[PTS] February 21, 2020 - PTS Update

[PSNews]

Empire Strength and Continent Meta

• Mid-continent events (Aerial Anomalies, Maximum Pressure, etc,) have been removed.
• Territory control of 41% now awards 5 Empire Strength.
• Territory control of 44% provides an additional 5 Empire Strength, and this effect also occurs at 48%, 52%, 56% and 60% territory.
• While a Bastion Fleet Carrier is hovering over contested territory, the faction will earn progress toward unlocking 15 Empire Strength. This process takes roughly 17 minutes to complete, and progress made toward this objective is not depleted when the Bastion is destroyed.
• Eisa Tech Plant (Esamir) Empire Strength benefit from 30 to 25.
• The Ascent (Amerish) Empire Strength benefit from 15 to 25.
• The Crown (Indar) Empire Strength benefit from 15 to 25.

Dev Note: This is a first pass at the new continent progression, and we will be making adjustments and doing some UI cleanup here in the future. Bastion power projection will earn Empire Strength more quickly and in smaller chunks, instead of the lump sum we're sending to PTS, in a later update. There will also likely need to be more tuning done post-launch to ensure continents don't feel like they're rotating too quickly, or inversely, feel like they're relying on a Bastion to appear every continent.

Resource Gain in the World

• When a Meltdown alert triggers, the faction that started the alert will receive an immediate 5x tick of resources from bases they own.
• When a Meltdown alert ends, the faction that won the alert will receive an immediate 5x tick of resources from bases they own.
• Unstable Meltdown alerts do the same, but with only a 2x tick of resources from bases owned.
• At the end of the alert, all outfit ownership is wiped.

Dev Note: These notes were removed from the previous PTS update as the system seemed bugged. These effects should be properly working now though, please report any issues you find.

Bastion Fleet Carrier

Movement

• Bastion will now rotate in place towards its movement waypoint and won't move forward until it is facing that direction.
• Rotation speed has been increased a few degrees per second.
• Flying too close to the mountain range of The Ascent on Amerish will now push the Bastion away from it.
• Bastion no longer pitches up and down while ascending or descending, and instead remains level.
• Movement waypoints will now be rejected if placed too close to Bastion's current position.
• Fixed various movement related issues and exploits.

Weapons, Softpoints, Response Fighters

• Weakpoints now have much more health, and have been given a shield bar that regenerates up to 25% of their total health pool while out of combat.
• Weakpoints should now always properly despawn when the Bastion does.
• Mauler (waypoint controlled) turrets are now much more powerful, and deal damage in a larger area.
• Mauler (waypoint controlled) turrets should now always correctly face the direction of their shots.
• Turrets now have new cameras that showcase the weapons more, and turret angles have been increased.
• Response Fighters (Interceptors) are now specialty ESF loadouts, fitted with an ejection seat, rank 1 composite armor, rank 1 decoy flares, quick-recharge fuel tanks, and default nosegun variants with higher magazine size.
• NSO characters will now eject themselves into the Interceptors of their currently assigned faction.
• We're leaving the door open to do more with these Interceptor variants in the future (including the possibility of customizing them personally.)

Misc. Bastion Changes

• Fixed an issue where Bastion could get into a bad state when the user summons a different vehicle as the Bastion spawns.
• Bastion Terminals can no longer be interacted with while continents are Unstable.
• Bastion icon no longer pops in and out when it is on the edge of the minimap.
• Captains have received new first and third person Bastion cameras.
• Going out of bounds with a Bastion will now destroy it.
• Removed extraneous collision from the Bastion model.

Sanctuary

Environment

• Fixed numerous geometry, visibility, and texture issues in Sanctuary.
• Work continues on the outer ring of Sanctuary.
• Skybox has received significant visual changes.

Vendor Changes

• Nascent Expeditions Rep. now properly deducts resources you trade to her, and we've added a TEST SERVER ONLY item that will instantly restock all outfit resources when purchased.
• Expedition Coordinator will notify players when "the boys are on expedition" if the player has no completed expeditions available for debrief.
• Nascent Expeditions Rep. and Expedition Coordinator now reject players who aren't in an outfit or don't have Expedition Asset Use permissions.

Desolation

• Upon completion of the Outfit War alert, the continent is now locked to the victorious faction, and players are booted 30 seconds after.
• Placeholder particle effects have been added on continent lock at every obelisk location. In the future these will be more thematic, and better showcase an outfit's victory.
• The victorious outfit now receives a free Bastion Fleet Carrier if they do not have one already stocked.
• Fixed significant graphical issues in Desolation, particularly in the Command Centers.

Misc. Changes, Fixes, Additions

• Merit balance now updates dynamically on Vendor screens.
• Players will no longer become stuck if in the rumble seat of a Flash XS-1 as it despawns.
• The Flash XS-1 can now be driven out of the Warpgate area if initially summoned there.
• Unlock button now changes to "Unlocked" after user reaches the inventory cap on Flash XS-1.
• You can no longer start crafting Bastion components if you already have a Bastion Fleet Carrier stocked or under construction.
• Expeditions can now only be crafted one at a time.
• Biolab snowy visuals have been reverted.
• War Assets now use "realistic" values more akin to how they'll be on Live, and the timers remain low for TEST SERVER ONLY.

Known Issues

• Bastion can get into a state where its collision or location in the world appears differently to different players.
• A.N.V.I.L. collision may stay in place if players are atop it, and will disappear only when they leave.
• Sanctuary's framerate issues are still being looked into.

Source: Test Server: Announcements