KevinC
1801
Heat based. One shot will overheat the sucker, then you have to wait for it to cool down completely before firing again. Probably not too much different ROF than firing a dumbire rocket and reloading.
EDIT: 6-second refire. You can cert into it for 50/100/150/200/500 that will reduce it down to 4.5s.
Does it cooldown while you are controlling the rocket?
Ahhhh, the Phoenix returns…
Murbella
1805
Will have to try it to be sure but from the description it sounds to niche to compete with taking the standard turret.
Chaplin
1806
I have been playing around with PS2 the last week and mostly enjoy it. Gameplay wise I really dig the big combined arms battles. It has been a long time (and possibly never) that this grizzled gamer has been wowed by the scale and majesty of seeing a tank colloumn rolling in the distance approaching a fortress that is returning fire from emplacements that are themselves being both destroyed and repaired by infantry. Or looking out of a gun turret of one of many Flying Fortress type transports in formation gunning at enemies fighters making passes through the formation while also being chased by friendly escort fighters. However not all is roses. The engine seems to be brutally demanding on hardware specs. Also it seems more common than I would like that battles are horribly one sided or just “ghost caps”. Still very positive feelings so far.
The business model though… is punishing. I have never seen a “F2P” go so far with the idea that free players are the fodder for paying players. Well, not in a pay to win sort of way, but more in the time to earn purchasing resources (certs) and the cost of items makes it so that I either have to play with newb gear for hundreds of hours or cough up multiples of $5 to $7. Gauging from my rate of gain so far I can expect to have enough points for my first medic assault rifle at around 35 to 45 hours played. That’s nuts. One gun for one class and no modifiers (scopes, grips, etc). And this is in an outfit that is running Ops all the time. God help a solo player.
That said, I do like the game and am pondering giving into their model and turning a retail purchase worth of credits into a decked out class and some left over points for vehicles or anti vehicle/air options. What is the best way to do this? Wait for a sale? Go for the “premium” option? What is the best move to get into a functional (combat medic for VS) role and then just grind over time to expand out?
Chaplin,
SOE occasionally has “Triple Station Cash” days. It seems to run at the rate of about one every 3 months, and they’re due for one again soon. If you wait to purchase online (or redeem a store card) on one of those days, the amount of SC you gain can pretty much carry you for a long time. I purchased a $15 game card at Wal-Mart last triple SC day, and with the bonus 500 SC that the Wal-Mart card gives it tripled the 2000 into 6000 Station Cash. I’ve been living off that for weeks, having purchased 3 or 4 weapons and I still have half of it left to spend.
I totally agree that it can be ridiculous trying to save up certs for the guns and other gear, but if you’re patient a $15 investment can pay off big time. The game is well worth $15, I think anyone who enjoys it would agree, so it’s just a matter of timing your purchase right.
KevinC
1808
What is wrong with the “newb gear”??? There’s a few straight-up upgrades (Rocket pods, Zephyr) but they’re the exceptions and not the norm. I actually use a lot of the default weapons, they’re not statistically any worse than the ones you buy. As a matter of fact the Orion LMG is considered to be one of the best LMGs in the game, any faction. The CARV and the SAW are also extremely good default weapons. I prefer HEAT rounds over HE or AP on my tank, that sort of thing.
And if you’re spending “Hundreds of hours” playing the game to unlock an item… why not buy something? If a game is worth spending that much of your free time on, surely it’s worth a few bucks (they do need to generate revenue after all). How many $50-60 games have you bought that you only spent a dozen hours on before finishing?
Houngan
1809
Not much is wrong with most of it, but you also want to have a lock-on launcher, Vanu needs a better sniper rifle, maybe some missiles for your ESF, etc. By no means are you at a disadvantage, but you do have certain aspects of the game closed to you without some weapons.
Alan_Au
1810
The game does some annoying things with their for-pay tier. That is, certain weapons provide a distinct advantage in the field. However, SOE has done a few things which help to mitigate this.
The first is that all weapons can be purchased using in-game resources. Yes, it’s a slow process (providing incentive to spend real money to speed things up). However, it means that in the long term, the gap between free and premium players will shrink.
The second is that many weapons are sidegrades, saddled with weaknesses which offset their strengths. For example, shotguns are lethal up close but ineffective at range. The starter weapons are versatile but fail to excel in any one situation.
Chaplin
1811
While SOE has done a pretty fair job of giving a new/free player a bit of everything, newb gear is still newb gear. Not that the default guns are less dps or statistically inferior per se, but overall you will find yourself considerably under developed in any given role in comparison to someone certed out (which takes forever, not just longer, without spending money). That is while I can be a combat medic there is a boat load of hours (or some real money) between newb gear and someone sporting fully upgraded flak armor, healing tool, and area heal along with resurrection grenade and an equinox rifle decked out with N/V scope, compensator, and an under slung smoke launcher. I have about 20 hours played and guesstimate it will take me about 15 to 25 more to get the equinox rifle never mind the other things. Bear in mind this is one role, so I would still lack the critical go to pieces of Outfit strategy such as the calls for Annihilators (AV infantry missile launcher), burster (dual AA) Max, deployable Sunderers, etc. which indeed would be 100s or possibly thousands of hours without spending money.
It is not that it shouldn’t take some time or money, but in the case of PS2 the cert gain is so strangled (or cert prices so high) that it takes considerably longer than other f2p games to make any unpaid progress. That is all I am saying. I like the game and will probably employ Slainte’s strategy (thanks) of buying a card at a retailer then sitting on it until a multiplyer shows up.
All SmedBucks get you are the weapons. All of the upgrades for the weapons themselves require certs that are only earned through game play.
Houngan
1813
"While SOE has done a pretty fair job of giving a new/free player a bit of everything, newb gear is still newb gear. Not that the default guns are less dps or statistically inferior per se, but overall you will find yourself considerably under developed in any given role in comparison to someone certed out (which takes forever, not just longer, without spending money). That is while I can be a combat medic there is a boat load of hours (or some real money) between newb gear and someone sporting fully upgraded flak armor, healing tool, and area heal along with resurrection grenade and an equinox rifle decked out with N/V scope, compensator, and an under slung smoke launcher. I have about 20 hours played and guesstimate it will take me about 15 to 25 more to get the equinox rifle never mind the other things. Bear in mind this is one role, so I would still lack the critical go to pieces of Outfit strategy such as the calls for Annihilators (AV infantry missile launcher), burster (dual AA) Max, deployable Sunderers, etc. which indeed would be 100s or possibly thousands of hours without spending money.
It is not that it shouldn’t take some time or money, but in the case of PS2 the cert gain is so strangled (or cert prices so high) that it takes considerably longer than other f2p games to make any unpaid progress. That is all I am saying. I like the game and will probably employ Slainte’s strategy (thanks) of buying a card at a retailer then sitting on it until a multiplyer shows up."
Just to reinforce Dave’s succinct point, I’ve highlighted the only things in your post it is possible to buy with money and italicized the things that aren’t. The only requirement to join Azure Twilight is one lock-on launcher, which would cost about three big playing sessions. I’m still using the first two weapons I chose after using the defaults, primarily because they do the most damage (with the tradeoff of slow rate of fire) because that suits my play style. Using those two weapons I’ve gone from barely making certs because I didn’t know what I was doing to making a few hundred per hour with AT, and that’s strictly because I understand how to assault and retreat each base type so much better now.
Worst case, spend $5 on a 3x weekend, buy an Annihilator, and go to town.
Houngan
1814
By the way, if you bought in as Alpha Squad, you just got a full six months back but must reapply the boost on login.
Buying the premium membership might also be something you can do if you just want to boost cert gain. I haven’t checked out the real-life difference, but it might be useful. Can anyone do a comparison of premium/non-premium cert gains?
KevinC
1816
25-50% gain depending on how long you’ve subscribed.
Yeah, I see the figures but I’m kind of curious if anyone has personal experience with playing both ways. Does the perceived cert gain really register, or is it more subtle?
KevinC
1818
I’ve done both and yes it certainly adds up. You see it every time you gain EXP.
I’m playing very actively so after my initial one month sub I upgraded to 3 months which immediately put me at +40% - that is close to having a permanent booster running. I wish I had purchased Alpha Squad!
Chaplin
1819
Oh. Well that is both good to know and disheartening. I had been fixating on the 500 cert rifle that was highly advised by Azure Twilight for members and the 1000 cert AT launcher while feeling bummed that in my first week (20 hours) I had less than 250 certs to show for it. I figured I had those in front of me plus about 600 for the med tool, 30 for scope, 500 to 1000 for flak armor, etc.
100 certs an hour?!? I can’t touch that gain. So much of the time (in outfit mind you) I am sitting around an empty base for a few points. Then moving here or there for a kill or two and a handful of Rez/heal points. I played about three hours last night in general ops/ bravo squad (and had a hell of a good time being a good soldier under our great leader Sr Pancake) but only netted about 40 points.
Maybe AT farming is where it’s at. I don’t have the alpha squad thingy though and it looks like that option is closed. I have plain ol’ base cert gain.
