#Planetside

[gamingisalifestyle]

[spockvarietyhour]

Polish Covers for Planetside #1-3 (Planetside, Spaceside, Colonyside)

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Started playing Planetside 2 again. Had to post one of my favorite memories. Really wish i still had the original image instead of just this from my old 9gag account. Dont remember the region but we dropped over 200 people from my outfit onto the same bio lab, during an alert. This would have been about 2016. I was Squad Leader for some light armor, and it was basically a second full time job. (Engi 4 life) Really wish i got into things like that still.

[sublimepizzastarfish]

Pirate Software's "rearchitecture" for Stop Killing Games

There's been a lot of fascinating drama around Stop Killing Games. Go read the initiative here:

It is a good initiative, and anyone who is a consumer that can, should absolutely go support it.

Jason "Thor" Hall, CEO of Pirate Software, recently had a few, let's say, "takes" on the matter (I'm trying and failing to remain neutral), which began on a stream. The stream's VOD has since deleted on his YouTube channel.

Louis Rossmann, who you might know as the largest Right to Repair activist in the US, made a response to a section of the releevant stream here:

Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, made two videos to clarify his points:

There is an argument in the video at the 2:08 mark that I will reference later.

(I recommend watching all these videos on 2x speed. You will get the same info out of them all, because especially video 2 is a lot of repetition)

Now, as mentioned above, there is one particular technical argument that bugs me about what Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, is making. Here is the full quote:

How would you keep League of Legends in a functional, playable state? You'd have to rearchitect the entire game. The game is what is called "client-server". So, in client-server models, there's a server, there's a client, and all of the math, all of the game, everything happens on the server. The client just displays it. And the reason we want to do it that way is so that you can't teleport around and do a billion damage. You don't trust the client. You trust the server. The client just displays what it's told. Right? So, if we wanted to rearchitect this, we would have to take all of that server logic, push it back out into the client, and somehow make that playable in a multiplayer-only video game. That doesn't make sense to me. So this doesn't work for all games. Why is [the initiative] calling out all games?

So, first off, yes, most games do client-server architecture for multiplayer logic, because you do trust the servers. It is an important step to curbing an entire class of cheats. It doesn't necessarily mean the client isn't malicious (for example, there are cheats for League of Legends that show a growing circle when an enemy leaves the fog of war in the minimap). However, it does mean the client doesn't know 100% of the game at any time when information is selectively fed to each client based on something like the fog of war. That's awesome.

Some games, like PlanetSide (rest in peace) and Overwatch (2) use what's called client-side hit detection. Some games, like Halo 1, employ more selective hit detection models, where only certain weapons use client-side hit detection (see https://c20.reclaimers.net/h1/engine/netcode/). Client-side versus server-side hit detection can change the overall feel of a game, and it's one of the things game developers decide on in multiplayer-only games that require it. In the case of an massively multiplayer online first person shooter (MMOFPS) like PlanetSide (2), the server simply can't calculate thousands of people's math in a reasonable amount of time, because otherwise the hit detection would otherwise feel very crappy to play, and so the math is offloaded to the client and the client says "hit" when they hit.

However, there are a few counterexamples to the specific technical argument that keeping the game playable after end-of-lifing it requires rearchitecting:

Games with dedicated servers exist - Command & Conquer: Renegade, Starsiege: TRIBES

Games where one client also hosts the multiplayer server exist - Half Life 2, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine

Private server hosting exists - World of Warcraft

Some of these games, particularly the examples with dedicated servers that can be run on user hardware, can also run as the second example.

To say keeping a multiplayer-only online game requires rearchitecting a game like League of Legends means a lack of imagination. More relevantly, it means a lack of systems thinking.

To me, it is very strange for someone such as Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, who is self-described as being a 20 year veteran of the games industry to say. I won't say skill issue, because I think there is an ulterior motive at play.

Just to hammer the point home, I drew up some crappy diagrams in Inkscape because this extremely wrong technical argument bugged me so, so much.

Here is what a client-server model looks like:

Here, you have 10 clients, each being a player of the game. Then, you have the server, run by Riot, the developer and maintainer of League of Legends.

Here is the imagination of Thor, CEO of Pirate Software, had to say on the matter on the required way rearchitect it:

Those who know their network models would understand this looks very much like a mesh network, or a peer-to-peer model. And, to be fair, some games might attempt it.

However, this isn't *usually* how games described using a peer-to-peer (P2P) model work. Most peer-to-peer models, like the architecture used in Space Marines, are often used for matchmaking. Once you are in a game, one of the clients also serves as the host (selecting by some algorithm, like randomly or whoever has the best hardware).

P2P is nice, because the company doesn't have to run servers for matchmaking at all during their lifespan (and sometimes a matchmaking server might be spun up to serve as a relay to help with network issues or help other clients find clients quickly). As we'll get into later, a client machine will also serve as the host machine. It is a perfectly fair and valid, although it comes with it's frustrations (mainly in the realm of network address translation (NAT) traversal, because your computer behind a router is not usually exposed to the wider Internet, though sometimes routers have universal plug-and-play (UPnP) set up, which makes NAT traversal much easier here).

If you've ever seen a message in the game "migrating host" because the host left, they likely use P2P matchmaking, but still use a client-server model. They can just migrate the game data to a new host using the data on the other clients as a seed for the data.

This is likely their setup for actual gameplay:

One of the clients now has a server on the same machine. Sometimes, this could be the game itself that would serve in singleplayer. However, most often, this is just a server that's lightweight enough for the client to connect to and they play that way (it's also really nice to develop and QA this way, because many server bugs will also be seen by the client).

Now, one of the disadvantages here is: Can all remote clients connect to the host that the server (and one of the clients) is running on? Again, NAT traversal issues usually play a role here. In the first few days of any game that uses this, and only this, there will likely be a lot of issues with connectivity.

Another disadvantage: The host won't have latency issues. This is why in the case of, for example, Among Us, the client host can see certain things happening (like someone is dead the moment they hit a button or reported a body), but remote player hosts might not.

Okay, so, maybe it's not possible to rearchitect something like League of Legends like this. It could reasonably be a lot of work. Here is another solution:

Looks very similar to the first architecture, doesn't it? It is! The difference is that the text "Riot" was changed to "not Riot".

This is how World of Warcraft and Pokemon Go private servers work.

The vast majority of games that would not run without private servers simply do not require rearchitecting to keep in a reasonably playable state when the servers shut down.

[tikay21]

🐺St. Helens

a Terragen render (no AI) I did in 2003 - i found my works on my old extern storage drive and was so happy with it ... so I think time to share it once again > 20 years later

[toaarcan]

I'm pretty sure nobody here cares about this game, but... after the better part of a year and a half (don't @ me I'm bad at games okay?), I have finally achieved the goal I was striving for in Planetside 2.

The Black Camo is mine.

5800 total kills, 2/5s of that with two versions of a weapon I came to loathe, but now I have the coolest armour colour in the game.

[notsaber15]

attack of the skywhale

[tooclosetosundavvid]

Holy fuck look how cool the cover of this book looks

[blag-fidray]

[ozzenstach]

[silentwisher-feed]

Finally! Oshur Island Battles & Indar! Planetside 2 🔴LIVE

Finally! Oshur Island Battles & Indar! Planetside 2 🔴LIVE Join the epic battle as we dive into the massive world of Planetside 2, where factions clash in relentless warfare! Tune in now to witness intense combat, strategic teamwork, and immersive gameplay.

[40splishsplash]

Today I'm checking out how Planetside 2 is doing in 2023, how it plays, the amount of people playing, some history when it comes to the Planetside franchise, but also why I have chosen to play Planetside 2 on a regular basis.

[kad-dala]

Quality behot

SOURCE🍋

[kandicon]

Okay I need to write something abt Ivy's brain overheating n starting to cook her head bc it overworks and there's no way there's enough space in her super computer brain for an efficient cooling system combined with Tim involuntarily salivating and feeling hungry when he smells burning flesh as a hold over from eating corpses during the Moon War. This is no longer a want it is a need.

[soup-mother]

babe, that really was the planetside 2 of maid yuri

[astorythatwritesitself]

Six Song Soundtrack

Thanks for the tag @omniblades-and-stars !

Rules: If you're tagged, make a post with links to music and/or lyrics describing six things/events about your OC/story!

Tagging: @spookyvalentine , @pastlight , @schmendrickmagician !

Anyway everything else is in enough development hell so. Shepard Be Upon Ye Again

Event that defines your character's past:

That's all that Akuze came down to, in the end. A brief, simple mistake that could have happened to anyone, that happens a thousand times with no consequence.

Would the unit have survived, if Adrian hadn't dozed off during her watch? Would she have noticed any signs, gotten a distress call out any sooner - and if so, would that time make any difference, against how long it took any message to get through, from such a remote world?

It doesn't matter how many times she asks them, in her dreams. If those who died under her command have any answers, they aren't sharing.

My old friend I swear I never meant for this I never meant - Don't look at me that way It was an honest mistake Don't look at me that way It was an honest mistake A honest -

How your character sees themselves:

All Adrian really can see in herself, at least for a very long time, is... pieces. Hopes and dreams that others have placed on her, things she was meant to do, things she wanted to do, but all in scattered fragments that never quite mesh together. (And in canon, they never do, really.)

Say you were split, you were split in fragments And none of the pieces would talk to you Wouldn't you want to be who you had been Well baby, I want that too So better take the keys and drive forever Staying won't put these futures back together All the perfect drugs and superheros Wouldn't be enough to bring me up to zero Baby, you're great, You've been more than patient Saying it's not a catastrophe But I'm not the girl you once put your faith in Just someone who looks like me So better take the keys and drive forever Staying won't put these futures back together All the perfect drugs and superheros Wouldn't be enough to bring me up to zero So get out while you can Get out while you can Baby I'm pouring quick sand And sinking is all I have planned So better just go

Their closest relationships (romantic and platonic):

Romance was never a factor in Adrian's thoughts on the future, even when she thought she had a future. When she's recruiting for an explicit suicide mission, and the recruit informs her that he doesn't have long to live anyway?

There's no trying to pretend, with Thane. Here's someone who doesn't need false optimism or for her to put on a brave face, someone who's tried and failed and is just trying to do some good, someone who understands the sense of living only to be of service to others. It's almost funny, how it happens, how that shared sense of sorrow and doom turns into one of the greatest joys in Shepard's life - but she never regrets it, no matter how it turns out.

I knew that look dear Eyes always seeking Was there in someone That dug long ago So I will not ask you Why you were creeping In some sad way I already know I will not ask you where you came from I will not ask you and neither would you

Honestly there's a few good answers for the platonic relationships - but for ones I've actually got a good song for, we're going with Tali!

Tali's... honestly, I think Tali kind of reminds Adrian a little of her younger self, or kind of a younger sister she never had. Aside from their being able to bond over fiddling with tech, Tali's just - she's sweet! She's fun and optimistic - but not blindly so, she's been through enough shit that it's a very deliberate optimism, and Adrian wants so badly to see her succeed.

There's one girl I like, she's a smile on a Monday And she'll fight to stay so And she's like the sun on the weekend And though she is like the sea And it's right she'd be so I like she sails with me

A major fight scene:

The Battle of London/The Crucible, tbh. Whether in canon or the AU I'm cooking up, there's that sense of... no matter what, it's going to be strange. It's going to be painful, and whatever the outcome - things are going to change.

If we live We live by Chewing through our leg And fleeing from the trap Only with new eyes Will we Slip through the lines If we live, we live as fire

End credits song:

👀 Well - choose your ending.

CANON -

Her choices are made - they're all awful, so she chooses the one that (hopefully - she doesn't truly trust this construct, but she's bleeding out and this is the end, no matter what) seems as if it will lead to the least amount of loss. But, whatever happens - there is a relief, as she gives herself to that strange energy pouring up from the Crucible. She has done all she can, and perhaps rather selfishly... all she thinks of, in those last moments? All that comes to mind is the sea, whether she's drifting forever in the blue like the first time she died, or if perhaps this time, there will be a shore - or even if there's nothing but the cold and dark, at least, it's finally over.

You're free A lover sinking in the sea And we Will let the water fill our lungs And sleep Love, we go down, we go down Breathe, it's over now, over now We can love, we can love We can love, we can love And the birds will sing our song in Halcyon

AU -

Well, all Adrian ever wanted to do in the Alliance was fiddle with computers and tech. And in this end... in this end there's a little less resignation, a little more hope, more belief in taking a wild chance - after all, what do they have to lose? A few more lives saved. A little less injury, so rather than accept the proposed choices, Shepard is lucid enough to propose another line of thought - the Crucible, the Starchild, either they're all tech that can be repogrammed... or, this being is its own entity, and capable of making choices beyond the groundwork its creators laid out. Wouldn't it be interesting, to see what happens next to the cycle that's gotten this far?

[And here we fade out]

Can I take you to a moment Where the fields are painted gold And the trees are filled with memories Of the feelings never told? When the evening pulls the sun down, And the day is almost through, Oh, the whole world it is sleeping, But my world is you.

It wouldn't be ME3 without the post-credits scene lol.

It's not quite a desert, but certainly somewhere arid - but there's lights visible in the distance, shapes suggesting a small town on some colony world. Not utterly remote and removed from the galaxy at large, but certainly a little more... distant. A quiet place, even quieter up on this ridge that overlooks it. There's hardly any sound but the wind rippling through the sparse, tall grasses; the slight shift of gravel and dirt and an occasional, dull metallic thud. We see a human haul themself up those last couple of steps, bracing first against a cane, then against their drell companion as they find somewhere to sit together, watching as sunset steals over the town, and the first twilight stars appear on the horizon.

Blank meme under the cut!

Event that defines your character's past:

How your character sees themselves:

Their closest relationships (romantic and platonic):

A major fight scene:

End credits song: