Hey everyone, Axis here. Long time no see for some of you.

Before I get any further into it, I'll give a quick link to the JUGA discord which we use these days instead of TeamSpeak. https://discord.gg/TbYaxdC . Obviously has the PS2 channels, but also channels for other games that people play. If there are other games that a few people are playing that don't have channels, let me or one of the admins know and we'll create the channel for you.

PlanetSide 2

Unfortunately, after many long years and some amazing memories, the server population on Briggs dropped to the point that the devs decided to shut it down. Understandable as it really had dropped to unsustainable levels and most of us haven't played on it for a year or two, but still a sad day.

All characters and outfits that are on Briggs have been automatically transferred to SolTech, a Japanese-based server they opened a year or so ago. However they have also got a limited-time option available to transfer your characters to Connery (the US west server) instead. This option is open until 5pm 1/10/2019, so about 11 days after I send this announcement.

Most of us (both in JUGA and Briggs as a whole) who have remained at least semi-active have taken the option to go to Connery. There are a number of reasons for this.

Ping - this seems to depend mostly on your ISP and how they route things. Some people seem to get better connection to Connery, some better to SolTech. It seems a small majority is better to Connery.

Server culture - I believe SolTech has mostly Chinese, Japanese and Korean players and outfits. Obviously this means a lack of English speakers, and unfortunately the tradition of the Chinese bringing a large amount of hackers is apparently true again. From what I hear the zerging and use of unnecessary 'cheese' is also worse than other servers. Bear in mind this is mostly second hand information though as I haven't really played on it myself.

Population balance - it seems like VS as a faction is pretty much dead on SolTech. They seem to generally be down around 15-18% pop, with everybody else playing TR and NC.

Familiar faces - like I said earlier, most active and semi-active Briggs players seem to have gone to Connery. It's nice to stick with the rest of the gang.

So I encourage everybody to jump back in PS2, perhaps try out both servers and see which one works for you. During the time that the server transfers are open, you have the ability to switch back and forth between SolTech and Connery as you wish. Just make sure you don't get stuck on the 'wrong' one at the end of the month. Some of us may find that their ping to Connery is too bad and SolTech is actually better for you, but you'll need to test that out yourselves. Even if you don't think you'll continue playing, it's a good idea to get your characters on the right server in case you do want to play at a later date.

There were also other changes to the game over the last year or so, many of which I'm still learning myself as I basically didn't play for 18 months. The two main ones that come to mind are the upgrade to using DX11 instead of DX9, which has resulted in significantly better fps for most people. The other one is the addition of NS Operatives, a 4th faction people can join where you play as a robot that fights for the lowest popped faction on the continent. This is an attempt to keep the population more stable and even.

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PlanetSide Arena

As of earlier today, DBG have released the next game in the PlanetSide universe, or the early access version anyway. PlanetSide Arena is a free to play large-scale arena shooter, currently using a modified Amerish map (I presume the other maps will eventually get added). It will ultimately have a number of game modes, but is currently releasing with two different size Battle Royales. One has a more normal sized 3 man teams with a total of 150 players, the other has 12 man squads and a total of 300 players on the map which will make it much larger than other BR’s. The other game mode that is expected to come soonish is Massive Clash, which is going to be 250 vs 250 or possibly 500 vs 500. Other modes will come in the future.

I haven’t played PSA yet (will start this afternoon), but people who have have generally said that they are pleasantly surprised with it. And the more of us who are playing it the better it will likely be. As I said, it is free to play so if it’s something you might be interested in check it out.

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Other games

The open beta for COD: Modern Warfare also released today and has quite a few of us playing it to good reports. The beta is free to play but is a 40GB download and is only open for a few days.

Other games like Apex Legends (which is what I’ve generally been playing the last 6 months when not playing PS2), Destiny 2, Warframe and others are other games that have a number of us playing.

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So I hope to see a lot of you in discord ( https://discord.gg/TbYaxdC ) no matter what you are up to at the moment, and check out PS2 sometime in the next week or so to get your characters on the server that is right for you.

AxisBond