MAG

[patsu]

Agree on every point !

4th, mine as well buy mines! Easy EASY points, set these mines correctly at your fargo point and watch your points and kills rocket up. It's the easist points you can get as you are out of harms way and since you place these near your fargo location you get double the points. This is also a good indication that someone or a group is near that objective. If you see that you killed someone using those mines be prepared to hear the siren go off that your objective is being taken. These are also good to place in locations to help keep you safe. If your in a location that requires stairs to get to you placing one of these charges will protect and warn you.

Yes ! Getting Claymore kills at the game objective is satisfying because you know for sure that you have helped the team.

5th, I mentioned athleticsm before and one of the nice things about obtaining the health bonus is that you also sunk some points into your recovery time and sprint time. This will allow you to wear heavier armor if needed without feeling like a tank. Running longer, with heavier armor, increased health and grenade resistance means you can put yourself at a higher risk..outlast many opponents and revive team mates while taking fire.

That's why I am trying to get the increased health first before my personal weapon upgrade (Want to spend on a 4x scope for sniping).

6th, Gas isn't always a good thing to throw! Please warn your team mates before throwing gas at an objective. Nothing is worse then having a clear objective free of your opponent and trying to secure the objective before you die from Gas that was thrown without need. Having a lot of health, armor and everything else doesn't stop you from becoming weak quickly because your sucking gas. Don't make your opponents job easier by weaking your team mates.

I am still experimenting everywhere

On Sabotage maps, the best cases I found are: Sealing enemies away from Valor Objective C, and dispersing a coordinated group of tough enemies anywhere. The area outside Raven Objective A supply deploy is good to use too. I've seen enemies used it on Raven effectively on the platform above Objective A.

8th, Snipers are not useless...sometimes! If your team is ahead of you securing an objective dont camp back at spawn! If your team mates keep dying by the same sniper ask them where they are, you can get a kill and save your team mates at the same time! Your focus as a sniper should be support, that is what a sniper does. You don't hear about snipers being rambos because that is not what they are trained for. 1 shot, 1 kill. You protect your team mates from other snipers and threats they cannot see, if your team is 100 yards in front of you what good are you to them with a enemy sniper 100 yards ahead of them!

Yes, I think support is very important, especially when our troops are outnumbered, or lack short range weapons (like shotgun) compared to the enemies. Sometimes on Valor Sabotage Map, the enemies will run all the way to our area (right after the drop) and terrorize our new spawns, or lock down a route. Having the ability to gas them out of their trap, rocket them in bulk, and snipe individuals off is important (and fun !).

 

[nightshade]

Hot Damn ! The shotgun is so powerful & has a nice range too !!
I just re-speced my character so that I could use the shotgun lol

 

[patsu]

I know ! Was on the receiving end twice.

I don't have money to spend on shotgun. So I used the RPG as a substitute.

MAG gimped the splash damage so you can't abuse it too much, but it helps to prevent the target from getting revived. Otherwise, a group of enemies with shotguns can be a headache.

 

[obonicus]

On medic, you can skip 'regular' resurrection and get improved healing for 3 points. That plus improved resurrection is the way to be a proper medic. Interestingly, though, you get fewer points that way, since you don't get to heal up your friends as well.

 

[patsu]

What does improved resurrection do ? When I was grenaded or rocketed, the game sent me straight to the respawn screen. ^_^

 

[Cornsnake]

What does improved resurrection do ? When I am grenaded or rocketed, the game sent me straight to the respawn screen. ^_^

Your revived with 100 health instead of 50.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Can you grenade your own teammates? If so, couldn't you all have this skill in a team and start the round killing and ressing them, so starting with double health?

 

[patsu]

Ha ha you can't have double health.

Yes, you can kill your teammates the same way you send your enemies to their makers.

EDIT: Occasionally, a friendly or even myself would step on my own Claymore.

 

[obonicus]

It takes twice as much damage, though, and I don't think you get points for rezzing someone you TK'd.

 

[nightshade]

^ You get points for resurrecting even the person you TKed...I remember TKing a guy by mistake cause he ran in my line of fire so it was -5xp then I resurrected him to get +10xp

 

[obonicus]

Yeah, but I've rezzed people and gotten nothing from it. I think there's more to it.

 

[Dregun]

It could be based on "Last hit", maybe the game recognizes you took off all but the last HP and an enemy took off the rest allowing you to get xp by rezzing. OR perhaps its the opposite way where you took off the last xp by 1 shot and therefore it is more forgiving and allows you to get rez xp. I have noticed this phenomenon myself and haven't payed enough attention to figure it out...maybe I'll rack up some TK's to find out!

 

[patsu]

Finally got my health upgrade. Now for my main weapon !

Zipper is starting to release tips and video on the game modes:
* Sabotage: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/02/mag-developer-tips-sabotage/
* Suppression: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/02/mag-developer-tips-suppression/

I also found 4 MAG videos (one for each game mode) on PSN. Don't know if they are the same as the ones on the official blog.

EDIT: Got my 4x scope tonight too. ^_^

 

[JPT]

Yesterday I had serious lag playing both dom and aqu, one of the games was so bad I had to quit, with people jumping ten meters at the time from left to right.

 

[patsu]

I had some lag in 1-2 games the night before on Sabotage. The number of online players didn't really jump, so don't know what's up with that.

Continue from the above list, MAG Acquisition video on the PS3 blog:
* http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/02/mag-developer-tips-acquisition/


@_@ Have bad dreams seeing "+N XPs" everywhere. I need to dial down my exposure to MAG. Perhaps Bioshock 2 will help. Can't wait to see and test the new rifles though. I should be able to get one soon.

 

[patsu]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/10/mag-designed-to-be-a-platform-balancing-patches-coming-soon/

When asked about ongoing support for the title, Van Slyke responded that the developer won't let the game go stale -- in fact, he explained that Zipper sees MAG as a platform on which new content can be added in the future.

Van Slyke explained, "we made a big investment, we had a lot of learning, we built a lot of tech, and we have this awesome multiplayer platform that we can build upon and add new gametypes to." He later added, "the possibilities are endless for us, and in many ways, even though we just released the game, looking forward for us is super exciting, knowing what we can do with the engine we have today."

The producer also addressed concerns many players have had with balancing issues -- particularly that the ragtag S.V.E.R. faction is far too overpowered. "It's something we're definitely aware of, and we've already got a number of fixes in the pipe. We're definitely committed to making sure all the maps, factions and gear is perfectly balanced."

 

[Cornsnake]

Playing with random strangers is really starting to get annoying. I tell them not to drive the APC in between 2 bunkers before the turrets are down, they do it anyway and get destroyed. I tell them not to move the APC I've placed as a roadblock, a minute later it's gone. I tell them to take the APC back to the bunker, no they prefer to walk all the way back.

Zipper is still far to slow at properly explaining this game.

 

[patsu]

I wonder how it will work out if they give OIC authority to lock down combat behaviour and state (e.g., Don't %&*($& move my car !).


I have been a quiet sniper for the past 2 days, so I have less run-in against frustrating group behavior for the most part. But a teammate literally yelled at me last night: "Sniper !!! you're not shooting at the right enemies !".

Turns out that I was well hidden (for self preservation) and firing at the enemies at the mission objective and tower(s). It's the totally wrong strategy. I should be firing at the chaps holding my troops up even if they are visually blocked from my safe location. I changed my approach to walk-n-snipe later. It does put me considerably in harms way, but I think I make myself more useful that way. Most enemies will come after my safe location after some time anyway, so being a mobile sniper has its advantages. Sometimes we'd have 2 snipers covering each other's location, I think that's a good approach too. I hope to evolve this walk-n-snipe tactic. I have increased health to help me survive a shoot out better.



I also encountered a squeaky voice teammate last night (exactly like the Alpha Dog in Up). He got kicked while the game was counting down to start. It's a shame coz I'd love to hear his shrieking commands amidst all the mayhem ("Charge !!1!!!").


Damn the Valors, they are indeed getting better. Besides beating us under 5 minutes sometimes, now they throw chemical grenades at us in their base too. ^_^

 

[patsu]

... and last one to round out the series:
Domination: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/02/mag-developer-tips-domination/

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Played MAG a bit on Tuesday. I can see the appeal. Got a few sniper kills and such myself, playing Valor in defense on a friend's account. Made some use of terrain, taking a bellfrey position towards the latter part of a match. Not sure if I can make the transition from U2 though. The lack of cover and smooth vertical terrain traversal made it pretty cumbersome. Hiding behind cover and not being able to poke over and take shots is plain wrong! I also didn't like the grenade mechanics. The cheap instant-drop of U2 is a pleasant ommission, but I couldn't arm and fire a grenade in the thick of battle.

I'm also not sure how the massive forces really affects the game. We were defending A and B, only there was a clear division between the two battles. Whatever was going on in B was no concern to me. In terms of game action, the number of players surely isn't as important as the player:map density and respawn speed? A small map with 16 players will have more encounters than a huge map with 256. I guess MAG can add more hazards, with a few players on sniper duty still leaving a defensive force, whereas in a smaller game, the sniping players would mean less troopers. But if respawns are close and fast enough, the trooper force will still seem heavy. I also suppose you could have an army actually organise itself into a full rush. If all 32 of the opposition approached the same one objective, they'd have more chance of capturing it if the defensive force are split between the two.

All that said, I wouldn't mind something new to U2. I've pretty much got as far as is worth anything. Games need more progress options. MAG's levelling and points would offer that.