67 replies to this topic

[Stoicblitzer]

KovarD, on 21 April 2013 - 08:40 PM, said:

How PGI can design, test and balance 2000 maps (teras of dowloadable data) under 2 years with 5 people working (map artists) on it?

i think that's the point of this topic.

[TehSBGX]

Merky Merc, on 21 April 2013 - 01:09 PM, said:

Is it not a scifi trope to have planets with 1 ecosystem? If so we're set.

Volcano planet, ice planet, city planet, foresty beach planet (?), desert planet, we need jungle and swamp planets to really round this out. Though they could combine those two into.... Mangrove Planet.

>.> I've actually been hoping for a swamp map.

[Lindonius]

Stoicblitzer, on 21 April 2013 - 07:13 PM, said:

How can they represent potentially thousands of planets with a handful of unique maps? Where is the immersion for persistent players?

Some of the PGI head honchos seem quite chummy with Chris Roberts. Maybe as a kind of "friend of a friend" thing Chris could introduce them to David Braben who could teach them a few things about procedural generation.

http://en.wikipedia....ural_generation

Edited by Lindonius, 21 April 2013 - 09:32 PM.

[Merky Merc]

TehSBGX, on 21 April 2013 - 08:53 PM, said:

>.> I've actually been hoping for a swamp map.

Me too, me too. I know that may have come off as sarcastic, and it was, but I envision a game of wild orbital drops into a swampy region. Something like the paratroopers from D-Day but both sides are hot dropped in and have that wild confusion in their attempts to link up with friendlies.

[PraetorRUS]

Snailio, on 21 April 2013 - 01:07 PM, said:

If community warfare is to be fought over the Inner Sphere, how is it reasonable to only have 8 unique maps to represent 2000 planets? Seems pretty underwhelming

It's not 'only'. You should read it as "at the start". Of course they will be adding more maps every couple of months.

[Kaelus]

Snailio, on 21 April 2013 - 01:07 PM, said:

From the Dev Q&A 36...





The Inner Sphere is a region of interstellar space surrounding Earth to a radius of roughly 450 - 550 light-years, generally demarcated by the outer borders of the Great Houses." Within this region of about 2 million stars, there are approximately 2000 inhabited planets.

If community warfare is to be fought over the Inner Sphere, how is it reasonable to only have 8 unique maps to represent 2000 planets? Seems pretty underwhelming

Well according to info compiled from PGI, we can't affect borders and can fight over about 300 planets for ownership. ... So 8 maps should cover most biomes. However, that being said, It's still pretty awful we only have 8 maps in more than a year. Static, fairly unimaginative maps that are mostly, fairly small.

[Lindonius]

PraetorRUS, on 21 April 2013 - 10:12 PM, said:

It's not 'only'. You should read it as "at the start". Of course they will be adding more maps every couple of months.

Great! So after a YEAR we'll have 14 maps instead of just 8! That'll really help the immersion along.

[PraetorRUS]

Lindonius, on 21 April 2013 - 10:22 PM, said:

Great! So after a YEAR we'll have 14 maps instead of just 8! That'll really help the immersion along.

Counter Strike was the best FPS game for over a decade with 6 balanced maps. Same story for Quake series.

Edited by PraetorRUS, 21 April 2013 - 10:33 PM.