Okay... planetside for beginners:
When you start in on your first day of the game with a new character, do NOT seek out combat immediately. Yes, I know it's boring, but don't. You'll be better off in the long run.
Your first order of business should be to go to the VR training rooms in the sanctuary and try each weapon and vehicle. It'll give you a feel for the game and what you have to look forward to. Not only that, you'll get experience points for using everything, and once your finished, you are nearly Battle Rank 3 - meaning 3 free certification points giving you 6 total. Then you can cert as you see fit (prolly Medium Assault and something else at this point).
Next, if you insist on being solo, check out the global map and look for battle hotspots. If there's any near bases of your teams color (purple in the case of Barney-VS) - then you can choose Instant Action and hopefully in 10 seconds you'll be ready to get your ass handed to you. If not, you look for continents where there's activly changing bases - look at this popularion lock number - if it's less than 100+ that means you should be there too -- something's goin down. Either way, hop on the HART in the sanctuary, and go drop on said continent where there is fighting, and start shooting.
Easier by far - look for a squad. Join one. Then just tag along until you get the hang of things.
