Weekly Development Activities (2/23/04)

[EarlyDawn]

We have a substantial update coming with the implementation of Capitol Buildings. This week, work primarily consists of keep in touch with QA and making sure that the updates rolls out as smoothly as possible. The items currently in Testing are as follows:
Gameplay


Capitol Buildings are currently in our internal testing. Read more about them In Development.
If a Cavern is locked, then any friendly surface facilities connected to that cavern (via the lattice through the Geowarps) will act as if it had all six modules installed.
Hand-held AT weapons now have "recharge capacitor units" (Ancient Tech "ammo") that you can buy at AT equipment terminals or at facilities with the Equipment module benefit.
Phalanx Wall Turrets now have a great upward pivot, allowing them to more easily targeting incoming aircraft.
Certification Terminals can now be destroyed.
Double-clicking on a Warpgate will now zoom to its linked continent.
Hand Grenades will now come in clips of three, though they will require the same amount of inventory space as before. i.e. A clip of three grenades will take up the 2x2 inventory space that a single grenade consumed before.
TR Burster will only do direct damage to non-aircraft targets. It will no longer inflict splash damage on infantry and ground vehicles.
Bug Fixes


Enhanced Targeting will now show the status of enemy Flails beyond 15 meters.
Pistol slot items will no longer be visible in an Infiltration Suit.
Hotswapping items will no longer cause infiltrators to become more visible.
The Infiltration Status Icon will function properly, giving a visual indicator of how �cloaked� a player is.
The nature of the Empire-specific Infiltration Suit models caused some suits to be more visible than others. We have adjusted parameters for each Empire to compensate for this.
Damage Decals will no longer show up on water.
Scorch decals on a door will not remain stationary when a door opens.
Fixed an issue that would cause players to lose Outfit points.
Outfits can invite players with a �J or �K appended to their name through the Outfit Window.
Fixed an issue where newly created characters could not receive send or receive /tell messages or be added to friends list.
Teleporting through Router telepad will no longer cause Darklight to appear with normal field of vision.
Energy weapons will leave a damage decal on surfaces again.
Wall Turrets that are destroyed and repaired will display the proper textures.
Drivers will no spawn in a vehicle with only 1 shot remaining in the vehicle�s weapon clip.
Manual binds will no longer remain after deleting character and creating another.
Other


The level of visibility for sustained actions in an Infiltration Suit has been increased. These actions include using a REK, BANK and Medical Applicator.
Levels of visibility have been honed for each of the different actions that Infiltrators can take � running, walking, crouch-walking, jumping, and shooting, etc. Further, the level of visibility has been adjusted to account for multiple simultaneous actions, such as jumping and shooting.
Infiltrators will remain cloaked when they mount a vehicle, but will be partially visible as long as they occupy the seat. This adjustment does not apply to the wraith, which will remain fully invisible when sitting still, and become more visible at higher speeds.
A glow effect and a laser sight effect have been added to the Decimator.
The Magrider�s brakes have been improved.
Victor Wachter
Community Relations Representative
Many questions can be answered by reading the PlanetSide Game Info and FAQSweet.
Link (http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum16/HTML/002226.html)

[Tannim]

Certification Terminals can now be destroyed.

Ack. Another way to drain the base. People will be blowing these where they can find them now too.

Looks like INFs are getting the short stick again. I was playing one last night and it was tough already. Glad it isn't my full time cert.

[Incompetent]

Sounds like good stuff overall, the glow/laser sight on the deci intrigues me. Can't wait for them to get all that stuff onto test.

[EarlyDawn]

How are you getting the short stick again? You're becomming harder to detect. If you mean healing and hacking and such, it's almost impossible to not see you do it as it is now, so a small change isn't gonna matter.

[Tannim]

it's almost impossible to not see you do it as it is now, so a small change isn't gonna matter.

I've jacked a few AMSes surrounded by enemy troops before. Now I'll be "more visible"? I was pretty visibile to begin with. Only people not paying attention let me do it. Why not just add a flashing light over my head and be done with it?

[KeviN]

"The level of visibility for sustained actions in an Infiltration Suit has been increased. These actions include using a REK, BANK and Medical Applicator.
Levels of visibility have been honed for each of the different actions that Infiltrators can take � running, walking, crouch-walking, jumping, and shooting, etc. Further, the level of visibility has been adjusted to account for multiple simultaneous actions, such as jumping and shooting."

Apparently the devs have never playing an infiltrator

[BUGGER]

These are fair enough. I dont get the close geo warp and 6 mods though. It'll be nice if your that base, but really.


Can't wait for capitols, i wana see if they are good or not.

[SilverLord]

Arn't the visibilty levels getting decreased when using the Med App, BANK, and REK? Or did I read that wrong?

[00AgentDuck]

W00t! Finnally they fix the brakes on the magrider, I've hit to many friendlies with it's nearly non-existent brakes. Also helps you brake near a enemy tank so you can shot it instead of riding over top of it, when this happens they can shot your underside while you can only shot the clouds. Good changes I think,except I think infils didn't get the best this patch can offer, maybe next time.

[MidnightDave]

I dont see any mention of broadcast warpgates . . . . . Please god? did they scrap it?

Capitol buildings YAH!
Infil Fixes Meh.
Broadcast warpgates BOOO

[Krinsath]

Broadcast warpgates are not a bad idea, they do exactly what the Devs want them to do...provide a viable alternative to the HART which encourages the use of Sunderers and Galaxies in the Sanctuary and encourage a more dedicated fight. Also makes it so that there are no "gimme" warpgates where people can mass in and wait until people leave the continent. You can't ghost a continent and come back anymore....which means harder fighting all around.

The Cavern Lock is designed to bring people into the Core, and probably the best idea the Devs have had in that regard. What impact that's going to have on gameplay we'll have to see. Essentially, people will go to the Caverns because no player worth his salt can deny the *MASSIVE* benefit of having all the modules at a base. Having AT ammo, plus those mod benefits will be an insane boost to surface operations...and you can be sure that none of the factions want that to happen to anyone but them. Imagine a whole platoon armed with Maelstroms with reloads and the ability to get more at any base...crazy benefits there.

In terms of infiltrators...we have not actually SEEN what the changes are doing. They have said that they made everyone the visibility equivalent of the Vanu suit...that's a big shift. So it could work out that the TR and NC are really only slightly more visible than they are now doing these things. Sure, it kills the Vanu infiltrators since they're so heavily impacted...but in a worst case scenario there's always the Lasher for VS...not like everyone isn't carrying them anyway. ;)

[MidnightDave]

I know the benefits of the broadcast warpgates, I just dont like the idea of not having home continents.
and I know we havent seen the infil changes yet thats why I said meh lol. I have an NC cloaker, so ill prolly get some benefit from doing this.

An infil buff I'd like to see is that when u use a boomer thing, it automactically switches u back to the ace when u detonate the trigger.

[WritheNC]

Capitol Buildings are currently in our internal testing. Read more about them In Development.
If a Cavern is locked, then any friendly surface facilities connected to that cavern (via the lattice through the Geowarps) will act as if it had all six modules installed.

HFS!

I guess they were right. CC is about to get a player injection.

[Madcow]

I'm still taking a 'wait and see' attitude on the infil fixes. I'll be on the test server the day they get these changes up, however. At the very least I'm glad they're giving it some attention.

[FireWolf22]

I read on the main page about the burster not causeing splash damage. Didn't see it here, but if so W00t got to love that. I hate that damn thing just spamming an area, and getting a 50 ft splash damage area. I mean the TR already have a nade lanching AV max.

I think that if the caverns are locked the linked base and all the bases linked to it get the benefit, bugger. Will do good things for CC. I think that Dallas plays a infiltrator. Also my Girl Friend plays an infiltrator, I told her to hang it up until they fix the hot slot thing. Which they are doing. That was a major give away for you all. They made it harder for you to be seen. The VS had the darkest and hardest to see infiltrator suit, without darklight. I think they all went down to that level. The NC infiltrator suit had the reflective face shield. I don't this they should have put the rek in there. The Rek with the nice long beam of red light already makes you visibly enough. Also there are only a few places for it to be used so we know where the infiltrators are at. At a CC, Fire few rounds there if your darklight isn't working.

Also glad to see the mag now has improved brakes. I didn't even think it had brakes. Was the main reason I started my VS character and dropped him.

The cert terms will not be that big a deal. There are only in bio labs and no one really uses them that much, Also if more eng's did there jobs and stuck around to repair a base back to full there wouldn't be as much drain on a base anyway. I have seen multiple times that a base be taken and the tubes were brought down and for 15 min the tubes were never repaired. Come on peeps don't destroy it if you can't fix it or get someone to.

Anyone got anymore info on the capitol buildings. I can't get to official Site at work and my cable modem is down at the hizous. Damn you Time Warner. I can't even get in game until they fix it and they can't start on that until Wednesday after 1 pm, bastards. Okay I think I have gone on enough.

[KIAsan]

Yay, TR maxes get screwed again!!! Actually, i don't mind them taking away the area of effect on the burster. However, now burster will be completly useless except against Air vehicles. That is not the same for the VS or NC AA. Both of them get splash damage for their weapons. With this change, TR loses all splash damage. That is important, because TR AA max flak shells, DO NOT ARM until they have travelled quite a bit. This means, that they cannot shoot ANYTHING close to them. This restriction doesn't apply to VS or NC, who can still shoot. This is an INSANE design for a weapon system, making it so it cant shoot an enemy at point blank range. Heck, why bother to give them weapons at all. Might as well create a new max charcter for TR, strip it down of all guns. We can call it the "Target". Maybe even paint a nice bullseye on the chest and back!

Edited for spelling errors.

[FireWolf22]

Glad they are fixing the outfit points being lost thing.

I also just noticed that they are fing fixing it after I just lost all my outfit points. DAMN IT ALL. Why me. If none else lost theres, I guesse I was the reason they are fixing them. I just found out that I lost 12444 outfit points. I only have 16 outfit points now. What the shit. I need to vrfy this with SOE official site, and can't get there. :( I found out from planetsidestats and the other player stat web page. Damn it all.

Sorry just a little upset here. I wonder if I can get my points back without having to start all over.

[Majik]

The only thing about Broadcast Warpgates that makes me uncomfortable is the fact that an empire could get completely screwed out of warp links during the off hours.
Example : The VS get an outfit to pull an all nighter through the wee hours while the majority of the TR sleep. The TR awake to find they have no capital buildings left, and thus no warpgate links from sanctuary. Congratulations, your only way to get to a battle is to wait for the VS or NC to loose a continent lock so you can HART in and try and reestablish yourself on a continent the other 2 empires are already fighting over.

[Ghryphen]

I read on the main page about the burster not causeing splash damage. Didn't see it here, but if so W00t got to love that.
Yeah, they added that and the hand grenade changes to the notes after the initial posting.

[KIAsan]

The only thing about Broadcast Warpgates that makes me uncomfortable is the fact that an empire could get completely screwed out of warp links during the off hours.
Example : The VS get an outfit to pull an all nighter through the wee hours while the majority of the TR sleep. The TR awake to find they have no capital buildings left, and thus no warpgate links from sanctuary. Congratulations, your only way to get to a battle is to wait for the VS or NC to loose a continent lock so you can HART in and try and reestablish yourself on a continent the other 2 empires are already fighting over.

Spork mentioned the ability to hart ANYWHERE if your empire would find itself with out capitols or friendly bases.

[Marsman]

I know the benefits of the broadcast warpgates, I just dont like the idea of not having home continents.Actually dominion, by getting a capitol capture, along with the broadcast warpgates allows you to make any continent a "home continent", i.e. a single hop from Sanc. Pick, get dominion, and defend whatever one you want with the new system. :D A welcome relief imo as many people are tired of fighting and defending the same "home" continents all the time.

[TheN00b]

What Mars said. My favorite continents are Ceryshen and Esamir, but since I'm only NC, I hardly ever fight there :( Now, my playing experience will be much more rounded :) .

[EarlyDawn]

Hate to break it to you, guys. Dynamic warpgate links are dead.