Planetside Beta

Kevok

Well, was gonna write this yesterday but didn't have the time but better late than never eh?

Got into the beta through the fileplanet 'exclusive' download. File was 1.3 Gigs so 56kers and even ISDN peeps beware. You *need* 512mb and 1gb swap space for the install, and even with that it will bring your computer to it's knees. The file decompressed impressively to 2.6gigs.

You get your beta key from fileplanet when you are installing it, it's basically a cd-key. Install took about 40 minutes altogether.

First time loading it, and it's time to download the patches, and again, several hundred mbs so best to set it going before going to bed or something. You login to the SOE server and your met by the in game server interface where you choose a server to play on. You are advised to choose the server that has the lowest ping, my lowest was 200ms, which to a west coast US server isn't bad by any means. Beside the server is a series of icons, and this indicates which race is in the most need of players. Vanu Sovereignty was the one in need when signing up to the Dalton server so i chose them. You get an EXP bonus as a result. +1% for me at the time.

You then 'customize' your character. This is by far the least configureable MMOG ever, but after getting in to the game you understand why. Basically you just choose a face and accent for your character, there are dozens of faces and 5 speech sets.

You then load into the game, doesn't take long before you spawn in a regen tube for the first time (you'll be seeing them alot ). Training, is weird, you have to actually teach yourself alot of the basics before you even make it to the training. When you leave the respawn base in the sanctuary (no fighting can occurr here), you and look around you see green shafts of light above various buildlings, these indicate places you should visit.

I went to the closest one and that was the training building. You go down a series of ramps till you get to the 'warp room' where your transferred to the VR room. Here you can try out any vehicle in the game and/or you can try out all the weapons. It's pretty cool, but you never get shot at so it's a bit pointless. You do get EXP for using all the weapons though.

After leaving i decided to get stuck right in, so i went to the HART terminal. The HART is a ship you board that goes into orbit then drops you down almost anywhere in the world in a drop pod.

When I went to the building there was a timer above the door that indicated when the next one was leaving. One had left just a few minutes before so the lobby was empty. I decided to spend my first four cert points at the terminal i saw by the wall.

There is a decent list to choose from. Weapons, equipment, vehicles and Armour (MAX armour looks really cool but i haven't tried it yet). I bought medium weapons and the infiltration suit (lets you cloak).

I had spent ages choosing so i wasn't quite prepared for what i saw when i turned around. There was at lease 70 people in the lobby waiting for the HART. No lag, and frame rate was still good, so far so good.

After everyone pouring into the shuttle and a short flight up, you are presented with the map screen. Best part of the whole game IMO. The world is split up into continents, with warp gates connecting them. Each continent has a series of bases that must be captured.

The map indicates by means of an icon where battles were taking place. There were litterally hundreds of them going on. I was told were to go by a friend who was beta testing already, apparently Esamir, a continent recently locked by the Vanu (locked means every base captured and the only way then the enemy can invade is by dropping in (no vehicles or galaxy dropships). was under massive assault and in danger of being unlocked. This is bad i was told.

So I dropped down at Dagur, a technology plant and made my way north to the base were the battle was raging. It was incredible, dozens on both side were fighting outside, we had vehicles but they were being destroyed by rocketeers on the muontain, I decided to try and take them out. I got one, but another took out his pistol and killed me.

When you die, you are brought to the map screen where you select where you want to respawn. You can respawn at the sactuary, a base under your control, or an AMS (advanced mobile station). I chose the base under attack.

After 20 secs i respawned, but 20 seconds is a long time, and in that time several enemy soldiers had infiltrated the base. They where heading for the control center (hacking this transfers control of the base to the hacking race).

The battle raged for at least 20 minutes before the control center was successfully hacked by the enemy. This is a disaster as we lose the use of the ameneties like respawning and building vehicles. So when we died we had to respawn at Dagur and it's a good 4 minute run from there to the battle. Plus, once hacked you only have 15 minutes to hack it back or control is transferred and the continent unlocks. So where they were dropping in through drop pods, they were killing us and sending us way back to dagur.

Eventually we became the attackers as the were defending the base against us rehacking it. We didn't get it back, and the continent became unlocked.

At that point dozens of galaxy dropships (player driven vehicles with mounted guns, that can hold people and vehicles, think pelican from Halo) came through the warp gate and headed for jarl and Dagur.

All this happened on my first night playing it. It was hugely fun. I was playing it a while yesterday too and it was just as fun (Esamir is now locked by those attackers, but we got Ishundar )

I'll talk a little more about it later, if you want to ask questions just post here and I'll answer them.

Oh btw, the minimum specs are 1ghz 512mb ram and 32mb graphics card, but it was running fine on my p3 866, if on the low detail setting side.

Dooom

yea i was thinkin bout dlin it but ive only got a 56k (hopefully dsl soon!). my specs are 2.1ghz amd 256ddr and a radeon 9700 pro, will that work? i mean those specs are pretty damn high for minimum....
oh and what connection do you have? and is there anywhere else one can download it?

Kevok

You don't want to play with 56k, that much i'm sure.

The lag compensation is the best I've EVER seen, I regularly spike to 400ms in the larger battles (100 or thereabouts) but you still shoot *at them* and not ahead of them.

With 56k, it would be unplayable, you would need at least dual channel ISDN.

The specs are grand, i have a p3 866, 512mb ram, and a 32mb gf2 gts and the frame rate is at least 60 (1024*768, max draw distance everything else low).

Oh and you can download it on the p2p programs but you'll need a valid beta key to play.

Dooom

hmm. ah well....at least i'll be able to play star wars: galaxies. i thin ill give it a try tho. i mean whats the worst that could happen? (aside from the computer blowing up for some reason or the unbelieveable lag causing some sort of glitch in the matrix...)

Thorbar

Nice review kevok keep em coming you lucky bastard.

Are there any player run guilds/clans in the game or is it all controlled by in game mechanics ala the realms in DAOC?

Furez

Its Quite playable on 56k. Not saying its great but most of the time its fine. Better than say BF1942 or CS on a uk server.

Furez

Nemesis

I presume Kevok was playing on a server in US?.
56k would be fine on a server in Holland.
Should get 150 ping easy.
DemonBaby.

Kevok

Theres a new East coast server called Emerald. There are no Euro servers as of yet.

Anyway to the East coast one i get a 100 ping so i assume the ping for a 56k will be about 200 - 250.

Ping isn't the issue with PS, it's bandwidth, ISDN is the recommended minimum, and the devs themselves said that 56k people would have huge issues when it goes to general release.