Planetside: Good or Bad?

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UrTAlgol

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 11, 2003
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I'm downloading the free 7-day trial now. This game looks really cool though I am not normally a fan of the subscription per month games. I was wondering what those of you who have played it think of the game. From what I heard, there were alot of issues right when it came out. However, many of these issues have been supposedly dealt with. So is it worth the monthly fees?
 
i played the 7 day free trial for about an hour.... saw about 3 people on this huge world and they were on my own team.... its pretty gay if u ask me... get battleifeld

-warsaw
 
I was a beta tester for Planetside for about 2 months, and this game, while fun, is REALLY time consuming. I spent the majority of my time just walking around on the world trying to find someone, then i would find someone and get shot and die instantly, then i would come back and im in the middle of no-where again... I mean the game is REALLY FUN, u just gotta find people which is a real bizatch, takes an insane amount of time...
 
If you cant find the action, you dont know the mechanics of the game unfortunatly.

You can HART in (5 minute intervals) and if your going to a continent that is locked or has no hotspots. Its your own fault if you dont find anyone to fight. Help your factions efforts by going to where they have called the front lines at. CR5's will usually do a global broadcast stating what the primary continent for the fighting is, then a secondary if that continent fills up.

I have never had a single problem finding a fight at any hour of the day or night if you look for the hotspots and take the time to find out where the action is at.
 
did you ever play the beta? they didnt have that feature at least not until after i started playing, i knew everything about the game when i was testing it but there was no HART in beta
 
I tried the 30-day trial, it is a pretty nice game. If you are in a squad and not a lone-wolf you will find plenty of teamwork. You REALLY need a gig of RAM to avoid all the HD thrashing though.

All you have to do is go in the HART and look for a continent with alot of people in it and drop into an instant action zone and you in the heat of battle. Also the certification system is nice and encourages you to play longer to check out some new equipment in battle.

Let me tell you the battles are HUGE, gets your adrenaline pumping sometimes when you see "Massive Enemy Forces" on your map. Weapons are balanced for the most part and combat is fun.(I just love it when I snipe some mofo running at 200M)

I think I might get a 3-month subscription or something when my trial runs out.

BF1942 is overrated, I've played it since the Tobruk demo and most players are mindless idiots that are between 8-14 years old that do not understand the concept of teamwork. Plus the netcode is horrible and there are sound issues galore. Don't get me wrong, the game can be great if you play with the right people and the game design is brilliant, its just that EA/DICE just plain suck at coding\do not give their devs enough time.

If I were you I would get the 1.5GB free 30-day trial download and get a month subscription for 13 bucks and see how you like it.
 
Originally posted by Bop
I tried the 30-day trial, it is a pretty nice game.
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Where did you get the 30-day trial? I thought the trials were only a week?

I was in the beta test for about 2 months also, and I must say it had some pretty fun moments. Most of the time it felt like Tribes, but with cooler and a greater variety of vehicles. I think I would be willing to buy the game if it was a one-time purchase with unlimited internet play like Tribes was, but I definitely don't think it's worth shelling out $15+ per month for.
 
Its on the main website, I got mine from Gamespot DLX.

The subscription price is $12 or $13, I hate paying for games monthly so I think I will just sign up for a months' access once in awhile and cancel when the month is over and if I get a hankering for some more just start the process again once more.
 
And something to keep in mind - right now, anyway.

If you like it after the free month trial....you don't have to buy the game.

Once it's downloaded and your trial is over, you can just sign up for an account and keep playing at $13 a month (or $12 a month if you sign up for 3 months - making it a $36 game for 4 months of play. That's not damn bad, even for an offline game.)

Right now it's taking backseat to KotOR for me (and THAT'S taking backseat to moving across the country). But, once I beat KotOR, I'll be back.

It's the best shooter out to date - bar none. (Note that, in my opinion, that is *almost* damning it with feint praise as I've never really found a shooter yet I like.) If they had more realistic weapons - say, "America's Army"/"Rainbow 6" - or, hell, even "Aliens vs Predator" like, and if they had more realistic vehicles - like a real live flight sim for the aircraft or something - then there would be no contest EVER for it. As it is, it is just the best ever made to date.

I've seen a lot of complaints levelled at it from people who installed it, hopped in, and expected Quake.

This isn't Quake. Or Unreal. Or BF1942.

It isn't a twitch shooter, and it requires teamwork of a scale previously unheard of in games. You will NOT get anywhere meaningful without a squad, and you will probably not enjoy the game much at all. It is very definately not a 'lone wolf' type of game.

Now, that's not to say that commando missions aren't critical! Indeed, they are very often ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to the success of your *team*. If you want to be a 'lone ninja' sneaking into an enemy base and blowing gens or spawn tubes - great, that's very important! But, you get no points for it. It only has meaning in the context of your team - maybe hiding over some distant hill waiting on you - now being able to capture the base (which you WILL get points for) whereas they might not have been able to before.

Yes, if you insist, you CAN play alone and still get points. But, you will really, really rack them up MUCH faster in a well-led squad.
 
Heres my take on planetside ive been a subscriber since may when it came out its been through some rocky roads ill admit however right now its far better then it was back in may I dont really see how you can review a MMORPG/FPS at launch because their content changes so much during the course of its life time for example they were 5 servers for players to create chars on however they merged the 2 east servers into 1 and the 2 west server into 1, the euro server is the same since it only was 1 server to begin with.

The result is anyone who says finding a fight in the game is obviously someone who played it 2+ months ago when it was some times harder to find fights if you didnt have a good organized outfit/squad (outfit is basically clans of PS).

Also they have made many enhancements to the core gameplay for example its much easier to repair any ground vehical or aircraft with repair pads/rearm ammo stations and repair silos/rearm ammo that are in the base, and the Loadstar mobile rearm/repair flying vehical transport/utility so you dont need the engineer skill if you felt you were forced to have it for any vehical you might have.

The result is a game that is much more funner then in may and I challenge anyone who played it 2+ months back to give it a go again or anyone who hasnt tried it at all.
 
BF1942 is overrated, I've played it since the Tobruk demo and most players are mindless idiots that are between 8-14 years old that do not understand the concept of teamwork. Plus the netcode is horrible and there are sound issues galore. Don't get me wrong, the game can be great if you play with the right people and the game design is brilliant, its just that EA/DICE just plain suck at coding\do not give their devs enough time.
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All that, plus:

The game is so fucking unrealistic that it makes you want to vomit. I'm sorry, but you're not going to fire back after taking a sniper round to the chest.

Sometimes it feels like your bullets are simply passing right through them.
 
Its pretty fun, I sometimes renew my account and play it for a month or so.

For those that were in the beta (damn, that was fun!) and havent kept up, they have changed a lot of basic mechanics. Instant action works now, finding a fight is easy. The world map lists how many enemies are at each base also ("massive enemy forces", "overwhelming forces" etc) so you can dive into a zerg or avoid it. You get good xp per kill now, so there is a lot less base camping, more long battles over a single base. What else...they revised some certs, like you can buy all three max suits for 5 points total.

Theres also an expansion, which I havent got, but you will see the rare person running around with a new gun or whatever. Nothing essential there.
 
Personally I found it very empty. Sure, I could take a dropship and hit up a continent, maybe even take over a base/outpost with my squad, but I would wake up the next day and they would be taken over again. There is very little reward for any of your actions, and no real penalty for dying. The vehicles were buggy at best and I just found the game in general to be iffy. Obviously, it was because there were a thousand players, but netcode was considerably worse than any other FPS.
 
Sure, I could take a dropship and hit up a continent, maybe even take over a base/outpost with my squad, but I would wake up the next day and they would be taken over again
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You've obviously been playing before the merge.

SINCE the merge, the empires have tended to consolidate their 'home conts'. (The map consists of 3 santuary continents - one to each empire, that can never be invaded. From each empire's sanc, it links to 3 other conts. There is 1 more cont not linked to any empire's sanc - just the other conts. So, there are 13 continents total.) Anyway, each empire now tends to defend it's three 'home conts' and Searhus (the middle one) tends to see a lot of random action. Generally, a held home cont stays that way - it may lose some bases to the enemy, or an enemy may cap it temporarily, but your fights over them tend to be meainingful.

In any case, this will all be changing soon, anyway. Soon, only capped conts will have static warpgage links to a sanc - the others will be randomized periodically. Further, a Capital will be added to each continent with an impenetrable forcefield that will only drop when 3 of its 4 'satellite' bases on the continent fall. Once this is implemented, only capping the Capital is needed to dominate (have lock) on the continent.

Lots of need stuff coming, and the weapons are pretty cool.

I like it but make sure you get a vehicle cert when you start or else you might have to walk a lot when you die... Vehicles are also fun too...
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Maybe it's just me, but I just don't like the vehicles. I'm BR15 now, and STILL don't have a vehicle cert (got a couple over time - basically, tried them all - but never really liked any of them). Wait, actually, that's not true - I do have the Armor cert so I could get the Flail. I don't use it much, but it's a handy artillery piece for a base assault - MASSIVE XP GENERATOR.
 
I've been playing since friday night and I am BR8 and nearly CM1... I'm on the 7 day trial, could not get a 30 day reg key.


It's a really fun game but like some have said you have to be part of a aquad to really do anything or get experience for your character. I have never liked RPGs one bit and I have really been into tribes in the past. The game takes a lot from tribes and tries to bring things to a larger scale but its perhaps not as fun.

Doesn't feel enough like an FPS as far as the mouse movement and the way the guns work and the hits register, with the weakness of the sniper rifle... Its still fun though.

The certs I have are: Medium Assault, Advanced Medic and Sniper. I don't really think so much of sniping in planetside. And I think there is too much bias against people playing without a lot of experience. A high level max unit is almost impossible to kill for a newer player. There is just a general feeling that it is not balanced.


It's still damn fun and I have said I will never pay monthly for a game, I may subscribe to planetside. What ticks me off though is that I have been told that even though the trial version is the complete game, I will still have to buy the game for the cd key to continue playing. Any way around having to pay $40 for a piece of software I already have?


oh and someone mentioned bf1942... wtf that is a terrible game, lol.
 
I'm a Planetside fanatic and sniper is definitely one of the hardest roles to play. Not only do you have to account for leading the target the reticule blooms so much when you move the mouse it's super hard to hit a moving target. You won't find many really good snipers. I've only ran into one and I play ALOT.

Join a good outfit and ask for tips. Best way to learn.
 
Yeah sniping is a bitch. I am thinking about unlearning it for something else. I've sniped for hours with only a habdfull of kills and basicly all other snipers who can't hit a moving target(though I wounded those max bastards more times than I can count).
 
And I think there is too much bias against people playing without a lot of experience. A high level max unit is almost impossible to kill for a newer player. There is just a general feeling that it is not balanced.
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The game has a rock-paper-scissors kind of balance.

MOST inf weapons are near useless against a MAX. Try the 'Special Assault' cert - you get the Decimator then. Two Deci hits are enough to take down pretty much any MAX. If the MAX has been fighting a little (say, a base battle), don't be surprised to see a single hit take one down.

I've sniped for hours with only a habdfull of kills
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Try the 'Advanced Targetting' Implant (I think that's the one), which allows you to see the health of targets. With that, a sniper covering a base or tower being zerged can usually rack up a whole lot of 'one-shot kills' by picking your targets carefully.

Still, even with that, I've never been terribly keen on the sniper. Not enough action for my taste. I like the Punisher myself - that secondary fire of a grenade is REAL handy. Load it with plasma 'nades!

As for implants, I get two due to my rank. I take the regen one, so I don't need any med certs. And I take the range mag - I like being able to scout out an area before I move in.

Since I don't need med certs, I take the engy+CE certs. Engy allows you to repair things (turrets, your own armor, etc) and CE gives you deployables. The boomers (even mines) are VERY handy when something big is chasing you. Boomer or mine will take out a MAX if timed right, and a couple of either can ruin a vehicles day.
 
I don't know about making a decimator part of my regular inventory... It just sucks how nothing damages a max unit very much. I really liked the way things were in tribes. I used light armor unless I was doing base/tower defense and I could always take down a heavy that had left their campsite. Tribes was so much for me and this does bring a lot of those elements back into play.

The advanced targeting is great, but I don't always employ it because its not as useful when not sniping. Right now I am using surge, I use that to run around and kill enemies, makes things a lot easier. I have used it to take down some vechiles and one max unit(all the others I attacked in this manner with some degree of success just ran away at lightning speed then tried to attack me from long range), it works very well against lighter units.

Do you need a certain level to get CE? I'd like to be able to use turrets/mines.
 
I must be doing something wrong. I got the free 30 day trial, thought it was the best game evar for about a week, then realized that I hadn't really done anything different than I did the first day except for trying a few vehicles (which I'm not good at driving). Bases (of which there are exactly TWO designs across the whole planet) did change hands way too frequently for me to feel any sense of accomplishment (or maybe my empire just sucked), and the close proximity of respawn tubes meant that I could be in a battle for an hour with a hundred of my teammates and not really make any progress if there was a good sized enemy force in the way. The scale of the battles is amazing, just seemed too repetitive to me, but like I said maybe I was doing something wrong.
 
I don't know about making a decimator part of my regular inventory... It just sucks how nothing damages a max unit very much
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Well, as I noted, a couple things do. Decis, mines, and boomers all do a pretty good job.

The Deci is handy because it requires no ammo - well, you don't carry any, anyway. Since I have RExo armor, I always just carry the Deci around on my back along with my regular gun. I don't carry 2 - 1 is enough for almost all situations, and the refire time between rounds makes emptying one unlikely enough.

Decis are great for a lot as an infantry. Kills MAXes easy and quick. Scares light vehicles away (any vehicle driver who's played more than a week knows what an inf holding a Deci looks like), since 1 or 2 hits can kill them, too. Even worries tanks some, as a couple of inf with Decis can really ruin a tanks day.

Do you need a certain level to get CE?
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No, CE is a certification. You need 'Engineer' first to get 'Combat Engineer' (same as you need 'Med' first to get 'Adv Med'). When you get Engy, you get access to the 'glue gun' that can repair turrets and vehicles (I usually carry one of these in my inventory - I can swap it out with my rifle if I need to repair something), as well as the armor repair kit. Primary fire on that repairs the armor on what you are 'shooting' it at, secondary fire repairs your armor.

CE just gives you the...errr...forgot what it was called. It's an inventory item with 4 'fire modes'. The first is a deployable 'boomer' (satchel charge, basically - you deploy it, and you get a switch in your hand that sets it off), second mode is a mine, third is a spitfire turret, and fourth is a motion sensor.

Bases (of which there are exactly TWO designs across the whole planet)
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There are actually 5 different kinds:
AMP Stations
Dropship center
BIO Laboratories
Interlink Facility
Tech Plants

Soon to be a sixth of 'capital' bases. Further, there are 3 different types of towers.

You'll note from the map that your bases are 'linked' together by the lattice network. Depending on what type of bases you hold, you get specific benefits:
AMP Stations: vehicles get shields that recharge when in any friendly bases Sphere-Of-Influence
Tech Plants: Access to tanks, assault aircraft and bombers, etc
Interlink Facility: Improved radar at bases - can see more enemies on your 'radar' map, and can see running cloakers on the 'radar' map.
BIO labs: Reduces respawn time at linked facilities. Also, only base outside of the sanctuaries with certification terminals and implant terminals (both in a room just near the CC)
Dropship center: Allows for operation of vehicle repair and rearm terminals at linked facilities.

Obviously, keeping bases is very important, and a base only provides its benefit when functional.

Hence, the 'teamwork' comment I made earlier when Rambos are useful. If you have a few bases on a cont, but are being stymied by enemy tanks, it might be a good idea to sneak over to his tech plants and try to cap them (if possible) or at least blow the gen on them. With no working tech plants, you have no tanks.

(Granted, the enemy knows this, too, and will undoubtedly send a team back to the base to try and kill you and repair the gen - so you gotta defend your 'kill' for a bit until it turns the tide of battle, but you can see from this example the type of depth the game has that's not immediately obvious if you play it as 'just another shooter')
 
Originally posted by warsawtag
i played the 7 day free trial for about an hour.... saw about 3 people on this huge world and they were on my own team....
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Several Server's were merged recently...I guess it did not help.

I just don't under the concept of a Massive FPS game with the Bandwith limitations of a MMORPG....end result..LAG. :p

I played the Beta...and from what I have read..little has changed.
 
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