Planetside: FAQ for newcomers

Just so we don’t have to keep repeating ourselves or digging out old threads to link to. Other vets feel free to add stuff. I’d like to NOT turn this into a daily grind / road rally thread; we already have threads for that. FAQs only please.

Q. What do I need to do to play with you guys?
A. You need to create a character on Markov (the west coast USA server), fighting for the New Conglomerate (the blue team).

Q. How do I get into the QT3 outfit?
A. Someone who’s already in, who has invite privileges, has to invite you. It can only be done while you’re both online. Log in, and send a /tell to one of the veterans asking for an invite. To do that, you type “/tell <name> <message>” Except without the quotes, and you replace <name> with the name of one of the QT3ers who is currently online and <message> with a request for OUTFIT invite (if you just say “Give me an invite” we’ll probably assume you mean a squad invite). Don’t be surprised if it takes a couple minutes to get a response–we’re probably being shot or flying through the air in an ANT.

Q. How do I know who’s online?
A. You can either take random guesses, or you can add people to your “Friends” list to constantly monitor their online status. For random guesses, XPavx, Redfiv3, McMaster, and Xarocx are often online.

Q. Who are the vets that can invite me?
A. You can find a list of all QT3 members here. Try for someone with a high rank who was logged in recently.

Q. I used to play, and then quit for a long time. Now I resubbed and my character is gone. How do I get it back?
A. Load and patch the game. Create a new character who does NOT have the same name as your old character. Log into the game with your new character, and type “/appeal” (but without the quotes). A form will come up. Fill it out, choosing “Character” and “XP issues” as your topics. On the text part, tell them you had a character named (whatever) on (whatever) server, you quit the game, you’re now playing again, and you’d like your old character back. It’ll take a day or two for them to do it. The character will come back to its original server. So if you want to join us with your old character, the old character has to be from Markov or Johari. Otherwise you have to start over.

Q. Should I do the training?
A. There are two kinds of training: the offline tutorial, and the in-game “VR training.” Do not do the offline tutorial. It’s useless and the last mission is bugged. The VR training is useful for getting a feel for the weapons, and will give you enough XP to hit BR3. OTOH, you could just squad up with us and still get a feel for some of the weapons and you’ll still hit BR3 fairly quickly. Up to you.

Q. What certs should I take?
A. Take whatever you like. Really. We have a balanced group as it is, and all of the certs are useful with the exception of Advanced Medic, which sucks. You’ll probably change your certs from time to time anyway. Just do something that seems fun to you.

Q. Do I need to take a vehicle cert?
A. No. But realize that sometimes the fight moves a long way (or you respawn far from the fight after death), and there won’t always be people around to give you a ride. So if you hate walking long distances, take either a vehicle or a MAX. (Once you hit BR6, taking stealth suit and the surge implant also works.)

Q. Should I get Core Combat?
A. It’s totally unnecessary. Having CC will let you use the ancient weapons and vehicles when they’re available, which is almost never. It also lets you go into the caverns, where you and XPav can have a magical journey of discovery, uninterrupted by things like combat or other players or fun or getting XP or kills. Note: SOE is trying to make the caverns more attractive, so this answer may change.

Q. What is the Teamspeak info?
A. We’re not posting it publicly, but PM any of the vets or ask ingame and we’ll send it to you.

Q. I’ve heard there are some QT3 guys we’re supposed to kill any time we see them. Is that true?
A. Yes. We’re supposed to kill “Ben” and “Hronk” any time we see them. Sometimes when you do it, people will say you did something wrong or that this FAQ question was just a joke. That’s actually part of the initiation test. Keep killing Ben and Hronk.

We need some answers for the “I can’t kill anyone!” questions.

Easy. Start simple, shoot Rywill everytime you see him. After that gets easy (about 5 min) move onto enemy targets. I would advise to keep up the target practice with rywills back often just to make sure your aim is still good.

^^^^ Make sure you do this after you get the outfit invite you so don’t get grief points and weapons lock, or you won’t be able to kill Rywill anymore.

Greg Williams, convicted of thread humor foul, 3rd degree. This joke was already made in the original post which started the thread, although with a different target. If you are going to make weak jokes in a gaming thread, try not to make the SAME weak jokes the original poster made.

Hopefully your weapon aim is a bit better than your humor aim or you’ll keep making the same bad joke, both ingame virtually and out of game.

Thank you, please drive through :).

Dan

Sharpe, do you play as a Vanu-lasher-spam guy on Markov?

If so, you suck.

No, I don’t play PS. I am just intruding on your thread for no good reason.

Although I might pick it up soon, I keep being tempted.

Dan

Ok, just checking, because there was a guy named Sharpe that killed me around 4 times today.

and

don’t ad up.

If you get killed four times by the same guy equals that you suck. Or that you got PWNED!1

Or that the Lasher is horribly overpowered in groups. Four deaths to the same guy isn’t too bad if you have a couple squads fighting over a tower for a half hour or so anyway.

I’ve seen that Sharpe guy and I thought he might be the Qt3 Sharpe guy too. I imagine Grisha will kill him extra hard a few times to make up for his namesake’s nasty post.

Hey Mcmaster, I’ve taken on your habit of hunting down those who kill me in one on one situations. Very, very satisfying.

Does anyone care to elaborate on Core Combat? It sounds like there’s a gap between the box copy and how it actually works in-game.

What the hell is Core Combat

Core Combat opens up new weapons and areas to fight in. The new areas, the caverns, are impossible to find your way in and are fully of glowly sparkly things straight out of Final Fantasy. In some of the buildings in the caverns are modules. The modules, when charged and taken to the bases on the surface, provide benefits to the bases. These benefits include more weapons, vehicles, shields, healing, and a few other things.

The only things you will actually see in the game from the caverns are:

  1. The Flail, the big hovering artillery piece
  2. Shields covering the entrances to the bases

As stated in a previous question, the caverns are boring, hard to fight in, and are populated by about 5 people each. Don’t buy Core Combat.

This of course, is subject to change.

Another thing you’ll sometimes run into is the pain module. When you have it, any enemy forces who enter or approach the spawn room or generator take damage over time as it they were hit by a plasma grenade. Pretty nasty, really.

There’s also the Maelstrom and Radiator. The Maelstrom is a HA weapon similar to the alt fire on the link rifle in UT2003. Secondary fire for Maelstrom lobs an energy grenade that goes some decent damage. The Radiator is a SA weapon that fires big cloud of visible radiation, hurting allies and friendlies alike. Not great damage, but it has a pretty big area of effect. Right now both weapons come with a decent clip of ammo, but you can’t reload. You can only stand near an equipment module and let the ammo recharge. That is going to change soon though, and you will be able to carry ammo on you. You should start seeing more of these weapons outside base defense.

With the changes to locked caverns and every base getting all the module benefits we may see some more Core Combat action. I’ll wait and see before I buy it, though.

IT LIVES

Q : I keep seeing these big mech things and they keep killing me!

A : If you’re in a tank or buggy, they’re supposed to. If you’re on foot, hit 'em with a Jammer grenade. Then blast 'em with some shots from a Decimator, or let your squadmates take it down.

Q : How do I get to drive one of those big mech things?

A : First, you must have the Core Combat expansion.

You need 75 distinct kills in the caves and 5 meaningful base captures in the caves. If you kill the same person within 20 minutes of the last time you killed them, the kill won’t count. To be a meaningful base capture, there must be a fair amount of activity inside the base’s sphere of influence during the time your empire’s hack was going through. If you earn 600 BEP or more, it will probably count. You can see your status inside the Soldier window.

Once that’s all done you need to ‘imprint’ yourself. There’s a buliding in the center of each cave with a calkwalk that runs right under a big beam of light. Walk into the beam and you’ll be able to purchase the BFR certifications.

This is soooooooo tempting as BF2 came to a screeching halt a few weeks ago.

It did? I stopped playing around then because of Space Rangers 2. Did something else change like a patch or did the player base just collapse due to the newness wearing off.

It did? I stopped playing around then because of Space Rangers 2. Did something else change like a patch or did the player base just collapse due to the newness wearing off.[/quote]

It did for me. I went away for a long weekend and haven’t felt like playing since. I still think it’s a very good shooter but I’m not compelled to play it at the moment.

Q. What should I spend my cert points on if it’s my first time playing?
A. Definitely spend it on Uni-Max. I picked it up on Andrews recommendation and it was the best thing I possibly could have chosen. I basically just pick my preferential Max and head out and blow shit up. As a Max I’m finding I’m the biggest free kill on the battle field, so I either have to be sneaky and attack from behind, or travel around following other vehicles.

The only real downside is my inability to repair my own armor. Aside from that it’s all gravy. I managed to get a ton of kills manning StrokerAce’s Turret. At one point we even scored a hat trick thanks to his fancy driving and my spastic use of the rocket launcher on the back of his buggy. Doing the 2-man vehicles is way more fun than anything I could hope to accomplish solo. The Max’s are just the perfect solo suit when someone doesn’t want to chauffeur me around.

The first night out I was pretty bummed (didn’t get any kills), but the second with Stroker was way better. I’m looking forward to doing organized squad stuff with you guys soon.