PoE2 Rant

[B. Clawhammer]

Como se dice "Defense"? Does the word "defense" still exist? The last few nights being on the German team have been horrible at best due to the lack of defense at CPs. It's like lemmings going from one flag to another. I have a suggestion: Once you take a flag, how about clearing the area out? How about making sure there isn't opfor within the vicinity before going to the next slaughterhouse? How about looking at the min-map and assessing where to make your next move before moving out with the rest of the herd?

There were numerous incidents last night alone where practically our whole team would be at a flag, and that flag would still go neutralized!! My squad would go back to capture it, with the other squads completely oblivious to the fact that the flag just turned neutral. WTF? If you're gonna SL, I'd suggestion you pay better attention to what's going on rather than what squad is ahead of you in points. You and you're squad aren't gonna get any ribbons or medals for best squad, so start playing for the team the way it's supposed to be played here at TG.

End of rant for now. Discuss/criticize/whatever....

[derdmeh]

you know you're preaching to the choir (i.e. only in situations of utter chaos do my squads or the squads I'm in leave a capped flag, except when Viper is in charge). but, that said:

i favor giving one squad leader additional commander powers, such as assigning objectives and dropping supply crates. if only that were available as a function, then the admins could whale on people who weren't following orders. BaneII, for instance, could command and SL with ease.

Tempus's suggestion allowing SL's or everyone to see the objective markers for the other squads might also work at least as a HINT that there even is a team objective.

[tau_neutrino]

Yup, last night was horrible. Blueberry patches all over the place. It didn't help that on air maps Ukraine had all the pilots. Very poor gameplay.

[Rick_the_new_guy]

Sorry about the poor gameplay going on lately.

Perhaps there is a TG SL pledge thread we need to break out.
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Another idea:

Maybe have a couple of people from differnt in-house squads start a Squad Leader NCO club (wiki) were there's a roster of SLs who take a pledge to do the things you described.

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Another idea is make PoE2 passwored more than it is. Sat and Sun it is open to the public, but in the evening hours everyday it is password protected.

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Another option would be running a script were all players must join a squad with the TG tag SLing. Not possible tech wise, and more work on the CO and admins. Of cource this would require more TG stepping up to the position more.

These are just ideas. Brainstorming if you.
There appears to be poor gameplay going down with 2142 and BF2 lately.

[Beatnik]

While I agree, unfortunately I really don't think the people that need to read that post (hard charging pubbie SLs that don't ever defend) visit our forums.

[Rick_the_new_guy]

There has been some talk about weakening the CO position with PoE2 here and making the SL more powerful of late. I do not get it. This seems illogical. Of cource I have not played PoE2 for some time.

Originally Posted by derdmeh

i favor giving one squad leader additional commander powers, such as assigning objectives and dropping supply crates. if only that were available as a function, then the admins could whale on people who weren't following orders. BaneII, for instance, could command and SL with ease.

Actually this can be done with the current set up.
As long as the player fullfiles all the duties of the CO, they can have at it. Espically on infantry maps.

A player can be the CO and still command a squad. The player who is the actual SL would be considered the Assistant SL and would o.k the orders given from their SL (the CO).
This would really work well if a in-house Squad were using teamspeak. That way they can of cource communicate with those in their squad.

Granted the hard part is making sure your CO duites are finished before grabing your rifle. Hard to do with air support maps and tanks.

Why the PoE2 developers went this long allowing the CO a piss weak position is beyond me. You know it is bad when a community into tactics is having discussion about getting rid of the position.

IMO, it all goes back to BF2 vanilla. Zero communication is needed to get the job done as a CO. I played plenty of FCW games were I just worked the CO assets without saying a word and the team won with ease. (after a while of no one talking, I stopped talking also) No way that happens on the TG tac mod.

Enter PoE2, very little assets. Players gained zero experince points in vanillia with regards to communicating (CO and SLs), threfore, the CO is worthless. No one takes command, poor gameplay.

[icky]

Well we are kinda back where we started with PoE. We get 1 squad full of TG and then a scattering of random folks. If you want "other" squads to behave a certain way, you are going to have to split those TG squads and take leadership. Otherwise, you just have to enjoy the game the way it is.

[Rick_the_new_guy]

Originally Posted by icky

Well we are kinda back where we started with PoE. We get 1 squad full of TG and then a scattering of random folks. If you want "other" squads to behave a certain way, you are going to have to split those TG squads and take leadership. Otherwise, you just have to enjoy the game the way it is.

This is a good point.

In Armed Assault, I am trying to get the players that are on-line now to be ready to become NCOs and Officers when the UK version hits this spring and all the fresh recruites start pooring in. We must have a sound NCO team devolped before the "rush".

With more of a sim style of gameplay (sometimes no respawns, ouch!), this will need to be made more so than in the BF games.

[Gman]

Unfortunately, any restrictions you place on the server will decrease the population. Unless you have enough TG people or faithful followers, you still have a need to fill the server.

I know it was tough for the Germans last night. I was with the Ukes and saw the game from the other side. On at least 2 maps, we had [TOC]Naxalone (pang) as commander. He was on Ventrillo with us and helped our squad tremendously. He also worked the whole battlefield, but paid particular attention to us.

I know it's rough to have your server behave as you want it to. It's worse when you need outsiders to keep it full. Just keep encouraging squads to follow the procedures for taking, clearing, and holding a flag. Maybe have TG peeps work as commander more often to keep an eye on SL's that just run from flag to flag. Kick those who cant follow orders.

[Wimpinator]

Originally Posted by icky

Well we are kinda back where we started with PoE. We get 1 squad full of TG and then a scattering of random folks. If you want "other" squads to behave a certain way, you are going to have to split those TG squads and take leadership. Otherwise, you just have to enjoy the game the way it is.

This is exactly right! It is tough when you join a squad of new player and are looking longingly at the nearly full TG squad. Suck it up. I recommend that once again we have no more than 3 TGs player in a squad together. It's been a while since I have played POE2 but I will start jumping in and doing my part. Please don't be offended if I ask for volunteers to leave to make room for pub players.

[micbur54]

I love to defend flags Nothing better to hold a flag the whole round.I hate flag hopping.The TG server is still way better at teamwork than all other poe2 and bf2 servers

[Beatnik]

Originally Posted by icky

Well we are kinda back where we started with PoE. We get 1 squad full of TG and then a scattering of random folks. If you want "other" squads to behave a certain way, you are going to have to split those TG squads and take leadership. Otherwise, you just have to enjoy the game the way it is.

Yeah it's rough finding a good balance of playing with a squad full of dependable people (TG regulars, usually) that will get sh..tuff done every map vs. new people that can at times...wander off the reservation. The rare times lately I've had a chance to play, I prefer TG squads.

However, I played three games in a row last night with all "new" faces in the squad and they performed incredibly. I don't remember any names but it was very refreshing to go toe to toe with a few TG-filled squads with a squad of guys that had never worked together before. And they were cool (for the most part) with sitting back on defense at times and filling in the holes/covering the flanks that the other charging squads left open.

I think my point is: there's still hope!

[Steiner]

I tend to agree with Beatnik in that there is most certainly hope, but I would also like to add that it is up to ourselves to improve the situation [which also has been mentioned]. As an example, during Saturday [I believe] I was on the server and played a series of maps. At the start, I were in a 6 man squad of which 5 were TG and the non TG-player worked with the squad. Quite obvious though, and the squad worked together in an excellent way. How ever, I looked on the stats page to find out of many TG:ers that were playing, given that there was some 40 people on the sever at the time. I discovered that the bulk of the TG:ers (about 10) were all on the same team, while the other team only had about two TG:ers. I say that it makes perfect sence that TG:ers want to play in TG-dominated squads due to the teamwork etc. But, it can also have a negative impact on the overall gameplay. We shoud all be prepared to take some responsibility and switch team and/or simply just leave the squad and join one that doesn´t have any TG:ers in it.

My second example is from a little later into my session, after having suffered a CTD, and I joined the game in the other team and signed up for a squad. "Spies..." was the map loading. After some initial confusion with people not wanting to SL, I found myself being a SL even though I did not really want to since I can not make good use of my mic with my daughter sleeping in the next room. However...I decided to give it a try atleast and the squad (5 men strong) did not concist of any other TG:ers. I noticed that one just had to point out some simple instructions [defend here, move here etc] and just provide some very limited instruction over the VOIP in order to have the squad working as a team. The whole squad even followed instructions to more or less carry out a round of defence at the bunkers [with only so much action] that perhaps was not so exciting while Lucky´s Squad fought at the launch-site for most part of the round with much action as a result.

My point is, I believe that it is so little required to have "pubbers" start working as a team. It almost seems that pubbers want to have teamplay and if they see someone taking just a small initiative, they will start to follow and work as a group as long as they have someone to follow. How ever, if the squad is quiet and there is no orders etc, the squad will be used as a platform to play the maps in Arcade-style [lone wolfs]. I will definately try this out more in the future.

And last...If there are squads in which there are many TG:ers in and other squads that have no TG:ers, then perhaps the squadleaders of the popular TG-squads should suggest to their squads that 2-3 TG:ers leave the squad to start up a new squad/join an other. We all know that there are TG-squads that have SL that will have their squads filled up within seconds, mostly by other TG-members. Imagine if "superb TG-SL" suggests to two TG:ers that they start up a new squad. Not only will the overall gameplay improve, but I guess that also cooperation between the squads will increase and improve.

Sorry for a possible rant.

[Dick Blonov]

Originally Posted by Steiner

My point is, I believe that it is so little required to have "pubbers" start working as a team.

Quite true.

DB

[BigGaayAl]

Originally Posted by icky

Well we are kinda back where we started with PoE. We get 1 squad full of TG and then a scattering of random folks. If you want "other" squads to behave a certain way, you are going to have to split those TG squads and take leadership. Otherwise, you just have to enjoy the game the way it is.

While I think that making SL1 also commander is an excellent idea (a realistic one), Icky does have a point. It is hard and often frustrating to guide pubbies in your squad, even if you are used to squadleading. Now imagine a rondom pubbie trying to do that on the tg poe server. Some pubbies do. I'm guilty of this myself, I rather make a new squad then try a pubbie led squad. It is a difficult exercise of balance between your own play-time and overall quality on the server.