I've been a casual, subscription-paying solo player of PlanetSide 2 PC for nine years and loving it. While I've tried group play using TeamSpeak on this and other MMOs, I don't find it enhancing gameplay for me (with TeamSpeak I don't necessarily like hearing pre-teens curse like pirates or adults sharing their unsolicited political opinions). While I understand Daybreak Games' desire to foster group play, I don't play enough to coordinate with a group or outfit on a regular basis, so a solo player I remain. This week I'm seeing new vehicles and robotic figures (classes), but I can't figure out how to access them. Something to do with group play and Nanites, right? I'm confused and put off by the whole process. Just as confusing is the missions system which when I tried it a year ago, I discovered that it was limited to Esamir only, meaning I had to time my play to when Esamir became available again (really?!), a show-stopper for a casual player me. Which leads me to my question: What's new for the long-time paying casual solo player like me? Thanks.
NSO directives, AKA new missions? I'm interested in the missions, but are they still limited to a specific map? And do they expire if I don't complete them by a certain time? Thanks.
I'm realizing that I posted here with an attitude. I guess I'm just jealous of the new vehicles and whatnot that don't appear to be available to me as a casual solo player. Maybe I'm just not understanding how the game works?
If you want to access NSO, you want to go to Sanctuary with a BR20 character and speak to Foster (a bot on the second floor). Once you open up the dialog NSO will activate and you can make an NSO account.
Essentially everything in the new patch is accessible to solo players. The only thing that you can't do solo are those weird daily missions where you HAVE TO lead a platoon of 24 people or transport 50 people in a Galaxy. These missions are IMO bad game design since they punish solofits and smallfits. Only mega outfits can afford to do them, and only the leadership of those outfits.
Thanks for the responses everyone. I figured out how to access the NSO missions and I completed the first three. They were kind of fun. I'm glad they weren't map-dependent. Thank you Daybreak.
You don't need to be in a large outfit to score these. Drop into an open platoon and you can get them fairly quickly. It isn't hard to get PL, I often end up with it when I didn't even want it. Basically, then devs seem to recognize how much people who lead large platoons contribute to the interest of their game, and are trying to give them something nice. Realistically, solo players make certs faster than people who are properly leading an open platoon, so please don't complain about something which only brings them back up to your level. Seriously, if you think I've been unfair, try leading an open platoon. Pick the right fights to create a manageable challenge so that it's fun for your troops, coordinate with command net, ensure transports are available to your troops, and keep one eye on the map at all times. Then see what your score per hour looks like compared to soloing the bio lab all day.
I took a break of 2 years or more, there's been plenty of changes ad even some good ones. For a start if you get disconnected with 5 minutes left on an alert you can now relog and not lose all the certs and ISO-4. Esamir is a little less cancerous now hat they've oved one of he warpgates... But Indar and Hossin have gotten worse... certain bases (specifically the central ones) are much easier or harder for specific warpgates to capture/hold... Flails still can't shoot into bases (yes they'd need to be nerfed to do that or it'd be OP) but for some reason the Bastion can literally look down on a spawn room and do the exact same thing with even less ability to defend against it and that's okay? Infils can't have C4 because that would be OP but they can unlock cortium bombs which are twice as powerful as a brick of C4... I get that this isn't exactly new for a solo player but man it wears on me. Like you I almost exclusively have played solo over the years but there's just so much BS, and the only real weapon a ground pounder like me has to defend against a bastion is the Colossus which is locked behind needing to be in an outfit. So yeah, now I'm just tired and waiting out an alert instead of playing it because what's new for solo players is apparently a face full of one sided death. Gone are the days where a solo player could turn a major fight by heroically dying to kill a sunderer, the excessive focus on outfits and more importantly outfit exclusive superweapons is killing the game for solo players.
Ironically or paradoxically? There are outfits kinda cater to that. Solo or buddy play.... But yeah I get ya. Once you hit BR20 on one of the normal factions you make make an NSO character. They are *perfectly* suited to solo style of play. Particularly in freestyle mode where you just drop in and skip the queue. The esamir stuff was a ****show. Spin up an NSO character methinks. There is are new missions available now that are continent independent. New directives for NSO (again... an ideal solo play faction).
OP go talk to the NPC on the station you spawn in at when you start the game and unlock the NSO faction then make a new NSO character. I could pretty much copy paste your situation and use it myself and im having a lot of fun with my NSO character, I really like the hover bike, its a fun vehicle to use and its still cheap enough that you can easily chain pull it even if you keep dying a lot. Their MBT is also quite well suited for solo play, invest in getting the AA rocket turret and you can drive around alone like with a really big Lightning while still having REALLY good anti air if you switch to the 2nd gunner(the thing often 2 clips ESF!). I havent used a lot of their new infantry weapons yet but just looking at the stats, they have some really nice ones. Honestly the only thing im missing from my infantry equipment is a charge knife when I feel like stabbing people in the back, aside from that I think the only real drawback is the lack of conventional ESF since theirs kinda require you to have someone in your turret to not be helpless against faction ESFs(handles like a bus pulling a bus, Galaxy might actually be more agile).
