PS2 Release

[swfwebmaster]

Today is the day. As of the time of this post, there was 5 hour and 52 minutes until the launch of Planet Side 2. Here is the Launch Countdown:

www.planetside2.com/countdown

[pershainovitsh]

I will definitely download it on a random day within the next two weeks!

[PhoenixKsE]

PS2 has been released. I'm wondering which server we will be working with, as there are now 3 US West servers to choose from. I'm choosing Connery for now, as it has the highest population.

[wobblyone]

Downloaded and am actually impressed . I loved 2142 (best BF IMO) so lasers and stealth suits are a go for me ;D

I hope ping is OK for us across 'the pond' on the server of choice.

[pershainovitsh]

I think I'll be able to download the ridiculously massive installer this week. Most probably tomorrow or the day after that.

Could you provide me some basic information on what should I do when I start? I know I should pick the New Conglomerate empire on the US West server. Is there only one US West server? (after watching some tutorials, apparently no. so which one are you using?) How is the ping for European players? Wouldn't a server on the East coast provide a better compromise, at least if more Europeans start playing? Have I asked these questions somewhere before? That's the feeling I get.

Do you gain experience for the classes separately? Are all classes available at all times?

Here are some good tutorials: www.planetside2.com/game-tutorials

[wobblyone]

Al, there is more than one US West server. I have joined one and it seems to run well. I will take note and post it here next time I'm on. There is no way to check your ping (I may be wrong).

From what I've seen so far the experience points earned using one class can be used to enhance/upgrade another class (or vehicle).
I think all the classes are available other than the 'Max' which is limited in number due to it's power.

[pershainovitsh]

Thanks for the reply. Good to hear that despite the distance there isn't a latency issue with the server. I should have a bigger ping due to living a thousand kilometres further, but hopefully it won't matter that much.

Just one more question (for now): what if I start playing on the server you are playing and then play on another? Will I have no experience points on that server?

[wobblyone]

Once you choose your Empire you then have to choose a server which is permanent
If you want to change Empire or server you need to start again with a new soldier.
This is a bit of a pain

I have 3 soldiers, one for each Empire.

US West - Server Connery - New Conglomerate
US East - Jaeger - Terran Republic
AU - Briggs - Vanu

All Empires seem to have their pros and cons
All seem to run smoothly, but if I need to try a new server I'm going to struggle finding game names

[pershainovitsh]

Nov 26, 2012 18:38:18 GMT 1 wobblyone said:

All seem to run smoothly, but if I need to try a new server I'm going to struggle finding game names

If you run out of names, you could use some very unimaginative names like wobbly1, wobbly2, wobblyone2 etc.

Is there a limit on how many characters you can have?

[wobblyone]

I think the limit is 3 Al. I just tried a fourth but the create option is greyed out.
What I did discover though is that if you delete a soldier, the name becomes available for a new character. Phew ! I only need to go up to wobbly03 ;D

[PhoenixKsE]

I have been playing on a US East server lately, Waterson, as New Conglomerate. If you can, please make a character on this server for your NC character. I believe Nightshade and another friend of SWF have characters on this server as well, in the NC.

[pershainovitsh]

This is getting complicated. Just like anyone else, I'd like to have one character per faction to try them out. Is Phoenix the only one from the clan with a NC character on the Waterson server?

This post tells that five others are playing on NC (seems to be the clan favourite): spartanwf.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=ps2&thread=1904&page=1#11435
On which server(s) are you playing on? One deciding factor on which servers I'm going to play on is of course the amount of Spartans I'll be able to play with. Mostly I'm playing in the same time as Spartan, Tiber, Iwazzio and Scriv, so most likely I'd choose their server of preference.

I already have a good compromise: if I pick a US West server, I could still pick one of the other servers Phoenix is using with his characters.

So, which servers are you using? Everyone should answer this, not just for me, but also for others who'd like to start on a server with other Spartans. Please be more specific than just say "US West".

[pershainovitsh]

About the post above: answer here: spartanwf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=games&action=display&thread=1537&page=5


Today I downloaded Planetside 2 while watching John Carpenter's The Thing for the second time. It's a really good sci-fi horror film.

I tested PS2 for a bit as NC on the Waterson server. (I tried to ask Phoenix as a friend with the name PhoenixKse, but I'm not sure what happened after that) Remember, that was just a quick test, and I can still change my NC character to another server. (by deleting the old one)
Here's some quick thoughts.

Good
- massive maps
- epic feeling thanks to the sheer scale of things.
- day-night cycle (though it was a bit too fast in my opinion... then again, I was jumping back and forth various regions, which may have caused the night being shorter than usual)
- vehicle lights you can toggle on and off
- a timer that indicates when your vehicle will blow up

Bad
- No proper in-game tutorials or any kind of practice mode that I would know of. This caused me to crash into a building with an aircraft I couldn't control. Somehow it got stuck into the structure and I hopped out
- I got confused with the map. Where am I supposed to attack? Is there an friendly base under attack somewhere? I did join a squad and once had an objective, which I followed, but that's about it.
- You have to be logged in and in-game to be able to even see the options menus.
- No prone. I'm not sure why didn't they implement it. As a sniper I wished I could lay lower to reduce my silhouette. As a heavy assauly I wanted to go as low as possible when an enemy APC opened fire on me when I was inside a building with open windows. Maybe the devs didn't want to see/fix legs clipping through environment, bodies being in weird positions or almost unkillable snipers.

Other stuff
- Heavy assault has a damage-absorbing shield that can be used with the F key. This way you can of course protect yourself from enemy projectiles, but also save yourself when falling from a height that would normally kill you. With this, a machine gun, a pistol and a rocket launcher it became my favourite class.
- You can get into very sweet vantage points as a sniper.
- I mainly ventured alone. I know this isn't the way I'm supposed to be playing but I was just checking the game out and didn't even know where my allies were.
- the ATV is almost indestructible. This is a huge contrast when compared to Forgotten Hope 2 (the BF2 engine is buggy and you could damage your vehicle very easily by bumping into rocks or just driving on a bumpy road) and Arma 2. I crashed it only a couple of times, but drove it off of a cliff several times, and both I and the vehicle survived. It's also fairly powerful, and it was easy to go up very steep uphills. Other than this and the aircraft, I didn't got to try any other vehicles. I did try to steal an enemy (?) vehicle, but I could only access the weapon systems, but not the driver's seat. How do you lock vehicles?
- It ran perfectly on my computer, and defaulted to high graphical settings on itself.

[wobblyone]

OK, I will wipe the 'US West-Connery' character and create a
'US East-Waterson' as New Conglomerate. I will post on your link Al.

This will have to be sorted as a lot of work goes into ranking up etc.

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=at2P_JYSWGw
Al, I will try and help with the map ;D
Press M to bring it up (I'm sure you know this)
The best thing to do is join a squad by using the Social button at the bottom of the map. Either choose or automate joining.
Your squad members will now show on the map (use mouse wheel to zoom)
This now eliminates the problem of where to spawn.
If you are 'lone wolfing' to check things out, on the left of the map are a choice of spawn points 'Instant Action' with varying degrees of action. The top on the list being the hottest action, the bottom the quietest.

[pershainovitsh]

Thanks for the info!

I think we really need to know who's playing NC on which server, as NC seems to be the THE clan faction for us. I don't think it would be good if we split into two groups that can't play with each other just because they happened to choose a particular server instead of another. So I think we should try to get into an agreement on which server we should play on.

So far I know this much:

Phoenix - NC - Waterson (US East)
Wobblyone - NC - Waterson (US East) - NC - Cobalt (EU) - VS - Briggs (AU)
pershainovitsh - NC - Waterson (US East)
McGuirk - NC - Helios
Nightshade (not SWF member) - NC - Waterson (US East)
someone Phoenix mentioned - NC - Waterson (US East)

Sfscriv - NC - Helios (according to Iwazzio)
Spartan - NC - Helios (according to Iwazzio)
Tiberian - NC - Helios (according to Iwazzio)
Iwazzio - NC - Matherson
Viper - VS -

So we've got three Spartans plus two friends of the clan on Waterson fighting for NC. If the rest of the folks are all playing on the same server (not Waterson) we should consider moving ourselves there. I and wobbly wouldn't face much of a XP loss, and I hope that's the case with Phoenix and his friends if the need for a server change arises.

Unfortunately some of our members don't visit this forum very often, so I'll have to gather information the old-fashioned way... In Teamspeak. It's best to get the clan member under the same roof before they get too attached to their characters.



Update on the situation: 4 on Helios, 3 on Waterson.