News: Server Downtime for ESF Update January 16, 2014 6 AM PT (3 PM CET)

[camycamera]

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...pm-cet.167927/

Originally Posted by Luperza

Downtime Start: 6 AM PT (3 PM CET) *Time Zone Converter

Downtime ETA: Up to 3 hours (for staggered world unlock to minimize load issues)

Empire Specific Fighter (ESF) Update:

Weapons


New nose cannon for each faction

• TR M18 Locust
  
• NC M20 Kestrel
  
• VS Antares LC

These weapons feature a larger magazine that reduces how often they need to be reloaded. This allows for fewer missed opportunities when engaging fast moving targets.

New wing mount weapons for all ESFs

• Coyote Missiles
  
• Coyote missiles fire a volley of small, light damaging missiles. If they get close to a hostile aircraft then they will lock-on and seek towards that aircraft.
  
• Hornet Missiles
  
• These laser-guided missiles will fly toward the pilot’s crosshairs.

New Certification Lines:

• Engagement Radar
  
• Engagement Radar is a low cost certification that goes into the Utility slot. It provides pilots with increased situational awareness against other aircraft by displaying indicators over nearby enemy aircraft. This indicator will also clamp to the edge of the screen if the target goes off screen, showing the pilot which direction to go if they want to give chase.
  
• External Afterburner Fuel Tanks
  
• Afterburner Fuel Tanks now have a certification line. Ranking up fuel tanks increases both fuel capacity and fuel replenishment rate.

Changes to existing ESF weapons and certification lines:

• Tomcat Missiles
  
• Air-to-air missiles now require the lock to be maintained (the pilot needs to keeps the target in their crosshairs until the missile hits). If the target leaves the crosshairs for too long then the lock will be lost.
  
• Added a lock-on loss angle to missiles in flight. If a locked missile finds that its target is more than 145 degree turn away then the lock will be lost.
  
• The max travel distance of fired rockets has been reduced from 1250 to 1000 meters
  
• Lock-on acquire time reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2.0 seconds
  
• Default ammo capacity increased from 5 to 6. Ammo resupply now gives 2 missiles per tick.
  
• Stock Afterburners
  
• Stock fuel replenishment rate reduced by 15%. This means it takes about 1 second longer to replenish from 0 to full.
  
• The cost of engaging the afterburner when in hover mode has been increased. This fuel cost is only applied once, when the afterburner button is hit. This consumes 0.5 seconds worth of fuel.
  
• Scout Radar
  
• Scout radars will now give detect experience to the vehicle driver
  
• ESF Fire Suppression
  
• Increased the amount of damage repaired by fire suppression on ESFs. Increased from 3/6/9/12% to 6/12/20/25%
  Note: This change does not apply to the Fire Suppression cert line on the other vehicles

Balance:

Added following resist types to Heavy Assault Resist Shield:

• Vehicle Grenades
  
• Vehicle Shotguns
  
• VS Vortex AV: C3
  
• VS Vortex AV: C2
  
• Liberator Indirect Damage
  
• Lancer AV
  
• Anti Aircraft Machine Gun
  
• Flak Projectile
  
• Infantry Flak Armor now resists Lancer and charged Vortex damage.
  
• VS shotgun slug velocity now matches the velocity of the other two factions.

Depot:

• Updated the Bundle item preview buttons on the selected item and bundle purchase screens to make it more obvious that they are buttons that lead to preview.
  
• Heroic Boosts are now permanently available in the Boost section of the Depot.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed instances of flashing in the Amerish sky file on some graphics settings
  
• Fixed an issue with Squad Filters filtering by page, causing misleading results
  
• Stationary and deployed vehicles will no longer slide when on inclined surfaces
  
• Fixed an issue where HUD timers for primary and secondary objectives stop updating when you open a UI screen
  
• VS MAX bodies should no longer turn about 90 degrees when crouched
  
• Underbarrel grenade launchers reload animation now lines up with the weapon
  
• Fixed missing reload animation for NS-7 PDW
  
• The bolt action animation for VS sniper rifles should no longer block the player's view
  
• Adjusted position of misplaced tank guards in Ellis Amp Station
  
• Jump pad at Mani Fortress jump you to the Biolab onto the jump pad back to Mani Fortress
  
• Closed up some collision issues in Biolabs allowing Light Assaults to attack from unattended areas
  
• You should no longer be able to get under The Rink's collision
  
• When another player is talking in voice chat the indicator that displays at the bottom of the screen will no longer overlap your weapons info in the Centralized HUD
  
• The heat gauge and name of the turret are no longer overlapping each other in centralized HUD mode
  
• Fixed issue where AMS Sunderers were not animating when being deployed
  
• Fixed issue where some VS MAX projectiles were missing lights and sounds
  
• Adjusted NC Sunderer and Harasser colors
  
• Fixed the lock-on reduction buff (given by vehicle stealth) sometimes being lost when the vehicle comes from outside of awareness range
  
• Fixed pop after firing a SMG while aimed
  
• Jumping will pull character out of iron sights
  
• Fixed FOV being stretched in certain resolutions. It is now back to how it was before Performance Update 2
  
• Added a Wide View Mode option under graphics settings. This option auto-adjusts the FOV to fit wider
  resolutions.

• Stationary and deployed vehicles will no longer slide when on inclined surfaces

^ that change i am most excited for. it will make vehicles SO much more better... that is to say if they actually did fix it or it introduces more bugs.....


looking forward to the ESF changes as well.

[Wargrim]

Scout radars will now give detect experience to the vehicle driver

Woot! I have been flying in the scout radar support role for ages, getting XP from it now is a really nice thing.

I hate the stock afterburner nerfs. The afterburner keeps ESF alive in the harsh conditions of Planetside 2's air. The worst part about the loss of fuel when starting the burners out of hover mode is that it will make escaping a lot harder if you are landed for repairs and need to gtfo because hostiles are closing in on you.

Adjusted NC Sunderer and Harasser colors

More Baby Blue?

Jumping will pull character out of iron sights

I have a terrible feeling about this. Considering past experience with PS2's physics, this could mean that every small stone, every tine edge or slope or tripping over your own feet may throw you out of ADS. I hope this only kicks in after a minimum amount of actual airtime.

[HereticusXZ]

I just spent money on the new Player Studio Helmets FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Locusts and Coyotes should be fun for a air novice like me. More importantly I'm anxious to find out how effective the new Nose guns are against my precious Tanks!

The Scout Radar providing spot XP should be applied to all Scout/Proximity tools on all vehicles, give some love to the Scout styled players! Also when is the Galaxy getting Scout/Proximity radar?

Bleh on the vehicle sliding, they have claimed to fix it before... we'll see if its true this time...


I'm somewhat surprised there not updating on a Wednesday like they claim they would.

[synkrotron]

If you're in Europe there is a possibility that you could be out of action from early morning until tea time.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 12 hour EU server maintenance prior to this 3 hour server downtime is somewhat shorter than the forecast duration so I can at least get a couple of hours in around lunch time.

Or I suppose I could spend some time on the PTS...

As for the updates... It's nice to see the NS-7 getting its normal reload animation back

I would have thought that jumping means by using the space bar and not tripping over things, or even walking off the edge of a building.

[bpostal]

I'm also excited for the fix that stops my AMS from sliding down hills when deployed!
Also, as a side note for all the NC and VS pilots on Miller: As soon as I get my Hornets you're going to love me (because these sound awesome and I'm a very bad pilot).

[KesTro]

Hey another type of lock on to annoy certain players on Connery with. :P At least now they have a way to deal with A2AM If they get skilled enough by the sounds of it. Shouldn't be a problem for the folk I'm thinking of.

[BlaxicanX]

It says that the downtime started at 6am PST and will last for 3 hours max.

It's 3:45pm PST right now, and the game's still down (for me at least).

[maradine]

That tour was supposed to last for three hours, and look where it got the Skipper.

[ChipMHazard]

Originally Posted by maradine

That tour was supposed to last for three hours, and look where it got the Skipper.

I might have given the cap'n a map of Cape Good Hope by "mistake".

Yarrr, I hate the sea and everything in it.



I think it might have been a mistake putting the ESF weapons out on the live servers so soon after them having been on the test server for two reasons.
1) I don't see how they could have been tested by the community for a long enough period of time before being released.
2) The weapons will most probably need to be changed, Judging by the comments from some of the most active pilots in the game Generally speaking I'm fully against rushing out new weapons just to change them shortly thereafter. Can make it look like a money grab.

But SOE might have gotten the impression that the weapons were ready for release after the last tweaks were made to them, which they might be.
Or they might have wanted to get the other ESF changes live as soon as possible. We'll see.

[CrankyTRex]

So...what's the point of the A2A missiles now? If you can keep the lock on the target you might as well just use the nose guns.

[Chewy]

Originally Posted by CrankyTRex

So...what's the point of the A2A missiles now? If you can keep the lock on the target you might as well just use the nose guns.

ESF v ESF. There's no real point anymore unless you have range and are getting a sucker punch in before the dogfight.

ESF v Lib/Gal. They give you damage during a reload. Plus the sucker punch bit applies here as well.


Sadly I haven't played with this update yet. Saints Row 4 is free this weekend on Steam and Im going to abuse the hell out of that and save what little cash I got for Metal Gear Rising.

[Feyyore]

Originally Posted by synkrotron

If you're in Europe there is a possibility that you could be out of action from early morning until tea time.

Yeah I was waiting till like 7am the following morning but no joy. Only one of the east us servers were open. v.v One of my few nights free wasted. v.v

The mods to the HA shield seem good to me. Then again I play HA and stay out in all the explosions... particularly my own c4 detonations. XD

The fix to the vehical sliding has been "fixed" several times and nothing worked. The amount of times I'd deploy a sundy only for it to slowly slide down a hill or slip and crush me is insane... same with the prowler. It's supposed to stabilize it... gods what do we have to do? Steal Vanu magnetics tech and stick us to the spot??!

But while waiting I've been poking around Day z with a few friends. :3 So I was entertained that eve.