Hi everyone, I very briefly played PS2 years ago, and had a longer stint on PS1. I've always loved the core format of the Planetside games, but the skill floor of getting started has been consistently intimidating. In the past, once I get up to speed, online shooters have been a blast to play, but getting up to speed is always the tough part, wherein I tend to initially die dozens of times in a row, often so fast that I don't learn much to improve on. Many of the recent reviews of PS2 have continued to taut how positive and active the community is for this game, so I figured that this time around I would start by asking advice of seasoned veterans about how to get into the game in a productive way (rather than aimlessly flail around as a bullet sponge). Though I'll happily take any constructive advice on the subject, I am especially interested in hearing 1. which starting character loadout is most likely to be noob-friendly (while also hopefully helping teach me the game), 2. What tactics I should keep in mind when approaching various situations, and 3. What's the best way to get involved with a group that can help me learn. For the latter of the three topics, I was tempted to post a message in the outfit recruitment section of the forums for Connery (I'm Pacific time zone/UTC-7), but I wanted to first see what insights this post could give me before raising my hand for recruitment.
The only noob friendly class is the Light Assault. Even then theirs still pro LA who have their own elite tricks, angles, and c4 fairy skills. Medic seems noob friendly, since new players use medic to farm revive exp. Yet getting kills with medic isn't ness easy, as medics need to use cover & play safe the most. Else aim good with assault rifles. Infils take years to master the art of sneaking, if a front line Infil. As for sniping that's easier. Yet SMG, Pistol, & Knife took me a few years or so to master where to run to without being seen. & flanks. How to crouch walk right, how to knife, how to pistol whip. Then SMG last to learn. HA, I played ps2 for 6 years & never played much of, if you enjoy HA's defensive playstyle, then they are still a good class to learn. it's just about personal preference. If I had a better desktop pc for fps, rather than this laptop I have, then I would have played HA more. Also my preffered playstyle is a agile front of the line runner, so I mostly played beserk style. Which is for Ambusher jet LA & Infil knife runners. Then later Harrasser driver. Engi has some tools, yet is more for people who want to use walls, turrets, & gun options to aid their gun gameplay, else vehicle mains. So more of mid game type learned. Whiether your engi is for infantry fighting then your holding down a hallway or stairs. Else driving vehicle which usually is a mid game lesson ( 6 months after starting, usually for vehicle drivers ). For outfits who help noobs? I mean most outfits just try to get people to meet at the same area & redeploy there. Their isn't much hand holding beyond that, as it's tough to walk with allies, even if their 2 feet next to you, as they die, & have to respawn 40 feet back at the sunderer. So theirs not much proximity lessons. You may find a outfit, that'll have some mentor help you with all your questions obviously. Just not so much lessons as if this was a lobby match game. Tho if you ask players for specific lessons, like asking some pro harasser driver of the server how to drive, or asking a lib pilot how to lib, obviously they'll either teach you right there & then, else link you a tutorial yt vid. The general lessons are: 1) All vets die all the time, more often then new players understand, so if people who have played for 6 years for 2,000 hours still die every 30 seconds, or sooner, then you as a new players dying too often, shouldn't be a worry. It's normal for everyone & always is going to be normal " dying 24/7 " no matter how good you get. That's just how a world war would be, without some movie actors perspective. & without some small squad deployment, similar to a seal team taking out amatuers. Real world war or battlefields, has a lot to do with luck, & sensing who is going to shoot you from behind. Tbh. So all us vets know we are going to die rapidly soon no matter what. What makes a player good then? Or why stay to be elite? Well we get better at how many killstreaks we get before we die. So usually anything more than 2 kills is a vets goal. Yet we still know after those 2 kills, our chances of surviving are near to none. lol. For sure I've gotten better killstreaks then that, by far. Yet surviving is never the goal, it's killstreak before dying. Maybe some 120+ fps user, tries to play survival more seriously, or some Heavy Assault vet, since I play kamikazee often. Tho ye, their still isn't a vet that doesn't die overall, he'll die eventually. 2) For the first 4 months, just try to score 2 kills without dying. No more no less. 2 kills is fine. 3) Take your time driving, try sniping with land vehicles, before you play mid or short range tank fights. Just play far range only & don't engage too near if your learning how to play tanks. Else you'll just die too often if your driving a Lighting or MBT. Harassers are the toughest land vehicle to learn and even if you're the best harasser driver of the server, they still die too often, as they are made of paper. Obviously you're able to juke a ton better if you're a elite driver, yet still, they are easy vehicle to get to near to a tank with and die, or accidently hit some mines. 4) Air fights, aka pilots, may be tough for someone who played 6 years of land fights & only dabbled with flying planes. So piloting is a whole different gameplay style, which is even tougher to learn than driving land vehicle is. As the pilots have made that their niche & practiced x1000% more than everyone else who hasn't had a passion for pilot status. So fly at your own risk & know flying is something that makes long time vets even seem as if they are noobs at ps2, if they invested most of their time with ground battles & ignored air practice for years. If you must learn tho, expect the time to learn to take more time than land vehicles, & you must buy the Air Terminal item, from the Ant Silo Shop, so you're able to practice with many ESF's, without having to wait for the regular cert timer, you have ant silo cortium for more planes after you crash some esf's. 5) You don't have to play safe, maybe just kamikazee 6) Play Light Assault first, buy c4, toss your c4, troll, shoot, scale roofs. 7) If you want to try stalker Infil, learn to crouch walk, or else they'll see you if you stand while running invis, crouching means you're less invis when you are invis. So run to area to crouch real fast, or else crouch entirely to get somewhere. Tho if you must run standing tall, then just run till you find a box to sit near. 8) If you die too often & don't want to die too often, play medic & hangout with other medics, as you just trade revives and don't have to wait for a ress. 9) Practice what your interested with, theirs not really a easy class to play verse tougher, it's subjective based on your playstyle. Maybe you're not a kamikazee like me & want to play safe. Maybe you start with Heavy Assault your first year, instead of like me who didn't play HA often till year 6. Player preference. No rules. 10) Adjust your mouse & all your aim sensitivities. Just test them all repeatedly each day, this really does matter. Find what works for you, then keep testing other sensitivities. Mouse. Settings. Aim. Don't be me, who waited 2 years to test every number of sensitivity. & no theirs no perfect answer for sensitivity, find what works for you, then keep testing other numbers either way. Just to be entirely sure.
Hi Bunny I've played all factions and all classes for a few years now, including starting several new toons as I get bored easily! Short answer first (my opinion) - engineer or medic both have good survivability as they need to hang around allies (i.e. support in numbers) to do their job, can earn certs rapidly to build their armour quickly and have good multi-role weapons with low recoil and quick reloads. Longer answer - I find that getting special abilities rapidly, and getting good protection is important. so, getting the free implant packs to drop after completing tier one advancement in every class is good as you'll almost certainly get the regeneration implant to drop. Surviving longer and recovering faster is the most noob friendly tactic for me. Playing engineer or medic is good for quick cert gain, especially if you focus on maxing your ammo pack, repair, heal and resurrection tools. this, in turn, enables rapid scaling up of your chosen armour (flak or nanoweave - I go for flak on the support classes myself). Both these classes are good for mixing it in larger battles with allies around you so long as you're ok with splitting your time between shooting the other side and helping your allies. Of the two, I prefer engineer because there are so many things it can do and I like carbines so much. they have little recoil or bloom compared to LMGs and quick reload but that is not to say that there aren't some good medic assault rifles. It's a matter of personal preference. On the subject of carbines, Light Assault are the other big carbine faction. they are incredibly agile (you don't need to max out your jump pack too quickly to get good enough performance) but tend to to be exposed in combat as their best use is flanking and ambush, so they are often working without much in the way of support. Get max C4 as this is their big strong point. But be prepared to die fairly regularly. I main light assault at present as it is so versatile but I still die a lot and wouldn't call LA a good starter class, even though it can be huge fun and is essential on Hossin where moving around is a massive pain unless you can jump over obstructions. I am not too bothered about auraxing stuff so I tend to go with whichever class best fits the local battle - major fights at installations (engineer for me), big, open field moving battles (engineer if lots of vehicles or medic if mainly infantry) and LA where there are lots of vertical fight opportunities (Biolabs, anywhere on Hossin or where there are lots of big rocky outcrops). You'll notice I didn't mention Heavy Assault or infiltrator. That's only because I don't play those classes much but I stilll wouldn't call either of them noob friendly, tbh. Final thought, go for headshots (low recoil weapons like carbines. assault rifles and SMGs are good for this), Hope this helps.
TR main and former/reformed infil main. noob friendly loadouts in no particular order: -SMG infil. cloak, ambush, cloak again. more active than sniping and stalking and a lot more fun. -Rez medic. Rez nades on a grenade bandolier. print certs and help your team. get a punisher w/ class specific under barrel attachment and heal from distance. -Engi. literally just be an engi. rep maxes, give ammo, rep vehicles, you litteraly can do no wrong as an engi. -AA HA. G2A balance is ****, but being 1 more (or the the only 1) with an AA launcher helps you and your team out a lot without a lot of cert investment or pulling a max. -LA. same as engi, just do light assault stuff and kill planetmans. Base carbines are fine out the box. Important tactics are as follows in no particular order: -Beacons = routers = sundies. all 3 should be seen as equally threatening. too many times i see people leave beacons alone then are somehow surprised when a whole squad drops on point to let a platoon sundie deploy elsewhere. -Learn the maps. most hexs consist of more than 1 or 2 hallways. Also learn what hexes let the opposing faction break through and be there at the fight(win or lose) to try to stop them. -Be a team player. Not much of a tactic, but pull sundies, switch off infil/HA/LA if you notice not a lot of medics/engies are around/doing their job, pull AA or AT stuff instead of anti-infantry stuff depending on what's happening. -Keep calm and respawn. its a banner, but its true. This game will frustrate you, either because of a dip**** infil or idiotic teammates. You will only hurt yourself and your enjoyment + performance if you let yourself get tilted. log off in PS2 is pissing you off. -Learn your guns. There are very few bad weapons, but a lot of mediocre ones, and a few really good ones. Knowing where your weapons strengths/weaknesses as well as its recoil pattern will go far in making you both play better and be better Best way to learn: ima plug for my outfit, but ORAX on emerald TR are pretty good about helping new players learn the game as well as goofing around and having fun. I figure other, not tryhardy/sweaty outfits would probably be the best route to go.
If coming back or starting fresh got to Emerald instead of Connery I play a lot in the 6-9pm PST range..on Emerald. Currently working through some directive on purple but I play all 4 factions. PM me and I'll help.
I joined about 18 months ago and I can relate to the challenging learning curve, but trust me - it's worth sticking with it. Here are a few not particularly specific tips that might help: 1. You're going to die a lot to start with regardless, so have fun with it and don't pay too much attention to the K/D ratio. Think of it like Dark Souls (if you're familiar with that), it's a game that you can only learn and advance in by dying over and over again. 2. One of the best things you can do to gain XP and feel that you're performing a useful role in the game is to focus initially on being a medic, and engineer or an infil, and primarily either healing/reviving people, fixing up damaged vehicles and dropping ammo, or signalling the presence of enemies. This is much easier than getting kills, and it's just as useful in the majority of fights. 3. Learning to effectively use the lightning tank is a good way to get kills and learn some of the fundamentals of the game. Learning how to shoot accurately, use cover and get in and out of fights quickly is easier in a tank because there are usually fewer variables involved. I'd advise using credits to purchase the larger, more accurate one-shot cannons for the lightning rather than using the default (for TR at least, I don't remember what it's like for the other factions). 4. Whenever you join a game in progress, join a squad. Preferably one which is nearly full, and preferably one which is relating to an outfit (ie one that has an acronym in the title). Once in the squad, listen to the chat and follow orders closely. Play as a medic, engineer or infil, soak up XP, and take advantage of opportunities to kill opps when you can. This is the best way to progress while getting the most out of the team dynamic of the game. 5. Don't worry if there's things you simply can't wrap your head around. You'll either get to know them later on, or they're probably not worth knowing. The game can be baffling for newcomers (I remember this well) but diving into the core dynamic of the game is the best way to learn its various idiosyncrasies as you go along. Good luck!
