VS outfits worth joining from my perspective are: GOTR NNG BBRO.. although i have not seen them active lately so ill say DA
I'm really quite impressed by what I see from DA's footage from past outfit ops, actually. I'm just a bit intimidated that I might not be able to keep up, haha. I'd definitely like to hear back from Ender about whether he'd be interested in having me though. At this point, DA would be my first pick from my shortlist. I share your concerns about BBRO, but they seem like a good outfit otherwise. They do seem to have outfit health issues, but nothing as serious as NWI had. If I can hear back from them, I'd like to ask about that. NNG... After Ajax's latest response, I don't think they're what I'm looking for. One of the requirements I mentioned up front was that the outfit not be too big for the individual to be noticed. I'm really disappointed about that, since I had heard a lot of good things about NNG and wanted to know more. If I were to suggest something that would help NNG in the future, it would be to offer a video or two of the outfit in action. It's really important for potential recruits to feel confident that the outfit is right for them, not just that they're right for the outfit. On NNG's recruiting thread, there is a video, but it's heavily edited footage and mainly of a single person flying around in a Scythe, which doesn't have much to do with the outfit at all. To be honest, I was reluctant to put GOTR on my shortlist because of their size, but I've heard a lot of good things about them too. I just really don't want to be just another number to whatever outfit I end up with.
Here are some questions I've come up with for recruiters. These questions are meant for outfits I know nothing about, so please try to give me some information about your outfit so we can both save time and effort. Please don't answer these questions right away if you're on my short list (see below) or can link to your outfit's website and/or a video of your organized ops. I'll let you know whether I like what I see, and if I still have questions, I'll ask those instead. Outfit Operations When and how often do you run organized squad/platoon ops? Please include time zone if not Eastern Time. Typically we run our ops at 8pm eastern time. Official ops are Saturday but on mondays we run a recruitment squad. Wednesday we have what we like to call platoon drills. Thursday we have open engagements, and once a month we have platoon down time where we just screw around. Of these organized ops, which ones are open to the public? I believe open engagements and recruitment squads are open to the public so you can join us if you like. Do you run public ops differently than outfit-only ops? If so, what are the differences? The difference is protocol. Theres alot more Yes sirs! and official briefings at our closed events. What do you use for voice chat? Team speak 3 I tend to stutter if I talk too fast, so I tend to talk slowly to speak more clearly. Will this be a problem in your voice chat? Not really. I have the same problem sometimes and no one bothers me about it What opportunities are there for an outfit member to lead a squad or platoon in organized ops? It happens a decent bit. Its not unheard for the LT to give control over to one of us to kinda see how we handle situations. Membership What do you expect from each member? Please summarize. Show up to basic training, Try to be active by getting on for an operation or two a month. Just be around.! Specifically, what expectations do you have for members' and leaders' time commitments? See above How large is your outfit, in terms of peak online members on a typical day? If you're not sure, just tell me how many outfit members typically participate in organized ops. Typically we have about 5 - 10 members on per op. As for members our official roll call numbers about 50 Do you have an outfit website or forum? If so, do you require all members to use it? Yes. Our web site is http://11thacr.enjin.com/ and we ask members to look at it as thats how we organize events and communicate changes to the group What sort of advancement opportunities do you offer to members? Plenty so long as you're willing to participate and show some commitment. I was a private for about 2 months. Then after beign active, doing some things to help the group they decided to promote me a decent bit What sort of in-game training do you offer to members? How is the training program offered? Right now we offer a quick Basic training course. That being said we also give out alot of in game advice on what tactics are best and are currently making instructional training videos. Outfit Health If the outfit leader were to quit, what would happen to your outfit? Leadership would fall to the next highest ranking member. What plans do you have for the future of your outfit? Grow, dominate, get our names out there. Hopefully one day become one of the big name movers and shakers like the enclave but while still remaining awesome and not being just another zerg swarm. What does your outfit need most that it currently doesn't have? Active members I suppose. Most everyone right now is pretty good about following orders and being flexible so we dont have a ton of needs. Though some more good pilots would be nice. Why should I join your outfit instead of another one? Cause we rock Now hear me out. I know you are VC and we are TR. But heres the thing. If you ever want to switch sides, ever want to give the TR a try cause we are pretty fun to play, then feel free to come talk to me any time. We'd be happy to accept converts. Dont get me wrong, VS looks fun to play. But hey, if you think its time to change, time to try something different. Give us a call.
Outfit Operations When and how often do you run organized squad/platoon ops? Please include time zone if not Eastern Time. -We run operations daily. While we do run "scheduled" ops every weekday starting at 8pm Eastern, GOTR squads tend to be organized all the time. Our members like it that way. What starts out as a "casual op" can easily turn into intense tactical play at the drop of a hat. Of these organized ops, which ones are open to the public? -GOTR squads and platoons are not inherently open to the public, but if someone would like to play with us, all they have to do is ask, and we'll give them the TS3 info and a squad invite. So I'd categorize them as "public by request". What do you use for voice chat? -Teamspeak 3 I tend to stutter if I talk too fast, so I tend to talk slowly to speak more clearly. Will this be a problem in your voice chat? -I can't imagine that this would be a problem. What opportunities are there for an outfit member to lead a squad or platoon in organized ops? -There are plenty of opportunities for advancement, both into the actual officer corps of the outfit or as a general operations lead. I would be glad to talk to you more about this, it's a lot of information for this post. Membership What do you expect from each member? Please summarize. -This is what we expect: http://gotr.us/page/pillars.html Specifically, what expectations do you have for members' and leaders' time commitments? -We don't have very strict member time commitments, as you may guess from reading the Pillars page I just linked. It's more that, if you ARE online, we'd like you play with us. You're joining an outfit for a reason. Officers must be active to remain in an officer position, but we don't have a metric or rubric for this. How large is your outfit, in terms of peak online members on a typical day? If you're not sure, just tell me how many outfit members typically participate in organized ops. -It is not unusual for us to have 50-80 members online during peak hours, and 120+ on Thursdays. Generally, at any point during the day (non-peak), you're looking at 20-40 members online. However, to address your earlier concerns about being "only a number", GOTR uses a division system that groups players by their playstyle. These subgroups allow us to have a large amount of members that don't become "just a number". Do you have an outfit website or forum? If so, do you require all members to use it? -Yes, we do, and yes, we require all members to sign up on the site so that they can keep up with outfit events and have access to our important information. Your level of participation on the site further than that is completely up to you. What sort of advancement opportunities do you offer to members? -Let me put it this way. Six years ago, I joined GOTR as a complete grunt. Four years ago, I became the Outfit Leader. Draw what conclusions you will. What sort of in-game training do you offer to members? How is the training program offered? -We offer training on a divisional basis every week, usually on Wednesdays. Once you've joined a division, you're expect to train with that division, but you can also join any of the other division's training sessions as well. Important note, you can change divisions! It isn't a set-in-stone choice you make when you join GOTR, we want you to play how you WANT to play. Outfit Health If the outfit leader were to quit, what would happen to your outfit? -Command of the outfit would pass to the next senior officer. What plans do you have for the future of your outfit? -We plan to field an MLG platoon, pending more information from the devs. Other than that, we wish to keep growing so that we always have a large active membership. What does your outfit need most that it currently doesn't have? -More members that log on every day. A lot of our membership can't log on every day for several hours, as they have real lives and things to do that aren't gaming. So if I could have something that we currently don't have, I would say more members that will log on almost every day and play for a while, to help continue build up the core. Why should I join your outfit instead of another one? -You're going to have to decide that for yourself. GOTR would be glad to have you in our ranks, we'll make sure your play time is enjoyable and you'll be surrounded by like-minded individuals. We have a major impact on the battlefield and our members love it here, and have loved it for almost 10 years. So if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, or if you'd like to jump in and play with us to find out more, send me a PM, I'll get you set up.
Hey Tath, DA has grown considerably lately.. a bit faster than i'd prefer to be honest. I'm always open to having people that are interested run with us though. The best way for anything to happen is for you to add me in game as a friend and jump on TeamSpeak with us. I don't think replying to those questions with a wall of text is really going to do the outfit much justice. Add me in game, or Mpal, one of us is usually running the squad (s) and we'll take it from there! P.S. As far as advancement in ranks go, DA is a bit unique in that regard. This is one of the reasons I was concerned about growth happening too quickly. Everyone that I trust in DA is promoted to "Ninja" rank... which is basically everyone that plays with us for longer than a couple weeks. Ninja rank basically has the ability to do anything and everything an officer does in almost any other outfit. You can change the MOTD and you can invite people to the outfit. My reasoning behind this is I don't want to create any structural hierarchies that create much division among people in the outfit. This is an odd way of doing things true, and probably not the most efficient. If done correctly though and growth is managed so that everyone knows everyone it works out extremely well. People implicitly trust any individual in their squad and the squad tends to be worth several squads at that point. The current "Officer" position's only advantage is the ability to kick a player from the outfit which really isn't much of an advantage as turnover is something we haven't truly experienced yet. People who join DA stay in DA because we have a lot of fun kicking *** Double P.S. - Criticism is thrown out quite frequently here, usually as constructive as possible, but we expect everyone to pull their weight. People coming back to the game from a long hiatus may have a hard time with it. I'm still open to anyone that wants to run with us but you may find yourself more comfortable in a system with a more defined and clear structure such as GOTR's. GOTR has been around for a long time and their system definitely works. If you're ok with open criticism and are willing to do what it takes to become a better PS2 player, join our squads/voice comms and we'll give it a go, I just don't want to cause any hard feelings if for some reason it shouldn't work out.
robo gave you the long answer for GotR, but if you have any more detailed requests for GotR feel free to PM either him or me and we can talk more.
Oh wow. I must have neglected this thread for three outfits to post since the last time I checked. ArticRonin/11AC: I'm sorry, but I'm not currently looking for an outfit outside VS, and if that changes, then I'll be joining CML. I'm sorry I didn't make this clear earlier. robo/TehBenju/GOTR: Thanks for providing me more information on your outfit. I like what I see, especially regarding making real life come first. I forget to do that sometimes. Speaking of real life, I recently graduated with my bachelor's degree, so I don't know how my schedule's going to be in the near future. I expect I'll still have time for PS2, but I just don't know which days and for how long. I can't say I'll be on every day, but when I am on, I'm typically on for at least three hours. I am light-sensitive though, so I need to take a short break roughly once per hour or two, or else I get headaches. That shouldn't be a problem, I assume? Ender/DA: I already have answers for your outfit to many of the questions on my list, so it's a good thing that you didn't answer them all (again?) As for advancement, I'm not so worried about whether I'd be able to advance in your outfit, since I'm not yet at the skill level to keep up with your pace, let alone lead a squad. I'm absolutely willing to take constructive criticism -- as long as it doesn't turn into namecalling or negativity. I actively encourage people to give me constructive feedback so I can improve my skills as a player and a squad leader, so that's not a problem at all. However, I do need to ask whether my uncertain schedule would pose a problem. I don't know what to expect from my daily schedule in the near future, and chances are that my schedule will need to be flexible even after I find a job.
I did look into AT early on since I saw them around a lot, but I don't think it's for me. I'd like to go with an outfit that isn't quite that large. At this point, I'm really only actively looking between GOTR and DA, but I haven't updated the OP to reflect that. I don't want to discourage awesome outfits from posting here, since one could come along and impress me like CML did. I have to say that I'm impressed with all of the outfits represented here for putting effort into their posts. I was expecting several outfits to post a low-effort generic recruitment post and disappear, but I'm glad I was proven wrong. It speaks well to the general quality of this game's outfits.
Tathar, your schedule and need for breaks due to light sensitivity won't be an issue. When we say Real Life Comes First, we genuinely mean it. Some players in our outfit can only play a few hours a week, and some weeks they can't log in at all due to their jobs. We have no "minimum hours" requirement or anything. We'd be glad to get you on TS3 and in squad during ops to try us out for a few days if you like! Also, DA is a fantastic outfit. I think you'd be well set to join either one, dependent on your playstyle.
