Okay, I surrender.

[pxib]

I'm useless at this game.

I have gotten, I believe, three kills in the week I've played. All of them in base gun turrets.

I've tried every vehicle, in group and out... and every weapon and every suit of armor. I simply haven't got the reflexes to aim fast enough to kill anybody who knows I'm pointing at them, and I'm only marginally better at hitting folks who are standing still. I can't heal people or repair vehicles fast enough to make anybody happy, and can't seem to keep track of everybody's health bars effectively enough to see who needs healing anyway. Stealth is totally worthless... combat engineers require a level of planning and forethought I can't fathom --

--and to make it all worse this affliction only seems to affect me. Everybody else is at least slightly more effective.

I can drive an ANT, apparently an effective part of the war effort, but it doesn't feel particularly heroic.

The 100% PvP dynamic is compelling to me. To come over the hill and see literally dozens of players involved in a battle, functionally a player-created quest, is thrilling... cannon fodder just isn't the role I've been longing to play.

It's been fun, but I have nothing else left to try... it's not that I had failed to find my niche, it's that Planetside hasn't got a niche for me.

[Slayerik]

Have you tried sniping? I used to have a blast finding good spots (either by hot dropping out of a mosquito to the top of a hill/mountain or with an ATV/harasser). If you use cover well and learn to lead your enemies you can be pretty brutal and its quite the rush trying to land that second shot to finish a wounded opponent. Or one shotting a infiltrator on the run while surged....pure ownage.

But I hear you. You are fighting guys with 3+ years experience who know the tricks. Its like trying out Subspace for the first time after guys have been fighting for ten years straight. Trust me though, you can get over that hill. Sometimes you need to approach things differently. Take time to setup an ambush. Be patient and kills will come to you. If you rush into everything like John Rambo, all you will do is get yourself frustrated.

If you are done, props for at least giving it a go. Its a pretty cool game.

[Stephen Zepp]

Don't take this the wrong way, but every time I've played, you've been mostly soloing even when in a squad/platoon.

While some of the more skilled fps players may be able to have high ktd ratios (kill to death), as Slayer mentioned it's taken them years for that. Personally, I just don't enjoy it all that much (solo)--the teamwork and small squad tactics is what makes this game fun for me!

[Merusk]

Take a look at my contribution points, Pix, and you'll see someone who sucks harder than you.  :-D  I've blown whole clips of grenades, ammo, rockets, whatever trying to kill ONE guy in a stealth suit and he still lives and I die.   Last night I got killed by a TR w/ a chaingun who had taken 4 plasma grenades before I died, then I came back and tossed 4 frags at him and he STILL killed me.  Fuck if I know how to kill anyone at all.

Really, I'm awful, but it's fun so long as you're hanging with your squad or don't feel too much of the achiever pressure.

[bhodi]

I also seriously suck at the combat portion of the game, so I too have been looking for alternate methods of joy.

Here's what I've found I can do that requires a bit more forethought and less reflexes:

Find the action zones.. if they are pushing us:
   ANT to fill the silos up
   Put turrets around the base (Very deadly to mosquitoes flying overhead and people trying to enter -- put them out of sight of the main entrance, up on the buildings around the edge facing the courtyard)
   Get an AA Max and sit on a hill between their base and yours, or on top of our tower. Kill anything that's flying. This requires absolutely no aim, really; it's auto-tracking instant death for them. This is a vanu-favorite.
   Camp the backdoor with boomers in the long hallway leading down.

If we are pushing them:
   Get an AMS and bring it to the front, see if you can drive it to the opposite side of the base or near their back door
   See if you can get in and mine their courtyard (Fly a mosquito in and eject if you have to)
   Get a max, run up to the wall, jump to the top of it, and kill snipers. Generally they don't move and are very easy to mow down
   Get a galaxy and land it in the nearest base courtyard and ferry people for tower/base drops. This especially works if your airdrop base is a different one than the nearest to the front lines. Spam the "We need a gunner! We need passengers" to get people.
   If the hack has say 7m to go, Think ahead to the next base. Go ghosthack a nearby tower for people to spawn in. I like this one a lot, run out as an engineer, granny hack the tower, and plant mines and turrets to make it tougher for them to take back. Guard it by sitting in one of the turrets
   Get an AA max or a skyguard and guard the skies.

Do various "helper" tactics:
   Mine bridges (This is a really good one that people don't do) -- Watch for where the action is going to be, and get there first. Assume we are going to either lose or win the base, and plant mines in each place accordingly. You can also mine roads, as much as people shouldn't, most armor does stick to the road.
   Put an AMS behind/near vechicle pad for people to spawn faster
   Put a router near the vehicle pad, and the tele location by the stairs for people to get there faster
   Put two turrets near the entrance of random bases to stop cloakers from getting in and doing annoyances
   Hack random towers and put a turret or two up to discourage random takebacks
   Plant motion sensors all over the place -- Almost no one ever does this, but it helps -- Radar is awesome -- Use the map to see what their range is -- It's much larger than the icon.
   Fly mosquitoes over the battlefield at half velocity to share your radar with those below -- this is awesome too but tough sometimes with AA
   
Practice using the boomers... guard a hallway with it, drop it near a door or just around a corner,  stand behind a corner in third person, when they walk over, it, boom. It kills almost anythign in one hit. Drop two if you want to make sure people are really dead, they'll set each other off, just put one of the detonators in your inventory, put another ACE in your hand and drop a second one. I found that's really useful when you're guarding a hack for example and not a lot of people use them.

If you can wrangle a buddy, fly out an AMS to your targeted 'next in line to go' base; that way, you have an AMS, and you can take a tower, and you can mine the area. The base 'after' the front line (behind their lines) is generally pretty deserted unless we've pushed all the way into their base and they have already fallen back. I've been able to go there, take the tower, plant mines in the courtyard or right near the base exit, and kill a few fliers before the zerg falls back and starts spawning there. Do this for bridges, too, drive an AMS out there so you can refill and mine the entire bridge.

[Surlyboi]

Some of the suggestions made here are dead-on (excuse the pun)

Get an AMS cert and be support bitch. It's not as exciting as getting in for the up-close kills, but it can be highly rewarding, especially during pitched battles.

Try sniping. As long as you can keep goddamn cloakers off your ass, it can also be a highly rewarding option. Remember, you don't always have to shoot enemy troops. Popping a spitfire or a motion sensor near a couple of enemy troops or vehicles can be a lot more damaging than putting a slug in just one of those troops. The ex used to suck at the one-on-one fights, so, she got into sniping. Out of her almost 4000 kills, 90% were sniper kills. If left unmolested for any length of time, a sniper can be very effective.

Combat engineer. Yeah, it's not very glamorous, but it works. Put up spitfires, lay mines, all that shit pays off. Trust me. The number of times I've had my mosquito torn to shreds by some well-placed spitfires embarrases me.

If you people still insist on playing Barneys, get a starfire MAX and sit overwatch on an air tower. Mosquitoes will fall like, well, mosquitoes.

[Nebu]

I like what this game is trying to do, but find that all it does is make me want to play BF1942 more.  The level of micromanagement makes it more about having the right team components than just suiting up and killing the enemy.  It's almost like an RTS wrapped in a shooter.  Maybe it's the fact that I've never been much of a sci fi fan.  I'm going to stick with it another week or so, but may find myself roaming back to BF1942 or (God help me) WWII OL. 

FWIW: I seem to be at least moderately competent at killing things.  I get kills playing infantry... which amuses me since I'm so terrible at UT2k4. 

[Kitsune]

You really don't have to be that good at fragging to make a good contribution in PS, as long as you find a good way to compensate.  I was never the best at the game (especially considering that there are some speedhackers who're more or less impossible to kill one on one) but still managed to contribute.

1. Be in a squad.  As in, actually stick with the squad, don't join the squad and run off on your own, and don't be in a squad where everyone runs off on their own.  If you're with nine other guys, and you're shooting at the other team, you're helping.  One or two bullets can make a hefty difference in the long run; the faster the squad kills other people, the less damage they'll take themselves.

2. Do something else.  Be a medic or an engineer and patch people up.  Be a combat engineer and drop turrets and sensors around.  Be a combat engineer and stick boomers next to important doors, hide behind a crate, and wait for some poor fool to walk by.  Be a support pilot and fly your squad to victory.  Drive an ANT or AMS.  Fly recon in a mosquito and tell people where the enemy AMSes are.  There are plenty of important jobs that don't require l33t shooting skillz.

3. Man the wall turrets.  I actually really enjoy being a turret gunner, they have a lot of firepower and decent armor, great accuracy and never run out of ammo.  Plus you can really ruin a bomber's day.  Just take the engineering cert so you can hop out of the turret and fix it if someone shoots back.  And remember to duck while you fix it; the snipers love shooting engineers.

4. Be somebody's gunner.  Hop in the bomber seat and let fly some wrath down on bases.  Take a tailgunner seat.  Liberators really need to be fully-manned to be effective; far too many of them fly without a tailgunner and are promptly shot down for it.

[Evangolis]

I mentioned it in the advice thread, I'll add it here.  The Sensor Shield implant seems to make me a lot more survivable and effective in the fighting game, particularly if I'm using the Rocket gun as low end AT/AA support.  People have to visually spot me unless I open up, and I get a lot more folks hiding behind a tree right in front of me.

[Jimbo]

Don't worry about how it comes, it will come eventually, when you find a sweet spot and the feeling of doing some damage happens.  The other night when we were trying libs and mag's on the base against the TR, we were doing horrible.  I gave up that idea after everyone went to bed, and stayed up and switched to engineer and went around repairing our wall turrets and shooting at the bad guys.  Got enough to make rank that night after everyone was gone  :-D  (shooting a lib up that gave me 2222 exp was awesome!).

I love the lighting, as I like to scout around, lob some shells, then get out of dodge... (the damn BRF's are the hardest to escape from though).  It is like playing a light max, but with no chance against most of the aircraft.

Getting Ant runs is way fun, heck I plan on keeping engineering, armor 1 & 2, uni-max, then adding Air Support, that way we can have a couple of us to grab a gal and ant and go get some fuel for the bases.

[Lantyssa]

I suck at killing people, too.  I've killed maybe three infantry after a week of playing.  I have a few more playing gunner for vehicle drivers, but still not many.

We are all fodder.  Even the best die fairly frequently.  The trick is to be with a large enough group they die first...

[Calandryll]

Try sniping. As long as you can keep goddamn cloakers off your ass, it can also be a highly rewarding option. Remember, you don't always have to shoot enemy troops. Popping a spitfire or a motion sensor near a couple of enemy troops or vehicles can be a lot more damaging than putting a slug in just one of those troops. The ex used to suck at the one-on-one fights, so, she got into sniping. Out of her almost 4000 kills, 90% were sniper kills. If left unmolested for any length of time, a sniper can be very effective.

Agreed. I enjoy sniping as you can basically solo and still help the group. It also takes a measure of skill to hit moving targets, but you'd be amazed how often you can get people sitting still too.

Yesterday, before I hooked up with the other f13 folks, I was playing a sniper. I found a nice spot off to the east flank of a pitched battle between TR and Vanu inbetween two bases on Easimir and proceeded to fire at targets of opporunity. About an hour, I had only died a few times (mostly from stealthers) and had around 12-15 kills. I actually had to leave my spot after running out of ammo to rearm once, something I've almost never done. Even better, I mostly shot at heavy weapon infantry, reducing their ability to take out our maxes and vehicles. I didn't get many kills per shot, but I slowed them down and forced them to look for cover. I don't snipe so much to get kills as I do to distrupt the enemy. If they're looking for cover, healing up, or running around looking for a heal, they aren't shooting my team. You can keep four or more people pinned down if you find a good spot.

So I was helping even though I was largely on my own. If you take sniping, get the healing cert too. Healing yourself after you get sniped (after getting behind cover of course) really makes counter-sniping a lot of fun.

[Kitsune]

Also, the best fun in Planetside involves numbers.  Running around alone getting your ass shot out from under you is no fun.  But there is no feeling that compares to jumping out of a formation of Galaxies with 59 other guys and blowing the crap out of a base.  Times like that always made me wish I had Ride of the Valkyries queued up to blast through my speakers.

If you want to really kick ass and have fun, you don't need to be great.  You don't even need to be that good.  You just need to be organized.  If you get a group of ten tanks, or ten Reavers, or five bombers, and you all hit a target at the same time, you will smash the hell out of it.  You will be a god among men, your footsteps crushing the mortals beneath your heel.  At that point it doesn't matter if the other guy is a BR 25 speedhacker, the volume of fire is going to take him down.

But bear in mind, this is NOT an invitation to zerg.  Zerging sucks.  The zergling swarm has numbers, but no organization.  They just sort of meander from base to base and eventually smother the other team with their weight.  A cohesive strike force cuts through the zerg every time, because the zerg is a bunch of individual guys playing more or less solo.  And when they see ten Magriders roll up and start blasting everything, they don't group up and concentrate fire to stop them, they scatter and run for cover.  If you hang out with the zerg, your side might win the base, but you as an individual will still be getting your ass kicked, and you're back to not having fun.

[pxib]

I don't tend to stick with the group because I start feeling useless. I tend to shoot my friends more than I hit the enemy, and I'm so poor at healing that the two times I tried it folks didn't even realize I could and kept asking "do we have a healer in this group?"

I keep playing because the sense of place and danger and epic scope is marvelous... battle feels like BATTLE. Absolute chaos. It takes me hours to realize I'm not actually having fun. So really I need to stop wasting time. Thanks for the invite guys... I'll definately try to give the next Bat Country outing a try too.

[Strazos]

Just to point something out; even when we have healer, people still ask because our organization is still not quite there yet. I know for a fact I am guilty.


Also, totally random - me trying to land a Galaxy in a base's courtyard = lolz


But anyway, you gotta admit that forest battle was pretty freaking awesome. Especially after we started to take Liberators over to smash their front walls.

[Kitsune]

During the beta, I was with a squad and all of us were fairly inexperienced.  We needed to get to another base, but nobody had any transport vehicles.  A woman volunteered to go back to sanc, respec, and bring back a Galaxy for us, and everyone agreed.  About five minutes later, we get a message that she's heading to the base.  I look over to the horizon, and sure enough, incoming Galaxy.  At full speed, about twenty feet off the ground.  I manage to think, "Wow, she's coming in pretty fast." right before she plows into the arch over the base entrance and explodes, right in front of everyone's horrified eyes.  I laughed my ass off, despite the inconvenience of still having no ride; it was truly a wonderful moment.

So don't feel bad if you have difficulties landing in a courtyard, as long as you aren't crashing into walls at full speed, you're doing okay.

[Strazos]

Well, the problem is that I somehow manage to get the thing stuck under overhangs. It's not even doing damage, it's just that it makes it a bitch to lift off. Also, I end up blocking huge swaths of the CY.

[Der Helm]

Well, the problem is that I somehow manage to get the thing stuck under overhangs. It's not even doing damage, it's just that it makes it a bitch to lift off. Also, I end up blocking huge swaths of the CY.

I am going to practice Gal runs as I write this.

If only my client had not locked up again :)

[Strazos]

It like flying a fucking manatee into a phone booth.

[Bandit]

It like flying a fucking manatee into a phone booth.

Yes, quite...takes some getting used to.  Also, remember not to fly off the edge of the map! As I kill 8 of our guys in a WTF moment.

[Surlyboi]

Ok, speaking as someone who was playing OpFor against you guys last night, you're not as bad as you think you are. Yeah, your skills are a little on the green side at the moment, but that's to be expected. When Azusa and I started, we both sucked. A lot. As time progressed we both got better. Her to become known in some circles on Emerald as "that sniper bitch" and me, to a much lesser extent to become known as a fairly decent dogfighter in a mosquito. Your organization is there, (I heard plenty of instances where someone under fire would call for help and then give the positions of his attackers, good stuff) the will is there and for the most part you seem to be having fun. (When you're not being double-teamed like you were last night and trust me, that's usually an occurrance that befalls the NC rather than the VS, so I know how much it sucks.) Keep it up, and should I get bored of busting the occasional sniper cap in your asses or if you should come to your senses and abandon the purple dinosaur team and join the glorious ranks of the NC, we'll team up and roll across the galaxy as fath... wrong game. But you get the picture.

And yes, crashing Galaxies is fun. I once crashed one into a biffer's ass to score a kill.

[Stephen Zepp]

I have to agree with Surly--we're doing fine.

An occasional jam-up on vent--happens to -everyone- would be my only (very minor) "complaint", if you could even call it that--I think everyone is working together very nicely, learning the game, and having fun--which isn't an easy thing!

I really enjoy playing with Bat Country--and I think that once we get another week or two under our belts of simply "plantetside instinct", we're going to feel much better about our effectiveness!

[FatuousTwat]

But anyway, you gotta admit that forest battle was pretty freaking awesome. Especially after we started to take Liberators over to smash their front walls.

I agree, that was the most fun I've had in planetside so far. Are there any setups/implants good for being a bomber? I'm an engy right now and that seems to work well... I can't think of any implants that would make a difference though.

[Rhonstet]

I'm useless at this game.

I have gotten, I believe, three kills in the week I've played. All of them in base gun turrets.

You just need to operate a larger gun.  Have you tried a Flail yet?

[Evangolis]

But anyway, you gotta admit that forest battle was pretty freaking awesome. Especially after we started to take Liberators over to smash their front walls.

I agree, that was the most fun I've had in planetside so far. Are there any setups/implants good for being a bomber? I'm an engy right now and that seems to work well... I can't think of any implants that would make a difference though.

Does the improved telescopic vision implant help bombardiers at all?

[Stephen Zepp]

But anyway, you gotta admit that forest battle was pretty freaking awesome. Especially after we started to take Liberators over to smash their front walls.

I agree, that was the most fun I've had in planetside so far. Are there any setups/implants good for being a bomber? I'm an engy right now and that seems to work well... I can't think of any implants that would make a difference though.

Does the improved telescopic vision implant help bombardiers at all?

Not as far as I am aware really...I don't think you can zoom as a bombadier. I could be wrong however!

[Sky]

I had fun in the very short time I was on last night. Only died once on the bridge setting up CE. Got a boomer kill as soon as I logged in and someone was solo removing CE at a back base. Brought my AMS up to the bridge and did aggressive CE placements and also beefed up CE at the tower, nabbing a couple skeeter kills and breaking up a couple other air attacks. I had just set up the tower across the bridge when I had to go.

I was going to go back for another AMS (mine got spotted coming off the bridge when I was moving it up), but opted to flank and boomer some more.

I've gotta figure out something for Vent at some point. I've got an extension cable to try, but I've got to find another for mic, and I'm not sure I can split the signal like that. So for the nonce I'm the stealth x-factor :P

[Evangolis]

I find just listening in helps (my sound card doesn't play well with mikes), even though I find that Combat Engineering tends to split you off from the team pretty easily.  At one point I was repairing a tower turret (during what I think is being called around here 'the forest battle') constantly, with another Engineer, and went through all 800 repair units I had on me, went downstairs for more and came back.  I know I heard three bombing runs on vent during that time, and I think it was the wall in front of us that was getting hit.

[Strazos]

I know I heard three bombing runs on vent during that time, and I think it was the wall in front of us that was getting hit.

Yup. We were sick of taking sniper/decimator/phoenix fire from that wall, so we loaded up 3 Libs and bombed the piss out of their wall. Repeatedly. Heck, I think the Lib I was in survived long enough to do at least 4 separate runs.

I don't think the NC was very appreciative of this tactic.


What I think we should try at some point, if feasible, is run 4 libs in a tight diamond formation, to extend our kill zone more laterally to tag some areas at the bottom of both sides of the wall (if we bomb walls again).

[pxib]

I've gotta figure out something for Vent at some point. I've got an extension cable to try, but I've got to find another for mic, and I'm not sure I can split the signal like that. So for the nonce I'm the stealth x-factor :P

I got my mic headset for $1.00 at a used electronics store. Apparently a school had purchased a huge number of them and then, when they found out how cheap and crappy they were, liquidated the ones they were planning to use as spares. The headphones don't work very well so I just use them to balance the microphone near enough that it can hear me and go push-to-talk rather than voice-activated (for Planetside I was using the middle mouse button, which the game doesn't pay attention to and which didn't interfere with dodging bullets and bad drivers)

I see you guys say all this stuff and it reminds me of why I WANT to like the game... so I'm gonna go log in and try to enjoy myself again.

[tar]

But anyway, you gotta admit that forest battle was pretty freaking awesome. Especially after we started to take Liberators over to smash their front walls.

I agree, that was the most fun I've had in planetside so far. Are there any setups/implants good for being a bomber? I'm an engy right now and that seems to work well... I can't think of any implants that would make a difference though.

You could try audio amp. I like that as a ground vehicle driver, it won't show everything but does extend your awareness some.

[Strazos]

It probably helps a bit more for the pilot or tail gunner, but Enhanced Targeting is useful for picking targets. Especially nice is seeing which stupid BFR is damaged the most.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'm willing to take anyone under my wing.

Organization is the key, Do you guys use Team speak?

I know this thread is somewhat old... But if you guys are tell me what you like doing in other games, or strengths and weakness in your personal ability's and i can most like recommend a good set up.

Planetside really does have something for every one, but its a "Make your own class" type thing.

First TIP: Turn off the music, and boost the in game sounds.

[Sky]

Can you buy me a wireless headset?

[Mrbloodworth]

Can you buy me a wireless headset?

No, but here is a nice wired one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826106931