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[Navaron]

Associate Producer's Letter - July 21, 2003
Several weeks ago, we announced our future plans for the game and started on PlanetSide's never-ending journey of continually added content and gameplay. The two new vehicles we added, the Liberator three-person bomber and the SkyGuard anti-aircraft buggy, have had a huge impact on battle conditions across Auraxis. Commanders are now able to rain destruction on their enemies through the Orbital Strike and EMP Blasts. Medics are now able to locate soldiers that need their help easier. I wanted to take a moment to shed some light on what's next for PlanetSide.

In a few weeks, we'll be shaking up the base capture process by bringing out of the SOI and back onto the terrain. In order to successfully capture a base, rather than waiting inside the base's SOI for the capture process to count down, players will need to capture a base's Lattice Logic Unit and deliver it to one of their nearest facilities. We'll describe this more fully in the coming days.

In the month of August, we will be finishing up the long-awaited Facility Link Benefits across the world. As described previously, these will include the following:

Bio Laboratory: Reduces all respawn penalties by 50%. Note that this only applies to linked facilities , not Towers or AMSs.
Technology Plant: Makes "advanced" vehicles available at any vehicle pad linked to a friendly Tech Plant.
Amp Station: Allows vehicles to recharge their shield capacitors in the courtyard of any linked facility. This shield strengthens the armor of the vehicle, but its strength dissipates as damage hits that shield. Vehicles recharge over time when in a linked courtyard. Vehicles' energy dissipates only when they're damaged. There is no way to recharge a shield capacitor "in the field."
Dropship Center: Allows access to Repair/Rearm Pads at linked facilities. Air vehicles can now land on the air vehicle pads, and ground vehicles can pull up to a wall station in the courtyards. Once at the Dropship Center, the vehicles can repair themselves over time; and they can access a terminal interface that's based in the Equipment Terminal allowing them to fill their trunk space without leaving the vehicle.
Interlink Facility: Greatly enhances the coverage area of a player's basic radar and makes Phalanx Wall Turrets much more effective.
In addition, we will be implementing the Base Ownership System. This will allow Outfits to stake their claim on a friendly base and claim certain benefits as long as it remains under their Empire's control. Outfits will be able to quickly recall to Outfit-owned bases, similar to recalling to Sanctuary. An Outfit-owned base will always be available as a respawn point to players on the same continent, regardless of their proximity to the base. Of course, controlling your own turf isn't half as cool if no one knows the base is yours. This will warn enemies of who they're about to attack upon entering an Outfit-owned SOI. The Outfit's logo will appear on the Empire hologram flag and be visible over the base SOI on the Continental Map.

To help those brave soldiers who choose to stay behind and defend their Empire's facility holdings, there will be an Enemy Density Warning. Soldiers in a friend SOI will be alerted when enemy forces begin to build up near the facility.

We continue our ongoing efforts to eliminate bugs and exploits. There have been a few stubborn issues that we hope to have addressed soon. We'll also implementing enhanced community features in the near future.

For Land. For Power. Forever. See you on Auraxis!

Danny "Blackbird" Han
Associate Producer