PlanetSide 2 creative director Matt Higby discusses the scale of PlanetSide 2 in a new interview over at PC Gamer.

In the interview, Higby notes the game's massive scale, explaining that battles in the game will take place across eight-by-eight kilometer continents:

“We have enormous, enormous gameplay space,” says Higby. Planetside 2’s settings – continents on the planet Auraxis – measure an epic eight kilometres square, with weapons capable of firing a full kilometre in distance. “One of our largest development efforts on this project has been hand crafting every single area of those eight-by-eight kilometre continents,” Higby told us. In this vast space, three factions fight it out: The Terran Republic, The New Conglomerate and The Vanu Sovereignty. And those fights can become pretty vast.

“You’re going to be fighting in battles sometimes when it’s 200 people fighting against 30 people,” said Higby. “Because there’s only 30 people defending that base and then suddenly 200 people log in from the other group and go do it.”

Read more of the interview over at PC Gamer.

awesome glad to see they are keeping it big

wow great info. Might be an under the radar game because of SOE but everything,so far, seems positive.

Wahay! Mind you, with continents that big, Galaxies will have in-flight movies on the way to base drops :-P

Damn teases!

Can't stand SOE but looks good so far.

In relation to Planetside 1, how much bigger are the continents? Anyone know how many "kilometers" the Planetside 1 continents such as Cyssor were?

WTF! have any of you guys even been outside? 8km x 8km is not that big, And even game wise ARMA2 and SWG are 15x15km per map.

However the mention of weapons firing 1km is very intresting, in terms of whether these weapons will be using actual projectile balistics like ARMA remain to be seen, but if so and also if  structures, vehicles and infantry are visable at 1km then I am certain this game would be a success.

Originally posted by Stellus

In relation to Planetside 1, how much bigger are the continents? Anyone know how many "kilometers" the Planetside 1 continents such as Cyssor were?

Hmm yeah I hadn't thought of it like that. I do recall it taking some time to get from one end of a continent in a mossie at full tilt, even with afterburners maxed out so it may be not that much bigger to be honest.

Originally posted by bumuscheekus

Originally posted by Stellus

In relation to Planetside 1, how much bigger are the continents? Anyone know how many "kilometers" the Planetside 1 continents such as Cyssor were?

Hmm yeah I hadn't thought of it like that. I do recall it taking some time to get from one end of a continent in a mossie at full tilt, even with afterburners maxed out so it may be not that much bigger to be honest.

 

From math done in the game, Cyssor was roughly 6kmx6km to 7kmx7km. This has been a big discussion on the forums over at Planetside Universe, and a few players went ingame to check the measurements: http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37704&page=5

So Scale-wise, a bit larger than PS1 if not the same size. But also remember that the maps no longer focus on just facilities, there is actually a hex-grid layout to the map that means you take areas besides just bases. Urban areas, Forests, Desert Bunkers, and Tower Fortifications are all now major objectives in the game each offering rewards for capture to the holding empire.

WANT TO PLAY NOW

Planetside 2 is going to be too niche. Mistake making this game, IMO.

Originally posted by precious328

Planetside 2 is going to be too niche. Mistake making this game, IMO.

 

Yeah online FPS games just aren't popular enough.

"weapons capable of firing a full kilometre in distance"

So... in the distant future, weapons technology has gone backwards from today's standard?  Longest confirmed sniper kill today is 2.475 km.  An M1A1 can hit targets 2.5 km away,  mortars can be fired over a kilometre, and conventional artillery can easily reach ten km.

Going off of common movement speeds in games, the idea of it taking 19-26 minutes to cross a continent sounds great.  Though, I have no idea what the speeds will be in the game...I enjoy reading about developers trying to keep things on a larger scale.  Too many worlds are ending up so tiny these days.

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Originally posted by el_muerte
"weapons capable of firing a full kilometre in distance"So... in the distant future, weapons technology has gone backwards from today's standard?  Longest confirmed sniper kill today is 2.475 km.  An M1A1 can hit targets 2.5 km away,  mortars can be fired over a kilometre, and conventional artillery can easily reach ten km.  

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Well, when they make a game world thats 25,000km in circumference, I'll give a shit about sniper rifles that go 2.5km. But until that time comes, I think 1km is pretty good for an 8km map. In fact thats a better percentage when you compare the relative scales.

Originally posted by Sizzz

WTF! have any of you guys even been outside? 8km x 8km is not that big, And even game wise ARMA2 and SWG are 15x15km per map.

 

Yes, ArmA2 is larger but not MMO.  Put it into comparison with other games though, PR is 2km^2 with some 4km^2.  Most other games are smaller than ArmA2 and PR, much smaller.  At 8km^2 it's in the top 3 with WWIIOL and ArmA2 as those being larger.  Then realize PS2 is going to have multiple continents.  I think that is perfectly acceptable considering the consolified schlock we've been getting fed for the past decade.

 Since when is 8x8 km considered a continent?

Originally posted by Dwigo

 Since when is 8x8 km considered a continent?

I don't know but If there were 3 islands left on an entire planet  I wouldn't call them islands they would be continents :)