Tried to bring people into this game...

Convinced a friend to try out PS2. He's new to the game, we join up a squad and are at Crossroads Watchtower, when he instadies to a Phoenix rocket. He was confused, but I tried to explain that the NC have camera guided rockets. We leave the spawn location only to instantly die to another one.

I tell him to run out instead of simply walking, try to explain he needs to keep moving.. he dies to another regardless.

He decides its just not fun to die to something he can't return fire against, and leaves the game. Permanently turned off from it.

And no, the NC wasn't capping it. Heavies were simply behind the hills, firing and farming the VS holding it.

There will always be something broken that will discourage new players.

The ESL's were a bad idea, not needed at all, what was wrong with the annihilator? I thought that was the go to launcher, luckily the guys I have brought to play the game as part of a YouTube series seem to really enjoy it despite being confused as to what the hell is going on...they will learn in time XD

If it wasn't rockets, it would have been the complete and utter lack of direction the game provides new players.

Looks like that weapon was made for campers to cheap kill infantry, they don't bother capping or destroying vehicles.

They should've made the guidance system works like the engineer AV turret, must have line of sight.

"There will always be something broken that will discourage new players."

Yes.
It's called "making some effort" and "training".

I'm a very bad fps player at closed distance and I'm still taking huge pleasure playing this game.
Why?
Because it's always possible, with a little strategy, to win fights.
Frankly, this game is amazing.

But it's a little bit like tv shows, usually it's the less interesting ones, the "easiest" ones which are most seen by the masses.

I honestly just evade all NC players in battle, those people are all heavys spam. Their rocketlauncher also is broken and can kill inside the spawn. Playing against TR at last is not a spam fest of rockets.

If you're gonna play this game, you just gotta accept the way they monetize it. There will always be OP stuff for sale. Accept it, learn to love it, and buy it when it comes around to your faction. It is the way of things.
Explain it to your friend that way, and it seems to make more sense. Otherwise, if that is not the case, then you just have developers who don't properly test stuff before they release it, and accidentally end up with stuff way, way out of balance. And that would indicate some level of incompetence among them, perhaps a large level of incompetence, which would turn off any new player.

As NC I'll agree with that the empire specific launchers were not needed for this game. They are some of the worst balanced weapons I've ever seen in a FPS game. It's not just Phoenix really, Striker also. Right now they're buffing Lancer and most likely within a patch or two Lancer will also become something people just dread and hate ingame.

I'll be perfectly fine if they wipe out ESL's completely and refund my certs. I honestly believe the game was better before ESL's, and the infantry balance was 100% better before pump action shotguns & SMG's were introduced. What OP described is really how many people feel, they don't have to be new players to feel something is not right. Just as we thought air superiority and liberator spam spawn camping was over, now the devs have found a new way for people to do pretty much the same.

"Looks like that weapon was made for campers to cheap kill infantry..."

And what's the problem?

In real life, it happens that antitank missiles are also used against lone infantry guys, in a sniping style (not very "proud" action, but it happens).

So what can you do?
Adapt yourself to the situation and walk cleverly around.

"and the infantry balance was 100% better before pump action shotguns & SMG's were introduced..."

Adapt yourself.

As I'm quite bad at closed distances, I see fights at closed distances like a result of a bad decision I took just some moments before.
So, no problem with SMG's and shotguns.

This is a game, stop bringing in real life for jebuz sake. Games need balance or games lose population. When something is wrong in the game, the right thing to do is to call it out. This whole L2P or adapt crap is old and tiring. It's the same crap pilots said to us during the first 2 months when aerial bombing was rampant, same thing VS players said to us when Magriders killed twice as many Vanguards & Prowlers and the devs didn't have the brains to tweak them fast enough. Who in their right mind thought hover tank vs ground tanks was a good idea? Oh right, only those that live in the Planetside universe.

And yes, as NC I'll say NC are guilty of saying the same with regards to NC MAX. And now, same thing with Phoenix. Bad balance is bad balance, there's no learn to play or adapt to these badly balanced items & mechanics.

I keep saying this, the game has never been as close to balance as it was just before the ESL's, why did they put them in? we didn't need them, why not bring out more weapons for other things, how about empire specific lightning modifications, lightning tanks with plasma guns for Vanu, big hard hitting cannons for NC and double barrelled heat cannons for TR...just an idea for an actual worthwhile new set of gear instead of MOAR rockets

As an NC player, I feel Nix launchers are unfun for TR/VS infantry to play against, especially the new players who have no idea what to expect and how to counter it.

Not every TR/VS whine is completely unfounded.

It's strange how confused these new players always seem to be, and how quickly they give up. If you have any FPS experience at all, then you really shouldn't have a hard time learning what you need to do, and where you need to be to find the action.

If your friend is going to give up so easily, then I seriously doubt gaming is really his thing. We all have to learn, and it takes time.

Really? If we had known that earlier, there would be much less complaint about the Phoenix? Would you mind proving your point? In addition, at least in real life it takes MLG-level skills to snipe an infantryman with an AT rocket launcher. With the phoenix, it does not require as much skill.

... really?

It's just a matter of putting things in perspective.

At first, I whined as a tanker against "lolpoding".
And I remembered after that the German panzers were crushed alive in Normandy by the Typhoons and their rockets, just because there were there no more Luftwaffe fighters to cover the area.
So I stopped to whine and I began to "tank" more cleverly.

Same thing with the Mana turret.
I began to whine and then I realize a Mana turret is some kind of Tow missile:

http://izismile.com/2012/02/23/tow_missile_vs_t72_tank_just_wow.html

I adapt again my "tanking" to this threat and now no problem at all with the Mana turret.

The problem, here, is that many players just want to be always in the situation of doing everything, in spite of PS2 is a clever game which needs often the exact contrary, that means taking the good decisions of avoiding to do this and that.
And I just like it this way.

When I first joined Planetside I couldn't even get out of the spawn room before being killed by Liberators.

Your friend was able to get past the forcefield.

Clearly we are making progress.

"... really?"

Yes, French army in Afghanistan uses this method against snipers.
Probably with missiles near the end of their operational life.
As already said not a "proud" method, but nevertheless very efficient.

So, again for me, no problem to be killed by a guided rocket.
It will just teach me to move more clevely under cover.