Hello all. I recently started playing Planetside 2 and have been having a pretty fun time for the most part. I don't have an outfit yet, so I have to skulk around like a dirty pubber for the mean time, but I've found plenty of ways to get kills, revive allies, and have fun. I wanted to present a few of my thoughts about this game here, from the perspective of a new player. I'm not going to try and "solve" any of the issues I feel planetside 2 has. I've seen enough newbies come into other games I play spouting ridiculously dumb ideas as magical ways to fix all the "problems" a game has that I don't wish that on any of you. First off, what's with these certs. I get this is an F2P game, and I'm willing to put in the time to unlock new things, but these prices are kind of ridiculous. I've been playing for 4 days now, and have amassed maybe 200 certs. There are basic things I need to stay competitive with other players: powerful AA and AS missiles for faction fighters instead of useless boost tanks, the ability to equip something that isn't a dead weight chaingun on my MAX's left arm when I'm trying to fight air or vehicles, and many more. Each one of these things costs 1000 certs. Am I expected to play for a month just to get my fighter up to the level of people who brought money with them? I know I don't have a lot of experience to speak from, but I hope nobody will try to convince me these things aren't important while fighters are decimating my team's ground positions with rocket pods. I'm fine with paying out the nose with playtime for some of the (presumably balanced) alternate infantry weapon sidegrades, but this equipment is losing (or winning) us wars. The ability of us lowly pubbers to coordinate is somewhat lacking. I rarely see a group of people fighting for a common cause unless they happen to be suiciding from the same Sunderer to the same base (and thank god for Sunderers. I spent 50 of those 200 certs on the AMS upgrade). I'm not saying coordination can't happen, but I don't see it rising organically very often, and when it does it tends to be accidental and fleeting. Playing Medic is kind of hit-or-miss. I spend a lot of my time in the most dangerous parts of the battlefield (the parts our people are dying in), but about a third of my corpses disappear in mid-revive or don't accept it, leaving me feeling a bit cheated for the work I did to give them the choice to come back. A third might be a bit much, but it happens quite often. Staying back and healing the injured has even worse results; it's relatively rare that someone will get shot up enough to lose notable amounts of health and survive long enough to wander on back to me. Conversely, my inability to heal shields (which is probably important for balance) means my ability to keep someone alive in an actual fight is quite underwhelming. That's most of my thoughts for now. Hope this was informative, or at least not a painful read. Let me know what you think.
You're right about the coordination, although some pick up squads are pretty good. Bad news. If you don't want to work for it, you gotta pay for it. They gotta make money somehow. See ya on the battlefield.
I'm fine with working a bit to unlock things, but I'm not going to play the game for half a year so I can hold a candle to people who sunk money into the game. That's as close to pay to win as you can get without having money-exclusive combat buffs.
a) With the exception of some poorly balanced weapons such as rocket pods there are no must have alternatives (and I would expect those weapons to be nerfed at some point). So while it is understandable you feel you want all the other weapons I guarantee you would be disappointed with most of them. b) You get to play the game for free. It seems churlish to moan about the games developer looking for a source of income. Yes, you need to play for a month if you are not willing to hand some money over. However, as I said above, you will find the advantage you derive from these guns is on the whole pretty minor. In a lot of cases the alternatives are worse than the standard guns. c) You will find little or no organisation outside of an outfit. It is impossible to throw hundreds of random people together and expect any high level coordination. Most people who enjoy teamplay and can take orders join outfits. Everyone else who can't zergs. d) Its "ridiculous" (sorry, pet hate, not normally a spelling ****).
You are overexaggerating a lot. Focus on a role or two. I bet you'll be able to be efficient at it with ~1300 certs. That shouldn't be more than ~30 hours of playtime. Seems good enough to me. And this is when it comes to vehicles or MAXes, mind you. Infantry can do well from the getgo and will require much less to do their job (some type of mines for Engi, tool upgrades for him or medic, things like that)
Well I've named 3 1000 cert examples that completely change the effectiveness of their recipients. If some of these do get nerfed in cost or effectiveness or what have you, then I don't really see any remaining concerns. I look forward to future adjustments. I'm fine with developers looking for income, but when their search for money makes me feel powerless in the face of money spenders, it in turn makes me hesitant to spend money. I try to be careful with money I spend on video games; I primarily spend on games that I feel will give me lasting entertainment for that investment, and p2w games by and large tend to have a poor amount of return as an incentive to encourage repeat purchases. I disagree with it being an impossibility, but it may just be something it isn't reasonable to expect. Like I said, these are just some of my thoughts on the game. Fixed! Thank you for pointing that out, good sir. Yeah, infantry seem to be pretty well balanced. I've never ran into someone on foot and thought "oh he had a better gun than me, I had no chance". I'm actually doing pretty passably in combat when it comes to fighting other grunts.
Very few of the weapons give you any real advantage (there are exceptions). Take the lock-on HA rockets. G2A rockets may give you an assist, but you're really unlikely to get kills simply because air is smart enough to leave the area and repair. G2G lock-ons well, if you can aim, you're better off with the stock gun, and if you can't compensate for drop, use the G2A on vehicles (very little drop). Personally, I prefer the stock rockets for that. Alternate infantry weapons are really just tweaks. You usually give up something to get something. I've unlocked a few infantry guns, and find myself always going back to the stock weapon. As for vehicles, the secondary weapons are limited in their effectiveness (except the Sauron HRB for the tank, that thing just rocks). Anything else the basilisk is more forgiving and useful all around. Most secondary guns have such limited field of view that by choosing one you're inhibiting some actions (can't aim at targets next to the tank, or can't aim above the horizon). As for main cannons, the default is well, good in most situations. HEAT gives you some splash damage (HE for high explosive) allowing infantry kills with out an exact hit, while the AT part (Anti Tank) gives armour piercing abilities as well. Unless you're in an infantry mob (HE) or holding off an armour column (AT) the default gun is the best choice. I don't fly, but the most important purchased upgrades seem to be for air. The lib's bomber gun, and of course rocket pods are worth paying for in my personal opinion. My point though, is that for most players buying items isn't what it takes to get the advantages. It's playing and gaining certs to upgrade the gear you already have. Put a scope, grip, and compensator on your guns, cert for scopes/mine guards/chasis on your vehicles, and have some patience. You see, the more improved your base character, the faster the certification gains overall. Most importantly, learning the game is the best way to advance (the tips tricks and tweaks that suit your play style). Oh sure, we all moan and complain about what we don't have, but once you start putting in a few certs and getting the exponential improvements on the stock gear, you'll find that 1000 certs isn't as daunting as it was the first day. I remember thinking that 30 certs would take me forever to just get a scope, and last night I pulled in 150 certs just goofing off knowing where to be and how to play more effectively. And just so you know, I'm not a spectacular player. I went out and spent the cash on the upgrades (remember, I don't fly so all ground and vehicles) and find myself consistently coming back to the stock gear. When I live long enough to matter, I tend to find that I'm in situations where that "all around" set up of the stock gear works best. Sure I'm less specialized, but I have the tools I need to deal with almost any situation.
well its not many more. Those are basically the only things. ESF secondaries, Liberator primary/secondaries, and MAX kits. (Mind, the default MAX is servicable. MAXes true strength comes from MAX crashes and squad support.) Everything else is perfectly viable with an extremely low # of certs. Finally, basically... $20 really isn't much to put into a game, and if you do it on a 2x Station Cash day that's 4000 SC, which can get you a bunch of weapons and some bling.
Three things to consider. You may have already. 1. It helps to find something that can net you a lot of experience over time. Being as this is a FPS game in which respawning is frequent and kills net you large chunks of XP, I tell my friends to focus first on being a decent combatant. Take the time to try each role for a goodly while only for its weapon set. Remember that it's a learning process and accept that cert points aren't going to magically roll in. Find which weapons you are more inclined to use and operate better with. Don't just cling to the ones you wish you were good with or seem sexy to you. Those that you can perform with are usually part of the classes you will ultimately enjoy the most over time. Once you start really enjoying the game you'll only occasionally check your cert point total and usually be surprised at how high it is. 2. Just because you are using vanilla weaponry does not mean that you are not a force to be reckoned with. You are not going to sit in a state of "mostly harmless" for a month. Either find a valid target or switch to a class that can aid the situation in some non-combat way. While it's true some things will only be available with time and effort, you should focus on what you can do now and not what you wish you could do. Save the dreams of the future for when there's nothing happening in the now, otherwise you'll run the risk of unconsciously limiting your options. 3. Some of the best certs do not involve a gun and are actually quite cheap. Those are usually the certs that will lead to you getting more at an increased rate. If it costs 1 cert point there's little reason not to throw a point in and try it.
