[PTS] PTS Update - 2/24

[PSNews]

Here are the changes coming to PTS this afternoon.

Features and Map Design

Hardspawn Bunkers

We’ve set up four locations on Indar to prove out the hardspawn concept; Mao South East, Howling Pass, Indar Excavation, and Quartz Ridge Camp. Hardspawns are listed on the map as a “Bunker” and allow attacking (or defending) factions to flip the control point and gain access to an additional hard spawn. These bunker capture pointscan be captured by vehicles and are located on the outskirts of the base. We’re testing a few configurations between the four candidate bases. Quartz Ridge’s hardspawn is attached to control of the base itself (turning it into a four-point base,) but its capture point is “worth” less than the three located within the base. The other three hardspawns are not connected to bases, but have differences in capture point distance and visibility. We’re looking forward to any feedback you can offer here, as there are a variety of ways to implement this system, but we’d prefer to choose only one of them to maintain as much consistency as possible.

TI Alloys

This base has received a revision which is intends to direct flow of the base more toward the eastern side of it while providing more secure Sunderer locations, additional cover for attacking players, and more options for the defenders to resecure the base. In the future, the eastern building will likely be replaced with one that scales better with larger player counts, but we’d like to make sure the adjustments to the outskirts of the base create the intended flow.

Indar Eastern Warp Gate

The road behind this Warp Gate no longer runs into the back of a vehicle bay, and a new road has been added to the south west of the warp gate that will allow for a quicker climb to the top of the southern plateau.

Ikanam

Changed the lighting while underground (similar to how we do at The Ascent.) When an opposing faction gains control of Ikanam (by capturing and holding all of the points,) enemy construction bases at the top of the plateau will now be immediately destroyed. Silos are no longer required to power the spawn points within Ikanam itself. These changes make control of the substructure more consequential, and poise the player-constructed bases as a way to leverage control over the outer points, without also forcing the “cleanup duty” after the base changes hands.

Implants

This system has received a second pass in terms of polish and functionality. There will be balance adjustments to implants before they hit Live, but these changes are not included in this update. A new “Safeguard” implant has also been added, that reduces damage briefly upon being revived. All players will be receiving tier 1 Safeguard and tier 1 Focus when the system goes Live.

Construction

Bunkers

These now contain an equipment terminal which requires an active Silo to power.

Anti-Infantry Turret

Dev Note: The constructable Anti-Infantry turret's effectiveness while controlled by an AI module is being toned down, these changes do NOT come into play when manned. This should lead to less frustration for infantry entering a base, and encourage players to make use of the turret in its non-AI controlled state.

CoF from 1.45 to 2

Damage max from 200 to 167

Damage min from 125 to 75

Min damage range from 85 to 50

Infantry Balance

TRAP M1

Tooltip no longer mentions single-fire mode.

2x burst horizontal tolerance from 0.4375 to 0.15

2x burst ADS bloom from 0.07 to 0.06

2x burst Hipfire bloom from 0.14 to 0.12

Dev Note: These adjustments should increase the range and accuracy on the 2x burst, and further separate it from the 3x burst.

Misc. changes and additions

C4 can now be deconstructed by the Engineer’s Repair tool

PTS Implant Bundle will now reward players with all implants every time.

Implant Bundle purchases can now use a stepper to increment the number of bundles bought at once.

AVA Armor may now be purchased for individual classes

Hardlight Barrier has been re-enabled on PTS

Draw Fire directive should now be complete-able

Tawrich Tower air pad should no longer spawn your vehicle so close to the cliff

Removed all weapon cert lines from the vehicle passive certs screen.

Knife wielding animations have been changed for most knives, and should more accurately reflect the hit areas for wielded knives.

A lattice link from Rime Analytics to Eisa Mountain Pass has been added.

Bug fixes

African Forest camo once again works on VS helmets and weapons

Indar Warp Gate air pads should now properly provide ammo

Fixed skinning issue with female Darkstar Medic armor

Various fixes for broken or semi-functional implants

Explosive damage once again rewards assist experience

Fixed some Construction terrain exploits

Adjusted camo tiling and details on NSX Kabuto

Various decal fixes

Speculative fix for the male/female helmet mixup on the character creation screen

Liberators should no longer be able to shoot through the new BioLab dome

Galaxy Abyss Cockpit shader and UV adjustments

Upgrading utility slots in VR Training should display correct UI

MKV-P rail attachments should no longer conflict with optics.

Repairing Harassers no longer connects the repair beam to the sky

Art adjustments to first person VS Heavy Assault view model

VP system string adjustments

Fixed an issue where some holobanners would act like one-way shields

Fix for VS Munitions Pouch rank 1 not providing ammo

Source: Planetside 2 Test Server: Announcements