I realized something

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Alan Kalane, Dec 8, 2014.

  1. Alan Kalane

    Yeah so I'm an average-to-good player with K/D always above 2.
    NO WAIT it's not like I care about my K/D, I just consider it to be a good way of measuring my personal performance. So I never spawncamp or stat-padd it in any way, I just shoot the bad guys and peek at my K/D from time to time.
    But today while I was lonewolfing something occured to me.

    Okay so here's my story: I looked around - to the left, to the right, up - and nobody's there. I turned left/right and I heard BAM BAM BAM BAM as my health begins to drop. I manage to turn around and see that there's a guy who just crossed the corner and I was simply unlucky to turn my back at him at that exact moment. Asking myself "What could I do?" I pressed the respawn button.

    After respawning I choose the LA class. There was a building full of VS so I took 3 nades and some C4 and I was hoping to blow them all up. So I begun to flank their position all the way around. There were no motion spotters, no recon darts, and I had Counter-Inteligence implant equipped, so I knew for sure they didn't spot me. I was very close now. I looked around - nothing. I moved forward - BAM BAM - I died to a shotgun to the back

    I was seriously pissed off now, I spawned a MAX suit and BANG! My sundy and I just exploded.

    I was driving a Van and got killed by random debris.

    I got killed by friendly fire to the back.

    A LA with a shotty got trough the window while I was reloading.

    I suddenly found myself in a 10v1 fight (on the wrong side).

    I pulled a Lib and got killed in the first 20 seconds by an airgank I didn't see comming

    I got killed by my own frag that bounced off the head of a friendly Medic

    Got killed myself and a friendly with a dumbifre.

    I got killed in my Reaver BY AN AV MINE! IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WTF I just landed for repairs. There was no road nearby WTF. I touched the ground K-BOOOM you die.

    Ahh PS2 moments. At the end of the day I had 0.65 K/D ratio for the first time since quite a long time...

    So anyway I realised one thing: The HUGE ammount of randomness in PS2 IS an IMPORTANT factor. You can never forsee everything. So this game is not exactly a "skill-based" FPS, at least not in the traditional meaning.

    The only way you can minimize the "luck factor" is by playing in a squad and cooperating with others - ask them to cover one entrance while you cover the other, keep close to them to get repaired/revived, ask them to escort your lib, place motion spotters/recon darts or mines etc. LEAVE NOTHING TO FORTUNE. "If something can happen - it will happen" - Murphy's Law

    So all in all this is NOT a game for lonewolfs. The only way you can really influence the game is by cooperating with others. I believe SOE should focus on this aspect of the game - teamwork - and advertise PS2 as a TEAMgame.
    • Up x 7
  2. Sn@1L

    Valid....squad/team play is a huge factor in effectiveness.
    • Up x 2
  3. WorldOfForms

    I'm not a great player but I've been lonewolfing in this game since release and I do just fine. It's not frustrating and I don't feel like I'm always dying to "randomness".

    I have played with friends and I always play worse because I am worrying about what they are doing instead of focusing on myself. And no, we do not do better as a whole. My experience is always worse with them - performance wise, I mean, not about my fun factor.

    It always baffles me when people say you can't have fun lonewolfing in this game. I've been doing it for 2+ years now and I'm not tired of it yet.
    • Up x 3
  4. Pootisman

    The game is a lot more diffucult now, mainly because of the lag and the broken rendering of players.
    • The lag problem: Enemies appear delayed, by the time they appear on your screen, they have already started shooting at you and you die almost instantly.
    • The rendering problem: Enemies sometimes render very late in big fights, i.e. you run around corner and see no enemies, you think you are safe and suddendly enemies appear out of thin air and shoot you.
    Playing as normal infantry is a frustrating experience most of the time because of these problems.
    • Up x 5
  5. Uncle_Lou

    Sounds about right; the lag problem especially. It seems to have gotten so much worse recently. I've died quite a few times where I was left scratching my head as I was 15 feet around a corner when the bullets hit me; the direction indicator thingy in the death screen was pointing to an area somewhere on the other side of a wall. As much as I hate to even think it, I've started to wonder if there is a lag switch floating around out there... (and no, I don't see hackers every time I die. I just say it to make myself feel better)

    Rendering in big fights can be vastly entertaining. Just not really in a good way. Nothing like throwing a nade to announce your entry into a room only to have 15 friendlies randomly render just in time for it to go off :(
    • Up x 1
  6. AlterEgo

    I play lone wolf, and I got a K/D of 5.29 yesterday. So how is this game NOT for lone wolfs?
    P.S. For those who claim K/D is not important, it is actually an indicator at how good you kill people in this game, which is not to be trivialized.
  7. Joexer

    Wow. .65 is your Idea of a bad day. Try playing support.
    • Up x 1
  8. Klypto

    I would become extremely angry and quit before my KDR fell below 1.5 and go play on my Max-only alt. Playing max is like being on vacation.
  9. iller


    I laughed uncontrollably at this for some reason. ..... my experience in a reaver has always been 100% Murphy's Law
    • Up x 2
  10. Palbuddy

    I'm just a FTP part time player.

    My entire supporter-Life is a neverending 0.5 KD.
    I grinded every good stuff without any big bonuses till yet.
    When everybody else runs, I start to charge, praising my Gods.

    That's my game (when soloing)! :D
  11. Typhoeus

    You can lone wolf just fine in this game. I do it all the time. What's scary is when you get a group of guys who can lone wolf just fine and work together as a squad or platoon. Like DA or AC.
  12. Alarox

    The important thing to understand about this game is that there are bad situations where any player in the game will struggle.

    You need to pick your fights wisely.
    • Up x 2
  13. _itg

    Yeah, having a good squad around you (even if you're not technically part of it) is the single best way to improve your K/D, if that matters to you. But that doesn't mean you can't be effective as a lone wolf. I play solo 95% of the time, and I find that that gives me the freedom to go to fights where I'm actually needed rather than sit on an over-defended point for 4 minutes over and over again. Any number of times I've saved a base more or less single-handedly because I was able to take out the enemy sunderer, drive off enemy aircraft, or clear a point to buy just enough time for reinforcements to arrive when all the allies in the area were too inexperienced / timid / ill-equipped to do it. But yeah, a lot of times I'll get stuck in crappy fights where no one will push the point and I get shotgunned in the back by enemies with five allies derping around behind me.
  14. Cz4rMike

    TLDR: KDR is a dumb stat that only tells you kills/deaths without saying much about your skill.

    It's of limited importance. For example if someone farms, he will have higher KDR. If someone bails all the time from his ESF, he will have higher KDR. Both KDRs would not have much to do with skill of a person, but rather just how well he can rack up numbers without dying. And there are skill-less ways to do this in PS2.

    Other thing, my main now is Cz4rinov. If you look into my profile you will find I have 2+ KDR (2.5 maybe, don't remember). But if you check my killboard, you'd see I usually go on some nice killstreaks. However most of my playtime in PS2 was on a bad PC, with FPS somewhere around 30-40. Some people can play with low FPS like this, but I couldn't. Since I got new PC and steady 60 fps (mostly) my skill and aim went up. But to fix my KDR would take many more kills and I'm not a pathetic person to delete my whole char to build fresh KDR. PS also I don't farm as I see no challenge in it and I don't bail.

    Sometimes I get hate tells from people I kill telling me to uninstall because of KDR :D or low BR (I have multiple chars).
  15. Gemenai

    Well i perform better as lone wolf.
    Sure sometimes i grab my medic and so, but most of the time if i want to play in "team" orders are ignored, people shoot you because they can´t aim ffs, are to dumb to throw grenades, drive you over, want to test if friendly fire is "really enabled" and so on...

    I rather enjoy sitting remote from the others and popping heads, instead of this rnd **** und peoples stupidness.
    And if i´m not at the frontline and you still manage to "accidently" kill me or do it even several times without saying sry then don´t cry your *** out for being killed by me.
    1 TK is demotivating, 3 are frustrating, 5 or more and you all will suffer in my own created hell :mad:

    Teamplay is nice, as long as the people know how to paly in a team or are willing to do so.
    Most of the time they even don´t know the basics.
  16. cykael


    lol.

    But yes, just like every other multiplayer game, playing with a group of highly skilled individuals will make you perform better as well.
  17. Tuco

    Actually if you want more kills, be helpful to your own faction, and don't want to be a yoke around the neck of your faction, go lonewolf.

    If you want to die a lot in human wave tactics, if bumrush "A" appeals to you, and like to violate the principle of "economy of force" 24/7 join a zerg.
  18. p10k56

    Become spawn room warrior
    Have your HE lightning with thermals ready for spawn camping
    Always have some noobs before you as meat shield
    Play a lot of SMG infiltrator.. most cheapest way to maintain positive K/D also wraith flash is ultra PRO
    Use medic which is second strongest infantry class in game with lots of free certs for revive.. not even a little bit OP
    Use HA which more resilient than medic has worser gun and its not so cert friendly but hey its OP as hell.. at least for cloakers
    You may try AA lock on to spice life of our PROs a bit.. not many kills but nice certs
    Use MAX in small infantry skirmishes.. lots of kills with little danger
    Don't be a hero cos heroes are known for great numbers of assistances but not kills
  19. ElastaPlast

    Sounds like you borrowed my online luck for the session. Please don't give it back ;)
  20. Leftconsin

    I've been performing better as a lone wolf. Platoon action is usually either:
    1. Boring overpop zerg as we cap 4 bases in a row against 1-12.
    2. Stalemate meatgrinder zerg once defenders show up and it becomes a 200v200 lagfest.
    3. We're getting slaughtered and platoon lead is obsessed with sticking it out.

    I say NOPE! I want to move around and be part of the best fights I can find. Connery just ended an Amerish alert that we lost horribly, but I had a KDR of 3.14, KPH of 39, and SPM of 418. This is because I picked my engagements by playing redeployside, putting down AI and AV mines at bases about to be zerged, avoided joining the zerg, and getting out of bad places.

    And in fact I feel like I contributed more to the alert than if I had gone zerging. I could have easily just sat at Heyoka Bloodworks for 90 minutes instead of slowing enemy pushes and starting friendly pushes. I couldn't have saved bases if I was in a tunnel visioned squad or platoon.