Striaght from the PS site:

Associate Producer's Letter - July 21, 2003
Several weeks ago, we announced our future plans for the game and started on PlanetSide's never-ending journey of continually added content and gameplay. The two new vehicles we added, the Liberator three-person bomber and the SkyGuard anti-aircraft buggy, have had a huge impact on battle conditions across Auraxis. Commanders are now able to rain destruction on their enemies through the Orbital Strike and EMP Blasts. Medics are now able to locate soldiers that need their help easier. I wanted to take a moment to shed some light on what's next for PlanetSide.

In a few weeks, we'll be shaking up the base capture process by bringing out of the SOI and back onto the terrain. In order to successfully capture a base, rather than waiting inside the base's SOI for the capture process to count down, players will need to capture a base's Lattice Logic Unit and deliver it to one of their nearest facilities. We'll describe this more fully in the coming days.

In the month of August, we will be finishing up the long-awaited Facility Link Benefits across the world. As described previously, these will include the following:

Bio Laboratory: Reduces all respawn penalties by 50%. Note that this only applies to linked facilities , not Towers or AMSs.
Technology Plant: Makes "advanced" vehicles available at any vehicle pad linked to a friendly Tech Plant.
Amp Station: Allows vehicles to recharge their shield capacitors in the courtyard of any linked facility. This shield strengthens the armor of the vehicle, but its strength dissipates as damage hits that shield. Vehicles recharge over time when in a linked courtyard. Vehicles' energy dissipates only when they're damaged. There is no way to recharge a shield capacitor "in the field."
Dropship Center: Allows access to Repair/Rearm Pads at linked facilities. Air vehicles can now land on the air vehicle pads, and ground vehicles can pull up to a wall station in the courtyards. Once at the Dropship Center, the vehicles can repair themselves over time; and they can access a terminal interface that's based in the Equipment Terminal allowing them to fill their trunk space without leaving the vehicle.
Interlink Facility: Greatly enhances the coverage area of a player's basic radar and makes Phalanx Wall Turrets much more effective.

In addition, we will be implementing the Base Ownership System. This will allow Outfits to stake their claim on a friendly base and claim certain benefits as long as it remains under their Empire's control. Outfits will be able to quickly recall to Outfit-owned bases, similar to recalling to Sanctuary. An Outfit-owned base will always be available as a respawn point to players on the same continent, regardless of their proximity to the base. Of course, controlling your own turf isn't half as cool if no one knows the base is yours. This will warn enemies of who they're about to attack upon entering an Outfit-owned SOI. The Outfit's logo will appear on the Empire hologram flag and be visible over the base SOI on the Continental Map.

To help those brave soldiers who choose to stay behind and defend their Empire's facility holdings, there will be an Enemy Density Warning. Soldiers in a friend SOI will be alerted when enemy forces begin to build up near the facility.

We continue our ongoing efforts to eliminate bugs and exploits. There have been a few stubborn issues that we hope to have addressed soon. We'll also implementing enhanced community features in the near future.

For Land. For Power. Forever. See you on Auraxis!

Danny "Blackbird" Han
Associate Producer

AND STILL no word on Platoons..*sigh*

Yeah, no platoons, but this sounds cool. "Lattice Logic Unit" - can you say "capture the flag"? Should be interesting...

It will be interesting to see how this stuff pans out. I just want to be able to land my craft and repair / reload on a pad. Also, It would be nice if they would just implement some form of platoons so you could coordinate and communicate more easily. I and others couldn't honestly care less if there is any sharing of XP. We just need the communications abilities.

No kidding, jsut to be able to have at least 2 squads worth of people with the same way points and each squad dividing the exp only amonst them selfs would be so killer. And to have those pilons that they jsut HAD to add work would be nice, sick of seeing usless crap ina base.

Sounds like they're contemplating some significant gameflow stuff and I think that's more urgently needed than the platoon stuff.

Heh... even people on PSU are bitching about a lot of this. If you guys start bitching here I'LL TK EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU IN GAME. Too fed up with ungreatful bastards.

WTF, our AA MAX still sucks....lol

I would not be suprised if they make it so only a certain vehicle can carry the Lattice Logic Unit, similar in that only the ANT can carry NTU's. It would probably be a modified ANT, with its NTU coils removed and a docking system in its place to "capture" the unit from the base and transport it to the next where its then docked. It would be better yet if you had to take the unit back after being redone for your empire and place it back into the base you want to capture. That would force much more team work and coordination then whats seen for the most part right now.

But still, NO ENCENTIVE for defense, still, after so much bitching and help from the community, they just give us a WARNING. WTF, man, Dave G is a total idiot I guess.

His vision, or NO vision!

What's with this Base Ownership system? That's nuts! There are far more outfits than there are bases right now. How do they intend on having an Outfit base without some sort of overlap?

I can't really see any good way to make an encentive to keep people defending a base. The rehacking is great under large battle conditions, which is an encentive to hold a base in those cunditions, but not when there is just a handfull of enemy troops in the SOI. The only thing I can think of that would make people want to defend is make each kill worth 3 or 4 times the normal amount of exp. in your Empires Bases SOI.

The CTF like hacking would make the maps geography more usefull and actualy make it more fun in general. Instead of spending all you time at bases, they are encouraging battles along the roads. I am getting sick of doing the rinse and repeat attacks at bases. I think its time they tossed us some new bones to chew on. Thats also why I am trying Infiltration.

Yes, I agree they need to do more in getting people to want to defend, but they can only do so much. It comes down to how the people want to play. I didn't mind sitting at a tower for 30mins or so defending it from the few hackers that came once in a wail, but thats a small place to defend and I was all alone.

Well, the outfit ownership thing I can see working towards defense. It gives you warnings about it, it lets you recall quickly to that base, and so on. I'm guessing that outfits will get to claim a base when the base changes hands, based on whether or not that outfit members got the most points or kills from the capture (i.e. which outfit did the most work). That's why I think it's a little unlikely that we will have bases very often or for very long, since we are quite small. But that doesn't really matter.

The enemy density warning is a great idea, I think. These ideas fit in pretty close to some suggestions I made in the past on the PS forums. Specifically, I said that there needs to be more awareness of where enemies are, and there needs to be a way to quickly defend bases "behind the lines".

Hopefully these changes will mean that when we show up on a continent that appears empty and start hacking bases, enemies will appear a lot quicker. That equals more fun for everyone.

Originally posted by Splidz
Hopefully these changes will mean that when we show up on a continent that appears empty and start hacking bases, enemies will appear a lot quicker.[/B]

Exactly. It's not fun to spend an hour walking across a continent uncontested. Maybe now when something like this starts it will alert the enemy and we can get a good fight for a continent that we choose to try to take rather than just take a walk.

It would be easyer to defend a base with fewer numbers if they added a security room and cameras through the base. They can set it up so that only a single CR2 or higher can use the system at a time in room which would have multiple locks on the door, which have to be unlocked within seconds of each other. Put cameras in the Gen room, CC room, Main Entrence, Spawn room, Stair well, Gerbel door hall way, if its a tech plant then on at the Vehicle Pads, if its the dropship center then on at the Air vehicle pad, and if its the bio lab then one in the cert/implant room.

As I talked about at the very beginning of beta, we should choose one base to stay at and keep as our own. The Outfit ownership goes along with that very idea, and makes it easyer to do. I don't think ownership will be bases off what outfit did the best in taking the base. I think it would be more like first come first servered, and then if no one in that outfit is there for 30mins then it reverts back to empire ownership. This would help solve the defence problem too since an actual group will have something to protect that is their own. They would protect the base to also protect their reputation. They would be responcible for the caring of the base, the supply of the NTU's, and any damage that will be delt to any of its equipment.

Why would we want to spawn at a friendly base that we own? I mean say it's 4 bases from the frontline fighting, why would I ever want to go back there? To see my outfit logo, fuck that it's on my body.

Unless you can spawn there quickly instead of a hart drop say you came on when the outfit was already active, that would be cool, other than that it's kinda just a wow look we own this base.

Outfits will be able to quickly recall to Outfit-owned bases, similar to recalling to Sanctuary.

I hope that means its treated as another santuary for the Outfit, thus allowing you to join up with the rest of the team no matter where you are. If you bind to an existing base, you can spawn there from any continent. So I would think that if your Outfit owned the base then it would be like ebing automaticly bound to the base.

Wonder if you personally have to initiate the hack to be able to have ownership of said base. That would make zerging for the hack a TK fest....lol, NOOOOOOO THE BASE IS MINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEE

I sure hope not. That sucked so much in the beta. People would TK for the hack when it actually meant something for XP depending on who hacked it / what squad hacked it.

Well, considering the size of the major outfits, that's exactly what I portend. TK on parade.
In theory, it's nice to have your outfit run a base but if you're small potatoes, the big boys will have you for breakfast. I really don't see this idea working out.

As promised, here is a general breakdown on the Lattice Logic Module as it is currently being planned. Certain variables in the design have not yet been nailed down, but I wanted to get you all a basic understanding and give you the opportunity to ask questions on it.
When an Empire hacks a base, the Lattice Logic Module will spawn in a random location somewhere in the base and players will be notified of its approximate location. A player will then need to locate and pick up the Module by running over it. There are certain restrictions, including the fact that MAX units may not pick it, and Infiltrators may pickup up, but cannot cloak while carrying it.

Next, the player must deliver the module to a friendly base that is one Lattice link away. If there is more than one linked friendly base, the delivery base will be chosen at random. The player carrying the Module will begin to glow, advertising that they are carrying the Module, and will be marked by a pulsating icon on the proximity map. That player is then unable to drive any vehicles or board any air vehicles. They may be a passenger or gunner in any land vehicle. Land vehicles carrying a player with the Module will have their speed restricted somewhat and be unable to board a Galaxy.

The module has a lifespan in which it must be delivered. If it is not delivered to its destination within that lifespan, it will decay and the hack on the enemy base will fail. The Module itself can be dropped, but not destroyed in the player’s inventory. Its properties will not allow it to be stored in vehicle trunks or in lockers and it will despawn if it is dropped in lava or deep water. If the carrier dies, the Module will remain active and drop near their corpse.

The defending Empire cannot retrieve a dropped Module that is still active. Instead, they must guard its location until the Module’s lifespan runs out. The effective defense pursuing a moving Module will want to identify and set up forces at any chokepoints that may exist or organize ambushes on the Module carrier. The effective offense will set up a convoy to escort the Module carrier to their destination and send out advance forces to deal with roadblocks set up by the defenders.

Victor Wachter
Community Relations Representative

Oh god...its CTF Tag from hell

No, it's a cracked out version of CTF that is the gheyest of all ghey Ideas the Devs have come up with..

One of the devs was idling in the PSU channel yesterday while we were discussing the CTF Idea, and the fact that people who wh0re the official forums are whining n00bs, and he seemed to get pretty pissed that we didn't like what was going on...

Gee...I wonder why we dont like it, maybe if we had a SHIT LOAD of what they are smokeing we could see the same things they do adn think they are cool too. But sence we dont its pritty damn hard to.

So wonder if you'll get XP for this thing, following it, defending it, killing carrier, owning it till it decays, etc. If not it'll be less XP and more people will get pissed they are being robbed of it.

I would think there would be a SOI like setup around the LLU. If your in the area then you will get exp similat to what it is currently. This is a below-decent attempt to getting the fighting away from the bases, but it sucks that they are going to slow down the vehicles that carry the LLU. They should let it be transported in any vehicle where the person with it can be a gunner or passenger, including Galaxys so they would be usefull again.

here is one of the more interesting ideas i have come across on the ps boards

http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum8/HTML/008969.html

http://www.lordargent.com/_temp/relays.gif

That idea looks better then what the Devs are proposing. It would be alot funner and would fit the game much better.

Wow, Dakota... that is a pretty smooth idea. I must say I like it. I bumped the thead and expressed my approval of the idea. I think everyone here should as well if they think it sounds remotely good. I think it's a great idea, personally.

signed.....damn StaceyBugs name...lol.

I jsut looked over all 7 pages of it and *gasp!* guess what, NOTHING from Spork or anyone else. These guys need to get fired or something, all other games that I went to offical paegs for when I ahve played them ahd moderators all over them...AC2, we could hardly talk at times due to them being there so much, but at least you knew then that you could get the info that you needed.

damn that LLU proposal is the gheyest thing i have ever seen proposed for the game so far, like the second idea much better, though i suspect soe is going to be assholes and implement it regardless, they really dont seem to care what the customers say