Planetside 2

[Miasma]

What they are calling game update three notes.  Guess they are going to take a page from firefox's nonsense and call every bug fix patch a numbered "Game Update".

Also I guess Smedly tweeted about server merges happening soon.  Won't get character transfer until it is finished.

General Updates

· Tweaks have been made to render distance values

Infantry Updates

· Corrected an issue while using HR-NV on an SMG on low settings that would make it difficult to see other players within 20m
· Dying and reviving with the VS Eridan SX5 HS/NV Scope equipped will no longer cause the scope to become misaligned.
· Icon for the VS Eridani SX5 should no longer be misaligned
· If an engineer turret is placed on or near a vehicle pad, they will be deconstructed when a vehicle spawns.
Vehicle Updates

· Optics will no longer persist when switching from gunner to the driver’s seat in various vehicles
Item Updates

· New SMG’s and customization items

UI Updates

· Players with outfit tags should be able to see kill messages in chat
· Made it so players can see hotspots on continents they are not on.
· While using the Enemy/Ally HUD color scheme, the influence pie chart will only display 2 wedges (ally vs enemy) instead of three (two of them being red anyway)
· Squad leaders should now be properly added to the Command Chat voice channel
· Squad leaders that belong to a platoon should now be able to promote a member of their squad to the role of squad leader.
· Fixed an issue where changing an outfit member’s rank would not always work on the first attempt
· Corrected an issue where multiple consumable tints could not be purchased at once in the Premium Early Access section of the depot
· Submachine guns should now appear properly in the depot when filtering for Infiltrator or Heavy Assault weapons
· Influence percentages on the HUD should now update more dynamically
· Fixed an issue where purple generator icons were being displayed on the respawn map instead of the appropriate destroyed generator icon
· Will no longer display a “Killed by []” message in chat when you are killed by a pain field

Facility Updates

· Fixed the spawn location for Xelas South Bridge
· Made fixes to the coverage of multiple spawn room pain fields including:
o Zurvan Pump Station
o Zurvan Network Complex
o All forward spawns for Dahaka
o Saurva Data Storage
o Mao Southeast Gate
o Mao Southwest Gate
o Rashnu Cavern
o Rashnu Southern Pass
o Allatum Broadcast Hub
o Allatum Research Lab
o Hvar Northgate Garrison
o Auraxicom Substation
o Wokuk Shipping Dock
o Wokuk Storage Yard
o Camp Waterson
o Elli Barracks Complex
· Should now be able to successfully capture the Freyr Substation forward spawn point
· Fixed the spawn point at the NS Refinery
· Made fixes so the spawn room shields will properly change faction when the point is captured across the following areas:
o Hvar, Southeast Forward Spawn
o Mekala, North Forward Spawn
o Tumas, Northeast Forward Spawn
· All jump pads at Tawrich Depot should work correctly again
· All teleporters at Andvari Bio Lab should have functioning shields again
· Amerish’s East Hills Checkpoint should now display correct region info in the HUD
· All jump pads and air vehicle pads at Elli Amp Station should now properly recognize the Empire in control of the facility
· Saerro Listening Post’s teleporter room has had its pain field re-enabled
· Fixed an issue where specific door shields at Zurvan would be invisible when viewed from certain angles
· Corrected some missing wall textures at Tawrich
· Corrected ramp geometry errors across all amp stations
· Regions of the Vanu Archives should no longer display as part of Snake Ravine in the HUD

Audio Updates

· VS Flare audio should no longer cut out when running low on ammo

[Mrbloodworth]

As long as it does not break more than it fixes, they can call it what ever they want.

[Miasma]

Higby dev chat type post.  Has merger info.

WoW armory type thing.

I put my VS alt on a different server so that I wouldn't be shooting people in my main's outfit.  It will now be on the same server, sorta defeating the purpose of putting it elsewhere.

Edit: Blar now I'm going to be all upset about my lousy K/D and score per minute because of the official stat tracker.

[Mrbloodworth]

Thats a sexy site.

[Miasma]

I just splurged on a new video card (ironically for fucking WoW not planetside) and was surprised to find that it came with $50 worth of station cash.  It also has fifty bucks for world of tanks and something called Hawken if you play them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130809

First person who asks in this thread for the other fifty buck codes can have them since I don't play those (so long as the code is just a number and I don't have to sign up for crap and such).  I have not received it yet so it could take up to a week before you get it.

[Nija]

I'll take 'em!

[Miasma]

Okay, I'll PM them when they come.

[shiznitz]

Thats a sexy site.

It is nice.

[Miasma]

Some data mining on factions and activity.  I am amazed that the factions are almost perfectly balanced population wise, the warpgate rotations seem to have a noticable effect.  The definition of activity is kind of odd so it seems you should ignore the last seven days, making the number of people who log in around 300k.

Edit: He's removed the last seven days himself now so ingore that.

[Mrbloodworth]

Where would you even get that info?

[Miasma]

They released an api to their stats when they released their own stat website.

Edit: I'm certain I saw mention of an api but can't find it now...  At any rate I imagine the data comes from soe's own site.

Edit2: Oh not really an api but a custom query site: http://census.soe.com/ .

[shiznitz]

I wonder what % of that 300k are paying subs?  I am in a small outfit but at least half are paying subscribers.  I find the accelerated offline cert gain to be worth $10/month (12 month commitment).  It is about 30 certs a day, I think.  

I am glad I did not get suckered into buying the first SMG, though.  I thought it would be nerfed, not one-upped by another gun the next month! I would love to see a BFG that fires slow but hits really hard without one-shotting. 

[Mrbloodworth]

They released an api to their stats when they released their own stat website.

Edit: I'm certain I saw mention of an api but can't find it now...  At any rate I imagine the data comes from soe's own site.

Edit2: Oh not really an api but a custom query site: http://census.soe.com/ .

Yeah, I asked because I know the API does not show users who have not been searched. Still, its a slice of data.

[UnSub]

I wonder what % of that 300k are paying subs?  I am in a small outfit but at least half are paying subscribers.

There's a F2P rule of thumb that says 89% of players in a F2P title don't pay, 10% pay a bit and 1% are whales (which is a term I hate - way to get your terminology from the gambling industry - but that's what they are called). How well that applies to PS2 I've got no idea.

[Pennilenko]

I don't know what a bit qualifies as, but I can say for sure that most of the people in my outfit's team-speak have spent in the range of 100 dollars or more on PS2. This is based on conversation.

[Nija]

I think I'm around $250 already.

[Mrbloodworth]

I wonder what % of that 300k are paying subs?  I am in a small outfit but at least half are paying subscribers.

There's a F2P rule of thumb that says 89% of players in a F2P title don't pay, 10% pay a bit and 1% are whales (which is a term I hate - way to get your terminology from the gambling industry - but that's what they are called). How well that applies to PS2 I've got no idea.

Smedly did an article that confirms just that, but also said its been SOE's most profitable game yet.

[Miasma]

I imagine Smed was referring to the total, there are probably a huge number of people less than br10 who played a bit and never came back.  Of the 300k active I'm sure most spend money.  There's just no way most people would spend their precious certs on all those rocket pods, annhilators, tank secondaries and camo that I see.  As soon as they release a new toy all I see is a hurricane of that item for the next few days like the smg and AV turret.

I imagine someone could use that census site to do some math and find out (roughly).  Take the total certs a person has, subtract certs spent on skills then subtract the cert cost of all unlocks and if the number is negative they probably spent money.  Things like item sales and alpha squad unlocks would screw that up somewhat.

Edit: That data doesn't seem to be available from the census yet.

[Miasma]

Smedly posted over on reddit that they are looking into allowing access to ps1 if you are doing the sub for ps2.

[shiznitz]

I think I'm around $250 already.

I am probably close to $120 in addition to my 12 month sub.

And I cannot play the game right now because I am getting strange socket errors when it tries to update.  SOE customer service is failing hard at fixing it.  This is actually my first experience with SOE support ever.  I have had no problems with any of their games in the past.

[Stormwaltz]

Europe accounts were hacked.

http://planetside2.eu/teasers/261-important-announcement-to-our-players

[01101010]

Grab your cupcakes...

All servers will come down at 12:00 AM PT March 1st, 2013 for maintenance to support the PlanetSide 2 server merges. Downtime is anticipated to be approximately 90 minutes. Players on impacted servers will find their characters intact on the following servers:

Genudine to Helios
SolTech to Mattherson
Jaegar to Waterson
Lithicorp to Cobalt
Mallory to Ceres

[Nija]

They should merge all of the west coast servers so we can fight on a continent that isn't Indar on Connery.

I haven't seen a good fight on Esamir this year.

[Mrbloodworth]

RE: Account wide unlocks.  

 @rathss they're on schedule for the next GU.
    — Matthew Higby (@mhigby) February 27, 2013

[Jimbo]

I wish I could combine all the crap on the character they moved.  Since my VS is moving to Mattherson, and my NC main is there, would rather just have the stuff I have on him credited to my main and let me delete my alt.

[Pennilenko]

RE: Account wide unlocks.  

 @rathss they're on schedule for the next GU.
    — Matthew Higby (@mhigby) February 27, 2013

 I would be excited about this except that I'm fairly sure that their implementation is going to be made of complete shit and greed.

[kildorn]

RE: Account wide unlocks.  

 @rathss they're on schedule for the next GU.
    — Matthew Higby (@mhigby) February 27, 2013

 I would be excited about this except that I'm fairly sure that their implementation is going to be made of complete shit and greed.

New unlocks are account wide and cost 10x as much! Old unlocked items are still only unlocked for that character!

.. THESE ARE NOT SUGGESTIONS, SONY.

[Mrbloodworth]

Phobos VX86 Pump Action Shotgun

   

    Players may note the following changes:

           

• New pump action shotguns are available in the depot. These boast increased stopping power in exchange for a reduced rate of fire.
• New Conglomerate: GD-66 Claw
• Vanu Sovereignty: Phobos VX86
• Terran Republic: TRS-12 Uppercut
• Reduced impact flinch and evened out flinch amount based on damage
• Reduced screen shake from explosions
• Client stability improvements
• Server optimizations
• Fixed an issue causing NC shotgun slug ammo to do too much damage at range. Should now be in line with the other empires.
• Fix for NC MAX slug ammo having a longer range than intended
• Server merges

[Miasma]

Rate of fire doesn't seem that much slower compared to other semi auto shotguns.

[Mrbloodworth]

I Dunno, i have not tried it.

PlanetSide 2: War Correspondent - Episode 1 

[shiznitz]

Rate of fire doesn't seem that much slower compared to other semi auto shotguns.

I have not seen video of the NC version, but that video of the VS version is clearly slower than my Jackhammer. Still, the JH takes 3 perfect shots to kill HA.  That takes 2.  Easier to land 2 than 3.  I am intrigued.

[Gets]

I Dunno, i have not tried it.

PlanetSide 2: War Correspondent - Episode 1 

Half that video should be people taking potshots at those spawn rooms with the one-way windows and doors while someone does Hank Hill impressions on voice comms.

[Miasma]

Game Update 4 info.

    Flash update:
        Wraith Module (Cloaking) for infiltrators using the Flash
        Rumble seat - bring a passenger with you on your flash, they are weapons free in the passenger seat!
        New weapon: Renegade shotgun
    Account level unlocks
        Items you've purchased with StationCash will be available to all characters on your account that are eligible to use that item.
        Common pool items, such as the Zephyr or NS-11 will be available to all characters on your account.
        Empire specific weapons such as the GD-22 and Lasher will be available to all characters of the required faction on your account.
        We are working on a solution for those of you who have purchased the same item on multiple characters.
    VR Training
        A safe test zone where you can try each weapon and vehicle in the game with no resource cost or cooldown timers.
        Target practice areas to learn weapon strengths and weaknesses at range, practice recoil patterns.
        Driving/flying area to practice with vehicles.
        Areas to practice team tactics, such as towers and small outposts.
        No player stats are recorded in VR, so have fun!
    New respawn & map screen
        We've combined the respawn and map screen into one.
        The new map screen has been cleaned up better use space.
        Additional top requested features, such as friendly troop locations will be coming soon, but not with GU04.
    Membership enhancements
        We've increased the number of passive certifications for members and scaled the increase in cert points based on length of membership. The new cert point rates are as follows:

1-mo. member - 24 passive cert points/day
2-mo. member - 28.8 passive cert points/day
3-mo. member - 33.6 passive cert points/day
4-mo. member - 38.4 passive cert points/day
5-mo. member - 43.2 passive cert points/day
6-mo. + member - 48 passive cert points/day

    Empire specific Rocket Launchers
        VS - Lancer: an extremely precise, super-high-velocity, anti-vehicle energy weapon with a unique charge mechanic, the longer you charge the weapon the more damage it deals.
        TR - Striker: launches a series of mid-damage guided missiles at a single target, the Striker's user must maintain the lock by keeping the enemy in the crosshairs while the missiles are tracking.
        NC - Phoenix: A high damage, slow firing camera guided missile which must be guided by the Phoenix's user. The Phoenix is capable of dealing high damage with very little warning since there is no lock on.
        These weapons will be released in the patch the week following GU04
    Notable balance changes
        Explosive radius from ALL vehicle based damage sources have been reduced, this does not affect vehicle vs vehicle direct hit damage, only splash damage vs infantry.
        Prowler HEAT / HE rounds have had their damage reduced to no longer 1-shot kill infantry, killing a full health infantry will require both Prowler rounds to be fired. This does not affect vs. vehicle damage.
        Edit: Movement improvements for the Magrider, bringing back some of it's glideyness, but not it's ability to climb every hill in the game.
        Edit: Torque increases for all MBTs so they don't slow down as much on inclines.

This is just a small preview of the main tentpole features for GU04, in addition to the above GU04 will contain a number of bug fixes and smaller balance tweaks, map changes to Indar, optimization and stability improvements.

Fifty certs a day just for logging on will be a nice bonus.  My two alts will be happy.

[shiznitz]

I have been a paying sub (12 month plan) since late December.  I just went 2 weeks without ever logging in (vacation and a socket error which I finally solved) and I only had 51 certs today.  I am not complaining, but just indicating that the announced acceleration is quite significant.

[Miasma]

If you don't log in for 48 hours your passive certs stop accumulating.  You also have to log in each character, not just go to character select.

Huge news: They snuck in an auto-run key that I only now found out about, defaults to = .

Edit: Some sort of semi lattice system.  Now the zerg will know exactly where to go next.