Updates 4th April 2012 Been a long time since I updated this site beyond highlighting PS2 features in green, but today I have added a PS2 page to briefly discuss what I will do with the site once it is launched. 27th July 2011 And here is one for outfits:  25th July 2011 Damnit, here I am making up stuff about how PS2 might work already...  Discussing my concerns about the cert/skill/specialisation/class system here: 23rd July 2011 With the reveal of PS2 this website is no longer has any real purpose, I imagine that when PS2 is launched PS1 will close down (I can't imagine anyone will stick with PS1 over PS2). Interestingly John Smedley has said that PS1 was going to receive a graphical overhaul and then made free to play somehow, but as they worked on it they decided to go for a whole new game instead. This would have been Phase 1 of my project, and I am sure that other changes would have been made to make the game more appealing to the masses as well. I am going to leave this website up as there is no reason to take it down, and after the release of PS2 likely start up another, or work with others on a community effort. 15th July 2011 I have highlighted in green the parts of the project that have already been confirmed by the developers of PS2 as being in the next game. 8th July 2011 Well, its been a busy 24 hours. The SOE Fan Faire has brought with it the official announcement and reveal of PS2 and most of my concerns have been set aside by the information released so far. Plus we have a trailer and website now. Initially I was concerned about levelling, but it seems to be designed to make it less important to be fighting with the experience rewarding zerg fights; even holding a base hack with zero opposition would still be beneficial. It also allows players and even outfits to specialise in set roles with the skill trees within each class (another thing I was initially worried about) much like the merit unlock system I suggest here. The loss of Sanctuaries was again a worry; but its simply an extra loading screen; and therefore wasted time. If these unconquerable protected bases work it should be a lot better. One character per server is a great change; no more fourth empire traitors switching sides when a faction starts to lose territory. I am very interested in seeing how the resource/territory control system works, and what benefits they will bring. Oh and a jetpack class? Sounds familiar to my Agile change; love it. And ironsights? Perfect. Lower TTK and Battlefield style vehicle handling; my main wishes fulfilled. My main concern now is that its release will be years away, with no mention of release dates or even beta signups; we could be looking at 2012 at the earliest. 2nd July 2011 Been a while since I made any updates here; I've been busy with work and have been nurturing a small obsession with Minecraft. I am sure anyone reading this is aware that next week is the SOE fan faire, where Smedley has stated that there will be a major announcement regarding PS2. Also Planetside Universe are taking part in an hour long Q&A session with the PS2 developers, which will be streamed live. My main hopes for next week are for any of the following:
After all this time I am still doubtful that any real information will be announced, but time will tell. Regarding the PUP, following discussion on the PSU forums I reduced the Punisher, Pulsar, Gauss and Cycler holster size 3x6 and branded them "Assault Rifles", and have added Battle Rifles (3x9 holster) to the Support weapon category. These battle rifles are really a step below the current HSR; faster fire rate but lower damage per shot compared to it, while slower fire rate and more damage than the assault rifles. I have also replaced the images for the Agile and Rexo inventories in the armour overhaul; I wasn't happy with the images before as the Rexo didn't have a 3x9 weapon equipped. 15th May 2011 SOE services are back up, and everyone gets a free 45 days of game time; pretty nice, but expected. A few people are upset as PS players did not get any rewards like other SOE MMOs... what do they want a +5 Pulsar of Smiting? 8th May 2011 Its now been almost a month since the rather nondescript Producers Letter was posted and its been a rocky few weeks for both SOE and Sony with the hacking drama. I hope that we see SOE recovering from this, without too much of a delay to PS2! 14th April 2011 Here is the updated version of the orbital station:  Added more detail:
12th April 2011 Been working on the orbital station today, here it is so far:  The main hub of the station would be mainly used to move from place to place and as a connection point for the other modules, and would also house the stations primary generator. Off this towards the back is the hanger where Galaxies and Lodestars would enter and exit the station. To the left you can see docking points for the naval ships I have been designing. Leading to this you can just about see drop pods ready for launching. To the right you can see the command centre, with two orbital strike cannons mounted on it. The large skyscraper looking part is a barracks and storage centre. Spawn points would be located here. 11th April 2011 Added image of the Naval Air Carrier, effectively a variant of the Cruiser, which I have also updated. See the Naval Warfare page.   26th March 2011 Working on the model for the Naval Destroyer; I make half the model then simply flip it to save myself double the work. Still struggling to get materials to work correctly through the renderer... should probably check out the tutorial!  And here it is more or less finished:  22nd March 2011 Currently pondering naval units being able to hover over the battlefield, being used as mobile fire bases and respawn facilities. See the Naval Warfare page for details. Update: I am playing with renderer plug ins for Sketchup, so far this is the best I have managed which is ok, not great:  21st March 2011 Added ballistic trajectory for bullets as part of Phase 2. This is added to increase the skill needed for ranged combat, especially sniping following the addition of head shots. Note that VS energy weapons would be excluded from this. 15th March 2011 Yesterday I passed this sites link on to Margaret Krohn, a Game Designer working on PS2 who in turn passed it onto the rest of her team! 7th March 2011 Changed the New Implants page to be an Implant Overhaul, changing the existing implants and removing a couple, as well as introducing several new ones. 26th February 2011 Added the ability for Data Corruption certified players to increase base hack times by 5 minutes for hacked friendly bases in the Support Overhaul. They can do this by introducing a virus into the facilities main terminal, or by setting up a HAMS within the bases SOI. Also increased self healing and repair time by 50%, to discourage one man army style load outs and encourage teamwork in Phase 2. 25th February 2011 Added image of a Medical Station advanced medics can set up in the field in the Support Overhaul.  23rd February 2011 Reviewed and tweaked the Certification Overhaul, removing a lot of repeated information from the various related overhauls and changing some of the values of the different certifications. Tweaked the Command Overhaul to simply read better. Made a checkpoint for the Terrain Overhaul. These would be situated on roads as they pass through choke points, such as between valleys or at the end of bridges.  22nd February 2011 Just looking through Hayoo's Idealab and just want to remind everyone who reads this page to check that out for some amazing concepts. 20th February 2011 Added image of a fortified ground tower, capital base wall and wall bunker to the Terrain Overhaul. The bunker also displays one way shields across the vision slits, which is an option for outfits when they claim a base as detailed in the Outfit Overhaul.    19th February 2011 As I have been posting links to this on the PSU forums I have been rereading and tweaking various pages, mainly to improve my crappy writing style! I now have a week off work so I will be adding more images to the various sections and am currently discussing how a Naval system would work in PSN in this thread on the PSU forums. 10th February 2011 Added an initial reshuffle of the global lattice to Phase 2.  8th February 2011 Added details of an alternate effect following the destruction or a facilities generator to the Terrain Overhaul. 5th February 2011 I have gone over the Vehicle Hard Point System to make the page a lot more concise, using google docs to put the huge lists into more compact spreadsheets. 4th February 2011 New Reaver image posted by PSU. Smedley says its a Reaver, but its a two seater if you look closely. Looks very similar to the old Mosquito. Also Smedley says that the flight mechanics in PSN will be more difficult to master, separating the "men from the boys" in the air.  2nd February 2011 Added a new section to Phase 2 regarding changes in the benefits for each base and continent locks following discussion of Malorn's manifesto on the official forums (linked below). 1st February 2011 Made images for the vehicle hard point system in phase 3. 31st January 2011 Added Dynamic Population Limits to Phase 2, following Malorn's post of his Planetside Manifesto. Also added various changes, including increasing all vehicle timers to 10 minutes. 25th January 2011 PSN Galaxy image tweeted by Smedley.  22nd January 2011 PSN Vanguard image tweeted by Smedley.  11th January 2011 I resubscribed to PS, and am thinking of rebuilding my outfit, The Vindicators. 23rd December 2010 New Event ideas added in Phase 3. 21st December 2010 http://john-smedley.livejournal.com/ In Smedley's blog (SOE head honcho) he states that PS2 will be announced officially and beta'd early next year, confirming the story I posted about a week ago. Apparently populations in the original game are rising following the mention that people currently playing are asking to test the game; and Smedley saying that they will get the chance to. Is this a good thing? Sure the people still subscribing have stuck with the game; but the current game is different in both obvious and subtle ways since its heyday. The game is designed for massive battles; there has not been a pop lock in months apparently; most battles are of a scale that can be found in most standard FPS games. This means that most certifications are being used to help solo players, not organised teams that it was designed for. Those that have played constantly will be BR40; all certifications will be available to them and as I have stated here that is a bad thing; no specialisms lead to little reason to work as a team when one man can do anything and everything. Still many current subscribers do recognise the flaws in the game, so I hope they will help mould the sequel to be the best it can be. 14th December 2010 The article above is the first update in months regarding the apparently soon to be released PS2. While it is frankly amazing that it is a mere 4 months away it is perhaps too amazing; and breaks the mould compared to almost all MMOs released to date. What about the hype mill? Most MMOs have people talking about them years before release with websites and forums for its fans getting more and more players and guilds getting ready for launch. What about testing; 4 months to release usually beta testing is beginning on a small scale to get the game as prepared as can be expected these days. Yet perhaps this late reveal is a good thing; without the long running hype mill expectations cannot be raised too high, meaning that potentially more players will not be disappointed after building the game up in their minds for so long to be something unrealistically fantastic. Many people see beta testing as a chance to try out the game for free, judging the game when in a state that is not representative of its final quality perhaps unfairly. Beta testing hardly ever irons out all the wrinkles a game has before it has the massive number of players trying it out that launch brings; the core game mechanics and systems are almost always solid before beta anyway in a professional game. My hopes for PS2 boil down to the 4 key features from the original that I have detailed in the Overview, and if modelled closely on Planetside then the changes I have mentioned here would be perfect; at least for me. 10th July 2010 Added NC SMG to the Infantry Weapon Overhaul.  3rd July 2010 Added image of the H-AMS Drone Interface in the Support Overhaul.  Also added TR SMG image to the Infantry Weapon Overhaul.  1st July 2010 Added image of Heavy One Man Field Turret and Heavy AMS to the New Vehicles section.   Also added details to the Super Heavy Vehicle (New Vehicles) following comments by robo on the official PS forums. 30th June 2010 Added details of the Hacking AMS to the Support Overhaul (I intend to make a graphic showing the interface for this vehicle when it is deployed) following discussion with robo on the official PS forums. 28th June 2010 Vehicle Repair AMS and Hacking AMS added to the Support and Vehicle Overhauls.   Command AMS also added (also linked to the Command Overhaul).  26th June 2010 Added image of elevated drop ship pad to both the Outfit and Terrain Overhaul, designed either to be added to all capital bases, or purchased by outfits as an upgrade for their outfit base. Also added image of a dual IFF door lock for capital facilities. Also added a map graphic for the NTU Overhaul detailing NTU supply lines.  25th June 2010 Added images of the context sensitive orders key in the Command Overhaul. 23rd June 2010 Added image of a Light Base to the Terrain Overhaul.  22nd June 2010 Added image of Relay Tower and Tower NTU Silo to the Terrain and NTU Overhaul. Also added Commander Resupply Station to the Support and Command Overhaul.  21st June 2010 Added image of new common pool MBT in the New Vehicles section.  20th June 2010 Added image of common pool mortar for the Infantry Weapons Overhaul. 19th June 2010 Added images of the Air Base and Light BFR to the new vehicles after having a (5 hour) play with Sketchup. You can find them in the New Vehicles section.  Also added images of empire specific AA in the Infantry Weapons Overhaul which I remembered I had hidden away on my hard drive after designing them years ago. 10th June 2010 Started working on the Tutorial Overhaul 8th June 2010 Added Merit Unlock system notes to Infantry Weapon Overhaul and Vehicle Hardpoint System to explain how weapon upgrades and alternate weaponry would be acquired for vehicles 7th June 2010 Added AMS overhaul and support variants to the Vehicle Overhauls in phase 3. 3rd June 2010 Added Balancing page in Phase 2 and tweaked a few things on various pages (including how to access grenades). This is following my resubscribing to PS and playing a bit more to refresh my memory! 25th April 2010 Added new facility types into the Terrain Overhaul and an options for outfit bases in the Outfit Overhaul. 20th April 2010 Added New Merits to Phase 3. 19th April 2010 Added CEP decay and details of platoon and company missions as well as sergeant restrictions to the Command Overhaul. 16th April 2010 Added a Forum, which can be accessed via the side bar link. 15th April 2010 Added and clarified the Command Overhaul (Phase 2) following discussion at www.planetside-universe.com Added Support Overhaul (clarification of support changes and details of additional equipment for commanders, medics, engineers and hackers). 3rd April 2010 Added Empire Diversification, added size comparison for the mobile base to New Vehicles. Added notes on issues raised in the Vehicle Hardpoint System 2nd April 2010 Added Light BFR to New Vehicles. 27th March 2010 Added details of squad spotting system to the Command Overhaul, inspired by Battlefield: Bad Company 2. 22nd March 2010 My current thinking is centred around new land to fight over. What should it be like, how different should it be, what unique aspect will it add to the game? And perhaps more importantly, does the world need expanding? As it stands, certainly not with current player counts. 20th March 2010 Added NTU Overhaul to Phase 2. 14th March 2010 Added details of relay towers to the Terrain Overhaul to cut off bases from lattice benefits. 3rd January 2010 Added the Vehicle Overhaul section in Phase 3
2nd January 2010
31st December 2009
Added some pictures showing changes in the HUD Upgrades and Command Overhaul sections. I have also added on some pages a "To do" list in the comments at the bottom of the page; feel free to add your own comments to the various pages if you have suggestions to make.
24th December 2009
Adjusted the layout of the information so they match, and added in the background images and the header to make it a little nicer.
23rd December 2009
Put this website together to post my ideas which I have been working on since PS was released back in 2003, now nearly 7 years on we have reports of a new PS game on the horizon. Please note that I am only just getting this site together, so its a bit dull and many of the pages formatting does not mesh together yet. Still all the information is currently up.
David "DviddLef/Vindicore" Lloyd | Introduction The Planetside Upgrade Project (PUP) was intended as a method of updating the MMOFPS Planetside to a game which would be competitive in the modern day. The ideas you see here grew from my imaginings of what PS could be while I was playing it, and then more so through boredom while I was un-subscribed (I have since re-subscribed). The project is broken down into three phases:
Dave "DviddLeff/Vindicore" Lloyd To do list
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