tHa_KhAn

The game has no real remote admin controls or reserved slots. The lack of remote tools in a game of this scale causes problems when attempting to observe a player or log in to do specific admin functions. By the time an admin gets logged in, the player is gone or the mission is ruined. When attempting the some of the more stealthy coops, one smacktard logs in and throws a grenade and blows the cover for the whole team. This could mean the last hour of planning and executing maneuvers was wasted. ArmA cannot be compared to most military themed FPS games, it is more of a simulator.

As for recruiting, this is a very niche game with a terrible demo. If you do not know its predecessor or trust an opinion you probably won't try the game. Part of the problem then comes from the fact that ArmA is best played in a strict environment with structure. There are plenty of communities dedicated to TG style of play and beyond. Unlike other games where TG shines because it is the only place to get a decent amount of teamwork and tactics, most ArmA communities are focused on that very thing. It's amazing that when a new mission type or mod comes out that our Passworded server is just as full as the non PW. Finding the password is not hard, people always join new servers based on population. Whenever we have a bunch of people playing, new people join the PW server just fine. Ever since Warefare has come out, I've idled in the admin channel just to direct people to the posts with the password and I have had plenty of folks stop by. If following the instructions in the server title to get the PW is too difficult, Armed Assault is not the game for you.

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Buccaneer

I found the Tactical Gamer Website in 2005 after buying BF2. I was reading everything I could about the game and did a search on "BF2". Amongst other search results Tactical Gamer was presented to me via Google. I loved the site, loved the amount of games supported and loved everyones wildly varying opinions (whether I agreed or not). Loved it so much, I decided to help pay the bills. What I am trying to say, is that if anyone is at all serious about playing their game online they will at least do a bit of research on where to play it (and the more serious players, the better). Which means they will eventually find TG, passworded server or not.

Passwording the server is not saying "sorry it's just us" at all - 75% of the ArmA servers out there are passworded (to stop the Oiks ruining a game).

How did you find TG SharinganTH1422? Did you find an open server one day by accident? Or word of mouth? Or (wanting to know more about the game you were playing) by doing a google type search?

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ZaBoo

I am relatively new to ARMA myself.. finding TG through Project Reality. I would have to agree with Sharingan. I think by shutting out the public it eliminates the chance of older mature players from stumbling across the server and enjoying the environment of additional layers of cooperation, teamwork, communication, and honest playing.

I haven't played much beside the warfare mode thats new to 1.14 and I don't see how a few players playing Rambo or ignoring orders greatly detriments the game play of others.

Players who join and see 2,3,4 or even more TG players or regulars playing together will recognize that the environment is truly different in this server compared to others.

By passwording the servers on some nights it forces some of the regulars to visit the forums, see what we are about, and get more involved with the TG community.

I think this has proven very successful on the PR servers making it extremely popular, with a large amount of desired TG and non TG returning players.

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SharinganTH1422

As I said the first time, not sure exactly what are the possible parameters of ArmA, etc., didn't know that there were no remote controls for admins, which obviously does change things a little, although there are always ways around this. A system which allows reports to be dealt with later is one, or alotting time slots for admins in the week where they can be on, even if just in the background (obviously you can't get all times covered, and when one admin logs in for a game they can tell the admin on watch that they can go away or difficult one-off times in the week can be covered by someone etc.).

I know this is easier said than done, and hope you don't feel like I'm telling you admins what to do and treading on your toes. Just a few suggestions.

At this point I would usually suggest a system where reports are logged. Report then, and ban later. However, the main point is it's prevention, not cure you want. You don't want to stop the smacktards coming back, you want to stop them even coming on, however my concern of this is alienating players who may be looking for a genuinely good experience.

In the end, you can't have it both was really. It's one or the other I'd say.

Yh, I know the style of the game, I just don't understand game mechanics or how things work properly in-game, having never played it or done much research on it.

Hmmm, maybe I'm not thinking like a normal ArmA player when I say this, but if a server was PWed, I'd go by and find another, thinking it was a private one. I'm not sure if that makes me a naturally bad ArmA player or not, and perhaps I shouldn't be planning to get this game...

And also, I thought you still get idiots on you're PW server?

IMHO, in the end it comes down to your objectives as a group. Do you want to try and find guys that are casual and perhaps looking for a better experience, or be in a community where you just play pretty much just together, and only let the recruits come from people who are willing to seek you out?

Yet do you think all 20,000 members of this community found the community through a Google search? Some maybe did, perhaps even most did, but I for one didn't. This site can appeal to anyone, from a casual gamer who enjoys to play the game in an objective-oriented way with a group of mature guys, or if someone is looking to do this with a clan type organisation (IHS's) and perhaps even take it to competitive levels. TG supports all this because of its"varying opinion". It's not just for the guy that's about to get a game and really wants to know more about it and is browsing around for a place like this.

And are you going to join that 75%? TG has always been niche, something different, although the aims haven't been deliberately to stand out from the crowd, that's what we've kind of become, we've rarely looked somewhere else and thought "yh lets copy them". Do you want to be just another PWed server that makes up the 75%, or do you want to be one of the only open server that keeps it teamplay revolved, and invites everyone to play that way? And if you don't follow the rules and decide to be a dumbass you'll get mocked, shot, and banned.

Yay, storytime.

started playing 2142 around February of last year. Got the game around Christmas time because that was all a few of my friends kept talking about, so I'd decided tog et it, but my cousins had told me that I should reformat my computer. Blah blah blah, a few back-ups later, a bit of laziness here and there and a lost OS meant that I had to wait a couple months before I could get it reformatted, and in this time I did a lot of research about 2142. Having you've wanted to play for a while just sitting on your desk does make you think about it quite a bit. I even read most of this FAQ on it.

Anyway after installing the game and having a pretty good time with pubbing and whoring one map called Camp Gibraltar 24/7, in August I was just sifting through some BF2142 vids on youtube, and I came across one of ExplodingSilver's teamwork vids. And I still remember that day. I was pretty much meant to leave then to go meet friends that evening but I decided to go look at this site for 5 minutes. Now I could have left, and I wouldn't be sitting here and typing today. Hell, I hardly ever visit sites that I'm not familiar with, but I had some sort of good feeling about this, I dunno.

All I'm saying is, I wasn't a hardcore gamer looking for a clan experience, yet I found TG, and can't imagine online gaming without it. I know I wouldn't have found the server, since 2142 servers are listed in ping order (I'm located in the UK so I get terrible ping from TG servers.) Now you and me found the servers without playing first, yet the majority of people I meet here have said that was how they found TG. And not everyone has a "good feeling" or decides to do research on the game. But most guys aren't looking for TG, TG finds the casual gamer and converts them, and it's like the feeling of accelerating 0-60 in under 4 seconds. You can describe it all you want, but people don't understand until they've done it themselves, and after they have, they realise the brilliance, and they wanna do it again...

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Anger is a gift - Malcolm X

...If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same...

TheBigC

Server 1 remains open to the public with no password, as voted on by the community. This remains the focal point of recruiting new members that stop by the server for a casual game. While there, we should all be recruiting them to get on the website and look for themselves what we are all about. Once here, most will usually stay when they realize the level of maturity with the way we normally conduct ourselves.

People also find out that TG is bigger than one person or game. Without sounding too corny, this is a community of like minded mature gamers. Find some clan out there that has 23,000+ members. Granted they are all not active, but that is a staggering number. Once we get people to the website to better understand us, most will hang around. TG is not for everyone, which is fine. But the ones who become sucked in by all that we have to offer seem to stay a while and contribute along the way.

Now for the ones that got the taste on Server 1 (public) of what TG is about, they usually want more. That is when they begin to join the passworded server, server 2. This is where normally you will see a much higher caliper of game play. Again, some may not like it and return to server 1 or leave all together, TG was just not their cup of tea.

I am not going to force anyone to play either server or make them join TG, let alone become a Supporting member. They will either choose to do it because they believe in it or they won't.

As for the game shortcomings itself, we have done a fairly decent job over the last year and a half having ZERO tools at our disposal in helping us manage the game. Minus the basic maybe 10 commands, there is not much more than can be done. Many people have put some great effort into the impossible, only to fall on their face due to coding issues. Yet we still run a fairly tight ship. Blame BI for that...

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The Meek shall inherit the earth..... after we're through with it!

The Wounded Warrior Project, help support my friends

jex

Commanding players who go off ramboing or not following orders is no fun at all. TG is not a home for rambo's whether it is detrimental to gameplay or not - they simply are not a wanted player type on the servers.

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Jex

Blackdog1-22 Reg.SAS

I have to say I found the TG servers by chance as a pubbie coming on one night. But I love this style of gameplay and so had the server not been open to the public, I mght not have found it.

There are definitely agood percentage of people who come across the servers by chance and those guys will come back as they like the crowd, the gameplay style, etc. The others will come and go.

Personally I would have a squad server, where you play as part of a team and you keep one server public, where there will be some good teamwork but people should not expect to much from the noobs.

That way, you get to catch some new faces and if they are interested they will want to play on the proper passworded server. Peple can apply to one of the admins to receive the password and it's down to the admin if they recognise the person from their time on the TG boards, as to whether they get the server password or not.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Best
BD1

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|TG-22nd| Blackdog1 "The Triple R's"

jex

Historically, the problem that has always happened with one server PW'd and the other not is that TG members tend to gravitate to the PW'd server, leaving the public one no better than other pubby servers. Once you get a few idiots on the server then most people decide they've had enough and go on the PW server if they even bother joining the public server in the first place.

The paradox is that we want to gain new players that like the TG style, and to do that we need to have a public display of how that works which needs a public server that TG players don't frequent.

Perhaps we could invert this process and have a pubby day twice a week? Instead of opening up the server we leave it open to public but one or two nights a week we descend on the server, en force, and play the TG way. That way people who join will know what it's about. Regular players will be on the server in a majority and unruly players could be dealt with swiftly (one way to weed them out of course is to have a 10 minute briefing lol - they never stick around and the players that do generally like that play style).

we could even pick out individuals that show good character and personally invite them to join by either speaking to them directly on using text chat.

TG cannot close itself off to the community but we do need a PW'd server for our sanity.

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Jex

tHa_KhAn

I completely agree and support this idea. I just feel that as a pub game too many people join looking for quick action and either leave(which is acceptable) or lone wolf which causes issues. If there were some good remote administration tools, then I would probably be in more support of keeping one server open. At the end of the day this is a gaming community and should be fun for the members of it. That is why I will always advocate at least one "safe" server for some quality gaming.

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SharinganTH1422

Yh, I also agree with Jex here.

I suggested previously that you may have a few nights of scrims/TG only nights per week, and the rest of the week will be pubbiness, because 1 PWed server and one public will leave most of the Tgers on the private one, as you said, and this seems to be another way to remedy that problem, and as tHa_KhAn said, this is also about us TG guys having fun, and not just staying public the whole time with ransom guys ruining the missions.

This seems like a good compromise.

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Anger is a gift - Malcolm X

...If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same...

Buccaneer

I'm not quite sure what is rubbing me up the wrong way about you, me hearty. The "I suggested ...." bit or the "also about us TG guys having fun" bit. Perhaps it's just me being over cynical.

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SharinganTH1422

Erm...

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Anger is a gift - Malcolm X

...If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same...

Blackdog1-22 Reg.SAS

Quality...... we let the noobs speak to the Bunny with the pancake on its head, if the Rabbit likes them, they get in!

BRILLIANT!

BD1

PS - Any chance of using a Guinea Pig next time, they are far more intelligent!

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|TG-22nd| Blackdog1 "The Triple R's"

tHa_KhAn

But more Scary:

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Xmaster

Agreed.

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