Planetside 2..Free to play..and looking awesome so far!

[Dijeangenie]

Yeah an outfit is like a large guild. It is because to make a difference you need to group up with 50+ people and organise yourselves.

 

[Red Storm]

I'm pretty sure there's an outfit recruitment thread on the official forums. You can get some basic info on the various outfits and see which one suits you best.

I think they should have done a sort of slideshow tutorial on the launcher while it downloads the game for the people who have zero knowledge about the game.

 

[power_hour]

Lots of fun. 2 kills, 3 deaths as a medic 🙁 Need to work on my skills. Great game, can't beat free. Lag was minimal on East coast and no wait time. Graphics are pretty decent.

 

[AHamick]

Yeah it's really confusing and unfriendly to newcomers. I hear some lady say this and that is lost and so and so is restored but have absolutely no idea how/what exactly was lost or how it was restored or even how it impacts the game.

It's not clear at all how territory is lost or gained to me, or even what exactly I need to do to get a new weapon.

I'm going to do some reading up on all this but I can really see how it's going to turn away players.

Joining a squad is of no help, I've joined like 5 different ones and it hasn't changed my experience at all except I can see where these specific players are now. I'm guessing it's full noob squads.

People also say to join an outfit, but how? What is an outfit, a guild? The only option I could find for that is to create my own.

The "lady" over the intercom is notifying players in the base that a generator is either being attacked/destroyed/or repaired. Same goes with the SCU (Spawn control unit). The Generators control the shields you see around the base that prevent vehicles/players from breaking through. The SCU does just what is says, allows the controlling team to spawn in the main spawn room.

To capture a location/base, you need to capture the lettered (A,B,C etc)locations around/inside the base. To capture one you simply need to be in proximity to it and a progress bar will appear in the top of your screen. Once your team starts capping the lettered points you will see a window on the left of your screen with a progress bar for each faction. Once you start to cap a base the current owner's bar will be full and your teams bar will go up. Your team will cap the base faster depending on how mny of the total lettered points a base has that you own AND the percentage of territory surrounding the base your team owns (this will appear above the base cap progress box showing a pie chart of the contesting factions.

New weapons and upgrades are acquired through cert points. You gain cert points through gaining experience points (1 cert for every 500xp now I believe? xp is gained through kills and base captures). If you press ESC the cert menu is the second to last button on the bottom (it will also tell you your total cert points). from there you must click a class or vehicle you wish to use certs on. from there it will list everything you can unlock with certs for that class/vehicle. Some items can be unlocked with either certs or station cash (ie real money) such as new guns. Cosmetic upgrades such as camo patterns or decals for your class/vehicle are generally only purchasable with station cash.

I agree that I know all this from trial and error through beta and my experience from PS1, the game needs a tutorial of some sorts.

Playing solo in this game or with a squad you cannot communicate with effectively (noob squad as you put it) can be painful and a real turn off to newcomers, just dont give up completely. This game is a huge load of fun!

 

[TheUnk]

The "lady" over the intercom is notifying players in the base that a generator is either being attacked/destroyed/or repaired. Same goes with the SCU (Spawn control unit). The Generators control the shields you see around the base that prevent vehicles/players from breaking through. The SCU does just what is says, allows the controlling team to spawn in the main spawn room.

Is there an icon on the minimap to show where the generator and SCU is? Can I spawn as an engineer and repair them?

To capture a location/base, you need to capture the lettered (A,B,C etc)locations around/inside the base. To capture one you simply need to be in proximity to it and a progress bar will appear in the top of your screen. Once your team starts capping the lettered points you will see a window on the left of your screen with a progress bar for each faction. Once you start to cap a base the current owner's bar will be full and your teams bar will go up. Your team will cap the base faster depending on how mny of the total lettered points a base has that you own AND the percentage of territory surrounding the base your team owns (this will appear above the base cap progress box showing a pie chart of the contesting factions.

This is sorta what I was thinking but after I got to a point I couldn't see any indication that it was being captured. I'll have to look harder next time.

New weapons and upgrades are acquired through cert points. You gain cert points through gaining experience points (1 cert for every 500xp now I believe? xp is gained through kills and base captures). If you press ESC the cert menu is the second to last button on the bottom (it will also tell you your total cert points). from there you must click a class or vehicle you wish to use certs on. from there it will list everything you can unlock with certs for that class/vehicle. Some items can be unlocked with either certs or station cash (ie real money) such as new guns. Cosmetic upgrades such as camo patterns or decals for your class/vehicle are generally only purchasable with station cash.

Yeah I stumbled onto that now, but the price of certs it costs seems extremely high, at least at the rate I was gaining them.

Playing solo in this game or with a squad you cannot communicate with effectively (noob squad as you put it) can be painful and a real turn off to newcomers, just dont give up completely. This game is a huge load of fun!

Is there any way to spawn on a squad member/leader? I thought it mentioned that but I couldn't find it.


Thanks for the info!

 

[Red Storm]

Yes there are icons on the map that show you where the generators are. When an enemy "hacks" a gen, it starts to overload and eventually does explode. Before it explodes you can fix it as any class by holding 'E' right next to it, but once it blows you have to use the Engineer's repair tool to fix it.

 

[JTsyo]

Do squad xp boosters stack? 7 day booster for $.50 seems like it might be worthwhile to get the first few unlocks faster.

 

[AHamick]

Is there an icon on the minimap to show where the generator and SCU is? Can I spawn as an engineer and repair them?

I know there are icons on the HUD, I assume they are on the minimap too (i dont use my minimap much)

Yeah I stumbled onto that now, but the price of certs it costs seems extremely high, at least at the rate I was gaining them.

I agree the cert costs are high for the amount you generally gain per hour. Just remember most infantry weapons are not "upgrades" necessarily, they may have a faster rof/damage/range but they have negatives to mitigate that. Weapons are better in certain roles where another/the original weapon may excel.

Is there any way to spawn on a squad member/leader? I thought it mentioned that but I couldn't find it.

You can "instant action" on your squad leader. This is done when you spawn into the game at the Warpgate (someone confirm/refute if you can IA oustide the warpgate? I think you can) and when you open the main map there is a small box in the lower left that shows the top hotspots across the continents currently. You Squad leader should be number one on the list.

Aside from instant actioning on your SL, if your SL has a squad beacon they can deploy it on the field and you can spawn on that beacon when you die and you will drop pod there. The beacon had a cool down in beta (5 minutes or so) and I am not sure if that has been changed with release

 

[WelshBloke]

One thing I never bothered to figure out. When defending the bio lab, occasionally the enemy would take over a spawn room in the base.

How do they do that and how do you take it back?

 

[Red Storm]

One thing I never bothered to figure out. When defending the bio lab, occasionally the enemy would take over a spawn room in the base.

How do they do that and how do you take it back?

I believe those are the little capture point buildings outside of the Biolab. They have teles that take you inside the main structure.

 

[Karstein]

I agree that I know all this from trial and error through beta and my experience from PS1, the game needs a tutorial of some sorts.

This was my first thought. I'm a PS1 vet and noticed there was nothing like the training range they have in that while I was playing the beta. I figured they'd be looking to get something in for retail but apparently not...

I personally have no issues playing due to experience, but I bet some new players feel completely overwhelmed/lost. The beauty of the training course was being able to play around with a bunch of different weapons and vehicles, all while picking up your first chunk of XP. In PS2, you're thrown into instant-action in a drop pod and expected to fend for yourself. Not a great experience.

 

[WelshBloke]

I believe those are the little capture point buildings outside of the Biolab. They have teles that take you inside the main structure.

Cheers.

They also need to turn off auto join squad by default.

That was an annoying start. 🙁

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

Cheers.

They also need to turn off auto join squad by default.

That was an annoying start. 🙁

do you mean automatically being added to a squad or spawning near your squad?

That was something everyone was asking for in bf3. Too many people would go solo without squads.

 

[Red Storm]

Cheers.

They also need to turn off auto join squad by default.

That was an annoying start. 🙁

Yeah that and being tossed out in a drop pod to start was just meh to me. I was fine since I know the game, but that might turn away new players.

 

[WelshBloke]

do you mean automatically being added to a squad or spawning near your squad?

That was something everyone was asking for in bf3. Too many people would go solo without squads.

Both of those, if I want to join a squad I'll chose one that suits me.

As it is your just lumped in with a random selection of people, most of whom dont even realise that they are in a squad anyway and dont know why they are spawning in random locations.

Also this isnt BF3.

 

[AHamick]

There are small outposts surrounding the bio lab that can be captured to gain access to a shielded teleport room inside to lab. these outposts also usually have a launch pad that will throw you onto one of the aircraft landing pads on the lab.

I too wish they added a training area/shooting range to allow players to get a feel for the weapons before investing cash or hard earned certs in them so they dont waste them.

I understand why they did the beginning (drop you in a mess to fend for yourself) because new players would be even more lost if they were at the Warpgate without any idea of where to go or what to do. I do feel they should have a better intro/tutorial so new players know what they are supposed to do and be looking for.

 

[Red Storm]

Weapons have trials available. Obviously it's not as good as a VR shooting range, but at least you can try weapons before deciding to get them or not.

 

[WelshBloke]

Weapons have trials available. Obviously it's not as good as a VR shooting range, but at least you can try weapons before deciding to get them or not.

Do they? Cool. :thumbsup:

What about some of the certs? Theres a lot of sights for example that look pretty identical, I'd like to know what they do before buying.

 

[Red Storm]

Do they? Cool. :thumbsup:

What about some of the certs? Theres a lot of sights for example that look pretty identical, I'd like to know what they do before buying.

Yes, I saw the option for it in the "store" (the button that has the faction logo) when I noticed the Heavy Assault has a battle rifle (!). Love that thing so far.

Unfortunately weapon customizations don't. I agree, I would like to see what a scope looks like before buying. For that I use YouTube.

 

[imaheadcase]

They really amped up the costs of stuff since beta. lol

That said, the game plays a lot better, and for some reason it seems easier to kill people. Maybe because new people in game, but i went 15-0 first time, next time killed 6 people before i died. Normally i killed 1-2 tops and died in beta.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I'm up to rank 3 and I have to say this has been a huge disappointment for me. I was honestly expecting a much more refined experience but this feels like PS1 with a new coat of wax. Maybe it would be different if I wasn't lone-wolfing it, but that tends to be my lot in life it seems.

 

[Sentrosi2121]

24 hours later from release and, wow, what a release day! Quite honestly, one of the smoothest releases from my standpoint I've ever been a part of. All I got was the G37 error which was quickly resolved by validating my files, closing and opening the client. Found out later that it was a launcher issue and not a game issue.

For an easier way to sort outfit recruiting, head over to Planetside-Universe.com. On their forums they have a recruiting section broken down into empires.

 

[AHamick]

While a person can lone wolf it through the game just fine, having a solid squad or better yet, a platoon will make sure you are more times than not on the winning side of things.

Prodigy, what were you expecting that has not been delivered? I personally think this is a great game worthy to be the sequel of PS1. All the great moments I had from the original are back again with an upgrade.

I do wish that weapon unlocks and kits were able to be customized like they were in the original. Im not a fan of cookie cutter classes. Let my medic carry a rocket launcher damnit!

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Prodigy, what were you expecting that has not been delivered? I personally think this is a great game worthy to be the sequel of PS1. All the great moments I had from the original are back again with an upgrade.

First of all, I was expecting a much more refined game. Anyone who played PS1 can tell you that the layout and UI of the first game was lacking in many very real ways. I expected this to be cleaned up and presented in a much more efficient manner. Second, I expected much more action and infantry battles. Nothing sucks more than running through an open field to attack the other team and find out that out of the 30 guys they have ready to fight you, not one of them is outside of a vehicle....and none of your weapons hurt the vehicles. Don't even get me started on trying to drive/fly these vehicles, I mean it feels like I am trying to control a paralyzed person or something.

Of the couple or few hours I have spent on the game, I've been fighting for about 10 minutes. It's just boring and not well thought out. I mean why would anyone go out and fight on foot when your entire force can spawn a vehicle? I'll give it another try or two, but it's just starting to feel like an epic fail at this point every minute I spend playing it. I was expecting a better, more well designed, game.

 

[Sentrosi2121]

Some of it might have to do with where you're fighting. Amerish and Esamir have been known for great vehicle battles, while Indar has been known for some pitched infantry battles.

Towards the end of the night my outfit and I were holding out against the NC near their warpgate. They would constantly drop in Infiltrators to hack our turrets and then blow them up. It was a great tactic! I spent more time fixing turrets than running around trying to find the infiltrators. They only got us out of that tower when our air cover went away and a Liberator sat their shredding us infantry down to nothing. We couldn't get our AA MAXs on the roof because of the vehicles surrounding the tower. Now this was after a good hour of infantry fighting us in and around the tower.