It's not something people hear about.
WOO HOO!
quote:
A sleep deprived Led stammered:
New Conglomerate troops tend to fight at range. Everyone fights close in once you get inside a base, however.
Lasher! 
(Reading the "Master FAQ")
BTW... just to recap for those who don't know... there are 3 types of MAX armor; anti-infantry, anti-tank/armor, and anti-air.
The three factions, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, follow.
1) Terran Sovreignty. These guys are the machinegunners. All their empire-specific weaponry is chaingun/machinegun/rifle based, with fast ROF and low recoil. They get the repeater pistol (A full-auto pistol with good accuracy), the cycler rifle, and the mini-chaingun. They've got the heaviest armor available, with the Marauder, a heavily armored truck with a rocket launcher on the back, and the heavy tank - the Prowler, which despite what Suchii/Led says, is the strongest tank available.
Their MAX armor suits are able to 'anchor', which removes their ability to move (Or turn too far) but grants them increased rate of fire, and increased accuracy.
2) New Conglomerate. These guys are the shotgunners. Their empire-specific weaponry tends towards shotgun. Their empire-specific weaponry is a shotgun-pistol, the gauss rifle (One of the best rifles in the game), and the Jackhammer, a triple-barreled shotgun that can either fire in sequence or three bursts at a time. They also get a heavy buggy with a rocket launcher but less armor than the marauder, and the vanguard, a very strong medium tank.
Their MAX armor has the ability to deploy a shield protecting them from harm, however the shield takes a VERY long time to charge and drains quickly.
3) Vanu sovreignty. These guys are the high-tech squad. Their empire-specific weaponry is the beamer, an energy pistol, the Pulsar, an energy rifle, and the lasher, which is a high-powered energy cannon. The lasher is most like the BFG from quake 2; when the orb flies out, it 'lashes' (Hurts) any enemies it flies past, and hurts BAD anyone it impacts. The range isn't as huge as the BFG but the premise is the same. Now these guys take a little more explaining.
Normally, there's two types of ammo; normal rifle/pistol ammo, normal shotgun, and armor peircing of each. The good thing about the vanu is they get just one kind of ammo; energy. Their weapons all have built-in armor peircing mode that takes 2 energy cells instead of 1 for normal shots. The advantage to this is faster switch between ammo (No need to reload the gun to switch) and if you get low on ammo, all Vanu soldiers could pick up ammo from fallen comrades and not worry too much about whether it'll be the right type or not.
The Vanu gain access to the Thresher buggy; a hover-buggy that has greater mobility than the rest, and has the ability to strafe, and the Magrider, a medium tank that has a energy cannon/rail cannon thingy, that also has hover, granting the driver the ability to strafe and cross small rivers.
Their MAX armor gains the ability to jump great distances using jumpjets.
Pick the faction best for you 
As for the bolt driver... 2 shots kills any normal armor, 3 or 4 to kill MAX suits, more to kill vehicles. If you're looking for a support role, I'd advise going combat engineer/medic, grabbing the AMS certification, and finding a place in a squad. The fact that you have an AMS makes you the best friend to have for people who are doing base assaults
I personally like the Vanu the best; they have more hitscan weapons making it easier to hit with, their tanks are the best since they can strafe, and they have the common ammo pool. Once the game goes live, I plan on playing Vanu the most. But since nobody else will play the Vanu in the beta, I have been trying to follow my friends. Since finding Led in-game is nigh impossible, I don't plan on playing with her too much anymore [ 04-10-2003: Message edited by: Khyron ]
quote:
Khyron stopped beating up furries long enough to write:
1) Terran Sovreignty.
You mean Terran Republic, right?
quote:
We were all impressed when Led wrote:
Uh, no, Khy, the prowler is most definetly not the strongest tank available
The funny part is I saw a Vanguard and a prowler duking it out two days ago; each one was scoring damn near every hit on the other. VERY few shots missed on either side.
The prowler drove away from that fight. The vanguard was scrap metal
Personally, I'm leaning towards the Vanu - I like their stated philosophy, and their general play-style. Basically, though, I was asking if there's any set "EC faction" that everyone plays.
quote:
Led had this to say about Captain Planet:
Uh, no, Khy, the prowler is most definetly not the strongest tank available
Erm... Technically, on all the listings I have seen, the Prowler has been listed as the most heavily-armoured tank available. It is slower than all the others, though.
quote:
Bloodwraith had this to say about Duck Tales:
so whats the planetside website? it sounds interesting
Edit: Can you make characters of more than one empire? Can only join Auraxis server whenever I log in on, and that has my Vanu character on it. Want to experiment with all the empires, but don't want to delete a character to do so. Also, can you train in the MAX, or do you just have to get certified for it? [ 04-10-2003: Message edited by: Azrael Heavenblade ]
Vanguard has a HELL of a lot more armor than the prowler, and its main gun is 150mm, as opposed to the prowlers 100mm. The vanguard was probably already heavily damaged.However, according to what I've seen, bailing out of a midair unit will leave it hovering, and slowly drifting to the ground. So I don't think one can actually bail out of a kamikaze strike. But still, doesn't exactly matter if you die... so why bother bailing out?
quote:
Led had this to say about pies:
Oh well, Khy, shit happensVanguard has a HELL of a lot more armor than the prowler, and its main gun is 150mm, as opposed to the prowlers 100mm. The vanguard was probably already heavily damaged.
Uh, Led...
The Prowler has TWO 100mm cannons and fires TWICE as fast as the Vanguard.
2x100mm > 1x150mm
quote:
Led had this to say about (_|_):
Oh well, Khy, shit happens
Uhhh...
"The Prowler is the largest Main Battle Tank. Having the most armor for a Tank and a 360-degree capable dual 100mm heavy tank turret, the Prowler is certainly able to devastate many targets in short order. The secondary gunner is able to control a dual Rotary Chaingun which is a small turret stacked upon the primary turret. Naturally the sheer size, weight, and firepower of this tank makes it slower than any of the Main Battle tanks."
That's the Prowler. Heavy armour, secondary weaponry in the chaingun - run by a secondary gunner.
"The Vanguard is the main battle tank for the New Conglomerate. Generally well balanced, the Vanguard brings decent speed, solid armor, and hefty firepower to the field. The main turret pivots 360 degrees and houses a 150mm Tank Cannon. The gunner can also switch to a limited pivot 20mm Recoilless Cannon for infantry supression."
That's the Vanguard. Only one gunner, only one weapon-type at a time. So, technically, a fully-manned Prowler should be able to out-fight a Vanguard. However, the Vanguard has better maneuverability and speed than the Prowler. So, as to which one is BETTER? Depends on your play-style, really.
Currently, the prowler has LESS armor and does a hell of a lot LESS damage than the vanguard. There are people bitching all over about how damn tough the vanguard is.
The prowler and magrider are absolute SHIT right now.
quote:
Azrael Heavenblade probably says this to all the girls:
Kinetic Dampeners, eh? I would assume its theoretically possible to do a kamikaze dive on a base, bail, then run in during the chaos of the impact?Edit: Can you make characters of more than one empire? Can only join Auraxis server whenever I log in on, and that has my Vanu character on it. Want to experiment with all the empires, but don't want to delete a character to do so. Also, can you train in the MAX, or do you just have to get certified for it?
The way it works is you fly over in your galaxy or whatever, hit the 'bail' combo, and your character drops down, lands, and causes some havoc with his guns
The 'kinetic dampeners' is just a fancy way of saying 'glowing blue light that slows your fall'. It doesn't cause any other effects. Also, if you're the pilot, I don't think you can bail.
And it's one empire per server.
And for the MAX... you just certify to get access to it, but I recommend training in everything anyways. It gives you EXP the first time you equip a weapon or drive a vehicle, so training in everything gives you a decent amount of EXP even before you start playing. That's the only real benefit to training
quote:
Azrael Heavenblade had this to say about Optimus Prime:
Yes, I've seen the cert option for it, but where can you train in it, or the air vehicles?!
There are VR training facilities in the "Sanctuary" locations of each faction. You can train with any vehicle or weapon there.
quote:
A sleep deprived Azrael Heavenblade stammered:
Been there, trained with every weapon/ammo combo, along with every ground vehicle, but I couldn't find an option for the max or air vehicles in either. I probably missed a tab or something in my rush to finish my brief foray and get to class, but I didn't see any option to train for those.
Click on the 'armor' tab in the equipment menu in the weapons training section.
As for the air/vehicle training, grab a vehicle, drive to an air pad, and get it there. The only thing I could not find is a galaxy pad in the training area.
quote:
When the babel fish was in place, it was apparent Drakkenmaw said:
Here's the "Master FAQ" - minorly outdated in some aspects, and the only useful thing on that whole stupid site, but rather good to read in any case.
Sweet That actually answered quite a few questions I had about the game.
quote:
So quoth Azrael Heavenblade:
Air pad, huh? Wish I knew what one looked like...or IF I COULD CONNECT TO THE DAMN PATCHER aadnglsnzkgnklahgfklan!!11!!!12!~
It looks EXACTLY like the vehicle pad.
Just grab a basilisk or wraith, and drive to every pad you can find in the VR training center. They're grey squares in your map, so you can find 'em.
quote:
Khyron enlisted the help of an infinite number of monkeys to write:
SweetThat actually answered quite a few questions I had about the game.
No problem at all. Glad to be of assistance.
Still, I haven't had any sort of answer yet - is there an "EC faction?" And if so, which one is it?
So hard to decide! 
quote:
Drakkenmaw had this to say about Matthew Broderick:
No problem at all. Glad to be of assistance.Still, I haven't had any sort of answer yet - is there an "EC faction?" And if so, which one is it?
In the beta, the 'EC faction' is sorta NC. I say 'sorta NC' because finding other EC members is nigh impossible.
Led plays, but she doesn't play as Led often enough for me to be able to FIND her and organise anything.
Maradon plays, but I don't know his char info or even WHEN he plays.
Delphi plays, but same there; dunno char info, dunno char name, dunno when he plays.
Same with JooJoo.
As for me... I'm playing every second I can. If you want to meet up somewhere, contact Khuden/Khumalo/Khrynn/Kharynthia. Those are my four characters. Or better yet... log into EC IRC and ask me if I'm in-game or not. 9 times out of 10 we can hook up and go kill something.
quote:
Super Kagrama had this to say about Duck Tales:
Hmm.. NC to be with my friends, or VS for jumpjets...So hard to decide!
If Drakkenmaw wants to be VS... come VS with me and him
VS ain't as weak as Led says it is. I've gone toe-to-toe with some VS players and got owned, gone toe-to-toe with some and kicked ass. In this game player skill counts for a LOT
I only made an alt named Poit for a bit because someone wanted to try gunning on a Vanguard.VS players are fine, they have the usual assortment of good and bad players just like the other factions. Their empire specific weaponry just aint as strong as the other empires right now though. They can be outshot at long range, and murdered at close range. It is still just a beta, remember. Their anti-infantry MAX, however, owns everything the other empires can field. Mows through infantry right quick, also has an armor piercing mode, AND jumpjets. Although in close quarters the low magazine size on their weapon is more of a hindrance.
I suppose, once we get enough people playing, we could try to come together into one faction and form an outfit. But I don't suppose we could do that now, so it doesn't exactly matter.
*Shrug.* Well, I know who I'm trying first in any case. TECHNOLOGY EQUALS MIGHT!
quote:
A sleep deprived Drakkenmaw stammered:
I'm not one for a "leap in and slay" approach anyways, so I don't think that's much of a problem for me. I just like the story-background for the Vanu. Well, that and I think they look cool. But, in any case, I suppose there isn't any precise EC faction as of yet - though it mystifies me why people aren't supporting the Terran Republic any here. Always fun to play the brutal overlords.I suppose, once we get enough people playing, we could try to come together into one faction and form an outfit. But I don't suppose we could do that now, so it doesn't exactly matter.
*Shrug.* Well, I know who I'm trying first in any case. TECHNOLOGY EQUALS MIGHT!
Are you in the open or the exclusive?
I'll definitely join you on VS when you get in the beta Hell, I'll switch to Vanu tonight I tried talking to Led last night, she was 'Led|PS' in IRC, yet when I sent to Led, Ledd, and Poit, I got 'not online' for all of them. Sooooooo... Off to VS I go
