Planetside 2 Catch-All

wolfstar76 wrote:
Jaegor wrote:
wolfstar76 wrote:

A better offer

Dang, wolf. That was fast!

Can't let good soldiers slip through the VS's fingers!

You mean... can't let potential cult members get away with their brains still functioning!

On Waterson I have a few people that I regularly play with and we are trying to flesh out the Outfit.

We are Terran Replublic scum that like to gang up on unsuspecting vanu scum and NC scum.

If you are TR on Waterson and are looking for a gang to hang with please send me a PM. we have a Vent server as well so I'll have to get you in there cause that's how we roll.

the guild site is at http://www.fallenangelsclan.com

I'm not surprised about the rockets; they've been devastating and omnipresent. I can't even remember the last time my ground vehicle was destroyed by something other than air-to-ground rockets. It's like everyone read the memo that they were "the win button" -- and in my extremely limited experience, they were -- and certed them up.

wolfstar76 wrote:

They'd only be hurting themselves (especially if they go NC. . .)

Aw, man -- are NC the whipping boys now? I heard that in beta they rolled over everyone so they were nerfed.

Whelp. I know what I'm doing.

Strangeblades wrote:

Whelp. I know what I'm doing.

Feeling guilty about playing Planet Side 2 all day instead of something productive? Because that's certainly what I intend to do with my weekend.

SO mad that I'm away from home on training for work.

Won't be back until mid-afternoon on Saturday. That's like, a whole DAY lost. :/

IHateDRM wrote:
Strangeblades wrote:

Whelp. I know what I'm doing.

Feeling guilty about playing Planet Side 2 all day instead of something productive? Because that's certainly what I intend to do with my weekend. ;)

Awesome, there goes the weekend. Not like I was gonna do anything useful anyways.

Edit: Also losing the ability to fire homing rockets in dumb mode makes a lot of sense. Otherwise the basic rocket launcher has no advantages over the homing.

Aaaaand... I think I'm out. Put in a good few more hours. Made some kills. Died some more. Captured an entire base by myself - because no one else was around. Bought a bike and drove to a huge biodome. Made some more kills. Died some more. Still not having fun.

I just don't know what the heck's going on. One tip was join a squad, but I don't understand the benefit of this. I didn't seem attached to a group in any way. Also, why is the iconography so poor and why is there no in-game key? I never know who to shoot because the character models all look the same and I shouldn't have to manually target someone who's ten feet in front of me. Deploying into an area is also extremely disorienting and I often just run for miles with no one in sight. Still can't figure out the map and where best to deploy.

I appreciate that it's free, and would happily pay up (like I did for Tribes) if I was going to invest any amount of time. But I just feel like this game doesn't respect the player's time. It just falls down introducing itself to new players and with precious little time for gaming, I have just got to move on.

I'm beginning to think that over the long run, this game can be rather friendly to solo players as well. I noticed today that people are beginning to grasp the general ideas of the game. Enough people know all the requisite steps to capturing a base. Enough know to mix and match the different units to achieve optimum effectiveness. It is also fun and kind of weird to see strangers willingly sharing the various responsibilities on the battlefield as the need arise. It is great for me as a solo player, because now I can switch class on the fly and roll with any group and be reasonably confident that the group knows what it is doing. I don't need to discuss strategies at length with strangers to get things done. The battlefield takes on a whole new look when it is populated with experienced players. I could see the front line twist and bend over the course of a battle as various splinter groups progress and retreat. It was pretty cool.

PaladinTom wrote:

Aaaaand... I think I'm out. Put in a good few more hours. Made some kills. Died some more. Captured an entire base by myself - because no one else was around. Bought a bike and drove to a huge biodome. Made some more kills. Died some more. Still not having fun.

I just don't know what the heck's going on. One tip was join a squad, but I don't understand the benefit of this. I didn't seem attached to a group in any way. Also, why is the iconography so poor and why is there no in-game key? I never know who to shoot because the character models all look the same and I shouldn't have to manually target someone who's ten feet in front of me. Deploying into an area is also extremely disorienting and I often just run for miles with no one in sight. Still can't figure out the map and where best to deploy.

I appreciate that it's free, and would happily pay up (like I did for Tribes) if I was going to invest any amount of time. But I just feel like this game doesn't respect the player's time. It just falls down introducing itself to new players and with precious little time for gaming, I have just got to move on.

I agree with a lot of what your saying. This game need another month or two in beta still. There is no good tutorial for a game this complex, the meta game is weak, and a whole lot of balancing, bugs, etc needed to be done. When the game gets humming it's like nothing else, but it can't take a lot of work for that. Which sounds a lot like the first planetside. Oh and yeah the color scheme and models are pretty awful.

That being said PaladinTom, when we said join a squad we meant find an active one we communicated. This game is complex but if you were to run with a decent group, you'd wind up understanding most of it pretty fast. Check the gwj vent channel, especially this weekend.

master0 wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:

Aaaaand... I think I'm out. Put in a good few more hours. Made some kills. Died some more. Captured an entire base by myself - because no one else was around. Bought a bike and drove to a huge biodome. Made some more kills. Died some more. Still not having fun.

I just don't know what the heck's going on. One tip was join a squad, but I don't understand the benefit of this. I didn't seem attached to a group in any way. Also, why is the iconography so poor and why is there no in-game key? I never know who to shoot because the character models all look the same and I shouldn't have to manually target someone who's ten feet in front of me. Deploying into an area is also extremely disorienting and I often just run for miles with no one in sight. Still can't figure out the map and where best to deploy.

I appreciate that it's free, and would happily pay up (like I did for Tribes) if I was going to invest any amount of time. But I just feel like this game doesn't respect the player's time. It just falls down introducing itself to new players and with precious little time for gaming, I have just got to move on.

I agree with a lot of what your saying. This game need another month or two in beta still. There is no good tutorial for a game this complex, the meta game is weak, and a whole lot of balancing, bugs, etc needed to be done. When the game gets humming it's like nothing else, but it can't take a lot of work for that. Which sounds a lot like the first planetside. Oh and yeah the color scheme and models are pretty awful.

That being said PaladinTom, when we said join a squad we meant find an active one we communicated. This game is complex but if you were to run with a decent group, you'd wind up understanding most of it pretty fast. Check the gwj vent channel, especially this weekend.

You don't like the color schemes and models? What about? Communicating information to players? Just no love for PS2's aesthetics?

Strangeblades wrote:
master0 wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:

Aaaaand... I think I'm out. Put in a good few more hours. Made some kills. Died some more. Captured an entire base by myself - because no one else was around. Bought a bike and drove to a huge biodome. Made some more kills. Died some more. Still not having fun.

I just don't know what the heck's going on. One tip was join a squad, but I don't understand the benefit of this. I didn't seem attached to a group in any way. Also, why is the iconography so poor and why is there no in-game key? I never know who to shoot because the character models all look the same and I shouldn't have to manually target someone who's ten feet in front of me. Deploying into an area is also extremely disorienting and I often just run for miles with no one in sight. Still can't figure out the map and where best to deploy.

I appreciate that it's free, and would happily pay up (like I did for Tribes) if I was going to invest any amount of time. But I just feel like this game doesn't respect the player's time. It just falls down introducing itself to new players and with precious little time for gaming, I have just got to move on.

I agree with a lot of what your saying. This game need another month or two in beta still. There is no good tutorial for a game this complex, the meta game is weak, and a whole lot of balancing, bugs, etc needed to be done. When the game gets humming it's like nothing else, but it can't take a lot of work for that. Which sounds a lot like the first planetside. Oh and yeah the color scheme and models are pretty awful.

That being said PaladinTom, when we said join a squad we meant find an active one we communicated. This game is complex but if you were to run with a decent group, you'd wind up understanding most of it pretty fast. Check the gwj vent channel, especially this weekend.

You don't like the color schemes and models? What about? Communicating information to players? Just no love for PS2's aesthetics?

It's not the best design. The vanu and nc colors are too similar for one thing, and worse due to how the patterns for the colors on the clothes are they don't stand out much. The real thing though is basically the silhouettes of the characters and vehicles. Valve figured this a while back with tf2, that it easier to recognize something by it's silhouette then by color, hence the distinctive shape of all the tf2 classes. Everyone has the same basic look in that sense, and worse so do the vehicles. They should have created a unique design for each vehicle and fraction. Really though it's the infantry combat that suffers the most from it.

Now what I think they should have done design wise is really change how each side looks. Give the Vanu a much sleeker thinner look. Change their frame to be bordering on alien. Make the TR large and in charge, bulky looking powerhouse or something. NC could be the middle ground and stay the same. That way at a single glance you can tell a person's fraction. Do the same thing with classes and you're gold.

As it is right now it takes way too much practice for something that's usually simpler in other games.

Personally I like the aesthetics, I especially like that the female armour is practical. It shouldn't be a big deal, but damn that's refreshing and not nearly as common as it should be. As a game it's not very stylised, but I like that it's taking a more realistic approach. It almost feels like someone took the aesthetic of Battlefield 3 and fast-forwarded it to the future.

Maybe it's because I'm playing as the NC. I wasn't a huge fan of playing as the Vanu, but they make great villains as far as I'm concerned.

master0 wrote:

Now what I think they should have done design wise is really change how each side looks. Give the Vanu a much sleeker thinner look. Change their frame to be bordering on alien. Make the TR large and in charge, bulky looking powerhouse or something. NC could be the middle ground and stay the same. That way at a single glance you can tell a person's fraction. Do the same thing with classes and you're gold.

I don't disagree with this, but if you're going that way, switch the NC and TR. Make the NC beefcakes, which matches more with their vehicle and weapon stats.

But they already are the beefcakes. They have by far the most armour on average of each of the factions.

Go into the game and examine the composite armour upgrades. There is a very clear Rounded-Angular-Spiky split between the infantry armour aesthetics. This is especially obvious when you look at the upgraded MAX units. The NC max is basically the Juggernaut.

PaladinTom wrote:

I just don't know what the heck's going on.

I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble enjoying the game. The main thing the game doesn't teach you is how to FIND the fighting. Because fighting by yourself accomplishes almost nothing. I would be happy to show you the ropes on ventrilo sometime.

I'm also getting familiar enough with the game to write a beginner's guide. Should I do this for GWJ? I could include pictures.

Redwing wrote:
master0 wrote:

Now what I think they should have done design wise is really change how each side looks. Give the Vanu a much sleeker thinner look. Change their frame to be bordering on alien. Make the TR large and in charge, bulky looking powerhouse or something. NC could be the middle ground and stay the same. That way at a single glance you can tell a person's fraction. Do the same thing with classes and you're gold.

I don't disagree with this, but if you're going that way, switch the NC and TR. Make the NC beefcakes, which matches more with their vehicle and weapon stats.

Just some throwing out ideas really. I actually think the design looks fine, I just don't think it's functional enough, especially for what they are trying to do. Most multiplayer games have only two sides who start on opposite sides of the map, every time. This makes enemy spotting much easier.

Tamren wrote:

But they already are the beefcakes. They have by far the most armour on average of each of the factions.

Go into the game and examine the composite armour upgrades. There is a very clear Rounded-Angular-Spiky split between the infantry armour aesthetics. This is especially obvious when you look at the upgraded MAX units. The NC max is basically the Juggernaut.

See that's the thing. The fractions do have that sort of uniquess but you will never see it unless you look carefully. Those details add some nice flavor but are useless for spotting stuff. Even just identifiying a person's class is pretty hard. It should be that a quick glance should tell me instantly what side and class a person is on. MAXs are actually done right in planetside. They have a unique frame so you'll never confuse them with infantry and they have a really bright a sold color scheme. There also distinct enough shape and look wise. All the classes and vehicles should be like that.

This is a pretty big flaw that would require a major overhaul of all three sides, so the odds of it happening are slim to nil. Still it's nice to imagine.

master0 wrote:
Redwing wrote:
master0 wrote:

Now what I think they should have done design wise is really change how each side looks. Give the Vanu a much sleeker thinner look. Change their frame to be bordering on alien. Make the TR large and in charge, bulky looking powerhouse or something. NC could be the middle ground and stay the same. That way at a single glance you can tell a person's fraction. Do the same thing with classes and you're gold.

I don't disagree with this, but if you're going that way, switch the NC and TR. Make the NC beefcakes, which matches more with their vehicle and weapon stats.

Just some throwing out ideas really. I actually think the design looks fine, I just don't think it's functional enough, especially for what they are trying to do. Most multiplayer games have only two sides who start on opposite sides of the map, every time. This makes enemy spotting much easier.

Tamren wrote:

But they already are the beefcakes. They have by far the most armour on average of each of the factions.

Go into the game and examine the composite armour upgrades. There is a very clear Rounded-Angular-Spiky split between the infantry armour aesthetics. This is especially obvious when you look at the upgraded MAX units. The NC max is basically the Juggernaut.

See that's the thing. The fractions do have that sort of uniquess but you will never see it unless you look carefully. Those details add some nice flavor but are useless for spotting stuff. Even just identifiying a person's class is pretty hard. It should be that a quick glance should tell me instantly what side and class a person is on. MAXs are actually done right in planetside. They have a unique frame so you'll never confuse them with infantry and they have a really bright a sold color scheme. There also distinct enough shape and look wise. All the classes and vehicles should be like that.

This is a pretty big flaw that would require a major overhaul of all three sides, so the odds of it happening are slim to nil. Still it's nice to imagine.

I've killed several of my own teammates simply because they wore some kind of camouflage, so I have to agree that the game could make much better use of silhouettes.

The problem is that Planetside's "look" is semi-realistic, not stylized-cartoon like TF2. The armies are made of men (and women), wearing armor/uniform, and thus have the same shape; there's really nothing to be done about that.

How is this handled in every non-TF2 shooter? Battlefield? UT2004? COD? CS? TF2's major innovations (among others) were its extreme stylization and attention to player visual focus, but that's not transportable to (semi) realistic games. As you say, the MAXes* work because they're giant robots and thus can be stylized. But this game isn't Warhammer 40K or something where the look and shape of each faction's units is wildly different.

(* Note also that the faction-specific vehicles look wildly different from each other.)

The onine FPS "standard" has been: anyone without a "friendly" indicator should be shot. I think all online FPSes do this, and Planetside does too with the little arrows above their heads. Heck, it even goes a step further and puts a red arrow over enemies' heads, which is uncommon in gaming. So the design is sound and consistent on that front. Perhaps it's just that the arrows don't always show due to range or server flakiness that's the problem?

Friendly fire happens in the real world too, and silhouettes and uniform colors are hard to make out. Even the visual difference between a real-life rifleman or machine gunner are almost unnoticeable. The choice to cleave to "realism" makes the game harder, but it's something that we accept as part of the design -- just like the more customary military shooters.

Also: It becomes much easier with experience, trust me. I'm still a noob at this and it's better all the time. It was definitely disorienting at first, but it's much better tagging along in a squad. Even if you don't know what you're doing, you can follow along with those who do.

I tested out the A30 Walker post-patch using the trial system. It's pretty good now, rather like a fighter basic cannon only much more accurate. It shoots like a laser beam and the bullets move VERY fast. Not sure what the damage is like, but it is a clear upgrade from the Basilisk against air targets. Consider getting it if you use a Liberator a lot, only 250 certs.

It is clearly an antiaircraft weapon though. You can't depress the barrels lower than 0 degrees when it is mounted on a tank.

I also had a look at that optimization guide posted up-thread.

- After turning off desktop composition the game runs MUCH MUCH better, hot damn. (this disables Aero while PS2 is running) My framerate is still crap but it runs smoothly now with far fewer sudden slowdowns. I'm terrible at combat all over again because I learned to compensate for the hitches and now I have to retrain myself. It's a nice problem to have at least.
- "unboxing" the cores or whatever it was doesn't work for dual cores so I skipped that.
- My ini file is set to the default low setting for everything except textures. With high textures and low everything else the game still looks GREAT.

For choosing a rendering distance this is down to personal preference. 1000 is far too low, you will feel like you are fighting inside a snowglobe. I tried 5000 and I like it a lot, I can be fighting at one main base and see the neighbouring ones poking out of the fog. The game will let you set any value you want, MAKE SURE YOU SET SOMETHING SANE. There is no way to change this from within the game and the default setting is a ridiculous 999999, that lets you see clear across a continent to the other side.

I know a lot of you guys play with QD and that's fine, but I got Pikey into NNG tonight on Mattherson. Low commitment with people playing very late into the night. Might not have multiple platoons running at all times, but we do have a good relationship with some off the other large outfits on the server. Lot's of coordinated assaults during peak hours, and one of the only three cont cap I've heard off.

i38warhawk wrote:

I know a lot of you guys play with QD and that's fine, but I got Pikey into NNG tonight on Mattherson. Low commitment with people playing very late into the night. Might not have multiple platoons running at all times, but we do have a good relationship with some off the other large outfits on the server. Lot's of coordinated assaults during peak hours, and one of the only three cont cap I've heard off.

Welcome to NNG! Make sure you fill out an application on the website too, if you please.

When I'm back home tomorrow, I'll look for ya.

wolfstar76 wrote:
i38warhawk wrote:

I know a lot of you guys play with QD and that's fine, but I got Pikey into NNG tonight on Mattherson. Low commitment with people playing very late into the night. Might not have multiple platoons running at all times, but we do have a good relationship with some off the other large outfits on the server. Lot's of coordinated assaults during peak hours, and one of the only three cont cap I've heard off.

Welcome to NNG! Make sure you fill out an application on the website too, if you please.

When I'm back home tomorrow, I'll look for ya. :)

Look for Pikey, I've been playing since beta friend!

Tamren wrote:

- After turning off desktop composition the game runs MUCH MUCH better, hot damn. (this disables Aero while PS2 is running)

This one change made a huge difference for me.

Archangel wrote:

Heck, it even goes a step further and puts a red arrow over enemies' heads, which is uncommon in gaming. So the design is sound and consistent on that front. Perhaps it's just that the arrows don't always show due to range or server flakiness that's the problem?

Enemies are only tagged if they've been "spotted" by you or a friendly player in your squad/platoon. This is accomplished by hitting the 'Q' key while an enemy is near your crosshairs. Note that enemies can hear you when you "spot" them, so don't do it if you're trying to remain undetected.

This double XP weekend is gonna do wonders for my cert gain. Flew around my liberator with Tamren riding shotgun, I cleared 170 certs in 2.5 hours, and Tam was in the 260-270 range I believe.

Sounds fun I'm going to jump on later tonight,
I'll get on Vent, hope to see some of you there.

Archangel wrote:

The problem is that Planetside's "look" is semi-realistic, not stylized-cartoon like TF2. The armies are made of men (and women), wearing armor/uniform, and thus have the same shape; there's really nothing to be done about that.

How is this handled in every non-TF2 shooter? Battlefield? UT2004? COD? CS? TF2's major innovations (among others) were its extreme stylization and attention to player visual focus, but that's not transportable to (semi) realistic games. As you say, the MAXes* work because they're giant robots and thus can be stylized. But this game isn't Warhammer 40K or something where the look and shape of each faction's units is wildly different.

(* Note also that the faction-specific vehicles look wildly different from each other.)

The onine FPS "standard" has been: anyone without a "friendly" indicator should be shot. I think all online FPSes do this, and Planetside does too with the little arrows above their heads. Heck, it even goes a step further and puts a red arrow over enemies' heads, which is uncommon in gaming. So the design is sound and consistent on that front. Perhaps it's just that the arrows don't always show due to range or server flakiness that's the problem?

Friendly fire happens in the real world too, and silhouettes and uniform colors are hard to make out. Even the visual difference between a real-life rifleman or machine gunner are almost unnoticeable. The choice to cleave to "realism" makes the game harder, but it's something that we accept as part of the design -- just like the more customary military shooters.

Also: It becomes much easier with experience, trust me. I'm still a noob at this and it's better all the time. It was definitely disorienting at first, but it's much better tagging along in a squad. Even if you don't know what you're doing, you can follow along with those who do.

I can handle figuring out who to shoot, I've gotten used to it a long time ago in the beta. Even with that though every now and then I'll mess up and not realize I'm staring right at the enemy. Ten times worse at night.

Now it's like you said Planetside is a semi-realistic design. They went for that because well the realistic looking stuff sells. It just doesn't work as well here. Call of duty is much more constrained compared to planetside. The distance in a firefight is much larger and you never really have a secure setting. Not to mention having three sides makes it even more complicated. Functionality wise they should have gone for a less realistic look, hell I'd love to see the design made cell shaded. That said I understand that going the call of duty route is an easier sell.

Overall it could have been done much better. I can think of a few design changes off the top of my head to at least make classes more identifiable. A good example of them doing it half right is the vehicles. Some of the vehicles are distinct per side and easy to spot and identify who and what they are. Others are the same for all three sides and that slows it down. I had it happen many times staring at a liberator or galaxy and wondering if it's a friendly or not. Couple that with the whole q to spot not working to great, and you have a problem.

I also have to disagree with the idea that they couldn't distinguish them better because of going more realistic. Overall a lot of the game is designed to be working just not working well. None of the interfaces are all that fluid or natural and certification is quite clunky. I would literally throw away half the menus and interfaces if I could.

All these complaints aside I'm still going to be playing quite a bit this weekend. It's just this is bad for the future of the game. For the average new player this game is incredible frustrating, and it's only going to get worse with time as the skill gap grows. This will either kill the game or only leave a group of diehards still playing.

Is anyone else running 32 bit Vista and not crashing every ten minutes? My DirectX and video card drivers are current, but I'm seeing a lot of people on the forums with similar problems. I get a crash to desktop and "Planetside2.exe has stopped working..." message.

I'm going to run through the "How to play PlanetSide 2 with the best FPS!" link provided up-thread, maybe I'll stumble across something causing the crash.

Was nice to be surrounded by [DAWN] tags as we were capping and defending Tawrich on Thursday night. I never did so many points just being a repair monkey for the MAX's and dropping ammo.