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Planetside 2 patch changes much including the base capture system and added bonuses for captured facilities

planetside_2_patch_soe

The latest patch for SOE’s Planetside 2 changes a multitude of aspects to the massively multiplayer, planet-spanning shooter, most importantly is the changes to the meta game. Added bonuses for capturing certain facilities and rewards for controlling continents will push you to play tactically.

Full details below.

Previously, Planetside 2’s beta was a bit of a free for all. You dropped into wherever there was a contested zone and either defended or captured the point to the best of your ability. The only reward for success was points that you could spend on weapons and upgrades and, while those are nice, there seemed no particular reason why any particular station was important to defend. As such, the factions are playing without arching strategy and just reacting to the incursions made by their adversaries. SOE hope to shake things up a little with their latest patch.

For a start, according to this SOE blog post, “Ownership of certain facilities will provide bonuses to empires on each continent.” Owning a continent’s biolab will provide all the soldiers within yourfaction health regeneration in the territories connected to it, an amp station will reduce the time it takes to overheat Phalanx turrets, andif you wantto spawn the Vanguard, Prowler, and Magrider tanks a tech plant is now required.

For the more adventurous generals in the making, “capturing all contested territories in a continent will provide a temporary bonus to the controlling empire”:

  • Indar – Reduction of cost for items purchased with Infantry resources.
  • Esamir – Reduction of cost for vehicles purchased with mechanized resources.
  • Amerish – Reduction of cost for aircraft purchased with aerospace resources.

Unlike the building captures, if you control a continent then the bonus will apply to soldiers from your faction in every continent.

Another major change is the manner in which bases are captured. Previously Planetside 2 used a ticket system. Essentially each territory on the map is dotted with capture nodes. The moment one of these is captured by an enemy faction a ticket race begins, the first to reach a designated number of tickets captures the territory. It pushes the attacker to keep grabbing more nodes so that they produce tickets at a faster rate. The defenders are similarly pressed to hold the nodes they already own.In a separate forum post,one of SOE’s designers says this system can lead to “unintuitive victories where your empire has a clear advantage on a base, but because the other empire USED to have an advantage earlier in the fight, earned lots of tickets during that time and hangs on to one control node, they can still win the battle even though they’re clearly out-muscled.” So they’ve changed to a tug of war system:

“When a base is attacked, it starts off at 100% owned by the defending empire and the attackers have got to burn down the defender tickets at the same time as they increase their own. If they wrestle control back from you, they’ll have to burn down your progress as well. For multi-control node facilities such as Biolabs, or outposts like The Crown, having people locking down the nodes becomes more important than just rushing to the next node to flip it, not only because the people posted up on that node are keeping it from being captured by an enemy, but also because they’re helping to move the capture needle faster for your empire.”

The influence on the tickets is now determined by the number of nodes in a territory owned by a team, whether a faction owns adjacent territors (increasing their indluence), and the number of players attempting to capture a node.

Those are the key changes but here are the full patch notes for you to glance through:

General:

  • The first phase of the new player experience has been added.
  • Base facility ownership bonuses have been added.
  • Tug of War capture mechanics have replaced the ticket system.
  • Infantry jump height has been reduced slightly.
  • Shields should now regenerate in a vehicle.
  • Pain fields have been reimplemented at spawn points.

Notable Bug Fixes:

  • The southwest Heyoka Tech Plant landing pad will now resupply friendly aircraft.
  • Ikanam Bio Lab terminals will now spawn MBTs.
  • Litchcorp Secure Mine now has AV and AA Phalanx turrets as intended.
  • Players should now receive resources while in Phalanx turrets.
  • Ikanam Bio Lab Teleporters and Forward Spawns should now change empire when captured.

Known Issue:

  • Adjustments have been made to stats which may provide unexpected behavior. We anticipate this to be completely resolved with the next character wipe.
  • Music may play unexpectedly and at inopportune times during base capture.

Weapons:

  • New weapons are now available for certifications.
  • Sniper Rifles now have additional attachments.
  • The grenade warning indicator radius has been increased slightly.
  • The Strong Arm and Pitcher certifications have been removed.
  • Explosives and mines will now be persistent even when a class is changed.
  • Grenades should now explode even after death.
  • The MANA Turret certifications are now available. Each rank will decrease overheat time.

Classes:

  • Resist Shield now has a movement penalty when active.
  • The MAX certifications trees have been renamed. Ammo storage Canisters is now under utilities.
  • MAX Kinetic Armor will now only resist small arms fire.
  • Heavy Assault AA weapons now do less damage.

World:

  • A number of facilities have additional defenses such as turrets, gates, cover, and more restrictive vehicle access added to them.
  • Ownership of certain facilities will provide bonuses to empires on each continent:
    • Biolab – Ownership of a biolab will provide health regeneration.
    • Tech Plant – A Tech Plant is now required to spawn the Main Battle Tank (Vanguard, Prowler, Magrider).
    • Amp Station – An Amp station reduces the time to overheat Phalanx turrets.
  • Capturing all contested territories in a continent will provide a temporary bonus to the controlling empire:
    • Indar – Reduction of cost for items purchased with Infantry resources.
    • Esamir – Reduction of cost for vehicles purchased with mechanized resources.
    • Amerish – Reduction of cost for aircraft purchased with aerospace resources.
  • Capture mechanics have changed. Please seethis threadfor specifics on Tug of War capture.

Vehicles:

  • Landing should be improved for aircraft with landing gear, it should be much easier to land and take no damage.
  • Skyguard magazine size has been increased from 40 to 50.
  • The recoil on the 120mm Prowler cannons has been reduced.
  • Tanks are now more resistant to aircraft machines guns.
  • Sunderer:
    • AMS terminals now work on the sides. Terminals have been removed from the back.
    • Visuals have been added for AMS and Ammo attachments.
  • Galaxy:
    • The Galaxy is now more resistant to Flak damage.
  • Liberator:
    • The resistance to most damage has been increased.
    • The cone of the fire on the Tank Buster Cannon has been improved.
    • The 105mm cannon has increased damage, projectile speed, and a lower reload time.
    • The projectile speed of the 150mm cannon has been increased.
    • The Shredder has increased damage.
  • Fighters
    • Air to Air missiles now have increased damage and lock on range.
    • Rotary cannons now do less damage.
    • Rocket Pods now have reduced damage and increased reload speed.