PTS Update - 04/18

Combined Arms Initiative: Initial Balance Change Release Notes

The following is an overview of the initial round of changes we’re releasing as a part of the Combined Arms Initiative. As mentioned in the dev diary, we want the vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infantry relationships to feel more enjoyable on both sides. To reach this goal, we’ve established a new baseline for vehicle balance and have completed our first round of changes, which focus primarily on tanks.

Baseline Changes
The new baseline is intended to be the starting point for vehicle balance going forward. Internally, the new baseline will improve tuning and iteration. Externally, while there will be a few inconsistencies and changes as a result of the new baseline, we’re trying not to change the status quo too much (at least with the first round of changes). Survivability of vehicles will increase in some aspects, damage numbers on almost every anti-vehicle weapon will change and some variance in vehicle combat will be removed or smoothed out.

At its core, this new baseline involves changes to vehicle armor, resistances and health. So before we dive into the actual changes, it’s important to understand how Armor, Resistance and Health interact in our game.

Armor
Armor in PlanetSide 2 refers specifically to directional damage modifiers. The damage from an attack is increased or decreased based on the angle of the attacker in relation to their target. Currently tanks use this system by having stronger front armor and weaker rear armor.

Resistances
Resistances are a damage modifier based on the type of weapon. Tanks, for example, resist more damage from machine guns than they resist from anti-tank rockets. The old baseline was mainly tuned around resistances.

Health
Health is the amount of damage a vehicle can withstand before being destroyed. Health varies from vehicle to vehicle. These values have mostly gone unchanged since launch as resistances were used to do most of the heavy lifting.

Armor Changes
We’re moving away from innate armor resistances as a way to modify health pools, and instead align them more with their intended role of mitigating (or increasing) damage taken from specific directions.
In addition, we’re reversing the way the system is set up. Instead of reducing damage from directions the vehicle is strong against, damage will be increased from directions the vehicle is weak against. With the old method, anti-vehicle weapons had to have their damage numbers inflated so that they could “beat” the armor mitigation and do the desired amount of damage. Reversing this allows for damage numbers on anti-vehicle weapons to be lower than they were before, which makes them easier to compare and better tuned against infantry.

Most anti-vehicle weapon damage will be lowered to maintain the status quo in conjunction with the armor changes.

There are some other factors that will increase survivability for vehicles described in detail further on. Details on weapon damage changes will be described for each weapon further down.

Lightning/MBT Armor
Front, top, and side armor for all tanks is changing to 0 (no modification to damage). The bottom and rear armor will change to -100, doubling the damage dealt. It can be thought of like a headshot, hit the rear of the tank for increased damage.

This means that front, top, and side armor are all equivalent, which comes as a part of an overall survivability increase, and allows us to reduce some of the variance in tank in combat.

Armor Certifications
For the time being, Lightning and MBT reinforced armor certification lines have been disabled, but will likely be removed or replaced with additional resistance-specific cert lines similar to Flanker Armor’s anti-C4 resistance (currently on PTS,) or Mineguard’s Tank Mine resistance.

Harasser / ANT/ Sunderer
These vehicles were using blanket armor increases as a way to modify health pools, and as a part of the new baseline we’ve set the armor values to 0 for all sides.

Health Changes
Previously, armor and resistances were the main tuning knobs for vehicle toughness while health remained static. To accommodate the armor changes, increase survivability, and make resistance types more reusable, health is being adjusted and will be used as a tuning value more than it was before.

Prowler and Magrider
Health increased from 4000 to 5000. After the armor changes, this provides an increase in survivability.

Vanguard
Health increased from 4000 to 6000. An increased health pool is now what establishes Vanguard’s toughness compared to other vehicles. Previously, it had higher armor and resist values. In most cases, this means resist values will be identical to other main battle tanks.

Lightning
Health increased from 3000 to 4000. This is a bigger boost than MBTs are seeing (33% more health versus 25% more). Previously the Lightning had some strange resist and armor values, which led to some edge cases that made it tougher than it needed to be against certain weapons. Like the Vanguard, the Lightning will now share most of its resist values with main battle tanks.

Harasser
Health remains at 2500. However, composite armor is being changed to a health increase that brings its health to 3000. In most cases, this is a noticeable improvement over what it was previously. For example: It allows the Harasser to take an additional tank round before being destroyed.

Sunderer / Ant
Health remains at 4000. However, the Sunderer’s Blockade Armor is being changed to a 1000 health increase while the ANT’s Reinforced Armor adds 400 health. Resist values for these vehicles will now match the Lightning.

ESF, Liberator, Valkyrie, Galaxy
Currently the health values of these vehicles remain the same, though they have not received a full pass yet, and may see health and resistance changes in the future.

Critical Damage State
Across the board, vehicles will enter the critical damage state at 20% health. Previously this was between 10% and 18% depending on the vehicle. This offsets some of the health increase, makes the critical state more predictable, and adds a little more play around it.

Resistance Changes

Rounding off the armor and health changes are Resistances. A goal of this initiative is to reduce the amount of resistance types there are in the game (there are almost 50). The fewer resist types, the easier the system is to work with on the back end, and communicate to players through tooltips on the front end.

So far we’ve eliminated over 25 resist types, with several more potential candidates. The weapons on those now-dead resist types have been rolled into the surviving resistance types.

Another benefit of these changes is that vehicles can share resist type values more often. As described above, MBTs, Sunderers and Lightnings are now sharing resist values.

The exact changes are too many to cover here; most information on this is described within other individual changes.

Other Changes

Before going into further details, there are a few other things being addressed across the board beyond the baseline changes:

Vehicle Blast Normalization
Blast damage is inconsistent on many weapons. As we make a pass on vehicle weapons, we’re also evaluating their blast damage and ranges.

For many weapons with minor blasts, the inner radius is being set to 0.5 meters and the outer radius set to 3 meters. For weapons with a standard blast, inner radius is being set to 1 meter and outer to 5.

In addition, the minimum damage from a blast is being set to 50 (and in a few edge cases 25).

These changes are intended to create a more consistent experience for both the attacker and defender.

Effective Ranges
We want to ensure each weapon falls into its intended effective range and that the maximum effective range for long range weapons is around 200 meters. In this case, effective means that it’s able to deal damage reliably at that range. These intended ranges will be outlined in more detail below as we get into specifics.

Primary Tank Weapons
When it comes to tank versus tank combat, AP tank cannons are the only real choice as they do significantly more damage than HEAT or HE. No tank should immediately feel at a severe disadvantage in a tank battle because they chose a different primary weapon.

We’re addressing this by reducing the TTK variance; HEAT and HE damage per second is being increased and will have nearly the same TTK as their AP counterpart.

AP (Armor Piercing)
AP will boast a higher velocity projectile and highest damage per shot, but that won’t drastically change time to kill or shots to kill. AP is the long range, high alpha strike option.

HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank)
HEAT now has the fastest reload. This makes it more versatile and will have the highest damage over time, which won’t make much a difference in 1 on 1 fight, but making it a competitive option in prolonged or multi-target engagements.

HE (High Explosive)
With its damage becoming comparable to AP and its more lethal splash, the HE becomes a competitive close range option. At close range you won’t need the higher velocity of AP and then the choice becomes versatility against infantry with a more lethal blast or the versatility of HEATs quicker reload.
In addition, HE is being renamed HESH (High Explosive Squash Head). This is mainly so it’s easier to differentiate HEAT and HE when referring to them.

Faction Changes
The Magrider needed a slight TTK improvement while the Prowler needed the opposite. They will be swapping reload advantages, the Magrider will reload faster, and the Prowler will reload slower.

Range
To ensure AP’s velocity benefit stands out and to reduce effective range slightly, velocity is being reduced to 200 meters per second and gravity increased to 5 in most cases. AP gains +50 meters per second and Vanguard weapons receive +25 meters per second as a faction trait.

Projectile Visual
New visuals have been created for tank cannons, making them easier to see and track.

Vanguard
Vanguard primaries retain the faction trait of having the highest velocities. The rest of the following changes bring them to the new baseline.

Titan AP

• Now on Tank Shell Resist type (from AP Tank resist type)
• Damage from 2075 to 800
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 450 to 500
  • Inner Radius from 0.5 to 1
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50
  • Outer Radius from 1 to 3

Titan HEAT

• Damage from 1300 to 600
• Reload: from 4 seconds to 2.75 seconds
• Projectile Velocity from 275 to 225
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 750 to 500
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Titan HE

• Renamed “Titan-150 HESH”
• Damage from 1300 to 750
• Projectile Velocity from 275 to 225
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Outer Blast Damage from 1 to 50

Magrider
Magrider cannons now have the best-in-class reload speed.

Supernova FPC

• Now on Tank Shell Resist type (from AP Tank resist type)
• Reload 3.75 seconds to 3.25 seconds
• Projectile Velocity from 225 to 250
• Damage from 1865 to 700
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 450 to 500
  • Inner Radius from 0.5 to 1
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50
  • Outer Radius from 1 to 3

Supernova PC

• Reload from 3.75 seconds to 2.5 seconds
• Projectile Velocity from 225 to 200
• Damage from 1410 to 500
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 750 to 500
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Supernova VPC

• Reload from 3.75 seconds to 3.25 seconds
• Projectile Velocity from 225 to 200
• Damage from 1175 to 650
• Outer Blast Damage from 1 to 50

Prowler
As mentioned above, Prowler cannons are now slower to reload (and are now the slowest between all factions when factoring in fire rate). This is offset by being double barrel and having the highest damage potential out of all the tanks.

P2-120 AP

• Now on Tank Shell Resist type (from AP Tank resist type)
• Damage from 1250 to 600
• Reload from 2.5 seconds to 3.5 seconds
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Blast
• Inner Damage from 375 to 450
• Inner Radius from 0.5 to 1
• Outer Damage from 1 to 50
• Outer Radius from 1 to 3

P2-120 HEAT
•Damage from 1000 to 475
•Outer Blast Damage from 1 to 50
•Projectile Velocity from 250 to 200

P2-120 HE

• Renamed “P2-120 HESH”
• Damage from 725 to 550
• Reload from 2.5 seconds to 3.5 seconds
• Projectile Velocity from 250 to 200
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 650 to 600
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Lightning
Viper

• Damage from 345 to 225
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 450 to 250
  • Inner Radius from 0.5 to 1
  • Outer Radius from 4 to 3

This change probably doesn’t look like much, but the new damage value with the new baseline increases the weapons raw damage output. We want the viper to take advantage of the Lightning’s quickness and agility. If you can get in close with this weapon and land all 6 rounds, it will do a lot of damage.

Python AP

• Now on Tank Shell Resist type (from AP Tank resist type)
• Damage from 1400 to 600
• Projectile Velocity from 225 to 250
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Blast
  • Inner Radius from 0.5 to 1
  • Outer Radius from 1 to 3
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Python HEAT

• Damage from 1275 to 450
• Reload from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
• Projectile Velocity from 225 to 200
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 750 to 500
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Python HE

• Renamed “L100 Python HESH”
• Damage from 1100 to 575
• Velocity from 225 to 200
• Gravity from 4 to 5
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 1000 to 1050
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Reload Certifications
For all tank primary weapons, reload certifications are changing to a 5/6.25/7.5/8.75/10% reduction per rank, instead of a 0.1/0.2/0.3/0.4/0.5 second flat reduction. This makes the first rank more attractive, and normalizes the bonus based on each empire’s reload speed.

Spear Phalanx
Being based on a tank cannon, it is included with the tank cannon changes.

• Max Damage from 1550 to 500
• Min Damage from 1250 to 350
• Blast
  • Inner Radius from 0.35 to 1
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Tank Anti-Vehicle Gunner Weapons
Previously, in some cases a gunner weapon had more than twice the killing power as a tank’s primary cannon. Combine that damage with the primary weapon and together they could quickly vaporize another vehicle.

While a two-man MBT should (and still will be able to) win against a half-crewed MBT, the combined damage doesn’t need to be as high as it is. The gunner weapon is not just about increasing the tank’s damage, but should also be about adding versatility.

Across the board, these weapons are receiving damage reductions to make the combined damage less severe.

Close Range Anti-Vehicle (Vulcan, Mjolnir, Aphelion)
Close range weapons sacrifice range for higher damage per second and moderate anti-infantry effectiveness. For an MBT, the ideal effective range for these weapons is 50 meters versus an MBT sized vehicle, and 25 meters for a smaller vehicle.

The Vulcan and Aphelion are being brought closer to the Mjolnir in time to kill.

Vulcan (Prowler/Harasser)

• Fire Rate from 75 to 100
• Max Damage from 167 to 143
  • Max Range from 10 to 20 (Prowler Version Only)
• Min Damage from 125 to 100
  • Min Range from 200 to 50

In order to facilitate a longer time to kill and bring its anti-infantry capability in-line with the Mjolnir, the RPM and damage is being reduced.

Aphelion (Magrider/Harasser)

• Now on Armor Piercing Bullet Resist type (from Aphelion)
• Max Range from 20 to 10 (Harasser version only)
• Min Damage from 170 to 143 (Magrider version only)
• Min Damage from 170 to 125 (Harasser version only)

Along with moving it off of a custom resistance type, the minimum damage and range adjustments bring the weapon in line and reduce its long range anti-infantry effectiveness.

Mjolnir (Vanguard/Harasser)

• Now on Light Anti-Vehicle resist type (from Mjolnir resist type)
• Damage from 150 to 85
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 50 to 125
  • Inner Radius from 0.2 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 20 to 10
  • Outer Radius from 2 to 3

Changes to the Vulcan and Aphelion were to bring it closer to the Mjolnir; so Mjolnir is just getting moved off of its old resist type and getting its blast normalized.

Medium Range Anti-Vehicle (Enforcer, Saron)
These weapons have a higher effective range than the close range gunner weapons, but sacrifice some damage and anti-infantry effectiveness. Damage over time is nearly the same as a primary cannon and effective range should be up to 150 meters against large vehicles.

Saron (Magrider / Harasser)

• Damage from 284 / 250 to 150 / 150
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 200 to 150
  • Inner Radius from 1 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50
  • Outer Radius from 2 to 3
• •Cone of Fire
  • Max from 1 to 2 (Harasser only)

The Saron has more bite than the other medium range weapons due to its ability to unload shots at close range. The blast damage change normalizes it with other weapons and forces an additional shot to kill infantry on direct hits (2 additional hits needed for indirect hits).

The Harasser version changes from having lower damage to having a larger max cone of fire.

Enforcer (Harasser / Vanguard)

• Damage from 450 / 500 to 250 / 300
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 334 to 150
  • Outer Radius from 2 to 3
• Projectile Gravity from 4 to 5
• Removed continuous reload
  • Reload set to 4 seconds
• Updated projectile trail

Direct and blast damage changes the number of hits to kill against infantry from 2 to 3. The range was also too far for a medium range weapon, gravity increasing to 5 to brings the effective range in a few meters.

The continuous reload feature is removed because it didn’t display properly and didn’t add much to the weapon.
Finally, the projectile has been updated to look more like a rail gun and less like a rocket.

Long Range Anti-Vehicle (Halberd, Gatekeeper)
Although its damage over time is the lowest of all the gunner anti-vehicle weapons, the Halberd is commonly equipped due to its range, alpha damage and anti-infantry effectiveness. Gatekeeper is currently the only empire specific secondary weapon that will fall into the long range category alongside the Halberd.

Halberd (Harasser / MBT)

• Max Damage from 800 / 1000 to 400 / 500
• Reload from 3.25 seconds to 3.5 seconds
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 450 to 150
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50
• Bullet kick arc angle from 0 to 0.15
• Crosshair changed

The Halberd retains its TTK, alpha damage and range, but loses its ability to one-hit kill infantry (and makes damage from a single hit more survivable). It also loses much of its ability to do blast damage to infantry.

Gatekeeper

• Now on Light Anti-Vehicle resist type (from Gatekeeper resist type)
• Damage from 70 to 125
• Burst from 1 to 10
  • Burst Fire Rate set to 0.1 seconds
• Projectile Gravity from 4 to 6
• Reload from 1.75 seconds to 3 seconds
• Recoil from 0 to 2
• Cone of Fire
  • Min remains 0.15
  • Max from 0.15 to 0.3 (Prowler only)
  • Max from 0.15 to 0.5 (Harasser only)
  • Growth per shot set to 0.05
• Inner Blast Radius from 0.6 to 0.5

To spice up the Gatekeeper’s faction flavor we’re changing it to a 10 round burst weapon with a 100ms delay between rounds. This requires the operator to maintain their aim during the burst. In addition, some cone of fire and recoil is added to keep it within the intended effective range. Even with those changes, the projectile should still have a relatively high effective range against vehicles.

Anti-Infantry and Hybrid Weaponry (Canister, Marauder, PPA, Fury, Bulldog)


These weapons focus on anti-infantry and anti-light armor. Their effective range should be within 50 meters.
They are regaining the ability to damage heavy armor, but are not strong against heavy armor. This prevents them from ever being in a situation where they can’t contribute some form of damage on target.
The Fury and Bulldog have better anti-vehicle damage while still retaining a healthy amount of anti-infantry effectiveness. The Fury has more direct anti-vehicle damage, but less blast.

Canister

Vanguard

• Now on Heavy Machine Gun resist type (from canister type)
• Pellet Spread from 0.9 to 2
• Rate of Fire from 180 to 120
• Max Damage from 125 to 85
• Min Damage from 100 to 50
• Max Range from 10 to 20
• Min Range from 42 to 50

Harasser

• Now on Heavy Machine Gun resist type (from canister type)
• Pellet Spread from 1.1 to 2.25
• Max Damage from 125 to 65
• Min Damage from 100 to 50
• Min Range from 32 to 50

The Canister needed its range and damage brought in, and moving to the HMG resistance type removes an extra resist type from the game and enables it to damage heavy armor. The pellet spread changes ensure the effective range is brought in.

Lowering the damage caused a dilemma, without adjusting the other attributes of the weapon; it needed to lose its one hit kill potential or needed its RPM reduced. We did both: RPM change on the Vanguard and lower damage on the Harasser. Being a fast, close range and aggressive platform, the Harasser variant keeps its faster fire rate, while the slower Vanguard can take more time to line up its shots.

Marauder

Prowler

• Damage from 350 to 100

Harasser

• Damage from 315 to 100

All Versions

• Fixed a bug with firing animations not triggering every shot
• Modified audio and visuals
• Now on Light Anti-Vehicle resist type (from Marauder / PPA type)
• Cone of Fire
  • Growth per shot set to 0.25
  • Max set to 1
  • Min from 0.1 to 0.25
• Inner Blast Radius from 1 to 0.5

The Marauder was a little too strong and its range a little too far. The cone of fire will now grow as it fires, which reduces its ability to consistently hit targets at long range.

The blast damage remains high at 334 and the lower direct hit damage makes the primary method for the weapon to handle infantry is its blast damage.

PPA

Magrider

• Now on Light Anti-Vehicle resist type (from Marauder / PPA type)
• Reload Speed from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds
• Max Damage from 225 to 250
• Max Damage Range from 50 to 20
• Min Damage Range from 100 to 50

Harasser

• Now on Light Anti-Vehicle resist type (from Marauder / PPA type)
• Reload Speed from 2.5 seconds to 3 seconds
• Max Damage Range from 30 to 10
• Min Damage Range from 75 to 50

The Marauder and Canister are moving closer to PPA, so its damage change is not as severe as the others. The falloff and reload changes bring it in line with the others.

Fury

• Now on Light Anti-Vehicle Resist Type (from Fury type)
• Extended Magazine cert line refunded and replaced with a two-rank cert line
• Damage:
  • Sunderer from 400 to 100
  • Harasser from 365 to 175
  • Flash from 365 to 175
• Inner Blast Damage
  • Harasser from 150 to 200
  • The rest remain at 150
• Outer Blast Damage
  • All from 1 to 50

These changes give the Fury for Harasser and Flash some of its bite back, while still reducing the effectiveness of dual fury Sunderers. The extended magazine size was slimmed down to reduce the reliance on it. Vehicle time to kill falls around medium ranged secondary weapons, but it has a shorter effective range. It makes up by having better splash damage. If you compare it to Marauder, it does slightly more anti-vehicle damage at the cost of some anti-infantry effectiveness.

Bulldog

• All versions
  • Now on Light Anti-Vehicle Resist Type (from Fury type)
  • Outer Blast Damage from 1 to 50
• Harasser
  • Damage from 750 to 300
• Sunderer / ANT / Galaxy
  • Damage from 1000 / 1000 / 600 to 250 / 250 / 250
  • Third person rear camera now uses correct pivot point.

Bulldog gets damage tuned around the Halberd, but sacrifices range for splash damage. Like the Fury, the Sunderer version has reduced effectiveness.


Infantry Changes
Infantry and MAX units are also receiving changes to foster more active interaction with vehicles.

Flak Armor
This is a work in progress, but Flak Armor will likely end up as the go-to item to increase survivability against vehicles. Weapons that kill in one-hit against infantry will generally become two-hit kills with Flak Armor equipped.

Rocket Launchers
Rocket launchers have all received a pass to realign their damage with the new vehicle survival baseline, and have received more distinctions in function between them.

All rocket launchers received higher carried ammo capacity, faster ammunition restocking, and most received faster reload speeds.

All Rocket Launchers

• Refill Ammo per-tick delay from 5 seconds to 2.5 seconds.

Resistances versus Rocket Launchers
In general, these changes alongside the damage adjustments listed further down require dumbfire launchers one more hit against vehicles to bring them to a destroyed or burning state.

• ESF resistance to type 34 from -162.5 to -225
• Liberator resistance to type 34 from -88 to -70
• Valkyrie resistance to type 34 from -35 to -42
• Galaxy resistance to type 34 from 25 to -40
• MAX resistance to type 34 from 25 to 0
• Sunderer resistance to type 34 from -12.5 to 30
• Harasser resistance to type 34 from -50 to 0

Default (S1, ML7, Shrike)

• Equip time from 1 second to 0.9 seconds
• Ammo carried from 5 to 12
• Reload from 5.2 seconds to 3.43 seconds
• Direct damage from 1135 to 725
• Blast max damage from 750 to 250
• Blast min damage from 1 to 50
• Blast min radius from 5m to 3m
• Hip-fire min standing CoF from 3 to 3.5
• Hip-fire min crouching CoF from 2.5 to 3.5
• Hip-fire min crouch-walking CoF from 3 to 3.5

The damage potential over time does not change much for these, but they’ve received faster reloads and a more reliable hip-fire to separate them from the heavier hitting launchers.

Decimator

• Ammo carried from 4 to 9
• Direct damage from 1335 to 975
• Blast max damage from 650 to 350
• Blast min damage from 1 to 50
• Hip-fire min standing CoF from 3 to 3.5
• Hip-fire min crouching CoF from 2.5 to 3.5
• Hip-fire min crouch-walking CoF from 3 to 3.5

Decimator remains the hardest hitting, slowest reloading rocket launcher, and is now more recognizably different when compared to the default launchers.

Masamune

• Direct damage now uses type Rocket Launcher resistance (was previously Masamune)
• Now uses shotgun-style reticle from the hip
• Adjusted projectile visuals
• Equip time from 0.9 seconds to 1 second
• Re-fire time from 1.1 seconds to 1 second
• Reload from 4.7sec. to 4sec.
• Ammo carried from 16 to 36
• Direct damage from 525 to 185
• Blast inner damage from 200 to 125
• Blast outer damage from 1 to 50
• Hip-fire CoF bloom from 1.5 to 0.5 (has no tangible impact on performance)
• Hip-fire Standing CoF from 2 to 0.5
• Hip-fire Crouching CoF from 1.5 to 0.5
• Hip-fire Crouch Walking CoF from 1.75 to 1
• Hip-fire Running CoF from 3 to 1
• Hip-fire Sprinting min CoF from 7 to 4
• Hip-fire Falling min CoF from 7 to 4
• ADS walking CoF from 0.5 to 1

Masamune lost some of its anti-Galaxy capabilities as it moved off of its custom resistance type, but is highly damaging to air vehicles, and gained a bit more bite on landed shots against ESF.

Lock-Ons
Lock-on launchers have become more restrictive with their lock-on range and now acquire locks at a consistent (often more quickly) rate.

Empire G2G Lock-ons (Hades, SKEP, Crow)

• Direct damage now uses Rocket Launcher (was previously Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Lock-on lose time from 3 seconds to 0.5 seconds
• Lock-on far acquire time from 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds
• Lock-on acquire range from 450m to 200m
• Projectile lifespan from 8 seconds to 5 seconds
• Ammo carried from 5 to 12
• Reload from 5.2 seconds to 4 seconds
• Direct damage from 1000 to 750
• Blast max damage from 750 to 250
• Blast min damage from 1 to 50
• Blast outside radius from 5m to 3m
• ADS Standing, Crouching min CoF from 0.1 to 1
• Hip-fire Standing CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire Crouching CoF from 2.5 to 5
• Hip-fire Crouch Walking CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire Running CoF from 3.5 to 5

With reload and lock-on speed changes, more time is spent shooting instead of waiting for locks and reloads. Lock-on range and lifespan adjustments limit its maximum effective range to just over 200 meters, which is double the effective range of dumbfire launchers.

When forgoing the lock-on and firing from the hip, its damage over time is slightly than the default launchers, but still competitive.

Empire G2A Lock-Ons (Nemesis, Grounder, Hawk)
Anti-air lock-on weapons now use Flak-based detonation. This means they only detonate (and cause only blast damage) when near aircraft. Against all other targets they require direct hits and only inflict direct hit damage.

• Direct damage now uses Rocket Launcher resistance (was previously Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Blast damage now uses Flak resistance (was previously Standard Explosion)
• Projectile will only detonate (inflict blast damage) when near aircraft
• Changed visuals on impact
• Lock-on lose time from 3 seconds to 0.5 seconds
• Lock-on close acquire time from seconds to 1.5 seconds
• Lock-on far acquire time from 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds
• Lock-on acquire range from 450m to 350m
• Awareness range from 450 to 350
• Ammo carried from 5 to 12
• Reload from 5.2 seconds to 3.4 seconds
• Direct damage from 1000 to 700
• Blast inner damage from 350 to 400
• Blast outer damage from 1 to 50
• Blast outside radius from 5m to 3m
• Projectile lifespan from 8 seconds to 5 seconds

The Flak-based detonation allows the weapon to be tuned separately for air and ground targets. Lock-on range and lifespan adjustments brings in its maximum range, but reload and lock speed adjustments does allow the operator more opportunity to fire more shots.

Annihilator

• Direct damage now uses Rocket Launcher resistance (was previously Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Blast damage now uses Flak resistance (was previously Standard Explosion)
• Projectile will only detonate (inflict blast damage) when near aircraft
• Changed visuals on impact
• Equip time from 1.3 seconds to 1 seconds
• Lock-on lose time from 3 seconds to 0.5 seconds
• Lock-on far acquire time from 2.5 seconds to 1 seconds
• Lock-on acquire range from 450m to 350m
• Ammo carried from 5 to 16
• Reload from 4.7 seconds to 3 seconds
• Direct damage from 1000 to 650
• Blast inner damage from 750 to 325
• Blast outer radius from 5m to 3m
• Projectile lifespan from 8 seconds to 5 seconds
• Hip-fire Standing CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire Crouching CoF from 2.5 to 5
• Hip-fire Crouch Walking CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire Running CoF from 3.5 to 5

Annihilator becomes the all-rounder lock-on weapon, with the fastest in-class reload, low damage, and quicker-than-average lock-on speeds. It receives the same flak detonation the G2A launchers get, to allow separate tuning between ground and air targets.

Being a purely lock-on weapon, cone of fire has no relevance but the changes make the tooltip comparison cleaner.

Swarm

• Direct damage now uses Rocket Launcher resistance (was previously Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Blast damage now uses Flak resistance (was previously type 6)
• Now only deals non-air vehicle damage on a direct hit
• Changed visuals on impact
• Equip time from 1.3 seconds to 1 second
• Lock-on lose time from 0.25 seconds to 0.5 seconds
• Lock-on far acquire time from 1.25 seconds to 1 second
• Lock-on acquire range from 450m to 350m
• Ammo carried from 5 to 16
• Reload from 3.7 seconds to 4 seconds
• Direct damage from 375 to 300
• Blast inner damage from 750 to 300
• Blast outside radius from 5m to 3m
• Fast mode projectile lifespan from 16 to 5 seconds
• Slow mode projectile lifespan from 16 to 8 seconds
• Cone of Fire bloom from 2 to 0.5
• Hip-fire Standing CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire Crouching CoF from 2.5 to 5
• Hip-fire Crouch Walking CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire Running CoF from 3.5 to 5

Swarm becomes the highest damage output lock-on weapon, provided all shots land on target. It receives the same flak detonation the G2A launchers get, to allow separate tuning between ground and air targets.
Being a purely lock-on weapon, cone of fire has no relevance but the changes make the tooltip comparison cleaner.

Empire Special Launchers
Striker

• Direct damage now uses Rocket Launcher resistance (was previously Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Blast damage now uses Flak resistance (was previously Standard Explosion)
• Now only deals splash damage upon impact with aircraft.
• Adjusted impact visuals
• Equip time from 1.2 seconds to 0.9 seconds
• Ammo capacity from 30 to 48
• Short reload from 3.4 seconds to 3.43 seconds
• Long reload from 4 seconds to 3.43 seconds
• Projectile lifespan from 8 seconds to 5 seconds
• Projectile arc angle from 1 to 0.5
• Projectile gravity from 2 to 1
• Direct damage from 200 to 150
• Blast inner damage from 50 to 75
• Blast inner radius from 2m to 0.35m
• Blast outer radius from 3m to 2.5m
• ADS CoF max to 2 in all states.
• ADS Standing CoF min from 0.25 to 0.1
• ADS Crouching CoF min from 0 to 0.1
• ADS Crouch-walking CoF from 0.5 to 1
• Hip-fire standing CoF from 2 to 2.5
• Hip-fire crouching CoF from 1.5 to 2.5
• Hip-fire walking CoF from 3.5 to 2.5
• Hip-fire crouch-walking CoF from 2 to 2.5

Striker retains its flexibility with dumbfire-like damage against ground vehicles and significant damage output against aircraft if the user lands all shots on target. The cone of fire and projectile improvements make this easier to achieve in more situations. It receives the same flak detonation the G2A launchers get, to allow separate tuning between ground and air targets.

Lancer

• Now uses Rocket Launcher resist type, instead of the three separate Lancer types for each charge level
• Modified tracer in first person
• Awareness range from 600 to 350
• Equip time from 1.2 seconds to 1 second
• Magazine size from 6 to 9
• Ammo capacity from 24 to 36
• Long reload from 5 seconds to 4 seconds
• Rate of fire from 200rpm to 120rpm
• Charge 0 from 150@400m-110@500m to 100@150m-50@300m
• Charge 1 from 375@400m-275@500m to 350@150m-175@300m
• Charge 2 from 750@400m-500@500m to 700@150m-350@300m
• Hip-fire standing CoF from 4.5 to 5
• Hip-fire crouching CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire walking CoF from 5 to 5
• Hip-fire crouch-walking CoF from 4 to 5
• CoF bloom from 2 to 0.5
• Charge 0 projectile velocity from 600 to 450
• Charge 1 projectile velocity from 700 to 450
• Charge 2 projectile velocity from 800 to 450
• Projectile lifespan standardized at 1 second

The long range capabilities of the Lancer have been reduced, and given more punch at shorter range. As a result the launcher will feel more worthwhile in more situations, and require more players to scale up at long distances.

Phoenix

• Direct damage now uses Rocket Launcher resistance (was previously Phoenix)
• Ammo capacity from 5 to 12
• Reload speed from 4.7 seconds 3.43 seconds
• Direct damage from 750 to 875
• Blast inner damage from 100 to 75
• Blast outer damage from 1 to 25
• Inside max radius from 2 to 0.35
• Inside min radius from 5 to 4
• Hip-fire min standing CoF from 3 to 5
• Hip-fire min crouching CoF from 2.5 to 5
• Hip-fire min crouch-walking CoF from 3 to 5

When moving Phoenix to the Rocket Launcher resistance type, we’ve given it damage output just beneath that of the Decimator, and increased the reload speed to compensate for its lack of damage per second lost while guiding the rocket in flight.

Rocklet Rifle

Rocklet Rifle damage is being scaled similarly to rocket launcher, and ammo capacity increases as a result.

• Ace Rocklet
  • Ammo capacity from 30 to 60
  • Direct damage resistance type from 5 to 34
  • Direct damage from 150 to 125
  • Blast inner damage from 130 to 60
  • Burst CoF bloom from 1.5 to 0.75
• Locklet
  • Ammo capacity from 30 to 60
  • Direct damage resistance type from 5 to 34
  • Direct damage from 150 to 125
  • Blast inner damage from 130 to 60
  • Lock-on acquire time close from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds
  • Lock-on acquire time close from 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds
  • Lock-on acquire angle from 10 to 8
• Typhoon
  • Ammo capacity from 30 to 48
  • Direct damage resistance type from 5 to 34
  • Direct damage from 200 to 140
  • Blast inner damage from 100 to 25
  • Refire rate from 0.5 seconds to 0.45 seconds
  • Burst refire rate from 150 to 100
  • Burst CoF bloom from 1.5 to 0.75

Underbarrel Launchers
The underbarrel grenade launcher was on one of the resist types we removed, so it needed to be adjusted. We did a little tuning on the weapon while we were at it.

• No uses Light Anti-Vehicle resist type
• Removed Aim Down Sights capability
• Cone of Fire:
  • Crouching CoF from 2 to 1
  • Standing CoF from 2 to 1.5
  • Running CoF: from 2.5 to 2
• Grenade
  • Damage from 800 to 500
  • Ammo capacity from 2 to 3
• Smoke
  • Damage from 750 to 250
  • Ammo capacity from 2 to 3
  • Ammunition resupply tick rate from 4 seconds to 5 seconds

With the resist type change, damage against vehicles goes up. Against infantry, the underbarrel is trading some of its damage for improved accuracy. The ADS component wasn’t well advertised and didn’t always look correct so it was removed. Some of the benefits that it provided are being rolled into the standard fire mode.
Finally, the smoke launcher didn’t really need to be as close in damage as the standard grenade.

MAX Anti-Vehicle

Category 1 – Heavy AV
The Pounder, Comet, and Falcon are considered category 1 MAX anti-vehicle weapons. Compared to the others they should have a shorter effective range (100 meters) with higher damage. Their anti-infantry and anti-MAX effectiveness should also be better.

Pounder

• Damage from 285 to 175
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 125 to 100
  • Inner Radius from 0.6 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 25

The Pounder has the shortest range of all category 1 weapons, but has the fastest TTK (TTK here is not changing much). The amount of hits required to kill infantry increased by 1.

Comet

• Damage from 315 to 175
• Projectile
  • Speed from 90 to 75
  • Lifespan from 5 to 4
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 85 to 100
  • Inner Radius from 0.6 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 25
• Reload from 1.6 seconds to 1.5 seconds

The Comet should have the highest effective range within this category, but it was still a bit too far past 100 meters. The projectile velocity is being reduced by 17% to bring the range in a bit and the lifespan adjustment hard caps the range at 300 meters.

Falcon

• Damage from 585 to 300
• Reload from 1.9 seconds to 2 seconds
• Projectile
  • Max Speed from 120 to 100
  • Gravity from 1 to 2
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 90 to 200
  • Inner Radius from 0.6 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

The Falcon was effectively hitting just outside 100 meters so it received a small range reduction in projectile speed and gravity. The projectile changes make it similar to a default rocket launcher, but a little faster. The reload change simply makes things line up a little bit better. While these changes leave damage over time slightly lower compared to Comet and Pounder, the Falcon maintains the highest alpha and against certain lower health targets, it has the fastest TTK.

Category 2 – Distance AV
Category 2 weapons do less damage, but have a farther range (200 meters) and more utility.

Fracture

• Damage from 210 to 125
• Magazine size from 10 to 8
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 30 to 50
  • Inner Radius from 0.6 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 25

The damage value was not dropped as much as the others, but at the cost of magazine size. The adjustments to damage change the hits required to kill infantry from 5 to 7.

Raven

• Damage from 335 to 150
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 75 to 100
  • Inner Radius from 0.6 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 25

Blast damage changes the hits required to kill infantry from 3 to 4.

Vortex (Charge Level 0, 1, 2)

• Damage no longer on unique resist type per charge. Now on Light Anti-Vehicle.
• Max Damage from 167,250, 300 to 60, 200, 350
• Max Damage Range from 300, 300, 300 to 50, 100, 150
• Min Damage from 100, 150, 200 to 30, 100, 233
• Min Damage Range from 400, 400, 400 to 100, 200, 300
• Added blast damage to charge level 0
  • Inner damage set to 100
  • Inner Radius set to 0.5
  • Outer Damage set to 25
  • Outer Radius set to 3
• Projectile Speed from 450, 500, 550 normalized to 450 for all charge ranks

These damage adjustments should make the vortex more damaging than before (when within the intended damage ranges). Adding blast on charge level 0 provides some utility against infantry and other things at point blank range. Normalizing projectile speed between charge levels simplifies aiming with the weapon; ranged effectiveness is now handled by damage drop off instead of projectile speed.

Other Changes and Considerations
Liberator
The Liberator has not received a full pass, but its belly guns were using one of the resist types targeted for removal. They are being moved to a different resist type and damage is being adjusted accordingly. TTK should be similar to live in most cases. They are also receiving blast damage normalization.

Duster

• Now on Light Anti-Vehicle resist type
• Damage from 900 to 250
• Outer Blast Damage from 1 to 50

Dalton

• Now on resist type 23 (Air to Ground)
• Damage from 2000 to 1000
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 450 to 500
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50
  • Outer Radius from 1 to 3

With the base line changes, in many cases, the hits to kill is now the hits to crit, and the hits to kill goes up by 1.

Zepher

• Now on resist type 23 (Air to Ground)
• Damage from 600 to 400
• Blast
  • Inner Damage from 450 to 500
  • Inner Radius from 1.5 to 1
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50
  • Outer Radius from 7 to 5

The Zepher does not lose as much damage as the Dalton does; this gives it higher potential damage over time (compared to Dalton), but requires the operator to land more shots. The blast gains the ability to potentially two hit kill, but makes it a little bit harder with the radius reduction.

ESF / Valkyrie Air to Ground
Like the Liberator, these have not received a full pass, just a pass to get them off their old resist type and normalize their splash.

Rocket Pods

Reaver

• Now on resist type 5 (Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Damage from 550 to167
• Blast
  • Inner Radius from 1.5 to 1
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Mosquito

• Now on resist type 5 (Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Damage from 400 to 125
• Blast
  • Inner Radius from 1.5 to 1
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Scythe

• Now on resist type 5 (Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Damage from 475 to 143
• Blast
  • Inner Radius from 1.5 to 1
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

Pelter

• Now on resist type 5 (Light Anti-Vehicle)
• Damage from 400 to 125
• Blast
  • Inner Radius from 0.35 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50
  • Outer Radius from 1 to 3

Air to Ground Missiles

Hornet Missiles

• Now on resist type 23 (Air to Ground)
• Damage from 1500 to 500
• Blast
  • Inner Radius from 0.35 to 0.5
  • Outer Damage from 1 to 50

VLG

• Now on resist type 23 (Air to Ground)
• Damage from 1800 to 500
• Blast
• Inner Radius from 0.75 to 1
• Outer Damage from 1 to 50
• Outer Radius from 4 to 5

Vanguard Shield
The Vanguard Shield is being changed from a health based over-shield, to an armor bonus now called ‘Forward Vanguard Shield’. When activated, the shield reduces incoming damage to the front and top by 67% and to the sides by 34%. Now lasts 8 seconds and damage taken cannot end the effect early.

Often referred to as the ‘I-win-Button’ the Vanguard shield was frustrating to play against and useful in almost every situation. This change forces more thoughtful decision making on when to use the ability, also resulting in more counter-play.

Secondary Gunner View Angles
Secondary vehicle gunner weapons all received a pass on their viewing angles to better focus their short, medium, and long range roles, and vary depending on the height and role of the vehicle.

Cert Lines, C4, Aircraft, and more
There is still a lot left to be done on both the infantry and vehicle side, and this update is not intended to be comprehensive for what you’ll see come to Live. A few cert lines are unfinished, potential changes to C4 are being discussed, and aircraft hasn’t been given a hard look yet. As always, the Test server is a fluid environment, and will continue to be iterated on as we move through the combined arms rebalance.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled patch notes.

Construction Changes
Cortium costs are being updated to move some of the front end Cortium costs into the upkeep of the base, as a result…

• Cortium costs have been decreased significantly for all objects; this change should decrease the time investment needed to build.
• Cortium maintenance costs (passive drain) has been increased; this cost can be mitigated significantly with Cortium Taps (see below)

Cortium Tap (Currently bugged in this Build)

• New item given to all players by default.
• Cortium Taps must be placed on the outskirts of a base, and are unaffected by Repair Modules.
• Having two Cortium Taps online will reduce your drain rates to that of the Live current rates, and three active Cortium Taps will halve it. This efficiency buff caps out at three active Taps.
• ANTs can unload Cortium at a Tap which is then transferred directly to the Silo; with a 10,000 Cortium capacity it can also act as additional storage when the base silo is full.

Glaive IPC

• Direct damage increased to 1250 from 750
• Indirect damage radius increased to 15 from 10

Skywall Shield Emitter

• Now requires players to interact with the module to reactivate the shield after it has been disabled due to enemy fire or power loss.
• Takes 15 seconds to re-enable the shield
• Shield now reactivates with 75% percent health (up from 10% health)
• •layers cannot interact with the module while the module is disabled due to Glaive fire.

Orbital Strike Changes

• Can no longer target an area directly under an active Skywall Shield
• Can now target within no-construction areas
• Minimum range reduced from 200 meters to 150 meters

Misc. Changes, Fixes, Additions

Login Flow
Players will now log in at a continent's Warp Gate.

EMP Grenade
No longer clears the HUD (but still shows HUD static)
No longer drains ability energy
No longer disables Sunderer Deployment Shield

Minor Cloak
Time to enter cloak from 8sec. to 6sec.

Vampire
Health regeneration on kill from 100/125/150/200 to 175/200/250/325

NSX Yumi
These changes were missed from the last PTS update.

• Max damage from 143 to 150.
• Vertical recoil from 0.34 to 0.28/0.30
• New audio profile.
• Underbarrel grenade launchers have new models.

Forward Station

• Can now be found in the Combat Medic's utility slot.
• No longer uses ammo.
• Now has a 120 second cooldown.
• Respawn time from 15sec. to 25sec.
• Damage from friendly fire reduced by 85%.
• Now heals nearby allies for 20 health per second, and no longer restores shields.
• Temporarily using a godbeam effect to denote placements on Test server, though the intent is to use minimap icons in the future.
• Known issue: Loadout UI doesn't immediately update when this device is unlocked.

Hunter QCX
Hunter QCX should no longer have excess recoil.

With the G2A lock-on distance reductions, will you be making a pass on aircraft weapons to ensure that they need to be within lock-on range to affect ground battles?

I really like these changes. I've thought the lock ons could use a total overhaul for awhile, they're just clunky and mostly used to annoy ESFs and not much else. It feels better using decimator even against ESFs in most cases since impactful hits seem much more common that way. On paper it seems like you're not going for as much as a drastic increase in their ability, but just an overall faster and more fun to use quality of life pass which sounds like a good time to me.

As far as vehicle balancing, the most glaring, blinding, disruptive issue going on in Planetside is Dalton vs. ESF damage. Dalton should not be the top anti ESF weapon. It takes an ESF about a damn minute to burn down an AFK lib, libs don't need cheesy 1 shots. I mostly fly ESF while playing and the number of libs actively farming ESF fights is astonishing. When there's a ring of 15 libs doing horizontal belly mode flying wide loops around the map farming ESF after ESF after ESF kill there's a problem. Lightnings have a hard time taking down an MBT team, but the disparity is not nearly as drastic.

RIP Vehicle meta. They want this game to be a open world halo clone.

Thanks Wrel.

Wow that a lot of nerfs. Developers just love nerfs. I'm curious what ESF pilots will think of the big damage nerf of rocket pods. Breaker rockets 550 -> 167.

Agreed with most of these changes. One hit kills aren't fun for anyone. Shaking up the meta and allowing longer lasting, more satisfying fights with more variety from MBT's and more infantry influencing the air and ground vehicles around them more than excites for the next update to live. Construction changes: All to be said is: Orbital strikes in bases - WHAT THE FUUUUUUUU! (In a good way)

Still reading through it, but here's a problem: Health and repair rate.

The Vanguard is being directly nerfed in this regard. While according to your changes it's survivability should remain the same, the longer time to repair a Vanguard compared to the other two vehicles will have a big effect on the battlefield. I thought the entire reason they used weapon-specific damage and armor ratio's so that the health and thus repair-rate could remain the same.
Additionally, since the repair-rate is slower, the Vanguard will remain within the 20% damaged state for longer, which can be critical during combat.

Current damage per shot: 550
Current MBT weapon-specific damage reduction: 20%
Current side&top armor damage reduction: 58%

550*0,8=440
440*440=184.

They don't lose that much damage.

Also let's look at front-armor: 162,8 damage left. Considering side-armor is being removed and all sides are brought up to front-armor damage ranges, rocketpods are basically buffed compared to other weapons!! Even though the TTK of an anti-infantry weapon vs armor has increased.

This was the entire point of the beginning of the post: Most of the statistics don't change much, but it'll be easier to change for the developers and easier to understand by the players. No more players thinking a Phoenix deals less damage than a Decimator for instance.

I understood absolutely nothing besides Valkyrie is still unfinished. Let my take a guess: this is phase 1 right?

Since AP cannons now are worst in every way, and are now intended to be a long range option, i suggest to lower the price of the zoom optics.

At first glance I was kinda happy with (most) changes but then I realised that current MBT vs MBT balance is not going to change at all. If anything it will become even worse. AP changes asisde, Magrider will become even less competitive with TTK 2x less than Prowler.

quote from reddit (one guy did some quick math):

I ask, how this makes MBT main cannons more competitive against each other? Prowler, even with longer reload, is still a king at any range while Mag is left far behind along with Vanguard but Vanguard at least has much more HP to spare + iWin shield. Only thing that makes Maggy viable is the ability to flank but with lowered damage it will be quite worthless now.

I main infantry, and looking at these notes I'm a little concerned that things like tanks will no longer be able to one-shot infantry. I'm usually much more focused on balance and fun than some notion of "reality", but come on.... if I eat a 150mm tank shell to the face, I should be dead!

On a separate note, I do kinda like the whole "headshot" tanks kinda idea they're putting in with rear hits. Making them that much more useful will encourage some interesting gameplay, like using a stealth Valk to drop a half-squad of HA's behind a tank, blow it up, then pick 'em up and move on to the next one.

[edit] Oh yeah.... and WTF are they doing to the EMP grenade?? It's going to be almost completely worthless after these changes!

I can't even begin to picture how this will work in practice. Not clever enough....

Is it now intended tank V tank fight at 200m and under?

This is the worst patch I've ever seen in this game so far. Can we please rename the game to Infantryside 2? I'm serious btw. There'll be absolutely zero reason to pull a vehicle after these changes. If you want to turn this game into CoD with 200 players per map, just say so.

Yeah I agree. I find it funny that I can survive a direct hit from a tank shell that can damage heavy armored vehicle but still die to 2 stabs from a standard knife or 1 shot from BASR. Reality FTW!

Well, it's not that currently Magriders have to get even closer to be semi effective. In that regard not much will change but...

If Mag (with stealth) will be able to get behind enemy tank it will have Alpha damage advantage and that's OK as Mags are very mobile but still I dunno if those changes will make Mags more competitive against other tanks or just make them more elitist/MLG oriented.

My first impression:
This is actually more than many of us have hoped for. Way more.


All the nitty balance-details aside, the ultimate goal of this should be to attract MORE VEHICLE PLAYERS. Imo that is how we should jugde the outcome of this. Quite simply: Will more players who never considered vehicles before - find it either fun or "usefull" to start some small time tanking?

So.. will more players feel intrigued to participate in tanking?! From what i can understand - YES - these changes could overall make vehicle-play more accessible and more intuitive for newer players.

And hopefully we can expect (over time) a shift in player mentality from the old "full-time-infantry versus full-time-tanker" to a more "part-time-infantry & part-time-tanker"..


"Combined-arms-player" must slowly become the new 'normal'

Hopefully