My 1st impression of finally playing ONline

[Kyle Kellahshehskee]

Yes, miracles DO happen from time to time.

Late last night I hopped online, and proceeded to get the education of a lifetime. Here's what I learned:

(1) Without exception, the community was VERY nice to work with, and quite forgiving when I unintentionally team killed someone. Of course I felt horrible when I do this, and make a point to apologize right away. Trust me when I say that I'm working on avoiding these accidents in major ways.

Even getting shived in the back with a kabar was an amusing experience. It's a good thing I have a great sense of humor when it comes to being on the receiving end of such humiliating, yet educational, experiences. I scan behind me more often now. lol

(2) Bots don't even come close to elevating in me the sense of apprehension I feel when I'm online. It's unnerving to know that your enemy could be anywhere, so until I learn the ropes, I've found that it's very useful just to shadow and cover a more experienced player. 9 times out of 10 he'll see the opponent first, and if my ally gets dropped, I at least have a strong indication of where the enemy is at.

(3) Other than grenades, I hate explosives, lol. An M203 grenade gives virtually zero time to react in time to save one's butt, and the new rocket launcer is just plain EVIL, as it's impossible to escape its blast radius, even if one dives behind cover. The point, I guess, is to never give the guy carrying such weapons a chance to fire it off, but in this "training" phase I'm in right now, it sure sets up a STEEP learning curve.

(4) Lag with missile weapons is a very bad thing, and lag should be internationally outlawed. I'd like the United Nations to get involved on this thing RIGHT away. When I've played online in the past with Jedi Knight, it was always easier since I had a strong visual marker (the length of a lightsaber) to help me make lag-based adjustments, thus far in INF I have yet to develop such a means to counteract lag with develping an effective lead time over such great distances, but I'm working on it.

(5) I've yet to play an EAS match. Can someone explain this to me, since in my offline experiences I find these matches to be the most stimulating? I really enjoy having a set of goals other than simply blasting the other guy first, and I'd imagine such matches against humans would be pretty amazing.

(6) My strategy in the meantime is to shadow, shadow, SHADOW the more experienced players in the community. So far, no one's complained, and I'm very grateful for it. The days of playing offline are now going to be a rarity, and I'm looking forward to seeing you guys in the matrix.

Yours!

Kyle

 

[geogob]

ah! it was you the Kyle I saw online last night...

good games man!

 

[Bushwack]

good to have you ONLINE finally kyle, i look forward to killing you much more

 

[Taque]

Good on you, going from bot to online takes balls. I remember when I first joined a server - it happened to be MUF on Bullecourt, I naded someone and shot another, then the match was over. The admin said, "What do you think you're doing?" and I saw "Connection failed." I was quite confused, but then just joined AFA.

Anyway, most experienced players will find your shadowing them flattering. However, if there's one thing NOT to do, it's to give them away in any fashion. That and following too close. Cover their butt and any angles that they might not see, and for god's sake, don't be too loud.

 

[AlmostAlive]

It's online that Infiltration shines, no doubt. I'll be seeing you on a server somewhere soon

 

[Arethusa]

Do any of you guys play with dialup? I'm just kind of curious if it's possible.

 

[Crowze]

Yeah, 64K ISDN.

 

[Dr.J]

yeah i used to a while back, hardly ever though... 56k in australia = you get owned bad because youve got 600 ping.

how that ive got 512 adsl, i can say that adsl in australia = me getting owned because i suck .

 

[(SDS)benmcl]

I am on dialup actually worse then 56K because the best I can do is 26,400 which gives me about a 275-300 ping if less then 16 players on the server. I do have some problems with lag spikes. Occasionaly I will do the teleportation thing and when I do I leave.

For me try to avoid CB, and yes you can snipe or shoot at targets at medium to long range and hit. I develped into a player that tries to support the others, providing cover fire, pining the bad guys, feinting a flank move by shooting down a likely avenue of attack while the team moves around, that sort of thing.

Although I am not that good of a player i do have a lot of fun, when I find time to play.

 

[Bushwack]

i played INF almost excluseively on dialup until a few months ago, from the days of 2.70

 

[Kyle Kellahshehskee]

Yup, that WAS me, & the advice you gave is...

Thank you for the warm welcomes.

"Yes," gentlemen, that WAS me you slaughtered the night before. lol Although I do have to admit that I got about 4 kills in that I'm actually proud of. The other players I nailed were more out of dumb luck or that I mopped up when colleagues either moved elsewhere or were killed. The four "proud" moments are ones were my graft and guile were deliberate, preplanned, and more importantly, successful. Needless to say I hope to have more of these bragging moments than moments where I'm shivved in the buttocks.

Nevertheless, the mopping up is important too, so maybe I shouldn't be too hard on myself. Honestly though, watching guys like Asmodeus, Bushwhack, Harm, and Vlad at work is just overwhelming at times. The rest of you have a lot to learn from these guys.

The "open door" and advice in regards to shadowing vets is warmly received. Thank you. I'm happy that they're flattered by my low level activity. Today I extensively shadowed with the UMC, and my socks were knocked off by their teamwork.

No matter the team I'm on, I'm planning on covering areas that they're not scanning, and to help reduce the odds of blowing a team member's position, I won't fire unless (1) fired upon, (2) the team member I'm shadowing opens up, (3) I have a clear shot on an enemy, and (4) team numbers are low enough where I'm pretty much on my own. Just remember fellas, there's nothing more dangerous than a cornered minx!

There's a number of things I have to get used to however, such as (1) 90% of the time players "skate" around instead of walking/jogging, (2) the amount of animation that takes place is greatly reduced, and (3) spectating a player makes me want to hurl sometimes, just because of the clausterphobic positioning of the camera, and how suddenly their body moves.

It'd be a GREAT learning tool if a mut was made where an "Apprentice Cam" mode was available for training purposes. Players designated as being new to the game would have a degree of control over the camera angle when spectating a team member. Such trainees could NOT communicate, but only watch as their cameras could "orbit" around the ally's body, allowing the trainee to contemplate more fully why the ally is doing whatever it is he's doing. I'd LOVE a tool like this.

See you on the fields.

 

[Lt.]

I play on a 56k with a cheap ISP (8 bucks a month, a strong indicator of how much thruput they give me ) and usually have a ping around 250-300.

I can drop people at long ranges and pull of CQB well, with very little lag.


...although as of late Ive been trying to establish a connection to INF Germany thru my proxy server, and managed to drive my ping up to an average of 2,800-3,000 (with spikes in excess of 20,000 ). but that was just because of poorly configured routing on my side.

playing on dialup totally works.

 

[MP_Lord_Kee]

Good to hear you got online Kyle, hope to see you on a server soon.

Inf is the only game I have played that when you get owned, gutted with a knife or simply get killed several rounds in a row...and I still love every moment of it.

//Kee

 

[Taque]

Kee, you're a glutton for punishment. Anyway, free ghosting I find is usually the best way for a new player to learn the ropes, but it's been disabled (for some reason) on both the SG and GD servers. As for the teamwork, I'd suggest getting TeamSpeak and loading it up to voice chat with the other players. If you see good teamwork between players who aren't chatting ingame very much, it's likely due to this.

Of course, players who've played with each other an insane amount will just naturally do this type of teamwork, but TS is a good tool. Oh, and as a little plug, just because you're playing online doesn't mean that you can't go to the shooting range anymore. If you plan on continuing to aid the veteran players, sometimes the best tool is a M203 or HK69.

 

[Vega-don]

enjoy online gaming , its like a drug ; dont be scared of anything, its just for fun, try weapons, tactics, claymores, ect

i think i saw you on a server

 

[NoFate]

I saw ya on last night too and wondered if it was you. I think I played INF offline for 5 or 6 months before I finally got the huevos up to try online play. And I had dialup when I started too so it can be done. Ben is dead on there...on dialup, you make a much better support player than assault. Learn the grenade launchers well.

- NF

 

[asmodeus]

you'Re playing good allready, keep it up

 

[zeep]

I expected at least 8 paragraphs when i saw the title and the poster of this thread.
Anyway, i dislike the back-cam like most i guess but it's better than people ghosting.

 

[Kyle Kellahshehskee]

Thanks for the encouragement and feedback guys.

I had some good results last night working with Vlad. We were playing on the Stacks map, with a 2 on 2 and/or a 2 on 3 scenario and I actually feel like I made some competent moves.

My favorite one happened on the long second story hallway. I was near the right side entrance to the offices when a grenade was tossed my way. I sprinted into the office where the enemy was and dispatched him with the AKMSU before he had his weapon out to bear on me. Heart was in my throat, but it worked. A tactic I'll be more mindful of using in the future.

And I had only 2 tks last night. A substantial improvement from my average of 5 for the last several nights.

I think I'd develop my skills more quickly in smaller matches simply because it gives me a little extra time to think about cover, concealment and covering my buddy's back while being more mindful of the blind spots that are still present.

Plus I hope to have Team Speak up soon, although I'm going to feel goofy using it. It'd be easier if my wife wasn't around to hear me talking at a computer screen.

See you online!

 

[dive]

Good to see you on the servers, Kyle.

Rushing a nader is a great tactic, one of my favorites.

Check 6! Check 6! Check 6!

Another key is mobility. Most people have been playing INF a while, and know the maps fairly well. Often, I do not. (So many new maps!) I try to compensate for this by working my way behind the enemy. Sometimes this results in me just wandering around and not seeing anyone, but on smaller maps it works quite well (Peru, Bellfast, SKTactics) Something that has worked for me, and might be worth trying yourself. Just a thought.

Oh, and if you don't mind the stamina hit, carry along some way to lob 40mms. Be it HK69 or M203, those little white eggs of death are incredibly useful once you learn to launch them properly. It takes practice, which you can do in offline mode. But that's not as much fun, even if you do get plastered a lot while learning

Glad to see you're enjoying it!