Test Server Update - Sept. 18, 2020

Discussion in 'Test Server: Announcements' started by RPG_Wrel, Sep 18, 2020.

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  1. RPG_Wrel Lead Designer

    PTS has been updated with the following changes.
    Test Server installation can be found here: http://launch.daybreakgames.com/installer/PS2_Test_setup.exe

    The Shattered Warpgate (PTS Update 3)
    We're getting closer. As mentioned in our previous PTS updates, we're preparing The Shattered Warpgate to come Live once we've got it into a good state. Until then, we're continuing to patch PTS to focus test different aspects of this update.
    • While on PTS, you'll find an interactable object next to the new campaign vendor on Sanctuary handing out FREE STUFF. Interacting with this holographic Flash will provide you with currency and certain campaign items for testing purposes.
    • Campaigns will be disabled in this initial update, and a limited pool of missions will be available to test.
    • Esamir (and all continents) will be unlocked 100% of the time for this testing.
    There will be no official playtests this week, due to the scope of the changes, though we encourage you to continue sending feedback on missions, bases, and any bugs found thereabouts.

    Environment changes
    • Shattered Warpgate Shallows - Fixed the northern shallows area so that it doesn't dip beneath the water plane.
    • Jord Amp Station - More cover has been added to the C point.
    • The Traverse - The capture point for this base is now placed on the bridge, and the bridge itself is shattered, creating a sort of jumping puzzle that players will use to reach the point.
    • Nott Communications - This base is now almost entirely underground, built into a faster than normal 3-point capture with a unique gameplay loop.
    • Echo Valley Substation - There is now a sunderer garage east of the base. Vehicle shield is no longer opaque. Adjusted cover.
    • Mattherson's Triumph - Sunderer no-deploy zone has been moved to allow attackers to deploy a Sunderer in the west-most tower.
    • Eastwake Harborage - Significant updates to capture point area. Additional cleanup.
    • Andvari Ruins - Is now a three-point vehicle capture base.
    • Eisa Tech Plant - Extended capture timer on this base.
    • Grey Heron Shipping - Broken door to the underground can now be easily crouched beneath, and defenders from the spawn room can now reach this area more easily. Various cover additions and fixes.
    • Excavion DS-01E - Changed the A capture point building location. Using the tunnels now brings you to a covered, indoor location. Sunderer no-deploy is now visible. Various cleanup.
    • Vidar Observation - Now has a vehicle terminal.
    • BL-4 Recovery Point - Now has working spawns/terminals/shields, and has also been given a vehicle terminal.
    • Jaegar's Fist - Fixed the trench's size to allow for easier passing beneath. Outer spawnroom shields are now one-way, allowing defenders to shoot out.
    • Genudine Gardens - Vehicles should no longer be able to enter from the gap in the southeastern wall. Fixed various height issues throughout the base.
    • Electrical Storm - We're currently working on getting more accurate UI indicators of the storm's size integrated into the map. Some additional fixes are needed, but its work-in-progress state is now available.
    • Various cleanup of floating grass, trees, textures, and very likely a bunch of base changes that weren't listed here.
    Known environment issues:
    • Kill planes beneath the water are currently inoperable in most places, and will be fixed in a later update.
    • The Crown's D point has been removed (intentionally,) but still appears on the map and HUD.
    • Ceres Hydroponics continues to have missing assets in the capture point room.
    • Jord Amp Station has a floating shield on the second story.
    • Snowshear Fort remains unfinished.
    • Mani Lake Processing will receive changes in the future.
    • Tapp Waystation and Untapped Reservoir will receive hardspawns and vehicle pads in a later update.

    Vehicles
    Colossus
    • Deployment Shield damage has been reduced by 50% across the board.
    Dev Note: We're increasing the survivability of the Colossus' deployment shield significantly, though there will likely need to be additional tuning on a per-type basis following this change.

    Liberator
    • Maximum health from 5000 to 4500.
    • Resistance to aircraft noseguns (type 8) from 85 to 80.
    Dev Note: These changes bring the Mosquito's Needler, as an example, from 22.4 seconds to kill to 14.4 seconds to kill at optimum range. Tomcat A2A Missiles go from an 8 shot kill to a 7 shot kill, or from 6 shots to burning to 5 shots to burning. Dalton goes from a 4 shot kill to a 3 shot kill. These changes, especially the nosegun resistance, are a fairly significant modification to the current power balance of ESF and Liberator. We will continue to monitor feedback and adjust as needed.

    Nanite Costs
    • Harasser nanite cost from 150 to 300
    • Lightning nanite cost from 350 to 300
    Dev Note: Overdue housekeeping change as Harasser/Lightning have been balanced along similar lines in recent years, and should result in slightly fewer Harassers on the field at any given time.

    Aspis Anti-Air Phalanx Turret
    • Projectile lifespan from 1.2 seconds to 2 seconds.
    Dev Note: This returns some of the range that was lost in a previous update, increasing the maximum projectile distance from 450 meters to 750 meters.


    Misc. Changes, Fixes, and Additions
    • Added hover-over tooltip for Campaign Standing currency.
    • Made adjustments to Join Combat to target better locations.
    • Cleaned up text in various Missions.
    • All three holo-globes in the Expeditions vendor on Sanctuary can now be interacted with.
    • Representative Foster in Sanctuary now has custom idle animations.
    • Fixed an issue where water would be rendered over the environmental fog at long distance.
    • Esamir water now renders for clients on low graphical settings.
    • Revisited loading screen tips to ensure accuracy, and added new ones related to Bastion, Colossus, Missions, and Campaigns.
    • Reduced the rate at which the animated Mission indicator pulses on the HUD.
    • Improved the hitbox on the Depot button, so it doesn't interfere with clicking on Accept Mission.
    • Fixed a misspelled word on the Sanctuary news prompters.
    • Skyshield Modules now prevent Lightning Bolts from spawning nearby.
    • Explosions from Lightning Bolts and Lightning Grenades are now blocked by Construction objects.
    • Reclaimed vehicles no longer despawn while at Eisa Tech Plant or an allied Warpgate unless you are on a Mission asking you to return them.
    • Reclaimed vehicles no longer float away on death.
    • Reclaimed Sunderers' equipment terminal can now be interacted with.
    • Fixed an issue related to reclaimed vehicle HUDs.
    • Adjusted objectives dialogue for completed Missions on the Mission screen.
    • Sunderer textures should no longer appear as all black when spawning the vehicle.
    • Camos should now appear properly on characters, instead of sometimes showing missing.
    • Up x 1
  2. vonRichtschuetz

    Weapon heat regeneration speed is still unaffected by condensate grenade. Will this be adressed to not create a faction advantage for VS?
    • Up x 1
  3. ZooZoo29

    They should cool down faster because it is a cold grenade : )
  4. The Grump

    changing harassers to 300 nanites is such a typical daybreak tardpandering move, bravo

    it's always reassuring to see the dev team choosing to hand over the wheel to the right group of people.
    the crybabies on reddit with <100hrs demanding nerfs prevail yet again

    you should release a yes/no poll to find out what portion of the player base is confident that any of the dev team actually play the game enough to make well thought out changes, then you should ignore it
    • Up x 2
  5. Kevin

    Ahh yes. Agreed.
    They'll relapse and fix the harassers once people start quitting again. Only then they will ahve a handfull of players who play the way Wrel wants them to play. Which is the way he plays.

    • Up x 2
  6. MyPillowGuy

    Is there anything in the works for NSO players that incentives becoming a member? Other than the challange of having a very limited selection of weapons and vehicles, does it seem worth giving the NSO players more to work with as far as specialized weapons like the other factions? Ya know so we are more useful to the teams? I'd love to see a main battle tank, and fighter aircraft for NSO and more useful weapons so we can be less of a high level but low teir faction. I'm sure if there was at least a level playing field for the NSO more would join as such and reduce overall server imbalance.
    • Up x 1
  7. Blam320

    BS. This nerf to Harassers was a long, LONG time coming. And it's well-deserved, if a little heavy-handed, as well.

    Coupled with the Lightning buff this has me super excited. Maybe we'll see more actual armor columns, and less buggies literally tearing everything apart before they can get hit.
    • Up x 2
  8. CrepeTrain

    This was a much needed change that was an indirect nerf to the power that harassers already have, be glad they didn't change actual stat numbers on the harasser and instead removed their ability to be spammed to 'harass'.
    • Up x 2
  9. 4JlEH30CM

    Totally agree. seems like Wrel dont know that Planetside2 is a sandbox game and ONLY players decide what and how much they wanna to see on the battlefield at any given time. they all can take quad bike only no matter how much they cost and it will be quad bike hell just becouse of Planetside 2 is a sandox and we all play here because of that!

    Edication link for Wrel #mce_temp_url#

    Totally agree about players voting. This game is for players not for Wrel personally and DB should ask those who pay/play. Maybe some rulse like leaders only or 100+ levels only and vote result will be close to perfect and i will agree all results of that vote only because of i'll know that this is players community decision but not lonely Wrel and reddit crybaby.
  10. Liewec123

    Honestly wish you'd just ditch the annoying storm idea, or at least make it travel in a circle around the map.
    Making it intentionally harass the best fight is such a lame move.

    Also more vehicle capture bases isn't a great idea,
    These "bases" alway feel like you are just still on the way to the next base, just with a delay,
    They never feel like actual bases.
    Vehicles should get you to the bases, infantry should capture them.

    It's a long overdue change, a composite harasser has been stronger than a lighting for a long time
    And there was absolutely no justification for them to be as cheap as a few grenades...

    however I think with the 300 cost they should have also enabled 360 degree rumble seat
    to allow for new stronger harasser tactics (like harassers with maxes in the rumble seat being a more common sight)
    • Up x 2
  11. Kevin



    Woah woiah woah wait, its a nerf? I should read the damn updates.
    K, read it... From 150 to 300 nanites doesn't bother me. Thing is a good vehicle to be using. If you're ASP then get cheaper vehicle cost or don't die so fast with it.
    Pulling a harasser now has some weight behind losing it.

    In the end of this, I have to say OK with it costing more nanites. I'll be more careful when I pull one from now on.
  12. Liewec123

    Unfortunately not, NSO is with construction and asp in the big pile of half-baked ideas
    • Up x 3
  13. MichaelS

    300 Nanites isn't that big of a deal, but it ruins the craft for people with base loadout. There really need to be a mechanic where the costs depends on the guns equipped.
  14. Twin Suns

    The Traverse is now....a "jumping puzzle"???

    Well, at least I'll know where all the C-4 tinker bell's will be. :)
  15. MyPillowGuy

    I just want a workable long range max, main battle tank, an actual fighter, and some damn weapons that don't feel like just the bland versions of what everyone else can use lol is that too much to ask? Guess so. I mean the NSO can build space stations, war robots, and giant shields for bases but can't manage a fighter class air frame, a literal normal tank, or a max weapon that isn't literally just a heat cool down thumper with no modified ammo? C'mon daybreak...
    • Up x 1
  16. Larington

    Okay, latest roundup of observations:

    I approve of all the balance changes put forward, especially softening the Liberators resilience and giving more of a cost to being reckless with harassers.

    The storm looks much tidier at a distance now, no jankiness to the visuals anymore. Unfortunately when you get out to 4k meters, the green of the storm ins't there, just a black bubble for clouds with a hard edge at the further side of the circle.

    It's a little bit of a pity we only get the thunderstorms, I'd love to see more basic blizzards that reduce visibility at a distance.

    I'm hoping it'll be possible to acquire Bastion interceptors through the salvaging tool in time, I suspect you're keeping your powder dry on that one, for introduction later in the campaign.

    When the Havoc launcher was initially introduced it was like dumbfire rocket launcher but the rockets would fall quite rapidly which made them interesting as 'fly-by' weapons. Looking back, I wish the original rocket pods had functioned like that as it would've made them less effective at farming soldiers, but oh well.

    Sunderer Armadillo armour - Kind of wish those little antennae on the back reacted to vehicle movement (A bit of wobble, basically), but it's not a big deal I'm not sure if that's something that would need coder time.

    Convoy missions - I see the convoy missions happen every 30 minutes atm, if we're certain of timings, maybe give players a countdown to the next convoy start if they have a convoy protection/convoy mission pinned and arrive on a continent.

    Base design:

    Eastwake Harborage - Point is *so much* better. Looking forward to some play test time targetted at this base now. The bulkier than usual cover on top and all the windows being shuttered should help against vehicles firing down from the hills with cheeky HESH. Meanwhile, having those ramparts overhead should give the defenders routes into the buildings that are protected some what from air-to-ground.

    Excavion DS-01E - Uhm, that name's deliberate right? Not meant to be Excavation DS-01E? Uh, anyway, good spread of cover here, I'm a tiny bit concerned about vulnerability to air to ground, but it's such a wide base that air will be forced to lurk around the spikes to avoid multiple AA launches. The collision shape over the bit is flat walking across it, rather than a hubcap shape, but the detection of bullets is the hubcap shape - so there's an exploitable floor/flaw here.
    It would be cool if the gantry that leads up to those two consoles looped around the larger structure a bit more to increase up/down firing lines for troops here while also providing AV users with an extra elevated position to fire outward onto those surrounding rocks that has 'behind cover' in the form of the drilling rig itself.
    Terrain BL4 Crash Site - I know you're probably super busy with all the other bases but, this base is overdue for a sunderer garage or two.

    Jord Amp Station - The southeast gate towers are missing 1 AV base turret, unsure if that's intended or not (Or it's in bugged death state).

    Echo Valley Substation - Hmm, not sure I have any recommendations to make on this one for now, need to see it fought over properly. The copious tree cover should make things interesting - lots of places for light assault to toy around from. While technically there's no vehicle garage on the eastern side, the dip in the hill with the pipe and ammo tower surrounding it should provide decent cover. Hope the attackers are smart enough to mine up that road to stop vehicle pulls - but that one is on the players not the designers.
    Maybe consider a vehicle garage out the west side though, it's very exposed to vehicle fire from multiple angles. Or alternatively, put clusters of trees around the west entrance so that enemy vehicles won't incidentally notice the deployed sunderer too easily.

    Eisa Tech Planet - Consider replacing the one large no deploy zone with two medium deploy zones so sunderers can be deployed more easily around the SE rocks.

    The Traverse - Looking forward to fighting in this one, not many bases strongly encourage use of light assaults like this one will. I'm guessing removing the no deploy zone just to the North of it is on a to do list somewhere.

    Snowshear Fort - Approve of the use of increased 'overhead' cover here. I don't currently have any thoughts on how this base can be improved.

    Andvari Barracks - Show the jump pad on the west side as inactive, or, for fun, have it work anyway but instead land people who use it in some tree cover or onto the leaning tower of Andvari main.

    Andvari Ruins - I think how this base plays out is very much on the players and creating good bases, so this is one that will need to be play tested, I don't think I can give conventional feedback on this for now. The same applies to the other multi-point vehicle bases.

    Jaeger's Fist - I'm 50/50% on this myself but, the east side gate should probably have a little bit of wall above it, otherwise I can roll my sunderer up, deploy it and have a good firing line into people moving around in the courtyard. Probably not an essential change though.
    Doubling the height of the walls around the point was a good call, should limit abuse of HESH rounds being fired in from the hills while still giving light assaults opportunity to float in from above.
    I'm uncertain what to make of the one-way yellow shields on the spawn exit. That'll need to be experienced in a play test and see how people feel about it. Shouldn't be too abusable as there are no sight lines onto the northern hills.
    I like the small balcony just out the inner side of the northern building, it gives wide arc to shoot down into the courtyard if defenders are pushing back from the point without that building suffering from the "I'm being pushed from HOW MANY ANGLES" that is common with this building asset.

    Grey Heron Shipping - Looks like you've successfully managed to prevent people from putting a sunderer in the tunnels underneath. That's good. Got to witness someone trying to do exactly that just now.
    Now as much as I like underground bases (And I wish people fought over Kwatee mountain way more than they do), we're still screaming out for signs on the walls pointing to the capture points. Don't force players to guess if possible please, it's not fun for new players.

    Nott Communications - Inside base so I'm immediately sold on playing it, however it is a bit of a maze and also requires signage to guide players from A to B to exits.
    The elevator beams by A are both downwards, not sure if that's intentional and what the generator above it is meant to do (If it's a shield or if it affects how the elevator beams behave, etc.).
    If players are smart they'll learn to do flanking pushes, sending a push around the outside to the teleporter or through the non-spawn ramps.


    That leaves unchanged far south bases and the far Northern Esamir bases which seem fine to me and I don't have any further recommendations right now aside from what I put in a previous test thread.
  17. DankBudha

    Where's my thumbs down button for this?? C'mon now, long overdue change....150 certs for something with such good survivability and a good punch is out of whack for sure......if you can't make your harasser last this long, then you should prob just build a player base with light vehicle pad and pull them that way. If you have a lot of playing hours like you claim, you shouldn't have a problem just using nanites because you'll live plenty long enough to have them fully refreshed before you need a new one.


  18. TRspy007

    Why not just revert CIA, and put harassers in the relatively balanced position they were before? What's a 150 nanite increase gonna do when those things can last for hours because of how survivable and powerful they are?

    Also why why why do this to Esamir, when Hossin is unfinished, and Amerish is so lame? Why's it always Indar and Esamir that get all the revamps? And Oshur? Do we remember when it was supposed to be out last summer?

    I've got nothing against adding new bases or fixing some up. But to put it bluntly:
    • The missions are lame and have no correlation to the game. (COD or PS2? I stuck around for PS2).
    • The revamps fine I guess, but it wasn't a priority, and I'm pretty sure the Indar revamp makes things even worse
    • The storm is just a weird choice. I know the devs want a battle royale, but what happened to planetside arena? The only players interested in the franchise right now are veterans, and I'm pretty sure we don't wanna play fortnite. Sure, maybe keep it for a cool effect in the sky, whatever - but it shouldn't bother players, much less kill them.
    • Harasser nerf...well it's not a nerf. Increasing the cost isn't gonna do much to stop them from tanking way more damage than they should or wrecking anything they come across. Again, they were more balanced in their previous state.
    • The a7 stuff is well...meh. Like the directives and the other a7 consumables, it feels like something that took about 1 minute to do, and has little to no use (especially not in comparison to the other weapons available to ESFs).
    • The phalanx turret is just a meme whether you change it or not it's still about as useful against air vehicles as a flare gun - and still, the flare gun might actually distract the pilot for a split second.
    • Colossus change is again whatever, not sure what its even in the game for.
    • Sanctuary is still a troll and waste of space IMO. We should be able to access everything that's there directly from the loadout screen, not sure why we gotta risk being in a 40 minute queue each time we want to collect and expedition or spend some merit.
    • Liberator is probably one of the changes I look forward to the most in this "update". The health nerf isn't anything extreme, from what I understand its more to help out a2a than g2a. I would like to see a damage output nerf, it's so frustrating that something that requires 0 skill can just delete ground vehicles so quickly with little to no room for retaliation. I'm hoping maybe we fix resistances or simply nerf the dps on liberators.
    Overall this is again much like the escalation patch: unnecessary cheese that does little to please anyone, and just strays the game further away from what it is. Instead of actually pleasing the veterans who stuck around through tough times, the team prefers to turn Planetside 2 into some weird COD and Fortnite mix. That's not what the vets want, and the game is too unpolished for new players to survive more than 30 minutes.
    Seriously, there's more pressing issues I think the team should be focused on.
    • Up x 1
  19. DankBudha

    LOL, you sound like a salty old vet!

    On a serious note though TRspy, I 100% agree with all your points from a personal perspective and how I would personally like the game to develop.....but, I also know that there needs to be updates to continue to draw in new players. And, since new players generally leave very quickly due to the steep learning curve and lack of direction, I also see the benefit of how they are trying to improve directed objectives to try and keep new players coming back for long enough to realize how unique and special this game is compared to every other shooter out there.

    That being said, I have, and will always, continue to argue that the developers of this game should boot up whatever copy of PS1 that have laying around on an internal server they have and spend some real time exploring the intricacies of that game. It would really help them to realize that there was dozens, maybe hundreds of game, balance and design aspects to that game that not only encouraged, but forced team based gameplay and strategy on multiple levels. From base design and NTU supply to the lattice, how it connected continents and sanctuaries, to making players specialize so that you needed more than 1 person to do anything effectively, and the more diverse a group, the more effective you became. It was much more a rock/paper/scissors game, where everything had a hard counter, which made group play a cornerstone, and without re-deploy-side, you all had to also travel together in vehicles meant for those sorts of things.

    Also, that game started out with more than double the continents, and after 6 (7?) more years, we have yet to get another continent here, which seems kind of crazy to me.

    I also am of the mind frame that they should have been doing more this whole time to keep the vets around, since we have always been what has kept this franchise alive, but I do try to give them some credit for trying to hook in to the larger FPS audience, because getting more players overall would be even better for this franchise. But, I have also never been convinced that trying to appease and draw in people that love those AAA FPS franchises would be good for the long term direction and longevity of this title. Those players play those game and move on all the time, which wouldn't help this community if we're playing the long game.
    • Up x 1
  20. TRspy007


    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


    yeah right now I get the feeling the devs would rather attract 100 new players for 10 minutes than keep the veterans that have been keeping the franchise alive for years.


    Tbh I'm not even sure the devs understand what they're doing, because as soon as a bastion or an OS appears or a 96+ fight happens the fps just drop and server latency becomes so unstable the game becomes even less enjoyable than it already is. Why try to attract pop when the game can't even handle it anymore?????


    Fr they should just boot up a copy of beta or ps1, just work on updating the graphics, maybe a continent once in a while and that's it. All they've been doing right now is just adding more cancer and ultimately killing the new and old playerbase.
    • Up x 1
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