TR and NC last night

Did anyone who was on last night notice how organized both the TR and NC were?
They kept their zergs together and sent out their advanced forces to take outlying bases without prejudice, if they couldn't take it they just kept on coming until the main force arrived to back them up.
I also noticed that is wasnt just TE or Goons but several other outfits working with them. If this is what going to be happening with more regularity, w may want to get more serious with the Vanu alliance, because we got pushed around pretty hard last night.

 

It's like the smaller Outfits just hang out with the larger ones and fight for the greater good of their faction. I've noticed the NC is particularly organized a lot of the time. People are starting to get super organized, for sure.

 

I think a key element to this problem on the platoon level is regular leadership. For many(myself included), leadership can be a burden. You don't get as many certs, it's tough to make calls without regular(or too much) intel, and you can also feel responsible for the amount of fun(i.e. kills) the group is having. But if people don't step it up regularly, even on the squad level, then people won't be inclined to follow them.

If people see regular squad leaders that follow the platoon leader's directives or take the initiative and make up their own objectives they will be inclined to follow them even if they don't always succeed. When I'm (hiding silent) in a squad, I always do my best to complete the objectives of the squad leader or platoon in the best way that I think I can help. If I'm not, I always let people know what I'm doing or where I am and why.

If people see that the rest of their group is bunched up together on the map, they're going to be more inclined to be a part of the group than the odd man out. So my advice? Squad leaders set objectives, say it in squad chat. Squad members, watch each others' backs but follow the directives and stop worrying about your kdr so much. It's that mentality that leads to platoons breaking down. When these things are done, our platoons rock and man for man we're just about a match for twice our numbers. When we start to slack and people start drifting off without saying a word, we fall apart. It takes a few seconds to type in what you are doing in chat, and even less to tell a leader.

On the Alliance level, I've been making it a point to friend those I see as competent on the Leader channel. Things are in the works. Expect good things.

 

This. 1000x this. I know I'm guilty of it, most of us are. Daredevil is 100% correct. We need to start working more as a team and less like pugs. If you want to work on your own, might as well be a pug.

Yes I understand there are times in the early morning when basically all you have is yourself, that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking full platoon status. If you aren't with the squad, on the platoon/squad waypoint, or trying to get there, you're doing it wrong.

 

I didnt want to say too much because I wasnt a member, and still kinda new, but I'll give my point of view here from a fresh set of eyes out of a different Outfit (Spectre)

1. First and foremost, is comm chatter, there are times to bullshit and times not to bullshit on the Comms. Problem is a lot of guys cannot figure out when they should and should not chatter and constantly are running their mouths when people are trying to call out an enemy position or an officer is trying to give orders. I cannot count how many times I've heard Jaamaw try to give an order and was completely cut off by someone talking about something that has nothing to do with the op at hand.
Maybe its because the outfit from where I came from was extremely strict about comm chatter, and the fact it was a small unit with a lot less people, but when an office tried giving an order and he is being stepped on by someone yelling about their 5 man grenade kill, it really is discouraging and frustrating for everyone trying to hear the order and the officer trying to give the order.

2. Following the platoon, as Phragg and Daredevil stated above me, if you're given your marching orders to goto a bio lab or amp station. Go there!!!! dont sit at some obscure listening post and bitch that its overrun by TR and you need help, its not where you're supposed to be to begin with. I got to admit its pretty discouraging when we are told to go somewhere and I see numbers of people all over the map, and nowhere near where the position they are supposed to be. I can understand if theyre pugs, or even fliers, but the rest shold be at or in the vicinity of the active waypoint.

3. Calling out enemy positins correctly.
" Massive TR Zerg ON ME" !!!!! does no one any good, now if you give a direction or a position on the map, like the following "Massive TR zerg Northwest of Seabed listening post" that is what the leadership looks for. use your minimap for direction as well, it has a compass on top, its not hard to figure out. Generally I hear a lot of good communication on calling out enemy positins, but sometimes a someones mind goes blank and this is usually when the bad call outs happen.

4. Troop transportation drivers....
I saw this last night and it wasnt the first time either, why the hell are the Sunderer drivers leaving to the next waypoint with empty Sunderers, while there are still troops on the ground. I cannot express my frustration enough when I try running to a Sunderer after capping a point to see it leaving me behind and its only 2/12 and there are another 8 guys still in the base behind me looking for that same Sundy. Is it really so important that you get your Sunderer to the next point so quickly? Its only going to get blown to hell if that base is full of enemies and you have no one to defend it. I give 100% Kudo's to those who actually do sit back and wait till the Sunderer is full or at least till all NNG/Platoon members are loaded up, then take off. If you're leaving platoon/squad members behind, well you're doing it wrong, and not helping your team one bit.

Overall my experience with NNG has been awesome, you all are freaking awesome, and I am really enjoying my time here so far, there is so much talent gathered here it amazes me, some of you guys and gals have a skill level that far exceeds anything I would be able to keep up with .
With that all being said I am sorry if I come across like some sort of eletist prick on this post, but I see such potential here, and a lot of it is squandered by poor communication, lack of discipline and lack of situational awareness.

O.K., old man rant is over

 

Not one bit.

 

Here is a snapshot of how organized we are and what we can do to fix it.
When we were getting together the airstrike of Scythes, it took us like 10 min to get everyone together.
IMO this is unacceptable. Every second counts.
When the squadleader says, everyone get to WG and get in your Scythes. It shouldnt take people more
than 1 minute to get it done.
Simple: stop what you're doing, redeploy, get in ur jet, park it at the R-point and wait.
Takes 30 sec to redeploy, another 30 sec to switch ur class, get in ur jet and fly over to the R-point.

I'm not taking shots at the leadership at all, just trying to help and contribute.
This is something that we need to work on and the sooner the better. This is something that I have experienced couple of days ago with the air squad, but I'm pretty sure that on the ground it plays out the same way.

When we're told to get back to WG and get into Galaxies, the whole getting together thing, again, shouldnt take more than 1-2 minutes.
Those who are left behind can always grab an air vehicle and fly over to where the Platoon is headed.

Being organized when it comes down to simple shit like this goes a long way.

 

A couple of things I noticed the last few nights.

1. Don't bring 30 people to cap an undefended small outpost when you could be in 3 galaxies really pushing the line capping 3 at a time.
2. Just because you aren't on the front line fighting the zerg does not mean you are wasting time, usually the opposite.
3. Sometimes things go badly. Sometimes you get run over by the zerg. It happens. Dust off and move on. If they make you frustrated and log off, or break your organization they have won.

 

I'll jot down a few things that we've learned over in EVE. Granted, combat in EVE is more about position and ambush then straight out slugging matches, and EVE combat moves at a slower pace (sorta). You can spend an hour or more getting your fleets in position to trigger the ambush, then it's all over in 5 minutes. But when two equal sized fleets are jockeying for position, there's a lot that goes on during that hour.

1) More alignment of squad membership with purpose. In EVE, you will find (2) versions of fleet composition. The first is where each squad has a balanced set of forces (tackle, electronic warfare, heavy tackle, damage dealers) so that each squad can operate independently. The second style sets up special squads for each role. (Or a hybrid style where the first few squads are balanced around tackle/DPS, then your scouts and e-war are in dedicated squads.)

- One of PS2's problems is that very few people know how to move between squads.

- In EVE, re-shipping to a different hull requires that you go back to the station / supply point and get a new ship. So the role that you pick tends to be fixed for a long time.

- Squad advertisements need to always say "NNG (squad) (purpose)" (and maybe the continent name). Such as "NNG Alpha Indar Infantry" or "NNG Delta Armor" or "NNG Charlie Air" or "NNG Bravo" (for an all-purpose squad). This would help with NNG members being able to find the squad that fits their style.

2) We make heavy use of written "squad" chat for squad commanders (SCs in EVE parlance) to keep track of their squad. Members are encouraged to keep all banter in squad or fleet chat, not voice comms. Typed chat is more difficult in a FPS because of the control scheme and the constantly changing tactical situation, but not impossible. Also, in EVE, there are no colored dots on the map that tell you where your fellow squad members are at, so the squad needs to be told where to move to, what the next waypoint is, where the rally point is, etc. So on the subject of squad-level communication:

- SCs need to decide how they are going to use their squad waypoints and then communicate that to the squad. Do they designate them as rally points? As next-objectives? As "stand here" points?

- Grunts with clear orders (where are we going, what are we doing when we get there, when are we moving out) are happy grunts.

- SCs need to herd their cats and keep track of them.

- SCs need to prefix voice commands to their squad with the squad label ("Alpha", "Bravo", "Charlie", "Delta"). In EVE ops, you will always hear "Alpha Wing - do XYZ", "Fleet - setup OGC on gate X", etc. In PS2, this easily translates to commands like "Alpha - rally at squad waypoint" or "Charlie - Defend northeast side" or "Delta - Sundy is on northwest side of C"

- I'd argue that the squad waypoint should be kept either on the objective or the rally point. Wait until we're all in the Sundy / Galaxy before moving the waypoint to the next target.

3) Common terminology, communication and coordination

In EVE, if you tell someone to "OGC" a particular gate, it gets done. Everyone knows that means you stay within jump range so that you can pursue any force that jumps to your gate and goes through, or that you can immediately jump out of things get hot. If you tell someone to JOC or "Jump On Contact", they know that as soon as they land on the gate, they should jump through to the over side. Commands which are critical where the fleet needs to move as one are always repeated 2x or 3x, such as "Fleet - JUMP JUMP JUMP". If someone says "BREAK BREAK", all voice chatter is to immediately cease.

- PS2 is slowly evolving a common terminology, but there's room for improvement. Terminology needs to be clear, concise, and not easily misunderstood over bad voice links.

- In EVE, you always prefix your voice chat with your character name / nickname as well as the channel name if you're talking to a special channel. Such as "Scrapyard to Command - We have large fleet at XYZ". FCs (fleet commanders) are usually exempt, but they prefix all fleet-level orders with "Fleet - Prepare to do XYZ".

- Timing of Gal drops is something that needs to be worked on. If we're doing a Gal drop, then the grunts need to be prepped with "Alpha - Drop in 15", then "Alpha - Drop Drop Drop". Best to just use Proximity Voice Chat for this. Same issue with Sundy deployments, as most of the time the grunts aren't sure if we're there yet.

- Timing of hot-drops needs to be worked on. Right now, we straggle in because some people go as soon as its called, while others of us are still trying to wrap up a firefight and/or get to a safe point or are waiting on a rez. If you're going to hot-drop a platoon, then you need to start with a 2 minute warning so people can get ready. Then a 15-second warning where everyone pulls up their map. Then the go-signal.

- Standard set of voice chat keys (not actual mappings, but a list of which bindings you must have). Such as you are required to have: one key for talking to the current TS3 channel, one key for speaking to command in TS3, one for proximity chat and one for squad or platoon chat.

 

The massive organized zergs are from inter outfit ops working as one whole, whereas when we do inter outfit ops we are split to make the NC and TR numbers thinner in areas making them weak and easy to kill. I don't know if you guys said that already, your stuff is like essays and I'm no Winter break so I'm skimming things.

We don't need to fix much about our ops other than communication, I agree that is annoying. There have been times where Jaam gave me platoon and I would give orders but people keep talking over me so rather than snap and yell at everyone, I would place my way points that I have said and when people ask where it is I would give them the response of "If you were listening to me, you would know where to go now wouldn't you?" I know sometimes I have spoken over lead but I would apologize right after because that was just a timing issue.

The other thing that needs a fix is people going to the way points. Just like above when people would ask I give that response. Another thing with the way points is people need some logic before asking if the way point is updated. It irks me when I move the way point and someone asks if it is up to date. If we use some basic knowledge and notice that it is not over the most recent fight, odds are that it is up to date.

We also need people moving to way points. If a new command is given and you or your squad does not have specific orders, get you ass to that way point. There are very few excuses that will fly. Excuses like waiting in a vehicle queue, repairing vehicles, fighting a pocket of enemies along the way, or they are trying to ninja cap the last point or a point on the way. Those excuses are the only ones that should fly. None of this well I think that the other bio lab is a better choice, SLs and PLs have taken that thought into account and made their decision either because it isn't worth it, our zerg is headed that way, or there is a TR/NC fight over that point (We don't like taking on a three way fight).


Right now I am sitting in TS listening to the little chatter going on and I am hearing more callouts than I usually hear.

"On the roof, we need to get closer." "Oh shit, there's a line of Prowlers headed towards us from the front." "I just got hit, can someone get eyes on?" "One on my tail." "Infiltrators down" "Friendlies to the left, East" "Do you have a shot?"

These are the call outs I want to hear more of what I want to hear, it gives information and none of the useless bullshit. The meat of the situation and no fat. Yeah there's some celebration over a 12 man kill but it dies down withing 15 seconds. Seriously, it makes me wish my parents had better internet so I could play with no nonsense (yeah I just worked our name into this).