Game Update 04: Coming soon!

Hey all!

We wanted to give you guys a preview of some things you can look forward to in GU04, which is tentatively scheduled for release next week, pending any issues discovered in testing of course. First though, I wanted to talk a bit about our current update schedule "cadence" so you all understand when you can expect the game to be updated.

We have three types of updates to live that we use; Game Update, Patch and Hotfix.

• Game Updates come on a 2-week cadence, so every second week you should expect a major game update with new features, gameplay changes, items and bug fixes. Last week we released GU03, we expect to release GU04 next week.
• Patches come in between Game Updates, they typically don't introduce new gameplay or features, but will usually contain bug fixes, balance changes, and new items. We won't always have one each week, these come as needed.
• Hotfixes can come any day, and they're based on an urgent need to change a game balance issue or bug.

In general we try to release Game Updates and Patches early on Wednesday mornings (PST), but we sometimes need to hold back the updates for more QA time when issues are found.

Coming with GU04

Here's a preview of some of the features which are currently scheduled to be released with GU04 next week and the patch in the following week:

• Flash update:
  • Wraith Module (Cloaking) for infiltrators using the Flash
  • Rumble seat - bring a passenger with you on your flash, they are weapons free in the passenger seat!
  • New weapon: Renegade shotgun
• Account level unlocks
  • Items you've purchased with StationCash will be available to all characters on your account that are eligible to use that item.
  • Common pool items, such as the Zephyr or NS-11 will be available to all characters on your account.
  • Empire specific weapons such as the GD-22 and Lasher will be available to all characters of the required faction on your account.
  • We are working on a solution for those of you who have purchased the same item on multiple characters.
• VR Training
  • A safe test zone where you can try each weapon and vehicle in the game with no resource cost or cooldown timers.
  • Target practice areas to learn weapon strengths and weaknesses at range, practice recoil patterns.
  • Driving/flying area to practice with vehicles.
  • Areas to practice team tactics, such as towers and small outposts.
  • No player stats are recorded in VR, so have fun!
• New respawn & map screen
  • We've combined the respawn and map screen into one.
  • The new map screen has been cleaned up better use space.
  • Additional top requested features, such as friendly troop locations will be coming soon, but not with GU04.
• Membership enhancements
  • We've increased the number of passive certifications for members and scaled the increase in cert points based on length of membership. The new cert point rates are as follows:

1-mo. member - 24 passive cert points/day

2-mo. member - 28.8 passive cert points/day

3-mo. member - 33.6 passive cert points/day

4-mo. member - 38.4 passive cert points/day

5-mo. member - 43.2 passive cert points/day

6-mo. + member - 48 passive cert points/day

• Empire specific Rocket Launchers
  • VS - Lancer: an extremely precise, super-high-velocity, anti-vehicle energy weapon with a unique charge mechanic, the longer you charge the weapon the more damage it deals.
  • TR - Striker: launches a series of mid-damage guided missiles at a single target, the Striker's user must maintain the lock by keeping the enemy in the crosshairs while the missiles are tracking.
  • NC - Phoenix: A high damage, slow firing camera guided missile which must be guided by the Phoenix's user. The Phoenix is capable of dealing high damage with very little warning since there is no lock on.
  • These weapons will be released in the patch the week following GU04
• Notable balance changes
  • Explosive radius from ALL vehicle based damage sources have been reduced, this does not affect vehicle vs vehicle direct hit damage, only splash damage vs infantry.
  • Prowler HEAT / HE rounds have had their damage reduced to no longer 1-shot kill infantry, killing a full health infantry will require both Prowler rounds to be fired. This does not affect vs. vehicle damage.
  • Edit: Movement improvements for the Magrider, bringing back some of it's glideyness, but not it's ability to climb every hill in the game.
  • Edit: Torque increases for all MBTs so they don't slow down as much on inclines.

This is just a small preview of the main tentpole features for GU04, in addition to the above GU04 will contain a number of bug fixes and smaller balance tweaks, map changes to Indar, optimization and stability improvements.

I want to be absolutely clear that all of this is tentative, and until it's on the server it's not a guarantee! We want to keep you guys as up to date as possible with the current development, but it must come with the understanding that features slip & dates slip, and what we're giving you is our best possible projection of what and when.

Edit: Wanted to add a quick note about server merges. I've heard from a lot folks on Connery & Woodman who are upset that they didn't get a chance to have their server merged. We're going to be continuing to monitor server populations to see if it's possible to do further merges, but with the current peak player loads there wasn't a good way to merge those servers without causing login queue bottlenecks and a generally bad experience.

As always, we're excited to hear your feedback, here, twitter, facebook and everywhere else.
Thanks!
-
mh

So more favor for infantrie? So this game will end to be a Infantry"war" and all Vehicles and Aircrafts only for transporting..

Woot! Thanks for the update devs!

Orbital Strike?

I kinda hope the wraith module uses the weapon slot on the flash.

Also, hurray for empire specific AV weapons.

And hurray for less splash damage.

This is great! It's just that I would rather see new ARs or SMGs than shotguns. They're pretty bad...

Prowler Question: Does this mean a direct hit with a tank shell, not splash hits, will no longer kill infantry in one hit? Or is this purely a splash damage change?

Splash damage only.

Seems to me like HA has been gettin a lot of weapon love. Can't be too long until the other classes startgetting more

Matt gave his answer to one of my tweets to him.

https://twitter.com/mhigby/status/306579478145015808

Don't make another lock on weapon (striker) other than that looks good.

"Explosive radius from ALL vehicle based damage sources have been reduced, this does not affect vehicle vs vehicle direct hit damage, only splash damage vs infantry."
Devs...seriously we didn't need this. New rocket launchers were fine but this is just terrible. I'm a bit sad about that infantry whiners got their will again. Please don't turn this game into another generic f2p shooter. You see, direct hits are pretty damn hard to accomplish so most of the damage done to infantry is from splash damage and you are nerfing that ability even more.
Nerf Mag/Buff others was bad combo but apparently you devs didn't learn about that but instead gave us another Nerf/Buff combo.
Nerf MBT/Buff inf combo which will be just as bad.

VR Training area is great though it's a bit late for me to go training anymore . Ability to test different weapons is also very good.

Explosive radius from ALL vehicle based damage sources have been reduced, this does not affect vehicle vs vehicle direct hit damage, only splash damage vs infantry.

I love the patch, but are you kidding me?

There are already way too many anti-armor options for infantry.
C4, instagib.
Mines, instagib, unless you equip mineguard, then you become dead to never ending lock-ons.
Tow missiles, cant be evaded.
Lock-on, can't be evaded unless you equip smoke, then you become insta-gib to mines.

I mean, it's ridiculous. Now you lower the splash damage radius of vehicle damage sources further?
How nerfed will vehicles be?

They cost resources, they have cooldown. Losing them matters.
Infantry can just suicide with C4, Mines or Lock-ons and don't need to care if they die, they can repeat the same action 10 sec later.
How is this not OP?

Rumble seats? YES! Imagine the fun you could have with a second person gunning in the back! I loved the grav cycle in Tribes Ascend and am excited to see what sort of crazy tactics can be put to use with flashes. (Drive-by rezzes or becoming a mini-suicide tank with a decimator heavy? Would AA MAXes be able to ride the rumble seat?)
Also, any word on updating existing weapon models?

Amazing patch. Props.

Yeah prowler bringing back to normal.

Great update also, thanks.

Any news on the platoon colors squads on the map being white, will this be fixed before GU4 or will it come fixed with GU4? This is a serious bug for proper team play in platoons.

Watch the Lancer instant gib ESF.

Watch the Phoenix instant gib Infantry behind obstacles.

What about instances where we have used all 3 character slots on a character in each empire? If I delete one of them to move servers will unlocks purchased on that character still be available to the new character?

And on that note, any plans for additional character slots?

It already doesn't one shot kill Infantry with splash though. At least not if they have Flak. Not sure about if they don't. But the way you originally worded it sounded like a direct hit would not kill an Infantry. Which would make it probably worse than the other tanks at fighting Infantry as it's already hard to direct hit with it because of how the two barrels are off center slightly to the left and right.

Also when you say all vehicle splash are you including HE rounds? Since that's their entire purpose. I think the nerf should apply to Heat/AP only.