Community wisdom - collection of the knowledge bombs dropped over the net

[Wolfenswan]

The wiki's far from finished and the official forums don't have any stickies so I thought gathering this stuff in one place might be a smart idea. I'll collect links as they come. Please contribute!

A WARNING though: spending too much time with the numbercrunching and spreadsheets might turn you in a gelatinous blob of whine, spending more time complaining about balancing than actually enjoying the game.

General gameplay
DeVadder's guide to capturing bases

Infantry
Sortable Weapon Data Sheet
Damage and time to kill numbercrunching (use with care)

Vehicles
Prowler/Magrider Comparison
More tank numbercrunching
short video illustrating directional armor
Lightning Guide

Aircraft
ESF Hitboxes (top down image)
ESF Agility Comparison

Bits and pieces

• Steer your drop pod with WASD. If you hit an enemy vehicle you might score a kill

• Sunderers don't take directional damage (with blockade armor they take LESS damage at the rear than anywhere else
• Flash scout radar still works when abandoning the vehicle
• a MAX can resupply/change loadout at an infantry terminal/deployed sunderer
• Medics can revive (but not fix) MAXes
• People inside spawn room shields and horizontal yellow shields can shoot through them, people outside can't
• Delayed explosions (C4, grenades etc) will still penetrate said shields
• Everyone can shoot through the shields protecting the SCU
• Accelerate your ascend/descend in grav lifts by facing the direction you're going and pressing W and either crouch or jump, depending on direction
• Sometimes you can duck under Vanu hovertanks
• the HA shield ability can absord fall damage
• Toggle your laser sight attachment on and off with 'L' or 'T'
• Soft point ammo decreases damage at 10m by 5%, increases at 25m by 15.4%, and decreases it at 50m by 11%.
• Nanoweave 5 gives you 1125 effective health, a 12.5% boost.

​

[Ayam]

That's an interesting set of links but just looking at the ESF topdown comparison made me feel like whining so I'll take your disclaimer and live in blissful ignorance.

[QuantaCat]

Also, the PS2 forums make me ragepost. So I have to close them again.

[Wafflynumber]

No whining allowed. Whining hour is 3-4am on a saturday morning, GMT.

[QuantaCat]

What about adding the station cash ping thread? or has it gone too offtopic?

actually, cleaned it up, so you just need to read the first post.

[Mohorovicic]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...SUVxLWc&gid=12

Full stats for all the infantry weapons, no nonsense like home-made TTK calculations, also includes patch changes, since SOE makes about as good patch notes as it does videogames.

[Sceptrum]

You can change MAX weapon loadouts with no extra resource cost. So if you are stuck with two bursters and no ESFs in the sky, hit the nearest infantry terminal and swap them out for a say, Nebula/Cosmos outfit and go hunting.

[bonkers]

If you equip a Flash with radar it works even when you are not driving it. Parking a flash with upgraded radar around a corner gives you nice additional intel.

disclaimer: haven't tried it myself, read it in the official forums today. there is talk that this might not be intended and subject to change.

[Wolfenswan]

If you equip a Flash with radar it works even when you are not driving it. Parking a flash with upgraded radar around a corner gives you nice additional intel.

I've tried it and can confirm it. More interesting though is if it'll give you the "spotted by" bonus. Any information on that? I've only got the 25m radius radar so I can't really tell yet.

[Mohorovicic]

It seems 90% of players doesn't know this, so here:

Defenders can shoot through the shields of the spawn room, at no penalty. The shield will block direct hit explosive attacks like rockets, cannon shells, etc. but will not block delayed explosive attacks such as grenades and C4.

This includes the horizontal yellow shields, but does not include the vertical yellow shields protecting the SCU - everyone can shoot through these.

[sinister agent]

Is there a way to lock the weapons when driving a sunderer/tank? Let's say you'd like to park your sunderer behind the enemy lines when they're not looking, and some fuckwit jumps in and starts shooting at a rabbit he saw on the other side of the map or whatever. I'd like to be able to disable the guns, or ideally sent an electric current through their keyboard to obliterate their brain.

[Bankrotas]

You know, that you can lock your vehicle?

[Mohorovicic]

People who lock Sunderers can all die in a fire.

My second favourite way of dying in PS2 is spawning next to a Sunderer in what turns out to be middle of a shitstorm and not be able to get in.

(My first favourite way of dying in PS2 is spawning next to a Sunderer in what turns out to be middle of a shitstorm and dying as soon as the game loads)

[EsotericReverie]

Page Down opens the vehicle setting screen where you can lock the vehicle. Also useful for synchronised gal drops! I always lock my vehicles to squad/platoon right after spawn when playing in an outfit platoon. Also turn off the lights with L as a habit.

[MrEclectic]

Also turn off the lights with L as a habit.

Very much this.

Although, some people with skyguards leave theirs purposely on, to lure enemy aircraft in.

Also, you can turn the Laser Sight off with L, but the bonuses to accuracy still apply. Useful when hiding.

[One Pigeon]

Also, you can turn the Laser Sight off with L, but the bonuses to accuracy still apply. Useful when hiding.

Good tip but if this is the case, why ever turn the laser sight on?

[MrEclectic]

Good tip but if this is the case, why ever turn the laser sight on?

When surprised by an enemy, or switching to the sidearm, instead of reloading, I find it easier to keep hipfiring with the LS on. Plus IMHO the crosshairs are not so reliable when hipfiring.

[Wolfenswan]

Is "L" the default button for switching to underslung as well? If not: You can turn on/off the LS by pressing whatever key toggles underslung as well.

[Cooper]

For Vanu (The NC and TR have better pistols by far): It is NOT a good idea to switch to the Beamer if your magazine runs empty mid-fight. (Unless you are a headshot master).

In many FPS games the sidearms work well to switch to if you run out of ammo to finish an enemy off. Do not make the mistake of thinking this is the case with the Beamer.

Unless you are very certain that they are so near-dead that a couple of hits will have them down it is MUCH better to either rush at them and melee if you are in range or sprint away, into cover, reload and return.

In short: The beamer is a pile of purple shite.

[sinister agent]

Yeah, I don't want to lock the vehicle, as leaving people to run for a kilometre is just mean, but it'd be really nice if I could lock the weapons out, or replace them with water pistols or something. Still, it's good to know the locking is an option, that might be useful sometimes, thanks.


One thing I didn't know until I'd been playing as an infiltrator for about a week is that they can hack enemy terminals by standing in front of them and holding E (by default - the 'use'/enter vehicle key). This can seriously ruin the enemy's day.

As infantry, you can sometimes duck under the Vanu's hovertanks. This can let you escape their attempts to run you over or escape their notice when they come over the hill, but more importantly, it's very funny.

As a heavy (or any infantry with anti-tank weapons unlocked), watch the passenger count of enemy tanks. Heavy tanks with only one person in can't use both guns, and you can easily outmaneouvre the main gun if you're up close.

The heavy's special shield can absorb falling damage.

Most rifles can switch to single shot mode with the B key. This is particularly useful for the NC, whose high power, high recoil guns are otherwise poor at long range. It can also trick the unwary into thinking there's a sniper around.

Grav lifts cancel out all falling damage - you can use them to launch yourself off a tall base and suffer no damage when you land.

You can steer your drop pod. If you hit a vehicle on the way down, you'll usually kill it, sometimes without dying yourself.

When in a vehicle, you can switch seats with the F keys.

When you spawn a MAX, it will have health roughly equivalent to your current health. ie: if you're in the red and go to a terminal to become a MAX, you will still be at death's door. To counter this, switch to a Medic first, and use their healing field (F) to heal up before you spawn the MAX.

Terran soldiers smell of wee.