Do you ever feel like you're better off alone?

You can visually and aurally figure out if it's a good squad/platoon within the first 1-2 minutes pretty easily.

Just use your eyes and look at the map. What does the position of your teammates look like? For example:



This is a certain Emerald TR outfit's platoon which is well known for being incredibly disorganized. And it shows. The platoon is distributed over 4-5 hexes (a few stragglers not in this image). You can also quickly see that the coloured dots are all mixed up... there is no sign of squad cohesion at all. There's also a noticeable lack of squad, platoon, and smoke waypoints. Finally you can see that the PL is actually leading the charge... which isn't always a bad thing, but it does mean that he's obviously not studying a map.

If you see something like this when you open your own map, stay away. This is one of those zergfits that simply points you at a hex and lets you have at it. You can't count on your leadership in such a platoon to have any idea of what's going on, to predict enemy action, and to give you support to counter it. Honestly you probably can't even count on your own squadmates to watch your back.

You can also just hop in a squad and just listen. Is there anyone else besides the PL talking? Is your SL issuing specific orders (not just observations, but actual orders)? Are your squadmates also speaking (productively)?

If after 2 minutes it's been completely silent, then it's probably a terrible squad. The only exception to this is if the squad seems very well-run (everyone grouping together and collectively responding to threats) then it's possible they're using a 3d party voice program. Even then though, unless you have access to that it won't do you a whole lot of good.

So just checking out a squad for 1-2 minutes (say while you're adjusting your loadouts) can easily identify terrible squads from tight ones!

I jump in and out of platoons. Trying to be as effective as possible to well organized ones. Either that or, like 80% of my playtime, i'll be playing by myself.

I even have my very own outfit, only to get the Sol decal on my vehicles... All by myself. (though, the outfit is completly open) > http://www.planetside-universe.com/outfit-37523326664984385.php

Hard fact about planetside is more that in most cases, even the good leaders are completely ignored by the population at large. Even if a leader is saying "Hey, we're wasting time at this biolab and we're losing tons of zones on the west flank, we should do something about that" the majority of players will continue to farm biolab, because its a great way to get certs.

Only way to fix that is to somehow create a way to make following direction worth more than farming for 2 hours in a high kill environment. Maybe more certs for a capture of a zone, or certs for following orders, etc. You can get a LOT of certs in 2 hour biolab farm fest.

This is one of the reasons I scoff at "force people to join squads" suggestions. There is absolutely no guarantee that a squad will be organized in any way, shape or form, and a bad squad can do more to sour a new player's experience than going solo.

I solo ALOT because I simply won't run with some tactically brain dead outfit.

For example:
You never...ever...assault any base unless you have 1.5(I prefer 2) times the pop advantage at said base. I wont even touch a Bio Lab assault unless my empire is throwing the kitchen sink at that puppy. As easy as that sounds, I still see ****** platoons jump right in to a lozer cert farm.

Here are other major tactical blunders I see and why I wont stay in a platoon/squad doing these things during Alerts.

>Screwing around with your neighbors primary facilties...ie Bio Lab.Amp Stations/Tech plants etc. If anyone doesn't know why this is bad during Alerts, then you have alot to learn about this game. Now sometimes Empires will have multiple primary facilities at the start of an Alert. Smart commanders know how to play this and do a tactical withdraw and gain an ally and probably an Alert win.

The Crown is a LOOOOOZZZZEEEERRRR. That spot is so bad I would pay the other factios to take the damn thing. Its bad for how it affects your enemies lattice line thought process, which in every case is bad news for the dummies holding the Crown.

The 40/30/30 rule:
Looks fairly logical and simple right? Right!? ...Wrong. The 40/30/30 rule simply means that the 2 low pop Empires attack the 40, but....there is ALWAYS some ********* platoon from a 30 attacking the flank of the 30. Even pushing the other 30's Primaries. This is some seriouly dumb **** to do during Alerts and if you run with a group doing this kind of ****, don't ever get near them during your game experience.

SOE/DBG builds "group" games that try to support/push a very specific kind of group experience. Specifically one where players join isolated Splinter Groups (within each Faction if the game has Factions), and then play alongside (but separate from) the rest of their Faction/Playerbase. The Design Leads dig "cool kid" groups that can exclude peers. If you want an experience that is outside this intended recipe, you have to just ghetto/wing it yourself through the unsupported sand box gameplay (IF Design haven't removed that as a viable option in the game).

If you are cool with the recipe but want to find a Splinter Group that works for you... good luck. Because, since they dig the "cool kid" exclusion thing, they will cater to groups where leaders get to determine if you can join or not, you may only have limited/none or 3rd party info to vet them, and (if they choose) the leaders also can control the culture of the group.

The way some other games handle groups is with more automated General Access Systems, where all players on a Faction can see each other and setup (or more often just join existing) groups to play.

I find the Splinter Group and Cool Kid Group play vile. You end up playing a 2-12 man group that is an inferior big group experience than what I enjoyed from 2-32 man groups in Battlefront 2. I just prefer playing with the rest of my faction, even though we are all mutes for the most part.

To each their own.

Seems you've been having just as bad luck picking outfits as the OP. There are many outfits that open their arms to everyone, and many outfits that coordinate with each other to achieve victory, creating a group of not 2-12 but 50+ easily.

Hell, back on the 2nd anniversary, my outfit held ops that fielded two full coordinated platoons by itself. Though we don't have quite that many active members nowadays, we make up for it with inter-outfit coordination with the other Vanu outfits of Emerald.

I bet guys in this vid wish they went at it alone instead of together



"I got this!!!" lol

I had bad experiences with Guilds in EQ (other than the super casual ones that were just my offline friends running around with the same Guild tag). But mostly with the Guild/Outfit/Clan system in general. It focuses too much for me on hanging out with a small clique or slogging through grinds of "clique group designed" content. And that's just not my thing. I also don't like having massive advantages over my opponents (I prefer competitive balance), and in the Standard Game the Hardcore Organized have just too many cards stacked for them to fit my preference.

I do think SS has potential. But I just hate the (to me) stunted Server Smash Meta (Rapid Deploy Infantry and Air), so I have no interest to play/try that. Plus it seems that SS is crawling toward only being for the Elite-Elite, and I don't have the Dexterity for that anyway.

I fully appreciate there are a lot of great people who work very hard to make some amazing Outfits possible. That some Outfits do provide a very friendly, supportive, inviting, and open minded platform to play the game. And I appreciate that a number of people really dig the Group Game being funneled through exclusive groups. Just not my thing, and not how I would have Designed it. Not the first time I've disagreed with Lead Designers.

How are the tools for Inter-Ouitfit coordination? I think that would be a huge boon to have setup well tools-wise.

When I used to run with my outfit we would use squad tactics and try to find fights where our numbers would nake a difference. Unfortunately teamspeak developed a bug and crashes my computer everytime, then my outfit simply stopped grouping up for the most part. I have found i ger similar results to what you speak of when pubbing tho.

I've played in lots of outfits and I usually have fun for a while until the constant max crash / redeploy makes me realize how shallow most of the tactics are and then I go back to playing solo. Ive also always thought there should be more competition and stats shared within squads, that would make me much more interested in playing in them.

When you play NC Emerald, you probably would have just as much success playing alone as opposed to playing with a platoon/squad/randoms.

I also highly dislike the SS smash mentality. The whole massive organisation about it is awesome, but what it actually turns out to be; a massive crapshow of redeployside mixed with grenade spam and max crashes pretty much highlights everything that is wrong with the game.

As a leader, I do my best to avoid any of that. I attempt to join or create battles that are not focused on a single building inside a base, I stick to the front I've set my forces on until there's either nothing left to fight or so much to fight that we can't do anything. I like to take my time setting up a siege for a base, or pulling off fancy flanking maneuvers in enemy territory.
The result for my efforts are what seems to be some of the most pleasant and successful ops nights I could hope to provide for my outfit.

If by "better of alone" you mean "enjoy the game better for myself", then sure, almost always when I play in a squad. Organization comes with a sacrifice of personal freedom, that's how it always is.

I agree with you 100%. And from your recount of your OPs, I truly wish PS2 Gameplay Designers had the competence/interest to adjust the Hardcore Organized Gameplay to emphasize that kind of play.

As I've posted before, the current SS Meta reminds me of this:

Where the rules/system is bad, and competitors' natural and (normally) healthy efforts to game the system to maximize results, ends up with gameplay that does not serve the intended nature of the play experience.

YOU are using sophisticated and compelling strategy and gameplay to play. But you are doing it in spite of a broken system. SS Players/Hardcore Organized Players (well, those who don't find the current SS Meta great) and the game/players in general DESERVE better Gameplay Design (and Design Leads) than post-launch SOE had. DBG Design does seem to have done some neat Design things since the old management left, but their ~0 communication leaves us in the dark (and they don't have enough of a track record yet to rely on), so who knows who they are and what they will do.

Don't know about you all but I find either join a squad/platoon and turn voice chats off the best option for me. Or run solo following around a zerg and helping them out.

Maybe it's just bad personal experiences but for the most part it's just a bunch of kids yelling over and over again to do something that clearly isn't working. Then complain to everyone in the squad/platoon for not being good. Think the most organized teamwork I've done today was do a tiny flash race.

I don't care about following orders, even it means defending a position, waiting crouched in a corner for minutes, or just playing a class that I do not like so much. I care when orders do not make any sense, when it's clear the SL has no idea about what he's doing, or when there are no other orders than placing a Waypoint.

But as I said it looks like the problem is more with single squad leaders than with the outfit itself.

The reason why you see these "set WP, go there"-SLs is because of some players in this thread. Being a PL/SL It is like herding cats in PS2. It isn't worth trying to lead because 99% it will go unappreciated because the only time the SLs can do everything right is if he or she caters to every single player in the squad/platoon, which is impossible.

So yeah, the good SLs are fed up with getting crap for everything and having everyone constantly question everything. If you think you are the best of the best and no one is your boss then why the f*** even join a squad to begin with? To troll others? To feed your inflated ego as your berate the leader?

In other words, I do not think people understand how stressful it can be to SL. Yes, you can certainly be a team player as a lone wolf but when, and if, you decide to join a squad, work with your squad mates and SL. No one forced you into the squad, after all. If you think these zergfits are filled with n00bs/bads then imagine leading a large group of new players.

Totally... Good teamwork is basically impossible in this game, except you really play with a bunch of friends, where everyone knows each other. Also the same reason why the Valkyrie is such a "failure". Because it just requires too much teamwork for this playerbase.

I run Nanite Auto Repair on maxes because I cannot rely on engineers to be around 100% of the time.