Modifying PlanetSide 2 will get you banned

With the recent launch of free-to-play shooter PlanetSide 2, servers have been getting flooded with new players. Developers have recently warned that modifying PlanetSide 2 in any way will get your account banned, and will lead to you losing your characters and items.

Simple mods that change the UI could lead to a ban. Even programs that modify DirectX, but not the game client directly, may lead to a suspension of your account.

According to Sony Online Entertainment, this is because the company wants to plug in any gaps in the security to prevent cheating. "It is vital that you not run software which modifies the PlanetSide 2 client in any way. If you do this, you are indistinguishable from various hacks that work in the same manner. The result of this is that you will be banned from gameplay and lose your characters/items," Sony Online Entertainment wrote on its forum.

Modifying the game in any way can bring down the banhammer

"We cannot make exceptions to this. We do understand there are relatively harmless apps that fall in this category, but if we allowed those they would simply be used as a shield excuse by players trying to cheat. This same rule applies to data that PlanetSide 2 uses for gameplay. Do not modify any of these files or attempt to modify them in memory.

"There are some applications that modify the Windows or DirectX environment without changing the client. These may also result in suspensions unless we specifically exempt them and declare them OK to use."

Though, minor changes like changes to the ini files are allowed, but messing the settings in those files can result in bugs.

PlanetSide 2 had gone live earlier this month. To commemorate the launch of the game, Sony had released a trailer. The trailer gives a pretty good taste of what can be expected in the game, considering the game is a giant warzone that can house thousands of players as they fight each other for control of areas in the world.

While most multiplayer shooters are based on a matchmaking or server system, what sets Planetside 2 apart is the game's single persistent world. This means that things will continue to happen even when you aren't playing, and the next time you play, you could be logging in to a radically changed world with completely different borders.

Smedley had confirmed on Twitter that the game will be free-to-play. He tweets that players can choose to “never pay us a dime if you don’t want to”. PlanetSide 2 would have to compete with other successful games in the free-to-play market, such as League of Legends, Team Fortress 2, Blacklight: Retribution, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Lord of the Rings Online.

The game's website describes the game as, “Massively multiplayer gaming takes on a new face in PlanetSide, where thousands of players wage war on a planetary scale. A newly designed 3D engine drives PlanetSide's first-person player-to-player combat and vehicular warfare across ten continents.”

The game is free-to-play and is fuelled by microtransactions. You can register and download the game from the game’s official website.