Thoughts of a new player

[Wrancor]

(I already posted this under the Buddy Key Thread, but it was probably better off as a new post)

I am a new player thanks to the Buddy-Exchange Program and I have some feedback. Compared to other games available, this one has a sharp learning curve since the vast majority of the community are veteran players.

I know investing a couple of days of 'played' time may seem short to the current population, but that first week is what hooks a player or leaves them confused and looking for a new game.

1. Two training missions are broken for me: Vehicle Mission and Medical/Repairing mission. I don�t know if these are broken for everyone but I have signed on numerous times and have been unable to complete these missions. Retrying these missions several times left me frustrated and wondering why a new player�s first steps in the world weren't more polished.

2. The training missions are helpful, but there needs to be at least one more. One that goes over a typical raid on at an enemy tower or base. I have read the web page about facilities and defended and attacked a number of buildings but I am still not sure what all the panels and consoles do. Hopefully, this would allow me to figure out the order each room is attacked for the facilities.

3. Is there an acronym list anywhere? Each game has its own language, and a player created glossary would enable us newbies to get the gist of what is being said.

4. If you are a squad/platoon leader, then please lead. Most of us noobs would be very happy just being good soldiers. Tell me where I am needed, or what our next objective is. Ask me to guard a room or help escort someone. When I am playing, the part of the game that is the worst is the time spent running around trying to figure out what happens next. Maybe most of you take it as second nature, but if one of your squad members is running around seemingly lost, wouldn't you want them back on track?

Well, those are my musings. Hopefully it allows you to get inside the head of a new player. I feel I should be helpful since I was allowed to try out the game. I will probably continue with the trial and give Fodder a chance. I guess when I start pressing against the BEP and CEP caps Ill probably look into getting the full version. By then I should have a good understanding of the game and probably be invested in my char. But I suppose that�s the point :)

[Ghryphen]

That is some nice feedback Wancor. The Training missions have been somewhat broken since PlanetSide was released. I believe they are going to rework them for the release of the free play program they are soon going to be launching.

[Nitsch]

4. If you are a squad/platoon leader, then please lead. Most of us noobs would be very happy just being good soldiers. Tell me where I am needed, or what our next objective is. Ask me to guard a room or help escort someone. When I am playing, the part of the game that is the worst is the time spent running around trying to figure out what happens next. Maybe most of you take it as second nature, but if one of your squad members is running around seemingly lost, wouldn't you want them back on track?


Unfortunately, Planetside hasn't always been that way. It's degraded into just 1 big zerg, so there really isn't any squad level tactics going on. I blame the low population. There are only enough people playing the game to have 1 big 3 way on one planet, not multiple skirmishes on seperate planets like there used to be. Maybe with the incomming fodder this will change.

My suggestion for you is when you get in that rare group that actually coordinates, take note of the names and their outfits. Either ask to join their outfit or try to make one with them. Squadding with a regular group of people totally changes the game experience.

Most people give up on trying to lead a pickup group because it's like herding cats... folks just do what they want to do anyway.

[Hamma]

Some great feedback thanks Wrancor I was hoping some new players came back and commented on what they found and how they liked it. Nitsch is right in a sense many just don't have the patience to lead pickup squads it kind of stinks. But finding a good group of people isn't to hard and grouping with them often is the key to the game. A good squad or outfit makes or breaks PlanetSide in my opinon.

[JTBell]

I'm a new player - is it normal to have 50 deaths and 2 kills?

[Hamma]

:lol:

It's not unusual no - it takes a bit of getting used to ;) There are plenty of vet players who still have far more deaths than kills.

[Nitsch]

I'm a new player - is it normal to have 50 deaths and 2 kills?
I've been playing this game since beta and there are days when i have 50 deaths and 2 killls (yet other days it's the inverse).

[Ait'al]

:lol:

It's not unusual no - it takes a bit of getting used to ;) There are plenty of vet players who still have far more deaths than kills.

:wave:

Though i do better in team environment because i innitially set myself to that and have refused to adjust to some of the new balance changes! 8)

[Hamma]

You can always just press CTRL-S and disable the stats if they are depressing :D

[Phaden]

Also to up your stats in a morale boosting fashion, just get in a multi person veh, that always works for me.

[Ait'al]

You can always just press CTRL-S and disable the stats if they are depressing :D

It would never work for me. I know by how i feel in the game how my K/D ratio is doing. I get this same rut every time i get rash and always end up in the same fighting mode. If I don't feel like I've occasionally accomplished something, I haven't, and I know I have a bad K/D. 89

[Hamma]

Yea I have a hard time leaving it off too. It's almost like crack :lol:

[decker]

I'm also a new player (thanks to your buddy key system), well soon to be new player. I'm on a t1 line but it will take 16-17 hours to update the game at 40 kb/s. Is there a faster way to update than through the station launchpad?

[cradds]

well ive been playing it these past 2 days and my thoughts are as follow, it seems to feel like the team working element has dimished since i last played it a year and half ago urm it seems really hard now lol i tend to do an awful lot of dieing and very little killing :( and to be honest im trying hard to get used to this after having played BF2 for ages!!!!!!! oh and im using a 1 meg connection and it seems to be laggy ?:S

[Hamma]

Hopefully teamwork will resurge once we have some new players in the game :)

I'm also a new player (thanks to your buddy key system), well soon to be new player. I'm on a t1 line but it will take 16-17 hours to update the game at 40 kb/s. Is there a faster way to update than through the station launchpad?

No I do not believe so.

[Fragrag]

Concerning the tutorials, wouldn't it be cool if we had tutorials like the intros of Assault levels in Unreal Tournament 2004? In UT2K4, they would have an ingame flyby film, showing all the important objectives. If PS had something like this for every type of base and tower, that would be great.

[BUGGER]

^^^Actually....not a bad idea.

Devs already made that intro video on the mainsite (aka the new BFR video:rollseyes: ). Making a training video or a simple beginners guide to Planetside video would be a great help to the noobs.

And Ait'al stole my remark to the 2/50 death ratio. :P~

[Electrofreak]

When my K : D is bad, I resort to driving vehicles, medding people etc so that I can have an excuse to myself (and others) for why it's so bad.

Other squad member: "Yawn. Only 57:14 so far this hour. Man I'm doing crappy."

Me, after looking at my 10:17 kill ratio for the hour: "Uh... I'm going to go pull another AMS." (Even though it's my first for the day.)

[Hamma]

Devs already made that intro video on the mainsite (aka the new BFR video:rollseyes: ). Making a training video or a simple beginners guide to Planetside video would be a great help to the noobs.
PSU is working on a few things for the start of the trial program. :)

[Boomer]

I am currently in the process of editing several Beginner introduction videos that I hope will be posted in the Game Information page for PSU. Meanwhile..

Check out the "Art of War" & "New Player Help" Forums on the Official site, at www.planetside.com

I'm also a new player (thanks to your buddy key system), well soon to be new player. I'm on a t1 line but it will take 16-17 hours to update the game at 40 kb/s. Is there a faster way to update than through the station launchpad?

I am currently playing planetside on a 63k connection (ISDN). It workes OK if nobody else is using the internet at all, and all other bandwith-hogging programs are closed.

When I tried it on Dial up (45k for me) Teamspeak could not run with Planetside going, and even if it wasn't, I constantly got 3k ping ( I was 3 seconds behind).

The 62k I have seems to cut it, barely. I'm not sure how well 40k will do, so be weary.

And most of all, BE PATIENT.

I've already broken two mice and one keyboard out of pure anger about my internet.

Just remember, dont try HARTing into a red alert. In fact, you'll be avoiding red alerts as much as possible.

[Nitsch]

Concerning the tutorials, wouldn't it be cool if we had tutorials like the intros of Assault levels in Unreal Tournament 2004? In UT2K4, they would have an ingame flyby film, showing all the important objectives. If PS had something like this for every type of base and tower, that would be great.
I think the game was more fun to me when i didn't know the layout of every base and tower.

[PizzasRgooD]

I think it's better if I knew the layout. I've just finished my first 5 hours of planetside and those bases are crazy! I got to know one base (kusag I think) a little better because we tried 5 times to conquer it ^^ (and failed)

The game is really confusing though at first.. REALLY confusing. I got lucky and was invited in an outfit and they helped me out with everything.

Got a K/D of 13/75 I'm guessing that's ok for a noob :)

[Hamma]

That's not to bad ;)

Yes the game has a high learning curve. SOE is working on some UI improvments, training improvments etc to make it a bit easier to figure out once freeplay begins.

PSU is also working on a couple of assets for the next week or two as well. :)

[Ghryphen]

A couple of asshats too.