Planetside 2 Catch-All

Improved camo preview is part of the roadmap for this month, so... coming soon I guess?

Had another "planetside moment" today. Most of you have probably fought over Quartz Ridge Encampment in western Indar. The base is a weird shape, it's a sorta-crater that slopes upward with a bunch of ridges dividing the bowl into channels. The capture points are all in buildings connected by bridges and side paths.

So I spawned in and saw some NC tanks rolling up the middle of the base and tried running over there. Only if you don't follow the bridges it's VERY hard to get around that base, I promptly slipped off the side of a ridge, fell onto the road and came face to face with a bunch of NC sunderers. The sunderers were quite surprised to see me and ground to a halt. We stared at each other for a second, then the lead driver switched over to his turret and started firing at me.

So I was all like COME AT ME BRO, pulled out my AT mines and charged at him.

What ensued was this reverse-running of the bulls with sunderers fleeing backwards in panic down this narrow trench, bouncing off each other, glancing off the walls and flipping over. I really wish I could have recorded it.

Oh, wow.

This is exactly what I was looking for. They beat SOE to it, they win. http://www.heavysden.com/ps2/ps2_pre...

Last night we were taking Allatum with light resistance and had the base capped to about 75%. The the siren call came across the comms that there were at least 20 gals heading for the base. I rushed the pad to meet our defenders only to see them empty. The gals were leaving. I ran back in to the base to continue our attack. Several seconds later at least 100 soldier burst out of the teleporter from the bottom of the biolab. I threw my two grenades, and got a handful of kills, but our small platoon couldn't stop the torrent of men pouring into the base. We were hopelessly outnumbered, but it was an awesome sight.

So I just installed this last night and created a Vanu character, and I am feeling really overwhelmed. Do you all play together or do you just tend to group up with nearby people when you play? Do most of you purchase spacebucks or do you earn all your unlocks the hard way? Also, do you all have any tips for n00bs?

A good starting point is youtube searches of Planetside 2. There are instructional videos for every class, vehicle and weapon.
Hop around to different classes a bit, but try to rotate through them slowly enough to get a decent taste for each.
Sit back and watch battles a little bit
Follow crowds
Grab a Tank!
If you're in a Tank, be an Engineer
See if you can get a gunner seat in a Liberator
Try out the MAX
Turn on auto-resupply for grenades
If you buy something with certs, be sure to equip it!

I mostly join random squads when I log in. Havent been able to get in my friend's outfit still. I also have bought about $40 worth of spacebucks so far. 1000 certs is WAY too much to spend on a new weapon that, odds are, is very similar to other available weapons and Im not that patient. Once you get into a groove of getting a few kills per session and especially if you find yourself rolling with a large platoon, grab yourself an XP boost and a medkit. Rake in those Certs!

There's a lot of general certs that you can unlock for 1 point, I'd use them as a kind of checklist while you try out everything. You get a basic competence in almost everything straight from the start, and generally certs will be used for enhancing what you've got (class abilities, per-weapon attachments), and smedbucks used for unlocking weapons and cosmetics. Within a class weapons are generally either variants (shoots slower, more damage per bullet, etc) or a few different ones (SMG, shotgun).

EriktheRed wrote:

So I just installed this last night and created a Vanu character, and I am feeling really overwhelmed. Do you all play together or do you just tend to group up with nearby people when you play? Do most of you purchase spacebucks or do you earn all your unlocks the hard way? Also, do you all have any tips for n00bs?

I switch back and forth between joining a squad, joining a zerg, and soloing-except my version of soloing is to try to find a zerg. If you want squad play, join an outfit, that way there should be a usable platoon most of the time (sometimes just hitting insert to auto join isn't great cause sometimes people join squads but don't bother to link up and play together).

Spacebucks: I got the alpha squad thing so I was pretty set, but given the prices and I have most of everything I need already, I just wait until the smedbucks go on sale. I only spend money on my main, but apparently the alpha squad boost can be applied to all characters, but I don't know about other boosts.

#1 Tip: Sound is more important in this game than any other I have ever played.

#2 Tip, Look at your mini-map, (especially when I fly by with a 200 meter scout radar).

#3 Tip, Camo works, nobody will be invisible, but due to the similarity in colors and whatnot (especially Vanu vs NC), it sometimes makes me hesitate for a tenth of a second or so and guess what? You and your opponent probably have the same time-to-kill (TTK).

EriktheRed wrote:

So I just installed this last night and created a Vanu character, and I am feeling really overwhelmed. Do you all play together or do you just tend to group up with nearby people when you play? Do most of you purchase spacebucks or do you earn all your unlocks the hard way? Also, do you all have any tips for n00bs?

My main character isn't on the server with the GWJ folks, but I do have one there. However, it's a lower-level character without the fun toys. If you're patient, the most cost-effective way to play is to buy a smedbucks gift card and redeem it when Sony does a 2x-3x promotion, and then buy individual weapons when they are part of a daily deal.

It's completely possible to play without purchasing smedbucks. There are lots of things in the 30-50 cert range that will make you far more effective for your preferred class. My recommendation for your first few certs:

- 1 cert for a level 1 suit upgrade (nanoweave is popular, as is flak armor)
- 10 certs for a level 2 ability upgrade (e.g. medic tool, engineer tool, jet pack, etc.)
- 30 certs for weapon optics (I like the 2x reflex scope)

There are a ton of 1-cert upgrades that are generally useful, but it's better to save up a bit and specialize in one class before you diversify too much. Oh, and don't forget that you have to equip the things that you've purchased by assigning them to slots.

As a special mention, it's worthwhile saving 50 certs to get the Sunderer AMS upgrade. Why you don't get this by default it sort of puzzling, but it really changes the game when you're able to deploy mobile spawn points.

Tips for new players:
- People have a harder time hitting moving targets, especially ones that zig-zag around.
- You're more accurate when aiming down sights (ADS) with the right mouse button, but you move more slowly.
- Don't forget to "spot" enemies by tapping the 'Q' key when an enemy is near your crosshairs.
- When you see the bright red grenade warning, run away from it!
- Glance at your minimap when you hear gunfire.
- Learn to identify the different sounds in the game. (This takes some practice.)
- Those glowing columns of light are spawn beacons. They're color-coded by faction. They can be destroyed if shot.
- You can aim drop-pods as you're falling.
- Different types of shields block different types of things. You'll learn about this through experience.
- Mixed-type MAX suits are far less effective than specialized MAX suits, but they're still pretty decent.
- The game is really about controlling spawn locations; AMS Sunderers can make or break an offensive.

Class-specific tips:
- Engineers can hit 'B' to convert the turret into an ammo pack.
- Light assault jumpjets are automatically activated when you hold the spacebar (jump).
- The medic's top priority is to stay alive; clear the area before healing or reviving teammates.
- Medics may find it useful to activate their area-heal ability ('F') when engaging enemies.
- Heavy assault should make a habit of activating their overshield ('F') when engaging enemies.
- Infiltrators can hack enemy terminals and turrets.
- If you're trying to remain undetected, do NOT use the 'Q' key to spot targets; enemies can hear you yell.

Oh, right, two more things:
1. The 'B' key changes your rate of fire. For most weapons, this will switch between fully-automatic and semi-automatic. If holding down the trigger only fires one shot, then you may have hit 'B' by accident.
2. The 'H' key give you a slightly expanded minimap, but it covers up the compass and the control-point indicators. Hitting 'H' again will restore it back to its regular size.

Happy Merger Day! The Soltech guys really blustered our numbers on Mattherson and we had great fight going even in the wee hours of the morning. Hopefully the number stay up as the Vanu usually get pushed around the map that time of day.

The server merges came with a new patch.

New pump action shotguns are available in the depot. These boast increased stopping power in exchange for a reduced rate of fire.
New Conglomerate: GD-66 Claw
Vanu Sovereignty: Phobos VX86
Terran Republic: TRS-12 Uppercut
Reduced impact flinch and evened out flinch amount based on damage
Reduced screen shake from explosions
Client stability improvements
Server optimizations
Fixed an issue causing NC shotgun slug ammo to do too much damage at range. Should now be in line with the other empires.
Fix for NC MAX slug ammo having a longer range than intended
Server merges

I'm a big fan of increased stability and performance. But I'm getting REALLY tired of SOE adding blatantly overpowered weapons.

Tamren wrote:

The server merges came with a new patch.

New pump action shotguns are available in the depot. These boast increased stopping power in exchange for a reduced rate of fire.
New Conglomerate: GD-66 Claw
Vanu Sovereignty: Phobos VX86
Terran Republic: TRS-12 Uppercut
Reduced impact flinch and evened out flinch amount based on damage
Reduced screen shake from explosions
Client stability improvements
Server optimizations
Fixed an issue causing NC shotgun slug ammo to do too much damage at range. Should now be in line with the other empires.
Fix for NC MAX slug ammo having a longer range than intended
Server merges

I'm a big fan of increased stability and performance. But I'm getting REALLY tired of SOE adding blatantly overpowered weapons.

They'll tweak them. They've been quite active in balancing things. I don't ever expect the new things to be balanced.

Waterson is packed to the gills with players now. The server is now on off-hours but there are battles raging all over the place with multiple platoons on all sides and all continents. Lots of fun.

Lots of bugs too. In no particular order:

- My C4 would randomly not detonate. Rather irritating...
- People would run around with weapons firing phantom full auto bullets wherever they were looking.
- If you thought the rendering issues were worse before, they have started to affect vehicles too! Half the time you see a prowler it's just the hull and no turret.
- Invisible tank shells fired by invisible vehicles who are too far away.
- The Crown turrets would constantly flip from VS to TR. The VS could still use them but if they were destroyed they couldn't be repaired until they suddenly flip back again.
- Disappearing phalanx turrets, or turrets stuck with 100% overheat that fire no projectiles when you shoot em.
- Lots of people getting run over. Yet when I drive people clip through my tank like it's a ghost.
- I rammed a mosquito out of the air and didn't take damage, that was funny

On the bright side I've never been able to play for 3 hours before crashing. But towards the end I was starting to see all sorts of random bugs, the list above is just a small sample.

They announced the changes for Game Update 04. They say they are moving towards a 2-week cycle for major updates. These are preliminary notes and not final, but I can't imagine them changing much.

Flash update:
Wraith Module (Cloaking) for infiltrators using the Flash
Rumble seat - bring a passenger with you on your flash, they are weapons free in the passenger seat!
New weapon: Renegade shotgun

Account level unlocks
Items you've purchased with StationCash will be available to all characters on your account that are eligible to use that item.[
Common pool items, such as the Zephyr or NS-11 will be available to all characters on your account.
Empire specific weapons such as the GD-22 and Lasher will be available to all characters of the required faction on your account.
We are working on a solution for those of you who have purchased the same item on multiple characters.

VR Training
A safe test zone where you can try each weapon and vehicle in the game with no resource cost or cooldown timers.
Target practice areas to learn weapon strengths and weaknesses at range, practice recoil patterns.
Driving/flying area to practice with vehicles.
Areas to practice team tactics, such as towers and small outposts.
No player stats are recorded in VR, so have fun!
New respawn & map screen
We've combined the respawn and map screen into one.
The new map screen has been cleaned up better use space.
Additional top requested features, such as friendly troop locations will be coming soon, but not with GU04.

Membership enhancements
We've increased the number of passive certifications for members and scaled the increase in cert points based on length of membership. The new cert point rates are as follows:

1-mo. member - 24 passive cert points/day
2-mo. member - 28.8 passive cert points/day
3-mo. member - 33.6 passive cert points/day
4-mo. member - 38.4 passive cert points/day
5-mo. member - 43.2 passive cert points/day
6-mo. + member - 48 passive cert points/day

Empire specific Rocket Launchers
VS - Lancer: an extremely precise, super-high-velocity, anti-vehicle energy weapon with a unique charge mechanic, the longer you charge the weapon the more damage it deals.
TR - Striker: launches a series of mid-damage guided missiles at a single target, the Striker's user must maintain the lock by keeping the enemy in the crosshairs while the missiles are tracking.
NC - Phoenix: A high damage, slow firing camera guided missile which must be guided by the Phoenix's user. The Phoenix is capable of dealing high damage with very little warning since there is no lock on.

These weapons will be released in the patch the week following GU04

Notable balance changes
Explosive radius from ALL vehicle based damage sources have been reduced, this does not affect vehicle vs vehicle direct hit damage, only splash damage vs infantry.
Prowler HEAT / HE rounds have had their damage reduced to no longer 1-shot kill infantry, killing a full health infantry will require both Prowler rounds to be fired. This does not affect vs. vehicle damage.
Edit: Movement improvements for the Magrider, bringing back some of it's glideyness, but not it's ability to climb every hill in the game.
Edit: Torque increases for all MBTs so they don't slow down as much on inclines.

On the one hand. YAY MY LANCER! On other hand, I fully expect it to get nerfed into a wet sock.

Having common-pool items be account-wide is really really cool!

I like having Waterson so full. I finally actually put on my headset and tried to play on a platoon with my outfit but it just sucked.

edit: YES I love my NS-11 Platinum! Can't wait to use it on all the characters. Wish somebody other than a freaking medic could use it though since I never play that class. Also, Lancer yay! And so glad to hear they're reducing vehicle weapon blast radius, until I start driving one.

Game has been unplayably laggy as of late. I mean full on no bullets are coming out of my gun and people are running through walls kinda lag. It's also been really really buggy.

IMAGE(http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/902116326543815288/43D12B3D274A59EAAEE83A062006FEAEDCA3A0FF/)

If you look close enough you can actually see that those are NC grenades! It's especially funny because when you run through them they jiggle around and then spring back to their original positions like some kind of bead curtain.

Out of context, that's a terrifying screenshot!

Tamren wrote:

Game has been unplayably laggy as of late. I mean full on no bullets are coming out of my gun and people are running through walls kinda lag. It's also been really really buggy.
If you look close enough you can actually see that those are NC grenades! It's especially funny because when you run through them they jiggle around and then spring back to their original positions like some kind of bead curtain.

Which server? I haven't had any problems on Waterson. I've had network issues before but that was just my ISP AFAIK.

I play Vanu on Waterson. It's been fairly stable as of late, but the server merge brought a huge increase in population. Now we have multiple platoons fighting over at least two continents at all hours. It's fun but it also chugs unbelievably sometimes when you get into the big battles.

Being able to attack bases on foot with hundreds of other people is really cool though.

It's weird, but I don't seem to have any of the lag issues you're describing.

It's been running fine for me recently.

Played some more today. The lag was much better but still "hitchy" where it would sometimes freeze, which is a horrible thing to happen when trying to throw C4 on a MAX, oh well.

Had a really intense moment. Went something like this:

- Running along AMP station walls. Sunderer with 3 people rolls up and starts attacking a phalanx turret
- I throw a C4 onto his roof, he starts to drive away
- Jump down, he stops and reverses trying to run me over, BAD MOVE. I stick him with another C4 as he goes by, BOOM
- Sunderer is on fire now, Engineer hops out, I gun him down
- MAX hops out, ocrap! Empty my shotgun into his face, he goes down too!
- Heavy assault jumps out, I'm reloading! He shoots at me, suddenly the Sunderer flames out and explodes, huge cloud of smoke and debris
- I finish reloading, bring up my shotguns IR sight. Heavy is standing right there, he can't see me through the smoke!
- Gun him down too.

Got away with 2 bars of health on that one, heart racing. Had a funny moment too about 10 minutes later:

NC was overunning our amp station, spawn gen destroyed etc. Whelp. Running around as an engineer, 4 AT mines on my belt. Lets do this! I ran to the north gate and plopped down two mines in the middle of the road. Got onto the walls, planned to run around to the other gate and mine it too. Oh wait whats this? A sunderer chillin in the rear of the base. I ran up to sunderer, about to throw mines onto it. See two engineers repairing a lightning, backs turned to me. Walk up behind them and toss mines onto the lightning. The first engineer was oblivious, The second engineer stopped repairing and looked at the mines. I could just see the gears clicking in his head, "oh no, OH NO". He turns to run, too late! KABOOOM! Double kill!

5 minutes later another lightning drives over the mines I left at the north gate. I love being an engineer.

Giving this a shot. I'm Rantin in Vanu Waterson.

@Tamren, lol, good run. Now with C4 and tank mines it's so funny. In a tank and see a Heavy? No worries, blast him! See a single, solitary soldier running up to you? Run away run away run away!

As part of the March update you get to have a passenger on your Flash who can use anything that isn't a deployable, like grenades and rocket launchers.
Flash bombing is about to become even more fun.

Here is the video:

Big ass patch today
VR TRAINING HAS ARRIVED!

I'm Glad :
they're reducing Prowler HE effectiveness,
giving me more bullets in my sniper rifle,
giving greater torque so vehicles don't slow down so much going uphill,
really glad for the xp increases for killing vehicles,
they finally make it so the grenade type shows up in the hud, cause sometimes I carry AV grenade as heavy,
I certed into getting the command channel so I hope I can actually use it now,

I'm Pissed :
Underbarrel Grenade Launcher got nerfed again, seems like it takes a direct shot to be useful now.
C4 Despawns when you die, don't know yet if gets consumed

RolandofGilead wrote:

Big ass patch today
VR TRAINING HAS ARRIVED!

I'm Glad :
they're reducing Prowler HE effectiveness,
giving me more bullets in my sniper rifle,
giving greater torque so vehicles don't slow down so much going uphill,
really glad for the xp increases for killing vehicles,
they finally make it so the grenade type shows up in the hud, cause sometimes I carry AV grenade as heavy,
I certed into getting the command channel so I hope I can actually use it now,

I'm Pissed :
Underbarrel Grenade Launcher got nerfed again, seems like it takes a direct shot to be useful now.
C4 Despawns when you die, don't know yet if gets consumed

Wait, C4 persisted after you died?

Woo:
- ESF destroy XP bumped from 75 to 400! As primarily an AA Reaver pilot, this is awesome. It also means that the cowards who jump out of their ESF's when they are going to die are not denying me much XP proportionally.
- Vehicles will no longer continue to drive themselves after the pilot exits. See above.
- Frag Grenades: Reduced inner blast radius by 2 meters. Reduced outer blast radius by 0.5 meters. Increased inner damage by 25 points. This is great cause Frags are annoyingly OP atm...

Boo:
- WarpGate rotation!

I've got mixed feelings about this patch. Lots of nice improvements to the game. But they went ahead and sh*t all over vehicle drivers AGAIN by nerfing their weapons against infantry and sticking a big fat XP bounty on their heads. This comes just before they add NEW ROCKET LAUNCHERS which will no doubt be horribly overpowered. The phoenix alone can hit vehicles from behind cover and can't be countered! Releasing broken weapons for purchase and nerfing them later is part of the reason I stopped playing Tribes.

Here is the cliff notes version with the minor stuff cut out.

Rotated the Warp Gates on all three continents
Added a Virtual Reality Training Center
Fixed an issue where rocket launchers could maintain a lock through actions that should have cancelled it

Changed the color of the night vision scope’s crosshair so that is easier to see against dark backgrounds.
YESSSS! They should have done this a long time ago.

Placed C4 will now despawn when the source player dies
This was needed because a tank with c4 stuck to it was basically dead, the next explosive to come along would set off the c4 and destroy the tank. I killed a vanguard with a sticky grenade this way once.

NS Annihilator: Range to lock-on to ground targets reduced to 400 meters (matching the range of other ground lock-on rocket launchers). Range against aircraft remains at 500 meters.
It had a LONGER range than the default launcher? Good grief.

Fixed bug that was causing the hit box and the player model to not match when jumping.
Bunny hopping has been a real problem.

Small increase to the angle that players can walk up

The following infantry based explosives have been modified.
TLDR they nerfed the blast radius of all infantry explosives. Damage generally unchanged. This includes underbarrel grenades, and makes them totally useless. They should have gone in the other direction and increased the blast radius and nerfed the damage. Because this just encourages boring direct hit kills.

Sticky grenades will now bypass flak armor if stuck to a player.
AHAHAHA YES

Modified the total ammunition capacity of the following weapons:

+1 spare ma to NC and VS Carbines and Assault rifles (TR unchanged)
+1 spare mag to all semi-auto snipers
+2 spare mags to all bolt action snipers
All 75 round LMGs standardized to have 300 total rounds
+1 spare mag to pistols
+1 mag to VS and TR SMGs except for the TR hailstorm which was nerfed.

All semi-auto shotguns : Default capacity increased to 48
NC Jackhammer : Default capacity increased to 48
All 8 round magazine semi-auto shotguns: Fixed bug that was causing these to only pickup 6 rounds each pass. They now pickup a full 8.

Vehicle Updates

Flash Update:
Rumble Seat: You can now bring a passenger with you on your Flash that can utilize their personal weapons while moving.
New Cert Line: Wraith Module: Cloaking for infiltrators using the Flash
New Weapon: S12 Renegade Shotgun
Vehicle horns should now be able to be heard from significantly greater distances
Movement improvements have been made for the Magrider:
Stock hover length increased
Hill climbing restrictions re-adjusted. Should no longer receive excessive penalties when driving on uneven terrain.

Torque has been increased for all ground vehicles.
This should result in an increase over their current top speeds when driving up inclines.
General tuning adjustments to environmental collision damage for all vehicles
Should now be able to re-equip the default cockpit glass on aircraft after equipping decal cockpit glass
Vehicles will no longer continue to drive themselves after the pilot exits
Fixed an issue that could cause a players to be flung long distances when they collided with a vehicle

Vehicle Weapon Changes

Prowler P2-120 HEAT & HE rounds have had their blast damage reduced from 1000 to 700.
EVERY AIR AND GROUND VEHICLE WEAPON NERFED WITH SMALLER BLAST RADIUS

The experience granted for killing many enemy vehicles has been increased:

Galaxy: 400 xp, increased from 300 xp
Liberator: 500 xp, increased from 150 xp
ESF: 400 xp, increased from 75 xp
MBTs: 500 xp, increased from 100 xp
Lightning: 400 xp, increased from 100 xp

UI Updates

The respawn screen has been merged with the map screen capabilities
Deployment locations are now displayed on the left side of the screen when the player is dead, along with simplified class selection panel. The list functions the same way it did on the respawn screen.
You can now switch continent views by clicking directly on the continent title bar at the top of the map screen.

Instant action has been redesigned to be a single button press, with no on-map indication of where it will send the player, but it will still hot-drop them onto a facility with heavy combat. This is to prevent people from exploiting instant action as an organizational tool, which is what people were using it for previously. If you are in a squad and not the leader, a second button for squad deploy will appear.

Destroyed phalanx turrets display the “need repair” wrench icons for friendly engineers
Vehicle acquisition timers should now display accurately while you are dead
There is now a Battle Rifle filter in the Depot

AP Erebus wrote:

Boo:
- WarpGate rotation!

Why don't people like warpgate rotation? As a Vanu on a server with a low VS population, there are some parts of Indar I never really get to see. It'll be nice to be attacking and defending in different places.

I really like the XP increase for taking out vehicles (especially since I just unlocked my 2nd C-4 slot for light assault). It can be challenging to sneak up on a tank to lay down C-4, I deserve a more XP than I would get for just killing someone.

I don't like the change in how instant action is handled. I like to know where I am going when I deploy. But I do understand where they are coming from, and how it can be gamed by organized groups.

I am also not a huge fan of the new map UI. I prefer being able to see my resources, population, and filters all at the same time without having to click around. Merging the deployment screen with the map was a good move though.

Warpgate rotation really is a must so long as they're going to have non-symmetrical (or whatever the word is for 3 same parts) maps.

When is the patch that makes me not suck?

FeralMonkey wrote:

When is the patch that makes me not suck? :|

The guy working on that patch went insane. Sorry.