Invision Board announced that server 3, the server that Idealab's forums reside on, has to have it's drives replaced.

They apologize for the inconvenience and are working as fast as they can to fix the server issues. I expect them to be back up sometime this week. So, fellow Emporium members, hang in there.

Update: The forums appear to be back online. Thank you for your patience.

Sporkfire posted a development announcement for this Holiday's Combat Event, centered around the Oshur Battle Islands.

This event will preview on the Test Server starting tomorrow and then

possibly go live for December on Friday, the 17th.

December’s Combat Event focuses on the Battle Islands, creating unique combat scenarios and offering benefits for locking the facilities on those continents.

Empire Benefits and Gameplay
When an Empire captures all facilities on a Battle Island, that Empire will gain global benefits that affect all friendly facilities in all zones. These benefits are described below. If the controlling Empire loses a facility on the continent after they have locked it, they will not lose the benefit. The benefit will not be lost until another Empire successfully locks the continent.

Also, the gameplay of each Battle Island will be modified with limited access to certain equipment, creating unique play conditions on each island.

Locking Extinction
The Empire that locks Extinction will have Bio Lab and Interlink Facility Lattice Benefits for all of their controlled bases, just as if they have fully functioning Bio Lab and Interlink bases always on their lattice, regardless of which continent you are on.

Extinction Gameplay: Ground-based Bridge Battles. Air vehicles, BFR’s, Medium Tanks and Flails cannot be purchased on this island or brought in through a warpgate.

• Updated: Deliverer variants will not be available on Ascension or Extinction, in order to prevent an Empire imbalance from them being used in an AA or Armored Assault capacity. The standard Deliverer will be available.
• Updated: Locking Extinction will grant the Biolab benefot of faster respawning, without the Interlink Facility. This is being done so that Infiltrators do not have a global weakness against one Empire.

Locking Ascension
The Empire that locks Ascension will have Amp station Facility Lattice Benefits for all of their controlled bases. The works just like there is a functioning Amp station on the lattice, even if there isn't for the particular continent you are fighting on.

Ascension Gameplay: Air War. Any player can purchase and pilot a Mosquito, Reaver and Liberator, regardless of certification. The Skyguard, AA MAXes, BFR’s Medium Tanks and Flails cannot be purchased on this island or brought in through a warpgate.

• Updated: All AV weaponry will be common pool on Ascension, in order to provide the Striker's AA capability to all combatants on this continent.
• Updated (EDIT): The Striker will not have its ability to lock onto aircraft limited (as previously stipulated).
• Updated: Deliverer variants will not be available on Ascension or Extinction, in order to prevent an Empire imbalance from them being used in an AA or Armored Assault capacity. The standard Deliverer will be available.

Locking Desolation
The Empire that locks Desolation gains a 10% increase to their soldiers' and vehicles' armor.

Desolation Gameplay: Ground Based Armored Assault. Air vehicles, Flight BFR’s and Flails cannot be purchased on this island or brought in through a warpgate.

• Updated: Locking Desolation will give a 5% armor buff to vehicles only.

Locking Nexus
The Empire that locks Nexus gains use of the Vehicle Repair Silos and Airpads at all friendly bases, just as if they have a functioning DropShip Center connected to their lattice, Empire wide.

Nexus Gameplay: Infantry War. Only the Galaxy, ANT and Router can be purchased on Nexus. The Galaxy, ANT, Router and AMS may be transported through the warpgate (though the AMS cannot be purchased at the facility). When the facility is captured (locking Nexus), the towers won’t flip ownership to the capturing empire.

We will be releasing this event to Public Test for a preview, so be sure to join us and help make it ready for live.

Sporkfire posted the Weekly Dev Activities today.

Judging from the early responses on the forums, it has some welcome changes.

BFR Adjustments

• Standard BFR’s will no longer be available for purchase. The Gunner variants will be available to players after Imprinting in the caverns without requiring the Advanced BFR merit. The Gunner variants will be renamed Colossus, Aphelion and Peregrine.
  
• Adjusted the armor on the Gunner variants to all be the same, equaling the current Colossus.
  
• Adjusted the movement characteristics (top speed, turning radius, etc) of all Gunner variants to be the same, roughly equaling the current Colossus. Run speed has been lowered for all.
  
• Moderately increased the effectiveness of BFR Gunner weaponry.
  
• Lowered the damage absorption and regeneration rate (while moving and crouching) for the Flight BFR’s.
  
• Reduced the armor on all Flight BFR’s.
  
• Reduced damage done by BFR pilot weaponry.
  
• Adjusted movement characteristics of the Flight BFR’s to be roughly equal or better than the current Eclipse.
  
• The Advanced BFR kill streak has been adjusted to required 15 kills. The Advanced merit is required to gain access to the Flight BFR's.
  
• Caverns Facilities will count toward BFR acquisition if they merit 450 or more Experience.

Also of interest:

• Vehicle drivers will soon have the kills of their gunner's tracked as assists.
• The development team has been working on Event tools in time for this Christmas. They promise something unique from the last two Monotlith race events.
• Enough stat data has been collected to assign values to the Merit Commendations
• All changes are scheduled for the December release.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I'll be catching up this week after Sporkfire makes his Monday announcements . Needless to say there has been plenty going on in the world of Planetside since I last posted news:

Planetside Newsletter reminder - December 3, 2004

• How to sign up and recieve the publication.

Progress on MyStats - November 30, 2004

• Portions of My Planetside stats are up and running again. Progress continues.

Weekly Developments - November 29, 2004

• 6 months of game data has been collected and the first Merits will be based on it
• New Holiday event in development

Version 3.1.5 Live - November 29, 2004

• Win conditions for Run for the Guns Event patched

BFR In-Development Post - November 27, 2004

• New updates and ways of acquiring BFRs are being worked on

Version 3.1.2 and Run for the Guns Event - November 24, 2004

• New monolith event to win acquisition of enemy equipment for limited time
• Impimented Patch 3.1.2 which includes the new Warp Queue system, joystick support, vehicle XP sharing, new certing ability, bailing malfunctions, Flail alterations, various weapons tweaks.

MyPlanetside stat fixes in progress - November 23, 2004

Empire Messages heralding a new Event - November 22, 2004

• Transmissions from the NC, TR, and VS posted.

Weekly Developments - November 22, 2004

• Development on Patch 3.1 which includes a new Warp Queue system, joystick support, vehicle XP sharing, new certing ability, bailing malfunctions, Flail alterations, and various weapons tweaks.

Empire Messages appear - November 18, 2004

• Transmissions from the NC, TR, and VS posted.

Public Test Patch, New Features - November 16, 2004

• Development on Patch 3.1 which includes joystick support, vehicle XP sharing, new certing ability, bailing malfunctions, Flail alterations, and various weapons tweaks.
• An article for a new Warp Queue system posted.
• A Playtest for the new Joystick support.

House of Stratics Chat Log - November 15, 2004

Weekly Developments - November 15, 2004

• Joystick Support develepment continues
• New vehicle XP sharing system announced