Discourage farming new players

Compare the stats of the killer and the killed.
If there's a large discrepancy, like 5 KDR over 100 kills in 20 minutes vs 0.10 KDR over 1 kill in an hour, the exp reward should only be 10-30exp or so for killing the vastly inferior player. On the flip side, killing a player much better than you would reward a large chunk, something like 250-500.

When you spot a target, make the normal arrow be any number of different icons to show relative threat, so you can quickly tell if you're facing a dangerous foe or a bumbling noob.

If someone is a threat, yeah, you're still going to kill them, but these noob farming fits need to just **** off and stop making people get fed up and quit the game. I'm sick of having people I recommend to the game get frustrated and quit because of you selfish *****.

people can't identify low level toons at the moment unless they kill them, besides in ANY situation where a low BR is being farmed, high BRs will also be farmed.

every player at the upper BRs started out exactly the same as low BR players are experiencing now.

if you really don't like dying PS2 is not for you, people die very easily regardless of BR.

going easy on low BRs isn't doing them any favors, any tactics you use on them they can see and learn from and become better players as a result.

planetside 2 is a very unforgiving game, man up and get better or don't play at all.

Well then I guess PS2 isn't for anyone I've showed it to, so it's really no wonder that they all gave up on it in favor of other games out there. Unless they come out with a really good content update, this game is just going to dwindle and have nothing left but salty old vets and the small trickle of new players that are instantly shoo'd off.

any shooter game that is at least a few years old will start out difficult for new players given that there will be many vets with many things unlocked.

if people can't handle dying in a videogame they shouldn't play shooters. dying means nothing in PS2 other then a minor time sink while you wait to respawn.

i don't think we should punish people for killing their enemy, simply because their enemy isn't very good.

a kill is a kill and should be awarded as such.

Soon as I say HE tank, argument is completely moot to infantryside players. I do agree, no one should be punished for playing the game however vehicles have pretty much already been hit by that double standard and slapped with it, at this point I actually think devs would make it so that newbies were slightly tougher just to compensate skill. It's an incredibly stupid idea but I could see the devs doing it.

I can relate remembering my first interactions with players I simply could not kill, however no game should punish players for playing, there should simply be counters to compensate skill, however at the current state of the game infantry is simply end all be all, if you have better infantry than the other guy no matter what they use the infantry simply win.

If you're getting killed by newbies while you're farming then you aren't playing right mate. Also the "I suffered so they need to suffer too" mentality doesn't help anyone, least of all the game or devs whose goal should be bringing in new players and getting them to stick. The thread does have a decent underlining statement that simply dying over and over to a player you simply cannot fight feels more like you're pushing a button to lose and there is no point to playing, this is understandable, to mitigate it would be a godsend to up the games numbers but instead you say git gud and move on, "man up or don't play at all" is the exact opposite of what we need.

When there are sheep, there will be farms.

i absolutely hate HE farmers, but if they're doing it, and getting kills, then their kills should count as full kills,
and we should go kill them for being lame!

also i agree that its a stupid thing that seems like something DBG would do XD

newbies don't need to face you one on one and can easily net kills if they follow around others to use numbers against you or pull a tank to farm infantry. no matter how well geared a player you are a newbie can kill you if they engage you at the right moment(such as shield depleted after killing someone, caught in a reload cycle after a fight, reviving or being revived etc).

going easy on newbies won't help them get better, to get better they need to see what the enemy does so they can learn from it, there is a reason why when newer players post for advice people advise to to pick support roles to farm exp so they can kit out their character so they have more chance of beating a vet.

being a vet of the game doesn't mean you are skillful it only means you've been playing a long time, BR means nothing aside from showing you have a lot of certs invested.

look at vehicles, idiots that don't want to play the game properly and insist on crying to nerf vehicles and being listened to instead of being told to get better and pull counters are why vehicles are in the state they are in now.

OK I feel sorry for newbs being farmed but how I am supposed to distinguish low BR from BR100+? Even if I could, how can I tell it is not just another alt?

Besides, whats wrong with low BR being farmed? That's how ALL of us (except few people who are here since Beta) have learnt how to "git gud". We already have a kindergarten called Koltyr, people should stay there till BR15. Believe me, I did so and my beginners experience was much better. I really don't get what people are expecting from FPS (or any MMO in that matter). There always will be people with more experience, better gear, fatter wallet and reflexes. That said, there is no way for newb to get better than be killed and trying to avoid same mistake in the future.

Anyway, it really FCKS me off when I see people feel ENTITLED or want more privilages because they are different/worse/unskilled. The norm is defined by the majority not a margin. Nothing directed to OP personally but this world is going to end badly just because wrongly implemented 'correctness'.

The game was way more brutal and "unfair" by the past.

Good players often come from other shooters like Counter-Strike or different other "old school" FPS'. They trained and gained experience at aiming fast and moving in the right way.
They also searched on the net in order to gather informations about reducing their lag. And they searched for decent mouse and Graph cards. And they trained. They tried to understand stuff like Recoil and other things related to weaponery ingame.
If noobs don't want to do more or less the same searches and training, they shouldn't be astonished by the fact of being farmed.

Being a noob in PS2 is hard at first, for sure. But noobs just have to rush Nano Armor Rank 4 then Medikits.
That's all. With those, they can defeat "old" players with more or less the same gear. After that, go Nano rank 5 and you're done, you'll have the same gear.
Spare your Certs, don't look for shiny weapons, don't look for different classes, focus on your main class and Cert it in decent ways.

Recursion Stat Tracker can give you an idea of "who's who" in terms of KDR.

Last thing : highlight noobs-"weak" players in a way or another, and be sure that they will be focused by everyone around. That sounds as a bad idea.

Starting off in PS2 is harsh, but being thrown into the grinder is part of the experience. Facing off against opponents of varying skill is also part of that experience, and is what makes us grow as players. Newbies already have Koltyr, Nano 5 on their HA, essential unlocks on their starter weapons and the Aux Shield. What other reasonable starting advantage could DBG provide without skewing their experience?

You just love the wtf suggestions.

Swarm a "good" player, and be rewarded.
Kill an idiot, and be taxed basically.

As well, you literally as pointed out above, make anyone who's "done well", a swarm target, and the same with the "done poorly" as an easy target.

The farming.... doesn't usually give a single **** about the target's skill or not.
It's set up to mow people down.
And since it's for bulk, it'd be the most profitable, since you need a dozen inferiors just to make even.

Aka you encourage Farming the ever living hell out of people, as they need a steady stream of kills not just any kill.
Which is counter productive.

You're absolutely right.

There are more subtle ways to make the game more fun for new players, like bonus health if you've died a few times in a row. But you're right they're not going to do anything. This is a game whose concept requires a massive player base, but which was developed to appeal to only the elite few. It has been a core contradiction since day 1.

And now they aren't even working on it. There's a few devs staying busy enough and doing what they can to earn a paycheck, but there's no one in charge trying to make anything good happen.

Unless that health boost is very particular, you'd see it abused by the ones whom can survive.
Aux Shield is a very helpful slot item.

"anything good", let me introduce you to the vehicle update's WIP stages.

Here's a better idea: Structure the game so that new players have a better idea of what they're getting into. Present to them, clearly and plainly, that death is a commonality in this game. Stress the importance of teamplay and playing the objective. And stop emphasizing or even displaying KDR as an important stat.

When we can break players- old and new- of the idea that getting killed in Planetside 2 is a mark of shame and personal failure, and emphasize those situations where four deaths in a row gave you the intel you needed to help push your team onto the point the fifth time, then we can focus on the game's strengths.

If you die 5 times in a row with no kills, you get an extra 100 health until your next death.

Yes I suppose in theory someone with a 4.0 could die 5 times in a row and then go on a 20 kill streak. If that's what they want to try to do, I'm fine with it.

Unless you're going to say Lightnings will never flip, Flashes will never oversteer, and Sunderers will never delay you before switching seats, then it's irrelevant. A vehicle change that would *actually* make the game more appealing to new players is "if your vehicle dies before you get any xp, you get half your Nanites back". A 3% change to turning traction or whatever they're fine-tuning? Yawn.

(And that's granting generously that you were actually thinking of a good change. If it's that unbelievably stupid "all turrets should be equally good at vehicle combat" then they really have nothing to brag about.

edit: Actually on second thought, "introduce" me. Show me the inspiring communication from the Lead Developer who will get me on board with his vision of Planetside 2. Point out his grand plan to grow the base of this game by luring in new and lapsed players with a groundbreakingly fun design. Based around a vehicle update. I would very much like to see it.

That's going to need a firmer hand.

• When a TR Liberator is blowing stuff up along the VS/NC border a thousand meters from any capturable territory
• When 96+ people won't leave a biolab even when it's getting cut off at the warpgate
• When a sniper is watching a vehicle terminal 2 bases back from any action.
• When a BR120 with a directive weapon very visibly hasn't pushed a position in 20 minutes.
• When players yell at their own teammates not to blow up the enemy sunderer

It becomes very very obvious that the devs don't prioritize territory capture over farming. You can tell people that it doesn't matter if they die. But the gameplay says it does.

Technically, none of what you just listed in complaint is gameplay. It's players.

(Except for the sniper watching the vehicle terminal, and actually killing people because they spawn there. He's doing a good job.)

Yes. Agreed.

But I think most of the players, devs, and even posters on this forum will rebel against what you are saying. Some just want to keep their Troll-grounds intact, some are in denial about cause-and-effect, some lash out at anyone bashing parts of the current game, etc.

PS2 would benefit from an accurate, up-to-date, not spun full review of the game:
* older game (dated graphics, experienced players with everything unlocked, etc.)
* badly balance tuned game (lots of weapons unused, handful of "best" things used across each unit... for those handful of units that are used)
* zerg and unbalanced fights are the norm, or hunting and farming weaker units/players
* terrible new player experience has been in place for years (many/most gameplay and tools totally unintuitive and with no updated learning info easy to find (most 3rd party data is dead or outdated or hard to find, devs provide limited data that is not enough), noobs farmed by vets, noobs locked out of tons of gear, etc.)
* Air is a mess: non-Air doesn't have any great answer to Air except in very large numbers (zergs), most players can't do Air, most those who can do Air die to those who are better at Air (or those who group up in bigger Air hunting packs), those Air who survive have a massive power advantage against ground (unless they choose weapons that don't work well on ground)
* the Dev essentially do not communicate with the players, and when they do it's a one-way communication, and it's to announce the add of some random thing to the game that is not on the list of stuff people ask for, or to give some statement about their long term plans in an ambigous and completely unclear way. Devs do not read forums, some Devs do hang out on reddit where/when the reddit fanboys coddle them.
* Infantry combat is generally more mid-close range (cause vehicles can dominate outside of that) and weighted toward Heavy Assault unit doing Headshots (bonus damage) and using tricks (shuffling side-to-side, popping MedKit, etc.) to mitigate damage taken.
* most players complain about the units they use being too weak and are in hostile denial of the cases with their unit being powerful
* PS2 reddit is lots of fanboys and largely toxic and shallow. But if that's your thing then this is a plus for you.
* some posters in the forms (here) will be helpful, but usually only if something is phrased in a way that they find appealling. Otherwise, they might lash out at you or ignore you.
* this game has been around for a while, the company who makes it has been around for a while under different names/owners. And they basically have a trend of doing the same kinds of stuff over and over. They are really good at coming up with and making new crazy ideas (when they focus on it), they are generally terrible at balance and ignore bugs, they tend to make a lot of poorly thought out cash grabs (poorly in that they don't make them a lot of cash and they tend to make players salty), and they tend to steer the game/gameplay/support toward the more experienced/hardcore/elite players.

Translation: "I don't care about other people. I don't care about the financial success of the game/company. I don't care about any changes to this game that would actually make it more popular... unless those changes directly benefited me. It's how I like it... for the most part. It lets me Troll without being Trolled. Let me throw the standard reasons excuses at you as the standard rebuttal to validate the position of the niche catered to player demographic."