Hello everyone!
Here is what we are working on for the next 90 days. These are listed in the time frame that we expect to roll them out as updates to the game.
In March,
We will be rolling out the new Engineering Advancement. Assault and Fortification Engineering. These are new branches of Engineering on top of the current Combat Engineering abilities. You can get certified in one or both and you will need to have Combat Engineering as a prerequisite. There are specific details located on the forums describing this update LOCATED HERE.
Soon after our Engineering update in early March, we will be launching our newly rebuilt and recharged Sunderer. The Sunderer in it's current form will be no longer -- so get your screen shots of them now and hold them as collectors items. The new Sunderer will have an increase in armor and will display a new anti-infantry guard in the front. Four new guns have been added: 2 empire specific guns mounted on the top side and 2 additional guns (one on each side). The top guns are nice additions for air support and the two side guns will aid the Sunderer against targets that sneak under the blind spots that the top guns currently have. Finally, the driver will have new functionality at his hands to deliver a jammer effect to the area closest to the vehicle. This nice addition will round off what we believe to be a serious base crashing machine.
March to April, we will be working on the equivalent Advancedment to Hacking, Sniping and Medical just as we have added to the Engineering profession that is being updated within the next week. More details will follow after the launch of the Sunderer but here are some details of this development:
Hackers (Uploading a pain field to SOI's of bases, towers and Shield Generators; Sensor shield emitter - creates dead zones in enemie's radar and motion sensor benefits; ability to jack vehicles while they are occupied; Upload a viruses (Still working on the effects and list of items to upload viruses to))
Medical (Ability to upgrade shield generators with healing effects; Ability to place AOE medical regeneration packs; Ability to place AOE Armor regeneration packs; New abilities to call for medical revivals and additional functionality to communicate between the deceased and medical personell)
Snipers (Sniper only sensor to sniff out enemy infantry that may be closing in on their location; A slightly transparent ability or new suit with a semi-transparent effect; Changes to the Focus cone of fire -- haivng the focus faster at the beginning and slower towards the end of it's focus to speed up your aim on a target)
In April,
We will be working on more vehicles: The Phantasm (cloaking aircraft) as well as the Galaxy Gunship.
The Phantasm is a new vehicle and will mainly be a transport vehicle that can get a small squad to specific locations in an almost stealth-like fashion. Like every item in the game, there has to be some draw backs and using a completely invisible aircraft without detection seems a bit unfair. Therefore, we are working on the balance issues as we speak. The Phantasm has one gun mounted on the bottom mid-to-tail section.
The Galaxy Gunship is another variant air vehicle that will be added to the game and will not replace the current Galaxy. We envision it to be the Sunderer equivalent in the sky. This too is going through balance passes to be shored up within the next 2 weeks.
In May,
We have two new anniversary weapons that will be given to the veterans of PlanetSide and to everyone else. What that means is that we are designing to give a new weapon (Pistol type to be exact) to the 4 year veterans of PlanetSide. Also, we are creating at least one (possibly two) new weapons to give out to everyone during our anniversary date in mid May. This second gun is being designed as a special assault weapon that does not require the special assault certification.
Finally, we're working on a lot of little items that are significant to list but we do not have definite delivery dates at this time. We are currently finding places within this schedule.
If you have any questions, please feel free to post. We'll try to get to them as soon as possible and will ask for some additional feedback on these items as we get closer.
Have a great weekend!