abysmal bad skill balance in this game

Five year vets need to remind themselves that they didn't start playing against 5yr vets.

Stop pretending 1v1 engagements were the same level as hard.

M1RR0R5H4D3,

Glad to see you decided to stick it out and give PS2 another try! It's well worth it, I assure you. Once you start getting the hang of things, PS2 will provide a combat experience that is unique and in many ways unmatched by any other FPS game out there.


Reading your 2nd post it sounds like you've been mainly playing Stalker Infil. If so, no wonder you've been dying a lot! You chose just about the toughest playstyle in the game for a beginner to walk into.

But have no fear! If that's the playstyle you enjoy, go with it! But I strongly suggest you visit Iridar51's website ASAP. It contains a wealth of information and just about every aspect of PS2. http://iridar.net/planetside2/

In particular, read his Infil guide and watch the embedded videos: http://iridar.net/planetside2/classes/infiltrator/

Then go through his Beginner Guides, esp the "How to Kill," "How to Survive," and "Map, Minimap, and Spotting" guides. Heck, read them all when you have time! http://iridar.net/planetside2/beginner-guides/

Also, If you want to play a more aggressive Infil, I'd suggest getting at least 1 level of Nano-Armour cloak and a Faction-specific SMG or Automatic Scout Rifle to beef up your close/mid range combat ability a bit.

Here are a few more tips off the top of my head:

• Expect to keep dying a lot. I mean, a LOT. The average KDR of characters in PS2 is something like .8 - .9
• Watch your minimap all the time. Watching the movement of troops (friendly and enemy) will let you keep your finger on the pulse of the battle as it plays out. Staying alive in PS2 often comes down to as much knowing when and where to fight as it does how well you shoot. Also, when and where NOT to fight.
• Spend time in VR to get used to the weapons you're using. That'll give you a feel of how recoil, Cone of fire bloom, damage dropoff, etc all affect their effectiveness and range.
• Try turning off Shadows and Bloom in the game's graphics settings for better visibility and (in the case of shadows) a boost in FPS.
• Join a squad, even a public one, and stick with them. Your survivability as a beginner will go up if you attack with a group instead of alone. As Infil, you can just hang back a little but still stay near them, to use them as distractions for the enemy if anything.
• Join an Outfit, esp one that uses voice chat or 3rd-party voice comms like Teamspeak, Mumble, etc.
• Use recon darts / motion spotters as much as you can. Knowledge is power. It will help you immensely when setting up ambushes which are the bread and butter of the Infil class.
• Don't hesitate to cloak and run away if your enemy sees you before you can spring your trap, esp in larger fights. Infil is all about playing dirty. A simple circling flank is often enough to let you try another ambush on the same player.

Hope this helps.

It's not possible to "git gud" on a game where everyone will always have a decade+ of experience on you and young reflexes.
Much easier to uninstall Planetside 2, and find a game that suits your skill tendencies.

Don't let anyone tell you that it's your fault, or that you're just bad. It isn't.
It's just as easy to blame the one complaining as the ones causing the complaint in the first place.

Infantry combat isn't for everyone by any stretch, I suggest looking into other roles like leadership, logistics, construction, which are all very powerful elements that don't necessarily pay off directly.

play sniper infill and you can still ohsk that BR 120 from range .. or ohk to the chest with a pumpshotgun with pellets (not sure how good nanoweave is against that) or ohsk with slugs ... so at the very least every class has access to a "one-hit-kill"option .. you just need to be good with it ..

I find it funny when some people make drama after playing this awesome game for first 15 BRs. I myself started this game a little more than year ago and also spent as much as I could on Koltyr (till BR 15). Sure, I suddenly started to die a lot, had no idea how stuff works (still no idea about some things). Did I mention i died a lot?

Anyway, a year and a couple of days later I am BR 109, have few vehicles and most classes nicely certed, done some Directives and having tons of fun every day. Maybe I don't have this type of personality like "I was awesome in game X so this game must suck coz ppl are killing me", I don't know. I remember having K/D so bad for the first of couple of months that even today when my average K/D is about 2 up to 5+ on a good day, my overall K/D meter shows 1.3. Do I care? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, deffo I won't rage quit coz I had a bad play session.

Oh BTW OP, BR 15 still do kill me on various occasions.

OP,

As a BR120 with average+ skills I can tell you I got those average+ skills by playing 1-119 to the tune of 155 DAYS! , that's right, DAYS! played. Last night alone, I died to sub-BR 20 players (low directive points) no less than half a dozen times in infantry fights, even with them using bone stock, default guns and me having maxed out everything.

That being said, there are certain things you won't have for a while, like maxed out suit slots, maxed overshield (for HA) and weapon attachments. But, even at a fews of hours a day of playtime, you will have that stuff for at least one class within a week or two, at which point you will be using the exact same stuff any high BR person has. Implants are a different story, but due to their RNG nature, not even high BR ranked players are sure to have the ones that could make a difference depending on their play-style.

My point is, the scale and scope of PS2 makes "gear" one of the least predominate factors in infantry engagements. The most predominant factors are situational awareness, aim & teamwork. Consider this truth, with the exception of engaging HA's, he who shoots first wins 90% of the time, almost regardless of their kit.

My advice is to join an outfit, always stay near teammates and never stand still...ever. Everything else will come with time and experience.

i agree that the gap is too big, i think it'd be good if headshot bonus was less than 2x,
the skilled headshotter will still win, they just won't be wrecking people in 0.1 seconds.

I disagree. You are only holding yourself back with that mind set. Sure, it might be impossible to get on the same level as the top 1% of the player base. However, you don't need to be top 1% to be competitive. The majority of the player base only play the game casually and by deciding to "git gud" and improve your play, it is entirely possible improve enough to hold your own against most of the players you encounter.

More accurate fire should be rewarded - and not by a hair.
If you want to spray & fire, to be near enough to win against all but a dedicated sharp-shooter, let alone with more than one person..
The more accurate shooter will have barely better odds, let alone if ambushed, simply due to how little accuracy would be rewarded.

Negativity to the extreme, and pointlessly at that, in the start.
Like dear lord.

That doesn't change the facts about 120's not being immortal gods.
Consider it a better learning experience; As well, back then you didn't have any attachments, nor any free certs at the start.

Not quite.

A more consistent and accurate shooter will always win in a 1v1 no matter what, just not by a long shot if HSM is reduced by a little bit. Just because headshot multiplier isn't 2x (more accurately, 2.25x/2.5x due to Nanoweave) doesn't mean that good shots won't have an advantage, leading and predicting movement is still a huge part of accuracy in this game, just like headshots. If a player's only good because he can focus on one pointer on a screen and is mediocre at everything else, then he isn't a good shot. Not only that, but this would decrease the power or RNG headshots that are completely nasty to fight against, so consistency (a HUGE part of accuracy, mind you) would be rewarded more. If anything, accuracy would be rewarded, albeit a different kind.

And honestly, if the dude let himself get ambushed and got shot first, then he deserves to get completely ****** by the ambusher, and no amount of baller aim should save him from tunnel vision and terribad awareness. Awareness and flanking is skill too, you know. And unlike good aim, ambushing can be countered by obscene med-kit dancing to cover, which makes me super salty to this day.

Once you learn the basics, skill levels out. One of the biggest factors in your performance is your internet connection and PC specs.

I recently upgraded my PC from an ancient potato to a very current super powerful gaming PC. Game is MUCH easier now.

If that fails, hack and cheat, then claim it's your hours of training *cough* [00] Recursion, Connery

Hey, where did Sir Cereal Box [00] go? Haven't seen him since Battleye came out. Odd, that. Very odd.

Gee whiz Wally, he sure was "skilled".

Better learning experience? Lol you kid. There is only one experience coming out of the spawn room as a complete newb.

If there is a br120 waiting for you, you die. In the beginning you had a chance to learn. Now your just bait.

And about certs and perks....

Neither did anyone else.

I'm used to learning by "Trial by fire"
You either learn how to address, combat, or evade the threat, or you learn when to withdraw.
As well, with the opening days, having the actual Lol-pods, larger AoA on tank shells, no Aux shield, no tracer fire on snipers..
No you were pretty ******* screwed unlike now - You have better odds today, than back then.

I fought BR120's in my first day in PS2, I had a lot of fun working out what works, and what does not, with a great motivator to ensure efficiency.

A battle-rank does not actually coffer any perks, beyond experience.
In the first days of PS2, you had to earn the certs to get the basic attachments, and earn every cert
Today, you have free certs per BR, free attachments, and of course, now free implant packs.

Back then, you might not have had experienced players as much, but there would've been PS1 vets, and vets from other games:
Anyone not in the first wave, also then had to face these players, and more experienced "new" players, without any of the free certs or attachments we have today.

So if you weren't in the first literal hour of play, in truth, You were at a far worse disadvantage than today.

There are a lot of highly skilled and experienced players in the game, no argument there. But to focus on BR120s is too limiting. Take this argument for example:

Anyone with reasonable skill at any BR level who is waiting in ambush will get you if you fall into their trap. The problem here is lack of experience on the part of the new player. If they don't learn from their mistake and keep repeating it then they are at fault, not the ambusher.

My highest level avatar is BR62 and (while I don't count actual numbers) I seem to get roughly the same number of avatars who are higher BR than me as the ones who are lower than me. What I would say is that the lower BRs are often easier kills, mostly because of their behaviour...........and the worst behaviours are standing still to shoot for too long in an exposed postion and running directly into the fight in a straight line.

It should be pretty easy to learn quickly that these in particular are not profitable activites, any more than doing the same thing more than once and expecting a different result.

yeah if they don't pay attention and get ambushed they should die, TBH i was surprised today i snuck up on some enemies and wasted them all with the jag, they were so focused on their front i was able to unload my clip on two guys reload then kill the other two, seriously i've never encountered a group that bad before, i wasn't even using a silencer.