New to the Game - Advice?

I saw a great medic guide posted somewhere:

"If you come across a dead knucklehead, determine how Mr knucklehead died. Deal with that and then revive the knucklehead if it doesn't endanger you."

I went to a facility recently, and it became under siege. Eventually, a timer appeared and a faction bar also appeared, until eventually the timer ran down and a big pop-up congratulated us for defending.

What causes the meter to appear and the attack to be formally started? What decides how long the attack can go on? After the timer, is it immune to being sieged? Not entirely sure how the mechanics work. Is there somewhere I can read more and stop wasting peoples' time asking?

The in-game tutorial explains it, guess you weren't paying attention. This video will explain:

Then, you are out of luck. VS medics have weaker default weapons, than their counterparts.
My suggestion would be:
- Upgrade your ability (Nano regen device) to the max level. It is relatively cheap and you can heal yourself and allies nearby with it.
- Get nanoweave armor (at least lvl 4 for now). Medics are very vulnerable while reviving and split second afterwards. Increased survivability will help.
- Ditch your default weapon - Pulsar VS1. It isn't effective, especially in hands of new player. Buy HV-45 or Terminus. They have better TTK and less punushing for misses.
- Upgrade your tool (Medical applicator). It will increase heal/revive speed.
- When you'll have some spare certs, swap your secondary as well. Spiker is a better alternative, than default Beamer. Revolvers can also be effective, but punish you more for misses.
- 2 bricks of C4 is good to have - you'll be able to defend yourself against MAXes.

No, they don't. Jesus ****, stop showering the guy with misinformation already.

The default Pulsar is perfectly capable and easy to handle. Other AR choices might be a bit bland, but they still got short and long range well covered.

Have you tried to play with that thing for a substantial period of time? It is poor at CQC and too weak at longer ranges.

HV 45 at the other hand excells at CQC, while still being capable at med ranges. And it's only 650 certs as I recall.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/ps2/index.php?threads/assault-rifle-list-guide.246663/
Your words there were:

Now tell me about "misinformation"

It's not that I didn't pay attention, it's that I couldn't find anyone on that new player continent so I left. But thanks, that video was helpful, just leaves one question: If a base's control points get flipped and you get that control bar and the defenders end up winning, does the base become invulnerable to attacks for a while, or could they theoretically just keep pressing the assault until they win?

Do you have any recourse against such stubborn attackers, if they indeed can just do that?

My experience has been I must land the first shot or I'm guaranteed to lose a given engagement because they outgun me.

That said, I was more or less okay with it, since I figured my job is primarily to support the team (which is what I find fun anyways), and I was deliberately given weaker weapons and I was going to have to always deal with that.

Disagree on two points - firstly, Medic is a versatile AI fighting class thanks to auto heal and AR with the ability to make many certs via healing, shielding and rezzing as well. Secondly, Class preference has absolutely nothing to do with suitability as a player.

It is a great game and unique. If you like it play it on whatever class or classes you like best. Too few people play Medic and I have no idea why (see my points above). There is a pretty steep learning curve involved in working out the best way to play any class and how to avoid getting farmed by vehicles but you'll soon work out how to be aware of where they are and what they are shooting at.

TTK is a fraction of a second so whoever starts shooting first pretty much always has the advantage (if they can aim). It's not about being outgunned in the sense that your AR is weaker than other auto weapons.

I'd really like some advice, in that case. What do I do as a Medic if we're just locked in a stalemate with oodles of vehicles outside of a base? This seems to happen very often, and I feel useless. On top of doing nothing to vehicles, my revive is useless because everyone will just respawn on the vehicles, and I can't press forward because we'd just get meatgrinded if we try. My piddly heal doesn't do us any good, either.

Pulsar is an AR version of the Solstice, which I have an auraxium with, and it's one of my favorite carbines in the game, specifically because it's so easy to control and has decent performance at all ranges. Pulsar is also overall similar to Cycler, which I consider to be the best primary weapon in the game.

Nope. Assault Rifles are the most well balanced weapons in the game. Technically, you can still be at a disadvantage in 1v1 firefights, as other classes get useful abilities, such as being able to flank with Jump Jets or Cloak, or just power through damage with Overshields (Heavy Assault).

Your combat advantage as a medic is having a wall of allies between you and enemies, but it doesn't mean you can't shoot yourself.

I'm talking about in-game tutorial, the narrated obstacle course when you first create your character. It has nothing to do with Koltyr itself.

They can keep assaulting the base, there is no delay of any kind. However, they will not be able to respawn at the base, unless they bring a Sunderer. One Sunderer is easily destroyed by infantry, and several Sunderers with armored support mean coordinated assault, so they're fully in their right to attack the base.

There's nothing to do for any infantry class in that situation.

Vehicles don't capture the base. Players do. Enemy players that have to get on point. If there are enemy players on point, means you - as infantry - can try and push them out of that point. And there will be plenty of work for a medic. If there are no enemy players on point, technically, you don't have to do anything, since there's no actual threat to the base.

If enemy players are already swarming the point, and all of the base defenders are sitting in a spawn room, bombarded by enemy vehicles - again, there's nothing to do for any infantry class. Base is lost. Move on to another fight.

Pulsar has a worse hipfire, compared to solstice, which lets down, when ambushed while reviving teammate.
And Pulsar has almost nothing similar to Cycler, latter being superior in DPM/mag size Rof and TTK.

NC default Guss Rifle and TR default Cycler are good weapons. Pulsar is meh. Use "try now" button at weapon purchasing screen - you'll have the weapon for free for 30 Mins.

i Play Sani a lot and have only 1 tipp.

learn to controll the weapon., and you are fine in this game.

exemple on TR: most Sani Player use the TORQ, Cycler or NSX weapon..
i use the TAR, is harder to controll like TORQ, but owns more

Find your Weapon and gamestyle.
If you a Camper you Need other Weapon than a Rusher.

Join an outfit that welcomes new players and helps them develop. Or at the very least make some friends who will help you learn the ropes.

Being locked in a base under HE spam by large numbers of vehicles is a no-win situation pretty much every time. Your faction will break the deadlock only if it has enough armour to fight them off and the support class they need to help them is the engineer.

The best you can do is stay under cover (behind a ridge or something) and focus on rezzing HAs who are using their rocket launchers or get to the cap point and help keep the defenders alive when the attacking infantry come in under cover of the bombardment. Your AoE ability or a Shield repair tool - if you buy one - are useful to your teamates but stay away from doorways and windows. Certing into Flak armour will make you more resistent to explosions than Nanoweave armour

So do all ARs. I know the difference.

... and inferior in vertical recoil, reload speed and velocity. Despite all the minor differences, in the grand scheme of things, they're nearly the same weapon, being controllable 143 @ ~700 RoF weapons with good reload and magazine size stats. Pulsar is perfectly capable, and it will not be a hindrance to any player.

I really didn't experience that purported "laser" accuracy, if you'll excuse the pun, of the Pulsar VS1. It's pretty much built from the ground up to be an accurate weapon platform, with its low rate of fire, low vertical recoil, etc. so it perplexed me that it really didn't seem that much more accurate.

So, I looked into it, and what I found raises a single question: What the actual #(%# is up with its horizontal recoil? Would it really be overpowered if the Pulsar's horizontal recoil was comparable to the other default assault rifles?

It's not something easily noticeable until you use a few much less accurate weapons, like most of the close quarters weapons. Go into VR training, shoot dummies with H-V45 with Laser Sight, then switch back to Pulsar VS1 with Forward Grip and you'll easily notice the difference.

It is comparable. It's right in the middle of other starting Assault Rifles. Not sure where and how you 'looked into', but clearly you were mislead, or didn't pay attention.

Pulsar VS1
Horizontal Recoil: 0.2 / 0.2
Average Horizontal Deviation: 0.165
Maximum Horizontal Deviation: 0.4

With Forward Grip:
Horizontal Recoil: 0.15 / 0.15
Average Horizontal Deviation: 0.123
Maximum Horizontal Deviation: 0.3

Gauss Rifle
Horizontal Recoil: 0.175 / 0.175
Average Horizontal Deviation: 0.165
Maximum Horizontal Deviation: 0.4

With Forward Grip:
Horizontal Recoil: 0.131 / 0.131
Average Horizontal Deviation: 0.108
Maximum Horizontal Deviation: 0.262

T1 Cycler
Horizontal Recoil: 0.225 / 0.225
Average Horizontal Deviation: 0.184
Maximum Horizontal Deviation: 0.45

With Forward Grip:
Horizontal Recoil: 0.169 / 0.169
Average Horizontal Deviation: 0.139
Maximum Horizontal Deviation: 0.338

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what the recoil tolerance is, but for a weapon whose entire premise is "I sacrifice power for control and accuracy" I'd expect it to not just be the middle of the road in terms of recoil control and precision.

But, and 'd like to emphasize this isn't sarcasm, you'd know better. Just feels like an overall fairly mediocre primary weapon with a penchant of getting out-gunned.

You can learn about tolerance here.
As far as horizontal recoil goes, Pulsar is middle of the road among starting Assault Rifles. Among all weapons in general, it is fairly close to the top.

It does have lowest vertical recoil per shot among all Assault Rifles, and close to the top among all primary weapons in general, only "outshined" by SMGs, which aren't very usable at range due to other factors.

I'd go with "average" rather than mediocre. Don't blame the tool. It's an excellent rifle for medium range combat, and does okay closer and further. If you're losing firefights with it, it's not because of the weapon.

I've uploaded a short clip with gameplay for you. Hopefully it's enough to demonstrate that Pulsar is perfectly capable, when the user knows what to do. Note how an engineer killed me at the end in face to face. You could blame Pulsar here, for having lower DPS than TRAC 5 he used. But it's not why I lost.

I lost, because:

1) He's using a carbine with laser sight, so I'm in his domain of power. He can effectively engage from the hip, while moving around and making me miss.

2) My AR needs a moment to recover accuracy after a jump, so I couldn't engage right away.

3) On the recording, we both start firing at the same time, but due to how internet delay works, it actually means he fired first, and had ~0.3-0.4 seconds advantage on me. I had to play on US server from Europe, because at this time of day there would be nobody to play with at EU servers. Normally the internet delay would be ~half of that.

In these circumstances, I would be likely to lose with any weapon.

It's not a matter of a weapon, it's a matter of what you do with, where you take it, against what enemies and in what circumstances you're engaging.