Announcing: Sparta Tactical Domination Nights: UPDATED

[PANiC]

quick vid from last night, this is how PARTY CHOPPER rolls there were many other crazy things that we did but far too graphic for public viewing

 

 

 

 

 

anyone else get graphic glitches like that btw?

Edited September 5, 2009 by PANiC

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Good Job Panic, I am working my way through them.

[MH6~SPARTA~]

PANiC, you credited me with flying the chopper in that last vid, but I never flew the Bravo chopper. (I flew Alpha and Charlie choppers)

 

Though I do enjoy doing back-flips.

 

Edit: Ah yes, I remember this insertion. I was flying for Charlie squad (the only chopper with no MHQ) and EMT was flying for Bravo.

 

Tac. Night was a blast by the way.

Edited September 5, 2009 by MH6

[DaiSan]

Great games last night, Everyone did a blinding job seeing as this is a huge learning curve involving players of all levels and playing styles.

 

Squad lead was a bit hectic what with comms from my squad and from Bravo and Durka often cancelling eachother out. I also find it hugely frustrating that the sound options in this game are so limited and you cant independently adjust the vehicle volume. (once in or near a helo then TS is drowned out totally).

 

One point of note though, people need to make more use of the map as an assist for squad movement. I assume this is a legacy from my GR days but basically anytime I move with a squad I take a real quick peek at the map to see where I am in the formation (or where I need to be to fill gaps) and I do a regular map check to make sure I'm not to far ahead/behind/distant from my squad. It really is a great way to make sure your squad moves in a decent formation as you can keep a nice squirmish line with decent spacing.

 

Overall though it was a great night and hopefully I didn't confuse my squad too much ;)

 

i dont think we could move as quickly as the commander would like, especially when asked to move to give cover to Alpha team (because they were too weak ).

 

Anyone get a screenshot of all them BRAVO x's in the first game. I seem to recall looking at the map and seeing almost your entire squad down

[PANiC]

editited, thanks and apologies MH6

Edited September 5, 2009 by PANiC

[PANiC]

Anyone get a screenshot of all them BRAVO x's in the first game. I seem to recall looking at the map and seeing almost your entire squad down

 

 

i heard Alpha team called in a welcoming party tank to our insertion

[DaiSan]

i heard Alpha team called in a welcoming party tank to our insertion

 

 

 

For Bravo

 

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

LOL Dai, good to see you enjoying yourself. The Party squad did well and I enjoyed working with them.

[Super64]

those were some fun games, ill stay in tune for next friday matches, hooah

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

I'll say this....

The whole purpose of the Friday Night Tactical is first and foremost to have an enjoyable night, then get our regulars to learn how to play as a real team, drawing on the experience of those who are used to this sort of play. The challenging aspect is to take a gamemode that is more suited for the rambo run-n-gunners, and change it into something that it was most likely meant to be. I believe players were meant to find the hostile town, develop a strategy to defeat it, simple or complex, then implement that strategy until it is taken. A which point they recover and regroup, then move on to the next town with a different strategy.

 

I don't believe this gametype was made so that the player with the most kills, wins. I don't believe the purpose is to take the towns down as absolutely fast as possible. The fun is in the planning, approach, and execution. It's just like football.

 

People who are playing on the server need to have patience. They need to pay attention to the briefing, to their maps, to their squad leaders, or it will spoil the fun for those who are really trying to do it the right way. This is precicely why, at first, I wanted the password to the server to be put at the bottom of the original post on here, instead of in TS, so everyone would have a chance to read the 3-4 simple rules and know what's going on. I understand not everyone visits the forums, so I also put it in the description of the TS channel.

 

I can't stress enough the point about patience. If you haven't commanded yet, understand that it is absolutely the hardest part of Tactical Domination. That's where the rule of respect comes in. Try to understand that not everyone who commands was an Army officer in a previous life, but all of you can come up with good plans if given the time and resources. I know I was sounding a bit annoying on Friday, but it was also very frustraiting trying to tell a group of people to move to a certian spot, only to see them going in a different direction. It didn't happen much, but it happened enough to make me annoying, lol. I will do better in the future not to micromanage the squads.

 

There's a reason the commander stays back with the HQ, in RL and in-game. First of all, there's too much going on if you are part of a squad, plus if you are in, lets say Alpha, then you are primarily focused on Alpha's squad rather than Bravo, Charlie, ect. That's what the squad leaders are for. If one needs help, the commander can quickly order the other squad to reinforce. Plus, if a commander gets killed, he loses access to his map, which is a main form of communication. Even for a few seconds could hurt the whole mission. Of course, it's all up to each individual commander's style, so nothing should be set in stone.

 

Dai's observation of everyone using the map is spot on. I suggest anyone read that twice. As for Panic's question of is it faster/easier to take the towns? It shouldn't be faster or easier with tactical. It's more of a "fight" and more like real life.

 

As for comms, TS limits us because we can't automatically mute everyone when the commander/squad leader is talking. The only suggestion I have is for the regular troops to not say anything unless it's absolutely necessary. That applies to calling out troops. The more talk, the more confusion. If you're in a heated firefight, why would you call out a contact, only to shoot them yourself 2sec later? It makes no sense. Now, if you are dealing with a mass formation of enemy flanking to the left, the squad leader should see it and report it to his troops to "shift fire left!" at which point the squad turns a bit to the left and begins firing.

 

That's all I'll say for right now. Apologies for the long post, but I felt I needed to explain some things.

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

ALL GOOD - we are getting close i think

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Thanks for the explanation, it clarifies a number of things for me.

 

I do look at the map, not as often as Dai San, I also look at the people themselves. When we assaulted the first town. we were outflanked to our right and could not get into position south of the tower as you were asking. Our right flank had to be cleared.

 

I failed to report that to the commander, who could have held the advance of alpha until we were ready. Apart form this one town which was particularly nasty the rest of them went well. Also TBH I didnt/couldnt listen to what my squad was saying, my little brain was entirely focused on the commanders voice which I could barley do with all the battle racket going on.

 

The only comment about looking at the map to establish your line etc, is that we may advance to veteran mode

 

If you watch the videos of one of our first assaults with "hectic" comms, I found the comms sounded clearer. You executed a hinge manouevre, which I have never seen before and yet it was executed perectly with little chatter from anyone (even with nearly 30 people in channel). For whatever reason, and maybe its me failing to explain myself, but I didnt struggle at all with that.

 

All of my comments are based on the first town on Friday, which went bad for Bravo from the begining.

 

Durka note the following

 

This is the best gaming I have ever been involved with

Noone complained or was impatient (beyond little things)

You are the best commander here, but I especially enjoy being in your squad.

You have a calm voice on comms, which helps a lot

 

In future I will do my critique with you in person, to avoid misunderstanding.

 

Thanks again Durka for providing a great evenings entertainment.

[DaiSan]

My comments about the map are aimed purely as a training aid or an extra asset.

 

In this mode the map is available and is a HUGE asset for planning and squad movement, I would advise not moving on from this mode until your regulars get used to moving at a consistent speed and spacing (Which can be checked with the map).

 

On the tactical server we don't have this facility but use the freelook (TrackIR is fantastic) to move with our squad, pausing and checking spacing/grouping as we go. But this is a hard discipline to learn and maintain and while you have the benefit of the map to assist then all I'm saying is USE IT

 

Also people need to get used to covering FIRE ARCs. This is one of the most basic disciplines and it is very frustrating to look around when the squad stops and see almost everyone facing the same way, or just milling about.

 

Squad movement 101: When you stop, you (the squad as a whole) form a 360 arc of fire, even when in supposed friendly territory (waiting for evac/orders etc).

 

All of these thing only require one thing, practice, and these Friday nights are a great step in that direction and I applaud all involved in planning and executing this move.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Understood, it is interesting that the guys asked to switch to veteran mode yesterday and seemed to enjoy it. But Durka will decide when we are cohesive enough to play that way on a Friday.

 

I have thought of a simple solution to my battle sound problem, I will decrease my sytem sound which will force the game sound to a lower volume and increase my ts volume which I only run at about 30% anyway. This will make the game quieter and TS more comprehensible so that I wont suffer from audio overload.

 

 

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

No worries about the critiques I like no BS assessments because that lets me give no BS explanations, lol.

 

The first town we assaulted, Murphy's law took place immediately. Bravo was supposed to be the stronger of the two squads, deployed to protect Alpha's right, but they landed right in the middle of an extremely hot zone and got completely torn up. I tried to get Alpha to fall back and cover them while they regrouped, but I had already asked them to adavnce so that was my fault. The hole premise of what I wanted to do all night Friday was to have both squads move forward, covering each other's advance.

 

Something's wrong with the map markers, because they were all getting f-ed up, and I don't know what the deal with that is.

 

One thing that really rocked, for me anyways, was being back over the hill in the HQ and hearing almost constant fire going on throughout the whole mission. I kept thinking that it sounded so intense you guys MUST be having fun lol. Also, I'm not going to be so mono-toned next time

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

One thing that stuck out for me, from the first map to the last, was a less than ideal understanding of the terrain.

During the first map, things may have got confused with the heavy firefight but Bravo were constantly being asked to give cover from positions that did not yield a view of target or Alpha's advance.

On subsequent maps, it ws much of the same, even when I joined the Charlie sniper squad, so a lot of "on-the-fly" re-positioning was required.

In all cases where this was a problem, the squads I was in were being asked to position themselves on an "up-slope", so being given no view and when some of us moved to achieve a line of sight, we were getting verbal flack for advancing. On that score, I know I certainly could have communicated better, as to why I was moving.

Maybe we could use some more map training?

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

ACK! Like a stake to my heart Watchman! I'll pay more attention to my squad leaders on that one next time

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

It's Tac Dom night again

[PANiC]

woop

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

Awesome games tonite guys thanks, one night of Arma makes up for a whole week of cod

[custard~SPARTA~]

Did two towns and had more fun than a whole weeks normal Domination BS I feel exhausted, thanks to all that were there.

 

Big thanks to Sneaky and Zeno for being comander, I know it suks I will try to do a town next time you guys rock

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Good games tonight. Good Job Luggage on squad leadership, I enjoyed being in your squad.

 

Thanks to everyone who suffered through my planning, particularly my last town which was a meat grinder.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Hope all went well for you guys. I had to travel to Chattanooga (1.5hr drive at 80mph) on last minute business so had to miss tonight's Tac Dom. It sounds like folks had a lot of fun!

[Lightspeed~SPARTA~]

ggz guys and noticeable improvement on comms and team movement - very enjoyable.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

Hope all went well for you guys. I had to travel to Chattanooga (1.5hr drive at 80mph) on last minute business so had to miss tonight's Tac Dom. It sounds like folks had a lot of fun!

 

One gig for Bean!!!