I'm officially back on Planetside 2 again and will be playing often but I'm curious to know what has changed while I was gone. I noticed we have a few new weapons and the bases have changed a lot. Are the sub machine guns good? Did they ever address the problem with Liberators dominating everything? I did see some new AA stuff but I haven't tried any of it yet. I also noticed the "roadmap" forum and so far I like what I'm seeing for the future.
AA was fixed, Libs are how they should be now and don't dominate, the factions have had some balancing work (Prowlers are getting their nerf in the upcoming patch) not much has visibly changed except that most bases are better fortified to stop people farming spawners etc (lots of armor on the windows etc). Engineers get AV turrets which are basically stationary rocket launchers with unlimited ammo and guided missiles (They're awesome) It's a better game to play now IMO, but still needs work doing, though a lot of the issues with the client crashing, memory leaks etc have been addressed and all my issues have been fixed so far Reading the patch notes might be helpful, most the stuff is laid out in a pretty simple to read way so you can catch up in no time, also look at the upcoming patch GU04 which has some good changes like ATVs with extra seats!
oh lord, you missed the ocean of tears when magriders were broken for a day. the effects of which we're still feeling on the forums today. and of course, the rise of prowler spam. and AT mine suicide bombing.
Well if the problem with Libs was fixed that is all that really matters to me right now. That was the main reason why I took a long break from the game. The bases definitely look easier to defend now from what I saw when I was briefly on the game early this morning. What? Seriously? LOL
For the NC, the Cyclone is practically heaven on a stick for Infiltrators. I can't speak too much on the Eredani since my only experience with it so far has been on the receiving end, however I can say it drastically increases your defense and/or hunting capability. Liberators still dominate, but not TOO often. (At least on the server I frequent.) And yes, sadly there has been a massive exodus to NC... Coincidentally, it happened around the same time I got fed up with VS whining on the forums about the UES, which resulted in switching over to NC. Talk about being mistaken for a bandwagon jumper twice in the same scenario.
They added BFR's, but you have to spend time in the caves to get "imprinted" before you can use them...
-Magriders can't park on top of Vanu Archives and Scarred Mesa Skydock anymore. -The Annihilator was released, it was an AA/AV lock on that infantry used to great effect against armor/air. It then got nerfed into oblivion on top of a few people actually learning how to play and making themselves flat out immune to the launcher completely. Don't buy it. -Warpgates rotated, NC north TR SW VS SE. They will rotate again in GU4, NC SW TR SE VS north. -Sunderers and tanks got two AA secondaries, they're both bad. -The Halberd and Enforcer had their projectile velocity brought up to 275m/s and 300m/s respectively, Enforcer had gravity added. -Flak Armor is mandatory to survival with every non-MAX infantry class except sniper rifle infiltrator. -Vanguard and Prowler HEAT and AP ammo got velocity increases. Prowler got a rather huge damage buff with HEAT and AP, and the splash damage is taking a hit next patch because you can kill someone with Flak Armor 5 in one reload without a direct hit. Prowler deploy mode also increases velocity by a large amount. Those are the highlights, I guess. I'm sure someone else will fill in other blanks with things relevant to them.
Tanks are now much more balanced with mags getting nerfed and prowlers getting buffed. As a whole though, they are significantly less powerful than before due to the overabundance of annihilators. Scatmaxes are still roflstomping OP deathmachines camping biolab entrances. Infiltrators are no longer worthless since they added SMGs which are quite decent. Air on the other hand is now completely useless except for taxis and ghost capping due to everyone and their mother having dual bursters, annihilators, or the new AA weapons for MBTs and sundies. Well actually its not completely useless; you could fly toward a battle until you come within render distance, flare and run away from all the missiles, fly back again, flare and run away again etc. over and over. Basically picture Call of Duty on a low population server where you have to pay real money for guns.
-The biggest change that made me enjoy this game 10x more is that they greatly reduced flinching. This made infantry combat more even & enjoyable, you no longer look like you're spazzing out when getting shot. They also reduced screen shakes from explosions but it's still a bit too much. Such as when ESF's spam rocket pods your screen still shakes so badly that you can't aim & shoot. -Rendering distance increased, so you can see much further than before, which is great for everybody. -SMG's are very good close quarter combat weapons, especially great for infiltrators, but also good for some other classes. -Servers merged, more action for most servers, bigger combat, some servers have fights on all 3 continents now. -Base designs have been tweaked to be more defensive oriented, more shades & wall blocks to shade defenders from aerial & HE shelling. Amp stations and tech plants have new tunnels you can go through from the spawn rooms, they shoot you up to various points. Tunnels for amp stations are especially helpful because they put you right above the generator rooms. -While air superiority got adjusted, it's true liberator spam isn't an issue anymore these days. But don't put your guards down, ESF's are still flying everywhere, and they are still able to blow up full health tanks in one rocket pod pass. Since ESF's have lower health, most people are ok dealing with the annoying ESF's, so things aren't as bad as in December when aerial bombing was rampant. But honestly if you are alone and an ESF wants to kill you, you'll still die. Anti air weapons are still pretty much a joke, lock-on rockets got nerfed to a point that most average pilots know how to shake lock-ons. So without a lot of you together shooting into the sky, ESF's will still make you curse some bad words at the screen from time to time. -Prowler for the mean time is the MBT of choice, their rounds got boosted above what they needed and they're the ideal infantry farming machines right now. But they're getting adjusted next patch. In fact all HE explosions are getting adjusted so that should be a great day for majority of the players in this game as most people play infantry in this game. -Engineers get access to a new guided Anti Vehicle turret, it's a very fun and very useful turret. I see it used all the time by engineers. Strong against vehicles, guided makes them better than dumbfire, and they can also be used to fire into crowds of people in crowded situations. -New shotguns are out, some people really like it, they're pretty powerful if you don't miss. If you do miss, you can get into trouble. So they're fairly balanced. -As said above annihilators were nerfed to death, it's now a very weak rocket launcher doing very low damage, the lock-ons take too long to be of any use, don't bother buying it. Unless you have a dedicated squad full of people and dedicated engineer ammo bots to use them with. They are for the most part useless without a squad of folks all using them at once. There are still some echos of the "lockonside" whine on the forums, but most people know lock-ons are not an issue anymore. Only extremely bad pilots get killed by lock-on rockets. Overall I would say the game now is the most balanced it has ever been since launch. Still some tweaks to be made sure, there will always be balance tweaks. But for air v ground, or infantry v infantry combat, they are the most balanced they have been since launch. It's a great time to be coming back to play, especially with the new game update coming next week which contains a lot of good stuff.
When CoD supports over a thousand players on a server, you may have a valid point. There are charts showing you that you are wrong about population, most servers hit over 2,000 active players on during active playing hours. Otherwise you just sound like a sour pilot who can't adapt to new changes.
Oh, I do. I just disagree with you. But then you were exaggerating about the lack of vehicles & ESF's, especially so when you tried to prop up annihilators as if they are the #1 killers of vehicles. Try looking at some stats, heck don't bother, just try playing the game more. I can't remember the last time I was even killed by an annihilator. Like I said, you just sound like a sour pilot who can't adjust to air not being superior to all anymore.
Well, compared to how much NC cried prior to that, at the same time as that, and after that, the magrider tears were just a drop in the ocean. Add the amount of tears from TR and the upcoming prowler nerf alongside the mag and combine them, then it's still only 2 droplets.
