Been gone quite some time, Hossien(?) was new and DayBreak was new. Quit my sub and wandered off. I have a Nephew that has discovered the game and was all !!!!!! when I told him I was Beta yrs. back. I'm currently D/L 12GB of update over a 12Mbps DSL and have some time,lol So, What's the scoop? I'm reading the forums and "Implants" and "Base Building" and all sorts of stuff... Engineer and Sundy/Battlewagon was my game previously. Where do I need to focus to get back on track/up to par? Thanks for the help. Wasted
Oh boy, a lot happened since then. Multiple alert systems passed by, massive overhaul to vehicle combat happened, a lot of user-made content has been added to the Depot. Implants also, as you mentioned. An entire series of quite niche common pool (NS) weapons have been added, and new, very unique empire specific weapons are being added right as we speak. The first ones, 3 SMGs are already in, and one of them caused quite a havoc (VS one, of course), but this is expected to be resolved tomorrow.
Oh yeah, what HAX just said-tons of changes. Apart from pointing you towards the updates I'll try focus on engie/sundy -related things. The Combined Arms Initiative (CAI) basically removed vehicle resistance models and changed their base HP. It takes longer to repair them, by and large. Were you around when they introduced the stealth cloaking device for deployed Sundies? worth a look if not. There are also no deploy zones around other deployed sundies - visible on the minimap. AV top guns on all vehicles are much less effective against infantry now and thermal sights only light up vehicles. AI top guns are arguably more popular than they used to be although thermals don't highlight infantry on them either. If you are looking to run AA the Walker top gun is much the same but the Ranger has been buffed against aircraft.......quite significantly according to those who use it. Engies have an anti material rifle, the Archer, that will kill Maxes (2 HSK I think) and also damages vehicles, though not much. You can snipe infantry too but it is no more effective than against Maxes. Maxes can be killed by AV mines as well and have lost their Charge ability - pocket engies can be out of business more quickly now but at least they can keep up more easily! Engies have a new deployable shield to protect infantry (except that their heads stick up above it when they crouch). Also new directive, the "draw fire" ribbon, which you get when plantemans shooting at your shield get killed. It is used to block doorways and corridors as well as to proved cover, although you can jump over it. Not sure if you were around when they introduced the spitfire auto turret for engies - basically an early warning system rather than a killer bot - often seen around sundy spawn points and cap points. Ditto the ability to defuse enemy AV mines by right clicking the repair tool at them - handy when one has been dropped under your spawn point or other stationary vehicle. Claymore now has a trigger delay like the other faction mines, so they need to placed in different ways to before. There is an implant for engies that makes them and their mana turrets a bit tougher, otherwise the EOD HUD for spotting enemy mines is popular. Oh yes, and there is a nanite repair 'nade for engies too but IDK how effective it is. Generally, implants are dropped randomly when you buy packs of them and new players also get some small packs for completing early stage directives. They do not need to be powered by chargers now and once you have one it is usable on all classes of yours in that faction, so you only need one of each. They can be upgraded by ISO4 which you get from recycling duplicate implants or for taking part in Alerts. Welcome back
I was in the same boat. Took a long vacation. Implants are new but pretty self explainatory. Be conservative investing in them until you've gotten a few weeks of gametime in. Other new stuff based on your time away: Alerts have changed. Takes 40% territory and some refined cortium (more later) to kick off one. If the triggering faction wins it locks the continent. No more "capture all biolabs" alerts, or "take like 80% territory to lock" alerts. Light assault now has a rocket rifle to help with vehicles. Maxes got basically nerfed. No more charge. They are C4 bait now. Engies got a placeable auto-turret (similar to TF2). Engies also got an Archer anti-materiel rifle that 3-4 shots Maxes, and does non-ignorable chip damage to vehicles and aircraft. We have the harasser now - 3 man vehicle. Driver, gunner, rumble seat (usually empty, sometimes has repairing engy in it). Beware them running over landmines without damage and running down infantry/maxes without damage. The Valkyrie was added. Closest thing to a helicopter in the game: Pilot, nose gunner, 4 rumble seats. Can be spawn-deployed to like a galaxy. Liberator got nerfed. They keep trying pathetically to make it relevant again, but it's not working. The base building stuff.....here are the basics you need to know: Components of the player made bases (pmb) are obtained through the terminal of a (new!) deployed Ant vehicle. Ants must collect cortium (Big ***** gems randomly scattered) which is used as a building resource. Stuff can only be built outside of no-build zones that surround bases. This zone is roughly double the radius of a sunderer no-deploy zone. Core part of bases is the corium silo, everything is built around this. The walls, turrets, all that are obvious. Modules not so much. These are the "lump" objects in a base with an icon above them. Wrench icon is a priority: These repair nearby structures making them nearly invulnerable. Target icon is next priority: These are the AI modules that make the base guns self-fire. The bunker icon is what gives the base buildings those one-way fire through shields. Bases can also have either a Hive to refine extra cortium (once enough is refined, an empire can trigger an alert) OR they can have an orbital strike gun. Orbital strikes are usually used to kill other bases. They can be used to kill big convoys, but only can fire outside of that nobuild radius. Not sure if this was before your vacation or not: You can choose a vehicle to auto-spawn from the deployment screen when deploying to a base. Everything now deploys everything. If you have a tech plant you can pull MBTs from a minor base (used to be only lightnings from the small bases). You can direct deploy to galaxies, sundies, Valkyries (and other vehicles if you get lucky with the Logistics Specialists implant). Overall, normal ******** aside, the game is way better than when you left. Sorry about the wall of text. Tried to brain dump best I could.
WOW Finally got the D/L done, now to push "Play". Thanks much for the time and replies! This should be interesting. Off we go...
