MAG

[Terarrim]

For those finding MAG initally frustrating,,,

First of all I found every map on every game type frustrating at first.

Even the supression map is larger than most FPS's maps with a huge amount of obsticals etc.

Coupled with the obsticals/gemotry/walls/bunkers/sniper tower etc, you have the confusion of the character build and what works for you and what doesn't

A shotguners experiance is polar worlds appart from the snipers role. Never in a game have I found such a huge varity of play styles which are forced on you almost due to how the guns behave.

As a shotgunner your forced to find ways to flank, sneak, shock and awe stabbing shooting frenzy it makes you very aggressive in your face type of guy.

The 4x Scopped Assault Rifle and Sniper rifle in paricular makes you stay back out of the action picking peolpe off looking for targets of opportunity. The sniper rifle in particular is about patience and understanding both the maps and attacking/defending oppos movments.


I have played over 200 hours of MAG. I finally think I have all of Sabo down how they work and what to do when an enemy tries X for example.

I have a fair knowledge of Aquasition and Domination but I am still learning all the time even though I have been platoon leader and OIC multiple times.

I like playing sabotage for a brain break. Aquasition and Domination as squad leader/platoon leader and OIC is really indepth. I spend time looking at the overhead map as I usually use my rocket launcher to take out APC's for example. And call out tactical trends to my squad/platoon etc.

In some essences the game is simple you go and do whatever you need to do at the FRAGO points. However its really indepth tactics and sheer volume of whats going on can confuse and frustrate people.

All I can say that this game needs a time sink to really appreciate and love what the game is doing. And I think its better for this IMO.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Good squad leadership is hard to come by. Communiction needs to be more commonplace. Too many players haven't got headsets so you can't coordinate or get ffedback on what they're facing. Instructions are too vague. "They're on your left," does tell us who is being addressed. Online names are really poop for this. I can't pronounce most of them, and by the time I've addressed someone, whatever it was I needed to say is probably long past. Perhaps it'd be best to name people by squad and number, and show this in big, bold text each respawn to remind them who they are? Otherwise you can't send 4 up the right to clear out the enemy's cover while sending the other four to force their way up the stairs. Not that the squad leader can rely on a squad to follow instructions anyhow!

I also had a funky bug last night; I landed from a parachute drop and my controls were reversed! My friend reported he managed to parachute onto his PS3's reset button and the machine reset on landing! Hence aprachuting is bad news.

 

[Cornsnake]

Why on earth does this game go through a few days of frequent disconnects every time a new patch is released? I hate having to lose half an hour worth progress over and over again.

Edit: The game is also having freezing issues. Apparently if you are planting charges on an objective and are shot down, your game with freeze if your resuscitated. So don't resuscitate anyone too close to the objective, and bleed out yourself if it happens to you.

 

[Terarrim]

Good squad leadership is hard to come by. Communiction needs to be more commonplace. Too many players haven't got headsets so you can't coordinate or get ffedback on what they're facing. Instructions are too vague. "They're on your left," does tell us who is being addressed. Online names are really poop for this. I can't pronounce most of them, and by the time I've addressed someone, whatever it was I needed to say is probably long past. Perhaps it'd be best to name people by squad and number, and show this in big, bold text each respawn to remind them who they are? Otherwise you can't send 4 up the right to clear out the enemy's cover while sending the other four to force their way up the stairs. Not that the squad leader can rely on a squad to follow instructions anyhow!

I also had a funky bug last night; I landed from a parachute drop and my controls were reversed! My friend reported he managed to parachute onto his PS3's reset button and the machine reset on landing! Hence aprachuting is bad news.

There are two experiances on the whole the PUG (pick up group) and Clan experiance. While on occasion you will get people communicating in the pug's by and large its the clans that bring most comms to the game. Even if you have only four clan members in a squad it will increase the teamwork and comms a great deal.

On Sabotage my clan and I use landmarks for calls. First of all left or right means left or right of the objective in question. On defence we clarify this further by saying far left third tent or far right outer perimeter for example.

While comms are important as people get more experianced then simple tactcs come into play and the need for comms are less.

For example on Aquasition offence the jobs of the APC's are to try to break through the gate and get into the back field of the opposition. The job of the grunts on the ground is to take down the first bunker clear roadblocks within the perimiter and try to capture the AAA and put pressure on the bunkers around the gate.

Similarly on Domination offence APC's should be trying to break through the gates and the grunts should be attacking far left or far right bunkers and work in and around the front lines before securing the burn off towers.

These are standard assault tactics to experianced players and experienced players will do this without being told.

Sometimes these tactics dont work its when this happens that communications are cruicial.

Squad leaders can play important roles without comms by just assigning frago's on the bunkers or gates etc.

Comms is more important on a platoon and OIC level however IMO.

Platoon leader should see whats happening and try to organise his platoon on a higher level seeking out weaknesses on offence and trying to get squad leaders to shore up weaknesses on defence.

Platoon leaders become crucial in domination on defence or offence on the letters. A good platoon leader can really organise the four squads into a fluid fighting force attacking or defending letters in case one or another drops.

The OIC should be giving general advice especally at letters. OIC should also announce the use of his powers as they are crucial for scans and air strikes. In addition the OIC makes his squad the best tank squad in the game with increased armour and health regen. A clever OIC in a clan can take some of his people as a tank force on letters helping out fallen letters or helping retain double letters on offence.

Comms are more important to newer players as squad leader and platoon leader and OIC I allways give general advice on the maps for those who might be newer to the game.

I have a standard speach as platoon leader on defence of Valor e.g.

Remember to be aggressive, easier to defend in front of the objectives than behind, try to push them as far back as we can as the spawn people will get any flankers. Use your med kits and grenades. If C falls then we must hold the top two floors as if they go we have lost. Have a good game.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Squad leaders can play important roles without comms by just assigning frago's on the bunkers or gates etc.

I presume frago's are the yellow tuning fork icons (and not the multicolored, googly-eyed creatures living underneath the lighthouse eating Doozer constructions)?

 

[Cornsnake]

I presume frago's are the yellow tuning fork icons (and not the multicolored, googly-eyed creatures living underneath the lighthouse eating Doozer constructions)?

No that's the waypoint. The Frago is the objective on your map that's blinking on your map with a red square around it. Being near the Frago will earn you Frago points or double XP.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So targetting waypoints nets you no bonus, and if the squad leader waypoints away from the FRAGO, ignoring him and fighting by the FRAGO earns you more XP?

 

[nightshade]

So targetting waypoints nets you no bonus, and if the squad leader waypoints away from the FRAGO, ignoring him and fighting by the FRAGO earns you more XP?

FRAGO comes into practice only if the leader assigns waypoints to certain objectives...only then you will gain double xp. Completing Frago'ed objectives gives the leader leadership points which helps him rank up his leadership status ie. gaining 100 leadership points will allow the person to apply for the job of Platoon Leader etc.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

So if the tuning fork isn't on the objective, you get no bonus and he gets no leadership points? The voice 'Head to B' etc. comes from the squad leader? (I would try to look all this up in the manual but it was just so thick and weighty with all those pages, this information is lost in it ).

 

[nightshade]

So if the tuning fork isn't on the objective, you get no bonus and he gets no leadership points? The voice 'Head to B' etc. comes from the squad leader? (I would try to look all this up in the manual but it was just so thick and weighty with all those pages, this information is lost in it ).

Yea no one gets bonus as long as it isn't on an objective.
The voice "We have a new Objective" , "Defend B" etc are game voices
You get the name of player on screen on the right side if he speaks anything.

 

[patsu]

I suspect whole truckload of soldiers missed out on all these MAG finer details every game.

Checked out the patch (Played 4-5 Sabo games). No much difference for a sniper. We always suck in close combat anyway.

The enemies have become ever more smarter. I changed my Raven Objective C defense strategy. I am now defending the front of the building (instead of inside the building). It's more effective that way.

Terarrim, what is your faction ? I agree with everything you said there.

I have played over 200 hours of MAG. I finally think I have all of Sabo down how they work and what to do when an enemy tries X for example.

I have a fair knowledge of Aquasition and Domination but I am still learning all the time even though I have been platoon leader and OIC multiple times.

Yes, this is what makes the game different. It's not just the gun fight. It's the learning and mind games as well. \^o^/

 

[nightshade]

The game requires a lot of mind games indeed...when everything goes right you'll see that your team is playing exactly like how you would like it to...as if some sort of magic happened that made everyone's mind connect to each other lol.

@ Patsu
How big is the patch ?

 

[patsu]

40MB (TPPS), 30MB (DLS)

I don't know what TPPS and DLS are.

 

[minimoke]

(I would try to look all this up in the manual but it was just so thick and weighty with all those pages, this information is lost in it ).

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the Ms. Pacman manual that Namco released had more information in it

 

[Cornsnake]

http://blog.mag.com/blog/2010/03/patch-alert-mag-v1-04a/

A new patch tomorrow. This one is mainly to balance out SVER's Sabotage map. I'm not going to quote it this time because the PS3 will make a mess out of it.

 

[patsu]

Available March 17, 2010 | N/A (TPPS), 84MB (DLS)

Gameplay

Adjusted player boundaries to limit “spawn camping” exploits in Darien Network, Copper Hills Relay and Syr Daria Uplink maps.

Map – Syr Daria Uplink (SVER Sabotage map)

Pushed in physical defensive boundary for Attacker’s “Alpha Squad” spawns 10 meters.
Removed two short staircases in front of Attacker’s “Alpha Squad” spawn.
Relocated box truck to block sightline on attacker’s right side at “Objective A” stairwell.
Added box truck to block sightline exploit to Attacker’s “Alpha” squad main entrance.
Added fence line to Attacker’s right side at “Objective A.”
Pushed parachute drop near “Objective C” forward by 25 meters.
Added new entrance to “Objective C” building in right corner.
Added additional geometry near “Objective C” to block sightline exploits near main door.
Added and removed various small object and panel locations to repair or enhance sightlines.
Multiple terrain repaints in various locations.

Technical

Fixed crash that sometimes occurred when reviving players who died while interacting with objective.

Looks like it will fix the problem you talked about above, Cornsnake. ^_^

I think the SVER map fix will also make a sniper's life more difficult by limiting the sight lines. I am rather afraid of them pushing the parachute point forward. The SVER snipers in Objective C are going to have a field day. I hope they skew the angle so that the snipers can't see us easily.

 

[Cornsnake]

Looks like it will fix the problem you talked about above, Cornsnake. ^_^

I think the SVER map fix will also make a sniper's life more difficult by limiting the sight lines. I am rather afraid of them pushing the parachute point forward. The SVER snipers in Objective C are going to have a field day. I hope they skew the angle so that the snipers can't see us easily.

Yeah, glad to see that's gone. I have yet to see the SVER Sabotage map. I did play a lot of Sabotage, but we would always get our map or Valor's. At least we still won most of them.

 

[patsu]

Wow, you're lucky to skip the SVER map for so long ! ^_^

The SVER objective C has a huge hangar door (well, without the door). Their snipers can climb to the highest point in the hangar and cover a large part of the front side map. There are a lot of obstacles for cover, but the exposure is very high when expert snipers are in play. When this happens, they will usually have shotgunners weaving through the obstacles to take out wounded soldiers.

The saving grace is: There are obscure paths to their objective room (both left and right sides). I'm not too familiar with the right path yet. The last time I was there, it looked to be the best approach to their objective room.

I am thinking we can probably choke their support from the right and then take the objective through the hangar door. The hangar door is useful because the objective trailer/room is front center near the entrance, ready for the taking once the support from the sides are suppressed. There is a little hut on the right side where Raven/Valor can regroup and counter attack when SVER tries to take this point back.

The left path is more open and harder to claim.

 

[patsu]

First MAG DLC free, coming next week

[Salute]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/03/18/first-mag-dlc-free-coming-next-week-2/

Dubbed the “Trooper Gear Pack,” our first DLC addition to the MAG universe will offer a number of cool goodies for veterans and first timers alike. Out of everything in the pack, the most popular will likely be the oft-requested “Flashbang Grenade” that can be used to confuse, disorient or distract your enemies in a single throw.

Of course, there’s more to the Trooper Gear Pack than Flashbangs. We’ll also be including new special edition Light Machine Guns for each PMC. Raven’s APEX 100SE, SVER’s RTK-74 Vla, and Valor’s Mk 46 Mod 1 weapons will provide both a new look for your favorite LMGs and a number of performance adjustments as well.

The last element of the pack will be two additional uniforms – “Trooper Dark” and “Trooper Light.” Available to all three PMCs, these uniforms are specifically designed for urban and interior combat situations and give you two more aesthetic options to diversify your character with.

Also double XP period:

... starting March 25. Simply log in at 12am Pacific/ 3am Eastern/ 8am GMT and play MAG as you normally would. Every time you complete a game your experience doubles, and yes, this bonus stacks for Veterans who already have an XP bonus to begin with! Just make sure you actually complete the games you play – if you quit early, your bonus won’t apply.

Expect the Double XP promotion to run until 11:59pm Pacific time on Sunday, March 28.

 

[patsu]

I tried the modified SVER map tonight.

I noticed they tweaked about 3 spots to block long range view. I supposed they also made equivalent adjustment to the SVER side. Snipers are still very useful, but not dominating like before.

The closer parachuting point may have given us slightly tighter execution since we can run back to the hangar faster (after a death). Not too sure yet. We won 1 out of 3 SVER matches.