1/17 Hotfix Notes. Spotting & Liberator Changes

[Hamma]

I know we already somewhat have a thread on this - but wanted to create a new to keep it separate.

General:
Enemy spotting is now only shared with allies within 150 meters.
Spot duration has been lowered to 10 seconds.
At long distances you have to be closer to the center of the target to successfully spot.
Jump Jets should no longer function intermittently.
MAXes will render at a longer distance for players in aircraft.

Liberator:

C150 Dalton:

Firing adjustments have been made to the Dalton. This change will mainly be noticeable when attempting to fire on infantry or other small targets at a distance.
Dalton projectiles now have more gravity when fired. This makes the Dalton more accurate when the Liberator is above targets. Shot accuracy becomes more difficult as the Liberator increases its horizontal distance to its target.
The outer damage blast radius, where minimum damage occurs, has been reduced from 12 meters to 10 meters.

L105 Zephyr:
Firing adjustments have been made to the Zepher. This should only be noticeable when trying to hit infantry or other very small targets at a far distance.
Zephyr projectiles now have more gravity when fired. This makes the Zephyr more accurate when the Liberator is above targets. Shot accuracy becomes more difficult as the Liberator increases its horizontal distance to its target.
The inner damage blast radius, where maximum damage occurs, has been reduced from 4 meters to 1.5

Optics:
Infrared & Thermal Optics have had their effective viewing ranges tuned for the following weapons:
Scythe: All Weapons
Reaver: All Weapons
Mosquito: All Weapons
Liberator: Secondary Weapons (Shredder, Dalton, Zephyr)

[james]

About time, glad to final see the lib nerf. Hopefully this stops the spam

[Slavgaard]

With the optics...what does it mean by 'tuned' great er range? sharper view?

[OpolE]

How fucking boring. See ya until something none beta is added

[Vashyo]

certainly hope teh view distance is tuned down, u would actually have to use your eyes instead of optics showing all targets for you.

[Hamma]

This is a hotfix.. not the big end of month patch we were promised.

With the optics...what does it mean by 'tuned' great er range? sharper view?

It just means you wont be able to see infantry at range as much I believe.

[maradine]

Thermal was already next to worthless on aircraft - I wonder what they actually did. +1 Internet to the first lad (or lass) that posts some effective range numbers for the new systems.

[PredatorFour]

Just gunned a lib and its still easy to get kills, i actually like the bullet drop now.:)

[Spazmodian]

The projectile gravity for the Zephyr/Dalton was increased from 1 to 5. All tank shells have a gravity of 4, and infantry weapons generally have a value of 11.25. The gravity change was negligible.

[Chefkoch]

They should just make the Lib firing mode like in Planetside 1. The Gunner can´t shoot at all when the Lib is flying sideways.

[IamEternal]

I hope they toned down the distance for IR/NV on the lib. I love using it as a gunner but it was way OP. I got so many kills because you just couldn't hide from me. Will be nice to make it a bit more challenging to farm with a Lib.

[Sturmhardt]

It's a step forward but I don't think I will notice this much... let's see...

[DaPope]

It'll be nice to finally SEE the MAX that is shooting you! The rest don't seem to have too much impact. It would certainly be nice to see what "tuned" really means.

[Assist]

The projectile gravity for the Zephyr/Dalton was increased from 1 to 5. All tank shells have a gravity of 4, and infantry weapons generally have a value of 11.25. The gravity change was negligible.

This makes me sad :(

[SeraphC]

With the optics...what does it mean by 'tuned' great er range? sharper view?

I can only comment on the ESF IR. What that is concerned they significantly reduced the effective range of IR. It's now next to useless and actually makes you as good as blind if you're using it while flying rather than to spot infantry.

certainly hope teh view distance is tuned down, u would actually have to use your eyes instead of optics showing all targets for you.

The thing is, at the distance IR used to kick in infantry size is ridiculously small. Your eyes are often useless at that range. A regular zoom is only good to have you crash into stuff you can't see because of the zoom.
Controversially if I'm allowed to fly low the IR will still light up infantry like a Christmas tree.

In my opinion they broke it further instead of fixing it.

[SeraphC]

With the optics...what does it mean by 'tuned' great er range? sharper view?

I can only comment on the ESF IR. What that is concerned they significantly reduced the effective range of IR. It's now next to useless and actually makes you as good as blind if you're using it while flying rather than to spot infantry.

certainly hope teh view distance is tuned down, u would actually have to use your eyes instead of optics showing all targets for you.

The thing is, at the distance IR used to kick in infantry size is ridiculously small. Your eyes are often useless at that range. A regular zoom is only good to have you crash into stuff you can't see because of the zoom.
Controversially if I'm allowed to fly low the IR will still light up infantry like a Christmas tree.

In my opinion they broke it further instead of fixing it.

[Merzun]

Anyone else having the impression that lock on anti vehicle launchers having trouble hitting running away targets again? I got a lot of misses today from elevated positions that hit the ground behind the target.

[CrystalViolet]

Thermal was already next to worthless on aircraft - I wonder what they actually did. +1 Internet to the first lad (or lass) that posts some effective range numbers for the new systems.

It's now even more worthless than before. Glad I spent the 200 certs on the A2A version, just to end up going back to basic 1 cert zoom optics. Can someone explain to me why the 4x more expensive night vision optic has half the range of the 50 cert version?

[Saintlycow]

Definitively noticed more shredders out today. Thoses things are unreal

[Hamma]

Yea they are pretty good - they werent used that much before.

[Frozenland]

I still feel like the Libs are pretty vulnerable in air. It can be shot from any direction by many MAXes and AA turrets while not being able to fight back.

Libs are very powerful against infantry, which is intended. Nerfing libs will make them really hard to survive.

[MrBloodworth]

I think they have made a major impact. A2G rockets now need too strafe with rockets now, instead of hovering with impunity. Also, Libs no longer just fly sideways pointing the belly gun into buildings. Burster max is really improved by the changes and you have a high chance of removing air with one, but especially in tandem. The skyguard is marginally improved, it did not seem to really get that "burst" of flack like the burster did, but still really hard to hit with in most cases. However head on, it will rip the crap out of any aircraft. The libs drop off on shots is non-trivial change that has changed how they are used to a great degree, coupled with the shorter range of IV/IR the effective range has been shorted making them more vulnerable, you can no longer sit just near render range and hit anything, you must come in to engage..

The Changes really changed the game and the air to ground balance for the better, while still keeping Air as the counter to air. We have had many a nights during a defense recently where we completely kept the sky's clear over a base with 2 mosquitos and a few bursters. It Changed the game in really positive ways IMO, from my many hours of playing.

Really, the Skyguard does not feel like it is where it should be, but the rest of the changes have made a really positive impact. Obviously the exception to all of this is if there is zero AA being fielded.

To boot, we have had nearly 3 straight days of full squad/Platoon action.