Gameplay tips for people with low-end comps

[Renegarde]

I haven't played in a long time, but when I did it was with a crappy laptop running on 56k, so I figured I'd share my knowledge you guys.

1) It is almost impossible to be effective at close range combat under 10 frames per second, even with the biggest weapons and favorable circumstances. Low framerates not only mess up your aim, but they screw your ability to control your fire and you nearly always wind up with a COF the size of Joe Momma's Ass. Note that I am being conservative with my 10fps statement: most people think anything less than 30 is unplayable. But we know better, don't we? =P

2) Stay away from the zerg. This is absolutely critical. Not only will your framerate be raped extra hard, but lag is now a huge threat for 56k'ers. Nothing is more frustrating (or as strange) as seeing dozens of enemies run around as if they didn't notice you. They do this for a reason: you actually died five minutes ago. Your computer just doesn't know it yet.

3) Get a lightning. Patrol around the edges of the bigger fights and pick off straggler infantry. This will not only net you kills and XP, it's also very fun and satisfying. Their isn't a single situation where you shouldn't be able to ream a lone infantry with a light tank (I never found oune, anyway), and commuting MAX units are also pretty easy (and fun!) to take out.

4) Get a Burster. These things are awesome. Sloppy pilots are everywhere, and it doesn't take a good framerate to lockdown and shove a couple dozen rockets up his ass. The only skill you really need is patience, and if you are playing PlanetSide with anything less than an UberMachine, that's probably already on your resume.

5) Get Combat Engineering. If you place your deployables intelligently you don't even need to be in the same time-zone as your victims. It's always nice to be driving across a quiet countryside and get 600xp for offing a MAX you haven't even met yet.

6) Finally, for the love of god STAY OUT OF THE AIR. Except for the occasional reaverspam ass-reaming dealt to a lone infantry, their is nothing up there that you want to have anything to do with. Fly over a hot base and I gaurantee you'll be dead before you can say "What the ****? Did my computer lock up?" Fly near an enemy aicraft (or a friendly one, for that matter) and you'll be watching a slideshow for the next couple of seconds, which is plenty of time for the enemy to shoot you down. And oh yeah, bailing doesn't work to well at .23875 frames per second.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Please feel free to post your own tips or comment on mine. I would have posted this on the official forum, but I haven't had a legit account for months.

[JakeLogan]

First off good tips.

and for god's sake Pork USE THE GOD DAMN EDIT BUTTON

[2mthsTheSniper]

Thanks for the advice and ideas. I look forward to trying them out. Lag really kills me which is why I tend to end up sniping and out of the 'real' action.

BWT What is the "Zerg" ? I keep seeing this phrase but ain't gettin' it.

[Nalar]

Im not 100% sure on this, but I believe the term "zerg" comes from starcraft. In starcraft, there was the zerg empire and if you were really quick, right off the bat you could hatch a lot of zerglings and completely overwhelm your opponent with sheer numbers. In starcraft, this tactic was called a zergling rush but over here it was just shortened to zerg b/c it was bascially the same effect.

[2mthsTheSniper]

Thanx Nalar - Basically a situation \ area with lots of things \ people. I expect a lot of things to make a lot more sense knowing that.
I'm VERY new to gaming, getting my @r5e owned too much already and looking for ways to avoid that and get some decent XP.

[undetected]

this is not the way PS is meant to be played

[Jagd]

Unfortunately, it is the way a lot of us have to play sometimes, since SOE is just not fixing the crippling lag introduced over the holidays.

[Biohazzard56]

Originally Posted by PorkFryer

planerside was meant to hav zergs :s

Edit Button

its in the lower right hand corner next to quote, use it

[Fenrys]

Yeah, "Zerg" comes from starcraft. The Zerg empire's weakest unit was a Zergling and they could be mass-produced as soon as the match began to rush your opponent before they had a chance to build up enough forces to defend against them.

Stupid weaklings in large numbers = the zerg rush.

[Madcow]

Sniping is gold with a bad comp/bad connection. Because of the way the game 'estimates' the route that an individual is running, you'll see lots of people running in straight lines on your screen even through they're zigging and zagging on their screen. Sniping is probably the one and only cert in the game easier with a bad connection.

Infil suit can be used to pretty good effect with a bad connection/comp. It's a hell of a lot more fun once you're able to upgrade, but in the meantime use the Lightning strategy and pluck off the people on the fringes. Your best bet is the AMP, because even though you'll probably lag while firing it the system will register all of your shots. If the victim makes a good move and gets out before you kill them, kiss your frozen ass goodbye. You are also able to do a lot of commando missions, going to lightly defended bases and blowing gens, etc. This is the kind of thing you should focus on to maximize your gameplay.

Don't get in a Liberator bomber seat. Please. You are doing nothing but insuring that anybody in the plane will die before a single bomb drops. The sad part is how misleading it is when you first take off and you think "this isn't bad at all". Then you fly over an enemy base and your FPS drops out completely, and clicking the left mouse button does nothing. Good times.

Take cool screenies. The system used to lose me all the time, I have some cool shots behind enemy lines. Also, when the system loses you make sure you shoot as many people as possible. When everything catches up to you and you drop dead, so will everybody you had a chance to shoot. This won't be many people as you can reload about once every 3 minutes, but it will definitely give them a WTF moment.

[Queensidecastle]

The Server lag we have been getting is a real shame. Anyone that was on Cershyen last night on Emerald knows what I am talking about. I am convinced Sony is having a Hardware problem so this could go on for a long time. Many of you non-EQers wont remember a problematic EQ server that had so many crashes that finally they scrapped the whole cluster and got a new one because no one could isolate the problems. I hope we wont have the same problem

[VivaLaNuBc4k3]

Originally Posted by Madcow

Take cool screenies. The system used to lose me all the time, I have some cool shots behind enemy lines. Also, when the system loses you make sure you shoot as many people as possible. When everything catches up to you and you drop dead, so will everybody you had a chance to shoot. This won't be many people as you can reload about once every 3 minutes, but it will definitely give them a WTF moment.

I have had many of those moments

[Kchi]

Nice tip's

[gonnagetyou]

I've used every single one of those tips.

My computer isn't great but I got myself some more RAM and now I can actually fly, but my FPS still drops below 10 occasionally. Fortuately I have a good Broadband connection. If I was running 56K I'd be in serious trouble.

[Neon Apocalypse]

get more ram, and a new vid card, and shut off as many apps as u can