Rahman and I must have spent 14-18 hours over the weekend playing, particularly Friday and Saturday night where we stayed up til 4am CST. I don't know what it is about this game, but I haven't had this much fun in a FPS since probably Tribes 2 back in 2000.

What surprises me is how significant actual teamwork is, even on a small scale with 2 or 3 people on comms. The impact that Rah and I had when working together with 1 or 2 other random players that joined our squad was amazing...effectively we won about 90% of the maps by sticking to simple plans and choosing our objectives carefully.

During this time our custom created TX squad was number one in points virtually every map and all our in game members scored in the top 4-5 spots consistently. Very cool was that after a few maps progressed and we starting showing the effectiveness of our tactics, whoever was commander of our side starting giving us priority of assets... everytime I requested UAV support I got it, artillery was at my command and the commander seemed to make every effort to keep us happy with supply drops.

One of the guys that had randomly joined us without being on comms turned out to be a great player. Having no communication with the guy at all, I noticed that he stuck to me like glue and had a natural sense of teamwork. I was pretty impressed with him because we all worked so well together, after a couple more maps Rah invited him onto TS, where we then proceeded to anhiliate the other team in fine style.

His name is Venuto, if you have Xfire installed look him up and add him, he's got an awesome teamwork attitude. The 3 of us pretty much owned everyone for the rest of the night, except one map where Rah sat out and I was 5 minutes late spawning. I had been thinking that maybe our success that evening was luck of the draw...maybe our team just had better players than the other and thats why we were winning so much, but this particular map changed my opinion.

We got butchered. I must have died 20 times in a row trying to spawn at various bases and Ven didn't have much luck either. It was tough, but thankfully the map ended quickly to the trumpet of our sides stunning humiliation. Mildy annoyed at the sudden break in our winning streak, we all came back in, spawned together and moved out as a unit...and for the rest of the night we crushed the other team til 4am when we were all too fatigued to continue.

It was an eye opening experience for me...I had thought the other team was maybe just having a bad night, maybe our side had the better players but the success we had when working as a squad vs what happened when we didn't was like night and day...and against the exact same opposing team members. We really did seem to have a tremendous effect on the flow of the entire game.

All in all a satisfying weekend of BF2 for me. I learned a few new tricks, got some medals and had a blast teaming up with Rah in classic TX style. We met a good player who comes on comms with us and worked out the basics of a 3 man strike team that can work major damage on the enemy. I couldn't be happier with the way things went.

Look for Venuto on TS this week, he's a good guy from Brooklyn and will most certainly be on comms looking for a wingman.


See you guys soon...damn, this game rocks!




 


Zen

Forgot to add, we will probably soon see EmuDragon and ScubaSteve adding to the mayhemZen

So I come home today to find a box from Amazon which was addressed to one TX-EmuDragon. . . I can only imagine the look the UPS guy had when he asked if said resident was there. . . not to mention my girlfriend’s response.Looks like I'll be joining you guys in BF2 ;-DTY6. . . too kindS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

.....Sorry I missed Ya'll on BF2 this weekend. I had CudaJR this weekend and he was playing COD/UO-COD2 all weekend while I was fixing the hot tub and doing yard work. I'll have BF2 ready to run during this week and will hook up with you guys sometime before the weekend. My XFIRE is txcuda340, or just look at rahman's friends list and you can add me that way.TX-CudaMinister of Information

Well i'm gald you like it as much as you do.  As for making SGT so soon....i don't think you'll pull it off...you need 30,000 points.  I'm at 38,000, and a gunny sgt...took foeever to get there.  BTW Zen, the other night I was in the same server as you, under the name <<1stAD>>Deicide...said hello, but you left before replying.For the next little while, it will be tough for me to do the comms thing, as I usually have a baby monitor beside me, and I can't use my headphones, but i'll see what I can do.

Just came home to a package!  Unbelievable!  Thx very much Rah!  Awefully nice of you!  I really look forward to joining you guys in BF2!  (Hope I haven't exceeded my exclaimation point quota/density just now).  TX-ScubaSteveWhite 4

Hey guys - so tell me how to hook up?I've got BF2-SF-Euro and latest patches.  Is there a leaderboard where we can go look each other up at?Looking forward to team play.S~GBlack 2 TX Flight Leader

Installing Xfire is one way that makes it easy to join a game without having to ask all the usual questions and search for the server, but there's always TS. You can find us roaming around in the BF2 channel :)Zen

...Headed to FRY's in just a bit to get another amp for my Turtle Beach headset,another motherboard if they have what I want, and BF2. I patched my copy of COD2 and am not impressed in the least with what took those guys months and months to get out. Gamestate was supposed to be bumped up to 128K according to some lackeys post from ActiVision, but it isn't even close....  NO RADIANT, and the two maps they released with this thing looked much better when I had some of the same maps that were the single player maps that had been modified by users/modders to tide the time waiting for the patch. I guess CrapTiVIsion is just wanting to make sure that the XBOX360 users of COD2 are happy and Lord Bill of the NorthWest is satisfied with the upgrade that the console users got first. They seem to forget that the COD game was first made popular by the PC users...who waited for, and then bought the United Offensive add-on.....Sure makes you appreciate Oleg and Crew for the way that they have stood by the original pilots in IL2!...sorry if I appear to be "Venting" there are extenuating circumstances that I'll mention later if I don't cool down!GREETS ALL!TX-CudaMinister of Information

.....BY THE WAY!!!....I am friends with one of the beta testers for the COD2 upgrade and he has posted some good news about "RED OKTOBER". Seems that even though it is another WW2 FPS shooter it is heads and tails above what COD2 is at the moment.He had a BETA version of the new RADIANT for COD2 and all of the sudden he had his access pulled, along with most of his fellow testers.....at any rate, I'll post a link to the forum that I read his posts on and you guys can read about it. Massive maps is what I am looking for....like what we had in IL2....but with the ability to get in a bunch of tanks and form some type of plan...unlike COD where at the best you use the tanks for cover and mobile arty. ......still venting...gimme a break!TX-CudaMinister of Information

One of the Euroforces maps is called Operation Smokescreen and just like Gunslinger mentioned, it has gaggles of tanks running around. The first time I played the map my tanker ferocity came out in force because I rolled out in a LeClerc thinking I'll do some damage, only to be confronted by a roaming horde of FIVE T90's! I got hammered. And then hammered again. And again and again lol. Talk about getting the tank commander aggression peaked, even while being humiliated like a n00b I was praising their teamwork-because thats the way armor should be employed. Unfortunately my side lost because these guys (correctly) stayed in a group, kept themselves mutally repaired and pretty much mowed everyone down because our team kept coming as singles instead of a large group. I never could get anyone to wing up. I had a blast though, I've come to enjoy the armor aspect of BF2 quite a bit even as arcade as they are. I guess no one would want to play against the US Abrams if it were modelled correctly because in real life only western MBT's can fight with it...and PLA/MEC has nothing to compare.So there definately are pure armor based maps, though they are clearly in the minority because apparently most people just like to gun each other down mano y mano. Nothing wrong with that, but the large armor concept is imho very cool and I wish there was more of it available in game. Speaking of gaggles, I've noticed on several maps that a mass armor attack can and does win the objective more often than not. The key is to get a group of guys *cough cough--TXers* to form up with the armor suppressing the objective and a few foot guys to brave the fire and take the checkpoint. It's been done to me more than once and we've pulled it together and done it to the other side too. Devastingly effective when the armor is employed right. That brings up a good point about mass in general in BF2...the best way to win is just like real world tactics which is to hit an objective in force. Last night on Venuto's favorite Strike at Karkand, we made a tremendous impact by going out as a group of 4-5 infantry. We basically took every checkpoint we went after and had some furious battles at the Hotel that they were doing everything possible to defend, but we won. The action was fast and furious but we stayed together as a group and put the smack down. I believe once again we won every map we played. What I see too often is stragglers attempting to take a defended objective without proper support, armor rolling in too close and getting taken out by ATG's (which is a favorite tactic of ours on defense, using mass ATG from many positions) and way way way too many snipers trying to be hero's. If we get 4-5 guys working as a unit, the results are impressive and really hits a nice military vibe with me. I think we are refining things even now to where we tend to take a distribution of kits so we can operate more effectively against whatever the enemy has, which is another aspect of the game I really like. On Karkand as USMC we invariably do a flanking move and take out the MEC rear checkpoint that has their arty and UAV/radar support. Spec ops keeps C4ing the assets, we have one guy in a tank to cover the road, a medic, support and at least one ATG. The combination is extremely effective, I don't think we've lost that map yet when working as a team. On the opposite side of mass, I think that a pair of TXer's can have a dramatic influence on the entire game once the battle on Karkand stabilizes into a slugfest at the trainwreck objective. Last night Ven and I were on early playing as MEC. The USMC had taken virtually every objective and we were down 180 to 120 something. It looked like a certain loss for the MEC, but we set out on foot to flank the trainwreck and hit the rear areas. Sure enough, none of them were defended and we started to capture points all over the USMC backside. We ran into stragglers here and there but didn't have a problem taking them out and pretty soon the USMC had to divert forces from the massive battle at the bridge to take the checkpoints back. We basically hopped from objective to objective on foot and kept taking enough of them that we won the battle by just a couple of tickets...sounds simple but it was a real challenge and extremely intense. The moral here is that aggressive moves are what wins maps...when things are tough, form up and try to hit something. It might seem pointless after being spawn camped 10 times in a row or feeling like you are facing overwhelming odds, but often enough you can break out, take some objectives and destabilize the center of mass enough to allow your forces to regroup and mass up for their own counter offensive. 2 guys really can make that big of a difference even on a large server. I also found out last night how effective the assault class is. I decided to try it out and was really impressed at how easy it was to kill the enemy and so have revised my opinion on what I thought was a fairly ineffective kit. It's actually great for infantry to infantry combat, but I still feel silly when a tank rolls by and I have nothing but harsh language to fight it with. Last night was another intense and well excuted round of BF2...I really enjoyed the TX fighting spirit being out in full force and just as we have shown through our long history together, we definately socked it to the other side yesterday. Salute to each of you for outstanding teamwork. See you guys Sunday night when I get back.  Zen

....another good sitrep by Herr Zen! I just picked up the retail version of BF2 last night so I'll be joining Ya'll in the evenings so I too can learn the game. The maual that came with this thing is quite lacking so if I am on comms I might tend to ask some questions that are rather mundane....so please bear with me! See Ya'll on the Battlefield!TX-CudaMinister of Information

Ok - Sent Zen, Eco and Cuda xfire "friend" evitesTried you handle Copper, but no luck...If your BF2ing and would like to coop with me please provide your BF2 handle or invite me on xfire my sig is txgunS~Black 2 TX Flight Leader

Rgr....right now my main bf2 handle is ''<<1stAD>>Deicide, and I can't change it w/o giving up 38,000 hard earned points and every weapon unlock.  I don't have xfire, but will get it pronto (my son usues xfire on this box).Reading Zen's brief gets me excited, cause I love large tank battle, and engaging tanks at a distance, perfecting my long range accuracy.  When up close, try to make your hits on the rear (obviously) or on the tread area...higher hit damage there.  Always good to travel in groups of at least 3...one or two as engineers, and the third as a support, that way everyone stays healthy and full of the tank ammo!When we have all of us on together, making a full squad, we will be unstoppable!!

Eco and I hooked up last night for BF2.Had a blast.  There was one point where Eco as SF and I as sniper were defending a flag the "Mine entrance" Flag on FUshe Pass.  We were up at the top of a metal stairway attatched to a building, overlooking the flag and the entrance to the compound. We were taking fire from all sides.  At this spot on the map, a mountain rises up on the back side of the facility.  Snipers were raining fire down from there.I took the back 180 and dealt with the snipers (got quite a few) while Eco took the other 180 degrees and we survived for quite a while.It was a blast.....Hope to teamplay some today/tonite (Good Friday), hope to see some of you...S~GBlack 2 TX Flight Leader

Told you gents it was the shiznit lol, have you seen or looked for any LW, you can find several playing, should DEFINATLEY hook up for some team play and goose steppin on a server !!!S~ T

Hey Tornado, Heading over to LW site to see if you guys have xfire or other handles that I can scan for when I get time to play....S~GBlack 2 TX Flight Leader

Several of us installed it, but never used it since then, drop a line in the ground pounders sections for scheduling a hook up !!S~ T

[BF2 addict]Medals, I need more medals. GIVE THEM TO ME    [/BF2 addict]Zen

Well. . then where have you been Z Dawg???? You're making me feel like a BF2 Addict!!I did however set up my rudder pedals and Logitcech junker stick (rudder pot from Hotel Echo Lima Lima!!) and can fly a chopper quite well with the setup. . .I just REALLY need a gunner!!!!S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

As a matter of fact I started flying the chopper last night and amazingly enough it didn't seem to hard. I could fly it just fine, but hitting a tank with rockets was another matter entirely. Today got home from work to practice a bit more and to my surprise I still continued to do well. I even managed to make 8-9 kills with rockets and decided that I simply love the Mi28. I'd like to see TX able to field 3 or 4 experten pilots for jets and choppers, I think if we can do that and keep them in the air, we will be able to prevent getting constantly spawn killed as it so often seems to happen. I'm going to keep practicing but will be happy to gun for you anytime...it's a low stress high enjoyment crew position :) :)PS I'll be on in about 90 minutes, or 18:30 PST (20:30 CST)Zen

I think that would be cool too. . . and a well flown and well gunned aircraft is really dangerous. . .though last night I was happily taking out tanks and vehicles left and right and then got yelled at by the Commander that I needed to take flags, "or was I just gonnna fly all night".  I did take a couple flags by hovering over them, but the rest of the team just wasn't there running for flags even though I was eliminating most of their opposition. I guess he was right. . . and we were losing despite my vehicle kills, since that's not really the point of the game. . . we need a balanced arsenal of support, medic, engineer, Special OPS, armor, and aircraft . . . and probably should assign jobs to ourselves so that we can avoid leaving any gaps in our assault package. At a minimum I think we need a tank/sniper/chopper for cover, and some medics running for flags.P.S. I'm logging in nowS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Chopper Gunner I can do....Sniper I can do as I prefer to snipe in the bigger COD/UO-COD2 Conversion maps. Logging in now....TX-CudaMinister of Information

try the f-15 or su34, as the gunner, and use the tv guided missles...you will rack up quite a tally of tank kills...get your ribbon if you get 10 kills in one map.

Copper, have any suggestions on getting the 5 repair points in 1 round? For the life of me I can't seem to get it, I repair repair repair like crazy but maybe get 1 or 2 points a round. I've tried lurking around my side's assets and waiting til someone blows them up but that only gets a point or two at best, I've tried the Euromaps and driving around as a tank with the wrench out or driving behind tanks in a buggy...I hear lots of repair noises but never seem to get any points. I've repaired entire bridges and probably a hundred unmanned vehicles and crewed vehicles that are on fire but repaired before they explode. The happy crews drive off with a wave and a thanks, but I'm left holding a wrench and no points. I thought this would be an easy one, but really, it seems like no matter how much I repair someone I just don't get credit. Zen

I have a question as well.  When I registered BF2, I got an e-mail giving me some "tips" on how to play the game.  One suggestion states: "AT weapons.  Everytime you aim at an enemy tank or apc this weapon will set off a warning in that vehicle. If you aim slightly above the vehicle while firing the warning will not trigger. Then steer the missile down and hit him at the very last moment."I find it very hard to steer the rocket after I've fired it, since my crosshairs dissapear as soon as I fire, and perspective goes through the re-load animation.  Anyone know how to keep one's crosshairs enabled?  Oh, it just occurred to me that maybe I need to turn auto-reload off under "options" in the menu?  Guess I'll try that when I get home tonight.TX-ScubaSteveWhite 4

Dunno if I'm onto anything here Zen . . . but I got my engineer stuff from fixing the UAV trailer, and the Artillery guns and did most of that in one mission. Usually if a team is after the arty, and you fix it, they come back out and destroy it again. . so you get yourself a lot of fixing in the mission. Most vehicles never sit still long enough it seems. . . as I’ve not gotten much from that method I don’t think.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Eco, I guess thats the way I'll have to go then, I can't seem to get it any other way. Scuba, I have the same problem with the AT launcher too, but not on every shot. Sometimes it stays up and sometimes not. I read you can hold the one of the mouse buttons down to keep the scope engaged, but I haven't seen that work 100% so far. Could be that sometimes I am more fixated on the target than keeping the mouse button depressed, so tonight I'm going to test that out. Zen

Zen, last night I disabled the auto-reload, and had no problem keeping the scope on the AT engaged--what a difference that made!  For the first time I was able to hit tanks (and helicopters) every time!  The problem I still had, was when I tried shooting tanks while riding in the black hawk, but the rockets wouldn't even come close, even though I kept the crosshairs on the tank the whole time.  Of course, my biggest problem was to remember to reload--especially after emptying an entire clip into someone (who refused to die)... then getting shot by him when he turns around and fires one round at me, while I'm looking for the "R" key...TX-ScubaSteveWhite 4

Scuba,I also disabled auto reload and viola!, I was instantly hitting twice as often with the ATG than before, though I have to make a concious effort to reload after reach shot. I've already had several embarrasing instances of popping up, taking aim at a maurading tank only to hear the empty click, then being gifted with a nice 15 second spawn delay to consider that I forgot to reload the rocket. I think I've also set record heights in vaulting death after being hit with the tanks main gun round. Still, I think it's worth the small hitch in switchology, with practice reloading on your own should become second nature and with the proliferation of armored vehicles in BF2, being able to hit consistently is very important. I'm still not having any luck getting my basic engineer badge. I'm about to give up, its getting too frustrating looking for repair points. I did get the veteran engineer combat badge in only 45 minutes of playing after reaching the required 15 global hours...26 kills on the same map which was great. Unfortunately I've spent over 6 hours trying to get the veteran assault badge and keep getting 19 kills in a round, but since you need 20 I can't seem to get that dang badge either. Thats really starting to tick me off, it seems when using the assault kit I am doomed to bad luck. Zen

....same here ZEN...although I am getting killed about the time I hit the damaged vehicle and break out the wrench! I think I am going to give COD a break and concentrate on BF as I am still a lowly Buck Private....TX-CudaMinister of Information

Man. . . this is pretty lame:http://media.putfile.com/pwnage5580S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Hey Rah. . . it looks like the team-mate in red is a known bug:Teammates appearing Red Posted by: belloqI do not know the circumstances surrounding this bug, that is, I do not know if there is a good reason for this happening which would make this a feature rather than a bug. However, there are often times a member of your team, who should appear with a Blue nametag, but they appear onscreen with a Red nametag. This invariably leads to teamkilling, punishing, and sleepless nights frought with terrible nightmares about the Man in Red. Server-side or client-side issue: I do not know either. (There's lots I don't know, huh?) A common denominator might be that this occurs when a team has maxed out squads.Posted by: DanniIn addition, this could be caused by invites after a player moves to a different team.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Sorry I wasn't able to reply sooner guys.....what with the new baby etc, and my modified dayshift of 10am-6pm....I get home, help with the little one then off to bed.You seemed to solve the AT missle problem, but i'm not too sure about the repair one you mentioned.  I got most of my badges, medals and ribbons ''pre-patch'', when it was alot easier....now everything I need is veteren stuff, and really hard to get.  Might I suggest jumping into the MOH clan 24/7 karkand server.....it has a 32 player cap on a 64 player map size, and you can get scores of well over 100 points, and huge opportunity to make your repairs, healings, sniper kills or re-supply points.I can't wait to get to my days off, so I can jump back online with you guys...im thrilled at how much you guys like the game!

quote:

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Originally posted by TX-EcoDragon:Man. . . this is pretty lame:http://media.putfile.com/pwnage5580S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

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Yep, pretty lame indeed. This is one of the overall reasons I don't play FPS games like I used to, cheating like that kills the game. TeamFortressClassic was a great game but ruined by hacks. Sad really, the game play was awesome. Nice to see you back Copper, and thanks for the recommendation on the map. I found a server with long rounds that seems pretty good, the player count is set low and for the most part its been pretty cool, though the admins have a very hands on boot mentality which leads to plenty of innappropriate kicks. I got booted for stealing an enemy vehicle, when in fact I was in my own. To them it appeared as though I was leaving the enemy uncap base and I guess they thought I was on the other team. Another time I got booted for flying a helicopter and really can't figure out why...again I think I got a glimpse of the kick message, which was something about stealing an aircraft, though I was MEC and picked up the Mi28 fair and square, I got kicked anyway. They seem to be a little trigger happy on the admin kick, but not always I guess. Still, I think long term the server might have some advantages. Early yesterday I realized I almost had a team score of 45 just as the map ended...missed a ribbon by 2 points, but more than likely I'll be back to try again. I can't remember the name of the server, but I'll post it when I get a chance. Hopefully I'll get the basic engineer badge someday, its the only basic badge I need.Zen

Ooops, forgot to ask my main question. For things like Veteran Assault where you need 15 global hours and 20 kills in 1 round...when does it count each criteria?I thought that if at anytime you scored 20 kills in one round, you would have immediately gotten the badge when you hit 15 hours, but it doesn't seem to be this way. So I'm wondering if you have to get the global hours first and then get the second criteria of X number of kills or whatever. I just got the 25 hours as squadleader and squad member for Valorious Unit, but didn't get the badge. Same for the Distinguished Service ribbon, I believe I had to play a round to get the 15 teamscore. Can anyone confirm if you have to get the global hours first? I'm pretty sure thats the way its counted, but if anyone knows for sure I'd appreciate it. Zen

Man oh man Zen, you are definately pulling ahead of me in the BF2 knowledge dept.  I'll be directing questions to you from now on me thinks...;)I haven't been keeping track too much of my hours now....im around 280+ for spec ops alone...no more ribbons available for me now with that kit, and I have been trying to spend more time on other kits, and usually just take my ribbons/medals and badges as they come....by SURPRISE!I'll be online hopefully tomorrow night, or the next for some solid BF2 time....my lady definately needs a break from her 24/7 mothering of our new son, and i'll have to take care of that first.See you guys soon in game!

For some reason, 100% of the time when I attempt to leave the commander console via either caps lock or the home key I get an immediate system reboot. . . for an instant I see a flash of a blue screen tehn it's rebootin time.This is getting pretty annoying. . .Those of you running BF2 on nVidia cards, what drivers are you using?S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Just now I didn't even try to leave it, I just zoomed the map back out after being commander for about 10 minutesS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

I'm using 85.91Zen

well. . it looks like it was a driver problem afterall. . .tried two versions that didn't work . .. including the ones that BF2 installs.S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO