ZAM interviews Tramell Ray Isaac and Leonard Gullo as PlanetSide 2 reveals the second continent of Auraxis and much more.

There are tremors of excitement running through the itchy trigger fingers of many MMO fans.

PlanetSide 2 (PS2) has been an enthralling experience for those who have been lucky enough to jump into the ongoing beta, myself included. Battles fought across a massive landscape, firefights erupting over important territory, dogfights in the air and roving artillery on the ground make for an engaging experience.

Today, the already large scale of the battle becomes even grander, as players will tread on the snowy plains of Esamir. I was fortunate enough to speak to SOE’s Tramell Ray Isaac, senior art director and Leonard Gullo, a lead world designer, to get an idea of what the next step in PlanetSide 2 entails.

The interview started by outlining the differences between the new continent and Indar, the most obvious being the snow-covered landscape. Gullo detailed the changes in gameplay experience that would greet the players, including noticeable changes to the deployment of facilities, “the continent has far less outposts in it and a few less facilities.” The amp stations, bio labs and tech plants total nine major facilities on Indar while Esamir will have seven. 

The solitary tech plant on Esamir will be of great importance to the three factions warring over it. Gullo went on to explain, “The tech plan has a little bit of an advantage as you can spawn galaxies there (the flying, heavily armed troop transport), so having that in the center of the map is making it a valuable point. We feel there is going to be a lot of good combat there.”

There are only 15 small outposts on Esamir compared to the 52 on Indar. This reduction of points to capture has been made to change the favored play style of those engaged in warfare on Esamir, “It goes back to a very classic PlanetSide style map, it’s very open. There’s a lot of distance between the facilities and outposts and your approach going between those is going to change compared to Indar.”