Alzir

It’s in beta steve, with release expected by the new year but the official date will be confirmed within the next week or so. If you have time to really give it a go and join us on ts, I can arrange a key for you.

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/upcoming-enhancements-to-the-planetside-2-metagame.32909/

Hard to copy the text across in my phone but check this out as it details some of the planned changes affecting the metagame. Base captures in particular have or will soon he changed dramatically.

Did anyone else get the mail regarding the latest patch, dated october 13th? If you did, check the bottom of the mail and you may see a beta key which can be shared. This flew right under the radar, with no announcement on the PS2 forums, but if it’s not just me, we should have enough keys to share out between other xdc who might be interested. I have one key anyway, but i’ll hold back until we see how many we have to share out in total. Who really wants one though, as in preparred to really give it a go with us, understanding there’s a learning curve to get through and there will be.plenty of frustrations while you get to grips with it?

If you have any usage limits on your bandwidth, don’t bother though, there are massive patches all the time while they constantly test things.

If you signed up for beta and have simply sat waiting around, as I did for the first month or so, you’ll likely still be disappointed, as the only people who seemed to get a key via that method were those known to have played planetside 1 (to my knowledge). The only way I managed to get in was via twitter and facebook, finding a website offering keys, and obtaining one that way. The game is to be released by the end of December at the latest, so no matter what you’ll not have long to wait now. If you get on the beta though you really have to be prepared to give it a go, but you’ll probably have a much easier time of it now that a few of us know what we’re doing. Be prepared for the game to change rapidly though, as this is a true beta where significant changes to game mechanics are being made all the time. They are not simply tweaks either, there are some things being ripped out altogether, replaced by a new mechanism which you then have to figure out for yourself. You also have to contend with the usual bugs you’d expect from it being in beta, especially following the release of some of these large patches.

Anyway in response to Max, I think what Ben was referring to was the time to kill someone when you shoot at them, which is slightly longer than in BF3. It obviously depends on the class and a number of factors, such as your character setup (certs etc) but I don’t actually find it’s much of a problem. It’s hard to judge how much of a difference there is to be honest because I find people dropping fast enough once I’ve gotten the hang of a gun. What you’re referring to though Max is what we all experienced during the first couple of days playing this trying to figure out wtf was going on, and those days are gone. If we plan an attack on a point, the tactical imperative is to ensure there’s a respawn point within easy reach (though it must also be difficult for the enemy to spot or reach themselves –so it’s not taken out). That is what we didn’t know at the start, when we struggled to work out how the spawn system worked, and we didn’t appreciate there are many tactical and strategic considerations in this game which you’d not normally associate with a FPS (and this is where you have to remember it’s a MMO as well). If you don’t consider the logistics of an attack, you end up in the position we were in at the start, running around so much, it makes Max’s BF antics seem like a dander to the front door.

The other problem we had was initially focusing on the wrong sort of fights. There are several types of fights in PS2, if you like, but around certain hotspots on the map, where we focused, you’ll always find a huge battle of attrition between hundreds of people, and what can you do here really when you’re a squad of 3 or 4? There is no point in my view involving yourself in those fights unless you’re part of an alliance or outfit organised enough to issue 12 man squads with objectives, and with squad leaders coordinating with a commander and squad members (like an FC would in Eve). It would be awesome if we could organise this for XDC in future, but right now I’m exploring the small scale game, trying to find a way to influence the macro game with one or two players, which we initially thought was not possible, or at least too difficult. Now we’re a bit more clued into what’s going on though I’m finding this most definitely IS possible, and I’m having so much fun doing this, I’m not even tempted atm to set up a larger squad.