intermediate players who want more organization (this is who we'll want an official outfit for)

3. Advanced players (these people should operate independent from me as they see fit).

 

Why are people still saying to make an Outfit? THERE IS ONE ON EACH OF THE US SERVERS ALREADY!!! Accursed Farms (US West server) and Accursed Farms East (US East server) are open for anyone to join!

I've gotten a couple emails about possibilities also, but let's try and decide on an official one before the next videochat on May 1st if we can, I can announce it then that way.

 

Oh also Ross never said anything about the Q key, it's not something really needed for the video but marking enemies is pretty useful.

I was aiming for as SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE. I don't expect brand new players to even use the minimap necessarily.

I'm actually the one of them that "launched it once or twice, and then never came back". Interesting to know I'm not alone in this.

 

On the technical side: what kind of communication is planned for this? So you'll have twitch, but that's for viewers, not for players. How do you plan to communicate with other players? Does PS2 support voice chats? Do you have any voice-chat servers? I have a private mumble server, but I never tested it on more than 3 players, I doubt it'll support even 50. But it'll be good for at least a couple of squads, I guess. Although it's located in russia, and perhaps won't be that good for US players.

But in any case, I can donate my server for one evening if some sort of voice communication is planned. Tell me if you're interested.

This was the hardest dilemma and is part of why I took so long to make this video. You see there's a conundrum in Planetside 2. Asking a brand new player to learn much more than what I conveyed in the video might put them at the threshold of not wanting to play the game, this is why I was trying to focus on self-autonomy. This is also why I think liaisons will be needed. Hopefully there can be people involved in different communities in communication with me that can spread the word out if I have any big announcements (I don't plan on dictating much, mostly what base I'm heading too next and any I would suggest splitting off into). I want any competent players to be acting independent of me. On the contrary, since I'll be streaming, I'll be a walking liability in terms of intelligence. Any sensitive strategic action should NOT be communicated to me.

 

Since a lot of new players will join, can we set up a outfit to help cover all the stuff you didn't cover in the video. Since outfits have a unlimited amount of spots, anyone can join. Platoons can help with teaching new people to conquer new bases and squads can help them understand how each class can work off of each other.

Yes of course, I just didn't want brand new players to feel like that was mandatory. Maybe forming an official rookie outfit "for those that want extra training" might be a good idea.

Aw, damn, my 32-bit OS fails me yet again.

Yeah sorry man, it USED to support both, though I guess you could argue this is a game that really could use the extra RAM.

 

 

About the liaison thing (is that how you spell it?)

I may not be the most experienced in PS2 but I have a little experience as a Sergeant (squad commander) and have done platoon commanding with the outfit AJSA (Angry Joe Show Army) too so I like to think I know the basics.

Other than that, I live in Europe too so timezones aren't a bother and my ping isn't *that* bad on the US servers.

So super lucky me, I have a level 21 NC on Emerald already, and the time that this starts (May fifteen, Sunday, 2 PM EST) Is literally all perfect for me. This has set me on a path to not be deterred.

 

If you want a liaison, Ross, I'm your guy. I've spent more than enough time in game (142hrs45m to be exact.) to know my way around I can lead a group of new players to a decisive victory anywhere on the map, The Crown excluded from 'anywhere'.

You can find me here https://www.planetside2.com/players/#!/ ... 9062919489. I look forward to leading the NC to victory by your side, If you desire my aid as a liaison please message me there or on my g-mail, [email protected] .

 

I await your response with honest terror. Because I have no idea if you consider me legitimate or not...

Thanks for reading Ross!

Just email me about that. I don't know how many I can take, but the idea is I would need someone who could handle me talking frequently to keep the stream more watchable for people, but could communciate any major issues or suggestions unfolding if they arise (either in-game or on twitch).

 

 

I got a question. Will you make a squad? If so,how exactly is each member gonna operate? I'm more of a rushing player.

Or maybe you won't make squads and just want others to play how they want to play it?

I wasn't planning on it. The idea behind all this is I don't want new people feeling excluded. The more experienced you get with a squad, the more it becomes more of a "in" group. And I want people who are struggling to learn the rest of the game to be able to join in. And other people can absolutely play it the way they want to. I think we'll be more effective letting existing / experienced players handle things in their own way rather than follow me into any bad decision I may make.

 

I am hoping to be there for this event, and will likely be running a small squad to do 'black ops' style missions. (running behind enemy lines to delay their vehicles from getting to the front lines, or do hit & run tactics on undefended territories) In game name is BTGbullseye or Bobthegreat.

Yeah I hope a lot of people do what you're talking about while my group acts as more of a meat shield.

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here »

 

 

 

Join me in Planetside 2! I originally planned to have this video out a couple weeks ago, but as usual for me, better late than never. Besides giving a rundown on what this is all about and relevant information, I also included a tutorial for people who have never played Planetside 2 before. I hope we get a large volume of people and things don't melt down. In case you miss it, the game will start on May 15th, at 2pm EST on the Emerald Server. It will also be livestreamed at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast.

 

The next videos will be a little slow to come out (besides the monthly videochat), but I'm working to get all kinds of stuff coming in the future. In the meantime, I'll see some of you in Planetside!

 

EDIT:

I made two important mistakes in the video!

 

1. There is an easier way to get to some battles! You can "serial spawn" where you repeatedly spawn closer and closer to the base you want, waiting 10 seconds in between. I didn't know that!

2. Each base DOES have a vehicle terminal, but some may need an engineer to repair them. Something else I didn't know.

 

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