Update: The Critical Mass update is here.
The main bit about this update is a change to HIVEs: Once a faction has refined enough cortium through constructed HIVEs, it triggers an alert. If the triggering faction wins the alert, the continent locks and everything explodes in a hail of orbital fire. Players in the winning faction receive a reward of ISO-4, the resource used to upgrade implants, as well as a random skin or boost item(these are normally cash-shop items). Actual size/quality of the reward appears to be based on both how well the faction does, and participating in at least a certain amount of time of the alert.
New crap:
NSX Daimyo - a semi-auto sniper rifle with the damage of a bolt-action. Because that is a
brilliant idea.
Ambusher Jump Jets - Light Assault jets that launch you forward. Instead of recharging fuel, it has a cooldown between uses. The Aerial Combatant R5 implant resets cooldown with a kill.
Repair Grenade - Engineer item, emits a repair field that restores 50 health/second over 12 seconds. It stick to vehicles. No idea if it sticks to MAXes.
The rest of the patch notes mention a lot of vehicle rebalancing - the next few paragraphs are a slight mess, sorry. Tanks no longer take extra side damage - shooting the sides(and top) is the same as shooting the front. Shooting the rear or bottom now does double damage. Liberators take 50% damage on the bottom like the Valkyrie does, making them more resistant to ground fire. Liberator weapon damage has been nerfed - their intent is to make them more damage-over-time weapons than dive-bombers. Liberator noseguns now all can swivel while ADS(like the Spur). Valkyries, well technically any vehicles with multiple rumble seats but Valk is the only one, can only be repaired by one engineer in the rumble seats at a time(as opposed to all of them repairing). Valk weapons have been buffed.
ESF guns have been buffed against non-ESFs, possible slight nerf against other ESFs. A2A lockon missiles have a lower magazine size(2 missiles), but slightly higher effectiveness against ESFs(possibly, notes not clear). Hornets have some of their previous nerf reversed, especially towards tanks.
Overall, anti-vehicle infantry weapons have been slapped about. Rockets are faster to reload and fire, but do less damage. All G2A lockons use the "flak" type damage for their splashes, so infantry cannot be harmed by splash damage anymore - this includes the "Locklet" ammo for the Rocklet Rifle(that nobody uses if I recall). Lock on ranges are reduced, but lockon speeds are increased. Against infantry, only the Decimator can now one-shot infantry. The Archer
gained damage versus tanks, but loses some against MAXes(they claim that anti-MAX is still its hat). C4 can still two-shot an MBT, but one C4 does not do 80% damage - patch notes claim that "accuracy" is needed for C4ing vehicles(possibly sticking them on the rear is now important).
The faction-specific anti-infantry turret weapons(Harasser/MBT secondary) have all gained the ability to damage armored vehicles. The Kobalt has not. I can't tell if changes were made to the other weapons in this category or if the patch notes are simply defining their role. Faction-specific AT turreted weapons have been defined by range. Vulcan(TR)/Mjolnir(NC)/Aphelion(VS) are close range, Enforcer(NC)/Saron(VS) are mid-range, Gatekeeper(TR) is long range. Gatekeeper has been changed so that instead of a stream of fire, it now fires 8 shots in one burst then reloads.
Tank armor equipment has been removed and refunded, a new Flanker armor has been added to resist C4. AP cannons have the highest shell velocity and damage-per-shot. HEAT reloads faster. HESH has more damage, but lower shell velocity and slower reload, also they're calling it HESH now(was
HE). The Lightning's default C75 is more powerful but suffers from recoil spread. Vanguard Shields are renamed, and now reduce damage instead of provide more health. Composite Armor items for non-tanks still exist, and now simply add more health when equipped rather than reduce damage. There is also now a Vehicle Damage exp bonus for damaging ground vehicles as infantry, similar to the Air Deterrence bonus.
Infantry/MAX armor equips now provide a flat 20% to damage, adding more things they provide damage reduction to each rank(includes previous ranks as well):
For infantry R1 - small arms. R2 - HMGs(Kobalt?). R3 - Gatling guns. R4 - soft-point guns. R5 - anti-materiel rifles. Because you really want to spend all those certs on reducing Archer damage, don't you?
For MAX R1 - most explosions(by 50% not 20%). R2 - infantry rockets. R3 - AT mine/C4 explosions(also by 50% not 20%). R4 - tank shells. R5 - light anti-tank and A2G explosions.
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Topic: Planetside 2: Free-to-Play MMOFPS. 2000 players/server. (Read 1136396 times)