Test Patch Notes July 12, 2013

Test Patch Notes
The following should be on the Public Test Server!

Environment Updates
Esamir Lattice
The lattice system already in use on Indar is now active on Esamir.

Facility Capture Time Tuning

• All Amps and Tech on Indar/Amerish cap in 7 minutes instead of 10
• Biolabs on both continents will cap in 7 minutes if you own the majority of the cap points (2/3 or 3/4). If you own all CPs, it will cap much faster

Infantry Updates
Weapon Tuning
M20 Basilisk

• Damage fall off now begins at 75 meters instead of 50 meters
• Minimum damage increased from 175 to 200
• Minimum damage range increased from 100 to 200

M20 Drake

• Damage fall off now begins at 150 meters instead of 100 meters
• Minimum damage increased from 175 to 200

Certification Tuning
All classes other than HA and MAX should now have the following costs on the Ammunition Belt cert lines across all factions:

• Rank 1: 1 CP
• Rank 2: 10 CP
• Rank 3: 100 CP
• Rank 4: 1000 CP

Heavy Assault should have the following costs on the Ammunition Belt cert lines across all factions:

• Rank 1: 50 CP
• Rank 2: 500 CP

Advanced Shield Capacitor has been improved:

• Rank 1: Damage recharge delay reduction changed from .5 to .8 seconds
• Rank 2: Damage recharge delay reduction changed from 1 to 1.6 seconds
• Rank 3: Damage recharge delay reduction changed from 1.5 to 2.4 seconds
• Rank 4: Damage recharge delay reduction changed from 2 to 3.2 seconds
• Rank 5: Damage recharge delay reduction changed from 2.5 to 4 seconds

UI Updates
Added More Unique Spot Icons
Added new spot icons for the following:

• AV Turret (both facility and Engineer deployed)
• AI Turret (both facility and Engineer deployed)
• Facility AA Turret
• All vehicles use their mini-map icon
• Tank Mines

HUD Indicator Pass

• Destroyed vehicles and turrets now remove their indicators
• Empty ally vehicles will now show an indicator if you target them
• Platoon members no longer show all names and extra info for up to 70 meters
  • Range-wise, they’re now treated like other allies
  • Squad mates still show as before with no range limit
• Medics will now see the "needs heal" indicator when an ally is at less than or equal to 50% HP
• Spotting while zoomed should no longer be harder to do than spotting from the hip
• Dead squad members will now show the dead icon no matter how far away they are

Vehicle ESF Updates
Still some things in progress, but here’s what has made it to test so far:

Default cannons have been re-tuned. Some adjustments have been done to the empire specific characteristics and some are across the board.

New Descriptions:

• “The Saron Laser Cannon is the standard air superiority nose cannon for the VS Scythe. Its specialized rounds can be reloaded quickly and travel faster than standard rounds.”
• “The M20 Mustang is the standard air superiority nose cannon for the NC Reaver. Its high caliber rounds allow it to do more damage up close and at range.”
• “The M18 Needler is the standard air superiority nose cannon for the TR Mosquito. Its small caliber rounds allow it to sustain fire for longer and at a higher fire rate.”

Fire rates have been slowed
Mosquito retains the fastest fire rate.

• Saron Laser Cannon: Fire Rate reduced from 82 to 85
• M20 Mustang: Fire Rate remains at 90
• M18 Needler: Fire Rate reduced from 75 to 80

Magazine sizes increased
The sustained fire of these cannons should be longer than before. The Needler gains a larger clip and can sustain fire the longest.

Saron Laser Cannon:

• Magazine size increased from 50 to 60
• Magazine Size certifications reduced from 6/9/12/15 to 2/5/7/10
• Ammo Capacity Increased from 600 to 720
• Ammo Capacity certifications remains 60 per rank

M20 Mustang:

• Magazine size increased from 50 to 55
• Magazine Size certifications reduced from 6/9/12/15 to 2/5/7/10
• Ammo Capacity Increased from 600 to 660
• Ammo Capacity certifications reduced from 60 per rank to 55 per rank.

M18 Needler:

• Magazine size increased from 50 to 75
• Magazine Size certifications reduced from 6/9/12/15 to 2/5/7/10
• Ammo Capacity Increased from 600 to 900
• Ammo Capacity certifications increased from 60 per rank to 75 per rank.

Damage has been adjusted
This is to offset the fire rate reduction and to make the TTKs more even. Reaver retains the highest damage but also kills slightly faster.

• Saron Laser Cannon: Max damage increased from 325 to 375
• M20 Mustang: Max damage increased from 400 to 420
• M18 Needler: Max damage increased from 300 to 375

Damage fall-off has been added.
Fall off for the Reaver starts at a farther range.

Saron Laser Cannon

• Inflicts maximum damage up to 200 meters
• Minimum damage inflicted beyond 325 meters
• Minimum damage is 255

M20 Mustang

• Inflicts maximum damage up to 225 meters
• Minimum damage inflicted beyond 350 meters
• Minimum damage is 290

M18 Needler

• Inflicts maximum damage up to 200 meters
• Minimum damage inflicted beyond 325 meters
• Minimum damage is 245

Cone of Fire has been normalized to 0.3 degrees:

• Saron Laser Cannon: CoF reduced from 0.4 to 0.3 degrees
• M20 Mustang: CoF remains 0.3 degrees
• M18 Needler: CoF remains 0.3 degrees

Time to reload reduced on the Scythe.

• Saron Laser Cannon: Reload speed reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds
• M20 Mustang: Reload speed remains at 2.5 seconds
• M18 Needler: Reload speed remains at 2.5 seconds

Projectile speed has increased for the Saron, but remains the same for Mustang and Needler:

• Saron Laser Cannon: Projectile speed increased from 600 mps to 800 mps
• M20 Mustang: Projectile speed remains at 750 mps
• M18 Needler: Projectile speed remains at 750 mps

Rotary cannons have been re-tuned
Some adjustments have been done to the empire specific characteristics and some are across the board.

New Descriptions:

• “The Hailstorm is a high damage, close range cannon that can unload rounds quickly. Its specialized rounds can be reloaded quickly and travel faster than standard rounds. VS use only.”
• “The Vortek Rotary is a high damage, close range cannon that can unload rounds quickly. Its high caliber rounds allow it to do more damage up close and at range. NC use only.”
• “The M18 Rotary is a high damage, close range cannon that can unload rounds quickly. Its small caliber rounds allow it to sustain fire for longer and at a higher fire rate. TR use only.”

Fire rates have been slowed across the board.
Damage increased so TTK remains near the same.

• Hailstorm Turbo Laser: Fire Rate reduced from 50 to 70
• Vortek Rotary: Fire Rate reduced from 60 to 80
• M18 Rotary: Fire Rate reduced from 40 to 60
• Hailstorm Turbo Laser: Damage increased from 308 to 360
• Vortek Rotary: Damage increased from 388 to 500
• M18 Rotary: Damage increased from 237 to 315

Magazine sizes were adjusted
To make the ‘Time Until Dry’ near the same duration. Mosquito retains the fastest fire rate and gains an advantage of a slightly larger magazine.

Hailstorm Turbo Laser:

• Magazine size reduced from 40 to 35
• Amount per certification rank adjusted from 2/5/7/10 to 3/5/8/10

Vortek Rotary:

• Magazine size reduced from 35 to 25
• Amount per certification rank adjusted from 2/5/7/10 to 2/4/6/8

M18 Rotary:

• Magazine size remains at 50 rounds
• Amount per certification rank adjusted from 2/5/7/10 to 3/3/3/3

Damage fall-off has been added.
Fall off for the Reaver starts at a farther range.

Hailstorm Turbo Laser

• Inflicts maximum damage up to 125 meters
• Minimum damage inflicted beyond 250 meters
• Minimum damage is 300

Vortek Rotary

• Inflicts maximum damage up to 150 meters
• Minimum damage inflicted beyond 275 meters
• Minimum damage is 425

M18 Rotary

• Inflicts maximum damage up to 125 meters
• Minimum damage inflicted beyond 250 meters
• Minimum damage is 270

Reload speeds adjusted to be empire specific.
The Hailstorm has the quickest reload.

• Hailstorm Turbo Laser: Time required to reload increased from 1.5 seconds to 1.75 seconds
• Vortek Rotary: Time required to reload increased from 1.5 seconds to 2 seconds
• M18 Rotary: Time required to reload increased from 1.5 seconds to 2.25 seconds

Projectile speed has been increased for the Hailstorm, to give it an empire distinction, but remains the same for Vortek and M18:

• Hailstorm Turbo Laser: Projectile speed increased from 550 mps to 700 mps
• Vortek Rotary: Projectile speed remains at 650 mps
• M18 Rotary: Projectile speed remains at 650 mps

Ammo Capacity
Hailstorm Turbo Laser:

• Ammo Capacity changed from 400 to 350
• Amount granted by certifications reduced from 40 to 35 per rank

Vortek Rotary:

• Ammo Capacity changed from 350 to 250
• Amount granted by certifications reduced from 35 to 25 per rank

M18 Rotary:

• Ammo Capacity remains the same at 500 rounds
• Amount granted by certifications remains the same at 50 per rank

Improved Respawn Logic
Updated facility respawn options to be the following:

• All friendly facilities within one lattice-link to the region the player died/redeployed.
  • This includes the current region if it is friendly.
  • If there are multiple friendly linked facilities then the player can respawn at any of them.
• Nearest Small outpost by lattice-links, if not already satisfied by #1.
• Nearest Large outpost by lattice-links, if not already satisfied by #1
• Nearest Named Facility (Tech plant, Bio lab, Amp Station) by lattice-links, if not already satisfied by #1
• Warpgate

The above is in addition to any reinforcements needed, Sunderers, and squad spawn options that may be available.

These changes should allow players to always fall back to any linked friendly facility. It also allows players who have multiple access points to a region to respawn at any of those access points. Example: A faction that is attacking Regent Rock Garrison and owns both Xenotech Labs and Scarred Mesa Skydock will be allowed to respawn at either facility if they die at Regent Rock.

VS Audio Overhaul
VS Infantry Weapon fire audio was redone based on community and internal feedback. This includes audio for the Assault Rifle, Carbine, LMG, Sniper Rifle, Pistol, Rocket Launcher and Lasher, as well as suppressed variants for each weapon type.

Bug Fixes

• 1st person MCG anims no longer pop while in ADS and moving around
• 1st person firing animations should now function correctly if you pause firing while moving
• Fixed a problem that caused C4 explosion audio not to play for the first explosion of a new game session
• Players in the rumble seat of the Harasser or Flash will no longer display running animations to remote clients
• Knifing while crouching will no longer make the player model stand up in 3rd person
• Characters should no longer twitch when switching fire modes with the Jackhammer
• Fixed an incorrect reload animation for the T5 AMC
• Corrected incorrect footstep audio playing for all surfaces
• Sparkler ornaments no longer lack color on low and medium graphics settings
• Red dot scopes no longer reset their position on the rail when resupplying

Other Stuff

• Did an FX pass on the new tutorial areas added with GU12
• The low graphic settings cloak effect is now less grey and more transparent
• Enemy explosives can now be spotted
• Adjusted the pitch angle on several of the Harasser weapons so that the player could aim lower to the ground.
• Moving diagonally with Jumpjets/Drifter Jumpjets will no longer exceed the intended movement speed

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This did not make the build, but leaving it here so you have access to the information.
General Updates
Implants!
…are totally in a half-implemented state on test. You can see some stuff in the UI, but it isn’t all there, so it’s broken and not ready for testing yet. Sorry. We’ll hopefully get that sorted early next week.

When is the patch coming to the PTS?

I'm interested in seeing exactly what is available. I just hope faction balance was considered because some things could affect some more than others.

At last! Still need to see the changes before I can discuss.

This looks fairly significant. Although I'm not sure it beats the nano + resist for heavy or the healing ability + nano for medic. I might rock this on my LA and infil louadouts though.

Can you guys also take a look at the Jackhammer audio? It should really have a unique and terrifying sound like the MCG. It is a gauss shotgun afterall. But currently, it sounds almost EXACTLY like all the other shotguns.

it's not on the pts atm eclips?

Patch is not on PTS yet as of this post (01:59 EST)

Higby said it'd be around midnight PST. It's currently 11 PM PST at the time of this post. This is barring unforeseen issues with getting it on the test server.

created a new char and spawned inside a wall on Esamir. cant wait for some of the other ESF changes to get put onto test.

Spotting explosives is a neat change. Especially if a gunner sees a tank mine - much easier to communicate the position to the driver.

Not looking forward to getting hit by a 500 damage Reaver rotary. Gonna sting like a mutha.

Shield Capacitor improvement is nice as something was needed for the cert line - I barely noticed a difference for the classes I put it on. Would be sweet if it also impacted how fast the shield regens too, but guess we'll see how a bit less delay plays out first.

And more Basilisk buffs. I won't turn 'em down and they look reasonable enough. Eventually I'll cert the thing, but if I hold off longer will it get even more buffs first?

Respawn changes sound useful. Shouldn't be quite as much "it's -right- there" going on, still have a few more distant options, and may possibly make travel vehicles (Gal, Sunderer, etc.) slightly more attractive than just redeploying across the map.

The base regen rate is actually fairly fast when it kicks on though. This nearly cuts the downtime in half. It'll make a huge difference for hit and run classes, I think.

no ns smg?

I like the look of a lot of those. I don't use the PTS, but hopefully they'll make it through to live.

my bet 06:00 AM PDT which is 15:00 CET... so in a few hours


p.s. these patch Notes are AMAZING, improved basilisk, Advanced shield capacitor! implants, and moooooooooarrr roarr!!

WHY are you nerfing Light Assault YET AGAIN? WTF IS THIS BS? There has been only 4 GU's I believe where they didn't get a nerf. This is wrong, very wrong. Are they trying to tell us that using diagonal jump jetting broke the class and made us OP? ROFLMAO!

I sincerely hope that this change doesn't go to live. Pure BS.

wait... WHAT.... anyone else notice a problem? hint - its in red.

New Descriptions:

• “The Saron Laser Cannon is the standard air superiority nose cannon for the VS Scythe. Its specialized rounds can be reloaded quickly and travel faster than standard rounds.”
• “The M20 Mustang is the standard air superiority nose cannon for the NC Reaver. Its high caliber rounds allow it to do more damage up close and at range.”
• “The M18 Needler is the standard air superiority nose cannon for the TR Mosquito. Its small caliber rounds allow it to sustain fire for longer and at a higher fire rate.”

Fire rates have been slowed
Mosquito retains the fastest fire rate.

• Saron Laser Cannon: Fire Rate reduced from 82 to 85
• M20 Mustang: Fire Rate remains at 90
• M18 Needler: Fire Rate reduced from 75 to 80

Yet again the TR are shafted - oh here you go TR you have the higher ROF.... just kidding... you get no trait but you still get lower damage whilst the other factions beat you in the ROF category.... Yet we get the punishments that generally follow TR weapons such as longer reload speeds.

any news about ESAMIR REVAMP?

Those numbers are the delay between shots, meaning the lower the number the faster the fire rate.

Thanks for clearing that up

It's called a fix.. It was never intended to be like that it was a bug, much like the magriders improved climbing when strafing diagonally.

Considering that NOBODY ever said anything negative about it, it is a NERF pure and simple. Anything that lowers the ability for a class to play its roll is a nerf to that class. This is a nerf to Light Assault since it will lower our chances of staying alive. SOE's thinking: "Light Assault already dies more than any other class so why not make it worse for them?" We've had more nerfs than any other class and we are the least finished class in the game. Another nerf is pure BS.

Calling it a "fix" is also WRONG when it wasn't really broken to begin with. It has worked that way for a YEAR. This is a nerf not a fix.

Lots of interesting goodies. Quick observation/feedback regarding:

Have you guys considered making this an in-game slider setting as exists in other shooters to allow the player to set it to his own personal preference?

Some people prefer the less needy 50% threshold while others who are more meticulous in their craft prefer a higher threshold of 80% or even 90%+ to keep their buddies health in tip-top shape.

A second setting for a repair threshold that applied to friendly MAXes/Vehicles would also make my day as an avid Engineer and Repair Sundy player.

test server y u no update