Q on Certing: Specialization/Customization or 'upgrading'?

[I SandRock]

Went back 10 pages and used search but didn't deem any thread worthy enough of my reply, so I made a new one :D

I get the feeling that the certification system in Planetside 2 is basically one you 'level up' or upgrade. So, let's say a Medic has 20 available certifications. You could, playing long enough, get every single one of those 20 certifications of the Medic. And thus be a fully functioning, buffed up, pimped up Medic and have every single and same ability as every other Medic, never less.

Opposed to 'specializing' your class, meaning if you go one route, you are unable to get certain other certifications of that class. So, for example, you could spec your Medic to be more combat orientated and miss out on some special 'Medic' certifications or you could go a Medic spec and miss out on some special 'Combat' certifications, no matter how many cert points you have left.

I prefer this last option, where you define a path for your Medic which is different from other Medics out there. Especially since they said there is no limit to the total cert points you can get, if you keep playing, you can 'get it all'. Basically meaning that all the true veterans will all be the same, they will have every cert and there will be no differences between them. No individualism or customization? No specialization?

Or am I wrong and do we already know that some certifications are mutually exclusive, if you choose one you cannot have the other?

[Ratstomper]

I think it's the latter, but it's got me a little worried, as you cannot respec, they've said. So, if you get something and realize it's not something you really want/use, you're stuck with it and cant get the alternative sidegrades. Surely they'll introduce some kind of respec process.....right? :huh:

[Khrakhan]

What they said was that you cant respec, but that there is absolutely no need to respec because you are always able to get all of them.

So say you went one branch of the certs and decide you dont like it, well it doesnt lock you out of any other branch of certs so you can still just change your mind and start putting points into the other ones you want.

Theoretically, yes you could get ALL certs for a class, but they said that there are so many that it would take you a very very very long time to do so, and by that time through patches and updates they will have added even more....

So basically, yes you can specialize if you want, and then if you ever decide to add a little more utility to your build, you can do that as well.

[mintyc]

you can have every cert in the game, it will take you about 2.5/3 years of heavy play aparently but you can get them all. you cant carry all of the stuff you unlock its more about giveing you diferant options than makeing you more powerfull.

the devs stated aim is for a maxed out toon with all the gear and certs to be no more than 20% more powerfull than a level 1

[Ratstomper]

So basically, yes you can specialize if you want, and then if you ever decide to add a little more utility to your build, you can do that as well.

Ok, I misunderstood then. For some reason I thought there was some cert branching that was mutually exclusive. That's somewhat of a relief.

And now that I think of it, the "I can do everything" issue will be mitigated somewhat by classes and equipment. Classes can only do so many things (I.E. heavy infantry can't use medic skills, and vise versa) and so many certs seem to be for equipment accessories that you can only have so many of on your weapon at any given time.

[mintyc]

Ok, I misunderstood then. For some reason I thought there was some cert branching that was mutually exclusive. That's somewhat of a relief.

And now that I think of it, the "I can do everything" issue will be mitigated somewhat by classes and equipment. Classes can only do so many things (I.E. heavy infantry can't use medic skills, and vise versa) and so many certs seem to be for equipment accessories that you can only have so many of on your weapon at any given time.

also you dont have to level up the class you are playing, a cert point, is a cert point and can go into any of the trees.

[Kalbuth]

Once you have all certs for 1 class, let's say medic, you cannot equip at the same time all the tools you have upgraded, or I am misguided?

[Khrakhan]

also you dont have to level up the class you are playing, a cert point, is a cert point and can go into any of the trees.

Certain levels of certs will require a certains battlerank, but I am pretty sure the beginning of each branch is available at beginning. Depends on how much they rework it and how many things they add, but yeah pretty much.

Once you have all certs for 1 class, let's say medic, you cannot equip at the same time all the tools you have upgraded, or I am misguided?

No I dont think so. You will still only be able to equip as many items as you could before, unless they add certs that allow you to carry more equipment, that is still tbd.

[mintyc]

Once you have all certs for 1 class, let's say medic, you cannot equip at the same time all the tools you have upgraded, or I am misguided?

you will probably have slots you can put a certain type of gun/device in i.e you can only carry one medical aplicator you may have unlocked 3 diferant ones but you can only carry one.

[kaffis]

You can BR40 your medic. You won't miss out on anything.
While you can cert everything, it appears as if several of the certifications will be for things whose *use* is mutually exclusive.

So you can earn all the weapon attachments and variant special abilities for your medic... but you can only use one scope and one miscellaneous weapon attachment at a time, and you can't equip two different types of revive grenade at once, even though there are half a dozen different types available to you.

[Xyntech]

While you can cert everything, it appears as if several of the certifications will be for things whose *use* is mutually exclusive.

So you can earn all the weapon attachments and variant special abilities for your medic... but you can only use one scope and one miscellaneous weapon attachment at a time, and you can't equip two different types of revive grenade at once, even though there are half a dozen different types available to you.

Exactly right.

So if you cert into one scope, then you can use only that scope, but if you cert into two scopes, you can pick which one to use and then switch to using the other one anytime you want.

But just because you chose to unlock one scope doesn't mean you can't also unlock the other scope later on. But you can never uncert the first scope you picked and reuse those points to get the other scope. You are stuck with your decision and must earn more cert points in order to pick the other option that you previously passed up.

But there will be unlimited cert points that you can earn, so eventually, hypothetically, you can unlock everything. This will take a long time even with boosters, and they will be adding more content to the game over time, so don't expect to have everything unlocked very quickly. This is where picking and choosing what you most want to unlock will be important. Not because you can't change your mind, but because the whole process will take time. The sooner you change your mind, the sooner you can start working towards certing in what you really want.

[Meriv]

No respec? soo if i do a wrong build because we still don't know the result of it since no one else has played soo much what happens? do i have to start again? :S

If it is like this i hope they put a respec (not a fast, something like u can respec once per month or for tot cash etc..etc..)

[Ratstomper]

No respec? soo if i do a wrong build because we still don't know the result of it since no one else has played soo much what happens? do i have to start again? :S

If it is like this i hope they put a respec (not a fast, something like u can respec once per month or for tot cash etc..etc..)

As stated above, you won't need one. You can unlock all certs, but you can only use a certain number at any given time.

[Meriv]

As stated above, you won't need one. You can unlock all certs, but you can only use a certain number at any given time.

I read above but since i am a casual player i don't dispose time enought to certs "everything" in case i get a missclick for example or i do a bad building :(

[Mechzz]

I read above but since i am a casual player i don't dispose time enought to certs "everything" in case i get a missclick for example or i do a bad building :(

I think this will happen. I think so because it happened to me at the weekend in another up and coming MMOFPS.

It's a real pain if you cert into something that takes maybe 4 hours of gameplay to earn and then find it's really lame.

Some limited form of recerting would be much appreciated by the more casual players, I'm sure.

[Meriv]

I think this will happen. I think so because it happened to me at the weekend in another up and coming MMOFPS.

It's a real pain if you cert into something that takes maybe 4 hours of gameplay to earn and then find it's really lame.

Some limited form of recerting would be much appreciated by the more casual players, I'm sure.

Ok four hours aren't a lot but since they are talking of "years " to cert everything i think it is a exponential/growing experience that is required futher you go, if i missclick 1-2 days of gameplay i am going to be quite a bit frustrated

[Sledgecrushr]

Merv by the time you have really figured that you dont like a cert you got more than likely you would at the very least be very close to earnIng another cert. and if you habitually hate the certa that yOu choose tuen perhaps there is no hope for you.

[Ratstomper]

Ok four hours aren't a lot but since they are talking of "years " to cert everything i think it is a exponential/growing experience that is required futher you go, if i missclick 1-2 days of gameplay i am going to be quite a bit frustrated

They've also talked about allowing people to earn certs while offline so casual players don't get left in the dust. I'm also willing to bet there will be conformation windows for learning certs.

[Zekeen]

The thing about certs is they go up in cost the higher level you get. So if you accidentally spec MAX when you want Medic stuff, you're only gonna spend a few in there if you haven't speced yet. So, you won't lose much time in that if you misclicked or something. It also means you will get to try out a lot of enhancements before maxing them out.

[Meriv]

The thing about certs is they go up in cost the higher level you get. So if you accidentally spec MAX when you want Medic stuff, you're only gonna spend a few in there if you haven't speced yet. So, you won't lose much time in that if you misclicked or something. It also means you will get to try out a lot of enhancements before maxing them out.

ok soo let me try to understand
it doesn't happen like this
after X amount of Experience you get a signal telling you, "hey there you can spend a certificate choose whatever you like"

But will be more something like
I choose the revive grenade and it starts accumulating Exp until i get the cert?(the next level of revive grenade will cost more exp)
Soo we will be able to have a lot of basic certs but it will be more difficult to have a specialized one?

[Sephirex]

As you play, you earn cert points which go into a pool. You can save them up or spend them on any skills you wish. Once spent, they're gone and that skill is unlocked for good. There are no limits to skills that can be unlocked, and cert points will be earned about 1 every 10 minutes of active gameplay, according to Higby in an interview.

[Meriv]

As you play, you earn cert points which go into a pool. You can save them up or spend them on any skills you wish. Once spent, they're gone and that skill is unlocked for good. There are no limits to skills that can be unlocked, and cert points will be earned about 1 every 10 minutes of active gameplay, according to Higby in an interview.

OK thanks for the explanation. Soo this means that it will be easy to certificate all the first levels-

[Memeotis]

From what I understand you can basically unlock everything and there is no specialization in terms of limiting you to a certain set of certs. That's not to say specialization does not exist, it just comes into play when you actually pick which one of your unlocks you want to use. Take the medic for example. You can unlock both the rebirth grenade and the nanite grenade, but you can only use one at any given time.

[I SandRock]

Thanks for the info, hopefully it won't be easy or fast to fully max out a single class. It would be nice if you felt you were a certain class and others are of a different class, rather than everyone just switching around and being everything equally well (disregarding skill).

I wouldn't be surprised if recerting will be made available for real money ;)

[StumpyTheOzzie]

How about a re-cert punishment?

Lets say i choose to have higher rate of fire. Then i find that i'm suffering because of misses and reload timers, it doesn't mesh with my playstyle, i don't like it, i've matured and can aim now because I bought a $300 mouse, whatever.

If i cash in my 30 ROF certs i get back only 20 to spend on +accuracy.