Planetside 2 Catch-All

Tkyl wrote:
i38warhawk wrote:

So I'm playing on Leda as TR(joined to play with some of the shacknews guys), and got attached to a full platoon with some pretty cool people. The leadership isn't great, but with that force moving somewhat coordinated it's easy to just steam roll across a map. Good use of platoon and squad chat too. I think in the last couple nights I've got about 45 Certs.

You guys also had us outnumbered on that server, about 2:1.

Are you upset? It happens to everyone (except NC on Leda). Tuesday night Vanu was sitting at 50% and TR was pushed to the warpgate. I think Vanu had almost 85% of the map. Combined with OP Vanu weapons and tanks that are nearly impossible to hit and it was a pretty frustrating time. They need to find a way to balance server pops out. The extra % XP is worthless.

The highest percent tonight was 46% TR, and 23% playing NC. If one side is getting beat down everyone abandons, so it can get lopsided really quickly. Vanu made a good push on the west side of the map with what seemed like their entire server pop, so I went and fought with some NC on the east side. Good times were had. I was only on from about 11:30pm CDT to server lock.

Seems like you need at least two squads to make a real difference. I didn't even know platoons were a thing until I joined Leda. I love dropping into platoon chat and making a strategy, then being tactical in squad. A platoon working together can shut down the Zerg, and once the Zerg breaks it seems like everyone quits and that's when the server pop will swing to something like 45%+.

Right now I'm just bouncing around, once we get into open beta/launch we can coalesce. Now is a great time for a few of us to try and find some bigger outfits that we might be able to fit into.

i38warhawk wrote:
Tkyl wrote:
i38warhawk wrote:

So I'm playing on Leda as TR(joined to play with some of the shacknews guys), and got attached to a full platoon with some pretty cool people. The leadership isn't great, but with that force moving somewhat coordinated it's easy to just steam roll across a map. Good use of platoon and squad chat too. I think in the last couple nights I've got about 45 Certs.

You guys also had us outnumbered on that server, about 2:1.

Are you upset?

lol you some pubby prick trying to troll?

Got a solid 2 hours into the game this morning. Crashed twice, but they seem less frequent now. Still irritating, no rhyme or reason that I can see. Doesn't seem to be memory or hardware related. Just random freezes with an eventual crash after about an hour.

Discovered some things:

1. How teleporters work. I can finally get on top of the tech lab.
2. Turrets are POWERFUL now. They can shoot clear over the horizon when mounted up high and are more accurate than most tanks. More than once I was fighting at such a long range that the game's draw distance wouldn't render the explosions so I had to guess. The flak turrets are nasty.
3. I unlocked the reflex sight for my LMG, which is frustrating because half the time I end up spawning without ANY sights at all, not even irons until I visit an equipment terminal.
4. You have to equip the AMS perk onto your sunderer before it will allow you to deploy...

Tamren wrote:

4. You have to equip the AMS perk onto your sunderer before it will allow you to deploy...

Wahts annoying is that after you attach it the first time it shows up when you try and spawn afterwards, but it's not really attached. I've wasted some spawns because i cant tell if it is or isnt there and end up spawning without it.

ranalin wrote:
i38warhawk wrote:
Tkyl wrote:
i38warhawk wrote:

So I'm playing on Leda as TR(joined to play with some of the shacknews guys), and got attached to a full platoon with some pretty cool people. The leadership isn't great, but with that force moving somewhat coordinated it's easy to just steam roll across a map. Good use of platoon and squad chat too. I think in the last couple nights I've got about 45 Certs.

You guys also had us outnumbered on that server, about 2:1.

Are you upset?

lol you some pubby prick trying to troll?

Yep, that's me pubby pricktroll extraordinaire. WTF dude?

TempestBlayze wrote:

I was talking with Tkyl and I think that maybe we would attach ourselves to another outfit. I know we will get a bunch of people playing this game, but never enough to have a sizable outfit to be efective. Besides, I doubt any of us will want to, or have the time to manage it and give commands. I only enjoy it on a single squad base.

So, Tkyl is in an VS outfit on Leda that may be a good one to attach to. How has it been so far?

I don't think we're going to have enough GWJ mass to do much so I think that makes a lot of sense. IMO you're going to need at few dozen active players to make much of a difference as an outfit. I'm not crazy about the idea of playing VS but I'd be willing to give it a try.

Leda was a mess when I logged in. TR had around 46% pop and had both VS and NC pushed to their gates. Apparently the server has become a battle grounds for some of the larger planetside communities. A group playing Vanu had picked the server as their main, and a "rival" group decided to crash the server and just roll everything. Don't know much about it really, a group called The Enclave were involved.

I do know that the game sucks when the pop is so unbalanced.

i38warhawk wrote:

Leda was a mess when I logged in. TR had around 46% pop and had both VS and NC pushed to their gates. Apparently the server has become a battle grounds for some of the larger planetside communities. A group playing Vanu had picked the server as their main, and a "rival" group decided to crash the server and just roll everything. Don't know much about it really, a group called The Enclave were involved.

I do know that the game sucks when the pop is so unbalanced.

The lag last night on there was also horrible. The worst i've seen since the new update.

Big Patch, love their sense of humor with these things:
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/game-update-notes-09-28-2012.25112/

The Beta client has been updated and players may notice the following changes when they log in:

As always we continue to make a number of gameplay and technical optimizations to improve your overall experience.

Notable Bugs:

SCU and Shield Generators should once again be repairable in all situations. We've narrowed down the issue and determined you were doing it wrong. Righty tighty this time.

All Liberator Gun certifications (rear Gun) are now equitable. This does not remove the fact that there is nothing but a piece of plexiglass and the projectiles flying at you in the rear turret.

There was an issue with firing explosive weapons immediately after reloading not causing damage. We've swapped out those training rounds so sorry about that!

Weapons:

We have good news! The suppressors are now working! We also have bad news! The suppressors are now working so you'll see a reduction of velocity and damage over distance. You always have the alternative option to cough really loudly when you take a shot.

We've pasted plastic fins on the standard Heavy Assault rocket launcher rockets, so now they accelerate slightly faster.

Apparently folks using the New Conglomerate scattercannon weren't loading it completely for some reason. We put in a few more rounds so get back to killing.

The Pitcher Certification is now available meaning you can throw grenades even faster. Maintenance has requested you stop practicing with rocks in the spawn rooms. This is why we can't have nice things.

Flash Grenades are now available for the Light Assault. We are mostly certain the blindness from these weapons is only temporary, but you might want to close your eyes before throwing them just to be safe.

Concussion Grenades are also now available for certification. These temporarily disable targets within the blast radius. It may or may not also be the source of gamma radiation mutation so let us know if anything starts to swell or grow.

New Conglomerate weapons are now slightly more accurate. We're hoping this stops them from going "Pew pew pew!" during combat.

The range on the IRNV scope has been reduced. You weren't really seeing that far and we think you were exposed to something. Either way just take 2 of these and hope for the best.

Classes:

Terminal Hacking Certifications will now reflect new hack times. The first of these certifications will ensure the Infiltrator stops using their field knife in the process. Dings up the keypad something fierce.

Infiltrators now have a reconnaissance tool. It's so classified we aren't really sure what it does but it's better than the camo face paint we were issuing so enjoy!

Nano-Armor cloak is now 25% damage resistant at ranks 1-4 and 30% at rank 5. Please keep in mind there is still 70% of that tank round that can remove your spleen. Don't worry though, we can replace it. These things grow on trees. Literally. Spleen tree. Tell your friends.

A certification for Ammunition has been added to suits so stuff a few more magazines in your pants.

The Burster is now available on the right arm by default on a MAX unit. Thanks to an error in purchasing we have gillions laying around. Seriously we really need you to take one.

Vehicles:

Light Aircraft like the Mosquito, Reaver, or Scythe now start with an External Fuel Tank in the secondary slot to increase afterburner fuel capacity. While some of you may be dismayed at flying around with a container full of explosive material, keep in mind you are statistically more likely to crash into a canyon wall. The explosion just helps us find what's left of you.

Flare certifications are now available to reduce the cooldown. Flares should not be used for cooking. Gives the food a funny taste.

The ammunition capacity on the C150 Dalton has been slightly reduced. Truth is, we lost the bigger magazines. You'd think that being bigger, they'd be easy to find, but nope. They're gone.

The Lightning Skyguard weapon has had the magazine and ammunition capacity slightly reduced. We thought about not telling you and just painting a smiley face on each one, but some of you are still touchy from the peace sign on the Liberator.

The Liberator has an afterburner now. We had to remove a few safety features like seat belts and bullet proof glass to make room, but function over form people. Function over form.

World:

We called in an interior designer for recommendations on the Allatum Bio Lab. After recommending new drapes, colors for the spawn tubes, and a feng-shui setup we decided to throw them out of a Galaxy. Instead we've changed the capture mechanics of the satellite outposts which are now forward spawns similar to Zurvan.

I don't often read patch notes, but when I do they should read like those.

I read the whole thing and LOLd often!

A few faves,

We have good news! The suppressors are now working! We also have bad news! The suppressors are now working so you'll see a reduction of velocity and damage over distance. You always have the alternative option to cough really loudly when you take a shot.
New Conglomerate weapons are now slightly more accurate. We're hoping this stops them from going "Pew pew pew!" during combat.
Nano-Armor cloak is now 25% damage resistant at ranks 1-4 and 30% at rank 5. Please keep in mind there is still 70% of that tank round that can remove your spleen. Don't worry though, we can replace it. These things grow on trees. Literally. Spleen tree. Tell your friends.

Okay if you at all interested in try any of the certs, now's the time to do it. The up the cert timer by a whole lot. You'll probable log in with 10,000 certs. I did. I proceed to spend them all willy nilly, and probable made another 300 by the end of the night. It's crazy right now, but lots of fun. It fun, my tank has a shield, respawn time for all vehicles is crazy fast. My light assault has great gear and a good jet pack. I actually got to practice in a reaver a lot. Getting better at it. Got the reflex scope and loving it over the default one. My heavy tank is beastly right now too. Also everyone else is crazy with galaxy spawns and everything going on. It's a fun mess.

Although this probable means there's gonna be a wipe soon. I say we switch to TR next.

The new patch killed my framerate! (and on further research, just about everyone elses too!) I want to test all this stuff out but just can't.

The game runs choppy now, even when displaying my guy on the login screen. Even the texture loading screen no longer animates cleanly. And of course I still have my crashing issue. Though they did mention they are looking into A crashing issue, hope its the one I'm getting. I still got to hang around the warp gate and use the objects around as impromptu target practice. I hope they bring back a firing range at some point.

Pimped out weapons seem much more effective. Recoil compensator + High velocity ammo means I can actually hit stuff at range now! Getting to use the higher optics helped me learn how much bullet drop there is. Something that is hard to do with reflex sights.

Lots of confusion though:
- I see C4 certs, but are these implemented in the game yet? Seems like no.
- My suit slot has a shield generator in it by default, is this an extra shield generator for heavy assaults? If I replace it with an ammo package I still have my force field and suit shield. So what is this for?

Oh man, its a blast having all the certs. The nano heal tool is amazing when its fully upgraded.

Sad to see that they disabled the Galaxy Spawn cert but that's ok. I decked out my liberator so it should be lots of fun to fly and for my gunners.

Tamren wrote:

The new patch killed my framerate! (and on further research, just about everyone elses too!) I want to test all this stuff out but just can't.

The game runs choppy now, even when displaying my guy on the login screen. Even the texture loading screen no longer animates cleanly. And of course I still have my crashing issue. Though they did mention they are looking into A crashing issue, hope its the one I'm getting. I still got to hang around the warp gate and use the objects around as impromptu target practice. I hope they bring back a firing range at some point.

Pimped out weapons seem much more effective. Recoil compensator + High velocity ammo means I can actually hit stuff at range now! Getting to use the higher optics helped me learn how much bullet drop there is. Something that is hard to do with reflex sights.

Lots of confusion though:
- I see C4 certs, but are these implemented in the game yet? Seems like no.
- My suit slot has a shield generator in it by default, is this an extra shield generator for heavy assaults? If I replace it with an ammo package I still have my force field and suit shield. So what is this for?

I've been actually using the soft rounds and they've been wonderful. I play light assault though so I'm generally much closer in a fight. I use C4 and a single piece of C4 is not that great but two of them can be pretty fun. One time a galaxy was attacking our biolab. So I jetpacked on top of it and placed two c4. When it tried to fly away I detonated. Nice big explosion felt good.

As for the suit slot. I think you can upgrade your basic shield to be better. Or swap it out with a normal shield with a different bonus. Lot's of stuff I wanna play with still. Will be going online soon again.

With the suit shield though, the things I was swapping it for gave me extra ammo either for my guns or the rocket launcher. When I selected them they replaced the suit shield item that was already in the suit slot. How is that supposed to work?

Tamren wrote:

With the suit shield though, the things I was swapping it for gave me extra ammo either for my guns or the rocket launcher. When I selected them they replaced the suit shield item that was already in the suit slot. How is that supposed to work?

I'm guessing the shield item really does nothing. Not sure really.

Yes you can kill aircraft with infantry weapons. A fighter takes just one dumbfire rocket (haven't got enough Auraxium yet to buy the lock-on types).
I killed a Liberator with two rockets, I don't know how much damage it had before that.
The Heavy Assault LMG is pretty good for dinging aircraft, I've even managed to destroy one fighter outright, and anything to help your air buddies right!
So very glad MAX air burster comes standard now.
OMG if they give an Engineer anti-air weaponry, it'll basically be the best class ever!
I don't understand what the Reflex Sight is for, it's weird and seems to come up slower. I just use a 3.4x scope.
I use the 12x sniper scope as it lets me use the sniper rifle as a, you know, sniper rifle, but damn, where you look before and after the scope comes up are NOT the same and that is super annoying.

Can't wait to buy the HA AA rocket launcher, then equip my airplanes with an ejection seat, so maybe if I get shot down, I can still get revenge.
Throwing grenades is so {ableist slur}, they get thrown like baseballs when they should get thrown in an arc.
Holy crap I wish I was a VS again, they really don't suck now.
What does suck is the TR MAX, particularly the anti-vehicle grenade launcher.

They still need to make the Heavy Assault rockets faster and have better range. My HA assault special ability shield thing seems mostly useless though.
You know what'd be awesome, trading resources with empire/platoon/squadmates, I really only care about fighters and lightnings for the most part, if I get in a tank, it's cause I have lots of orange resources left.

I enjoy the new gameplay with emphasis on ground battles. A huge wave comes into a sector, everybody fights, the wave overcomes, the winners get back in their vehicles and go to the next target while the losers respawn at the next target, ready to do it over again.

RolandofGilead wrote:

I don't understand what the Reflex Sight is for, it's weird and seems to come up slower. I just use a 3.4x scope.

Reflexes are meant to replace iron sights. Irons are decent, but they block a lot of your vision when you try to use them. Its like trying to look through a window the size of a business card versus peering through a cheerio.

Is there any difference at all between laser scopes and regular scopes? There doesn't seem to be any laser functionality to them, the laser scopes are just round instead of square.

RolandofGilead wrote:

I use the 12x sniper scope as it lets me use the sniper rifle as a, you know, sniper rifle, but damn, where you look before and after the scope comes up are NOT the same and that is super annoying.

I'm wondering if the higher magnification scopes are automatically adjusted for range increase. When I was testing out the 6x vs the 12x at the warpgate I aimed shots at a window on one of the distant buildings. Bullets from the 6x would arc into the ground but shots from the 12x aimed at the very same spot would hit the window dead on.

RolandofGilead wrote:

Throwing grenades is so {ableist slur}, they get thrown like baseballs when they should get thrown in an arc.

This is really annoying. The certs increase throwing force and speed, which gives your throw even LESS of an arc. Distance is all well and good, but sometimes you just need to lob a grenade over a small fence and just can't do it unless you back up.

RolandofGilead wrote:

They still need to make the Heavy Assault rockets faster and have better range.

The latest patch upped the muzzle velocity of the rockets and they seem to have a flatter arc now. I can fire rockets far enough that the projectile will exceed my draw distance before it hits the ground. What they really need to add is better sights instead of just shoehorning irons onto them. Or at the very least allow us to adjust the irons for range like a real launcher would.

RolandofGilead wrote:

My HA assault special ability shield thing seems mostly useless though.

I have no idea what this does. I hit F before going into firefights and it never seems to do anything. Is it supposed to absorb damage like a second shield? Reduce the damage I take?

Also does anyone know if we will be able to unlock more resource capacity? 750 per is rather low.

The Shield is supposed to reduce damage to you, and it can work very well sometimes. It's sort of finiky and I tend to forget to use it. The whole sniper thing you mentioned is cool to know, although really I want an adjustable scope. I also agree about the grenades they seem to throw so differently compared to other games it messes me up. Also I hate how they don't explode when you die.

Rockets need certs, or at least let me remove that damn iron sight. Otherwise I've been fairly happy with the game.

Although going certs crazy at the moment has soured me on the game a bit. Because we basically have as many certs as we need I'm not as motivated to play as much. The only reward, you get is certs and aurexium, and certs are the only ones that come from playing well/ It's dumb but because you can't really win Planetside it can be hard to be motivated. I really hope they add unique servers with end game conditions or something.

Still a really fun game, and perhaps the adding objectives and stuff might help alleviate some of this.

I'm sure they will forever be adding new weapon variants and new accessories to eat up your certs. Possibly whole vehicles too.

Tamren wrote:

Also does anyone know if we will be able to unlock more resource capacity? 750 per is rather low.

If they did that, then we'd have a lot of people flying by themselves in Liberators, oh wait a sec, nope, that already happens. Those f*ckers are annoying.

I think they need to make spawning like it was before where you could spawn at any spawn generator you wanted, instead of just the nearest ones. It's pretty much impossible to pull up vehicle support against a wave in a timely manner if you don't have access to something nearby cause the Warpgates tend to be far away.

Tamren wrote:

I'm sure they will forever be adding new weapon variants and new accessories to eat up your certs. Possibly whole vehicles too.

If we could have mobile biolab fortresses, that'd be awesome. Also, see my sig for weapon ideas!
http://john-smedley.livejournal.com/2412.html?view=54124#t54124He talks about some future ideas there.

RolandofGilead wrote:

I think they need to make spawning like it was before where you could spawn at any spawn generator you wanted, instead of just the nearest ones. It's pretty much impossible to pull up vehicle support against a wave in a timely manner if you don't have access to something nearby cause the Warpgates tend to be far away.

But that would make attack impossible because the defenders could just despawn and pop up instantly wherever there is trouble. I would settle for the ability to spawn directly into a vehicle instead of having to jog from the tube to vehicle pad. Maybe for a longer spawn timer. Kind of like how BF3 does it.

Tamren wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

I think they need to make spawning like it was before where you could spawn at any spawn generator you wanted, instead of just the nearest ones. It's pretty much impossible to pull up vehicle support against a wave in a timely manner if you don't have access to something nearby cause the Warpgates tend to be far away.

But that would make attack impossible because the defenders could just despawn and pop up instantly wherever there is trouble. I would settle for the ability to spawn directly into a vehicle instead of having to jog from the tube to vehicle pad. Maybe for a longer spawn timer. Kind of like how BF3 does it.

That makes a lot of sense. Bought some AP rounds for the Prowler, but they don't seem very effective, and won't hurt infantry unless it's a direct hit. Not really worth it.

Tank shells seem really weak against infantry. Not as much as back in PS where you had this really bizarre Infantry/Armour/Air damage model where anti Infantry weapons like rifles barely scratched vehicles (as you would expect). But then anti-armour and anti-air weapons like rockets and flaks did ridiculously low damage back to infantry for balance reasons. The only exception to this was the Prowler and Vanguard tank guns.

The Prowler just ate infantry up, it was fast firing and the shells could still one-shot infantry with a near miss. The Vanguard was slower, but that thing might as well have been the fist of an angry god. Full health REXO suits? No problem, just land one 150mm shell within 5 feet and you can send any infantry to the moon. Being slow targets MAXes were delicious. It was that powerful.

The new Vanguard is cool but it's much less effective against infantry. The shells don't have nearly the splash they used to and the cannon isn't accurate enough to hit a man sized target. Plus it has MUCH less of an arc when you fire shells, that's great for long distance artillery battles but not so great up close. I guess that's why we have the secondary turret.

Tamren wrote:

Tank shells seem really weak against infantry. Not as much as back in PS where you had this really bizarre Infantry/Armour/Air damage model where anti Infantry weapons like rifles barely scratched vehicles (as you would expect). But then anti-armour and anti-air weapons like rockets and flaks did ridiculously low damage back to infantry for balance reasons. The only exception to this was the Prowler and Vanguard tank guns.

The Prowler just ate infantry up, it was fast firing and the shells could still one-shot infantry with a near miss. The Vanguard was slower, but that thing might as well have been the fist of an angry god. Full health REXO suits? No problem, just land one 150mm shell within 5 feet and you can send any infantry to the moon. Being slow targets MAXes were delicious. It was that powerful.

The new Vanguard is cool but it's much less effective against infantry. The shells don't have nearly the splash they used to and the cannon isn't accurate enough to hit a man sized target. Plus it has MUCH less of an arc when you fire shells, that's great for long distance artillery battles but not so great up close. I guess that's why we have the secondary turret.

Isn't there another main gun you can buy that's basically anti-infantry? I thought there was?

Bear wrote:
Tamren wrote:

Tank shells seem really weak against infantry. Not as much as back in PS where you had this really bizarre Infantry/Armour/Air damage model where anti Infantry weapons like rifles barely scratched vehicles (as you would expect). But then anti-armour and anti-air weapons like rockets and flaks did ridiculously low damage back to infantry for balance reasons. The only exception to this was the Prowler and Vanguard tank guns.

The Prowler just ate infantry up, it was fast firing and the shells could still one-shot infantry with a near miss. The Vanguard was slower, but that thing might as well have been the fist of an angry god. Full health REXO suits? No problem, just land one 150mm shell within 5 feet and you can send any infantry to the moon. Being slow targets MAXes were delicious. It was that powerful.

The new Vanguard is cool but it's much less effective against infantry. The shells don't have nearly the splash they used to and the cannon isn't accurate enough to hit a man sized target. Plus it has MUCH less of an arc when you fire shells, that's great for long distance artillery battles but not so great up close. I guess that's why we have the secondary turret.

Isn't there another main gun you can buy that's basically anti-infantry? I thought there was?

thought there was too, but cant find a way to attach it.

ranalin wrote:

thought there was too, but cant find a way to attach it.

Don't you just replace one turret with the other one? It should be on your vehicle window. I think it works the same way the Skyguard and other mounted weapons work?

Does any non-Coffee Grinder need a beta key? I have an extra to give away. First to PM me, gets it.

I think the problem with the default gun in all the vehicles is the fact that they are just plain all around weapons. They are ok at fighting everything just not very good at fighting anything. It does make it annoying as the blast radius on tank shots looks a lot bigger then it it. You have to hit really close for it to be effective really.

One note, the liberator heavy gun is perfect. That thing feels damn right and sounds wonderful I love it. Then again it's an anti ground role only, which sort of proves my points.

Edit: As I figured another character wipe coming up. Here's one vote to try the TR next.