Planetside 2: Grindy McGrindy McSpaceyPants

Can you only have the two tank mines deployed, or is it possible to have more of them out? I miss the little engineer-deployables panel from PS1.

Depends on how many you're certed/equipped to carry. The amount you can carry at one time is the maximum amount you can have out.

Yep. At the moment I have three.. can't go higher without certing into Utility Pouch.

It's worth mentioning that they persist through death and/or changing classes.

Cheaters. How I love them. Just ran into a few - we tried taking a tech plant that was only defended by a handful of TR. Two of which proceeded to run at 4-5 times normal speed past us, headshotting at full auto from 100 meters and more away. A few times they wiped 3 to 5 guys out in one salvo. When they reached 48 - 0 and 65 - 0 we left. Best part is that their teammates cheered them on the whole time. Lovely.

On Connery all our major cheaters were Vanu. Don't forget to use the /report <name> command if you happen to catch their names.

I did. Just hope it helps. Really ruined playing this evening for me - I left a few minutes later.

Bummer Farnsworth. I haven't run into anything that obvious yet, though I've been annihilated pretty quickly at times by Vanu.

But that is just due to our purple power ! On the plus side I hopped into a game on another server as TR. Wow, those guns have quite a bit more kick. Nice to see a different perspective.

I came across this a few days ago and it made me laugh:

Your results may vary, depending on your faction.

Speaking of lucky shots, I took out a mosquito with an AV max a couple nights back. Verrrrrrry satisfying.

SOE's official policy is that cheating = account permaban, so definitely report it when you see it.

Anti-vehicle grenades seem pretty effective.

If anyone here is playing Vanu - the Lasher is downright ridiculous. Situational enough not to be overpowered, but you can do some amazing things with it. For example, if you just happen to meet a freshly spawned anti-infantry MAX that is just close enough to reliably hit it is perfectly feasible to win the fight. If the enemy is bad, you will even come out with only shield damage. Any bottleneck is amazing - getting a continuous stream of assists and kills there is standard. Inside buildings it is clearly possible to fight a group of lighter enemies and come out ahead. Other heavies are mostly easy to kill as well, dependent on their weaponry of course. However, 1:1 duels with more agile opponents are a bit hard. You will also start accumulating team kills, and even sometimes kill yourself if the fight is in a very, very tight space.

So last night playing as NC there was a Vanu LA (I think) that was getting groups of 3 and 4 kills in such quick succession that all 3 or 4 would literally show up in the kill notification box at the same time. I'm wondering if that was a sign of cheating, as I can't really figure out how someone, even with the element of surprise and with an upgraded weapon, could score groups of infantry on infantry kills so quickly. Even if I lined up three enemy guys in front of me and had them not move at all, by the time I killed all three there would be a delay in the appearance of the names in the killbox.

EDIT : Do we still have an NC Outfit on SolTech? That's where I'm playing as SlainteMhath. Would love an invite. Pretty please?

Maybe he was running clumps of people down in a tank, or rocketing them from a plane. Are you sure they were being killed by infantry weapons?

I mean, cheaters are rampant, but I haven't seen any go balls out psycho yet.

What about grenades?

See here. All yours are good explanations, but this also sounds exactly like the cheater I described above. He'd run in at several times normal speed, and headshot a cluster of people with one salvo...

We do, but we can only send you an invite when both parties are online at the same time.

So speedhacking still works? Wow. How 2001.

Looks like it. So far I only had the incident with the two cheaters mentioned above. Additionally someone accuses others of using aimbots every once in a while, but in all these cases I did not see myself if that was indeed the case.

Nope, the weapon icon each time clearly showed one of those short LA/Engy style carbines, so it was infantry on infantry, no grenades or vehicles involved. It also happened multiple time in a base that was full of friendlies (having recently been capped) and he was the only enemy scoring kills. The more I think about it, the more it had to be a hack. I mean, you might get lucky once and kill three guys just standing there before they knew what was happening, but to do it multiple times in a base full of enemy soldiers is pretty blatent.

I was shot by a BR58 guy the other night. How the hell do you get to rank 58 already?

Could be an underslung grenade launcher, I suppose. If there were that many targets around it's possible.

An absurd amount of catassing, I would imagine.

The #3 guy on the leaderboards streams at http://www.twitch.tv/sujieun, and just hit BR70. His secret is that he plays 12 hours a day and can aim. He also dropped like 300 dollars last time there was triple Station Cash and unlocked almost every gun. He's a nice dude who will give advice if you ask in chat.

The #1 guy is also on twitch but I won't link him because he's a racist shitlord.

Just in case anyone is considering to spend money on this game - SOE indirectly announced a station cash (pay a thrid of the usual price) for the 21st. Indirectly because the info came from someone scrutinizing patch files, and the SOE CEO afterwards confirmed on twitter.

I joined this yesterday New Conglomerate on Soltech.
Names Nuggneb

also invite Burata, please and thank you

I just got an email about the Ultimate Empire Showdown. I was intrigued until I scrolled down to see who the Empire leaders are, at which point "intrigued" turned into OH HELL NAW.

I'm done with this game for the time being. Tonight was an exercise in ultimate frustration.

First, I am sick to death of being instasniped by air. It's very frustrating to be running from cover to cover only to have a Scythe or Mosquito kill me in one shot as they hover completely unmolested over lines of enemy troops. Tonight I saw a Scythe piloted by a BR42 hovering around a base assault picking off infanty with impunity. The best part was that even when he flew right over two Sunderers he completely ignored them, because why destroy the goose that is laying the golden eggs? I know the debate rages about air vs. anti-air, but I can tell you as someone who plays mostly infantry that air is a ridiculous annoyance in this game and is a sure fire way to get to the top of the leaderboards and earn certs quick as you mow down hapless infantry with no anti-air support. And please don't tell me to grab an AA MAX, we all know how futile that is even when you spend the certs to equip dual bursters and extra ammo capacity. One AA MAX is not going to provide air cover for infantry, it's just going to cause the player equipping it to rage quit.

Secondly, I fully admit I'm not great at FPS twitchy combat, but tonight reached new levels of suck. I don't know if something changed in the game or if my PC was suddenly acting differently or what, but tonight I had several occurances of getting the complete drop on a Vanu soldier, as in I'm behind them and they don't even know I'm there, and they still managed to kill me in what felt like about 3 shots despite my practically emptying a clip from my assault rifle into them. It's ridiculous when I am firing at a target with zoomed in 2x reflex sights who is maybe 20 feet from me and I can watch them turn, fire from the hip, and kill me. Given that I wasn't this horrible 2 days ago something has changed. Not knowing what the deal is is even more frustrating than dying repeatedly in this situation.

Finally, the lack of any sort of cohesion and leadership with the NC on SolTech is amazing. Every night I login and every night it seems like we're just meat grinding away, losing ground on every continent with no real plan and no coordination. Squads are rarely formed into platoons, and most squads have descriptive names that tell you exactly how unorganized everything is. You'll see 9 squads in the list, 3 on each continent (which is a main issue right there), then they all have names like "Base cappin fools" and "Killz4Laughs must have mic". You join and the squad is scattered all over the continent, with no leadership and no direction. I spend most of my time playing solo, which when given the first two issues above is a recipe for disaster.

I loved Planetside, and I want desperately to love Planetside 2, but I've died way too many times to what feels too much like cheap BS to keep playing. I could care less about my K/D ratio, I'd die 100 times for every kill if I thought it was helping my faction. But I don't want to die 100 times just to give the other factions free XP while I wonder just what the fuck my faction is actually doing, and that's what PS2 feels like right now. Too many cowboys playing CoD in Space and not enough of the tactical strategy that made Planetside so much fun way back when. Maybe I'm just too fucking old for this game now.

Maybe it's me, but I think you're getting frustrated too quickly. I know I for one just started playing this game on Saturday. Turns out at least 4 of my friends bought it over the last weekend as well. The game hasn't even been out a full month. I'm not in an outfit, but I'm guessing joining a good outfit and forming up squads with Outfit members will please you. I myself not being in an outfit or having many friends online while I'm playing tend to group up with 2 or 3 people and not necessarily go to the meat grinder but hit lightly defended outposts.

I guess my point here is, I think people are still pretty new to the game. I know I am and the majority of people who are playing are. Even with a good squad or platoon leader shouting orders at us I still have a hard time following them because I have no idea where things are for the most part or how to read the map well.

I'd suggest you relax for a bit and try something new in the world. No reason to head to the meat grinder if that isn't your thing. It isn't mine so I feel like we're in the same boat. Also, if I see a high BR in the air, I avoid them like the plague.

One more thing. Shoot at their heads. I always dispatch enemies from behind by shooting them in their heads.

ps. I also switched servers, never saw any of you guys on and my RL buddies joined the Terran Republic on Jaeger (I realize I wasn't around that long). My name there is bengunnugneb

Sadly, that's almost exactly the period I won't be able to play.

I'm not very pleased with NC's showing on Soltech, so, at the urging of Skorin and Brandon Clements, I created a new TR character on Connery: NantucketSteelePhD

Would still rather play NC, but, I'd also rather have an enjoyable PS2 experience on the whole, so... peer pressure wins the day!

TR on Connery is the way to go, I've been running with the 43rd. Also, today I found out flashes can have guns, so I got one and gleefully quad-biked across Indar looking for someone to shoot. It took two bikes and five bases, but I did it. They looked surprised!

I'll be out for most of the double XP, but it's probably just as well. I'd hate to tip the balance of power with my death bike.

I'm TR Connery as well.

I have the Kobalt on my Flash, but I've only ever killed people with it while stationary. Which usually gets me immediately blown up by a rocket, but it is good fun.

Have the same and met a wild Sunderer by itself - funniest two minutes I had in the game yet.

Sounds like I may need to switch servers and factions to TR on Connery.

I did create a new NC guy on Matherson and the NC there seems much better coordinated and focused. They actually had multiple squads in the same hotspot formed into platoons, with armor and air support. I still got owned pretty hard due to weak FPS skills overall, but at least I didn't feel like I was dying only to give TR and VS free XP. The NC surge I was part of took several small outposts, a Bio Lab and a Tech plant in the 90 minutes I played, and I managed to kill a few people even as an Engineer, so it was far more satisfying than playing on SolTech.

I think the double XP weekend and the Triple Station Cash tomorrow might keep me playing a little longer despite my frustrations from earlier in the week. I'm hoping that being able to unlock a couple of nice guns and some options could make a difference in how effective I feel, and double XP is always nice when you're playing Engy or Medic and can get XP for support actions. I really want to love this game, just right now I feel like so much meat in the grinder surrounded by CoD kiddies more interested in K/D ratios than faction strategy, tactics and dominance.

Triple Station Cash is go! My Sunderer now has a sweet, sweet horn.

Reminder that Wal-Mart sells 2000 SC cards for $15.00, and redeeming the codes right now gives triple points as well, so you end up getting $60 worth of points for $15. Quadruple Station Cash! What value! They're behind a glass case most of the time, so explaining what you want to an employee will probably be more awkward than the first time you bought condoms!

Are you certain that works?

Yes.