Planetside 2 Catch-All

Is the hover ability noticeable? Can you climb higher with it?

TempestBlayze wrote:
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

See I found the hover capabilities to be pretty good, but I wanted the ability to extend away from attackers so I went with the speed boost. It hasn't been that great, I think it's maybe 5km/h faster so not really worth it. If you were to buy only one thing with station cash make it the A/G rocket pods (or faction equivalent), they work great against both air and ground targets, and are a direct pay2win upgrade

Also, mighty happy with the 150mm unlock on the liberator, especially when Tamren accidentally murders mosquitos with it

FeralMonkey wrote:

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 seriously want to be in your squad. You're a Private Forrest Gump in the making!

Tkyl wrote:

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.

Thanks for the tip. That still doesn't explain why some guns can't mount certain scopes for no reason.

BNice wrote:

Is the hover ability noticeable? Can you climb higher with it?

Not higher no, the flight ceiling is always 1000m over "sea" level. But it does make a difference. Assuming the "Hover" package is a combination of the previous individual upgrades. It does two things.

1. Increases the vertical thrust of your fighter.
2. Decreases the speed that your fighter falls when not flying forward.

The moment you stop moving your fighter will start to float towards the ground. You can counteract this by tapping space and using the thrusters while also holding the brakes. But the more you tip your fighter in one direction or another, the less efficient this becomes. Tilting your fighter will also cause you to move in that direction because your "vertical" thrust becomes more horizontal. This is what makes it hard to strafe things on the ground. You have to constantly counteract gravity or you will simply crash.

The Scythe supposedly has the advantage here. The mosquito has turning and speed. The reaver has armour. And the scythe has the best base hover power.

Stylez wrote:

Also, mighty happy with the 150mm unlock on the liberator, especially when Tamren accidentally murders mosquitos with it

You know how a frag grenade landing nearby will take out your shields and half of your health? The Dalton can do that to TANKS. It's so powerful that just the splash of a near miss can do more damage than a direct rocket hit. The Zepher is definitely better against lots of spread out infantry. But for everything else the Dalton is king.

Stylez wrote:

If you were to buy only one thing with station cash make it the A/G rocket pods (or faction equivalent), they work great against both air and ground targets, and are a direct pay2win upgrade :)

Yeah, I was killed by a surprising variety of weaponry last night; the unlocks are coming fast and furious. The HE 105 had become particularly prevalent and is quite effecting in carpet bombing. The rockets and guided missiles seem to be the fighter "pay to win" weapons of choice.

In other news: I'm starting to improve! I use to only survive in a (stock) fighter for about five seconds in a combat zone, and now I'm up to seven or even -- dare I say -- eight.

Tamren wrote:
BNice wrote:

Is the hover ability noticeable? Can you climb higher with it?

Not higher no, the flight ceiling is always 1000m over "sea" level. But it does make a difference. Assuming the "Hover" package is a combination of the previous individual upgrades. It does two things.

1. Increases the vertical thrust of your fighter.
2. Decreases the speed that your fighter falls when not flying forward.

The moment you stop moving your fighter will start to float towards the ground. You can counteract this by tapping space and using the thrusters while also holding the brakes. But the more you tip your fighter in one direction or another, the less efficient this becomes. Tilting your fighter will also cause you to move in that direction because your "vertical" thrust becomes more horizontal. This is what makes it hard to strafe things on the ground. You have to constantly counteract gravity or you will simply crash.

The Scythe supposedly has the advantage here. The mosquito has turning and speed. The reaver has armour. And the scythe has the best base hover power.

Thanks for the info, I'll probably go with hover then.

...UNLESS THIS IS A SPACE HIPPIE VANU TRICK :O

I wouldn't call the rockets "pay to win". They give you an advantage but you have to properly capitalize on it or else you are no better off than the next guy and his basic cannon. In fact you are worse off because HE has extra afterburner fuel. I have both weapons and I still get shot down all the time by people with just the basic gun.

I made an NC character on the Connery server because that's where DocBadwrench and his clan are. I mostly used it to mess around with the NC weapons and stuff. I like the NC guns a lot. If we had chosen NC instead of Vanu I would have been perfectly happy either way. While I was there I did some flight testing in the Reaver and tried out one of it's gun unlocks.

Some stuff I have learned, from the testing and previous experience:

- Mosquitos on afterburners can actually outrun A2A missiles. Especially if you fire them at maximum range. The missile has a set amount of fuel and when it runs out it just explodes harmlessly. The key to countering this is that they can only do this by flying in a straight line and this makes them easy targets.
- Mosquitos have a MUCH smaller turn radius than Reavers and Scythes. Never get into a turning fight with a mossie, while you fly in circles he can fly a smaller circle inside YOUR circle and keep his gun on you the entire time.
- Reavers handle like a brick. They take time to get up to speed but stay there even after you let off the gas. This makes them hard to land. Vanu pilots really are spoiled in how the Scythe has no landing gear and a smooth undercarriage.
- One thing the Reaver is really bad at is the split-S. If you have one on your tail you can turn around and afterburner directly past him. You will gain a lot of distance by the time he turns around and if you are behind a hill or tree where he can't see you your escape will be scot free.
- The Reaver doesn't have a dedicated air to ground cannon like the Scythe does. Instead it gets the "air hammer" which is, wait for it, a shotgun! Yeah. Tested this out for about 30 minutes. The hammer has a wide spread and fires three shot bursts, semi-auto. If you have ever wanted to reach out and knock over infantry like bowling pins look no further! The damage against vehicles is pretty good too. The big downside is that you really need to use it at point blank range unless your target is big. I did manage to shoot down a scythe and blow up a prowler, so it's certainly not useless.
- Rockets don't have any projectile inheritance. That is to say they fly at the same speed regardless of how fast you are going when you fire them. This makes them poor for chasing other aircraft, especially fighters. Fighter top speeds without afterburners are about 200-240kph. I have never seen someone outrun a rocket, but the rockets don't move much faster that that and if fired at a target from behind they very very slowly creep up on it. It's much easier to land a string of hits if you can catch your target in a turn.
- Each faction has a default cannon and a "rotary" cannon. Compared to the basic cannon it seems to do a little more damage per shot and it fires in rapid bursts instead of long strings. The gun is less accurate with a larger cone of fire. This makes it better for air combat because using the basic cannon is akin to shining a laser pointer on a moving squirrel. Not impossible but you have to be on target and hold it there to do any real damage. The rotary cannon is more like a flashlight beam, you can aim ahead of a target and spray out a cloud of shots into their flight path instead of tracking them smoothly. If all of the rounds hit they can take down fighters very fast, you don't even need rockets or missiles.
- The rotary CAN be used against ground targets, the damage is comparable to the basic laser. The rotary is actually better for attacking infantry up close because the spread makes it easier to hit them. However the ammunition is VERY limited so you need to keep an eye on your ammo levels.

Even with the xp booster, it seems to take a REALLY long time to get certs relative to the cost of the weapons. I guess that's FTP for you. Or maybe I'm just terrible.

And just to clarify, if I unlock something like a forward grip, does that apply only to the weapon I've unlocked it for, or any weapon that could use it?

Sonicator wrote:

Even with the xp booster, it seems to take a REALLY long time to get certs relative to the cost of the weapons. I guess that's FTP for you. Or maybe I'm just terrible.

And just to clarify, if I unlock something like a forward grip, does that apply only to the weapon I've unlocked it for, or any weapon that could use it?

Yeah I really want both heavy homing weapons but there 1000 apiece. I'm rank 10 and altogether I think I've earned like 500 certs total. I got about 100 or so save up right now so it's a long hike.

I noticed that you get cert rewards for killing with specific weapons (x certs for each milestone) as well as for every 250xp. You also get cert points when offline at around 1 per 6 hours.. not sure what the cap on that is though.

Valmorian wrote:

I noticed that you get cert rewards for killing with specific weapons (x certs for each milestone) as well as for every 250xp. You also get cert points when offline at around 1 per 6 hours.. not sure what the cap on that is though.

1 per 6 hours? so 4 a day. 28 a week. 1456 a year. That's pretty damn slow really, I'd figure it to be double at least.

master0 wrote:

I'm rank 10 and altogether I think I've earned like 500 certs total. I got about 100 or so save up right now so it's a long hike.

Whoa -- I'm rank 6 and I have like 75 total. I wonder why it's so different?

I'm not finding Cert gain to be much of a problem I seem to get around 50-100 in an hour of play if I’m doing really well. I caved an purchased the weapon I really wanted with station cash but was able to cert for the forward grip, compensator, and 2x reflex sight in about two days. I've also certed out a lot of other miscellaneous things like Nanoweave up to two or three and the shield for HA up to the same.

As an aside I Love This Game!

Maybe it's just the times that I play but it seems like the new playstyle for all the factions is zerg 1 continent and abandon the other 2, leaving each continent with 60+% of one faction population. Haven't seen many big battles, mostly just rolls.

master0 wrote:

1 per 6 hours? so 4 a day. 28 a week. 1456 a year. That's pretty damn slow really, I'd figure it to be double at least.

Well consider that's when you are not even playing the game, it's not bad. 250 XP is EASY to get in the game (Capping a small base can get you that) and each 250 XP is a cert too.. so yeah, getting certs is faster when playing...

I don't find it all that bad, considering you can compete without having to get the high cost certification abilities.

I've given this a whirl a couple of times. I must say, getting gunned down before I can set up my key bindings doesn't leave the best first impression. They could at least let you set all that crap from the main menu.

The scale of the game is certainly impressive, but the actual fighting feels slow and really imprecise (save for the dying, that happens all too quickly). I could probably alleviate some of that by tweaking my mouse settings and such, but the game never really gave me time to dial that in. I think some of that could also be the starting gear... is it significantly different from the more advanced stuff?

Archangel wrote:
master0 wrote:

I'm rank 10 and altogether I think I've earned like 500 certs total. I got about 100 or so save up right now so it's a long hike.

Whoa -- I'm rank 6 and I have like 75 total. I wonder why it's so different?

[quote=Archangel]

master0 wrote:

I'm rank 10 and altogether I think I've earned like 500 certs total. I got about 100 or so save up right now so it's a long hike.

Well I was guestimating and now that you made me thing about it, I doubt I've hit five hundered.

30 for reflex scope, 50 for mobile spawn, 20 for all the first level zoom, ammo, and armor. 20 in repair speed. about 75 in jetpack. And a 110 stored for a rainy day. So more like 300 total. One thing to note is that the first few ranks are pretty quick then it seems to slow down quite a bit.

Vargen wrote:

I've given this a whirl a couple of times. I must say, getting gunned down before I can set up my key bindings doesn't leave the best first impression. They could at least let you set all that crap from the main menu.

The scale of the game is certainly impressive, but the actual fighting feels slow and really imprecise (save for the dying, that happens all too quickly). I could probably alleviate some of that by tweaking my mouse settings and such, but the game never really gave me time to dial that in. I think some of that could also be the starting gear... is it significantly different from the more advanced stuff?

Actually one of the bigger complaints is the fighting is too fast and that too much damage to quick. Don't worry about the advance stuff their still isn't much difference gear wise between newbies and pros.

That being said this game is quite complicated and has a horrible tutorial that teaches you nothing but how to die. I've been playing a lot since the beta and still figuring out new things. Try rolling with us vent one day, it's way better that way.

Also as someone noted each side tends to accumulate on one continent each, and it kind of makes things a bit dumb. Usually means you roll over most stuff deal you hit a good defense point with someone guarding it. Still the ebb and flow of the map and battles mean eventually you have a good fight.

Oh and big tips for newbies:

Look up, as a light assault I have gotten glorious amount of kills hiding in elevated places.

strange double post, didn't even click twice.

You can see exactly how many certs you have earned in your career. Just look at your profile page.

Vargen wrote:

I've given this a whirl a couple of times. I must say, getting gunned down before I can set up my key bindings doesn't leave the best first impression. They could at least let you set all that crap from the main menu.

The scale of the game is certainly impressive, but the actual fighting feels slow and really imprecise (save for the dying, that happens all too quickly). I could probably alleviate some of that by tweaking my mouse settings and such, but the game never really gave me time to dial that in. I think some of that could also be the starting gear... is it significantly different from the more advanced stuff?

When I kill a person coming down in a drop pod and the game tells me he was BR1, I feel bad. He probably has no clue why he just died.

Sonicator wrote:

Even with the xp booster, it seems to take a REALLY long time to get certs relative to the cost of the weapons. I guess that's FTP for you. Or maybe I'm just terrible.

And just to clarify, if I unlock something like a forward grip, does that apply only to the weapon I've unlocked it for, or any weapon that could use it?

Only the weapon that uses it, but it can be used by any class that uses that weapon. I bought a carbine and certed it out so bothbmy light assault and engineer could use it.

I think I would find this game unplayable without an outfit. In beta I tried playing in random squads and I was mostly just frustrated. I typically run with one or two platoons now and there's always an AMS Sundy or some kind of plan so when someone goes down they get revived or can get back into the fight with the team.

Needless to say I think the best solo cert gain I ever got was as an engineer providing ammo for people stuck in the bio-dome area that's shielded for the attacker. They were stuck in and firing out and I racked up points. You can get a similar benefit in normal bases if there's a few anti-air max around firing non-stop.

I feel like an AMS sundy probably gives good cert gain too, but I cannot seem to place a bus without getting it obliterated before people spawn on it. I gotta learn where to park these things.

i38warhawk wrote:

When I kill a person coming down in a drop pod and the game tells me he was BR1, I feel bad. He probably has no clue why he just died.

Eh, it's a shooter. You're gonna get shot. I don't hate the enemy players for shooting me, I hate the game for keeping me away from the keybind screen until I'm under fire.

Vargen wrote:
i38warhawk wrote:

When I kill a person coming down in a drop pod and the game tells me he was BR1, I feel bad. He probably has no clue why he just died.

Eh, it's a shooter. You're gonna get shot. I don't hate the enemy players for shooting me, I hate the game for keeping me away from the keybind screen until I'm under fire.

Yeah. Though, to be fair, it's not just Planetside that does it. I'm a leftie, so my controls are basically FUBAR until I hit the settings screen, in any given game.

Also, I'm basically ineffective as anything other than a pure medic. Whenever I try to fire at something, the game drops to a frame every other second. If hit-detection is clientside, are they trying to raycast against everything in renderdistance or something?

(Also, thanks to FeralMonkey, who saved my bacon about 5 times.)

As much fun as it is, I may have to lay off until I get better hardware, or they fix the engine a little. 60 frames per minute is not really playable.

Do I misunderstand the HA class? I know it's impossible to really tell who began shooting first, but even if the server actually engages my extra shield before the firefight is over, even when I win I have a sliver of health left. It just seems like an LMG outta kill faster, yes? And this is against non-HA classes too.
Perhaps my aim just sucks or I depress the trigger too long, ruining my cone of fire, I dunno.

Check this out, might help some of you guys getting horrible frames.

Super n00b question: When you first register and enter a "station name," is that your character name?

So I read that they plan to make station cash across servers and make it retro active. Any idea if there are plans to refund cash if you bought let's say heavy helmet for VS character and a heavy helmet for a TR character on a different server? Hope so otherwise I better stop buying weapons and armor for my multiple characters :-O

Ok some buddies have convinced me to start playing and I'm also interested in joining the GWJ team. Here's the problem - I'm not so great at shooters. Is Planetside more like TF 2 where you don't necessarily have to be a super duper FPSer to have fun, or is it more like Counterstrike where I'm just going to be setting myself for a lot of pain? Also, what's a good class if you prefer support over running and gunning?