this game is too confusing for beginners

On the map, there are letters: A, B and C. These are good hints as to where you will find them. Even tho every type of base in PS1 was identical to one in another place, it still took me a long time to memorise all the tunnels and locations of critical parts of the different types types of bases. Coincidentally Planetside 1's minimap was layered, as in, if you went up a floor, if changed to show the layout of that new area. SO MANY THINGS ABOUT PS2 ARE A STEP BACKWARDS. Still love it. I think learning is half the fun.

I think the hardest thing to learn as a solo newbie is where to find a good fight. Drop podding is usually a terrible idea. The %'s on the pie graph that show troop presence are horribly inaccurate. 95% of my time as a noob was spent "defending" a base from 30 tanks and liberators with 5 other noobs. Either that or getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and running for 10 minutes trying to find a vehicle spawner until you finally just say screw it and jump off a cliff only to pick an equally desolate spawn point.

My K/D ratio was like 0.1 for my first two days because I kept following the suggested spawn points or prancing across the country side until a passing plane was kind enough to put me out of my misery. The only thing that kept me going was my hatred for tanks and aircraft.

Bah.

Put the ol' grey matter to work. If you're a big enough boy to shoot people in the head without qualms, you're big enough to work it out the old fashioned way. Shouldn't need the spoon treatment all your life.

In any case, this nice man wants to help you out, so pop on your reading glasses, and pay attention...maggot!

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/a-guide-for-you-maggots.47119/

Thanks for the replies guys
It's good to know I'm not alone. I haven't played planetside 1 and I wasn't here during beta so I pretty much jumped in when game went gold. And yes I meant bio labs with their capture points all being in the upper levels. I was in a tech lab today trying to capture it but after overloading the generators and standing next to point A nothing happened. I asked my squadmates what we needed to do to capture it but everyone was clueless just like me lol ...so in the end we left the base without capturing it sigh!!!

People get more stupid with each year it seems. Tragic.

Look at that! Its like the game taught you to not go to a base that you don't have influence without a tutorial! Amazing!

Look, you are not alone. People ingame are too busy playing to answer questions. So if you can't seem to find answers on say...youtube......ask here. Plenty of guys and girls that will gladly explain the do's and dont's.

Maybe even join an outfit? Different ballgame, but it's a tactical-awareness boost.

I think if a person has never ever played any kind of FPS and thinks a computer is also known as the family "sexbox," then yea maybe I can believe this game is too hard for people to get. How ever if you played just coutner strike or COD, you can understand that by definitions an objective is a place you may want to move towards and hold. Also the loud end of a weapon is aimed at the enemy.

The capture system needs to be more intuitive ingame, no doubt. I didn't play planetside 1 either, heck didn't plan on playing this game but it was F2P so I downloaded it and instantly got hooked. I took me 3 days to figure out the capturing system, not too bad, but I can see how some people can get frustrated. Once you figure it out though, it's really easy to understand.

Key things about capturing points are 1) generators, 2) adjacent bases, you can't capture a facility if you don't have an adjacent base. So if you're in a facility trying to capture it, and A doesn't turn, look on the map you are likely surrounded by the enemy's color. You gotta take something adjacent before you can take that facility.

It took me forever to figure this out, and I couldn't find this info online, someone just happen to have said it in /yell one time.

Even PSide1 had a fairly decent tutorial. As a plus, it could easily get you from BR1 -> BR6 without breaking a sweat.

Not so here on PS2. I like seeing new blood, but I wish people who jumped into a game had a wee bit more sense to read up on Planetside: it's not like any other FPS. If anything, the transition is like going from Company of Heroes or Dawn of War (as squad-based RTS') to playing Supreme Commander. A player is aware of the fundamentals, but the scale can be a little boggling.

It is but I like it, seems to fend off a good portion of idiots.

the game can be a bit confusing yes.
My tip, go to a bases behind the front that is already in control by your faction. Once there just explore a bit, make note of the type of base(they are all basically the same by type) and where control point(A,BC) are, generators, spawn room, vehicle pads etc... In no time you will have a better grip on what is what without trying to figure it out in the heat of battle.

well, by the rate im downloading i may be playing it tonight and now im scared i wont know what to do, ill just follow someone around and see what they do

But people wants to jump in and frag and win!

There's a paradox with tutorials. The pace is either too slow that learning retention sucks, or its detail overload that kills retention. I wish there was an easy way around it.

If they'd bring back VR shooting galleries, or even a VR vehicle course that had a tech plant, amp station, bio lab in close proximity to let people explore...but it leads to the inevitable "tutorial is too long, I want to get zerging".

Just remember the number 1 thing.. It's OK to die. This is a MMOFPS, but it doesn't have the tedium of MMO's. You don't lose exp, don't lose a level, don't lose gear, so don't get angry if you die a lot initially. Following the zerg helps, but I highly recommend spending the time to watch some tutorial videos.

I didn't watch them, and now I wish I did because a lot were explained in tutorials. Would've saved me some frustration.

If you've played other FPS games it's pretty easy to just pick up and go

Honestly when I first saw this post I thought, "Seriously?" But I'm forgetting how there is a lot of content and unanswered questions if you're just getting in the game for the first time. They seriously need a tutorial that can be accessed once you drop into the game. All the icons and what they mean in a base are confusing unless someone explains them. As well as knowing the layout of each base and the flow of capturing it.

Tech Plants & Bio Labs are the hardest for new players because they can't figure a way in. I know some people don't want to share the info, because they don't want tactics to get out, which is silly because they post them on youtube. Bio labs you have 1 or usually 2 beam lifts at the air pad to get up. On top of that, the surrounding outposts in the same hex usually have jump pads to toss you onto the landing pad or teleporters, marked by their icon, to teleport you INTO the Bio Lab. Jump pads need their own icon (currently they don't) because finding them can be a pain if you are new. Besides those there are no way inside the shielded area on the bottom. I have seen many players (the ones not camping the vehicle spawn) sit there trying to figure how to get past it. Lift beams, jump pads, teleporters, hot drop.

Tech Plants the only ways in are at the back doors (flat side opposite the rounded side), or Light Assault jump jet over the half shielded vehicle bay or get on the roof (galaxys/pod drops) and take the lift beam down. Whenever you have shield areas you have to destroy the generators to take them down. Tech plant is on the 2nd story marked by shield icon, Bio lab is by one of the points marked by a shield icon. Usually bringing the shields down will collapse most defenses, then you can go after the SCU (spawn control unit) so they can't spawn.

Also I made a thread for others to post useful tips/things they found out to help new players Tips for new players

thanks, i think when i play ill go to freindly base and snoop around some and then find a large amount of allies and go see what they are doing and learn from what i see them do, im also gonna try to find an outfit to join after i start to get the hang of it some

Tutorial for new players:

FOLLOW THE ZERG.

there are tutorials on youtube, I wish that those videos are linked on the main site and on the game launch pad.