Tried VS after 1300 hours on TR & NC (Emerald)

Got to BR 95 on TR Watterson and BR 70 on Mattherson NC before they merged. I'll admit, I developed a pretty deep-seated hatred for the Vanu for this time. I decided to give the VS a shot to see if the orion is really that good, and if the magrider is as bad as they say. I didn't get enough playtime to answer either question, but I discovered something else: the Emerald Vanu outfits work together collectively and they treat their fellow Vanu with respect.

Example 1: I had some SC and wanted to purchase a weapon for Engineer. So I'm at the warpgate, alt-tabbed out researching weapons. I would come periodically to make sure I wasn't disconnected. Total time spent researching: 30 minutes. Not ONCE was I team killed. I was genuinely shocked. The life expectancy of a stand-still at warpgate for the TR & NC? About two minutes.

Example 2: I was playing MAX and a VS HA accidentally shot me in the back with a rocket launcher. He messages me "don't respawn", sprints back to the equipment terminal, changes to Medic, revives me, runs back, switches to Engi and repairs me. I cannot remember ANYTIME someone from TR or NC did that for me.

Example 3: VS Command sounded NOTHING like this, AT ALL.


The VS were in constant communication with other outfits for the entire alert. I almost felt guilty when we stormed a tech plant with little effort. No NC was up top manning turrets, no one was repairing their MAX units, there were more cries of "I need a medic!" and "I need ammo!" than actual shots fired, Vanguards were driving in aimless, random directions. Pure. Unorganized. Chaos.

I used to despise the VS, now I have a great deal of respect for them and disgust with my own faction(s) as they refuse to work with each other and coordinate long enough to provide the VS a consistent, competitive fight.

Thanks for the video, that was both amusing and depressing in equal measure. So glad I play as a humble grunt in total ignorance

From my experience as an NC on Woodman, the Vanu there also seem to operate with more inter-outfit organisation. Or maybe they just gang up with TR and pick on us... could be that!

Hahahahahahah!!! I observed the same thing on Woodman, no matter what I or others have to say about KOTV/VS they ARE generally nice and way less obnoxious over comms. Clear and to the point. My experiences with several TR Fits here led to turning off VOIP and uninstalling TS, which by the way hasn't decreased my general ability in PS2 at all and I don't know what else to tell you but I don't find VOIP necessary at all, I am always there for my Squad when I join one and can work with them just fine in silence. Seriously, even when I ride turret on Libs I know where and when to fire on my own. It scares me to think what passes as common sense lately if people need too much hand holding.

I should explain that I generalized a bit, it's just that when you join a channel it only takes one or two idiots to make you want to mute the thing. So my comments are NOT directed to 'Fits as a whole or any particular Squad Leaders, just that the average guy in VOIP in TR will make me want to put my hands on my ears and go "LALALALALALALALAL I DONT CARE".

It is a well known fact that the VS contain the largest collection of neets, this result is expected. TE was the only singular thing that really stood against the combined super vanu force.

Welcome to the winning team <3

NC Command, oh man! oh man!!! This is why we roll these guys through. VS command is MUCH more coordinated/organized/well mannered

NC Waterson command generally had its act together in recent months. After the merger, who knows? I also have been playing VS of late. I decided to reverse-fourth-faction after NC had huge pops all the time when my little TESO experiment was over and I resumed playing PS2. (Now that the server's merged, I'm glad I didn't choose TR, because I would never play with Mattherson TR.)

My observation is that NC platoons are actually being led by someone, even the pug platoons. VS on the other hand, 4/5 platoons aren't being led by anyone, no waypoints, no orders, just a collection of individuals. I think I've only experienced 2 alerts since the merger, so its still unknown to me how well command works for any faction.

It wouldn't surprise me if NC had more trolls, the "'Murica" theme lends itself to trolling much better than "Science" as a theme.

NC leaders on Emerald are getting together on July 13th in an effort to improve coordination. Make sure your outfit is represented!
https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/emerald-nc-faction-meet-july-13.192018/

So the grass really is greener !

Purple, the grass is purple.

I think the vanu on Woodman are similar - working together/collectively, as a united faction. I frequently see examples of the sort you mention - overt team play, helping people out and just being nice.

I think, perhaps, the sort of people who play Vanu are just predisposed to team play.

It is a shame... There are a few good commanders that work very well together on Emerald (I feel I am included in that) but mostly command chat is filled with trolls. Very hard to get anything done unless you PM other commanders.

Dunno about Mattherson but on Waterson we practically had no other option. At first, for a year or so the TR ruled with an iron fist. Then out of nowhere the NC took dominance. The Vanu were almost always underpopped and severely outgunned so a lot of time we worked together out of necessity.

Plus, we're brothers in Vanu. That's what we're telling the heathens. We're not all probes and machines

Most importantly: Welcome brother. Let the might of Vanu guide your hand as you enlighten the unbelievers.

The TR of Emerald are a joke. On waterson we were the mid-pop faction and we could take the NC head on without much problem when they had a massive pop advantage. The VS were low-pop so they didn't factor in much.

However since the merge the TR have become more useless than a level 0 magikarp. Losing fights in which it is 3 TR to 1VS. Mostly due to idiots killing more fellow TR than they are vanu.

That vid was hilarious.

KOTV are almost universally considered the redneck hillbillies of the VS by almost everyone else on Woodman. The only people who don't consider them to be a zergling outfit are other KOTV members trying to hide their shame. (Not saying every KOTV member is bad, just as an outfit their main tactic is overwhelming numbers)

VIB is a VS outfit the comes to mind with a fair amount of tactical coordination and skill.

Most of the Woodman NC outfits aren't much better. I'm not speaking for everyone, but FHM hasn't coordinated with REBR, ORBS, S4NC, the 151st and any other major outfits in a while as far as I've heard.

And I don't know much about ELME, but they're pretty zergy as well, being such a huge TR oufit. But I don't consider them to be the scum of the server.

Yes, this is similar to what happened on Woodman and how outfits like KOTV starterd. At one point, early in the life of Woodman, the vanu were almost extinct - massively underpopped and people leaving in their droves. During that period the faction learnt to work as a team and fight against large numbers the whole time.

Like I said, KOTV is less about tactics and more about massive numbers. The rest of the VS outfits I can think of do have coordination as far as I know.

I usually turn it off well before it gets like that. And the volume is usually lower than my proxy volume. And they blame the people who don't use it instead of shoving hot coal down the throats of the ones who do.

I was going to write a long diatribe on the 3 factions of Emerald, but I'll give you the short version. I play all 3, my heritage is Jaeger ---> Waterson ---> Emerald, and they're all BR 45+. My TR is significantly higher ranked, since I rolled him ~6 months earlier, but I feel reasonably accomplished to relate my experience on all 3 sides.

First, all 3 factions do work together (within faction), but they all follow different rules. VS is only allowed 1 medic per 24 players at any fight. If you want a heal or a rez, you better bring your medkits, or your own medic load-out. The other option for getting heals on VS is to play a MAX, since Engi is by far the 2nd most popular class, after HA. I will echo OPs sentiments that VS is the one faction where you will likely be alive in the gate when you come back from your AFK. 382nd and AOD seem to have some sort of friendly-fire vendetta for me, and my old pal ihearcolors always has a sticky ready for me if I'm on NC, lol. For TR, if you need your plane repped, land it on the pad at the gate, and some guy who seemed to be standing there AFK will come rep it. TR is the only faction where I routinely see people change kits in the gate to rep or rez friendlies. TR also seems to field the most effective medics, the players that will actually take the time to rez you, and heal you up after if their tool isn't rank 6. NC fields the most Infiltrators (just going by feel, no numbers to support that), and they seem to have long range suppression down pat. NC has by far the most medics, but they're playing medic to use those sweet NC weapons, and keep themselves alive, not to heal / rez / support you in any way.

Each side has their own MAX meta-game going. VS seems to have a brilliant hive-mind orchestrating things, with 5 MAXs rotating 3 engies perfectly (example given, compare to other factions). On TR, if you play MAX, you get one engi, and he will follow you into the gates of hell, but if he dies and doesn't get rezzed, you're probably alone. For NC, if you see a MAX outdoors without Ravens or Bursters, he's alone, and as soon as he dies, he'll post on the forums that NC needs longer-range AI options.

As far as respect goes, within faction they're all relatively even. There isn't a lot of unwarranted team killing, besides friends or rivals, or kids trolling the warpgate. I will say, there's a guy on TR who has a huge reputation as a team-killer and troll, and it shocks me everytime I see him online (I joined a TS one time with a group of guys I didn't know well, and the topic of discussion was that this player [a friendly, mind you] was spotted two hexes south, and that we should all be on alert for the time being). I've also received complimentary tells from players of all factions who appreciated the help I gave them, or had a good laugh at me barrel-rolling my Harasser off a walkway.

Rambling, done.

It is a shame. My first character was NC, and I only rolled TR because the Mattherson NC were getting their ***** kicked so bad. I hope SOE has some plans to increase leadership capabilities for the game, with community involvement. Like once every two weeks each faction can elect a leader. That leader can mute others in command that are trolling, and they will have the capability to organize squads and platoons outside of their outfit. I know there is an update coming that will allow for bigger platoons than 48+, so the leader could be allowed to organize said army.

The TR on Watterson used to dominate when TotalBiscuit was our "leader". People can speak ill of him all they want, but when TotalBiscuit talked, the TR listened, and we won.