The world of Auraxis is settling down a little in the Aftershock of BFR Mayhem and the Race for Mechanical Resonance events. But work still goes forward in the world of SOE. Here's what we have happening for this week:

1) Update to the live servers to include the BFR win condition on each server. We will be publishing the final results and Crystal carriers to PlanetSide.com shortly. Along with this, we will also be releasing a change to the Galaxy guns - reducing their Cone of Fire bloom with a slight decrease in rate of fire.

Winners:
Emerald: Vanu Sovereignty
Markov: New Conglomerate
Werner: New Conglomerate
The winners on these servers will enjoy a shortened BFR attunement process, requiring only four cavern captures to gain the BFR imprint.

Also, there have a been a few changes related to BFR's:
BFR's are now a 3 point cert. The certification will still require a player to follow the Armored Assault tree.
Reduced Flail damage vs. BFR's.
Not specifically related to BFR's, but included for completeness: Vehicle Modules will now reduce vehicle acquisition timers by 40%.

2) We will be releasing an update, currently scheduled for Wednesday morning, to release the exploration badge (which will require players to visit certain locations across the world to acquire).

BFR Event Post-Mortem
We'll also be discussing the outcome of the Race event internally to grow and be prepared for the next one. We are pleased with the generally positive reaction to this one and are committed to making the next one even stronger. We have several areas that we would like to improve for the next go-around. We'd like to add a little more polish to the beginning and end of each phase of the event. The bending featured a highly climactic finale, the impact of which we want to repeat with each one going forward.

We's also like to implement some plans and workarounds to keep morale high during these and minimize the occurrence of empire-hopping to be a part of the winning side. We like the idea of a win-condition with meaningful consequences, and it appears that many of you do as well, and we will find ways to polish them to make them as meaningful as we possibly can, while minimizing the potential for manipulation of the results. This weekend's event went smooth, but we always seek to improve


Link: http://psforums.station.sony.com/ps/board/message?board.id=psdevdiscussion&message.id=59563#M59563

We will be releasing the update this evening, which bring BFR's online to full operating capacity. Below are the details you will need to know to acquire one.

The Technology powering BattleFrame Robotics has been perfected and has been released into the nanite construction pathways. Defect-free BFR's may now be attained at the BFR Hangars found on all Battle Continents (excluding Battle Islands).

BattleFrame Robotics have certain requirements that must be met before they can be certed and acquired by players. First, a player must be imprinted to the Auraxian Core. To do this, a character must participate in the capture of 10 Cavern Facilities and then journey to the Core complex located in the center of each cavern. There, they must enter the central energy beam to bond with the core and complete the BFR's psionic interface.

Players who were a part of the winning Empire during the Mechanical Resonance event will only have to capture four cavern buildings. The second place Empire on each server will have to capture seven. The character you played most (51% of the time played during the event) will determine your elegibility by Empire.

In order to gain access to the advanced BFR variants (Flight and Gunner), players must earn the Advanced BFR Commendation by killing 100 unique enemy soldiers (where "unique" represents an enemy that you have not killed in the previous twenty minutes and has been alive for at least 30 seconds), and then killing another 20 in a single life.

The BFR certification is a part of the Armored Assault Certification tree:

* Armored Assault 1 - Access to the Lightning Tank - cost 2
* Armored Assault 2 - Access to the empire specific Medium Battle Tank - cost 1 (requires that you have Armored Assault 1)
* BattleFrame Robotics - Cost 3 (requires that you have Armored Assault 2)
* Flail - Access to the Flail - Cost 1 (requires that you have Armored Assault 2)

BFR's are on a 50 minute vehicle acquisition timer, meaning that once you have ordered one, it will be 50 minutes before you may acquire another. This time may be reduced by the installation of a vehicle module in a linked facility.

Once you have acquired a BFR, you may configure it at the nearby repair silos and save assorted configurations to your Vehicle Favorites.


Link: http://psforums.station.sony.com/ps/board/message?board.id=psnews&message.id=2964#M2964

hmm, damn empire hoppers and the massive zerg of NC.

Here is what Sam said for one way of killing a BFR that a CE cloaker can do.


STD BFRs have a shield of 2700 and armor in the neighborhood of 3300 (for an Eclipse) to just over 5k (for a Juggernaught).
Mines do a base of 1600 dmg to a BFR (keep in mind that damage amounts for explosives fall off over distance and a Mine has a 6.5 meter radious, so depending on how close it is when it goes off will determine the actual damage applied).
Boomers do 1750 dmg to a BFR (with a 5 meter radius with similar damage fall off characteristics as a mine).
So, best case you need at least 4 mines to kill a little one one or 5-6 for a big one, probably more because of the splash fall off or how they are placed.
Now, consider if you will however the strategically placed 4 boomers (convieniently enough for 1 stealther to carry with a jammer to set them off) BOOM!! Insta dead BFR camping your door not watching his back. Get out their sneaker types! Defend your bases and blow the vile enemy BFR door campers back to kingdom come!


Link: http://psforums.station.sony.com/ps/board/message?board.id=psdiscussion&message.id=354328#M354328