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1: NC

2: NC and TR

3: NC, TR and Vanu

[Darkening Kaos]

[font==24pt sarcasm]

I want to buy camo-scheme for my tank that is composed of bright red, blue and purple patches.

That'll bugger 'em right up.

[/font]

Fake Edit: Damn, the font change has stopped working, I'll leave it in just in case it mysteriously starts working again.  And some people should know sarcasm even when it isn't bloody obvious.

[SalmonGod]

particularly when you don't have a statistically significant advantage drawn from it.

Statistics:  Like I said before, I've been mainly playing infiltrator, and I trialed a couple of the 1000 cert sniper rifles.  You can look at statistics of your performance with each weapon in the game.  My accuracy doubled.  This is vs the cheapest bolt action rifle with the 12x zoom scope attached.  I couldn't even attach a better scope to the trial weapons.

On a slightly related point: Like all games with progression, you get exactly as much out as you put in. If someone is concerned that they're not progressing enough because they only play a couple hours a week, I don't think it's out of place to question why the hell they're playing a FPS (of all things) to unlock shit rather than to have fun pretending to murder people.

I've played about 30 hours for 495 cert points.  So basically, you'll get a 1000 cert weapon in a month if you treat the game like a part time job.  I am playing it for the massive battleground FPS experience, not for the progression.  That's exactly why the progression is an irksome feature.  I do decently well for myself in the game, but I frequently encounter situations where I'm stuck thinking, for example, "Damn... I'd really like to do something about the crushing death raining on us from above, but I haven't paid $10 for a weapon that has any chance of hitting a moving aircraft."

Yeah, it's not literally Pay-to-Win, but it is definitely Pay-to-do-much-better (or put in a few hundred hours to round out a single character on a single server with a limited selection of choice upgrades).

[Knight of Fools]

The only game I've ever felt did F2P nigh-perfectly was Blacklight: Retribution, and that was because of the ability to rent weapons and upgrades, in addition to buying either of them all out. Renting is something all F2P games should incorporate, because it allows you to both try weapons and weapon combos, sink extra points into weapon you like but can't afford to make permanent yet, and stay on par with people who simply went out and bought everything.

In PS2, I finally earned a total of 1000 Certs after about 50 hours of play - Including messing around, AFK'ing and such. Now, if I hadn't purchased a single item during those 50 hours, I could have gotten one of those really expensive weapons... Only to discover that it didn't fit my play style. (Note, this is purely theoretical. I did buy a bunch of stuff between then and now, and I don't regret any of it.) With a rental system, the problem of spending 50 hours of game time to earn a single weapon you end up disliking is a poor choice rather than a design flaw. Heck, with good rental deals I'd accept seeing 2000 cert weapons, and you know I'd work towards making my favorite weapons and upgrades permanent.

PS2 certainly isn't P2W, but folk who pay are pretty far ahead in the arms race compared to free people, simply because freeloaders like me can't earn the equipment they want to stay competitive (Or at least feel like it).

It doesn't help that the game totes everything as a "side grade", yet requires you to play the game as a full time job in order to get weapons that are, in theory, on level with other weapons.

[MorleyDev]

It's more pay to use a weapon better suited to your desired play style. The bolt sniper rifles are more accurate and handle range better but lack the fire rate of the default.

[Knight of Fools]

You can sure mess stuff up with semi-auto rifles, though. In the middle of a large field with lots of fire going along the fronts, people sitting back are expecting to take a few stray, weak shots. When your first shot doesn't take down their shields, they assume you're not a sniper and don't react as fast as they should - By the time they realize they're in trouble, you've taken their head off.

One of the reasons my TR guy has such a high K/D ratio is one hour played as a sniper defending The Crown.
_{The other reason is that TR is OP.}

[SalmonGod]

Fire rate only helps in mid-range encounters where most machine guns seem accurate enough to outclass you anyway.  Having spent hours with both, it doesn't feel like fire rate makes up for accuracy loss at true sniper ranges.  When default takes 2-3 shots to kill, the bolt-action takes 1-2 shots, and people start evading after the first shot either way, I'll take the bolt-action.  The devs seem to look at it the same way, considering every max cost sniper weapon I sampled was a bolt-action, it took the same number of shots to kill, and the only balance between them seemed to be between minor tweaks to reload/firing rates and accuracy.  I'll take the accuracy every time, because shot:kill ratio seems to trump everything, unless you're planning to go sneaking into a base.

Blacklight did nail the F2P balance perfectly.  All the weapons did feel like true side-grades.  Many games boast such a balance, but that's the only game that really felt honest about it.  The rental system was great.  Giving you free trials of stuff when you leveled was great.  The rate at which you accumulated stuff was great, while still offering enough variety to keep you busy collecting for a long time.  You always had something new to toy with, while rarely feeling like you just flat upgraded.  It was also the most polished F2P game I've ever seen in terms of gameplay and production quality.  It's a shame the title seems to have failed.  I played it a few nights in a row before picking up Planetside 2, and there were never more than like 30 people on total across 5 or 6 servers.

In PS2, I finally earned a total of 1000 Certs after about 50 hours of play - Including messing around, AFK'ing and such. Now, if I hadn't purchased a single item during those 50 hours, I could have gotten one of those really expensive weapons...

I've spent about 300 on all the cheapest upgrades for each class and vehicle.  Anything under 30, plus a couple 30 point items.  I also bought the cheapest unlockable sniper rifle, and the deploy ability for the Sunderer.  It's all made a very noticeable difference.  That could be because I've been playing FPS since 1994, so I have a decently fine-tuned feel for them.  I've also favored snipers in any FPS that offers them since the Future vs Fantasy mod for Quake in 1996.

[bluejello]

well, to be honest you can rent a weapon for 30 minutes every 8 hours or so.  but yea, I play for a couple days and have gotten around a 100 certs,

and yea, red camo makes it obvious that you are indeed on the enemies side, and makes you easier to see... cinda missing the point of camo.

I am not  a good sniper, I spend way to long lining up my shot and only get kills if the person is standing still or I get somewhat lucky.  glad that NC has a bolt-loaded by default.

[Neyvn]

I hate sniping. I get kills when i shouldn't and don't when i should.
TR sniper sitting below me while I am on a hill, crouched there forever. I aim, I aim, I HIT THE HEAD... He not dead. He turns and knows exactly where I am somehow and shoots me in one hit... Don't think he was hacking though, prob just took a good guess but still, damn it all...

[martinuzz]

Why are people talking about Blacklight Retribution in the past tense? Last time I checked (about 2 weeks ago), it was pretty much alive. And I agree, it's rental system is a good thing. Unfortunatly it does not have the massive scale battles, that PS2 has.

I don't think PS2 is is P2W. I do agree however, that it takes too darn long to earn those 1000 credits. It took me almost 2 weeks of hardcore gaming. And since I spent a few hundreds on essentials, like Sundy deploy and resupply, and a shield for my vanguard, I'll have to play a bit more before I can buy one of them 1000 credit gun frames.

[darkrider2]

I ask one question and ERMEHGERD P2W!!!

Just wanted to make sure it wasn't a bug or someone trying to fraud me. k thnx.

[justinlee999]

Quit your whining, THIS is the real pay2win.

[Siquo]

Just noticed a TR engineer move across the landscape, walking (or "lagging") at 200 km/h. Managed to one-shot him with my magrider though.

Killing cheaters is just SO satisfying

[Werdna]

If I unlock a weapon, does it unlock for all classes that can use it?  Ex:  Pulsar C, which can be used by the Engy and the LA.

[TheBronzePickle]

It did in the beta, dunno if it still does but I think so.

[Silfurdreki]

It still does, I can use my unlocked GD-7 (I think) carbine on both LA and egnineer.