Disclaimer: This list is for entertainment only and is in no way an official SONY patch note for Planetside.

Selecting one of the titles below will jump you to that section.

Gameplay Changes and Enhancements
Player Abilities
Weapons and Equipment
Vehicles
Facility Improvements and Additions
Interface ImprovementsUPDATED!
Game World Visual Improvements

	Concept in development by Planetside Team
	Concept enabled in game by Planetside Team

Gameplay Changes and Enhancements v1.0
[updated 3.12.2004]
---------------
XP Changes

- Driver and gunner/s of a vehicle share XP when a vehicle kill is made, regardless of squad affiliation.

New Urban Areas
Empire Tech Levels and Resource Points
Urban Areas
AMS changes

- AMS Deploy-indicator. See entry in Interface section.

- Drivers can now select their AMS to Group Spawn or Empire Spawn from the vehicle pane.

ANT and NTU enhancements

- ANTs now convert NTUs from a warp gate into 5x5 power cells that are stored in its trunk. The power cells can then be removed from the ANT and transported via personal or alternate vehicle inventory. The NTUs may be transfered directly into an NTU Silo if the player has the Technician cert and proper tool equipped. This manual transfer takes 50% longer to complete than using an ANT.

ANT Trunk (43kb)
NTU powercells concept (42kb)

Powercells may not be removed from an ANT's trunk unless it is outside the Warp Gate force field.

You may view more details on this concept in the NTU Changes section.

Spawn improvements

- When respawning, if your chosen respawn location is compromised, the spawn timer will halt and you will be notified of the loss (step 4). You will then have 10 seconds to choose another location or the computer will choose one for you. If you click to choose another location, the respawn map will re-open (step 5), once a spot is selected the timer will resume from your original countdown (step 6).

Step 1: Sanctuary Timer	Step 2: Choose Respawn
Step 3: Respawn Timer	Step 4: Notification Timer
Step 5: Choose New Respawn	Step 6: Resumed Respawn Timer

- Players will not be able to log back into a facility, SOI, or tower if it has come under the control of an enemy empire after you have logged out. Instead, players will spawn at the nearest friendly spawn point or Sanctuary if none is available.

Garages

- To store something in your garage, a player drives their vehicle up to a service silo and hits "G" as normal. They must select "Garage" and then may choose "Store Current Vehicle" or select and Delete a currently stored vehicle.

Vehicle Storage options thread at Concept Division

HART changes
Outfit competitions

Player Abilities v1.0
[updated 3.12.2004]
------------------
New Certifications

- Com Technician certification provides players access to advanced information such as HART timers, squad spawn timers, and enemy command chat.

- Technician certification allows players to use the NTU tool to transfer Nanite powercells directly to an NTU silo. The cert also allows a player to access new equipment and emplacements.

- Advanced Technician adds the benefit of placing ACE alarms and triggers indoors and out. Also allows players to install benefit modules into vehicles for temporary added performance.

Check out the New Certifications section for more details.

Support Role Improvements

- Players may now carry corpses to a safer spot for reviving. This ability requires the use of a free #2 holster slot (infiltrators and MAXs cannot carry corpses).

Dead players will recieve a dialogue box that someone is wanting to pick their corpse up, which they must accept to be carried. The dead player can be carried until a) the respawn notice runs out, b) the dead player 'bails' from the carrier's shoulder, c) till the carrier manually drops him to the ground again, or d) the dead player manually clicks respawn to go directly to timer.

The carrier may not crouch while carrying a corpse, nor may he jump.

Certification Squad Shared-Benefits
Command Abilities

Commander's List HUD Concept (38kb)

You can read more about these concepts in the New Command Abilities section.

Outfit Features
Implant Improvements

Weapons and Equipment v1.0
[updated 2.7.2004]
----------------
Holster speed enhancement
Added ACE Deployables
New Deployable Field Emplacements

- A WIP concept for types of emplacements and cover that players can create in the open terrain to aid them in battle and defense.

Constructable Emplacements

You can read more about these concepts in the New Emplacements section.

New Towed Weapons and Equipment
New Weapons
New Grenades and Grenade Improvements

- A 2x2 grenade holster, designated #5, has been added between #1 and #3 holsters for Agile, Reinforced, and Infiltration armors only. Combat knife is now slot #6.

- Grenade selection will now behave like standard and AP ammo; if you have more than one type of grenade in your inventory, and one of them is in your holsters, you may switch between types by pressing the "X" key.

- Flashbang grenades have been added to your arsenal. Useful for breaching a room, the flashbang grenade will emit, on detonation, a blinding charge that will short-out enemy visor-circuits. This effect will white out an enemy's vision and then fade to normal within 2-3 seconds. The proximity Radar will remain uneffected.

- Concussion grenades have a different effect. These grenades will violently explode, causing the enemy target's screen to shake, mute their hearing and audio implants, and temporarily drain stamina by 30%. Close proximity to large explosions (within and just outside a blast radius) such as a destroyed AMS, will create the same effect.

The proximity Radar will remain uneffected.

Stamina drain will return to normal after 3 seconds. Sound muting will fade within 5 seconds.

Heavy Assault Weight
Armor-kit
More personal inventory options

- New personal storage items are avialable. This tactical gear can increase normal storage substantially. The major drawback is that each type must take up a holster space to be accessed (by number) and any items inside of them must be placed into the standard inventory area to be used or discarded, such as grenades or ammo. Each gear also slows down the user, the speed decreasing with each gear worn and each type used. The five types of inventory gear are:

a) Bandolier; equippable in slots #1 and #3. The bandolier itself takes up a 3x3 space but it holds 2x8 in inventory, perfect for packing an extra 2 medkits or 4 grenades.

b) Waist pack; equippable in slots #1 and #3. The waist pack itself takes up a 3x3 space but it holds 4x6 in inventory, perfect for 2 medkits and a nano-pack or 6 extra grenades.

c) Satchel; equippable in slots #2 and #4. The satchel itself takes up a 3x4 space but it holds 6x6 in inventory, able to hold 4 ammo boxes or ACEs.

d) Dufflebag; equippable in slots #2 and #4. The dufflebag takes up a 3x6 space but holds 6x8 in inventory, enough for 2 vehicle ammo boxes and 4 nano-packs.

e) Extra Backpack; equippable in slots #2 and #4. The backpack takes up a 3x9 space in the holster but holds the most inventory of 9x9, the same amount held by an agile armor's backpack matrix. Therefore this gear would double an Agile-armored player's inventory space for the temporary loss of one holster when accessing it.

concept art in development

Vehicles v1.1
[updated 2.14.2004]
----------------
Modular Chassis Vehicle and Aircraft

- New Empire-Specific vehicles and aircraft are being introduced that will be created in different variants but all share the same basic design and structure. These vehicles will have unique designs for each Empire but be identical in basic purpose.

Infantry Support Vehicle (ISV): Details
Infantry Support Aircraft (ISA): Details

You can discuss this concept here.

Artillery
New Sea Vehicles (Phase one)
Vehicle Passengers

- Vehicle passenger spots will now be color-coded. Yellow, Orange, and Purple will correspond to what squad the player is in. Green is neutral for passengers not in your squad.

Vehicle Safety

- Horns have been added to wheeled vehicles for transit safety. All other vehicle types use a loud revving sound to attain the attention of bystanders.

- Vehicles now have a rear-view camera that appears as a movable/toggaled window in your HUD when in First-Person View only. The camera view will malfunction when the vehicle drops below 50% health.

Vehicle Rear-view Concept (50kb)
Aircraft Rear-view Concept (50kb)

- Pilots may now turn their vision from side to side in an aircraft cockpit by pressing the ALT-key while moving the mouse. Releasing the ALT-key snaps the image back to normal cockpit vision.

Vehicle Dismounting

- As a driver, you may now dismount from your vehicle while it is moving, for a loss in health and stamina. The abandoned vehicle will rapidly decelerate once you give up control.

Facility Improvements and Additions
-------------------
Base Defenses
Tower Hacks and Silos
Generator Control Terminals
Command Centers
New Naval Base Design
New Base Areas
Base Alert Levels

Interface v1.1
[updated 4.15.2004]
----------------
Crosshair features
General HUD features (NEW concept screens)
Vehicle HUD Features
Squad HUD Features
Command HUD Features
Cert-specific HUD Features (NEW concept screens)
Radar Map Improvements
Global Map Features (NEW concept screens)
Command Squad Map Features
MP3 Support
Planetside Forums and MyPlanetside
Chat Improvements
New Voice Macros
New Email and Outfit Message Features
----------------

Crosshair features

- Crosshairs will no longer turn red or green when targeting a backback. Instead, they will turn orange and teal, respectively. This will avoid confusion in targeting enemies.

concept art in development

General HUD features

- When an engineer unholsters a BANK, an armor bar will now appear beneath the health bar of any player whose armor has been damaged. This feature can be toggled on or off in the options window.

Armor Bar appears when BANK is unholstered

 

- When in the Sanctuary, you can toggle a HART timer window. To do the same on a continent requires the Comtech cert.

concept art in development

- The names of only Squad and Outfit members can be toggled along with see name and see outfit.

concept art in development

- Players who speak a Need or Warning Voice Macro will have an appropriate icon flash above their heads. Warning voice macros will flash an exclamation point of the appropriate color (green, gold, orange, or purple). Need messages will produce two white exclamation points and a white icon between them of the service needed (passenger, gunner, hacker, heal, repair, etc.). These can be toggled to stay hidden when a macro is spoken.

- Players will see a red exclamation point when an enemy player shoults a voice macro warning. Players may not hear the warning in their speakers, but will see the icon and know the enemy has been alerted to something.

- If you hold your crosshairs over a target and press the location key, the grid location will appear above the target.

Vehicle HUD Features

- Aircraft can now toggle an artificial horizon window, made of simple white lines. This feature is located to the left of the targeting reticle opposite the Altimeter. Default toggle is on.

Aircraft HUD Concept #1 (50kb)
Aircraft HUD Concept #2 (50kb)

- Enemy aircraft (aside from Mosquitos at 50% power) flying within a friendly SOI's radar coverage will light up on friendly aircraft HUDs with a tracking diamond. These tracking icons will move in front of, at top and bottom, and on either side of your screen so defending aircraft know the general orientation of enemy aircraft.

Side-view of zone radar features
HUD-view of zone radar
Top-down view of zone radar features

- Tank vehicles have tracking of friendly squad vehicles and enemy contacts within visual range only out to a certain distance.

- Drivers can now view their vehicle health and ammo from their vehicle pane.

Drivers now also view the vehicle trunk with a button in the vehicle pane, rather than having to hit the "G" key near a repair terminal.

Deliverer Vehicle Pane Concept
AMS Vehicle Pane Concept

Visit this thread here, to view the initial discussion that prompted these images. Thanks to maccx for the topic and Fort4Law for the additional ideas. (p.s. I'm still debating whether to put in a remote deploy/undeploy button for the AMS vehicle pane)

Squad HUD Features

Each squadmember box will now show additional information such as distance from player, action icon with timer for how long the action will take place (hacking, repairing, healing), vehicle icon denoting what conveyance the squadmember is in and whether s/he is driving, gunning, or just a passenger. Flash Demo in development

Command HUD Features

- Players will now have the option to create a Command Squad. This squad is an organizational and communication tool for those wishing to lead assaults. It is also necessary to be able to send globals and continental chats to other players.

A player with a command rank must Command Invite another commander to create a Command Squad (CS). The CS can now create a Task Force by inviting other squads and platoons into the new group. Any globals or continent chats will be heard by the unit leaders of the Task Force and no one else.

You can read more about these concepts in the New Command Abilities section.

- Commander's List will now show only the commanders who are leading units. Task Forces and their leaders are named first, followed by Platoons and their leaders, and finally Squads and their leaders.

The Task Force listing is organized so any commander can see who is leading it and what platoons and squads have signed up for it. Unit Leaders may request an invite or accept one from the Task Force's Command Squad members.

Commander's List HUD Concept (38kb)

You can read more about these concepts in the New Command Abilities section.

Flash Demo to be created.

You may also see ZeusPrime and Hayoo's Command Squad thread for further details and discussions.

Cert-specific HUD Features

- Engineers, with a nano-gun unholstered, will see any vehicle damaged below 25% as a flashing triangle on their proximity map.

concept art in development

- Boomers will now have a number hovering over each deployable for easy locating. Detonators will also be numbered to correspond to it's linked boomer.

You will only see the boomer number on your Cont Map if you have its detonator in your inventory. Discarding a detonator removes it from the map.

Screen 1: Numbered Boomers	Screen 2: Cont Map markers
Screen 3: Numbered Detonator	Screen 4: Triggered Boomer

- Combat Engineering ACEs will now be listed in a new HUD window showing how many of each type has been placed and how many deployables are left.

Deployables HUD Concept (94kb)

See Global Map Improvements for comments on viewing placed CE deployables.

- When driving an AMS, an icon will appear on your HUD when you can deploy the vehicle, much like the liberator bomb icon appears in the bottom of the screen.

 

Radar Map Improvements

- Enemy missiles on radar will now show as orange on the map and Friendly missiles will appear as teal.

concept art in development

- Maximum Range a vehicle's weapons can be toggled to appear in radar display as a yellow arc.

concept art in development

- There is now a toggle to show unit battleplans on the proximity map when it is zoomed out fully.

concept art in development

Global Map Features

- A player's vehicle will now show up on the continent map.

Vehicle as seen on Proximity Radar
Vehicle as seen on Continent Map

 

- All contacts that appear on your poximity map, and only those contacts, will now appear on your continent map. To view a wider range of contacts, you must zoom out your proximity radar.

Proximity Radar data
Radar data as it appears on the Continent Map

 

- Hovering your mouse over a point on the map or waypoint reveals grid location.

concept art in development

- Entering a grid location in a new search field will set a personal waypoint on the map in that spot.

- Tower SOI's are now visible on map at any zoom.

- Players can toggle a false-color topographpical map of a continent to more easily view important changes in terrain.

concept art in development

- Continent maps will now show your CE deployables as yellow to distinguish from white friendly deployables.

Deployables with markers
Deployables marked on Continent Map

 

Command Squad Map Features

- Command Squad members can view all ANTs and AMSs in their Task Force at all times without the need for Reveal Friendlies.

- Commanders can toggle various icons on their global map such as Squad symbols (armor, air, infantry), commander locations, ANT locations, and AMS locations.

MP3 Support

- Players now have access to a new HUD window where they can import and play MP3s. Features include playlists, sorting to gameplay triggers, and more.

Planetside Forums and MyPlanetside

- Preview and edit buttons for the forums has been added.

Chat Improvements

- Vehicle chat is now availabe with the /v command.

- Auto-replies for chat. Enter /afk and any /tells to you will be replied with "that player is away from keyboard" or if you have died, "that player will respawn in X seconds."

- Players may change the opacity of any interface window on the HUD.

- Chat channels can now be split among different chat windows.

- Chat channels can now have sub-channels with different permissions for customization between units.

- Private Empire channels are also available to players.

- More filters have been added to customize your kill spam window, command, and broadcast chats.

- New Task Force chat channels (with permissions set by the Command Squad):

MedNet (Medical Net) - Accessible when you die. Chat is a broadcast to players certed in Medic and higher that reaches to half the radius of an SOI.

AirNet (Air Support Net) - Chat is a broadcast to all flying aircraft in a radius of an SOI.

LogNet (Logistics Net) - Chat is a broadcast to all ANT and AMS drivers sitting behind the wheel. Radius is twice the size of SOI from player.

- Alliance chat has been added with the inclusion of alliances. Permissions are set by Outfit Leaders in the organization.

New Voice Macros

Tactical Macros -

I'm on it	Bail Out
Move Out	Go Go Go!
Hold Position	Roger/Copy/Understood
I'm in Position	Tango Down
Fire at Will	Tallyho!
Weapons Hot

Macro Updates -

Destroy their AMS	I will deploy defenses
I will repair our AMS
Defend the AMS
Incoming Air Transport!

Warning Macros -

Take Cover!	Ambush!
Taking enemy fire!	Taking friendly fire!
Fire in the hole!	Evasive Action!
Incoming!	You've got one on your tail!

Need Macros -

Request Reinforcements	I am repairing you
Request Transport	I am healing you
I'm running low!	Hold Still
I am out of ammo	That was my last round

Social Macros and Emotes -

Hooyah!	That way (pointing)
Mommy!	For the Empire!
Nevermind	Get in
Cya!	Cuts hand across throat

New Email and Outfit Message Features

- New Outfit bulletin board and in-game email feature has been added. Inbox will flash subtly if you have a message waiting. In-game email and bulletin board is available for viewing through MyPlanetside.

- Outfit Leaders can now set a Current Objective message to appear when players log on, rather than having them check their outfit pane.

Back to top of Page

Game World Visual Improvements
----------------------------
Empire-Specific Designs

- Sanctuary bases now appear with empire-specific architecture. Bases on backyard continents will also take on the unique look of its empire the long it is held.

- Each Empire will have their own unique style of camouflage for their troops and vehicles. Each style will have three versions: Temperate, Desert, and Winter. Loading into a continent will automatically upgrade your armor or vehicle's pattern to the appropriate climate unless you have selected to turn them off.

concept art in development

Game Atmosphere

- Empire-colored road signs pointing to nearby facilities have been added to the environment (color dependant on which empire controls the territory...see Urban Areas for more details).

concept art in development

Game Effects

- Vehicle destruction has been augmented with a molten-metal explosion effect.

Scientists

- To add a little atmosphere and an early warning system to bases, each facility will now host a small team of a scientists and lab techs (no more than 6), who will roam from room to room appearing to check on equipment. If the scientists see an enemy, they will immediately make a run for one of the alarm panels scattered throughout a base. The resulting signal will sound in the facility and a warning icon will appear on the continent map, revealing intruders in the area. A special ops team's best chances of remaining undiscovered until they can complete their mission is to search and destroy the facility staff or use an REK to disable all the alarm panels or the main securty terminal (future concept to be added).

The scientists will have collision detection disabled so that they do not block hallways, but they can be shot and killed by the enemy. If a friendly scientist is killed by a friendly soldier, that player will recieve a limited amount of grief. If killed by a friendly, that scientist will quickly respawn in the facility spawn room and go about his business. If killed by an enemy, the scientist will not respawn for another 10 minutes.

concept art in development

Wildlife

- Scalable wildlife for each continent is now available via a toggle and slider. Wildlife will take the form of harmless flyers and grazers to liven up the atmosphere.

Collision detection is disabled. There is a slider in the Video Options window to choose the level of wildlife density.

concept art in development

Environmental Effects: Day Cycle and Weather