PlanetSide 2 Newbie General Guide

PlanetSide 2 Newbie General Guide by inigma

Welcome PS1 Vets and New Players to Planetside 2!
(hey if you have ideas you want to see posted here that will help newcomers get their bearings, feel free to post below and I’ll include it in this post and give you credit).

Top 10 First 10 Minute Gotchas After You Spawn the First Time (Assuming You Don’t Fall from the Sky Like I did):

1. Not everything is perfect. After all, you’re in a Tech Test, pre-closed Beta. Don’t let the graphics fool you. Things are broken. It’s your job as a volunteer to report them in these forums, and in using the bug report tool in the game. Speaking of forums, use the Search link in the top left to search for threads concerning your topic before you create a new topic beating a dead horse. SOE likes to keep single threads per topic, and all posts on topic. It helps the devs out a lot to avoid duplicate posts on the same thing spammed everywhere. Also use Recent Topics to find active convos – you might find that someone has already posted about the bug you found.

2. Go slow at first. Read everything. And by all means, don’t sit in sanc shooting at friendlies like a dolt. Go through your menus and give them a quick run through. And then again. If you’re reading this from the forum, and the servers are down, take time to read everything in Announcements for server up times and important info from the devs (the game isn’t 24/7 yet). Use “F” to access your special ability, unless you’re in Light Assault which then your jetpack is spacebar.

3. “G” does not call up inventory. It lauches your grenade. (Yes, grenades are standard issue now). Use E to access inventory (after all, you did read the text that shines into existence as you approach the equipment console right?). Some of us PS1 vets think its a cruel dev joke on PS1 vets.

4. You will find the first vehicle term you come to is only for dealing out Galaxy air ships. To get to your Mossie/Scythe/Reaver go dash out of the spawn room and head outside past newbies who are griefing everyone (enemy spies I’m sure they are) to the tallest mega building (on your right) and as you approach the underside of that thing (there are land vehicle terms there by the legs of the building) look for the colored beams at the center of the bottom of the building. Stand in your empire colored beam to go up to the air terms and platform, or use the yellow beam to go back down to the land vehicle terms. There are no landing pads. If you land on what looks like an air pad and someone spawns a plane, you will die.

5. Before you even get in your aircraft, read your keybindings. I highly suggest mapping your Vehicle Interaction key from “E” to tilde “~” simply because E does not mean lift off anymore. E means eject. And there are no parachutes if you eject. I know, it’s probably another cruel dev joke on PS1 vets. If you eject from anything other than a Galaxy drop ship, you will probably die if you are higher than 40 meters (standard aircraft spawn is 100 meters high) without light assault, and you probably will lose track of your aircraft. If you are in light assault, and you do eject, space is your jetpack. Otherwise, enjoy the view on the way down to your personal crater. Ejecting from Galaxies is the only safe exception. Somehow the devs think only Galaxies should be equipped with gravparachutes.

6. If you do something stupid with your aircraft or other vehicle in the first 5 minutes, you’re not alone. Just be aware that you will have to wait up to 20 minutes to repeat the same mistake (and spend more of your accrued resouces too). Remember, w to go forward, space to rise, c to land (tap it, dont hold it unless you want to see who wins in a plane vs ground duel).

7. Aircraft pitch with your mouse is not constant (you have to keep pushing up), and left and right motions on your mouse only roll, not turn you.

8. Going out of bounds kills you in 10 seconds, and usually you won’t realize you’re out of bounds until it’s too late to turn around and make it back.

9. There is no autorun. Yet.

10. If you get stuck somewhere, and want to recall or spawn somewhere else, use the command /suicide. It’s not pretty but its the only option at the moment as there is no recall option (correction: there is a redeploy button in the menu, but it only suicides you after an 8 second timer. go figure). Post on these forums if you have questions. Someone will answer.

11. The red army guys you see hiding in certain places on the map, are not real. Don’t shoot them.

* PS1 Vets Remember: if you haven’t launched a grenade at your buddies standing at an equipment terminal, or accidentally ejected out of your newly spawned aircraft to an untimely death on the ground, then you probably haven’t gone through the proper initiation rite the devs (most likely) intended for you. Or you read this post. Either way, eventually you’ll join the club. Remember this reminder when you do and don’t let it get you down.

FAQs

1. Jetpacks? Why?
A: Only the Light Assault class has them. No one else. Think of them as a Light Assault’s private parachute or super jump. The recharge is long at 30 sconds and the blast given only lasts about 3 seconds. Light Assault has such weak armor and the recharge is so long that bunny hopping Tribe’s style isn’t even on the table. The pack is realy only a means to give the weak Light Assault more agility than others in setting up an ambush or jumping into a ravine without hurting themselves. Use spacebar to activate.

2. How do I get resources to buy and equip stuff?
A: By capturing and holding enemy facilities where such resources are indicated on the map. Resources are accrued by you, the individual player in the game, spendable only by you. Don’t have enough resources to buy a Galaxy? Go secure a map resouce that matches it, else you can wait anywhere on the continent since every 5 minutes your Empire will dispense to you resources depending on the resource areas it owns.

Chat and Voice Commands
Text
/sq – squad
/o – outfit
/t – tell (/t playername)
/r – reply to tell
/l – local (same as just hitting Enter as it’s the default chat) – can be seen by enemies
/y – yell (larger range than local) – can be seen by enemies
Voice
z – Speak through your mic to your squadmates
For more: PlanetSide 2 In-Game Commands and Tweaks Guide

Classes
All classes use “F” to use their special abilities (except Light Assault which uses spacebar).
Only Light Assault has jumpjet, and this is only activated using the spacebar. Useful in case you bail out of your plane.
Everyone loves a medic. You can also heal yourself using “F”. I recommend all new players be a medic until they get the hang of basic layouts, teamwork, objects, and battle mechanics.
Heavy Assault gets a forcefield activated by “F”
Maxes get to run fast for a short time (seconds though) activated by “F”
Engineers can place a turret, and unlimited ammo boxes. Be a sport. Drop your ammo packs near camped MAXes before you head out yonder.
I recommend all pilots and drivers be Engineers unless you have dedicated repair. Huffing it to a repair term across the map is not my idea of surviving to fight another day.
“T” is melee attack for all classes, and if you try to melee in the middle of a reload on a max, it cancels the reload. (chronicrage) Your middle mouse button is also melee attack (NoxCyD).

Class Spawning
You can currently only spawn at sanc, or a nearby landed galaxy, or at the nearest base (except when in sanc).
In a future patch (probably after 8/4/12) you will be able to spawn inside Sunderers (probably requiring them to be stopped?).

You can only opt to spawn drop (hotdrop in pod) on squadmates (which requres you to be in a squad), even if they are moving in a vehicle.
You can maneuver your drop pod using the arrow keys.
Just don’t literally drop on your squad mate. If you land your drop pod on anyone whether vehicle, MAX, or soldier – it will instantly kill or destroy whatever you land on. (ok I tested this. I landed on an enemy lightening and only damanged him seriously. I was then mowed down. You can try this too, but please sign the injury waiver before you leave orbit).

You can exit your drop pod before the pod opens.
If you drop on an incline or other pointed spot, and your pod doesn’t bust through the ground on its way to the abyss under the map, your pod will roll down down down until it rests and opens on solid ground. This rolling motion will also kill anything it comes into contact with. (I think the day of dropping squads of pods over enemy armor columns as a tactic is already here).

Organization
Squads are limited to 6 players currently. There are no further heirarchy options at the moment except outfits.
Go to the Outfit Recruiting forum to find an outfit. I suggest Ghosts of the Revolution for Vanu, The Enclave for TR (they need more meat for the grinding we will give them), and Sturmgrenadiers for NC (just tell their Gal pilot to watch out for cactuses). Hitler Loses Zurvan Amp Station Of course, all outfits are awesome. They are what make Planetside …well Planetside.
Resources
Resources are accrued by you, the individual player, spendable only by you.
They are accrued by being on the continent every five minutes, based on the resource map areas controlled by your empire.

You also earn resources for capturing a base or holding it. (Can someone also confirm if you accrue resources for simply being in the area of base or outpost your empire controls?)
According to the Indar continent resource distribution, empires will have the following natural resource advantages: NC will be able to pull more Galaxies and Sunderers, TR Mosquitos and Lightnings, and VS Liberators and Magriders. Knowing this fact, you can look at the map and quickly guess what their vehicle weaknesses might be, and who you will need to attack to get what.
See the Resource and Vehicle System Guide for more information.
Vehicles

Vehicle Spawn
All vehicles require resources attained by empire control of resource points on the map. Those resources yours and yours alone. Once you spend resource points to accrue a vehicle, you can’t get those resources back, so spend and drive or fly wisely.
Be a sport. Don’t steal someone’s vehicle if they are out repairing it. And please don’t take off with a Galaxy that is currently spawning zerg if that Galaxy isn’t yours. If you crash it, you just hurt your empire since currently Galaxies are quite expensive to queue up and the zerg probably now have to respawn 5 minutes away losing the momentum of whatever front they were supporting. There aren’t any vehicle locks yet. Get Your Own Vehicle (GYOV).
You can’t steal another empire’s vehicle currently.

Resupply
All resupply is automatic and requires no interaction on your part short of parking your butt nearby and wait for it to auto fill you up.
Resupply your vechicles at any ammo depot (bullet clip looking icon on your map at tech plant).
Sunderers provide ammo to nearby vehicles (except itself).
Aircraft
There is no joystick support at the moment. You will have to use your keybindings and mouse control.
Recommend that you assign default binding for “Interact” to something other than E, as hitting E will eject you from your plane. I use tilde “~”.
Use “F” to afterburn.
Use “C” to land. (tap it for slower rate of descent. impact with ground can cause major damage or destruction)
Access the Galaxy equipment terminal at the rear of the bird where the line of LEDs embedded into the side of the gal are.
Galaxy Drop Ships only act as a spawn point when you have landed with “C” and you see its landing runners down.
Stop your aircraft quickly by pitching up and hitting “C”.
To go faster than designed, pitch your aircraft nose down, and hit spacebar (climb). This is very useful for moving the heavy Galaxy quickly to the front lines. This works for any aircraft.
Afterburners only exist on Mossies, Reavers, and Scythes.
You can switch seats on an aircraft at anytime, even changing guns, or changing seats with someone by hitting up the appropriate Function Key (F1-F12). You will need to move to an empty seat first to change seats with someone. You can even change pilots in mid-air with this function.
If you are solo flying a bomber, you can even switch from your pilot seat to your bomber seat and drop a few bombs before returning to your cockpit. Just note that leaving your cockpit causes the plane to stop its forward motion and start falling out of the sky.
Bomber teams of two can take turns piloting and bombing in mid-air. A bomber team of two allows the pilot and bomber to switch seats, even as they are flying. This also allows the bomber to take up the tailgun after dropping a few bombs to clear enemy aircraft chasing them. No more having to have a full bomber crew to get that rear gun manned. Heck even the pilot can man it by switching to that seat temporarily.
If you’re a gunner or passenger and notice a sudden drop of altitude and lack of forward motion of your plane, your pilot may be missing. Chances are if he’s not manning a rear gun by then, he hit the “E” key and bailed by accident. Don’t worry, not all is lost. Just hit F1 to take control of your falling death trap.
Galaxy drop ships have to land with “C” with their runners showing to be deployed for spawning.

Land Vehicles
Sunderers in a future patch (prob after 8/4/12) will provide an additional spawn point (probably when stopped). You will be able to deploy inside the Sunderer (useful for hot zones).

Weapons
You have to zoom out of your AV/AA missile weapon to reload it.
As mentioned above, in addition to your missile weapon for AA/AV, and your standard issue gun, I think it would be appropriate to include the drop pod in this list as a single shot tactical orbital strike weapon on a 5 minute timer.

Objects
Engineer built turrets can only be accessed by engineers.
Ammo packs dropped by engineers give unlimited ammo for a period of time (anyone know exact time?) to anyone standing near them.
Ammo packs do not dispense grenades.
Control Consoles are hacked by standing near it and holding down “E” until the hack circle timer completes.
Base and Outpost Types
Use your HUD to find things. Terms will have an icon, control points will be marked with a letter. If only real life were so marked with such augmented reality.
Bases and map area colors switch over to your faction if you control all control points at the location, marked A through E at most. Flipover occurs after all points are secure for some time (anyone know the average?)
Any location or control point on the map currently may be hacked.
Outposts do not have spawn points. Bring Your Own Gal (BYOG) if you expect to hold them.
Biolabs can be entered through the transporter at the bottom, and through the air pads at top.
Those bases where you just run around the bottom of looking for a way up into it (amp or tech plants not sure which) can be entered through the transporters in nearby buildings.

Simple Tactics to Stay Alive
Don’t go solo.
Find cover.
Shoot from behind cover.
Avoid griefers. (and don’t grief please! join the other empire you lame-o.)
Don’t stay in the same spot when you’re spotted.
If you’re a medic, for goodness sake rez a body when the area is somewhat clear, or when you’re not a current target. I’ve been in a single team of 4 medics, 1 MAX, and 1 engineer hold a well choosen control point against coordinated enemy numbers far greater than themselves for a good hour.
Don’t go solo.
If you’re an engineer, for empire’s sake drop your ammo pack near MAXes and troop camp concentrations. You have infinite packs.
Engineer turrets are not the be-all of defense. Snipers can and will take you down. Find a good niche or corner to hide the turret in.
Don’t go solo. Run with a friend, or stay with the zerg.
Use natural bodies for cover.
Avoid the Hvar Tech Plant hole of no return.
Do a barrel roll.
Transporters from the ground into a base are usually camped. Try dropping from a Galaxy on an air pad and enter the base through there.
Don’t go out of bounds for longer than 10 seconds.
Did I mention that you shouldn’t go solo?