DevCast Questions?

[mag]

I've been talking to Sony, and they've asked for some questions that they might be receiving during the DevCast. After thinking about this for a bit, and coming up with a few of my own, I figured I'd open the floor up to you guys as well.

So, anything you want asked during the upcoming DevCast should be posted here. (Questions about the new programmer's cake or pie preference will recieve priority.)

[Hayoo]

Hmm.

New Player Training:

Will we get to help test this out on the TC?
Deployables in general:


Which deployables are furthest along?
What's the timeframe on coming to test center?
Will they be releasing the new deployables as they are finished or wait to do a bunch at once?
When can we see some artwork?
Are they for Combat Engineering or available to other certs?
How far apart can they be placed?
How big are these things?
Will a new type of ACE be required?
Tank traps:

The tank traps from Saving Private Ryan, I think called hedgehogs, are certainly big and strong, but considering they were designed to keep tanks from moving forward, will these deployables serve the same function?

In the development post their function seemed to be tied to preventing tanks from camping doors. Is this done by virtue of keeping tanks at a distance with a wall of tank traps, or are the tank traps themselves large enough to block shots, like a larger version of the base barricades, or do they act like damage crystals?

Cloaking Bubble

What kind of device will generate the terminal?
What size will it be?
Will the bubble size remain that of the AMS one?
Supply Depots

Will they have time limits?
Will they be restricted to ammo and supplies, or weapons as well?
Will they look like terminals or storage units?
Galaxy Gunship

Will the weapons be side-mounted like the C-130 gunship or all around?
What size weapons will be used? More 20mm or some bigger guns?
Air to Air Mosquito

What kind of rockets will these be? Like the Hellfire, Striker, or Pheonix?
Will the skeeter retain it's 12mm?
Would all aircraft recieve countermeasures against these rockets?
One-Man Turrets

What size weaponry? Are these like 12mm machine-guns, 40mm cannons, or 90-100mm artillery?
If snipers can kill players manning these weapons, does that mean two hitboxes (usually a player becomes one with the vehicle/weapon he's operating).
How big are these?
Re-configurable Wall Turrets

Can this be done by anyone or only by an engineer?
Would the AA versions be dumbfire or flak-based?
Radiation Sniper Slugs

Can these be loaded into the Scout Rifle?
If so will it's damage be tweaked accordingly due to its fire rate?
EM Force Field

How will these be faced in the right direction? Will the player simply face one way and the shield will appear the same?
How strong will these shields be?
What size will they be? As tall as the boxes in courtyards, or as tall as those barriers? Will they be just as wide or wider?
Will the force fields glow noticably from a distance?
Can they be placed inside a cloaking bubble?
Will these be restricted from doorways or roads to prevent traffic jams?
How far apart can these be deployed?
Katana Special

How long is the blade?
Must it be carried in a rifle holster?
Will it have a secondary mode or any other features?
Weapon Variants

Punisher shotgun shells for secondary mode?

[Destman]

How will SOE be advertising the "Free Play" year promotion? Any major gaming websites going to be contacted for a press release? Maybe Fileplanet can host the full 3-4 gig zipped game (up to date) to reduce stress on the patcher?

This is a major concern for me, as no matter how good the trial is, if noone knows about it won't effect the population by much.

I am trying to do my part for spreading the word...

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24249946
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion.cfm/load/forums/loadforum/51/loadthread/65491/setstart/1/loadclass/35

...but it will need more then two posts to get the word out. As I keep posting in my two threads, what is there to lose by trying a MMOFPS for free?

[johnypilgrim]

1) Can we look forward to new base designs and a Direct X9 upgrade or is that
being held for Planetside 2?

2) Can the caves please be added to the Instant Action functionality.


JP

[Zanduar]

Direct X9 upgrade.

Why is PS not fully raedon compatible?

Are there any plans for reducing hackers, especially with the new fodderside program? Its a serious issue and Zat's reply to a post about it isn't enough. Lots of people get upset by the vast number of speedhackers and gamma hacks/tweaks.

Is it possible to not have client side hit detection? Everyone can attest to having someone shoot and kill them when on their screen they are behind them.

Is there going to be any tweaks to cloaker visiblity? They are very visible, even when crouch walking.

Can we test some of these new things before they are ready to be released? Other games such as Star Wars Galaxies will release updates to their test server long before they are ready for live server to see how the players like them and for bug testing. It allows the players to see the new toys and give direct feedback early on instead of waiting til a week before live, and then having everyone complain on live server.

Bug fixes and balance issues seem to be something that is being iggnored. I have no suggestions, just that it would put many at ease if these things were looked into.

Thats all I can think of...

[Hayoo]

Other games such as Star Wars Galaxies will release updates to their test server long before they are ready for live server to see how the players like them and for bug testing.

Except for the Combat Upgrade and the New Game Enhancements, of course. :P

[Zanduar]

Hayoo, I quit SWG because of the combat upgrade and they did put it on the test server first. There were so many bugs it was nuts and the only safe place to be was tatooine because they spawned low level monsters there and everywhere else you'd get slaughtered. I killed myself repeatedly on test server just to get a cyborg arm. I'd switch back to my main server and tell everyone the changes for today, what I liked and didn't like. Most people were at first awed by all the changes they put in when it was in the test server but then after a week realized that the changes were bad and were going to mess up things.

I don't know about NGE but CU was on the test server for atleast a month and a half before it came in-game.

[Tatonarf]

Fodder Side...................need I say more?

[mag]

Still waiting on Zatozia to get back to me...