PlanetSide Q&A

Two years ago Verant introduced gamers to a new game unlike any seen before: a persistent online world where thousands of players could interact with one another in gorgeous 3D environments. This game, EverQuest, along with the successful Ultima Online, brought massively multiplayer gameplay into the forefront of the gaming community. Up until recently, though, the massively multiplayer experience has been restricted to role-playing games. Although Quake III, Tribes, and Unreal Tournament do have online play, they still don't offer the sheer numbers of players that EverQuest or Ultima Online do. That all changes next year. And, naturally, the company that will make massively multiplayer gameplay a reality for action games is none other than the creator of the innovative EverQuest. Verant has been working on a persistent, massively multiplayer action game for some time now, and it's called PlanetSide. It's an action game in a futuristic setting, designed to allow hundreds of teams of players to compete and cooperate in persistent gameworlds. Verant is taking the lessons learned from EverQuest and applying them to a genre that has been built on fun multiplay. Now Verant is going to take that multiplayer experience and multiply it exponentially. We recently sat down with Kevin McCann, leader designer and producer on this new game, to find out what PlanetSide is all about.

GameSpot: How will you distinguish PlanetSide from online action games such as Tribes or Unreal Tournament? Aside from the fact that hundreds or thousands of players can fight together at once, what is the difference in PlanetSide?

Kevin McCann: The first notable difference is that PlanetSide will feature a fully developed character-advancement system. What this translates into is that all of a character's accomplishments will be recorded, translating into rewards, statistics, and ultimately professional advancement through gaining higher ranks.

Going hand in hand with the character-advancement system is the fact that PlanetSide is 100 percent persistent. Equipment that a character might amass during one play session can be stored for later and even kept as trophies if desired.

A player's character also belongs to a larger "cause" in PlanetSide. These causes come in the form of corporations, which characters ally themselves with at the start of the game. Subsequently a character will have literally thousands of teammates just through corporate affiliation alone. Naturally players can form official teams underneath these corporations as well (like clans). Corporations will additionally provide characters with a number of jobs to complete.

New content will also be regularly added in the form of special campaigns, extra weapons, vehicles, and equipment over time. Whereas games such as Tribes or Unreal Tournament largely depend on the player base to introduce new gameplay variations, we'll be providing the new content, letting players just focus on enjoying the game. In essence, we'll be coming up with new "mods" on a regular basis.

Premise and Gameplay

GS: What is the basic premise of PlanetSide? How much time will be spent fighting and how much time will be spent in towns or safe zones?

KM: The basic premise of PlanetSide is that players assume the roles of soldiers, allying themselves with corporations in a massive territorial war. The goal is to have players fighting most of the time - we want to deliver a first-person shooter, not a virtual chat lobby - so the towns in PlanetSide mostly serve the purpose of resupplying, and buying and selling items. Naturally, though, towns will also provide players with a place to meet up and form outfits, or to just kick back at times.

GS: In safe zones, what sort of actions can a player take?

KM: Within a safe zone, a player can perform business transactions such as buying or selling items, healing, repairing vehicles, or just general resupplying of a character. Job assignments can also be safely browsed and selected before setting forth. And if the player just wants to relax, he or she can go into their apartment.

GS: What game types will be supported in PlanetSide? Co-op? Deathmatch? Capture the flag? How do all the game types come together?

KM: What ultimately ties everything together is the ongoing territorial war being conducted by the corporations. Under the "umbrella" of this struggle, there will be a multitude of gameplay variations. The most commonly recognized [variations] will be team versus team, capture and hold, and neutralizing enemy facilities. There will also be an expansive job system that issues assignments to players. The job system will encompass a number of jobs that cater to varying team sizes. And again, the binding clause is the persistent territorial struggle between the corporations.

GS: Will there be missions in the game? How will these missions be handed out to players?

KM: Yes, PlanetSide will feature a great number of missions in the form of job assignments. Each corporation will offer job assignments at all times so that players can browse and select a job to their liking. Typically players will access the job system in a safe zone, browsing through a "job bulletin board" of sorts via a terminal. Jobs will encompass a variety of different objectives and will range from solo assignments to full team efforts.

GS: What sort of structure will there be in the game? Is it just a massive free-for-all where you are dumped into the world and have to start shooting?

KM: When players first join the game, their characters will be deployed to the respective home city of their selected corporation. This home city will be a safe zone where characters can't shoot each other, and a number of training programs will be available to assist players in learning the game. We don't want players to have to touch the manual - we'd rather them learn the game firsthand.

We certainly do not want the game to turn into a massive free-for-all. Chaos can be fun here and there, but not for extended periods of time. The corporations are balancing agents in this regard, organizing players into structured causes. Initially corporations will offer simpler jobs to new characters, but as they gain experience and graduate to higher ranks, new job opportunities will become available.

Getting Started in PlanetSide

GS: How will newcomers be eased into the game?

KM: In the character-creation phase, a player allies his or her character with one of the corporations. When the character first enters the actual game, the character will be deployed to the parent corporation's home city. The home city only allows for players that belong to the same corporation, and are complete safe zones. Subsequently a character won't be thrown into the midst of a firefight or some other potentially traumatic starting experience.

The corporation will immediately offer the character advice as to what the character can do. One of the first things the corporation will urge the character to do is undertake a basic-training course that will safely familiarize the character with the combat system. There will also be other optional advanced-training courses available as well. Completing these courses will earn the character experience points, a certification merit, and some money.

Initial job assignments will also be limited to lower-risk objectives, not sending a player deep behind enemy lines. Players will be able to access and perform more difficult objectives if they want, but that's optional.

GS: Describe what a beginner's experience with the game would be. How do you envision the game being played?

KM: Initially we expect the player to just explore the home city, maybe talk with others that are present. Again, the corporation will also be advising the player to take the basic-training course, which we feel most players will utilize as well.

The player will also be encouraged to access the job system and to begin undertaking assignments for the corporation. Here a player can meet with other players under the same corporation and undertake a job together. If they enjoy working together, maybe they'll form a team. If not, a player can enjoy working with a variety of different people from job to job.

GS: What sort of character interactions will there be?

KM: Aside from combat, we'll be supporting a multilayered chat system and a robust voice macros system (like in Tribes and Counter-Strike). Players will be able to transact with one another in terms of trading, buying, or selling, too. And while more cosmetic in nature, there will also be a full emote system. After all, there's nothing like dancing on the corpse of a slain foe or giving an enemy the hand gesture of universal peace.

The Lure of Massively Multiplayer

GS: Why massively multiplayer? What positive effect comes from making the world persistent and allowing thousands of players to play at once?

KM: Before going into the answer to this question, we'd like to state that there are a number of great multiplayer first-person shooters available. We've played the Quake series, Tribes, Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament, and others that are very fun. That's what it all comes down to in the end - whether the game is fun or not. Throwing more players into the mix does not automatically equate to a "more fun" game.

When going massively multiplayer, certain gameplay modes that are [more easily] executed with a lower player limit are much harder to implement or need to be tossed entirely. Very early in the project, the initial design was trying to include every popular mod variant available. But we quickly realized that this didn't equate to a better game, and was actually disparate in overall gameplay structure. It was then we figured out that the real question to be answered was "What types of gameplay can we offer by being massively multiplayer that can't be offered by smaller player-based games?"

The first answer was obvious: persistence. We can offer a fully developed character-advancement system and a world where players can shape events and their outcomes. And we could provide a large-scale war, with literally hundreds of players combating each other on a continent for the control of territory. This enables players to have battle fronts being formed, pushing forward, being repelled, etc. Then for the purpose of organization, we introduced the corporations to avoid too much random chaos from setting in. We want players to feel like they're a part of something bigger, yet make sure that their contributions can aid literally hundreds of other players at times. It's sort of a balance between a player's individuality and the top-level corporate cause.

GS: What are you borrowing from Verant's success with EverQuest and what are you ditching? There must be lessons your company has learned from EQ that will be applied to PlanetSide.

KM: Despite EverQuest being an entirely different genre, we've nonetheless learned a great deal from EverQuest. The majority of this is on the back end (technical - administrative commands, server infrastructure, customer service requirements, GM tools, etc). This is really vital for all of our products. It ensures that we have the technical expertise not just to get the game done, but successfully launch and support our products.

Putting together a massively multiplayer game isn't something a small company can seriously attempt. The cost alone is huge (far more expensive than standard single-player games), and when you tally in the cost of the server infrastructure, monthly bandwidth costs, customer service, and retention (just to name a few factors), it becomes pretty obvious that while solid monetary backing is essential, so is the internal experience in successfully putting together, launching, and supporting a massively multiplayer game. We are both a goods and services company, when it comes right down to it, and that's a pretty challenging prospect.

As to what we're ditching from EverQuest, this too is more technical in nature, since the games are entirely different genres. First and foremost, we'll be ditching the zones. That was a technical limitation at the time EverQuest came out, but PlanetSide will feature 8km-by-8km continents where players can travel seamlessly across terrain and in and out of very detailed structures. PlanetSide will feature a brand-new engine designed specifically to support a massively multiplayer first-person shooter game.

We'll also be incorporating a next-generation networking code base that will better support a massively multiplayer first-person shooter. In a multiplayer first-person shooter, massively multiplayer or not, it doesn't matter how great the game is if the network code sucks. People simply won't play it. The network code is the foundation of PlanetSide, and we're doing our best to make sure that it's as solid as possible.

Action With Role-Playing and Persistence

GS: In an action game, the character is just a nameless figure who basically holds your weapons while you shoot. Whereas in a massively multiplayer game like EverQuest, a character is a persistent persona with more to him than just an arsenal. Which is it in PlanetSide? Is your character in the game just a weapons rack, or is your character an actual persona that you develop?

KM: Traditionally characters in a multiplayer first-person shooter are, as you mentioned, weapon racks. And this is perfectly understandable considering that the Quake series, Tribe series, Half Life, and Unreal Tournament all rely on customers to set up servers to support the multiplayer action. A player jumps in, fights other players, then jumps out - it's more of a quick-fix architecture.

With PlanetSide, like EverQuest, we'll be running our own server farms to support the game. This allows us to record all of our players' accomplishments. As mentioned earlier, the most immediate benefit this affords us is the ability to have a fully developed character-advancement system. As a player's character eliminates enemies and completes objectives, the accomplishments will be recorded into lifetime statistics, which in turn become experience points for the character to gain higher ranks. So in this sense, a player's character will see "professional" advancement over time.

As a player's character earns higher ranks, special abilities and implants will become available for the character to utilize. And while these will be very expensive, they will become permanent enhancements to a player's character once learned or purchased. So a character won't lose these when he or she dies. These abilities and implants will offer tangible personal growth for a player's character. So between gaining ranks and acquiring new abilities and implants, a player's character will realize both professional and personal development as time progresses.

I do want to point out, though, that the majority of special abilities and implants are more support-oriented in nature. They won't give players definitive combat advantages, as we want to make sure that this is true to the multiplayer first-person shooter genre. Combat will mostly come down to a player's skill and tactics vs. another player's skill and tactics - in other words, there won't be any auto-aim implants, and gaining ranks in the game won't give more hit points.

GS: How are the different characters distinguished? In an action game, again, it's your actions that determine who you are, not your stats or your abilities. Will this be the case in PlanetSide?

KM: Largely characters will be distinguished by their actions. While a player's character will gain ranks, learn new abilities, and utilize implants, these are more personal in nature. PlanetSide will offer a variety of roles: infiltration, support, defense, offense, and even transportation. Some players will end up specializing in certain roles, which will define them as that role to other players, whereas other players will try to be jacks-of-all-trades, playing all roles.

More Character Development

GS: What sort of attributes and skills will your character have? Is there a way to customize your characters so that they are different from other players' characters?

KM: A player's character won't really have attributes - meaning strength, dexterity, intelligence, or the like in traditional RPG fare. This is primarily because we really want to stress that this is a first-person shooter. We don't want a new player coming in with a pistol and facing a level 10 character carrying a massive assault cannon where the massive assault cannon can only be used by the higher-level character because of an attribute determinant (such as a required strength value). No, we want the new player to be able to kill the higher-level player and pick the bigger gun up and use it freely.

In terms of differentiating characters from one another, aside from cosmetic differences available at character creation, implants and abilities afford characters different development paths. Again, every player's character in the game is a soldier - abilities and implants can best be viewed as enhancements. So with that in mind, characters can differ in how they're enhanced.

GS: How do you gain experience and grow in the game? What does advancement in the game entail?

KM: Gaining experience is primarily earned through eliminating enemies and completing job assignments. As experience is amassed, a character will graduate to higher ranks. As the player's character gains higher ranks, special abilities and implants will become available to the character. New job assignments will also become available as a character earns higher ranks as well.

GS: Describe what else is persistent about the gameworld. And how do your actions in the game affect the overall gameworld?

KM: First and foremost, a player's character is persistent. All of a character's actions and development are recorded and only grow over time.

The territorial war between the rival corporations is also persistent. When a player logs off, the battle continues, and if a team logs out leaving a base undefended, there's a good chance that when they come back that base will belong to someone else. The war doesn't stop when someone leaves for work or goes to sleep.

GS: It seems from previous reports that the game is like Tribes in that you must fight other groups of players. What if you want to fight nonhuman players? Will there be computer-controlled enemies in the game for you to fight, such as the monsters in EverQuest that are waiting around for PCs to fight?

KM: Early on, we wanted to have alien NPCs that players could fight. But we realized very quickly what a massive undertaking it would be (modeling, animating, AI, path-finding, etc.) and decided it was more important to focus our collective resources into what the game is really about - player-vs.-player combat on a very large scale.

Money and Miscellaneous

GS: What is the economy of the game? Will you be able to purchase all the weapons and equipment? Or will some weapons have to be acquired through jobs or special missions?

KM: Basically players will be able to purchase equipment in the game using their credit cards. This will go directly into my Swiss account. No, just kidding.

The real economy in the game is based largely on completing official job assignments issued by a player's corporation. Depending on the perceived difficulty of a job assignment, players will earn variable amounts of money when successfully meeting a job's objectives. Players can also earn money through killing enemy players, looting their equipment, and selling it.

GS: How are you overcoming the technical issues of letting thousands play at once in a game genre that requires smooth gameplay and low latency?

KM: Again, we learned a lot from EverQuest in this area. We will be using a brand-new networking code base, which, incidentally, is being developed across a couple of projects, so there's a great deal of collective experience going into it.

Each 8km-by-8km continent will be divided into dozens of smaller regions, which will be microdesigned into small play levels. We'll be scattering points of interest such as numerous technological facilities and other control points throughout these regions to better disperse the player base across a continent.

GS: Will there be an open beta test? And when might that be?

KM: We'll have multiple-phased beta tests, just as EverQuest did. These are not an option; they're mandatory in making sure the product is balanced in terms of gameplay, as well as ensuring that it can hold up to the rigors of thousands of players online at once. The actual beta dates have yet to be determined. Sorry.

GS: When will the game be finished?

KM: When we feel we have an extremely high-quality, balanced, and technically stable product.

GS: Thanks for your time, Kevin.