I'm Having So Much Trouble With PS2 Compared to Other FPS's!

[VonBuric]

Hey guys, I've been playing Planetside 2 for a few days now and have logged about 15 hours, so I've experienced my fair share of the game. I'm actually close to quitting though, as I just don't feel like I'm getting good at PS2... And it really sucks, because I want to love this game. Actually, I do love it, but I am dying so often that I am torn between extreme frustration and joy. I rarely get kills and when I do, it's usually on still targets, and I die a lot; more than in any other FPS I've played. To give you guys an example, my K/D has never even gotten close to negative in another FPS game, but in PS2, I struggle to keep it at 0.87.
So what I'm wondering is, am I doing something totally wrong here? I'll be in Teamspeak with guys who are having sessions where they go 59/10, it's just so frustrating to be this bad at a game without knowing at all how to improve. Pretty much every encounter I get into, I'll fire hundreds of rounds and get 1 kill If I'm lucky.

So what do you guys think? I just don't understand how I can be so bad at this game when I excel at most other FPS's, and it's horrible because PS2 is some of the most fun I've had on a videogame in a while. There are just too many frustrating interruptions in-between.

[MrSmegz]

PS2 is really so much different than any other FPS ever made. Many times you will find yourself struggling against insurmountable odds, putting yourself in a loose loose situation. Its hard to determine when a struggle is lost and when its worth holding out for because reinforcements might show up.

Also with so many people in game, that you never really know where the fire is coming from. It may seem like that one guy is Uber, but really you had 2 other guys from long range picking at you too. Try joining an outfit on your server, its really the best way to learn and succeed in a game of this size. Organization is crucial to your survival more than any other game out there.

[RykerStruvian]

What exactly is the issue? Do you have any recordings we can watch? Whats your average FPS and what kind of settings do you use for your game/mouse? What other FPS games do you play which you are really good at?

[Juryrig]

How many base captures have you been involved in?

How many times have you backed up your squadmates when they needed it, charged into a defended base to drop a grenade before dying, to keep the pressure on the defenders?

Fought shoulder to shoulder with squadmates in the doorway of a camped spawnroom, or co-ordinated everyone respawning at the next base over to come back and counter-attack, rather than keep flogging away at a dead horse?

Pushed back a determined assault with skill (and shedloads of luck, usually) in the face of insurmountable odds?

Respawned as a class you don't really favour, because that's what the situation called for, so that's what your empire needed you to do?

Those are probably better indications of being 'good' at the game than any kind of k/d ratio.

Are you having fun? If so, just stop looking at your stats page. If fun for you means being as good as other players by some defined metric (and it's 100% valid if it is) then maybe you need to really look at how you are playing. If you want to improve k/d, then hanging back, sniping, and then camping spawnrooms after the fighting has been done will probably work better.

[SGTHACK]

Don't worry about getting killed a lot. It is the nature of the game. Disregard K/D, means nothing. Have fun and support your squad mates. I will take a good Engineer that sticks to a burning tank to get it back into action than the guy who has to get that one kill. Stick with it, your doing fine.

[CyclesMcHurtz]

The nature of the game is very different and it takes time to get used to it. The measure of success isn't anything on the (TAB) display, it's how well you are helping the group capture and defend.

If you like to be rushing in to the fray, play Heavy or MAX and learn the weapons. If you like to run in as a surprise attack or flanking force, go with Light or Infiltrator.

If you need a measure of success still then consider certs as your metric more than anything. If you are gaining certs, then you are accomplishing the right goals.

[Sent from the outskirts of the Oort cloud]

[GTGD]

The biggest difference that everyone needs to get used to in Planetside isn't the massive battles, it's the fact that you are going to die a LOT. People associate dying with doing something wrong or badly, and that isn't necessarily the case. Superstars of other FPS like CoD, BF, or CS have it especially tough starting out. That isn't to say K/D isn't important, but there are so many people who play this game and expect to be some invincible war god, killing everyone and capturing a territory on their first life when realistically even the best grunts will respawn a few times.

You said you're having a great time, but you're frustrated by dying. This game is all about death. Change your perspective and I guarantee you will have even better of a time. When you die 100 times in a couple hours but finally take that tech plant, it will just feel sweeter.

While you're getting used to this new idea of "death = OK", there are some fun things to do to boost your K/D and avoid constantly being in the meatgrinder. Find a buddy that likes to fly liberators and bomb for him with the zepher or dalton cannons. You'll be able to carpet bomb a whole territory and rack up kills. Infantry, tanks, landed aircraft, whatever is down there will die.

[boogy]

Death is no excuse! for not having fun. You'll notice most people with high K/D are potshotters. They potshot from tanks, from air, from behind the protection of the front line, from within a spawn building, or from spawn camping. You won't get a high K/D by being a front line attacker unless you're an MAX with a backup engineer. High K/D folks also bail to other locals or even another continent when a large zerg makes their outpost to outpost push. They rarely defend.

[bjorntju1]

This game would be so much better if they scrapped the K/D stat altogether.

[ThGlump]

K/D doesnt matter. I have only 0.3K/D but i know im helping my outfit and empire. Im medic/engi with AMS driving around. I often dont kill other but only hurt them so other easilly pick them up. Still i end with higher score than my squad (=more certs). K/D isnt measure of our success (only if you want it to be). It shouldnt be one of the main stats and easily to view.

[camycamera]

FUCK. K/D. RATIO. it means nothing. if you wan't K/D ratio bullshit go play CoD.

[Snipefrag]

The best advice i can give you is get with a GOOD group of players, stick with them.. learn how they play, how they think. Whats a smart move, and what will certainly get you killed. I don't really care for stats.. but after looking my K/D is around 2.6, i attribute that to the fact that the outfit and I pretty much face roll anything we encounter. Dying very rarely. I don't think i'm exceptional, but team work.. Going into an encounter with a mate at your side constantly (we call them buddy pairs in Archangels) means you come out of it alive and half the time with a free kill. I haven't once logged on.. and thought, "hmmm, how can i pad my kill count?" simply because that's not what this game should be about, my outfit members wouldn't really accept it if that's what i decided to do.

This isn't your traditional FPS where normally everyone you encounter in the field is for the most part solo kill whoring. They will have 2-3 people shooting you, especially the PS1 crowd.. We have experience that it doesn't matter how good you are if your one man, running on your own.. With no support, watching your KD.. Unless you have some exceptionally mad skills.. as a pilot, a sniper, tanker or can pick your grunt battles very well you will fail.

Finally, in PS2 there are a lot more things that can kill you than the average FPS game. I would also suggest that if your thinking about quitting PS2 because of your K/D ratio then maybe the game isn't for you, no offense meant. Some people play FPS games for the solo rush of dominating people on their own. PS2 for the average person isn't that type of game.

[MrSmegz]

Originally Posted by camycamera

FUCK. K/D. RATIO. it means nothing. if you wan't K/D ratio bullshit go play CoD.

Totally agreed. If you want to measure your success, look down at your certs. Are you gaining them? If so you are helping your team. My wife likes to play PS2 w/ me and she runs around just repairing stuff. We even leave her behind at bases/towers to repair turrets and generators and she catches up in Flash later. Don't read into K/D in this game, If its 4:1 Great! If its not, thats great too!

[BadMannerKorea]

I love the people on here saying your kill to death ratio doesn't matter, and then they go on about how the measure of success is cert count. When someone kills you 3 times for every 1 of your kill, who do you think is getting certs? The enemy. Later on, whether a couple of minutes, hours, or months later, the accumulation of certs they gained from you will be used to buy other items.

You personally don't have to care about K/D, but don't come on here and try to claim that your K/D doesn't matter at all. It is an objectively, and statistically false statement to say that, and the only people you are fooling are the ones who want to be fooled.

[sylphaen]

Originally Posted by BadMannerKorea

I love the people on here saying your kill to death ratio doesn't matter, and then they go on about how the measure of success is cert count. When someone kills you 3 times for every 1 of your kill, who do you think is getting certs? The enemy. Later on, whether a couple of minutes, hours, or months later, the accumulation of certs they gained from you will be used to buy other items.

You personally don't have to care about K/D, but don't come on here and try to claim that your K/D doesn't matter at all. It is an objectively, and statistically false statement to say that, and the only people you are fooling are the ones who want to be fooled.

He is not fooling everyone nor trying to. You are simply both using incomplete arguments looking at both sides of a medal.

When you roll as a medic or engineer, you can manage to get XP and certs a lot more surely than being on the frontlines. With an AMS mildly under attack, it's even better !

IMO, it's one of the best choices for a bad or average FPS player. Let's say you do not die or even do not kill practicing those activities, K/D will not matter when gauging your contribution since you will be getting a ton of certs and XP anyways.

You can also get a ton of those if you have a good aim, good tactics and quick reflexes: choose the frontlines instead of a support role.