Talk Playstation 3 News

The Playstation.Blog had a live question and answers session with Zipper Interactive Vice President Mike Gutmann and Ed Byrne Creative Director at Zipper Interactive.

Check out the list below.

• Zipper Interactive will have a beta for MAG. It hasen’t started yet.
• To ensure squads will stay together, players will get special abilities when they are close to their squad leader
• Mag will have no support for keyboard or mouse
• Squad leaders will already be available when MAG goes live
• Clans will be supported
• MAG will is set for a Fall 2009 release
• MAG is not going to be a downloadable title
• Players will be able to change fractions in the middle of battle, but there will be an associated experience cost
• No special Third Person view mode is planned. MAG is First Person only
• MAG will have a special website up where players will be able to view their stats, state of the game world and more cool stuff
• The animal on the S.V.E.R is actually a wolf
• MAG is the official title name
• Zipper Interactive put a great deal of work into the servers in order to minimize the lag time. Since there are dedicated servers forwarding the most important info is helping.
• The larger maps will have ground vehicles that players will be able to use as part of the 128-player map mission objective. Air vehicles are also used for insertions and support strikes but aren’t pilotable. The smaller maps don’t have vehicles.
• MAG will not feature any female avatars
• MAG will not support split screen
• MAG will be shown in E3
• Each map will have an associated game mode. The game modes that will be available are Team vs. Team mode for 64 players, Capture Objective Points mode for 64 players. Stealing Vehicles for 128 players. Control Points all-out battle for 256 players.
• MAG is strictly online. An offline training mode will be available. Training will cover controls, weapons, and all the equipment.
• Voice chat will use MAG’s command structure. Squads can talk together, then squad leaders talk up the chain, and so on.
• The weapons are balanced between arcade and realism.
• Developing SOCOM has really helped Zipper Interactive.
• MAG servers were built from the ground up and feature lots of the features that Zipper Interactive had wanted in previous SOCOM titles.
• Players will be able to join other players that are on their PSN friends list only if they serve the same army.
• Skill-points that are acquired along the way are used to unlock equipment, weapons, and character skills. The leadership ladder is similar, but allows access to the leadership ranks.
• The biggest maps are about 1 square kilometer. The maps are based on three global regions – Alaska, Central Asia and Central America.
• MAG will have a back story however there’s no single player component – the story all takes place online as the armies fight it out.
• MAG will include cheat detection system. It hasen’t been decided yet on how cheaters will be handled.
• MAG’s health system will be “points based” system so player will know exactly how wounded they are. There are lots of different ways to “regain” health (medit, firstaid, medics, supply points, bunkers, etc.)
• Zipper Interactive is working on MAG for 3 years
• Team Kills will not grant players negative xp, but their rating will drop and MAG’s servers will be looking at that aspect as part of the cheat prevention tech as well.
• MAG was inspired visually by Killzone 2
• MAG will be free to play out of the box. No monthly fee.
• MAG will have internal ribbons and medals, as well as PSN trophy support.
• If a squad leader gets killed then they’ll be back at the next respawn. If they drop out, then someone on the battlefield will be promoted. That someone will still need to “opt-in” for leadership and meet the rank-requirements.
• Players will have to pick their army before they go into training. Moving between armies is possible.
• The biggest game mode is 128X128.
• Players will be respawned in timed waves. Players will be respawned with their squads.
• Leadership is an option. Players will have to “opt-in” for leadership.
• Players will be able to sneak behind enemy lines or try to snipe from a distance.
• Every mission/game played affects the global state of the Shadow War. The  state of the Shadow War conveys bonuses and advantages to those in control of different global “contracts”.
• MAG won’t have a dynamic weather system.

Source.