Share your experience - with n00bs

If you're asking for gameplay tips, there are heaps up there, so I'll cover some of the loadouts.

Since you mention SKYeXile, I'll give you a rough overview of his loadouts (he has a stream), then you can decide what you want to cert into based on that.

Heavy Assault:
Medkits
Nanoweave armour
Resist shield
Pulsar LSW
-Flash suppressor
-2x reflex
-Foregrip

Engineer:
Prox mines/medkits/maybe C4
Nanoweave armour
Solstice SF
-Pro Pipe
-Foregrip
-Probably a 2x

For shooting tips, watch RivaLxFactor's videos on youtube. Not the planetside 2 guides, but the BF3 gameplay and shooting guides.

+ Sunderer
++ If you park your Sunderer on a rock/incline that keeps it rocking up & down, you can neither re-enter nor use it to spawn troops. I'll have to submit a bug report on this...

+ To lock for squad/friends only when driving: [Page Down], select menu
Helps when people like to waste your ammo or be bossy back seat drivers.
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...ssengers-allowed-a-request.62465/#post-776417

+ Enemy mines may be shot
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/be-less-derp-ps2.54741/#post-820934

+ Don't shoot from turrets (esp vehicles') until you can HIT the target, typically your cross hairs turn red, & you have to be close.
++ Usually better NOT to shoot when traveling unless you can kill; gives away position, perhaps also on radar.
+++ Pro tip: Sunderer vs aircraft = dead Sunderer. Do NOT engage unless there are friendly anti-air also targeting.
++ Usually better to [Q] to spot an enemy if you can not kill, & get the kill assist that way.

Get the minor magnification upgrades on all your vehicle weapons or at least the vehicles you use the most.
They are IMHO the best bang for your cert buck. Also don't be afraid to drop a few bucks on SOE and have some fun.

There is a place for that:

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?categories/class-discussions.33/

Other than that. If you are into Vehicle gameplay, cert aquition timer and performance. A single level of performance is like day and night in most cases. In general go for the Combat Chasis first.

If you are into Infantery play. Select the class you enjoy the most and improve it. As Medic improve your healtool, as Engineer improve your Repair Tool and get some Mines. As Heavy Assault improve your gun (if your NC) and your shield.

Get some Flak armor on your soldier. As Infiltrator unlock the x10 sights for a boltaction. Thats as general as it gets.

Take a look in the class forums for detailed advice and request advice there. Thats what they are there for.

Thats bull and you know it. Its 2xp per Spawn. You spend 50 Cert points to unlock it. 250xp = 1 Cert point. This means you need to have 6250 people spawn on your Sunderer just to make back the 50 cert investment. AMS is an invaluable tool if used right, but its no EXP maker.

I'm glad you did the math; it should be weighted in for those who may need other early buys.
However, you are forgetting bonuses:
+ low fraction population
+ If someone kills who spawns
+ Healing your own Sunderer (I likely made back my own XP just from this)
+ Riders making kills (why I suggest spending 4 points atleast for the gun upgrades)

It is also convenient for yourself & platoon to have an extra spare or closer spawn/suit-change point. Less walking = more XP/hour

-One of the most confusing things that I've noticed people don't understand with regards to capping bases, is that you need to have an adjacent square captured before you could capture a base. So looking on the map, if you're standing at a base and wondering why even with generators down that you can't capture it, it's because you are surrounded by enemy's color. An adjacent square has to be in your faction's color for you to capture that base. I had to find it out the hard way myself after being lost for the first few days of playing. And one night I noticed a FULL squad of newish players trying to figure out why a base wouldn't capture. I helped explain it to them of course, but it shows you how the capture mechanic is very confusing and not intuitive.

-Get forward grip for your gun, it's one of the most useful attachments.

-Be careful spending certs, the same category of attachment can not be used together. So for an example, extended magazine can not be used at the same time as the forward grip. I didn't know this until I got both, then saw you could only attach one at a time. In some games like BF3 you could attach both at the same time.

If you buy a forward grip, can it be used on other guns please?

Yes, they tend to be grouped, though for vehicles they tend have "front/back" flags, and MAX "left/right" weapons.
Thanks for the tips

+ MAX + Engineer ~= Heavy + Medic in Team Fortress 2, though you also can help with ammo, which MAXes eat though.

+ [Alt] to get your mouse pointer to mute local chat; handy for anti-DJs
++ To put away your pointer, use [Esc, Esc], not sure of a better way...

Forward grip is cert only, and they are per weapon basis. So getting a forward grip for one gun does not apply to another gun.

Mods for guns are tricky.

Usually you have to buy each mod for each gun (and even then different guns have different mod options, so click open the cert tree to verify before you unlock them).

But! If you buy a mod for a gun that is used by more than one class, you get it for all classes that can use it! (For example, a laser sight attachment for TR default pistol will be open for use for all classes bar MAX). So check the lists and enjoy buggy underslung grenade launchers for both Engineer and Light Assault for 100 cert price

As i said, its an invaluable tool, but its not to gain exp with. As far as repairing (you don't heal it) your Sunderer goes, yeah that also applies to Tanks and even Flashes. And you don't need to repair YOUR sunderer or have AMS for it to repair it. The amount of times you have your sunderer parked close enough to actually get that spawn kill exp, is few and far in between. usually if its that close to the fight, its down pretty soon.

AMS isn't an upgrade to make bundles of Exp with it. Thats all i am saying and if you start out, especially as the game has advanced this far and Sunderer with AMS are readily available, you better not waste your Certs on it, when you are scrambling for them. Chances are there are 11 other Squadmembers that have an AMS sunderer.

Not really, but close enough. Also if you happen to play Medic, you can rez Max units.

Its the same button and it can be rebound in the keymapping. I suggest right ctrl.

Also you don't need it to change channels. Remain at the general tab and use:

/s for Squad speak
/o for Outfit speak
/p for Platoon speak
/y for yelling (can be heard by all faction, please keep it civil and the insults on a banter level*)
/re for regional chat
/t name_of_player (this works across factions as well, keep is civil)

This way you have all the necessary channels in view and can respond to all of them.

*Established (since Planetside 1) insults are:

Barneys (for barny the dinosaur) for Vanu
Elmos (Sesame Street) for TR
Smurfs for NC

Keeping the taunts civil and on a banter level improves everyones gameplay. Cuzzing out people, doesn't. Not yours, not theirs. Besides you'll have less people reporting you.

Except for the Stock Engineer and Light Assault weapon or your Hand gun, as they are the same weapon across all the classes. The same Weapon that is available for different classes shares their Attachments.

So unlocking, lets say the Silencer for your Hand gun makes it available to all your classes.

True, though I find a parked Sunderer MUCH easier to heal & it is easier to tell when my vehicle is damaged when I'm away...

Not quite that many (who are not currently engaged to grab one), though in swarms, there are usually too many AMSes running.

Well, you can't make the MAX impervious to damage, but there is a good symbiosis.

Oops, I meant to silence VOICE chat. I don't know how else to silence a single player who wants to DJ all the time; I find local voice useful at times, so I don't want to silence all.

Thanks for the details & gun attachment tips![/quote][/quote]

Escape to game menu> Social Tab> Voice Controls>Local (or squad, or platoon, or outfit, as appropriate) voice

A list will appear on the right, with the names of people, speaker icons, and a sound level slider near each. The active spammer's speaker icon will be higlighted. Click on it, and he will be muted.

Edit: Or you can find them, and use the Q radial menu to mute them.

Racking in high XP and kills is mostly playstyle, it certainly helps having good game knowledge, map layout, been sneaky and predicating population movements. But my kills per hour and XP per hour for 1 can be contributed to running a 6month sub and constant XP boost. But I dont stop looking for a fight and people to kill, if VS isnt defending something, ill find where the enemy is, generally looking at the map at the alerts is a good start, depending on its location and base layout and timers ill fly there in a scythe to scope it out and certainly run the scythe in a yellow alert or under, the chances of AA been present and farming a small fight in a scythe is generally going to net you very good KPH as you will have minimal downtime. If i see the enemy on a hill or on the ground where i can shoot from an elevated position to land easy shots with a tank, ill take a mag or lightning over a scythe, it can kill people much faster with the right positioning.

If i don't have vehicle timers or the enemy is is bad terrain for vehicles or in a biolab or something, ill run with heavy assault, provided im close to an ammo resupply. in the right fight like a biofarm or a techfarm in the right position you can pull in great numbers. If im off solo though ill take the engineer, as generally ammo is my limiting factor. Also sometimes, ill just drop on an alert at the top of tower or base, whatever really, just to get to action fast, maybe drop a beacon too if i can drop into a good position. maybe you will die instantly, maybe you will get an epic farm of people with no clue of your presence as you farm them at the vehicle terminal.

My recommendation is for Noobs to unlock all the 1-10 certs on each class. It's not a huge investment, and when you get frustrated with your primary... it's good to have something else to play.

I only have <40 certs invested in Infiltrator... but it's enough to hack terminals and make a few long range kills. Stuff like that can be useful and take the pressure off. (Besides it's very useful to hit an enemy base...flip a terminal...and go back to your primary class or spawn a vehicle, etc.)

Consider- flip a vehicle terminal, spawn a Sunder, deploy AMS... and shortly your team is taking the base. Most opps guard the control points... the vehicle spawn is disregarded.

The other classes can be equally worthwhile in a pinch without huge investments of certs.

A few Infiltrator tips, from what I've discovered from both watching others and personal experience:

-The cloaking device's effect varies in strength depending on movement and whether or not you are standing or crouched. Movement makes you somewhat translucent, standing seems to make you a bit transparent, and crouching down and cloaking makes you almost perfectly invisible (which with most enemies' short attention spans is as good as perfect). If you need to give someone the slip, go to a corner or cover, cloak, and crouch down.

-Semi-automatic rifles are deadly even in close-range. If you have a semi-auto sniper rifle, typically 3 body shots will kill someone with standard armor and health. This works in close range as well as far, meaning you can kill someone very effectively with your rifle if you get the drop on them, but knifing is not an option.

-You're better equipped against a MAX than most people. Taking into account the above, you can see that rifles in general do a ton of damage. Now, while a MAX is a walking tank-man who can take many times the damage you can handle, he's far slower and has less range than you. This is a good thing, since it means that the old adage of "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" rings true. Basically, you can pop off body-shots at a MAX from a far range where he'll be less able to turn your spine into a pretzel than at close-medium range. It takes anywhere from 10-15 body-shots with a semi-auto rifle on a lone MAX to kill him, in my experience. While that seems like a lot, the high fire-rate of most semi-auto rifles means you can hit him very rapidly. Also, take into account that said MAX is almost guaranteed to be both near his allies and your allies, meaning his health will be rising and/or dropping accordingly. He may fall faster if getting hit by allies, or last longer if one or more Engineers have his back.

-Drop-podding into heavily-occupied enemy bases is a license to free certs if you know what you're doing. Dropping onto a tech lab or similarly large building allows you to hide in a crevice high up on the walls. Pair this with a view of an active and occupied AA/AV Phalanx turret, and your enemies (Engineers especially) will gather to the turret like moths while your assassinate them. Guaranteed, you'll run out of ammo long before you run out of people to use it on.

-Hacking is your best friend behind enemy lines. Infiltrators have the deceptively useful ability to hack turrets and weapon/vehicle consoles, converting them to the Infiltrator's empire. This is especially good in offensive pushes, since a turret wiping out your allies can suddenly become a weapon against the enemy's vehicles. You can also temporarily cripple the enemy's vehicle production by turning vehicle consoles to your side. While this may not seem very useful unless near allies, it often exploits a lack of thought on the part of most people. When most people see an enemy console/turret, even in their own base, they just blow it up instead of getting an Infiltrator to re-hack it. Thus, they themselves cripple their base's vehicle production and defenses. On top of that, most Engineers and Infiltrators don't bother to fix broken/hacked things until after a fight has finished, greatly lowering the chance of your work being undone. Even in the event that your work is undone by savvy enemies, the time it takes for them to actually do so is usually enough for your allies to exploit the opportunity you've made for them.


If I find any other useful tips, I'll make a new reply for them.

People will focus one weapons and data sheets about their behind-the-scenes stats all day, but in the end attachments make more difference than weapons. If you're looking for a hip-fire weapon, don't ask people 'which rifle do I get?' ask what attachments you need. The 'laser sight' item is available to most if not all weapons, but there is an ADVANCED laser sight which costs an additional 100 as an upgrade to that, which only a handful of weapons get (typically only one per category per faction). Combine that with softpoint ammunition to make a CQC monster out of a weapon even if the forumites theorycraft that it is worse than something else because of their data sheets.

People can argue stats and numbers on weapons for days, but narrowing selection down to those weapons with the advanced attachment upgrades, unique upgrades like underbarrel launchers, rare attachments like 6x scopes for automatics, or special ammo upgrades, that suit your intended purpose can take you from a discussion of 6+ weapons, down to one obvious choice or an easy pick between two.