Wow...a sextuple post. I've never seen anything like it...

Jobz:
Wow...a sextuple post. I've never seen anything like it...

What a worthless post, I have never seen anything like it ...

Anti is just trying to put together a help guide for the newbies about to join the PlanetSide War event. Let him be ...

Hehem...

Learn your macros!
The voice macro menu is accessed by pressing V. Voice macros are stupidly important in PS, so if you hear a teammate holler 'Inbound enemy vehicles!', don't wait around to find out how big its weapons are.

This is not COD...
The one-on-one combat is very different in this game, certainly to anything else I've played. Weapons can take a long time to take down an opponent, so make sure you have plenty of rounds in that MCG.

...this is not Battlefield...
You need to have the right certification before you can use any equipment, so don't be assuming that just because you've found an empty BFR (robotic-walking-supershielded-tank-of-death) in the field you'll be able to climb into it and pwn teh noobz.

...this is Sparta!
Pick your fights. There are often multiple fights happening at any one time in PS, and it's rarely the case that all of them will be beneficial to your empire. Is it really more useful to farm each other around a tower in the middle of nowhere than to attack and seize an enemy base? Read the local chat, consider the instructions coming from the CR5 commanders, and pick a fight somewhere that is going to benefit the TR.

So yeah, first post on The Escapist forums. I'm a long-time Planetside vet and wanted to contribute, even if I don't get picked for this war shizzle.

Flight Vehcles:

Moskito (Mossie): This is your best friend if you like to go solo, its small, doesnt show up on enemy radar unless spotted or interlink, automated turrets wont shoot at it (However miniturrets (spitfires) will!). These are great for picking off infantry and large aircraft, and harrassing ground vehcles, however, you only have an automatic 12mm gun, so you will take a long time on larger/heavy armoured vehcles. They have virtually 0 wingspan, so feel free to fly between trees, but watch out as vets will know most of the forrests better then you do!

Wasp: This is a varient of the Mossie that has less armour but exchanges it for a larger afterburner and lock on air to air missiles. It can fire 2 at a time, and to keep them locked on you must keep the crosshair on the target at all times!

Reaver: This is the gunship of the airfleet, it can fire either twin 20mm guns (alternateing on each side of vehcle) or anti-tank rockets (also firing alternatley). Ignore infantry for the most part as they can be troublesome to get, and rockets are usually more effective due to splash as its hard to hit with the 20mm. Aim for tanks, and if possible, find some AMSes! You can try using the rockets mid-air on larger craft, but they go in a striaght line and only travel so far before dieing. These have a wide wingspan so be careful when flying low!

Liberator (Lib): This is the bombcraft, the gunner is given a 25mm cannon on the front that can rip most stuff to pieces, however the bullets travel slowly, so make sure you lead your target accordingly! You have no afterburner, but you get a big bonus instead. A bomber seat! Get you mate into this seat and he can drop either anti-tank or anti-personel bombs, these can kill infantry more or less instantly, and will maim most vehcles. You also get a slot for a rear gunner with a 20mm cannon to keep off the above craft that will no doubt think you easy prey!

Tactics for a Lib are either low level or high level bombing. Low level, use terrain to get as close as possible before breaking cover, then go full speed hoping your bomber can catch many infantry unaware, and vehcles all parked up ready to die. The bomber can lead his bombs a good distance, so that they can all land on the same spot if he slowly moves the target back during flight. The high level bomb is flying at ceiling height (I think this is 400 meters) and dropping bombs without having to worry about most AA as its out of range, use radar and zoom to pick targets (especially watch out for AMSes on the radar, these are usually under one of the 4 bridges in a base, or behind the vehcle pad.)

Vulture: This is a Liberator varient that allows you an afterburner, and special antitank bombs that have a small radius rather then being single hit only. You get no anti-infantry bombs however! The main aim of this plane is to do dive bombing on faster targets, using your afterburner to get away after doing a steep dive, that the bomber can unleash all 10 bombs into your chosen prey!

Phantasm: I'm afraid this arrived after I stopped playing, but basicly, its a 5 man transport with a single pilot. The bonus it gets is that it can go totally invisable. If the pilot is in a stealth suit, he can activate it and the rest of the ship will cloak too, giving you a surprise drop of 5/6 men!

Loadstar (Loady): This is a repair/support ship, single pilot although you can carry a single vehcle in the back of it, allowing you to move tanks over rivers, or drop an AMS deep into enemy territory! When landed any vehcle (including air) that approaches the sides of the ship will repair, and have access to refill the weapons ammunition. However beware, as these tend to become targets for Orbital Strikes (OSes) and bombing runs from the other team, as often crippled or immobile vehcles will be parked up as easy kills. (Lib pilots on our side should look out for them!)

Galaxy (Gal): The workhorse of all sides, the Galaxy is a transport plane that has 1 pilot, 2 wing gunners, 1 tail gunner, 6 passenger slots, 2 MAX passenger slots, and one small vehcle bay (ANTs, Buggies, quadbikes, etc). THese are often used to drop a full squad of men onto the roof of a tower to attack from both the top and bottom, or to drop into a base to try and disrupt those inside enough to allow a break in elsewhere. Its also the quickest way for a group of people to get around.

Tactics:Low gal drops means the enemy has no time to prepare a mine field or get to where you are landing, however the gal will take a huge pounding as more or less everything in the base will try and shoot you. High gal drops will give the gal no trouble, but the men may land only to be OSed, or shot to hell by one of the giant robots roaming about!! Lower is better, but its pointless to get shot down before you get near the base! When dropping from a gal its good to have someone that is COmmand Rank 3 or above, as they have an EMP which will disable all turrets and blow all mines around you, just before you land. However all soldiers can do this with Jammer grenades. Make sure you all know who is opening the door when you land also, no point 5 of you trying to open at once, but likewise, for everyone to arrive without being able to open the door is suicide!

Anti Air: What to do if you get locked on! Well, it helps to know where from, and what from as always! But it if you don't know then ask the first question of if its NC or VS.

In the case of NC, its a lock on missile that will follow you till it hits you or something else, or hits max range. With this in mind, flying behind something isnt enough, you need to put something physical inbetween you and the missiles (They'll be on the radar) and travel as much distance as possible, even if its orbating a mountain! They'll eventually get bored and blow up, and then you can go get repairs or fly back.

In the case of the VS, they have the oh-so-wonderful StarFire MAX, it will be hell to you! As long as they have their crosshair on you, the missiles will follow you, so you need to get out of sight, and very, very fast. Just getting behind a tree isnt that great, as some are a bit dodgey and can still be locked through, however get behind a hill or a tower and you're good! They'll just fly off harmlessly.

Skyguards, these pesky little guys are an AA buggy, fast and agile, they'll dodge a reaver or lib with ease, so you need to sneak up on them, or get ground troops to take care of them, they have flakletts so best way to dodge them is to suddenly turn in other directions, as they will have to be leading you quite a bit depending on how high up you are.

My final point is about us winning this contest... its abuot getting kills, and deaths, not included, if you have lost an air duel, or are going to die to AA, it may seem dishonourable, but bail out!! Then you have a bit more of a chance to survive, try get back to your mates as quickly as possible, if it isnt possible, then commit suicide, it will jsut be another death, its no biggy. It denies the other team kills and XP, and will piss them off to the point they might stop playing for a while! While this is generally bad manners, in this competition everyhting gives you an edge!

Air vehcles in a nutshell, my next post when I get around to it will be about the NC, their prefered tactics, weapons and vehcles, and how to kill the corner humping barstewards! :D

Hacking is also your freind. I mean that literaly. If your a class 2 hacker attacking a base you can really mess with enemy equiptment and help the team getting supplies from the enemies own terminals. Another useful tactic is to steal enemy weapons. As long as you have the Certs for it you can use any sides weapon. Such as the Jackhammer (NC)

Registered... Who else?

God, I thought this game was long dead. I remember before BFRs were even some idiot dev's idea.

Reaver's are good against MAXes, as far as I remember. Tank's usually have some sort of AA complement somewhere near them, unless they're dumb, and AMSes take a while to drop. If you're going to do so, take one of the 20MM magazines out of the trunk and replace it with another rack of Rockets.

Disclaimer: This is experience from 2003-2007 talking.

AntiAntagonist:
It's been a long time since I played.

I have one question: Is getting the certifications for being an advanced medic being able to resurrect worth it?

I remember getting into spawn queues more quickly than any patience I had for medics to find me.

If you are in a squad/outfit/on comms, then you'll get picked up quickly! Just a case of knowing people! (Or being in a max suit, lol)

Recomendation for the outfit: Command Power pushing.

This works where you select a few people to push up command ranks, while you don't have to have these people leading, they should be very active players who at least give suggestions of what to do. The main aim of gaining command rank over a short period is to get access to EMPs and Orbital Strikes.

Basicly, for a few certain people, they should always be promoted to squad leader just before a capture goes through at a base, thus giving them the Command XP, this allows them to go on and gain command rank much quicker then usual.

As this is a contest about hacks and kills, concentraiting all the CEP into a few individuals will get you a couple rank 3s maybe, rather then a bunch of rank 1s, who gain no useful powers at all.

capgun2713:
Little late to the game, but congratulations to all of you who made the cut. I hope you guys are having a good time.

A few tips to ya newbies from a aircraft jockey(i've flown 'em all)

Lib bombs wreak havoc on bases. Its a good idea to send a lib or two to drop a bunch of cluster bombs all over the base before attempting any sort of attack(especially if you're hotdropping with a couple of galaxys, it'll have the antiair scrambling for cover). When you first take off, circle your base while gaining altitude. Don't do a bombing run at much less then maximum altitude(I typically allow 10 below the max so I can maneuver if needed without the autopilot taking over) ALSO, Never fly without a tail gunner, you're easy pickings without one. If you get an aircraft(especially a wasp) behind you, finish your current bombing run, then gain altitude quickly, all the while twisting and turning to give your gunner the best shot possible. They cant aim above your tail, so a skilled pilot can just stay above the gunners kill zone and pound the hell out of the bomber. Don't give him that easy 3 person kill.

Galaxy pilots, you guys play an important role in base attacks. You have an entire squad relying on you to get them in, don't let them down. A few squads dropping into the middle of a base can change the course of a siege. Your job is to get those guys in, you're expendable after that. If you can make it, fly back to base and find a place to land and repair. By this point, either the attack has succeeded and the base is being capped, or the entire squad you carried was massacred and are preparing to respawn. Either way, be ready to make another few go's. Also, never work alone. A single gal lumbering through the air is basically a giant SHOOT ME FOR LOTS OF KILLS sign for any form of anti air defense on the ground. Either work with another galaxy or two(this has the added benefit of several more squads attacking, upping the chances of a successful takeover), a couple libs (as I mentioned earlier, sends antiair scurrying for cover), or some mixed fighters(Wasps for fightin other aircraft, reavers for some surface strikes, and mossies for just pissin off everyone else). If this does nothing else, it gives the ground guys more things to shoot at, upping your chance at survival.

Wasps, I've had mixed experiences with. Definately anti air only, these guys are ABSOLUTELY USELESS for ground attacks. Small magazine capacity and little damage to anything but aircraft. The missles, I've never had any luck with at all except a single hit on a liberator that just annoyed the tail gunner. The most I've really used them for is quick transport, since they have a long afterburner. I imagine if you can get above an idiot galaxy pilot, you could do some serious damage.

Mossies wreak havoc on infantry with their chaingun(even though the thing has been nerfed an insane amount of time) and moderate damage on aircraft. They are your staple fighter craft and don't do much outside of that deal. A note though: The mosquito lives up to its name. In any major battle, there are a dozen of these, and they're all annoying.

Reavers are your standard multirole craft. A small cannon, and rockets. Slower then the mossie and has no A/B, but its armor is thicker. They can do any job quite well, and their rockets do well on light armor, while the gun can drop surprised infantry. Not much more to say about this,it's a fairly straightforward craft like the mossie.

The last two craft, the gal gunship and the stealth transport which name escapes me, I've had very little experience with them(I did say I flew them, I didn't say I had a huge amount of experience). The gunship can substitute for a liberator, as they provide a huge amount of fire support(I've been on the recieving end. Not fun). They are basically the puff the magic dragon of the PS world. And the stealth transport is good for small commando raids, little else. Has no onboard weapons at all.

Typed up more then I thought I would, but I hope it serves you well.

Quoted from the other thread as suggested. Good luck.

Edit: And now I feel stupid since someone else already made one. And I completely forgot about the vulture(I think I flew it once)

Delicious:
Sounds like a few of you guys need some help. I've been playing Planetside off and on for about three years now, so I can lend some tips (regarding my style of play, that is).

1. Your first certification should be the Mosquito. It is the fastest vehicle in the game, and a practiced user can easily mow down hordes of infantry in moments. It also gives you access to the roofs of bases and towers, allowing you to get a jump on any unsuspecting snipers.

2. Your second should be Heavy Assault (with the Medium Assault prerequisite). It gives you the edge you need to compete in close range infantry encounters, which are extremely common once the fight inevitably moves indoors. Remember to move your draw distance slider (found in the graphic settings, I believe), all the way down to increase your frames per second.

3. Third should be engineering. This will allow you to both repair your armor and the armor of your mosquito. You can recover health with medkits, which are free for all characters.

4. Your first implant (at battle rank 6) Should be either Adv. Targetting, Surge, or Audio Amplifier. The first lets you know the health of the enemy, the second will save your life if you find yourself in a situation that you need to get the hell out of, and the third will let you see incoming enemies on radar.

That should give you a solid character foundation to start with.

On to loadouts.

1. Always have a REK. Always. No exception. You need it to get into any enemy base, and without it you look like an idiot.

2. If you do not have medical, I suggest a loadout consisting of a Rek for pistol slot 1, a BANK (engi tool) for pistol slot 2, the MCG for rifle slot 1, and six medkits coupled with three boxes of 9mm ammo. This is a fairly solid indoor agile suit loadout, so long as you spam medkits like a madman during every fight and re-arm at nearby terminals constantly.

3. For outdoors I'd take out a few medkits, add in an extra box of ammo, a jammer grenade, and a cycler instead of the MCG.

Misc tips

1. Always use third person (press the T key) to look around corners to get the jump on approaching enemies.

2. Right click on an item in your inventory (IE, a REK) to rapidly swap it for one in your corresponding "1" slot (ie, a BANK). This will save time and your life, as fumbling about trying to piece it back in your loadout takes far too much time.

3. Armor piercing ammo (gold ammo) is only for maxes. Don't use it on anything else, for despite the description, the damage done to other vehicles is negligible, and will at best alert them to your position.

4. If you see a max indoors, and you don't have the proper anti vehicle weapon (The decimator), run. Getting surge will greatly increase your chances of survival in this situation.

5. When flying, save your afterburner (the space bar) for when you are either missile locked, getting hit by flak, or in a dogfight. If you have no afterburner you are a sitting duck.

6. If there is enemy aircraft outdoors, stay indoors or near a door you can rapidly run through. If you are outside as infantry with mosquito's roaming about, consider yourself dead.

7. Don't get in a galaxy with a pilot you don't know. You will probably die right as you bail out of it and hit the ground.

8. When in a mosquito, always tilt the plane far to one side before you bail. This will remove the bail animation and allow you to shoot as soon as you hit the ground.

9. Outfits that invite you without speaking to yourself are probably crappy outfits that will make you a crappy player. Deny any outfit invites until you have played with them first.

10. Excessive use of Plasma Grenades, Maxes, or Personal Shield is frowned upon.

11. Blowing the generator or camping the tubes are no no's. Don't do them.

That's all I can think of at the moment, I'll update this later. Send a /tell to me ingame with a question and I'll help you out.

Planetside Name - Fortress-E
Outfit- Delta Triad
Empire- Vanu
Server- Gemini

As posted in another thread, adding it here for it to all be in the same place.

Although if you have the blow the gen, it can make life easier, but its last resort ;) (camping tubes is still a no no tho, as is camping an ams if you have the means to destroy it.)

capgun2713:
[quote="capgun2713" post="9.84500.1218455"]

Reavers are your standard multirole craft. A small cannon, and rockets. Slower then the mossie and has no A/B, but its armor is thicker.

The reaver does have afterburner, though not as much as the mosquito does.

Trick for dodging missiles in a Mosquito

This only works if you have a decent amount of AB

- as soon as you see MISSILE LOCK in big red letter watch your radar for them
- once they get close hit the AB and bank sharply to the left or right pulling a 270 degree turn. This should stop them hitting you
- Stop using the AB and be prepared to use this tactic again

I have only one trick to share, but it's fun: Use cloaking, advanced hacking and MAX armor. This works best if you're trying to take over an enemy base and enemies are flooding out of the spawn room by the dozens. Simply crawl past them while invisible, hack an equipment panel, equip MAX armor and make a mess out of their spawn room and any number of squishy freshly spawned enemies that gets in the way. Probably works best with the Terran's pounder or cycler MAX.

Delicious:

capgun2713:
[quote="capgun2713" post="9.84500.1218455"]

Reavers are your standard multirole craft. A small cannon, and rockets. Slower then the mossie and has no A/B, but its armor is thicker.

The reaver does have afterburner, though not as much as the mosquito does.

It does? Wow, it HAS been a long time since I played. I could've sworn it didnt.

Wait, is the planetside event limited to those who won the codes? Or can any escapist join using the trial?

Bored Tomatoe:
Wait, is the planetside event limited to those who won the codes? Or can any escapist join using the trial?

Of course you can join the more the merrier!, just contact one of us in game and we will send you a invite.

Blowing the gen is a no-no? What.

With the size of a group The Escapist has going here, it's certainly a prudent idea to grab a Galaxy with Special Ops players, head to a critical base immediately ahead of the main expeditionary force, blow the gen, and deprive the opponent of a strategic advantage (for example, the Galaxies that Gunuku on Cyssor allows).

If they haven't changed anything recently, a base deprived of power will also drain nanites, so the base will, after a period of time, go neutral. However, you have to be an intelligent, elite squad to hold a generator long enough to drain a base fully and make the hack.

Most squads who hold gens are usually comprised of around 3-6 maxes and a few infantry, and the ones that do it oftenare generally regarded as sub-par players nowadays (not sure if it had been different when you played). Most of the times they are squashed by a fast response outfit (such as KOTOR, DT, AC, etc) before they can really make a difference, at best being an annoyance. However, the gen blowing I was originally refering to was when it ends an enjoyable fight prematurely, and if you do it you will most likely get tked alot.

And yeah, the AB on the reaver is a life saver. That combined with the dual cannons turn it into a beast during A2A.

Delicious:
Most squads who hold gens are usually comprised of around 3-6 maxes and a few infantry, and the ones that do it oftenare generally regarded as sub-par players nowadays (not sure if it had been different when you played). Most of the times they are squashed by a fast response outfit (such as KOTOR, DT, AC, etc) before they can really make a difference, at best being an annoyance. However, the gen blowing I was originally refering to was when it ends an enjoyable fight prematurely, and if you do it you will most likely get tked alot.

I would say the reputation of strategic gen dropping was much different; if you could hold a generator for the time required to completely drain the base, endure wave after wave of enemy attack, and coordinate yourself enough to at least get some of your people back into a Galaxy for the next op...well, at that point you were considered 'Elite'.

I don't know if you ever heard of the outfit "Army of One" (Emerald NC), but back in the days of the NEA Alliance (and we're talking over half a dozen platoons on one continent, multiple TeamSpeak servers, the works) on Emerald, we were the go-to outfit for spearheads like that. I left before we could get a full-on Special Operations Command going (and it involved an unparalleled level of in-depth training), and that was the end of my Planetside career, but I had never come across a level of cooperation and long-term planning like that.

It's sad to see such a valuable strategy - and, in some ways, the strategic mindset to accompany it - go by the wayside.

MercFox1:

Delicious:
Most squads who hold gens are usually comprised of around 3-6 maxes and a few infantry, and the ones that do it oftenare generally regarded as sub-par players nowadays (not sure if it had been different when you played). Most of the times they are squashed by a fast response outfit (such as KOTOR, DT, AC, etc) before they can really make a difference, at best being an annoyance. However, the gen blowing I was originally refering to was when it ends an enjoyable fight prematurely, and if you do it you will most likely get tked alot.

I would say the reputation of strategic gen dropping was much different; if you could hold a generator for the time required to completely drain the base, endure wave after wave of enemy attack, and coordinate yourself enough to at least get some of your people back into a Galaxy for the next op...well, at that point you were considered 'Elite'.

I don't know if you ever heard of the outfit "Army of One" (Emerald NC), but back in the days of the NEA Alliance (and we're talking over half a dozen platoons on one continent, multiple TeamSpeak servers, the works) on Emerald, we were the go-to outfit for spearheads like that. I left before we could get a full-on Special Operations Command going (and it involved an unparalleled level of in-depth training), and that was the end of my Planetside career, but I had never come across a level of cooperation and long-term planning like that.

It's sad to see such a valuable strategy - and, in some ways, the strategic mindset to accompany it - go by the wayside.

Part of the problem is that the game doesn't have enough population anymore. But i've heard of Ao1, one of their previous outfit leaders is in the same outfit as I am. Heard you guys were solid while you guys were around.

As a wasp pilot, there are a few things I've learnt thus far:

"Do the squirt." If you get the dreaded missile lock bleep, don't be too quick to empty all your afterburner. One missile is pretty easy to avoid by sharp manoeuvres. Often however, your best bet will be to break their lock on you, as most AA rockets require a constant lock to track. Weave and boost erratically until you can get behind cover.

"High explosive feint." Don't write off wasp missiles you've fired just because you've lost a lock. Regaining the lock will bring all missiles you've fired that haven't detonated yet right back on target. I've hit targets with 3 or 4 missiles at once this way.

"You take the high road, I'll take the low road." Fly at the flight ceiling, or zero-feet it. Most AA units aim at middle-airspace. Flying high makes it very easy to sneak up on people, you can float unnoticed right above their base. Unfortunately, if you DO get seen, getting behind cover is tricky.

"Dogfight+Autopilot=Pain" Be careful of your altitude in combat. If you hit the flight ceiling your fighter will hit autopilot. This rarely lasts longer than a second, but will level out your fighter and can break a critical missile lock.

A galaxy drop at a base with a yellow alert or above is almost a sure fire way to get everyone in the galaxy killed. :/

Seeing a galaxy on radar pretty much screams "Free BEP here!" to the defenders.