Apparently the most dangerous thing in this game is friendly fire

[Shivermore]

Seems like there should be a way to easily identify friendlies. How was it done in PS1?

[Ertwin]

I was killed by some idiot who kept shooting me with a pistol. At first I thought it was enemy fire, and took cover. Then he joined me in cover and shot me point blank.

[Phrygen]

oh for all the haters... take a look at the score board. Most of the top kills players have insanely high K/D. I would assume many of them are snipers.

Edit: in fact k/d on leaderboards is bugged, but most leaderboard players do maintain a legit 3-6 k/d

[Dalorian]

Originally Posted by Phrygen

oh for all the haters... take a look at the score board. Most of the top kills players have insanely high K/D. I would assume many of them are snipers.

Not necessarily... The most effective means of getting an UBER amount of kills that I have found, is to select engineer, and use your stationary turret while your in the shielded Bio Base while assaulting.. You set it up just inside the shield but as close to the door as possible. Then you pick off anyone who goes through the area... I got around 70 kills with only 9 deaths that way yesterday... Some of the doorways are better then others to setup in though, so you will have to figure that out on your own... Only problem is people like to run out in front of the turret all the time... They learn if you are there long enough, and will stop running in front of you...

[MrVain]

An even worse thing than a noob, is a flying noob. Just go to the faction spawnpoint of your choice and see the chaos caused by these clowns.
(does make for some great fireworks!)
Flying into buildings, flipping galaxy's and liberators alike... kamikaze scythe, mosquitos and reavers be damned!
Last night alone I suffered 2 scythe losses and nearly a liberator if I didn't stabilize it. Doesn't help that they were all friendlies either.

[Figment]

Originally Posted by Shivermore

How was it done in PS1?

When your mouse hovers over an enemy unit: red names (with red health bar and blue armour bar (or in case of BFRs, shield), but the bars would only show if you had the Enhanced Targeting implant, otherwise you only got to see name markers. These applied only to any units that were both detected AND in field of vision.

Friendlies always show their green names (with health bar). ALT-N for toggling outfit names. Blue bar for BFR shields, ofc. Unless not in direct field of vision.

Red dots on radar became visible if a unit was directly sighted by friendlies in the vicinity, done by someone hovering their cursor over them directly (detected, no manual Q-spotting, Q was the autorun button), or when the SOI has an Interlink Radar benefit or nearby friendlies have Audio Amplifier implant while said unit is moving fast and the infantry unit doesn't use Sensor Shield implant.

No dots on radar at all (aside from platoonmembers) for defenders if the SOI has a radar virus.


But most importantly: always a very stark contrast in empire colours. The only units suffering from getting run over a lot in PS1 were infiltrators, because they often didn't render the green names in time for friendlies firing shells at groups of enemies or while driving through the courtyard.


Note how markers disappear when people are out of view, even in third person. Personally, I find there to be far too many markers in PS2 that you shouldn't be able to see since they should be out of view. That they are on radar and spotted with Q is fine, but the sheer amount of markers on targets you can't see is a bit much and doesn't make targeting easier, instead, it distracts.

[Mavvvy]

My tank is fueled by the blood of noobs , or at least those who don't know the "safe cross code".

[GisTheGit]

Struggling with this part of the game too

Love walking miles to a objective to either be road kill or killed by some spray merchant on ones own side !

Don`t mind if I get a sorry as shit happens but a Punish or reflective damage would sort it !

[Rushyo]

Originally Posted by Phrygen

I'm new to planetside, i only played the beta for about 3 days.

Originally Posted by Phrygen

In a serious note its mostly the drivers fault. I don't care about anyone giving a shit about k/d except me. I care about it atm, and thats all that matters.

Precious snowflake is precious.

Welcome to an FPS with a persistent community. Other people exist and they are not there to serve you and your needs. If you don't care about your team don't be surprised or upset when your team doesn't care about you. Your team are not 'background cannon fodder' whilst you achieve your K/D like in some other games. They are human players with objectives that do not necessarily align with yours.

If you can't work with your team yet expect them to work with you then it is unsurprising that things don't work out as you expect.

If you run through a doorway choke-point because you desperately want to pad your K/D then expect to die to your own team. If you run in front of a road when a convoy is moving through because you desperately want to pad your K/D then expect to die to your own team. If you throw grenades in to rooms with friendly players because you desperately want to pad your K/D then expect to die to an under-slung grenade launcher from your own team (not that, y'know, we'd ever do such a thing on purpose *cough*). If you fire rockets at a shielded door being covered by friendlies because you desperately want to pad your K/D then guess what will happen. If you park your Sunderer directly underneath a Bio Lab to maximise your personal XP gain which in turn facilitates padding your K/D then expect your Sunderer to die to your own team!

The team is not there for your personal amusement. Either you lower your expectations of what your team will do for you personally or align your objectives with those of your team. If you can't do either of those then you're going to get upset and, here's the thing, nobody will care.

Originally Posted by Phrygen

oh for all the haters... take a look at the score board. Most of the top kills players have insanely high K/D. I would assume many of them are snipers.

Whoever decided a leaderboard was a good idea forgot what kind of game this is. Encouraging people to play with that play-style would be reasonable if the meta-game supported it. It doesn't, so a leaderboard just results in this nonsense where people demand to be 'up there'. The game doesn't facilitate this style of play, so dangling it as a carrot is just going to inevitably result in people feeling entitled to it and being disappointed.

TL;DR Personal problems are personal problems.

---

Now to deal with the inevitable counter-argument:

Yes, we all get shot by friendlies. You know how much that matters? It doesn't. You know how much people cry when they shoot a friendly by accident (and it is almost always by accident)? Not one tear will be shed that day.

You are one in several thousand players. Unlike many modern shooters which are designed to make you feel like rambo - where the game exists to serve your personal progression - PS2 is a different style of game which likes reminding you are really, really, really expendable. You are really, really, really expendable. Totally, completely and utterly expendable. Any one death of yours is amazingly irrelevant. There are millions of deaths a day.

Getting shot by a friendly, by mistake, is just not worth writing home about. It rates down there with the NC rations. I agree they're crap. They taste like cardboard and the corporate advertising is blatant and annoying, but again... not worth writing home about.

[Mavvvy]

Originally Posted by GisTheGit

Struggling with this part of the game too

Love walking miles to a objective to either be road kill or killed by some spray merchant on ones own side !

Don`t mind if I get a sorry as shit happens but a Punish or reflective damage would sort it !

Don't get me wrong that is a nightmare and I've been on the receiving end many a time. My secondary gunner is generally a medic so we are able to re-inflate squished individuals.

[Ghost Runner]

Originally Posted by Rushyo

NC rations. I agree they're crap. They taste like cardboard and the corporate advertising is blatant and annoying, but again... not worth writing home about.

LOL yep NC rations, they are crap!

[psijaka]

Originally Posted by Phrygen

i guess, its just a shame though. Oh well.

I already deleted and reset my char twice so far. Trying to get a good k/d start going, but maybe its just pointless.

It is pointless. Utterly pointless. K/D means nothing in this game, and it is a shame that the stats place any emphasis on it, IMO.

I played as a dedicated flag capper, tank/turret repairing engi or aggressive tank destroying HA for much of the beta and was lucky to come away with a K/D of 1 most days, despite getting loads of XP for my efforts. And feeling as if I had made a valuable contribution.

But last night, for a change, I played for about 4 hours as a selfish sniper up in the hills and came away with a K/D >3, despite having lag problems. Any fool can rack up a decent K/D, but I say this again, it means nothing.

My advice is forget K/D, and play the objective. Snipers do have a place, but it is in suppressing the enemy where it counts, during an assault on or defence of a base. Taking out the HA that is lining up his rocket launcher on a friendly tank, for instance.

If a measure of "performance" is what you want, why not go for score per minute? This question aimed at SOE as well.

[psijaka]

Regarding "friendly fire" - in time you will learn to avoid situations where you are on the receiving end. I've learnt the hard way to give "friendly" tanks a wide berth, and to hang back a bit if a lot of allies are engaged in a congested firefight in a choke point. Also, be very careful crossing vehicle spawn areas, you don't want a Lightning spawning on top of you!

But I do like having friendly fire in the game, despite the occasional annoying death or embarrasing mistake on my part. Adds an extra level of realism.

[GisTheGit]

Reflective damage would stop the tkers & spray merchants in their tracks , simple !

They would have to chose/pick targets which isnt hard or asking much & keeps the kiddies in check

[Rushyo]

Originally Posted by GisTheGit

Reflective damage would stop the tkers & spray merchants in their tracks , simple !

They would have to chose/pick targets which isnt hard or asking much & keeps the kiddies in check

Queue people deliberating standing in vital doorways because there's no penalty for doing so, driving tanks in front of friendly rockets, running out in front of tanks because MUSTGETKILLNAO, and generally completely ignoring their team in favour of OMGIMTHEONLYIMPORTANTPLAYER.

Not to mention that TKing is the only social mechanism by which a team can punish a player who is actively working against the team - for example deploying Sundies in positions which are personally beneficial but which patently hurts the team. Or parking a vehicle on top of the only route to a terminal (it happens).

I'm not saying leaving it as it is represents the solution but trying to pretend this is a simple dichotomy with a trivial solution only shows you haven't read the discussion.