Planetside 2: Grindy McGrindy McSpaceyPants

I'm still playing Vanu mostly, unless there's a good number of BF folks online as one of the others.

That was quite a zerg. I don't know if you were there for the three-way fight over that big tower, where we fought hard to take it from the TR and then just as we were about to cap it, the Vanu rolled in with a giant force and suddenly we were on the defense. Cool stuff. We ended up capping the tower and then pushed back hard into Vanu territory. So. Many. XP. I went from BR1 to almost BR6 in that session.

Yep, I was there. BR5 after that. That was my first battle with the character on SolTech. Good stuff. Any good NC guns I should be aware of?

I've only trial-ed the AC-X11 so far. It's a carbine that I thought would be the NC equivalent of the Vanu GX6-7, which I love. In practice, though, the AC-X11 seems not that great. It's the same basic trade-off as the Vanu gun--less damage per shot but faster rate of fire. But with NC levels of recoil, that just makes it less effective (even at close range), and I was getting more consistent kills with the default Mercenary carbine. Maybe it would be better with a grip, but I think I might try the Gauss-S instead. It can mount a grenade launcher.

The NC Infiltrator starts with a bolt-action sniper rifle, so no need to worry about that. There are two other bolt-action rifles that you can replace it with, but I'm not entirely sure why you would. Sniper rifles don't get any unique attachments AFAICT, and the default rifle has stats that are almost identical to the others.

For the Heavy, I'm not yet sure. The default SAW is really good. It does better per-bullet damage than any of the other LMGs (200, vs. 143-167 for all the rest). The GD-22S seems lame (similar to the SAW but with a faster firing rate and reload time, but also a smaller magazine and no special attachments), so I'd pass on that. The EM1 and EM6 don't seem that impressive. The SAW-S is a possibility, though; it does less damage than the default SAW (167), has a higher fire rate and reload speed and slightly less recoil. Plus it has a fire mode toggle (auto, single shot, burst?), and is able to load either high velocity and soft point ammo. So, versatile.

For rocket launchers, you can consider the anti-air one if you want to take potshots at gunships, but I'd skip the anti-tank one. You are better off practicing your aim and using dumbfires against tanks--they do a lot more damage. They are also awesome against deployed Sunderers. No need for guidance on those.

I haven't tried the Jackhammer, but my understanding is that all of the heavy weapons are currently in need of some balance (they are all underpowered).

It's possible to grind out everything except experience boosters and cosmetic stuff (like camo skins, helms, vehicle ornamentation etc). Depending on who you talk to, the camo skins can make a difference in that some of them do a more than adequate job of hiding their wearers from some people.

Now, you can also use the spacebucks to unlock weapons faster, and there are a couple instances where this would be extremely helpful for impatient folks like me; a couple examples being replacing the default TR Mosquito weapon with some sort of rockets or missiles A.S.A.P., and and replacing the weak default Vanu sniper rifle with a 750dmg bolt action A.S.A.P. Stuff like that easily justifies the cost if you have any plans at all of trying to play classes like a VN sniper or a TR Mosquito pilot as your main from the get go.

I think that was my first big battle on SolTech as well. Playing (badly) as an mostly engineer named SpaceHerp.

Despite some vigorous googling I was not able to find a legend for the minimap icons. I do know most of them but am still figuring out others. Particularly I would like to know the symbol for shield generator. Does anyone have a handy list or link?

http://brokenforum.com/index.php?th...grindy-mcspaceypants.1447/page-12#post-347421

Watch the base capture tutorial video--they go over that stuff. If you see a shield--like one blocking the entrance to a base--there will be a giant icon right on the shield. That tells you what you need to disable to take down the shield. Look around and locate the matching map icon, and go there.

Sadly I don't have an RPS account so I could not view the pics from earlier in the thread and the video quality on the tutorial was so poor I could not clearly see the icons. Bottom line is, I'd like a nice static listing of the icon, preferrably big and easily seen with an explanation of what each one means.

Make an RPS account, they're free. It's all there. Annoying, but informative.

I guess I should explain: I seem to be unable to make an RPS account. I've tried 3 or 4 times, including another try today. I get to the point where the site is supposed to send me a confirmation email to click on and verify my membership but the email never arrives. And yes, I've checked junk email etc. Not sure what the problem is but I've been surfing RPS for a few years now and none of my efforts to sign up have worked.

A reference would be nice, though again, you can tell which generator goes with which shield in-game just by looking at the shield. Additionally, if you just want to asses your tactical options in-game, just put your reticle over the icons (like, actually in the game world, not in the map mode) and it will tell you what you are supposed to do with that icon (i.e. "Destroy," "Capture," etc.). If you find that you can't get to the target because it is protected by a shield, look at the symbol depicted on the shield, and then look around for the matching map icon. That will be the shield's generator, and destroying that will take out the shield. You can destroy generators by getting close, putting your reticle on them and holding down the "E" key. This will initiate an overload sequence that will destroy the generator unless a defender comes and stops it.

Some specific icons:

1. Letters on the map are always strategic points that flip control of the base to your faction if you capture all of them (sometimes there is just one, sometimes more). Capture by standing next to the control point. The more soldiers, the faster the capture.

2. Any icon shaped like a shield (like, from a coat of arms) marks the location of a shield generator. The graphic depicted on the icon tells you what type it is. Specific examples:

3. A shield icon with a tank on it indicates a vehicle shield generator. Vehicle shields stop vehicles but not troops, and are usually on the outer gates of a base. Take out that generator, and tanks and Sunderers can get into the base.

4. A shield icon with three vertical slashes is a "full blockage" generator. These stop both vehicles and troops, and are usually protecting the central building in a base. The slashes can be horizontal or vertical, because sometimes there is more than one generator powering the shield, and you need to take out both in order to bring the shield down. Example:



In order to bring that shield down, you'd need to find the two generators on the map that are marked with those icons, and take them out.

5. A triangle icon with an image of a generator-looking thing in it marks the base's SCU (Spawn Control Unit). Taking this out shuts down the main, central spawn point for the faction that controls the base (note that they may still be able to spawn at various outbuildings, but they won't be able to spawn in the center of the base, which makes continued defense problematic. The SCU is itself protected by a shield, though, which you will have to bring down before you can attack the SCU. The generator for this shield is marked with a shield icon that depicts a picture of the SCU. The SCU's shield generator is often in a highly defensible location. In a Tech Lab, for example, it's in the middle of the central building, probably surrounded by hundreds of enemy troops. Note that you don't have to take out the SCU to capture a base--taking it out just makes the capture easier. If you DO take out the SCU, it is highly unlikely that the enemy will be able to hold onto the base.

6. Other icons that you'll find on the map are fairly self-explanatory. Pistol icons denote equipment resupply consoles, little tank symbols (not in a shield) denote vehicle terminals, little aircraft symbols denote air vehicle terminals, etc.

Good writeup of all the LMGs for NC, with pros and cons of each.

Note that the author of that post has a much more favorable view of the GD-22S than I did (I haven't used it, I've only looked at the stats). Apparently it's really effective but more difficult to use than the other LMGs. Tiny ammo capacity, lots of CoF bloom, but accurate and high DPS if you can maintain trigger discipline. No rock-and-rolling with this weapon. I think I'll make it my next trial weapon, and see what I think.

I've been messing around with one of the carbines of burst with a red dot scope for my LF. Seems to work pretty well so far. Got in a huge fire fight at The Crown last night that raged for an hour or so. We ultimately lost, and I had to go during the recapture attempt.

Thank you very much for the guide Ben. I'm palm-slapping my forehead about not connecting the first-person icons on the shields with the minimap icons for the shied gens. I am a doofus. Sigh.

No prob!

Here are my personal notes on the NC carbines, for those of you that want to play Light Assault. I did not compile notes on shotguns, because shotguns suck. If you like the shotgun play style, consider equipping a GD-7F carbine instead. Like the shotguns, the GD-7F is best at very close ranges. It does the same per-bullet damage as an NC shotgun, but fires 845 rounds per minute. You do the math.


Light Assault

AF-19 Mercenary: The default NC carbine. Good damage up close (167 at 10 meters), but very steep dropoff (125 at 75 meters) makes this weapon best suited for close quarters combat. It's good for that, though, with a high rate of fire (600rpm), a 30-round magazine, and one of the fastest reload times of all the carbines. It's also the most accurate NC carbine when aiming down sights. Primary drawback, as with all default weapons, is a lack of attachments. The Gauss Compact S is a pretty good alternative if you like this weapon and don't mind trading a little bit of accuracy and reload time for a wider array of upgrades.

Gauss Compact S: Very similar to the Mercenary, but slightly longer reload times, slightly lower ADS (aim down sights) accuracy, and a little more recoil. On the upside, the Gauss S has three fire modes (auto, semiauto, and burst) and is also the freaking Batman utility belt of carbines, with a dizzying array of unlockable attachments that include BOTH soft point and high velocity ammo, a compensator (reduces recoil, but also lowers hip-shot accuracy and makes more noise, which makes you appear more quickly on the minimap when firing), a 6x sniper scope, an underbarrel grenade launcher, an underbarrel smoke grenade launcher, and an underbarrel shotgun. Boo-yah.

Gauss Compact Burst: Very similar to the Gauss S, but lacks a full auto mode. Has a slightly higher reload time and slightly less recoil than the Gauss S, but has ZERO special attachments (just the same assortment that the Mercenary gets). I'm not entirely sure why you would ever choose this over the Gauss S or the Mercenary.

AC-X11: Highest damage of all NC carbines--200 points at 10 meters, which is the same as the Gauss SAW LMG. Drops off to 143 points at 85 meters, which is significantly better than the other NC carbines, so this is a good pick if you want to engage at medium range. Average reload time and a small magazine (20 shots), and the lowest rate of fire (500rpm) of any of the NC carbines means that this is definitely not a "spray and pray" weapon. Additionally, the cone of fire for hip shots is significantly worse than any of the other carbines, so you really need to aim this weapon if you want to hit anything. Cone of fire for ADS (Aim Down Sights) shots is very good, though, especially if you are standing still. Can use high velocity ammo and mount the 6x sniper scope (which could actually be useful on this weapon), in addition to the default array of upgrades.

GD-7F: This weapon is exclusively for close combat. Don't try to use it for anything else. Lowest damage of the carbines (143 at 10 meters) but also lowest recoil and highest rate of fire (845rpm!). As someone on the official forums noted, this weapon projectile-vomits ammunition. Long-ish reload times mean that you'd better make it count. It's worse than any of the other carbines at range--damage drops to 112 at 65 meters--so if the target is more than fifteen meters away, don't bother. Can use soft-point ammo.


A Few Notes About Attachments

Every carbine comes with a default assortment of upgrades that each go into one of four slots: sight, underbarrel, magazine, and ammo type. So you can't use two of the same type of upgrade (i.e. two underbarrel attachments) at the same time. The mouse-over descriptions provide ample info on most, but here are some additional notes:

Scopes: These are mostly a matter of personal choice. None of them affect the game mechanics in any way, they just help you aim. Note that if you plan to do a lot of close combat, you should probably consider one of the Reflex (i.e. red dot) sights. They have less zoom (1x-2x) and obstruct your view less, and thus allow you to take advantage of ADS (aim down sights) aiming bonuses without sacrificing peripheral vision. In close combat, this can save your bacon.

Forward Grip: This reduces horizontal recoil and makes weapons easier to control. I think this underbarrel attachment is superior to the laser sight, as it increases accuracy in all situations (the laser only increases it when hip-firing) and doesn't give away your position by putting a "please shoot me" light show on the barrel of your weapon.

Flashlight: I'm convinced that this was put in the game as some sort of intelligence test. If you purchase it, you fail. The flashlight helps you see your targets at night, much like the considerably cheaper nightvision scope. Unlike the nightvision scope, it also helps your targets see you. Enjoy!

Ammo: There are two special types of ammo that you can unlock--soft point and high velocity. Soft point is for close combat--it increases the range at which your weapon does its "max damage" value by five meters (to 15 meters, instead of 10), but also decreases bullet velocity (which makes targets harder to hit at range) and also decreases the minimum damage value for the weapon (which basically means: less damage at range). So if you equip soft point rounds, you aren't going to be fighting at range. High velocity ammo is the opposite: it increases bullet velocity, which makes it easier to hit distant targets, and also extends the range at which your bullets reach their minimum damage value by ten meters, which means that your shots will do more damage at every range greater than ten meters, up to the range at which they hit min damage. But they also increase recoil, which means that you have to limit yourself to short bursts or single shots--fine for ranged shooting, where you would be doing that anyway, but not so good for close combat.

A note in follow up to Ben: in addition to Light Assault, Engineers can also use Carbines. I'm going to test out some of his recommendations using the "Trial" option.

Note to Talisker: I keep accepting invites from you on SolTech NC but you don't show up on my friends list. I have invited you several times with no response. Have you not yet switched to NC on SolTech? Does anyone know what would cause this?

Mining/harvestable resources, player-constructed personal/clan bases, and NPC Alien Invasions & quests coming to Planetside 2!
(possibly, some time in the next 12-13 years)

Source (who took it from these guys, who in turn took it from here).

For tons more insight into the direction and vision for this game, the third link above is John Smedley's blog, it's got a plethora of information like this.

Some really good action last night, with a base battle at the tech plant in south/central Indar. Lots of back-and-forth action with the TR dug into the actual tech facility, and the NC grabbing surrounding satellites and the large tower (one of the super-tall ones with air pads and gun turrets) just to the north. For a while we made little progress as the TR played NC whack-a-mole as fast as we could cap facilities. The TR had, like, an entire tank battalion on the ground, and we didn't, largely because the sky was black with enemy gunships that were decimating our armor. So I went up to the top of the tower and jumped in an AA turret and started shooting down Liberators. So many xp. I also destroyed two Galaxies. Well, one technically crashed into a cliff face trying to avoid my fire (funny!), but I'm counting that as a kill. We reached a point where the sky was clear--no enemy pilot, save for the occasional Mosquito (they are hard to hit with AA), dared show their face in that valley. And at that point the ground battle started to turn around for us, because with the gunships gone, we were able to get a sizable group of tanks on the field, and we pushed the TR all the way back to the interior of the tech plant building. I took a break from AA duties (not much to shoot at) and took long distance pot shots at tanks and Sunderers with dumbfire rockets from one of the landing pads on the top of the tower. It turns out that I have a knack for that; I killed a bunch of tanks that were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the concept that being in a hull-down position helps you not at all when you are being fired upon from 300 feet up in the air.

And then just as it looked like we might be able to conquer the tech lab, the TR got their shit together and simultaneously sent a bunch of tanks to shell the tower's AA turrets, and also light assault troops to storm the tower via jetpack and shoot the engineers that were trying to repair the turrets. Then the gunships came back, and wiped out much of our tank force (as well as regularly bombing the top of the tower), and pushed us out of the region altogether. Good fight, though.

So at this point I'm ready to say that Planetside 2 is my Game of the Year.

Have we put together an Outfit on SolTech?

We have. Only about five members right now, but I wish more would come over because NC >>>>> Vanu.

Haven't had a lot of time to play so I'm still VS on whatever but I did unlock the afterburner for the Magrider.

At first glance the first level is a very short and sort of unimpressive burst with a looong cooldown timer. But it can be feathered to provide more than one burst in a short time, In practice it gives the Magrider the "escapability" of a Lightning. Start to get tagged by a Mosquito or Liberator or get a lock on warning and just punch out of danger. "Later Shitlords!" It can also be used to climb into some ridiculous spots.

I noticed someone throwing smoke grenades in the warp gate last night - that seems like fun (there is a smoke generator for the Magrider as well) Has anyone experienced smoke being used in the field?

Not yet. It's still relatively close to launch, and I think most folks are concentrating more on weapon upgrades and such first.

The "feathering" works for the LA jet pack too, BTW. If you just hold down the button, it will run out of fuel really quickly. But you can take advantage of your momentum and use short bursts to keep moving, and you go farther.

Yea, there's a Vanu guild on Connery that seems to rely on them pretty heavily. It's awesome when they use it because HS/NV scopes see right through that shit, and my k/d ratio for that battle goes through the roof -- given that except for a troop or two nobody on their team is prepared for that shit either.

Surprised at the not-insignificant number of people complaining about lag in response to the big PS2 not-review I just posted. I have had basically none, despite taking part in a whole bunch of giant-ass battles.

I haven't noticed any significant lag problem. Sometimes the game glitches out and I see people teleporting around, but that's pretty rare. Most of the time it works fine, even in huge battles.

The only problems I've run into are players glitching around from time to time, and my graphics glitching out after a long session.

I'm having a pretty good time as an Infiltrator with the Impetus sniper rifle. Maybe I'm gimping myself somehow, but it's been fun.

Guy on Twitter says European servers are having a harder time due to unbalanced loads &c.

That doesn't seem legal...

Sony makes the distinction that the 500 Spacebucks is considered a wholly separate bonus for auto-renewals and not a feature of the subscription itself. Now, whether all the ads & faqs they've had plastered all over their site has ever adequately made this distinction clear is another thing, but in their own mind they're two separate benefits, for two separate (but related) things.

And with a couple of points into improved jet packs you can pretty much stay in the air constantly as long as you don't need to gain too much elevation due to the improved recharge time. Which is awesome for staying above the fray, particularly in big base battles.

I guess a lot of folks play light assault as close-combat type class, but I much prefer using the jet pack's mobility to find out of the way nooks and crannies from which I can engage targets at medium range. I found an awesome place in an amp station fight last night where I was able to kill about a dozen guys before I finally had to leave due to running out of ammo on both my primary and pistol. I think I was shot at only once or twice.

MOAR LMGs! This guy gives a good, thorough demo for all of the NC LMGs. Also note that the sight that he's using, the Trueshot 4x, is really good for medium range shooting. For close combat, I'd recommend the 1x Reflex. Also, I very much agree with his assessment that the default Gauss SAW is the best all-around LMG. It hits hardest, is dead accurate on the first shot, and has the best range. It also breaks the mold for default weapons by having some good upgrades, like HV ammo. For close combat, the EM1 is probably a bit better, but the SAW works in a pinch. Just don't shoot from the hip with it--it has a terrible cone of fire for hip shots.

I do, too. And if you like to play that way, allow me to make a recommendation: the AC-X11, with a 2x Reflex sight. It is the best carbine for ranged (~20-50 meters) engagements by a lot, so long as you remember to stick to one- or two-shot bursts. Most players aren't expecting LAs to be able to kill them at that range, but with good aim, you can.

No you can't. I have Jump Jets 5 (6th one is 500 certs, so... yea) trained for my LA, and there's absolutely no way I could ever stay in the air constantly. Now, Jump Jets 5 is much, much more useful than the default JJ for constantly having energy available to traverse the landscape, but at no point in any of my five ranks have I ever come close to being able to maintain airtime for more than a few seconds before my energy is fully expended.

Is there any key or mod that lets you monitor your latency in game? I have a sometimes wonky connection, and it's good to know if everybody has just stopped moving, or if I've gone to a five second ping.....

Hmm, I will have to run a stopwatch. I'm pretty sure I was able to stay airborne at least 5+ seconds jetting across a base last night. However, I did start with a running jump off a building, so I didn't need to use any energy to actually achieve "cruise altitude." I just feathered my jump button for short bursts and then waited for the recharge.

And 500 certs? Yee gads. Have you been focusing 100% on light assault?

You should look into unlocking Drifter Jets, they're specifically designed to do what I think you've been describing.

Well, I have 5 of the 6 unlocked, I just haven't done the 6th because of the cert cost. But yea, I think I have 1700-1800ish certs spent on my LA skills and his various weapons at the moment. I also have C41 unlocked, but never unlocked C42 yet because it's also 500 certs.

The rest of my certs have gone towards scopes here and there for other classes, and some ATV upgrades (sensors, mine deflectors, handling & traction control).

Alt F

I don't think it is listed on the key bindings page, but it is listed on one of the wikis.

That monitors your frames per second (and tries to give you an idea if your fps is limited by your CPU or GPU at any one moment), but it doesn't show any information for latency. I know of no method (in-game or out) to monitor your ping/latency for PS2.