Resourceful: Widespread changes inbound for Planetside 2, New Directive System Added

Another massive patch is on its way to Planetside 2 servers starting tomorrow. This time SOE plans on pumping several rounds of revamps into the MMOFPS, while rolling out Planetside 2's equivalent to Achievements known as 'Directives'. These goal-oriented objectives provide things for both new and veteran players to work towards each session and reward players tangible rewards like special badges and unique weapon skins.

Directives come in multiple tiers and as players complete each, they'll gain that specific tier's directive points, cert points, and a badge specific to whichever directive tree players happen to be working on. Most rewards are given out on a per-character basis, but SOE says some of the rewards include permanent account-wide XP and resource bonuses.

These bonuses, along with solid-color camos and the aforementioned alternate weapon skins are all unlocked at regular intervals based on how many directive points a character has earned. With directives spread across 5 separate trees and most focused on a specific role, players will have plenty to focus on no matter what their preferential play-style may be. Some of the more weapon specific directives will even be retroactively awarded to players who've met the pre-requisites before the system was put in place. A full explanation of the directive system can be seen here.

The new directive system represents only a small fraction of tomorrow's monstrous patch. A new resource revamp will also debut, which takes the previous three resources used independently for spawning air, ground, and special infantry items; and consolidates them down to one called 'Nanites'.

This new resource is no longer bound by what territory a faction owns within a given continent. Instead, it originates from each faction's warpgate and provides a steady 60 resources per minute. Interestingly, spawn timers for vehicles and the Max suit will be a thing of the past, meaning armor acquisition will now be purely based off available resources.

Other changes like the new spawn improvements, mean players can jump back into the action much faster without the need to wade through multiple menus first. There's quite a lot more to go over and not all of the patch notes are even available yet. More details are said to come with tomorrows patch notes, but in the meantime you can check out the semi-partial PTR notes here.