noch ein paar infos zu 1.3 (der untere teil ist schon etwas älter):

If all goes well Phase I should be on PTS by the end of next week (first week of may)

On the new version (1.3) friends have a different name tag color then teammates.

Hand-Free Jetpack allows you to hold down space bar to use the jetpack.
Combat Jetpack works the same way as the Hand-Free Jetpack but also allows you to shoot while you are using the jetpack.
The current jetpack is also available
All jetpacks are balanced to play well

Tournaments are coming at some point in the later phases

A lot of the new UI will be in the Phase I, there are also many other feature in Phase I that I did not list. For example: 10 person arena Q, ability to do co-op missions without a full team, etc...


AVA Changes:

- Single map for whole world open 24/7 (may be only 23 hours/day)
(If there is too much activity and not enough agencies can participate, and additional world map will be added.)
- There is no longer an alliance tax on number of members, but an agency can have a max of 150 members.
- Agencies can open for production at anytime during the 24 hours for a minimum of 1 hour, and only once per day. Maximum of around 10-15 hours of production per week.
- Agencies must open every 72 hours. They will automatically be opened (for one hour) in order to meet this requirement if necessary. The agency status screen displays the next auto-open time.
- All players in the agency get up to 4 Conquest tokens per day. (One per each hex they hold at the closing of their production session, and only on days agency is open for production, bust have HQ to get tokens)
- Agencies can no longer protect their allies with defensive facilities
- Bases are going to be removed for map, bases will return in the future with different type of gameplay/rewards
- AvA facilities can create weapons for players (or AvA items depending on production needs), these are the same weapons that would come from PvE Boss loot drops.
- The object of AvA will be to create a new generation of weapons. (more to come on how an agency will accomplish that)
- The reward for an Agency who creates a new generation weapon (there are about 70 existing and 30 new ones) will be the ability to NAME the weapon (Weapon will have the generic name like sniper rifle with AkA given by the agency) This is the universal name for the weapon that everyone will see.
There will also be various balancing/exchanges to current agencies for their current effort while as the same time allowing for groups to start an fair terms.

Additional notes:
- Agencies can attack when they are closed for production
- An agency has to declare the full amount of time they will be open when they open for production (minimum of 1 hour, 15 min increments)
- The number of hexes an agency will 'want' to hold would most likely be less then the current numbers (having 10 hexes would be considered a large amount). Managing and building them up to highest tech level will be much more important
- The win condition (creating weapons) will require more then just holding hexes
- Alliances will be less important then they currently since only an agency wins not an alliance
- The single map will have logic around which server should launch the mission (most likely around time of day)
- All existing zones will be closed, agencies will be compensated for what they currently have
- we are also looking to add a new tournament system soon after 1.3 for agencies that want a pure competitive fair team vs team matches
- There will be more valuable and less valuable areas in the map to fight over to make sure that some natural agency tiering will take place. Also, an agency will Not want to own hexes that are disconnected from the HQ
- Production time limits, number of tokens, and various rewards are design to allow a casual player to fully participate in the game. This allows us to reduce grind and make sure players are focused on the fun.

The AvA format will be getting some additional modifications to make it more accessible and rewarding.
There are two main changes we are currently working on.
First, we are improving the reward system by allowing AvA facilities to create weapons/armor (similar to the drops in PvE missions). AvA will also award special tokens.
Second, we are changing the format of the open/close times. In the new format each region (NA, EU, Oc) will have one large map with a long open/close time (probably somewhere between 8-12 hours)
An agency will be able to open/close their territories for production when they want (with a whole bunch of restrictions that I will post somewhere else). This will allow each agency to determine when they want to play.

The AvA changes are designed to resolve the two biggest complaints about AvA. (Based on extensive feedback, not just from the forums)
1. Timing of AvA missions
2. Rewards
We are giving agencies the flexibility to determine when they want to be open for attack. This allows more casual groups to make sure they have enough players on-line to be open for production and therefore to be able to compete better.
We are allowing production to go directly towards personal rewards so most agencies who currently feel like there is no reason to play in AvA (since they are not going to win the zone) will now have a reason to participate.



Character levels and specializations:
Leveling from 30-50 will now have a lot more meaning.
At level 30+ players will be able to choose a specialization path for the character. Each class has two specializations (that match the current Skill Trees)
You can only choose one specialization which allows you additional skill points in the specialization tree and allows you to use new weapons/devices that are being introduced.
If you want to specialize in both areas and change between them frequently you will need to create and level up another character for that class.

New weapons/Device:
For each class specialization new weapons and devices are being introduced. We are trying for at least one weapon/device per slot type per class
Some examples: The Laser Sniper Rifle, The Barrage Grenade Launcher, The Claw,The Perfect Rifle, The Beacon Tracker, The Impact Hammer, The Multi-Heal Gun, The Oathbreaker Boost. There are over 50 that we are currently evaluating for introduction.
These weapons/devices will be earned in a special way using Conquest Tokens
These weapons have a minimum player level requirement ranging from 30-50

Store openings:
More stores will be open.
The Jetpack store will have two new jetpacks available that are purchased using Conquest Tokens

UI
A new hightech UI is being introduced although not all screens may be changed to it in time for the 1.3 release.

Conquest and Mercenary Tokens:
Conquest Tokens are earned by playing/winning different parts of the game with a maximum tokens that can be earned each day. (Subscribers will get them faster since they will be able to participate in more parts of the game, but everyone can earn enough over time to get the various rewards)
Mercenary Tokens are earned by playing/winning various matches with a maximum tokens that can be earned each day. (All players earn these at the same rate)

Rewards, Loot and Crafting:
We plan on having full Armor drops as loot in PvE missions which are character bound when you get them (both Co-Op and Open Zones)
We also plan on allowing Armor crafters create upgrade kits to these Armor drops to improve their stats.
Weapon upgrades will be replaced with Upgrade Kits that allow players to improve the stat on the actual weapons (instead of overall stats)
Weapons will also drop as loot in PvE with improved stats over current weapons (which can be then upgraded with Weapon Upgrade kits from crafters)
Weapons and Armor can also be purchased with Conquest Tokens and Mercenary Tokens.

Open Zone (Warzones)
We are currently testing these zone which are large open spaces that players will join to do various missions. For the 1.3 release we plan on having open PvE zone with several different mission types as well as a PvPvE zone with several mission types and a zone win condition.
We are currently rewriting some of the Unreal 3 server to allow more players to interact in the zone. We don’t know what the final number will look like yet but we hope for a minimum of 30 players in a PvE zone and 50 in a PvP zone.

Weapons & Armor:
The weapons and armor system has been significantly overhauled and looks promising. The key changes are that weapons & armor will now drop as loot in PvE missions and will have different quality stats. (There is also ways to buy weapon and armor gear with tokens for those that will not have access to higher level PvE). Crafters will be able to create and sell upgrade kits to improve weapons and armor core stat.
As an example, you may defeat a high level boss that will drop an epic sniper rifle with additional bonuses on it (like extra range, more damage, faster projectile, etc..)
The overall balance will still be maintained so the difference between a max epic weapon and the base version is no better then the difference of players with Epic vs. Common now.

Open Zones:
After various testing on the open zones, the general conclusion is that they are best for serving two purposes:
Creating a more immersive world and allowing for solo play.
We are currently working on two Open Zones. The first is the a large area next to dome city, and the second is based in the commonwealth region.
Each Open Zone will have an NPC that helps to explain the purpose of the zone and how it fits in the game world, and at least one other NPC to given repeatable missions.
Players can do the missions solo, but also have the option to team up (xp and rewards get split), there are also some random Boss mobs that a team can try to beat for better loot.
The dome desert zone will be design for lower level players and the commonwealth for higher level players.
While in the Open Zones players can enter a Mission Q (like PvP, Co-op Pve, etc), at the end of an instance mission you will return back to the Open Zone you were in.
We are still testing how many players and NPCs will be in a single zone, the design goal is to make sure you get to see other players while running around while having enough enemies to fight.

PvE co-op missions (Special Ops):
A new 10 person dome defense mission was created. Players will be taken to one of 6 locations in the desert to protect a facility from waves of attacking NPCs.
Some new low/medium level co-op missions are being created to fit with the desert dome area while the current co-op mission against the commonwealth will only be offered at high/max/DA levels.

Warzones:
Warzones are the larger scale PvP battles.
We have done significant optimization to the Unreal server including making it multithreading and the first map we are working on should handle 64 players very well (32v32).
We will continue to test the limits of the server (and client) to see if we can have higher player counts with reasonable performance.
There is still a lot of design/implementation taking place (to make sure we don’t get zergs and keep things interesting)

New weapons/devices:
About 30 new weapons/device are currently being tested. These are alternatives to current weapons/device (not stronger/weaker but different)
Each class gets about 8 new weapons/devices. Here are some examples: Flame turret, Long range grenade launcher, high accuracy Rifles, laser (instant) sniper rifle, duel wield swords, combat jetpack, and lots more.
Most of the new weapons will require a minimum of level 30 to use and will be purchased with special tokens.

UI/Misc:
There is a new visual UI upgrade to many screens. (Looks cleaner and more high tech)
XP will be rewarded on kills (in PvE) and shows up in combat text
Reaching a new level has a special FX on the player to indicate that you leveled up
Working on DX10 support/AA
Lots of general optimizations