Planetside 2

[Mrbloodworth]

So, apparently, right after they banned that guy. Smed went into his live stream....


The dude, On air, created multiple accounts, none of them worked, not changing the IP, nothing. +1 to SOE?

[Falconeer]

Smed, what a baby. More than anything, while I'll be more than happy if they could win this battle, I'm afraid good ole Smedley is just looking for trouble here.

[Der Helm]

Hilarious. 

[shiznitz]

Smed, what a baby. More than anything, while I'll be more than happy if they could win this battle, I'm afraid good ole Smedley is just looking for trouble here.

He is making the correct business decision to publicize the banning and pursuit of guys who will hack the game.  Whether it is effective or not...

[Trippy]

Sure publicizing it is fine but gloating about it is only going to get the game in trouble like with a DDoS attack or even worse hacks.

[Pennilenko]

I'm glad they are openly declaring war on hackers. 

[Mrbloodworth]

Me thinks they are Hardware locking.

[Surlyboi]

Even better. Fuck those guys. I still think Smed's a goatfucker, but seriously, hackers in a f2p game are just sad.

[Falconeer]

Don't get me wrong. I am superhappy that they are fighting hacking hard. As Trippy said, I just think that the gloating is gonna bite him (and us) in the ass. It's potentially going to be taken as a challenge by every hacker out there.

[Merusk]

Me thinks they are Hardware locking.

Yeah that's what I was thinking.  The old Sony rootkit to report home trick doesn't work anymore, does it?

[Trippy]

It's easy enough to grab the MAC address and pass that along during a connection attempt.

He would need to switch computers and IPs (and probably should do a fresh install) to be able to create a new account.

[Lantyssa]

Wonder if a VM image could get around that and still be sufficient enough to run well.

[Surlyboi]

You'd need some serious hardware to pull it off, but maybe.

[Malakili]

I'm increasingly disgusted with the fact that there is effectively no strategy in this game and that the bigger zerg wins every battle.

[Trippy]

I expect that to change once certain outfits get more organized.

[Kageru]

I expect that to change once people realize there's no downside to fighting with numbers at your back. I don't know it will be so much faction hoppers as people on the losing faction seeing falling activity.

Especially for the aussie server where you are locked into one faction. Soon as they implement multiple faction characters on one server I think a lot of people will go and see what it is like on the other side.

Spent an hour fighting over freyr station on esamir. 2:1 outnumbered (and several hackers :/) and no chance of actually holding ground, just something to provoke a fight. But you come out of it wondering why you bothered... other than the certs, and the group with the numbers advantage does a lot more killing and less dying.

And the bases (other than tech)... urgh. Easy to capture (when you have numbers) external vehicle spawns, front gates being infantry permissive, base is stupidly large, hostiles can happily traverse using the jump pad highway, generators in poky little sheds far from the core, anti air on the porous outer wall where tanks can pop it. And the whole place is so obviously copy paste architecture. If they just want death matches then just make maps for that.

[Zetor]

There are plenty of ways of getting around a MAC lock as well, and you don't even need to use VMs. Really, yelling "COME AT ME BRO" at hackers for a system that is basically indefensible (because you need to do a lot of shit client-side, including any supposed 'anti-hacker' measures) is probably not the best idea.

[Mrbloodworth]

Patch tomorrow!

John Smedley ‏@j_smedley

New weapons coming Thursday. Next week awesome new anti vehicle ( including anti air you rocket pod haters) weapon

John Smedley ‏@j_smedley

@SLBartley tomorrow Thursday we have new weapons. New sniper and carbines. Next week anti vehicle

I wonder what they are.

[WayAbvPar]

And how much they will cost. More grind for the gristmill I guess. They need do pool unlocks across guns and/or characters. Having to unlock the same shit for every gun for every character makes me want to quit.

[Viin]

Having to unlock the same shit for every gun for every character makes me want to quit.

Really? Lame! I didn't notice this, but my other character is in another faction. I'd like to see them do it across the board, ie: if you buy infantry weapon A, you get the equivalent of weapon A in all 3 factions.

[kaid]

And how much they will cost. More grind for the gristmill I guess. They need do pool unlocks across guns and/or characters. Having to unlock the same shit for every gun for every character makes me want to quit.

Sounds like this is a pretty high priority for them and they say its a when not if type situation. I am just not sure why it wasn't like that from the start it seems very odd that your micro transaction stuff only counts for one character. At least the stuff that exists on all sides if unlocked for one character should unlock for all.

[Engels]

The unlocks Way's talking about are not purchased through station cash, but through cert points only. Considering that nearly all weapon mods cost ~100 cert points, its positively everquesty in its grindage. If I want a weapon grip on one model of assault rifle, it doesn't transfer to any other weapon.

100 cert points is a LOT for a rubber stick handle strapped to the front of your gun that only marginally seems to stabilize the gun more.

[01101010]

And how much they will cost. More grind for the gristmill I guess. They need do pool unlocks across guns and/or characters. Having to unlock the same shit for every gun for every character makes me want to quit.

Sounds like this is a pretty high priority for them and they say its a when not if type situation. I am just not sure why it wasn't like that from the start it seems very odd that your micro transaction stuff only counts for one character. At least the stuff that exists on all sides if unlocked for one character should unlock for all.

Yes it makes sense from our standpoint... but from a business standpoint, this is what works. Leveling a TR on one server for a few weeks and unlocking the stuff you want - then switch to another server as VS and have everything in the store available for your new character at NO COST? Can't see it considering the game is F2P. I could see, however, upping the cost to only Station Cash and making it 1000 you get the weapons pack for your account for a specific class in that you select say two guns that will be unlocked account-wide. They gotta make money on this somehow and keep people chasing the carrot, whether time invested or credit card submitted. Odd as this is, I am ok with SOE on this. Frustrating as shit for the player and does annoy me as well... but i understand.

[Mrbloodworth]

And how much they will cost. More grind for the gristmill I guess. They need do pool unlocks across guns and/or characters. Having to unlock the same shit for every gun for every character makes me want to quit.

Account wide unlocks are coming. I think what they are not saying is, they don't have enough content to justify that level of a system right now ( $$+ ). As they add more things to buy, it won't matter.

EDIT: Also, its only a grind if you are not having fun.

The first question I posed to Higby was whether the devs had considered allowing Station Cash purchases to be unlocked for an entire account, not just one character. I was pretty much expecting a no, but Higby surprised me with a yes; apparently, player feedback on this topic has already convinced the team to allow such unlocks. Folks itching to take advantage of this immediately will have to be patient, though, as there is no exact timeframe for the deployment of the change. "It's just a matter of how long it's going to take to get it right," Higby told me. "The good news is that it will be retroactive, so any items that you did buy will automatically go across your entire account once we put it in." He went on to say that there will not be an extra premium for unlocking things across your entire account; prices will remain what they are now.

There's one notable exception to the account-wide unlocks: If you buy something that is faction specific (like the Jackhammer weapon for the New Conglomerate), you won't be able to use it on other factions on the account.

[01101010]

And how much they will cost. More grind for the gristmill I guess. They need do pool unlocks across guns and/or characters. Having to unlock the same shit for every gun for every character makes me want to quit.

Account wide unlocks are coming. I think what they are not saying is, they don't have enough content to justify that level of a system right now ( $$+ ). As they add more things to buy, it won't matter.

EDIT: Also, its only a grind if you are not having fun.

The first question I posed to Higby was whether the devs had considered allowing Station Cash purchases to be unlocked for an entire account, not just one character. I was pretty much expecting a no, but Higby surprised me with a yes; apparently, player feedback on this topic has already convinced the team to allow such unlocks. Folks itching to take advantage of this immediately will have to be patient, though, as there is no exact timeframe for the deployment of the change. "It's just a matter of how long it's going to take to get it right," Higby told me. "The good news is that it will be retroactive, so any items that you did buy will automatically go across your entire account once we put it in." He went on to say that there will not be an extra premium for unlocking things across your entire account; prices will remain what they are now.

There's one notable exception to the account-wide unlocks: If you buy something that is faction specific (like the Jackhammer weapon for the New Conglomerate), you won't be able to use it on other factions on the account.

That would also mean the cert point cost of weapon and vehicle and suit mods are going to remain the same since gaining the same unlocks account wide lessens the carrot dispenser.

[Xanthippe]

I wish I knew what I was doing wrong.

I played a combat medic today. I was able to heal some people, but then a big guy appeared in front of me saying "I need a medic." I aimed my tool at him and hit the left button. Nothing happened. What did I do wrong?

I also don't know how to res people. I am apparently unable to shoot people before they shoot me.

I am a terrible medic.

[veredus]

If it was a big guy, was probably a MAX. Armored power suit basically. Needs an engi to fix em up.

[Trippy]

I also don't know how to res people.

It's the same as healing but the targeting is very finicky and the revive range is very short until you upgrade the medical applicator. It sometimes helps to crouch next to the body.

[Kageru]

Medic has a very limited role in a game that's all about spawn points given infantry are so fragile and there's lots of vehicles farming them. Don't focus too much on the healing, mostly use the AoE ability if there's any suggestions of enemies around, and instead worry about the trying to stay alive and shoot back at things.

Also some "rez" targets are just broken, the body will lie their for ages distracting medics but can't actually be rezzed.

[Xanthippe]

If it was a big guy, was probably a MAX. Armored power suit basically. Needs an engi to fix em up.

That's what it was.

Ok, so engineer I will be.

What is the AOE ability? The grenade I have?

[Miasma]

When you were the medic you had an aoe heal, press f.  Engineer is a good choice if you like support, there are tonnes of medics and not enough engineers.  Drop ammo and repair MAXs, vehicles, terminals, turrets.  You can't rezz the MAXs though, only medics can.  Once rezzed they need to be repaired however.

[Xanthippe]

Repair works like medic heal?

How do I drop ammo?

Thanks - trying to suss all this out is not easy.

[Cadaverine]

By default, it's 4 for the ammo pack, then just click on the ground somewhere nearby-ish.

[Miasma]

Same healy type device as medic yes, affectionately known as the glue gun, default is 3 (you can also mousewheel to your ammo pack/repair).  A more advanced trick is take mines instead of the ammo pack (you have to train into mines) and then use your alt ability on the turret.  So you switch to your turret, press b, then you can drop ammo that way too.

You also have a turret.  It can be useful but is situational.

[Kageru]

Very situational, because it causes you to be stuck in place making you a very visible head-shot advertisement. And it has a tiny arc. So pretty much you need a indoor choke-point. Or just use it as a decoy / obstruction.

Even though base defences are sort of terrible I still tend to have fun trying to get them repaired and getting a couple of shots off. Making it harder for air or getting a tank kill from a repaired turret are somewhat productive and decent XP. (I'm NC on briggs, we spend a lot of time on the defensive it seems).