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Q. What are the plans for updates moving forward?
A. Sites explained that splitting off into an independent studio allowed Rogue Planet to strengthen its team size and work on shaking up PlanetSide 2’s gameplay with new features every four to six weeks and a major update launching roughly every six months. For instance, the previous major update, Escalation, helped to draw back former players with a focus on Outfits (guilds). PlanetSide 2: The Shattered Warpgate takes things in a decidedly different direction with a stronger focus on the game’s lore and casual players. [1]
The first campaign is going to be three chapters, each chapter is a month. We might do kind of an epilogue, I guess, at the end where there's kind of some time off between campaigns. Whenever we introduce a new campaign, we want to make sure that there's a good update that goes along with it just holistically. So there might be some time in between and I don't want to hold us to a specific schedule just yet. [5]
Q. Which types of players is this update for?
A. These missions are designed to appeal to both casual and new players by providing them with something to do every time they log into the game. In typical play sessions, players drop into the world and have to figure out what to do. However, PlanetSide 2 has very few win conditions and nothing really lasts. The continents rotate over time and the balance of power continually resets. [1]
Whereas the Escalation update targeted our most veteran and organized groups of players, our goal for The Shattered Warpgate was to improve the experience for a much broader audience, it was important to introduce features that anyone can participate in and benefit from, be it the casual player with only 30 minutes to play once a week, or the hardcore player that spends hours in-game every day. [2]
“One thing that our new system does is allow us to offer these slower paced forms of gameplay for new players,” PlanetSide 2 lead designer Michael ‘Wrel’ Henderson tells us. “It gives them less intense forms of combat to participate in, and we get to kind of guide them along a path that we feel is probably a proper pacing.” [3]
"It comes back to putting emphasis on the world. For the campaigns, in particular, we want to make sure that we make that as accessible as possible. Even if you don't have a lot of time to play, you're still able to jump in and play through the campaign at a pace that doesn't feel frantic. That’s the kind of a feeling that I have with battle passes in other games, and while it's rewarding to do that, we have other systems that function in that way." [4]
Q. Why is Esamir getting the changes?
A. According to Henderson, Esamir was selected because it has the worst flow compared to other continents. Fights almost always turn out the same way, there’s too much flat terrain, there isn’t enough space between the northeastern and northwestern warpgates, and players generally aren’t interested in many of the bases. Those problems are being addressed in a big way with the update, with better spacing between bases and more symmetrical Lattice Links that allow players to attack and defend with an improved battle flow. [1]
The main problem with the old Esamir map is that safe areas were too close together. That stagnated the fights and didn’t lead to a lot of variety. Their new map for Esamir is more symmetrical and there’s more space between the bases, which flows better and creates more engagement outside of bases. [2]
It was one of our oldest continents. We looked at the gameplay and knew that this continent needed a lot of help. Campaigns were a good excuse to make that change. One of the things that allowed us to do is blow up the northeastern Warpgate. [4]
Instead of players just jumping into the game and seeing that we rebalanced the map, there's some sort of cataclysm that has happened on this continent. This is the reason why you can no longer spawn up in the northeast, and it allows us to introduce new elements. There are still safe spaces for players to launch an attack with one of the three factions. It was a kill two birds with one stone sort of situation. [4]
Q. What are the major things that have changed the map on Esamir?
A. If you couldn’t tell from the title, The Shattered Warpgate starts with a warpgate—one of the game’s designated safe zones—exploding, causing mass devastation across the northeast section of the continent. Not even the terraforming nanites can repair the damage, leading to bases being abandoned due to losses of power or because they’re cut off by the encroaching snow. A makeshift warpgate is established elsewhere, underscoring how impactful the shift in the landscape is. This is the first time a continent has experienced this kind of long-term change and it represents a major step in PlanetSide 2’s evolution. [1]
Another element that PlanetSide 2: The Shattered Warpgate brings is a giant storm that roams the continent. It shoots destructive bolts of lightning towards pretty much anything with a shield, which includes both infantry and vehicles, forcing many to seek shelter when it arrives. That isn’t always a simple prospect since indoor spaces tend to be heavily defended. [1]
However, not only will the lighting damage the device over time but enemy players will be able to destroy it too. [2]
The destroyed warpgate will become an explorable ruin, as will the abandoned bases. Players can choose to explore these areas and fight to reclaim lost equipment and vehicles. Additionally, the devastated area has new secrets to uncover, including strange green energy geysers bursting up from the planet’s depths and reshaping the fauna. Players will pick up clues about its origins, which are tied to ancient technologies, and learn ways to take advantage of it. [1]
Henderson said that the storm is drawn to conflicts with the most players, so it’s arrival can drastically change the shape of a battle. He also admitted that some players might have a hard time dealing with the storm at first, but he hopes that they’ll grow to like it as they gain tools to deal with its effects. These include gear such as insulated armor plating to mitigate the damage and a giant lightning rod called the Lightning Arrester to create safe areas. Eventually, these devastating bolts can be harnessed using lightning grenades and vehicles that convert the energy into thruster power. [1]
Wrel said that the main problem with the old Esamir map is that safe areas were too close together. That stagnated the fights and didn’t lead to a lot of variety. Their new map for Esamir is more symmetrical and there’s more space between the bases, which flows better and creates more engagement outside of bases. [2]
Wrel said that here won’t be a Fortnite-style event where the map is destroyed in real time. However, there have already been hints in the game’s world that the map will change. [2]
The story starts on the icy continent of Esamir, where one of the Warpgates has exploded setting off a chain reaction of changes to the map. Alien flora appeared, bases were wrecked, and a storm of mysterious energy flows through the continent. [2]
The storm won’t always be on the map, and it does eventually dissipate. It’s also big enough to be seen from a distance and moves at a relatively slow pace, giving players time to prepare for it. Depending on how well players take to it, the storm could additional weather implementations on other continents. Now the changes to the map are quite drastic, but Wrel said that they will alter it over time based on what players like or dislike. [2]
Q. What is the campaign system and its lore? Why does it matter?
A. Although Henderson and Sites tend to use “campaign” in military terms, it also fits neatly into a story context. Players won’t necessarily have a comparable experience to a single-player RPG, but the campaign has a distinct focus on PlanetSide 2 lore and is divided into three month-long chapters. Henderson explained that the first chapter of the campaign will deal with struggle and adaptation. Likewise, subsequent chapters will deal with overcoming and moving forward through new knowledge and technology. [1]
Each chapter is designed so that casual players can finish playing a chapter within a few days, but experienced players may be able to speed through them. Completing a chapter earns rewards with bonuses for finishing all three. They include a Storm Chaser helmet, a pickaxe, banners, and more. Cosmetic items are typically difficult for free-to-play audiences to earn through gameplay, so these rewards may be a welcome change. Premium members can join the campaign immediately, while free players must spend a soft currency called Certificate Points (Certs) to participate. [1]
However, players must keep in mind that once a chapter reaches its end date, it’s gone forever, and everyone must move on to the next one. [1]
“If you miss it [the chapter], then it’s on to the next chapter, because we are evolving the story and the world. Everybody plays together,” said Henderson, who compares the campaign to a limited-time holiday event. [1]
The twist comes from game’s mechanics, meaning that Esamir won’t be accessible at certain times. There are also missions that have prerequisites such as controlling a tech facility. Then there are community missions, including one where players fight over an orbital drill that falls to the surface. As with many aspects of PlanetSide 2, players much battle in order to progress. [1]
“The features in this update allow us to breathe life into the PlanetSide universe by connecting players to the world and story,” said Wrel. [2]
As the campaign progresses, they can unlock Stormbolt grenades that stick to buildings, vehicles and players and will attract lightning bolts. [2]
The Shattered Warpgate introduces new weapons, gear, the new mission system, and adds a moving energy storm that players will have to reckon with when planning attacks or defences. Rogue Planet Games says this is just the start – each new season will introduce another new campaign, and each of those will add another slate of new content and changes to existing maps. [3]
But what will also help draw new players in is the new approach to narrative. “If you look at the lore, way back, there’s certain characters who have interacted with these ancient objects and gained telekinetic powers or the ability to speak telepathically, and they have some sort of connection to this ancient race,” Henderson says. “We wanted to explore that, and we wanted to evolve the story without making things feel too matter-of-fact. So, definitely mystery and exploration – those are the keys that I think our game doesn’t really touch on.” [3]
"We definitely wanted to take a more paced attitude to it. It also allows us to evolve the world with every new update. In Chapter 3, there will be new facilities on the continent that are made. That’s just an example of one of the things that we're doing to breathe life into the world and watch like a lot of players to watch it evolve and take part in it as well." [4]
Players can look back through previous campaigns and can go down the mission list and seeing the dialogue. They can have an understanding of the events that unfolded. It’s very likely that we will be introducing a more robust Codex that logs all the events as well. [4]
The community comes up with a bunch of great stories, and there are a lot of conflicting signals because we have very rarely clarified the timelines and events. By virtue of doing this campaign with a fresh slate, we'll be able to more solidly establish some of those characters, events, and the timeline. We are working with a Lore Writer who is helping kind of bring that into being and inspire our imaginations as well. [4]
No, our game is a sandbox with a population of up to 900 per continent. They all have their goals and objectives and typically, at least in the past, it's been fighting for the bases that you have different connections to and that sort of thing. What we're doing with missions and campaigns as well is giving them kind of sub-objectives to complete. We don't spin up a new instance, you're not going into any single player realm. You're doing these missions alongside, you know, the hundreds of other players and the way that we've designed the missions, it's done in such a way where players are meant to intersect. So you'll come across players in areas of the map that you typically wouldn't and then it will create some form of combat and just the sort of emergent gameplay that's a result of the storytelling that we're sharing with players. [5]
Alongside the story, there's definitely going to be some NPCs that you bump into, and they will primarily be in the social space that we have in the game that's called Sanctuary. It's a big space satellite that exists in orbit over the planet of our access and there's no combat in the zone. You'll start out talking to a person whose name is Representative Foster, he is from the Nanites Systems faction, which is this comment faction that all the warring empires have an interaction with. He's asking you to investigate some of the ongoings on Esamir, that's how the campaign kind of starts. We definitely want to do some character building and definitely create recurring characters and just different lore elements that you learn more about and then become present throughout the entirety of the game. [5]
The campaign in itself has a bunch of new cosmetics, there's a new weapon, there's a bunch of tangential unlockables that are given alongside the campaign. You don't even have to participate in order to get these; they're just new unlocks that are coming to the game, such as a new grenade type that slows enemies, we have a new ammo type that does the same thing and then there's new rockets for our fighter craft that inflict a debuff that makes it so vehicles can't be repaired for a short amount of time. There's a bunch of cool things that are going in. But then alongside that, within normal missions that you're participating in, what we're doing is we're making it so players have more access to the in-game currencies than they've had in the past. By virtue of doing the missions, you can pick what currencies you're going for. For example, you have certain things that you want to unlock certification points, you can lean into the missions that give you these types of rewards. Or you can lean into the missions that have ISO-4, which is a currency for the implant system that's on the game, and that previously has been difficult to access. Typically, you'd have to burn a bunch of certification points and break down random implants or duplicate implants to turn them into the currency, but we're giving you new methods to earn these different sorts of currency. [5]
Q. What is the mission system, and how is it different from the campaign?
In addition to the campaign, PlanetSide 2: The Shattered Warpgate will also include a series of challenge missions that support various play styles, including offense and support. These missions rotate daily, and players can select the ones that interest them most. For instance, the one shown during the gameplay presentation was a straightforward courier mission that could be completed in a relatively short time. [1]
These missions are designed to appeal to both casual and new players by providing them with something to do every time they log into the game. In typical play sessions, players drop into the world and have to figure out what to do. However, PlanetSide 2 has very few win conditions and nothing really lasts. The continents rotate over time and the balance of power continually resets. [1]
“With the mission system, we’re trying to create tangible goals,” Henderson explained. Much like a single-player role-playing game, players are motivated to perform tasks and receive rewards, which may help new players become better acclimated to the game’s otherwise complex rules and mechanics." [1]
Players can only accept a set number of missions per day, with premium members able to take on more daily challenges than free players. However, new players are automatically loaded up with equipment and non-members can purchase gear using Certs, so they won’t be left behind in the action. Despite the focus on lore and casual gameplay, Henderson believes that the massive battles will impress new players the most. Given how Esamir supports up to 1,200 concurrent players, that might be the case. [1]
The mission system within chapters of the campaign will be free for paying members of the game and available for purchase with soft currency for free players. Paying members will also have access to more missions, giving them more options while not making them stronger than free players. Players will have a certain time frame to participate in the missions of a chapter. If they don’t finish all of the missions, the chapter still moves on. Missions change daily and are offered at different rarities with different rewards. Some missions will offer cosmetics as rewards. Wrel said that this is similar to the daily tasks seen in other free-to-play games only the player gets to decide what tasks to do. [2]
The mission system is similar to a daily challenge system in other games. We did have a mission system that existed in the game prior, and while its intent was to guide players to different bases and it didn't do a good job of it. We’ve ripped that out and are adding this new thing. It allows players to create session goals, which is a point of feedback that we've had throughout the game's history. [4]
With the mission system, you'll be able to log in, look at your mission board, and see what your faction wants you to do for them, whether it's ferrying allies to into contested territory or delivering messages. Or it could be one of the more community-oriented events where, for example, a mining drill drops from orbit and the players need to fight over it to maintain control so that it can harvest resources. There's also convoyed missions that allow players to kind of group up and then move as a massive unit toward a contested territory. [4]
The mission system is a good example of what would be very appealing to players who aren’t as interested in the new story content because, like Michael said, it's a challenge or achievement system that gives you the stuff to do, and there's a very large variety of mission types every day. [4]
Then there's also some stuff for newer players as well. For example, if you're playing through missions, you'll occasionally just get a weapon, one that you typically have to unlock for certification points, but it's given to you as an offering from your faction. For new players out of the gate, they'll be able to jump in and unlock weapons that maybe they didn't know that they wanted access to, or maybe they don't have enough certifications for. [5]
Q. How will the campaign system will intersect with the existing mission system in some ways?
A. We had an old mission system that has been in the game for a few years, but it didn't really do what we wanted it to. Basically, we're ripping that out and throwing it away and then putting in this new mission system. Actually, campaigns are kind of built on top of this new system. So the missions are daily quests, players can pick which ones they want to participate in. And those missions are intended to give players the opportunity to participate in different forms of gameplay while rewarding them for doing so. You have some missions which are more relaxed where you're kind of cruising around the map, other missions that are more community oriented or it's like a single focus point, and then anybody who has that mission goes and competes over the objective. Then we have other missions that are kind of more in line with the normal gameplay, like go to this place and set up spawn points for your faction. We want to continue to feel like there's a sense of war and urgency throughout the entirety of the space even while you're on solo missions, you want to feel like you're doing something for your faction. Campaigns is kind of an offshoot of that as well as telling the story of our campaign, which is slated to last three months currently. [5]
Q. Are there any other changes and for other contients?
A. In addition to the new mission system and some new weapons and equipment, the update will also add improvements to social hubs, rebalance outfit resources, and restructure several major bases on the continent of Indar according to a press release sent to Heavy. Future campaigns will also be accompanied by major content additions. [2]
Sure. I guess this one's probably not long-standing, as the War Asset system is something that we introduce with Escalation, but we're doing a full rebalance on the resources that you get around the map with the intent to make it so some of the less popular war assets just due to their cost will get more use in-game. We released a pretty drastic change to the performance, the way that our game handles physics and larger fights, we ran a public play test on Saturday and Sunday and players have a really good response to that. So that'll be out probably before this update, actually. [5]
In addition to the drastic overhaul that we're doing to Esamir, which fixes a number of issues as traditionally that map has been not great for gameplay just because of how the regions are set up, how all the bases are connected. So when we blow up the northeastern market that goes away, and then we move or we created a new market, the eastern part of the map, so it's creating more symmetry within the map as a whole which will make it easier to fight over. And then Indar which is our oldest continent, it is getting some changes to the main three bases around the center to make it so the flow there is a little bit better. It's creating a lot of stagnation currently on the live server, so we're making some low key changes there as well. That'll hopefully increase the flow of players in and around it. [5]
Q. What inspired this update, and the current development path?
A. Henderson says the PlanetSide 2 team has taken an eye to making the new player experience more friendly, watching what other games have done to improve on that front. “Warframe completely revamped the new player experience probably three times,” he says. “Eve Online, a completely new experience, and a whole bunch of other games as well. It’s a problem that I don’t think anybody knows exactly how to solve just yet, but a lot of people know that something’s wrong. Our community has been the best advocate for keeping players into the game.” [3]
Henderson says Rogue Planet’s data shows that players are far more likely to continue playing PlanetSide 2 if they join outfits, which are PlanetSide’s version of guilds. That’s led the studio to look into developing more ways to support outfits and encourage new players to join one during their first couple play sessions. [3]
Yeah, we've talked about that a lot over the last few years. A couple of questions have come up recently like, “Why didn't we do this sooner?” Frankly, it was the scope of work and the team that was available to work on it. When we spun off into Rogue Planet Games, we put together the roadmap for this year and grew the team by three times. [4]
We knew that we couldn't just roll out an update and expect everyone to rejoice and come back. We needed to have major updates, continuous updates, and really support the game in a way that we hadn't done for quite some time. Getting more story and lore elements into the game is something that we had talked about for a long time, but as players are going to see with “The Shattered Warpgate,” it required a lot of work and we just didn't have the team size to be able to support it before. [4]
Because of the success that we've seen with the "Escalation" update, that’s allowed us to keep growing the team and work on big updates like this. The majority of the lore that has surfaced around the game has been primarily community-driven. We know that there's definitely a there's an appetite for wanting lore and story in the game. We’re happy that we're able to finally provide that. Although it's been eight years in, it's better late than never. [4]
Q. Are you going to have any named characters or something like that?
A. Alongside the story, there's definitely going to be some NPCs that you bump into, and they will primarily be in the social space that we have in the game that's called Sanctuary. It's a big space satellite that exists in orbit over the planet of our access and there's no combat in the zone. You'll start out talking to a person whose name is Representative Foster, he is from the Nanites Systems faction, which is this comment faction that all the warring empires have an interaction with. He's asking you to investigate some of the ongoings on Esamir, that's how the campaign kind of starts. We definitely want to do some character building and definitely create recurring characters and just different lore elements that you learn more about and then become present throughout the entirety of the game. [5]
Q. What about PS4?
A. Yeah, definitely, it's our focus. For the last seven months before we published the last PlayStation 4 update, there was a lot of foundational work that needed to be done to carry over a lot of the systems to PlayStation 4. Now that we've got that update out we're much more prepared to get PlayStation 4 updates out within weeks, not months, of their PC releases, so that shouldn't happen again. PS4 PlanetSide 2 players should expect this update much, much sooner than then they received the Escalation one, because that wasn't just Escalation. It was basically every update from last December until the Colossus update, up to and including the last update that the PC had received. [5]
It was really good. The games aren't in complete feature parity yet at this point. I noted just as we were publishing the PlayStation 4 update that we were still holding back on one being the Construction system just due to some technical hurdles that were going to push the timing of the update out even further. We opted to push the update out without it just because we knew the community would appreciate the eight months of updates rather than waiting even longer. And then the Outfit Wars system, on PC we're going through and making some pretty significant changes to that and rather than porting over the system that will be changing to the PlayStation 4, we're opting to hold off on releasing it until the revised system is out later this year. But overall, in terms of just player engagement, we saw an increase, though not quite as dramatic because PC is by far our largest player base between the two. But we've doubled our peak population on the game there, too. We basically saw everything increase pretty dramatically in terms of just the number of players coming back and the server populations and the community recognized that pretty quickly noting how full some of the servers were that first weekend. [5]
Q. Is there a discussion at Rogue Planet about the possibility to introduce NPC AI at some point in PlanetSide 2?
A. It's kind of a tricky subject. Because I think one of PlanetSide's identities at least right now, and who knows where it will go in the future, but it's that every action that you see is driven by a player. And I think it's important to make sure we don't infringe on that too much, at least not right away. I do see there's a lot of value though in having NPCs for tutorials, for example, or even potentially for offshoot like single player experiences in the future maybe, but there are no plans for that right now. [5]
Just adding to what Michael said, it's a pretty unique aspect of the game that every player you interact with is an actual person. So if we do end up doing anything of the sort we would introduce it very selectively to, you know, certain aspects of the game so that it wouldn't take away from the main core. [5]
Sources:
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