All PC Live servers will come down on Friday, November 20 at 6:00 AM PST (3:00 PM CET) to bring you the 8th Anniversary Game Update. Downtime is expected to last up to 3 hours.



Happy Anniversary, Soldiers! This Friday marks eight years to the day since PlanetSide 2 first launched, and we couldn't be more grateful for your continued support as we celebrate another milestone. It's been an incredible year for our team: the inception of Rogue Planet Games, the Escalation update, Outfit Wars, the Colossus Update, and the recent launch of The Shattered Warpgate update are just a few of our 2020 highlights, none of which would've been possible without your loyalty and dedication. 

We've got a lot to share as we look to the future - and we hope you'll join us TOMORROW at 11:00 AM PST on Twitch for a sneak peek at what comes next for PlanetSide 2. But for today, we're excited to share all the highlights inbound with this year's Anniversary update!


Your service continues to be exemplary, soldiers - as a small thank you for eight great years, we're offering all of you a free platinum NS-45 Pilot and 8th Anniversary Loyalty Decal!

You can claim your free rewards on PC by completing a special Anniversary Mission available via your Mission tab through Monday, November 30.

Additionally, we're celebrating our birthday with a week-long Double XP for ALL event starting tomorrow, Friday, November 20, running through Thursday, November 26! Double XP for Members will continue through Sunday, November 29. Get after those certs, soldiers!




Our 8th Anniversary update also introduces the second chapter in The Shattered Warpgate Campaign! Investigators have uncovered all there is to know about the calamity on Esamir, and Representative Foster from Nanite Systems has developed a plan for dealing with the ongoing environmental crisis...a plan that will require the support of every soldier, from every Empire. Chapter 2 brings new events, new missions, and new technology as the story progresses into its next stage.

While Chapter 1 has come to a close, the items and currency you've previously unlocked will move with you into Chapter 2.

 

New 8th Anniversary Bundles are incoming! 

This year's Anniversary Bundles hit the Depot in three epic tiers: Cadet's Bundle (1999 DBC), Explorer's Bundle (3999 DBC), and Starseeker's Bundle (7999 DBC). As the names suggest, we're looking to the stars this year, with several new items providing hints at what's going on above and beyond the atmosphere of Auraxis...

Each bundle contains an assortment of items, including new weapons, armors, camo, banners, faction decals, implants, and more. Pick up the Explorer's or Starseeker's Bundle, and you'll also receive a Heroic Boost! The full breakdown of all the items available in each Bundle can be found in our 8th Anniversary Bundle Preview.



We're also unlocking a new Directive Line! Every weapon from this year's Anniversary bundles (including the free platinum NS-45 Pilot) will grant progress toward the Exceptional Directive IV. You can check out the new Directive Rewards in-game in your Directives tab.


We're starting the party this Friday, November 20, 2020 at 11:00 AM PST LIVE at http://www.twitch.tv/planetside2! Join us tomorrow for your first-look at our next major game update, news, giveaways, and a sneak peek into 2021!

We also want to take a moment to celebrate the absolutely incredible job our community has done fundraising for Extra Life, as our studio team has collectively raised nearly $15,000 for Children's Hospitals! It's not too late to get involved - you can still join or donate to to the team at http://www.extra-life.org/team/rogueplanetgames. Help us meet our goals as we continue raising more money to support children in need!

Thank you all for your dedication to PlanetSide 2 - it's been an unforgettable year, and we couldn't have done any of it without all of you. We'll see you on-stream tomorrow, but in the meantime you can share your favorite moments and memories from Auraxis with us by posting with the hashtag #8YearsofLoyalty on Facebook, Twitter, or the PlanetSide 2 Forums! Here's to another great year, soldiers!!

Time is running out on your Campaign, soldier! Chapter 1 of The Shattered Warpgate is scheduled to end on PC this Sunday, November 8 at 11:59pm PST. We're unlocking Esamir all weekend to give you every opportunity to finish your Campaign Missions and grab those much-deserved rewards before it does!

Once Chapter 1 ends, we're looking ahead to our Eighth Anniversary celebration and the start of Chapter 2...stay tuned for an announcement next week!

All PC servers will come down Thursday, November 5, 2020, at 7am PST (4pm CET), for the game update below. Downtime is expected to last up to two hours.

--

Full patch notes below:

• Fixed an issue where some players were not able to claim Campaign Chapter rewards without completing certain side missions. All players should now be able to collect Chapter rewards after completing all primary missions.
  
• Changed the "spot" experience portion of the Training: Infiltrator and Reconnaissance missions to require "motion detection" experience instead.
  
• Fixed an issue where certain Directive Pistols weren't activating sidearm-related implants or directives.
  
• The Halloween event has ended, and Sanctuary is no longer haunted.

Members, it's that time of the month! Space Pumpkins are haunting Auraxis, our first PlanetSide 2 Campaign is live, and ALL MEMBERS will earn Double XP through Sunday, October 25! Warm up that Ectoblaster and start banking those certs, soldiers!

That sinister chill crawling up your spine can only mean one thing, soldier - from Wednesday, October 14 through Sunday, November 1, Nanite of the Living Dead will rise once more to haunt the continents of Auraxis!

Our annual Halloween event is back and bigger than ever, with Space Pumpkins, an all-new Seasonal Directive, and a bevy of special treats available to earn or purchase from the Depot. Even Sanctuary has been outfitted for spooky season, so load up your Ectoblaster and make ready for mischief, those Galact-O-Lanterns won't hunt themselves!



The party starts in Sanctuary, where even the vendors have dressed for the occasion! Ghouls, ghosts, and ghastly surprises abound at this monster mash, so make sure you're appropriately kitted for the masquerade. Small talk is its own reward - a variety of Halloween Masks can be earned by talking to certain vendors, and equipping any Halloween mask will award bonus XP throughout the duration of the event!




Space Pumpkins and the elusive Galact-O-Lanterns are back and spawning all across Auraxis! Smash these pumpkins to earn XP and extra rewards in the form of Infernal Grenades, which can in turn be used to earn bonus XP and Directive progress. But be wary of where you trick-or-treat this year, soldier, for some Pumpkins are equipped to offer even more explosive surprises...

Kills with any Halloween weapon also award Hallow Ribbons, providing extra bonus XP:

• Ectoblaster
  
• Slasher
  
• Auraxium Slasher
  
• LB00 Python
  
• Infernal Grenades
  
• NS Candy Cannon 3000

[/b][/list]

Complete the all-new Halloween VII Directive for new rewards, seasonal items, ISO-4, and more!

Tier 1

• Speak to FL-34 in the Data Exchange on Sanctuary
  
• Speak to Foster in the Sanctuary Observation Deck
  
• Speak to Nalla in the Expedition shop on Sanctuary
  
• Find and speak to a sketchy looking guard on Sanctuary

Tier 2-4

• Slashing Pumpkins - Destroy Space Pumpkins, Galact-O-Lanterns kills are worth 10 kills toward this directive.
  
• Masked Murder - Kill enemies while wearing a Halloween Mask.
  
• Necromancer - Revive allies.
  
• Witchy Ways - Earn heal/resupply/repair experience.
  
• Silver for Monsters - Use melee weapons to kill enemies who are wearing Halloween Masks or Facepaint.
  
• Hallowed Ground - Earn kills while near a Mining Drill, Bastion Fleet Carrier, or in The Shattered Warpgate area.

Rewards

• Tier 1 - Ichabod Crown, Infernal Grenade
  
• Tier 2 - Ectoblaster, 100 Certs
  
• Tier 3 - 450 A7, 100 ISO-4
  
• Tier 4 - Title: Creepy, Halloween VII Banner, 500 ISO-4

The Depot has been restocked with a series of special themed cosmetics only available for the duration of this event!

• Flamerider Tire Trails (Flash/Harasser) - Sport burning trails of fire on the wheels of your vehicle.
  
• Green Wisp Tire Trails (Flash/Harasser/ANT/Sunderer) - Green floating spirits follow your vehicle around the battlefield.
  
• Holiday Horns - A variety of spooky Halloween themed vehicle horns are available.
  
• Holiday Helmets - Special costume helmets are available.
  
• The Slasher - Melee weapon.
  
• L-B00 Python AP - A holiday-themed version of the Lightning’s Python AP main cannon.
  
• NS Candy Cannon 3000 - Fires candy corn, the hardest substance on the planet.
  
• Halloween Camos - Various Halloween-related camouflage has been made available.

Settle your nerves, soldier, all the intel you'll need to survive these horrors can be found over in the patch notes. Nanite of the Living Dead VII: The Seeds Must Flow is live in-game starting today, so get a head start on your Devil's Night revelries and start smashing those pumpkins!

With the release of The Shattered Warpgate update, we made some ambitious changes to the game that add more structured elements to the sandbox experience we all know and love, while revamping the continent of Esamir. In this post I wanted to point out some observations surrounding the new additions, and the lessons we’ll be taking to heart moving forward.

Back when this all started, the original intent of this update was not a complete overhaul of Esamir, if you can believe it. We were initially focused on fixing Esamir’s imbalanced lattice and using the Warpgate’s detonation as a catalyst for storytelling. Buuuuuut, the more we did, the more we wanted to do, and Esamir ended up better for it overall.


Between the objectives created through Missions and Campaigns, the lack of limitations on Construction, and the Abandoned Vehicles scattered throughout that area, The Shattered Warpgate resulted in some of the most organic, intense, “PlanetSide” battles this game has seen in years. The feedback about the combat in this area has been extremely positive, and we’ll certainly want to pocket some of the concepts in this area for use elsewhere later on.


Watching players struggle with figuring out where to go and what to do was pretty heartbreaking from my perspective, and undoubtedly frustrating from the player’s point of view. Not immediately force-pinning the starting campaign event to the player’s HUD left folks wandering around, trying to figure out who Foster was and where he was hidden; and the Analysis HUD seemed like an unnecessary extra step every place we tried to use it. These sorts of usability issues were a recurring theme. By seeing how players interacted with this system, our expectations versus the realities, we have a much better sense now of how to handle Chapter 2 when it rolls around.


There were some takeaways from the various events available during the first Chapter, the first of which is just how frustrating it can be not to be able to progress your Campaign due to a bug. We’re dealing with new tech in some cases, and new ways to use old tech, in others, and we’ve learned a lot during this process on how to better deal with these challenges in later Chapters.

We originally designed this Chapter to give players breaks (if Esamir isn’t open, you come back when it is). That’s why our Chapters last a month, to give ample time to complete its events through fairly casual play. What we’ve seen though, is a ravenous desire to go, go, go, and complete each Chapter as quickly as possible, so we did end up unlocking Esamir for 24 hours for a while based on that feedback. This isn’t healthy for the game, however, and the potential for burnout is quite high, so moving forward we’re going to try to incorporate other continents into our Campaign events more often so that rotating continents becomes a more natural part of the Campaign’s completion. Whether or not we’ll be able to do that and make it fun is still a big question mark, but it’s something we want to try.


Feedback for the Mission system ranged anywhere from “these missions are boring” to “this is so cool.” There are a few different goals for the Mission system, like celebrating undervalued forms of gameplay, making more use of map space by creating new sub-objectives, and giving players tangible goals to complete during their session that offer rewards. During our first pass, the hand of missions you were dealt would vary wildly, which created some bad feels for the players who got a list of things they didn’t have an interest in. On top of that, there were some missions that would break or create inconsistent experiences.

In our second pass, we divvied up the mission spread more, and removed some of the less interesting/inconsistent missions so that players would be way more likely to find something they’re interested in.

It’s important that we don’t abandon the goal of creating new sub-objectives for players, but alongside that we’d also like to offer more missions that are in line with standard gameplay for the players who have an interest in that. You’ll be seeing these missions hit your pools in the next update.

Regarding rewards, we’re still discussing exactly where we want to go with this, and our intent remains to help new and casual players catch up to some of our more dedicated veterans. We did make some changes in the last update that increased the frequency most players would see ISO-4 and Certifications as rewards, so we feel like this is a good place to continue evaluating from.


Esamir’s storm is intended to be a force of nature that needs to be played around and while we’ve introduced ways to do that, through Insulated Armor/Insulated Plating/Reclaimed Vehicles/Neutralizer Device, we don’t necessarily want it to be the thing you have to worry about during off-peak hours when fights are already difficult to build up. To that end we’re going to prevent it from patrolling during times of low population, and it’ll hang out over The Shattered Warpgate so that players can continue to get their Campaign events done as needed.

Additionally, we’re going to try making the storm prioritize large fights with a population imbalance that favors attackers. So, for example, if you have 60% or greater attacking population, the fight could target you to even the odds. One thing the storm does very well, is favor the defending faction.

Lastly, you will be seeing more ways to manipulate the storm come Chapter 2 (spoilers,) through things like the Lightning Arrester, Lightning Grenade, and other equipment we’ve yet to show. Ideally this becomes less of an inconvenience and more of an asset in the fight, while allowing us to further the story of the factional arms race amidst Esamir’s calamity.


One of the strengths of the Campaign system is that we can, with each Chapter, iterate based on the lessons we learn from the previous one. The river of feedback we’ve been swimming through over the past couple of weeks has been extremely helpful, and will play a big role in making not only future Chapters of the Campaign better, but also help elevate the game as a whole.

Thanks everyone.

-Wrel, Lead Designer

Here at Rogue Planet, we pride ourselves on serving our community, and yet we’re constantly humbled by the levels of loyalty and support you send back our way. So we’re really excited to share that starting today, we're launching our inaugural Extra Life Team to help give back to those in our community in greatest need.

The Rogue Planet Games Extra Life Team will work towards a goal of raising $20,000 to support Rady Children’s Hospital, our local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in San Diego. The studio is donating an initial $5,000 to kick off our fundraising, and we hope that YOU will consider joining or supporting our team so we can hit that goal together!


Extra Life is a charitable organization that unites thousands of gamers around the world to play games in support of their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. Since its inception in 2008, Extra Life has raised more than $70 million for sick and injured kids. By fundraising for Rady Children’s in San Diego, our team is helping to support a local hospital that treats thousands of children each year, regardless of their illness, injury, or even their family’s ability to pay. And as the COVID-19 pandemic places new stresses on hospitals and communities, Extra Life helps ensure that the 170 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals around North America have the resources they need to care for the most vulnerable kids.


Join our team! Throughout the next month as we lead-in to Extra Life’s National Game Day on Saturday, November 7, the Rogue Planet Games Extra Life Team will be fundraising together towards our goal of $20,000. Team membership is open to Rogue Planet Devs, Employees, and Community members (you!). We have some fun community activities (and prizes!) planned to help support the cause, and all our efforts will lead up to a special Dev Livestream scheduled for the week leading up to Game Day next month. Rewards for the entire PlanetSide 2 community are headed your way if we meet our goal...

It’s a minimal commitment to join up – you simply promise to play games (any games!) for a total of 24 hours over the next month (something all of us will do anyway). You’re welcome to join our team from any location and play for your own local hospital (North America or Canada only), or the general Children's Miracle Network. Or, if you can’t spare the time to participate, help out by donating or sharing the news! Every little bit helps.

To help us reach our goal, you can join or make a donation here. If you were referred to donate by a specific team member (Dev or otherwise), you can select their name from the team roster when donating – it will go to both their individual fundraising goal, and our team. Otherwise, you can select the “Rogue Planet Games” team member for a general donation. The PlanetSide 2 community has always been incredibly supportive of our efforts, and we hope you’ll consider joining, donating, or sharing so we can make $20,000 for the kids together!

For more information about our Extra Life fundraising efforts, check out our official team page. Enlist today for the kids, soldier!

PC servers will come down Wednesday, October 7, 2020, at 6am PT (3pm CEST) for the new game update. Downtime is expected to last up to two hours.

Patch notes for tomorrow's game update below:

In an effort to keep our economy in check, the last update pulled out Alert rewards in favor of the new Mission system. This was a swing and a miss from us, as it became very clear (very quickly) that Alert rewards were an important part of the motivation and progression for many of you. To that end, we've made some changes to bring back most of the rewards (and all of the ISO-4) while keeping in the bonus experience we added in our last update.

Alert Meltdown rewards now grant...

• 300 ISO-4 for a win.
  
• 150 ISO-4 for a loss.
  
• 150 Certs for a win.
  
• 75 Certs for a loss.
  
• XP for a win remains 25,000.
  
• XP for a loss remains 10,000.

• Full Empire Strength is now achieved at 44% through raw territory control (down from 52%), or 40% territory control if you also own the central base.
  
• This should allow Meltdown alerts on all continents to trigger a bit more easily.

• !! Plants should no longer appear beneath the ground or inside of other objects.
  
• !! Added missing localizations for various campaign and mission-related strings.
  
• Speculative fix for Bio Analysis not allowing you to hack valid terminals.
  
• Accepting the first mission in the Campaign will auto-pin it to your HUD.
  
• If you aren't currently tracking the first Campaign mission, it will auto-pin when you enter Sanctuary.
  
• The recurring Campaign Side-Missions (the ones that appear in your daily mission pool) now have rewards.
  
• BEC Ammunition and Condensate Grenade tooltips now mention that they will expire at the end of the Campaign.
  
• "Warpgate Fragment" has been renamed "Broken Warpgate Arm" for the purposes of second Campaign mission.
  
• Increased the range at which "The Shattered Warpgate" is actually in effect for Foothold, Demolition, Balance of Power, and other missions that require you to be in The Shattered Warpgate to earn credit.
  
• Doubled the range at which you can stand near the downloading terminal to still get credit for the Data Recovery mission, and you no longer need the Analysis HUD to interact with the terminal.
  
• Insulated Suit schematic no longer costs Campaign Standing.
  
• Analysis HUD now works in vehicles.

• The daily spread of mission types has been greatly modified so that there will always be a variety of playstyles in each daily pool.
  
• Supply Convoy, Supply Convoy Disruption, Supply Convoy Defense, Recover Lost Intel, and Plant False Data missions have been temporarily removed from the pool. We were dissatisfied with the performance of these missions and will be fixing/tuning/replacing them in the future. We are currently also creating new missions that will be released in the next update.
  
• In addition, we've made some adjustments to the reward sets that will result in more frequent ISO-4/Cert/Implant rewards overall.
  
• You should no longer receive weapon rewards for weapons you already own.
  
• Cloaked players can no longer contest an Elysium Mining Drill.
  
• Elysium Mining Drill is now visible from much further away.

• Fixed a bug that tripled Nanite regeneration.
  
• Reclaimed Sunderers now grant spawn experience when deployed.
  
• ISO-4 hover-over tooltip no longer states that the max is 50,000, and is 100,000 as intended.
  
• Electrical Storm's movement speed has been increased due to player feedback.
  
• Mentor Chat now requires Tier 3 Leadership directive completion in order to speak and listen to it. (In the future we will allow you to leave this channel. This change unfortunately didn't make it in time for this update.)
  
• Increased the time before an inactive Outfit will fall off the Outfit Browser to 72 hours to allow more chances for small outfits to appear in the list.

Soldiers, we're excited to announce that DOUBLE EXPERIENCE FOR ALL will run on all PC Live servers through Sunday, October 4 at 11:59pm PT!

The Shattered Warpgate game update was a monumental undertaking, and we're grateful that so many of you took the time to leave notes and encouragement. We're listening to all your feedback - you can read a little more on what's to come here - and will continue to spend the upcoming week+ making adjustments and working out the kinks. Plenty more to share soon.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this event, and look forward to seeing everyone back on Auraxis this weekend!

A strange, alien energy of mysterious origin lurks beneath the surface of Esamir - foreboding, unpredictable, and potentially catastrophic. Welcome to The Shattered Warpgate, soldier!

This massive game update has been (many) months in development, pre-dating even Escalation in some of its feature planning. Not only does The Shattered Warpgate introduce a ton of exciting new features and changes, it strives to weave the lore and story of PlanetSide into a major content update in ways we've never done before. This is arguably our most ambitious update since Construction released over 4 years ago, reflecting our team's commitment to bringing you major biannual releases that permanently evolve and expand the world of Auraxis. After weeks of community testing, we're thrilled that The Shattered Warpgate is now available for you to download for free on Live PC servers.

Read on for all the Intel on The Shattered Warpgate game update!




At the heart of The Shattered Warpgate update is our Campaign System, which introduces new open-world storytelling experiences that unfold across multiple chapters. Players will take part in unique, lore-driven Campaign Missions during each Chapter, earning thematic rewards for successful completion. The first Campaign will run for 3 months (1 month per Chapter), though the scope and scale of future Campaigns may change as we iterate off player feedback.

The Shattered Warpgate Campaign tells the story of a cataclysmic environmental event on Esamir triggered by the seismic detonation of the Continent's Northeastern Warpgate. Nanite Systems spearheads the investigation into the mystery behind the event, enlisting the help of soldiers from all Empires to mitigate the disaster. As an investigator, you will be tasked with exploring the origins and impact of the Warpgate's destruction, discovering new revelations and dangers along the way. Can you solve the mystery of The Shattered Warpgate?

Players can opt-in to the Campaign either via Membership (unlocks automatically) or by using Certs (Cert costs scale by Battle Rank to alleviate the requirements for newer players - full Cert costs can be found in the patch notes). 

This is just our first Campaign, with future Campaigns set to pickup the story while permanently evolving the world and gameplay of PlanetSide 2, offering new rewards along the way.


The first thing you'll notice in this update is the dramatic transformation Esamir has undergone. It has been many years since the frigid tundra of this classic continent had a facelift, and this update aims to expand, alter, and improve its visual and geographic landscape.

With the destruction of the Northeastern Warpgate, the resulting explosion has revealed the remains of a mysterious and ancient Vanu superstructure that stands time-frozen beneath a great vortex of swirling energy. The devastation has dramatically altered the landscape: tech failures, derelict bases and vehicles, bursting energy geysers, glacial ice flows and strange new alien plant life now litter the land. 



Even the skies glow anew with Auroras and crackling energy, casting a strange green pallor across the battlefield.

In the aftermath of this cataclysmic event, Nanite Systems have unveiled The Haven, the first mobile Warpgate, replacing the now-destroyed Warpgate in a new location to the East. These environmental changes are more than just visual - the Lattice itself has been reconfigured, bases altered or abandoned, and the sudden appearance of a powerful energy storm adds a new threat to contend with...



The mysteries behind these dramatic changes can only be unraveled by completing story missions from the first Campaign, which delves into the origins of the Warpgate's explosion, and uncover the dangerous forces seeking to manipulate the endless planetary war on Auraxis.




Underpinning the Campaign system is our dynamic new Mission system, introducing daily quests and challenges to PlanetSide 2 that can be completed for rewards. While Campaigns offer unique Story Missions, every player regardless of rank will have access to a regular Mission Board in Sanctuary that resets daily. New Missions are available in a variety of rarities which represent difficulty, time investment, and reward levels. All-Access Members will automatically be granted additional daily Mission unlocks, though all players will have the option to choose which Missions they undertake on any given day.

You can check out the Mission pool in the patch notes, or peruse the Mission Board in Sanctuary at your own pace as you seek out new challenges and rewards! 




The most profound environmental change to the Continent of Esamir is the introduction of a roaming energy storm, the first hazard of its kind in PlanetSide 2. Attracted to mechanical signatures, the storm targets areas on the map where action is heaviest, putting players - particularly players in vehicles - in danger from powerful lightning bolts. The storm's energy can also impact vehicle handling, though its affects can be escaped or alleviated entirely by sheltering in buildings or leaving its confines. Players will also gain new items and abilities to negate and even harness the storm's energy over the course of the first Campaign, including Insulated Vehicle Armor, Lightning Grenades, and the Lightning Arrester deployable.

This is a major change and we'll be carefully monitoring its impact on gameplay, adjusting the strength, speed and effects of the storm based on player feedback. 



These are just a few of the many highlights coming in The Shattered Warpgate - additional new features include new weapons and equipment like the Icepick Melee Weapon, Sanctuary Improvements like Cross-Faction Text Chat, Outfit Resource Rebalancing, Indar Terrain Improvements, and much more. All of the above has gone through extensive community playtesting on the Public Test Server (a big THANK YOU to all of you who joined us on PTS and helped with feedback) and will continue to see iteration and hotfixes on Live servers. 

Full patch notes for The Shattered Warpgate are available over on the Forums. We'll address issues as they arise, so please keep pointing them out to us. And once this update is out in the wild, stay tuned for news on our next Double XP For All event...

Are you ready to explore the mysteries of The Shattered Warpgate, soldier? Drop us a line on Twitter, Facebook, or the Official Forums!