News: News on Nanoweave Armour and Sniper Rifles

[OCNSethy]

Discuss... go!

Dont mind the nanoweave plans but Im thinking 150m for a sniper is a little too short.

Edit:

Nanoweave Armor
For those not aware, how Nanoweave functions now:

• When at max rank Nanoweave gives a flat 25% increase to the player’s total health pool.
• This health increase causes Nanoweave to protect against the majority of damage sources. This includes damage types that have their own dedicated counters, like explosions.

How Nanoweave will function soon:

• Nanoweave will no longer increase the player’s health pool. Instead, it will apply a percentage damage resistance against infantry small arms and rapid-fire vehicle secondary weapons only.
• Damage sources not included in the above, like explosions, will no longer be modified by Nanoweave Armor.
• Nanoweave will no longer resist headshots. Against any weapon.
• Against the applicable weapon types, max rank Nanoweave will remain the same strength as it is now (excluding head shots).

We will be giving a cert refund when this change goes live. You can choose to repurchase Nanoweave Armor or spend their points elsewhere.


Bolt-Action Rifles
In a typical FPS game, the strength of a one-shot headshot is usually offset by either or both of the below:

• Small scale levels with limited sniper lanes.
• Some type of visual mechanic that calls out the sniper’s location.

PlanetSide 2 isn’t a typical FPS game and neither of the above is a valid limiter given the size of our world and the scale of our battles. The massive size of our continents means snipers can be a threat from all directions, and a visual callout on each individual sniper isn’t possible considering the amount of players we render at one time.

On the other side, giving snipers a 360° one-shot kill with unlimited range against all other players is not something we want to introduce into the game. Dying to a sniper that you never had a chance to see is a poor gameplay experience for everyone on the receiving end.

So with the above in mind:

• We are capping all one-shot headshots on a full health target at 150 meters.
• Nanoweave will no longer apply to headshots, so the range limit will apply to all targets no matter what that player has equipped. This will give bolt-actions a more consistent feel when fighting within their effective range.
• The 150 meter range is a starting point. It may be adjusted during tuning, and we’ll be monitoring the range once it is live to see if it needs to be adjusted to be shorter or longer.

Explosions Post-Nanoweave Change

• We’ve had to increase the max damage of some explosions in our game so that they would still be effective against Nanoweave-equipped players. For example, underbarrel grenade explosions are stronger than we would like.
• Changing Nanoweave over to being a projectile resistance removes the need for the increased explosive damage. We will be doing a pass of all explosive damage and reducing some so that they work better in the game.