Squad Leader Archive

This is a great idea!

In my experience raid-leading in other games I've noticed that a ton of time is lost, and a lot of stress and frustration is generated for raid leaders, when people are bombing chat with the same two or three questions again and again.

I've tried various methods to get that information out ahead of time or make it accessible to them but I haven't seen many take advantage of it and still ask dumb questions even when they can easily get the answers themselves. Maybe this method will work better... I'm looking forward to trying it. Thanks for the tip.

Great idea!

I always do this over GroupChat and it takes forever.

Email for sure!

In an effot to make all us budding Squad Leaders as effective as possible (well, except those Rebel scum of course) I submit this.

Learn to load and set up macros by the command line. There are plenty of good posts on other sites, and this one, on how to do this. Or you can even use the macro editor in the action window itself, but by custom creating them in the text editor you can have macros without attaching them to a hotkey. Then you can load and call them with typed slash commands. Why?

I plan on writing macros that actually set all variables for various type gorups I am in. If we are PvE hunting, non faction, I will then type /grppve and Voila! all my gorup settings will set themsleves, and even announce to the gorup what those settings are. If it is PvP I will type /grppvp and Bam! there it is.

I plan on having these pre-made and redy to get the gorup set up quickly....

/grppve ..... this is for PvE pickup groups

/grppvp .... yup, this is for battling other players

/grpbtlg .... this one is for battle ground specific groups

/grpfac .... this one is for group faction hunting

Now the nice thing is, you can then switch these group types on the fly by typing the other group command if you set them up correctly. That means no open toggles, but explicit commands being used for group settings. It should set, and then announce to the gorup if loot split is on, if auto loot is on, if loot messages are on, etc......

Hope this helps others. I am sure my groups will learn to love this.

I find myself the leader of a lot of pickup groups, so I am pretty much always with someone I don't know, which means I don't know what to expect from them, and more importantly, they don't know what to expect from me. So what I did was typed out an e-mail that basically said,

"OK, we are going to do things like this:

1. There will be a mission order.

2.There will be a loot/harvest order.

3. There will be a designated warning shotter/puller.

4. Yada yada"

The rest of the email explains what a puller and warning shotter is, yada yada, basically describes the different jobs everyone has. I sent the e-mail to myself and whenever I lead a group, I forward it to everyone in the group. I wait until everyone has read it, then ask if there are any questions. If there are not, I assign jobs, ask if anyone needs to make one last stop, then we roll. I have found that people are waaay more organized and are generally more efficient if they have something they can fall back on whever they want, and not have to ask a question every single time. Try it out and see how it works for you.

I wrote up my Squad SOP emails last night in game, but do to Starsider's instability, didn't get around to using them. (Yes, emails - I ran into the character limit for a single email, so it took me two).

I also wrote out the same SOP and posted it on the VR website so the people I'm planning to work with tonight could get an advanced look. I'm crossposting here for comments/critques. Any input is welcome!

=============================================================================

This is the in depth version of the SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) that I send out to my groups via in-game email.

This is a roleplaying group. Occasional OOC comments about game mechanics may be necessary, but you should strive to remain in-character at all times.

There will be a loot/harvest/camp order. Many people need the experience and resources gained by performing these scout related tasks, and the only fair way to handle this is to take turns. Generally, I will the responsibility of maintaining this rotation to another group member.

Stand your ground. If you are being attacked by the enemy (in melee), stand your ground. Medics can't heal you if you're running away. Brawlers can't hit the creature at all if they're moving. Stand still, attack with posture-down attacks if possible (lunge, suppressive fire, etc), and let the group come to your aid.

Roles and Responsibilities
You may be assigned one or more of the following roles in the group. Some of the duties required may not maximize your individual experience in each fight, but keeping to your assigned responsibilities will significantly enhance the efficiency of the group and greatly improve the odds that everyone survives an encounter. We will occasionally rotate these duties to give everyone the opportunity to learn each of them, and to more evenly spread the experience throughout the group.

Puller: [Requires Marksman] It is the responsibility of the puller to initiate combat with the enemy. The puller selects a target and engages when the group is ready. If you are not the puller, do not start fights.

Crowd Control: [Requires Warning Shot] If you are assigned to crowd control, it is your responsibility to drive off any additional enemies that may wish to join the fight. The most effective way to accomplish this is to fire one warning shot, and then immediately stop attacking that creature - if the shot is effective, they will immediately turn away, and you can join the fight against the primary target. If it's not effective, you must continue to hold the attention of the creature until the group can come to your assistance. Additional warning shots or snare/root traps are good choices.

Suppression: [Requires Lunge, Suppressive Fire, or other posture changing attack] If you are assigned to suppression, it is your responsibility to keep the enemy's head down. Do this by performing a posture-down special move every 3-4 attacks. Keeping the enemy down prevents him from moving, often prevents him from attacking, and greatly increases melee damage dealt by brawlers.

Trapper: [Requires Trapping] If you are a trapper, you are responsible for lowering the enemies defenses through the use of traps or other combat maneuvers.

Tank: [Requires intestinal fortitude] If you are the tank, it is your responsibility to take hits from the enemy. Typically the tank will be a brawler, who needs to stand next to the enemy to be effective anyway. Generally, the tank doesn't have a much greater capability to take damage than anyone else (although melee defense and armor can help); however, by attempting to get the enemy focused on one target, it is much easier for medics to put their stimpacks in the right arm. As a tank, your first priority is to draw the creature's attention off the puller and onto yourself, through the use of taunts and high damage attacks.

Medic: [Requires Medic] As a medic, it is your responsibility to keep everyone alive!

/sigh Edit:

There will be a loot/harvest/camp order. Many people need the experience and resources gained by performing these scout related tasks, and the only fair way to handle this is to take turns. Generally, I will delegate the responsibility of maintaining this rotation to another group member.