Ezlann

*yawn* wut happened?

(jokes aside)

I didn't realize I had this many friends here, and although I was a bit pissed when the spamming started to happen on the ban appeal, I appreciate that this thread was created and received so much attention. It means a lot guys, thanks.

Always keep it civil guys, and remember to operate operationally.

And on a final note, I still went along with Black Jacket and Saving Private Brandenburg, so I'll have some other events up soon. I still have to speak to a few admins here on TS before I can really do anything, so hopefully we can all get back on schedule sooner or later.

Operate Operationally Ladies and Gentlemen.
 
-Liru

Yeah.
 
However, now is not the time or place for us to be discussing the ban, the reasons behind it, or what exactly has occurred that has led to this stage.
I get on well with Liru (and a lot of the other guys complaining about his ban), and can understand their frustrations about everything thats gone on tonight, even if I don't entirely agree with the way in which they've voiced this.
I'm sure that whoever looks into the ban appeal will look at it with an open mind on everything, and doesn't let what has occurred cloud their judgement, then I hope a decision will be made to everyones satisfaction. However, I make this appeal to anyone involved.
Whatever your thoughts on what has happened, don't turn this into a flame war. We're all apparently adults, and know the way that we should behave.

yeah same for me don't wanna miss out on the other fun. 

Seems interesting - will this be finished before Liru's (Unofficial) Event as I don't want to miss that one.

I thought Liru's was on the Sunday night...
I'll definitely keep this in mind, will have to see how my FPS holds up.

@xSniper1982 Yea I really need to stop making my posts and story boarding during my night job so I edit my stuff properly XD (edit: I can't English)

there's a 3 hour difference and I don't mind pushing my start time back to accommodate David's event

Besides, its FULL ON PvP, A RARE TREAT!

Looking forward to playing this!

Hey all back again. Ok so i've pretty much finished the Fort infrastructure and even added some lighting for if this is ever done at night. I've also tested the helipad area and the AI seems to have no problem landing. All buildings are also accessible.
 
Here are some screenshots of the fort at day and night: 

 
Now that the fort is done I will need to start on some forward emplacements in the area surrounding the Fort. 
 
What do you guys think so far?

So when are you hosting it?

put some CSAT in there, give me a gun, give me some buddies, and let's run this operation

This won't be the only offshore platform operation I do, don't you worry! The operation after this one will be the bridge...ohh god the bridge...

@Liru the Lcpl.
Rendering my perspective now 
:D

Yeah, in my opinion, so many suppressors change the gameplay dramatically, and I'd personally prefer that suppressors be used sparingly; unless we're talking about an 8-player mission, it shouldn't be used on all units.
 
The noise of gunfire really adds something to the feel of an Op, and at night it obviously becomes especially spectacular. It highlights even further any weaponry being employed such as LMGs or rockets, and it also opens up the option for a large-scale assault force acting as a diversion for a smaller infiltration unit to crawl up through the cracks in the rear. (hehe)
 
 

@Liru the Lcpl.
Sounds good buddy
 
im always avalible for a chat/testing session if needs be 

@Liru the Lcpl.
Sounds good buddy
 
im always avalible for a chat/testing session if needs be 

Here's what i'm thinking: a 2 part mission for the sake of experimentation. The first part is pure PvE where everyone works together, and the second part has the small CSAT team for testing.  This is so I can know, as a Zeus, that I'm making good improvements for players' experiences in general, then players' experiences for the PvP section. If this sounds good i'll write something up tonight and have sig ups for it within 1-2 weeks.

Although I do love vipers, I am agreeing with the majority of what I have read and taking them out, outfitting standard CSAT soldiers instead. If we get the player counts that Luetin ever gets (which would be both great and a pain in the ass to organize), then i'll bring them back for outfits.

ALSO, I have uploaded the other two segments from the Cross comms mission, it's the briefing and the time between the mission being a go and first contact if you're interested.

Fog is a good balance for players that dont have a powerful System,
i've used it multipul times when i've been Zeusing
 
between 30-50% but then its down to personal preference, and on the mission "concept"

I think in future PvP missions a few of my ideas could be considered? 
1- 60 second respawn timer 
2 - 1 or 2 spawns at the defenders objective but used at random (if possible) 
 
3- NO VIPERS 
Playing vipers last night was fun but they are extremely OP 
Having been sprayed by @IronLance for a good 5 seconds I was still at 30-50% health 
Plus this eliminates the accidental use of thermal 
 
Cheers for the great shoot out 
Much love 
The Lion 

I think this format is extremly fun and with a bit of tweaking it will be great.

Gun for hire over here

Yeah, finding out about that after the mission was a HUGE shock to us...
Trying to enter Bravo from the Western side and then being shot by someone who spawned behind us.
We had no idea that OPFOR was going to be respawning, let alone that they would be doing so behind our advance.

Amentes did a pretty good job with the CAS runs, but I was completely unaware that they were coming until they hit, which made it hard for me to figure out if I should push in or not. Didn't want my guys on the receiving end.

Totally unclear on the whole recon thing with Darters etc. Someone mentioned that we apparently had a Darter or two for recon but I don't even think we had a UAV guy to use them did we?

OPFOR team did a great job, made it really good fun.

Was a damn good Mission until things got a little confusing. Great work Liru.
 

One thing. CSAT respawn may should have been in Coms Bravo, or some indication that reinforcement may come from Coms Alpha. Didn't expected Jimbo to come from behind us.

Yeah, the strike was definitely more about the psychological side.
 
Knowing about the AA threat, and not wanting to just destroy everything completely, I was really trying to keep it defensive.
 
As you see, I only go for the tall buildings, as all of the approaches that would keep me hidden until the last minute would also result in being unable to nose down enough to get strikes on the low buildings, without exposing myself to the MANPAD threat
 
I believe I was the target of small arms fire on the outgoing path of all the runs, but no rounds found their mark.

Hi
Thank you Liru for mission and Shadow for hosting it!
 
Some feedback from CSAT perspective:
Thanks @JimboSpike @Ezlann for great teamwork. Was a pleasure playing with you guys. The plan was spot on. There was some confusion in the end. In the briefing we were told that to extract static device which was in one of the bunkers we need to land on one of the helipads and Ezlann decided that i should be the pilot of VTOL doing the extraction. When 30min passed Liru told us that Ezlann will take VTOL and so i ran to Tempest and waited for VTOL to make enough noise that it will drown the sound of Tempest Engine and will allow me to dissepear in confusion. Ezlann then decided that he will try to scare enemy with some strafing runs and that is the point where all went sour. When i parked Tempest device near the coast, thus completing objective, Liru told us to try to recapture device in the base. I respawned back to the Com Alpha and found out that we have been attacked and there was a Humming bird with engines still on and dead Eagle-Eye slumped in his chair. I decided that i shoud take it, land it on east side of the base and engage Blueforce inside. But what happened was that when I arrived I noticed Brandenburg guy on armored tower. I still don't know how I was able see his player tag. I decided to scare him by buzzing the tower and then give guys on the ground chance to spot that somebody stole their vehicle. Sadly, it went badly as i touched a railing of the tower in high speed . I am deeply sorry for that.
Here is printscreen of our map done by Ezlann
 
PvE&P element - 
I like the direction Liru took with involving players to be part of opfor for operation. This is very original and i can see great potential in that. 
Thinks that will increase fairness of PvP firefigts:
3rd person: off
I will let Dslyecxi explain this one.
Extended map content: off
We had it almost too easy  because i could see rought (sometimes exact) position of enemy players even before they ware spotted by my eyes. This way i was able to spot marksman in jungle 1km away (decided not to engage him becouse he was no thread to us there even though he managed to kill some AI on towers), IronLance coming up at base was spotted while he was still some 500m away. Even silencers did not help.
Killed by and Score table: off
I also recomend this. Players tend to be distracted from objectives to go on personal vendetas. In situation when you kill somebody out of your LOS (target in bush, behind wall...etc.) you are imidiately informed that he is down either kill massage or checking your score.
 
Random thoughts after watching video:
Liru, You are cluttering your view (and decreasing your FPS) by leaving the objects in base composition be active in zeus interface. You can let Shadow place those for you or you can use the Ares module to add/remove objects from Zeus. When you lost sight of Alpha team which was being transported to south of the objective you could have used it to see them. I also suggested to you to add objects to Zeus after we placed mines so you could see them and decide their fate as I feared we might have placed some mines in paths of AI patrols (which we did and some AI were killed by them).
It was sad that coordination of bluefor attack did not went that well when recon got itself spotted and alpha deployed too late too far. If you could coordinate atacks from two directions with Pawnee hitting those ATC towers like Amentes showed us we would be screwed and mission might have been total succes for bluefor.
Also @Amentes we could not hope to defend against your attacks. It was simply perfect and you almost did not give us a chance to return fire with rifles let alone with MANPAD. I went for AA launcher when you made first pass, but after another two i returned it back to supply box because it was obvious to me that you will not give me chance to lock on you. I think you made a big impact on us because you allowed others to advance, while we tried to hide from you.
 
PS: Sorry for my english.

Gun for hire over here

To carry on from what Johnny has put, some of our best/favourite missions are the ones where theres little/no armour involved, such as the Island assault missions where we've had to think out how to assault, and small, well placed units have caused us large amounts of trouble. Limiting UAV/FSG support is also something that I can see working, and may make for better gameplay, as it forces players to think on their feet so to speak.
Limiting long range optics is an idea that may work, as, its more than easy for a decent player to stand off and engage from 1000+metres and completely obliterate a team that won't fire back.
I enjoyed the defence mission the other week, where the more proactive AI infantry was involved, and I feel that if they were used as a defensive tool on a Zeus night in a mission (something like Op Onslaught played using that could be completely different, as would an Op.Guerilla done again using the modified AI), then the type of play expected may be different.
 
I sometimes get a bit fed up of the constant grind of taking out AI vehicles, as they can be a bit OP in some areas, and cause a blockage to occur, although, using a Marid or Ifrit in a hilly area where they're expected, combined with foot patrols of infantry, could be interesting.
 
As for the 'changing sides' question, I know its possible within Zeus (maybe the Ares side) to set an OPFOR/CSAT spawn point, which you can move depending on the state of play. If the way you want to do things involves using players playing as CSAT/AAF, then perhaps get that set up before you start streaming, and they can be a hidden extra that people on the stream don't see, and as such, won't be aware of until they appear in the middle of an ambush, or a battle. Its easy enough for them to hide away in a side channel on Teamspeak, and to contact you that way, that way, you could even get involved yourself as a 'player', instead of controlling the AI and Zeus/play that way.
 
For the missions, I'd also like to see a slight change to the way in which we use the CAS aircraft (or any form of fire support, such as Mortars or Pawnee). As it is now, a lot of pilots are more than happy to fly over the 'front line' and pick up targets that way. I'd like to see it used in the way in which the mortars were used last week on the two missions. Where a squad can contact the FSG team, either by TS or side chat, and 'talk' them onto target, by marking it on the map with a specific marker, then asking for the fire to be provided (we asked for a mortar strike to be danger close to ourselves when pinned down by infantry twice last week, and both times, we managed to get enough, accurate, support to allow us to get back into the fight. This also occured on the second mission when we attacked from the north before we got to the wall where the Ifrit got stuck, we asked the mortar team to lay smoke for us, and it allowed us enough cover to push forward.
Of course, this is something that a pilot may struggle to attain, in terms of accuracy, but, is it something, that you could provide yourself, using the 'airstrike' instructions within Zeus, (as well as the Mortar or Artillery support). You may not want to do this, but I hate facing air support or mortars more than facing a tank or IFV. At least you can see the tank/IFV before it kills you.
 
**off topic deviation alert**
 
A lot of the players we see on EU4 for the Zeus nights are becoming regulars, as well as the few extras you see, so let us know what you want from us, and we'll try and help you out the other way. If you want to supply an LZ/FOB for us to work from, tell us, don't leave it unmarked and then wonder why things go wrong (we potato people can be a bit stubborn at times ), if you want us not to use LMGs, then ask us, we can try to get a loadout thats more CQB or marksman based. I feel that the streams are something that everyone involved can benefit from, from yourself, to the players and finally, Ahoyworld.
I record my POV on most nights, and a fair few others do. We may not be able to stream, but everything we do on there is something that can be used to make a stream night more entertaining or educational to the viewer, then I'll be glad to help, and I'm sure others will.
 
Spot a bit of good play from someone on the stream, ask if someone on there is recording it afterwards, then you can get a bit of video from them explaining how they ended up there, such as the Ezlan solo incident the other week. To view that from his POV would be something completely enthralling from a specators POV (probably just as good as watching your stream), we all know how it ended, but of course, his view was completely different to others.
The same as if you spot something that leaves you confused as to how the team ended up where they did (such as the right flank team on Op. Mike, who went wandering through the woods on the way to the castle), theres a lot of stuff that won't appear on your stream, such as the conversations between players on TS where the route is discussed and how we're going to do it, and I'm sure, if they were made known, then the gameplay would improve. If theres anything that can be done to improve the stream as a whole, let us know.

So much negativity...
I don't get this mentallity at all.

Promoting EU3 isn't going to help those of us on EU1/2 that want a little bit more from our experience.....
What part of this are you not understanding, as has already been pointed out, this is about EU1/2 players....
NOT EU3.....
 

^^^^^^^^^^
This right here 'YOUR' reason NOT to have the server ..
This... IS THE REASON WE SHOULD.....

EU 3 is struggling for players, because people aren't comfortable downloading all the Mods and then not get help learning how to play,
or just don't have the hardware capable of handling it.

The only reason there seems to be a DIVIDE in the Community is because most EU3 players don't even attempt to engage with the players of EU1/2,
us EU1/2 players are more than happy to engage in conversation and discussion with guys on EU 3..
However, few of them seem to feel the same way.
I count myself lucky that I've been able to chat with some of the EU3 guys and have a fun conversation, not everyone gets that chance, UNLESS they play on EU3.

Having that MIDDLE GROUND would be a good way to help ease players in to the way EU3 works/runs, and might allow for a few more people to move over and populate that server.

I don't see any negatives to this idea, only positives...
But I guess that's just because of the way I view life in general....

It can't hurt to test it out, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out and things can go back to the way they are....
If it does work out, then everyone wins.