News: Public Test Server Launched

[Hamma]

http://www.planetside-universe.com/n...nched-3006.htm

The goal of the Public Test is to give our community an opportunity to participate in the testing process and provide feedback before features go live. PlanetSide 2 is a large, complex game and we could use all the help we can get in making it better.

1. By its nature, Public Test will have more downtime, bugs, and general issues than Live servers.
· Although development and QA are also testing on internal environments, every individual change is not screened before going to the server and that will cause issues.
· We have an interest in keeping the server up and functional as best as possible, but we may have extended downtime from time to time.

2. Developers, QA and other SOE employees will also be on the Public Test Server frequently.
· Please treat them with the same respect as you would any other player on a Live server.
· We may have requests for players on Test to help with specific testing, so keep an ear out help out when you can.
· You may have questions for us, but please remember: It’s very likely we’re at work trying to get through large task lists and fix bugs on a tight schedule; we can’t promise we’ll have the time or ability to answer them.

3. There are no real money transactions on Public Test.

4. Game progression values on Public Test may be different than live.
· As an example, we are granting all new characters 10,000 cert points as a way to jump start their characters.
5. Public Test uses the same station account as Live, but the characters and actions on Public Test do not transfer to Live or vice versa.

6. There is no Customer Service support on this server except in the event of significantly disruptive players.
· If you run into an issue, report it via the in-game bug report tool or Test Server forum post. Devs, QA, and Community will be going through these frequently, but it’s likely we won’t have time to respond to most issues or posts directly.

7. Player wipes can happen on the Public Test server.
· Depending on what kind of testing we need to do, we may wipe all Public Test characters. Don’t get too attached to them!

8. Public Test Server won’t always be the latest and greatest features and content.
· After a major game update, the Public Test Server may have the same features and content as the live servers.
· When the next batch of features of content is ready to be put onto Public Test, we’ll be sure to make an announcement in the forums.

9. The Public Test Server is located on the US East Coast.
· Depending on your location, latency and server lag may be more prevalent.


You can find the Test Server client here.

Battle Flow Improvements - The flow of combat in the live hex system can be tough to understand and predict, and can give the sense of chaos as opposed to appropriate tactical choices as forces move from one target to the next. We'd like to attempt a different approach that we think will improve the flow of battle significantly.

• We have vastly reduced the connections available on the map
  • Each region is connected to only a handful of other regions, creating clear conquest lanes
  • This will better direct players to the next fight, and allow you to predict the best places to set up defenses
• Vast areas of the continent are now part of the Neutral Zone
  • There are no restrictions or benefits to this zone
  • The Facility Forward Spawns have been removed - in their place are new Small Outposts
  • These function just like other Small Outposts. Their layouts are very similar to what the Forward Spawns were, plus the addition of Allatum Botany Wing and Saurva South Satellite.
• Capture times are no longer impacted by Influence
• Some underutilized outposts have been removed as they did not improve the new conquest flow
  • Nanite Pump Station
  • Archaeological Dig Site
  • ARC Bioengineering
  • Leopardwood Nursery
  • Spec-Ops Training Camp
  • Lost End Outlook
  • Mesa Comm. Station
  • Blackshard Platinum Mine
• Some outposts were moved to locations that better serve the new conquest flow on Indar
  • Ceres Farms
  • NS Secure Data Labs
  • Seabed Listening Post
  • Nearly every outpost on Indar received some work to help secure the spawn rooms and the capture points. Our goal was to make it make it much tougher to impact these areas from vehicles
• Crown Capture Points relocated. We moved two capture points for the Crown down onto the nearby bridges. We also moved the spawn room back into the tower
  • New Roads have been added to match the conquest lanes created with the new Hex map. They are…
  • From Indar Bay Point to Sandstone Gulch.
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Indar Comm Array to Dahaka Southern Post
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Allatum Broadcast Hub
  • From Gravel Pass to Blackshard Iridium Mine
• We also removed some roads to better direct traffic along the conquest lanes. These areas remain passable terrain, we just removed the road.
  • From Allatum Research Lab to Hvar Northgate Garrison
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Allatum Research Lab
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Quarts Ridge Camp
  • From Gravel Pass to Tawrich Tower

[wasdie]

And there was much rejoicing on Auraxis that day.

[ChipMHazard]

So, Basti was right. Seperate client, not that I had any doubts about it.

[Silent Thunder]

And so Higby looked down on his creation, and saw that it was good.

Definatly looking foward to this. There always was a certain joy back in Beta when things changed constantly, and the balance pendulum was in a full, manic swing week to week. Sure it may not have been "good" gameply, but boy was it interesting. Away from my computer right now, anyone know if it requires a whole seperate download, or if it can branch off your base install?

[Silent Thunder]

Double post because my phone can't edit:

What I mean is can i copy the data from my "real" client into the install path of the test client and it will only replace the different files.

[OctavianAXFive]

Downloading now, anyone care to squad up later? Don't really care about which faction, just looking for people to test with.

And Test we must.

[Hamma]

Originally Posted by Silent Thunder

What I mean is can i copy the data from my "real" client into the install path of the test client and it will only replace the different files.

At this time - no idea

[Hamma]

Looks like the test server notes are out:

Battle Flow Improvements - The flow of combat in the live hex system can be tough to understand and predict, and can give the sense of chaos as opposed to appropriate tactical choices as forces move from one target to the next. We'd like to attempt a different approach that we think will improve the flow of battle significantly.

• We have vastly reduced the connections available on the map
  • Each region is connected to only a handful of other regions, creating clear conquest lanes
  • This will better direct players to the next fight, and allow you to predict the best places to set up defenses
• Vast areas of the continent are now part of the Neutral Zone
  • There are no restrictions or benefits to this zone
  • The Facility Forward Spawns have been removed - in their place are new Small Outposts
  • These function just like other Small Outposts. Their layouts are very similar to what the Forward Spawns were, plus the addition of Allatum Botany Wing and Saurva South Satellite.
• Capture times are no longer impacted by Influence
• Some underutilized outposts have been removed as they did not improve the new conquest flow
  • Nanite Pump Station
  • Archaeological Dig Site
  • ARC Bioengineering
  • Leopardwood Nursery
  • Spec-Ops Training Camp
  • Lost End Outlook
  • Mesa Comm. Station
  • Blackshard Platinum Mine
• Some outposts were moved to locations that better serve the new conquest flow on Indar
  • Ceres Farms
  • NS Secure Data Labs
  • Seabed Listening Post
  • Nearly every outpost on Indar received some work to help secure the spawn rooms and the capture points. Our goal was to make it make it much tougher to impact these areas from vehicles
• Crown Capture Points relocated. We moved two capture points for the Crown down onto the nearby bridges. We also moved the spawn room back into the tower
  • New Roads have been added to match the conquest lanes created with the new Hex map. They are…
  • From Indar Bay Point to Sandstone Gulch.
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Indar Comm Array to Dahaka Southern Post
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Allatum Broadcast Hub
  • From Gravel Pass to Blackshard Iridium Mine
• We also removed some roads to better direct traffic along the conquest lanes. These areas remain passable terrain, we just removed the road.
  • From Allatum Research Lab to Hvar Northgate Garrison
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Allatum Research Lab
  • From West Highlands Checkpoint to Quarts Ridge Camp
  • From Gravel Pass to Tawrich Tower

[Ostekake]

[Micro]

Finally!
Hope my ping doesn't get too high as the server is in the US (EU player here)

[HiroshiChugi]

Download link anyone?

[ChipMHazard]

I was hoping that the new lattice-like system was going to be there for testing.
This promises to be very interesting.

Originally Posted by HiroshiChugi

Download link anyone?

http://launch.soe.com/installer/PS2_Test_setup.exe

[Aaron]

Oh? The Crown looks like it's getting nerfed! xD

Thank you devs for letting us into your realm!

[Hamma]

Originally Posted by HiroshiChugi

Download link anyone?

There's a link in my original post.

[wasdie]

I'm looking forward to trying this out. I'm hoping that the game feels much better after this.

Though without continent locking and more continents, I feel it will still be very shallow.