Information for New Players

Since we’ve had a few new players recently I’d like to just write this basic guide to some things in game as it’s difficult for us to cover everything which is important in the heat of battle. I’m going to keep this as short and to the point as I can though, so if you need an explanation for anything just ask me below.

Getting involved:

• When in squad we’re always on TS, so join TS or you’ll end up being left behind.

• In game we redeploy fast and often. To redeploy you either press “U” or select the redeploy option from the main map. Note that if you take any damage or shoot anyone while the deploy timer is counting down, it will automatically cancel your redeploy and you’ll have to press U again.

• Our squads stick together much more often than they do in BF games, so try and keep up with the mass of bodies. Someone is usually talking on TS about where we’re going, the route we’re taking, and who is standing where, however this may not make a lot of sense until you get to know the maps. One thing that can help if you’re struggling to keep up, is to follow the person with the star above their name on the HUD or the star on the minimap – this indicates the position of the current squad leader.

• In squad we often rotate the squad leader position so that a spawn beacon can be placed, but in those cases you’re normally ok just following the other green circles on the minimap.

• Normally we’ll try and keep an eye on the newer player in squad to make sure they’re at least getting into position and not lost somewhere, but in the heat of a fight we can lose track of each other, so don’t worry about speaking up if you need help finding your way back to the group.

• Note that our choice of fight is usually based on how many enemies we are likely to face (within reason) and as a general rule we are looking for fights where we are outnumbered. That said, sometimes we get it wrong and targets are hard to find, and sometimes we fight hard at the start but then a ton of friendlies turn up – we cannot control this. Obviously a wave of enemies can show up at any time and ruin our day, but it is these swings in fortune which help make the game so compelling.

• To the best of our ability we try to avoid fights which are best described as clusterfucks, and while the point at which a fight reaches this level tends to vary a little with experience, if we are in a fight even approaching this level it is because the base is important for some reason or other – in these cases we just have to suck it up and push as best we can, but this is a rare occurrence.

Spawn Mechanics

PS2’s spawn system can seem completely alien to a new player, especially if you’re used to BF games. The important point is that you cannot spawn on a base your faction doesn’t own unless your faction has set up assets in the area which allow you to do so. Also:

• You cannot spawn on squad members or leaders like in BF.
• If you spawn in a base that you own, the spawn room is protected.
• If you spawn on an asset, the spawn area is unprotected (but you do have a second or two of spawn protection, although you can’t rely on it in the same way as you could in BF3).

Assets include:

• Sunderers – These are big bus-like vehicles you’ll see about the place, and can be deployed to act as a spawn point for any of your faction members, and once deployed they appear green on the main map/deployment screen. You can also spawn inside the vehicle if a member of your squad is currently in that vehicle – to do this you will see a sunderer option at the top left of the map /deployment screen, which displays as a green bar sometimes with a star in it (which indicates the sundy with your squad leader in it).
• Galaxies – At the moment we rarely use these due to the size of our squad, however enemies use them a lot. You need a squad member to be in the Galaxy in order for other squad members to spawn on it, otherwise it cannot function as a spawn point – this may seem a random mechanic, but it’s been set this way for reasons relating to balance and the flow of battle. Note that the galaxy does not function as a spawn point for non-squad members.
• Spawn beacons – these are placed by a squad leader and can only be used by members of the squad. Note that if you die shortly after using a spawn beacon, you may have a timer on the map screen which indicates how long until you can use the beacon again.

All assets are destructible so they often have to be defended as well as replaced. They are priority targets for defenders since destroying them cuts off the supply of reinforcements for the attackers. Since the defenders have an essentially indestructible spawn, it is usually easier to defend than attack, however there are a number of ways attackers normally deal with defender spawn rooms.

First, in some of the bigger bases there will be a Spawn control unit, referred to by players and in game vocal cues as the “SCU”. This is always protected by a shield, which either deactivates at the half way stage of the cap (see later), or requires us to overload and destroy a separate shield generator before we can access it. If the SCU is overloaded, a timer counts down, giving defenders a moment to save it, but once the timer is up the SCU blows up and defenders can no longer respawn in the spawn room. We can then also access the spawn room, killing anyone in there. The SCU can be brought back online by an engineer repairing it.

• Note – run up to an objective like a shield or SCU then press and hold E to activate/deactivate the overload. A white circle will indicate your progress.

Second – they camp the spawn, exits. This isn’t frowned upon in the same way as in BF games but it’s not really our style. We’ll normally concentrate on keeping them off a flag rather than containment within the spawn room.

Try and avoid getting too close to an enemy spawn room if it has shields up. You’ll see shields over the doors to spawn rooms which are slightly opaque, but defenders can see out of them a bit and can SHOOT out through them as well. The shields are set this way to help combat spawn camping a little – defenders can shoot out, but attackers cannot shoot out. The shields are sometimes buggy when firing a rocket launcher out though. Note that an enemy spawn room is also surrounded by a pain field which will hurt you very quickly if you get too close – this deactivates when a SCU is destroyed and when the base captures.

Capture Mechanics

Similar in some ways to conquest but not quite the same. You win by capping the flags, and depleting a timer (rather than tickets). Defenders can only reset the timer or block the timer by going on the offensive and attacking an adjacent base.

The timer itself can be a little confusing at first. Initially you cap a flag and a slider above the minimap shows the timer counting down to what you can easily mistake as “zero”, but it is not zero. When the slider reaches the bottom it is only the half way stage of a capture, and must now wait for it to count back up the way in order to complete the cap. The reason for this would take too long to explain for and may be confusing for anyone this post is intended for.

In order to initiate a cap you must have an adjacent base captured and what is called a “lattice link” between the bases. You’ll see lattice links as lines between bases on the main map – these only indicate the order in which you have to capture bases along what is usually referred to as a “lattice lane”. You will see on the main map that some bases are branching points for the lattice, and this gives them some strategic importance under circumstances you’ll pick up over time. Note that if two bases are adjacent on a lattice but one flag is being contested (i.e. there is any sort of timer visible), the defenders cannot attack the adjacent base.

Certification points and unlocks.

• You get 1 cert for every 250XP you earn, and you use these certs to unlock stuff.
• Don’t worry about unlocking weapons yet, the default guns are great and sometimes even the best for the type of fight we normally find ourselves in. A red dot sight may be all that you want/need, and you can get this fairly quick.
• You will want to unlock some toys for your class though as soon as possible.
• If you want added survivability unlock Nanoweave Armour to lvl 4, and work on your favourite class ability as well to level 4 asap.
• After that unlock med kits to level 2 or 3 – these will keep you in a fight a lot longer.
• Engineers and medics have tools which need to be upgraded to work well so if you like these classes upgrade these asap, but also consider them as you progress – at least put the 1 cert into them early on so you have the first level.
• As soon as you feel you have a few certs to spare, unlock the first level of the spawn beacon, and the “Advanced Mobile Spawn” option for your sunderer. The more people in squad with this stuff the better.
• Everyday the game awards you passively earned certs which you pick up on login. If you’re non premium member, you are awarded 12 per day, so even if you’re not playing for a day or two, if you remember to log in to your character, you’ll still be awarded these certs and this can be especially helpful when initially setting up your character.

Implants

These drop randomly, along with chargers. Don’t worry too much about these until you’ve levelled up to maybe rank 10, at which point ask us in game and we’ll help you out. If you want to use these right away, pick a regeneration level 1 implant for your class as soon as you get one, and set energy to auto resupply from your charger pool. You’ll probably have to ask us how to do this.

The only thing to understand about implants right now are:

• You equip an implant for each class, and for as long as it’s equipped it uses energy and provides you with a benefit.
• Chargers can resupply energy.
• There are 3 levels of implant, with the level 1 implants using the least energy, and level 3 provide the highest.
• You can survive just fine without an implant.

Finally, some general tips.

• The mechanics are very similar to BF, so play like you do there. Check all corners, keep as much of your body out of view when covering stairs or running up them, and peek by sweeping an area with your body only coming into view to a spot the moment you are aiming at it.
• Listen for footsteps, jetpacks, cloaks, the sound of shotguns, and the sound of maxes. You can often locate someone just from the sound.
• Use square brackets to zoom in your minimap.
• Weapons may initially “feel” different to BF weapons, but this is psychological. The mechanics and method of control are almost identical, and you’ll get used to them quickly. Obviously the stats will differ, so aim down your sights at a wall, and fire off an uncontrolled burst to check it’s recoil pattern, so you know how to compensate.

Anyway, I hope this isn’t overwhelming as an introduction post, but if you do have any trouble understanding any of the above or anything in game, just ask.