Playing Planetside 2 as a low level BR is a frustrating 'anti-fun' experience. Providing suggestions

I'm making this thread because I believe that Planetside 2 is a fun and engaging game -for the most part-. However, one of the clear problems with this game is the terrible new player retention rate. I decided to roll a new character on Briggs with my friend from Australia.

It was an incredibly frustrating experience. I couldn't count the number of times I failed to hit targets with my CARV because I lacked a forward grip and a proper scope. The amount of times I missed kill streaks because i lacked suit upgrades, concussion grenades, and an adrenaline shield. It got to the point where I'm like, 'Fine i'm just going to sit at this biolab and wait for certs so that i can get my forward grip and actually have a fighting chance!.'

These are just examples for my personal playstyle, but I do not doubt that many people can echo my experiences. People who do not have the benefit of a player subscription like my new character did have it even worse. In short: The early game cert grind is horribly difficult, especially when competing against high BR players. It's difficult to use vehicles, and infantry players are at a clear disadvantage without attachments. Most of my friends that I have tried to introduce to Planetside 2 have quit because they are intimidated by the cert grind necessary to acquire basic loadout items in order progress. The first 20 BRs are frustrating and boring to grind because players are at a clear disadvantage.

Proposal: We need a series of cert 'care packages' in order to allow players to have a basic level of specialization coming into the game. This can be tied into the tutorial in order to teach players how to play -with incentive-.

Example:

I create a new BR 1 character. For successfully completing the starting tutorial, I earn 500 certs. I am then thrown onto the live server.

The live server has a tips tab. For completing basic objectives, I would earn cert bonuses. These objectives would be designed to teach a new player the game.

Example:
Objective #1: Use the redeploy key. Certs earned: 50 certs
Objective #3: Buy an attachment on your weapon and equip it. Certs Earned: 100.
Objective #4: Resupply your grenades: Certs earned: 35
Objective #7: Pull an MBT from a terminal. Earn 50 certs
Objective #8: Eliminate 5 players using an MBT. Earn 100 certs
Objective #11: Join a public squad. Earn 100 certs
Objective #12: Squad deploy on your new squad: Earn 50 certs
Objective #15: Warp into the Virtual Reality Room and test 3 weapons: Earn 200 Certs

*cert values are abitrary, can be adjusted*

Using a system like this would allow newer players to learn the game with incentive. They could use the certs they earn to specialize their starting character. Ideally they should have enough certs by the end to buy 1 or 2 weapons, and some suit/loadout upgrades. This would increase player retention, and probably result in greater investment in the game as a result.

And now imagine what a pain it was back in the time where a simple scope cost you 30 certs, the attachment descriptions were confusing and you couldn't test stuff in the VR Room.

I agree with the op. New troops have it pretty rough starting out.

We were all low BR once, yet here we are. I think you're overestimating how frustrating it actually is for a new player.

That said, I like the idea of getting a handful of certs for doing basic 'L2P' stuff one time.

I agree with the idea here, but I think the bigger problem is that new player doesn't automatically know which weapons / attachments are viable and which aren't (hello, flashlight) so if we are giving out a starter cert budget, say ~300 (enough to upgrade a weapon and buy the first few ranks of nanoweave/flak), whats to prevent them from just being wasted?

Yeah I can agree with this. +1

Yet you can't really tell how many are NOT here because of this. Personally I played this game first in beta, but never before that I played FPS games, so my aim and everything totally sucked. I kept dying and had no clue how this game worked at all. Played a bit as support then quit for almost a year...
Granted, back then there wasn't even this kind of tutorial we have now, but nowadays people won't bother to learn game mechanics themselves - you have to show them at the beginning.

When we were all low BR, the playing field was even so it didn't matter as much if your gear wasn't upgraded. I agree with OP completely, I've been trying to get a new TR going on Matherson for quite a while, its just.. painful. You lose most straight up fights, you don't have any tactical options in a big fight, infantry AV ranges from impossible to pointless.

Of course in PS1 there was a full new player VR tutorial area where you could try out everything and got BR for interacting with all the guns and learning about the game. It gave you enough BR to get going and was really good for new players. It was kinda tedious if you already knew the game but it didn't take long and its WAY better than starting with nothing.

But then again its from PS1, so SOE will have to try 5 different new things, realize all of them are terrible and admit the PS1 mechanic was the way to go all along. Maybe it'll come next year when the game is older and they are getting desperate for players

Sort of decent idea but you also have to consider how a new player would react to first being showered in certs for doing almost nothing, spending them on stupid stuff because hey, he is getting loads of them.

Then the newbie time is over and the new guy is stuck with a low cert gain and probably a very random cert spending.

Imo I think one of the best ways to let new players have fun and learn the game at the same time would be to have a sort of outfit training program. By far the best way to play PS2 is to do it with an outfit, its more fun than just running around randomly.

My idea would be that outfits could "sign up" for training duty, new players joining that server and faction would either be evenly distributed or get a list of outfits with a short description of what the outfit is about, they would automatically get the outfit tag but with a * or something to signify that they are a trainee. Information like teamspeak etc that the outfit feels is vital would also get available.

This would help both outfits to get new people to join them and new people would get help and be a part of outfit ops.. wich is more fun than running around the warpgate.

After a number of days(a week?) the trainee is graduated from training and gets a cert reward(500 or something). The outfits that sign up for this training program would also be rewarded in some way, perhaps a small but constant +5% exp/res modifier.. i dont know, something. If the new guy behaved during the week chances are good the outfit will just outright recruit him/her as a normal member when the training is over.

Well, I think something like that would be a better first impression than the guide we have now and then just be all alone with no direction and most outfits wants more people so its a win-win, would have to be some sort of activity check or something so people dont end up in half dead outfits that doesnt play as an outfit but I hope people get where im going with this by now.

This is just a thought but can it be that you didn't do as well as you're used to because you're playing with stock items now rather then the beefed up weaponry that you're used to playing with? You're used to your shots going at X location while without attachments they go to Y location and the weapon handling in Z way while stock handles in A way.

I do agree that it could be made a bit easier on the new guys by just giving them a scope and or a forward grip on all the starting weapons. Giving them certs would be a bad idea in my opinion because the majority of them will waste it on random upgrades like triage for the medic and other stuff that has no real use.

I almost feel like a bad guy for killing rank <10 players that don't even know that there's a VR training in the game.
So bad even that I often redeploy elsewhere and just let them cap. the area when it's just me ruining their gameplay.

I feel your pain and agree. Starting a new character is an exercise in frustration. It's to the point that I start a new character a good week or two prior to actually playing him so that I can accumulate ten or so days worth of Welfare Certs for things I consider mandatory. I can only imagine the annoyance that would plague a new player. Fighting seasoned veterans equipped with 20% bullet resistance, four from-zero-to-full healing kits, more accurate weapons (attachments), etc... and that's just infantry.

+1 for this idea.


Its not like it costs SOE anything. Yet it would make the game start feel like your going places and doing stuff instead of just getting torn apart left and right.

Me too. I feel terrible when I kill a BR 1. Especailly if he just drop podded in. Lately Ive been sending the low BRs a /tell to let them know to not use the 'Instant Action' button or that their primary weapons dont hurt tanks, or that they wont win a battle with am MBT if they are using an AA Turret. Whatever they've done wrong, I politely tell them so that they dont continue to make those newb mistakes.

I like this idea of awarding them certs for doing basic gameplay actions. They could go through a list and see what they can do to earn some certs, and learn how to play the game at the same time. Grinding for non-members has got to be painful when you are new. Giving them a bonus and incentive to learn the ropes is definitely a good thing.

I rolled a new NC character to play with my friends (as you can see in my sig) and my experience was completely different...

I'm still losing every 1v1 at BR40 and I'm sure some of that is down to equipment, though I'm no FPS pro at the best of times. But yeah the first 25 or so you don't have any tactical options so you find yourself out of your comfort zone and die even more.

However I agree that just giving certs would probably mean they got wasted; there's so much to spend certs on and a new player isn't going to know what is effective. Missions with cert bonuses for completing them are good and I think we're getting that soon (TM), but I don't think it's the best way to get newbies new stuff, though it certainly is a good way to teach them the game.

Someone recently posted a suggestion for fixed free loadouts which had mid-level kit (e.g. NW3, a 2x scope carbine, 1xC4, level 3 LA jets). You couldn't modify them and you'd still need to buy equipment to customise your loadout to that level, but it would give a new player a chance to compete in more situations in the infantry game.

Objective #1: Find a 1/2 MBT driven by someone who looks competent.
Objective #2: Acquire(SP?) certs.

Seriously. If I don't have a friend to gun for me I'll take anyone. If it's someone who can atleast hit a lightning(which is honestly not that hard with a halberd/enforcer. Mine are almost fully upgraded aswell 4/5 reloadspeed) on the move we'll go adventure mode and pop sundies, tanks and have a generally good time earning a metric ****ton of certs.

I FULLY SUPPORT THIS.
IF BOB SANDERS SUPPORTS IT, IT MUST BE TRUE.

jezz hunting noob pilot is the best thing ever i dont even feel bad about it, there is a lot of them who dont know how to fly or at the basic survival manuever which is the reverse manuever (which i think need to be implemented as a badic training).
also yea about the starting attachment it could help a lot,and also i think some weapon need some warning of the dificulty of use, ir maybe just by showing the stats like this
acuracy: good
damage:moderate
rate of fire:good
recomended range:short-medium
ease of use: easy-medium

this way noob can read the weapon stat way easier, back there when i was i noob i acidentaly bought the warden thinking its an engy AR and my k/d drop soo much, then i switch to the acx-11 which did the same thing, finally i got the the blitz which is super easy to use, i say most of the time noob wants weapon that can at least hit properly, low kick,and have decent rof before switching to higher tier weapon with higher damage profile like godsaw,sniper rifles,pump shoty,and any kind of semi auto,etc also i would like to suggest of warning noob about the game where one headshot wont kill.

i for one like this assignments approach in order to let new players earn some easy starter certs. of course all these assignments should only work one single time and there shouldnt be many assignments, just enough to give a new player a helping hand for the start

+1. Make it so that new players can earn a couple hundred certs for a basic loadouts within the first 1-3hours and it's more likely they'll stick around.
Nothing groundbreaking, just like the stuff OP suggested.