[Desired/Fake] Patch Notes 29.10.2012

NewSith · 2012-10-29, 12:47 PM

Now imagine one day we got:

Notable Changes:

Video Tutorials were added for newly created characters. Watching these from the beginning to the end awards you with 10 certpoints each.
Empire-specific Sanctuaries were added as 3 separate continents.
Virtual Reality Shooting Range was added. Players appearing in it will have all the certs and weapons unlocked for use inside the area.
Warpgates now lose shields and become capturable upon losing all of the surrounding territories.
Warpgates of different Continents are now connected via Global Lattice.
Auraxium Resource was reimplemented. Vehicle and Infantry Weapons now cost Auraxium.
Mixed resources system was reimplemented.
Obtained certifications can now be uncertified by visiting the according terminal
Vehicles no longer run over friendlies. Instead they push them around.
Vehicle Rearm Towers and Air Pads will now allow vehicle refitting. Ammo Sunderers are still limited to only dispensing ammo.
Maximum battle rank is now set to 40.
Heavy vehicles (like Main Battle Tanks and Liberators) and heavy vehicle weapons (Like Rocket Pods, Skyguard Cannon, etc.) now require an empire to own a Tech Plant.
Hacked Vehicle and Equipment Terminals will switch back to the original ownership after a certain period of time. The duration can be increased by expanding the Infiltrator Hacking certification.

Certifications:

Obtainable certifications are now limited by the amount of obtainable certpoints. The amount is based on the Battle Rank.
All certification prices were reevaluated to fit the new mechanic.
Obtained certifications can now be uncertified by visiting the according terminal. Certpoints will be returned gradually, the same way the player earns them, via the xp gain or passive cert gain.
Weapon Attachments no longer have a ladder of unlocks.
All vehicles now cost certs.
Infiltrator hacking certification is now more expensive.
Leadership tree has increased cert costs, to force leading into being a more distinct specialization.

Performance:

We have isolated the cause of instability and fixed it. The game now runs stably at 40 FPS on low-end machines.
Rendering Distance was significantly increased. Anti-Aircraft units no longer see Air units before the latter do.

Top Bugs Fixed:

This patch is not bringing any notable bug fixes, however we've decided to move our release date to 20.02.2013, in that time we expect to fix as many bugs as we can.

User Interface:

XY coordinates were added onto the continental map and are shown next to the mouse cursor if the grid tick box is ticked.
Pressing on a hex on the continental map will show its current status: the SCU state, the Shield Generator(s) state and the capture progress bar if it has any.
Tactical map mode was added. The map shows the density of friendly troops around areas in color. Hexes with higher population density are marked with less transparent color.
The system also shows enemy troops density based on friendly facility proximity and allied troops proximity.
Minimap scale was increased. The minimap can now be zoomed in up to 1cm:10m scale. Previous scale is now set to be the lowest zoom level for infantry.
Squad mates will now appear as numbers even when they are driving/piloting a vehicle.
Squad mates are now shown on the screen borders if they are out of your FoV, similarly to how waypoints used to work.
"/yell" chat was removed.
"/leader" is available by default.
Command Rank chat will now allow be open for anyone who obtained the rank, without the requirement to be a squad leader to use it. The line is now switched to "/command".
Special Global and Continental chats are added as parts of the Leadership tree.
Resupply button on equipment terminals will now start a resupplying process, lasting up to 5 seconds and will fully replenish character’s health upon completion.

Facilities:

Capture timers on facilities were reduced.
Every warpgate, facility, tower and outpost now has Spawn Control Units.
SCU for each of those was moved right next to the spawnroom, for ease of defense.
Destroyed SCU now will not only disable spawn tubes, but also spawn room shields.
Large bases now give benefits.
The amount of access points on Biolabs was reduced. Satellite base teleports were removed and replaced with neutral teleports inside the base perimeter.
Tech Plant Spawn Room received a promenade-like walkways leading to the superstructure, inaccessible for vehicles.
AMP station backdoor gates were redesigned to prevent Sunderers from bouncing over into the courtyard of the base.

Classes:

MAX armor received a slight buff against the low caliber weapons.
Medic class now uses Carbines.
Light Assault Class default weapon now is Assault Rifle.
All classes with access to higher-grade weaponry can now purchase lower-grade weapons with auraxium. Light Assault can carry Carbines and Heavy Assault can either carry a Carbine or an Assault Rifle instead of LMG.
Infiltrator Class is no longer capable of hacking equipment by default.

Engineer Equipment:

Engineer now has greatly increased explosives capacity as compared to other classes.
The amount of simultaneously deployed mines was increased to 6, certable up to 10.
ACE will now deploy Tank Traps, Cloaking Shields, EMP Dampeners (disabling jetpacks, shields and minimap in their radius) and Motion Sensors.
ACE turret now counts as a vehicle and appears on the vehicle management screen as such.
It can now be unlocked for other users.

Weapons:

Lasher, MCG and Jackhammer received visual redesign. Old PlanetSide weapon models were taken as the main sketch.
Shotguns received significant CoF and RoF nerfs.
Shotgun damage was slightly increased.
Underslung Grenade Launcher received a damage buff, in return for increased reload time.
Default Heavy Assault Missile Launchers received a buff to the projectile speed.
Heavy Assault Missile Launchers now have missile activation time. Point-blank shot will no longer cause full damage. The missile now does full damage only after crossing 20 meters.

Vehicles:

Vehicles can now be set to "open" in vehicle management window.
Main Battle Tanks are now a three-man vehicle. Seat hotswapping is untoched.
Vehicles no longer have sidegrades. Everything certed via the according tree will automatically be equipped.
Galaxy deployment shields were put back in as a certification.
Galaxy can now spawn squads and platoons based on the purchased certifications.
S-AMS and G-AMS now have separate deployment radiuses.
An S-AMS cannot be parked closer than 70 meters to another S-AMS.
A G-AMS cannot be parked next to another G-AMS in 120 meter radius.
Liberators received an armor buff.
ATV weapons were moderately buffed to compensate for the certification requirement.

Disclaimer: The notes are strictly subjective, I wrote in what in my opinion would improve gameplay. I tried to avoid posting balance solutions for very delicate weapon balance issue, because weapon balance only affect the gameplay to a certain degree, not high enough for these changes.

Feel free to dissect, support, discuss.

Here's the Official Forum Post

Frotang · 2012-10-29, 01:31 PM

Disagree with the shotgun nerf (at least not for the JH) and very strongly disagree with heavy assault missile activation time, you must be well versed in "mag mowing" to have come up with that one lol. I guess id agree with it if they added in that if you crouch a magrider will simply hover over you and not kill you. Everything else seems nice

NewSith · 2012-10-29, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by Frotang

I guess id agree with it if they added in that if you crouch a magrider will simply hover over you and not kill you.

I am NC now and the point of concern is crazy Heavy Assaults noobtubing from point-blank distance.

As for the magriders hovering harmlessly over ducked troops - awesome idea, imo.

Bravix · 2012-10-29, 02:30 PM

Agreed with half of the changes.

Definitely don't agree with light assault and medics switching weapons.

Don't agree with vehicles not harming friendlies. The recent fix works fine. If you're moving slowly, you won't crush them.

I like the Cap times on facilities.

I didn't see anything about making spawn tubes easier to defend. Would have been a nice addition. As is, they are wayyy too easy to camp.

NewSith · 2012-10-29, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by Bravix

I didn't see anything about making spawn tubes easier to defend. Would have been a nice addition. As is, they are wayyy too easy to camp.

Yes, because I am poposing the destruction of the SCU being a gameover for defenders.

Lonehunter · 2012-10-29, 09:53 PM

You can't set vehicle driver seats to open, and allow trading of vehicles. Then a guy with sweet certs and attachments can just outfit a couple buds if he has max resources. It's been a while but I'm pretty sure some soe person has said they don't want that.

Hamma · 2012-10-29, 10:32 PM

Well written fake notes.

NewSith · 2012-12-15, 04:31 PM

Rise, oh the thread...

I was angry at the devs today, because I thought they don't care about the game, but just check how many of the things we actually got since then.

Well, the release date part didn't quite work, but, many other features are in.

I really hope devs keep this up.