My thoughts

[Serpent]

I have played now for 2 days, mind you, so I don't have a perfectly clear picture on how the Beta works. But for now, here is what I think:

Pros:
Amazing community (at least from what I saw on the Vanu side). Most players are very friendly and I have seen no purposeful team killing.

Some balance issues, (My least favorite with the magrider, I just hate how useless I feel in it, though it may just be me honestly) BUT for the most part, mostly I think there are only a few major concerns with balance issues. If any of you disagree feel free to enlighten me.

Great feel of battle, and the gunplay IS GOOD, I don't care what anyone else has to say, to be frank. It's not obviously where it should be, but for a beta with almost no differentiation in guns, I"m fine with it.

Cons:

Two or Three short issues, that are relatively obvious:

FALLING THROUGH THE MAP. Make it stop, PLEASE.

I have spent 20 minutes (no joke) running around, driving around, trying to find some kind of battle. This is the only experience in my 2 days I have been truly frustrated, but it was VERY annoying. The spawn system or at least the travel system needs a bit of tweaking I think. The best way to solve this might be to say that when the game is released and we have more organized outfits, support players in galaxies could ferry people around etc... but I'm not sure if that is viable.

The amount of time it takes to accrue certification points and Auraxium. I realize this is not glaringly obvious or anything of the sort, it's more about how I haven't gotten anywhere really as far as I can tell in cert trees or anything and I've been playing for 2 days. I feel NO sense of accomplishment aside from getting a red dot site, which in some cases is even a hindrance. I think maybe just being patient may help me out here, however people may get frustrated by how long it takes to get the more interesting of upgrades.

[Syphus]

The falling through the map bug, for some reason the last patch made it worse again.

As far as certs, I think you get those points fast enough. Auraxium could be sped up a little bit, or prices downed, but they're shouldn't change it that much. This is not a game where you get some sort of ding every few hours, if you are looking for a new shiny toy or cert every five minutes, that's not really what this game is about.

Also yes, it is you and not the Magrider, use its speed and Strafing to your advantage and you can run circles around the other tanks.

[HellsPanda]

Considering what Auraxium will be used for, having to high a rate will be counterproductive to earning money. Since if its to easy to get, why would anyone pay SC for the items which are covered by both auraxium and SC?

[Serpent]

Something strange happened... I logged out last night and when I logged back in, I had at least 30 more cert points than when I was logged in. I have no idea why, but I'm happy that SOMETHING happened to appease my frustrations.

[IceyCold]

Originally Posted by Serpent

Something strange happened... I logged out last night and when I logged back in, I had at least 30 more cert points than when I was logged in. I have no idea why, but I'm happy that SOMETHING happened to appease my frustrations.

That is because you earn Certs while offline, although at a slower pace.

[Rat]

If SOE is currently happy with the current auraxium gain speed, maybe they will speed it up or lower prices just so more items can be tested and balanced....all these toons will be wiped at some point anyway.

[Mechzz]

Originally Posted by Rat

If SOE is currently happy with the current auraxium gain speed, maybe they will speed it up or lower prices just so more items can be tested and balanced....all these toons will be wiped at some point anyway.

I'm hoping that when they have the Store ready for testing with RL money/station cash that they do what Dust 514 did, and simply guarantee that all such purchases will be fully refunded after every character wipe and when the game goes live. That way we can see how far our Founder's Package 4,000 SC will go and we get to use it a few different ways.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Serpent

Some balance issues, (My least favorite with the magrider, I just hate how useless I feel in it, though it may just be me honestly) BUT for the most part, mostly I think there are only a few major concerns with balance issues. If any of you disagree feel free to enlighten me.

Magrider is by far the best ESMBT imo. I played for two hours yesterday and 3 hours on Saturday and I never once lost a 1v1 against another enemy MBT. I even 1v2'd tanks that had gunners when I never did. I certed frontal armor, and you can strafe so they can never hit your rear. You can strafe faster than they can reverse, so during the fight I can shoot their rear.

You have to play defense against large groups of infantry. I mostly sat away and shelled. Mostly got assists from this. My main kills came from aircraft that weren't watching me, 1v1 tank battles, and killing tiny groups of infantry.

Don't believe me that the mag is amazing? My Sunday session:


I can't get more than a handful of kills with the prowler or vanguard.

[Hamma]

Nice

The falling through the world thing has come and gone quite a few times almost always having to do with the spawn tubes. They will get it worked out

[RoninOni]

Yah, Certs + Auraxium will and should take time to accrue... this isn't a 12mo lifecycle game like "those other shooters" where heavy players unlock everything in 2-3 weeks and casuals will have everything withing 6-8 months....

This is a game to play for the next decade.

Originally Posted by Mechzz

I'm hoping that when they have the Store ready for testing with RL money/station cash that they do what Dust 514 did, and simply guarantee that all such purchases will be fully refunded after every character wipe and when the game goes live. That way we can see how far our Founder's Package 4,000 SC will go and we get to use it a few different ways.

Also this^

I can't wait for the SC store to get enabled in beta... refunds are pretty much guaranteed (bugs/mistakes aside)

[Serpent]

Ok having played a bit more I have revised some of my thoughts:

Magrider is good, I'm just assuming it's a legitimate tank (like the sunderer) that can take lots of damage, I know how to use it now...

Anyways:

1. No real final goal to work towards. As far as I know, we can't capture the Warpgate, which I find to be rather strange because it makes me feel like there isn't too much of a point in playing... I have only been playing for 4 days now and I feel that already.

2. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put in a lockdown on territories after they have been capped, I can't stand having every day the same squad of TR infiltrators taking all the facilities on the south part of the map because I can't be everywhere at once.

3. Obviously, the servers are really at a minimum as to how many players are on, and the servers are still seriously straining when there are only around 100 players fighting for Zurvan, for instance. I hope the Alpha Squad is a sign of them getting money to upgrade the servers or something of the sort.

[Bags]

None of the tanks can really take a hit, heh.

[Canaris]

Originally Posted by Hamma

Nice

The falling through the world thing has come and gone quite a few times almost always having to do with the spawn tubes. They will get it worked out

you know I was thinking today about the problem in PS2 with the spawn tubes pushing people through the floor, something I remember from PS1 was that the spawn tubes were always elevated about a foot off ground level or higher in some places with a step down. Instead of already being on the ground level with the clipping into the ground.

Could that be a fix for the issue that has been happening in beta?

[rebalnz]

just bought the game how do you choose a server they all say locked??

[xuur]

servers may be down at the moment. try again later on