Planetside 2: Grindy McGrindy McSpaceyPants

I'll just say that I used it extensively for short range fighting (base assault) with my Heavy last night, and it worked so well that I slapped down some space bucks and bought it. It's definitely not just a long-range weapon. My K/D ratio was significantly better using this over the Orion, even inside buildings.

OTOH, I've found the Pandora (and shotguns in general, though I haven't tried them with slugs) to be underpowered. The Pandora is effectively a melee weapon--even at as little as ten feet away, you will lose in a face to face showdown with anyone using a carbine, an LMG, a pistol--pretty much anything, really. Or I did, at least. I spent about forty minutes trying to get the hang of it, and lost every single face-to-face fight I encountered. I think the only kills I ever managed with the damn thing were the times when I was able to sneak up on someone. Looking at kerzain's weapons data chart, it's easy to see why. The per-shot damage is exactly the same as a carbine's, but you almost never get even that thanks to the super-short range and COF bloom that is orders of magnitude higher than that of any other Vanu weapon save for a hip-fired rocket. It's simply not a good weapon. A stock carbine beats it at every range but point blank, and at point blank range you'd do more damage with the knife.

The Eidolon rifle, though--that's a keeper. It's my new primary weapon on my Heavy.

Yeah, it's a primary for me on engineer and AA/out-in-the-field Heavy both. The 3.4x red dot has been great for hitting things with it.

The thing I really like about this game, and it's something I look for in almost every shooter, are the pistols. I'm really dig the feel of the sidearms so far since I tend to use sniper rifles and such and often have to pull out the pistol to finish someone. Also, man are people oblivious. We were assaulting a base yesterday, and I ran up a set of stairs stealthed. I had a good 30-60 seconds of just pistoling people in the back as they tried to hold the stairs. I just wish I would have had some grenades.

I started out preferring HA, but now I think I am a Light Assault convert, with a side of Medic when we're running as a coherent squad. Jetpacks are so wonderful for finding little out of the way shooting spots, especially because so many people often neglect to look up.

Yeah, LA is super fun, especially with points in jetpack and adrenaline boost (screw armor--an LA's best defense is to keep moving). I switch to HA for field battles, because my LA build is more close combat-specialized. But for things like base assaults, LA is great fun.

I think I'm settling on medic.

I love how I can help keep a push going as medic, get tons of XP for healing and resses, and still kill really effectively, AND I can use my AOE heal to top myself off when I'm off on my own. I got a ton of certs last time I played and started really feeling effective for the first time. I don't think I'll ever play heavy anymore.

I'm also getting better at flying a mosquito, but I'm terrible at tanks. I was able to get some key AMSes set up too, which always feels good.

I'm going to have to try the LA and the Infiltrator. I am forehead-teat useless outside of a tank. (that point was driven home last night when after being handed my lunch repeatedly I turned the tables significantly with multiple kills in a tank)

It does feel like the Pandora is under--powered, but I don't think that is my issue, I've never been especially good at twitchy combat. Putting myself in position to backstab and get the drop of fools sounds like the best chance I'm going to have at competency.

I'm attracted to the MAX but from experience it just makes me a bigger easier target rather then turn me into a TF2 Heavy-like killing machine.

If you go Infiltrator, just remember to be patient. I had a fun time last night on the outskirts of a battle popping fools in the head from behind as they tried to assault and stealthing between rock outcroppings.

Hoooboy what a great game entrance! You want a tutorial? "Here's the fight, evolve or die!!!"

Is this the new gaming paradigm? Get the noob into action as quick as possible? That kinda clashes with me, as I am a "read the whole manual" type of guy.

But anyways, going to spend some time offline with the tutorials, then jump back in. You guys are on Waterson, right? Anybody play after twelve Eastern time, or sometimes between one and three in the afternoon?

Hah yeah we've discussed that earlier in the thread (but it is getting kind of long in the tooth).
And yes Waterson/Vanu is the general concentration of people from the forum.
Best place to sart for your "offline training" is on the Launcher, one of the scrolling items is "New User Basic Training Videos" they're pretty good.

Yep, Vanu on Waterson. Sharpe (Sharpe67) and I (Talisker18) are frequently on past midnight est, as are others (@Tremon, BlueJackalope, etc).

So I've been sucktastically mega sucking with the Vanu, despite putting a lot of time and effort. My K/D is horrifyingly ignominous .14 (yes, I die 7 times for every kill; I am FAIL at Vanu). Various people have been talking up the NC, so Talisker and I have NC on Matherson. I was just trying it out and OMFG NC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Vanu. It's a joke. No, not sorry grapes, but honest to god the NC has MUCH better gear.

For plain old infantry weapons, the NC guns hit way harder and since this game is so much about getting the jump on the enemy, a high ROF, low dmg gun like most of the Vanu is less effective than a medium ROF, high dmg gun like most of the NC is way better. Also, although this is subjective, I'm pretty well convinced the overall DPS is better for the NC by a substantial margin (20% or so) plus when you assess "applied DPS", the NC just land way more damage. So they IMO have an advantage in the core infantry game.

Personally for me, the biggest difference is the OMG awesomeness of the Vanguard. I always loved the Vanguard in PS1 but did not like the fact that the driver had no gun. Over time I came to prefer the Magrider due to its mobility and driver gun. Well, the MBT philosophy in PS2 has changed. The gunner weapon in most MBTs is complete crap compared to the driver gun now. The main damage dealer on an MBT is now the driver gun. For the Magrider this means a reduction in overall offense as the driver can only aim by steering the tank (there is no separate aiming) and it's difficult to aim via steering since the vehicle responsiveness in PS2 is so crap. OTOH what PS2 does to the Vanguard is my wet dream from PS1: they gave the awe inspiring Vanguard gunner cannon to the driver. When I realized this, I nearly cried b/c of the time I have wasted in Vanu. A Vanguard driver is like the king of the road. The crappy gunner weapon doesnt even matter. The driver gun is a true cannon, plus it can be independently aimed like a Lightning turret. So for me, I feel like I must give up on Vanu until the balance is fixed and go with NC.

The only thing holding me back is the desire to play with the BF folks. Is anyone else willing to put an outfit together on NC Matherson? Or a different server if there's enough interest? If so, lets post here and try to set something up.

I'm serious about this: for me at least NC is much > Vanu that it's laughable.

Edit: Since JestInTime had NC on SolTech, I relocated over there. Garoun did also and we have an outfit now. My char name over there is SharpeNC.

I've always preferred NC to Vanu (and said as much when the outfit was just getting started!). Man, starting over, though. Do space bucks purchases transfer over?

Nope. All purchases are per-character, not even per-faction.

Ugh.

Yeah, its kindof screwed. On the bright side, any investment in Vanu will pay off when the inevitable BIg Balance Patch comes out and beats the NC with the nerf stick whilst sprinkling the fairy dust of buffing on the Vanu. Needing to rebalance stuff is a Sony tradition.

So we have an outfit on NC SolTech and so far its JestinTime (Chozin on the server), myself (SharpeNC) and GarounNC

I'm willing to give it a try. I'm not sure if I really want to switch, even though I do like the NC a whole lot more than the damn Barneys. But I have a bunch of stuff unlocked on my Vanu character. Hopefully the default NC weapons are good, because that's what I'll be rolling with for a while.

Well the default NC sniper rifle is so good it makes the default Vanu sniper gun look like a popgun. Also the vanilla Vanguard is a damn wrecking crew.

TRAITORS

Come to the Dark Side, Talisker! Unleash the power of your hate! Put aside your petty loyalty to the underpowered and incompetent purple fools! Embrace the power of big cannons and 1-shot 1-kill sniper rifles!

And then drink bleach. Red team all the way!

I don't think Vanu are really underpowered, FWIW. I've spent a lot of time on each side and I think the inter-faction balance is actually pretty good.

No, but the membership advantages do. Really, without transfers I think membership is the only thing worth buying right now. I've also relocated to SolTech this week, but I'm still on Vanu, so I guess we'll catch glimpses of each other from far away as we take potshots at the enemy.

SolTech NC, I will be there. I hate the Vanu.

Sigh. All right, then. SolTech NC.

WOOOOO!

So I fired up my NC character last night, friended Tremon and Garoun, but for some reason couldn't squad up with 'em. But, played for an hour or so anyway, got a bunch of cert points, scoped my gun, etc etc etc.

...then I realized it was my TR guy on SolTech, and I'd been playing on Matherson the entire time. Which is why the squad/outfit invites always failed. But the friend invites didn't, grrrrr.

Anyway, I deleted my dudes and made new ones; I'm EvanWilliams (NC) on SolTech, Scapa16 (TR) on Matherson, and Talisker18 (VS) on Waterson.

If you ever think you might fire up a guy from a different faction, I strongly recommend going ahead and creating one now, as they'll rack up a few "passive" cert points each day wheter you play 'em or not (although there is a cap to how many of those you can get without spending them).

I don't, either. If nothing else, they do a pretty good job at territory control even with even server populations across factions. I think it's most a play style thing. NC weapons are more accurate (at least in short bursts--they have higher recoil than Vanu weapons) and do a bit more damage, but have a slower rate of fire. If you aren't the sort of player that likes to rock-and-roll with full auto fire (especially in CC), then you probably aren't getting the most out of the Vanu weapons' advantages.

By the way, for those of you who are (or are thinking about) subscribing for multiple months (or a year) in advance using one of the package deals, it's worth noting that the extra 500 spacebucks you get per months goes away if you cancel auto-renew on your subscription, or try to remove your credit card information (which is funny ha-ha given Sony's history of being hacked, but whatev).

As an example: You subscribe using the 12-month deal, you will get all the benefits of a subscription for 12 months, including 500 spacebucks each months for those 12 months... UNLESS you disable auto-renew or remove your payment information at any time within those 12 months. Then you'll get all the same subscription benefits, except they'll stop giving you the 500 spacebucks each month.

I've known this was the case for SoE's EverQuest games since they first opened the Station Store, but I figured I'd mention it here before anyone screws themselves one way or another.

There's a thread about it here. There was another thread (with people complaining that Sony has been anything but clear about the rules for this stuff on all the ads plastered all over their site), but Sony locked it. I don't know if this one will be locked too, just be aware.

I am on SolTech NC as Rywill.

I am on SolTech as BS0NES. Note that the "O" is actually a zero, because bsones with an O was already taken. The zero looks exactly the same as an O in the in-game font, so: confusion!

Taken by you, I expect-- names are globally unique.

That would explain it.

You know, for a faction that supposedly has objectively superior weapons, the NC sure are getting rolled right now on SolTech, on all three continents. Pushed back to the warpgate on two, and in the process of being pushed back to the warpgate on the third.

I certainly haven't tested all the Vanu and NC weapons so as to do a scientific comparison, but my understanding is that generally speaking, the advantages of the Vanu weapons are lower recoil and less bullet drop, as compared to NC which have noticeably higher recoil and more bullet drop. That sounds good in theory, but here's how I see it break out in actual engagements:

Long range: In terms of the sniper rifles, there's no comparison. NC all the way. The basic bolt driver does awesome damage -- it's a guaranteed head shot kill every time. Yes, it has a bit more bullet drop than the Vanu bolt-action rifle (which you don't get until either spending spacebucks or a massive amount of certs), but it just means you have to compensate a bit more. Maybe for those uber snipers that are getting headshots on guys riding on flashes the Vanu rifle has some relative merit, but if you're content to shoot guys that are standing still or running in a predictable path, NC wins. Oh, and let's not forget about the lovely "here I am" laser-trail feature of the Vanu weapon.

In terms of non-sniper long range engagements, yes, NC weapons have more bullet drop and recoil, but I find it's a wash because at long range, even with a good scope, just a little recoil means you need to fire short bursts and hope 1-2 rounds hit. So even with Vanu weapons, I'm not finding my long-range hit rate any higher, and thus, I'll take more damage per round.

Medium Range: Mostly the same thoughts I have with respect to long range. I am finding the upgraded Vanu carbines nicely accurate for medium range engagements on Light Assault, but it still takes a lot of rounds on target to drop anyone. For dumb people who just stand there when you shoot them, that's great, but enough people know by now that you find cover as soon as you get the red hit bar on your screen.

Short Range: Laughable. When you come around a corner and run headlong into an enemy soldier, subtleties of recoil and bullet drop become pretty irrelevant. It's all about raw damage, and I honestly feel bad for Vanu guys in these sort of situations.

Probably getting the desktop out of storage today and I'd like to see how terribad I'll be having missed beta. I'm glad someone called a server for NC as I can't stand Vanu. Do we have an outfit setup yet?

kerzain: Reading official MMO forums makes me sad. All of the people defending Sony, having obviously given the issue not one passing thought, could easily do so without attacking the OP, but, no - official MMO forum. So, how necessary are the space bucks to the game? Is it possible to grind it out (like TA)?

Don't feel too bad, because this is the one situation in which I feel the Vanu have the upper hand. Their weapons all have higher rates of fire--the CC weapons like carbines especially so. And because recoil and the subtleties of fine aiming are pretty much irrelevant at that range, their higher RoF equates to more DPS, even though each individual bullet does less damage. The VX6-7 carbine, for example, tears shit up at close range. I'm finding it a bit hard to adjust to NC in close combat, simply because the SAW doesn't take down targets as quickly.

Yay NC! I'll join you guys on SolTech. I'm not having much fun as Vanu. I just don't like the style.

Ben, I see you in game in the firefight we're in. I'm SphOnx, that's a capital O.

Created a NC on SolTech as well. HKPfooey

Okay then. Is anyone *staying* Vanu (my his enlightened wisdom illuminate us all)?