Official Black Arrow Tactics Thread.

[Daishi6]

After approaching near 5 hours in my first stint with RS3:BA, the
one thing that I have gathered is that you had better have your team
squared away, logisticly, mentally, and tacticly.

I co-lead the
most successful team on XBCW and we have been very successful in
maintaining 1st place on the regular RS3 ladder for 23 weeks.
Black Arrow introduces many new variables that we have never seen
before.

1) No more draws. This feature forces the team
that is a man down to "go-for-broke". If the teams are uneven and
you are the team that is a man down, there is nothing for you to do
than to run at your opponent, guns-a-blazin'. This is outside the
realm of many people's playing style and their ability to adapt and use
this tactic to their advantage will decide their fate on the
leaderboards.

2) I have seen first hand the devastation
that the removal of the lean had created. One of my team-mates
got caught up in the whole leanwalking, lean-glitching deal, against
the wishes of his team mates, but now, he is reduced to whining and
snivelling because he is getting owned in situations where he did not
in the past.

3) Keep your people close and communicate,
communicate, communicate. These maps are expansive, and it does
not matter whether you are able to engage the enemy in a couple of
strides. You will be gunned down if you and your partners are not
paying attention. The days of the lone shooter at the head of the
pack are gone. You may be able to take a couple with you, but you
will be eliminated from a flanking position.

Those are a couple of my instant thoughts on the Team Survival side of the game.

The
mode where you have to secure and control the satellite stations for 20
seconds.... Now there's some action. HERE'S the problem...
Frigging Spawn campers. I was so relieved to be finished with
them from the Ghost Recon™ days. Now they are back, and already
taking the fun out of a damned good game.

<font color="#ff0000" size="5">If you P%$$&amp;%$ cannot win without cheating, EAT A FRIGGING PISTOL!!!</font>

<font color="#000000">Lastly,
I have not played the other mode or modes of this game. I have
however began the campaign side, and it's killer. The AI is much
better so far, and very agile.</font>

That's all from the FM side of the house.

Have a Black Arrow Day!!

[Porphyria Plan]

Good stuff Daishi.



I also want to comment that some of the guns have changed. My favorite gun the TAR-21 has lost what seems to be all accuracy when shooting long distances. The good range to fight with that TAR now is close to mid range. Before, I could snipe across the map. Last night I was able to waste a clip (while bursting) and not hit anything. I still found that the M60 performed much better in close combat because of damage and clip size.

Oh, where, Oh, where is my TAR-21? :smt009



With that said I was doing really well with the M60 (small maps of course), M16 for frantic sniping, and the Dragnov for less pressured sniping. It's my guess so far that in Black Arrow you need use a "good gun" that suits the map and your playstyle. Maybe we didn't get new weapons but they may have made the older ones more distinct? :-k

[Anonymous]

I agree that communication is key. The quicker we can come up with standardized names for the rooms and learn to communicate our location and situation the better we can work as a team. Last night some folks were yelling "they're in the bar" on the Ferry Boat. That's awsome, but I have no idea where that is. :smt001

[Wyvern13]

Communication is key.

About spawn-camping, some of those satellite dishes are close to the spawn. If you try to hold the satellite, you end up having to pop guys as they come out of the spawn. Luckily with the AGErs, people have been good about not actively spawn camping in those situations.

[The Judgement]

I've also noticed that in old R63 you could put a guy's head at the bottom of the retical take one shot and get a head shot even tho the bead may be as much as 3' over his head. Now in black arrow you try and do that you may get lucky with a stray bullet if you hold the fire down, the bead is much more accurate than it was b4 where the retical has lost some accuracy. (does this make sense?) :smt003

[Daishi6]

Hint #1



Do Not Throw Smoke Around The Transmission Stations To Cover Your Movement To It.



IT ONLY SERVES TO BLIND YOU FROM ENEMY MOVEMENT.

Smoke is for amateurs, anyway.

[Sharky]

Good pointers ...



FYI - I cleaned up some posts to keep this on topic.

[Porphyria Plan]

Since the lean glitch is gone cover fire has become a great technique. Fire off rounds at a corner until your teammate has made it to a safe position. Most of the time when you are shooting like this you will take out anyone who leans or runs out. The success depends on how well you are able to burst and the recoil of the gun.


This same shooting method can be used when running solo. Start shooting off rounds and move in a circular pattern in the direction you would like to go. So in this method you use the location as a focal point for your shots, think of tetherball. You are the ball, the rope is your line of fire, and the pole is the position you want to keep held down.


Do you like the example? :smt003

[The Empty Way]

There were a couple of interesting points made hereby Porph and Judgement about slight differences (or at least what seems to be) in the tuning of the aiming system in Black Arrow vs the first Rainbow Six 3.

I have two additional thoughts to add regarding aiming (these assume you already have some fundamentals down such as aiming for the neck up and using 2-3 round burst shots to minimize recoil effects): By all means, go into a map alone offline in a quick mission terrorist hunt and kill off a few terrorists, but leave the rest for later so you can have some "time to yourself". Once you are without distraction, put your weapon (ora series of weapons) to the test. The beauty of a shooter that leaves bullet marks is that you can "sight in" your weapon by going up to look at where you are actually hitting and under what circumstances.

Experiment with near shots, distance shots, scoped in, non-scoped in shots. Experiment with making shots while strafing, while moving forward, while moving backward, while circle strafing and while perfectly still or while only slightly turning.

Learn just how your weapon(s) behave in a controlled environment. Then apply. :smt003 (I personally haven't had time to go through all the paces I just described, but I have done this for the first RS3 and will for BA)


It "seems" to me (so far) that Black Arrow has made scoped in firing more sensitive to recoil effects and/or the need to have the center dot of your reticle more directly on target as Judgement stated. One thing I've observed that atleast seems to work well for me is the concept of resisting scoping in to hit a distant target. I don't mean so distant thatyou can onlybarely see atiny "something", but distant enough thatyou might have ordinarily chosen to scope in (in RS3 1 for example) but still close enough thatyou can make out reasonable detail and body shape (especially head distinguishment). Try firing at such a target without scoping in and if the head is reasonably encompassed by the circle of your reticle, you will hit it more easily than while scoped in. At least, "so far" this is my observation and has been succesful enough toat least mention here,but merits further testing.

Additional note on "controlled environment testing". Coordinate with a friend or two and create an online sharpshooter match with the highest time limit and only enough slots for you and friend(s). Taking turns of course, try some moving target testing, some targeting from different angles such as your target facing you, sideways to you, back to you, diagonal to you, standing, crouched, leaning from behind an object and even open leaning (since there is nothing wrong with doing so inBA and therefore some will). Test shooting targets above you, below you, at a distance, in close... etc., etc. Concerned about ELO? Nah.. just have those involved agree to help "even things up" at the end of the session with some voluntary "ok.. kill me a few times and check your ELO" exchanges.. hehe.

[Anonymous]

Hint #1



Do Not Throw Smoke Around The Transmission Stations To Cover Your Movement To It.



IT ONLY SERVES TO BLIND YOU FROM ENEMY MOVEMENT.

Smoke is for amateurs, anyway.



I'm not so sure about this. Take Milan, for example: The Bravo transmitter is in middle ground and is very susceptible to fire from forwards (towards the enemy spawn)and to the left (down the cross street). With coordinated cover fire, you can keep enemy shooters down from ahead, but its very hard to get a good angle on people to your left (Especially if you're onGreen team. Redteam has a lot of dark places to hide at the end of their cross street and all of those spots have a good view of Bravo.). By smoking up the left side of transmitter, you're making it very difficult for snipers to hit you from the end of the cross street. (You should still be cautious because a good team will lay some point fire onto Bravo if they can't see it) Since blue's side of the cross street doesn't lead anywhere, the smoke isn't blinding you to movement, its blinding snipers to easy kills. You probably shouldn't throw smoke down between Bravo and the enemy's spawn since there are a lot of side doors off the street, but its not a bad move as long as the smoke doesn't envelop the transmitter itself and you have shooters positioned at your end of the cross street to watch the side doors.

[Anonymous]

Have you guys noticed that using say the M60 and holding down the trigger and just all out plowing through a room can actually get you some kills now http://mars.walagata.com/w/jjlee138/Smileys/Big_Gun.gif. They've really beefed up the close quarter combat system.

[NEFARIOC]

Yeah...the M60 is pissed now!

[Anonymous]

If ya'll need another player that doesn't spawn camp and stuff, let me know and invite me.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt; Wizard of Gore&amp;nbsp; &amp;lt;-- Gamertag.&lt;br /&gt;

[Dean O]

If ya'll need another player that doesn't spawn camp and stuff, let me know and invite me.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt; Wizard of Gore&amp;nbsp; &amp;lt;-- Gamertag.&lt;br /&gt;

We can always use more good players. The AGE servers get full pretty quick so make sure you add lots of us to you Friends List so you can get into one.



Cool Smilies Josh. I bow before you. :smt002

[Circ]

"ok.. kill me a few times and check your ELO" exchanges.. hehe.



From what I understand, kills/ELO don't register until the end of the round.

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to practice the maps offline like in SCPT?

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to practice the maps offline like in SCPT?

What I do, Cheq, is create a game of sharpshooter, set the number of players to the minimum (2) and set friends to 2 also. You can then start the game, and in options set yourself to show offline (then nobody will see you as online in the game and try to join you.) Set the round time to whatever you want and launch the game and wander the map to your heart's content. Change maps and repeat the wandering. :smt003

If you have a partner, you can run the adversarial team games (like retrieval and TC) and learn where the drop boxes, satellite dishes, etc. are, too.

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to practice the maps offline like in SCPT?

What I do, Cheq, is create a game of sharpshooter, set the number of players to the minimum (2) and set friends to 2 also. You can then start the game, and in options set yourself to show offline (then nobody will see you as online in the game and try to join you.) Set the round time to whatever you want and launch the game and wander the map to your heart's content. Change maps and repeat the wandering. :smt003



Thanks for the tip.

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to practice the maps offline like in SCPT?

What I do, Cheq, is create a game of sharpshooter, set the number of players to the minimum (2) and set friends to 2 also. You can then start the game, and in options set yourself to show offline (then nobody will see you as online in the game and try to join you.) Set the round time to whatever you want and launch the game and wander the map to your heart's content. Change maps and repeat the wandering. :smt003

If you have a partner, you can run the adversarial team games (like retrieval and TC) and learn where the drop boxes, satellite dishes, etc. are, too.

you don't need a partner for those modes... you can do what you stated in any mode (ts, ret, and conquest)... I've found it good to do to learn the spawns (for all 3 modes - ts, ret, &amp;conq), as well as the objective locations in the retrieval and conqest modes. (If you care about your stats, your time playing goes up without any kills, obviously.)

It would be nice to have a partner so that each can start in opposite spawns and rush a certain route or path to find out the "hot spots".

[Anonymous]

It would be nice to have a partner so that each can start in opposite spawns and rush a certain route or path to find out the "hot spots".

Hell, I'd be up for that. :smt066



I just wander around the maps alone andI still don't know where all the spawns, cannisters, drop boxes, sats, etc are. :smt017

[Porphyria Plan]

It would be nice to have a partner so that each can start in opposite spawns and rush a certain route or path to find out the "hot spots".

Hell, I'd be up for that. :smt066



I just wander around the maps alone andI still don't know where all the spawns, cannisters, drop boxes, sats, etc are. :smt017



I've been trying to getsomeone to help me check theHot Spots in game to no avail. I would be up for that tonight.

[cblalock]

It would be
nice to have a partner so that each can start in opposite spawns and
rush a certain route or path to find out the "hot spots".

Hell, I'd be up for that. :smt066



I
just wander around the maps alone andI still don't know where all
the spawns, cannisters, drop boxes, sats, etc are. :smt017



I've been trying to getsomeone to help me check theHot Spots in game to no avail. I would be up for that tonight.

I'm game for this too porph. like we did in the old rainbow with the 2v2 tourny.

[Terminator]

It would be nice to have a partner so that each can start in opposite spawns and rush a certain route or path to find out the "hot spots".

Hell, I'd be up for that. :smt066



I just wander around the maps alone andI still don't know where all the spawns, cannisters, drop boxes, sats, etc are. :smt017



I've been trying to getsomeone to help me check theHot Spots in game to no avail. I would be up for that tonight.


I'm game for this too porph. like we did in the old rainbow with the 2v2 tourny.


I'd be up for this too.

[Vampire 33]

I am always available to help learn the maps and teach and be taught.

[Anonymous]

Me, too. God knows I can use any help I can get! Learning the maps is always key. Count me in, please.

[hitman23vtech]

hmmm, AGE made BA videos maybe?? that could be saweet :smt003

[Anonymous]

Iwas walking around the Streets of Milan on Retrieval one night right by myself and Nef(I'm pretty sure it was Nef) came in to my room and asked "Dude, what in the hell are you doing?". The way he asked it was sooo damn funny. :smt003



I explained that I was trying to learn the map. Isaidto myself "that guy probably thinks I am crazy as hell". Oh well!

[NEFARIOC]

You are crazy goo! I went into his room and heard a large amount of moaning.....at first I thought I joined CB's room, then quickly realized it was Goo. He must've just gotten his prize from MS.

Seriously....A black Arrow video is a good idea! I'm game....

[hitman23vtech]

Seriously....A black Arrow video is a good idea! I'm game....



anyone out there able to record besides me? if we had a few teams working this we could knock the maps out fairly quick

[Anonymous]

I'm down forlearning the maps. At least when I get killed, Iwould knowwhere I was headed.