Digital War in Planetside 2

[spelk]

This

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/04/04/planetside-2-community-2/

Is exactly why Planetside 2 has such a hold on me.... the Battlefield stuff doesn't light a candle to the scale of war.

[bboyer66]

I agree. It is one of the most underrated games out there.   One of the few that actually makes you feel like you are in a massive battle.  Sometimes it is cool just to go on top of hill at night and watch. 
It's biggest problem is that it has a little bit of a learning curve, which just doesn't jive with the modern instant gratification gamer of today.

[bobarossa]

I suppose I should have stuck with it a little longer.  I could see the allure of it but I died so much I ended up leaving after a couple weeks.

[spelk]

@bboyer66, you hit the nail on the head there. It's massively underrated, the scale of it, the combined arms available, full armoured response, co-ordinated air with ground attack and troop drops. Not to mention, the classes and how they interleave with one another to accomplish base offense and defense. It goes way beyond the likes of TF2 in the class dependancies. It has a bit of a learning curve, and I'm not sure the community is/was as welcoming as it should be to your average FPS Joe. But hells bells this is the closest to co-ordinated everlasting war as we've got.. each play session can be quite varied, and there are firefights you will get into that you will remember a long time afterwards.

@bobarossa, I'd suggest a primer of some sort on Youtube, to get the idea of the bigger picture and the class differences - level up a bit, in large conflicts being one of the grunts on the ground. To open up the majority of vehicles available, if you're a flyboy go fighter, if you're deft at evasion and stealth strikes go altitude bomber, if you're up to the job go Galaxy pilot and drop a cargohold full of troops off in a warzone. If you're a tanker, and flighty, go light tank and protect your base from incursions in number. if you want more clout, heavy tank in packs become devastation engines. If you're a driving wizard jump in a Harasser jeep, with rocket launcher attached, and go and deftly bombard any spawn buses (Sunderers) to take away the convenience of funnelling troops into a base conflict from the enemy. You a solid anti-air guy, jump in an AA turret and lay waste to the dominating birds in the sky, or suit up in a MAX powerarmour kit, with twin bursters and pop them birds from a mobile platform. Get an Engineer buddy, who can repair and replenish your ammo stocks. if you're a stealther, pop the cloak on, and sniper from a high vantage point, supressing the enemy heavies. Engineer guys can set up gun turrets, claymore traps, and ammo heavens for their comrades. Defense being the name of the game. Jetpack light assaults will vault the base walls in an instant, and set up flash attacks drawing enemy numbers so the main base capture can happen from another angle, with heavies and MAX's storming in, supported by Tanks, Sunderer (spawn buses), and ground attack aircraft. It's a beautiful sight, when all these combined arms come together, and the classes support each other, to overwhelm the enemy, not with numbers (although that does happen), but with skill and understanding of (near future) military co-ordination.

Sometimes, you'll be stationed with a group of knob heads. It's bound to happen. But, every now and then, you'll be a part of someting much bigger, much more awe inspiring, and the scale of the conflict will leave you breathless and wanting more.

That's what Planetside 2 is capable of, and its a Free to play game! And the free stuff is as competitive as the stuff you can pay spacebucks for. Because it's usually down to what you do with your vehicle/class/loadout rather than what is your setup that makes the difference. Co-ordination is key to winning. Squad up. Join a Platoon. Or get in a bigger organisation and take part, do your bit. That is the tricky part to this whole thing. Finding a group you can fit in with.

[Jarhead0331]

I tried this out briefly and it just didn't click, but you guys are making me think I should give it a second chance...Great description Spelk.

[Father Ted]

I'm a big PS2 fan and I've only ever played with at the most 3 or 4 other people on TS, so it's not all about being in a squad.  I've spent a fair few hours lone-wolfing it too, which can be rewarding as well.  As others have said, the number of players that can come together in one battle is breath-taking, as is the scope for different ways of playing.  Without having to change servers you can find all sorts of battles, from one-on-one games of sniper cat and mouse all the way up to a 500-a-side combined-arms meatgrinder.

I'll certainly be looking this up again when the new functionality comes online.

[James Sterrett]

Is there a Youtube video that manages to show off, in ~3 minutes or so, what Planetside is - conveying not only the FPS angle but the sheer scale and integration of the battlefields?

[spelk]

This is probably the one you want to watch (but its about 6minutes long)

Part of a bigger playlist of intros
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBt3eoUxEx94D-ohLsKlia79WB8XNkSY2

[James Sterrett]

Spelk, that's a great intro - but there's no excitement.....  I need an ad.

The context here - I very cruelly force my students to play 8 hours of an MMO of their choice.  Planetside 2 is one of the recommended options; but I've never found a good advertisement for it; something that shows the mix of adrenaline, strategy, and teamwork it offers - something like This is EVE ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdfFnTt2UT0 ) - though I confess I think that video is rather misleading about the initial EVE experience.

I've found videos that show combat, sometimes quite inematically, but don't show that beyond the chaos there is organization and teamwork, and often they don't show the scale.

[James Sterrett]

And since I last looked - about a year ago - there are some!  Searched for "This is Planetside" and this time I got hits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Jioq4PqrA&nohtml5=False

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIOb1_3WTmc&nohtml5=False

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ietFgb7Nz3Q&nohtml5=False

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNAIma2YkqM&nohtml5=False

[spelk]

Ah sorry I didn't know you wanted adrenalin buzz, I thought you needed instructional to entice you to play with brief knowledge of the mechanics.

You managed to find some really nice promo stuff there!

[spelk]

One of my flukey anti-tank turret shots, I was repairing the turret after it was mangled in the previous firefight, and I saw this "smurf" (purple shiny alien Vanu Sovreignty) Harasser jeep pass by on the mini map.. so I quickly jumped in, followed its smoking trail, and as it snakes away to safety, I pull off this leading shot and land the shell spot on a speeding buggy! My character barks out "Boom!", and I immediately hit rank 44 at the same time.

I take out three players with one lucky hit.. a proud moment in my career. :)

I'm on the Ceres-EU PS4 server, engineering for the Terran Republic (The Reds). My character is called Iagon.
"Loyalty Until Death, Strength in Unity"

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I've tried to get into it a couple of times.  Sure, at times it looks as though there's a massive war going on around you, but I never once felt that I was a part of it in any way. 

[James Sterrett]

SDR - the trick, in my limited and newbie experience, is to attach yourself to another team and help out.  My best experiences in it (limited though they are) came from playing as a medic and tagging along healing another unit, shooting as I was able - made me useful, so I soon got invited into their squad/platoon structure and was part of the team for the rest of my time that day.

It really doesn't shine for lone wolves.

[spelk]

I found Combat Medic to be a thankless task. You had to put yourself in imminent danger to try and keep a bunch of people alive, who would rather respawn, than wait for help. Obviously if you're talking to them and a part of something bigger healer is essential. but for tagging along, with pickups, healer is hard work and often very unrewarding.

Engineer however, is very good, because you can pop a Sunderer, take a spawn point to the fight. People will use your vehicle to get in to the fight, and you can use the Sundy guns to put some fire down, on ground and air targets. You can repair damage to the sunderer or any other retreating vehicle. You can set up elaborate defenses covering the spawn location. Or you take off and get to a base capture point and lay defenses, repair MAX'es, drop ammo packs, claymore traps etc. Every effort you make to help out, will be rewarded with XP, to get those cert points, to unlock further tactical options. Go turret in base. Jump out, and repair it, get back in. Simples.

Heaing and Engineering are really good to cert up and open up the other options.

Lone wolfery really is for the Infiltrating snipers in this game. It's often a sad and lonely waiting game, fraught with cloaking choices, and a tell-tale sucking noise when you cloak or de-cloak that all the other players know and will try and hunt you out. Stick a darklight torch on your pistol, and you can actively de-cloak a cloaker. So anyone hears that noise, out comes the torch. Admittedly, if you're good with stealth, you can make your way as a lone wolf. But you often miss out on the big battle comraderie. IMHO.