Oh noes! I received an order!

[Molossian Dog]

Hi there guys. This is meant for you new recruits, who didn't have much online gaming experience so far or who were never a member of a MWO unit before.
I am fairly new to this myself and remember well that when I joined I didn't really know what to expect. As this is a unit in a tactical game I wasn't quite sure how serious people would behave in TS, how the chain of command worked and especially how to react when someone would give me an order.

So with this recent experience I thought I'd give a few pointers to people completely new to the 4th and to MWO in general why orders are given and what to do when you have received one.



Are you guys serious?
First things first. We are a casual/serious unit. Everyone can play as competitive as they like to. This is a game, so having fun is priority. Not a few of us have fun trying to play competitive and we seriously want to get better at this. But that is about it. The level to which you involve yourself doesn't make you better or worse than other members. And besides friendly banter no one will ever snap at you or ridicule you, regardless of how well you play or how experienced you are.

If there is an officer in the channel giving orders, he is not bossing you around. We just try to get better at this game. And it is a team game. Nothing else. So if improving at his game, individually and as a team, is fun to you, then you should try to follow your orders. At Sunday practice this is actually required. But if you only want to have a fun evening in a laid-back atmosphere that is perfectly okay. If you wish to have a more serious drop without interruptions, we also offer a place for this on our private TeamSpeak server.

What is he talking about?
Besides idle talk, communication during the game basically revolves around only two things. Where to move and what to shoot. The lance leader tells you where it would be good for you to be and what he wants you to shoot at. You should give him information about dangers he might have missed or things about your situation he might not know. (e.g. "help in C-3") If you see an opportunity, you can inform him and the others about it (e.g. "Hey, Highlander Echo has open CT") but that doesn't change the original orders. You don't automatically switch targets because another team member says something. You relay info, and the drop leader decides.

Where did everyone go?
The lance leader might speak about landmarks or grid coordinates where he wants the whole team to go. If he says nothing, just follow him. The default order is "stay with the group". If the drop leader tells just one player to move, the rest remains with the group.
A lance member shouldn't be wandering off unless told to do something that would require them to go their own way. If you see an opportunity, for instance a weak enemy you think you can take out on your own in short time, then ask the lance leader.

PewPew!
The lance leader calls targets using the NATO alphabet. If he says, "Hotel Prime" this means you should try to find and shoot at the baddie with the H over his head. If you don't see the primary target, move. You should only shoot at other targets while you move in position to fire at the primary target. But don't get distracted. Your priority should be to get where you can shoot at the main target.

This doesn't work like that!
So, the officer called a target or told you to move somewhere and you realize that you cannot follow that order. But if you cannot see the target he called this usually means you are too far away from him. So try to get back.
If you cannot follow the order because you are under pressure or run for your life, also try to get back. No place is safer than behind your buddies.

The ´Sarge is stupid!
Yes, people are going to give stupid orders. Happens all the time. Sometimes it is a plain mistake other times they might overlook something. Still try to follow them. There is a simple reason for that. Sometimes stupid is good.

In general it is better if all of you are doing the same thing -even if it is stupid- than if everyone does something different.

Typical situations which occur daily:
You, a lance of 4 medium Mechs meet a full lance of hostile heavy Mechs on open ground. Your lance leader orders an attack and all of you do it. Which is probably stupid. But the first enemy doesn't even notice you and obliviously wanders away, chasing some light Mech at the other end of the map, the second assault Mech tries to get back into cover and the other two decide to charge and fight. Suddenly you have a 4 to 2 superiority and might take down two enemies before the others contributed something meaningful. Which means your chances to take down the remaining two as well increased exponentially.

Or:
You are about to take out a particularly pesky enemy and the officer calls a retreat. You think it is an error and you guys could overpower the opposition. Still it would be better to try to disengage. If you stay back while your mates are running you suddenly become the enemy's sole prime target. Which is bad.

We need to talk.
This is the Free Worlds League. Everyone is encouraged to state his opinion. And everyone's opinion is valued equally, from Colonel to the lowliest private who joined just yesterday. But please don't discuss or argue about orders during the game.

There is only a thin line between informing the lance leader of opportunities and starting a discussion. A discussion during a running game is always distracting and confusing. So keep suggestions short and let it rest after that. (If the drop leader agreed or not.)

There will always be time to debate and speculate about what could have been between games. Officers are not above criticism. It is mostly encouraged to speculate and theorize about "what if". Drop leaders can only profit from analysis. But real analysis needs time. And there is no time for that during the game. If the drop leader requests to only discuss matters after a series of drops, then save it until then. Discussion about where things went wrong can cause too much delay between drops.