So now that the VR training area has come out I decide to try out the Guass Compact S for NC. I see the underbarrel launchers and try smoke. I also equip a HS/NV scope so I can see through the smoke. (story continues but you get the point) Alright now here is the tactic. You go to the enemy base with your Guass Compact S (or other S weapons should work and also there should be one for each faction) and a few buddies with HS/NV scopes. Next you place an ammo package and spam a room with smoke. Then assuming only 1/10 of every enemy in the base has a HS/NV your squad of fully equipped HS/NV scoped soldiers move in and you take the base with that advantage. Let me know if you try this with your outfit or squad and/or if it was useful. Also: Keep in mind that it does cost 630 certs to get the S weapon, smoke launcher, and HS/NV scope.
No, you don't want to do this, really really bad idea. Pisses off all your friendly troops too, as they tend to lack HS/NV scopes.
I've been thinking about doing this but it seems a little too situational to me. And people who play on lower graphics settings don't see as much smoke. It would be good for rushing a control console or generator room, but outdoors I could see it being not that great. It might go well with scout radar so you can see where big clumps of enemies are.
You don't get experience for it and markers are still visible through smoke so it is of limited usefulness. It is fairly effective when doing infantry pushes against heavily defended positions, but it's not good enough for everyday use if you ask me. Still a fun attachment though.
it's a great way of attacking generators in biolabs where you aren't being pre-spotted from long range and enemies are less willing to just spam explosives at you. Not super great in most other situations (maybe for storming tech plants), but the S carbines are good for engineers anyway (UBGL is funsies) and a hundred certs isn't much to pay for a useful situational weapon.
I tried this a few months ago with mixed success. Considerations for this tactic: Even though you say it's just going to be your squad attacking in a scenario where you'd use this, that's out of your hands to control. If it's a situation where there are enough enemies to justify the tactic, then chances are there are going to be a decent amount of friendlies around too, if you're not on a low population server. It's not always that other friendlies don't have a HS/NV scope, but they may just not have it equipped at the moment. As others have mentioned, maximum effectiveness for this tactic is firing the smoke grenades into confined spaces full of enemies. The best places to do that are biolabs and towers. At least on my server, both locations are fun fights and attract a lot of attackers and defenders... so see #1 as well. 'Spamming' has limited effectiveness. You basically have one firefight to utilize the smoke grenades. After that, the enemy is going to go equip their HS/NV scopes. So... you need to accomplish your goal before the enemy can reinforce. To be honest, I find that the UBGL has much more utility than the smoke grenades. Area denial with UBGL spam seems to be tactically superior to smoke grenade spam (though it pisses people off... lol). These days, my primary use for smoke grenades is to cover an enemy sunderer in smoke while I run in and blow it up.
No really, honestly you don't want to do this, the eng smoke is not effective, it doesn't stop bullets, don't try this at home you could get hurt.
Just waiting for someone to get banned for smoke spamming everything all the time just out of boredom. How about an Outfit called Smoke? 2 full squads of smokers and 1 full squad with optics?
I love using smoke screens and it makes a huge difference in the fire coming through said smoke. Issue is the zerg more often then not does not know how to use a smoke screen, and thus you get angry people upset they cant shoot things, rather then using the cover to advance upon the enemy possession and overrun them. So its a great tactic, but most people dont know how to take advantage of it.
I dunno the other night I saw a column of smoke with landing pads sticking out of it...it's basically a big FU to any new player coming into the game that doesn't have optics on every single piece of equipment they plan on going into or coming out of a tower like that. The smoke continued until the tower was flipped and it wasn't a short fight.
Eh, i personally do not like the optics, i tend to use 1x or 2x dot. The way i use smoke is for a screen, ideally letting our troops get in closer without getting cut down. Smoking the **** out of a tower so no one can see.. well... its a tactic? Most likely there are just as few people using optics on your side as their side. Guess the point i was going for is that if i dont like using it, then others wont like using it. Not to mention some that CANT use it, Snipers, Maxes, rocket spamming heavy, Eng turret, base turrets..
I use smoke to advance foot zergs through open terrain when under artillery fire I have found it useful during biolab attacks to smoke out the gen room then run in and deploy c4 or prox mines
There's at least one enemy outfit on Waterson that has this tactic in their playbook. I've been on the receiving end of it, and if you aren't near a terminal or Sundy to switch your optics, or you're playing a MAX, it can be a real pain to deal with.
I love the smoke, but spamming it off an ammo pack is rarely a good idea. If you have the ability to stand somewhere safe and do that then you're not attacking, you're defending or you're at least behind the front line, and you're going to blind lots of allies, too. Obviously we could nitpick this to death. I'm sure there are scenarios where it would be good and ones where it would be bad... but my point is the tactic of laying smoke is more suited to attack and retreat, not a stationary fight. At the hours I play, I constantly see TONS AND TONS of friendlies sitting in the spawn shed while I and a handful of other people try to actually take back or defend our cap point, and in those situations where the enemy greatly out numbers us, my TR medic really shines with the T1S + Smoke to close the gap, then smoke up a doorway and get a few kills through it to push enemies out of a choke point, and start rezzing people. I don't play my TR much and it's still a relatively new toy, so I'm still learning, but I've gotten VERY good results with T1S, silencer, HV ammo, and smoke launcher. Not only kills for myself, but allowing people to move up over open ground, stopping burster MAX's from doing AA, forcing lightnings to abandon their safe cover spots and move predictably to regain visibility... it's a wonderful item... as long as you're using it for moving up or moving back. If you just make a big cloud somewhere and keep it there by spamming, the enemy will start to use it as well. I even have a preset on my NC engineer for doing exactly this but the rapid deploy and use is the key, IMHO of course, and so I don't see a use in spamming it very often. Usually I only do that when we're up against their force shields and I am preventing them from shooting out with impunity.
No, you don't want to spam smoke everywhere. Spammed smoke is bad and hurts you as much as the enemy. When you do use smoke, you rarely want to actually be IN the smoke. What you SHOULD be doing is placing the smoke between the enemy frontline and their supporting elements. That way you effectively split the enemy force into two smaller pieces while your own friendly force is able to bring their full might down on the exposed portion. Buncha sniper and HA's raining down death from that tower? One smoke nade and they're temporarily out of the fight. Your team now has a much easier time killing the opposition on the ground and advancing into the tower itself. Go read up on how smoke is used in more tactical games that have short TTK's. Stuff like Red Orchestra or ARMA. You'll learn how to turn an annoying particle effect into a powerful tool.
