All PC servers will come down for the following changes on Wednesday, Apr. 28, at 6:00am PT (3:00pm CEST). Downtime for this update is expected to last up to 3 hours. --
An unassuming black pistol rests on the large, polished desk, as if part of the décor. He folded his hands neatly.
"May I offer you a drink?" I declined.
An assistant leaves the room and shuts the door quietly behind her. "I understand the position you are in now may seem unfavorable, but I'd ask you to keep in mind who your creditors were prior." A lump formed in my throat.
"After you have completed the program, your debts will be forgiven. Your family will be looked after in the event that you fail." I glanced down at the papers in front of me.
--
Chapter 03 - Campaign Finale Auraxis celebrates the construction of the first major facility built terrestrially since the war began, a representation of each faction's combined efforts to quell the instability on Esamir.
With the last chapter of our campaign, the roaming energy storm on Esamir has dissipated, now controlled by the new "Containment Sites" that have been constructed. These massive underground facilities bring with them new challenges and gameplay never before seen in PlanetSide 2.
For the PC, this last chapter of The Shattered Warpgate campaign will start
May 05, and run through June 30.
While the Campaign will eventually end, Esamir is forever changed, and the Containment Sites are here to stay... or at least until another catastrophe.
Containment Site (New Facility) The Containment Site is a large scale facility new to Esamir in Chapter 03 of The Shattered Warpgate campaign. There are multiple stages of combat where soldiers will fight around and through the facility. Vehicle combat is emphasized outside of the facility, requiring the destruction of multiple weakpoints to bring down gate shields barring entry. Within the hub of the facility, a destroyable SCU will disable defender spawn locations on the first floor of the facility. Attackers then descend into the lower regions of the facility, fighting for capture points held in the Botany and Reliquary wings, as well as within the Tempest Capacitor. The Botany and Reliquary capture points also activate a spawn rooms for attackers within the facility, allowing them to establish a tenuous foothold within the base. During the fight for capture point control, defenders spawn within the sub-level, and must fight their way back toward the surface to re-secure the facility.
Features This new facility houses a variety of gameplay elements that are new to Auraxis.
- Gate Shield Weakpoints - The hangar bay doors preventing passage into the center of the facility must first be destroyed before a shield will fall. There are three gate shields that operate independently, and are impervious to small arms damage.
- Upper Level SCU - Unlike most Spawn Control Units, this one can be destroyed through heavy weapons fire or overloaded. Overloading the SCU will prevent defenders from spawning on the upper level.
- Guide Paths - Making your way through the heart of the facility is assisted with guide paths that light the way toward each capture point.
- Tempest Siphon - A massive conduit channels the sky's energy into the core of the facility. While the siphon is active, both this conduit and the Tempest Capacitor rooms are deadly. Defenders can turn the siphon on, while attackers can turn it off, using a console on the mid level. If defenders turn the Tempest Siphon on, it will also immediately take back the capture point held within the Tempest Capacitor room.
- Electrical Room - While the siphon is active, this room becomes charged with energy and shields prevent access (for your safety). The capture point within also reverts to the defender's ownership when this room is active.
- Botany Wing - Planters cultivating the new flora of the Shattered Warpgate can be found in the Botany Wing. These plants act as soft cover that can be destroyed, and regrows rapidly.
- Reliquary Wing - Important research is locked away in the Reliquary Wing, and multiple shields block passage to the capture point. Destroyable locking mechanisms disable these shields.
- Attacker Spawns - Both the Botany Wing and Reliquary Wing capture points are tied to spawn points that only attackers will gain access to if secured.
- Vents - There are plenty of ways in and around the facility, including small passageways that offer risky alternative paths to your destination.
A new lattice lane near to the Shattered Warpgate has unlocked, allowing you to fight through the ruins of Stillwater Watch. Esamir Below is a list of the most notable changes, though many bug fixes and adjustments have been made across the map.
- Hazards and Environment
- Electrical Storm - The roaming Electrical Storm on this continent has been removed entirely.
- Energy Geysers - Added tempest fields to many energy geysers missing them.
- River Crossings - Northwestern shallows crossing has been expanded slightly. Modified central bridge to allow for... sick jumps back and forth. Southeastern river can now be crossed north of Grey Heron Shipping.
- Northeastern Riverbank - The northern side of the riverbank can now be traversed without needing to take detours.
- Sunderer Towers
- Along with the changes to Esamir, we've added new towers that can house Sunderers within them.
- Some of these towers are equipped with energy shields that can be controlled via a terminal on the tower itself.
- In the future, these new towers can be retrofitted to other continents to create more secure Sunderer locations.
- Echo Valley Substation
- Additional cover and flow adjustment.
- Teleporter to northern side of the base has been added.
- Jaeger's Fist
- Cover improvements around spawn room, flow changes.
- Capture point moved into new building beneath the walkway.
- Lattice link to Tapp Waystation added.
- Tapp Waystation
- Capture point and surrounding area has received minor cover and visual updates.
- Lattice link to Andvari Containment Site added.
- Lattice link to Andvari South Bank removed.
- Nott Communications
- Two underground routes to capture points have been added.
- Relocated two capture points.
- Shield Generator moved outdoors
- Defender entry-point has been modified.
- Ymir Ruins
- Adjusted capture point locations.
- Added Sunderer Towers and cover buildings.
- Decluttered the playspace.
- Removed errant pain fields and Sunderer no-deploy zones.
- Excavion DS-01
- Has been replaced with Ymir Containment Site.
- Andvari Ruins
- Has been replaced with Andvari Containment Site.
- Apex Genetics
- Has been replaced with Mani Containment Site.
- Mani Processing Plant
- Has been renamed Steelshore Processing.
- Lattice link to Steelshore Reconstruction added.
- Mani Fortress
- Has been renamed Steelshore Reconstruction.
- This base has been reactivated and given a new layout.
- Mani Lake Outpost
- Has been renamed Esper Research Station.
- Minor cleanup around the vehicle gate area.
- Lattice link to Steelshore Reconstruction added.
- Lattice link to Steelshore Processing removed.
- Vidar Observation
- Has been moved north of Grey Heron Shipping, and the layout has changed.
- Lattice link to The Rink removed.
- Grey Heron Shipping
- Now has a northern bridge crossing the river and connecting to Vidar Observation.
- Now has a lattice link connection to The Rink.
- Spral Oasis
- New construction base added that links to Elli Forest Pass and Terran BL-4 Crash Site.
- Elli Forest Pass
- Capture point at this base moved to the central bridge
- Added cover to bridges, and jump pads on either side of the of the base.
- Shaved down the large hill behind the spawn room.
- Minor changes near the Sunderer garage.
- Eisa Tech Plant
- Lattice link to Baldur Amp Station removed.
- Lattice link to Waterson's Redemption added.
- Waterson's Redemption
- There is now a road north of the base, leading to the Eisa Tech Plant.
- The Traverse
- A large fissure now runs east and west of The Traverse.
- Teleporter room close to the vehicle pad has been added.
- Northpoint Station
- Has been renamed Northpoint Ruins.
- This base has been reactivated and given a new layout.
- Lattice connects to Steelshore Reconstruction and Stillwater Watch.
- Stillwater Watch
- This base has been reactivated and given a new layout.
- Lattice connects to Northpoint Ruins, Vidar Observation, and Mani Containment Site.
- Old Shore Checkpoint
- Lattice link to Bridge Ward removed.
- Frostbite Harbor
- Lattice link to Baldur Amp Station added.
- Jord Amp Station
- Added underground grav lifts to the eastern/western walls and SCU room.
- Fixed flora seeping through the floor in many places.
New in The Depot Hazmat Bundle - 2499 DBC
Our scientists were hard at work saving Esamir... and building this bundle.
Hazmat Bundle contains the following:
- Researcher Title
- Containment I Banner
- Corroded Olive Drab Camo (Common Pool)
- Deteriorated Purple Camo (VS only)
- Deteriorated Blue Camo (NC only)
- Deteriorated Red Camo (TR only)
- "All Clear" Vehicle Horns (All vehicles, all factions)
Post-Collapse Bundle - 2499 DBC
What would happen if the nanites shut down? This bundle hazards a guess.
Post-Collapse Bundle contains the following:
- Scavenger Title
- Containment II Banner
- Rusted Metal Camo (Common Pool)
- Timeworn Teal Camo (VS only)
- Timeworn Yellow Camo (NC only)
- Timeworn Orange Camo (TR only)
- "Warning" Vehicle Horns (All vehicles, all factions)
Cold-Weather Drop Pod - 399 DBC
A modified Drop Pod shell with an in-built heater for cold-weather deployments.
Implants Symbiote- Fixed an issue that prevented Symbiote from gnawing at health pools after redeploying.
Phylactery This implant has been reworked to move away from the experience counting trigger, and instead does the following:
- Now allows you to self-revive once after being revived 3 times in a row by allies.
- Using an equipment terminal, redeploying, or entering a vehicle will restart your counter.
Heavyweight This implant has been reworked to give it a more worthwhile niche and more usability. Instead of the reduced bullet flinch and penalty to movement speed, the penalty has been removed, and it acts as mentioned below:
- Rank 01: 60% explosive camera shake reduction / Not affected by knockbacks caused by enemies or allies
- Rank 02: 65% explosive camera shake reduction / Not affected by knockbacks caused by enemies or allies
- Rank 03: 75% explosive camera shake reduction / Not affected by knockbacks caused by enemies or allies
- Rank 04: 95% explosive camera shake reduction / Not affected by knockbacks caused by enemies or allies
- Rank 05: 95% explosive camera shake reduction / Not affected by knockbacks caused by enemies or allies / Taking fall damage will cause a shockwave that knocks back nearby enemies (this portion is unchanged.)
Misc. Changes, Fixes, and Additions- Visual
- "God rays" have returned with this update. Having the "shadows" and "fog shadows" settings toggled on in the Graphical Settings menu will enable them.
- Heavy Assault shield visuals have been adjusted in first person to make them more visible.
- Fixed incorrect lighting colors on the infantry terminal.
- Bullet hole decals on Esamir rocks now match the color of the rock.
- Gameplay
- Tapping the crouch key for just a moment no longer instantly places you into a crouch on remote clients, you instead now smoothly transition. (This part is a bug fix.)
- The time to enter a crouch on remote clients has been lengthened and smoothed out. This change should make "crouch spam" as a technique less effective.
- Added First Time Events (tutorial slideouts on the right side of the screen) for many construction items and some class tools.
- A large number of props added in The Shattered Warpgate update are now allowed to clip into construction objects, bringing them in line with other props.
- Replaced the "S-AMS" reference with "Sunderer" when you're notified that your last Sunderer spawn is under attack.
- Fixed an issue preventing the Prowler from being pulled from a Heavy A.N.V.I.L.
- Thumper now deals 50% less indirect friendly fire damage.
- UI
- It's now more obvious on the HUD when an ability is active.
- Increased opacity of lattice links between regions contested by two opposing factions.
- Added a Back button to the Campaign pane timeline.
- The "Maximum Voice Channels" setting in the Audio menu has been renamed and description that more accurately reflects its functionality. This channel limits the total number of sound effects that can be playing at any given time.
- The default settings for maximum audio channels has been increased to 128 for PC (and 96 for PS4 once the update arrives.)
- Increased loading speed on the World Map UI, and continents can now be warped to before the globe has loaded.
Volumetric fog lighting or "god rays" returned with this update. Looking Forward Feels like it's been forever since we've had a nice, juicy update to send out. This one has definitely been a bit of a learning experience from our side, and hopefully the wait will have been worth it. The new facility carries with it visual stylings that we can use elsewhere in the future, and has some gameplay experiments that we can integrate with other bases if they end up feeling as intuitive as we'd like them to be. One of the big aspects of the Containment Site's gameplay was trying to bring more "stages" to encounters, so that the gameplay felt more like the siege of a castle than hammering on a spawn room until a capture point flips. The base is meant to accommodate massive populations, and during our first public playtests we had more than 400 players in the same base on Saturday, and more than 500 in the same base on Sunday. Absolutely insane. Thank you to all of the folks who were able to come out and help with the testing, including the focus testing group who gave us targeted feedback behind the scenes. We'll be continuing to polish the remaining visuals of the facility after this release, and will look to squash any remaining bugs with following hotfixes.
After this update, the majority of the team will shift toward working on the NSO update, while a smaller portion of the team will continue on with the New Player Experience that we have targeted for summer. For the new player experience update, we're looking to not only revamp the tutorial, but take a look a new player's experience more holistically. This means we'll be re-evaluating things like the map, the spawn system, how you find a squad or an outfit, what default equipment players have, how players figure out where to go, and so on. The intention is to get us into a better place to onboard new players before another large update hits toward the end of the year... you know, that one including a new continent.
-Wrel, Lead Designer
