128 player tests: Feedback and Observations

[Hitman.2.5]

If we have 8 man squads, would we get fire team leaders?

usually in a section/squad one of the fire team leaders will be the squad/section leader

[HMARS]

That still leaves an opening for at least one fireteam leader w/in the squad...

[Mellanbror]

What gazzthompson said really. Divide your squad up to 2 fireteams and pick a fireteamleader.
Tried that during testing and it worked well.
Had supportweapons and medic on SL's F1 and F2 had more of closequartersweapons and was the assault segment.

It was all good fun, but as many said, kinda chaotic from times. Definitely see potential in this. 128 players will only leed to better battles IMO. Believe the community will adapt with joy and ease to this.

[Kain888]

It was good, just there is a lot of things to think of to keep PR gameplay and pace of action. Mile stone and hard times for Developers at the same time. Looking forward to it.

[cyberzomby]

Working with FireTeams is very stressing on the ingame voip channel tho. So I'm more of a fan of letting the fire teams communicate on mumble so the radio is open for interfireteam coordination. Like if the support element sees a threat for the assault element that they cant take out themselves.

[Robert-The-Bruce]

Having 128 players on the 16km? maps felt alot better than only 64. As was said before, the ratio of infantry to medium and heavy assets felt alot more natural and the battlefield didn't feel mostly empty.

The problems, I feel, where very obvious and few.

- nametags
- squad loadouts where unrealistic for many(mostly western) armies, since too many men HAD to be riflemen (a modern day british infantry section for instance usually has two AR's, tow grenadelaunchers and two L86's, as well as an optional AT- weapon or two, depending on the environment)
- too little transport --> this was to be expected as the map loadouts where designed for 64 players

overall a very impressive few rounds which showed how much potential a greater number of players has. My highest respect to the people doing the magic in all this.

!edit regarding my second point: overall there where too few kits avialible to the whole team, which lead to massive deficencies in AT capability and specialist roles like marksman, grenadier etc.

[snake_rus1]

Hi everybody!
While playing on 128 ppl server ive encountered only a few problems.
1. Being a SL i was not able to put a FOB even on flat surface.tried to put it for like 8 minutes without any result. ( try again in a better location all the time, in the correct locations ). Im not sure it was because of 128 people, but i had this problem.
2. lack of transport . But this issue is minor
3. a lot of asshats teamkilling and griefing (mostly because of problem №2 . Administrating is tough with 128 people
4. kits restrictions
5. Sometimes rifleman specialist ropes didnt work in the situations where they usually work
6. name tags. removing ALL of them would be good

Except for those minor issues ,a couple of server crashes and sometimes lags everything was awesome!
Cant wait to play 128 again!
thanks for reading, snake_rus.

[Megagoth1702]

8 people per squad means 8 potential mouths blabbering all over the place when it gets hot. Everybody reports contacts and what not and the VOIP channels are flooded like crazy.
"Enemies on my left" - yeah, now who the heck are you and where is your left... If this would have been said on mumble such problems would never appear because you know who is talking and taking a look at "his left" is done quickly.

If we could have mumble inside PR as a VOIP replacement - that would be optimal. normal audio for the casual shooting and fighting and the VOIP for really important stuff.

I dont wanna play with 8 people in my SQD without mumble. It would get too loud.

[Nebsif]

People keep yelling double this and double that n that but I actually liked it the way it was (atleast on AAS), best thing (imo) is that APCs were used as transport as people didnt have enough trucks to ditch all around the map or just 1-2 choppers busy supplying.
4km maps where on 64 u barely see any good action (Wanda, Yamalia, I.Eagle) became uber fun with huge inf forces assaulting and obj along with armor supporting them instead of rollin around to hunt other armor.. and all that on a serv filled with all kinds of newbs/selfish peeps, w/o mumble, unorginized squads and poor asset rules.

Another thing I liked very much and others didnt are rather short rounds... coz I just love playing more maps per day cuz then teh chance of playing rare and kewl maps goes up (like Kozelsk).

[Elektro]

8 people per squad means 8 potential mouths blabbering all over the place when it gets hot. Everybody reports contacts and what not and the VOIP channels are flooded like crazy.

I dont wanna play with 8 people in my SQD without mumble. It would get too loud.

You could just tell them to shut up?

[Runnan]

with the numbers going up on the server there will be an issue with SL and organizing the team where for mumble will prob be requered to get a fully working team. this will add more realism and get the real feeling with stress for both the squads and the team as it should...

[LegioX]

It was epic. Period. Usually, even on a full 64 player server, 4km maps feel to empty and the need for infantry seems small because of all the heavy assets. So usually when I SL, there isn't much of a need for proceeding tactically since it usually becomes a waste of time. When i get nubs, they usually don't follow orders, proceed lazily, and survive. I like fireteams, but on 64p servers, there isn't a great need for them. However, 128p is pure epicness. Everybody is actually taking cover and moving tactically since theres so many enemies, and the moment you get lazy and run across an open field you get shot. I also assigned fireteams. FT-A Me, Medic, Rifleman x2, LAT/HAT guy FT-B mark, SAW, grenadier. The communication is just amazing:
me "FT-B Provide suppressive fire on the enemy FOB while I take FT-A to flank them. Grenadier, smoke them out and bomb them." (did i mention I'm a smoke grenade guy and 128 makes them extremely important not just for the medic but for tactical manuevering?)
Runs to the next cover getting shot by confused enemy fire.
Marksman "contacts moving out of the smoke!! MG suppress that enemy to the building at 15."
Me: "oh shit APC" as it nearly blows us up. "HAT guy, create a diversion by going on the other side of the building while I call in AS"
moments later
HAT: "I'm down"
me: "too late for the APC" (A10 comes down and gives it hell)
After that we took the enemy position and blah blah blah
Every moment was intense as hell!!

[Jigsaw]

8 people per squad means 8 potential mouths blabbering all over the place when it gets hot. Everybody reports contacts and what not and the VOIP channels are flooded like crazy.

I dont wanna play with 8 people in my SQD without mumble. It would get too loud.

Thing with 8 man squads is that it is an option, not a given that you must have that many people.

Currently I personally prefer to have 4 people in my squad including me, I just find it easier to control, but I know I still have the option to get an extra two and the same will be true of 8 man squads, you can still have 6 if you want.

[aurimas]

all the time i played with 128 had no lag execept the server orginaly cashed few times with testing.
What i didnt liked that half of people always were staying in same spot and it looked like some unbalanced idiot show smart player for stupidity like that were able to make 60+ kills. Soo imagine how much those players would make with 2000+ tickets kills?

[centralhigh76]

Jigsaw I agree with you but if in a server you have all of these 4-6 man squads then there will be some people left out is it possible to have more than 9 squads. Maybe 13x6 or 12x6 or 11x7. I prefer to have 5 in a squad because you can normally fit everyone into a transport. For 8 man squads you would need 2 Humvees, also in a chopper that can hold 8 passengers that would be the whole squad.

[supahpingi]

Jigsaw I agree with you but if in a server you have all of these 4-6 man squads then there will be some people left out is it possible to have more than 9 squads. Maybe 13x6 or 12x6 or 11x7. I prefer to have 5 in a squad because you can normally fit everyone into a transport. For 8 man squads you would need 2 Humvees, also in a chopper that can hold 8 passengers that would be the whole squad.

for 6 players you will also need 2 humvee's,humvee wise that is.

[centralhigh76]

for 6 players you will also need 2 humvee's,humvee wise that is.

I normlay have 5 man squads because of that but when there is 6 they can easaly find a ride with another squad but its hard to do that for 3 other people

[SeanRamey]

I normlay have 5 man squads because of that but when there is 6 they can easaly find a ride with another squad but its hard to do that for 3 other people

Well, they could just make maps that have more humvees or trucks for transport.

[Wicca]

I normlay have 5 man squads because of that but when there is 6 they can easaly find a ride with another squad but its hard to do that for 3 other people

Broaden your horizon. Just cause you dont want to play one way, does that mean that 127 other people want to play differently? Your part of something bigger, either adapt and survive, or die.

[Jafar Ironclad]

Very true.

Another point I want to raise, at risk of skirting around one of my own rules: I know and accept that >64 player gameplay as part of the main mod is quite a ways off, but are 8-man squads something that can be safely implemented in the mod sooner? I know personally I had an AMAZING time directing a disciplined 8-man infantry squad; I'd like to hear from more of the other folks that led squads.

If you want to respond to this line of discussion, quote this post.