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Thread: Staff Officer mains, how do you play the role so often?

  1. #21
    Senior Member Dreven's Avatar
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    Narrate your squad from the overwatch console with darkest dungeon quotes


    Or deploy with a tac shotgun and JTAC, get speedy CAS lazes and considerable order buffs to lead marine deathballs

  2. #22
    The Helllbanian CO
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    I used to main Delta SO back in the summer 17-18 days. Had great synergy with people. Made sure everything under my responsibility worked. OG of the old Delta gang.

    It used to be different. SOs had to perform different roles. From OB beacon fire missions, combat awareness for the squad, calling req for supplies since then req only had squad drop pads with beacons and no coordinate system and the SO was the one responsible for contacting req for supplies and making sure supplies are sent on the beacon as soon as the crate is closed. And on top of that, passing information to and from the CO/XO and from and to the SL or any other squad marines in harm's way or that are needed elsewhere. In other words the squad -relied- on you for these basic functions.

    As an SO you have the ability to make much more use of the role if you want to or know how to. It's just a niche thing more on the organization/coordination side of things.

    Then you also had to man the CIC as a solo SO during lowpop. And in Highpop there were 5 SO slots and you had the chance to deploy every now and then.

    Most people who deployed though were just bald ass PFC++. There's great things you can do in the field as SO. What you need to look for are patterns. Patterns exist in every map. It's like the most probable scenario that is going to happen, and obviously it happens often. Now you need to use your experience and insight as a command player to notice these patterns and make the right call to avoid or emphasize these patterns (marines pushing or push stagnating, broken supply lines, chokepoints and how to break through them, etc.) All you need is luckily a pair of tac-binos (back then these used to be SCARCE), an MD and your command headset. With that you can call in what needs to be called in, spot enemy movement, oversee the front from a safe distance, or take a look at what lies beyond the front, and then you use this information and ability to make the right call and coordinate/organize 4 squads.

    Dont forget to bring a defib, a health scanner and an adv. medkit with you too. That's just about all you need to save someone in critical condition, someone who just died or so. This is not your main concern though. You may have medical skill, but your duty is elsewhere, so stay better strapped for combat, shall the situation call for you to be with the main force.

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hunk1 View Post
    Some people are actually good on support roles. I am a example of it. I will suck playing ANY COMBAT Role, however, put me on mortar or put me on CAS to see how effective i am.
    This elucidates a very good point.

    Some people are bad at one of the player skillsets in the game, but are good at others.

    The different skill categories could be broken down as:
    - Raw combat robustness (on the ground shooting, stabbing, burning, and exploding)
    - On-Field Support (field medicine, field engineering, spotting)
    - Off-field Support (coordination of supply & logistics, bombardment, surgery)
    - Genuine Leadership (getting marines to actually do what you want them to do)

    Skill in one of those things doesn’t mean skill in all of those things. Even mastery of one thing, ie field medicine, doesn’t mean you’re also good at something else in the same category, like field engineering. And some things, like vehicle operation, straddle on-field support and raw combat robustness (talking to you, command APC that got more kills running over xenos than any other marine that round).

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dreven View Post
    Narrate your squad from the overwatch console with darkest dungeon quotes
    Elder Empress has died to baldness in middle barrens (JMP)
    John ‘Narrator’ Doe [Delta(LT)] Prodigious size is of no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue.
    *DEAD*Elder Empress: Shotgun OP, PLZ NERF.

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moosetasm View Post
    This elucidates a very good point.

    Some people are bad at one of the player skillsets in the game, but are good at others.

    The different skill categories could be broken down as:
    - Raw combat robustness (on the ground shooting, stabbing, burning, and exploding)
    - On-Field Support (field medicine, field engineering, spotting)
    - Off-field Support (coordination of supply & logistics, bombardment, surgery)
    - Genuine Leadership (getting marines to actually do what you want them to do)

    Skill in one of those things doesn’t mean skill in all of those things. Even mastery of one thing, ie field medicine, doesn’t mean you’re also good at something else in the same category, like field engineering. And some things, like vehicle operation, straddle on-field support and raw combat robustness (talking to you, command APC that got more kills running over xenos than any other marine that round).
    Yeah but here's the thing, you aren't gonna get people who listen to you (Genuine Leadership) unless you show some actual robustness in the other categories, and you aren't going to be able to stay alive to show off your skills in non-combat stuff unless you're at least okay at combat.

  6. #26
    The Helllbanian CO
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    Quote Originally Posted by Just L View Post
    Yeah but here's the thing, you aren't gonna get people who listen to you (Genuine Leadership) unless you show some actual robustness in the other categories, and you aren't going to be able to stay alive to show off your skills in non-combat stuff unless you're at least okay at combat.
    No it's not about robustness, it's about how reliable and down to earth you are as a player. People won't follow you if you just say something that's out of touch with what's actually going on.
    If you're in touch with the players, you know the meta they follow, you know how things work and you also give sensible orders that make sense, then people will follow.

    But the most important thing in leading in this game from a command role is to always be up to date with what is going on in the field and to have insight on what the next steps are going to be and pass that information down to the squads.

  7. #27
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    Are there really any SO mains? I know of like 2, but I'm pretty sure both are someone's alt characters. And the best SOs are generally decent generalist players that roll it sometimes when they get bored.

    My answer on how to have fun as SO is simple - take responsibility. While it's easy to go by doing almost nothing as SO, the role becomes more interesting when you start trying really hard.

    Your first responsibility is keeping the superiors and equals informed. And most of the times even good SOs suck at it. You should strive to inform your commander to such extent that he wouldn't even think of touching your console. It all depends on the circumstance, but if Delta is pushing the LV east caves you ideally want to inform everyone in CIC on whether marines are gaining or losing ground almost every minute, along with every single kill and also report the enemy force composition. And yeah, sometimes you get "your average 20 yo CO" and all that work on gathering info goes to waste.

    Your second responsibility is to the squad. You want to keep the flow of communication going as effectively as possible. For example I'm a flamer PFC and I just ran out of all my tanks. I don't see any in Hydro and I ask my SO. But if he won't reply and RO won't I won't bother asking more and when I run out of my primary ammunition too, I won't bother pointing out that we actually don't have any primary ammo dropped anywhere and maybe that's why we're losing now. This is doubly so for SLs. For example when my squad is storming the east LV caves I may want a drop of ammo by the entrance, but I also have a squad to lead and don't have time to argue with RO over this, since he's a busy man too. I want my SO to just satisfy any reasonably supply request or at least reply and explain that RO ran out of points. You also should religiously watch the squad roster to see any deaths and fight to recover any single revivable corpse. Basically any successful act of communicating to the squad gives you a little bit of respect in their eyes and then they're more likely to follow your(and command in general) orders.

    As for ordering the squad, you generally want to complement your SL. If you know the maps, and have open eyes and ears, you would generally be better informed than your SL. This allows you to actually give reasonable tactical orders from time to time. For example in the last round I played I watched one marine and noticed 3 xenos sneaking into the FOB, including a burrower who made a tunnel. That marine was busy shooting and didn't bother to report that incident. But since I witnessed, I ordered the rest of Delta there, they were close and this resulted in all 3 of xenos killed. You should look for situations like this.

    SLs are generally some of the more experienced players, but again they don't have the information you posses and it's prudent to overrule them from time to time. For example SLs often lead a flank with 10 marines expecting the frontline to hold, but the frontline collapses and the whole xeno hive rotates to kill the isolated squad next. You should learn to identify situations like this.

    Another important skill is herding your squad. Even the best marines get into the situation where you see a spitter, chase him, then get stuck fighting something else and then you're far away from your squad. But if I'm that marine and SO tells everyone to rejoin the squad ASAP and that's the same SO who dropped a few incinerator tanks that I requested, I'm very inclined to listen to him. Quid pro quo. So if SL is planning a flank it's often very prudent to send personal invitation to as many isolated squaddies as possible.

    As for deployed SOs, they generally suck. There are plenty of people who are effective at killing xenos, but having another pair of eyes and an extra mouth on the command channel and if you also posses a brain, you can be extremely effective in finding different inefficiencies, like RO dropped 200 sandbags, but nobody bothered to reorganize that stack and nobody on the ground knows that they exist. Or the frontline ammo boxes ran out and a new drop is needed. Or some engineer is wasting supplies. There are so many of such fuckups in every round. And on top of all those organs you also have your tac shotty, construction skill, binos and a medical belt.
    Last edited by sg2002; 06-03-2020 at 07:03 PM.
    Roman 'Fire' Kacew

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