The new tutorial attempts to take all of these lessons and create a walkthrough that feels cohesive, and helps connect the player to the feeling of our game using mock battles with squads of NPCs fighting each other.
Capturing and defending bases, switching classes to adapt to situations, checking the map, and learning how to identify fights were among them. When looking at learning curve (or cliff?) of PlanetSide 2, we tried to isolate the lessons that could not only introduce players to the gameplay basics, but also help them understand and reinforce behaviors they'd be engaging in often. New UI, audio, faction introductions, FX and lighting all combine to enrich a player's introduction to our world. We've completely overhauled the character create and character selection screens.
Everything from character creation, to the tutorial, to default loadouts, to the player's first "real" combat, to quality of life has been revisited. This update contains a massive push toward a better starting experience for new players. Downtime for this update is expected to last up to 3 hours. All PC servers will come down for the following update on Wednesday, September 15, at 6:00am PT (3:00pm CEST).