GRRR Squad Forum

What an epic weekend of Planetside, can't wait for some midweek aksie! From what I can tell, TR definitely have an advantage in terms of map position and the number of players. That fits with the back story, but I think it's fun to play NC or Vanu for the niche traits they have and for the idea of playing against an evil empire! :P

So far we're playing on Lithcorp, New Conglomerate. Got about 7 grrrbians there, good times.
Phatso and I also have characters on Mallory, Teran Republic. Anyone wanting to do TR, do it there.
Then we need a good Vanu server, Miller is too full, Cobalt? Lets get agreement cos we need to stick to them! Medium size seems best.

I really don't want us to just stick to one server, I think it's all part of the game to get each char up to around level 10 in order to learn about the faction then just saving for incremental upgrades, so play all your characters. After a few levels you will really be able to compete and before you know it you're basically at a plateau where everything small costs 100 certs. Play them all, play with whoever is online as whatever they are.

I recommend playing Heavy Assault and capping outposts until you get the hang of it. Amp Stations and Bio Labs need capping of surrounding spawn rooms and the destruction of generators to cap and are always heavily defended. To get into those you need to play Light Assault to jet pack in or get a drop pod onto and into the roof. Try the Medic and Engineer classes for support play or if you need xp fast.

My experience is that the best way to do things is to create a squad, make it public and get rolling through some outposts with a Sunderer - deploying to provide a spawn point. Use other vehicles if your Sundy is on cool down. If you hit a big base make sure you're organised and battle ready or it's going to be tough. Remember you can "redeploy" anywhere you have a spawn point without a death if you're out of the action.

Some important upgrades:

All the cheap upgrades for 1, 5 and 10 certs - vehicles and weapons (don't forget to equip upgrades!)
Nano Weave Armour - All Kits (Armour)
Reflex (or whatever you prefer) sight on your core class weapons (so Heavy Assault is a must)
Class Abilities - All Kits (Cloak, Shield, Repair, Revive/Heal etc.)
Sunderer - AMS (spawn station) and Blockade Armour
Squad Leader Beacon (just in case you choose to lead a squad)
-- All that at one tier probably costs in the region of 250 certs or 8 or so good squad hours, not that bad considering from there its just incrementals or new weapons.

Join the grrr Outfits (platoons) on each server, they are named: grrr[ServerName] (e.g. grrrLithcorp)

Had some good times playing over the weeken, this game definitely has some staying power!!

For myself, I'll probably stick to playing one character, I just don't have the time to invest playing multiple toons. Obviously that may constrain me if the clan are playing a different faction/server than Lithcorp NC, but I'd rather all of my experience get focussed on levelling one char.

Thanks for the tips Stef, I'll definitely look into those unlocks.

Forgot to mention, you need to change a couple settings to be good to go in terms of frames. General settings:

Sensitivities, these start a little high - changing to 35 as a start is a good idea.
Make sure Raw Mouse Input is selected, to force off mouse acceleration.
Tick Invert Vertical Fly so you can use air vehicles without trouble.
Tick Reduce Input Lag, from your keyboard or joystick.
Tick Centralised Hud Mode, so you can see your health etc in the middle of your screen (very cool).

Then graphics, I set everything to low and deselected all the syncs, blooms etc. (the nice to havs)
Then I changed Texture Quality, Model Quality and Particles to medium - so things at distance are visible.
Finally audio, make sure your sound channels are reduced to around 35 (you can go less, but you hear less action).

Be sure to spend some time in the keybindings section, this game has a lot of keys that you may want to change for personal preference!

My Moment (was a purdy long moment) for the Weekend, Rolling around with multiple squads 10+ Tanks 10+ Sunderers(Carries 12 people) 4/5 Aircraft and a shed load of troups, rolling from Post to Lab to point. The sheer volume and the massive WAR that broke out wherever we went.

O M G, this game takes WAR FPS to a level previously unimaginable and all without really feeling any Lag or suffering in any way playing from South Africa. It's been a VERY LONG TIME since I've played a game that is so rewarding......

Wall of text:

This game is beast. DayZ is the only title in recent memory that has immersed me like this. Its so good to see a game that quite a few grrrbians are in love with.
The last common denominator was BF3 and I believe that PS2 beats BF3 in 90% of the cases.
Lets keep it rolling and get everyone in the clan to at least try the game out. Its F2P and you have nothing to lose giving it a bash, except maybe your time to play other games.

Since I got PS2, I haven’t even launched another game (GW2, BL2, DayZ, BF3… all ultra-addictive too).

My next point I need to raise is the server / faction selection. 2 sides here, Hubris your point of getting all characters up to BR10 is a good baseline and you can chop and change between the 3.. I get this, but I think it will only really work well before BR10. Once you get to the point where you are saving up 100/200 certs for unlocks, then enjoying them… changing servers is going to be a pain man. I haven’t spent my certs properly on any of my 3 characters because I am worried about this.

I know that we jammed some good NC last night and it seemed quite good. Guys made good progress and there were quite a few unlocks for all I’m sure.
I have now played to roughly BR (Battle Rank) 9/10 on each of the 3 factions and these are my findings (you can find more info all over the webs):

(take note I am partially biased..)

Vanu Sovereignty (VS – Purple)
·Laser based weapons. No bullet drop and good all round.
·Future-esque vehicles. Excellent handling, lower damage threshold, slower.
·The most popular due to scientific / future / first option on menu / rivalX & LC play them.
·Meh background story – future tech / lazerz / new technology exploration / lazerz.
·My least-ish favourite of the 3. I don’t like lazers. Really, this isn’t Star Wars (although close to it).


Terran Republic (TR - Red)
·Bullet based weapons. Bullet drop and high ROF / lower damage.
·Modern day vehicles. OK handling, mal damage, faster.
·Good popularity as seemingly the most neutral.
·The original faction of the lands – cool story. Neutral (see “Terran” in any other game).
·My favourite of the 3. I love the guns, vehicles, color, story etc.


New Conglomerate (NC – Blue)
·Bullet based weapons. Bullet drop and lower ROF / higher damage.
·Military styled vehicles. Good handling, good damage, good speed.
·Ok popularity due to redneck vibes.
·Rednecks, blow everything up. MASSIVE guns win all battles. Rock music. RAWR.
·Partially undecided on my preference here. I don’t like the rock music or the redneck vibes TBH. Vehicles are cool though.


We need to make a choice. If it means everyone starts from scratch, so be it. That way we can find a good server. I don’t think it’s a good thing to play across 3 factions to be honest.
I want to spend real money on this game and get some cool flavor unlocks (and some hardcore vehicle ones too). I am not doing that if I am not focusing on 1 character.

Discuss?

My tips:
·Playing as a team is the way to go without a doubt. Not only from a fun point of view, but a coordinated unit makes a massive impact. We were rocking 30+ certs / hour last night rolling as a coordinated unit.
·Spend certs on vitals first. Red dots are vital. AMS for Sunderer is very useful (and will pay itself off). Nano suit upgrades (the 1 cert ones) are no-brainers. Medic tool upgrade is good for medics, jump pack upgrade is good for light assaults, increased stealth for infiltrators, better shielding for heavy assaults and repair upgrade for engi’s.
·The game is unoptimized at the moment and will improve. I found ZERO difference between low and medium settings graphically. The biggest difference for me was shadows, foliage and sound channels. Switch these to low. “Alt-F” will show you your FPS in the lower left corner and tell you what part of your system is bottlenecking at that point ([GPU] or [CPU]). With balanced settings, both of these will chop and change depending on situation.
·Stick together team! If you see one guy flanking around, run with him. Provide cover, communicate etc. Death is frustrating in PS2, it can be avoided by sticking together.
·As its early days, ask questions instead of spending hours trying to figure stuff out. I think between us all by now, we know a fair bit about the game and mechanics.. And knowledge sharing is a good thing.

Cool well I don't mind us all playing one faction, I understand the concearns, but I'll put in the time on all 3 I'm sure. I freaking love this game.

So last issues, we need to settle the Vanu server (I think Cobalt is a good choice) and what faction we're going for as a clan. TR is probably the best if we're talking about getting the best of all worlds and getting continental domination on a server. Vanu could be cool, but I think it's already too popular. So I vote for TR, then Vanu. NC is still my pet favourite but I don't expect everyone to like em cos they're slow/heavyarmour/heavydmg

I've already spent some dollar on the Mallory and Lithcorp servers, so please lets not change our TR and NC servers (respectively).

btw Rival clan chose TR as their clan faction, but Xfactor plays Vanu for fun because they're the most "futuristic" and their air is the most powerful because its so maneuverable.

Cool. TR Mallory it is. Exec decision styles.

Duck and I played a while ago and it was epic. Let's give it a bash tonight. You guys will like the guns yo. Going to buy some SC to beef up Sundy and Galaxy.

Will make a platoon if there isn't one already.

I also agree with Phats. I want to stick to a side and server so I can progress.

TR Mallory it is.

Well I've now got my second char to the spec I spoke of incl SL beacon... now just to get the third and I can play all factions! Na na na na

thanks for all the input chaps. I have one concern - my dayfighters (i mean daughters) are loving this game and really enjoy being on mumble with you guys - my concern isnt for them, but for us as a clan when confronted with being civilized. i do not expect anyone to change their way of comunicating just becuase my kids are playing. I would however like some feedback on this and i have a suggestion. can we make a mumble channel that we name planetside kids? is this too much to ask? I also think my kids need to know how the world works and dont mind them hearing a little verbal abuse. :0
my reasoning is that everyone can here global voice, but if we are going to have many peeps playing then two channels would be good anyway, especially if we end up with two squads.