Test Server Update - Sept. 03, 2020

Discussion in 'Test Server: Announcements' started by RPG_Wrel, Sep 3, 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
    In preparation for The Shattered Warpgate update coming to Live, we'll be patching PTS multiple times over the coming weeks to ensure we're able to focus our testing on different areas of this massive 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.
    Playtest schedule for this first PTS patch is as follows:
    • Sept. 04, 2020 - 12pm PT
    • Sept. 04, 2020 - 2pm PT
    • Sept. 05, 2020 - 12pm PT
    Here's what you'll be able to explore with this new update.

    Esamir Upheaval
    The continent of Esamir has gone through many changes since you last saw it. The Northeastern Warpgate has been destroyed, and in its wake are the time-frozen remains of an ancient Vanu structure, and a vortex of energy pouring into the sky.
    • New Skybox: Esamir has gotten colder with an overcast sky, the auroras have gotten brighter, and the sky shudders with cracks of lightning overhead.
    • Abandoned Bases: Due to hardline failures and defunct technology, many bases on Esamir have been abandoned for the snow to reclaim.
    • Disabled Vehicles: Disabled during the explosion, derelict vehicles can be found scattered throughout Esamir, and with the right tech, able to be reclaimed.
    • New and Modified Bases: After the collapse, empires scrambled to modify and construct new bases to accommodate the changed environment.
    • New Warpgate Location: Nanite Systems has unveiled new "Haven" technology that acts as a pseudo-Warpgate for the eastern portion of Esamir.
    • Revamped Lattice: The lattice has been reconfigured to conform to the new environment, and bases now tend to be fewer and farther between.
    • Environmental Hazard: An Electrical Storm roams the battlefield, calling down deadly lightning bolts and overloading vehicle systems.
    This continent is still a work in progress and will receive additional changes prior to the Live release.

    Campaigns
    Introduced with this update is the new Campaign system.
    Unlocking access to the Campaign will allow you to take on lore-driven story missions that explore the evolving war on Auraxis, and the minds of those behind it.
    We'll further explain this feature in a later PTS update when we've enabled it for testing.

    New Mission System
    Players now have access to an all-new Mission system that offers up daily missions players can complete for rewards.
    A limited number of missions are available to accept each day, and All-Access Members gain more daily mission unlocks.
    Missions come in a variety of rarities which represent difficulty, time investment, and intensity. The higher the rarity, the better the rewards for that mission type.
    The mission pool available in this PTS update consists of the following:
    • Transport Pilot - Ferry passengers to combat areas.
    • Front Line Spawns - Deploy Sunderers on the front line.
    • Cortium Run - Harvest and deposit cortium in allied Silos.
    • Protection Protocol (NSO) - Defend your allies with the Defector's Seraph Shield.
    • Soldier and Shepard - Capture bases and earn experience leading a squad/platoon.
    • Bounty Hunter - Kill a bountied target.
    • Message Courier - Deliver communications intel from base to base in a Harasser.
    • Mining for Elysium - Defend an orbital mining drill while it harvests.
    • Transport Stormbound - A campaign themed version of the Transport Pilot mission that sends you into the storm on Esamir.
    Indar Terrain Changes
    • The Crown has received changes to capture point placement, and B point can now be reached from both the north, south, and eastern sides of the base through an underground combat area.
    • Ceres Hydroponics has received some adjustments to reduce prop density, and adjust sight lines, and the hill to TI Alloys has received some new paths around the eastern side.
    • TI Alloys has received reductions in its defensive capabilities, and the rock bridge connecting it to The Crown has been destroyed.

    Sanctuary Changes
    • Players will now log into Sanctuary initially.
    • The visuals within and without Sanctuary has received much in the way of cleanup and improvement.
    • A new "Social" chat channel is available for all Sanctuary-goers, allowing cross-faction chat throughout the station.
    • Mission Boards are available within Sanctuary, that will take you to the Mission page on interacting with them. They've also been placed in each Warpgate.
    • A campaign rewards vendor can now be found in the Outfit Quartermaster shop.
    • Outfit Quartermaster/Outfit Recruiter have swapped places.
    • FL-34 and SPRK-33 in the Black Market shop have swapped places.
    • New "Havoc Rocket Pods" can be bought from SPRK-33.
    • Speaking with FL-34 in Sanctuary will open the implant crafting menu for the player.


    Implants
    • All exceptional implants can now be crafted for an ISO-4 cost from the crafting screen.
    Firestorm
    • This implant has been added to the drop table.
    • Actual crafting cost has been instated at 3500.
    • Recoil and CoF bloom penalty from 200% to 100%
    • No longer uncaps horizontal recoil tolerance.


    Mentor Chat
    • Players who complete the Leadership tier 2 directive will now have access to Mentor Chat regardless of their current Mentor Rank.
    • Replaced Implant Pack Tier 2 Leadership directive reward with "Mentor Chat Access."
    • Players up to BR30 (and less than 100 directive score) now have access to /new chat, was previously until BR15.
    War Asset Costs Overhaul
    Changes to Map-based Resource Gain
    • Upon a successful capture, bases award their full resource value to any participating outfits above a contribution threshold of 1000 score.
    • Outfits who own a base continue to gain resource ticks over time once every 5 minutes, (no changes from Live.)
    • Sanctuary no longer offers resource trading.
    • Expeditions have been retooled to provide larger resource drops with a consistent conversion.
    • Assets can no longer be Overclocked at all. This is an experiment to see if the slowed pacing, coupled with the resource changes below, result in more diverse war asset usage.
    War Assets now have resource type associations drawn more exclusively with their desirability.
    Auraxium-based Assets
    • Light ANVIL
      • 5 Auraxium for 3 ANVILs
    • Medium ANVIL
      • 25 Auraxium
    • Heavy ANVIL
      • 50 Auraxium
    • Facility Modules
      • 10 Auraxium for 5 modules
      • Duration from 10 minutes to 20 minutes.
      • Weight from 5 to 0.
    Synthium-based Assets
    • Citadel Shield
      • 25 Synthium
    • Steel Rain
      • 15 Synthium
      • Weight from 50 to 25
      • Crafting time from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.
    • Orbital Strike
      • 75 Synthium
    Polystellarite-based Assets
    • Bastion Fleet Carrier
      • Time to craft per asset increased to 12 hours per piece.
      • 25 Polystellarite
      • 20 Polystellarite
      • 15 Polystellarite
      • 10 Polystellarite
    • Colossus Tank
      • 15 Polystellarite
    Expedition Values
    • Synthium Short
      • Cost from 100 Auraxium to 50 Auraxium
      • Yield from 25-35 to 35 Synthium
    • Synthium Medium
      • Cost from 150 Auraxium to 100 Auraxium
      • Yield from 50-70 to 75 Synthium
    • Synthium Long
      • Cost from 200 Auraxium to 150 Auraxium
      • Yield from 75-105 to 150 Synthium
    • Polystellarite Short
      • Cost from 50 Synthium to 25 Synthium
      • Yield from 5-7 to 7
    • Polystellarite Medium
      • Cost from 75 Synthium to 50 Synthium
      • Yield from 10-14 to 15
    • Polystellarite Long
      • Cost from 100 Synthium to 75 Synthium
      • Yield from 15-21 to 30
    Player Studio items
    • Old War Heavy Assault armor and helmet (Terran Republic,) by Doku
    • Armadillo Sunderer exterior, bumper, and tires (All Factions,) by Steveo
    • Challenger Vanguard exterior plating (New Conglomerate,) by Lobstrex
    • Response Infiltrator armor (NSO,) by binarycoder
    • Ravenshroud helmet (Terran Republic,) by CountPoly

    Misc. Changes, Fixes, and Additions
    • To accommodate the additional rewards through the Mission system, alerts no longer offer ISO-4, A7, or Certs.
    • Alert winners now receive 25,000 XP and losers/runner-up receive 10,000 XP.
    • Daily Ribbon Bonuses have also been removed.
    • Render distance can now be set for infantry/ground vehicle/air vehicles individually, this option can be found in the graphics settings.
    • Minimap and Map zoom levels now persist between logins and while transferring continents.
    • Attempting to promote someone to platoon leader will prompt you with a confirmation dialog.
    • Using bad html in the Outfit MotD will no longer bleed into the rest of your chat box.
    • Default keybindings no longer activates your vehicle utility with the horn key.
    • Colossus now generates outfit logs when crafted or spawned.
    • Cleaned up issues with wielded knife animations.
    • NSO characters can now switch profile banners. A bug still exists with new NSO characters being equipped with the wrong default banner.
    • SR-200 (NSO Sniper Rifle) no longer inherits camo applied to the character's body.
    • Javelin cockpit handlebars now rotate correctly in first person.
    • Black Market terminals now show weapon stats correctly.
    • Water on Indar, Amerish, and Esamir have updated visuals.
    • Fixed various broken props and stretched textures.
    • We've re-enabled the old Tutorial for new characters.
    Known Issues
    • Esamir deep water is killing too quickly.
    • Eisa Tech Plant's C point shows incorrectly on the map, it should be located outdoors on the center of the second story of the building. The capture area still exists, though the capture point itself is not visible.
    • Ymir Ruins uses three normal capture points, instead of vehicle capture points, and the short capture timer has yet to be adjusted.
    • Outfits with pre-existing Bastion components may not be able to craft additional Bastion pieces currently.
    • Up x 1
  2. AGD4

    Does this only include Score from Kills and Point flips? Or does it now include Support XP?

    Currently only XP from Kills and capture points contribute to the base capture XP, which determines if your outfit receives outfit resources. (Similar to how contributions are measured for outfit-war purposes).

    Thanks!
  3. Shadowpikachu

    Hey since the thumper is obviously getting looked at, can you please finally remove the white line in the middle of the cross hair that blocks what you are trying to shoot at when when in more ranged bombardment scenarios.
  4. GunGood

    Hey, where can we get free outfit resources now? Can y'all add that to the "free stuff" Flash hologram beside the Campaign vendor?
  5. NCtraitor7

    How to get Auraxium from Synthium now? Same with Poly into Synth
  6. emeraldshado

    Will we get a chance to get the NS Analyst helm again? I've missed every opportunity to get it so far and desperately want it.
  7. Nerpson

    Oof! As a weak player, this is (was) my preferred way to get certs without struggling too much. I hope it will not bring us back years ago when getting certs was a real pain, so that missions allow us, noobs, to gain approximately the same amount, daily.

    Anyway, great job on this update so far!
    • Up x 3
  8. DataGhost

    Have tested the update for a little bit, looks mostly ok but the missions GUI conflicts with the directives GUI (as you know, since you've implemented it). But the way it conflicts kinda sucks. You basically lose all your tracked directives if you decide to "pin" a mission (they actually become untracked), and "pinning" said mission seems to be the only way to get the waypoints for it to show up. After the mission is done, or when you want to do something else, you need to manually find and select your previously tracked directives again. Very annoying. It would be nice if they were at least remembered even though they're not visible. And while you're at it, TrackedDirectives in UserOptions.ini might as well be copied into on save and copied back from TrackedDirectives0, 1, 2... on load for every character you have, that solves the problem for people with multiple characters too.
  9. math368

    To accommodate the additional rewards through the Mission system, alerts no longer offer ISO-4, A7, or Certs

    Daily Ribbon Bonuses have also been removed.
    Already the difficult games for new players what is the goal more to give recopense for alert
    me I want reward bonus xp not
    interested seen my character he has already ended a long time ago
    really find idea overwhelmed the gain iso certification of the alert because no
    one will play them anymore encourage
    them to play again for the time being,
    I find 150 certification not very much


    the more nobody will play alert more rewarded interesting would be a shame
  10. MyPillowGuy

    I'm new to the test server scene, could someone explain why the "new sms" portion is not working? I also have a question for the Dev's regarding the NS operatives; is there any sort of roadmap/plan to make them less restricted or have access to their own main battle tank or fighter aircraft? Thank you in advance and all that! Keep up the great work!
  11. math368

    I hope that you will put back the bonnus and cetifacats ribbons for the alert c is stupid to suppressed his not encourage players he needs reward for the alert not remove his c is very bad choice!
  12. Blam320

    There's really no reason to win alerts to begin with; people just keep farming and zerging like they always did.
  13. Larington

    I've noticed that bunker spawns are being added to the vehicle bases, I approve of this, however I think the bunkers need to be just a little more elaborate for two reasons:
    1. A single point of exit will be a target for shelling that could make it too easy to lock down defenders if they were daft enough to not get base walls set up in advance.
    2. There's a risk defenders will sit behind the shield, shooting out risk free and hitting friendlies in the back trying to rush the point.

    I'd suggest they be changed to something more akin to the two options below just to stave off the risk of not fun gameplay. o7

    [IMG]
  14. Villainous Hydrosa

    I'm honestly loving the storm. They act as lovely no-bastion zones, get rid of pesky ESFs, and make it harder to find me during my infil shenanigans. Also glad y'all fixed the performance issues with the storm. Lightning nades are so rewarding when they work!

    I personally would like missions/directives that focus on the storm. Like, get kills in the storm, absorb lightning while allies are nearby, lightning nade kills, and maybe killing/getting kills with vehicles while in the storm. Reward, a decal, and a Stormbringer/Storm Warrior title.
  15. Charoplet-MM

    There is no Russian localization for a new patch at all (new bases on maps and many more) - we have text about missing strings. Also there are white squares somewhere.

    [IMG]

    [IMG]
  16. Nighda Venesis

    I'm quite ok with alerts rewarding fewer resources (100 certs(*) and 25kxp seems too low for a 1h30 alert, might want to increase that a bit), but completely removing iso4 and a7 makes me feel like I'm forced to do missions, which themselves don't look to be very rewarding at all or impactful in their current state. In effect, this makes gaining resources much slower for someone who currently always sticks around until the end of an alert like myself.

    I have a a few points to say about missions as well:
    • Resource, xp, and cert(*) rewards for missions is too low, at least in most cases, especially with resource rewards being removed from alerts. The progression slows down and this system becomes a grind that I can't even grind due to daily limits, as you have stated wasn't your intention on the devstream.
    • Daily limits are essentially a progression cap without alert resource rewards for iso4 and a7 markets.
    • Mission repeatability being impresent causes issues with some aspects the system intends to improve, including fights between bases due to things like convoys, elysium mining drills, etc. I suspect people are going to do it once as they log on and lose interest after their first completion as they won't gain rewards, making it hard for people to complete who don't have a group interested in doing them. This leaves out the solo player. I understand you want to keep players in the game longevitively with an outfit, but please be considerate of lone wolves too. In addition to this the time gating of content becomes more prominent. Some people procrastinate and tend to do everything at once, others might not have access to their gaming rig for a period of time and need to do things at a higher than usual in order to get an item that is about to go away soon. Having a cap on what you can earn is as such worrisome.
    • Event missions such as elysium mining drills need some reworking in order to truly cause inter base fights; currently, there is little incentive as far as I can tell for people without the required missions to go and participate in these world events. Progress can also easily be dented, as for example with the elysium drill event, you have a faction specific drill that can be destroyed by being distantly shelled by other factions from what I was able to tell, forcing the actual participants to relocate to a new drill after waiting for one to appear.
    Here are my suggestions on how to make sure the mission system doesn't release dead on arrival and forces people to progress a certain way in which they don't feel like doing at all:
    • Alert rewards should not be removed, but a slight reduction would certainly help progression longevity. The current live amounts for winners are a bit too high. Losing amounts are fine in quite a good spot if you ask me
    • Mission rewards are a bit too low, especially with daily limits and lack of mission repeatability. There should also be incentive to complete them whilst also keeping alerts desirable to complete. For example, I'm looking to invest in the iso4 market, but only one mission which I can only accept once rewards only 50 iso4. Especially without alert rewards, this is problematic especially if I don't need a7, xp, or certs from the other missions.
    • Daily limits and mission repeatability: remove the former, allow the latter. This makes progression much more lax and doesn't create any worrying about not having enough and needing to do more missions one doesn't want to do due to low rewards. For instance: I want to gain iso4 today, but I also realize I'm low on a7 and still have things to get with a7 which might rotate out of sparky's shop soon, so I feel forced to go for a7 today as well instead of doing that on another day or maybe later today if I feel like it after some usual gameplay when I've already done missions for iso4. I understand you want more incentives for membership, which is completely fine. If you ask me, an increase in rewards might not be a bad idea as a substitute. There is already an increase in xp and subsequent cert gain for members. Paying for convenience and supporting a good game is just fine in my books.
    • Events intending to cause inter base fights should not be contract based like the rest, but rather be based on participation rewards for being there, showing up on the hud for people who are nearby, maybe one or two lattice links from its location near a frontline. For example with the mining drill event: instead of it being destructible, it should be immune to damage and operate on a timer instead and flip like a capture point. Whoever has it captured and is in event proximity has rewards trickled out to them through ticks. This makes these fights more worthwhile, longevitive, and easier to participate in.
    • Non inter base missions should operate within your own factions territory as much as possible, unless the point is to be in a fight, start a fight, or infiltrate enemy territory; Why would I want to deliver intel to enemy bases with my harasser in a low rarity mission? You could of course have a mid or high rarity mission deliver counter intel to enemy bases or something of the sort, which would classify under a mission explicitly being there to infiltrate enemy territory.
    Alright, I think I'm done. All of this said, I really love the idea of this update. I love the storm being included as an environmental hazard, I love the lore being tied into the continent of Esamir (bases and lattice are looking to be quite a bit better imo) and the mission system. My main worry is with time gating of rewards being too strict, resource progression being way too slow, and a system not intended to be grindy requiring grind that I can't even do as I'm limited by repeatability and daily limits.
    You guys are doing great, please make sure this system reflects that as well.
    Thanks for coming to my kek talk.
    *not sure if xp translates into certs
  17. DataGhost

    Derelict planes appear to spawn below the map after salvaging them. I only found Valkyries and Galaxies so far and all of them I've tried (in various locations) disappear after salvaging, appear on the minimap where I'm standing but the distance starts increasing while it receives damage. Vanguards, Prowlers, Magriders and Sunderers work fine, they spawn on top of the ground and are usable after that. Also, for now it seems that the exact same vehicles spawn in the exact same locations every time, I'd expect some randomness to be going on there.
    • Up x 1
  18. Tython

    Please no.

    Unless you plan to add some very large chunks of Certs, ISO-4, and A7 to every Mission reward (even the commmon ones), this is an awful idea.

    As it stands, a F2P player can reasonably attain several hundred of these currencies through a few hours of fairly casual play each day.

    The EXP bonus sort of makes up for Certs (and as one who's still grinding my way towards ASP, I like the idea of a big chunk of EXP), but ISO-4 and A7 are a real issue.

    With F2P only being allowed to complete 3 Missions per day, each Mission will have to award a couple hundred each of ISO-4 and A7 in order to stay in line with what you could previously get from Alerts.

    Otherwise, F2P players will have no way to reasonably gain ISO-4 or A7. That will leave them at a SEVERE disadvantage in the implants and "special weapons" departments.
  19. Blam320

    You, and so, so many others are completely missing the point.

    Casual players don't always have several hours every day to log in. If you're playing for multiple hours every day you're not playing casually; I should know because I no longer do that. Missions are supposed to give them a reasonably consistent way to get ISO, Certs, and A7 without forcing them to need to play through an entire alert. Maybe they can only log in for an hour every day, or every week.
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