perry

The last map was definitely too big, but the one before I thought was a good size. Maybe 4v4 woulda been better but it wasn't too bad. Otherwise, the deathmatch mode was pretty fun.

__________________

Clodhopper

Sorry I missed it guys, I would have loved to shoot you all (rather, be shot at while I fumbled with smoke grenades and other nifty toys, heh)

__________________
|TG|Clodhopper - Intelligence is the key, but I'm locked out!

perry

Eh, the smoke grenades were rather lackluster.

__________________

leejo

That was fun!

Magnum50

IMO... the maps were too large for 3 on 3, then 3 on 2, which is what we had last night.

But, more importantly, at least too me, isn't the map size but number of players, it's kinda hard to use true military tactics to a proper degree with only 2 people.

A nice goal orientated map would of been great, say one team defends a area or item, while the other assaults. Because we spent the first 15 minutes on each map moving around aimlessly looking for the other team, and in theory, both teams who start on opposite ends could end up clearing in completely circles all night and never catching up. lol


That said, even with 3 on 3 it was fun.


First game, Leejo and I, (and another team member that I team killed within minutes of play, opps... hey he walked in front of my position in a Mexican uniform, I forgot we were Mexicans, lol...sorry about that, he then left the game and I don't blame him.)

since we were the smaller team now, We just decided to wait and ambush. Leejo went high and spotted a number of targets but did good in not engaging, giving away his position.

Boredom got me, so I moved more into the center, where the warehouses were, spotted an enemy around the corner and let loose with my futuristic type SAW, as I called in the contact and backed up to a defense position.

Leejo saw and called a few targets and got a kill, but then the enemy shot a 203 round into his look out killing him. But that worked to my advantage, just sorry I had to let a good man die for the cause, lol.

While Leejo was engaging, I flanked the enemy right, came up behind one and shot him in the back. then the last member of the enemy team and I engaged each other on the yellow, pee stained streets of Mexico. I broke off engagement, and flanked again, but this time flanked very far, just in case the enemy learned my plan. I came all the way around most of the map, lost the bad guy, but then we found each other again, basically on the same street as before, we both pulled the trigger I pulled the lucky straw that time with a final kill and win.


The second game, It was Turbo and I against 3 bad guys.
We went to the edge of the map to keep the flanks to protect down. We were moving as a nice 2 man team using bounding overwatch from cover to cover, again just looking for first contact. (more then 2 would of been helpful.)

I mentioned to Turbo, "just remember to check our six once in a while", as soon as I said that, I checked our six and saw 2 bad guys come out of an alleyway that we had just passed and cleared. They were facing the other way so I choose not to engage just dive for cover and report the contact. (I will regret that tactical decision later).

They continued moving down where we just came from, we stayed behind them looking to catch up, spot and engage.

Turbo finally saw one and engaged, not sure if he ever killed one or not, but that gave me the chance to flank while he kept them busy. I flanked right again, came back around behind them, around that time is when I saw that Turbo went down, a snipers bullet. Rage filled me and I had to do all to control the overwhelming urge to charge in and take out what I could with my one rifle against three.

After calming down and thinking, I rounded a corner and observed a bad guy laying prone next to a building covering a long street. I said to my self what a beautiful kill this would be, I raised my weapon, put my eye to the scope, put my red sight dot on the bad guys head, breathed in and was about to pull the trigger... BANG!

I went down, a snipers round penetrating my upper body.

Game over.

__________________
Magnum
www.gettacticaldammit.com

leejo

Hehe.

First map - After some fumbling around I went into a building and got as high as possible. Then I came back and played the game. Kidding. The position I took was simply beautiful - covered rooftop in deep shadow with concrete pillars at each corner that provided cover with long fields of fire E, W, and S. After a little while I spotted Turbo on a rooftop (beautifully silhouetted against the sky - watch out for that!). We kept an eye on him and watched for targets moving in under his cover, but never saw any. When Magnum engaged/murdered our poor teammate Luni, I immediately opened up on Turbo. OK now they know where we are, kinda.

A minute later I saw contact. S of our position moving E. Magnum attempted to hunt him down, and made, then lost contact with someone. Then I saw my guy standing in a doorway. Thinking I had a terrific shot at turning the round into 2v1, I opened up on him, but I must have only winged him because he pulled back and tracers started coming out of the door, not appearing to be aimed at anything in particular.

I sprayed fire all over that building attempting to keep our guy pinned and distracted while Magnum closed and killed. My plan was working beautifully right up until the moment Strag killed me with a well-placed 203 round.

Then I watched through Magnum's eyes as he flanked and killed Perry, who must have been my contact in the doorway, then got involved in some truly legendary exchanges with Strag. Those two must have put well over 100 rounds at each other from 20m TWICE before Magnum finally zapped Strag. Classic GR showdown!

Map 2.

Ugh. I went sniper for this map just for kicks, hoping to find a high perch. This must be the only GRAW map with absolutely no stairs, though, because we just wandered around for a while without seeing anything.

Initially, we headed for the middle of the map, but I got jumpy there with all the different avenues of approach to worry about and suggested that we head to the edge of the map and work our way around. Strag and Perry agreed and off we went.

Just before the firefight Magnum mentioned began, I finally found a nice little sniper hide: in deep shadow under a covered area next to a building with excellent cover on my sides, providing a nice, long, narrow field of fire. Then Strag started taking fire from our rear. Strag took cover and began calling out his contact's position, but I could see tracers coming at him from an entirely different direction, so moved out of my little hide and peeked around to see where those tracers were coming from. I zoomed in on the target just as he shot the crap out of me. I have no idea why I didn't die, but I shot him with that long gun and dropped him. 86 Turbo.

Perry had moved into position to support Strag, but I figured Magnum was trying to flank and moved back to my sniper hide. A few seconds later he appeared. I reported "contact" and while Strag is yelling "where?!"...EAT LEAD SUCKER! Click. Oh hell these sniper rifles don't reload themselves. damn damn damn load you sonofabitch. BANG. 86 Magnum. Whew!

I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this game. IMO once we learn the maps a little bit better, and get some full squads going at it, we'll have some terrific matches. Ghost Recon is back!

Strag

Some very tense stuff last night. I had a blast.

Here are the TvT gametypes:

Hamburger Hill
Quite simply the player / team who spends the most time in the central area of the map wins. The great thing about HH is that there is no lull in action, you need to act quickly and tactically in either a defensive or offensive situation.


Hamburger Hill Maps
We developed three unique maps and I am sure fans will be happy to know that two of them are very rural.

HH01-CommStation
This map is an abandoned communication station situated on a cliff near the ocean. It's quite rural, although it contains some central buildings and roads. A blocked tunnel leads away from the area through the mountains, and the sea blocks the way through on the other side. The teams fight for control of the central base, and the map is open and is the most rural map we've done to date.

HH02-The Cape
Again situated near the water, this seaside barracks has only a few buildings. The central cliff is pierced by cliffs running through them to make the map more interesting, and has a "faster game" approach because of the natural choke points.

HH03 – Hollow
This map was already present in the deathmatch mode. This is a valley based map with a central base/fort structure. It's got custom terrain and is in a mountainous area.


Customizing Hamburger Hill
We have been working on 4 distinctive HH options that determine the different ways of winning the game. These options can be defined the way the player wants to at start-time.

“Classic” Hamburger Hill (HH)
Team that held the zone the most during a game (i.e. earned most points) wins when time runs out.

King of the Hill (KotH)
Team that holds the zone when the time runs out wins.

Complete Objective (CO)
Team first to reach the pre-determined number of points wins.

Tug of War (ToW)
Each team starts with a pre-determined number of points. If a team holds the zone, one team loses a point while the other team gains one. The winner will be the team which is superior in points when there is not enough time for the opposing team to catch up. If a team captures all points, the game is won.


Team Deathmatch
One team tries to eliminate the other.


Siege
In Siege you fight for control of a strategic zone, where one team defends (the Ghosts) while the other attacks (the Mexicans). If the attacking team manages to get inside the zone and survive for more than five seconds, they will win the game.


Domination
There are two teams (US and Mex), starting at their own respective home bases. Each team can be divided into fireteams consisting of up to five members each.

The map is divided into a number of zones, which from the beginning are all neutral (except for the home base of the two teams, which always belong to that team and can't be taken over by the other team), but as soon as a member of either team walks into a zone connected to a zone already held by that team, that zone will begin a process of being overtaken by that team (the "ownership bar", underneath the map in the HUD, increases).

This process goes faster the more members from that team are in the zone, but stops if an equal number of members of the opposing team enter the zone.

To take over a zone which is already held by the opposing team you need to go through the process of "releasing" that zone from the opposing team - e.g. "neutralizing" it (the "ownership bar" goes down). This is done by outnumbering the enemy numbers in that zone - needless to say it goes faster the more of your team you have in there. Even though your enemy owns the zone, there might be no enemies in there, as a zone taken over by one team will be held by that team until the opposing team fully "neutralizes" the zone.

In short: To take over a neutral zone you only need to stay in the zone until the "ownership bar" is entirely filled, but to take over a zone held by your enemy you need to first "release" it from their ownership, and then take it over youself (which naturally would take twice the time compared to taking over a neutral zone).

A zone whose ownership is changing starts flashing on the map - which should send the opposing team running there to look after their assets. This might however just be a distraction to lure them away from their advance elsewhere on the map, so there are many tactical layers to all of this.

Any zone can be neutralized, but to take it over for your own team it must be connected via a supply line (visible on the map in the HUD). This means that you can run across the map and neutralize an enemy zone - "poking holes" in their empire - but you cannot take them over until your own frontlines have reached that far.

Needless to say, it is of great importance to move together and take over zones in teams. You cannot run around on renegade missions - a team who plays tactically and knows how to advance through the map as a team will run you over big time.

Up in the right corner of the screen is the map, showing the zones as well as you and your teammates' positions. Beneath it, as mentioned before, is the "ownership bar" (beneath the map). There is also the "presence indicator", showing exactly the number of friendlies and enemies in your zone.

If you are alone in a zone that you own, and suddenly the number of enemies pops up to two - you are in trouble! Call for support or the enemy, now outnumbering you, will take over the zone - or at least neutralize it.

The flashing indication on the HUD map and the "presence indicator" makes it fruitless to go hide in the corner of the map and hope that no one will find you. Get back in line, soldier!

You can change the number of lives each player has to dispose of - infinite, five, three or one (meaning no respawns).

Spawn camping is counteracted by making every enemy in your home base visible on the HUD map, and making anyone who spawns immortal for five seconds.

Your team wins if:
A) You take over all the zones on the map (except for the enemy base zone, which cannot be taken over).
B) The match time runs out and you dominate the most zones (match time can of course be altered server-side).
C) The server was set to allow a limited number of respawns and you killed everyone in the opposing team so that they cannot respawn anymore.


Which TvT mode would we like to try next?

Magnum50

This is the one for small teams like last night, IMO.

__________________
Magnum
www.gettacticaldammit.com

leejo

We used to play a ton of domination with GR uno. That's my favorite, but you need full squads.

Strag

Great write-ups, guys. I felt the action was extremely tense last night, and I was wired after the first map's battle with Magnum. I agree with leejo -- last night's games felt like Ghost Recon to me.

leejo

Suggestion: shorten the rounds significantly.

Strag

Consider it done. Fifteen minutes? Ten?

leejo

My suggestion is 15.

Strag

CC.

Once we determine a good TvT gametype, choose the proper settings, and test things out, we should be ready to get our first tournament rolling.

leejo

sweet!