Play test 4/27 on Public Test

[Hamma]

https://twitter.com/xalorn/status/327896271639678976

[Malorn]

Come put the Harasser to a combat test and see how good it is against targets that fire back!

Oh, and check out some of our hexmap changes. The regions are now bigger so its' more clear to see what they connect to, and we severed the connectivity between satellites at a facility so the facility itself is the lane junction, not the satellites.

[Rolfski]

Guess my outfit will try to make it but I really wish these focus tests were planned more in advance and better advertised.

[Malorn]

We want to verify we'll have the changes we want before scheduling the test.

[Sardus]

Come put the Harasser to a combat test and see how good it is against targets that fire back!

Oh, and check out some of our hexmap changes. The regions are now bigger so its' more clear to see what they connect to, and we severed the connectivity between satellites at a facility so the facility itself is the lane junction, not the satellites.

You sir are awesome!

[Malorn]

Matt was the one who made these hex changes personally, so he deserves all the praises of awesomeness!

[Rolfski]

We want to verify we'll have the changes we want before scheduling the test.
That's understandable of course but what about scheduling these Focus tests weekly on Saturday 19:00-21:00 UTC? These weekly test builds don't necessarily need to have all the hot new toys ready as long they are reasonably stable.
For the hot new features you can always schedule in irregular Focus tests on top of that.

In this way you can better build consistent traffic on your test server and advertise for it (in-regular game), while still keeping flexibility for testing at the pace of your development schedule.

[Assist]

How far off is the estimate for the release of the hex-lattice-battleflow-thinger system?
Just curious because we haven't seen anything on Esamir or Amerish yet.

[Hamma]

Soon(tm)

Honestly it's going to take them a while to deploy it onto Esamir and Amerish considering the work that went into Indar. Unless they have already started.

[Revanmug]

Soon(tm)

Honestly it's going to take them a while to deploy it onto Esamir and Amerish considering the work that went into Indar. Unless they have already started.

It will be way easier though. Esamir has way less (and so bigger) territories compare to Indar. This make connection easier to establish.

Amerish is pretty much a lattice already with the way the terrain is done.

[basti]

Ringing the bell as loud as i can: http://dk.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1d7n2o/pts_playtest_12_pm_pst_means_when_this_post_is_7/

[CrimsonTemplar]

Ringing the bell as loud as i can: http://dk.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1d7n2o/pts_playtest_12_pm_pst_means_when_this_post_is_7/

Well stop it now. It's deafening and I can't hear myself think :lol:.

Think I'll be there for the 12pm test. More action with the Harasser is a perfect excuse.

[NewSith]

It will be way easier though. Esamir has way less (and so bigger) territories compare to Indar. This make connection easier to establish.

Amerish is pretty much a lattice already with the way the terrain is done.

Esamir is way harder to do actually, because there is no landscape to help build the lanes. Amerish is also not so good, since the landscape is completely counter-intuitive to the battleflow.

To implement the rush lanes properly, they need to do SEVERE changes to the terrain, so it's not just a question of how easy it is to come up with steady solutions for facility links.

[Elahhez]

Will try and be there, but normally hard on a saturday.. ;)

[Goldymires]

Thumbs up!

[Hamma]

Coming up in 25 minutes.

[NewSith]

So, did anyone film that epic Harasser run on VS?

[basti]

One in my platoon did:

http://de.twitch.tv/scar413/b/396499438?t=26m30s


AS you can see, it was kinda messy. :D

edit: also, at the end of the recording, we have a small QnA with Higby. (at 1h 13m and 1h 31m)

[NewSith]

One in my platoon did:

http://de.twitch.tv/scar413/b/396499438?t=26m30s


AS you can see, it was kinda messy. :D

Sad I didn't film it... I was gunning in a Harasser that went in second. I bet if Michael Bay sat in the rumble seat there we would now be expecting a new Transformers movie. XPLSNZ everywhere... was kind of impressive.

[Mordelicius]

Some feedback:

- Harassers need more weaknesses. They move too fast, they are too maneuverable and they very rarely flip. Compare them to the Flash which flip like pancakes. They just run infantry over, and run circles on tanks.

They are so fast, they are so difficult to hit with a phalanx turret (speed and direction is much harder to predict so spatial trajectory is harder to estimate). How are players supposed to kill these things if they simply outrun you, outmaneuver your or go out of line of sight just like that.

- Coupled with the Vanu accurate weapon attachments, they are simply over the top.

- Double the cost. Last I checked it was 200 vehicle resource worth. Who is going to drive a tank if you got a superior vehicle with 2 passengers? One is rumble seat AND Max capable to boot (and both combat ready). What tanks have in sturdyness, they make up for with evasion.

- Make them more vulnerable to small arms fire. Their armor should be as weak as the Flash.

- Flamethrower effects are nice and fun to fight against. It adds a different layer of mechanic. It's like an AOE on doorways.

Suggestions:

- Give Maxes DOT incendiary grenades that scorches the ground. Would be great for denial of area mechanic. Any infantry standing inside the area will get DOTs. The length of the effect on the area can be tested for optimally balanced results. Give them those instead of multiple grenade launchers that I've seen in FNO (?)

- DOT mechanics are missing in Planetside 2 so far, except from the spawnroom pain fields. Heck, if they are ever to release crossbows, they should have special poison tip darts and explosive tip dots (effect on area only on impact; does not stay unlike the one I've suggested for the Max) that cost resources. That's a great way to slowly kill a solo players/max.

- Helmets. Higby has been showing off all the new armor styles including the fancy new helmets.

Release it already. Release! :groovy:

Breakwater - Release the Beast (1980) - YouTube