[Suggestion] New players aren't welcome in Planetside 2

This is a very serious problem and also very complicated to fix. To the people saying "oh they should just do so and so to get certs", that's true, if new players had ANY idea of how to do that.

I have a friend who has tried to play several times. He has a 0.11 KDR, how can he get into this game? The active players are hyper-competitive, and most (not all) are unforgiving to newbie blunders. IMO a very hostile environment to new players. I have no idea how to fix this Maybe a hidden health buff that slowly wears off as BR increases to give < BR 10 players a significant edge? Faster resource regeneration so they can keep pulling MBT's (including armor buffs)? By BR 10 it can wear off, hopefully they are hooked by that point.

So you are guessing wildly then? Unless you can show any kind of data, that guess is pretty useless. I think number two is a big cause since this is not a well known game. People have never heard of it which is a shame. SOE needs to work on their marketing. I would have completely missed this game if I hadn't subscribed to TotalBiscuit while this game was in beta. It seems to have been overlooked in most other gaming news channels.

As for new players leaving. If they leave imediately because they only have the free stuff to play with, then they would leave even with 200 free certs. That's the kind pf people that do not like character progression or any kind of RPG element in their shooters and thus, Planetside 2 is not for them because character development through the cert system is a pretty big part of the core game play mechanic.

Support classes are the best way to learn how to play the game. The highest consistent infantry score is obtained by having a maxed engy tool and doing squad repairing/resupplying a group of MAX's in a Biolab battle. You can easily get ~120 certs/hr (30k XP/hr) doing that. In NO other place, can you get that many points without having a crapload of infantry or vehicles to farm.

Nice post by OP.

Yes, and most people are above level 25 now, or many of those levels below are alt characters from pro players.

If a newbie starts this game without a proper tutorial and is getting killed 20 times in the evening without having a clue why, then its clear the player wont return.

And if there are no more newbies entering PS2, the game will die

SOE could improve the expectation management of this game, as it gets more attractive when you know what awaits you, not a giant future world with all the liberties, big battles and easy wins. More a competitive environment where new players are just farmed over days/weeks, until they learn their lessons.

The learning curve for flying is especially harsh as well.

Marketing? You mean ads on TV and websites?
I'm not convinced that is money well spend.

Worth of mouth (by being a good game and having a fanatic community) works much better.
And when a game is perceived popular or good gaming websites will make an article about every small thing as well.
But even when in beta there were hardly any articles about this game, I think SOE does not know how to get the info to the gaming web sites. Did they even release official statements, screenshots, facts, etc? While for example with Guild Wars 2 or Star wars TOR every little detail and fact got a news article.
Was there even a trailer before release?

This just isn't a very good game. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone sorry. I'm having fun myself at the moment and I'll see how long that lasts. I think this game gets all the buzz it deserves. aka none.

Sure 200 certs wouldn't be THE solution, but right now a new player starts out with absolutely nothing.
I just made a new TR character on an east coast server because I play at nights. It sucks. I can't even afford mines. Or a fricking scope.

Which is maybe my fault because I play the game to shoot people and conquer territory which in my opinion should be how a FPS is meant to be played. Not by "farming certs" who the hell thinks that is fun?

Created a new character and managed just fine with default everything; ended the session with a 1 to 1 K/D. Again this was just using the default weapons, armor and vehicles. Admittedly I have been playing since launch so know the game, an advantage that a completely new player will not have, however, as the OP was about them needing certs to be competitive and have fun, then no, they don't.

There are many ways to market a game. They could have paid more famous YoyTubers to promote it. That's a great way. Or get some buzz on the major gaming sites. There's a lot of different ways and they clearly failed in the marketing departement. Relying on word of mouth is not a very reliable strategy, it's the result of good PR and good marketing.

But even when the default weapons are just as good (I don't agree; shotgun, SMG, extra armor, mines, vehicle upgrades, max weapons, etc.) a new player does not know that.
All he sees is he dying a LOT. By weapons he can't afford.

I don't know how buzz is being created on gaming websites.
I assume the websites release articles because they think a game is popular or they think the game is very good and deserves an article. Planetside is neither so.. no articles.

Why is it an "unfairness"? What exactly is "unfair" about having to earn stuff? We've all had to do it; and. although I'm not TR, I do know that the NC starter weapons, at least, are perfectly usable at stock. Yes you have to be more circumspect in picking your battles, but you can be effective with default weapons.

Don't agree with this at all.

Any new player can play a part in the game. It takes next to no time to get lvl 3-4 nanoweave and a foregrip/compensator etc etc. You could get them just by logging in, collecting the free certs and logging out for a week or so.

I still use the standard infantry weapons - with iron sights on Vanu and 1x scope on NC. As long as you can aim you have pretty much as much chance as anyone else.

All new players need to do (and this goes for most players, really) is get into a squad and stick in a group with other people. Nobody stands much chance fighting alone in this game - no matter how good you are or how many certs you have.

And if you insist on having new weapons, well put $30 into station cash and buy them. If this game was a standard title you would have paid good money for it. What's wrong with paying a bit for weapons when you can play entirely for free (if you like)?

Have you actually ever been in a squad?
Half of them are on another continent, the other half spread out on the right continent.
No chat. If you're lucky the leader has put up a wp.

They just have to learn that they cannot be good at everything right from the start; they have to be a little selective on picking their battles, but then so do BR100 vets sometimes. This isn't Quake, CS or UT<insert favorite version here>, you cannot have the weapons to do everything from the beginning; if that is what a new player expects they're going to struggle big time. If, on the other hand, they take the time to learn how the game plays, maybe find an Outfit that can help to teach them, and ask other players if they're struggling then they will have a much more enjoyable time and experience. PS2 is not (at least not quite yet) a game for the ADHD crowd; if that's what a new player is looking for no amount of "bonus" certs are going to keep them playing.

OP you're wrong, whenever I see a BR 1 drop pod into a base I always make sure to send them a /tell WELCOME TO PLANETSIDE after effortlessly killing them with my fully upgraded Magrider.

All games are hard on new players to a certain extent anyway. Ever seen a new player trying to play in server of BF2/2142 veterans? Or a new player playing against Counter-Strike addicts? They get obliterated -every time.

counter strike addicts own with skill not with gear, not so in planetside. Newbie players are harvested like wheat here. Some certs for BR1 or greatly increased cert gain rate at early levels are completely justified in my book, assuming we care about the longevity of the game.
I main inf and even though i know my way around the class, NW5 is outright brutal against entry-level sniper rifle (i know, i farm medal in it). Infiltrator always sucked *** in cert gain on average, now I can't imagine newbie inf not tearing his hair out in the current state of the game. What's worse, things will not get better with time, quite the opposite.

New players could certainly get a couple of hundred cert points for free. I don't see an issue with that.

I dont think that dying much early is a big problem for starters, thats how it goes ....

Basically i disagree with everything Captain Kid wrote, he seems to think that a successful startup is mandatory for ppl to stay in the game.
There are so much different kind of players out there, i guess the bigger part wants to have a goal to work/play for rather than playing "easymode". And the squads i play with are very fine btw.

Here in germany there are actually PS2-Ads in TV, seen it twice so far.

I recently had a friend of mine join me in ps2. He lacked certs and the like, but on his very first day playing with me we literally won a battle for vs that had been a stalemate for a while. How did we do it? What was his secret to being able to turn the tide of a battle and win it on day 1? Simple, he said to me, "You know the game better than I do, just tell me what to do." So I said, "We are ramming their sundy with mine, you man the gun and shoot them to get their attention while I c4 the enemy sundy. Sure enough he kept firing from my sundy and the enemies didn't notice what I was doing until it was far too late.

Now, let me be clear, I am aware that not all new players have existing players that they know who are already playing, but I do not feel a bonus to certs or the like, or even handouts is they way to go. The best ways to improve at this game is by taking on and working with good opponents. That said more encouragement for them to group up would be great.

I also agree with metrotw's idea of a newbe island, but that it should not be required. However, unlike what he said it should not be based on level but on the amount of certs you have. I mean lets be real, a person could join a game, be a member and just let the character set while gaining passive certs. So maybe you can play on this island up to say 2k or 5k certs...

But yeah newbie only area would be nice. I have been playing games for years and I remember my favorite game, freelancer. Some servers had rules stating that high ranked players could not enter "noob" systems. So you would have noob police and military players fighting noob pirate players. Players wanting to be police or military would face pirates of equal skill and ships and the like and new pirates could try to steal without worry of a lvl 69 in a dreadnaught coming after them. In a related story, servers with this rule had lots of players.

All in all players learn by doing. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Basically don't give new players a bunch of certs, but rather, like was mentioned, new player only areas. My main argument against new players having lots of certs is, if they are new, then chances are they will not understand the mechanics of the game enough to know what is best and may end up wasting them.