More thoughts of a new playa.

[JTBell]

Did you notice my nod towards youthiness in the title? That's right, I'm so unique and rebellious against society that I sometimes replace the "er" in many words with an "a". I'm so ghetto.

Anywho, so I started playin' about a week ago. Planetside is cool - and by cool, I mean totally sweet. Right now, I have the following certs, which is short for "certifications":

Standard Assault
Medium Assault
Armored Assault 1
Standard ExoSuit
Agile ExoSuit
Reinforced ExoSuit
Air cavalry, scout
Air Cavalry, Assualt

I have 60 kills, and I work for the New Conglomerate. They wear blue and yellow armour, and shoot gauze rifles. They're surprisingly stylish colours also blend in flawlessly with the flora of Auraxis, which is primarily bright blue and gold. Right now I am at BR7, and I have armour which is more Goldenrod than Norweigen Blue than it was at BR5. I have this neat little implant in my head which tells me the exact armour and health status of my red/black or purple opponent. I think the game is great, and I'm in the 666th "Devil Dogs", lead by an apparently evil side of ham. I play on Markov. Does anyone have any advice on how I could further my playing skill and general fun-level?

[Electrofreak]

You seem to have a pretty well rounded air-ground-vehicle character for starters, from here on you'll likely want to specialize in an area. Jack-of-all-trades is good but also means that in each category you'll tend to have the disadvantage versus a more specialized opponent. Some ideas:

Improving yourself as a pilot:

Cert AV and carry it with you as you fly, so when you get shot down you can bail out and blast the guy before he swings back around and finishes you off. Also this can be useful for when AA MAX get problematic and you feel the need (as I often do) for vengeance. I very much enjoy the personal touch of taking a mossie, afterburning at an AA MAX full speed (usually from a tangent) bailing out over him and then tearing him apart at close range with AV or my Rocklet rifle. Rawr. It can also be useful to carry an engineer glue gun to patch up your ride after taking some flak.

Becoming a better driver:

Glue gun! You need something to keep your whip from falling apart. Sometimes advanced hack can be fun as well, if you cert several types of vehicles and run into an set of wheels that the enemy has left behind, it's always a blast to be able to hack it and hop in! Nothing says "playa" like rollin in a bad guy's ride. It's also real handy to your squad to have someone with a vehicle to adapt to the situation. When the bombs are falling your squad leader will love you when you show up in a Skyguard. Don't forget about the AMS either... there's no other vehicle that can have such a hefty impact on the battlefield. An AMS allows you to control the battle in awesome ways.

Infantry:

This really depends on what you like to do. Personally, I love sniping (click the sig). I hate Heavy Assault with a passion. Instead, I use combinations of the Bolt Driver sniper rifle (and occasionally the Heavy Scout) with Special Assault and Anti Vehicular weapons. I love the Rocklet Rifle's versatility and shock power, as well as the Thumper's suppressive abilities from a walltop or back door. The Phoenix is like a video game in and of itself, and also allows me to scout out enemy snipers through the missile camera. Some people can't have enough of the Jackhammer. Just mess around and see what you like. MAX suits are also a good way to make your infantry character more versatile. Medic and Combat Engie will help you and your teamates stay alive, and Infiltration can be a thrill. Implants also make a big difference when you're running as infantry, so if you're going to go Heavy Assault, you might want to have Surge, Infil suit Silent Run, etc. Each infantry "role" pretty much has it's own implant so you can usually gain a good edge.

Otherwise, sounds like you're doing ok. Keep in mind that you'll get better, and the kills will come more often, especially if you work towards gaining an edge. PlanetSide is all about rock-paper-scissors weaponry... you just need to pick the right option at the right time (or get really good at finding the scissors when you're playing rock) and you'll find yourself consistently having the upper hand. Try to stay in a group that always has a goal other than running around killing random people. The 666th is an ok group, I've fought alongside them many times, just be sure your squad leader is actually being a leader. It's ok to charge into a base without a complicated battle plan, but if you stick together, protect and heal one another, keep in good communication over teamspeak and work towards an objective, you'll find yourself and your buddies doing a lot better than when you all just run in Rambo style.

Hope that was helpful. You sound like a smart dude and doubtless you've already figured a good bit of this out, so you're already off to a good start. :)

[Hamma]

Nice post :D And good pointers from Electro..

I've gone the one man army route for the most part - Reaver/Mossie and HA. I often drop on towers solo and mow people down on the top floors in hopes of gaining a sneak hack. Of all the thing's I've done in PlanetSide over the years I think I enjoy it the most ;D

[Boomer]

when you go into the caves, and go into the core.. STAY AWAY FROM TEH BEAM

[JTBell]

Electro - I read your sniper's guide actually on the 11th, before I started playing. I was sniper for awhile and racked up some kills, but I forgot the sniper cert to get a vehicle cert so I could kill-whore and gain levels. The next cert I'm getting will definately be teh sNiPoRz.

[Electrofreak]

Glad to hear that JT :) I haven't checked my site's stats in a while... didn't know people were still reading that guide. Unfortunately, the guide is sorta past it's prime (like almost 3 years old), and doesn't include everything I wanted to put into it. I'd have to do a whole new section for the HSR, and there was quite a lot of requests for me to post pictures of example loadouts. I was planning on adding a section also with tips from some of PlanetSide's best snipers that were emailed into me... and then I forgot to log into my Yahoo mail account for the better part of a year and all the tips got deleted :(

Still, maybe one day I'll get back around to re-writing the guide. I agree with your choice, sniping isn't always the best way to get xp in PlanetSide because it kinda is only useful in certain situations, and if you don't have a well-rounded character you'll find yourself sniping at tanks and wishing you had AV or a tank of your own. That's why my character is a pilot as well, to fill in the gaps when I don't have a steady stream of enemy troops walking over a distant hilltop to work with.

So definately, work on getting those Battle Ranks for now, vehicles are a great way to go.

[Kilik 64]

Hey. I'm new too. AS a newbie to this game, are there some important tips I should know before I start playing?

[Hamma]

Not really - there are alot of things in the game that help newer players now. My only suggestion would be find a good squad or outfit. Playing with others is what makes this game great.

[321]

Certs:

Reinforced Exosuit
Air Scout (or whatever the Mosquito one is called now)
Heavy Assualt
Medical
Engineeer

Implants:
Advanced Targeting
Second Life
Personal Shield

That's all you need to be successful at Planetside and getting many hate tells.