What defines a good outfit?

I spend most of my time doing Taemiens point 2
But i thorougly enjoy playing in the outfit im in, and imo the leader makes all the difference. We often end up like a suicide squad and get utterly anhiliated. But the leader knows what he's doing, what best to cap for the alert and when to do it.
He is always the first through the doorway and gets spawn beacons to points i never could. He never demands people pull certain classes, just makes sure we have a enough mix or specialists for a task
If you took the leader away we would be like headless chickens and woudlnt achieve anything compared to having the decent leader we do.

Its still fun, despite playing to win. To me thats what make a good outfit. Its not deadly serious win at all costs, but try to win and have fun doing so.

This reminds me of one my favorite videos:



Since we aren't professionals, we do not have to take it seriously all the time, but we should most of the time.

The best experiences I've had so far are when I run with a platoon outfit that communicates well and is well coordinated. It just so happens that as they move about the map picking strike targets that the swam follows them around because they know if they do there are going to be people to repair, heal and generally back them up if they hang around.

Okay... Couple of things coming from this. Generally speaking, I agree. I play to win, but the rules of the game are different from individual to individual. Additionally, the conditions for an individual or group to perceive themselves as having "won" the game will be defined by the goals they set out to achieve in the first place.

Group A sets out to delay a base capture. They are outnumbered, but they achieve this goal and make the capture take five minutes longer than it otherwise would have done.

Group B wishes to capture the same base Group A are defending. They do not have any particular concerns about time - Just that they will capture it. They succeed.

Both groups, despite being in an adversarial and competative environment, have "won". They have achieved the goal they gave themselves.

In hindsight it may prove that one or the other didn't do enough. Perhaps their empire didn't win the alert - Or in hindsight perhaps both groups may have been better used elsewhere, or maybe each individual within that group comes to an understanding that the game is a waste of time... In which case all of them have lost.

Undisputed victory is impossible to achieve as in a game this nebulous, as there are so many different victories people can achieve.


On a slightly unrelated note, I would advise against using the word "should" when talking about how people behave...

The discussion becomes rather philosophical once we are trying to define win-conditions in Planetside since there are no stable gains except for certification points.

Nevertheless my basic win-conditions are:

• winning alerts
• taking bases
• defending bases

Everything that triggers the victory music in Planetside becomes a game within the game which can be decided in one way or the other. You could also go by the timer or the voice of the lady commenting on our play.

Once you also consider delaying the enemy and similar "achievements" then it becomes less clear and in the end things will come down to the butterfly-effect where simple presence on the battlefield creates server-lag that affects something.

Let's just keep it simple and stick to the win-conditions that the game has to offer.

For the record: It looks like the outfit in question is trying to copy "The Enclave", including TS-group-names. The "charismatic leader" apparently tries to give them his best impression of Buzzcutpsycho. It's just not working as intended, I guess.