A new player's early take on the game

After a painless download and install, I finally returned to SOE for the first time since the debacle that was SWG. It was nice to be back. Planetside 2 appealed to me due to it's setting, scale, and (from what I've seen) good press. I'm not a Sony fanboy for sure, but I did come into this game wanting to love it. After a decent ten or so hours of gameplay, here's my thoughts on the game thus far.

When it's good, it's very, very good. When it's bad, it can be very frustrating for noobs.

I lack the twitch skills needed to be a god in an FPS, particularly on the PC. I enjoy supporting the front line players rather than being in the middle of the action... this goes double for a game with friendly fire. The last thing I want to do is accidentally cap a teammate running around a corner! So although I've played a ton of MMOs, my best PVP experience has been WOT... slower, more snipery, ect. With all that in mind I rolled up an infiltrator and was dropped into the action... which, it turns out, is not where I wanted to be!

After the first few instant deaths by spawning at this game's version of a mobile spawn point, I decided to change up my approach. I took the time to maneuver to the opposite side of the hex being attacked and began calling out enemies and taking shots at whoever stood still long enough for me to line up a shot... with my slightly-less-than-Guinness Book of World Records breath holding ability... I still don't think I've gotten a kill in game, but I've got some assists and hopefully me marking players is helpful to the grunts in the front line. Unfortunately recon is not the world's greatest XP gainer, but slow and steady wins the race I guess.

I had one particular "awesome moment". On the desert map, south central, there's a long stretch of road between cliffs. I set up there during the night and began giving some harassing fire to the folks below (I definitely need a rifle upgrade). Obliviously thinking someone better than me was around, the enemy infantry hunkered down and before long a "ton" of enemy armor appeared. I began marking them... I have no idea the range on marking, but I like to think it helped. As the armored column began to roll out, the sun rose between the canyon walls, as I was thinking how nice it looked a full squadron of aircraft rolled in and blasted the column into oblivion. Hot on their tails was a column of friendly, and the attack was on... which I continued to support in my own little way, marking and harassing. It was very cool.

There were some downsides though. Defending is not very fun when you're under constant bombardment from all sides... that's part of the game though and when the roles are reversed I love it. I did get killed in the middle of main warp gate, which according to the wiki is safe ground, by an enemy player. I'm fairly sure that was a hack of some sort. And there is the self-inflicted problem of take a ten minute hike to get moderately close to the action... several times I reached a good overlook only to see that the blitzkrieg had rolled through and thrown me a jaunty wave as they sped on to the next target.

Finishing with a few observations and questions, in nice easy, TL;DR format.

Questions:
1) When you a mark an enemy how far away does it show up on friendly maps?

Observations (All of which have doubtlessly been made before):
1) Why do infiltrators suck at holding their breath so badly? In a quick and totally scientific test, I can hold my breath for thirty seconds while sitting in my office, drinking a red bull; I *know* trained snipers can do better.
2) Why only fixed power scopes? 800 years of military progress has not yet reached the point of my $150 deer hunting scope?
3) The inability to lie down is a bit disappointing.

In short, I want to love this game. I do right now. I don't think it will hold me for a long time, unless I can start making some kills (part of which is me, part of which is the damage output of the starter gun). It's like watching an epic action film. I see all these awesome jumper attacks, explosions, guns blazing, and it looks awesome. If I go close, it's instant death. So I sit on the sidelines, pointing out enemies, and hoping that eventually I'll earn a rifle that can actually kill a target.

This game takes a bit to get into. There are a lot of obstacles as a new player, get yourself in a regular public platoon that is organised or an outfit. Grab all the certifications you can that cost one cert, like nanoweave one. Dont focus too much on sniper, you said you like support, put a few levels into your medic tool or go with engineer, you might enjoy them a lot more.

The game is epic, the more you play the more you will have moments that make you love the game, with the scale and drama that is so rare.

^^this. I would also just encourage you to keep playing. The game is hard for new players. There is a lot of information thrown at you at once so it will take time. If you take the time to learn the game, then you will be rewarded with what I think is the best fps on the market right now.

99% of things worth doing take time to learn, PS2 is no different and as you cert into items/guns/vehicles they really do improve. Keep the faith ( I was there at SWG too ) you have relearned and you will see that these guys are right on with their statements. Try all the classes you may be surprised that some are more fun/better to play than you first imagined.
I do agree that at least when sniper you should be able to lie down there are plenty of ways to find people without them having to stand/crouch to be visible.

Good hunting (unless its me you're hunting ) and above all have fun

I miss SWG

Breath holding.



Welcome to my pain.

The original... yes... me too.

What faction are you playing? The TR and VS infiltrators start with sniper rifles that are not very beginner friendly. I'd recommend upgrading to a bolt action sniper rifle as soon as possible. The M77-B for TR or the XM98 for VS are low cost, entry level bolt action sniper rifles and I'd highly recommend getting the one for your faction as soon as possible. Infiltrators can be difficult and frustrating to play for a new player and tend to gain XP the slowest compared to the other classes. If you enjoy support, Engineer might be the way to go at least until you become more familiar with the game.

To answer your questions:
1) I'm sure the breath holding mechanic is considered some kind of balance against the fact that snipers can one hit kill with a headshot (depending on distance to target and if the target has nanoweave armor equipped). We're stuck with it.
2) The fixed scopes are likely a cert sink and to encourage players to plan ahead and equip themselves accordingly for what they plan to encounter.
3) Not being able to lie down hasn't bothered me, a crouching & cloaked infiltrator can be very difficult to spot. Even harder if you make good use of terrain (hide in a bush or dark corners).

To answer your questions, as best as my faulty memory can:

1) Enemies you spot show up on the overviews of people within I believe 140m. It used to be that everyone who rendered a spotted enemy had the triangle over their head, but this is bad for reasons; person at vehicle pad spots a sniper 300m away, an aircraft otherwise obliviously flying over lolpods him inside of 20 seconds, all after a single shot from the sniper.

As for your observations:
1) Balance, but it could use to be a second longer.
2) Balance. To easily kill others at ranges they can't kill you requires some tradeoffs when they do get close enough.
3) Balance. It's hard enough to see infiltrators who know how to hide (kneel behind rocks so only your head is showing, and make sure you have an object of the same-ish color behind you).

As for weapons, bolt actions are the only way to reliably kill something though enemies who have nanoweave 5 can survive them at decent range. The weapons I got with alpha squad work pretty well, they have 600 or 650 m/s bullet velocity and I think they're cheap (250 or 500). The top tier of bolt actions have 750 m/s and are definitely the best. I'm not usually a sniper, but those are the ones I'm always killed by - they are the Parallax (VS), Longshot (NC), RAMS .50 or something (TR). Be careful before buying other bolt actions though, some cheaper bolt actions only have close range scopes. Practice is key, learn the speed and trajectory of your weapon and you can do amazing things.

As for finding a fight, what I do is look for the hotspots and then use instant action. If I see that's not taking me someplace with a decent fight, I'll use redeploy to get close. Alternatively, you could learn to fly and bail as a light assault when you get close.

If you want to be a good sniper, just do what these guys do:


Best snipers in the game by far. If you can do an eighth of what they can, you will go far.

your mistake is to compare ps2 to real life. It's about balance though, not how stuff works in real life. for example, if an infitrator could hold breath for 30s, the whole idea of scope sway would be obsolete.

I think you may already have some of the guns you want. Not really "guns" in the normal sense, but...
1. Engineer turret: http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/MANA_Turret
2. Heavy Assault rocket launcher: http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Launchers
3. Lighting's Viper: http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Lightning
4. MAX's Burster and AV gun: http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/MAX

I'd also recommend that you get the AMS ability for your Sunderer, and deploy it far enough away from the fight that you can continue to shoot from the turrets. The default Basilisk guns are great for this type of play.

Edit:
Since you played WOT, you may appreciate a little comparison.
The NC's Vanguard resembles an E-100. It's slow to move and shoot, but packs a punch.
The TR's Prowler is fast like a the 50 B. It shoots fast and moves fast, at the expense of armor.
The VS's Magrider is a hover tank. There's nothing in WOT like it.
The common pool Lightning tank is like an AMX 13 75. It depends on speed, maneuverability, and a low profile to make up for it's lower health and lower damage per shot. Put on the AP gun, and it feels like a TD though.

Well thank you all for the replies. I'll keep putting in the time... I might break down and buy a better gun too, since the TR starter rifle isn't cutting it at the ranges I like to engage. All in all, I'm expecting a grind not too unlike WOT. I hated that game for months when I was forced to grind through the run and gun twich tanks, but everything changed once I got behind the awesome power of a long 88 that could reach out and touch somone across the map. I expect one I'm able to unlock a bolt-action rifle with a 10x scope the fun factor should pick up a bit more.

Yu already got a weapon that can kill. Almost all the starting weapons are the best. The T1 cycler for the TR, for example, is still the best compared to weapons i bought such as the NS SMG, Hailstorm, NS-11 A, TAR, TRV and the Haymaker.

Take your time and gradually you'll learn the base layouts and this will/should help you with identifying where the threat come from.

Pick a class and put your certs into it. In any class cert nanoweave. Additionally in medic cert med tool, engy cert eng tool etc.

Look at the map, often you can see a base about to be captured but with 2-3 minutes still on the clock, get a flash and go these and swallow the xp you get. Xp means certs and certs make you a bit stronger (nanoweave), armour on a vehicle but also more flexible. Farm thoswe free captures shamelessly.

I suppose it depends on your playstyle. Those are assault rifles. The 99SV just doesn't have the juice to do what I want, from where I want to do it. I think it might be worth shelling out a few bucks for one of the top tier rifles that has higher velocity and damage. I can hit the enemy fine, it's just putting them down for the count that I feel the 99SV is lacking.

Yeah I can relate to your frustration. I first started playing the game in late Beta and it was pretty frustrating because everyone was way more progressed than I was, so I felt outgunned all the time and on top of that didn't know where I should go or what I should be doing... but I was holding a gun so I thought that someone should die and that's good enough for me. I actually stopped playing the game shortly after release for lack of interest and picked it up a month or two down the line again and everything started to click. Now I'm ADDICTED and honestly I can't play any other game because they just lack depth and character. Honestly though, just about every infantry weapon is a sidegrade rather than a direct upgrade, so even a BR100 can be outgunned by a BR1 because the weapons they are using are more or less of equal effect, the BR100 will just have had more time to learn his weapon, which gives him the advantage. The exception to this is the semi-auto sniper rifles, which are pretty suck tbh, and you will want an upgrade soon.

But aside from that... first and foremost my advice to you would be to hit the VR room and try to figure things out under non-combat conditions. You can find the VR room by going to the continent selection terminal from the warpgate and looking at the bottom of the screen. If you are going to pick up a bolt action rifle from certs, then get the M77-B like someone else said, and if you want to spend actual money on a weapon that's worth it, get the RAMS 50 cal. The RAMS is a top tier rifle and basically the best a long range sniper can get in this game.

Actually... look at my killboard because I got a pretty nice streak with the NC RAMS equivalent rifle with a 12x scope on it the other day.

https://players.planetside2.com/#!/5428010618038742225/killboard

Fun stuff, definitely have no issues getting kills with it. The TR starter sidearm is good, but put a Laser attachment on it, that costs 100 certs and is a great investment to just about any weapon as it tightens hipfire accuracy. You can turn it off using X or L, depending on your keybinds for "toggle rail attachment" or something, and still keep the accuracy buff.

Also try playing Medic or Engineer. These are support classes that are the most useful when they don't have their primary weapon equipped, and may fit your playstyle until you learn the game a little better. As a Medic, stay with your squad and offer heals/revives using your '3' gun. As an engineer, you can do the same and offer ammo using your ammo pack '4' or by using your turret '5' and pressing alt fire, which defaults to B for new players, I have it on a mousebind. An Engineer can repair MAX units with your '3' gun, which are the big armored infantry robot transformer looking things, or you can stick with vehicle columns and repair them and hop in the gunner seat to get some kills while someone else drives and hop back out while under cover to repair again. Both classes offer fun playstyles that differ from run+gun, and camp sniping and also provide good opportunity to get certs.

What server are you on?

Hi Jak, and welcome to PS2.

I echo the above sentiments, and advise you find a class you enjoy and start putting the certification point you earn into that class first. I cannot comment too much on the infiltrator class as it is my least played class, but I will point out a few things that may help you. The basic TR scout rifle isn't going to put anyone down in a single round, and requires 2-3 rounds at least. It's advantage lies in that it is semi auto so you can stay ADS to take the subsequent shots.

The bolt actions are more powerful, and they can OHK with headshots. However a word of caution, many players have taken the Nanoweave suit augmentation which gives them at level 5 25% extra health, which is more than enough to survive a headshot with a sliver of health left, and to reload the bolt action, you need to release the ADS key meaning it takes far longer to follow up with the second shot.

However that is not all the infiltrator is for. Your recon dart allows you to fire a radar dart that sticks to a surface and any enemy within its range will show up on the map. The infiltrator can also hack into enemy terminals, changing control to your empire, and can also hack the turrets found at the various facilities on a continent, allowing friendly troops to man them. The final tip I will offer is that infiltrators can also equip Sub Machine Guns (SMG's) which make them deadly in CQC. You will have to purchase them however, but I have seen infill wreak havoc by cloaking, and getting close to a group of enemy troops, before dropping the cloak, and then kills 2 or 3 before anyone knows what's happening.

One last thing, visit the VR training room. You do this by going to the continent change terminal at the Warp Gate (has a globe on it) and you will see the VR training button at the bottom. You can try out all the weapons and their various accessories to see what feels right for you.

P.S

As I don't know how familure you are the FPS terms ADS is short for Aim Down Sights, and OHK is One Hit Kill.

Archy.

Thanks for the part about the engy. I knew there was a way to switch to ammo pack even if its replaced i just couldnt remember how. Haha.

Firstly you can't beat practice, that's just how it it. I was a Planetside 1 player and it still took me a while to get into PS2, it has a harsh learning curve.

1) & 2) is I think just balance, it's not realistic, but it's probably how it needs to be.

3) I wish they had as well, people say it will lead to "duck-diving" as seen in other games with it, but with an animation and decent cooldown on the ability I think it would be fine.



My advice is try an Engineer, stay just behind the front lines and repair MAXs/Vehicles and drop ammo for troops whilst getting some shots in, you'll get better and more accustomed to the game whilst also being pretty useful (Medic might also work for you like this).

My advice is to hang in there and learn the game. Its not exactly noob-friendly but neither was Tribes and that was the best game ever made.