(Oh god, The Crown)
Damn it TR! Why do you love that place so much!?
I played the original Planetside and played most of the beta and then a few months of release for PS2, but I stopped playing since I wasn't a fan of what they'd changed from PS1.
I played in a fairly large outfit (Immortal Serial Killers) and was regularly leading 30+ people a night before I stopped playing; I think that's definitely how you can get the most fun out of the game. You don't have to be leading people, but playing in a large outfit with everyone on Teamspeak (or your choice of VOIP software) is the way to go.
I played Vanu medic, which is probably a class you'd only want to play in a team as randomers (lovingly named "the zerg") are idiots and don't stay dead for you to revive them, or still enough for you to heal them, meaning you end up pretty useless in a fight.
For just starting out I'd suggest going for Light Assault. The jetpacks make things a lot easier and since you'll be dying a lot anyway, the lack of armour isn't a massive disadvantage. I'd also suggest certing into your Empire Specific Fighter to bring down the respawn time a little and get better weapons for it because: 1) It helps you get around the map, 2) dogfights are very fun and 3) you can farm quite easily to get a decent amount of experience.
As for getting new weapons, whilst I was playing I felt it wasn't necessary. I didn't upgrade my medic weapon and never had a problem getting a decent kill:death ratio (if that's what you're into). However since I've not played in a while I'm not sure if they've changed the weapons much now so that you have to get new ones or risk being at a disadvantage.
