True Story: What Just Happened.

Let me resume this thread into
"I want to have everything available on this game. Thought on how many time It would take me to obtain such. Closed the launcher."

Okay,let's talk about what we all face on the field at the moment.

1) Infantry. This, a stock character will compete with at extremely little disadvantage.

2) Tanks. A stock guy will only stand a chance in close quarters - that being the inside of an Amp Station, and at certain times a Tech Plant. They are really lacking in other places.

3) Air. This rips apart any new guy. The new guy has no answer to ESFs, or Liberators. There's no coincidence that the number of complaints against air have been decreasing as time went by, people have been able to grind up better equipment to at least survive in their presence, new guys have no such luxury.

Now, you may think I'm getting mixed up between being able to survive, and being able to counter. I'm not. A new guy can't survive a tank or aircraft, because all he's equipped with is a dumbfire rocket launcher. The vast majority of HAs at this point are sporting lock-on launchers due to the fact they can now fight back against tanks farming them from range, something a dumbfire can't do, and a new guy will be subjected to over and over again until he pays up for the launchers.

Air. Now, a one-armed Burster MAX is useless. Straight out, doesn't provide enough DPS or Flak to do anything to anyone at anytime. You need dual Bursters to be able to scare away AA. Or, you can - again - pay for a Launcher for the HA. They cost the same - 1000certs or 700 Smedbucks.

Now, you're saying, "It isn't pay2compete clearly because they can save up those certs".
Now, I'm not a below average player, despite my K/D. I'll give you a rundown of my playtime vs Cert gain;
With 7 days and 8 hours of game time(Maybe 8-10 hours of that doing fun non-cert gaining activities or AFK), I've gained 6,220 Certs. Now, to get a Launcher or Burster, you need 1,000. You need to have 1/6 of my gametime, roughly, so... A new guy needs to have 24-28 or so hours of pure cert grinding to grind up a competitive option. During that time, he has not spent a cert on anything else - he is still Stock. His weapons have no attachments, he hasn't gotten Flak Armour, or Med App, or Repair Tool. Now, people are obviously going to be better at this than me, so at the most optimistic estimate, a player will have been playing a game for 20 hours before they can even start to think of being productive in fighting vehicles. And it's probably longer, because hey, they're new.

Now, in an FPS where you literally cannot fight against 2/3 of the game for over 20 hours, that's ridiculous. In certain situations you will be competitive, and that is why this game is not Pay2Win. I can't reaffirm that enough - PlanetSide 2 isn't Pay2Win. You can and do take down vehicles in your stock state. But that's almost always a fluke, nice positioning in an enclosed area, or you finishing the job of a handful of other people. You can get every single thing you want by playing, not paying. And that is a great thing for PlanetSide 2, not many F2P games can manage that feat. But it came at a cost - you always have to grind extortionate amounts for these things, and it's clearly a Pay2Compete situation. You can and will be competitive if you stick around the game for as long as I have, without paying a dime, if you dedicate yourself entirely to grinding up those things.

A new guy can't be useful to his team at all except as another gun, which is no use at all in PlanetSide 2. He can't repair stuff fast enough, he's detrimental to his team if he tries to play Medic, and his Heavy Assault capabilities are confined pretty much to infantry. The Light Assault and Infiltrator are, by their nature, terrible in stock form, and even with upgrades are lack luster and at no point benefit the team except with suicide LAs that C4 Sundys - which you need about 600 certs or so to be useful for.

Now, I don't argue the point that when I play as a stock guy, my negative point of view may be exacerbated by the fact I'm used to having all the stuff that I have now. But even before that, when I was a pure F2P player for about 25BRs on my NC character, I always felt disadvantaged and underwhelming because I wasn't shelling out cash for the good weapons.

Just my bag of coins on the matter.

Well thought out opinion but I tend to disagree.

The lock-on launcher is much more situational then the default dumbfire. I could get a lot of kills with the dumbfire before and I'm still using it a lot. Lock on is good when you have massive battles and loads of armor at long range. Loving both launchers but the default one certainly isn't something to scoff at.

One armed burster max isn't useless. It's just 50% as useful as dual one. Still damages aircraft, still gets kills, still deters.

Only thing I might agree with is that picking the stock liberator/ESF might put you in a bit of a disadvantage against the highly specialised ESF pilots but even that gap is surmountable and the default guns on these don't suck either.

If the above was the case, noone would play EVE Online and that game has a steeper curve than PS2.

The reality of the situation is that a lot of people see the FPS part while ignoring the mmo part, and while they would be a lot more patient with the later, the market infused them with little patience for the former.

there is unlocks?

Opened the thread and saw the post. Thought about all the effort required to read it through, thought about how long it would take. Closed the thread.

The cert gain is speed is ridiculously low. If the default rate were the same as during double XP weekends it would feel just about right. What we currently have is abysmally slow, and I'm a Premium member with a boost. It's so slow that once I amass 500+ certs I hesitate to spend them on something because of how long it took to get them and the lackluster effect of most certs to begin with.

Whilst I don't disagree I also don't agree with your post.

To say that unless you cert up your vehicles or get lock on launchers or you wont be useful is a bit of an exaggeration, as a medic, yes, I am just another gun, but with the NC's long range starter weapon, even without a scope, I was killing the HA's aiming at the tanks, they pop out from rocks, launch, then hide, so in alot of situations tanks get killed without being able to defend themselves too well, now I've seen a rocket fire, I aim at the rock where I expect him to pop out and after a few shots he's either dead or his health is at the point that he wont be wanting to pop back out so soon.

The way I see it, if I see a tank or an ESF and I'm on my own, that's my fault for running off without HA support

Not trying to argue, I just feel that you aren't giving us infantry the benefit of the doubt, after all, for every BR 1, un certed guy on the battlefield, there is an equel BR 1 un certed guy in the batle somewhere

Clicked on this thread. Thought about all the interesting stuff I might read. Started reading. I'm outta here.

I prefer to stick with the G2A weapon. I didn't regard the Lock-on only weapon as worth while. Against air, you need the lock-on, but against tanks I've found it less important. You are either firing at long range, in which case you often have reloads available, and the time to adjust your fire to get the range, or you are up closer, in which you are ducking around cover and trying to get shots off fast. Standing out in view until your weapon achieves a lock against a vehicle that can one-shot you is not fun. In that situation, the default weapon would actually be better because of its higher damage.

A single burster MAX might only deal half as much damage as a double burster, but it is just as good a deterrent. Most pilots will veer off as soon as they start taking damage, without checking the rate at which they are taking it.
It is also worth pointing out that ESFs are vulnerable to small arms fire. You won't kill many, but you can scare them off.

Your cert gain isn't particularly slow, but bear in mind that cert costs of upgrades start very low. Its only 1 point for the first level of nanoweave for example, which is a non-negligible improvement. A player would be advised to pick up things like that before trying to save up a thousand certs for a new gun.
A new guy can most certainly be useful for his team. Another gun is welcome anywhere but a chokepoint, and being able to repair, drop ammo, heal, revive even at starting level is a vast improvement from not having someone doing that. Bolt-action sniper rifles, mines, and C4 are fun, but they are by no means necessary.
Extra boots on the ground or gunners in vehicles can still kill infantry, capture points, spot enemies, absorb fire etc with very little difference in capability no matter how many certs they have. Unless you are in a number-limited situation there is no reason a stock guy will not be a help.

Opened the terminal. Thought about all of the cowards, traitors, and Xeno-loving filth I would have to hunt down. Closed the terminal so I could disassemble and clean my Emperor one more time.

Terran story, bro.

Because we don't play games to have fun anymore.

Woke up, thought about all the thinking it would take for me to think about what I wanted to do today, stopped thinking, went back to sleep.

Started a post educating about common sense. Realized the futility of such action. Wrote this line instead.

OP voted for Obama

casual gamers aren't ruining games these days...ADD gamers are

Opened the launcher, thought about all the fun I'd have, closed the launcher again.

Why would anyone do something fun in their spare time?

Dont blame the games, its their parents for not bring belt to behind. Worked for me.

Did I hear Spiderman thread?

Because having options provides gameplay variety while also leveling the playing field. Unlocks are, always were and always will be a terrible idea.