General PS questions before I buy

_-Gunslinger-_ · 2003-10-15, 12:41 PM

I understand the basics and I have read the info loacted on this site. However there are some questions that I have before I buy and play the game. Note: I do plan to DL the 7 day trial first and on that thought...

Does the 7 day trial allow me to register my account and then start the billing after the trial ends or do I have to purchase the game?

What are the benifits to each server, besides local and timezones? (Pop of each clan, mature and fair players, active Admins or devs, ect...)

Can VS hovertanks go over water?

Can any other tanks go over water?

How is server stability?

Is the infil suit still buggy? (Ive read of issues with people seeing you as you cloak and snipers picking you out at long ranges)

Does the game tutorial work?

Does flying have joystick support and do they handle like aircraft or boats?

Is the game rather balanced?

Does the game force teamwork? (Does a well planned assault beat a zerg attack)

Is 512 megs of ram enough to run PS? (DDR 3700 one sticK)

How many charactors am I allowed to have per erver?

Does the game have a steep learning curve?

Is there a third and first person view toggle?

Im sure I will think of more.

Holgarth · 2003-10-15, 12:58 PM

Does the 7 day trial allow me to register my account and then start the billing after the trial ends or do I have to purchase the game? You have to buy it, got to get there bit of money.

What are the benifits to each server, besides local and timezones? (Pop of each clan, mature and fair players, active Admins or devs, ect...) Different time zones mainly

Can VS hovertanks go over water? Yes

Can any other tanks go over water? No

How is server stability? Seems ok to me, tho a bit laggy in big battles

Is the infil suit still buggy? (Ive read of issues with people seeing you as you cloak and snipers picking you out at long ranges) Not bugged, it is the suits elctronics trying to keep up the camelione effect that shows up your outline when moving fast.

Does the game tutorial work? Not tried it

Does flying have joystick support and do they handle like aircraft or boats? No, it used to but taken out in beta I believe

Is the game rather balanced? I think it about right atm, most inbalance comes from more players in one faction than another.

Does the game force teamwork? (Does a well planned assault beat a zerg attack) It can beat a zerg if planed well, xp system atm works a bit against full squads but hopefully next patch will change that.

Is 512 megs of ram enough to run PS? (DDR 3700 one sticK) I believe so

How many charactors am I allowed to have per erver? Four per server and can only be in the one faction.

Does the game have a steep learning curve? I didn't think so, tho your skills (not your characters) get better with pratice.

Is there a third and first person view toggle? Yes

Reveller · 2003-10-15, 12:59 PM

Play the trial and find out.

Squick · 2003-10-15, 12:59 PM

Does the 7 day trial allow me to register my account and then start the billing after the trial ends or do I have to purchase the game?

-You still need to buy the game, but I do believe you can just bill the $49 or whatever they are charging onto your credit card if you want to keep your character.

What are the benifits to each server, besides local and timezones? (Pop of each clan, mature and fair players, active Admins or devs, ect...)

-Emerald and Markov are the two populated servers for East and West respectively. One thing to keep in mind is Markov gets populated later then Emerald does because of the time difference.

Can VS hovertanks go over water?

-Yep

Can any other tanks go over water?

-Nope

How is server stability?

-Darn good

Is the infil suit still buggy? (Ive read of issues with people seeing you as you cloak and snipers picking you out at long ranges)

-It was back in the day, but not so much now. But you do also have to rememmber that EVERYONE has darklight now, so you must assume people can see you.

Does the game tutorial work?

-AFAIK, no. But the ingame Virtual-Reality training is fine, it lets you play with all the weapons and such.

Does flying have joystick support and do they handle like aircraft or boats?

-You can use your joystick, but it does not help much... This is not your game if you are looking for sim-like flight dynamics.

Is the game rather balanced?

-Pretty much so, the "balance pass" is going a long ways to balance things further.

Does the game force teamwork? (Does a well planned assault beat a zerg attack)

-No :/ This was my biggest dissapointment... "zerging" is the way to win in PS... You drop a bunch of AMSes near a base, and everyone runs in like mad cows, and numbers end up winning.

Is 512 megs of ram enough to run PS? (DDR 3700 one sticK)

-It will page like mad, but should not be unplayable... I was running a gig and PS alone took 833 megs of ram, which put some stuff in the page file. I upped it to 1.5 gigs and now nothing pages at all.

How many charactors am I allowed to have per erver?

-Four

Does the game have a steep learning curve?

-Not really, just dont shoot teammates.

Is there a third and first person view toggle?

-Yep, very usefull for when you are hacking, if you go into third person you can watch your own back.

Squick
Im sure I will think of more.

Bad Mojo · 2003-10-15, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by _-Gunslinger-_

Does the 7 day trial allow me to register my account and then start the billing after the trial ends or do I have to purchase the game?

I beleive you can roll over a trial account to a full one.

What are the benifits to each server, besides local and timezones? (Pop of each clan, mature and fair players, active Admins or devs, ect...)

No difference really.

Can VS hovertanks go over water?

Yes.

Can any other tanks go over water?

Nope.

How is server stability?

Pretty good. I've not experienced a server crash in a while.

Is the infil suit still buggy? (Ive read of issues with people seeing you as you cloak and snipers picking you out at long ranges)

It's less now that it was. There are still some visual issues where it's possible to be seen at range. Very rare though.

Does the game tutorial work?

According to the last patch info, I think this is fixed now.

Does flying have joystick support and do they handle like aircraft or boats?

No joystick support, really. They handle like a simplified flight model. Not great, but not bad.

Is the game rather balanced?

Yeah. For the most part.

Does the game force teamwork? (Does a well planned assault beat a zerg attack)

No and sometimes. You can go solo still and get some things done. Well planned assaults and defenses CAN defeat a zerg, but a long lasting, large zerg can crush anyone.

Is 512 megs of ram enough to run PS? (DDR 3700 one sticK)

It's what I would consider the minimum. 1GB would be better.

How many charactors am I allowed to have per erver?

5

Does the game have a steep learning curve?

At the tactical level, it's quick to pick up. The strategic level is a bit steeper but nothing about Planetside is extremely complex.

Is there a third and first person view toggle?

Yes.

Madcow · 2003-10-15, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by _-Gunslinger-_

Is the infil suit still buggy? (Ive read of issues with people seeing you as you cloak and snipers picking you out at long ranges)

There are bugs around the infil suit, none of which individually make it unplayable and most of which are avoidable. I'm sure they're what you've read, already. The basics are as follows:

Snipers see you much clearer through their scope while you crouch walk better than somebody standing right next to you would. This is the one true 'unavoidable' bug.

The Darklight icon doesn't always show when somebody is using the implant (about 50/50). You can't avoid this one, but you can assume that everybody has the implant and is using it and play accordingly.

If you are in front of a spawn tube, you will glow red to somebody as they spawn in. It's only for a second, but it's long enough. Easy fix, don't be in front of spawn tubes.

All the other bugs are just kind of glitchy things you come to expect in games. I've been completely stationary and been as visible as I would have been while running, I've been running and been absolutely invisible. Some people's video cards seems to show cloakers even if stationary. I would say the 3 major bugs aren't crippling by any stretch of the imagination.

TF_Exit · 2003-10-15, 01:11 PM

Does the 7 day trial allow me to register my account and then start the billing after the trial ends or do I have to purchase the game?

-yes u can keep ur 7 day trial account but must buy the game

What are the benifits to each server, besides local and timezones? (Pop of each clan, mature and fair players, active Admins or devs, ect...)

-Time zones mainly but also Population I know Emerald has alot but basicly thats all I play on.

Can VS hovertanks go over water?

-Yes

Can any other tanks go over water?

-no

How is server stability?

-Very Good

Is the infil suit still buggy? (Ive read of issues with people seeing you as you cloak and snipers picking you out at long ranges)

-Not buggy except for the sniper seeing u in the scope, that bug is still there.

Does the game tutorial work?

-I think so but i havnt tried

Does flying have joystick support and do they handle like aircraft or boats?

-No but yes the flying is good and realistic

Is the game rather balanced?

-Very much so

Does the game force teamwork? (Does a well planned assault beat a zerg attack)

-Most often there are mostly zergs but if you join an outfit there are more planed attacks which are hella fun

Is 512 megs of ram enough to run PS? (DDR 3700 one sticK)

-Its not great u will be able to run the game but i suggest you put your grafics on low and the screen size small if you dont want to have a lot of lag, I have 1 gig and I still lag in big battles

How many charactors am I allowed to have per erver?

-4

Does the game have a steep learning curve?

-Mostly its just finding the certs u like and learning to use them well

Is there a third and first person view toggle?

-YES!

TheRagingGerbil · 2003-10-15, 01:12 PM

Does the 7 day trial allow me to register my account and then start the billing after the trial ends or do I have to purchase the game?

You can start an account with the 7-day trial. If you want to continue past that time you will have to purchase a copy of the game. This is only to input the CD key. The version of the code you play witht he 7-day is the most current, so you wouldn�t want to install off the Cd�s anyways.

What are the benifits to each server, besides local and timezones? (Pop of each clan, mature and fair players, active Admins or devs, ect...)

Each server has a different feel in regards to player behavior...some better than others. You will experience less lag by choosing a server that is located graphically close to you; Markov on the west, Emerald on the East, and Werner over in Europe. Emerald by far has the largest population, and you are always going to find a good fight there.

Can VS hovertanks go over water?

Yes, both the Magrider and the Threasher are able to go across water. They will sink if they become to heavily damaged though. The Vanu are the only Empire with hover technology. All empires do have access to the common pool Deliverer that can also cross water. Like the Mag and Threasher, it too will sink if to heavily damaged.

Can any other tanks go over water?

No, the Vanu are the only Empire with hover technology. All empires do have access to the common pool Deliverer that can also cross water. Like the Mag and Threasher, it too will sink if to heavily damaged.

How is server stability?

Stability is great. On occasion you will see a zone crash, where everyone gets kicked from a continent. Other than that, the servers are great (excluding Werner of course).

Is the infil suit still buggy? (Ive read of issues with people seeing you as you cloak and snipers picking you out at long ranges)

Inf�s still get picked off at long ranges, but this is happening less and less. The people who complain the most about this generally aren�t very good at playing the role. I never get snipered while playing as an inf unless I do something which I know was dumb.

Does the game tutorial work?

Yes. After the balance pass is pushed to the live servers, the tutorial will work.

Does flying have joystick support and do they handle like aircraft or boats?

Joystick support sucks. You are better off using the keyboard and mouse. The flight model isn�t a true flight model in the fact that you can�t make your aircraft roll.

Is the game rather balanced?

Depends who you are talking to. In my opinion, the game isn�t bad right now; it will be even better after the balance pass.

Does the game force teamwork? (Does a well-planned assault beat a zerg attack)

At the moment the Zerg will win a majority of the time. I have been in battles where everyone is communication extensively and we have taken a zerg-occupied base, or defended a base from an incoming zerg. This area of tactics is getting much better every day as more and more people are learning to communicate and work together.

Is 512 megs of ram enough to run PS? (DDR 3700 one stick)

PS will run, but you will want to add an additional 512 megs as soon as possible to make it flow like butta.

How many characters am I allowed to have per server?

You are allowed 4 characters per server. All those characters have to be on the same empire also. If you want to play a different empire you will have to delete your characters or play on a different server. You are allowed one account per server, so in all you would be able to have 20 different characters.

Does the game have a steep learning curve?

Read the manual, read it again, then play through the tutorial. By doing this you won�t have to ask the easy newbish questions that drive people crazy. The manual and tutorial will get you out in the fight quickly. After that, the curve steepens a bit as you figure out the role you play best and work to perfect it.

Is there a third and first person view toggle?

Yes, the default key is �T� but this can be set to anything. When in vehicles, you can pan from side to side. Infantry view is limited to what is in front of you. There is no 360-degree rotation.

Im sure I will think of more.

Ok!

Look me up in game.

_-Gunslinger-_ · 2003-10-16, 05:17 PM

Thank you guys. From your feedback I definatly will play the trial and i might even move over to the full game initailly. It sounds like a MMO-Tribes type of game, which is very appealing. Ill def look you up gerbil.