Planetside 2

[FlyingCarcass]

I didn't see any topics about Planetside 2 here, so I figured I'd start one. For those unfamiliar with the game, Planetside 2 is a recently-released free-to-play sci-fi MMOFPS featuring large-scale battles across three massive continents.


There are three factions: the Terran Republic (authoritarian empire dedicated to restoring order), Vanu Sovereignty (technocratic fanatics obsessed with collecting alien technology), and the New Conglomerate (freedom fighters and their mercenary friends). There are 6 classes and 7 vehicles per side (some vehicles are faction-specific) which the player can swap between at bases.

I've been playing this game casually since CoH closed and I've found it to be quite fun. The game's biggest strength is that the battles are huge and often involve hundreds of players. Each continent is continuous (i.e. one instance), so after capturing or defending a base an army often advances or retreats to another base (and firefights between bases are some of the best firefights, IMO).

Here's a screenshot of Indar's map; the colors denote who controls what sector at the time when I took it and the explosion icons indicate where battles are taking place (one can air drop into a battle).
Edit: Please note that this is an old screenshot and the new map is a little bit different.

Spoiler for Hidden:

The main critique I'd give this game is that weapons take a very long time to earn enough "certs" to unlock and upgrade (and the cash shop prices are a bit high), leading to some balance issues since many players don't have much unlocked beyond the stock equipment.

Still, the game is fun overall and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good large-scale FPS.

Some screenshots

Spoiler for Hidden:

[TimtheEnchanter]

Tried playing it. Keeps crashing on the load screen. No known workarounds.

Went back to BF2142.

[FlyingCarcass]

Bleh, that sucks. I installed it through Steam and haven't had any issues.

[Adelante]

I love the game, play it almost every evening now.   So much fun to be had.

[TimtheEnchanter]

Uninstalled the standalone client and tried the Steam one instead - worked fine. Weird.

Don't know what I think of it though. Looks cooler than just about any FPS game I've ever seen. Things randomly look incredibly cinematic, like the warfare scenes from Terminator 1/2. But something about the timing of combat seems very off. I find it almost impossible to get to a firefight before it's over, and of the rare times where I do, anytime I get killed, I NEVER know what hit me. These problems creep up in other squad-based combat games, but never with such consistency.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

I find it almost impossible to get to a firefight before it's over, and of the rare times where I do, anytime I get killed, I NEVER know what hit me. These problems creep up in other squad-based combat games, but never with such consistency.

This is due to the game's whole "vast battlefield" schtick.

While things do look incredibly cinematic, it makes it hard to be where the action is, since the battlefield is just so unbelievably massive.  Airdropping into battles helps, but limits your positioning to the locations where you can legally airdrop in (and if these are known by the enemy, they will be camped - it's the nature of FPS games.)  Being killed and not knowing who or what your killer was is another byproduct of the vast battlefield - with so many players and so huge of a field of combat, a killshot can literally come from anywhere, and being able to see your attacker isn't guaranteed.  A good idea that Planetside 2 could take from Team Fortress 2 is quick-panning to your killer and providing a freeze-cam shot of them right after the kill, revealing both the direction the kill shot came from, and the player that fired it.

[Adelante]

I like that there's no kill cam, personally, it adds to the chaotic feel of the battlefield.  I would like the deployment timer to be reduced to 10 minutes instead of 15, though.

I also highly recommend joining a squad (I forget the default key, but mine is CTRL+J) when you load in and following them around.  Voice chat is helpful, but you can type in a specific squad channel too.  Get coordinated with a squad and you'll have a heck of a lot more fun.

One of the first things I did when I hit BR10 was get a Squad Beacon for respawns.  The timer on respawns on it is something like 5 minutes, but it helps a heck of a lot.  I like to get my Light Assault into a good area on top of a building or with a good vantage point and put the beacon there for my squad to spawn in on, out of enemy fire, but with a good position to lay down their own fire or to select new firing positions.   It's also a blast to move in a large tank column.

[zaprobo]

I'm a big fan of PlanetSide 2 - but I get the whole "missing the battle" thing people have encountered - they've actually upgraded the map UI in the latest patch so you can better see where combat is underway (little colour coded pulses showing who is attacking a region).

The other easy thing to do is join a large organised outfit (read: guild) like the Devil Dogs (NC), The Enclave (TR) or Azure Twilight (VS) and then you become the fight, rather than having to find it!

If you haven't got your FPS chocolate into your MMO peanut butter yet, I highly recommend that you do!

[Knightslayer]

I tried it - ran around like an idiot forever, couldn't find a single enemy.
Then I got onboard several vehicles, where half of them didn't take off while the other half drove around the base in circles for a bit and then jumped out to grab another vehicle.
I finally got sick of it and just got a plane of my own, flew around without encountering anything until "BOOM! dead! back to base!".
Grabbed a ground vehicle, drove for ten minutes through the pretty snow covered landscapes - parked in the middle of nowhere after once again not running into a single soul - hit the exit button and haven't looked back since.
Chances are I was just extremely unlucky, but after the combination of idiot teammates and the difficulty I've had in getting "in on the action" my motivitation to start it up again hasn't been exactly overwhelming.
A shame, since I really wanted to try an Engineer, loved the class on SOE's Infantry (before the game was completely dead).

[FlyingCarcass]

Did you try deploying from the map screen? The map (m) will indicate where firefights are going on and has a "deploy" button that will drop you into the middle of the fight.

[Knightslayer]

Did you try deploying from the map screen? The map (m) will indicate where firefights are going on and has a "deploy" button that will drop you into the middle of the fight.

Can't say that I did, I've only just learned about it on this thread.
I know they don't have a tutorial, but for things like that it sure would be nice.
Thanks! I might patch it up and give it another shot over the weekend.

[FlyingCarcass]

So I've been playing a bit of PS2 over the last few days and as it turns out there was an update this week adding a new "VR Training Room" thing. It's pretty neat since one can test drive any weapon/upgrade/vehicle in the game (no lockout timers or resource requirements in the VR room) in a sizeable area with various targets... still isn't the tutorial explaining the game to new players that many folks say the game should have, but it's pretty neat for trying out stuff.

[Adelante]

They finally put it in?  I am going to have to give the game another go, recent patches sound like they may have made it better.

[FlyingCarcass]

Oh yeah, I should also mention that PS2 is having a double xp weekend.

[FlyingCarcass]

I just want to say, "All hail the IR Smoke!". I got it for my lightening tank loadout this weekend and it's great since it breaks rocket lock-ons and prevents further lock-ons for a few seconds, greatly improving my tank's survivability.

[FlyingCarcass]

Figured I'd update this thread to mention that the new continent, Hossin, has finally been released. The continent boasts a swampy biome featuring plenty of tall trees and hilly terrain, limiting the mobility of vehicles thus rendering the infantry the primary focus of battles. They've also added new features over the past 1+ year to nudge folks into big battles such as a new territory capture system and continent lock outs (and I think they may have even added a tutorial for new players).