Planetside 2

[Tzan]

Great tips.
I would have spent more time figuring out how to fly but the resource need and timer made it so I had to spend most of my time in game as a foot soldier.
They really need a training area, we have complained about this on the forums but they wont do it.

[Whiteagle]

Meh, I just rolled up a Vanu pilot durning Beta.

[501stCadians]

Operations at 5pm EST tonight! Come into teamspeak, even if it's just to listen!

[Robot Monkey]

So what server are we going to roll on? I'll most likely be Heavy Assault/Engie.

[501stCadians]

Waterson.

[morganm]

Just got to play this game last night and this morning.  So far I love it!  It feels so epic with hundreds of people running around, dudes driving tanks, flying ships, driving transports, zip'n around on ATVs, jump troops bouncing around, infantry running everywhere.  Game-play is smooth, intuitive, and enjoyable as compared to say ArmA 2 which is horribly clunky and unintuitive.  From what I've seen of the planet it's interesting to look at yet easy to navigate while still offering things like natural cover to utilize.  

I only have a few complaints.  The learning curve is fairly steep.  Like the first time you open the map there's a wall of text explaining it... and it' just tells you the basics; there's a lot more going on there!  Pretty much have to watch the tutorial videos which are nice but it's kinda sad I have to watch them in order to even learn the basics of the game.  If you think you're just going to load the game and instantly be of any use to your faction you are mistaken; you'll run around being completely useless as you try to learn the game, learn the maps, learn your class, learn your weapons, learn vehicles.  

Don't like how your strafe speed is about half your forward moving speed.  Strafing just seems way too slow.  I'm still struggling with running but I don't think it's a limitation of the game; I just need to get it setup to how I like it.  Right now I toggle Run on/off.  I hope to set it up so I always run unless I hold a button.  Seems like if I have Run toggled on and I aim down the sights then go back to hip fire Run is toggled off automatically; annoying.  

Not all enemies are clear.  Usually you see their name above their head and it's red so you know it's an enemy.  A lot of times I see someone and there's nothing above their head.  Maybe it's lag or something?  Cuz sometimes I'll see their name pop up a few seconds after I see them.  I end up just shooting them to find out =)

Some of the stations are complex but again I'll learn them.  Like some of them have this big central area above the ground and it's confusing trying to find the way up to the control points from down on the ground.  Just the sheer number of them contributes to the steep learning curve.  

Plus it's free... almost too good to be true.

[Tzan]

Everything you wrote is all true, if we told you all that the day before you started it wouldn't have helped.

My first day in beta I got killed 60 times.

[morganm]

Yeah, I agree... you gotta just work your way through most of this stuff.  The online tutorials are actually quite helpful.  They do more than tell you stuff you would eventually figure out playing.... like explaining mouse acceleration and raw input.  

I died a lot =)  That's OK though I mean really you're gonna die.  It's quick and easy to drop right back into the action or maybe drop back into a safer area and play around with something like vehicles or tweaking your settings.

[Whiteagle]

What do you guys think of this comic I made expressing my feeling about the curret AA/Air balance?

[Tzan]

I died a lot =)  That's OK though I mean really you're gonna die.  It's quick and easy to drop right back into the action or maybe drop back into a safer area and play around with something like vehicles or tweaking your settings.

Learning when to abandon an area that's getting overrun is a good skill to have.
Unless you like walking out of a spawn room and getting killed 5 times in a row.

[morganm]

Played some more today and had a blast.  Figured out how to join a Platoon & Squad.  Then re-mapped my com. hotkeys to something I'll actually use.  Joining a squad lead by competent people and communicating really helped a lot!  

Getting pretty sick of all the client crashes though.  I thought it was just me but did some searching online... looks like a lot of people are crashing frequently after recent updates.  Pretty frustrating to crash in the middle of a fight.... load everything back up.... re-join the platoon... redeploy to the rally point...  work your way to the combat zone...  can take 10 to 15 minutes before I'm back in action again.  Seems like I'll crash at least once in an hour =(  

I guess it's a good indicator of how much I like the game because I keep logging back in.  If I didn't like the game I'd have just uninstalled it by now!

[Robot Monkey]

When I first got this, it would barely run. I did what you would expect, I made all of the graphics options low, and it still wouldn't run. Eventually, I got this tweak running, and it improved performance slightly. Then I prioritized Planetside 2 as high on my PC, which improved it slightly again. Eventually, while searching the options menus for the source of my woes, I found the "render quality" slider. After adjusting it to 75, I found it ran better. I now play at render quality 55 on my laptop.

TL;DR: I was a dipshit and didn't realize render quality was what was giving me lag spikes.

[Robot Monkey]

*double-post*

Created another outfit on Connery called "BRIK2". I'm RobotMonkey100 on there. Just friend me if you want to join, Connery usually isn't incredibly full.

[morganm]

Having a blast in this game and hopelessly addicted.  Any time I can I play it and if I can't I put up some live streams on Twitch.TV in the living room on the big screen to watch =)  Then my wife is like "OMG WTF turn this shit off and put on Sister Wives!"  

As a family Saturnalia gift I got another desktop computer.  Dell Studio 540 with Intel Core 2 Quad, 8 GB RAM, Radeon HD 7750, Win7 64bit and it runs like a dream!  Loads MUCH faster and no FPS drops at the big stations with tons of people, vehicles, explosions, etc.  What's more is that it doesn't crash like on my 32bit Vista box!  Played for like 3 hours one day with no crashes and ran smooth the entire time.... totally awesome =^.^=

I really gotta get a 64bit OS and some more RAM on my other desktop...  

Acquired enough certs to actually buy some stuff now.  The options are a little overwhelming but I bought some better optics for Heavy and Engineer which I tend to play a lot.  Upgraded generator and nanite armor on Heavy.  Bought the night vision optic for Heavy because I can't see shit at night.  I think next I'll get the fore-grip for Heavy assault to subdue some recoil.  Ultimately I really want those rocket launchers with lock-on capabilities for air and ground vehicles!  Was watching a stream with a dude using the anti-air rocket launcher... fucking metal to the core.

[Tzan]

AA rockets are cool, but medium skill pilots just fly away before or after hits.
So you still need like a pile of AA guys to actually shoot down a plane.

In an area by yourself all you can do is try to scare them away.
Since it takes many hits to kill one they don't need to leave right away.

I would get AT rockets first, tanks can't really dodge them like planes can.