Spong Interview: Tomorrow's Killzone 2 Patch - Full Details

Spong writes: "Sony's set to release Patch 1.27 for Killzone 2 tomorrow morning. It's spawned from feedback dished up by the community over at the official Killzone 2 site and will include improvements to the party matching system and a 'High Precision' control system.

We could bang on about it, but instead we're going to turn you over to Eric Boltjes, Guerrilla lead multiplayer designer, in this Q&A Sony's dished up. Bear in mind that it is indeed official... so we're analysing it, however, we figured you'd want to see it ASAP, so have a gander below:"

[Sony Rep]

Nice updates. Killzone 2 will be that much better of a game because of it.

Personal favorite...

" The Tactician Badge’s secondary ability (to request air support from a Sentry Bot) has also been tweaked to make the Sentry Bot more useful. It can aim more accurately now, and its health is a little higher as well."

[BubbleSystemSuck]

yeah... te airsupport ribbon is a pain in the a...

This is a Huge Patch... "High Precision" control mode...

mmm... finally, aim like COD?

[table]

I hope they don't make the aiming like CoD. I love the controls as they are so I don't want them to make the aiming too easy for the noobs.

We'll see what they do with it anyway but I'm not warming to the idea.

[Downtown boogey]

Great patch! I havenät playd the game after obtaining the 4# weekly honor rank, but now I'm gonna give a try!

[edgeofblade]

You know the great thing about "High Precision" aiming? You don't have to turn it on if you don't want to.

And why shouldn't the aiming be easy and natural? Are you so afraid of noobs that you can't shoot them like everyone else? Why should there be a barrier to new players? Doesn't that mean more players? Do you really want to be a small fish in an increasingly empty pond... or do you want new players brought into the game? God, your logic is so flawed.

This is great... Guerrilla saw through the morons who claimed there was nothing wrong and fixed their game anyway. This is awesome.

[table]

They might make the new controls too easy so that the game aims for you like CoD and so you're at a disadvantage not to use it. If this is the case I'll be very disappointed.

There are enough people playing Killzone2 anyway I'd prefer it if those annoying squeeky voiced CoD girlies didn't come over and play the game.

[Kleptic]

if people where having enough trouble with the controls as to not play it...then its fine I guess, if it brings people back...but I still don't understand why so many had such a problem with them...they are different, but not in a bad way...and I have always enjoyed that...I hate this idea that everyone wants every shooter to handle exactly the same...

and GG fecked up the air bots...I knew they would...we were bugging them to simply change the ribbon requirements...the last thing we need is an overpowered AI controlled thing that will take you out easily...we just wanted to get ribbons for using the stupid things, not for getting kills with them...

so all that is going to happen is that people are going to turn off the tactician now when making a server...sometimes I really think GG is a little out of touch with their community...every thread that brought up how hard it is to get the air support ribbons, had at least 10 members saying DON'T MAKE THEM STRONGER!...there isn't a player on earth that wants a more powerful AI controlled device, at least when one has targeted you...the ground bots are already bad enough...

at least they finally tweaked the assault badge...but doesn't matter...no one makes servers that have them on anyway...exactly how it should be...that class has always been a joke, and even with this tweak, the rockets will still piss people off...

[edgeofblade]

@Kleptic: "but doesn't matter...no one makes servers that have them on anyway...exactly how it should be"

See, I take issue with the "how it should be". That's like saying, "We are used to Windows having Blue Screens of Death, and therefore shouldn't fix them."

[likedamaster]

"Guerrilla saw through the morons who claimed there was nothing wrong and fixed their game anyway."

I'm going to have to agree with you on that. You make two great points. (@fangirls, Disagree is at bottom right)

[thor]

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The aerial support bots ARE TOO WEAK.

I don't care if you think they can be used tactically, they are next to useless. If they were made more powerful, it would add an extra dynamic to the game. It's totally easy to avoid them - just go indoors? The whole point of an aerial support bot is to lock down an area and distract the enemy. When they're as weak as they are, you don't lose anything by just ignoring them completely.

Aerial support bots, even if they were made 10x as powerful, would still be combatable. Place a turret. Duck under cover and pop out and shoot. Before you know it it's dead. The other team can only place 2 anyway!

I know elitist KZ2 players would rather that there weren't any classes because "bububu it's teh imbalanced" but the truth is that once you DO get all of those ribbons, there's no way in hell that you'll ever use the tactician's secondary ability again. That's why it should be made more powerful.

Do you think that boost is imbalanced? Spot and mark? Now we at least have a viable alternative.

[chidori666]

* Spawn invincibility removed
* Airbots improved
* Assaults nerfed
* "High precision" controls option
* Join friend feature improved
* Faction balancing fixed
and other features

All tomorrow morning....:)

[vrc]

For copying my post from the PS forums.

;)

[himdeel]

...only at the starting spawn points at your factions starting map points.

Popable spawn invincibility should go as people should check cameras when possible before they spawn.

EDIT

[LiquifiedArt]

It didn't have all these from day 1. Its our (KZ2 Fans) Job to spread the word to all our buddies who may of brushed it aside. New Controls, New Join options and New Balances completely turn the game up a few notches.

@himdeel - The removal of spawn point invincibility is great. This will dismiss the spawn and suicide rocket hounds. This will also help with spawning and grenading into a room. It will actually make the other team have to fight their way in and not just have a grenade or rocket-fest.

[Graphics]

another control patch finally? maybe this 1 will make me finally buy the game, but 1st ill try it out

[chidori666]

yep, sory for this.. XDDD

[FantasyStar]

The High Precision Mode alone has my interests piqued.

[Nambassa]

yea i thought it would be like cod4 controls but Eric says that it still feels weighty. its just the anologue sticks are more sensitive to your touch.

[Stationfan]

Great news cant wait, i've chosen K2 for my primary FPS this first half of the year, still play it every day even though i already got my platinum.

[Groo]

This is all great for ppl that are having problems, I personally love the controls and had no problem getting the air support badge, it took a while but I was able to get it fairly quickly from playing long matches and throwning my beacon further away from the action and chaos. the bots have range ya know

[Finalfantasykid]

Ya the super long matches are the easiest way to get the air support ribbon, and corinth crossing is the easiest for it IMO. But with these new powers for the airbots, it should make things even easier.

[Kleptic]

I have 6 of 8...and use them often...but I would only get it on matches that either engineers where disabled, or the enemy team simply wasn't using them...just one ground turret could wipe them out almost immediately...

[blink3020]

Good job GG, too bad more people don't appreciate the game

[n4gno]

only casuals and noobs don't appreciate that game.

[LiquifiedArt]

This is a PERFECT PATCH!!

This has touched on every single one of the inconsistencies.
I'm not a complainer about the controls, but more precision is always good!

Spread the Word. This could change the haters now!

AND SENTRY BOTS WOOOOOOT! USEFUL FINALLY!

AND JOINING FRIENDS FACTIONS WOOOT!

[buckethead_911]

Apparently, someone from GG read the thread I had made on the official Killzone 2 Forums on how to improve the Air Support Bots :D

Link to the thread:

http://www.killzone.com/kz/...

PS: After entering the forums, you'll have to reload the URL in order to see the thread. Weird how the website works.

[vrc]

And it's broken :P

[Fishy Fingers]

N4G shortens down URLs. Dont let the length worry you, you'll only display a small portion of it.

[buckethead_911]

Thanks bro, I've edited the main post!

[-MoOkS-]

I wonder if they will ever fix the death delay and poor hit detection.....

Oh thats right, they can't, it uses P2P servers for that....not dedicated like droids say.

[OmarJA]

Pathetic comment & uninformed.

[-MoOkS-]

Here's your proof, from guerilla employee's themselves.

here's what the official killzone.com twitter page had to say, when asked about kz2 servers - http://twitter.com/Killzone...

twitter KillzoneDotCom said "Yes, it's dedicated server-based. During combat a lot of data is also communicated P2P. That doesn't make it host-based, though

Here is more of what the GG employee was asked -

"My question:

So it's Hybrid Server?? The game is hosted on a dedicated server but also communicates data p2p when playing online. Right?

KillzoneDotCom Twitter:

Sort of... But it's only "hybrid" in the sense that some types of data are communicated to and through a server, and some p2p.

My follow up question:

Can you say what type of Data is transfered via p2p and dedicated server? Sorry for making you work so hard. Thanks again.

KillzoneDotCom Twitter Reply:

Oof...I just asked a network code programmer, and apparently it's even more complex than I thought! link - http://twitter.com/Killzone...

In concept it's p2p (since gamelogic is distributed among peers),but a server acts as mediator. So topologically it's server-based" Link - http://twitter.com/Killzone...

LINK TO THE PAGE - http://boardsus.playstation...

[buckethead_911]

The game doesnt run on dedicated servers, yes thats true but no way is the hit detection in the game poor.

[PotNoodle]

Took a little information and ran with it i see? I see you didn't even read what they actually said.

It uses dedicated servers, but to keep a quicker connection going - so that anyone can join dedicated servers from anywhere in the world, data is sent to and from other players based on their connection status's too.

I'd imagine it works like a few other games work, the map, visual and other geometry data is sent to and from the server, but the player posistions, actions etc are all sent to and from each player.

That is pretty impressive, so even though you're trying to make it out as a bad thing - it is actually a good thing.

[edgeofblade]

Yikes, that's harsh, other-person-with-360-logo. I'm playing KZ2 right now and loving every minute, except for the situations fixed by this update. This is one awesome update, and you are in denial.

If you would stop hating for a second and play the game, you might like it too.

@Deathrow: Dude, you are just as uninformed as he is. The server does not send visual data or maps. The only things the server does is keep rough track of physics-imbued objects, player positions, rotations, and stats, and same score and state. All the rendering is done client side and the maps are on the disk or hard drive.

[-MoOkS-]

QUOTES:

"Yes, it's dedicated server-based. During combat a lot of data is also communicated by P2P. That doesn't make it host-based, though

"some types of data are communicated to and through a server, and some p2p"

The key thing is " During combat a lot of data is also communicated by P2P". That explains why there is poor bullet detection, alot of the time, and why there are sometimes death delays i.e, you shoot someone first then they shoot you...and you die first then you get the kill 2-3 seconds later.

The fact is kz2 doesnt use true dedicated servers like warhawk.

[-MoOkS-]

How am I in denial?

I've played the game and seen the hit detection and death delays, not to mention the death animation delay LOL. And no, I didnt like it, I can't bring myself to enjoy an unbalanced mess of a multiplayer game.

The update didn't fix any of that did it?

And LOL @ you owning DeathroW before I did :D. You are 100% right about what the servers keep track of

[PotNoodle]

Fair enough, there is one key difference though. I wasn't sat there claiming it as fact, "I'd imagine".

And how am i uninformed, you basically just listed (mostly) what i said in a different words. Map data, ie the stuff that is changed during the match, the physical objects, geometry data (IE THE PLAYER POSISTIONS).

I know it doesn't send the actual maps to the user from a server, since you know - they're already on the disc and like you said, rendered from that client side.

Seems you're just as uninformed as i am :)

Either way, i don't know how you're getting this information from those little words, so till i get a full explaination from one of the devs over there, we're all just guessing :)

[chidori666]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p...

[DoucheVader]

Funny the PS Blog had the exact same article.

Spong likes the copy paste!

[redsquad]

Get lost Mooks, I am GENUINELY sick of you and everything you say.
It's so childish it isn't even mildly amusing anymore.

If you like a game then enjoy it, if you don't then ignore it. That's what ADULTS do.

Pathetic...

[D4RkNIKON]

They removed the spawn invincibility! No more getting killed while waiting for spawners to become vulnerable! Shotgun those B*tches in the face as they spawn, this will teach tactitions to place their spawn grenades in safer places, instead of right on the objective!

[DigitalEnemy]

Good work GG, but the party system updates should have been there from the start tbh. COD4 still has the best party system which no doubt will be even more awesome in modern warefare 2.... BUT killzone 2 is in my eyes the premier shooter on ps3 and will I'm sure be known as best fps of 2009.

[D4RkNIKON]

with you, but the party system in Modern Warfare doesn't always work (often doesn't) the way it is supposed to. It takes for ever to get friends into your party, sending invite after invite. I don't know if it has to do with their servers or what. But I have given up on playing with friends at times because it just doesn't always work.

[hesido]

"fix the death delay"

In networks, there's latency. When there's high latency, this occurs. Still, you should be glad what you see is what you get, although with latency. Dedicated servers cannot always have low latency, because you may not be near every dedicated server.

[DNAgent]

I don't even play Killzone 2 anymore (went back to MGO where there is actually more to do than just trying to get 100,000 points to level up plus I already have all of the multiplayer trophies in KZ2 so there isn't much need to play it anymore).

This patch just seems to make the game worse because all the noobs are crying about getting owned by the assault class. I rarely play as the assault class but nerfing him is a little stupid. I mean the game is basically all about headshots. If you get a headshot then you don't have to worry about his armor in the first place. The assault class only has a grenade launcher or rocket launcher and those guns have limited ammo plus the reload time is long enough as it is.

I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they take out the headshots in the game because of all the whiny little noobs cry about it. The multiplayer in this game has been going downhill ever since they've been patching the game so there is really no need for me to play this game anymore aside from the single player.

[n4gno]

mOdern warfare online options = joke (vs PC fps or KZ2, resistance, etc)

[D4RkNIKON]

Modern Warfare drops you into a game... You don't pick the map, you don't pick the max players, you don't pick the region, or even the rank of the other players in the match. But options like that are standard in most PC FPS, and Killzone 2 as you mentioned.

[Thoreau]

the control were still good to me. i only got frustrated when i would follow an enemy and i would have to stand still to shoot him in the back even with my crosshare on him. how stupid. i think the main problem with killzone is the stage design. there are simply too many choke points in almost every multi-player stage.

[Ravage27]

yes! this patch will nearly fulfill all of my wishlist. Glad to see GG continuing to provide speedy post-game support (~turns around and stares hard at Infinity Ward)

[DA_SHREDDER]

dsfasdf

[DA_SHREDDER]

This article is fake. Its already 4 pm my time and no patch. Screw this site, Screw you Joystiq

[jjohan35]

... and no patch on May 28th...