Planetside 2: Grindy McGrindy McSpaceyPants

Battleranks unlock extra loadout slots. I think they do something else minor too, but I forget what. I might be thinking of the title unlocks, but that might be about it.

Thanks, the Vanu do at least have some cool Titles

Oh and to those of us that anted up $40 in pre-release, remember to slot that extra XP bonus booster chip thingy.

Any advice on Guns/Equipment?

I still choke down enormous volumes of ass when it comes to individual combat, but I can manage a face up kill every now and then with the Pandora Auto Shotgun.

Almost all of my kills come from inside of a Mag or a Lightning. I upgraded the Lightning's Cannon so I can actually damage armor and thrown some Optics on both. It looks like the Mag's special ability (sprint) needs to be earned but if it works in reverse (meaning, I can fire while furiously retreating, as is my style - quick note to helpful engies - don't stand behind the fraidy-cat tank) then I'll throw another level of zoom on that bad boy and be untouchable. Any must haves for Tanks?

I like the idea of a MAX suit - anyone had much success with them?

Is the Skyguard Lightning worth getting? 'Cause (at least according to Sharpe ) the Magmower's AA turret isn't very good.

I see a fair number, but not as many as Sunderers, presumably because Sunderers can be cert'd to act as spawn points and Galaxies can't. As such, Sunderers seem more valuable to move the zerg horde, while Galaxies are presumably better suited to smaller, surgical strikes. I suppose it's possible to organize an air blitz with a bunch of Gals along with air support, but that would require a fairly high level of coordination.

Man, fuck Magriders wiggling all over the place when you're repairing them. Or the dumb one I had last night that turned to face me when I was repairing him in the line of fire. I abandoned that project if he's going to insist on pointing his rear end towards the hostile infantry.

I'm oddly fond of the VS battle rifle. It's meh indoors, but shockingly effective as a mid range sniper rifle with a 3.4x zoom. I was making some TR miserable when they were trying to line up rocket shots out of a doorway since two hits to the head will drop anyone.

Still have a love hate relationship with this buggy awesome mess.

They could be deployed as a spawn point (at some point) during the Beta. I wonder why they decided against it. It would be fun if they could lift armor as well.

Bless the Sunday drivers who cert them out to supply Tank Ammo, good people.

Two questions: (1) Are you getting the weapon upgrades through Sony cash or cert points? The cert point route seems pretty prohibitive for most of the new weapons; (2) if you unlock a weapon can it be used with all eligible classes?

I have done ok as infantry, although my kill/death ratio is still pretty pathetic. I bought some armor/shield and optic upgrades in the assault track. The armor and shields definitely help, although in a straight up fight I often lose to guys with better guns. The optics upgrde was kind of a waste. I had hoped it would make the MG a bit more viable at medium range, but the spread on that thing is simply too much for anything other than relatively close range engagements. I've started going medic a lot more often just because it feels like a more worthwhile role for someone who hasn't put up cash to play yet.

I've only tried the Vanu MAX. It seem all right, but mostly valuable for close-quarters base assaults/defense. I had some success in one with an engy healing me from behind in a base defense, but as with normal infantry, the starter weapons seem kind of underwhelming.

Galaxies are at two distinct disadvantages; one in the game, and as a result of that, one in the meta game. Like you said, their biggest disadvantage is that they can't be used a as spawn point. Sunderers are so much more useful when you can just blitz your way into the center of a base and provide both a spawn point and an inventory station (which is much more accessible to ground units than whatever ledge the Galaxy might end up on). They're also much easier to get in and out undetected, and to hide. Galaxies are only really preferable to Sunderers in about 2-3 places on each continent (All Tech Plants, and an occasional minor point of interest located at the top of a mountain here and there).

Because of this disparity, this hurts the meta game, the part where people need to choose where to dump their certs, which leads to the second problem: It's hard to justify certing in Galaxies over Sunderers when they're at a disadvantage in almost every situation, and because of this there are simply far fewer skilled pilots for them. And given the atrocious nature of air combat controls in general, and the proliferance of exceedingly overpowered (an relatively cheap) AA & lock-on weaponry & missiles, even if you found a well certed Galaxy pilot, you'd then have to mount up a supporting squadron (and preferably another fully loaded Galaxy or two) in order to stand a chance of gaining a foothold in places where they're really, REALLY needed, raiding Tech Plants.

But, unlike Sunderers, Galaxies aren't meant to hang around. Their continued survival seems to rely on getting them in and then getting them right back out. They're big fat easy targets, and you can't so much as land on a landing pad without putting them on display for the entire world to see. It's gotta be hard for pilots to deal with the constant wait for respawn timers and the like, unless they just really always wanted to be an air transport pilot.

I've unlocked the weapons with Sony Cash, then the weapons are upgraded through certs. Not a bad solution as it looks like you can't just cash-uber yourself. (unless you can buy cert points with cash?) alternatively, one can unlock stuff with Cert points, most of those unlocks seem to be 1000 cert points (Which translates to lots and lots of hours of gameplay I'd guess). Weapons are mostly class specific (I think). I'm assuming they are definitely Race and Server specific as well. Given the expense, it certainly cuts down on experimentation.
I had 4000 SOE points, 1400 of it was gone with a Pandora Shotgun and a better cannon for my Lightning. As shit is so expensive, I want to hear/see product reviews before I invest.

That being said, I don't regret the inital investment, this seems like a game I would have paid $50-60 to play anyway and I hope it is sucessful.

How do upgraded secondary weapons work? If I buy an upgraded MG can I use it on any MAG I ride on? or does my Gunner use the upgraded secondary?

The starter weapons on the MAX's sucked ass during the Beta as well.

I didn't play in the Beta, but I was curious about this myself, and from what I can gather, allowing Galaxies to act as spawn points was undermining the incremental territory control ground game insofar as it would allow the zerg to easily leapfrog across the map. I do see some merit in allowing them to transport armor.

You can use it on any you spawn. You can set up a loadout for the noobmower to have the upgraded secondary weapon.

Please note, all the upgrades you buy or cert must be added into a loadout in order to spawn with that upgrade. For example, if you pick up the 1 point cert "Nanoweave Armor" you won't get the health benefit unless in your loadout you click the button for "suit" and then select the armor. Also, for any weapon accessories you must go into the accessories sub-window and select the accessories you want.

Buying or certing something, even something passive, does not actually put that ability into your hands unless you add it into a loadout, and then spawn using that loadout.

Someone in the BF outfit, who exactly I can't recall, pointed out that there's an option to get a 30 minute "preview" of each of the various upgraded weapons. I think it's in the screen where you purchase the individual weapon.

Hmmmmmmmmm, I have seen the "PREVIEW" button, but I thought it just gave you a look at the weapon (maybe that is just for mounted weapons?). In PS1 there was a shooting range essentially where one could futz and preview equipment. I'll have to take a closer look.

I never found that button. I found one that let me look at the weapon model, but I'd love something giant and shiny that says TRY THIS SHIT OUT, YO.

I need BR15 to unlock my third loadout slot. I should also play something other than 24/7 engineer.

Nice writeup. My takeaway is that Galaxies are going to shine in well organized groups (outfits) that can coordinate the necessary air support/etc.

I've only briefly tried the air-combat thang. I was immediately put off by the fact that it's easier to control aircraft via mouse as opposed to a joystick. Ugh.

If you click "Unlock", one of the options will be to try out the weapon for a 30-minute trial.

It's incredibly unintuitive: you have to click the 'buy' button, and on the confirmation screen is the trial thingy. You get it for 30 minutes.

Edit: blast, beaten to it.

You click unlock, and after that there's a trial option. I'm not sure I would have risked trying that last night if I had enough certs or station cash to actually purchase the weapon. I've only used it once, but apparently you get to mess around with the weapon for half an hour, then you have to wait 30 days to trial it again. There's also an eight-hour window where you can't trial another item, so it's effectively a once-per-day deal.

I'm still liking the game, and I've gotten a better feel for target acquisition. My main frustration currently is that my friends list is spread over three different servers and anything you unlock with certs or actual cash is tied to your character and not your account. I understand that, "You thought you were going to play with your friends? Fuck you.", is universally considered an MMO best practice, but I could have done without that particular feature for once.

Yes, they will certainly shine in an organized group, because they're capable of dumping a dozen units in places where the enemy isn't currently accustomed to finding them. I mentioned the Tech Plants a couple time in my prior post, and ask anybody who has ever witnessed an all-day 6+ hour siege on the dumb things what the problem was, and most of them will probably complain that there are only two tiny little (typically very well guarded, and very easily defende) doors to the facility, and a couple other shielded entrances that nobody but light assault units (with a death wish) have any chance of getting through (over). These people don't understand the real problem here, these bases have massive landing pads up on top with room enough to fit half a dozen Galaxies, and energy-elevator-thingies to help dump units into the heart of the facility.

Coordinated teams can usually make the most out of almost any situation, but in this instance they would make all the difference, because it would take a ton of coordination to pull off a massive air assault. And although ground troops would still be needed, squad leaders can just as easily drop spawn beacons on the landing pad to help bring back fallen squad members. All they would need to do is take the pad and hold it, and a top-down assault would open up entirely new avenues of entry to these places -- and the same could be said for nearly any base where certain objectives aren't within easy reach of your average ground unit (Light Assault notwithstanding).

Regarding Galaxies - the ability to use them as a spawn point was removed since the game pretty much was a constant cap/recap when they were. This resulted in a lack of any real battles or frontlines, except at obvious juicy targets like biolabs. They are still useful - for hit and run, or you put a squad leader or four with spawn beacons ready in them, together with an honour guard.
As for the game as such - I am still a bit at odds with the combat system. By now I realize a bit why the have made it so twitchy, and with the far larger numbers of players on server at the moment it is more fun. Perhaps being the sniper has helped with that - racking up 3-4 kills without trying hard is always nice, and makes up for the times you get caught out and die. Alternatively I switch to LA and roam with a shotgun.
Shopping - as VS I spent some money on the Pandora, and another 2000 on the currently available vehicle weapons pack. All of them new to me, and most very useful, making this an easily profitable buy. The two skins are a mild bonus.
And regarding the tech bases/coordinated teams. Just saw what looked like a whole platoon drop onto a tech base my team was holding, all in one outfit. Scary. We were wiped out within minutes. Coordination is really, really helpful in the game.

Holy Glitch!

I was going to peruse the Qt3 thread to see if there might be some interest in Making a bigger Outfit and I just read this -

Just rolled as HastyPuddings on VS/Waterson. Can I be broken friends too?

Well, one could argue that the physics of it (to the extent that the term applies to Made-Up-Planetside-Universe) is essentially sound!

Regardless, I wonder how viable a tactic it is in practice. In my experience those shield rooms are filled to the brim with defenders. I can't imagine a Sunderer lasting long in that environment.

It'd work for a little bit, but yeah, you'd have a mass volley of fire from the HA guys and it'd be gone pretty quick.

It's not a skill you'd ever want to bother with against occupied bases (unless your big plan is to just dump 12 max units inside for a suicide run or something), it seems situational at best.

Except that the lifts don't go into the heart of the facility, they land 2 meters in front of the normal choke point. Anyone using them immediately takes fire from defenders on the balcony, exactly as they would if they came in via the rear doors. Adding the lifts was a nice idea, but they really needed to be at the other end of the base. Gate diffuser Sunderers are the answer to Tech Plants, we just need more people to cert it (I got it today myself).

The main problem with Galaxy use at the moment is that they don't earn the pilot any experience. Occasionally a gunner might get a kill, and you'll get the odd 10xp for a deploy kill.. but in general the use of them is not incentivised by the game at all. It's a thankless job.

They do plan to add G-AMS back at some point, but it will be squad-only. I think that's a decent compromise, and will help make them more viable.

There are three access points available from the landing pad (for standard ground units). I mentioned only one of them for brevity, since I wasn't trying to detail every conceivable tactic for accessing the place. In addition to the elevators I mentioned there are also two teleporter pads one deck up from the landing pad which will each take you right down near the area of the lifts, putting your troops in a flanking position against the people on the ledge, and giving you much easier access to each set of the stairs (and the rest of the facility) leading up to it. The upper pads bookend both the turrets (which you'll be taking out anyway during an air assault) and the lift, and I've never seen more than a couple hostiles up there during any particular assault. As long as your Galaxies aren't circling for five minutes before landing, they're should be very little resistance on the upper decks until the battle is underway. But like any tactic (short of zerging), things typically work smoother if you don't need to brute force your way through a line of defense.

None of this this negates the diffusers from being another option however.

Yea, this is another kick in the balls when it comes to the meta game aspect of the (currently stupid) vehicle.

I thought we were talking about assaulting the base. The teleporters only work for the owning faction.

I agree it's easy to take the upper deck, I just don't think that gets you much (other than denying access to the turrets). The lifts take you down into the same meatgrinder all the rest of the infantry are throwing themselves into.

We are talking about assaulting the base, and I forgot those were restricted/unhackable.

Despite all that, tonight when I get home I'm going to burn the rest of my spacebux on converting the Galaxy into an AC-130. I should be online around 930p if anyone wants to join me in shelling some TR jerks.

Well yea, you gotta play the game the way you most enjoy (it might not always compare to other vehicles serving a few of the same functions, but it still serves a very specific purpose when used properly). Equip the shit out of it, fuck the haters.

I mean shit... I'm decking out a fucking ATV... pretty much the worst vehicle I've ever used in a 3d video game. At times, driving one of those ridiculous things feels more like I'm QWOPing across the battlefield rather than actually getting anywhere.

But the ridiculousness of it is what appeals to me, so...

Although every player has their preferred playstyle, here is my assessment at the overall practical effectiveness of each class, from most effective to least;

1)Heavy Assault. The main weapon type, Light Machine is the most damaging infantry-carried, anti-infantry weapon other than MAX weapons. Also, the LMG is a viable weapon at short, medium, and even long, range. HA also has the highest hit points, which makes them the best all around anti-infantry ground troop. Plus HA have anti-vehicle and anti-air options, which if used intelligently can be quite powerful against the right targets. In addition, HA can pilot, gun or ride in every type of vehicle, unlike MAXes. In terms of overall combat power in getting to and taking over or defending a base, HA is the tops in game balance atm. Sadly for me it doesn't suit my playstyle.

2)Light Assault. Although not an infantry killing beast like HA, and also lacking in HA's anti-vehicle capabilities, LA has a flexible set of weapon choices, and most importantly, the excellent, awesome and very cool jump jets. I had mourned the loss of Vanu MAX jump jets but now all factions can enjoy the ridiculous mobility of the upgraded jump jets. Jump jets let LA get into bases that are impregnable for other classes, avoid choke points and shooting galleries, and get into excellent shooting spots which other infantry cannot access. Plus LA is damn fun to play.

3)Infiltrator. This claim is a misnomer as the PS2 infiltrator is a sorry excuse when compared to PS1 infiltrators. Stealth has much less duration, and less effectiveness when moving, making the "deep penetration" stealth missions that PS1 was famous, much much harder to accomplish. Also, hacking, which was a vital skill in PS1 is massively reduced in utility: no CPUs or doors to be hacked, enemy vehicles can no longer be hacked, and the one useful hack, using an enemy terminal is much harder to pull off due to the stealth nerfs. So why is the infiltrator not at the bottom of this list? Because in PS2 infiltrators should really be called snipers. Although the starter weapons are crap, spending a few space bucks for a better rifle, and some certs for a good scope can make the infiltrator into a dominating long range infantry killer.

4)Engineer. Engis have a decent weapon selection but are more squishy than HA and LA, making them fairly weak in overall combat. The repair gun is nice but has limited application due to the low frequency of MAXes compared to PS1. The changes to turrets and mines have dramatically weakened the engineer and removed the whole "minigame" of emplacing and clearing defenses. The MANA turrets are quite potent, but very very limited due to making the engi a sitting duck for flankers, and also having a very limited traverse.

5)Medic. Although medics have a somewhat better selection of weapons than engis, they are equally squishy. Also, based on the way the game is currently played, the healing gun is less useful than in PS1, IMO. The high rate of very rapid infantry deaths creates far fewer opportunities to heal, and the revive option is not very well used atm. When I accepted revives from strangers, I routinely found myself gunned down just as soon as I popped up. It seems like the medics, incentivized by the bonus exp for revivals, and the relative weakness of the class in combat, routinely fail to clear the area before attempting a revive, which often results in an ignominious double death for the revive recipient often accompanied by the death of the medic. It's reached the point that I no longer accept revives unlees I know for a fact the area is clear.

6)MAX. This bottom rating is not based on the raw combat power of MAXes, which is considerable if you purchase complimentary guns for both arms. No,the MAX can be a beast in combat, but sadly, it's impossible for most players to play consistently as a MAX because the respawn timers are too long, way way fucking crazy seriously too long. They are off by something like an order of magnitude. The average player dies in a MAX way before the respawn timer is up which means you cannot play a MAX more than a fraction of the time, unless your factio is in a very advantageous strategic position. Also, MAXes are hit very by the stupidly limited number of loadouts. MAXes IMO need a minimum of 3 loadouts (double arm AI, double arm AV, and double arm AA) to be effective, but you don't get 3 loadouts until BR 15, and even with 3 you cannot allow for camo or weaon combo presets. Also MAXes cannot pilot any vehicle and cannot gun MBTs or Liberators, and MAXes also do not count towards taking a capture point.

I will save my thoughts on how to balance this situation for a later post.

I guess you might be referring to the Heavy Assault's activated shield, but it's worth pointing out that all classes have the same number of hitpoints.

Like anything that's restricted by a timer, if you want to be a MAX specialist you will have to spend cert points on it. The maximum level of the timer reduction cert for MAXes removes it entirely. It does depend on what you're doing, too-- a Burster MAX will almost always survive for 5 minutes.

I'm purp on Waterson. Name -> DefinitelyNotRobbie

Honestly I find the carbines to be quite brutal enough for my engineer. Though the game says my lifetime stats are pretty much 1:1.

I just took to using the Pulsar C tonight with a reflex sight and foregrip. It's pretty brutal at short/mid range and may replace my shotgun habit. The battle rifle will always have a place in certain base layouts where I need to fake snipe because nobody else on my team can freaking aim.

Picked up anti tank mines. They're.. okay? It's hard to figure out approach angles or get near non idiotic sunderers. But I DID waste a full sunderer when I put some down in a logical spawn hiding spot before our base got hit. And I also took out a flash with one that I randomly put in the middle of a road, which has got to be a one in a million chance.

All of that changes quite massively with certs. For example the Infiltrator can unlock longer stealth duration and shorter hacking. The respawn certs for Maxes were already mentioned. And so on...
Sure, no single cert is the "I win" change. But all the small things do add up to considerable changes in utility. However, I need to point out that this is based on a) observations of heavy-duty players in game and b) my own trials during the beta stage where anyone was handed insane amounts of certs to see exactly these effects.

Edit: 'stealth', not 'shield'

Kerzain, Garin - I do agree that the Galaxy needs a bit of work, and a squad-specific AMS could just fit very well. But I also remember the beta phase when every gal was an AMS, and that is something I do not want back. Anyways, regarding storming the tech plant with a Galaxy, is there a reason you guys want to land on the landing pads ? Those are deathtraps - one of the best plays to rack up kills as a snip[er is in a tech plant, huddled in a corner beside a turret, overlooking that stretch. Perhaps a better option if you want to use a gal are high altitude drops onto the roof, as is just landing on the roof if the gunners in base aren't that observant. Bring a few squad beacons and you just created a nice bridgehead. I agree on the elevator being nasty chokepoints, especially since there is a limit on the angle you can aim down, but not in the opposite direction. But you can at least step out of the beam into cover, advancing slowly. Also, once you hold the roof you deprive the defenders of their gun turrets, effectively locking them in, and detract forces from the ground level defense. Which in turn might absolutely make it possible for a handful of LA to storm past the defenders. This to me seems to be the general way these plants fall, and they all involve either Galaxies or the massively more difficult to coordinate large scale instant action drops. But sure, they are probably the hardest bases to take.

To add something new - one thing still bugs me about the meta game - you get far more xp for attacking, since the xp gain for conquering the base is so huge (~1000 for main bases, ~250 for minor bases, and I think ~500 for vehicle bases ?) . On the converse, defenders only get a lot of xp they rack up tons of kills, which is rare. It is also equally possible for the attackers, so successful defenders get as many xp as the failing attacker, successful attackers get a lot mor xp then the failing defenders. And it is entirely possible to get massive gains by just roaming in a sunderer, capping small, undefended bases in the enemies hinterland. Overall this means that defending is heavily dis-incentivised.

I play the support / healing class in every multiplayer game, and so far the combat medic is satisfying. It's not pushing healing-based gameplay to the next level like Team Fortress 2 or the first Guild Wars did, but it's not forcing me to press heal macros until I quit from boredom like a lot of other games.

The experience for each revival is ridiculous. It starts a little below 100 xp, and can reach 150 xp with squad bonuses and the experience boosters. If there's no one to play with I'll sometimes engage in an activity I call Lazarus-farming, where I go to a base under siege, and just run around reviving people at the choke-point. When this goes well it's possible to get a certification point every few minutes. The problem is that I get a shot at double the experience if the player I just revived dies again, which means my incentive is to not clear the area, and to not heal the player to full health after reviving him. I know I'm not the only person who's noticed this, because the medic population triples at these spots. This is a huge problem, and I'm considering writing a satirical guide to Lazarus-farming and posting it on the official forums, where I advocate the above, as well as "accidentally" dropping a grenade on your squad, and running over teamates with a vehicle so you can get extra experience for reviving them.

Regarding normal play, there's roughly a six-second window to revive players before they just respawn, so again the incentive is to not clear out the area, because by the time I finish that I can't save you anymore. I also tend to get sidetracked by other players going down, which results in me being frequently separated from smaller squads.

However, it is worth pointing out that higher level medical tools bring you back to life with more health. I just upgraded mine to 4/5, which means you will be reviving with 75% of your life now, which should be enough to get you to safety if you take off as soon as you're up. At level 5 players revive with 100% of their life, but it costs 500 certs so that's going to be a while.

The obvious solution is to cut the experience for revives in half, and give the medic the other half of the experience for each patient who's still alive thirty seconds after they've been resurrected.

I've noticed a similar thing with placing my Sunderer/AMS when we're assaulting a biolab -- if I put it right at the base of the Biolab, people respawn at it like crazy, because it looks like it's in the middle of the base. However, that's actually a useless location, because with the base shields, you can't get in anywhere near there -- you should instead respawn at one of the satellite buildings with the requisite jump pads/elevators/etc that will let you actually vault up into the fight, rather than mill around on the ground outside the shields.