Tactical Gamer

Man of Steel

aeroripper — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:34:49 GMT

You guys seen the trailers for this?

Looks pretty badass, hope its not mediocre and weird like the last one that came out a few years back.

ANNOUNCEMENT Open Letter From the Coffee Bean Revolutionaries

Ytman — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:42:40 GMT

Place Holder Icon

The Coffee Bean Revolutionaries would like to congratulate those brave souls who have left the safety of the
corrupt and brutally tyrannical TGA and their Illuminati Masters.

I want to clarify a point before continuing; at no time did the CBR target the whole of the TGA. Even after
playing a part in the grand scheme of the events that have ruined our great island I bore no ill will against
those fooled by those special individuals. This was clearly stated in our first manifesto and the lies
about 'banditry' perpetuated by those special individuals seemed to explain why many within the TGA
went about gunning down our members with extreme prejudice.

Those special individuals are the ones known by the following code names:

DeathGod
CandleMan
SuckingMachine

and our intelligence had located their approximate locations at the time of open revolt.

Furthermore, the presence of ourselves as an 'antagonizing force' allowed many within the TGA to blame our
group for many acts we were not responsible for. The Coffee Bean Revolutionaries claim responsibility for only
a small handful of acts;

1) Vehicle Destruction (which it was claimed that there is no vehicle ownership so not really right?)
2) The Targeting of SuckingMachine and CandleMan

We by no way were responsible for other destructive events and feel that others outside of the TGA and even
those within the TGA utilized our presence as a shield to steal without repercussion.

With nothing else further to say the Coffee Bean Revolutionaries would like to address the baseline change of
the status quo post the dissolution of the TGA and the expulsion of the majority of the Illuminati from within
its ranks into what our efforts have discovered as being a gang of Branibor. To that end the Coffee Bean
Revolutionaries would like to show an open, if cautious, hand to those elements of Taviana, in hopes of
coming to a new era of reclamation of our once great island.

Eclipse

micr0c0sm — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:06:16 GMT

70 minute captains round on eclipse.

Fantastic tenacity from both teams - no one ever gave up, not even the strangers.

Comm and Khamm trying every trick in the ns2 book.

Well played from both teams :D.

Wargame: Air Land Battle

socomseal93 — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:23:43 GMT

Who else bought this game?

Please post your in game names

mine is socomseal

ns2_eclipse

I Waste Air — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:54:45 GMT

I couldn't find any official Eclipse thread to post this in so excuse me if I have no eyes

right then

Just found a couple little small bugs I thought I should point out on the map; I'm pretty sure I made annotations in-game but I don't trust my descriptive abilities.

SUBJECT A: An open gap in a wall down between Core Access and Computer Core won't load the opposite side until you're about halfway through - I forgot the technical term for this because the last time I opened a map editor was in high school, the terror.
SUBJECT B: A very strange wall down in Generator Monitors decided to stop my massive space rhino dead in its tracks by stampeding diagonally into it (without celerity)

I would post links/screenshots directly but it looks like I'm not allowed to yet, so instead let me bypass that by sending you to my whole gallery (add the period before .com):
Wed, May 22 2013 - Thu, May 23 2013
steamcommunity com/id/iwasteair/screenshots/?appid=0&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&vie w=grid

Hopefully you can figure out what's going on in that small mess.

That is all.

Thanks to all the Platoon Leaders

eD_ru$h — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:38:22 GMT

I just want to say thank you to all the platoon leaders. It's such a demanding and thankless task. I appreciate the time and effort all of you put in. Thank you for being the backbone of our community.

I'm back... kinda.

YerMom — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:51:55 GMT

I'm sure some of you remember Mom from way back when. I'm working on getting back into PC gaming and NS2 will be my first stop. Thanks to a very generous old penguin...

I posted a thread in the hardware forum about a PC build I'm trying to get off the ground. It's a nice PC, but I'm torn about some things. Since you guys are all NS2 junkies, I'd like some advice from the community here to come in over there, please. :)

I'm hoping to be in the server in a few months and I look forward to chomping on all your legs.

Mom

I'm ready to make this friday one #%!! of a night!

DocFinley — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:30:28 GMT

Well I leave for Ft Polk this saturday night, ill be on early in the day but not for the night, maybe. But regardless, I hope that we can have some insane TG fun friday night cause im pumped to get some gaming in! I'll be back around the 21st or 22nfd of june.

I just want to say to all the folks on TG, it has been great and when I get back I hope we are still gonna take over the planet :)
Deployment later this year is going to suck without ya'll

INFO GU09 Is Out

MrJengles — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:51:09 GMT

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/...2-2013.127601/

Wow, SOE update PlanetSide 2 better than any shooter I've seen. Every patch there's changes, fixes and additions I like. It's a slow process, but just about every minor complaint I have eventually gets addressed; major ones take lots of updates but they move in the right direction.

My Favourite Bits:

-Lattice System (Indar only)!
(Let Indarside, commence! :row__739:)

-Crown Capture Points relocated. We moved two capture points for the Crown down onto the nearby bridges. We also moved the spawn room back into the tower

-Added sensitivity slider for aiming down sights (<4x scope)

-The majority of infantry weapons now have a reload threshold. The reload will still count if this threshold is reached and the reload action is interrupted.

-Players can now have Territory Control, Enemy Activity, Ally Activity or any combination of the three toggled on at the same time (if they dare!). Territory Control will show up as colored borders if Enemy and/or Ally Activity filters are toggled on.

-Expanded minimap ([H] by default) now shows compass
( :row__689: ...... :row__577: )

-Remote viewed vehicles (this includes vehicles you are manning a turret for) should no longer wobble excessively

Funnies:

-Support beams on bridges should now render at appropriate distances
(My thought process: something about that bridge looks differ- *BOOM*. I lost multiple pilots to the same bridge that day, and I died more than once.)

-The Harasser�s primary weapon should no longer hit players in the rumble seat

-Stopped a jump pad at the Allatum Bio Lab from launching you into a tree
(there's a redfaced dev somewhere)

Good games

rad4Christ — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:11:07 GMT

hey guys, dusted off the old account, and updated my SteamID.

Wanted to say hi, and had a few great games last night on the server. Really enjoyed commanding, had some great marines and aliens who communicated and worked together.

Hope to see you guys on the server again soon!

MSO Esbekistan Development discussion/change log

Unkl — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:34:36 GMT

I made a few more changes to this today.

- added Osprey, Hercules, A10 GBU, Harrier II, F35B
- added Team Status to all players
- removed AI recruitment/still counting on players to leave the AI at base alone
- added General Carvers Vehicle Rearm/Repair stations
- failed on Halo, but decided against it anyway
- more lights around base
- changed layout of stations around the base
- increased the base safe zone from 200m to 600m

Look forward to suggestions. My focus on this is to allow for lots of ways of playing and experimenting.

Review of American mediums

socomseal93 — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:43:29 GMT

For those of you interested in playing the American mediums, here is a small review of each tank in the line up. I will start from tier 4, normally I start from tier 5, but the M3 Lee deserves some mention. Wall of text inbound.

Tier 4 M3 Lee - This tank should not be classified as a medium. It is a medium chassis, and a medium gun, but the play style is that of a TD. This is because the gun is fixed in the hull, much like a TD's. If the M3 Lee is played as a TD, it is fine. If it is played as a medium, it will fail miserably. All in all, its not a great tank, but certainly not a horrible tank.

Tier 5 M4 Sherman- I would say this tank is the best medium of tier 5. It has a great 76mm gun with good fire rate and penetration, the tank itself is fast, and the armour is ok. The M4 is a great general purpose medium. It even has a 105mm howitzer "derp" cannon available, which is fun to play with. This tank is a lot of fun to play, and is a keeper. Especially since it makes lots of credits.

Tier 6 M4A3E8 "Easy 8" Sherman- The E8 is a huge step up from the M4 in terms of speed, and fire power. While the gun may appear to be the same as the M4's, its not. The E8 gets a much faster firing, more accurate version of the M4's 76mm cannon. The hull and turret armour may not be that impressive. However, don't let the lack of turret armour fool you. The E8's turret has a mantlet plate on its turret which adds additional armour, and makes the E8 turret somewhat bouncy. The E8 also gets great gun depression, so it can hull down. Much like its predecessor, the E8 is a general purpose medium that combines speed and fire power that allow it to do well in most situations. The E8 is the definition of flanker tank, its top speed of 48 kmh is easily reached. All in all, this is a great medium, arguably the best or second best medium of tier 6. This tank is a lot of fun to play and is definitely a keeper.

Tier 7 T20- The T20 is a different beast from the Shermans. The T20 is an entirely new compact chassis. In order to achieve its compactness, the T20 sacrifices its armoured protection in favour of speed and small size. The T20 is fast, with a top speed of 56 and a cursing speed of 50. It feels a little bit faster than the Easy 8. The T20 is also armed with a new cannon, which is a major step up from the 76mm used on the Shermans. The T20s 90mm cannon has great pen and damage, at the expense of fire rate. The T20 fires much slower than its Sherman predecessors, but it hits harder too. The T20 is less of a general purpose medium, and more of a fast flanker. This tank is not the best of its tier, but it is not the worst either. After having played the Panther, T43, Comet and VK3002DB, I have learned to appreciate the T20. I used to strongly dislike the T20, but in comparison to other mediums, its actually quite good. All in all, the T20 is a decent tank. Its not great, but its not horrible either. Not a keeper though.

Tier 8 Pershing- The Perishing is an entirely different beast from its predecessors. The pershing feels like a heavy medium. Despite its heavy like feeling, it can still move fast, with a top speed of 48kmh and a cruise speed of 46 kmh. It has great armour, especially the turret. Its gun is great, as it can easily penetrate through the front of tier 8 tanks, and the side of tier 9 tanks. The Pershing is a great general purpose tank. The best part of the Pershing though, is that you can use it in a brawling role, something the previous mediums were only mediocre at. The Pershing also has great hull down capability. The cannon has a good fire rate, and good damage and accuracy. Overall, this tank is a great tier 8 medium. After playing the Panther 2, T44, and Centurion 1, I still think the Pershing is the best, and it is my absolute favourite tier 8 medium to play.

Tier 9 M46 Patton- The M46 Patton is an evolution of the M26 Pershing, the chassis look fairly similar, as are the handling characteristics. The Patton is for all intensive purposes, an M26 with a new gun. The 105mm cannon the M46 is armed with is lack lustre though. It has ok accuracy at range, and low accuracy on the move. Its redeeming characteristics are decent penetration, and good damage. In terms of cannon, the M46 is lacklustre, in terms of other tank characteristics, the M46 is good. Its not a great medium. At one point in time, it was the best medium of tier 9, then after a massive nerf, the glory days ended, and this tank is arguably the worst tier 9 medium. I think that is a fair assessment, its gun really brings it down.

Tier 10 M48 Patton- This tank is yet another heavy medium. It sports an all new chassis that is different from the M26 and M46's chassis. Unfortunately, this chassis has some major drawbacks, the primary one being its size. The M48 is as big as a Tier 10 heavy. The armour on the M48 is also not particularly good. The turret armour is only ok at best. Since the tank is so large, its top speed is 44 kmh, which feels quite slow. Its gun is ok at best. It has good pen and damage, and decent accuracy. Its fire rate is decent, but it feels a little slow. Its accuracy on the move is poor, despite its slow speed. Thankfully, the M48 does have one trick up its sleeve that sets it apart from the rest of the tier 10 mediums. The M48 has the best view range in the game. Which makes it an excellent tank to use for passive scouting. All in all, the M48 is mediocre, and is nothing special. It can perform well, but its not that fun to play. Its not worth investing too much time into getting.

Overall, the American medium line is decent. Its fairly balanced throughout and only gets mediocre at tier 9 and 10. The M4, Easy 8 and Pershing are all well worth getting, and are loads of fun to play.

TGNS Consistency

blu.knight — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:46:49 GMT

Any chance of at least removing the xhairs and axe from the consistency checking on TGNS servers?

Seems like it would be mostly harmless, and the NS1 knife + improved xhairs hugely improve the gameplay experience.

Interesting way to Squad lead

Toddshooter — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:49:39 GMT

Emale and I had an interesting squad going last night. (Before my computer decided to go glitchy again. Players jumping all over my mini map looked like a Meth head was refreshing it.)
Emale was squad lead and I was second in comand. Emale would set targets and waypoints I would get the guys loaded up and moving while Emale liased with company comanders and such.
Was a much easier and smoother way to run a squad. I find when squad leading there is too many things pulling at my attention. This divided up the duties perfectly.

Emale I'll be your second anyday.

ANNOUNCEMENT "Vehicle Handler" now asynchronous to server restarts

WhiskeySix — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:07:55 GMT

As of this morning, the server's vehicle-handler is no longer tied to the server restart sequence. Vehicles will now be spawned and [wrecks] removed during the course of normal server operation. This has two main benefits:

1) Reduce the importance of server-restarts as gameplay events. (The real zombie apocalypse will not have server restarts ;))

2) Spread vehicle-access to a wider player-base.

Happy hunting!

Everyone OK in OK?

WhiskeySix — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:37:30 GMT

Anyone here affected by the tornadoes? Seeing these photo's and videos coming out ... scary stuff

Its me again, Wondering about Pre builts

Brainhurts — Tue, 21 May 2013 06:01:20 GMT

This time for certain im buying a new computer, I have a steady job this time and plenty of money.

Im willing to spend up to 1300, I want to run BF3 and other games on the highest settings possible.

To me this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16883227466 is so far the best one for the price I want and what I want for a pre Built one, but Im not sure if its actually good or if there is something wrong with it, or if I could get something better for a similar price.

Im willing to either build my own or fork out a little more for a prebuilt.

French Heavy Review

socomseal93 — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:05:53 GMT

For those of you interested in the French heavies, here is a little review. Let me start by saying that the French heavies are the definition of support tank. They are not truly heavies, so don't expect much in terms of armour. I will start from tier 5, as most of the previous tanks in the line up are fairly balanced, and the time spent in them is short. Wall of text inbound.

Tier 5 BDR G1B- This tank has ok armour for tier 5. Its rather slow though, as a result of its ok armour. Its 90mm gun is quite damaging, and is like a "derp" cannon. However, it has a long reload, and aim time to balance it out. The BDR hits hard and can even take a few hits. It is a traditional heavy by and by. Not a bad tank, not a great tank. Its a forgettable tank though, and its not really worth keeping. But, the grind through it is not that bad.

Tier 6 Arl 44- This tank is a traditional heavy tank. It has good sloped frontal armour, and it is great in a tier 6 battle. Its gun is also superb, and it can easily damage tier 8 tanks frontally, thanks to high pen, with good damage. The ARL is not the best tier 6 heavy, but it is not the worst either. Its a fairly enjoyable tank to play. However, its not quite worth keeping in the eyes of most.

Tier 7 AMX M4 1945- This tank is yet again, a traditional heavy tank. However, it is a downgrade from the ARL 44. The AMX M4 uses a Panther chassis, which is weaker than the ARL chassis. This means the AMX M4 is slightly more manoeuvrable, but it comes at the cost of armour. Gun wise, the AMX M4 gets the same gun as the ARL 44. Its not a bad cannon, but it starts to show its inferiority when fighting tier 9 tanks. Worst yet, the AMX M4 turret has almost no gun depression, meaning that hulling down is not an option. The only thing that the AMX M4 can really do is hide in the back and snipe. Its not too bad at a sniper role, but its not great either. This tank is genuinely horrible, and it is not a fun grind in the slightest. Most people hate this tank, and I don't blame them.

Tier 8 AMX 50-100- This is an auto loader toting support tank. It has a very good 100mm cannon and a 6 round auto loader. The cannon is capable of shredding up to tier 9 tanks with ease. The hull of the AMX 50-100 is once again, based off the Panther hull. Luckily, the 50-100 gets a much better engine than the AMX M4, which makes it far faster. This is a good thing, since once the 50-100 depletes its ammo drum, it needs to run, and speed is its only defence. The tank cruises at about 35-40 kmh. The tank is also fairly small, which makes it a bit hard to hit. As a support role, this tank is the best of tier 8, without question. Its primary downside is that its gun takes about 48 seconds to reload. All in all, a great tank, well worth keeping.

Tier 9 AMX 50-120- The AMX 50-120 is an upgrade of the AMX 50-100. Its got better hull armour, better speed, and a much better gun. The hull armour doesn't really make any difference at all. The speed is somewhat noticeable. Curise speed is again 35-40 kmh, but it accelerates faster. However, this upgraded hull comes with a serious drawback. The turret and hull have to be larger to support the larger gun, which in turn, makes the tank huge. The turret on this tank is a massive weak spot, that is incredibly hard to hide. However, don't let the glaring weakspot fool you, its gun is well worth the weak spot. The 120mm gun, is the same gun the tier 10 AMX50B gets. And the 120mm is a nasty gun, it shreds tier 10 tanks with ease. The 120mm gun has a 4 round auto loader with about a 32 second reload time. Once again, the 50-120 is the best support of tier 9. Its gun shreds enemies, and the reload time is more than manageable. I had a lot of fun playing this tank. Though, due to the existence of the 50B, there is no real reason to keep this tank, despite it being a keeper.

Tier 10 AMX 50B- Here is where things change a bit. The 50B gets an even more upgraded hull. In fact, the hull has some extremely bouncy armour. The AMX 50B hull is just as good as the T110E5's hull, it has the same armour values. The turret on the other hand, is still incredibly weak, and most tanks shoot the turret. Luckily, the 50B gets an incredible engine, which allows it to be even faster than its predecessors, which makes the tank a much harder to hit target. The tank cruises at about 40-45 kmh, and it accelerates decently. The gun is the same as the 50-120s, but the reload is down to 28 seconds, which helps. Overall, its a great tank, that is under rated. Its well worth having.

Overall, the French heavy line is good. The only real rough patch is at tier 7, with the AMX M4. However, the grind through that tank is totally worth it, once you get to the AMX-100. The tier 8-10 tanks are very unforgiving, but if played right, they can dominate the battlefield and send the enemy into a world of hurt.

"I've got your back!"

DocFinley — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:41:52 GMT

Well howdy howdy TG,

Well we all run into that situation where if we had just one more gun with us, we would've killed the tango and lived haven't we? Well I haven't been playing the PlanetSide genre as much as the veterans have, considering I've been playing for about 3 weeks, but I've learned ALOT in that time. Primarily tactics, comm control, and teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. Yet I find myself in a situation where another player could've helped me live through a skirmish or fire fight but none were near, now whether that was me being reckless and getting that close or just having been cut off is up for debate. I feel like most of the players within TG have found that person that if they said "I've got your back!" they would trust them, but how often do they actually find themselves fighting beside them? Not often enough. One thing I have noticed is that no matter what, my good friend Sothile has been there by my side the second I asked for back up, and though we may get wiped by more enemy patrols that we stumbled across than i can count, we definitely gave them a run for their money and took a few of them out. And our battle buddy tactics never made planning difficult, it never puts strain on a PL or SL and clearing areas is alot easier when 2-3 friends and comrades clear a room side by side and ready to support one another.

I am aware that these tactics may have been employed on the field for trial or testing, and whether they have succeeded or not is unknown to me, but I feel like going that extra step to determine battle buddy pairs or trios could just prove the enemy an increasingly difficult adversary to fight.

Review of British Heavy line

socomseal93 — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:48:04 GMT

Here is a small review of each tank in the British heavy line. I am going to skip to tier 5, as the previous tanks are fairly balanced, and you don't spend much time in them. The British heavy line is a bit different from most heavy lines, as it has guns that fire fast, and do low damage. They are armed with cannons you would expect to see on a medium. Wall of text inbound.

Tier 5 Churchill 1- This tank is slow, with a whopping top speed of 25 kmh. However, this tank makes up for its lack of speed with decent armour and a great gun. The armour is somewhat bouncy. But the most redeeming quality is the 75mm high velocity gun, which is highly accurate, and with decent damage and great penetration. All in all, not a bad tank, but not a great tank.

Tier 6 Churchill VII -This tank is also slow, even slower than the Churchill 1, with a top speed of 20 KM/H. Despite having the same chassis and a similar look to the Churchill 1, this tank is much more heavily armoured than the Churchill 1. The Churchill 7 has a slightly better gun than the Churchill 1, however, it is an adequate gun at tier 6 and 7. In a tier 6 battle, the Churchill 7 will dominate, as most tanks will bounce off of it. In anything higher than tier 6, the Churchill 7 will struggle, as its armour becomes less capable. All in all, not a bad tank.

Tier 7 Black Prince- This is an upgrade of the Churchill design. It has the exact same hull as the Churchill 7, and it even shares the same upgraded turret that the Churchill 7 had. The primary difference is that the Black Prince has a little bit more gun depression, and most importantly, a new and much better gun. The 17 pounder has decent penetration, sitting at 171 average penetration when using standard AP shells. The 17 pounder rips tier 7 tanks to shreds fairly easily, with its fast fire rate and decent damage. Against tier 8 and 9 tanks, the 17 pounder is a bit lacklustre, due to its lack of damage and pen. Luckily, the 17 pounder is fast firing, which means you have many chances to pen the enemy, and perhaps scare them off. All in all, not a bad tank.

Tier 8 Canaveron- This is an entirely new tank design, unlike the Churchill series. This tank features a decent hull, good speed and manoeuvrability, and an all new cannon. Best yet, the Canaveron features an extremely strong turret that is capable of deflecting tier 9 and sometimes 10 shells. The turret also has great depression, which allows for hull down. On top of that, the 20 pounder cannon the Canaveron is armed with, is fast firing, extremely accurate, and damages decently. Much like previous British heavy tanks, the cannon feels like its suited for a medium. However, its still a fantastic cannon on a heavy. All in all, the Canaveron ranks among one of the best heavies of tier 8. Its even better than the T32, as its armour is roughly the same, but the gun is much better. Its a very good multi role tank that excels in every category. Out of all the Tier 8 heavies I have played (IS3,Tiger 2, T32, AMX 50-100) I have found the Canaveron to be the most versatile and most pleasurable to drive. It has almost no drawbacks. The only thing that players may not like, is its gun is lowish damage, which is unusual for a heavy. But, the fire rate makes sure that the low damage is entirely tolerable.

Tier 9 Conqueror - This tank shares the same chassis as the Canaveron, and while the hull armour was decent at tier 8, its only ok at tier 9. The turret is even weaker than the Canaveron's, but it gets a huge upgrade in fire power. This tank for all intensive purposes, is a TD. It plays just the same as a TD. Except its highly manoeuvrable and fast. The 120mm gun on this tank fires only slightly slower than the tier 10 T110E5s, and it has better accuracy than the T110E5's 120mm. This tank is definitely a support tank. It is like a slighly better armed M103, with a small sacrifice to armour in favour of gun.

Tier 10 FV215B- I do not own this tank, but from what I hear, it plays like a T110E5, except the turret is in the back, which makes it a little awkward to handle. The FV215B is rarely seen on the battlefield, as a result.

Overall, I would not recommend going up the British heavy line. The Churchill series of tanks are ok, but nothing special. They perform poorly above their respective tiers, and it gets repetitive to play the same tank 3 times in a row. The Canaveron is fantastic, and I highly recommend it, its the best part of the whole British heavy line. The Conqueror is ok at best, it hits hard but is almost incapable of taking a hit. And the FV215B is awkard to play.

Unless you are going for the Canaveron specifically, don't waste your time on this line.

Balance Test mod

bentring — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:49:19 GMT

I'd like to bring discussion to the fact that it's pretty much been confirmed that changes from the BT mod will make it to vanilla NS2 at some point.

__________________________________________________ _____

Quote by UWEs Cory Strader http://forums.unknownworlds.com/disc...omment_2118006

Just to clarify a little bit, at the moment UWE is planning on moving forward with implementing the Balance Mod into Vanilla NS2 in some form, unless there is a huge outcry, which at the moment there does not seem to be. And as Hugh points out, this is a massive undertaking, and does come with a lot of risks. What has been more up in the air is the release date for that, and which features are going to make the final cut, and that is where we are trying to solicit as much feedback from the community as possible.

So I think the best thing to do is assume that we are going to incorporate a large amount of the mod into the game at some point soon, and if you want to have a say, play it. And play it a lot, not just a single game before passing judgement. And please don't just read the changelog before passing judgement, either.

__________________________________________________ _____

Now if you've ever joined a balance test server you know that it's about as different from vanilla NS2 as NS1 is. I've played it a few times but it was painful trying to learn the new mechanics because of 3 people on each team or because of a number of things which I can sum up with a facetious reason of 'pubs'. ;)

I would, however, love to try it out with a server full of our regulars. If there's enough interest, could we schedule one of the servers to run the balance test mod on occasion/regular intervals so if/when some of the changes make it into vanilla NS2 we will still be somewhat familiar with the game?

EVENT Friday Night Fights 24-5-13 8pm EST (-4 GMT)

Xen — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:25:53 GMT

Friday Night Fights

This event is open to ALL players.

What not to post:
"Do I have to sign up?" -- No you don't this is a weekly thing, but positions will be given to those who sign up for them first.
"Can you change the date?" -- No, the date is confirmed.
"Can I come late?" -- Absolutely!

Date: Fri May 24th

Time: 8pm EST - 12 AM EST (-4 GMT)

Roll Call: No roll call for this event

Sign-Up Information:

In Game Name (Please use the exact in-game name.):
In-House Division (Unaffiliated if none):
Specialties(Infantry Class,Vehicles ect)

Be sure to sign up early!
THIS THREAD IS FOR SIGN UPS ONLY - NO DISCUSSION

Server Information:
Server: "Mattherson"
Faction: New Conglomerate
Teamspeak Server IP: ts.tacticalgamer.com:9988

GUIDE Infantry-only Squad Leadership with Fireteam Leader

E-Male — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:42:57 GMT

As I am going to running infantry-only (IO) squads for a while I'll document my SOPs and related instructional material in this thread.

Here is a short unedited documentary video capturing the I-O squad in action.

GUIDE How to attack a tower.

BigGaayAl — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:58:30 GMT

Hi guys I've made a guide for on attacking bases using towers as an example. I didn't manage at all to structure it well so it is barely readable. Perhaps I'll rework it someday but I already spent a bunch of time on it. It is inspired by seeing a lot of what I would call mistakes. I use towers as an example because everyone knows them, but principles can be applied for most bases.

A) Attacking towers
First of you have to decide between three scenarios, depending on enemy strength.

1)Enemy force considerably larger
=> Retreat. You will never take a tower with a larger force defending. Wrong battle.

2)Enemy force considerably smaller
=> Attack in any way. You could walk in a conga line backwards to assault, you will win because of manpower and respawns. Take a B-line to lock down the spawn, and the fight is over.

3)Enemy force near equal.
=>Siege, drawn out fight where surrounding the enemy from advantageous positions decides the battle

The third scenario is where in my opinion the mistakes tend to happen and hurt. People will get one sundy, and have the whole platoon barrel straight in to the base of the tower, or just as badly, go for the A/B/C control points. Usually these four locations are on tactically weak areas. The tower base is usually on lower ground than the surrounding area, and so are all the control points.

Sure we can go into the control points and be reasonably safe but for every man that is put put inside, we are losing more of the fight outside, more of the fight that really matters. If you have most forces inside, you will have such weak positions on the rim of the base that your sundy shall be taken out.
In this situation people are sacrificing the mapcontrol, key in any RTS, for game mechanic control (A/B/C).
If people are going straight for the enemy spawn in the tower, then they are confusing the scenarios above. They are fighting the wrong tactic for the scenario and sacrificing in the same way map control, for pressure on the enemy spawn.

I propose the correct way to attack such a tower is the following.

Think of the tower as a hill that you want to take. It is no longer a tower just a hill. The control points have disappeared, all buildings become hills. Now. If you are an equal force attacking a force on a hill, you will set up your spawn. Will you now send all your guys barreling up the hill straight to the enemy? No. This is what I see quite quite often though in the game.

What people do in the case of hills, instinctively I may add, is set up a base of fire at the point of deployment, another hill. Then the force will spread out along whatever cover/high ground is available, and find adjacent positions to fire on the enemy, thus slowly enveloping the enemy hill, setting up bases of fire around it.

THus the enemy is surrounded, pinned/suppressed and isolated from reinforcements. This is THE time to assault. Only now is the ideal time to assault. Goes without saying that in a computer game, during the surround, a bunch of rambos will have been charging straight up that hill for the enemy and re-spawning. But they have been mostly a waste to the large battle.

So the enemy is suppressed, time to assault. Now military doctrine says you should commit no more than 1/3rd of your force to the assault. Most of the team must remain at distance, providing covering fire and keeping the enemies' heads down whilst also protecting the mapcontrol you have won, protecting your sundies.

I think an attacking force should never willingly give up mapcontrol (bases of fire, high ground, can be called various things). You want to keep dominating the whole area you just seized control over, until you are ready to leave again.

Now the assaulting force are all the guys that are going to cap the three points, camp spawn and hack consoles. All those that are leaving tactically strong positions for tactically weak positions. All the people doing that are to be counted as assault. This should be no more than 1/3rd! Obviously our assault forces are usually way larger. This is because of various habits. But also because the 'equal force scenario' happens the least of all scenarios. So people don't expect it and don't learn to play it much. The assault force will have a much easier time moving up and securing their objective if 2/3rd of the team is watching them with their guns.

Think of it as the difference between attacking say an objective B inside a building off the tower.
-Now with a bloated assault force, the enemy can reinforce from the tower. Two forces are colliding head on in the building with respawns. Takes time, end-result unpredictable.
-With a properly sized assault force, the enemy will not be able to reinforce as he is being cut down on the way there, or at least scared enough. There is a small pocket of enemies isolated in the building. You have respawns and reinforcements. You will win.

Now you will achieve mapcontrol; control of the tower and of enough control points as well.
-If the enemy respawns on a different base and surprise-attacks you, you will be able to keep enough mapcontrol (spawnsundies) and manpower in good positions to stop them or slow them down enough.
-You can absorb a max crash; as you have the area. The assault team will die, but the maxes would be killed by the suppression elements. The assault team then restores control.
-If Air attacks you, you have some idle AA guys on the surrounding hills.

If you lose mapcontrol
-Basically any attack will take out your sundies on the outside perimeter.
You have most of your forces inside the tower. One by one sundies are going down. You don't worry about it too much, because you have a sundy inside the vehicle bay, and have the spawn locked down with maxes.
But the enemy is surrounding the tower again. They have the other hills. They have spawns, new sundies driving up all the time. Then suddenly... a max crash wipes out your spawncampers... it all falls apart and the enemy resecures the base.

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B) For Platoon leaders:

Identify which scenario you are in. First, Always. This is your main job. If you get it wrong it will mostly be harmless.!?!

Yes because most of the time you are not fighting an equal force. If you are in the 'enemy force smaller' scenario you can do whatever you want and you won't notice mistakes because you cannot lose.
If you think you are in 'enemy force equal', but the force is really smaller, you will just have done an easy job better. So again, the mistake in gauging the situation goes unpunished and unnoticed.
And well ... if you make the mistake of attacking a larger force... Platoon-wide frustration is your reward :D. Oh yeah, we've all done it!

But if you get it wrong, at the wrong time, you will lose a great fight, exactly the kind of fight you are looking for.

So identify the scenario.

Smaller force => If you use tactics, it is to just be careful and for practice. Very important, these are great opportunities to get the platoon rolling in a forgiving environment. Alternatively you can use no tactics, emphasizing speed. good for an uncontested outpost

Equal force => Lay siege, as explained above, try visualizing everything everything as hills. Place your forces around objective in positions of power, send in assault force.

Larger force => Retreat or use delaying/skirmish tactics

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C) For squadleaders (or PL in very large battles):

Pay attention mostly to the supression/assault ratio. Identify which of those elements needs more manpower. And add your squad to that element. The doctrine says I believe 1/3rd to 2/3rds. So the supressing/surrounding force must be at least twice as large as the assault force.

If there are enough people running in there is nothing at all wrong with just putting you behind on a ridge in great cover getting easy shots and kills on the enemy. Usually the suppression team is understaffed. Because people tend to rambo. People tend to zerg. On the other hand if everyone is sitting back, don't hesitate to take advantage of their fire, by taking the ground they are controlling.

If you can identify the scenario:

Smaller force => Time for training. Get your squad to form up. You have time to identify stragglers and cajole them back under your wings. Practice anything you like, and get some easy kills while doing it for extra fun.

Equal force => Money time. Identify where you need to be, execute and hope for the best. You may lose fights, but keep your focus on your role in winning mapcontrol and assaulting. No time for cajoling. Don't try, let stragglers straggle and focus on the battle.

Larger force => Pl will call retreat or organize delaying or skirmish tactics. That is a whole other topic I haven't experimented much with.

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D) Note on switching scenarios

Scenarios can change, at any time.

Change to larger force => Identify asap and act accordingly or get slaughtered

Change to smaller force => A great time to call for an all out assault. This is how we crushed almost a platoon of guys in a valley that one day. You have gone from siege, to clean-up. Enjoy.

Review of British medium line

socomseal93 — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:28:10 GMT

In case any of you were interested in going up the British medium line I have played up to tier 9. So I will give my feedback on each tank starting from tier 5. I am skipping the early tiers because they mostly seem balanced, and the time spent in them is short. Wall of text inbound.

Medium line:

Tier 5 Crusader- This tank is one you want to get rid of immediately. Its gun is ok. The gun was clearly designed for flank shots, and it is certainly capable of that. However, this tank has a top speed of 44kmh despite being a light tank. This means that flanking the enemy is hard due to a lack of speed. This tank is also a light, therefore, it has virtually no armour. All in all, not a good experience.

Tier 6 Cromwell- This tank is a real keeper. Its extremely fast, as fast as a light tank. With a top speed of 64 km/h, which it reaches fairly easily. Its got ok armour. But above all else, its gun is outstanding. The gun hits hard and accurately. The cromwell is even more fun to play than the Easy 8, which I didn't think was possible. The Cromwell is best used as a fast flanker, it can run circles around enemy heavies at close range, with ease.

Tier 7 Comet- The Comet is an "upgraded" cromwell. It looks the same, however it feels like an entirely different tank. Due to the increase in armour, the tank is significantly slower, with a top speed of 51 km/h. The Comet also has poor track traverse, making it hard to turn. This means that the Comet is not suited for the same flanker style of play as the Cromwell. Luckily, the Comet does have one huge advantage over the Cromwell, it has a well armoured turret that has great hull down capability. This allows the Comet to get into a hull down position on the flank of the enemy, and harrass them. Overall, this tank is not worth keeping. However, it is ok to play; nothing special though.

Tier 8 Centurion- The Centurion is an entirely new chassis in the British medium line. This is a late war tank, as such, its armed with a late war gun, the 20 pounder. The 20 pounder is incredible, and is the best tier 8 medium cannon by far. Its so good in fact, that the 20 pounder is also mounted on the tier 8 British heavy, the Canaveron. The Centurion has weak hull armour and slow speed, with a top speed of 40 km/h. This makes the centurion the slowest tier 8 med by far. However, the Centurion doesn't need speed or hull armour. The Centurion has a trick up its sleeve, its got an incredible turret that is fit for a heavy. In fact, the turret is fitted to a heavy,the same turret is used for the British tier 8 heavy. This turret is extremely bouncy and can easily take up to tier 9 and sometimes 10, shells. The turret also has full hull down capability. A combination of a very lenthal fast firing gun, and a nearly indestructible turret make the Centurion a joy to play. Its a definite keeper tank.

Tier 9 Centurion Mk 7/1- This tank shares a lot in common with the Centurion 1, it has essentially the same turret, and it has the same top speed. The hull is slightly upgraded, not that it makes much of a difference. However,the biggest difference this tank has, is its access to a tier 10 gun. This means the Centurion 7/1 is better armed than the E50,T54, M46 Patton, T54E1, and Lorraine 40T. The Cannon this tank gets is the British L7 105mm. Different versions of this gun are also used on the M48 Patton and Leopard 1. Its a quality gun. The only drawback to using it on this tier 9 tank, is that it has a long reload time. However, it is more than tolerable. All in all, this tank is excellent.

Tier 10 FV4502 - I have not played this tank, but from what I hear, it is mediocre, and it is rarely seen on the battlefield.

From tier 5 to 10, there are 3 mediocre tanks at tier 5, 7, and 10. There are 3 superb tanks at tier 6, 8, and 9. If you were ever interested in going up the British medium line, I would say it is well worth your while to get to at least the Cromwell. The Centurions are also worth grinding to, but their play style may not be for everyone.