Gameplay/progression info for a newbie

[DarkTower]

This might seem completely daft for anyone who played PS1, but I couldn't find any information on this on the forums, but there's 2 main factors to me not understanding how the progression/unlock systems work:

Aside from killing people and a basic playing time rate, how do you actually earn XP? Having watched PS1 videos and from playing various games, I think I want to focus on driving or flying vehicles, probably a transporter (like the Galaxy?) to take troops to the frontline. Is there a 'thanks' system, or maybe one based on the other players' performance for a certain time after you drop them off? In other words, is there a way for me to earn more XP for doing well and helping my team while doing non-killing stuff?

As for certification points, what sort of things do these unlock? I know that PS2 is obviously going to have a lot more than PS1, but what sort of things do they do? I read somewhere that upgrades (i.e. +2% ammo) are only through CP while unlocks (i.e. different type of gun) are through CP or station cash), so does the progession system get more expensive the more you specialise, or is it similar whether you specialise or go for a broad range of skills/unlocks?

Also, will there be a 'reset' feature, to reset CP so that we can re-invest it? (I'm guessing you might need to spend money to do so?)

[Neurotoxin]

PS1 - Complete tasks for the firs time (minimal experience, enough for BR4 or so), Kill people, squad members kill people, passenger gunners kill people when you are driving, capture a base, or resecure a base that enemies are trying to capture, refill the NTU silo. Maybe charging module too, I can't recall.

Capturing or Resecuring a base is the only way to get Command experience. That gets command levels which lead to other features.

Certifications Points are liquid skill points that are gained at a rate of less than1 per level (start with 6 I believe). They can be removed from one certification to be spent on another, but there's a cooldown between de-certifications.

[Lonehunter]

XP is earned from killing people, that is the only confirmed thing thus far. In PS1 if you healed/repaired someone and they got a kill, you got Support XP. If you parked an AMS (Mobile Spawn point) you got xp for each kill from a person who spawned there. So it certainly seems like they'll keep Support xp now that we have classes and at least 2 of those have strong support abilities.

Certs unlock things like weapon attachments, vehicle perks, guns, that's all that's been confirmed thus far. But they have yet to release every gun, equipment, Implant, Class ability, perk, etc. So who knows. Certs will be something you basically have to research over time like in Eve. They keep progressing while logged out but go faster while playing. We know battle rank still has a factor so I'm assuming you get cert points from leveling your BR then can select how to spend them. Every class, vehicle, and weapon will have it's own certification tree.

As far as percentages of power being increased, SOE has repeatedly said you can not buy power, and that a 5 minute player has the same power as a 5 year player (but with no more then a 20% difference from minor adjustments along the way)

[Brusi]

From what i understand of PS2 progression, you will gain a certain amount of "cert points" over time and an additional amount of these cert points from completing actions.

I assume these actions would include many of those listed by Lonehunter and Neurotoxin, but will also include completing game created and player created missions via the mission system.

Leveling up different skills now isn't as simple as assigning a few cert points into the skills/vehicles/weapons you want to use today, but involves gathering enough of the relevant resources as well as accumulating the required number of cert points to level up that specific feature or skill.

Example: you want missile pods for your Scythe (Vanu ESF), you will need to accumulate 1000 cert points through combat, missions and the 100 free points each day as well as 2000 Auraxium, 500 Unobtainium and 200 Pootonium.

Disclaimer: This is how i understand the system that they have been talking about to work. I also made up all these figures, obviously.

[Kipper]

I've always thought unobtainium sounds like something that's really hard to get.

[Brusi]

It's actually impossible to get.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

[Kipper]

Consider me educated, I had just thought it was really lazy script writing on Avatar.....

[headcrab13]

Originally Posted by DarkTower

Aside from killing people and a basic playing time rate, how do you actually earn XP? Having watched PS1 videos and from playing various games, I think I want to focus on driving or flying vehicles, probably a transporter (like the Galaxy?) to take troops to the frontline. Is there a 'thanks' system, or maybe one based on the other players' performance for a certain time after you drop them off? In other words, is there a way for me to earn more XP for doing well and helping my team while doing non-killing stuff?

There's definitely a system in place that enables support roles to level up in their own way. In Planetside, you'd earn XP for being near a base when it was being capped, so support roles like engineers, medics, infiltrators, AMS (spawn point) drivers, and pilots could level without being on the front lines.

I'll try and find the interview, but I'm almost positive that one of the devs confirmed that pilots who deployed Galaxy spawn points would get XP for each spawn, and engineers who deployed turrets in useful places would earn XP for each kill the turret gunner got.

To me, this is one of the best things about the game.

[headcrab13]

Originally Posted by Brusi

It's actually impossible to get.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

"...unobtainium became an engineering term for practical materials that really exist, but are difficult to get..."

I guess it depends who's using the word and in what context :P

Cool article Brusi, thanks for posting.

[headcrab13]

Hey for anyone who wanted confirmation that Galaxy pilots get XP for people spawning at their vehicle, here's the article from IGN's dev interview last month:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1220162p1.html