PlanetSide 2?

[Reven]

The guy that said "ignore The Crown"? That guy is all different kinds of right. Some nights I just don't play if it seems like everyone in my faction is bashing their faces into The Crown. God damn.

I recommend using engineers for cert-farming early on. Dropping ammo packs into heavy assault bundles just dumps EXP on you, and you can help out MAXes when you're not shooting dudes. The heal gun upgrades, C4, anti-tank mines, and sunderer upgrades (especially the spawn point) are good early investments. Night vision and reflex sights are pretty useful. A lot of infiltrators like swapping sniper rifles for SMGs, and light assaults will typically switch over to shotguns (though some like carbines with grenade launchers or SMGs).

Whats wrong with the crown? Some of my most memorable defenses were there. Surrounded by both factions. No adjoining zones at all, just me and about 100 people against what must be the entirety of both factions. Aircraft zippin overhead. Tank rounds slammin into everythin. Engineers desperately tryin to keep stuff repaired.

Then out of nowhere, blam...massive drop of enemy infantry because they got a spawn beacon we didn't see. Now they're inside and we're tryin to fight them off. Yay, we succeed! Except now we've lost time and the enemy tank divisions are pushin in. Now we have a problem because our air support got wiped out in the chaos. Doesnt matter though, we fight on!

Pushed back almost all the way, suddenly out of nowhere we get relief. 2 Galaxies full of troops break through the enemy air as they're distracted with eachother and land an entire division. Its enough to push back the infantry assault for a moment, but the enemy tank divisions are still bearing down on us. We give it our all, but between the tank divisions and still not having any air on the field we eventually lose The Crown.

Best hour and a half of that game I've ever had.

Really Planetside 2 is a game of what I like to call moments. 90% of the time you play its pretty bland. Couple people to fight here. Small division to fight there that you overwhelm without much issue. Defense at a base with you and 3 guys against an entire company. Its fun, but not nearly as entertainin as other options.

The other 10% though? Its stuff you'll remember for a long time. Massive battles. Bullets flyin everywhere. Tank shells slammin into everythin. Aircraft zippin around. Missiles everywhere. Its just, crazy awesome.

I'm fairly new so i had to look up what the crown was, and holy crap!!! One of my best memories was taking that place XD Running in as infantry surrounded by tanks as enemies rained fire down on us, it was epic

 

[Rad Party God]

If Battlefield style shooters are your thing, then you might enjoy it, plus, you need a quite beefy machine to play it.

Personally, I don't like it.

 

[Joccaren]

Planet Side 2 piqued my interest... anyone here playing it?

Did, stopped till now, may be resuming once a friend gets a laptop. IMO its something you need friends to play and enjoy, but that could just be me - I hate Internet randoms, mostly 'cause 99.95% of them are complete idiots.

If yes... is it an enjoyable game?

I don't get why people ask this sort of question. If you want an answer, the only correct one is "If you like its style of gameplay, its enjoyable", which tells you nothing. I found it alright. Not greatly enjoyable, not unenjoyable either. It had its moments, but also a lot of boring downtime. Part of it was probably the fact that its an MMO - and as such everything major requires a bunch of people to do. Don't expect to be able to stealth capture bases with your small team of friends, even if there's no enemies at all there. It'll take way too long. Anywhere from 10 minutes for the smallest bases with pretty even ownership, to 3+ hours for large bases with no friendly ownership - no matter whether enemies are there or not.

Would you spare a few sentences describing it?

In a word, overrated, but so is everything these days. Its a game for people who like spectacles or guilds, but if you'd rather play in a small group and care more about the gameplay than the scale of it you're less likely to be impressed.
Your first time driving out of your main base and over a bridge whilst 30+ aircraft fly overhead towards some far off battlefield is nice, however.

I saw it's F2P? How's the model handled? Intrusive, all the goodies need to paid for, good, bad...?

Its a meh kind of model. Its there, you don't really notice it though. Anything that needs paying for is in no way necessary, but unlocks take so freaking long you'll wish you could pay and unlock them. Well, some do anywhere. There are a lot you'll unlock nearly instantly, but any weapon - unless you're playing well and earning 50-100 cert points a day - will take you forever to unlock. Once you get the hang of how to play they don't become nearly as intimidating a cost in cert points, but they still take a while to get.

Is the learning curve steep?

Yes and no. The actual skill level of people playing the game is rock bottom. 90% of them are lemmings that will run into your bullets and die, and can display no independent thought at all - and each and every one of them is a graduate of the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy. You'll be lucky if they can actually hit their target most of the time, especially if the target is a Light Assault and just jetpacking around everywhere. A base known as Crown on the primary continent is all the proof I need of this [Its been described already, but basically its one of the most defensible bases in the game, in the middle of the Indar continent, and as soon as a nation gets territory adjacent to it, all the noobs from that nation will charge at the crown at literally just get mown down by the defenders. I've been there and seen over 200 people die in a minute thanks to their lack of though beyond running at the base with everyone in it and tanks and defences and shit, and hoping they'll win. It takes a somewhat organised platoon, or a well organised squad, of people to turn it around and give the noobs a chance of victory].
Most of the learning curb comes in learning how to fly [Its less intuitive than a number of other games make it], and learning where you should be and what you're doing, as well as which territories not to bother with, and you should be able to get the hang of that rather quickly.

How are newcomers treated (provided they are willing to learn) ?

Depends. I can't say anything about how they're treated in guilds or W.E they're called in Planetside, but if you just play the game you'll be 99% ignored by your teammates, no matter your skill level. Largely because your teammates are noobs who try to do their own thing independently and think its a good idea to have 20 people huddled up at a capture point so close that one grenade takes them all out [I have done this before. Its kinda sad]. This means you'll be run over a lot by vehicles, as they don't care who's in their way and will just run it over to get where they're going faster. The people who'll pay the most attention to you are your enemies, and that's 'cause they want the points from killing you. I have seen maybe 3 chat messages in global chat the entire time I've been playing since I left the main spawning hub - there's always some chat I ignore going on there. Out in the field the most you'll get in the way of speak from non-friends or guild members is some random walking by with Gangam Style or W/E playing into his mic as local speak or something.

Are you enjoying yourself?

Yes and no. It had its moments, not common enough for me. More people I know would make it more enjoyable though.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

The guy that said "ignore The Crown"? That guy is all different kinds of right. Some nights I just don't play if it seems like everyone in my faction is bashing their faces into The Crown. God damn.

I recommend using engineers for cert-farming early on. Dropping ammo packs into heavy assault bundles just dumps EXP on you, and you can help out MAXes when you're not shooting dudes. The heal gun upgrades, C4, anti-tank mines, and sunderer upgrades (especially the spawn point) are good early investments. Night vision and reflex sights are pretty useful. A lot of infiltrators like swapping sniper rifles for SMGs, and light assaults will typically switch over to shotguns (though some like carbines with grenade launchers or SMGs).

Whats wrong with the crown? Some of my most memorable defenses were there.

The problem with the crown is how many of my most unmemorable attacks were there. The place is a god-tier fortress, and I'm totally cool with that, but it seems like every god damn day, half my faction is trying and failing to take the place human wave-style. Spending three hours trading rocket and tank valleys, advancing and falling back over the same 200 metres or so, while skeletons crews are trying to defend tech plants and retake biolabs? Fuck that, man.

The crown is a great defencive position and I really like its design. I just wish there wasn't this bizarre fucking biological imperative to OMG THROW MORE BODIES AT THE CROWN NOW! any time we have adjacent territory.

 

[Drizzitdude]

I was actually really dissapointed with Planetside 2, the core elements of infantry combat is well balanced, but this is completely irrelevant due to the fact the game is 90% vehicles. Vehicles are incredibly powerful and have little draw backs in terms of resource consumption, due to this fact people will just buy vehicles and create massive armored columns simply because there is no reason not to do so. This completely hampers any hope of a lone infantry soldier or even a small squad doing much of anything in these big fights simply because your face completely overwhelming force.

Imagine battlefield 3, at least in here a lone infantry soldier who pays attention is quick on his feet can sneak past enemy armored units in order to place c4 on a vehicle in an fortified location. Now imagine you are no longer facing 1 tank, but 40 of them (not kidding) all watching each others backs and scanning for targets. Now imagine, that they may also easily have 20-30 air vehicles providing support on top of that.

Any little moving spec these guys see is instantly shredded into a million microchunks by the sheer amount of firepower they can put downrange. Even if you do manage to get some sort of explosive placed on a tank, chances are it might not kill it, and chances are even higher the person driving is an engineer who will simply repair it while in the meantime his gunner (and the gunners of the 39 other tanks around you) will make you immediately regret your decision to place said explosives.

During the few times there is light vehicle support (1 or 2 tanks and a few air vehicles tops) and a massive infantry battle, the game is extremely fun and satisfying, with flanking, pushes, and stealth strategies being very rewarding to those who think outside the box. The sad part is, this nearly never happens simply due to fact vehicles practically cost nothing, are capable of extreme force and recharge quickly without ever having to purchase an upgrade.

IMO: Vehicles need to be balanced or there might as well not be infantry at all.

 

[Candidus]

I picked it up a little while ago and played it until HDD constraints forced me to choose between it and a certain MMO client.

It's an excellent game. I choose to look upon it as a spiritual successor to BF2142 as much as I see a sequel to Planetside. It's got the fidelity and 'feel' of a Battlefield game, with all the awesome of a futuristic setting and Planetside's unique scale on top.

Give it a try.

 

[Drizzitdude]

[/quote]

They are already doing that. Planetside 2 has changed a lot from its first release.

Secondly, the only people who should be going behind enemy lines are infiltrators. You never try to solo it. Tanks are no longer the invulnerable killers they were at launch, they are now shredded by the Dalton gunships. Which are shredded by fighters. which are shredded by the AA because fighters are glass boats now.

You need to be actually good at being a fighter pilot to not die immediately.

I have tried playing this game just now after reading this, it is exactly the same. Vehicles still completely dominate the game and infantry battles are 90% throwing as many grenades or shooting as many rockets as humanly possible.

To stress my point I made a fresh character just to test the imbalances.

First off: The only method of reliably destroying any form of vehicle as an infantry soldier is by using the heavy assault, this will only works for armored tanks however and only ones that are solo or in small groups. The second you fire that rocket you become target numero uno.

Secondly: New players have no form of anti-air whatsoever. This means that you are literally just going to run out and die against enemy air vehicles hovering with rocket pods.

Third: Vehicles are still inexpensive resource wise, and have short cooldowns considering you can dominate with any one of them for a good hour if you have half a brain.

Fourth: The game is completely pay 2 win, attempting to gain certs through regular play and without farming kills with a vehicle is joke.

I could go on but these are just some of the glaringly obvious issue I have with the game.

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Engineers and LAs can fuck up vehicles all day every day, man. New players can use MAXes as AA, and all light arms can do at least some damage to empire-specific fighters.

 

[Bostur]

PS2 can best be described as an open world multiplayer shooter. And as far as F2P games go PS2 is very good. Thats not to say it doesn't have problems though.


- is it an enjoyable game?

I like to play it occasionally. I think it's the type of game that is most fun to play in small amounts. It gets a little tedious in the long run. But since it can be played completely for free this isn't really an issue.


- I saw it's F2P? How's the model handled?

The F2P model is mostly comparable to World of Tanks. You can get anything for free by playing (with the exception of some of the aesthetic items), but it will take a long time to get everything. Starting gear for infantry classes is very good, and new players can certainly hold their own. Minor improvements for infantry can be earned quickly. For aircraft and vehicles the start equipment is pretty bad, but new players can still play around with the vehicles and fill in relevant roles. Some of the most essential vehicle upgrades can be earned quickly though.
There is a system in place for trying out upgrades before buying which can be very handy for newbies.


- Is the learning curve steep?

A typical new player experience will be something like the following:
You get a short awesome briefing. Get dumped into the middle of a warzone and will die horribly.

Hopefully that first death will also be hilarious. It takes a while to get used to the game, and it can feel confusing because of the many types of tactical situations that arise and the many available options. Some new players will probably learn quickly and others might find it hard to get the hang of it. It might be a good idea to check out some guides after the first few hours of gameplay, but the game encourages learning as you go along.


- How are newcomers treated?

As meat in the grinder along with the vets, everyone is equally doomed. PS2 feels a lot like a traditional shooter. In the heat of battle no one really cares if you are new or experienced. More grunts are usually always welcomed in a battle. One thing to keep in mind is that friendly fire is always enabled, and people don't appreciate getting shot in the back or run over by one of their own tanks, so check your fire and look where you are driving.

Outside battle the community seems very friendly and accomodating. Some outfits are probably very hardcore and elitist but there are also casual laid back outfits. It seems to me the latter is the most common, but your mileage may vary. As a newbie I don't remember getting a hard time at all, and the enemy seems to appreciate the easy kills. ;-)


- Are you enjoying yourself?

I almost always have a good time, except if I happen to be on at weird times when there is little action. PS2 lacks somewhat in structure, so I think it helps to play it sandboxy and add a little roleplaying to the experience. A little creativity in the approach to playing can do wonders to the enjoyment. Making some short term goals and doing a little planning before engaging can help.

 

[Drizzitdude]

1. You NEVER run out alone unless you are an infiltrator. Who can go in stealth. You stick with a group, which most likely has an AA max somewhere. Which you can also get.

AA maxes were buffed so much even a one hander AA cannon can run through a fighter in a single clip. A double hander can keep and entire legion off your back. A group of double handers, which are common, can deny air support for a large swath of land.

You aren't meant to be a rambo shooting down fighters and gunships with a stock pistol. Unless you stick with a group, you will be shredded. Stick. With. the. Armada. If you don't you will be shredded faster than the cop at the beginning of robocop.

2. Again, if you aren't a heavy assault,Engineer, tank, ESF, Liberator, or a MAX then attacking tanks is not your role. Secondly, you fire at the BACK of a tank, where its engines are. If you fire at the front or sides, all it will do is bounce off the armor.

Which can be upgraded, but only a section of it. If you so side armor, front and top are vulnerable, etc. Stick. with. your. role. Don't try to be a one man army, because this game will not support any of your "i'm a badass" ego.

3. No, because an uncerted vehicle cannot dominate anyone who has experience.

A stock mosquito vs. the pro stock scythe? Shredded. Because the pro will know how to aerial tricks that the new pilots can only dream of. And the vehicles all handle differently.

"half a brain" domination is a joke unless you are running against other stock ESfs with players who just began today.

4. I know players with infiltrators, the slowest class to upgrade, get 100+ certs a day and manage to pay off for a fully certed ESF off the back of his sniper. Certs aren't that hard to get if you know what you're doing.

You say "glaring problems" but all I see are complaints from someone who played for 5 seconds, and rage quitted. Short cooldowns? Any uncerted respawn timer is long as hell. No AA? You obliviously know nothing of the AA max or how you are practically required to be in a group, which are almost required to have an AA option with them. Not to mention the many AA vehicles that drive around with zergs like the skyguard. You can't take down a tank unless you are a class that is MEANT to take them down? No shit, that's the point. Tanks have gotten less frequent since the gunships came along and killed the tank columns with their daltons.

Anyone who has played PS2 for more than 5 seconds can see this. If you are alone and are that greatly outnumbered from a zerg, you shouldn't even be there in the first place. The same rebuttal new ESF pilots get when AA defense at the crown shred them immediately.

1: Who said anything about the problem being with solo play? A group of players are just as easily dominated by higher level, higher tiered players simply because they have no form of reliably anti-vehicle measures. Unless a player happens to find out where the majority of the action is chances are they will be stuck fighting at bases that are requesting reinforcements or zones listed as hot on the map. In these situations you will find yourself completely outnumbered and outgunned by the opposing force. While the max suit is nice, it doesn't offer reliable anti-air support as it is quickly found and focused down in most situations by anyone smart enough to realize it is the only threat on the battlefield.

2: I suppose you have never had to face an enemy armored battalion while on foot, it doesn't matter whether you want to fight the tanks or not they sure as hell don't care, if they see you, you can bet they will shoot you. And unless you have the massive manpower at your location to have everyone switch to heavy and try to take them out at once, good luck to you. Otherwise you would be better off picking a different spawn rather than trying to defend a base you have no hope of defending.

3: What are you responding "no" too? The part that vehicles are inexpensive or that people can easily get away with camping while hovering with rocket pods, because either way your continuation into aerial battle tactics has nothing to do with my statement. Of course the more experienced player would have an advantage (not only with tactics but upgrades as well) where did that response even come from?

4: Since when did I say I was trying to take down a tank with a medic or infiltrator? Since when did I even say I was new to the game? Your stupid relentless rant is filled with nothing but ignorant assumptions based ony your own part. I have been playing the game since the beta, I know game tactics and in no part of my post did I ever mention that someone should be able to "rambo",become a "one man army" or be able to fulfill their "I'm a badass" ego. So fear not fanboy, no one is trying to ruin planetside with some kind of COD mentality and you have no need to protect it with such zealous ferocity. So take a good breath and chill out to have a reasonable discussion.

The problems are a simple matter of balance. A fresh player has no way of countering the massive vehicle presence found in nearly every server, AA is restricted to the max suit (which varies in starting use depending on the factions) and even then it is extremely easy to focus down or outmanuever. Anti-armor capabilities are limited to the use of the heavy assault (with the starter launcher being generally weaker and more inaccurate than later models), use of c4 (which has to be gained through certs) or through other vehicles (which to a fresh character will be undergeared in comparison). Take this coupled with the fact finding the main battle and the main body of your army can be challenging you are left with scattered groups of new players who find themselves fighting overwhelming odds against a vehicle threat they have no chance of pushing back.

 

[Shuguard]

it's a fun game, it's F2P and it has a bit of a learning curve. But it can be a great warfare experience.

 

[Drizzitdude]

1. I have been playing since launch, and you are saying that your group has no AA and no AT measures? And you complain that fighters and tank kill you?

Its like running out with a knife and getting mad you got shot by a sniper. You either had an incompetent team, or are completely lying.

I have yet to find a team that incompetent. What faction are you using? The only ones who would be camped that hard are the NC, but at least they have the 666 devil dogs who quickly turn the tides practically every day.

How can you not find the turrets at every single outpost and fortress? Which were buffed? How do you not see the legions of skyguards? The AA maxes that accompany every single attack and defense? The legions of AA vehicles, and the people who manage to shoot down a ESF with a tank?

If you stick by a zerg, and stick near the actual buildings, you wouldn't find a lack of AA The only way you can b steam rolled that badly is if you are playing a server with its population stacked to one side. On Connery, I see no issue.

2. I play infiltrator. I sneak right by tank columns with very little issue. Very few had the certs to upgrade very much. Much of the time, they are noobs who just want to spawn tanks and be with everyone else. Just like the air fights. The times I see tank columns they are almost immediately scrapped by a horde of dalton gunships or around when my faction has low population.

Which brings me back to my original reason people get good at planetside 2, get into a good group and piggyback on the success of the group. You don't NEED to be good, you don't NEED to have every gun. You just need to be at the right place at the right time. The map has been updated to show where everything is through those flashing explosion dots. Its right there.

3. You said "anyone can dominate with half a brain" when that's not true. A lot of the serious ESF pilots have a lot of skill, and a lot of rebinding. It isn't as easy as you think. Rocketpods are getting less and less popular, and people are moving to Daltons and the Zephyr gunships. Where their camping is brought to an abrupt end by fighter pilots. The only people who use pods in the big servers like Connery are the people who travel around and pick off the people wandering in the middle of nowhere with no group, or picking the very few enemies around an already over run location. Now you have to fight for your air space, which means anyone who doesn't have rocket pods AND the 2nd tier AA gun for the ESF won't be able to dominate shit. Even then, they will need armor and frame upgrades to not be shot down by other ESFs.

So lets look at the price of a normal pod ESF.

Rocketpods: 1,000 certs or 7$.
2nd tier AA cannon: 250 certs.
Armor: 230 Certs for the 3rd rank. Minimum, since AA maxes are common and will shred you without it.
(Vanu, hover) Frame: 300 certs for the 2nd rank. Minimum, without it you'll be slow, and have the agility of an elephant and be shot down within a second.
Flares: 100 certs. Without it lock on rockets will destroy you the moment one sees you.
Acquire timer: 341+ certs. That's just for the 6nth timer, which is still slow. If a noob or griefer slams into you, you still have to wait a long time for your ESF.

Total cost for a bare bones pod ESF: 2,221 certs. NOT counting the upgrades to the weaponry themselves or the engineer class's repair gun.

Sure you can pay 7$ for the pods, but without anything else you won't last a second in the air. It takes a LOT of effort to pull all this together. You can't just waltz in and get everything without playing a lot. You can't just buy your way to victory because a gun without the other upgrades are useless. If you spawn it, it will be destroyed right out of the gate and you'll have to wait a long time to spawn another glass boat.

Rocket pods were nerfed to hell unless its other vehicles or you can aim well while being shot at. They are almost useless in an air fight, which now you really have to look out for. They are much more common now. I seen old school podders hover around and get blasted by a Scythe because they thought no one fought in the skies. The entire attitude of flying has changed drastically.

Podding has been replaced by the liberator.

As for tanks, rocket pods have gotten more effective against vehicles. Their original intention. Daltons are almost one hit kills, weeding out any non-serious non NC tanks out there because it will reduce them to 25-10% of their original health. So rocket pods and the Dalton are tank bane. On connery, big tank columns are incredibly rare and only show up when a big guild like the 666 devil dogs come out to play.

So tanks are not the imposing threat they once were. ESFs aren't either. The liberator replaced both, and you can see those things coming a mile away and are the favorite target for ESFs. But this won't matter unless you are in a good team who don't throw caution to the wind.

A new player has to piggyback on the zerg/squad/guild or befriend a veteran. It isn't as bad as you say.

AA is abundant.

Tanks are not that scary anymore unless its a zerg, which mostly only happen when the other factions have low populations or a big guild calls a "waaaagh." In which case there will be another opposing zerg that is pretty easy to find on the updated map.

Once again you are getting way to into this argument, chill out. I am not complaining that "on noes a tank shot me hacks" or whatever twisted version you have yourself believing I am trying to portray. I am simply stating that new players have little form of defense against vehicles in any situation where they are not mindlessly standing in the middle of the zerg.

While it may be easy for you as a player, with a large group of reliable teammates with given roles to have fun in a game largely based on rushing a targets with overwhelming force (which you can see why)it is in no way the same for a fresh player with an auto-assigned squad or (even a small squad of 3-4 people on a teamspeak channel) to fight against an amored column driving into their base (smaller ones of which have no defenses)

Anyway seeing as it would appear we have completely hijacked this thread for the most part I say we let the rambling argument lay down for a bit. You obviously have your opinions speaking from the perspective of a player who is in a large guild and participates in large battles where both sides have massive firepower, I obviously have mine spent from trying to experience the game with a fresh alt following my random squad about. Anyway, if you want to continue the argument do it in messages where we don't have to take up half of someone else's thread who is just trying to get people's general opinion on the game xD

 

[thesilentman]

It's a good game. Just make sure you have buddies you can play with and you're set. Oh, the entry processor for this game is any i-processor from Intel. The game makes my hardware cry like a little ***** way too much.

 

[janjotat]

Since everyone else ninja'd me I'll stress that you have to join an outfit. Find one that suits you and your play style. The bigger outfits tend to create massive fights everywhere you go, so there is almost no downtime.

Remember there is currently no server hopping so, once you make a character you are there to stay.
Preferably find a server with high population. I'm not sure but I think Matherson, Connery, and Waterson have the highest populations.


JOIN THE TR and maybe the enclave while you're at it?

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Played it and really enjoyed it. However as I never managed to really get a decent size group to play together my interest has wavered somewhat.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

I've been playing regularly since release. The game really is something special. I don't think there's another game quite like it out there on the market in terms of its sheer scope.

If you do play, I recommend you get a couple of friends to try it because the first few hours are the hardest - the game has a steep learning curve and there's no tutorial. Play around by yourself to get the ropes, then find a good outfit on your server and join up, because the outfit scene is a totally different game. Cert gain is always slow to start with, but don't get discouraged - the better you get at the game, the faster you'll get certs. I have nearly 2k in my bank right now and I've certed into three classes and two vehicles.

A lot of people say it's pay-to-win, but they're talking out of their ass. The cash shop is basically identical to TF2; you can unlock weapons with cash or certs and the weapons are all sidegrades, with one or two infamous exceptions like rocket pods. The reason it turns people off is because the cert prices for new weapons are often very high (~1000 certs) and cert gain is slowest when you're starting out. The thing is, there's always a set of weapons that are much cheaper (~100 certs) intended for new players. Paying money really just expedites the process.

As for the team-play, the best way to look at it is to see yourself as an individual unit in an RTS. You can't go tearing through tanks on your own, but team up with some buddies, get a platoon, and get an actual strategy going and the game really opens up.