Tribes: Ascend Version 1.1, PTS 2.1, October, 2015 news

Public Test Server Notes

• We need your help! Prior to release on the live servers, this release will be made available for general public testing on a test server. The purpose of this server is to allow us to gain end-user feedback and bug testing on the release before we fully finalize the release. In order to make this release as good as we can, we need the Tribe’s community to help us test and to give feedback!
• We currently expect the release to be placed onto the Public Test Server on or before October 23, 2015. Once the release is made available on PTS, we will publish installation and test instructions.
• Feedback should be provided on the Tribes Reddit at Reddit.com
• Latest community request document
• Thoughts on PTS 2.1 changes

Maps

• An early version of Perdition has been added to the game.

• “Perdition is a small sized CTF map inspired by Tribes 2 legacy map Damnation.”
• Added to the CTF All Maps rotation.
• Added to the featured list with Terminus, and Ice Coaster.
• Perdition, Terminus, and Ice Coaster are available to be run on private servers.

• Ice Coaster has received a visual polish pass.
• Conduits on various maps have added jump pads, or been replaced entirely with jump pads.
• Fixed an issue where Ice Coaster was too bright on low settings.

UI

• Reticles may now be replaced by PNG files stored locally on your hard drive and configured through the ini files.
• Follow this tutorial for installing custom reticles.

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Gameplay

• Weapons have been rebalanced. New PTS 2.1 Weapons stat spreadsheet

• “Feedback on equal damage across classes was mixed. The majority (only by a slim margin) disliked the change. However, many liked that it fixed some long standing issues like one-shotting from full health. In PTS 2.1 we are trying to find a middle ground.”
• Light weapons damage increased 3.5% over PTS 2.
• Medium weapons deals about 40% more damage than Light weapons
• Heavy weapons deals about 60% more damage than Light weapons.

• Direct hit bonus damage is back by popular request.

• 25% bonus damage for Impact and Timed weapons.
• 50% bonus damage for Plasma weapons to offset lower falloff damage values.

• Damage now linearly falls off to a minimum value at max range. (See weapon stats)

• “Feedback on the linear damage falloff change was generally positive. While people liked the simplicity of linear falloff, seeing low damage numbers was widely disliked. The system in PTS 2.1 is a happy medium blend of the old and new systems. Falloff is still linear, but at max range the projectile does a minimum percent damage.”

• Max Impulse falloff area has been clamped.

• “We have clamped impulse falloff so players can still get 100% impulse but control the angle at which that impulse is applied.”
• Within 40% of the falloff radius 100% of the impulse is applied. This range is similar to the old banded damage impulse areas.

• Ammo drops now give health when picked up.

• Light armor heals 30%
• Medium armor heals 25%
• Heavy armor heals 20%

• Base asset upgrades have been removed and the stats adjusted accordingly.

• Shields

• “Shields on base assets only mitigate damage and can now be worn down over time instead of completely prevent damage from slower rate of fire weapons such as the disk launcher.”
• Health set to 4000, up from 3500.
• Shield set to 1000, down from 1600
• Shield now regenerates over 4 seconds, down from 1.7 seconds.
• Now requires 75% health to re-activate after death.
• Range set to 20000, roughly equal to a rank 4 sensor.

• Base Turret

• “The new Base Turrets operate like Tribes 2 base turrets. They no longer destroy players in 1 shot and the serve primarily as area denial.”
• Health set to 4000, up from 3500.
• Shields set to 1000, down from 1600
• Shield now regenerates over 4 seconds, down from 1.7 seconds
• Requires 75% health to re-activate after death.
• Projectile speed set to 2500, down from 4000.
• Damage set to 250 down from 650
• Range set to 250 down from 700
• Fire interval set to 1.3 down from 2.5

• Generator

• Health set to 12000, roughly equal to a rank 4 generator.
• Now requires 75% health to re-activate after death.
• Self Heal time set to 4 minutes, roughly equal to a rank 3 generator.

• Automatic weapons projectile flight distance/lifetime is now shorter.

• “Hitscan weapons have always had a set max range. Beyond that range no damage is dealt. Automatic projectile based weapons have not had the same limitations and fly the full speed value over 1 second. The end result was a projectile distance that was over 3 times longer than intended. This change should help network performance by reducing the number of automatic projectiles in air.”
• Automatic projectile's flight time set to 0.5 seconds, down from 1 second.
• This results in a flight distance of 10500 units, down from 21000.

• Vehicle eject inheritance adjusted per armor class.

• 40% for light down from 100%
• 35% for medium down from 100%
• 30% for heavy down from 50%

• Added a vehicle pad to Terminus.
• Fixed an issue where falloff damage was being applied even if the target was directly hit.
• Fixed an issue where health regen delay and speed were using non-leveled up values.
• Fixed an issue where belt items were not canceling the spawn protection effect.
• Fixed an issue where terrain in terminus would launch ragdolls into lower orbit.
• Fixed an issue where hitscan pistols had their impulse settings rolled back.

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Equipment Changes

• PTS 2.1 Weapons loadout spreadsheet
• Weapon Class changes

• “We have moved plasma guns to the automatic weapon class for those that would rather have another slower projectile weapon instead of using a chaingun type weapon.”
• Plasma Gun has been moved to Medium Automatic weapons class.
• Plasma Cannon has been moved to Heavy Automatic weapons class.

• Light Armor

• No longer gains the -25% mass “Lightweight perk” by default.

• Medium Armor

• Health set to 1500
• Rolled back changes to mass, air control, and ski control.

• Heavy Armor

• Rolled back changes to mass, air control, and ski control.

• Weapons

• Added Medium Blinksfusor to Medium Impact weapons class.
• Added Heavy Blinksfusor to Heavy Impact weapons class.
• Added Flak Cannon to Medium Short Range weapon class.

• “The Flak cannon fires a matrix of superheated bouncing balls of plasma that explode on enemy contact.”

• Added the old Tribes:Ascend Beta laser targeter.

• “The laser targeter is in a very rough state, but this is where it was left in beta. If people find it useful in PTS 2.1 we will spend a little more time on it polishing it up.”

• BXT-1 removed.
• Sawed off shotgun removed.
• Light Assault Rifle is now fully automatic like the Assault Rifle.
• Standardized particle system size for Chaingun and X1 LMG projectiles to help read distances better.
• Mortar Launcher projectiles now explode on enemy player impact.
• Shocklance now falls off at 50% range to 50% damage at max range.
• Melee has been buffed to 1000 damage.
• Fractal grenades now fire 20 shots in 3 seconds.
• Ammo counts for all weapons have increased:

• Light armor gains 10% ammo
• Medium armor gains 30% ammo
• Heavy armor gains 50% ammo

• Packs

• The Rocket Turret has moved back to Medium armor.
• New “Rage” pack is now available for light armor.

• When the flag is taken off the stand players within a set radius around the flag gain Rage is applied and lasts 15 seconds.
• While Rage is active:

• Mass decreased by 25%
• Impulse is increased by 10%
• Activating the pack will thrust the player at 75% of the flag grabbers speed at the time the flag was grabbed. The pack may only be activated once per Rage effect.
• First self impact damage is ignored and ends Rage.

• Energy is set to 100% when rage is cleared.

• Belt Items

• “Belt items were overly nerfed in PTS2, damage has been increased in PTS2.1 to find a balance between PTS1 and PTS2 values.”
• Damage for all belt items has increased.
• Deployable explosive set to 2 max deployed per player.
• Repair deployable removed.

• NOTE: There are known usability issues and UI deficiencies associated with this transition that make it more difficult than it should be to both equip your weapons and to understand what you have equipped. There are also known bugs with the display on the HUD of your equipped weapons. We want to test this system on PTS prior to finalizing the User Interface, as feedback from testing could lead to changes in the overall design, which may in turn impact the user interface.