Is anyone on the merged servers now feeling the dire need for the battle islands? You know, the ones that were have disappeared entirely since the trailer over a year ago. I understand PS2 is supposed to be about huge battles but the problem is that 48+ vs 48+ just aren't fun for many people. The areas in which these battles occur are way to small and so the fights are way too condensed. I've seen less deaths and cluster on Shipment in CoD4. Due to the fact that the continents have been reworked and that it hasn't changed the size of the area in which these fights occur (the new base layouts are great for 24 vs 24 btw) another pass wouldn't be likely to happen nor fix the issue. If Planetside is to cater to a wider range of players then there needs to be more options than "zergfests" during peak times or even off peak times during the day where on Miller finding a smaller fight is nearly impossible (mainly because when you do find one within 10 mins it's attracted all the other players who are looking for a better fight or another attack route as well). If I remember rightly the battle islands were originally planned for 48 vs 48 (in competitive matches) which spread over the whole island rather than one small base would also be great.
You speak in plural, there's only one. Anyway the other two battle islands aren't even on the drawing board yet. They are now test different environments which they will then put on the list of environments to choose from. Then they can start designing it, then building it, then testing it, then programmers starts making the lattice and test that.
The names have been mentioned, Desolation and Ascension, one can only hope that means they have a vague idea what they are going to do with them. I just really hope the battle islands become the next map orientated goal once Hossin has been ironed out.
