Planetside 2 Catch-All

I'm in Quantum Dawn now and spent WAY too much time last night running around conquering continents.. This is one fun game! Say hello if you see me on!

Tamrennnnnnnnnnnn!

IMAGE(http://i.minus.com/iod5MoNnWUoJh.png)

With some help from some chap by the name of BNice.

Dirty non-vanu

BNice wrote:

Tamrennnnnnnnnnnn!

IMAGE(http://i.minus.com/iod5MoNnWUoJh.png)

Mwahahahaha!

plavonica wrote:

As well as the AMS on the sunderer. That is a must have.

I would say that vehicle ammo upgrade is just as important as the AMS. If friendly tanks don't have anywhere to rearm in enemy territory any armour push will have almost no lasting power. Annoyingly you can't use that t o make a sunderer rearm itself. You can also buy a repair upgrade that will heal nearby vehicles but I don't see the point really.

plavonica wrote:

On my Van/medic I picked up the Equinox burst because it was cheap and said something about longer range with burst fire. I picked up the 4x cross-hair sight for it and now consider it far better than the original gun, especially for those longer ranges. Once I unlock the fore grip on it I will be saving up for the Pandora fully automatic plasma shotgun for shorter ranged engagements.

Then I picked up the restoration kit, level 3 on the medical applicator and nano-regen device, as well as the health upgrade.

As far as the other upgrades go? I unlocked every 1cert cost upgrade for every class and vehicle. For the classes it was usually some class specific upgrade along with the armor upgrades. For the vehicles you could usually knock off 90sec from the respawn timer and get a little extra ammo and zoom sights for your guns/turrets. As well as the AMS on the sunderer. That is a must have.

The Pandora is a monster in close quarters. If you get the drop on a MAX you can take one down before they have a chance to react.

Tamren wrote:
plavonica wrote:

As well as the AMS on the sunderer. That is a must have.

I would say that vehicle ammo upgrade is just as important as the AMS. If friendly tanks don't have anywhere to rearm in enemy territory any armour push will have almost no lasting power. Annoyingly you can't use that t o make a sunderer rearm itself. You can also buy a repair upgrade that will heal nearby vehicles but I don't see the point really.

Two night ago, running with QD, we had an encounter in which we were assaulting an outpost with the Vanu zerg. Apparently, the TR had decided to make a stand there and a major battle ensued. We already had one AMS sunderer spawned, but I decided to deploy another for extra security and to give our zerg an extra front of attack. Shortly after, QD decided to pull back to defend a Tech plant being attack. I left my sunderer there and redeployed. About 20 minutes later, I was still racking in +2.3 XP Sunderer Spawn Bonuses every second. The AMS cert really does pay for itself.

I keep telling myself I want to learn how to fly really well... then I start flying and lose interest. Repeat cycle. I feel like the flight mechanics in the game aren't nearly as difficult as some other games but for whatever reason it just doesn't click with me. Even when I've gotten the basic flying structure down it all feels so... I don't know what exactly but it isn't fun.

Not that I want them to make flying easier or anything, I think the difficulty and the entry curve is a strong balancing tool. It just looks like a lot of fun sometimes, right up until I actually start doing it.

For those who want an idea of what it's like to do ops with Quantum Dawn, we have a Twtch TV page.

FedoraMcQuaid wrote:

I keep telling myself I want to learn how to fly really well... then I start flying and lose interest. Repeat cycle. I feel like the flight mechanics in the game aren't nearly as difficult as some other games but for whatever reason it just doesn't click with me. Even when I've gotten the basic flying structure down it all feels so... I don't know what exactly but it isn't fun.

Not that I want them to make flying easier or anything, I think the difficulty and the entry curve is a strong balancing tool. It just looks like a lot of fun sometimes, right up until I actually start doing it.

I put pitch up and pitch down on my side mouse buttons and I found that helped a lot.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Seems like it s a growing problem that people are getting annoyed over. It gets worse the more players there are in an area.

I... wow, that is the most amazingly short-sighted and boneheaded "solution" to population scaling in this game I can imagine.

Anyone else experience network crashes with this game? I can't play more than 5 minutes without my router rebooting. It's the only game I've ever experienced something like this. My entire Linksys router just restarts...as if I pulled the plug on it. And I lose connection to the game servers. Once the router restarts, I can reconnect and 5 minutes later, I'm down again?

Farscry wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Seems like it s a growing problem that people are getting annoyed over. It gets worse the more players there are in an area.

I... wow, that is the most amazingly short-sighted and boneheaded "solution" to population scaling in this game I can imagine.

I see what you did there but only because you got statically rendered.

As a pilot this is what drives me the most crazy about the game:

Seems like it s a growing problem that people are getting annoyed over. It gets worse the more players there are in an area.

Andon wrote:

Anyone else experience network crashes with this game? I can't play more than 5 minutes without my router rebooting. It's the only game I've ever experienced something like this. My entire Linksys router just restarts...as if I pulled the plug on it. And I lose connection to the game servers. Once the router restarts, I can reconnect and 5 minutes later, I'm down again?

Umm, no. That has never happened to me, and I've never heard of such a thing happening to anyone, in any game. Maybe you should go buy a lottery ticket

I did suffer from very frequent client crashes (every 2nd-3rd redeploy, and often just mid-run/shoot/die), but I found a temporary solution to that until they sort out their memory problems - I set my Windows to use 3GB of RAM for "application space" instead of the default 2GB (talking Win7 32 bit here). No more crashes, at all.

This is how you do it, if anyone needs to.

Andon wrote:

Anyone else experience network crashes with this game? I can't play more than 5 minutes without my router rebooting. It's the only game I've ever experienced something like this. My entire Linksys router just restarts...as if I pulled the plug on it. And I lose connection to the game servers. Once the router restarts, I can reconnect and 5 minutes later, I'm down again?

I haven't seen/heard of anything like that happening related directly to PlanetSide2 - but if your router has UPnP enabled, try turning that off.

UPnP is one of those ideas that sounds good on paper, but in execution leads to problems in the long run. In theory, it lets you manage/configure your router easily - without actually having to log into it. In practice, because it (can) allow programs/windows to edit your router settings without the use of a login - strange things sometimes happen.

Disable it, and see if the problem goes away. It's a shot in the dark, but it's something to try.

Tamron wrote:
Farscry wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Seems like it s a growing problem that people are getting annoyed over. It gets worse the more players there are in an area.

I... wow, that is the most amazingly short-sighted and boneheaded "solution" to population scaling in this game I can imagine.

I see what you did there but only because you got statically rendered.

Hah! I didn't even do that intentionally, but I wish I had so I could claim to be that clever.

I'm kind of ashamed to say, but I created a TR alt on one of the other east servers, and I think I kind of like it better than VS. Don't worry I won't be abandoning the QD stuff, I do enjoy those big ops.

Those scope videos are a little out of date. The Vanu 3.4x has a red dot instead of a crosshair for instance.

Farscry wrote:
TempestBlayze wrote:

Seems like it s a growing problem that people are getting annoyed over. It gets worse the more players there are in an area.

I... wow, that is the most amazingly short-sighted and boneheaded "solution" to population scaling in this game I can imagine.

Whats incredibly frustrating about this is that they don't just "disappear", they cease to exist completely from your point of view. You can't see them, you can't shoot them even if you know where they are. If your shot is about to hit them in the face and they vanish it will pass through them like nothing happened. But if they can see YOU they can shoot YOU with invisible projectiles! This is why I despise AA MAXs. Vehicles always show up, but MAXes are counted as infantry. When they attack you all you get is a direction indicator and explosion sounds, but no visuals.

It makes sniping almost impossible at proper "sniping" ranges. I certed the 12x scope, it's a monster! If I stand on the west end of the bridge between the Crown and Ti Alloys I can headshot people standing on the Crown landing pads. People standing at that range are about 1cm tall on my screen, that's how far the 12x will let you see. But when we get this rendering issue you might as well leave it at home and use the default which is 6x. At the ranges you will actually be fighting 12x magnification will let you see people's eyebrows, far too powerful.

It's also a major performance issue in that rapidly loading and de-loading people makes my computer chug, on top of everything else.

wolfstar76 wrote:
Andon wrote:

Anyone else experience network crashes with this game? I can't play more than 5 minutes without my router rebooting. It's the only game I've ever experienced something like this. My entire Linksys router just restarts...as if I pulled the plug on it. And I lose connection to the game servers. Once the router restarts, I can reconnect and 5 minutes later, I'm down again?

I haven't seen/heard of anything like that happening related directly to PlanetSide2 - but if your router has UPnP enabled, try turning that off.

UPnP is one of those ideas that sounds good on paper, but in execution leads to problems in the long run. In theory, it lets you manage/configure your router easily - without actually having to log into it. In practice, because it (can) allow programs/windows to edit your router settings without the use of a login - strange things sometimes happen.

Disable it, and see if the problem goes away. It's a shot in the dark, but it's something to try.

I'm going to try that. I also found a forum post on the SOE forums saying to disable in game voice to help with this problem.

I played a little bit today and so far the best part has been that my user name wasn't taken. But I can see myself liking it, I think I just need to give it more time.

Are any other noobs looking to get together this weekend? I'm not quite ready to join QD as more likely than not I'm only going to play for a week or two, but I definitely wan't to try the game out in a group. My character name is IHateDRM I joined Vanu (Which I keep reading as Vattu) and I'm on WATERSON (east), I'm also willing to start a new character in a different faction.

I enjoyed last night but the map is so busy. Is there a way to turn different squads off? (must be outfit related) Also, as a new guy I have no idea which waypoint I should be following. Now that I think about it, maybe the one that matches the color of your squad? Also, how do you know droppoints are for the opposite team? (color?)

karmajay wrote:

I enjoyed last night but the map is so busy. Is there a way to turn different squads off? (must be outfit related) Also, as a new guy I have no idea which waypoint I should be following. Now that I think about it, maybe the one that matches the color of your squad? Also, how do you know droppoints are for the opposite team? (color?)

If you're in a squad, and the squad leader has set a waypoint, it will show up prominently on the map and be visible in first-person view (big green beacon-looking thing).

Faction deployment beacons are color-coded columns of light for each team, red for TR, blue for NC, purple for VS. You can destroy the beacons by shooting them.

Check the chat-message box in the upper left of your HUD, where high-level players can issue general orders about where to attack/defend.

I still think this game needs a better tutorial. If nothing else, there are a ton of hotkeys and simple tips that make the play experience make a lot more sense. For instance, do you know about the "Q" key? It's context-sensitive messaging. Mostly it's good for calling out enemy targets, which makes them show up for everyone on your minimap.

Also, you can use the "M" key to bring up the map, and from there you can deploy/redeploy to different places on the map.

I went ahead an added my name to the spreadsheet. Caveat: this is the only multiplayer FPS I've ever played and I have no idea what I'm doing. So if you try to communicate with me in some manner and I don't respond, it's either a) I'm overwhelmed by events and don't see it, or b) I can't figure out how to respond.
And not generally being a multiplayer gamer, I've never owned a headset, so voice chat is right out.
Oh, I also suck at games so any friendly-fire incidents are completely accidental, I swear.

I killed my first tank with a Scythe and photon rockets, yay!
I'm gonna save up for the rotary cannon so i can actually shoot down aircraft.
I saw a guy do a Female Doggoin' Herbst maneuver in a Reaver today, he soon shot me down, my following would have resulted in collision with a stone pillar.

TempestBlayze wrote:

Seems like it s a growing problem that people are getting annoyed over. It gets worse the more players there are in an area.

So that's why people go invisible sometimes.

So. About those weapon attachments. I've found them to be irritatingly arbitrary in that some weapons can use certain upgrades and others can't. This is not simply a matter of one weapon being better than another, or more expensive. For instance the default Vanu LMG is called the Orion. You can mount almost any scope or sight on it. Reflex 1x/2x, 3.4x and 4x red dot, 3.4x and 4x with crosshair, and 6x sniper scope. For underbarrel attachments you can put on a laser, a foregrip or a flashlight. With me so far? Ok.

Now since I bought Alpha Squad I got a second LMG called the SV-88, for other people to buy this gun it would cost them 500 certs. The weapons have tiered costs, and there are 5 LMGs in the game. The basic is the Orion (free), the Pulsar is 100 certs, the Flare is 250 certs, the SV-88 is 500 certs and the last one is the Polaris at 1000 certs. If you look at the weapon stats none of them are wholly "better" than the others. If the stat bars can be trusted all of the vanu LMGs have the same damage, except for the Flare. But the Flare has the lowest rate of fire and a bad reload speed. The Orion has the smallest magazine size at 50 but it also reloads the fastest. The Polaris has the worst reload speed but a large capacity of 100. Sidegrades basically.

What isn't sidegrades is how the game handles attachments. The SV-88 and the Orion are almost identical. Except the SV-88 can use High Velocity rounds and a Compensator and the Orion can't. But the Orion can use a Flash Supressor and the SV-88 can't. WHY?!

What's frustrating about this is that you wouldn't know these things until AFTER you purchase the weapon. I bought the Nova shotgun today and it's a lot of fun to use. But when I went to put a 2x reflex sight on it, I discovered that you can't. WHY?! In fact I went and looked on the official wiki page for shotguns. Each faction has three shotguns. A 6-shot automatic, a 6-shot semi-auto with better damage, and an 8-shot extended mag semi-auto version with slower reloads. The Nova is the vanu version of the 8-shot weapon and it can mount every sight EXCEPT the 2x reflex. Neither can the TR version of the same shotgun. But the NC version CAN mount the 2x sight. WHY?!

When I first played the game after the beta ended I thought they removed underbarrel grenades from the game. In fact they are still in, but only certain weapons can use them. Which ones? Hell if I know! You can't even read the wiki and find out because the devs went and changed all of the weapon names!

wolfstar76 wrote:
Andon wrote:

Anyone else experience network crashes with this game? I can't play more than 5 minutes without my router rebooting. It's the only game I've ever experienced something like this. My entire Linksys router just restarts...as if I pulled the plug on it. And I lose connection to the game servers. Once the router restarts, I can reconnect and 5 minutes later, I'm down again?

I haven't seen/heard of anything like that happening related directly to PlanetSide2 - but if your router has UPnP enabled, try turning that off.

UPnP is one of those ideas that sounds good on paper, but in execution leads to problems in the long run. In theory, it lets you manage/configure your router easily - without actually having to log into it. In practice, because it (can) allow programs/windows to edit your router settings without the use of a login - strange things sometimes happen.

Disable it, and see if the problem goes away. It's a shot in the dark, but it's something to try.

I haven't had any issues with my network stuff, but for some reason every time I log on, I'm coming in 15 minutes before a "brief server restart". Almost every time.

Tamren wrote:

What's frustrating about this is that you wouldn't know these things until AFTER you purchase the weapon.

I agree that it's frustrating, but you can find out that information before you purchase the weapon. In the cert tree that lists the weapon you want to look at, click on the weapon to drop down a list of certs (like you would for a weapon you already have.) It will show you all the certs that are available for that weapon.

For the pilots out there, which performance upgrade are you going to spend certs on? I like attacking ground targets so was thinking about the hover ability but the dog fighting one seems more useful.

BNice wrote:

For the pilots out there, which performance upgrade are you going to spend certs on? I like attacking ground targets so was thinking about the hover ability but the dog fighting one seems more useful.

I am air to ground and I have
-Hover ability because you always need more stability when firing rocket pods.
-Composite armor because of pesky flak and people shooting with regular guns.
-Flares for the lock on's. Just make sure when you pop a flare it takes 45 seconds for it to reload so get out of combat if you can.

As for weapons I use:
-Light PPA
-Photon pods with thermal optics