Game Update 04 details released for Planetside 2

Set for next week, game update 04 will bring plenty of new and exciting content to Planetside 2 and we’ve only been given a small preview of it.

The Flash, Planetside’s version of the quad bike will be able to carry two people as a ‘Rumble Seat’ is being added, it is not yet known whether it will be purchasable add-on or whether it will be added to all Flashes. For those who play the infiltrator class, a new add-on called the ‘Wraith Module’ will allow their cloaking ability to transfer over to the Flash. It is also getting a new weapon called the ‘Renegade Shotgun’, this will allow for some close quarters combat with the Flash which is currently not so easy due only long range weapons being available.

Virtual reality training is being added to give players a chance to practice flying, driving and shooting in a risk-free zone. There will be a target area to try out the different weapons in the game and flying/driving area, there will be no cool-down timers or resource cost when trying out the various vehicles.

All items bought with StationCash will be available to all characters and not just the one character that they were purchased on as long as they are eligible to use that item. Common pool items such as the Zephyr and the NS-11 will be account wide and Empire specific weapons such as the GD-22 will be available to characters in the required faction. If players have already purchased the same two items on different characters, SOE are looking into a solution for this.

Each faction is each getting a new rocket launcher; the Vanu get an anti-vehicle energy weapon, the TR receives a guided missile launcher and the NC a camera guided missile launcher. However these will come in a patch the week after the game update.

Other changes include new respawn and map screens, membership enhancements and balances changes to vehicles such as the Prowler.

SOE have been consistent in reminding players that the release of the update relies on the results of testing and until it is on the server it is not guaranteed to be included. They also responded to players on Woodman and Connery servers who had complained they didn’t get merged, “We’re going to be continuing to monitor server populations to see if it’s possible to do further merges, but with the current peak player loads there wasn’t a good way to merge those servers without causing login queue bottlenecks and a generally bad experience.”.

For the full update post can be found here.