SOE have returned rather explosively to the office this week and are ready to talk Planetside 2 in 2013. They’ll soon pull back a thick, squint-proof curtain and present their plan for the next six months, but not yet – today they’re divulging only what they’re working on right now.
What follows is a list of prospective changes SOE hope to implement in Planetside’s next patch at the end of the month, though creative director Matt Higby is quick to disclaim that any of the change might slip or fail to pass QA.
- General performance increases, particularly for lower end GPUs
- Experience (XP) system enhancements:
- Dynamic XP system for player kills, players who have more kills on their current life are worth more XP. Freshly spawned players will be worth a fraction of the current kill reward.
- Partial damage XP for dealing damage to vehicles that you don’t end up killing
- Population XP / Resource bonus moved over to continent population instead of global
- Better display of XP sources for things like defensive bonuses & population bonuses
- Rebalancing of XP rewards to help support tasks
- Server transfer token available in Depot
- UI changes to emphasize score per minute as a primary metric of player comparison
- Sortable columns on outfit management & addition of “last online” column
- New weapon type for all empires: SMG
- Short period of invulnerability will be added to freshly spawned / revived players – breaks upon game actions such as entering a vehicle or using a weapon.
- Dynamic / player configurable colors for minimap & overhead indicators for enemies, friendlies, and squads within a platoon
- New Hot Spot system that displays where active fights are occurring on the map
- New spawn buildings with more exits, protected balconies and easy roof access to make them less campable.
- Tunnel systems for amp and tech facilities to give access from spawn rooms to interior of bases and base walls without having to go above ground.
- Making MAXes render more reliably at long distances for players in vehicles
- AA improvements, notably flak changes for turrets and skyguards, giving them some better ability to aim, although not drastically impacting their DPS.
- Fixes to missiles so that they more reliably detonate and actually blow stuff up
- Air vehicle weapon tweaks
- Increases to reload speed for certain HE ground vehicle weapons
- And of course… lots of bug fixes
Matt Higby: 2013 Edition is all about bringing the community in on development in the coming year. “We’re here, we’re listening and we’re committed to continue to work with our community to build the best online game the world has ever seen,” he says.
SOE’s team are watching you expectantly. What will you have them do?