[Guide] What you should mind to not get shot by your own people

I just had some spare time with nothing to do, so I decided to gather some information about the aspects of good teamplaying, how to avoid annoying other players and generally enhancing the overall multiplayer experience. Sources are the many postings in this forum and of course also my own experiences.



Infantry’s golden rules for indoor combat
- Don’t stand in front of MANA turrets or snipers. Stand beside them or you will get shot in the back.
- When a group of players is guarding a place and you want to help them, sit in front of them so you neither shoot them in the back nor block their line of sight but are a valued member in their musket firing lane.
- If you are placing mines or C4, keep some space between the payloads or their explosions will chain up.
- Be conservative with grenades and use them only if you are sure not to hit your own people.

Infantry’s role in base capturing
- Do not mindlessly run into the enemy’s base crawling with hostiles. Wait a short moment to gather a few people and then have a run.
- If you are trapped in the spawn bunker, don’t attempt to throw grenades through the force field as they will bounce off, killing your own people.
- If you are the attacker you cannot fire through the spawn bunker shields, the defender can. So duck and cover and stay in the dead angle where they can’t hit you from inside. And don’t run in front of the shield or you will feed the enemy with experience.
- When capturing an enemy’s base, especially towers, do not destroy the terminals on purpose. An infiltrator will soon be on his way to hack them so your team can spawn tanks and new sunderers directly in the hot zone.
- Don’t randomly run through the attacked base but head to the capture points. On the left side you can see how many player are holding it, the more there are the faster your empire captures this territory.
- Spot enemies that are far away and you could not hit anyway. Spotting makes aiming easier and reveals enemy movement to your comrades.
- If you are playing in a squad, head to the waypoint, not to the crown.

Stay low and quiet at times
- If there is a sniper comrade on a hill, try to keep distance to him or you will lure the enemy to him.
- If you need ammunition and an engineer stands in front of you, a single call is enough. The engineer will see an icon above your name and resupply you soon.

Infantry and mobilized forces – a love-hate
- Stay away from both turret and barrel of a tank. If he is shooting, you may catch the projectile, even if you are just standing on him.
- The road belongs to the vehicles, so you should preferably walk beside the road, not in the center of it.
- Once in a while take a look at your mini-map to stay up to date. Your highest goal should be the destruction of an hostile sunderer.

Healthcare on the battlefield
- Always revive a MAX first, as they cannot be spawned indefinitely. You’re no medic and there’s a inventory station nearby? Go and change class.
- As medic you have the nano-regen device to heal yourself and everyone around you. Use it frequently to speed up healing so the fight can go on.
- Don’t revive players near the spawn. They will shortly spawn again with full health and fully restocked, use the time to advance further into the regions you are actually needed.
- If you plan on futher playing the medic class, invest some points into your medical applicator so not everyone you are reviving is near death.
- Do not revive players that are in the line of fire, as they will instantly die and have to wait all the longer to get back to battle.
- If you revive your comrades, don’t just run away after revival. They will mostly need medical attention so they don’t die again shortly after.
- If you try to revive a player and he declines, head to another victim instead of repeatedly revive spamming him.
- As medic, stay in cover and focus on healing and reviving your mates. If you die, they have to walk all the way from the spawner.

Keeping the weaponry intact
- As engineer you mostly carry ammo packs with you. Use them if someone runs out of bullets. When they are fighting tanks, supply the rocketeers with ammunition.
- Defend sunderers with your life as you are the only class who can repair it.
- Don’t stand in front of heavily damaged vehicles when they are retreating from battle. They will search cover and then can be repaired. If they start driving out into the desert, focus on something else that’s in your proximity.
- When you want to repair a vehicle, stand beside and not behind it. If it takes damage then it will use the reverse gear and may roll over you.
- If there is already an ammo pack on the ground, place yours somewhere else where it is of more use.
- If you are on the attackers side, you may stick to a MAX that you can repair and refit with ammo.

Mechanized Infantry of death
- If you are going down, don’t respawn as soon as the bar has loaded. A MAX is a valuable ressource on the field, so wait a short time for a medic that can revive you.
- If you are damaged, give a call and place yourself aside a wall if possible and stand still. An engineer will see the icon and head your way.
- As you get repaired, you have to defend the engineers. While repairing they cannot defend themselves, stand between them and a potential thread to cover them.
- Repair tools have a short cooldown, most engineers will use this time to place some ammunition for you. Do not just run away, they won’t follow you.

Military vehicles – playing after gentlemen’s rules
- If you are spawning a vehicle, move it so you don’t block the way for following vehicles.
- Don’t obstruct your comrades tanks, if they get shot they will use the reverse gear. Park your vehicle beside theirs, not behind it.
- When driving down narrow passages in a convoy, don’t just stop if enemies start firing missiles. Maybe you will die if you keep on driving, but if you stop, everyone will die.
- If you drive over ATVs they will explode. Would you want Godzilla to smash your tank?
- If you driving a vehicle, don’t be stingy about that one certification for your gunners simple 1.25x zoom.
- If you attempt to blitz the enemy’s base at night, make sure your headlights are turned off or they can see you from a mile away.
- If you have no experience in flying an aircraft, do not ambitiously gather people in your death trap but go practicing on your own.

The sunderer – a battle bus?
- If you’re driving a sunderer, you don’t drive a battle unit but a troop transporter. Every empty sunderer is a shame and undefended cannon fodder as well, so wait a minute and let people get in.
- Do not ignore soldiers in the middle of nowhere, try to pick them up or they will have to walk another 10 minutes to where the action occurs.
- When deploying your sunderer, deploy it intelligent. Enable other sunderer drivers to deploy their vehicle near the battleground.

The annoying gunner and how to stop him
- Do not fire your gun just for the lolz. Conserve ammunition and try not to alert every enemy in the area.
- Do not fire at targets you cannot hit. Especially when firing into the sky, everyone a mile away detects you.
- As gunner you have an essential purpose in spotting enemies, as the tank pilot focuses on driving. He'll hear you spotting it and will be aware of the thread.
- If you leave an intact vehicle, press the reload button before you leave, so the next gunner has his weapon up and ready, just in case of showdown.
- If you are in a sunderer, do not fire at aircrafts that did not attack or notice you.
- When firing your gun, prioritize your targets. Start with the target that is the greatest thread to the tank.

Excellent advice! Mandatory reading for newbs.

You can throw grenades through the forcefield just fine. You cannot throw them through allies hovewer, and PS2 doesn't use centralized projectile system, so they will appear at the right side of your character so you will have to take this into account.

But what if the crown is the waypoint? *head assplodes*

-Don't strafe into your ally's line of fire. This will get you killed, and give them grief points.

I do this sometimes, and it's always embarrassing.

Good job on this. These are things everyone should know. I thought I'd add a few of my own comments.

Specify "crouch down" if you are in the front of the firing line (more or less the same thing you're saying), and especially if you're in the doorway.
- Stop dancing around. I know it looks cool, but you are taking as much fire from friendlies as enemies. This manuever is only for solo fights. Moving slightly is acceptable, but covering everyone's line of fire is bad play.
- Do not run through the doorway that everyone is firing at to see what's in there. You could probably guess if you thought about it for a moment. Take a moment to acquire the size of the force through the doorway.

Stay on the edge of a base whenever there is a battle going on. Use the jump pads and catwalks instead of the courtyard. The shortest distance between two points is not a straight line if you die getting there.
Yes. Spotting is one of the most battle-breaking things. If people aren't spotting, your effort will suffer.
- Do not run up to the enemy's spawn room door shields and look in. Everyone is laughing at you (including the guys inside the spawn room).

YES! One of my pet peeves.
- Stay away from snipers if they already have the position. You will just get them killed, and youself in the process. Snipers are often counter-sniping protecting you from enemy snipers, so giving away their position is hurting you.

- Stay off the vehicle spawn pads.

I tend to revive other medics first (when say a grenade(s) takes out a large group) because revives then become exponential.
- Don't run off after reviving someone to 4 bars of health unless it's absolutely necessary. They will just stand there screaming for a medic.

- When dropping ammo packs outdoors, drop them where friendlies are not in the line of fire while refilling ammo. If on a hill attacking a facility, drop the ammo out of sight of enemy troops. A balance can be achieved between accessibility and safety.

- If you're on a US East or West server, drive down your RIGHT hand side of the road. This causes confusion resulting in collisions constantly.

I'm guilty of not picking up soldiers. I don't know why they're running when they could be driving.
Do not lock the Sunderer and leave passengers stranded. It should be locked after spawning it, or leave it unlocked as long as you have passengers onboard.
- As a passenger, DO NOT fire Sunderer guns randomly wasting ammunition. The ammo is limited and reserved for defense, and will not replenish itself with the Vehicle Ammo utility.

Overall, I think you covered most of the things new players (and some existing ones... you know who you are) need to know about combat in a game where FF is always on.

Well, i'd like to edit the OP but I can't. Bah...
Yes, reviving Medics is normally the most useful thing, but I really try to safe each MAX and they tend to be a little bit impatient considering respawning.

TL;DR, but don't run directly in front of people while they're aiming/shooting, for goodness sake! I don't know how many times I've had people run directly through me and straight in front of me and take about 5 shots in the back. MOVE AROUND PEOPLE.

Some guy sent me a tell saying he reported me for "harassment" because I TK'ed him 1 time on the point at an amp station.
I have a auto shotgun, don't stand in me because you like the spot I'm camping, then you wont got shot when I fire on an enemy.
It is like they think we can shoot through them or something...

good guide! thx. To the Crown for glory

Got weapons locked today due to the sheer amount of people running in front of my gun when I'm obviously firing full auto at a whole wall of enemies shooting back... Running in front of 1 guy shooting = not the brightest bulb in the pack... Running in front of 1 guy shooting at 50 enemies all shooting back = In the running for the Darwin Awards

Addendum for Vanu engineers: It doesn't matter where you stand in respect to the Magrider you're repairing. Sooner or later he'll drive over you anyway. Even if you're on top of it (usually a good idea unless under heavy fire, since it doesn't obstruct his driver's gun's line of fire), it'll manage to drop you to the ground, then driver over you. Deal with it.

This is indeed very useful. I'd like to add a thing or two that aren't here yet:

Infantry’s golden rules for indoor combat

- Not only enemy AP mines can be dangerous to you. Look for friendly mines on the floor. They'll kill you, too, if the enemy or weapon fire triggers them. Stay away from them if possible.
- If it looks like a good place for a mine or two, the enemy might have thought the same. Watch the ground.
- When a base looks like it is going to fall, you may want to lay down AP mines inside the spawn room as gifts for the new owners. However, only do that shortly before the base falls. Otherwise, people throwing grenades out of the spawn room might blow the traps with a misplaced grenade.


Infantry’s role in base capturing

- Don't run blindly into spawn rooms of freshly conquered bases. The enemy will often have mines waiting there for you and pain fields don't kill Infantry instantly.


I hope someone finds these additional tips helpful.

I agree, and it is certainly important to revive MAXs quickly. Personally, I pay attention to which medics are doing their jobs vs which ones are farming revive XP, and if they're farming they don't usually get a res from me very quickly.

And I might add, don't attempt to repair a vehicle under fire (Deployed Sundy is an exception) because if you do, you deserve to be run over. The driver is not going to sacrifice his tank for your XP.

Great post!!!

I think you kind of touched on it but to make it clearer: MAX if you are being repaired stand still, you can get back to getting shot up in a minute. I'm not your dog, I'm not going to chase you around because you are impatient.

The original post should be edited with the additional suggestions and then maybe the Moderator will make it a sticky or an announcement so it stays at the top of the forum for all to see.

Great job!!!!