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October 2004 News

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Patch 3.0.17 now LIVE - October 15, 2004

Weekly Dev Activities

Patch 3.0 has gone LIVE and the game is only awaiting the Special Event the Devs have planned this weekend before the BFRs also go live on the 18th for the release of Aftershock.

There are a ton of new things, improvements, and fixes with this patch. Here are the official Release Notes:

BFRs

  • BFR Assets are included in this update, however BFR’s will not be available to players. BFR Hangars will be present in facility courtyards. Cavern Captures will not lead to BFR imprinting until further notice.
    All players will need to be aware that we will be recertifying all characters in PlanetSide tomorrow morning at 3 AM Pacific to introduce new elements to the existing certification process. When you first login to PlanetSide after tomorrow morning, all of your characters will be without any certifications. You will have all of your certification points restored and may spend them again at a Certification Terminal.
  • In order to help minimize the grief potential of BFR's large shield profile, friendly fire will not affect the BFR's shields. Projectiles will instead pass through the BFR shield without affecting it. The BFR itself will still be subject to friendly fire and grief penalties for hitting it. Also, splash damage will continue to affect the BFR shield and issue grief penalties.
  • The BFR Variants have been given unique names:
    • TR Flight: Invader
      TR Gunner: Juggernaut
      NC Flight: Eagle
      NC Gunner: Sentinel
      VS Flight: Eclipse
      VS Gunner: Orion
  • BFR weapons will have tighter COF and faster shield recharge while crouched.
  • Set requirements for Advanced BFR (Flight and Gunner variants) acquisition: To qualify for the Advanced BFR award, you will need to kill 100 enemies with a BFR pilot weapon (these do not have to be completed in one life). To complete the award, you must then kill 20 enemies in one life.
  • BFR feet do not damage friendlies. Collision still occurs but friendlies are pushed clear.

Gameplay and Interface

  • Kill Stats are now tracking vehicle occupants as individual kills in the stats UI. For more information, see the Development Doc on this feature.
    Implemented the Vehicle Viewing Direction Indicator and Advanced Color Options. The Direction Indicator can be toggled on and off by mapping a key in the Options UI.
  • Telefragging (killing another soldier by running into a Cavern or Router telepad while another player is standing on the destination) will only occur against enemy soldiers.
    Moved "Toggle Chat" and "Toggle Radar" buttons from Hud Items (status bar with health, shortcuts, etc) to Hud Management (button bar with other toggle buttons like Inventory, Character, etc).
    Vehicles' access permissions can now be controlled for each type of mount point (Driver, Gunner, Passenger, Trunk). Galaxy and Lodestar cargo use the passenger access setting.
  • The Infiltrator Stealth Status icon is now under the health bar in the UI.
    Repair Silos and BFR Buildings are now present in Sanctuary and Virtual Training.
    Vehicle deconstruction distance from vehicle pads has been reduced to make it less aggressive.
    Vehicle deconstruction times have been increased to 30 seconds of warning.
  • Players may now recall the first-time help dialog of any object they have already interacted with by clicking on that objects entry in the Training section of the Character Pane.
  • The "W" on the mini-map compass has been improved so that it does not look like the "E" when rotated on its side.

Vehicles

  • Created a new certification tree for Armored Assault that includes acquisition for BattleFrame Robotics.
    • Armored Assault 1 - Access to the Lightning Tank - cost 2
      Armored Assault 2 - Access to the empire specific Medium Battle Tank - cost 1 (requires that you have Armored Assault 1)
      Flail - Access to the Flail - Cost 1 (requires that you have Armored Assault 2)
      BattleFrame Robotics - Cost 2 (requires that you have Armored Assault 2)
      The Harasser is now also included in the Assault Buggy certification.
      While the Light Scout vehicles are now located in other certs (Lightning in Armored Assault 1 and Harasser in Assault Buggies), the Light Scout certification will remain for anyone who is interested in keeping the Lightning/Harasser combination.
  • Flak weapons (Skyguard and Bursters) no loger detonate on contact with the ground causing radius splash damage. The flak projectile will only detonate in the proximity to air vehicles or at the end of it's lifespan.
    Skyguard's ammo load out has been improved with significantly more flak ammunition.
  • Increased Buggy and Tank maximum speeds .
    • Prowler - 57
      Vanguard - 60
      Magrider -65
      Marauder - 80
      Enforcer - 80
      Thresher - 85
      Harasser - 85
  • Removed the Tech Plant requirement for the Router and Sunderer.
  • Increased the Sunderer's armor by 10%.
    Decreased the Flail’s rate of fire.
    Decreased Flail armor from 3000 to 2400.
  • The Lightning and Skyguard's 12mm machinegun cone of fire and recoil have been adjusted to make it much more accurate.
    Increased the Lightning’s armor.
  • The Fury's Hellfire rocket will travel inside the BFR shield sphere.
  • Slightly increased Reaver rockets against BFR's.

Weapons and Equipment

  • The Striker and MAX lock-on weaponry now function after deconstructing in a spawn tube
  • Repeater refire rate improves and a little bit tighter on cone of fire bloom.
  • Slightly increased the refire rate of the TR Pounder and Dual Cycler MAX armor when locked down

Core Combat Improvements

  • Capturing Core Combat Cavern zones will now grant Battle or Command experience.
    Increased SOI of Core Combat bases by 50% to cover a larger area of possible combat to count toward base hack exp.
  • Zipline nodes now have a 30 second vehicle deconstruct timer.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a client crash bug related to cloaking and equipping weapons.
  • VS Visors will no longer obstruct the gunner's view in the Skyguard.
  • Increased the max damage of mines and boomers vs. BFRs
    Players can now see enemy names during heavy firefights.

 


Weekly Development News- October 12, 2004

Weekly Dev Activities

Sporkfire posted his Weekly Development Activities this week on the official forums concerning patch 3. BFR development continues for impending release on or before October 18.

In addition to the patch 3 items from previous Weekly Dev Activites, of note are the final names to each BFR, an interface change, as well as changes to the Flail and Lightning vehicles:

  • TR Flight: Invader
  • TR Gunner: Juggernaut
  • NC Flight: Eagle
  • NC Gunner: Sentinel
  • VS Flight: Eclipse
  • VS Gunner: Orion

    The chat and map buttons have been moved to the management pane.

  • The Lightning's 12mm machinegun cone of fire and recoil have been adjusted to make it much more accurate.
  • Lightning armor has been increased from 1300 to 1500.
  • Slightly increased the refire rate of the TR Pounder and Dual Cycler MAX armor when locked down
  • Flail Adjustments:
    • Increased refire time from 4 seconds to 5
    • Decreased armor from 3000 to 2400
    • Increased the Flails damage vs. BFRs to compensate for the increased refire time
  • Made the Fury's Hellfire rocket travel inside the BFR shield sphere

Weekly Development News - October 5, 2004

Weekly Dev Activities

Sporkfire posted the Weekly Development Activities this week on the official forums concerning patch 3.0, introduction of Battleframe Robotics (BFRs) .

Items of interest:

  • Statstical tracking of kills changed.
  • Vehicles access permissions can now be controlled by seat type.
  • Repair Silos will be placed in Sanctuaries.
  • Implemented the Vehicle Viewing Direction Indicator and Advanced Color Options.
  • Capturable Cavern buildings show SOI’s on the map.
  • Stat tracking for MyPlanetside being worked on.
  • Updated cert tree for Armored Asault
    • Armored Assault 1 - Lightning (2 certs)
    • Armored Assault 2 - Medium Tank (req - AA1) - 1 cert
    • Flail - (req - AA2) - 1 cert
    • BFR - (req - AA2) - 2 certs
    • Assault Buggies - Empire buggy + Skyguard + Harrasser (3 certs)
    • Light Scout - Remains the same: Lightning + Harrasser (3 certs)

Idealab News:

Updated the Deployable Emplacement, New Certifications, NTU Changes, and Outfit Barracks sections with forum links to the WIP board.

Planetside-Universe News:

On Oct 1st, 2004, PSU celebrated their 2nd Birthday! We all wish them a very happy birthday anniversary and much growth and success in the coming year.

In Other Planetside News:

Planetside Movies.com Fundraiser - a community-driven site for free PlanetSide video hosting, is conducting a fund-raiser to keep the site up and running. Click here to find out how you can help.


 

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