Server Downtime for ESF Update January 16, 2014 6 AM PT (3 PM CET)

Downtime Start: 6 AM PT (3 PM CET) *Time Zone Converter

Empire Specific Fighter (ESF) Update:

Weapons
New nose cannon for each faction

• TR M18 Locust
• NC M20 Kestrel
• VS Antares LC
  • These weapons feature a larger magazine that reduces how often they need to be reloaded. This allows for fewer missed opportunities when engaging fast moving targets.

New wing mount weapons for all ESFs

• Coyote Missiles
  • Coyote missiles fire a volley of small, light damaging missiles. If they get close to a hostile aircraft then they will lock-on and seek towards that aircraft.
• Hornet Missiles
  • These laser-guided missiles will fly toward the pilot’s crosshairs.

New Certification Lines:

• Engagement Radar
  • Engagement Radar is a low cost certification that goes into the Utility slot. It provides pilots with increased situational awareness against other aircraft by displaying indicators over nearby enemy aircraft. This indicator will also clamp to the edge of the screen if the target goes off screen, showing the pilot which direction to go if they want to give chase.
• External Afterburner Fuel Tanks
  • Afterburner Fuel Tanks now have a certification line. Ranking up fuel tanks increases both fuel capacity and fuel replenishment rate.

Changes to existing ESF weapons and certification lines:

• Tomcat Missiles
  • Air-to-air missiles now require the lock to be maintained (the pilot needs to keeps the target in their crosshairs until the missile hits). If the target leaves the crosshairs for too long then the lock will be lost.
  • Added a lock-on loss angle to missiles in flight. If a locked missile finds that its target is more than 145 degree turn away then the lock will be lost.
  • The max travel distance of fired rockets has been reduced from 1250 to 1000 meters
  • Lock-on acquire time reduced from 2.5 seconds to 2.0 seconds
  • Default ammo capacity increased from 5 to 6. Ammo resupply now gives 2 missiles per tick.
• Stock Afterburners
  • Stock fuel replenishment rate reduced by 15%. This means it takes about 1 second longer to replenish from 0 to full.
  • The cost of engaging the afterburner when in hover mode has been increased. This fuel cost is only applied once, when the afterburner button is hit. This consumes 0.5 seconds worth of fuel.
• Scout Radar
  • Scout radars will now give detect experience to the vehicle driver
• ESF Fire Suppression
  • Increased the amount of damage repaired by fire suppression on ESFs. Increased from 3/6/9/12% to 6/12/20/25%
  • Note: This change does not apply to the Fire Suppression cert line on the other vehicles

Balance:

• Added following resist types to Heavy Assault Resist Shield:
  • Vehicle Grenades
  • Vehicle Shotguns
  • VS Vortex AV: C3
  • VS Vortex AV: C2
  • Liberator Indirect Damage
  • Lancer AV
  • Anti Aircraft Machine Gun
  • Flak Projectile
• Infantry Flak Armor now resists Lancer and charged Vortex damage.
• VS shotgun slug velocity now matches the velocity of the other two factions.

Depot:

• Updated the Bundle item preview buttons on the selected item and bundle purchase screens to make it more obvious that they are buttons that lead to preview.
• Heroic Boosts are now permanently available in the Boost section of the Depot.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed instances of flashing in the Amerish sky file on some graphics settings
• Fixed an issue with Squad Filters filtering by page, causing misleading results
• Stationary and deployed vehicles will no longer slide when on inclined surfaces
• Fixed an issue where HUD timers for primary and secondary objectives stop updating when you open a UI screen
• VS MAX bodies should no longer turn about 90 degrees when crouched
• Underbarrel grenade launchers reload animation now lines up with the weapon
• Fixed missing reload animation for NS-7 PDW
• The bolt action animation for VS sniper rifles should no longer block the player's view
• Adjusted position of misplaced tank guards in Ellis Amp Station
• Jump pad at Mani Fortress jump you to the Biolab onto the jump pad back to Mani Fortress
• Closed up some collision issues in Biolabs allowing Light Assaults to attack from unattended areas
• You should no longer be able to get under The Rink's collision
• When another player is talking in voice chat the indicator that displays at the bottom of the screen will no longer overlap your weapons info in the Centralized HUD
• The heat gauge and name of the turret are no longer overlapping each other in centralized HUD mode
• Fixed issue where AMS Sunderers were not animating when being deployed
• Fixed issue where some VS MAX projectiles were missing lights and sounds
• Adjusted NC Sunderer and Harasser colors
• Fixed the lock-on reduction buff (given by vehicle stealth) sometimes being lost when the vehicle comes from outside of awareness range
• Fixed pop after firing a SMG while aimed
• Jumping will pull character out of iron sights
• Fixed FOV being stretched in certain resolutions. It is now back to how it was before Performance Update 2
• Added a Wide View Mode option under graphics settings. This option auto-adjusts the FOV to fit wider resolutions.
• Resolved an issue with the Platoon page

Known Issues:

• Cosmetic items showing up as the wrong faction's color pallet.
• When Infiltrators are cloaked, some of their armor is still appearing uncloaked.

Nice, gonna have to start using the Scout Radar Flash again.

Damn, and I was so close to starting to cert out my galaxy...

YAIIII, coyote ftw for me

Couple of nice bug fixes.

Larger magazines? You mean, the only thing that makes TR special? Oh well, scratch that off the list I guess.

The bug fixes are great, tho. I actually noticed about all of these, glad they're ironed out.

These two are the best changes IMO. May I ask what the base value is for scout radar detect experience? Is it the same as for Infiltrators for their darts?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1urf2x/squad_based_player_markers_on_minimap_air_qol/

Please, response?

I thought they made it so that enemies who are pinged by a vehicle scout radar only shows up for the driver/pilot of the vehicle?

That is proximity radar you're talking about. Scout radar was showing dots for your faction from the beginning.

That fire suppression buff....so...happy...

Wow... why would you guys remove this? Did you guys not read the reddit post where it was almost unanimous that no one wanted this removed? Who was the dev that thought this was a good change, because I would like to hear their rationale explanation

See: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1uya4d/pts_ads_while_jumpingjetpacking_removed/

I'm still wondering how the ESF weapons and changes will impact the gameplay...

but my god, that fire suppression.

and thanks to SOE for the VS BASR rechamber animation change

So, all these types of damage were not mitigated in half by resist shield before? Am I correct?

HELL YEAH!!! LOL IT'S ABOUT TIME!

Fire suppression is godly now. It was pretty good beforehand but now it's beautiful.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1uya4d/pts_ads_while_jumpingjetpacking_removed/
AGHH!! HA HA HA HA HA!!

Bunny hoppers' tears!

Resist shield is 45% if we want to be accurate. Or was anyway.

Some of us never stopped, even when we didnt get anything, just to help other players get their kills

Try it before you ***** it.

TR still get larger mags - 150 on the new weapon for Terrans, versus 95 for t' NC