Sweet, just got accepted to the Planetside Beta.

[Slaughter]

*jumps up and down with glee*

*crosses fingers and prays*

[Widowmaker]

I'm bound by the NDA so I can't tell you much.

The servers have been very unstable, they seem to crash a hell of a lot under load. Currently there are usualy 1100+ players when the server chokes up. From the chat I've seen it was much stabler before they added my lot in and they are working it out, I expect that will get much better soon.

I'll also say this. You guys are going to love the game. Read the website to get a feel for the different factions, they each have strengths and weaknesses. Certs are important too for access to equipment, you can not be a master of all so far so choose the role you want.

I'm probably breaking the NDA but I will say the graphics are not spectacular, somewhere between Tribes 1 and Tribes 2, the landscapes are pretty though. If the servers stay up from the battles I have seen... wow. Two wishes I have are for naval units of some sort and bomber craft, there is a ground attack craft though. Of course who knows what they will add in the future. The WWIIOL world is much larger but Planetside works.

The MAX armor (Planetsides version of Heavy) is very very cool, and scary if you are against them.

Each faction has some equipment unique to its side and there is some equipment that is common for all. The Terran Republic prefers machine gun type weapons (chainguns and such). The New Conglomorate prefers slower firing but heavier hitting weapons. The Vanu Soverignty usues some alien technology so their special guns are energy weapons that seem a little weaker than the other races but their energy guns have a built in armor piercig ability and their heavier ground armor are hovercrafts and can strafe as well as go across watter to a limited degree.

I can say no more or the NDA gnomes will pull out all my nose hair.

[Slaughter]

*whispers*

add me to the list of AKers in beta of PS

*jumps for joy*

[[AK]Palooka]

I got in, as well. Just have to wait for the CDs now.

[Widowmaker]

Weee, I have strep throat this week (been out since Monday realy) but Planetside has been non functional. The last patch they released Friday messed everything up. The servers were down from monday till late yesterday. I have no idea if they got everything working right, they were trying to address the server stability problems.

Since my lab test came back positive for bactirial strep throat and I am pumped full of penecillin the hostpital (I went to the emergency room on Tuesday just because I did not want to wait for a doctors appointment) wants me to stay home. They said I am contagious and should avoid going out for a couple days (48 hours after treetment I should be non-contagious, when symptoms start to fade they said).

Anyway, got some time to kill so I'll go see if the servers are up. I am hooked on this game, it may replace EQ for me. Nice that it does not require the super reflexes most FPS do since I am slower than I used to be.

[Widowmaker]

Figgures, the bloody server is down for "stability improvements". Man, if I can ever play this game for more than an hour without a server crash I will be in trouble. Since I've only been able to play in short spurts (because of server instability) and I am as hooked as I am it will be full addiction when this thing gets stable.

Heres, hoping they have all the issues worked out before you open testers show up. Man, 20,000 new beta testers in your group and the server chokes with 1000 people on it now. Could be ugly, but if it works it will be grand.

[Slaughter]

aye, hope it works out well.. sounds as if its gonna be an incredible game..

Raven Shield is holding me over for now though.

[Widowmaker]

Well, they have gotten a lot of the server issues worked out. The main server is having its database software upgraded so it is down till further notice but they opened up another with the new database software. I have been playing for hours and just got dropped. It is laggy in many places but that could be due to the logging they are doing with the new code they just put in. When the regular server comes back it is said to be better. Even with some lag it is realy not that bad due to the Rainbow Six style "Cone of fire" system. I actualy like it even though we don't benefit from precise hit location (headshots do not do more damage, aim for the body). The hit system is good and bad but it eliminates a lot of cheezy stuff (like everybody being a sniper) and allows those with slower reflexes to compete. I've gotten used to it and with the gameplay it is a fine system.

I actualy got into some squad combat tonight. Squads in this game are the equivalent to groups in EQ, right down to having armor and hitpoint status of group members and group speak. Outfits are your basic "guilds", guildspeak and all. Squads share xp and everything.

Experience is a cool feature without the treadmill feel of EQ. Right now you get a lot of XP for taking a base (or inviting that solo stealth guy that just hacked the base into your squad, then you all still get the thousands of experience points... 100 to 200 for getting an infantry kill). You then level up with Battle Experience Points, you get one certification point (certs are like skill points, you buy access to equipment with certs) per level. In beta right now we all start at Battle Experience Level 10, when the game is live you start at 0 with 3 cert points. For reference the ability to use the machine gun armed quad runner (the Basalisk, common to all empires) costs 3 cert points. You could spawn that and be stuck with the default weapon and armor till you level up. Right now starting with BEP level 10 we get 13 points at character creation. I am going to hate having to choose with only 3 points. With 13 points I still have a small limit to what I can drive or weapons I can use but that is enough to specialize in one or two things with aenough left over for something fun to drive.

I believe the max BEP level is 20, but I can't confirm that.

Then there is Command Experience. We start with 0 just like when it is live. This dictates the number of implats that you can have. With 0 level I can have one implant. I normaly choose the Darklight implant, when I toggle it I use a small amount of stamina (none when crouched) it drops my veiwable distance to like 10 meters or so but then I can see those invisible infiltrators that sneek by and hack a station out from under you. Useful in defending the command console (where you hack to take a station). I believe you get more implant slots, up to 3 maybe as you get command levels. You get command experience by being the leader of a squad (group), never done it myself. Not sure if there are any other benefits of command experience.

I expect some of the gameplay stuff will be tweaked.

By the way, I am into the Terran Republic right now. Kind of fun being the Evil Empire, besides I like the red detailed look and the Heavy Assault weapon is a mini chaingun, very nice with both regular slug and armor piercing ammo. I like it better than the new conglomorate's shotgun (NC is the blue team). Those weirdo alien lovers in purple on the Vanu Sovereinty I have no idea about. Never realy played them much, I'll have to try them out someday, their weapons look cool... right before I die.

The NDA gnomes are scratching at my screen again. Got to go get the can of raid, they won't get my nose hair without a fight.

Don't tell anyone where you heard this stuff =)

[[AK]Squidly]

What are the penalties for dying?

[Widowmaker]

As far as I know the only penalty for dying is time to get back to battle (and not much time, nothing compared to WWIIOL). No XP loss or anything, death happens too often for them to penalize it more.

[[AK]Squidly]

That kind of puts a kabosh on the whole role-playing element. IMO anyway...

[Widowmaker]

There is no role playing element. Some character management with the whole cert thing. But certs can be "unlearned" but it takes 24 real hours for the cert point to be released for use again so whatever you choose to cert in can be changed.

And I just read we may get 4 certs to start with, that would be more useful. And the level cap may be higher than 20.

It is Tribes in a MMO FPS sense. It does not even pretend to be an RPG

[[AK]Squidly]

Of course it isn't a pure RPG, but it has the RPG element of being able to boost your abilities via a point system.

The problem with a system devoid of penalties is that eventually everyone will be maxed out.

[Slaughter]

Really if you look at it there is not real penalty for death in EQ anymore.. there is one character on brell, a cleric, that has an item that has CSR on it (100% Rez) and most clerics have their epic, or have 96% rez.. so you never really lose a whole lot of XP.. and by 65 the 4% of XP you would lose would easily be gotten back.

[[AK]Squidly]

That's one (of many) reasons why I only played EQ for a week.