Patch Info

[Dharkbayne]

Here ya go Saturday, April 26

1) Fixed a couple of zone crash bugs (one to do with recovering stamina in vehicles, and a major issue where dead people could get added to vehicles in the case of a lag spike (causing very bad things to happen).

2) Fixed the invulnerability bug. It had to do with using Instant Action whenever a) the zone was full (population cap), or b) there were no friendly spawn areas on the map chosen.

3) Fixed the crash that was attributed to being near someone when they died. That part was accurate. The crash occurred due to a physics pointer bug when you were near someone who was reloading their weapon when they got killed.

4) Instant action put you in a default favorite instead of leaving you in your current configuration. This is now fixed and you will be deployed in your current configuration.

5) Some ground vehicle creation pads got blocked due to nearby objects. This no longer occurs.

6) Fixed issue of cert, implant, and vehicle terminal UI crashing if a zone went down and you had one of these interfaces up .

7) Fixed the certification terminals so cert costs are correctly reflected on the screen.

8) Updated Forseral so that the capture room of Caer is no longer underwater.

9) Added a "pre-hack" 10-minute buffer when counting "unique" kills in an SOI for experience determination. (See NEWS article on beta site for more information.)

10) You now get experience if even just one enemy is killed in an SOI during the hack time. (See NEWS article on beta site for more information.)

The news section


News
Information For New Beta Testers

If you have questions about how to participate in the beta, visit our PlanetSide online manual. Once the game is up and running, here's how you report bugs and snafus.

Non-Disclosure Agreement No Longer In Effect!

As of Friday April 11, 2003, the PlanetSide beta tester non-disclosure agreement has been lifted. Testers, feel free to tell friends, family and neighbors about the game and your experiences. Please be sure to read the End User License Agreement, which is in effect for all who participate in the Open Beta Test.

Welcome to Open Beta!


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Saturday - What's the Dev Team up to?

Here's a quick rundown of what we're doing:

Issues Fixed - Saturday

We fixed many of the issues that were blocking gameplay. We're assembling a patch now and running it through its paces for distribution TONIGHT (Saturday).

In about a half-hour (7:45pm Central), the servers will go down for an update. (See Patch Notes for details of what we've fixed.)

Approximately 30-60 minutes after the servers go down, we'll bring them up again with the fixes in place.

Issues We are Still Examining

a) Looking into a situation where you don't end up getting xp for a base cap that has tons of people at it.

b) Fixing "autorepair should consume NTUs...but currently does not"

c) Examine gameflow on the Lattice to determine what changes/modifications may be needed. (This is ongoing. No changes will occur immediately. We have to gather data first.)

d) The Delete character bug.

e) Investigating reports of a Memory Leak in the client.

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New Experience System Details

Many folks don't fully understand the new experience system, so here are a few details about it in an "Example" fashion so that it makes more sense.

But first, a few changes are coming:

1) Many folks reported that they "got no xp for a capture after fighting all night to win the battle". After further examination, we think there's a slight design flaw in our system in that the "unique kill count" doesn't start until the hack occurs. This can result in situations where you fight for 30 minutes to get a hacker into the base, but end up with no enemies left to fight at the base after the hack...thus resulting in no capture experience.

Thus, we're going to extend the "kill count timer" to include the 10 minutes previous to the hack. This loosens up the system to allow hacks to happen after a major battle, while still counting the "unique kills" before the fight.

2) Additionally, some players are getting no xp because they only made 3-4 unique kills. Thus, they get no cap xp message and think "hey! The system is bugged!" So we're going to change the system to give XP for anywhere from 1-20 unique kills. If ANY friendly kills a unique player in the contested SOI, you'll get 5% of max XP for the capture. If 20 unique enemies (or more) are killed then you get 100% of the max XP for the capture. It scales linearly between those end-points.

Now...the examples below assume that the fixes above are already in place (should happen very soon). I'll explain everything else with that in mind.

Here goes:

1) If you're an individual (not part of a squad), then you just have to be present during the 25 minutes before the hack is complete and the base capture occurs. During the time that you are present, the game is counting "UNIQUE" kills that occur within the SOI around the facility. Outside the SOI doesn't count. "Unique" kills means *different* people....not the same guy over and over.

NOTE: YOU do not have to personally kill those "unique" enemies. You just have to be PRESENT while they are killed.

2) Why "unique" kills? Basically, if there are only two guys defending the base, then you don't get much in the way of xp for taking that base (two unique folks would be 10% of max cap xp...see above). If you bite off a big challenge, then you get big XP. Bite off a small one and you get small XP.

3) Squads help you in regards to "unique kill count". Basically, we keep track of all the unique kills that were viewed by ANYONE in your squad in that SOI during the 25-minute window. Basically, this benefits squad members because they can be in and out of an SOI and still accumulate "unique kill count" if at least one of their squad members is there. Thus, it's easier for squad members to get to the max capture XP. (And remember...xp is now shared across the entire continent for squad members.)

4) This also applies to resecuring a facility. The system is almost exactly the same for resecuring as it is for hacking in the first place. When a base is hacked by the enemy, a "resecure timer" is started. All the kills you were present for the 10 minutes prior to that enemy hack, and all the kills until your Empire actually rehacks (thus resecuring the base) are counted as "unique kills" toward the maximum resecure XP. This "resecuring" xp should be a huge incentive for defenders since you now get xp for doing base defense (which didn't happen previous to this change).

Make more sense now? In a nutshell...big fights give big cap xp. Small fights give small cap xp. Defenders get xp for resecuring a base.

And, of course, in addition to capture xp, you also get all the xp for the actual kills...and that's not limited by "unique" numbers. So all-in-all, you can wrack up an amazing amount of xp if you a) get into a large squad and b) go into large battles, whether on offense or defense. If your style is to play with smaller squads and go to smaller battles, you'll still have fun...but you'll receive smaller XP because you're taking smaller risks.

NOTE: You and/or your squadmates can freely go in and out of the SOI during the 25-minute window. But kills are only added to your "unique kill total" when you or your squadmates are actually in the contested SOI.

Okay...that's BEP...what about CEP for captures?

The system works exactly like BEP awards, but there's a modifier based on your size of squad.

Basically, take the amount of xp that would be received using the BEP system described above. Now multiply the CEP gained by a percentage based on the number of folks in your squad. A two-person squad gets 10% of the max CEP for its leader, whereas a squad leader with 8+ members gets 100% of the max CEP. (Scaled proportionally in between those numbers).

Therefore, large squads net max CEP for their commander. Small squads net less.

NOTE: There is no limitation to the number of commanders that can gain CEP in a single SOI. It's only limited by their squad size.

ALSO NOTE: Capture xp now has *NOTHING* to do with who hacked the building. There is no reason to kill friendly hackers.

LAST NOTE: You, or at least one of your squad, MUST be in the SOI of the building AT THE TIME OF CAPTURE (or resecure) in order to gain BEP or CEP.

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Server Name Changes

The servers have changed names now. For those that care about story, the names are those of the Vanu Sovereignty scientists that pioneered the field of dimensional shifting (a technology with which the Ancient Vanu were quite adept). Each new parallel world that was discovered was named after one of those scientists.

Here's a translation table for you so you can find your characters:

Markov = Beryl

Johari = Citrine

Dalton = Emerald

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** Note, if you are experiencing any difficulties with our beta website, please email us at the "contact us" link below, or submit it as a bug in the Bugs forum. **

Please make visiting this beta site a habit during the beta test. Not only are you required to help us with bug squashing (please visit our forums for bug submissions), but staying up-to-date through this website will keep you informed about our beta testing schedule.

We thank you for your participation in our beta program, but most of all, for your support during the development of PlanetSide!


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Now say thank you Dharkbayne,

[SuperGlue]

Thank you Dharkbayne

[BUGGER]

hey for once ya didn't spam. That deserves a clapping!

[Angelos]

I actually experienced, personally, the invulnerability bug, the reload physics bug, and the instant action bug.

Found a couple more bugs before this patch that I expect to be resolved in next patch too. Ahh, the experiences of a beta tester. Bugs. Should have a beta outfit called RAID.

[BUGGER]

Clark is better....you get your own little phrase with it too!


"CLARK, we need you!"