Basic Grouping INFO!!

[Candide]

Ok, last night we had a rough run at first hunting so wanna just explain
things

First thing first, if you put your mouse over your radar, a plus and minus
sign will appear. Click the minus 1 time, to set you to 128meters. See,
Red dots are agro, yellow are USUALLY not agro (altho some npc's, especialy
mission ones, will attack if you get close to their lair). Agro can occur
if you get within 64meters. If your radar is at 64, you see it the same
time it sees you...not good 256 isn't too good, as it doesn't seem to
update the edges well, and it makes the stuff closer to you hard to see. do
what ya like, but 128 is the minimum.

Second, Caps in channel. Those who haven't played a lot in daoc or large
group things...DON'T TAKE CAPS PERSONALLY. Yes, most of the time it means
yelling, however when playing a graphical game with a small text box, it is
very difficult to get people's attention. So, the general rule of thumb
when leading IS TO TALK IN ALL CAPS ANYTHING IMPORTANT I HATE it. Yet,
it works. I had tons of trouble leading on palo until Dwayne/Thili/Gundorf
made me start doing it. And it made a huge difference. I'll also mix up
lines to get color changes, anything to get attention if something is going
on.

The above said, please when fighting keep an eye on the chat channel, do not
stay in the combat tab without adding the spatial and chat and group chat
channels to it. If we get sudden agro, the leader will call out what to do,
if nothing is said...well (god I hate saying this but...) stay on target

This is going to be long, but I'm going to go through various scenarios.
Realize we are all learning this game still. Yeah I played in beta, but I
purposefully didn't play hardcore, as I didn't wanna get tired of it
quickly. We are already ahead of where I was there (of course I got to the
point 3 times thanks to char wipes). So what I say here may change, heck
it may be wrong, but for now it works. We can discuss any of these at any
times. Also keep in mind I WILL NOT EXPLOIT ANYTHING. I won't group up,
but everyone stay out of the group to get more xp. It's listed as a bug and
will get fixed. In beta there was no comparison, groups were the way to go.
Solo was still viable, about 1/4 the speed.

Ok, typically this is what happens. We have a designated "first shot" kind
of like the puller. I wont say puller cuz often everyone is right beside
the puller. So i'll call him the first. Keep in mind many of us are on the
phone. If there is enough interest and headsets, we can look at doing
ventrilo. Anyways, usualy the first is mosthula or daoiid. You don't shoot
until they do. Also, unless we are doing the "pull to spot", always go
prone before you shoot. Well, at least the first person to fire needs to be
prone, as it confuses the target and he wont charge for around 3 shots. If
the first goes afk, the leader will pick a new first. Don't randomly pull
cuz you want to. I WILL boot you, getting the group wiped cuz people were
afk isn't funny to me. Patience grasshopper

Now, I will almost always call out the target...right most this, or ill
specify by "close that". When in doubt you have 2 options. One, we will
try to set an assister. This is not DAoC assit, but a MUD assist command.
It will only work if the target you assist is in combat, and it will PUT YOU
IN COMBAT. Daoiid is a great target. I am a terrible one, mosthula is a
terrible one, hyla is a terrible one. I dont always fight because I'm
healing, mosthula is our official "cracker" (treaten/warning shot, only 1 or
2 crackers per group please, otherwise dont use it) hyla is our tank.
Again, switching targets is difficult, so we try to stay on the initial
target. There is a command called /combattarget that switches who you are
fighting. Or you can peace/retarget/reattack.

The other way is to simply shoot the thing whose bars are getting hurt. It
isn't too hard, follow the red laser bolts. Tab works great, and we try to
take the first tab target, but it doesn't always work out. When in doubt,
take your time to retarget. Make sure you are on the correct one.

Heals. I can heal, tygra can heal, zultar can heal. Rok can too i think.
DON'T RUN EVER in a group. You run, we can't heal, im not chasing you and
will let you die, you will learn that way Now, that said, if you aren't
a tank and are taking damage, you can take a few steps away, just outside of
the cluster of players (like, a matter of feet, or an inch on screen). A
lot of times the monster won't switch targets even with taunts if the first
one is still there, however they wont bother to chase you if there are new
targets right next to it. That is fine. I've been a healer in uo and daoc
and let me tellyou, this ticks off the healer more than anything, because he
feels like a total waste when people don't let him do his job.

Ok this is long enough, ill send a follow up after it gets through.

[Candide]

Ok, where to start.

First, don't get scared of monsters charging you. If they are yellow and a
creature, ignore it. It is just trying to chase you off. really neat lil
bit of AI.

Also, unless it is a mission target, DONT ATTACK THE LAIRS yet. Some will
spawn 5-6 things to defend it. Time to make a corpse run usualy Also,
we WANT some of the to remain, so we can harvest hide/bone. Now, sometimes
we will make it very clear we are trying to draw more spawn out of a spot,
we will have ONE PERSON shoot it, who is paying a lot of attention to what
is going on, ready to click peace asap.

Man got interrupted and ran out of steam...hehe.

The biggest thing is to just pay attention, watch the chat, dont bother with
combat spam. You don't need to see you hit for X damage as much as you need
to see me yelling RUNNNN hehe.

Never run unless the leader or first yells RUN. We will spam it as much as
possible.

When we are doing missions, don't let me pass one without saying so. We try
to do them in a strip....usualy west to east. We go to further west, then
work east, for our south and north missions. righ tnow. We will mix up
where we go when we have new weapons, north missions were kicking our butts
earlier.

Finally...YOU DONT NEED ME. This happens in every game, you have a few
people willing to lead, and everyone else just stands around with out them.
Let's not do that in this game. Everyone get in pairs, go hunt together, do
whatever. No need to solo. On the other hand, sometimes you just wanna solo
a bit, and thats cool too. This game has a huge and compeling social aspect
which I am enjoying. I don't wanna spend every minute doing combat xp. On
week nights, ill do one run max. Weekends we will have to see. Otherwise
im going to be healing or crafting and just chatting.

Once we get some better weapons and a bit more stable with the game, we can
hit other planets, dungeons, and the pvp battlefields. Should be a lot of
fun.

For now, if you aren't a rebel, get the 200 points to be one. We didn't
realize that EVERY mission we got once we join would prevent you from
helping, we thought just a few. Not a biggie, we will work through it

[Candide]

Oh I thought of more...

Damage types. Again, any 1 of the 3 bars will kill the creature. So given
the group lay out, everyone target the same pool if possible. A legshot
will ONLY hit action, yet an overcharge of fullauto will randomly hit one of
the 3. There are six targets...2 legs for action, 2 arms and chest for
health, head for mind. So you have a 50% chance to hit health, 33% to hit
action, and 17% chance to hit mind. If we can focus this onto 100% for a
pool, we are doing good. If it is a super mixed group, then do your random
target attacks.

Also, keep in mind the following...
carbine and polearm target action
rifle and 2h weapons target mind
pistol and 1h weapons target health.

Rifle/2h is best in pvp, as you can't heal mind. Also, mind tends to be the
smallest pool. but it shoots slower.
Carbine/polearm are great all around skills, action is usualy 2nd lowest.
Health is nearly always largest, so pistol/1h melee is worst.

[Mourningblade]

just out of curiosity,

I'm slowly working on my unarmed combat (for smuggler), what pool does this target??

It seems to randomly target all three.

[Candide]

Thats the downside to unarmed, at least preTK artist...

See, all weapons randomly hit a pool, but those weapons I listed above have special attacks in the base lines that target specific pools...leg shot, head shot, etc. Unarmed doesn't have these. Now, the advanced unarmed get a few I believe, but not sure.