Let me tell you a story.* I received a call on leader only voice channel, requesting urgent backup, the base our allies were attacking got reinforced and they were quickly getting pushed out. So about 20 of us dropped what we were doing, and loaded up into Transport Aircraft. And flew a couple kilometers in the space of about a minute or so because quick reaction was one of our specialties.* We then dropped on a position our friendly unit marked with coloured smoke. Thanks to our quick response, a second later it would have been too late, we stopped them getting pushed back by flanking the enemy units. Routed that wave of enemies, and pushed nearly onto point.* After a slightly protracted engagement securing a foothold. We let loose a coordinated grenade volley, frags, flashes, anything we could find. Disrupted the enemy just enough that we could do a coordinated breach on the position. Secure it. And hold out for a couple minutes tooth and nail, reacting to coordinated counter pushes from the enemy, rushing our flanks, putting up smoke screens, and what have you.* Knowing they weren't going to push us off point. The enemy shifted focus, and brought back in buses they could deploy and use as spawn vehicles, in order to mount a cohesive longer term counter offensive. The couple vehicles they deployed down at the bottom of the hill weren't much fuss to deal with. But the one on the high ground was dug in like a tic. Snipers. Anti Tank Weaponry. Machine guns blaring. The first couple pushes on that position failed.So we got creative.* And by creative I mean employ something we practiced in our weekly training sessions. We got into our badass armoured exosuits with shotguns on the arms, and a deployable energy shield on front. And used the technique we had practiced for quickly leaving cover and forming up into a shield wall formation. Calling out to our friendly's to join us. The friendly commander,[PG] Kane101, who I had a long history of working with, immediately sprang into action. With his about 40 something trained men quickly getting behind our shieldwall to use as cover, and another 20-30 less organized random friendly's providing covering fire from vehicles and the facility as we advanced on an enemy position with at least our equal number in it, if not more, angry as all hell and letting us know about it. Anyone who ducked out from behind our shield cover died immediately.* We'd push about 10-15 meters, hold and reform (I assigned someone about 10 meters behind calling out when the formation started breaking up and making adjustments). Occasionally duck to let our friendly's shoot over the top of us and pin the enemy down. And repeat. Our allies screaming at us in appreciation and bloodlust the whole way as we kept comms discipline, listening for callouts. Halfway up we had to pause to Rocket Volley a Vehicle that tried rushing us to try and run us over.* We eventually worked a hundred to a hundred fifty odd meters up this steep hill. Until the enemy spawn vehicle came into sight. We paused. Some of us ducking at random here and there, 3 seconds at a time, to allow our friendly's to clear out some of the infantry suppressing us. Soon we paused our ducking and coordinated a rocket volley with our friendly units. We all ducked at once. And about 15 rockets all sailed in unison, hitting and destroying the enemy spawn vehicle. We stood back up. Advanced another 20 meters in unison. Then dropped our shields, and started unloading with the shotguns on both arms, cleaning up the remaining infantry as our allies charged in.* I can still hear the sound of 40 mad bastards hooting and howling at us as they used us as cover. It's one of the really visceral memories that stuck with me from this game. Amongst a thousand others.This was just an average 20 minutes in Planetside 2 for me.I did this sort of thing 10 times a day for over six years.I've seen 200 men fighting over a rock. 4-500 fighting over a base. I've seen armour columns so big they stretched to the (in game) horizon. Air wings a hundred men strong. Last second Air Drop heroic's you wouldn't believe in an action movie. Combined Arms slugfests that lasted literal days. Huge player made bases sieged and overrun, cover by cover. I've participated in competitive teams made up of hundreds. I've trained hundreds of men. I've mentored dozens of leaders. I've made and lost more friends than I can count. I've held positions outnumbered for hours on end. You name it pal. I've seen it. Done it. And had it done to me.Nothing comes close to this game.Honestly, it even helped me grow as a person, I attribute it to me discovering my love more military history and theory, reading stuff to learn how to lead better ended up in me just loving to read about the subject, and still read about it nearly every day. I attribute me teaching people how to play better with me discovering how much I've found I love to teach people and help them grow, and have become a teacher in other aspects of my life since then.If I'm honest. The community isn't a shadow of what it used to be. There's not 1% as many competent leaders as there used to be. Most of the top skilled players burnt out and moved onto something else. You still get the numbers, they just aren't as organized and trained as they used to be. And fights aren't as bitterly contested as they used to be. But hey. Some of us like me have been playing since May 2012. Burnout was inevitable.BUT.Things are on the way back up. The population is growing again, and there are dudes out there putting in work to provide a fun environment for people to play in, and to teach them how to improve. One of my buddy's makes it a mission to train a new leader 'every single week' for example. And even though, in the eyes of a salty vet, it's a shadow of what it used to be. It's on the way back up. Outfits are starting to get big again There's starting to always be well run squads 24/7 again. Things are on the way up. And the best days of Planetside 2 are very potentially in front of it. Especially if you get in there and 'make it happen'. Because at the end of the day. It's a Sandbox game on 64 square kilometer maps. And being a sandbox, gameplay lives and dies on the backs of you and me. So get in there and get stuff happening.Nothing comes close to this game. Nothing. Nothing can approach the scale, the experience, the perfect gunplay, and the pure camaraderie that I saw in this game. It's so far ahead of it's time it's a joke.If you can focus on not just what's in front of you like you do in most FPS, but the situation around you as a whole, having to constantly think tactically, and you have the attention span required to learn and progress as a player. Play this game.And ask questions. Us salty veterans are always willing to help. And pass on the lessons that took us years to learn ourselves.Play this game.-EDIT:Also. Here's some settings you can paste into the 'useroptions.ini' over the rendering section to get maximum framerate out of the game, if you're like me and don't care about looks, and just want smooth tracking. https://pastebin.com/ankMQUfS You will also want to generally put your aimed mouse sensitivity way down. Because of the high time to kill, tracking and minor aim adjustments are more important than snap shots. I personally use like a 20+cm aimed 90 degree at least. But basically just observe yourself and tune it over a week or whatever. If you're moving your mouse too much lower it, if you're moving the mouse not enough, increase it. It comes down to personal preference but generally speaking lower is better.Also, stick to cover, 3-4 round bursts, small downwards motion when you shoot to counteract high initial recoil modifier, headshots do double damage so a bodyshots are as bad as a miss against good players. Always strafe left and right when you shoot. And if you're gonna lose a 1v1, RUN AWAY TO COVER (zig zag sprinting)