We had the opportunity to get PlanetSide 2 information straight from the team. Read on for all the features!

Sony Online Entertainment unveiled PlanetSide 2 at the Fan Faire community address last night, and we had the chance to attend a follow-up press conference with members of the team to get more details on the upcoming game. SOE President John Smedley and PlanetSide 2 Creative Director Matt Higby emphasized that the game is a true MMOFPS full of huge battles in a persistent world. “The number one design goal is to deliver on massive warfare,” Higby said.

Keep reading after the jump for a rundown on all of PlanetSide 2’s features!

UPDATE: The day after this press conference, the PlanetSide 2 team answered questions from players at a Fan Faire panel. After you've read this article, be sure to check out our overview of the PlanetSide 2 panel for even more details!

Pricing structure and launch date

Let’s get this out of the way right now: SOE is not talking about the launch date and pricing structure yet. Smedley hinted that “there will be a free component to it,” but that’s about it. He also announced that they plan to publicly release their three-year plan for the game so players can provide feedback. “Most MMOs go out with an expansion at a time. We want to give players an idea of what we're thinking,” he said, noting it’s going to be a sandbox game.

Battle for territories and resources on huge persistent maps

The core gameplay for PlanetSide 2 is about holding key territories and controlling resources, which will be used to accomplish goals such as upgrading weapons. Players will be attempting to capture every piece of a territory on several continent maps to gain resources for themselves, as well as their empire and outfit (guild). “Resources are sort of a new impetus for content and combat. They’re more of a motivation for players to be fighting,” Higby said. Resources are spread out, so you might have to travel around the continents to find specific ones.

Higby emphasized that the game is set in a persistent world. “That territory you capture is yours until you take it back,” he said, which means battles can last for days or weeks. He also mentioned that “the amount of players that will be able to fit in a PlanetSide 2 map and have meaningful interaction and gameplay is going to be much larger."

When asked if there will be instances, Smedley enthusiastically said, “hell no!” He also said they want the framerate to run extremely well on low-end computers. "We want to achieve speed. We’ll take speed over beauty any time,” he said.

Empires, classes and skill trees

Players will have their choice to join three different empires, including Terran Republic, New Conglomerate and Vanu Sovereignty. Each empire will have a different tactic and strategy, which adds to the game’s customization options.

PlanetSide 2’s classes and skill trees go hand in hand. Players will be able to unlock diverse combat roles by advancing through the skill tree, including several classic roles from PlanetSide. As players unlock new roles, they will be able to switch between them at will. Each combat role, vehicle and weapon will have extensive skill trees, which will allow players to unlock weapons, attachments, equipment, specialized skills and more.

The skill tree will feature a time-based unlock system, similar to EVE Online. Players can select the skills they want to level up and queue for 24 hours worth of skills. Based on your activity, the speed at which points are added to your skills will increase. This rewards active players for playing the game. So why add offline skilling? The team wants to make sure that players are able to keep up with their friends. It also helps ensure that big battles can happen since everyone is getting upgrades.

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