[2021] Feb. 09, 2021 - Outfit Wars Returns

All PC servers will come down for a new game update on Tuesday, February 09, at 6am PST (3pm CET). Downtime for each update is expected to last up to 3 hours. Outfit Wars 2.0 The war returns, new and improved. The 2.0 release brings Outfit versus Outfit combat back to the asteroid belt of Desolation with the start of Alpha Cycle 03. Outfit Wars is a tournament-style showdown where teams from each empire fight for control over ancient Vanu relics. Each team earns placement based on how well they perform, ultimately resulting in a showdown between the top Outfits at the end of the cycle. A detailed breakdown of the phases and scoring can be found in this article: https://www.planetside2.com/news/ps2-outfit-wars-alpha-3-pts-january-2021 Desolation The battlefield of Desolation is located amidst an asteroid belt far from Auraxis. The calamity on Esamir has re-established access to this forgotten space, and its secrets are once again pursued by interested parties.

• Three teams of 48 players (one per faction) start a Command Center on one of the equidistant sides of Desolation.
• A match has a 20 minute preparation phase, and players must remain within a Haven Warpgate that surrounds their Command Center.
• The Command Center includes a spawn point, vehicle and air pads, and a Silo with a limited supply of Cortium.
• Additional constructs can be placed both during and after the preparation phase, and additional Cortium can be found throughout the map after the match starts.
• While on Desolation, all War Assets that Outfits have accrued are available for use, with the exception of the Bastion Fleet Carrier.
• When the match begins, teams fight to control the 12 available Relics for duration of the hour-long alert.
• Controlled relics provide a point of score every 10 seconds.
• The first team to reach 750 points is the match victor, with second and third place determined by the points accumulated up to that point.

Enlistment and Participation

• In order to participate, Outfits must have at least 48 members, enough to field a team in the 48v48v48 battleground.
• Additionally, participants require at least Loyalty Rank 3, and their Outfit War Eligibility permission set for their Outfit rank.
• Players can only fight for one Outfit per server during the Outfit War, meaning alternate characters on the same server can't participate in the same Outfit War.
• Enlisting costs Outfit Resources (currently Auraxium: 100, Synthium: 50, Polystellarite: 5,) and must be done during an active Enlistment phase.

Rewards

• This revamp also introduces a new delivery mechanism for rewards, and new rewards based on your outfit's rank during the season.
• When your final outfit rank is determined for the season, rewards are doled out based on your placement.
• Players who've finished at least one match on Desolation will be eligible for placement rewards. This allows Outfits to use a different roster of players each match.
• Some rewards are for the Outfit itself, like War Assets or Outfit Resources, and others are personal, given to the participants.
• During the Championship match, the Outfit taking home the Gold, Silver, or Bronze medals receive an additional reward atop their standard rank reward.
• Lastly, each player participating in a Desolation match is given 500 ISO-4 upon completion, similar to a standard alert. This happens in every match.

Alpha Cycle 03 This Outfit Wars alpha cycle will be our last before entering into full on seasons at a predictable cadence. There are 6 rounds total for Alpha Cycle 03, but we intend to move into 10 round cycles when seasons are in full swing, but that may change based on feedback. Below is the schedule for each phase of Alpha Cycle 03. Matches take place on either Friday or Saturday based on how many total outfits are in the round. Match times are revealed at the beginning of each new round, (or at the end of a phase, in the case of Enlistment) and matches themselves take place around prime time.

• Enlistment Phase - Begins Feb. 10 - 12:00am
• Qualifier Phase- Begins Feb. 19 - 12:00am
• Playoff Phase - Begins Mar. 05 - 12:00am
• Championship Matches - Begin Mar. 27 - 3:00pm

Outfit Loyalty

• Leaving or being kicked from an Outfit now causes your Loyalty level and Merit currency to be reset to zero.
• Items requiring Loyalty that you've already unlocked are still capable of being used, provided you have the Merit to restock them.
• Loyalty items are not removed from your character, and do not need to be repurchased.

Valentine's Day from Feb. 09 - Feb. 14 The eternal grind of the war machine may keep the vendors of Sanctuary single, but it won't stop them from treating themselves this Valentine's Day season. Complete all 6 Matchmaker missions to gain access to Operation: Matchmaker, a scheme by FL-34 to earn some extra cash by running a matchmaking contest. And he's willing to cut you in if you, ya know, do pretty much all of the legwork. Matchmaker Missions: Up to two Matchmaker missions will appear in your list each day, providing progress in the Valentine's Day directive tree... as well as making someone feel loved and appreciated. Valentine's Day Directive: This special event has its own directive, rewarding the "Matchmaker" title on completion. Holiday Items: A lovey dovey list of war implements (and camouflage) are making a return for this event. Pink & Gold Tiger Stripe Weapon Camo - 299 DBC Hearts Camo Bundle - 1499 DBC Complete your Hearts Camo collection! Don't forget - the special black and gold Gilded Hearts Weapon Camo is only available in this bundle!

• Red Hearts Weapon Camo
• Tarnished Hearts Camo
• Loyal Hearts Camo
• Indar Hearts Camo
• Amerish Hearts Camo
• Esamir Hearts Camo
• Broken Hearts Camo
• Hossin Hearts Camo
• Gilded Hearts Weapon Camo (ONLY comes with the purchase of this bundle)

Cupid Horn Bundle - 1499 DBC The cupid horns for all vehicles and factions are now available in a single bundle!

• ANT Cupid Horn
• Flash Cupid Horn
• Harasser Cupid Horn
• Lightning Cupid Horn
• Sunderer Cupid Horn
• Magrider Cupid Horn
• Prowler Cupid Horn
• Vanguard Cupid Horn
• Scythe Cupid Horn
• Mosquito Cupid Horn
• Reaver Cupid Horn
• Valkyrie Cupid Horn
• Liberator Cupid Horn
• Galaxy Cupid Horn

Star Crossed Bundle - 1499 DBC These dual crossbows come with lovely visuals and will grant a special title to those who earn a gold medal.

• Heartstring
• Blackheart
• Chrome Heart Hood Ornament

AM7-XOXO - 1499 DBC This Archer anti-materiel rifle variant will light up your night (literally), and can be used as progress in the Exceptional II directive.

Lunar New Year Bundle (1999 DBC) available from Feb. 11 - Feb. 17 It's the Year of the Ox, and we're celebrating with this powerful new bundle containing a Profile Banner, Decal (usable for Outfits,) and a golden NS-44 Commissioner sidearm. Year of the Ox Decal (Can be used as an Outfit Decal) Year of the Ox Profile Banner NS-44G Commissioner Continent Changes

• Indar's Seabed Listening Post's control point can no longer be contested through a wall.
• The continued barrage of Orbital Strikes to TI Alloys on Indar seems to have damaged the hardline beneath it. The base has become inoperable, and will require maintenance before coming back online.
• Eisa Tech Plant, on Esamir, is no longer a Empire Strength objective. This change results in two additional controlled bases needed to trigger a Meltdown on Esamir.
• Continents will no longer stabilize until there are 500 active players on a continent (up from 333.) Additional tuning may need to occur, but the intention is to prevent low-pop continents from rotating too quickly.
• If unstable population requirements aren't met, continents now auto-stabilize after 5 hours, instead of 2 hours.

War Assets Made some minor adjustments to weights, crafting times, and costs to encourage use of some of the smaller assets, and bumped the cost of Orbital Strikes. We'll likely be taking another look at expeditions in the future. Heavy A.N.V.I.L.

• Weight from 25 to 10

Medium A.N.V.I.L.

• Weight from 15 to 5
• Crafting time reduced from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.

Light A.N.V.I.L.

• Weight from 5 to 1
• Reduced the number created per crafting attempt from 3 to 1
• Crafting time reduced from 5 minutes to 1 second.

Orbital Strike

• Polystellarite cost from 0 to 15

Tactical Deployables Cortium Bomb

• Can now be placed indoors.
• Is no longer disarmed from taking damage.
• Disarming is now done by interacting with the Cortium Bomb, requiring a 3.5 second channel.
• Allies can also disarm this device.

Dev Note: Cortium Bomb is definitely seeing some meme use on Live, but being able to disarm it easily from any distance didn't create the tension it was originally intended to. Having this tool in the toolbox now means that players can intentionally create space, even in indoor fights, forcing a commitment from enemies while creating a mini-defense objective for allies. Allowing allies to disarm the device also reduces the possibility for trolling, and helps ensure that the device only gets placed when everyone is on the same page about its use. We'll be monitoring this one closely. Infantry Burning Resistance

• We've added a new "Burning" resistance (type 64) that is used for... well... things that set you on fire.
• This includes Pillager's damage over time, Incendiary Underbarrels, Thumper Incendiary rounds, and the Hunter crossbow's Incendiary bolts.
• At the moment, Flak Armor will not mitigate this damage, though effects that grant you overall resistances (Resist Shield, as an example) or armor buffs, will do so.

Dev Note: The way our engine works currently, is that resistances tend to dictate what audio you hear when damage is inflicted on you. Much of the damage over time dealt from incendiary weapons was using the common explosives resistance, which was meant for... well, explosives. So you'd periodically hear the "thoom, thoom, thoom," instead of a sizzle that'd be more indicative of your burning state. It does also present us with opportunities to use the burning damage type as a way to bypass some of the other resistances in the game, which helps further define a niche. Currently, incendiary's damage mirrors that of the common explosive, so no changes to the actual damage output of any of these effects, with the exception of protection provided by Flak Armor, which does not mitigate this damage type. Fortify (Implant)

• Standing still for 1/0.75/0.5/0.1 seconds now activates a 20% small arms resistance until you move again, down from 4/3.5/2.75/2 seconds.
• Rank 5 of this implant continues to provide 50% resistance to common explosives.
• Modified shield visuals, and made them personal to the player.

Dev Note: This implant was previously modified without making it into the patch notes several updates ago. In this update it receives adjustments that make it easier to use. New Conglomerate MAX Weaponry The changes below nudge the NC MAX's shotgun weaponry closer to VS and TR MAX in terms of overall viability. These shotguns continue to sacrifice damage per magazine and effective range for better burst damage in close quarters, but the penalties for doing so should be less severe now, and versatility should be improved slightly. NCM1 Scattercannon - Hard-hitting, default shotguns.

• Is now an automatic weapon.
• Rate of fire from 120 rounds per minute to 130 rounds per minute.
• Max damage per pellet from 125 to 130.
• Min damage per pellet from 35 to 50.
• Mag size from 9 to 10.
• Reserve ammo from 81 to 90.

AF-34 Mattock - Extended range shotguns.

• Is now an automatic weapon.
• Number of pellets from 3 to 4.
• Mag size from 12 to 14.
• Reserve ammo from 96 to 112.

AF-41 Hacksaw- High rate of fire shotguns.

• Rate of fire from 209 rounds per minute to 218 rounds per minute.
• Min damage from 25 to 50.
• Mag size from 9 to 12
• Reserve ammo from 81 to 108.

AF-23 Grinder- High-capacity shotguns.

• Rate of fire from 120 rounds per minute to 130 rounds per minute.
• Min damage from 20 to 35.
• Mag size from 18 to 22.
• Reserve ammo from 126 to 154.

Vehicles Colossus Heavy Tank

• Tank Mine resistance (type 9) from -100 to -50.

Dev Note: This moves the total number of mines to kill a full-health Colossus from 4 to 6. Visual Updates

• Spawn Beacon has received updated visuals.
• VS Proximity Mine has received updated visuals.
• NC Bouncing Betty has received updated visuals.
• TR Claymore has received updated visuals.
• NSO's F.U.S.E. mine has received entirely new visuals.
• The Engineer's Ammunition Pouch has received updated visuals.
• Tank Mines have received updated visuals.
• Medical Applicator has received updated visuals.
• C-4 Detonator has received a slight update.
• C-4 bricks have received updated visuals.
• Engineer's ACE Tool has received updated visuals.
• Prowler's Rampart Projector has received updated shield visuals.

Misc. Changes, Fixes, and Additions

• Made additional fixes to the strafing animation that should resolve the remaining "teleportation" occurring when firing semi-auto weapons.
• Fixed an issue where using quick melee after firing a weapon wouldn't show the animation for onlookers.
• Glaive IPC should no longer be missing a turret in some cases.
• Removed the large Bounty notification in the center of the screen.
• Updated the ANT minimap icons to follow the style of other vehicles in the game.
• Nomad Armor (NC armor set) should no longer have clipping around the bracer area.
• Headlights should now work on NSO vehicles.
• Optimized particles on the Prowler's deploy animation, which was causing noticeable frame drops.
• The Flash XS-1 (Tactical Deployable) has its own unique model now, a more lightweight version of the standard Flash, with a single seat.
• Cerberus' (VS Sidearm) optics should no longer be floating.
• The Ammunition Belt suit slot now functions with the SR-200 (NSO Sniper Rifle).
• Thumper's reticle has been updated for better target visibility.
• A new "Basic Banner Frame" can be purchased with certs or DBC from the Profile Screen, or the Depot.
• Cleaned up some string issues related to the Elysium Mining Drill.