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[Seventy_X_Seven]

So Uprising 1.2 is coming this month, and first tidbit we know is there will be two new types of armor plates,

• Ferroscale Plates: Less armor but no movement penalty.
• Reactive Plates: Less armor but self-repairs.

There's also some new Laser Rifle variants planned, but I'm not sure if those will make it to Uprising 1.2 or not.

More to this next update is known,

• Commando Specialization: Branch from the heavy frame, carry two light weapons and a equipment
• Flight Suit Specialization: Branch from the light frame. Gives bonuses to vehicles.

 

[sono]

I have just come back to this after a long time on PS3 and I am actually amazed how far its come and really good to play now. It looks like all those updates and long beta are starting to pay off.

There seem to be a lot of people playing this also.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Ignored this for the longest time. had access to the beta and never got around to downloading it. Finally decided to give it a whirl today. Really cool game, especially for a free to play experience. Lots of unique ideas going on. Fairly sizable learning curve outside of battles, but that's not a bad thing.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Uprising 1.2 update is coming July 2nd
http://dust514.com/news/2013/06/uprising-1.2-and-beyond/

Includes improved visuals and sounds
Direct ISK transfers between players
A log out button to switch between characters
Commando Specialization (two light weapons)
New armor plates (ferroscale and reactive)
And other various tweaks.

 

[many places]

Gonna download tomorrow. Excited to try it out.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=980095#post980095
Here are the exact patch notes

Path to Game and Related UI
* Implemented logging out character from NeoCom

Spawning and End of Match
* Added "call for help" button to kill screen
* Updated strings and information on the kill screen to better differentiate between bleeding out and death state
* Updated icons for bleeding out so logistics can distinguish between players that have and have not called for help
* New icons for EOM stats screen

Dropsuits
* Added Commando dropsuit role
* Added Neo dropsuits for all roles
* Updated third person female walk animations

Weapons
* Updated weapon range system to include absolute range (Giving us optimal, effective and absolute ranges)
* Updated range settings for all handheld weapons to allow for damage to be dealt over longer distances.
* Increased weapon switching speed
* Fixed aiming friction on turrets when pitching so it is correctly applied
* Improvements to location of fallen character for revive
* Fixed slight misalignment with forge gun projectile
* Increased spawn height of orbital strike to ensure it didn’t miss highly positioned enemies
* Fixed client/server mismatch on equipment deployment locations

Modules/Equipment
* Added new dropsuit modules:
* Ferroscale armor plates
* Reactive armor plates
* Shield energizers
* Increased radius for nanite injector revival

Maps/Environments
* Added new yellow sun mood layer
* Added new night mood layer
* Added two new terraforming types
* Manus Peak - fixed the issue where MCC shield would let bullets through
* Fixed navigation issue regarding movement along vertical covers/walls

Audio
* New material types for ladders and snow
* New UI sounds
* Moment-to-moment audio improvements
* More information on taking hits
* 3rd person reload sounds
* Memory and CPU optimizations
* Fix ducking problem on killing enemies
* Fix echo problem in Biomass
* An issue where voice was not available for certain very old chat channels has been fixed
* Smooth sound of LAVs in the distance

UI
* Fixed mail list, now player can roll down to bottom of the list to load up to 1500 latest emails
* Added several new attribute icons
* Now the weapon switcher will display the remaining number of deployable equipment
* Now the background color of Corporation logo on player list will always display red for enemy and blue for friendly
* Now the MCC hit point indicator on spawn page will display in correct color, red for enemy and blue for friendly
* Unified the font case in several NEOCOM pages
* General UI polishing on NECOM pages and HUD
* Fixed multiple UI related issues

Vehicles
* Improvements to the vehicle icons and driver name tags display
* Upward thrust not working when in first person view for dropships
* Ground speed limit being ignored has been fixed

Visual effects
* Added SSAO
* Improved lighting & shadows

Performance
* Improved UI rendering performance
* Improved content streaming stability

Planetary Conquest
* Directors can now kick teammates from Planetary Conquest battles while they’re in the warbarge before the battle starts. Characters that are kicked are banned from rejoining the same battle again
* Districts are no longer locked once conquered by a new owner
* The estimated number of clones at the target district displayed when moving clones to attack is now more accurate

Starmap
* System security level has been added to the starmap information panel
* The planet model in the starmap will no longer randomly revert to a default texture

Storefront
* Added option to purchase bundles from the market

Other
* Characters can now transfer ISK directly between each other and to any corporation
* Directors can now transfer ISK from the corporation mercenary wallet to any player or corporation
* All the salvage acquired during a planetary conquest match will now been shown on the End of Match screen instead of just 5 items
* Improved speed of RDV vehicle delivery as well as applied tweaks to the RDV AI
* Improved server to client performance of projectile based weaponry
* Chat channels with more than 50 users (mercenaries or capsuleers) will now operate in delayed chat mode

 

[Saiyar]

They are having some events in July staring tomorrow.

Week one; Triple SP from battles
Week two; Rewards for achieving combat goals.
Week three; 50% sales one selected gear
Week four; Tournament sign ups.

 

[Patrickv27]

Any idea on how big the update is?

 

[maverick40]

Any idea on how big the update is?

About 2.5Gb

 

[Zen]

This has been a wonderful update, the frame-rate feels a lot better but that might also be a placebo from the improved lighting, SSAO, and shadowing making readability so much better. It actually feels like a fully playable game now, which it honestly didn't (to me) a patch or two ago.

I've been playing a few times a week for the last two months, ish and I just got Seventy_X_Seven to add me to the list, so hopefully some gaf games can get done, though I am fairly clueless and horrible at the moment.

It's nice to see that the fixed player counter for Tranquility reveals that the game doesn't have a low playerbase (I honestly thought it did with nothing showing up under the battle finder most of the time). I logged on post update and saw 50k concurrent players which is good to see.

I'm trying to focus on being a sniper, any weapon I should really go for or order I should be applying my skills?

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

I believe the player count is now showing both EVE and Dust players. Dust has about 4 to 5 thousand players on at any given time.

Problem with the battle finder is the merc battles are entirely dependent on how much plexing is going on in EVE. It's always been a bit lower than needed, but I heard that's been fixed with the update. I haven't been on yet so I don't know. Usually though you just go through instant battle.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

A couple things

1) If you follow the Dust 514 newsletter, there is a link to redeem 50 free "Burnstalk" Laser Rifles.

2) After this downtime it is 3x skill points week through July 10th. If you haven't made an account yet, make one through the link on the second post. You will get a 7 day active booster which increases skill points gained by 50%. If you use it now, it will be 4.5x this week.

 

[Mupod]

A couple things

1) If you follow the Dust 514 newsletter, there is a link to redeem 50 free "Burnstalk" Laser Rifles.

2) After this downtime it is 3x skill points week through July 10th. If you haven't made an account yet, make one through the link on the second post. You will get a 7 day active booster which increases skill points gained by 50%. If you use it now, it will be 4.5x this week.

Quick question - I got a special code for this game with my PS3, which comes with various stuff including a 7 day skill booster, 2000 spacebucks and whatever a 'caldari LAV' is. Can I sign up using that link and then use the code?

I initially thought this game was similar to planetside 2 but apparently it's not. PVE mode has me interested though.

 

[sono]

Does PS+ auto download Dust 514 patches ?
(- I am away from home at the moment, back for the weekend want to try out the new patch. )


I also see they are giving triple SP between July 4- July 10

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Quick question - I got a special code for this game with my PS3, which comes with various stuff including a 7 day skill booster, 2000 spacebucks and whatever a 'caldari LAV' is. Can I sign up using that link and then use the code?

I initially thought this game was similar to planetside 2 but apparently it's not. PVE mode has me interested though.

Yes, it should. Just make sure to use the link prior to "purchasing" Dust 514 on your PS3 and you should get both rewards. PVE is almost definitely coming in the next major update towards the end of the year though, but don't let that deter you from trying it out. The character progression and the idea behind everything being an asset is really well done and gives you a sense of immersion you don't get very often, at least for me.



As to PS+ autoupdating, I am not sure since I believe the patches are done within the client.

 

[Patrickv27]

What i hate is the patch is being downloaded from psn which cannot be performed in the background. Which sucks because its taking ages and i wanna play now. :


EDIT: It's nice. Killing from afar is easier. I dont really notice any visual improvements but maybe that is just me.


and yeah, currently loving the 25k SP per skirmish match because of the 3x sp. I do suck though so others might get more.

 

[Thug Waffle]

What i hate is the patch is being downloaded from psn which cannot be performed in the background. Which sucks because its taking ages and i wanna play now. :


EDIT: It's nice. Killing from afar is easier. I dont really notice any visual improvements but maybe that is just me.


and yeah, currently loving the 25k SP per skirmish match because of the 3x sp. I do suck though so others might get more.

How much easier? One of my favorite things about the game was the fact that most weapons were ineffective at a certain range, allowing people to converge on one another more often and fight more isolated battles. It's not fun when I have to run across the map for 2 minutes only to get shot by a kid hiding behind a rock 300yards away.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

How much easier? One of my favorite things about the game was the fact that most weapons were ineffective at a certain range, allowing people to converge on one another more often and fight more isolated battles. It's not fun when I have to run across the map for 2 minutes only to get shot by a kid hiding behind a rock 300yards away.

You can't really kill quickly from afar but if you were in an engagement and they realize they're losing and start to retreat you can get that little extra ooomph to finish them off.

 

[Patrickv27]

How much easier? One of my favorite things about the game was the fact that most weapons were ineffective at a certain range, allowing people to converge on one another more often and fight more isolated battles. It's not fun when I have to run across the map for 2 minutes only to get shot by a kid hiding behind a rock 300yards away.

Before, guns have certain range and you can't hit someone beyond that range. But now you can hit someone from afar, though the damage is not much compared with the optimum range of your gun.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

With the 3x I finally managed to get the new Commando suit. A little rough with no mods, but I see potential here. My main fit with it uses a laser rifle and assault scrambler rifle, so long range matched with mid range.

 

[Patrickv27]

So what are the downsides of these commando suits?

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

So what are the downsides of these commando suits?

Downsides is it loses nearly half the armor/shield compared to the basic heavy the basic heavy as well as most the module slots and the grenade slot. Also the shield recharge rate is slower.

Upsides is it is faster, gets an equipment slot, and of course can carry two light weapons.

 

[RedAssedApe]

Jumped in the game today for the first time. Seems like a lot to digest. Played one battle and killed a few dudes but didn't really know what was going on. The last time I played something online on ps3 was resistance 2 beta lol. Is online still devoid of mics? Seems like something absolutely necessary in this type of game especially without a keyboard like you would have on pc.

 

[dugdug]

Are there any updates on the Vita companion app,?

 

[patchday]

Oh cool I didn't know there was an OT for this game. I played Dust a bit in beta but havent much since the big overhaul. Used to be deep into EVE so was looking forward to this game. I'll see if I can hop here in a bit

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Jumped in the game today for the first time. Seems like a lot to digest. Played one battle and killed a few dudes but didn't really know what was going on. The last time I played something online on ps3 was resistance 2 beta lol. Is online still devoid of mics? Seems like something absolutely necessary in this type of game especially without a keyboard like you would have on pc.

Online isn't devoid of mics at all, but as with most online games this generation people have grew tired of all the whiney children usually on their mics so they simply talk between friends only. Dust specifically has different voice channels (squad, team, corporation, alliance or even user created voice channels). If you want to use mics you are probably best making friends in-game or joining a corporation.

 

[oktarb]

Been playing for about a week now and having fun but it obviously time to get into a corp. Is there a Gaf one or one that you guys recommend?

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Been playing for about a week now and having fun but it obviously time to get into a corp. Is there a Gaf one or one that you guys recommend?

There's a NeoGAF chat channel you can join, simply labeled "NeoGAF" Great for if you want to find some GAF people to squad up with.
There is also a NeoGAF corp but it's pretty inactive last I checked. You could try seeing what corporation people on the players list given in the second post are in and potentially joining theirs. I am personally in an Amarr role playing corp, fun but certainly not for everyone.

If you are looking for corps that won't really lead to anything long term but will definitely help you get rolling, I'd suggest

Bojo's School of the Trades
and
Planetary Response Organisation

 

[DiscoShark]

Oh wow, hadn't realized that we had an OT for this game, was still periodically checking the beta threads. Great job!

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the Pilot dropsuit as pretty much my entire focus has been vehicles up until this point. I've got about 2m SP saved up to spec into them whenever they get the OK.

 

[oktarb]

Amarr roleplaying corp. Umm I want in. You nailed me in two words.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Amarr roleplaying corp. Umm I want in. You nailed me in two words.

Well I brought it up in the off chance you were interested, glad to see it wasn't for nothing.

The corp is Praetoria Imperialis Excubitoris, or more commonly known as PIE Inc. It's one of the oldest Amarr loyalist corporations in existence. I am still a relatively new member and as such cannot perform interviews or accept members into the corp, but I can guide you.

You'll need to read these two links,
http://www.pieinc.co.uk/community/board/index.php?showtopic=16833
http://www.pieinc.co.uk/community/board/index.php?showtopic=8698

Then get in contact with a PIE Recruitment Officer, you can probably find one in the "PIE Public" chat channel in game. The corporation isn't all that strict, but they are serious on the role playing. The "PIE Public" chat channel is an in-character channel.

Oh wow, hadn't realized that we had an OT for this game, was still periodically checking the beta threads. Great job!

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the Pilot dropsuit as pretty much my entire focus has been vehicles up until this point. I've got about 2m SP saved up to spec into them whenever they get the OK.

They almost got added for Uprising 1.2 along with the Commando. I'd expect them to come very soon.

 

[Akainu]

Someone mentioned on the dust forums a mad bomber build or something so I thought about it, got a level 1 logi suit, and loaded it with remote explosives and it's pretty amazing. Since the bombs are in two different slots that means they are independent of each other so you can cover more than one target. I didn't even think that was possible. It's also fun to kill people coming around corners or when you are being ganged up on.

 

[NervousXtian]

I wanna like this game, because there's some cool ideas with it.. and it feels like this hybrid of Halo meets Section 8.. but the gameplay so far has been so shit.

Just nothing feels tight playing it.

Is this because it was made with some keyboard/mouse in mind.. or.. it's just that way?

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

I wanna like this game, because there's some cool ideas with it.. and it feels like this hybrid of Halo meets Section 8.. but the gameplay so far has been so shit.

Just nothing feels tight playing it.

Is this because it was made with some keyboard/mouse in mind.. or.. it's just that way?

Don't know what to tell you. It was definitely made with DS3 at the focus. Admittedly it does take awhile to really "get" the flow of the gameplay, the first couple times I played it I actually deleted it, but was convinced to give it another go and it just sort of clicked. If you're still not feeling it though come back after one of the many updates planned for the future and see if it changes your opinion then. The good thing is you are always gaining skill points passively so when you do come back you'll have a lot waiting for you.

 

[Zen]

What's the best way to earn SP in the game. I'm usually only capping 1.8-3k per ambush even when I'm near the top of my squad.6 I had one game where I got a lucky turret in OMS and racked up 12 kills with it, but I still didn't get more XP than I usually do in that match type. How the heck is SP calculated.

Also I';m kind of assuming that the passive SP booster is a giant waste of time. Truth?

I wanna like this game, because there's some cool ideas with it.. and it feels like this hybrid of Halo meets Section 8.. but the gameplay so far has been so shit.

Just nothing feels tight playing it.

Is this because it was made with some keyboard/mouse in mind.. or.. it's just that way?

It took a lot time for me to get into the game. Some things that helped me, or at least made the play experience less of a hassle.

1) Tun you X Y Sensitivity to Zero, or 1-2. The aiming is far too jerky at higher settings and at lower settings you can track moving enemies a lot better. I'm not sure if it's 0-1-2 but at one of those in Iron Sights with the assault Rifle you're pretty much 1-1 with enemies movement at a lot of ranges.

2) Switch Turning Speed to 100. Why the characters turn so slowly I will never know, but it helps alleviate some frustrations when it comes to reacting to enemy fire and the like.

3) Turn the in game graphics and effects to low, or medium. Find a level that you are comfortable with but I wouldn't recommend High. The game gets choppy on high during more intense sections and it struggles with its framerate enough as it is.

I actually find that readability is easier on low and medium than it is on high.


Aside from mechanical aspects, don't be afraid to be patient. Unless you're using a shot gun, the game won't reward you all that well for spray and pray rambo tactics. Pick the targets you want to prioritize and aim your shots.

That being said, if you;re using a fast first weapon, don't be afraid to let some bullets go wild in the middle of a firefight so you can reap some of that kill assist XP.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

What's the best way to earn SP in the game. I'm usually only capping 1.8-3k per ambush even when I'm near the top of my squad.6 I had one game where I got a lucky turret in OMS and racked up 12 kills with it, but I still didn't get more XP than I usually do in that match type. How the heck is SP calculated.

SP earned from battle = (Seconds in battle * 5) + Warpoints earned

Yeah it's a little crazy that it rewards you more for just being there, I'm not really fond of that.

Also you get 1000 SP for every hour if you have passive SP activated, and that will accrue whether you are online or not. That means in one week,
1000 * 24 * 7 = 168,000 SP
The weekly cap for active skill points is 190,400 SP
So yeah, it is a little more efficient using the passive skill points boosters, but with passive you don't have to do anything which is nice. Honestly I don't use either, I find the natural rate of skill points plenty.

 

[Zen]

So you don't really get SP for kills etc at all?'

Edit: oh I see, I thought you meant 'capture points'.

Well at 1.8-2.5 k per ambush, then it would really make more sense to just go passive + a couple games in a week. I'm never a high roller enough to really max out otherwise. I think Ambush is probably the most time efficient, as skirmish etc takes wayyyyy longer and I usually end up rackignin more points in Ambush through kills etc then I'd get in more decentralized games of Skirmish.

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

So you don't really get SP for kills etc at all?'

Edit: oh I see, I thought you meant 'capture points'.

Well at 1.8-2.5 k per ambush, then it would really make more sense to just go passive + a couple games in a week. I'm never a high roller enough to really max out otherwise. I think Ambush is probably the most time efficient, as skirmish etc takes wayyyyy longer and I usually end up rackignin more points in Ambush through kills etc then I'd get in more decentralized games of Skirmish.

Yeah, kills will get you 50 skill points a pop. The thing is that most your points from battle come from participating (5 a second) so you even if you're not a high roller with the war points you will still get your skill points. The passive you gain outside of battle is different, it's more around the rate of 1 every 4 seconds (well actually 1 every 3.6 seconds for 1000 an hour).

I'm not really sure if I agree on how they reward skill points, but I must say it is nice for players who are perhaps not that great at FPSs or don't have much time for games.

 

[DiscoShark]

So Patch 1.3 is a bit on the light side but I appreciate them going in and doing something about Flaylocks, there was no doubt that they were a problem in the current state of the game.

CCP Wolfman logged in and gave us an overview of stuff we'll be seeing in 1.4~Beyond

Hi guys,

I see a bunch of different things being mentioned here so I thought I’d quickly let you know what’s going on with them.

Amount of stuff in 1.3 – This was an intentionally short release to give us a trial run of the new processes we have put in place to be able to deliver updates to you faster. That’s why it might feel a bit ‘light’. 1.4 is the 'correct' length and consequently will have more stuff.

Aiming – Aiming was worked on throughout 1.3 laying the foundations for the work me and Remnant are currently doing on it for 1.4. There simply wasn’t enough time to get it all ready and tested for 1.3. The pad and the mouse will be getting an update, testing is going well. I’ll have a dev blog about this soon with more details.

Vehicle tuning and 1.4 – work on this has started. However we don’t want to just make small patches and tweaks here and there as we have in the past. We need to take a full pass on vehicles/turrets/modules as a whole. This as you can imagine is a lot of work. It is a priority for us but don’t expect to see significant updates until 1.5. We need a good chunk of time to get through it all..

Murder Taxis – For 1.4 we’ve updated the vehicle/infantry collision and damage system. I retuned the damage completely the other day and so far in my small tests it’s feeling a lot better. We’ll be testing it in our internal playtests this week so we can see how it holds up with more players.

Other bits and bobs - There is also work underway on matchmaking, AFKing and red lining. I’m not working on the matchmaking so I can’t provide you with details there right now. I’ll be involved with the redline and AFK stuff this week so I’ll give more info on that soon.

Cheers

CCP Wolfman

So ... yeah!

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

CCP LogicLoop confirmed we will be getting more surface infrastructures in Uprising 1.4. Also CCP Praetorian shared a couple new pics,

Minmatar Heavy

New map

 

[Saiyar]

Thank god they are sorting out Flaylocks. They were almost ruining the game.

 

[Reckless Onion]

wait so do controller dudes play with kb/mouse dudes on the same server?

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

wait so do controller dudes play with kb/mouse dudes on the same server?

Yes, but I believe match making tries to separate them.

 

[Karakand]

CCP LogicLoop confirmed we will be getting more surface infrastructures in Uprising 1.4. Also CCP Praetorian shared a couple new pics,

Minmatar Heavy

Apologies for my ignorance (I only keep limited tabs on this game since I can't play it), but all armor types didn't already have variants for every faction?

e: Excluding commando, I knew that was just Amarr for the time being.

 

[DiscoShark]

Apologies for my ignorance (I only keep limited tabs on this game since I can't play it), but all armor types didn't already have variants for every faction?

e: Excluding commando, I knew that was just Amarr for the time being.

The Medium frame has all of the racial variants but the Heavy frame is currently exclusive to Amarr and the Scout suit is exclusive to Gallente and Minmatar.

 

[Karakand]

Thanks! I'm surprised that Minmatar get all (well almost all) the suits before anyone else. Poor Caldari.

 

[DiscoShark]

Sigh Sigh.

Don't make the mistake of speccing into Dropships in their current state in the game guys, right now they're just a class of vehicle that has no role to really contribute to a battle outside of being floating bags of isk for enemy AV. At best they can act as early game transport to the non-accessible parts of a map or to far points that wouldn't be really viable to capture early on, unfortunately this can be achieved just as easily with Militia variants of Dropships as the ones that require actual SP to use.

1.4 can't come soon enough.

 

[Zen]

All good changes, especially those stupid Flaylocks.

Can transports be useful as facilitating shock drops on relatively isolated capture points, or are you usually just shot down before you can even get there?

Yeah, kills will get you 50 skill points a pop. The thing is that most your points from battle come from participating (5 a second) so you even if you're not a high roller with the war points you will still get your skill points. The passive you gain outside of battle is different, it's more around the rate of 1 every 4 seconds (well actually 1 every 3.6 seconds for 1000 an hour).

I'm not really sure if I agree on how they reward skill points, but I must say it is nice for players who are perhaps not that great at FPSs or don't have much time for games.

I'd be fine if they increased the activity based skill gain during combat and nerf the passive point gain rate for participation, but as it stands right now, there isn't enough ways for people to earn points in game outside of kills. Why don't you get bonus points at a rate similar to Guardian for guarding a capture point, or ferrying troops in a transport? Taking out mobile spawn point?

Why the heck don't you get bonus points for winning an encounter? I guess, right now, it's ok that active point gain is so narrow, since it really doesn't matter all that much anyway.

Looks good. After going to the official forums and becoming (hyperbole) thoroughly depressed at the state of the game, I decided to try out Planetside 2 for a while, but it just didn't hook me. Eve has more interesting combat and nothing comes close to the art direction in it either. While Planetside 2 has that true persistent MMO thing going for it (does Dust have plans to get there?), the match making in Dust does really help to ensure a consistency of experience that's lacking in Planetside 2.

 

[Zen]

sorry my bad, double post

 

[Seventy_X_Seven]

Looks good. After going to the official forums and becoming (hyperbole) thoroughly depressed at the state of the game, I decided to try out Planetside 2 for a while, but it just didn't hook me. Even has more interesting combat and nothing comes close to the art direction in it either. While Planetside 2 has that true persistent MMO thing going for it (does Dust have plans to get there?), the match making in Dust does really help to ensure a consistency of experience that's lacking in Planetside 2.

Absolutely, but it doesn't look like we'll be getting there very soon. Right now in terms of persistence all we have is Planetary Conquest which is a club for the elite few and Factional Warfare which has a lot more impact on EVE than it does Dust. I probably wouldn't expect to hear anything new in this respect until Fan Fest 2014.

This upcoming year seems to all be about fixing bugs and imbalances with core gameplay and fleshing out more content (maps, outposts, dropsuits, roles, weapons, equipment vehicles). Don't forget that along with that Minmatar heavy dropsuit we should be expecting the bubble shield and cloak equipment very soon.