Planetside 2: Grindy McGrindy McSpaceyPants

The respawn system also goes for nearest spawn point, so that base sunderer is the default if you died inside the biolab.

And Tech Plants are total bullshit to take. Not sure what brilliant person decided to put all the useful objectives inside the shielded building. I spent a few hours defending one last night (and raking in the resupply xp) from pretty much everyone on the continent. The only time they got past the back doors were lag spikes. And even then they just died horribly seconds later.

I don't mind (yet) that they are such a pain to take. As the game matures strategies will evolve. Kerzain has already pointed to a role for the Galaxy in taking these things (high altitude drops seem more likely than landing but y'know what I mean).

That would be great, I like the Galaxy, I think it is the Planetside signature vehicle, shame if a real role for it can't be developed.

PS's bread and butter is huge battles, Tech Plants currently provide that.

The Gal still drops people in the back entrance right next to the covered doors. The layout is just shit. Put something external to force defenders to take less of a bunker approach to things, or put the roof entrance on the far side of the building to allow attackers to flank if they come in from above in force.

As is, a gal drop against an internal defense just means moving all your guns three inches to the left.

For anyone who needs some help with general capture mechanisms (no, not too pertinent to our debate above), see here (RPS forum).

By the way, if you actually want to look at the .jpgs linked, you have to have an rps account. Fuck.

Sorry, didn't know that. Although it is kind of obvious, so I apologize.

Oh, let me add something - I joined the RPS Vanu outfit for playing. Nice people, RPS has a Mumble server running and the are very open about who joins. So, in case any European BFers are looking for an outfit, this might be an option.

It's not your fault, I don't blame you for that cataclysmic catastrophe. In the annals of time, only the inconvenience will be remembered.

Thanks for that post, Sharpe. Solidified my decision to commit for now to Heavy. I've always liked the AT/AA class, and the awesome primaries and fuck-you shield that HA get are the business.

In other news, FUCK EVERYONE who parks a sunderer under a fucking deathbridge under a whateverthefuck facility I was just assaulting (tech lab?). Yay, all the newbs spawn there. Too bad you can't actually do anything useful except get shot because you're in the middle of like sixteen easily accessible firing positions for the defenders.

It'd be fine for a secondary spawn once you're close to moving to the interior phase of the assault. When you don't so much as own a single satellite, it's a newb trap meatgrinder and it makes me sangry.

Big ups to the anonymous Engi or Engis who kept dropping ammo packs on myself and the other three HAs who were ripping through the NC tanks they were trying to counterattack us with as quickly as they could spawn 'em in on this last base assault. That was worth a few certs, but more importantly was totally hilarious.

Spacebucks for the AT and AA launchers instead of the basic unguided one: so, so worth it.

HSR-1, a scout rifle for TR infiltrators: worst unlock ever, in the history of pay-to-win shooters. I've made a terrible mistake. I unlocked it with some of the Sony spacebucks I got for the pre-order, but did it at a time before Alpha Squad members could preview weapons without bugging your character and deleting your boosters. I judged it based on it's bar-graph stats. Turns out those stats are completely wrong, and this is the worst sniper rifle imaginable.

C4 on the other hand (unlocked with certs), would be aaaaawsome, if they could just fix how it currently just falls out your ass and lands at your feet when you try to deploy it. It's like the opposite of the super-psycho grenade toss physics the game has going on.

Ugh, yeah, I can't reliably grenade a damn thing in this game.

My video problems have magically resolved themselves, so now I am bsones on Waterson. Someone throw me an invite!

My favorite thing about the guided AT launcher is that lightnings tend to do run bys, and that just causes the missile to hit them in the soft rear armor instead of the sides.

Tried this again tonight. Horribly frustrating. I feel like I am utterly ineffectual no matter where I go. I spawn, I run, I get gunned down. I respawn, I make a vehicle, I come under fire immediately and blow up. I respawn, I run, I get gunned down. I respawn somewhere else farther away to try and catch my breath. I see an enemy with his back to me! I open fire on him. He spins around and kills me.

I don't understand it. The original PlanetSide was never like this for me.

I agree with you on all counts, and I've done my fair share of bitching about it too. Here's a few things that might help a little, at least to start. You'll probably know a lot of this stuff, but I'll say it anyway:

Always try to aim for the head if possible, it does more damage. If you need to, stand at your Warpgate and shoot the walls from varying distances in order to get a feel for the recoil of your various weapons (you'll want to make sure your graphic settings are such that bullet impact decals are visible). Pay attention to bullet spread and the angle & severity of your recoil, it changes from weapon to weapon, so find a favorite to start with. Try to make sure you've got your muscle memory trained on how best to deal with it, at least until you decide to unlock Forward Grips and/or a Compensator or something (which will pretty much force you to relearn some of the finer movements). Note how certain weapons don't just recoil straight upwards, but diagonally off to the side too. You want to make sure you're doing a good job of centering your fire in the heat of the moment because (and I can't stress this enough about this game) every. bullet. counts.

Until you upgrade your weapon with lasers or other items that specifically improve accuracy when shooting from the hip, always try to zoom/iron-sight before pulling the trigger. If you do a lot of close quarter shooting, get a 1x reflex sight asap (30 certs), if you do mid range fighting, then get a 2x-3.4x (depending on what's available for the weapon). Some weapons have blatantly slow-to-position and obtrusive iron sights to start, you really want to get some sort of sight upgrade asap.

If you aren't in a Max Suit or playing as a Heavy Assault, then make a habit of running away from every Max Unit or Heavy Assault that you see (to start). Even if you think you'd have the drop on them, they're usually just best avoided by new players and/or uncerted lighter classes.

Try to grind out enough certs to get two upgrades in Nano Armor (+12.5% damage absorbtion), don't bother with more than that for now, because (some folks on the PS2 forums did the math/testing, and they claim that) the difference between 2 upgrades and a full 5 upgrades isn't enough to protect you from one bullet shot from any gun in the game. But 2 is a sweet spot (or at least as sweet as sweet spots get in this game).

Get used to switching weapons on the fly if you find yourself out of ammo, unless you've got good cover, don't bother trying to reload in a 1v1. This means at least getting a laser for your pistol, as the default accuracy can be pretty shitty for certain default ones. Except for Max units and HAs with their shield up, you should be able to kill pretty much everything with a single clip of ammo for most weapons; but if you don't, always be prepared to switch to your pistol. Unlike other games where tossing a grenade mid-reload is an option, it doesn't work in PS2 very well.

Always try to stay on the move, this means strafing as much as you can during a 1v1, even if it doesn't feel like you're really moving anywhere at all when compared to how mobile you might feel in classic shooters. Just remember, even if you can avoid even a single round, every. bullet. hurts. in this game

The fact is, you're going to die, a lot, until you really start feeling it (and then you'll still die a lot). I've got dozens of hours in the game, and I'm still learning how best to cope with certain situations. This game is undeniably unforgiving. Death comes so quick, and often so unexpected, it can be extremely off-putting to me. But if you're able to grind through the early levels until you start getting a real feel for the (initially seemingly impenetrable) combat in this game, you really should start to notice a little fun and survivability rear their ugly head.

Oh, one last tidbit: If you're in the habit of spotting (with the spot key) every single enemy that you see, just be aware that they can hear you vocalize that spot if you're close enough. So for example, a Max Unit will actually hear you say aloud something to the effect of "I'm sneaking up on an Enemy Max Unit sitting about three feet in front of me, watch her turn around and plaster the fucking walls with my innards!" A lot of people don't realize that the enemy hears that stuff vocalized too. The closer you are the louder you will be to them, and thanks to the wonders of stereo audio, it will help them to pinpoint your position, wherever that might be. Don't be that guy.

However, on the flipside, if you hear someone announce that they've spotted an enemy that just happens to be your class, and you don't actually see that enemy's target appear on screen, or their dot appear on your mini-map, it might be in your best interest to take cover.

Step 1: hot drop on friendly tech plant base defense
Step 2: deploy sunderer AMS in dead center of tech plant
Step 3: PROFIT

Had a sunderer out for about an hour; yeah, you only get 2-4XP per friendly spawn, but for the better part of an hour I was getting a credit nearly every second. Was halfway through BR9 when I deployed, was well into BR10 by the time the fight was over.

I'm not finding the combat much more punishing than Planetside 1's combat, but kerzain's tips are good ones. Also remember to fire short bursts (obviously), and use cover. Especially when your shield goes down (there's a warning sound when this happens--LEARN IT). It will regenerate on its own if you give it the chance. As an added bonus, your "foe" target ID (assuming you were spotted when you were engaging, which you probably were) will go away if you stay out of sight for a bit.

Another thing to keep in mind is that death can come suddenly and unexpectedly when you are playing infantry and fighting on the same battlefield with a lot of armor. This happened to me a couple of times last night, and it's a frustrating but avoidable scenario. If you find yourself dying a lot in the middle of a tank battle, consider moving to less deadly terrain. Or get a tank.

Friend or foe ID is exactly the same as it was in Planetside 1, and the important thing to remember is that you'll automatically ID friendlies at close range. So if run into someone unexpectedly at close range and they don't have a marker over their head, just shoot. At range, you'll have time to spot them to see if they are friend or foe, and you should do this because spotting is super-important in this game (it helps everyone identify a target as foe, so you won't have the issue of players encountering a target unexpectedly and not knowing), and it gives you XP. So spot, spot, spot.

When shooting, remember:

• Crouching increases accuracy (and makes you a smaller target)
• Iron sights (RMB) increase accuracy
• Moving decreases accuracy
• Sustained fire decreases accuracy

The takeaway is that PS2 is not a run-and-gun shooter, and you are really unlikely to kill anyone shooting from the hip--especially while moving--unless you are at very close range.

My (very situational) advice for the day ? If you happen to find yourself in one of these in-field battles with tanks roaming, and infantry huddling behind any elevation to snipe at each other (and the tanks), and you happen to be in a Magrider, just remember that your speed boost can easily carry you across elevations other tanks can't pass nearly as fast. The result will most likely be that you and a whole cluster of enemies (yesterday about 12-15) die. And your teammates can advance in the ensuing stunned silence.

Have you been put off by the lack of hard numbers available for weapon stats? Well, someone did the community a big favor and extracted the information from the game files. Here's how things currently stand on a weapon by weapon basis, click to read.

Pretty easy to remember bullet damage for VS, since almost all weapons do 143 points (with the exception of the pistol, the Pulsar C carbine, and the Lasher, which do in the 150-167 range, and the sniper rifles, which can do up to 750). That's all lower than the other factions, but on the upside, our weapons have no drop, and often less recoil. Also, take a long look at the COF numbers for crouching and aiming vs. shooting from the hip or (worse) shooting while moving. That's the size of the cone of fire, and while I don't know specifically what the numbers translate into, you can at least make relative comparisons and see that, with the standard VS assault rifle, your cone of fire is 250% larger when moving vs. standing still when you are aiming via the iron sights. Crouching doesn't change the "standing still" cone of fire, but it does let you move for a much smaller +50% penalty.

Shooting from the hip makes your cone of fire 1000% larger while crouching, and 1500% larger while standing. You don't even want to know how much worse it gets when you shoot from the hip while moving.

Now what I'd like to see are hard numbers for specific weapon attachments. Exactly how much does a forward grip help with horizontal recoil, and how about a laser? etc.

This chart has helped me understand one thing about those scout rifles (used by Sniper classes), like the one I unlocked at release, those scout rifles do 143 damage per bullet, compared to 750 for Bolt action rifles. This explains why it takes nearly an entire clip to drop enemies with the scouts. Bolt action might end up having a much lower rate of fire, and smaller clip size, but in practice none of that matters when you can simply kill the majority of the players on the battlefield with a headshot from a bolt action, which is what most snipers would probably be trying to do anyway.

The scout rifles aren't sniper rifles (it's all in the name, duh!). They're given to the sniper classes, and most of them get 6x scopes which can allow you to fire from some pretty long distances, but they're a really shitty weapon to use for sniping. I've already converted mine to use a 2x reflex sight, and will be setting up a rapid fire macro to essentially turn mine into a poor man's AR, for use when I'm infiltrating rather than sniping, because that's all it really seems intended for.

What pisses me off about the Scout rifles, is that when you look at some of their stats, the damage meter is completely maxed out, now compare this to the damage meter for the bolt actions. I assumed the meter was a measure of each bullet, but now I don't know if it's intended to measure total damage potential of a full clip or what.

Can't you also use them as a poor-engineers-pseudo-sniper rifle ? I know some player like them on engineers since the are a bit more useful mid to long range than the standard option, and engineers that stay with Sunderers etc. tend to be far away from fight. Hopefully.

I don't know, I haven't played an engineer more than an hour or so. I spend a lot of time in games like this in supports roles and I was trying to change it up for PS2. So I'm not sure how well they work there compared to other engineer loadouts.

So, I've had this downloaded, but haven't played. How much is this a pay2win scenario, or can you earn certs at a decent clip?

EDIT: Ok...looking at this more, there seems to be more than one form of currency?

Certs are XP. You spend them to improve your chosen class (better armor, more grenades, etc), bling out your weapons with scopes n' grips n' thangs, and make your vehicles not suck with secondary weapons and abilities and whatnot.

Spacebucks are bought with dollar bills. They buy boosts (50% bonus XP for a week, f'rex) and unlock new weapons for less than a BILLION GODDAMN CERTS.

Really, it seems like a reasonable amount of pay2win. Five-ten bucks to get a couple weapons you like for whatever class you're into. The real power stuff comes from certs, which are XP-earned only. Even the starter weapons are fine; you just don't get to choose between higher velocity and larger clip size or whatever.

It's all fucking bullshit because the VS is terrible at actually fighting over objectives and instead wants to bang their foreheads into ridiculous fucking killzones for two hours instead, and there's always another fucking TR creeping up behind you to tear you apart before you know whatthefuck. But, you know, manshooting.

There are different currencies, but only two of them overlap a bit:

Sony Spacebucks (bought from Sony store): You can unlock Weapons and buy experience & resource boosters and cosmetic gear.
Certifications (earned by playing): You can unlock weapons and train all of your abilities.
Resources (Mechanized, Aerospace, Infantry -- earnings based on your faction's territorial control, and also by killing enemies in specific zones that produce certain resources): You use these to buy consumables like Vehicles, Max suits, and to replenish kit/belt items in the game (like grenades, health kits, C4, mines etc).

The sonybucks can also be converted into all kinds of simple cosmetic items. Weapons etc. are mostly options without expansive advantages over the free stuff. There are exceptions of course, mostly with vehicle weapons - rocket pods anyone ? Prices are hideous though - weapons will set you back between 1 and 10 dollars if you do not wait for deals, cosmetics generally 50 cent for a week, or 5 dollars for permanent unlock. However, there are deals both for the currency and for the items.

Got it. Thanks for the info, folks. Are the Terrans the overwhelming favorite at the moment and the Vanu the doormats? Just from the style, I wanted to play the other rebel faction because I didn't want to use pew pew lasers.

The Vanu guns don't really look or sound like lasers. More like traditional machine guns, with funky models. Vanu is where the BF outfit is (still waiting on an invite! Player name "bsones").

I'm just sangry about some bullshit from yesterday. We captured a biolab this morning, that made me feel kinda better.

The Vanu are fabulous ! Go purple !

Word. I just don't want to join a side that already has an overwhelming advantage. If the NC is relatively equal in the balance of power to everyone else (or less, because hey, underdogs), I'll probably play them just from a visual standpoint.

Even if they have an advantage (I do not think so), the existence of good outfits on a server has more impact on who is on top, I'd guess. Also SOE will probably continue balancing soon, so any advantage should be temporary.

Can't invite you if you're not logged in, apparently.

Yeah. Really, it's fine. Has a hell of a lot more to do with who is showing up to fight where. I just find the VS's idiocy infuriating, while the other guys' stupidities are adorable and also much easier on my k:d (which is pretty much permanently stuck in Geriatric Old Man levels, grumble grumble).

Yeah, I imagine there will be some growing pains, though I only stopped playing BF3 a couple months ago, so maybe some reflexes remain. I used to be a badass in Tribes, so I obviously have to use jumpjets. The more I read, the more interested I am in giving it a shot, though.

All the bitching aside, I like the game quite a lot. I'm hardly a kerzainian savant of competitive FPS these days -- if I'm being honest with myself, I probably peaked around UT 2k4 -- but as far as providing some context for shooting mans, PS2 is pretty good.

Whatever you do, don't play a light assault and expect a Tribes-like experience (which is sort of the mistake I made, but I stuck with the class anyway... because JUMP JETS!)

Aside from the obvious differences (no skiing), Sony went out of their way to penalize players who are trying to shoot and fly at the same time. Pay particular attention to what happens to your aim, reticule and spread when landing, it's bonkers, and felt like a real kick in the nuts when I first started toying around with the class. There are still huge advantages to having a jetpack, but they're slow, bright, and negatively affect your aim while in use. A Tribes experience they do not deliver, but PS2 wouldn't be the same for me without them.

D'oh! Logging in now...

What about jump jets and some kind of explosive device? Grenades? Grenade launcher? Something like that? Don't kick me in the balls like this, kerzain.