October 16, 2019 Update

PC servers will be taken offline on Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 12:00pm PT for maintenance. Downtime is expected to last up to 3 hours.



Halloween Event - Oct. 16 through Nov. 8
A cool night sky falls upon Auraxis, dark and heavy. The ground beneath you begins to till and toil, as if shivering with anticipation. Is it a sign? Has the ancient Vanu technology beneath the planet sprung to life once again? Or is it something more sinister...

This year's Halloween event will start Oct. 16 (when servers come back online), and end Nov. 8 (11:59pm PT).

New Seasonal Directive
We've got a new Directive lineup with new rewards, a revision to pumpkin hunting, and new seasonal items.



Pumpkins Everywhere!
During this event, SpacePumpkins (and the larger, more elusive Galact-O-Lantern) will appear on all continents. These pumpkins will reward players experience, items, and in some cases, event Directive progress. In addition, Drop Pods have all been converted to unreasonably large and spacious pumpkins for you to hot drop onto Auraxis with.

Space Pumpkin Seeds
Seeds as a currency have been removed, and pumpkins will now give players rewards directly when they're destroyed. Players will always receive a reward from a pumpkin kill, either in the form of a Halloween themed cosmetic, or a bundle of certification points, and you will never receive the same cosmetic more than once. New characters no longer have the Ichabod Crown unlocked by default, and will instead find it the first time they kill a pumpkin.

Seasonal Items
In addition to pumpkins yielding rewards, we've also opened up many of the old Halloween cosmetics to be purchased via Daybreak Cash in the Depot.

Players will find the following items available there.
 * NS Candy Cannon sidearm
 * The Slasher melee weapon
 * Flaming Skull Helmets
 * Facemasks
 * Facepaints
 * Tire Trails

New Weapons
We've released new assault rifles for VS/NC/TR! Each of these weapons will be available in the Depot with accompanying Fully Loaded bundles.

VE-A1 Lacerta (Vanu Sovereignty - Assault Rifle)
The Lacerta assault rifle syncs an accurate, three round burst to a moderate refire rate, and creates a melodic barrage of plasma, perfect for mid-range engagements.



MG-A1 Arbalest (Terran Republic - Assault Rifle)
Designed as an alternative to the popular SABR-13 assault rifle, the Arbalest fires concentrated, 6-round bursts with low recoil and high takedown potential at mid-range.



MGR-A1 Vanquisher (New Conglomerate - Assault Rifle)
The Vanquisher's performance is defined by its excellent stopping power over distance, delivered through a low recoil, three-round burst.



UI Changes and Fixes

 * Character select screen no longer shows squished character models. (Previous attempts to fix this had failed.)
 * Squads now have an option to prevent players from being auto-filled into their squad on login. This allows players oriented toward a specific style of play to keep squads open with less frustration.
 * Voice volume settings no longer continually reset themselves.
 * Voice sliders now slide up to 100%, instead of past it.
 * The right column of the infantry loadout screen will now overlay the character, instead of the other way around. This was causing character models to sometimes block the view of a player's loadout, especially in the case of weapons with longer barrels.
 * The "Owned" checkbox in the Implant window now properly filters Exceptional implants.
 * The "More Info" tab in the Implant window no longer shows stretched text and icons.
 * The Directive icon in the My Character screen now has a hover-over tooltip.

Bounties

 * Fixed an issue where your true killstreak wasn't taken into account, causing bounties to trigger seemingly randomly.
 * Redeploys and deaths will end a killstreak.
 * Killstreak requirement reduced from 10 kills to 7 kills.
 * Bounty duration reduced from 5 lives to 3 lives.

Frag Grenade (All factions)

 * VS/NC/TR grenades now have unique explosion effects.
 * VS Frag Grenade renamed "Plasma Grenade"
 * Minimum blast damage from 10 to 50
 * Dev Note: Frag Grenades often sting, but rarely kill. These damage changes increase the consistency of the explosive a bit more. The new explosion visuals are intended to add a bit more faction identity to each grenade.

Sticky Grenade (All factions)

 * VS/NC/TR grenades now have unique explosion effects.
 * Minimum blast damage from 10 to 50
 * Blast outer area from 6.5m to 5m
 * Dev Note: Sticky Grenades already do 800 damage to stuck targets, in addition to the normal 1275 blast damage. We want to create more of a tradeoff with the standard Frag, and reducing the outer explosion area will require players to be a bit more accurate.

NS-03 Thumper (Common Pool Heavy Weapon)

 * Reload time from 4.25 sec. to 3.5 sec.
 * Baseline refire rate from 700ms to 600ms.
 * Incendiary ammunition now ticks for 25 damage every half second, instead of 50 damage every second.
 * Incendiary stacking issue is still not fully resolved.
 * Dev Note: We've pulled back some of the downsides of the weapon to make it more worthy of use in more situations.

VE-S Canis (VS SMG)

 * Hipfire maximum cone of fire from 7 to 2 in most movement states.
 * ADS maximum cone of fire from 3 to 1.5 in most movement states.
 * Changed the model visuals on the VE-S Canis Emission Condenser Attachment.
 * Dev Note: Holding down the trigger will cap out the cone of fire bloom at around half way through the magazine when used with an advanced laser sight, and earlier without, leaning a bit harder into the weapon's spinup characteristics.

NS-61 Emissary (Common Pool Sidearm)

 * Headshot damage multiplier from 1.8x to 2x
 * Dev Note: Small increase in damage here for skillful shots to give it more desirability among alternatives.

Reload Certifications
We're doing a wide sweep on reload speed certifications, and are converting them to percentage-based buffs. The weapons listed below will be capped at 10% reload speed at max rank, which for some weapons is a power reduction.

The scaling for these cert lines is now heavily weighted toward the first levels so that new players have less required investment to compete with other maxed out vehicles.

We will continue rolling out percentage-based refactors to all weapons as we iterate through them, but for the time being, the weapons impacted are listed below.
 * M60 Bulldog (Harasser/ANT/Sunderer/Liberator/Galaxy)
 * C150 Dalton (Liberator Bellygun)
 * L105 Zephyr (Liberator Bellygun)
 * Dual-75 Duster (Liberator Bellygun)
 * AP30 Shredder (Liberator Bellygun)
 * VLG Missile Launcher (Valkyrie)

MBT, Lightning, Sunderer, ANT (All factions)

 * Light Anti-Vehicle resist (type 5) from 0 to -20
 * Dev Note: This shifts up all of the light anti-armor based weaponry's power level against heavily armored vehicles a bit, which currently tend to be some of the less popular weapons in the game. This change also gives Harassers more of an edge against the targets listed.

ESF

 * Armor Piercing Chaingun resistance (type 28) from 65 to 50
 * A2G Warhead resistance from -125 to -100
 * Dev Note: With the introduction of the Wyrm, and the efficacy of A2A missile setups, ESF now have more powerful counters to solo Liberators, and have re-enabled one-shot kills with the Dalton against non-composite ESF, and made the vehicles slightly more vulnerable to gatling gun style weaponry. The increase in A2G warhead resistance gives ESF doesn't impact most A2G warhead weapons in a meaningful way, but sets Dalton up for changes we're making further down.

Liberator

 * A2G resistance (type 23) from 25 to 0
 * The Liberator's 20% Bottom Armor has been removed.
 * Dev Note: With the Liberator's integrated afterburner, added bottom armor, and now "free" fire suppression, players felt the Liberator was too tanky, and became less interesting to fight both with ESF and other Liberators. So for the time being, we've reverted the bottom armor change, and can consider bringing it back as a Defensive slot option if the demand is high enough. The air to ground resistance reduction will help, alongside changes below, with Liberator versus Liberator fights, and add a bit more power to Hornet Missiles, for ESF who want to risk getting closer to the vehicle.

C150 Dalton (Liberator Bellygun)

 * Direct damage from 1200 to 1500
 * Reload from 2.5sec. to 3.25sec.
 * Changed the first person trail particle effects to better represent projectile distance from the player.
 * Changed the explosion particle effect to better reflect the blast radius of the weapon.
 * Dev Note: Due to extensive community feedback regarding this weapon, we've made some significant changes to the Dalton. In 1v1 Liberator versus Liberator confrontations, shots to kill will be brought from a 5/6 shot burning/kill (or 6/7 shot burning/kill with all bottom armor shots) to a 3/4 shot burning/kill from all angles. Non-composite armor ESF will once again be one-shotted when struck. We've also lengthened the reload time of this weapon and increased the damage to emphasize its power, and reward skillful aim over spam.

Dual-75 Duster (Liberator Bellygun)

 * Direct damage resist type from light anti-armor (type 5) to A2G warhead (type 23).
 * Direct damage from 175 to 225.
 * Changed first and third person particle effects so that they're more visible.
 * Changed projectile arc style to be more influenced by "true" gravity direction.
 * Dev Note: This change buffs the direct-hit damage on the Duster against armored ground targets, increasing the versatility of the weapon.

VLG Missile Launcher (Valkyrie Nosegun)

 * Reload speed from 2sec. to 2.2sec.
 * Reload speed certification line from 0.75sec. reduction at max rank to a 10% reduction at max rank.
 * Dev Note: The reload speed certification was overlooked when the VLG was buffed some updates ago, we're reeling that in to be in line with other weapons, and slightly reducing the base reload speed of the weapon.

M60 Bulldog and M40 Fury (Sunderer/ANT)

 * Made camera changes to let these weapons aim down further.

M60-A Bulldog (Galaxy)

 * Direct damage from 250 to 400
 * Blast max damage from 400 to 500
 * Magazine size from 6 to 4

M60-G Bulldog (Harasser)

 * Direct damage from 300 to 400
 * Magazine size from 6 to 5

M60-G Bulldog (ANT)

 * Direct damage from 250 to 400
 * Magazine size from 6 to 5

M60-G Bulldog (Sunderer)

 * Direct damage from 250 to 400
 * Magazine size from 6 to 4
 * Dev Note: The Bulldog changes listed above are meant to provide some more stopping power on direct hits, especially more against lightly armored vehicles. Magazine sizes have been decreased to counterbalance the overall damage output.

M4-F Pillager (TR Flash Weapon)

 * No longer deals damage over time to non-infantry, but will still deal direct damage to vehicles.
 * Burn over time effect now deals 50 damage every 0.5 seconds, instead of 100 damage every 1 second.
 * Changed visuals for burning players.
 * Ammunition capacity from 180 to 300.
 * Dev Note: This weapon gets a bit stronger with the Light Anti-Armor resistance changes to heavily armored vehicles, but the main issue we're addressing for the time being is the limited ammunition capacity. We've noted the performance hit caused by firing the weapon, and are looking to address that as soon as we can.

Misc. Changes, Fixes, Additions

 * Fixed trim on Arena Mercenary Helmet and Armors.
 * Optics missing from the 4th Anniversary weapons have been added.
 * Rocklet Rifle's Typhoon Ammunition no longer lowers your maximum ammunition pool.
 * Reduced MG-AR1 Kindred's first person audio.
 * Minor Cloak implant no longer cloaks corpses, and dying resets your cloak charge.
 * Nightmare implant now decloaks the player immediately upon firing their weapon.
 * Speculative fix for Gunslinger lasting indefinitely.
 * Raijin throwing stars can now earn weapon medals.
 * Players are no longer spammed with horn item unlocks upon creating a new character. Honk honk.
 * Fixed inoperable faction-specific jump pads.
 * Slight update to the visuals on the Ichabod helmet, and fixed an issue where the mouth and eyesockets could receive camouflage.

Player Studio

 * Fuzzbuket's Security Force armor set for Nanite Systems Operatives infantry classes is now available as a bundle in the Depot.
 * Fuzzbuket's Traveler helmet for Nanite Systems Operatives infantry classes is now available in the Depot.
 * Binarycoder's Sentinel helmet for Nanite Systems Operatives infantry classes is now available in the Depot.
 * Binarycoder's E.P. helmet for Nanite Systems Operatives infantry classes is now available in the Depot.
 * Binarycoder's B.O.B. helmet for Nanite Systems Operatives infantry classes is now available in the Depot.
 * NS6's Afterfire helmet set for Terran Republic infantry classes is now available as a bundle in the Depot.

Known Issues

 * Generators at Tech Plants no longer bring down the vehicle gates, so get your GSD Sunderers ready.
 * Decals stopped working on some vehicles and infantry equipment.
 * Known crash when logging out of the client.

Looking forward
Hey there, folks.

The Halloween directive got off to a false start earlier this week, and that's due to some old data not being purged back when we started work on the new directive line in September. If you've unlocked any rewards from that fake directive line (using rewards from last year,) those items stay on your account, but the progress will not carry over toward the new directive. Blank slate and new rewards for everyone.

We've done a fairly sizable pass on vehicle weapons based on community feedback. Some of that will still need adjustment in later updates (Bulldog's magazine cert line probably shouldn't double the magazine size,) and we'll continue to look at future feedback for tuning.

Sanctuary is still on the way, and may be able to make it in for the Anniversary, but a lot of that will be contingent on getting the Mandate system finished and implemented as well. Mandates can definitely go Live without Sanctuary, but not the other way around, as a lot of what Sanctuary is is a hub for players to come back to, and Mandates facilitate a lot of that cycle.

Kind of light on commentary this update, but we'll more than make up for it in November.

-Wrel, Lead Designer, PlanetSide 2