Planetside 2 :Getting Started, and WTF it is [Warning, lots of images]

[Dalordish]

Just a quick warning for the PC Master race, Planetside 2 is incredibly demanding, both CPU side and GPU side. (I mean, what did you expect, with 96vs96 battles and explosions everywhere?). It is better optimised then it was 2 years ago, on it's launch, but it's still pretty buggy and laggy. Nonetheless, there is no other game where you will find such aforementioned battles, and if you are a team player, a good leader or someone who likes seeing big spectacles, Planetside has something for you. So, now that the sales pitch is over,

So What's this Planetside 2 gizbiz all about?

 

Planetside 2 is an MMOFPS that supports thousands of players on the same map at once. It revolves around combined arms combat, with three factions fighting for control over multiple continents. These are :

 

The Vanu Sovereignty : 

The Vanu are cultist scientists, dedicated to studying and using the weapons of the Vanu, the previous inhabitants of the land. Their weaponary typically is fast firing, slow moving laser bullets.

 

The Terran Republic :

The Terran Republic are the imperialistic faction from Earth, originally bringing the earth under their rule before arriving at Auraxis. The TR are the most millitaristic faction, and their weaponary are typically fast firing, but lower damage per bullet weapons.

 

The New conglomerate: 

The rugged and rebellious faction, the New Conglomerate are a no-nonsense, power over everything else faction made up of corporations after rebellion against the rule of the Terran Republic on Auraxis. They typically have slower firing, but more powerful weapons.

 

When you join the game, and create a character, you will be able to select one of these factions. Choose whichever sounds best to you, as you will be able to create a different character and try the others out.

 

You'll be greeted with a tutorial, explaining the classes. Just as a point of reference, they are :

 

The Light Assault :

The younger brother of the Heavy Assault, the Light assault's unique ability are jumpjets that they are able to fly around with. These jumpjets provide a large amount of manouverability, and combined with the close-medium range weaponary, the Light assault is a versatile and deadly foe on the battlefield.

 

The Heavy Assault 

The older brother of the Aforementioned Light assault, the heavy assault is equipped with a heavy machine gun and a resist shield. This shield, when turned on adds an additional amount of rechargeable health,and when coupled with the high-rate of fire and large magizines of the machine guns allows the heavy assault to easilly out-survive it's foes. Not only this, but the heavy assault also uses a rocket launcher, capable of doing massive damage to infantry, or destroying enemy air and Armour from difficult to reach locations.

 

The Infiltrator 

The scout-spy-sniper hybrid of Planetside 2, The infiltraitor's unique abillity is a cloaking device that renders the user nearly invisible when turned on. Equipped with either a sniper rifle, an smg or a scout rifle, as well as the abillity to hack vehicle terminals, base turrets and infantry terminals, the infiltraitor is versatile both at long range engagements, and close range stealth.

 

The Combat Medic 

The hero that every infantry needs, but doesn't know it, the Medic is one of the crucial infantry support classes, providing both the ability to heal friendly players, as well as revive dead ones. The medic is equipped with an assault rifle, and either a shield recharging device or an area-effect mass scale healing device, the Medic is one of the characters that get the most "Thanks" Voice hotkeys in the game.

 

The Engineer : 

The Medic for Vehicles and turrets, the engineer is another crucial infantry support class. Equipped with a carbine, a nano-repair tool, an ammunition pack and a deployable turret, the engineer is able to aid in almost every field. From holding stationary positions with their Anti-Infantry turrets, providing ammunition for Heavy Assaults that have sprayed all their ammo to fixing tanks in an armour column, the engineer always has a place in a battle.

 

The MAX 

The only infantry unit that requires Nanites (Resources), the MAX Exoskeleton suit comes with double the health of any other infantry character, and a whopping 80% resistance to small arms fire. Equipped with a weapon on each hand, the MAX's arsenal ranges from anti-infantry machine guns, anti-tank rocket launchers to anti-air flack cannons, the MAX is able to do it all, and easilly outgun everyone else while doing it. These units aren't cheap though, and are slower then other infantry. In addition, they are unable to enter all vehicles except for a few. (The Harrasser passenger seat, the Sunderer and the Galaxy)

 

Resources, the map and caputring points :

 

This is the planetside 2 Map :

 

In Black are the Warpgates, the impenetrable bases in which each faction starts at. These are protected by warpgate shields, and are only accessible by each respective faction.

 

In the upper Red are the Lattice Links. The Lattice links determine which bases you are able to capture (those being the ones that are connected to your warpgate.) 

 

In the Lower Red are Hotspots. Hotspots show where a large amount of fighting is going on, and are a great place to start popping heads of the enemy scum.

 

The Lattice Link:

The lattice link determines which bases you can capture. 

 

Resources :

Resources are the blue circular object in your TAB and infantry menu. Using items like grenades, MAX suits and Vehicles will use these resources (called nanites) and they replenish at a default rate of +50 per minute. If you do not have enough resources, you will not be able to spawn or use the items.

 

Oh, and just so it's clear, this is how to capture a point: 

Stand around a point until it flips, enemies in the capture zone will stop the point from capturing until they are killed. Yup, that easy.

 

Vehicles:

 

The Flash ATV : 

The Flash ATV is a quadbike that costs 50 nanites. Mostly used for transport, it is a cheap and effective way for infantry to get around.

 

The Harraser ATV : 

The Harraser is an armoured ATV that comes with a mounted gun for a gunner, as well as a rumble fighter seat in which infantry can sit in and fire out of.

 

The Lightning Tank : 

The Lightning Tank is a One man light tank. Equipped by default with a six shot explosive weapon, but also equippable with the Skyguard anti-air flak cannon, the Lightning Tank outmanouveres the Main Battle Tanks, as well as outguns the Harasser ATV.

 

The Main Battle Tank: 

The Main Battle tank is a Two man tank. It is easilly able to destroy both base encampments and other vehicles with ease, and is eqquipped with a Anti-Personel or Anti-Tank cannon for the driver, and a wide range of weapons from anti-air to anti-tank guns for the gunner, the Main Battle Tank is a crucial part of any armoured force. 

 

The Sunderer: 

 

The Sunderer, sometimes reffered to as a battle bus is a 12 seat bus eqquipped with two guns. It is eqquipable with a Sunderer-Advanced-mobile-Station, an abillity that allows you to deploy the sunderer with the B key by default. A deployed sunderer allows infantry to both spawn on, and resupply and change classes, but in exchange is unable to move while deployed. The sunderers abillity to spawn infantry makes it the most important vehicle while attacking a base.

 

Aircraft:

 

The Empire Specific Fighter (ESF for short) 

The One Man Empire Specific Fighter fills both the role of an air superiority fighter as well as an impromptu bomber through the use of it's rocket pods. All ESF's come with two modes, hover mode, in which all the thrust is provided by vertical lift, and full speed mode, much like modern day Vertical Take off and Landing Aircraft. Equipped with a high rate of fire cannon and a choice of afterburner fuel pods, air-air lockon missiles or air-ground missiles, the ESF is able to destroy enemy aircraft, fly at great speeds and harrass enemy ground forces.

 

The Liberator Gunship :

The Liberator Gunship is a high firepower, slow speed bomber. Equipped with Three guns, one for the pilot, one for the belly gunner and one light gun for the tail gunner, the Liberator gunship is able to either destroy enemy Armour with great speeds, or fire massive explosive rounds to destroy entire ranks of infantry, the Liberator gunship, while supported by Empire specific fighters is able to turn the tides of a battle quickly.

 

The Valkyre : 

The Little brother of the Galaxy, the Valkyre is an interesting aircraft. Functioning more like a transport helicopter then a plane, the Valkyre's vertical thrusters are very powerful, resulting in a pilot needing to tilt the aircraft's nose much lower then other aircraft in order to achieve maximum speed. The Valkyre has 6 rumble seats where infantry can fire out of the vehicle, as well as a gunner and pilot. It is eqquipable with a squad spawn module, allowing for members in the valkyre pilot's squad to spawn on the aircraft and allowing passengers that eject from the vehicle to be able to fall to the ground without fall damage.

 

The Galaxy : 

The Literal Flying Fortress, the Galaxy is the largest aircraft in planetside 2, hosting a whopping 24 seats for squad members to spawn into, including 2 wing guns, one tail gun and one body gun, the Galaxy is a difficult to take down aircraft, most commonly used for transporting entire platoons of infantry due to it's abillity to drop passengers without fall damage. The Galaxy is slow, and less responsive then other aircraft, but makes up for it with it's massive health pool.

 

Finding Friends :

Planetside 2 isn't such a good game to play alone, and it is recommended that you find an outfit or squad to join. You can find a squad to join by pressing the Auto-Squad button , and it's best to find a squad with an outfit tag, shown by 

"[OUTF] Alpha Squad, come and have fun!". These squads more often will have good leaders, that will be able to show you how to play in more depth, and will have squad members that are helpful and supportive.

 

And that concludes my quick-ish guide/review/overview on and to getting started in Planetside 2

 

Free Stuff:

 

If you'd like to play, click on the link below. It's a recruit link, and you'll get a free starter kit.

https://recruit.soe.com/recruit/smlanding.action?iId=CQMVW6R4TWNN1R7L6IJB&gamecode=PS2

In addition, here are some codes for bonuses and free stuff!

 

psuarmordecal

psuvehicledecal

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mlgreport

 

 

 

Side Note : I'm not sure if there's too many pictures, and not enough word content, but it's my first time writing a guide so please tell me if it's alright >_<

EDIT1: Huh, i'm pretty sure i had more then 1 post, o_o, not that it matters, since i'm pretty much a lurker.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Dalordish

[AoyagiAichou]

The word you're looking for is "than".

 

This is a very, very basic introduction of the things that are easy to grasp, I think what's more needed is explaining base captures, platoons and whatnot

[Dalordish]

The word you're looking for is "than".

 

This is a very, very basic introduction of the things that are easy to grasp, I think what's more needed is explaining base captures, platoons and whatnot

 

Than where? o_o

 

I'll work on base captures, as i have realized I've missed quite a few things there, but Planetside 2's Platoon system isn't that in depth, although I, along with many other players wish for it to be. Most of the time, coordination within an outfit is done internally through the use of Teamspeak etc, and as such, have their own ways of doing things. Thanks for the critique though :>

[gilang01]

love this game. it is very demanding, especially during 100v100 battles, even the best rigs will drop to 40ish fps ._.  

Noobkiller01

[AoyagiAichou]

Than where? o_o

 

I'll work on base captures, as i have realized I've missed quite a few things there, but Planetside 2's Platoon system isn't that in depth, although I, along with many other players wish for it to be. Most of the time, coordination within an outfit is done internally through the use of Teamspeak etc, and as such, have their own ways of doing things. Thanks for the critique though :>

 

better optimised then it was 2 years ago

more like a transport helicopter then a plane

slower then other infantry

less responsive then other aircraft

I had more then 1 post

 

 

All non-outfit platoons are coordinated though ingame voice, waypoints, or none at all (follow the leader)

As for the faction traits, I'd sum it up with "no bullet drop, easymode spray, heavy hitters (shotguns!)"

I think the introduction also needs to explain weapon types (carbines, assault rifles, etc.)

 

Also, people are mostly too lazy to read and rather watch videos on this, like Wrel's :3

 

And my personal observation is that the yearly subscription/membership is really worth the money for everyone who plays every day or two.