Leasons Learned: 28th January 2007

Below are some of the leasons I learned from the various games (two) that we played on Sunday.

Armed Assault:
Infantry caught in the open by armoured vehicles, without any anti-armour weapons, are like shooting fish in a barrel. However, we (Vinci and I), learned of a weakness with the AI in the ArmA demo... Shoot out the tires of the Humvee or BDRM and the crew bail out to be cut down by our accurate rifle fire. Unfortunately this trick doesn't work against real people, but it does make their get away really slow with two burst front tires, giving you enough time to re-spawn and re-arm with rockets to blow their ass sky high. We are still working out the bugs in this tactic, hopefully getting rid of the need to die part first.

Team work is extremely important in this game, especially overwatch of your team mate(s) whilst they are doing any task that will leave them vunerable. For example anti-tank troop engaging armour, the weapon blocks most of your field of view on the right. So positioning yourself on the right of that soldier provides protection to him from enemy infantry.

On the CO-OP mission we formed into a two man assault element of a larger force, mainly due to ourselves being on our TeamSpeak Server but mostly to do with the other real players going off all Rambo and getting themselves killed. Two riflemen working in close co-operation can take on quite a sizeable force. Especially if the larger force isn't organised, you have the element of surprise, or the advantage of the environment.

We also had a moment that was reminiscent of Blackhawk Down, you know the part when the two SAW gunners are on their own? Well it was like that except we had PKMs that we had pinched off of the larger force (see above) we had just neutralised.

Battlefield 2 could learn alot from the folks that make ArmA support weapons that are accurate and can deny an area to an enemy or just obliterate them where they stand. Rather than a support weapon where the safest place the enemy can stand is directly in front of it. Ok I'm exaggerating just a wee bit.

War Rock:
After having most of the clan playing different games for most of the night, we thought we'd try War Rock and see if the server's were back up (see Vinci's post below).
Indeed the servers were back online and hurray everyone could connect this time, so a room was created and we tried our hand at Urban Operations.

It was supposed to be 3v3 but Vinci had to leave early. So it ended up 3v2 on a rotating basis. Well it would've been 3v2 had Chezzie not been victim to a bug that only affects him and only if he gets in a vehicle at the start of a round/map. So it ended up OldCynic, Lobowolven and S8nSpike against me.

What's that? You want to hear about the bug?

Oh well then. Chezzie has found a rather interesting bug, that as far as we know only affects him. If he gets into a vehicle at the start of a round odd things happen. In the game that ended up as 3v1 he got into an APC just as I spawned and tried to get in as gunner, but when I got in the APC didn't move. This is despite repeated calls over TS for him to do so. So thinking that he hasn't spawned yet and it is just his name hanging in the air rather than his player, I jump out, only to be informed by TS that he has indeed moved and is attempting to engage the enemy. Fair enough I think, but the APC hasn't moved, I'm standing looking at it. Just as i'm about to voice this fact, the APC zooms off down the road and round the corner as if it is the Star Ship Enterprise entering warp facter 9!

Ok this is stage one of the bug and is not yet fatal to Chezzie. Although after engaging the enemy and defeating them with my help (hey it's my blog post alright!) I turned up in a tank which upset them quite abit. Anyway I'm digressing, 5 minutes later Chezzie dies which is 4 minutes after the APC got blown up and is force to respawn...

Bug Phase 2 - The fatal part.
So after spawning he jumps into the respawned APC and heads back into the fray, only to get 5 feet before he finds a miine field that didn't exist previously on that spot and that noone in the enemy has laid. Fair enough the mines kill him and the APC, still that isn't the fatal part. The fatal part is, that after getting blown up in drops him back to the main login screen and he can't rejoin the action!

So anyway back in the battle...
It's now 3v1 and I'm having a hell of a time keeping the bases capped, there is just no chance I can keep 3 bases capped against 3 other players. So I turn my attention to practising my skills. Now I didn't fight the whole battle from a tank, they learned real quick after the first complete set of kills (all three of them killed in under a minute) and came at me with a tank of their own and a cross fire of rockets.

I didn't survive so for the rest of the match, bar a couple of incidents, I fought on foot. I lost the match but I did rack up 22 kills for 9 deaths.

Chezzie was then able to rejoin the room and another battle started only to be exited and restarted, as you guessed it, Chezzie jump into the first vehicle he found and found the mine field 2 seconds later. At this point some one had enough points to go up a level and wondered where the shop for upgrades was...

Each of us in turn exited the room and went and spent some of our hard earned Dinar (the credits you get for playing games) I rented the M4A1 Assault Rifle and the G36C SMG for 2 days (you only rent weapons for a set number of days)

With these new weapons the carnage of the next few maps was extreme. The G36C is a wonderful weapon for the close in maps and is an available upgrade for Engineer, Medic and Assault classes. I scored a lot of headshots with it, but so did S8nSpike as he'd bought the same weapon load as myself.

The M4A1 available for the Assault class is a highly accurate and deadly weapon at close to medium range, with a fair degree of killing power at long rang too. Between S8nSpike and myself armed with this weapon it became a case of whoever saw the other one first won that fight. We had numerous occasions where we killed each other at the same time.

It's safe to say both of these games are on the top 5 wanted list. Anyway enough of my drivel.

Vyper

A Very Silly WarRock Sunday:::

Well the long planned event to be held on Sunday the 21st of Jan was nearly called off due to a couple of problems @ the server end. First problem was due to the Warrock system undergoing maintenance?, but this got fixed around 20:30hrs, but then a couple of the clan members had issues with connection. but it still turned out to be a brilliant night.

Having only had a brief go with WR in the past i wasnt sure how i would perform, but as soon as i played the first round i instantly realised that this game shouldnt be compared to BF2, but actually as a re-done Soldier Of Fortune 2, the combat is fast, with encounters being settled quickly just like with SoF2 but it also is very similar in other aspects too. The way the sniper rifles handle is almost identical and the need to "tap tap tap" the mouse button when trading rounds at medium to long range with an assault weapon reminded me of the battles in SoF2 using the AK.

Maps in WR seem to be nice and tight, very much like SoF2 or CS:S maps, big enough to have some variety but small enough to keep you on your toe's.

I aint worked out how to heal myself yet.. i did find an ammo supply though.... which i though was a medic center, and after the bar filling up i left happy....... only to die of blood loss 10 secs later, but at least i was fully armed. Yes if you take enough damage and dont see a medic or a medical center then you will die of your wounds, a nice touch i feel.

The game Dev's do seem to have taken a good look at other games around and raided them for the best ideas that work in each... the map design and weapon purchase (more on this to come) from CS:S, the ease of use with sniper rifles and free flowing modern combat from SoF2, the use of vehicles from Joint Ops and Battlefield and the all mighty fisticuff action from Quake, i just wish they had included the bayonet from SoF2 as well, this would have been the icing on the cake.

Weapon purchase is done outside of the actual game, @ the main menu. you seem to start the game with about 30000 credits, which you can spend to unlock different weapons for each of the classes, but rather than unlock them on a permanent basis, they are unlocked for a varying length of time, with the price going up depending on how long you want to unlock that item for.

Aint sure how to make more cash though.... i pressume from just doing well?.

I am pretty sure Warrock will become a regular clan favorite, and will sit well beside the forthcoming ArmA, with WR offering fast paced fun and ArmA supplying the more tactical simulation element.

Good times are ahead for this clans gaming.

Well just had a brief shot of the Armed Assault Demo (about 3 hours worth). Joined up with Vinci and a few random internet dudes on the CO-OP mission, and I have to say it is truely excellent. The learning curve is quite steep and the game offers no forgiveness for Rambo style silliness, to run off on your own is to meet a bloody end! This game not only encourages team play it actually rewards it. The time of day system is really cool, and playing at night with NV goggles is a very surreal experience, especially when trace rounds float towards you. This is a definite for the must get list. Check out the armed assault site here

Armed Assault, First Look:::

Tried ArmA for the first time tonight, only the demo but its brilliant. Flashpoint on steroids.

Ive played the coop and multiplayer maps and both are brilliant fun, especially the Conquer The Island mode. Blasting across the countryside in a tank is great fun, well untill you come across 2 enemy tanks or a lone sniper that you cant see, Oh! lession 1 - never get out the tank to have a look around when said sniper takes a pot shot.

The targeting is similar to OP-Flashpoint in that it takes a load of practise to hit anything at more than 100 yards and considering a lot of the encounters start at around the 400 to 500 yard mark its fairly tense, but its balanced by the fact that 1 hit to the torso will drop your target.

The AI on both sides is impressive, the bad guys will try to flank you while one of them keeps you entertained with his heavy machine gun talents and armoured vehicles are panic encounters, if your on foot and in the open, your finished unless he targets your pals and if you have a lot of them, you might be able to make like Ben Johnson while the rest of them take one for the team.

Cant wait for this to be released, the Coop missions will suit this clan perfect and will be a welcome replacment for the Joint Ops mayhem of the past. Oh except i dont think you can respawn in ArmA CooP, so that will make it a lot less gung ho!.

Cheers

RSS, Its The Future.... Of Something.

We now have an active RSS feed available, not sure why anybody would use it at the moment as we are the most useless bloggers on the planet. But all that will change, the clan is going through something of a renac..io..nonce.. , ... a change, and we will be back stronger than the 6 or 7 posts we had last year.

this counts as a post!

were off to a flyer!

Cheers