PS4 US and EU Game Update - 7/2 - Summer Overwhelming

All PS4 servers will be taken offline for an update at 6 AM PT on Monday, July 2, 2018.
Downtime is expected to last up to 3 hours.

“Warp Gate power draws 30% higher than normal, stability compromised, early theories of power degradation proving relevant. Need to investigate power conversion requirements. Back up matrix in case of failure.” - Journal entry from unknown member of Terran Republic Science, Recovery, and Exploration division.

Meta

Continent Events

• Your faction needs you. New continent “events” have been added to diversify gameplay, reward your victories, and shape your future.
• When Warpgates stabilize, they will now enter a charging phase for a few hours. While Warpgates are charging, special events will fire off periodically. Events are similar to alerts, but will not lock the continent upon completion. The rewards will vary, so will the gameplay.
• Maybe your faction needs you to investigate anomalies appearing over the continent, or maybe your faction needs to ramp up power production by controlling more Amp Stations, or maybe your continent is receiving a special visit from a blackmarket trader.
• For the launch of these continent events, we’ll be bringing back the old Facility control alerts and adding an all new event - the Aerial Anomaly. When a continent’s Warpgates are charging, facility events send you to control the most facilities of a certain type before the 30 minute timer runs out. During an Aerial Anomaly event, your faction asks that you gather readings while in proximity of the anomalies appearing high above the continent. During this event, all air vehicles are free!
• Events are pulled randomly from a pool, and we’ll be adding even more event types in the next update.

Meltdown

• Once Warpgates are charged (and only when they are charged,) the first faction to reach 41% territory control will trigger a Meltdown alert.
• Unlike the previous version of Meltdown, the triggering faction no longer needs to win the alert in order to lock the continent. In this version, whichever faction has the most territory control at the end of the now 1 hour and 30 minute alert will claim victory over the continent, and rain fire from the sky.

Koltyr VR
ESF and Valkyrie have been re-enabled for use in Koltyr VR.

Amerish Lattice Changes

• The Auger now has a lattice link connecting to Ikanam Garrison.
• Ikanam Garrison and Ikanam Triage are no longer connected by a lattice link.
• Ikanam Triage and Ikanam Motorpool are no longer connected by a lattice link.
• Ikanam Garrison and Ikanam Motorpool are no longer connected by a lattice link.
• Radar detection now works on all levels of Ikanam.

Dev Note: These changes ensure players go through Ikanam to progress any further down the lattice.

Upcoming Holiday Events
Independence Day - July 4 through July 8
We'll be holding Independence Day festivities starting the 4th of July and running through the 8th of July.
ALL players will receive DOUBLE EXPERIENCE during the event; Infantry Gear will be discounted by 40%; and special time-limited event items will be available in the Depot.
You'll also find the FREEDOM THRUSTERS available in your Light Assault infantry loadouts. These jump jets are max rank Skirmishers with a patriotic twist.
For New Conglomerate characters only, a stylish Independence Day variant of the Nomad Light Assault armor will also be available in the Depot.



Summer Event - July 4 through August 31
Starting the 4th of July and running through August 31st, we'll also be kicking off a summer event, complete with a new directive line, rewards, and complementary weapons to tame the Indar heat.
Check your secondary weapon slot to find the new Soldier Soaker pistol, able to pelt enemies with a blast of water.
Water Balloons can also be found in the Grenade Slot. These balloons detonate on impact, and deal moderate damage.
Both the Soldier Soaker and Water Balloon kills contribute to the a new Summer directive, and these items will disappear from players' loadouts when the event ends.



Summer Event Directive
Beat the Heat: Score kills with a Summer Holiday Weapon
Beachhead: Kill enemy vehicles while in a vehicle yourself
Death From Above: Kill enemies while mid-air as any infantry class
Summer Support Ribbons: Earn summer support ribbons by resupplying or repairing friendly vehicles while in a vehicle yourself
Transport Assist: Earn experience when allies leave your transport vehicle and score a kill
King of the Castle: Earn experience by capturing or defending control points

Tier 2 (Silver) Reward
Indar Summer Profile Banner


Tier 3 (Gold) Reward
Flash Empire Specific Weaponry
We've introduced three new Flash Weapons as summer event rewards. These items will go into the Depot later in the year, but for now you can unlock them early and without a cert price.
LA7 Buzzard (New Conglomerate)
The Buzzard converts the flash into a makeshift artillery platform, using heavy high explosive shells with a large blast radius. NC use only.
V30-F Starfall (Vanu Sovereignty)
The Starfall fires a quick 3 round plasma barrage, meant to strike at unsuspecting vehicles with lighting speed. VS use only.
M4-F Pillager (Terran Republic)
The Pillager lays down a field of flames which ignite infantry caught within. TR use only.

Tier 4 (Auraxium) Reward
Auraxium Water Balloon Hood Ornament



Cooldown Timers for Vehicles
Vehicle abilities that require a cooldown will now display it both in first and third person. This replaces the flashing [WAITING] message that you would see while an ability was on cooldown.


Infantry

New Weapons

MG-HBR1 Dragoon (Terran Republic Battle Rifle)
The first automatic battle rifle to enter the battlefield, the Dragoon combines stopping power with precision. The Dragoon’s attachment lineup gives it access to explosive rounds, an accurate, semi-auto firing mode.

MGR-M1 Bishop (New Conglomerate Battle Rifle)
This finely tuned rifle uses special rounds which can pass through multiple infantry targets, dealing heavy damage along the way.

VE-LR Obelisk (Vanu Sovereignty Battle Rifle)
A heat based weapon, the Obelisk casts aside traditional ammunition requirements, while retaining versatility and damage.

Restoration Kit (Utility Item)

• Healing no longer stacks with the Combat Medic’s Nano-Regen Device.
• Description updated to reflect that the effect heals 70 health per second for 12 seconds.

C-4 (Utility Item)

• The C-4 detonator now has an updated model, and ARX C-4 uses an auraxium variant of this new model.
• C-4 now uses a new icon.
• C-4 now has a 0.4 second delay before the trigger press completes.
• C-4’s throw and trigger now share the same refire rate.
• A second brick of C-4 thrown in succession should no longer fire from below the waist.

NS-44L Blackhand (Pistol)
Max damage range from 8m to 20m. This change was proposed in an earlier update, but never made it Live.

Eidolon VE33, Warden, AMR-66 / Revenant, GD Guardian, DMR-99 (Battle Rifles)

• Maximum ADS cone of fire while walking, crouching, standing, and crouchwalking from 3 to 0.3
• Minimum ADS cone of fire while walking from 0.25 to 0.15
• ADS CoF recovery rate from 20 to 100
• Dev Note: These changes should make these battle rifles feel a bit more snappy and less punishing when maximizing their rate of fire.

99SV, Gauss SPR (Semi-Auto Sniper Rifles)

• Maximum ADS cone of fire while standing or crouching from 2 to 0.15
• ADS Cone of Fire recovery rate while standing or crouching from 20 to 100
• ADS cone of fire bloom from 0.8 to 0.15
• Maximum damage range from 10m to 50m
• Minimum damage range from 80m to 150m
• Projectile velocity from 550 to 570

VA39 Spectre (Semi-Auto Sniper Rifles)

• Maximum ADS cone of fire while standing or crouching from 2 to 0.15
• ADS Cone of Fire recovery rate while standing or crouching from 20 to 100
• Maximum damage range from 8m to 50m
• ADS cone of fire bloom from 0.8 to 0.15

Misc. Infantry Changes

• Reserve Hardlight Barrier can now be repaired.
• NSX Tomoe now shows firing mode as "Auto" instead of "Semi-Auto".
• TS2 Inquisitor now shows firing mode as "2x Burst/Semi-Auto" instead of "Semi-Auto"
• Medical Kit's description now states that it restores 500 health.
• Combat Medic's Nano-Regen Device description now states its heal rate and effective range.
• MAX unit’s Ammo Storage Container ability now grants the correct amount of ammunition for all weapons.

Vehicles

Anchor Mode (Prowler)

• Anchor Mode is now integrated into the Prowler by default, and certs have been refunded.
• Anchor Mode no longer increases reload speed.
• Anchor Mode's velocity bonus has been increased from 30% to 50%.

Barrage (Prowler)

• Prowler now has access to the "Barrage" utility slot ability.
• While active, the Prowler’s main cannon reload speed is increased by 30% for a period of time.
• This ability can be used while the vehicle is moving (or in conjunction with Anchored Mode.)

Dev Note: Integrating Anchored Mode lends some more faction flavor to the Prowler, while giving the Prowler a more versatile empire ability at the same time.

MR11 Gatekeeper (Prowler and TR Harasser top gun)

• Minimum velocity from 225 to 300 (Projectiles immediately start at full velocity.)
• Reload speed from 3000 to 3200
• Damage from 85 to 100
• Cone of Fire maximum from 0.4 to 0.35 (Harasser)

Dev Note: Bumping up the alpha damage and reload times quickens the weapon's time to kill against MBTs by about 2.5 seconds, while keeping Harasser time to kill the same (or better, if composite armor is equipped.) Removing the projectile acceleration should also make it easier to deliver a full payload over longer distances, and the cone of fire buff for the Harasser version should push its effective range a bit closer to the Prowler's. Overall the weapon will still have less effective range and reliability than a skillful Halberd user, but should have stronger hard benefits for its intended role now.

Aphelion (Magrider and VS Harasser top gun)

• Max damage range from 20m to 40m (Magrider)
• Min damage range from 50m to 80m (Magrider)
• Max damage range from 10m to 25m (Harasser)
• Min damage range from 50m to 75m (Harasser)
• Min damage from 125 to 143 (Harasser)
• Aphelion crescent beams now pierce through vehicles and infantry, passing through up to 2 targets total.
• Crescent wave no longer has damage fall-off, and now deals 800 damage at all ranges. (The previous damage model was 800@20m to 680@50m.)
• Crescent wave projectile lifespan from 7sec. to 1sec., this limits the crescent's range to 300m.

Dev Note: We've extended the damage ranges a bit to make the damage over time more consistently, and bump it out for ranges players typically tend to fall into when making use of these weapons. For the Aphelion, we also wanted to give the crescent wave some more niche usage with our new piercing tech, and give it a bit more umph beyond 20 meters while preventing abuse at long range.

Vulcan (Prowler and TR Harasser top gun)

• Max damage range from 10m to 25m (Harasser)
• Min damage range from 25 to 100m (Harasser)
• Max damage range from 10m to 40m (Prowler)
• Min damage range from 25 to 100m (Prowler)
• Maximum refire rate from 100ms to 80ms after 1sec.

Dev Note: Like the Aphelion, the Vulcan's range is extended to allow for more damage output at typical engagement ranges. In addition, we've increased the weapon's maximum rate of fire to give it a more competitive advantage when training fire on the target.

Enforcer (Vanguard and NC Harasser top gun)

• Direct damage from 300 to 325 (Vanguard)
• Direct damage from 250 to 325 (Harasser)
• Projectile max velocity from 300 to 250 (Harasser)
• Projectile gravity from 5 to 6 (Harasser)
• Magazine size from 8 to 7 (Harasser)
• Ammo capacity from 80 to 77 (Harasser)

Dev Note: Enforcer's damage on both Harasser and Vanguard have been equalized and improved, and Harasser's effective range has been reduced to compensate for the damage increase, similar to most other top-mounted Harasser weapons versus their MBT counterparts. We've also increased the overall damage to give the Enforcer harder hits and stronger synergy with directional damage bonuses. With these changes, 7 Enforcer rockets can destroy a Harasser without composite armor, and bring an MBT burning with the same number of shots to the rear.

Mjolnir (Vanguard and NC Harasser top gun)

• Projectile velocity from 250 to 200

Dev Note: Mjolnir retained its effectiveness beyond the intended range. A velocity adjustment helps reel in this range without having to debuff cone of fire attributes.

Misc. Vehicle Changes

• Pulling a vehicle now places it on a 30 second cooldown from being pulled again.
• Removed VR training dummies from the Thread Detection Optics target list.
• Galaxy's Nanite Proximity Repair System once again heals properly.
• Reduced C75 Viper's splash damage visuals with ones that are more in line with its actual area of effect.

Player Studio

Steveo's VS Skyfall Light Assault armor can now be found in the Depot.


Fuzzbuket's Babylon Magrider plating can now be found in the Depot.


TheHumm's Arthurian infantry and MAX helmets can now be found in the Depot.




Misc. Fixes, Changes, and Additions

• Berjess Checkpoint and Xenotech Labs now have connecting hexes on the map screen.
• Changed ownership of a hex near The Auger spawn room to belong to the region.
• The alert timer once again moves to the center of the screen when only 5 minutes remain.
• Padlocks should no longer appear over bases on the map screen.
• The total number of purchasable character slots has been increased from 4 to 6 (this change allows players to own up to 12 characters total on a single account.)
• Fixed some font issues in the My Character screen.
• Fixed various holes and terrain exploits on multiple continents.
• Fixed an issue with the weapon filter panel not filtering owned weapons properly.
• Fixed an issue where the shield shader would create a “hall of mirrors” under certain conditions. Other instances of this may still exist.
• Fixed an issue that was causing z fighting with the shield shader.
• Players now remain invulnerable until their loading screen drops.
• Updated various loading screen tips.
• Fixed some bad rotations on TR and NS SMG animations.
• Firing a Phoenix from a vehicle will no longer crash the player's client.
• MAX now has new directive objective: Damage to Vehicles.
• Valkyrie now has new directive objective: Roadkills
• MGR-M1 Bishop's Sabot Ammunition now properly reduces the weapon's rate of fire.