Planetside 2

[chuckskull]

Epic. All the scale, tactics and teamwork of Arma, but with the pick up and play accessibility of something like halo and none of the 20min run to get shot in the face and start over nonsense. The spawning and vehicle systems are brilliant at getting you in a fight quickly. The social/comms side of it needs taking to Dice HQ and shoving down their throats. Want to invite/chat/squad/whatever with someone do you have to tab out and muck around in firefox on a clunky facebook clone? No you look at them and press Q.

The actual gameplay is fantastic too, I spent most of yesterday with a 10man infantry squad of randoms and despite being on a server where the main elements of each faction were in the hundreds and pulling full multi axis assaults with masses of air and armour, we were still able to tear it up and be useful in the larger battle; raiding, flanking and in one particularly gorgeous battle acting as an FSG from a ridge as a 2 massive assaults went into a base resulting in a 3 way fire fight so ridiculous John Woo would be jealous. 150ish tanks, 100+ aircraft and hundreds of infantry from 3 Factions fighting over base about half the size of a BF3 map and all of it in the valley below us. New king of F2P and contender for GOTY imo.

[Singh400]

Started playing this now, seeing as I got bored of BF3. And it's a proper laugh with friends on TS.

It can be a bit daunting at first, there is no tutorial or anything like that. It just throws you in at the deep-end. Luckily, a couple of friends guided me through it. And I'm now getting used to all of it. Mainly playing TR at the moment, but I'll think I'll start multiple characters once it goes final.

Only played a few of the classes - Medic, Light, Heavy and Engineer. Thankfully a lot of the tactics I learnt in other FPSes are easily transferred so I have no problems with infantry encounters (easy to a kill streak if you flank the enemy). I find the lack of grenades a bit weird, I don't like the idea of buying them each time (or whatever you call it).

I do like the idea of limited ammo in vehicles, as it adds a new spin on that element. Loving the Sunny and the Prowler. Certed my Sunny to be able to deploy and become a spawn point for my squad is really handy. The Prowler is awesome, I can see me spending more time in that. TKs come way too easy in vehicles though. They need to do something about that.

The whole squad/platoon thing is awesome. We have like 4 squads in a platoon, and we had these massive ships that would ferry us from one place to the next. It's a frigging sight to see 30+ people unload out a ship and storm your base.

30 mins can easily turn into hours with this game, this is a good thing IMO, well mostly a good thing!

[BigChief]

Got myself a Beta key over the weekend, didn't get much of a chance to play but from what I did I felt very very small. The scale of the game is just enormous. I'm going to see if some of my other mates fancy a game over the weekend. Can imagine it's the sort of game where you need a good group of players to play with otherwise it's really lonely.

[Firejack]

...Can imagine it's the sort of game where you need a good group of players to play with otherwise it's really lonely.

Yes this is a real problem right now. The problem is the lack or strategy or tactics required like in Planetside 1. Planetside 2 is currently a pure numbers game. Whoever has the most people wins.
This is caused by the open base designs and weird hex control system that nobody likes.
Fortunately the developers seem willing to change. Beta still has a long long way to go. Probably only halfway through beta now. A lot more work to be done and playtested

[Singh400]

This is caused by the open base designs and weird hex control system that nobody likes.

Actually, I like the hex system. Our preferred tactic to take a big base (ie Zurvan) is to zip round taking the smaller hexes around it. Isolate the base, increase your influence, have plenty of spawn points around it. Then take it over. With 90+% influence, when the control points are ticked over, the meter fills pretty quickly.

I'm liking PS2, a lot.

[Firejack]

Yeah thats exactly what everyone's doing and why the system is broken

You have this huge base. Huge number of players. But lots of small battles?! An organised squad can capture a huge base before the defenders even get a chance to respond.

In the rare occasion you get 2 huge armies facing each other. One team wins and pushes the enemy out of that hex. The winning force then splits and goes in 5 different directions, they in turn take they own hex, then split again in 5 more directions.

Makes keeping a large (100+) cohesive force intact next to impossible.

Still more changes to the metagame coming soon. Hopefully the action will be funnelled in the same direction a bit better

[Singh400]

Yeah thats exactly what everyone's doing and why the system is broken

Broken...or it's called tactics. If you try and take a base head on, you'll fail and rightly so. Good tactics should be to isolate the base from surrounding linked bases, minimizing the enemy support. Then going in for the kill. Even then the enemy can safely spawn inside the big base (ie Bio Labs are a PITA to take).

You have this huge base. Huge number of players. But lots of small battles?! An organised squad can capture a huge base before the defenders even get a chance to respond.

Disagree, I've seen small skirmish. And I've seen gigantic battles (especially around Allatum).

In the rare occasion you get 2 huge armies facing each other. One team wins and pushes the enemy out of that hex. The winning force then splits and goes in 5 different directions, they in turn take they own hex, then split again in 5 more directions.

Makes keeping a large (100+) cohesive force intact next to impossible.

Nah, not my experience at all. Past few days I've led a tank convoy 20+ and countless infantry to base after base. As long as their is someone saying where to go next, the zerg rush will follow.

[Firejack]

What server/faction you playing as?

We're VS on Eurydome. Tonight we only ever saw one large group of friendlies. An armoured column of 15 or so vehicles that our squad had 7 of. It was our second assault on the Traverse (think thats right. Bridge capture point in western Esamir).

There was a large fight of maybe 60 vs 60 for awhile between there and The Pit. We eventually pushed our squad out to the north west Windsheer tower (I think, something like that ) and we got there only to be completely cut off for around an hour with only 5 or so friendlies helping.

Had about 40% population on Esamir early on. Was about 25% when we got isolated. I'm wondering if there are large 100+ TR and NC outfits on the server that are coordinating the counter attacks and movements of troops better. Very little in the way of organisation at a faction level for the VS right now. And there doesn't seem the numbers to zerg anywhere.

[Singh400]

What server/faction you playing as?

We're VS on Eurydome.

TR on Eurydome.

Had about 40% population on Esamir early on. Was about 25% when we got isolated. I'm wondering if there are large 100+ TR and NC outfits on the server that are coordinating the counter attacks and movements of troops better. Very little in the way of organisation at a faction level for the VS right now. And there doesn't seem the numbers to zerg anywhere.

Mostly play Indar, but have played Esamir in the past too. VS are way too op. Their tanks need nerfing.

[Firejack]

Game launching November 20th, 2012... seems kind of crazy to me. Nowhere near finished!

https://twitter.com/j_smedley/status/259135107879813121


You should try the Magrider, you'll be crying in laughter after your calls for nerfs.

• The Magrider scraps along the floor taking damage.
• Tiny rocks stop the Magrider from hovering
• The Magrider spontaneously explodes sending the debris really high. Funny to watch but annoying if its you.
• The Magrider randomly starts sliding even on flat terrain... often killing the guy repairing when the tank taps him.
• Hill climbing often stalls the Magrider now. You used to be able to clear steep slopes easily.
• The main gun for the driver is frustrating to use. Its not on a turret so you can't rotate it, just pivot up and down. This is horrible in base fights. You can't just drive out of cover with your turret 90 degrees to the side, fire and reverse. You have to go forward, turn the entire tank, fire, turn back and then reverse.
• The main driver gun often hits the ground. Unless you are on the flat and completely clear of objects in front of you, the projectile impacts whatever is 2 metre in front of you.
• There is next to no splash damage on the main gun now. 3 near misses to kill infantry with splash damage. Trying to hit infantry directly is hard now there is bullet spread on the main gun
• Paper armour and slow speed don't help either

Not nerf... fix! That goes for most weapons/ vehicles.

[IronWarrior]

So I finally got my invite, couldn't play right away because I forgot my password and had to wait to chat with someone then while chatting with the chat agent, I finally remembered my password and was able to login!

Been enjoying it so far but only played for about 2 or 3 hours, I find that it's impossible to play in Eyefinity, all the menus and tank huds and text is messed up! So down to one screen.

I find flying a bit ****y to be honest.

Vehicle warfare is fun through.

[IronWarrior]

God damn update keeps making me crash every 10 minutes.

Was running fine before, really annoyed.

[Singh400]

Amazing!

[Singh400]

(cause I couldn't post two videos in one post...?!)

[IronWarrior]

I got weapon locked last night.

Worst thing ever and the thing lasts for 20-30 minutes which isn't right, this whole friendly fire business needs to be removed, it doesn't do anything for the game other then to annoy everyone.

You most centern to kill a few people in the vehicle bay when you buy a vehicle because the idiots run over the vehicle bay area and the auto-pliot function needs to be gone as well. :/

[Firejack]

The grief lock system was better in Planetside 1. Planetside 2 seems to be aiming for the same system its just not compete yet.

Personally I don't feel friendly fire belongs in an action FPS like Planetside 2. Accidentally team killing is constant and unavoidable.

The only good thing about friendly fire is you can destroy friendly vehicles that are blocking your path or friendly troops blocking doorways if they are AFK.


By any chance were you throwing grenades when you got weapon locked? There is a nasty bug at the moment with grenades bouncing/lagging/warping around when you throw them. I threw one down a staircase yesterday only for it to explode under my feet killing me and my squad mates