PTS Update - 1/3

PTS will be coming down this evening for an update. The following changes will be introduced:

Infantry Balance
Engineer
Engineer's shield now passively starts regenerating two seconds earlier than other classes. (8 seconds versus 10 seconds.)

Infiltrator
Now has access to Battle Rifles.

NS-AM7 Archer
Impact visuals changed for easier identification on behalf of the recipient.

Anti-Vehicle MANA Turret
Projectile lifespan from 4.75sec. to 3.2sec.
This change effectively reduces the max range of the weapon from 450m to 300m

Claymore
Now has an activation time of 320ms

T7 Mini-Chaingun
Magazine from 100 to 125
Ammo capacity from 400 to 500
Cone of fire bloom from 0.05 to 0
Standing hipfire CoF from 2.25 to 2.50
Walking hipfire CoF from 2.75 to 2.50
Crouching hipfire CoF from 1.75 to 2.50
Crouch-walking hipfire CoF from 2.25 to 2.50
Velocity from 600 to 500

Lasher X2
Now uses the new hipfire viewmodel (same as Anniversary edition)
Hipfire cone of fire bloom from 0.1 to 0
ADS cone of fire bloom from 0.05 to 0
(We’re aware of bug with heavy shield obscuring AE version’s ironsights, should be sorted in a later update.)

Shotgun adjustments
Mauler S6 (Quick Reload)
ADS pellet spread from 2.75 to 2.5

The Brawler (Auraxium Mauler S6)
ADS pellet spread from 2.5 to 2

NC12 Sweeper (High Capacity)
ADS pellet spread from 3 to 2.75

AF-57 Piston (Automatic)
ADS pellet spread from 3.75 to 3.5

NC05 Jackhammer (Heavy Weapon)
Max damage from 100@5m to 112@all ranges

Thanatos VE70 (Quick Reload)
ADS pellet spread from 2.75 to 2.5

Chaos (Auraxium Thanatos VE70)
ADS pellet spread from 2.5 to 2

Nova (High Capacity)
ADS pellet spread from 2.8 to 2.75

Pandora VX25 (Automatic)
ADS pellet spread from 4 to 3.5

FA1 Barrage (Quick Reload)
ADS pellet spread from 2.75 to 2.5

Havoc (Auraxium FA1 Barrage)
ADS pellet spread from 2.5 to 2
Max damage from 100@5m to 100@8m

TS4 Haymaker (High Capacity)
ADS pellet spread from 2.8 to 2.75

AS16 NightHawk (Automatic)
ADS pellet spread from 3.75 to 3.5

Directive weapon adjustments
Darkstar
Vertical recoil from 0.198 to 0.187
Horizontal recoil from 0.16 to 0.15
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.7 to 0.525

T1 Unity
Horizontal recoil from 0.18 to 0.16875
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.5 to 0.375
Magazine from 40 to 50
Ammo Capacity from 240 to 250
Short reload from 2.755sec. to 3.1 sec.
Muzzle velocity from 550 to 522

Gauss Prime
Vertical recoil from 0.2850 to 0.255
Horizontal recoil from 0.14 to 0.13125
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.4 to 0.3
Projectile velocity from 650 to 651 (bug fix)
Maximum damage range from 10m to 8m

Butcher
Removed spinup mechanic.
Magazine size from 150 to 500
Ammo capacity from 450 to 500
Refill ammunition per tick from 50 to 10
Min damage from 125 to 112
Equip time from 1250ms to 1300ms
Short reload from 5.4sec. to 6.2sec.
Long reload from 6.2sec. to 7sec.
Muzzle velocity from 570 to 540

Betelgeuse
Min damage from 125 to 112.

GODSAW
The GODSAW now has a secondary firing mode which deals minor damage to vehicles, but reduces its damage against infantry by 50%.

Skorpios
Forward Grip, HVA, Extended Magazine
Now properly restores one magazine per tick from ammo boxes
Max damage range from 10 to 8
Min damage range from 48 to 60
ADS Cone of Fire from 0.2 to 0.3
Vertical recoil from 0.3 to 0.2
Recoil angle from 20 to 15
Horizontal recoil from 0.3/0.392 to 0.225/0.294
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.9 to 0.675
Short reload from 1.74sec. to 2.08sec.
Long reload from 2.8sec. to 3.36sec.

Armistice
Forward Grip, Extended Magazine, HVA
Now properly restores one magazine per tick from ammo boxes
Max damage range from 6 to 4
Min damage range from 50 to 62
Velocity from 388 to 370
ADS Cone of Fire from 0.2 to 0.3
Vertical recoil from 0.225 to 0.15
Horizontal recoil from 0.3470/0.3760 to 0.26/0.282
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.9 to 0.675
Short reload from 2.25sec. to 2.7sec.
Long reload from 2.92sec. to 3.5sec.

Tempest
Forward Grip, Extended Magazine, HVA
Now properly restores one magazine per tick from ammo boxes
Max damage range from 6 to 4
Min damage range from 54 to 66
ADS Cone of Fire from 0.2 to 0.3
Vertical recoil from 0.36 to 0.3
First shot recoil multiplier from 2.25 to 2.5
Horizontal recoil from 0.212/0.304 to 0.159/0.3
Horizontal recoil tolerance from 0.7 to 0.675
Short reload from 1.855sec. to 2.23sec.
Long reload from 3sec. to 3.6sec.

The Immortal
Velocity from 163 to 325
ADS CoF bloom from 0.12 to 0.06
Magazine size from 17 to 15
Ammo capacity from 85 to 90

The Executive
Velocity from 188 to 375
ADS CoF bloom from 0.14 to 0.07
Magazine size from 15 to 13
Ammo capacity from 75 to 78

The President
Velocity from 188 to 375
ADS CoF bloom from 0.1 to 0.05
Magazine size from 21 to 18
Ammo capacity from 105 to 108

Chaos, Havoc, The Brawler
Remain unchanged, outside of the shotgun balance changes.

Moonshot, Parsec, Bighorn
Remain unchanged.

Revenant, DMR-99, Guardian
Remain unchanged.

Vehicle Balance
Vehicle Knockback
Vehicle knockback felt too sluggish in realistic conditions, and overall wasn't a good fit for the game. This mechanic has been shelved for now, though we may explore using knockback as a feedback mechanism in the future, instead of a mechanic with more tangible gameplay implications.

Aspis Anti-Air turrets (lattice base version)
Projectile lifespan from 3sec. to 1.2sec.
Projectiles now detonate at the end of their lifespan.
This change brings the maximum effective range of base turrets to 450 meters to focus their role on the defense of the base, instead of influencing far-off fights.

Vehicle Thermal Optics
Renamed "Threat Detection Optics"
No longer highlights infantry
Now highlights projectiles and some NPCs
Ground-vehicle thermal range from 150 to 350
Aircraft thermal range from 350 to 500

ESF
Hornet Missiles
Direct damage from 2000 to 1500
Indirect damage from 550 to 250
Indirect damage max range from 4m to 3m

Valkyrie
Pelter Rocket Pods
In-game stats now display correct indirect damage range.
Magazine from 8 to 10
Ammunition capacity cert line from 8 rockets per rank to 10 rockets per rank
Velocity from 150 to 250
Ammo capacity from 64 to 100

Harasser
Fury
Indirect damage from 334 to 150

Galaxy
Bulldog
Direct damage from 1000 to 600
Indirect damage from 500 to 400

Sunderer
Empire Specific Weapons
These weapons have had baseline adjustments to damage and in some cases, mechanics. Please provide feedback.
Siegebreaker’s camera and model have been fixed and adjusted.

Deployment Shield
Maximum health from 2000 to 2500.

Basilisk
Pitch down limit from 24 to 18

Bulldog
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11

Fury
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11
Refill ammo per tick from 32 to 16

Walker
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5

Ranger
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5

ANT
Empire Specific top-weapons have been shelved
Fixed various third person top-turret cameras

Basilisk
Pitch down limit from 24 to 15

Fury
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11
Refill ammo per tick from 32 to 16
Indirect damage from 334 to 150

Kobalt
Pitch down limit from 25 to 18

Walker
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5

Ranger
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5

Bulldog
Pitch down limit from 17 to 11

Prowler, Magrider, Vanguard
Top Armor
The top armor cert line now increases resistance to C4.
Currently, two bricks will barely destroy these vehicles (so effectively no change if you were getting destroyed by two bricks prior,) but we are open to adjustment after seeing how it affects the desirability of the top armor cert line.

Ranger
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5

Walker
Pitch down limit from 0 to 5

Misc. changes and additions
Removed holiday themes from the Engineer's ammunition pack and C-4 brick.

Bug fixes
MKV-P Suppressed's rail attachments should no longer share space with optics.
Fixed Galaxy tail weapon camera.

Very Bad changes....

Butcher has Unlimmited/Infinite Ammo with an Ammopack
Butcher doesn't have got Magazine in reserve so it restocks the Magazine in the Gun....

Is it so hard to just think for one second?...

Directive Pistols are worse now.....wtf do you think? THEY SHOULD BE BUFFED

B U F F not NERF...
The Directive Pistols should be worth the effort...so make it slightly better than the Standart Pistols WITH Lasersight...maybe even unique mechanics...

Vehicles thermal optics have always been used to highlight infantry : it's their only purpose and only interest.

If you delete this hability and replace it with a useless function (highlights projectiles ? To do what ? Dodging faster than you projectiles ?), nobody will use it anymore.

By the way, infantry should have helmets (and not just scopes) with night vision ; we're in the future with high technology !

It's also time to have the possibility to have three implants like it was teased two years ago (and why not a night vision implant ?).

I hope the names "T7 Mini Chaingun" and "Butcher" in this changelog are inverted

As much as I am happy to see updates, this one just makes me shake my head in disbelief.

Vehicle Top Armor is supposed to combat C4, yet won't stop an instagib? Why cert it then? Who even only uses one brick on a vehicle aside from the few cases it drives off before you can place the second? Buffing the armor would have been a reasonable change since you forgot to nerf infantryside after the Resource Revamp and now even added rocklet rifles.

Vehicle Thermal Optics won't show infantry anymore. Wow, great, why use it then? It was useful for when you needed to watch out for these sneaky players trying to outsmart you. Now the cert line can go straight into the trash can. I mean, projectiles...really?

I haven't used my AV Mana turret in a while and I suppose I soon won't use it anymore at all if they keep nerfing its distance further.

Claymore nerf saddens me slightly, but we will see how that turns out. I will take a delay over a damage nerf any day.

All in all, I hope most of the changes will see an adjustment before they hit live, or, better yet, get scrapped completely.

So he steals my ASC engi idea and a **** ton of dumb changes that won't really have an overall impact on the game as a whole. Fights will still be zergy/end in 2 minutes. Typical Wrel changes.

Yes because Wrel is the only DB employee

Tempest and Shuriken's Max damage range is ABYSMAL. What are you smoking ? 4 METERS ? You literally have to shove the barrel up to the guy's face for it to do maximum damage, I'm speechless. And you removed the additional ADS accuracy with the added vertical recoil. Looks like the Skorpios will be the only somewhat useful auraxium SMG, the others will do terrible damage if you're not right into the guy's face, which means you're better off using a NS PDW, which has a MINIMUM range of 20 meters with SPA. Oh and you also nerfed the reload times, because you had to put those smgs into an even worse position. The standard 1rst gen SMGs with a forward grip and SPA will just do a better job all around at ranges where you fight and beyond, even without the extended mags.

I'll just be on suicide watch if anyone is looking for me, this game is ******* hopeless. Rest in pieces Shuriken, you were a fun weapon to play with in the end, I'm sorry about what I said about your horizontal recoil and lack of SPA. Oh well, at least I got a battle rifle to aurax. With some luck, it may even be better than the new Shuriken at close range !



My hope is Wrel will add SPA instead of giving it HVA with the downsides. I'm mindblown.

OMG That changes making me cry...

Threat Detection Optics:
- who needs to see Projectiles instead of Infantry... Useless

Betelgeuse:
- I really dont know why this happen is hated that much...
- 65 shots compared to 500 of Butcher... who needs Heatmechanic if there is no need to reload and still be able to kill dozens of people.

Butcher:
- Thanks for 500 bullets instead of reducing its accuracy at least a bit.

Godsaw:
"The Godsaw now has a secondary firing mode which deals minor damage to vehicles, but reduces its damage against infantry by 50%." Tank Damage? Really?
I dont see a reason why people should unlock Betelgeuse anymore :'D Just compare its function to Godsaw and Butcher

Galaxy Bulldog:
- 1000 direct damage to 600... guys, those are 60mm HE Granades. I was pretty sure these things were ment to kill you by one hit.
But Im not an expert in weaponry

Harasser Fury:
- It was an alternative for other factions who cant use TR's Infantry thing. Had a lot of fun with it. RIP Furry groupkills

Mana AV Turret:
- i see you guys really dont want people make use of it. Atm people rather spam maxes or tanks to fight other tanks. this patch wont change the actual situation.


All i wrote above shoudnt be changed in the way it is going to be imo.
I Love this game, and till now I appreciated nearly every patch but it is getting worse.

When you started to take away our lovely av turrets from tech plants, when you buffed airhammer and banshee ( which (including Light PPA) dont even have the right to exist imo, The queue system which doesnt work most of the time on cobalt, I started to think about where patching would end up...

Sry bad english. And please... just do not release this garbage.

Might as well cut the ******** and just say " Made thermals useless, screw you all" and decreasing the galaxy mortars?? Why ? Were they buffed recently or is that just a screw us too. It's been fine, stop breaking things.

My feedback:
Infantry Balance
AV-MANA: Thank you, FINALLY!

AR's
The T1 Unity now trades hipfire accuracy and reload speed for magazine size and SPA over the T1 Cycler. Good change. On the other hand... you're effectively giving TR medics an MSW-R... are you sure about this?
The Gauss Prime now trades hipfire accuracy for HVA ammunition over the NC1 Gauss Rifle. Small difference but good sidegrade for those that want a bit more range out of their Gauss Rifle.
The Darkstar now trades hipfire accuracy for the heat mechanic over the Pulsar VS1. I personally believe that the heat mechanic requires far more drawbacks for how strong it is (especially on a class like combat medic that can cool the weapon down while reviving). Similar to the Betelgeuse change I would recommend reducing its minimum damage to 112 from 125.

LMG's
Butcher finally got what the community has been asking for but not sure if both of the following are features or both bugs or one of each: 1. The Butcher goes through its reload animation anytime you touch an equipment terminal (don't even have to resupply) 2. The engineers ammo box ticks add ammo straight to the magazine and not the reserve ammo.
We'll see how the Betelgeuse nerf plays out on live. My personal opinion is it won't change anything.
Giving the GODSAW and ONLY the GODSAW the ability to damage armor is a HUGE mistake. I would move this functionality to the heavy weapons instead. Replace the Jackhammers burst fire mode with slug fire mode for AV potential. Remove the Lashers splash damage for AV potential. Reduce MCG's RoF for AP potential.

SMG's
Good changes all round, especially the horizontal recoil and horizontal tolerance changes.

Sidearms
More velocity and less bloom at the expense of magazine size is a nice shift to higher skill play for people who use sidearms as primary. HOWEVER, everyone that's not a masochist would've, no doubt, preferred to see a hipfire CoF reduction at the expense of magazine size.

Vehicle Balance
Impulse shelved... good? I felt it was a bit gimmicky.
Aspis AA Turret changes. Especially the 'detonates at the end of lifespan' should make for some great immersion while flying. Thank you!
Vehicle thermals. lol @ rename... but thank you for the functional change!
Hornet change. Thank you!
Pelter rocket buff. Thank you!
Galaxy bulldog nerf. ROFL "Just kidding suck my nuts [N]" -- Indeed.
Deploy Shield buff still doesn't protect it from 3-2 AV mine engineers.
Siegebreaker’s camera and model have been fixed and adjusted
Are you sure? Still seems broken on PTS.
ANT Empire Specific top-weapons have been shelved
Thank you Christ almighty! That would have been an absolute **** show.
Top armor change = no real change. Just calling it how I see it.
Various weapon pitch angle changes. Good QoL change.

should first weaken the aircraft

Yeah, let's make AA even more helpless and unable to kill. Let's make libs and gals even less vulnerable to AA. Let's completely take away the ability of an AA gun operator to finish these ESFs that just afterburn away out of the gun's range.

Oh, and thermals were not the problem. The inability to kill enemy air and the vulnerability of anti-air was the problem. Now we won't be able to go behind enemy lines, hack AA guns and shoot the libs that are hovering above our bases and not letting anyone get out of the spawn room.

MANA AV turrets... why? I used to do valk drops behind enemy armor zergs and deploy MANA AV to help out outpopped guys. First, someone decided to remove AV guns from tech plants. Now some "smart" person decided to make MANA AV nearly useless. Why? You want everyone who's playstyle differs from zerging to quit?

Is there a spy inside DBG that is doing everything to alienate players and shut down Planetside 2? Stupid decisions like that is what led to players quitting and servers getting merged. Stop this stupidity!

Infiltrators have battle rifles now. Yet another useless change intended to pretend that the devs care about the infiltrator class. Where is vehicle hacking? Where is construction hacking? Where are the long overdue cloak bugfixes?

The new mode for the godsaw is useless, they deal both (aka firemodes) the same amount of damage to harassers and ESF, the dmg to maxes is more important with the first mode.
And i think if you'll try to engage a MBT or lightning, even if the driver is the most stupid player on auraxis, he will kill you because of the RoF and the dmg, so this is a useless thing again, thx daybreak !

As you stated you're trying these changes out so they are subject to change themselves. Looking at the current comments it seems most would agree on these topics presented.

-Engineer's shield-: This is great! He already does so much compared to the other classes however, now that he can carry pretty much anything since last update. So he now going to be possibly overused.

-Battle rifle-: We already have snipers that can function the range of battles rifles with lower scopes. Don't see a purpose here.

-Mana AV Turret-: Thank you! At their previous range is near impossible to hit them much less snipe them at maximum turret range.

-Heavy Assault Weapons-
Mini-chaingun: This will be also greatly appreciated.
Lasher: Thank you.
Jackhammer: We will hate you. This shot gun already has a 1 shot kill within range. And an instant kill burst hip fire within range. Now it also gets a damage buff and..... extended damage range(?). Yeeaaahhh.... who's bright idea was this??

-Shotguns:- Spread being narrowed is good. It forces it to be a little less spray and play. However, they are shot guns. Maybe go the other direction. Sharper damage fall off (harder to kill in 20m range).

-GODSAW:- Vehicle damage function is actually pretty cool. Sadly, it's empire specific. So the big hefty killing weapons like jackhammer and this get more powerful and they are strictly NC. There's going to be a LOT of backlash for this. You should have at least consider adding the function to other factions.

-Directive Weapons:- Like some of the other comments I whole heartedly agree that these weapons should have a slight advantage over their specific type verses all over faction weapons. It takes a LONG time to get some of these and its better to reward those player (who are also paying you) for their hard work instead of nerfing them.

-Aspis Anti-Air Turrrets:- Greatly appreciated. Too many times players were killed by a AA-T from a base we could barely see in the distance. I do agree with the range as well on account it prevents flyers from staying in the range of capturing the base if flying high. However, it doesn't prevent them from sitting up there above the base as an infinite spawn beacon (which previous range did).

-Thermals -Threat Detection-: By far you'll get the most reaction out of this... the whole point of AI weaponry is to not inflict vehicle damage but seek out infantry. The one thing(!) that made that possible (night-vision just makes things like day and they can still hide) you take away. That's what thermals ARE! Seeing where a bullet comes from is pointless. A blind person can see that without glasses.... especially at night. And who CAN'T see the tank sitting in front of you. I'm pretty sure everyone who plays this games knows that it's already a threat.

-Galaxy -Bulldog: Damage reduction? Please no. Like another guy who commented. 60mm are supposed to kill you. Not tease you.

-Sunderer -Deployment Shield: This wasn't needed! If it already takes 2-3 engineers to take out, why make it 2-4? With the damage delay before it gets full strength, it literally makes it indestructible(!) unless you have a squad to assault a single sunderer.
•I've also noticed, that it takes up more C4 charges than the blockade armor does. If the shield is capable of withstanding multiple tank mines and C4s before taking damage, why don't you add into the blockade armor tank mine reduction as well. In a fight against sunderers, the deployed shield sunderer wins every single time against an armored one (both being fully upgraded). The shield should have a greater delay! Especially with increased health.

All other changes I can agree with.

when the Scorpion will be like all the policy directive weapons at Vanu
"I never run out of ammo"?

Geezus that's alotta crying in here.

Concerning the Thermal changes:
It's quite obvious that this change wants to adress the vehicle vs infantry gameplay issues a little bit and that's very good. I've sat in a A2G mozzie and reaver so far and anyone who's saying that this change would ****up their playstyle should
I mean, how do you even hit your enemies on ground without thermals?

Concerning D-Changes:
Sounds good, no complaints. And to the tear-fountain some posts above: Infinite ammo without engi is still considerably better in terms of ammo supply than a 500r LMG without engi
Looking at the Godsaw changes, I really like what you're trying to implement there and cannot understand the ruckus over the fact that it's only available to NC. We wanted diversity and now we get it. I dunno what the others are crying about, finaly some more NC ADS HA I can take out with my beloved sniper-rifles

Concerning Galaxy changes:
Finally some justice to the actual function of the Galaxy. I mean, it's a transport aircraft for no rea- oh wait it is? Well, with this chan ge you will at least give it a part it's desired functionality back

Concerning Sundi changes:
You really can read my mind, huh? It's quite obvious that, in these days, fights get simply destroyed by taking out the attacker's Sunderer and most often when the attacker has too strong numbers or too many skilled players. Kill the spawn and clean up the remains, no longer will this tactic be so easy! May the small fights live \o/

I think this was done so that Infils can use the "Scout Rifle" Directive Reward (which is a Battle Rifle). This Directive needs Infiltrator to unlock, but Rewarded an item Infils could not use.

So since thermal vision gets changed to not highlight infantry anymore. How about giving it more (the same as on other aircraft or at least similar to vehicles) range on the Valkyrie so it reaches out to more than touching distance?