PlanetSide 2 News

Dear Auraxians,

We are excited to announce that our team at Toadman Interactive is taking over development duties for PlanetSide 2. Our colleagues at Rogue Planet Games have created a unique gaming experience that has thrived for over a decade. We have assembled a team of developers who have many years of experience working on Massively Multiplayer Online games and First Person Shooters. Although we are not the purchaser of the franchise, the team is delighted to carry the PlanetSide 2 torch forward. Additionally, we will continue working with the Daybreak Games publishing team to ensure the game continues to receive best-in-class marketing and community support. 

Our vision for PlanetSide 2 is to highlight unique aspects that have given it such a storied place in gaming history while improving the general game experience. To that end we’ve laid out three major principles to guide us moving forward along with our 2024 roadmap following below:

• A renewed focus on the elements that make PlanetSide 2 great, rebalancing mechanics and content while addressing the current pain points that get in the way
  
• Create more objective-based player goals within the core gameplay loop to
  
• capitalize better on the breadth of PlanetSide 2’s potential
  
• Infuse each major update with more theme, lore, and world building to give more
  
• structure and context to the world we all inhabit
  

[h3]2024 Roadmap[/h3]
Q1
If you look back on Q1, you can see that we put quite a bit of effort into fixing bugs that were major causes of pain points for everyone. We're not at the end of the road just yet, and we are dedicated to identifying and squashing more.

The tradition of developer letters that started at the end of last year will continue. We want to be as transparent as possible and also share some insights with our community on how we create assets and develop features for PlanetSide 2. In addition, we reworked Capture the Conduit and created several beautiful bundles celebrating Auraximas, Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day, and St Patrick's Day.

You may have noticed that the reward structure for the Seasonal Directives is much more rewarding. Below is an example of how we want to continue with directive rewards:


Q2
We have exciting content waiting for you in Q2, which we are working on right now. We’re starting with the Puzzler Bundle on April Fools' Day, in which you will find a handful of Puzzler themed cosmetics, all for only 10 certs.

New color variants for the NS-44 “Primed Amethyst” Commissioner that were featured in the 11th Anniversary Bundle are entering the Depot as well as a new base/facility capture method (more details to follow).

Q2 also includes the PlanetSide Franchise Anniversary and other equally exciting holidays such as: Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Q3
Q3 is going to be hot with the return of two summer directive events with great rewards. We are also very excited to release the updated Sunderer, although it may happen sooner if we manage to overcome some technical limitations. Additionally, we will have another new game mode, which some of our colleagues have already started working on, and we will also celebrate holidays such as Independence Day and Labor Day in a big way.

Q4
The most anticipated PlanetSide 2 updates will arrive at the end of the year. We do not want to reveal all the cards just yet, but at the same time we want to share some of the novelties that are waiting for you closer to the end of the year. We will start with the traditional Halloween celebration, for which we are preparing an intimidating event, and right after that we will release the Anniversary Update. There, we will introduce a completely new theme, which will include a new vehicle type, armor sets, helmets, weapons, and cosmetics.

We cannot wait to show you a behind the scenes look at our upcoming new art assets, story elements, and the technical workings of creating a new type of transportation in PlanetSide 2. Expect more Auraximas events, a bundle with winter weapons, sales, and holiday decorations.

[h3]Concluding Thoughts[/h3]
Naturally, to accomplish our goals for the year, there will be a learning curve involved, not only for technical reasons, but also because PlanetSide 2 is a large and venerable game with many gameplay niches and a deeply passionate community. This transition has been under way for several months and is largely the reason updates have been smaller and slower lately than what the community is used to seeing.

As we become more proficient and knowledgeable, the scope and pace of updates will speed up and our ability to take risks will grow. Becoming experts in the full scope of such a massive enterprise will take time, and mistakes will be made. However, we promise to listen closely and carefully to your feedback so we may learn and grow as quickly as possible.

- Toadman Interactive, PlanetSide 2 Team

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[h3]March 2024 [/h3]
Greetings Auraxians,

For this March's development letter, we have some news, updates, and a special treat; the reveal of a new facility type!

[h3]Public Test Server [/h3]
The Warzone rotation, Oshur Alert, and Friends List updates will be hitting the Public Test Server shortly after the next patch.

The Friends List has been rewritten from scratch to solve a myriad of various bugs and issues. We are confident that this rewrite should solve the existing issues, however since it is a new system there could be other issues we have missed.

The Warzone rotation system has been changed to be non-static. That is, the rotation order can shift slightly so that the oldest Warzone is not necessarily the next to be unlocked, although it usually will be. This also allowed us to set Oshur to an infrequent rotation schedule. There is a new meltdown alert on Oshur that should trigger almost immediately, setting a cap on how long the continent will remain open.

More details, if needed, will be in the PTS Patch Notes nearing release.

[h3]Sunderer Update [/h3]
The Sunderer is in active development and still going through quite a bit of internal testing. Once we are confident that we have brought them to a state where you can provide us with valuable feedback, we will be releasing a new cert tree to the test server.

This *may* happen in batches so that as much testing as possible can be done before live release.

[h3]New Facility Type [/h3]
Finally, on to the special treat. We are currently working on an **Assault Facility**. This is an entirely new type of Facility that is dramatically different from the existing ones, and we wanted to try some new things to see how they affected the way players select equipment and approach combat.

Our goals are to give the Facility a much clearer and directed sense of flow. We also wanted to have more stable and recognizable phases for battles with distinct beginning, middle, and end phases each of which will require slightly different strategy and tactics. Finally, we wanted to have a base design that more elegantly integrates vehicles so that they will have a clear, crucial role without being oppressive to infantry.

Assault Rules
The basic rules for the mode are simple and follow the general pattern of an Assault Game Mode that many games have with some PlanetSide 2 wrinkles.

An Assault Facility comes under attack when an opposing faction captures the first, and only unlocked, Capture Point from the current owner (i.e. Defender). This does a few things:

• The ability to capture the remaining points becomes locked to the initial faction
  
• A hard spawn for that faction is unlocked within the Hex
  
• The facility's Energy Pool becomes active
  

Now that the Facility is active it consists of a series of capture points that must be captured order, unlocking as the Attackers progress. Once captured, these points cannot be recaptured by the defenders. The Attackers win when the final point is captured.

The facility is successfully defended if the Attackers' energy pool reaches 0 before the final point is captured. The energy pool is depleted in 2 ways:

1. Each capture point owned by the defenders depletes the Energy Pool at a regular interval
   
2. Each instance of spawning or deploying within the Facility Hex consumes energy. This includes:
   

• Respawning at the Hard Spawn
  
• Spawning at the Sunderer
  
• Spawning via Squad Beacon
  
• Spawning via Steel Rain
  
• Deploying in any of the above manners
  

Being revived by the medic tool or via Nanite Revive Grenade does not consume energy. This would make Nanite Revive Grenades even more oppressively powerful than they already are, thus they will be heavily adjusted before the release of Assault Mode. This is something that needed to happen anyway, and this is a good time to implement it.

Energy is added to the Attackers' energy pool when they capture a point, or via secondary objectives if they are included.

When the battle ends (Either captured or defended) the facility will enter a cooldown period where the first point is locked, and a new battle cannot be initiated.

Initial Release
To get the most out of this new Facility Type we are creating a single, new, customized base to host it. This facility will take over a construction outpost in as central, but non-critical, a location as possible. We are using this strategy to mitigate risk and have time to work on the game mode and facility layout before propagating it further.

The facility will be implemented as the simplest possible functional version of this type; with only 3 Capture Points and no secondary objectives. It is important that we extensively iterate on this simple version first since good design dictates that we make a compelling experience and accomplish all our goals with as few restrictions or complications as possible. Elegance is what we are aiming for.

Success or failure of this initial Facility will determine where, how large, and how many of these will be created in the future.

Risks & Potential Issues
Finally, we come to the risks, weaknesses, and potential issues of this new Facility type.

The first and most obvious weakness is that this game mode does not elegantly handle a three-faction interaction. It is very much an attacker vs defender scenario with the third faction being relegated to a tertiary role where they can tip the scales of a battle's outcome but not own the facility directly. However, we feel that with careful placement this weakness can be minimized while allowing its strengths to shine.

The other major concern is that the Energy Pool will dramatically affect behavior and decision-making. This can break into either good or bad direction; it is impossible to fully predict the outcome of such a chaotic circumstance. The likelihood of creating a situation that is very static or has an overly one-sided meta is very high. At the same time, having death be a more meaningful mechanic, and not just a loss of time, is likely to unlock some new and interesting strategies. It may even actively discourage deliberately over-popping the facility leading to more even and sustained battles.

The Energy Pool values, the amounts and ways energy is consumed, spawn locations, vehicle pads, and so on will have to be monitored closely and adjusted carefully. In the end we are confident we can make this new facility something that we all look forward to.

We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback when these updates come to the test server. See you all planetside!

- PlanetSide 2 Team