Dust 514

[Cantih]

Hope draw distance and rendering in general gets fixed. They put way to much emphasis in aesthetics over functionality.
Also, I'm getting a creeping suspicion that the whole reasoning behind the Black Eagle event was to quickly collect data on how horribly underpowered scouts are.

Possibly even to gauge how to stat up pilot role light suits.
Wonder what the over/under is on making them live in 1.7
They did kind of add in commando out of nowhere.

EDIT: Annnnnd Vehicle SP respec, and Vehicle gear refund
https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...16#post1513116
I'm not getting any SP because I never put any there after the respec, but I am getting a $10 AUR payday from $0.20 I spent on vehicle module BPO back before they changed the prices before the wide open beta. Wheeee.

[Sol-Blackguy]

1.7 is still a huge mystery but I doubt pilot suits are going to be added since they're still collecting data on vehicle vs AV balance. Figured we wouldn't get a full respec yet, seems like they're holding out for all the core content released. But I'm glad to get my prototype small missile turret SP back, now I have enough SP saved up for combat rifle proficiency 5 on the first day. (Assuming I don't get restricted to sidearms...)

Even though the Devs haven't made an open statement on TTK, they did bring up in iirc that they're working on it, but after 1.7 was content locked. Also, there's been a discussion of finally giving kb/m raw input. I'm used to PC FPS, so this is going to be huge for my KDR since they completely gimped a preferred interface. I might even spec into Minmatar assault with a breach/assault pistol combo and celebrate with a flurry of headshots.

[Cantih]

Well, today is a gigantic infodump. The Eve blog is for techies, but dust gets
http://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/12...-uprising-1.7/

At first glance, it looks like a good system. I'm happy at the 75/15 split on standing alteration, it's a lot of grind, but if you want to, you'll be able to maintain decent standings across the factions.
The anti-grief looks stern, enough that I wonder if it might affect player behavior in matches, a bit less panic and spray & pray.

[Sol-Blackguy]

Here's some more explanation on the penalty:
Source

The new friendly fire punishment will kick you from battle immediately after 4 team kills or 5000 hp of damage. The character is then banned for the rest of the day.

We may change those thresholds after we launch too, we'll see how it all goes.

Holy poop!

We need to broadcast this!

It was mentioned in the devblog, but the blog was pretty long so I'll forgive you for missing it:

http://dust514.com/news/blog/2013/12...-uprising-1.7/

The first way a player can be removed from a Factional Contract match is by being punished for excessive team killing. When you team kill a player, that player will have the option on their kill screen to punish the person who killed them. If you get punished enough in a single match you will be kicked from the battle.

The other way a player can be removed from a Factional Contract match due to friendly fire is by simply dealing substantial damage to teammates or their vehicles. When you damage a friendly in Factional Contracts, the amount of damage you are cause will be tracked. You will get 4 warnings, but upon dealing enough damage you will be removed from the match. Damage done to teammates that forgive you is still counted, so watch your fire!

I'm going to reserve judgement until we see how FW 1.7 will affect the current economy we have now. I we see less proto suits in public contracts, it'll be a step in the right direction.

[Cantih]

Patch Noooooootes - Update hits on Tuesday.
https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...05&find=unread

Stuff I like in bold

Path to Game and Overall UI
Made back end optimizations to reduce stalls when scrolling lists.
Integrated sound effects in the end of match screen.

Controls
Updated tooltips on/off option to be dynamic based on input type.
Added Separate sensitivity settings when aiming down sights and hipfire for both keyboard/mouse and controller.
Increased granular sensitivity options to 0-100 (previously 0-10).

Gameplay
Improved spawning in Ambush. Reduced possibility of spawning into a group of enemies when battle starts.
Transport Assists are no longer reduced when passenger accrues negative war points during assist window.
Added intel kill assist rewards for vehicle scanners.

HUD
Removed the hit indication UI and reticle color change from null cannon installations.
Repositioned target intel readout to be closer to the gun.
Added warning for vehicle active damage modifiers to target intel.

Vehicles
Vehicles have received significant updates. They are being rebuilt and rebalanced from the ground up. Once we’ve established a solid foundation we will start to introduce more types and build back out.
Vehicle turrets now have ammunition.
Added the ability to reload turrets.
Added new Ammo Expansion Unit module to increase total ammo.
Enabled turret ammo resupply at supply depot installations.
Updated third person dropship camera.
Renamed vehicle modules to be consistent with dropsuit gear naming conventions.
Added a damage threshold for triggering the shield recharge delay on vehicles to prevent low damage weapons from delaying vehicle shield recharge.
Adding owner and squad lock timers to vehicles.
- No-one apart from the vehicle owner can get into a vehicle for 5 seconds after delivery.
- No-one apart from the vehicle owner and his squad can get into a vehicle for 15 seconds after delivery.
Improved low LOD vehicle animation.
Logistics LAV and Enforcer HAV roles have been removed pending an update before reintroduction. Available roles are:
- Standard HAV - Caldari & Gallente.
- Standard LAV - Caldari & Gallente.
- Standard Dropship - Caldari & Gallente.
- Assault Dropship - Caldari & Gallente.
Vehicle physics have been updated.
- Gallente ground vehicles have slower acceleration and higher straight line speed, while Caldari vehicles have quicker acceleration with lower top speed.
- LAV - smoothed out power delivery.
- HAV - increased speed and maneuverability.
Turrets have been streamlined to their most necessary archetypes (standard to prototype). Available small and large turrets are:
- Railgun.
- Blaster.
- Missile.
Large and small turrets have been rebalanced.
Module offerings have been streamlined to their most necessary archetypes. Available modules are:
- Shield Boosters.
- Shield Hardeners.
- Shield Extenders.
- Armour plates.
- Armour repairers.
- Armour hardeners.
- Damage amplifiers (per weapon types i.e. rail, blaster, missile).
- Ammo Expansion Unit (per weapon type i.e. rail, blaster, missile).
- CPU upgrades.
- Power Grid Upgrades.
- Scanners.
- Mobile CRU.
- Afterburners.
- Boosts.
Vehicle skills have been updated and skills not currently used/needed removed.
For more details on the vehicle changes please view the dev blog posted on http://dust514.com/news/blog/.

Weapons
Added Minmatar Combat Rifles.
Added Caldari Rail Rifles.
Updated rifle weapon ranges.
Reduced AV grenade damage (Standard: 1050 to 725; Advanced: 1260 to 870; Prototype: 1470 to 1015).
Reduced Swarm Launcher damage (330 to 220).
Reduced Swarm Launcher lock-on range from 400m to 175m.
Added physical impulses to all weapon impacts.
Removed physical recoil force on Assault Dropship small turrets.

Visuals
Improved vehicle shield and armor repair effects.

Modules/Equipment
When a repair tool is the active item all friendly HP bars will now be visible.
Added shield extender penalty - stacking slows down the depleted shield recharge delay.

Maps/Environments
Added a new volcano mood.
Added a new Caldari cityscape terrain backdrop.
Introduction of new volcano terraforming.

Factional Contracts
Friendly fire has been enabled in all factional contract matches. Please watch your fire while participating in these battles.
The ability to punish team kills has been added to factional contract matches. You may now forgive or punish teammates when they kill you.
If a player receives multiple punishes for team killing they will be removed from all factional contract matches and unable to join again for the day.
Dealing damage to teammates, team vehicles and team equipment will be tracked on a per match basis. If a player deals 5,000 damage to teammates, vehicles or equipment in a single match they will be removed from the match and unable to join again for the rest of the day. Damage to installations is not counted.
Factional contract matches will no longer pay out ISK rewards.
Salvage in factional contract matches will now be based on what players on the other team lose in the match.
A new factional warfare tab has been added to the end of match screen demonstrating the status of factional warfare within New Eden and how the match you’ve played affected the universe.

Standings
Winning matches in factional contracts will earn you standing towards the side you are fighting for and lowerstanding towards the side you are fighting against.
Getting kicked from a match due to friendly fire will lower your standing towards the faction you were fighting for.
Your standings progress is now shown on the progression end of match screen.
You can also see your standings in the character information sheet under the new standings tab.

Loyalty Points
Participating in factional contract matches will earn participants loyalty points for the faction they are fighting for.
Loyalty points can be spent on the market in the Loyalty Store section. Each faction has their own area in the loyalty store in which only their loyalty points can be spent.
The higher your standing with a faction the higher your loyalty point payout at the end of the match.
Four new faction boosters (one for each faction) have been added to the market. These boosters increase your loyalty point payout for the booster’s faction.
New specialist weapons have been added to the market and are only available in the loyalty store. These weapons offer prototype equivalent stats with lower CPU/PG usage and no other drawbacks.
New equipment only available in the loyalty store has been added to the market.
Aurum items that offered equivalent stats to their ISK counterparts with only lower skill requirements have been made available in the loyalty store.

Orbital Bombardment
Warbarge strikes have been removed from factional contracts.
EVE orbital strikes are now earned within EVE by capturing a complex above the district where a battle is taking place. EVE orbital strikes are no longer based on war points.
When an EVE orbital strike is earned, all squad leaders are able to call the strike in. It is up to the EVE pilot to pick which request to fulfill.
Both EVE pilot and warbarge orbital strikes can be found directly under the Off Map Support menu option instead of Off Map Support / Orbital Bombardments.
Starship Strikes have been renamed to Orbital Strikes to be consistent with what it is now called in EVE.
Warbarge - Precision Strike has been renamed to Warbarge Strike.

Leaderboards
Monthly and weekly versions of all the leaderboards have been added.
Monthly leaderboards start on the first day of the month and end on the last.
Weekly leaderboards start on Wednesday and end on Tuesday.

Bug fixes and polish
Fixed:
Multiple RDV navigation issues around sockets.
Multiple high drop off problems with the RDV.
Camera drift on the Move.
Explosive damage error that sometimes resulted in too much damage being dealt.
Crash related to MKB weapon switching.
Aim assist problems on vehicles and turrets (certain aspects were not working correctly).
Issue that allowed players to rapid fire shotguns and mass drivers.
SMG crosshair going blue instead of red on enemies.
Issue with HP bars not being displayed properly when using turrets.
‘Invisible weapon’ bug.
‘Double weapon’ bug (two items in hand at once).
Impact effect culling issues with large turrets.
Issues where having multiple nanite injectors equipped would cause auto revive to not work.
Issues with nanite injectors auto switch feature causing you to switch back when you don’t want to.
Issues with nanite injector prompt vanishing if you switch directly to nanite injector.
Issue with drop uplinks that (sometimes) prevents valid drop uplinks from being displayed.
Bug that caused effects to become dissociated with the muzzle of the repair tool.
Some errors with the scan feedback messages being displayed for long periods of time.
Revive icon being displayed for non nanite users.
Weapon reloading loop that could occur in high lag situations.
Bug that was causing errors in view distance rendering for vehicles.
Bug with vehicle module cooldown UI that was giving incorrect feedback.
Issues with full screen hit indication to ensure it is always based on firing location.

Other
Refactored incremental patch system.
Implemented crash reporting and performance monitoring that collects information from players which will improve game stability and performance.
You can now delete or mark all mail as read in the currently selected mailbox with a single operation.
Characters in chat and on the scoreboard are now sorted correctly so that characters beginning with lowercase letters are not at the bottom.
The squad finder icon has been updated.
EVE players connected to a district will show up in team chat for the side they are on and can connect to voice. This affects both factional contracts and planetary conquest.

The split of aim and hip sensitivity is a nice surprise. I had to strike a balance, but now I can dial down my zoom sensitivity a bit more, and my general up a bit, and it will finally be perfect.

[Sol-Blackguy]

Overall good patch notes, but not worth CCP being so tight lipped about it. As much as the CPM was hyping it up, a lot of us thought it was going to be another Uprising.

I'm a bit pissed off about the shield extender penalty since I just got my assault Mk.0 and Carthium pistol recently. I'm hoping the addition of the combat and rail rifle can do something about the disparity between shields and armor but TTK seriously needs to be addressed. The only thing keeping me sane right now is my Ishukone SMG and my Carthum pistol, both of which I skilled into in preparation of a possible logi nerf endgame.

Shields and armor are both going to need some work in the near future since armor can both tank and gank a the same time while shields rely on hit and run get hit and die tactics. So far, the best suggestion I've seen is move all electronics and EWAR modules to high slots and damage mods to low slots. I know a lot of snipers that would be royally pissed about this, but it makes sense since it's how it works in EVE and the fact that armor has a much higher HP ceiling for how much CPU/PG required for fittings compared to armor.

The variable sensitivity settings were a surprise. It's a step in the right direction if they want to balance mouse and keyboard with controllers. Maybe this means we'll get raw input by 1.8. (Crosses fingers)

[Cantih]

I know a lot of snipers that would be royally pissed about this, but it makes sense since it's how it works in EVE and the fact that armor has a much higher HP ceiling for how much CPU/PG required for fittings compared to armor.

I'm not bothered with that actually. My charge sniper suit, due to skills, has enough raw shield, no mods, to eat a single shot from anything other than another charge sniper (and even then, I've had situations where I've survived one with 1-10 armor left, though I do have armor mods, because not much else to fit). I just get behind cover/pop back below a ridgeline, and let it recover.
Switching damage mods to low actually improves things for me most of the time, I'd have MORE shield tank. The loss of armor mods would make other charges more dangerous, but eh, idm.

[Sol-Blackguy]

This might be one of the best Dust forum OPs of all time:

CCP !!!
For months now I have specialized with a Plasma Cannon
It is a tough class as you are caught out reloading or out of ammo a lot of the time,
but it deals an overwhelming amount of damage, I find it justifies being so powerful due to the risk of using it
I can take out any class in the game with my PLC and to be fair they can get me when I mess up

but anyway on to my point ............

Over the last while there have been several calls to increase it's capability,
DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It needs a Breach Variant and an Officers Variant, along with bug fixes

If you alter my beloved Plasma Cannon , I will find you and I will hurt you

I once fought a Matari FW against my arch enemies, where I met a Gallente Sex-Slave
We hooked up, I took her back to my Merc Quarters and spent 48 hours making sweet love []
2 years later she arrived at my Pad telling me I had fathered this abomination on her and she
could no longer handle it's obscene power and the way it inherited frontline instincts from me,

So I became a full-time father to my lovechild Plasma Cannon

CCP if you try to take my child from me, I will declare war upon you

[Cantih]

So, I'm withholding judgement on the new rifles until I get my sensitivity back in the right spot. But I wasn't doing well.

Though there is a hilarious bug atm. They accidentally a zero, and the militia vehicle speed booster is ten times stronger than it should be.
Tanks are going REALLY fast.
Like.
It's Dukes of Hazzard out here.

I did make the decision to upgrade Forge Gun to 4 so I could get back in to a fast charging assault variant. Still have 1M SP banked.
Once I get my sensitivity right and burn through my test rifles, I'll give FW a shot. I'll somehow find time to do this between XI, XIV and DotA 2. Jesus it's a busy month.

[Sol-Blackguy]

Yeah, I realized someone at CCP pulled a Michael Bolton with the militia injector stats first hand. I was in a squad with Driver Archedwood and we completely dominated a map by ourselves while pulling Tony Hawk stunts off of hills. People have been crying that tanks are invincible and all that crap right now, but they're actually flimsier than they were from 1.0-1.6... when their modules wear off that is. My usual tactic is to lay a patch of REs (which are sticky now, HOLY SHIT!) on the back of the tank while AV is keeping them busy and catch them with their modules down.

FW is kind of hit and miss for me. I'm loving the fact that there's rarely any proto out there unless you're going up against Imperfects or something. EVE players are basically like mythological beings where you make a VSAT offering and they decide on whether or not they want to make the strike. You actually see their ship reticule as the strike comes down too. Friendly fire makes the battles a bit more serious, but at the same time, it's buggy as hell to the point that accidentally bumping your derpship or detonating a chain reaction of REs can get you kicked. Been kicked twice in 2 days by trying to jihad jeep a tank with my own LAV, loaded with explosives. They can't even copy off Battlefield without fucking it up.

New rifles are kind of interesting. I'm loving the combat rifle, this thing eats Gallente Logis like it's nothing. Still rock my Ishukone from time to time, but that Boundles rifle is godlike. Haven't tried the rail rifle yet, and I probably won't. That thing has bad news written all over it, and I can tell it's going to get the bat one day. It's basically the breach AR from beta all over again and probably the most common thing that's killed me so far since I can't even see the little bastards shooting at me. (They really need to fix rendering)

If they can just do something about these CoD death rates, and the FW issues, I might start playing as religiously as I used to.

[Cantih]

https://forums.dust514.com/default.a...28#post1598128

Starting Dec 25 and going to Jan 5th, you'll be able to earn free items by winning one match each day.
Thank goodness they decided to start this after my free time on XI.

[Sol-Blackguy]

http://dust514.com/events/dev-invasions/

CCP Santa is coming to town and he's bringing a squad of developers with him! They're coming to spread mayhem and destruction, gunning down any and everyone who isn't on their side. Throughout the days of December 16, 18, and 20, special contracts will be appearing in the Other Contracts tab. You can either fight with your favorite CCP developers or against them. No matter what, you'll earn double SP and ISK for any Dev Invasion you participate in. Plus you get to kill or protect (let's just be honest, you're going to kill us) DUST 514 developers!

The Other Contracts will appear at random times during the days of the event, so check often in-game to see when they become available.

Players participating in this event will receive bonus skill points and ISK as rewards. These rewards will be given after the event has concluded.

Disclaimer: all in-game items lost and or destroyed during the event will not be refunded so be careful of what fittings you use during the event.

I totally owe Remnant and Wolfman a beatdown for nerfing my Mass Driver.

[Cantih]

Praetorian better play.
At the E3 event he stranded me in a conversation with a drunken Imperfect. Not fun.

[Cantih]

Well, 26/0 sniping in skirmish. It was Ashland (god am I tired of Ashland), and a squad of Goons, but still, I think it's safe to say sniping is back to where it was pre-Uprising.

I've burned through my tests of the new rifles. I'm terrible with all of them, but on balance, I've committed SP to Rail 4 and the Assault Rail will likely be my main, Scrambler for Tac, and Exile for my infinity suits.
Now to build up SP and hit 5 to start proficiency. Whilst also finally getting around to unlocking advanced mods across the board. (Could also max out the base weapon class skills for the fitting, but it would take so much SP for shoehorning just a pair of suits).
I might also hit Amarr heavy 3 so I could unlock and use Sentinel, it'd shave a few thousand isk off a few of fits. But I don't really want to raise heavy until all the racials are out. I really do hope the next named patch has the three heavy and two lights drop. They must have the art assets done by now.

[Sol-Blackguy]

I like the combat rifle more since it fits my playstyle. I'm actuallyshield tanking my Minmatar logi full time with a basic reactive or ferroscale plate just to survive the occasional scrambler rifle. Standard is perfect for flanking, support fire while the assault fits that hit and run play you could never get with a scrambler rifle or AR. If I ever decide to dump SP into Minmatar scout, this would probably be my weapon of choice. But damn, they burn through ammo like it's nobody's business. I can empty an entire clip on the assault just to kill 2 guys at mid range just to be caught reloading by a third encounter.

Tried the assault and standard rail rifle and just didn't find them fun. Maybe because it was on an ALT with 0 SP invested in anything but the rifle, but I just couldn't kill anything.

[Cantih]

Reminder, daily reward for a win starts tomorrow, here's the loot site
https://dust514.com/events/12-days-of-dust/

And yeah, were diametrically opposed for combat style. I'm always going to favor distance in an engagement.

[Sol-Blackguy]

Careful with that rail rifle, it's about as close to the old breach AR as you can get. Definitely one of the first things that might get nerfed when they reevaluate TTK.

I like ranged weapons too, kind of why I've stuck with the mass driver and played around with the scrambler rifle. I just prefer poking people with high alpha and harassment over raw DPS. Just tried out some fast regen fittings tonight and got my shield delay down to 2.8 seconds on my logi Mk.0. Being able to body a few people, duck and cover for my shields to recharge in a few seconds, rinse and repeat has changed my entire strategy. Now I'm able to defend the uplinks and triage hives I lay out just by pressuring people until reinforcements spawn in. It's like a logi/scout hybrid. Once I get my shield recharge to level 5, I'll be good to go and ready to grind my scrambler pistol to proficiency 5.

[Cantih]

Not a bad overview of the year.

And some funny

Spoiler: show

So far I've only missed the sampson armor plates. I just could not get a win that day.
And today's is the mad Black Eagle suit, only non-commando with two light weapons, don't miss it.

Chinese New Year is up in just a few weeks, we should get 1.8 before then, but I wonder how 1.9 will be effected. And we're creeping on 2.0, it's be very wrong of them not to have a named expansion with a big chunk of content.

[Trocian]

Damn it, I would totally play this if I could do it on a PC ; ;

[Cantih]

Really, just play on PS3 (You can use Keyboard & Mouse if that worries you). If it ever does come on PC, it's going to be years and years away.

If you don't have a PS3, get one. There's plenty of other good reasons to.
(The Last of Us, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid, Demon's Souls, Infamous, Little Big Planet, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Gran Turismo, Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea)


Ehh, I'm just gonna edit it in here
No 1.8 this month

- No, 1.8 is not coming this month due to the Holidays.