"Goddam it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!" - Captain Henry P. "J

Hey Johnny. Tell Kill Face the Chihuahuas of Amerish are going to come to esimir and turn some VS zergs into yellow snow. I'll be there tonight a little late but I'll be there.

As someone who has extensive experience of dealing with NC outfits I have to say your little friend and his gang are not even a blip on the radar of respected opponents. To claim that he produces top officer material and actually makes any difference in this game almost made me spill my drink from the laughing. PG among other respected NC opponents have made differences and are a force that is actually worth reacting to and respecting. Not to mention a conglomerate of bad outfits working together is nothing more than a zerg due to the skill level of the outfits you made your alliance from. So I would say Strangulate made a solid point by saying some of the NC are a cancer which only offer free certs to the enemy which I take advantage of daily.

I know very well who Praetorian Guard is, I remember looking at your Posters even before Beta, and I keep very close tabs on both opposition and friendly clans, and while on an individual and squad level you may be 'smarter than the average bear', the simple fact is that skill level doesn't matter if you are an isolationist, if your not actively working with the guys around you your no better than zerg and are part of the problem. If you think you are the elite then you should be communicating on command and finding out where we need our best, where we're getting in trouble and who needs backup. Hell if you think you are a bunch of badass dudes, maybe you should try leading from the front and setting an example for other NC. But hey, lets see how 'good a player' you are if the only fights you get in NC is 30-40% pop. And yeah I've played a lot of Light Assault, 90% of my playtimes been leading and one of my old methods a couple ground up structure overhauls ago of leading was to jump around between fire teams and maintain situational awareness. Though these days I lead with Heavy Assault so I can say 'follow me' rather than 'go there' due to our change from Air Assault to Combined Arms to Shock Troopers and a few things in between, though I'll still bust out Light Assault if we're having a relaxed session rather than going all out, need a break sometimes. I would like to point out however, that you guys called out for backup on command, I came personally, took a bit longer than usual cause I was rocking with CSTB and was trying to talk them into coming too, and I wasn't anywhere near as professional as normal because we were having a relaxed session (hell we weren't even working in fireteams like we normally do), but point is you called for backup I was there, why ain't more NC doing that?

Ahh Snafu, my favourite TR Troll, only you could spill a sippy cup, how are you today sweetheart? Long time no see. Still coming to grips that other servers merged with Connery and that there are other clans than just original connery clans that kick your ***? You really gotta move on from that my old friend. When Genudine merged with Helios it was a matter of hours before we were all family, its a bit sad to see there's still Connery old timers clinging onto the past, ya gotta move on mate. And I only ever see lone merc pilots or tank crews, once I think I saw 3 merc guys in one place, what's your point? And bad outfits huh? Apart from the fact that one of the clans we run with is statistically better than Merc, and the other 2 don't play for stats, Then how come us 'bad outfits' have not just held back 2 and a half times our number of TR but driven them back to their warpgate inch by inch? Care to explain that one? Or would you rather shut the **** up and mind your own business? Cause I can't be bothered asking one of the lads to forward **** onto a mediocre troll, but I'll happily go over it with you in private if you'd rather, I'm a very competitive man and always up for a bit of fun so invitations there : www.thebastards-clan.com

Alternative idea Snafu, how about instead of bickering like children every time we run across each other, how about we both grow the **** up before we get old and start acting like upstanding members of a community we are both a member of, you know, as active leaders should.

TUBB had a good time running with the Bastards and CSTB last night hope to do it again.

So, since my outfit's tag is continually being brought up in all of this, I need to clarify my stance, which is my outfits stance. This is what I've been seeing. If you're offended, get over it, I'm a blunt person:

[TUBB]: not even a blip on enemy radar; too small and unorganized, but wants to work towards greater things
[RNGA]: a tiny blip, if that, due to no numbers, but organized with what they have
[CSTB]: organized most of the time, small blip, if that, working on getting bigger and better
[PG]: old near-dead outfit that has recently been revived, but has a lot of randoms in the group now, probably due to their recruiting system (most likely mass-recruiting); I say they have randoms because I had to kick several PG members (6-7) out of my platoon in a single night last week because they didn't follow orders
[MERC] Snafu: Farmer John of the TR, fantastic Mosquito pilot, but isn't so great on the ground; I hope you're enjoying [ADK]'s air wing. Lord knows we are.

On the note of these alliances everyone is setting up: they're the dumbest **** on the face of the planet. All they do is make the member outfits involved feel cool and exclusive, and to feel more cool and exclusive they'll work with the other member outfits ONLY. This is exactly why the NC has command issues, and I'm about 90% sure this is why the TR never used to organize. Drama between Connery and Helios outfits if I remember correctly. The word "alliance" wasn't used there, but it was the Connery TR vs the Helios TR. Two alliances that ruined TR coordination for a long time. We had something similar with [VVAR] and the UCA.

There is one "alliance" that I will be participating in, and that is one I plan on dragging [PG], [RNGA], and [TUBB] into if it's the last thing I do, so we can end this pointless argumentation between partner outfits and get work done. There shouldn't be alliances on the same faction. That'd be like saying there's two branches of the U.S. Army, one for Republicans and one for Democrats. We all fight, and we all need to put person grievances aside, quit the ***** session, start the fix session, and get stuff done.

Hear hear! I agree wholeheartedly. Further argument is only detrimental to the mission.
I think you're correct to point out that alliances would ultimately lead to an "us vs them" scenario within the faction, something I didn't think of.

I think the optimal direction to go in would be some sort of cross outfit organization. Treat outfits less like separate entities and more like subdivisions of the NC as a whole. We trade techniques, work in conjunction, and play together often. Everyone might have their separate ways of doing things, but they all help teach one another what they learn, and they all know one another and have good working relationships. On a basic level, this might involve a largely infantry outfit working in conjunction with a strong air outfit. On a more trusting level, they might do cross outfit training, teaching the ground pounders how to fly, and the fly boys how to shoot straight. Maximum trust would be exchanging commanders and teaching them how to properly use air or infantry assets.

Because no matter how you look at this stuff, it's still just a game. You can hate the TR, VS, NC, fellow team mates, whatever, but they're still just people like you sitting in front of a computer. You can have your super secret techniques and be legendary on a server, spending much of your spare time on this game, but this game won't be around for more than a decade: for all your work, you will have no legacy. You can complain or crap on people who don't play well, or you can help them and make them into better players, or even help fellow players on the opposing teams: the game is more fun that way.

From my perspective, this game would be much more enjoyable if we treated it as a game, and we worked together as team mates. Like I said before, I don't really have any animosity towards anybody. I fully acknowledge that I have a lot to learn and am not even close to a blip. But I'm more than happy to lend my skills to my fellow players if they should desire them.

blip

Recursion member here - Throw some hate our way, it's only a matter of time.

Temple''s always saying silly things that guy... Please don't hate us OOs. You can hate Temple if you want though.

Good luck with this cross outfit organization. NC on Connery certainly need it. I just wish there more players who actually cared about winning but it sounds like you guys are taking steps in the right direction.

Queue the fury within!

Keeping people warpgated on one continent is the single most important thing in the game right now. Godspeed.

1. Keep Amerish warpgated
2. Hold the lattice choke points on Esamir (Andvari, Esamir Munitions, Saerro, Nott)
3. Wrack up the WDS

So out of curiosity, how many outfits would actually be interested in using more close and coordinated organization, or any cross outfit training? We can talk about this all day, but if we want anything to happen, we need to start doing. How many of you would actually enjoy having or participating in a group effort like that?

Here's just one example of something we could do.
While I think it may be asking a bit much, I do think that mixing commanders could be good. An officer exchange program, if you will. It would help people identify good commanders that they'd be willing to follow, and we'd have a more consistent chain of command. One outfit wouldn't be running around with its head cut off when its good commanders were offline; the players could join the squads of other outfits that they know and trust.

When all the outfit leads are on and talking in Command, then the NC does very well, and often achieves victory in alerts. But when they aren't talking, or when they aren't on, we usually get creamed pretty hard. I think this shows that our outfit members are on a whole, good. What they need is direction. When I look at the map during a period where command is inactive, I often notice that the NC is rather spread out. In larger battles, there is little use of tactics; we don't have people searching for and destroying enemy Sunderers, nor do we have people protecting our own. However, when an organized outfit is working in the area, usually fill that role and make long strides towards winning the battle.

When you have leaders outside your outfit that you can trust and are willing to follow, it benefits the faction as a whole. Where earlier you would have been running around directionless, you would now have a group to work with and contribute with. Nobody is active 24/7. Having alternatives when your own outfit leads are offline is not a bad thing.

There is a right and a wrong way to do this though. You don't just give people a new leader. Before playing, the outfit who is hosting the officer should explain how they do things, and the officer should explain how he usually runs things. Find a middle ground, or pick one or the other. There shouldn't be any surprises. And if he isn't used to commanding air/armor/whatever, tell him how to properly use them, don't just push him away as unfit to lead. If he's still having problems, have somebody who knows what they're doing take the lead. He can sit in and watch how it's done, then try again later.

This runs the risk of members being poached. Maybe somebody is a better commander than you and some of your members would rather follow them, maybe some of your members have more fun using another outfit's way of doing things. Both are possibilities. But again, this is a game. People play it to have fun. If somebody is having more fun with somebody else, they have every right to leave (though that does not necessarily mean that it's a cool thing to do). This is also an opportunity to learn what you can do better as a leader, to make the game more fun for your players. I do think that's one of the duties of a good outfit or squad lead. Not just to win, but to make the game more fun. Naturally though, this is more of a pseudo-philosophical thing, every person has their own perspective on what they're obligated to do and what duty means to outfit members.

Thoughts on my own idea? I'm sure other people have ideas regarding cross outfit endeavors. This is a good place to share them.

Johnny my young apprentice I've tried to get faction wide training going a few times, had a course designed for 4-11 people and usually got like 4-6 and that took a bit of rassling up. People shoulda been lining up for the wisdom I was imparting, a years experience from a talented Officer and Teacher, what more did they want? =P. Responses I got was basically 'woah', 'too hardcore for us', 'holy **** dude', 'why are you yelling so much' and 'where are your pants?'. Still though, I trained up a few ADK guys who went on to design their own (much simpler) training course, though I think they only run it a few times I heard they had much better results with the guys they trained than usual. Back then I was willing and able to waste a few hours every week training people, but I got some **** on the Horizon that will make that untenable, I'm still willing and able to help design a course and train up some Drill Instructors though if required. You know me, always willing to roll my sleeves up if needed.

Not a bad idea man, though the logistics of it may be a bit of a pain, how many people ya gonna have on your in game friends list? (I can't remember who half the people are on mine). We could probably use some form of neutral ground or something. Or perhaps take advantage of open squads, just title em 'UCA Open Squad #1' with Clan tag identifying whos running it or something, so ya know its *guaranteed* to be operating at a certain standard.

Yet to meet a better leader than me in terms of attitude or technique Rico so no worries there =p.

Another thing that might be worth looking into is teaching the teachers. Gimme a bit of time (got some things to take care of first) and I'll draw up a manual and course to teach the aspiring Officers of the Connery NC, hell I'll even train up some Drill Instructors for the grunts too if needed, just paint a target and I'll drop something on it. Will go quicker if I get some help from other grizzled vets in both the conceptual and maintenance stages too. You gimme a bunch of humble impressionable young lads I'll brainwash em into cold blooded killin machines guaranteed. We should organize a night of the week to form a squad of young gun Officers with a couple old hands and see if any good habits rub off on them alongside the 'protein' stains.

Whatever dawg, not too fussed really, you know I got ya back, paint a target and I'll light dat ***** up. However if you guys are keen on getting something happening drop an ambassador app at www.thebastards-clan.com and we'll make a thread or two and get something moving.

The Bastards

I swear you must have the biggest head.

I subscribe to the theory that if I don't believe in me why should anyone else. Combine that with a health dose of insanity that I've somehow got a handle on after a few hard years and you got no idea the sort of trouble I'll willingly dive into with a smile on my face.

I do like your train of thought.

Connery NC: The lunacy continues .

Anyways, how is AceRimmer/KillF4CE w/e not perma-banned yet? I mean, if we are to believe his "representatives", this dude has been banned more than 6 times. I thought you were only allowed a number of repeat offenses. Perhaps this some unique "advertising" technique?