Game Update 12/18

[PSNews]

Downtime Start: 6am PST

Wieldable Knives

• Knives can now be wielded by holding down the quick knife button or via gear slot 8. In general a wielded knife can swing faster than the quick knife.
• Knife hit detection has been adjusted to be more precise. Knives can now get head shots and will play impact effects on the surface they hit.
• A new knife has been added to each empire. They are slower to equip and swing than the default knife, but when wielded, they can be activated by switching fire modes. When activated, these deal increased damage and emit audio and visual effects.

Spitfire Turrets

• The new Spitfire Auto-Turret is now available for engineers. Located in their ability slot, the engineer can construct a Spitfire Auto-Turret that will automatically engage hostile infantry within 50 meters.

Customizable Profile Banners

• Profile banners are now available to customize your Profile and Death Screen.
• Banners are customizable from the My Profile Menu. Banners can be obtained from the Utilities section of the Depot or from completing Expert and Master level weapons directives.

Key Reminders

• When entering a vehicle or switching classes, a relevant key reminder will now display for a few seconds.
• If you don't want to use this really cool feature that we spent a lot of care and attention on, you can disable it from the Interface Settings page. It's fine, whatever.

Winter Holiday Event

Directives

• New Holiday Directive added

Snowmen

• Snowmen are spawning on Esamir
• Stone Snowmen are spawning on Indar, Amerish, and Hossin
• Golden snowmen can be found on all continents
• Snowman XP will now be shared with all squad members within 300 meters

Store

• New Holiday Items available for purchase.
• New NS knife "Icikill", Your Ice Cold if you get 100 kills with this knife
• Holiday Hats with 50% XP Boost when worn , TR/VS/NC/NS *seasonal item
• Holiday Bundle, contains the following:
  • All Holiday Hats (50% XP Boost) *seasonal item
  • "Icikill" knife
  • Deep Freeze Pistol (From last year)
  • 14 day Squad XP boost (50%/5%)
  • "Season's Greetings" Profile Banner
  • Digital Snowflake Hood Ornament

*Seasonal Items can only be equipped during appropriate holiday events

Additional Tier Added to Implants

• New Tier 4 Implants, Tier 4 implants have an energy cost of 1.25 per tick
  • Hold Breath 4
  • Increases hold breath duration by 4 seconds
• Clear Vision 4
  • Reduce effects of Flash and Concussion grenades by 90%
• Emp Shield 4
  • Reduces EMP effects by 90%
• Sensor Shield 2
  • Allows player to remain hidden from sensors while sprinting, unless they are within 20 meters of the sensor
• Regeneration 4
  • Regeneration per second 7%
• Safe Landing 4
  • Fall damage resist 50%
• EOD Hud 4
  • Detect range 25 meters
• Battle Hardened 4
  • Flinch Reduction: 80%
  • Camera Shake Reduction: 50%

Additional Implants

• Battle Hardened 2 (Tier 2)
  • Flinch Reduction: 65%
  • Camera Shake Reduction: 40%
• Battle Hardened 3 (Tier 3)
  • Flinch Reduction: 70%
  • Camera Shake Reduction: 45%
• Clear Vision 1 (Tier 1)
  • Reduce effects of Flash and Concussion grenades by 30%
• Clear Vision 2 (Tier 2)
  • Reduce effects of Flash and Concussion grenades by 40%
• EMP Shielding 1 (Tier 1)
  • Reduce effects of Flash and Concussion grenades by 30%
• EMP Shielding 2 (Tier 2)
  • Reduce effects of Flash and Concussion grenades by 45%

Additional Implant Changes

• Battle Hardened 1(original)
  • Flinch Reduction reduced from 75% to 60%
  • Camera Shake reduction reduced from 50% to 35%
• Regeneration 3 (Tier 3)
  • Regen percentage per second decreased from 6.6% to 6%
• Safe Landing 3 (Tier 3)
  • Resist percentage decreased from 46% to 40%
• Clear Vision 3 (Tier 3)
  • Reduced effectiveness against Flash and Concussion grenades by roughly 30%
• EMP Shield 3 (Tier 3)
  • Reduced effectiveness against EMP effects by roughly 20%

Balance

• Red dot Sights added to all NS Pistols
• Spiker Clip size increased from 14 to 16
• Banshee changes
  • Max indirect damage decreased from 200 to 150
  • Min indirect damage increased from 1 to 10
  • Inside damage radius decreased from 0.5 to 0.3 meters
  • Outside radius decreased from 2 meters to 1 meter
  • New fire audio
  • Increased size of impact explosions
• Vulcan changes
  • Prowler
    • Min COF increased from 0.5 to 1.1
    • COF bloom removed
    • Damage falloff max range increased from 130 to 200 meters
    • Clip size increased from 60 to 90
    • FP tracers increased to 1:1
  • Harasser
    • Min COF increased from 0.5 to 1.1
    • COF bloom removed
    • Damage falloff max range increased from 65 to 95 meters
    • Clip size increased from 60 to 90
    • FP tracers increased to 1:1

Ability to Ban Players From Squads/Platoons

• Squad Leaders can now ban players from joining the squad leader's squad by clicking the player's name in the squad menu and selecting "Ban From Squad"
• The banned player will no longer be able to be invited or join the squad
• To clear the current ban list a squad leader can press the "Clear Ban List" button on the squad menu
• If the squad is disbanded it will also clear all players from the ban list

Ability to Hide Certain HUD Elements

• Missions: The mission elements can now be toggled off. Players will still have the active mission (so they will get the bonuses for it when it is completed), but the ui elements related to it will no longer be visible (text above the minimap, minimap icons, 3d icons).
• Group Login Notifications: Group (squad/platoon) notifications can now be toggled off. Player will no longer be notified when another player joins/leaves his/her squad/platoon.
• Outfit Login Notifications: Outfit login notifications can now be toggled off. Player will no longer receive notifications when outfit members log in or out.
• Implant Drop Notifications: Implant drop notifications can now be turned off. Player will no longer see notifications for implant/charger drops. The item will still print to chat, however.

Identify Friend or Foe Improvements

• Building interior textures and colors changed to assist in picking out players against the walls
• VS character base texture and tint pattern mask adjustments to assist with visual IFF

Depot Additions

• The No-Helmet Helmet is now available in the Depot. Or, the helmet is now not available in the Depot. Whatever your preference.
• Hard Light helmets are available in the Depot
• New Profile Banners are available in the Utilities section
• New Holiday items
• O Canada, we stand on guard for thee
• Poland is not yet lost

Source: Game Update Notes

[MummelWurst]

ok, that is quite a lot i have to change in the implant thread... 

new event should be fun
new banshee looks good
new Vulcan seems crazy, but we will see how it plays out, should still be more effective at close than long range

new platoon options sound great, i hope they work ^^

concerning knives, still no word, whether or not they are activatable for cloakers while cloaked

and i guess the new turret will be one of the most used items for the rest of this week

all right, then let's see when i can look at the implants, should take some time

[Swob]

and i guess the new turret will be one of the most used items for the rest of this week

More engineers, more support 

[MummelWurst]

you hope so

[Nayrun]

Peep peep!