nulloperations

I'm trying to decide if the role I tend to play is justifyable as a team member or a loner role.

After reading and posting in a recent post, I began to type a reply, but reading it over, I wondered how I fit with other TG players and if my style is helpful or not. To help express this, I'll explain to you my ussual tactics.

Often, I find myself alone or with one other teammate. I will be away from my team in odd places, searching for clear paths, scouting for enemy locations, and getting a general feel of the battlefield. I will attack the opposing team with the primary objective of disruption. I choose to atttack via guirella tactics and misinformation. Preformed right, I will draw enemy fire to my location and prehapes have a number of opfor "come after me," at which I find I can easily escape and lure them into ambushes or awaiting turrets.

My goal is to disrupt the enemy line, weaken the opfor's armor, health and energy levels. I make appropraite use of my emp's and bolt "splashs" to engage the enemy in a game of cat and mouse, often luring them to a death or severe health and armor reduction. I intend to not clear the path for my teammates, as that isn't the role of a light, but instead weaken the opfor's so that my more powerful teammates can easily take them down with minimal damage lose. Occasionaly, this calls for sniping and other long range strikes.

I provide information on enemy movement and activites. I will express the known load outs of these men so that my team is better prepaired to deal with the threat. I also do alot of counter-decker activities, from assaulting deckers in cyberspace to stealthing into an opponent's base and killing their deckers' meat bodies.

I find when I am within a group of my peers as a unit, I do poorly in my intended role. It is hard to disrupt the enemy line and draw off their troopers when my medium and heavy teammates are engaging the opfor directly. I use stealth and sound suppressor as they are meant for, a tool for non-combative activities. Sometimes this is helpful in combat, but not in general I find.

I also take on the decker role willingly. When called on I will provide my decking skills for objective claims and turret captures. I am also constantly monitering the death ticker, letting me know when my teammates who are defending my meatbod have fallen and I need to jack out.

Am I an expert player? No, not at everything. I don't do open combat as well as others, although I make good use of my boltgun. I do not play a medium or heavy as well as others and admire the skill of a well trained Laser Rifle user. I am a decent decker. I excell at stealth and misinformation attacks. I am good at timing my grenades for the best efficency. I listen to my teammates and work within their plan. I will relinquish my role at a guirella agent if it is called on for my to be a combatant, despite not being a good medium player.

Does my role fit? Is someone who's goal is to disrupt the enemy line a good teammate, even if it calls for him to break off from a unit and possibly attack alone? Yes it's helpful, but is it teamwork?


I remember in Planetside, I often played the jack of all trades. I would have all the minimal skills I needed to provide support in whatever role was requested of me. I did what I could to help my fellow teammate but I rarely purposfully engaged in combat. Stealth was my most common role.

Stealth generally has always been my primary role, knowing when to move, when to wait, when to act, when to spy and when to kill. Stealth isn't about gloating over getting a katana kill or camping an enemy's spawn door. It's about being able to act at the right time in a situation and when to wait. It's about paitence and observation. I use stealth a great deal in my misinformation tactics. Without it, I would die often and quickly to the larger weapons of those I taunt with my attacks.

I like to think my role is very helpful and a part of teamwork. I let my team know my general plan, but due to the constant changing nature of a misinformation agent's actions, those plans often are changed almost as soon as they are made. But someone who's in the role isn't in it to live, to get kills. You're in it to die. You accept your death instantly once you attack your opponent, it helps take off the edge as your lure them to you. Each time I spawn, I already know I'm dead. I already accept it. The next step for me is to decide just how I will die in a manner that will help my team succeed.

I think I fit in the aspects of teamwork. I think my role is an important and highly useful one. I just worry since it goes against the whole aspect of "staying together as a unit" that it might fall short on being a part of teamwork.

medwards

YES YES YES. You belong on either the outer or middle layers in The Onion. Your activities when done in following a brief engagement in the periphery can be the difference between the outer layer spawning in time or the inner layer collapsing. Your scouting can provide all layers with valuable intelligence on developing threats allowing us to move to engage them, the active response lets US control OUR spawn timer.

The important thing to remember is that on the attack, you become much more diminished. As a light, you need to exploit holes in the defence as they appear and for that I find speed is more important than stealth. Not by a lot, so both are great. My point is you gotta run with the team sometimes while on attack, the loner attitude has to be more flexible then (it has a place, sneaking in when things are quiet can work as well).

Chewy

Null that was extremely well said. I honestly don't know what to say except this: If we had more people like you playing on our server, it would be so much more enjoyable. What you described is most definately part of teamwork and you should never question that.

Thanks for sharing this with us. It is very insightful and really gets the mind going. Hope to see you on the server soon... and on MY team!

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