The Legion of the Crows - Feb. Dev Letter [Forum Discussion]

Discussion in 'Official News and Announcements' started by Mithril, Feb 24, 2025.

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  1. Mithril Community Manager

    Hello Auraxians!

    We hope this message finds you well and that you’re enjoying the latest updates to Auraxis. Today, we want to provide you with some insight on the process of creating new armor sets in PlanetSide 2 by giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Legion of the Crows armors! We also have an update on two major projects we’ve been working on: the upcoming server merge and the infiltrator class rework.

    Server Merge Progress
    The server merge is a significant undertaking aimed at improving player population balance, reducing queue times, and enhancing the overall gameplay experience. While we’ve made substantial progress, the complexity of merging server data, ensuring character and progression integrity, and optimizing server performance has required more time than initially anticipated.

    We understand that many of you are eager to see this change implemented, and we share your excitement. However, we want to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible. Rest assured, we’re working diligently to address all technical challenges and will keep you updated as we move closer to the rollout.

    Infiltrator Rework Update
    The infiltrator rework is another project that has demanded more attention than we originally planned. Our goal is to refine the class’s role, balance its abilities, and introduce new mechanics that make infiltrators more dynamic and engaging to play. However, during internal testing, we identified several areas that need further iteration to meet our quality standards and your expectations.

    We believe it’s crucial to take the time to get this right. The infiltrator class is a cornerstone of PlanetSide 2’s gameplay, and we want to ensure that any changes we make enhance the experience for both infiltrator players and those who face them on the battlefield.

    LEGION OF THE CROWS
    We are preparing a new Armor and Helmet set for the New Conglomerate sub faction LEGION OF THE CROWS. This set was hinted at last year with the Legion of the Crows Decal, Banner, and Banner Frame.
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    THE BACKSTORY (LORE)
    The Legion of the Crows was originally founded in the early days of the Terran Republic as an advocacy group, helping veterans reacclimate to civilian life after the war.

    Over time, its purpose expanded, drawing in civilian firearms enthusiasts and private security firms.

    Even before the outbreak of the Old War, the Crows were among the first to resist the Republic’s martial law, seeing it as an overreach of power.

    When the New Conglomerate declared its independence, the Legion was already prepared for the fight.

    For them, this war was never about ideology, it was about the thrill of battle and the promise of a hefty paycheck. They serve no master beyond their own ambition, yet despite their disdain for blind loyalty, they remain close to their NC allies, at least when interests align.

    Some say the Crows are more than just mercenaries, that their eyes are set on something beyond the battlefield. Whispers of unusual stockpiles and clandestine operations follow them, but if you ask a Crow, they’ll just smile and change the subject.

    THE ART
    While designing the set, we take a look at the Lore in order to pull the most important keywords that will help us in concepting the set, like Faction, Sub faction, Crow, and Corporate Mercenaries. The elements that should be most recognizable are: Faction, Mercenary, and Crow. The thought process behind the keywords is to work with them in mind and convey the story to the players by using the most important bits of that story.

    As the assets are being used for a mercenary, the design calls for a much more “personal item” feel rather than standardized military equipment.

    Helmet
    The general shape of the helmet is infused with symbolism and reminiscent of a bird's head. Elements incorporated into design include: the beak, nares, wings, feather shapes, opto-mechanical “eyes,” and the bird's tail on the back of the head.

    The biggest surfaces of the helmet calotte are left clean for the purpose of applying camouflage. The curved shapes are supported by the accented elements, in our case yellow strips as we use secondary faction colors for accents, while keeping the primary colors for bigger surfaces. It can be challenging designing assets that require having a color as part of their design (in this case it is the crow’s black colors), while also having to display faction colors and camouflage, thus we will need a camo in dark color to complement this set.
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    Armors
    When designing an armor set, we take into account all of the classes, where each one of them should be visually different, read well and convey their purpose with the aid of a main unique element that will help with class visual distinction. The overall shape, colors and accessories allow us to convey a message about its faction and mercenary purpose. For symbolism we are using segments reminiscent of a crow’s leg skin pattern, as well as wing/feather like elements.

    We are creating not one “Legion of the Crows” armor but five, as well as unique skinning for all of them. Additionally, we have five female versions which use a different body base, (along with infiltrator class which also uses a different body base as well).

    The Heavy Assault class is the first one we focus on. Reasoning for this is that it has the most elements and is the bulkiest one in its role of the front-line soldier, which gives us an opportunity to detract from that design when creating other classes (except Infiltrator). We do this in order to visually tie all of the classes together and optimize development time. As a main unique element, it features an energy generator used to power shields or Nanite Mesh.
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    The Light Assault class, in contrast to the Heavy Assault, has its focus on mobility and features less of the protective parts. The patterns reminiscent of those of a crow’s leg skin are more prominent, and its unique element (Jump Jet) is adorned with wings.
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    The Combat Medic is the only class that uses white colored elements to establish its purpose, and its unique element is a Medical backpack and holster for the Medical Applicator.
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    The Engineer class is versatile in both Offensive and Defensive encounters, as such it features more protective elements in comparison to other classes, with only the Heavy Assault topping it. Its unique element is a generator used for powering one of its many available assets at disposal, and calibration tools on the Nano-Armor Kit holster.
    [IMG]

    The Infiltrator class, being focused on stealth, has the sleekest silhouette, with a cloaking device as its unique element. This class has a unique body base, which means reusability of elements presented in the Heavy Assault is not a viable option.
    [IMG]

    After concepts are done, we move to 3D, skinning and implementation, respectfully. It is worth mentioning that a concept, as being in its essence a 2D image, does not fully translate when put into 3D, in this case adjustments and changes take place until we are satisfied with the final outcome.

    Hope you enjoyed this glimpse behind the curtains of the art department!

    What’s Next?
    We know that delays can be frustrating, and we deeply appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to deliver these updates. Moving forward, we’ll provide regular progress reports through developer blogs, social media, and community updates. Your feedback will continue to play a vital role in shaping these changes, so please keep sharing your thoughts with us.

    Thank you for your unwavering support and passion for PlanetSide 2. We’re committed to making Auraxis the best it can be, and we’re excited to share more with you soon.

    Stay tuned, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

    Best regards,
    The PlanetSide 2 Team
    • Up x 1
  2. Dr Lawson

    The Infiltrator rework may very well be a change more anticipated than cosmetics than any other in recent memory, however fasionable they are.
  3. Ltuuut


    It's like when Bethesda speaks about their quality standards.

    Decade old bugs still not fixed, cheaters still there (yet less flying sunderers), latency issues, fishing ideas for an FPS game, messy updates with sunderers that were only fixed several days later after breaking the game... I would love to see those "quality standards" you've mentioned in the upcoming update, and I sincerely hope that people would laugh at me, saying :" What a moron ! See ? You were wrong !", rather than me being prophetic about those "standards" of yours.
    • Up x 3
  4. Aysom

    Hey Mithril, can we expect the development team to take on smaller, more iterative game updates at any point?

    The length of time between these large and more "destructive" updates that make extensive changes to certain sectors of the game, like the Sunderer rework, makes the game feel quite stagnant in the interim—plus issues brought up by these updates do not always feel like they are adequately solved in a reasonable time.

    This focus on more quantitive updates also leads to the game's smaller issues going completely unaddressed. Players often feel like any chance of these issues being addressed, due to their unsuitability for being addressed in the large and targeted patches that the Toadman team seems to prefer, is nigh-on zero, and this has led to no end of frustration.

    I, for one, personally do not feel the game is much different from almost three years ago now, the last update that affected the majority of the playerbase being March 2022's Arsenal Update, or its iterative update 7 months later in November 2022 via the 10th Anniversary, as the team's focus on large targeted reworks means the rest of the game, both during the patch that added the rework as well as in the "downtime" inbetween them, remains almost identical.

    These small issues are often unrelated, but which each individually niggle at players and add up to a large amount of frustration, and they can also be issues that the team is solely leaving to tackle in larger updates that don't necessarily need to be left that long;
    • Basic gun balance, such as the relative power of the GD-7F and AF-4 Cyclone/Tempest to other weapons in the game and/or equivalent weapons available to other factions, or the low power of much of the Vanu arsenal outside of their "meta" options, as well as the NSO arsenal as a whole.
    • Class balance, such as the subject of the upcoming Infiltrator rework, where smaller changes such as simple numbers adjustments to abilities and tools may serve as a stopgap to increase player satisfaction pending a large-scale overhaul.
    • Vehicle balance, where problems such as the ubiquity of aircraft could be addressed in smaller, more iterative ways such as decreasing ammo capacity on anti-ground weapons.
    • System updates, such as the spawn system where tuning to certain hurting areas (such as Spawn Beacons and Routers) can make an impact on how players interact with the game world and attempt to mitigate the current "redeployside" where players are able to very quickly start new offensives and react to enemy attacks at blistering speed.
    • UI adjustments, such as an often-requested indicator for the existence of a Beacon in the player's squad, or additions to the oft-forgotten and very obscured Codex.
    And these are things that should be adjusted in small ways across multiple patches, that could go live with the common bugfixing hotfixes we already receive as a part of the team's clear goal of improving the experience. Balance, in my opinion, should be more constant and in response to both player sentiment and the data resulting from prior changes, as opposed to the current paradigm of large destructive reworks that then often go uniterated on after their introduction, with their flaws unaddressed and their room for improvement uncaptured.
    • Up x 4
  5. nowtna

    The x3 denotes this is more considered a social post than not from the non other than. Last I checke on infiltrators some of the key areas were mass outages of any damage on any weapon that often transferred - probably part of the problem - to other weaps and engagements including vehicles. Dunno ya.
  6. Alilua

    I'm a bit concerned about the legion of crows armor set. It doesn't seem to follow the design language of the new conglomerate faction at all. It looks vanu. It's segmented armor, round, and nature based which is heavily a vanu design trait.

    NC stuff is generally square, function over form, industrial, construction, repurposed, rugged mercenary kind of stuff.

    I don't get any NC vibes from looking at the examples posted other than square ammo pouches and the blue color. Please make these armors distinct and new conglomerate looking and not more hug the body could be anyone's armor if the color was changed.

    http://binarycoder.info/player-studio-guide/

    We love this game and want to support it but please take it in a good direction.
  7. 23rd enigma

    Mithril, it's time to open up the thread about game balance and tweaks that you were considering opening . Redditside and the people on here are more interested in core balance patches, than the "mega content" updates. I'll buy 3 bundles (including this one) the moment you guys pushout a gun balance update to fix OP sniper/scout rifles or buff NSO assault rifles!
  8. KyMurk

    Although certainly many years overdue, the work on the server merge is really exciting to me. Having played
    this game on and off for years, I feel that I can really reintroduce more of my friends to Planetside now that the thrilling Outfit driven events of Bastions and Colossi are going to be much more prevalent.

    Regarding the Infiltrator rework, I've already had quite a few discussions with other players about the efficacy
    and frustration of particular items available to the Infiltrator and to soldiers as a whole. For starters, Stalker cloak in a vacuum is technically not that bad. Neither are the powerful burst revolvers like the Underdog, Blackhand, and Commissioner (most of the time. They are fun to use though). But when combined, and with good aim, those two items are the most devilish thing to grace control points and spawns.
    At which point, comes out another piece of equipment from the enemies that some view under a toxic lens of
    "noobish", "balogne", and "overpowered", the Darklight attachment. Though it is, practically speaking, the only way to flush out a Stalker Cloaking Infiltrator.
    I've always normally ran an NSO Hunter Cloaking Infiltrator with Deep Operative, and it always feels much more interactive than someone sitting still for five years holding an Emissary in their hand. People can still notice me, they still spray and possibly tag me, I am always making noise or planting a motion detector every other moment to give away my location, there is no need for a Darklight to catch me.
    It isn't bad either, it thrives in the chaos of enemies running around, no one really notices the small bump they run
    into, there are mind games for who gets the drop on who, and there are really fine lines of timing to assassinate one soldier and slink back into your dwindling cloak supply. It's fun.

    Stalker Cloaking with the existing powerful sidearms is not fun.
    Secondary weapons with better time to kill than primaries are ridiculous if the tradeoff is magazine capacity, because with Stalker cloak, you can reload in complete obscurity and safety.
    With that said, I hope Stalker Cloaking is given another tell for the location of the user at the very least,
    either a subtle hum, or the inability to reload while within Stalker Cloak.

    I've yet to see the practical application of Nano-Armor Cloaking, as infiltrators are normally never shot at when using cloak correctly.

    Regarding the new armor set, it looks nice! With the underlay of the base New Conglomerate model I think
    it'll look okay, and won't tank the design language of the NC. Except in the case of the Engineer, I feel it needs pauldrons with a more "manufactured" design, something that says "Shock Resistant Non-Slip Integrated Axillary/Subclavian Heavy Protection Gear". Otherwise, with the right textures I think the bracers and greaves of all classes won't look like they're part of the Vanu Sovereignty.

    Unrelated to the main discussion:
    Finally, regarding general development, I understand it's a bit late now, but a couple of the Directive weapons
    are really underwhelming statistically or gimmick wise. Some examples include the NSO PMG-ARX Schrodinger and XMG-ARX Galilei, the VS Chaos, and the TR Havoc and Shuriken.
    But! The time investment required to acquire these items for their quirks is not worth it. It can take cumulatively
    weeks of gameplay to complete the kill directives depending on the weapon, whereas it might only take a single session of gametime to unlock a new weapon entirely using certs. My perspective may be due to my time playing on Connery.
    • Up x 1
  9. DLL2

    nothing about balancing between mbt and sundy, and the same for factions. there's no dev for balance the game?
    • Up x 1
  10. vlaamseleeuw

    the infiltrator part is pretty vague, can you please specify the direction that is chosen for the rework:
    What is the dev vision here?
    Need for mechanics change?
    Number balancing ?
  11. Mithril Community Manager

    We will have further details as our focus shifts to that part of the next series of updates.
    • Up x 1
  12. vlaamseleeuw

    tnx for taking time to reply.
  13. HerzogS

    I agree with you about the ineffectiveness of using Darklight to detect Infiltrators, it does create a bit of a toxic situation for players, as some players may use this item simply to kill all Infiltrators without much strategy or skill. I understand that the goal was to make the game more accessible to everyone, but it also reduces the possibilities for those who are trying to create an interesting and complex strategy. It might be worth revising the Darklight mechanic so that it's not so powerful, or making it less accessible, such as limiting the number or giving it only to certain classes. This could help keep the balance and give more room for maneuver to those who want to rely on their cloaking skills rather than vigilance with an item. Do you think there are any other ways to balance this situation to keep the game interesting?
  14. BabyHz

    joining in on ~old bugs and stuff~
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