Planetside 2

[kaid]

You gain a cert every so many XP so xp increase boosters also boost your cert gain.

[apocrypha]

Nice one, I'll give those a whirl then!

[Mrbloodworth]

Xp = Certs. 250 XP = one cert.

Not trying to tell anyone to spend money. But if you enjoy the game, and like to play, and your cert gain is to slow. A boost, or alternatively, a membership is the way to go. Or both, they stack.

[01101010]

Xp = Certs. 250 XP = one cert.

Not trying to tell anyone to spend money. But if you enjoy the game, and like to play, and your cert gain is to slow. A boost, or alternatively, a membership is the way to go. Or both, they stack.

And stack with xp weekend. 

 My own personal anecdote. I decided to sub for 3 months since the game is fun... though I still hold my grinding opinions of it from before. However, at ~$36 for three months, it still is cheaper than every other game out there. Doubt I will continue to sub, but cancelling right now I have heard results in keeping the perks but losing the 500SC you get a month - even if you paid for three months.

Cert points are slow as hell without any boosts but pretty bearable as a member... or with boosts - and both should be pretty quick. That said, when shit costs 700-1k certs, it will be awhile before you get to select it if you are going for rocket pods or the skyguard or etc... I dropped $20 on black friday for the double SC and got 4k, so grabbing weapons was not really an issue, but certing them is a grind if you concentrate on it. That said, certs really are only a marginal increases and I still die to BR1 players. I am glad for that.

[kaid]

The alpha squad purchase was a good one for me. Got a lot of decent unlocks and the 6 month 10% xp gain booster is pretty darn nice. I am half tempted to sub but I think my 15 bucks a month would likely be better spent just buy and unlocking stuff and picking up boosters once mine wears off.

[Mrbloodworth]

I dunno, the sub is rather tasty.

[Miasma]

I really wouldn't spend certs on weapons, they cost way too much.  The thousand certs probably took you a week's casual play to get so compare all that time to simply spending $2.50-$7.00.  Your week's worth of time is worth a few bucks.  Also, if you're like me, you don't really know which class you're going to settle into yet so don't spend too much money/certs until you know what you want to play.  I have a lot of certs/unlocks for my medic which I don't play anymore.

[Miasma]

Tonight, at midnight PT.

My understanding is that the double xp is live now.  Base caps might not be giving it right now though.

[Mrbloodworth]

o'realy?

[croaker69]

Guess I'm leaving the office early. 

[01101010]

I really wouldn't spend certs on weapons, they cost way too much.  The thousand certs probably took you a week's casual play to get so compare all that time to simply spending $2.50-$7.00.  Your week's worth of time is worth a few bucks.  Also, if you're like me, you don't really know which class you're going to settle into yet so don't spend too much money/certs until you know what you want to play.  I have a lot of certs/unlocks for my medic which I don't play anymore.

This is how SOE gets you. 

That said, it is true... certs for hardware is insanely high (for a reason) and you're better off dropping $10 on 1k SC for picking up a weapon then using the certs to upgrade it. From a time savings perspective. Saving money and trying to go completely F2P will cost you time.

[Miasma]

There is a persistent, completely unfounded rumour that they may do a double sony cash sale sometime next week, so maybe wait on that too though.

idunno

[Falconeer]

They did a really cool triple SOE cash about a month ago. That was too tempting and I put down 10$ for 30$ worth of Smedcash. I really think that's a good way for them to make money and for us to feel a bit (just a bit) less insulted by the steep prices of weaponry. Hope they'll do the double thing soon.

[Malakili]

I'm currently going to the premium member route.  15 bucks a month for exp + cert gain bonuses, plus 500 station cash a month.  I prefer it as a payment method to the free to play a la cart method.  I play daily, but not for a long time every day.  The bonus exp and certs obviously get you more bang for your buck the more you play, so as a mostly casual player I don't know that it is absolutely my most cost effective choice, but given that I get stressed out with cash shops, I still prefer it.

[Slayerik]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sony-Universal-15-Game-Card/19530504

Guess ya get 2000 for the price of 1500! :)

[Mrbloodworth]

There is another Planetside branded card, only at game stop, that gives you that, and a gun unlock.

[Kageru]

I'm not using boosts because there's not really that much stuff I want and I expect a wave off nerfing and re-balancing to invalidate many choices made now. Station cash to get a decent gun (since it's mostly about shooting at people), get a sight when you have 30 points (and spend more till you get the right one) and after that I can just ignore them.

If the game is fun they'll slowly build up, if the game isn't fun I don't see any certs that will make it fun, and I'll only buy new guns on triple station cash / discount.

Of course I am poor at the moment, which colors it, but I also don't think PS2 has longevity in its current form. So I want to see some more meaningful changes to the strategic level.

[Mrbloodworth]

OMG all the certs.! 

[apocrypha]

Yeah I'm waiting for discounts before buying some SmedCreds and just getting things like scopes, nano-armour, AMS cert, etc at the moment.

Awesome raging battles on Cobalt last night. I've joined a random outfit after being in one of their open squads and they've turned out to be really active and a lot of fun. We had 2 full squads running about last night and the server was *heaving*, some of the battles turned into 3-way ground/air/armour pitched fights over key territories and the fun & XP just rolled in. Only thing marring it was the lag and poor client performance when the battles got extra-hairy.

[Surlyboi]

Heh, Pod dropped on a biodome roof in the middle of a TR siege on it. Popped 23 or so in the head before any of them thought to look up. By then I was out of ammo anyway.

[Falconeer]

I killed two snipers on the top of an Amp Station by landing ON them with my Instant-Action pod, only to be killed by a Terran in the same fashion 15 seconds later. Good times.

[Surlyboi]

For those that I was squadded with last night. We ended up holding the hill 'til the Barneys gave up and pissed off somewhere else. We then went back down the hill and took the tech plant.

[Kageru]

Held the crown for an hour or two against a massive combined assault. Lots of burster max on the landing pads shooting at the hordes of air, endless tanks shooting at the tower, pods dropping on the roof endlessly (so annoying), a mass flyover from friendly galaxies (which then suicided into the tower for some reason) and really bad lag.

And then after that, once it had settled into a groove, I wondered why the hell I was doing this. It wasn't particularly fun it was just watching the cert counter tick over. And I have 500 certs saved up now because I know there's going to be some agressive nerfing going down.

[Malakili]

Held the crown for an hour or two against a massive combined assault. Lots of burster max on the landing pads shooting at the hordes of air, endless tanks shooting at the tower, pods dropping on the roof endlessly (so annoying), a mass flyover from friendly galaxies (which then suicided into the tower for some reason) and really bad lag.

And then after that, once it had settled into a groove, I wondered why the hell I was doing this. It wasn't particularly fun it was just watching the cert counter tick over. And I have 500 certs saved up now because I know there's going to be some agressive nerfing going down.

This is very similar to some of my experiences so far as well.  Had some epic/awesome fights at Tawrich Tech Plant over the weekend, but in the end I kept asking myself "so what?"  The game is more or less fun to play, but I'm quickly growing tired of the endless, pointless battle. 

The other night I was playing as a gunner in a Lib with a guy I know, we were on vent.  Anyway, there was a big battle going on and I said, we should go over there and help out, we're going to have a hard time holding that base and they'll need all the firepower they can get (or some variation of that).  And his response was to say we should find some other place to go where it would be easier to farm xp/certs.  I died a little inside.

[Surlyboi]

I haven't gotten to that point yet. We held that hill last night just because I didn't want to give it up. The douchebags in lobs and lightnings on all sides just made me more determined to keep them out.

[Falconeer]

I am starting to see lots of people leaving a base defense as soon as things start going bad, in order to protect their padded K/d stats and eventually get more certs elsewhere. As a result, defenses are quickly becoming harder and mostly pointless since there's no incentive at all (for those players) to try and keep a base, and the trend is probably only going to get worse because, it's a domino effect. I'm afraid the system, the way it is build, pushes the worst kind of gamer to play for certs instead of, you know, fun. This could become a major issue pretty soon. I can still find good fights from time to time, but in the last few nights it has become harder and harder, it's either a super easy quick win, or a terrifyng and frustrating loss with dozens of deaths without a single chance to fight back.

That said, about the scope, or the goal, I can't stress enough that this game needs more meta stuff, more persistent content. But it is still greatly enjoyable per se, like Team Fortress, like Counter Strike, like Battlefield. People who play those games don't do it for the XP or for winning the war. They do it because it's fun, and they do it as long as it keeps being fun. So while it could have more, and it feels like a waste that it doesn't yet, it's one of those games where the nature of the engagements and the dynamism of the combat generate, in my opinion, more content than many devs could ever come up with. Something not true, oddly enough, in Guild Wars 2.

[croaker69]

There comes a point where if you are pinned in the spawn it's more productive from a tactical perspective to respawn outside the circle of death and attack from behind.  Especially if you can't pull heavy armor from the base you are defending.

[Kageru]

Most bases are also designed to be indefensible unless you have a solid number of people (possibly excluding tech plants). And getting spawn camped by vehicles gets old quick. I'll play generator whack a mole with attackers for a bit, though it feels silly one engineer trying to defend a huge amp station or watch-tower, but if it's an organized group with numbers there's no point and I spawn elsewhere.

From what I can see the server (Briggs) is mostly focused on fights at or around the crown, they're always rocking, the rest of the maps are either locked down (much of the time) or small populations swapping bases.

If the maps had some sort of progression to the bases, like GW2 does, where a fortress controls a region, supply line or choke point there would be a strategic region to defend bases. But there isn't, most of the players are either in vehicles that can strike anywhere or will spawn into the battle. The "front line" system only really means that breaking out of your warp-gate can be challenging (because the front is so small) but once the map is broken its all blitzkrieg. And was designed to be that way.

It's a shame, planetside 1 evolved to build on it's strengths would have been interesting. This is an attempt to widen the franchise by appealing to the console shooter market.

[01101010]

I am starting to see lots of people leaving a base defense as soon as things start going bad, in order to protect their padded K/d stats and eventually get more certs elsewhere. As a result, defenses are quickly becoming harder and mostly pointless since there's no incentive at all (for those players) to try and keep a base, and the trend is probably only going to get worse because, it's a domino effect. I'm afraid the system, the way it is build, pushes the worst kind of gamer to play for certs instead of, you know, fun. This could become a major issue pretty soon. I can still find good fights from time to time, but in the last few nights it has become harder and harder, it's either a super easy quick win, or a terrifyng and frustrating loss with dozens of deaths without a single chance to fight back.

That said, about the scope, or the goal, I can't stress enough that this game needs more meta stuff, more persistent content. But it is still greatly enjoyable per se, like Team Fortress, like Counter Strike, like Battlefield. People who play those games don't do it for the XP or for winning the war. They do it because it's fun, and they do it as long as it keeps being fun. So while it could have more, and it feels like a waste that it doesn't yet, it's one of those games where the nature of the engagements and the dynamism of the combat generate, in my opinion, more content than many devs could ever come up with. Something not true, oddly enough, in Guild Wars 2.

K/D became irrelevant as soon as hackers got going - likewise, vehicle pad deaths, friendly vehicular manslaughter, spawning at the wrong time at an AMS, dying for no apparent reason, terrain kills your vehicle, etc. So that ratio is meaningless. Add in the fact that infantry are going to kill less and die more than a rocketpod pilot or tank pilot... and it becomes moreso. Sadly, the kiddies worry a ton about it without realizing it is not even close to accurate or even valuable. Some of these rocketpod pilots have 80:1 k/d in their planes, but when they gotta get out of their machine and tote a rifle?  Just saying - when things become about the numbers, then the fun leaves.

Chasing the certs is the motivator considering how expensive shit is to upgrade and how long a slog it is to get 200 or 500 or 1k certs for just 1 upgrade to 1 slot. I can't even fathom saving 1k certs just to blow it on a single upgrade and two clicks of the mouse - not now at any rate. That is the nature of the beast here. The trick is most of those upgrades are at the most slight over the stock stuff that really the differences wash in a team built game. Solo? yeah, it might matter, but if I slot the max nanoweave armor and I kill you toe to toe even though we landed the same amount of dmg, you're going to be upset but your friend behind you is going to kill me with a slap and a smile - and if he is a medic, you still have two and I am in the spawn queue.

As for the defense stuff. The bonus is in the kill xp while defending a base. Of course, kiddies don't realize this fact or are even aware you get bonus xp for defending added to each kill. I do see an issue of nothing being granted for saving a flip. That needs some incentive - say 1/2 the xp that you would get for taking a base. There needs to be a prize for people to save a flipping facility. You do get bonus xp for kills while defending, but since people want easy xp and like you said, not die a lot... well it is easier to chase the zerg from base to base rather than hold that tech plant so you can pull tanks at some point down the road.

 

There comes a point where if you are pinned in the spawn it's more productive from a tactical perspective to respawn outside the circle of death and attack from behind.  Especially if you can't pull heavy armor from the base you are defending.

If you have a spawn, then yeah. Plenty productive. However, sitting in the spawn room shooting morons in the face that keep running at the door or that are in LoS of the doors not only gives you the kill xp and added defense xp bonus, but it is more lucrative than actually taking the base. 10 kills is more than the base flip xp and you can redeploy right before the base flips to deny any revenge. That is the issue with xp whoring and cert chasing - maximum benefit > objective.

All that said, C4 =   Nothing better than running up behind an enemy tank, slapping it on the rear panel, flying off and pressing the button. AMP stations are maddeningly delightful with lots of shit to hide behind and in. Magriders are the easiest since the pilot turret is fixed and the whole tank must move. But I have to say, the whole pilot is the gunner is making the C4 runs much easier since none of these people play or even check 3rd person cams. Sunderers are a bit rougher since it takes 2 C4 to bring it down and I have no desire to spend another 500 certs to get 1 more brick. I die so often and so past, usually from my own explodiness, it is more useful to drop points into flak armor. Problem with C4 is that is becomes an addiction. I survey the battlefield and note the armor much more often. Rather than grab a tank or a rocketlauncher, I start thinking how the hell to get behind the line and take one of them out and then get back unscathed.

[Kageru]

The result of the bonus XP on defense is you want to have massive fights to capitalize on it. In other words go where the zerg is and try to either take or hold something hot like the crown. Thus reducing the strategic level to an irrelevant detail (and most of our defence was with the crown entirely encircled so it had zero strategic value).

If you are in a base you know is going to fall, a serious and organized attacker and very few defenders, you won't get enough kills for the bonus to mean much. And the "battle" flag doesn't appear fast enough to rally defenders to it.

[WayAbvPar]

For those that I was squadded with last night. We ended up holding the hill 'til the Barneys gave up and pissed off somewhere else. We then went back down the hill and took the tech plant.

Good to know our stubbornness wasn't in vain!

[croaker69]

The result of the bonus XP on defense is you want to have massive fights to capitalize on it. In other words go where the zerg is and try to either take or hold something hot like the crown. Thus reducing the strategic level to an irrelevant detail (and most of our defence was with the crown entirely encircled so it had zero strategic value).

If you are in a base you know is going to fall, a serious and organized attacker and very few defenders, you won't get enough kills for the bonus to mean much. And the "battle" flag doesn't appear fast enough to rally defenders to it.

Denying the enemy the most defensible position on Indar has value.  It can also allow smaller organized units the opportunity to take bases at the edge of the map away from the furball in the middle.

[Mrbloodworth]

The crown is not for users who play on the strategic level. Its for the Weekender Session based shooter players.

But it can be a great place to go for some XP.

[Shannow]

I'm deliberately remaining ignorant of most game mechanics. I have a feeling that if I do start to figure things out I will spend waaaaay to much money on this.

I'm ProphetShannow on Waterson with NC.

[croaker69]

The crown is not for users who play on the strategic level. Its for the Weekender Session based shooter players.

But it can be a great place to go for some XP.

I don't really do Indar anymore as I burned out on it in beta and can't stand the pitch black shadows (evidently my eyes never adjust to current light conditions) but my experience is if your side doesn't already have the Crown that's all anyone will focus on.