Guidelines for Coop Missions (Long Rant)

Newbie Joined: Feb 28, 2004 Posts: 4 Location: USA

Coops are for everyone of all skill levels. This does not mean that they are free-for-alls.

Unless I'm mistaken, "Coop" is short for cooperative mission. This means unified actions towards unified goals for each team.

Here's my observations and recommendations:

The lead position of any flight is just that--A LEAD POSITION. The leader of a flight has these goals to guide him/her:

1. Accomplish mission
2. Make sure as many wingmen as possible survive
3. Ensure their own survival

If I had a nickel for everytime I've played catch-the-leader for the first half of a coop, I'd be retired. Flight Leads need to wait on the rest of their flight and form up before flying off to kill bad guys. If someone falls behind enroute, then slow the flight down. If you don't want to wait for the rest of the flight THEN DON'T TAKE A LEAD POSITION. Grab that last slot and go fly to mars if that's what you want to do.

Someone has gone to the trouble of creating the mission you are flying. Everyone in the flight has geared up with appropriate fuel and ammo for their role in the engagement. Flight Lead should know the mission for his flight and follow it. If you don't want to follow the mission THEN DON'T TAKE A LEAD POSITION. Again, take the last slot and fly wherever your heart desires. On several missions, myself and other pilots have followed some numbskull out into oblivion. Once he has got the entire flight completely lost, he bails on the game. Makes me want to take up grinding my teeth at night.

If you notice that someone on your team is following you around, it means they are trying to wing for you. Acknowledge their efforts and reciprocate when possible. If you don't want a wing, get on comms and type him/her a note to please find another lead. They are doing you an honor. Treat it as such. Wait for them if they fall behind and keep an eye on them. Usually, the even slots in a flight are leads and the odd slots are wingmen. If you don't want to take responsibility for other pilots, TAKE AN ODD SLOT (the lower on the totem pole, the better).

Whenever possible, leave a space between you and other pilots in your flight when selecting aircraft. This will give them an AI plane to command during the mission.

Host, if someone crashes on take off please don't restart the mission. The war didn't stop and go back everytime someone crashed on take off. It takes a painfully long amount of time to get a mission launched. To put everyone through a restart because your buddy can't get it up is RUDE.

Host, check that all players are finished before ending a mission. If you don't want to cycle through the teams then simply get on comms and ask if everyone is finished. If you can't handle staying for the rest of the players THEN DON'T HOST.

Best for Last:

When you observe a team mate giving a bad guy hell, resist that urge to pounce in on his kill. Nothing is more infuriating than wittling down an enemy and then having some turd from your own team steal your kill now that he's wounded and leaking gas. WINNERS take a cover position over their team mates who are in the saddle. They watch for other aircraft that might get into the fight. You can keep an eye on the situation and if your buddy's bogie turns the tables or if your team mate has obviously disengaged, then you can get in there and kick some butt. Not everyone is an ace and some pilots are green so it may take them some time to get the kill. BUT IT IS THEIR KILL until they disengage or come under fire.

On a similar note, If a plane is belching black smoke or flames IT IS GOING TO DIE! This means that SOMEONE ELSE HAS KILLED IT! Shooting at these cripples to ring up some points is the worst kind of sniveling theivery imagineable and I encourage EVERYONE who witnesses this act to admonish the perp. If yer in a partcularly bad mood and it was your kill that they stole, why not just go ahead and shoot THEM down? It's worth the negative score to teach them a lesson.

There, the tirade has ended. If anyone actually read to this point, I thank you for your attention. Sorry for the tone but I'm frustrated. These points seem pretty basic to me but at least one of them is violated in almost every coop that I've been in.

Post Newbie Joined: Jun 22, 2003 Posts: 6 Location: Canada

Excellent speech! Same for dogfight servers. ie :smoke chasers, or the fly in your sights teamates that think they are "helping".