INS WAR II, suggestions, comments, typos

[ZenPhire]

Post here if you have any suggestions or comments regarding WAR II and the intro post. (this is to kep the main topic from becoming cluttered.

INS WAR II
Brought to you by LMC.
===================================================

The second INS WAR is here! The first season was very successful and a real blast! The insurgents finally claimed victory after pressing the attack at the Marine main base Karam. After 5 weeks of intense battle the first INS WAR is complete and we are geared up and ready to present to you INS WAR II, with new features and a more realistic format to increase immersion and teamwork! 8 custom maps were added, a realistic weapons mod, WAR only HLstatsX, TS3 WAR VOIP server, and many more new features! Get in on the biggest Insurgency event yet!

The WAR begins 5/9/2010 @ 8pm EST (till 12pm EST or whenever there are less than 8 players).  It will continue every Sunday night until concluded!

Game Server: 208.167.247.171:27015
Server Password: war

TeamSpeak 3 Server: lmcpr.selfip.com
Port: 9987
Password: war


----------------------------------------
Special thanks to:
-|TDB|- NiK (A.K.A. - The Almighty)
For helping in conceptualizing war flow and strategy map flow. Testing weapons. And being part of the over-all conception of this event. You've been here and helped at every turn. We couldn't have done it without you!

-||ScK||- C@rnage
For spending hours testing the explosives settings for the weapons mod.

-|TDB|- Clan
For always showing up and helping to spread the word and promote this event. For being amazing team players, excellent examples of maturity, and for saving WAR in the beginning by providing a server when the LMC server was attacked. You are all close to our hearts.

=(eGO)= Burt Reynolds
for helping to spread the word among eGO members and promote this event. 
----------------------------------------

Read the complete post here:
http://www.lmcgaming.com/forums/index.php/topic,3880.0.html

[ZenPhire]

Please help me edit this before I post it on INS mod forums and such. All suggestions for edits and clarification are welcome. The rules and format will not be changed, but I certainly could use help communicating it all. =)

Also... do you think we should change the starting time to earlier? Say 7pm EST or earlier? Maybe even 6pm?!

Yes I know I need to finish the strategy map... that's only a rough draft of the layout until I finish the nice looking one with a legend.

Things I still need to do:
---Remember who else to thank in "Special Thanks to:"
---Make a map pack for download.
---WAR video trailer.
---Edited strategy map (to look all spiffy cool)
---??? (help me I know I'm missing stuff =P lol... or am I thinking of my wallet? hehe)
 

[SnakeShit]

Trenchfoot, really?  Replace that with Balkh (just remembered that the last point is uncapturable )

Otherwise I'll sit out any time it goes to that map.

I'm assuming there isn't a full changelog for the weapons mod, and thats why you are just linking to the main page.

[ZenPhire]

Trenchfoot, really?  Replace that with Balkh (just remembered that the last point is uncapturable )

Otherwise I'll sit out any time it goes to that map.

That's rather dramatic don't you think? It's a great map and will make for an INTENSE firefight in the war! Some of the best games I've had lately were on that map! Imagine it with a full ton of players and automatic fire overhead. It will be crazy intense! It's there to be a very heavy fire intense battle, less tactical and more just pure adrenaline.

I'm assuming there isn't a full changelog for the weapons mod, and thats why you are just linking to the main page.

That is correct, I'll write that up next.

[TDB NiK]

INS WAR II
Brought to you by LMC.

The second INS WAR is here! The first season was very successful and a real blast! The insurgents finally claimed victory after pressing the attack at the Marine main base Karam. After 5 weeks of intense battle the first INS WAR is complete and we are geared up and ready to present to you INS WAR II, with new features and a more realistic format to increase immersion and teamwork! 8 custom maps were added, a realistic weapons mod, WAR only HLstatsX, TS3 WAR VOIP server, and many more new features! Get in on the biggest Insurgency event!

The WAR begins 5/9/2010 @ 8pm EST (till 12pm EST or whenever there are less than 8 players).  It will continue every Sunday night until concluded!
Server: 208.167.247.171:27015
Server Password: war


Special thanks to:
-|TDB|- Nik  All Mighty!
For helping in conceptualizing war flow and strategy map flow. Testing weapons. And being part of the over-all conception of this event. You've been here and helped at every turn. We couldn't have done it without you!

-||ScK||- C@rnage
For spending hours testing the explosives settings for the weapons mod.

-|TDB|- clan
For always showing up and helping to spread the word and promote this event. For being amazing team players, excellent examples of maturity, and for saving WAR in the beginning by providing a server when the LMC server was attacked. You are all close to our hearts.

=(eGO)= Burt Reynolds
for helping to spread the word among eGO members and promote this event. 


Features:

Realistic strategy map!
The maps are connected realistically as they are geographically located in Iraq. The game begins with the Marines holding all the major cities when the insurgency begins and the insurgents start attacking the Marine held cities from their hidden bases. Marines fight to keep hold of the Iraqi cities, and maintain logistic routes from Al Basrah (the closest to the U.S. Carriers and logistical supplies) to Baghdad (the central staging point for the Marine forces and the Marine FOB).



Custom Maps!
8 new maps are now a part of INS WAR. After weeks of testing custom maps, the best (based on gameplay and realistic setting), most stable maps were selected to join the map list as Iraq cities and areas. Maps set in Afghanistan were removed: Karkar, Karam, Helmand, Takhar... but never fear, we will have an Afghanistan war campaign once the Iraq campaign is through.
ins_valley_mjr (as Kurdistan area, Iraq)
ins_veikko (as Alqosh, Iraq)
ins_trenchfoot (as Anah area, Iraq)
ins_karbala (as Karbala, Iraq)
ins_sandstorm (as Al Basrah, Iraq)
ins_diyala (as Diyala, Iraq)
ins_baqubah (as Baqubah, Iraq)
ins_shulah (as Shula, Iraq)

Victory conditions:
In order for the Insurgents to win, they only need to win 20 battles (rounds), or to hold Baghdad for three consecutive rounds; for the conflict to grow unpopular with U.S. citizens enough to pressure the U.S. Senate to withdraw from Iraq.
For the Marines to claim victory, they must discover and eliminate each of the hidden Insurgent Bases. Each Insurgent Base remains hidden until the Marine "Intelligence Points" are equal to the intel needed to reveal that base. The Marines gain one Intelligence Point for every victorious battle.

Combat:
Both team’s will take turns attacking enemy areas chosen by the commander. A team may attack an area only if it is connected to a friendly area. The Marines may only follow highways (the dark lines connecting the areas), whereas the Insurgents may follow any connection between areas (both dark and light lines). A team can keep attacking areas until they have lost a battle; at that time the other team’s turn begins. The victorious team takes control of the conflict area.

“---Have a sentence introducing ‘Insurgent Strike’ – ie. In between each turn an Insurgent Strike will take place, explained bellow.---“

New combat format: Insurgent Strike!
In between rounds of the WAR, the Insurgent team may ambush on any map. This fight is a very tactical limited reinforcements (3 or less waves) fight that will bring a high level of intensity and help to encourage more realistic combat as players must take care with their life. Victories during Insurgent Strike do not count towards victory conditions or intel, but if the Insurgents win, then their forces move into the area and they can then attack from that location.

Marine Supply Route:
The Marine supply route consists of the four areas colored blue on the map. It is the link between Al Basrah and Baghdad. If any one of these areas is taken by the Insurgents, the Marine team will suffer from a lack of supplies. LACK OF SUPPLIES: less ammo, less special weapon classes? "---insert sentence explaining the reductions/detriments---" Until the Marine team can restore the supply route, they will not be able to load out with the regular amount of weapons.

“---Maybe have the situation degrade with each turn that the Marines cannot regain control of the supply line? If so, then the reduction should not be large at start, as it will increase---“


WAR weapons mod! (for added realism and to encourage teamwork)
The classes were modified to be more realistic. (pistols were removed from most classes, more realistic Marine load-outs)
The 1911 pistol was added to the Engineer class (emulating the engineer/specialist buying a nice pistol from the states to take into combat with him and compliment his combat shotgun), as well as to the Insurgent Militant class (as a symbol of power to aid in commanding rookie Insurgents).
The weapons sway has been increased while moving to discourage run-and-gun tactics, and encourage teamwork.
Recoil was increased to encourage accurate fire and taking the time to get a good shot as opposed to simply peppering.
The damage modifiers for hit boxes were modified for more lethal bullets and more realistic damage. (a shot to the foot does less damage, a head shot is a kill, pelvic shot is a kill, and body is nearly always a kill)
The explosives were modified to more realistic values. (higher damage radiuses due to fragmentation)
For a full list of Changes:
www.lmcgaming.com

WAR TeamSpeak 3 Server! (You do not need a microphone to join us in TS, it is primarily there to organize each team into squads and allow your squad leader to issue tactical advice and orders without flooding the game voice chat.)
During WAR nights we will be hosting a dedicated TeamSpeak 3 VOIP server to manage team comms, it is strongly recommended to join during war and those in TS3 will have priority in the case of a full server. If the server is full, join the TS server and we will kick someone not in TS to make room for you. Further priority will be given to those with mics and those that communicate.
Server info:
Address: lmcpr.selfip.com
Port: 9987
Password: war
(The server will only be accessible with the password "war" on WAR nights, for the rest of the week the server functions as the LMC back-up TS3 server, and is password locked.)

Better organization for enhanced community interaction!
Because one of the main goals of this event is to allow the Insurgency Mod community a chance to play together tactically and in a very team-work oriented environment, and to interact and have fun together, clans with participants of 6 or more are asked to split between the teams so as not to stack and have a chance to play with others in the community. Furthermore, each week you may pick a new alliance to avoid getting burned-out of a certain faction. What's important is the teamwork, tactics, and fun! Team Commanders are elected each night, and squad leaders are chosen by the commander.

Battle reports!
After each week's battle (Sunday night), a detailed synopsis of the fighting will be posted for fans and fighters to have as mementos. Also, WAR Hero's will be announced (the players that achieve the greatest glory)!

===================================================
F.A.Q.s:

Who can participate?
Any and all mature players are invited (players who are there to play the game and not cause drama).

Do I need a microphone?
A microphone is highly recommended but not mandatory to play in the WAR. If you want to act as the team commander or as a squad leader though, a mic is needed.

Do I need sound?
YES! This event is about teamwork and teams are organized into squads, each led by a squad leader. You must be able to hear your squad leader or the commander (exceptions will be made for rare cases).

What if I want to just play but do my own thing, like a lone wolf?
This event is about teamwork, and if your commander allows it, then they might make an exception; but do not expect it. Expect to work with your squad and use teamwork and squad tactics to accomplish your goal.

====================================================
Tips, Tactics, and Strategies:

Because the weapon sway is increased while moving, you'll have an advantage when peeling with your squad (moving one at a time when advancing, like leap-frog). That way your squad mates can cover your advance with more accurate fire.

Explosives are more deadly, use them to clear buildings, or for shock when assaulting. When assaulting try to move quickly to avoid the enemy fragging your location, and try to keep a distance between you so as not to all get taken out by the same nade.

Marines have more smoke grenades now so it pays to utilize them during an assault.

If you are playing with the 1911 (or with the enemy pistol), keep in mind that you can not re-arm it at an ammo cache. So conserve your pistol ammo.

Insurgents have less ammo than the Marines, so a good strategy is to use guerilla tactics to secure a Marine weapon. 

On the strategy map level, Insurgents have 2 main strategies for the Battle fighting and two main strategies for the Strike fighting. For the Battle fighting, you can either push towards Baghdad for a fast win, or try to create a buffer to your main bases by capturing the adjacent territories in defense.  For the Strike fighting, you can either aim to disrupt the Marine paths of travel and/or logistics or punch holes in the enemy line to get to Baghdad sooner.

Just 'quote' me to get all the format correctly.

Ok, apart from some minor spelling revisions I added two new sections: "Combat" and "Marine Supply Route". Combat (for the lack of a better title) explains how each turn works. At the end you can see a quote in italics (thats just an addition I think you need to make). Marine Supply Route explains the .. well you know , it also has some thoughts in there that you should take into account and delete for the final draft.

Things I was confused about:
in Victory Conditions: "hold Baghdad for three consecutive rounds" - is that 3 Marine turns, 3 weeks, 3 battles?
Insurgent Strike: "In between rounds of the WAR": is that once a week, in between turns. If in between turns is there a Strike after the Insurgents' turn and then again after the Marines' turn (it should be once at most I believe)?
 
Generally I want to have the reader understand what I'm want to deliver concisely (mostly because I do a lot of engineering papers). I think how it is now is good, but I'll take a look at it again tomorrow when I'm not sleepy . I think after you edit up the few tricky spots it will be good to go on the ins forums! After that you can always edit it to make it better anyway.

And of coarse, thank you for the honorary position in the "Special thanks to" I spiced it up a bit as well

[TDB NiK]

BTW: good job on the description, I like it.

[SnakeShit]

I don't think it's dramatic at all - why play on a map I despise?

[TDB NiK]

Another thought: I think the INS Strike should not be able to target Baghdad or any of the supply line areas. It would be way too powerful in my opinion. You can describe it as - the supply lines are heavily defended and an INS Strike is impossible. Or maybe make it harder for the INS by adding a few reinforcements to the Marine side. Its up to you.

[ZenPhire]

Great additions NiK!!! I'll add all those edits thanks! =D

Or maybe make it harder for the INS by adding a few reinforcements to the Marine side. Its up to you.

That was what I had planned... I have custom IMC2 files for each map for the Strike/Ambush. The strike maps for the ones on the main supply route are much harder (the marines having more than twice the reinforcements that the Marines have), and Baghdad strike is crazy hard as kind of a push map almost with the INS starting at A, getting 2 waves per objective cap, while the Marines have a lot of emergency reinforcements (10).

So it's nearly impossible to take Baghdad by a Strike... but still doable if only by a twist of fate.

Plus when the INS have Baghdad, and are defending, they face a disadvantage as well --in reinforcements (half that of the Marines)-- and only emergency reinforcements (so they rely on protecting their commanders).

 I'm making the regular firefight maps will give the Marines an advantage also, in having one of the cap points already in Marine possession, but a disadvantage of a slightly slower spawn time. So they are in a more defensive role. And in the case of a tie, the Marines win. (there will be time limits to each round)

Karbala will be similar to Baghdad except that whomever holds it will have a large advantage in position, but the attackers will have the advantage of faster spawn time. I've tested this gameplay and it's really fun, it plays just like a push map except that the defenders have a chance to recapture points.

This split in play styles (the intense Battles and the tactical Strikes) should satisfy everyone and lend diversity of gameplay. The Strike maps will have a time limit as well to prevent camping, and so that people who died won't be waiting too long to play again (but even ADHD counterstrike players can wait for a new round, so I'm expecting people to accept it for the more tactical game-play). (5min limit for Strike mode? and 10-15min limit for Battle mode?)

I was also thinking of scripting the strategy time so that it's exactly 2 min on Battle mode and Exactly 1min on Strike mode... what do you think? Because a lot of the time we spend a LOT of time strategizing, and that's great, but with TS3 and the squad arrangement I think we will need less time.

[ZenPhire]

Operations write-up for organization:

Initialization: (est. time: 5 minutes)
-- Team players are given the chance to nominate themselves for the commander position. (10 seconds)
-- Team players then vote on who to elect as that night's commander. (15 seconds)
-- The commander gives the players a chance to arrange themselves into squads. (1 minute)
-- The commander then assigns each squad a squad leader (as a general rule, squad leaders must have a working microphone; in rare exceptions they may just have fast typing skills). (1 minute)
**There can be 4 squads maximum, and 2 squads minimum; each with a minimum of 2 players and a maximum of 6 players (maximum of 4 is preferred). **
-- Commander gives the squad leaders a brief moment to assess the talents and capabillities of their players. (2 minutes)

Per Round Tactical: (est. time: 2 minutes)
-- Squad leaders report their squad's abilities and preferred objective(s) to the commander. (30 seconds [5-10 seconds each])
-- The commander confers with the squad leaders on an appropriate strategy. Then the commander decides on a strategy and tasks each squad. (30 seconds)
-- The squad leaders are given a short amount of time to plan tactics for their squad's task(s). (1 minute)


Sound good? =)

[ZenPhire]

Complete WAR weapons mod change log:

Squad Changes:
Marine Special Weapons Squad = (Fireteam-A: Sergeant, Rifleman, Rifleman, Engineer/Specialist), (Fireteam-B: Sergeant, Grenadier, Support/LMG, Marksman)
Marine Rifleman Squad = (Fireteam-A: Sergeant, Rifleman, Rifleman, Engineer/Specialist), (Fireteam-B: Sergeant, Rifleman, Rifleman, Rifleman)
Insurgent Special Weapons Squad = (Fireteam-A: Militant, Rifleman, Rifleman, Sapper), (Fireteam-B: Militant, RPG-7, Support/LMG, Sniper)
Insurgent Rifleman Squad = (Fireteam-A: Militant, Rifleman, Rifleman, Sapper), (Fireteam-B: Militant, Rifleman, Rifleman, Rifleman)
Maps start with two special weapons squads as default. If a team is has no supply line to a base or FOB, they play with only one Special Weapons Squad.

Class Changes:
Marine Sergeant: Now carries 2 smoke grenades.
Marine Rifleman: removed m9 pistol, added 1 smoke grenade.
Marine Engineer/Specialist: now carries 6 frag grenade, 1911 pistol.
Marine Grenadier: removed m9 pistol, now carries 12 explosive rounds, carries 3 smokes (to simulate the smoke rounds for the 203).
Marine Support: removed m9 pistol, carries more ammunition.
Marine Marksman: added 1 frag grenade.
Insurgent Militant: 1911 pistol instead of Makarov, 2 smoke grenades.
Insurgent Rifleman: removed Makarov pistol, limited ammunition for AK47.
Insurgent Sapper: removed Makarov pistol, removed Smoke grenades, now carries 5 frag grenades.
Insurgent RPG-7: only 3 OG-7V rounds.
Insurgent Support: removed Makarov pistol, removed smoke grenade, added 1 frag grenade, carries more ammunition.
Insurgent Sniper: now carries 2 smoke grenades.

Weapon Changes:
General changes: increased weapon sway when moving (after moving you must wait for your sights to "settle", the more fatigued you are the longer it will take), increased recoil, increased damage multipliers.
L1A1: added automatic fire mode.
TOZ: reduced fire rate to simulate time to pump shotgun.
SKS: Increased semi-auto rate of fire.
Pistols: increased effective range to avoid the dissappearing bullets. Increased recoil.
Grenades: Increased damage radius to 15 meters (%50 increase)
m203: increased arming distance to a more realistic 22 meters, damage radius at 10 meters, lethal radius at 7 meters
RPG-7: set damage radii to more realistic vales (damage radius to 15 meters, lethal radius to 7 meters), added a safety range of 2 meters (just to avoid ppl accidentally blowing themselves --and their teammates-- up)

[ZenPhire]

why play on a map I despise?

But why do you despise it so? I think it's a great map.

[TDB NiK]

I was a bit confused by the part right after the map:

[[ The dark lines are the highways, and the grey lines are the side roads that only the Insurgents can travel on. Marines may travel on grey roads to attack an Insurgent main base (the red colored territories), if they currently control the adjacent territory. Insurgents may only attack territories adjacent to a main base they still control. Marines must have the required "Intelligence Points" to discover and attack an Insurgent main base (the required points are shown by the number next to each Insurgent main base). If an Insurgent main base has been destroyed (if the Marines were victorious on the map, capturing ALL objectives), then that territory is no longer existent and the Insurgents can no longer attack from it. There is a special Insurgent position that cannot be attacked/destroyed (represented by the red circle) that allows the Insurgents to attack Karbala (and possibly Samawah). This special position is to allow more options for the Insurgents when attacking and so that those maps see action besides just Strike fights (ambushes). ]]

First balded: I thought marines cannot travel on dirt roads - or is there supposed to be a dirt road connecting the INS bases to the map? The second sentence says that Insurgents can only attack areas that are immediately adjacent to their bases.

Second balded: it suggests that Insurgents can attack Karbala straight from the circle. Maybe re-word it to:

There is a special Insurgent position at the bottom left corner of the map (represented by the red circle). It  works as an Insurgent controlled position that cannot be attacked/destroyed. The Insurgents may attack the neighboring enemy area as they would usually. This special position is to allow more options for the Insurgents when attacking and so that those maps see action besides just Strike fights (ambushes).

[ZenPhire]

I made those changes. =) Thanks for the tip!

[ZenPhire]

Could you guys read the newest WAR update (found at the link below) and give me your input and whatnot? Quanto... how believable is the blurb? I know nothing about the military campaign in Iraq, so I just winged it. Any suggestions are welcome.

http://www.lmcgaming.com/forums/index.php/topic,3880.msg3714567.html#msg3714567

THANKS!

Aloha =)