Planetside 2: Purple Wednesdays Welcomes you to Auraxis (from 8pm)

[Cooper]

Keep them coming. This is genuinely a great idea. I'll collate them on a Steam Guide, if Girble doesn't mind me nicking his idea (and others their work...)

My own:

Ninja Cap or Ghost Cap: A base being capped by one, two or three infantry on their own. Targets are usually out-of-the-way bases and bases where the cap is started just as those capping lose adjacency, but they continue to cap as they meet no resistance. Easy to clear (usually no AMS) but a pain to have to mop-up if there are a few going on at once.
"Cooper: Can we get a squad to clear out that ninja cap at NS Secure pelase."

Vehicle Terminal / Infantry Terminal / Air Terminal / 'Term.': The floor-standing screens / consoles that are used (press 'E') to change class (Infantry) or grab a vehcile (vehicle / air). Infiltraors can (and will often be asked by squad leaders) to 'hack' (see above) one or another of these.
"Hack the vehicle term so we can spawn a sundy"

[TheRed]

This was fun tonight. The mesa shootout with millions of maxes on the platforms and balconies was.. mental. Fun.. Sarrons don't do them any favours. I also enjoyed [more] discussion on peoples' weird accents, and the upside down mag driving...

[Wardancer]

Was pretty disappointed with yesterday actually, we had what looked like it was gonna be a awesome night with 60 people in the mumble channel. So obviously we were gonna have to split up in two. What we got was 48 people in Strat Gir squads and 12 guys (which also had something like 2-3 brand new players? Really hope we did not scare them away) who were unable to much worthwhile at all. Cooper ferried us around ninja capping some bases, and had to leave. Then I think CMaster(?) took over and tried to do the best of the situation which resulted in us ninja capping some more. Before we got hammered at the biolab.

Seriously if we split the squad especially on a Wednesday can we at least make two large platoons to make sure we have a decent amount of people and more cooperation between them? Felt like we mostly got left in the dust with little to no organisation and/or power to do anything worthwhile. Unfortunately I had to leave somewhat early so (around 11'ish GMT+1) so do not know if it got better at the Biolab.

I know shit happens and no one really planned this but still it is something to think about for future purple Wednesdays.

[Jesus_Phish]

That's a shame to hear. I guess Strat might be becoming more popular, but I wonder, how many people who play with us online know the difference between the two. Did people just go with the flow because they wanted to play in the bigger group? I always liked the idea that Wednesday was more casual and Thursday focused.

[RIDEBIRD]

Wednesday is supposed to be more casual. I do not prefer to play that way, and I know others prefer playing more strategically as well. I did not expect 95% of the platoon going Strat however. I think it just shows that a large majority of the people that have now played for a while prefer more organization, but yes, hopefully no newer dudes were scared off.

Apart from that though, yesterday was shit still. I tried to lead us on Amerish but we had a terrible time chasing ghosts and getting stomped by zergs. Didn't get much done unfortunately and we didn't see many good fights.

[jaguar skills]

Wouldn't be too hard on yourself, was just bad luck. That said, after about 11 things started to pick up. We had a gay old time holding Torremar from the NC. Just our one and a half squads against their everyone.

[EsotericReverie]

Torremar is always fun!

EDIT: But it sucks that you got split up as badly s you did. That's one of the things I've been worried about myself. I've been thinking of maybe limiting the split-off platoon to fewer squads, or at least no more than one squad more, than the main platoon. Don't know if that kind of thing works in practice.

[CMaster]

Yeah, the casual side didn't go that well last night.
Cooper ferried us around empty outposts latley, then had to leave.
I'd only intended to come on for an hour or so, but got dragged into platoon leading. I tried to find us some more action, but it wound up in either more ghost-caps, or getting flattened. So sorry to all in the platoon, I failed rather badly there. I hope the new guys will come and try again on another night.

This isn't to say that anything was done wrong in starting the stratgeic offshoot - if there was going to be such a thing, it only makes sense to use the StratGir comms system. But perhaps in future, if we want to keep the spirit of the early purple weds going, splitting needs to be of the form of making one or two spec-ops squads, rather than a free-for-all Strat platoon.

Alternatively, we can just start making all organized nights (outside of silly mondays) strat setup. It works well now and is lots of fun, but it isn't the same.

[Rizlar]

I tried to lead us on Amerish but we had a terrible time chasing ghosts and getting stomped by zergs. Didn't get much done unfortunately and we didn't see many good fights.

It was definitely something to do with Amerish and out of our control. There was virtually no resistance anywhere, apart from the giant horde of air and armour that obliterated us a couple of times. Good to hear it got better when you all moved to Indar. In hindsight we probably should have moved there sooner, but you never really know where the next good fight will happen.

Edit: Also, what CMaster says about groups splitting on Wednesdays.

[EsotericReverie]

Growing pains. I foresee a future where we will have to run two platoons on strat-nights as well. We might as well start preparing for that day.

I believe that if we do split, into two platoons, we should try to keep them roughly equal in size, to keep them both viable. Or maybe make sure that they coordinate their movements somehow?

[CMaster]

Growing pains. I foresee a future where we will have to run two platoons on strat-nights as well. We might as well start preparing for that day.

I believe that if we do split, into two platoons, we should try to keep them roughly equal in size, to keep them both viable. Or maybe make sure that they coordinate their movements somehow?

I think treat it just like 1 platoon with 6 squads. So one PL in charge of it all, but now he has Alpha-2 and Bravo-2 available as well.

[Feldspar]

I think treat it just like 1 platoon with 6 squads. So one PL in charge of it all, but now he has Alpha-2 and Bravo-2 available as well.

I'd say leave it up to the PL(s) on the night, its probably very difficult co-ordinating that many players without becoming an RPS zerg.

[Wardancer]

Amerish is such weird place, sometimes it is really amazing fun with heavy battles over the mountains, othertimes it feels like everyone just leaves for Indar turning it into wack a' mole. Wish they sort of had actual numbers of players not just relative numbers. So if we see there actually just being 70 people from each faction on a continent we can go all and split up to cap as much as possible fast instead of preparing for a big fight, or just go somewhere else.

[Grible]

I agree about the strat squad last night- We had a fair bit of fun in Charlie (Moss basin!) and it did get better after 11 once the NC woke up and ran onto our guns at Torres and Copper ravine - however I think that not having the strat setup on Wednesdays will be better for the outfit in the long run. We are just about big enough that the "regulars" can form most of a platoon and enjoy the strat setup, but for newbs it's going to be a bit intimidating, also I was technically leading the platoon just before the start and I probably would have continued to lead or at least stay in the casuals but for the feeling that all the names and voices I know (and to some limited extent!) trust to do things were jumping into the strat channels. It kind of left me with a "it's a casual night for newcomers to the outfit/game" vs "I know I'll personnally have more fun over there"

I think perhaps the exchange for being v.focused and harsh about comms and so on on Thursdays has to balance with people just maning up and playing in the chaos for a few hours on a Wednesday.

Not a fully formed thought yet...

[Yargh]

I got home pretty late last night and so missed the Amerish stuff. We had lots of fun on Indar though.

[Cooper]

Yeah, I had to duck out early that night. From here on out I'm not gonna be around a great deal until March.

It was a shame to see such an exodus to the stratgir channels. The previous week worked well, I think. We split into two 30-ish sized groups.

It was better than the week before when I put my foot down and said no to using stratgir and ended up with a 50+ channel. Splitting to about 30-ish sized groups seems best to me.

Each time I've asked in Mumble, there are more than enough players for whom Wednesday is the pull above StratGir to make it important to keep Wednesdays more 'casual'. That and I think it's important for those of us who enjoy StratGir to have a mandated day when it's a deliberately relaxed atmosphere.

On Wednesdays we have enough now that we can run two platoons of three squads. Which seems about right. 4 squads in a channel is too much, less than two squads and it can feel a bit thin. Like last night.

I realise the StratGir setup is popular. But Wednesdays come with a style in mind, and I don't want to lose that atmosphere (and the players it attracts). For now I'm gonna ask that there's no StratGir on Wednesdays. Next week we'll split into two platoons and two channels like last week, see how that goes again.

[BasicPauly]

Surely the people who ALWAYS want casual will be catered for by the fact that some of them will stay in a casual channel... Even if its only a handful on the odd occasion, they would still be doing it casually.. To me, casual doesnt mean you play any less effectively, but that you can mess about and have a random chat without somebody yelling in your ear to silencio.

If people want to split, surely its just a case of balancing it, or going with the majority.... If there are only 3 people who want to play casually, surely it doesnt make sense to deny the majority? Nothing stops them playing casually as such?

I understand the atmosphere you want to achieve for weds, but tbh, people take weds less seriously, even if they split into separate squads.

Personally, im all for keeping it in reasonable groups on weds... even if its a LARGE group, because sometimes its not too frantic on comms even with like 50... but sometimes it is too much, so it definitely needs to be played by ear.

[Cooper]

Casual is not about playstyle. Many of us want a large, chatty group. That's what we mean by casual. We can be very effective and organised in game with a couple of dozen people in the same channel.

When 48 people bugger off to a StratGir setup and leave six of us in the 'casual' channel it doesn't feel very casual. It feels pretty lonely.

[RIDEBIRD]

But if many want a big chatty group, why did 48 people leave?

I can see the need for forced casual play on wednesdays, sure, and maybe we will just not allowed strat play then at all (which I think is.. yeah.. casual play is fully allowed on thursdays in seperate squads) to make sure this happens.

[Jesus_Phish]

But if many want a big chatty group, why did 48 people leave?

I can see the need for forced casual play on wednesdays, sure, and maybe we will just not allowed strat play then at all (which I think is.. yeah.. casual play is fully allowed on thursdays in seperate squads) to make sure this happens.

Without offending anyone, mob mentality would be my guess.

Again, how many read the forums and know what's what? How many went because someone said to join in, how many went because everyone else went?