Feb. 12, 2019 - PTS Update

New Empire Specific Carbines
We've added three new carbines to the arsenal, one for each empire. These weapons are still a work in progress, and lack finished attachments, aesthetic polish, and may receive tuning adjustments prior to release.

• VE-C Horizon - Vanu Sovereignty - The controllable Horizon carbine fires a horizontal fan of three pellets from the hip, and a tighter, vertical fan of three pellets while aiming down sights.
• MGR-C1 Charger - New Conglomerate - The Charger has a higher rate of fire than the typical NC Carbine, and has increased damage for the first few shots of every fresh reload.
• MG-C1 Kindred - Terran Republic - The Kindred is a hard hitting carbine with a short period of increased fire rate every trigger squeeze.

Refine and Refuel - Continent Event

• The Refine and Refuel continent event has been added to the rotation on Public Test Server. This event is still a work in progress.
• At the start of the event, two Refineries will spawn toward the center of the map, and there will always be two available on the map at all times.
• Players are tasked with harvesting Cortium and depositing it into one of the refineries.
• When a Refinery is full, it will blast off into orbit, and a new one will spawn at another location.
• The faction with the most refined Cortium at the end of the event will receive access to the (very work in progress) Wasp Prototype air vehicle.
• The Wasp is a Valkyrie variant that has a nose-mounted mining laser, cortium-fueled afterburners, as well as pilot-operated dual rocket pods.
• The Wasp is available to spawn at the Warpgate of the victorious faction.

Join Combat Revision
This system has been restructured, and should no longer fail to send players off when the countdown completes.

Join Combat now works on a priority system when deciding where to send players.

• First, it looks for ideal populations and balanced fights.
• If none exist, it'll simply look for balanced fights.
• If none of those exist either, it will send the player to attack an enemy frontline base, even if that base is empty.

In addition, it now makes decisions on how to send players to fights.

• First, the system looks for hardspawns at the chosen location.
• If none exist, it will then look for soft spawns at the chosen location.
• If none of those exist either, it will send the player to that location in a drop pod.
• In the future, we'd also like to sort players into unlocked vehicles with open gunner seats.

Restructuring Join Combat in this way allows us to deliver players to an ideal PlanetSide experience first, wherever they're available. We then focus on intensifying balanced fights that currently exist, while helping generate new fights along the frontlines. These changes work hand in hand with the spawn system revamp mentioned below.


Spawn System Revamp
We've recently made large revisions to the spawn system that will help filter players into more enjoyable fights, discourage overpopulation as it moves from base to base, as well as allow for more freedom to move around the map.

The current, Live spawn system is too restrictive, and doesn't point players in any particular direction. Veteran players will often resort to hopping from spawn point to spawn point in order to reach the fights they want to participate in. At the same time players are discouraged from leaving their current lane, which contributes heavily to the formation of "zergs" that then move down a lattice lane unopposed. This experience is detrimental to new players and veterans alike.

The revised spawn rules now work on a priority system, with ideal spawn locations appearing first, and additional spawn locations appearing after a longer wait period, effectively throttling how quickly players can redeploy around the map, while still giving them the option to do so.

Priority 1 Spawn Locations - Default spawn timer

• Warpgate
• Last spawnpoint you used.
• Spawn Beacons.
• Squad-spawnable vehicles.
• Other spawn points within your current region if that region is not overpopulated.
• Allied regions adjacent to an enemy region with less than 12 players at it.

Priority 2 Spawn Locations - Additional wait time.

• Spawn locations in your current region if your region is overpopulated.
• Allied regions with adjacent enemy territory with less than 96 players, and aren't cut off from the lattice.
• Outfit-owned regions that are not overpopulated, and aren't cut off from the lattice.

Priority 3 Spawn Locations - Longest wait time.

• Allied regions without enemy adjacency and aren't cut off from the lattice.

These changes give players the ability to jump to low populated regions to start moving down lanes with less occupancy; prohibits players from redeploying directly into overpopulated regions from outside them; and slows down the respawn time in overpopulated regions when your last-used spawn point is destroyed.
We have a lot of flexibility with this system to either loosen up or clamp down harder on the ruleset, and will undoubtedly make adjustments as it continues to shake out.


Vehicles
New Weapon: M202 Wyrm (Scythe, Reaver, Mosquito)
The M202 Wyrm is an ESF secondary weapon that fires hard hitting, slow moving rounds at a low rate of fire.
Functionally, the Wyrm is a more sustained-fire alternative to A2A lockon weaponry for hunting large-air targets, and has the versatility to defend against enemy ESF if the user's aim and prediction is good enough.
This weapon is still a work-in-progress, please leave feedback once you've put some time in with it on PTS.

A2A Lock-on Missiles (Scythe, Reaver, Mosquito)
Reduced the maneuverability of lock-on missiles.
Lockon time from 2sec. to 1.5sec.
Reload from 4sec. to 6sec.
Lockon Speed rank 5 cert cost from 1000 to 500
Lockon Speed cert line benefit from 5/10/15/20% to 5/7/9/10%
Lockon Range rank 5 cert cost from 1000 to 500
Reload Speed cert line benefit changed to a flat percent of 5/7/8/9/10%
Reload Speed cert line cost from 150/200/400/500/1000 to 100/150/200/400/500
Dev Note: The changes here are geared toward making air to air missiles easily dodgeable by ESF, while making it difficult, but possible, for larger air vehicles to avoid as well. The faster base lockon speed, alongside the longer reload time, makes the weapons a bit easier to use regardless of attachment type, while lowering the maximum damage over time these weapons can put out. Lockon speed benefit has been reduced so that other options receive more consideration, and we've also touched some of the cert costs to make the weapon attachments more reachable for lower level players.


NS Operatives

• Auraxium armor sets now properly accept decals.
• Auraxium directive weapons can now unlock and equip the proper attachments.
• Auraxium directive weapons can now earn medals.
• Auraxium weapon directives now also award a unique banner to NSO characters at the maximum level.
• Added Auraxium reward weapon to the Assault Weapons directive.
• Added Auraxium reward weapons to the Auraxium bundle available on Public Test Server.
• Made tuning adjustments to Auraxium NSO weapons.
• Moved the Long Rifles directive weapon reward to the correct Assault Weapons directive category.
• Operatives can no longer receive friendly fire while in friendly Warpgates.
• Fixed some stretching in the first person arms.

Misc. Fixes, Changes, and Additions

• TX1-FB Repeater should no longer have access to single-fire mode.
• When a faction locks a continent, their victory anthem will play.
• Players in a loading screen should no longer appear until their loading screen is dropped.