A major update for SOE’s MMO shooter Planetside 2 has added an entirely new continent, the swampy land of Hossin.
In development for two years, Hossin is an infantry-focused zone with a lowered ‘sky ceiling’ and dangerous terrain that makes using aircraft and main battle tanks an awkward proposition. This one’s for the foot-sloggers.
There is a caveat. According to creative director Matt Higby, the completed version of the new continent won’t be ready for a while, so the version players can get their hands on is something of an ‘early access’ one. In a post on the game’s official forums, he explains further:
”There isn’t any other way to say it except to say that Hossin is not finished. If we wanted to “finish” Hossin without sacrificing the quality level we’ve established, it would probably be 3 months before it was ready to go live - we don’t want to wait that long, and we don’t think you want to either.”
Right now around half the map’s bases are completed, with work continuing on the rest. In other news, ‘continent locking’ has been added in the new update, which means a faction can now lock out an entire region, preventing other teams form spawning there. The developers say this should help make sure each continent gets a fair share of the combat, rather than constant struggling over one area.
Joining an Outfit, the game’s version of a clan, will now let you customise your armour to reflect your allegiance. If your new Outfit has the largest contribution to a base capture they’ll be able to display their colours for all to see.
You can check out the full list of patch notes here.