Klaue_
First of all thanks to BigGhostDaddy for sorting in all the stuff we wrote so far.
I apologize in advance for everyone who tries to read it completley and to understand it.
This majority of experience i share in this post can be used not only in GRO but also in other (non-shooter)games.
The following is a kind of concept or rule-chain to make a good decision of what is going one, what is useful and what should be done.
So the decision process is about the what you should consider under different situations. The actual how can be described by the performing process where you use actions that are depended of the constraints and options you have. (Equipment and so on)
Most of the people tend to think only about actions and not about making decisions so we are talking about decision making first.
I'll do probably a separate post on actions you can perform in different situations and will address using equipment, using movement and using devices.
To get it ordered somehow:
Phase - Its an abstract construct. It consists of an entrance event and can lead to another phase or terminates with an event. Here
Goal - Something you want to achive and is valuable to you. To reach that you can pursue tasks that can be chained.
Tasks - Tasks are planed chaincs of actions. Tasks need a base to start from and leading to a modified base, mostly we use situations as base. A task influences a phase and can be planed including different phases. Tasks can be intersected by unpreventable events where you have to react on(be forced) like death, that leads to a unsuccessfull task if interrupted.
Situations - Constraints, cur****tances and relations between things. Situations can be perceived by sensing. We most of the time use it to describe restrictions to the equipment and options for movement you got, also we use it to describe pressure in a way.
Action - Somewhat of a basic entity to describe things you can perform like shooting, throwing, moving, using cover etc. .
Handle Contact
The whole idea of handling contact has one eternal goal, to stay alive.
Some people say if a buddy gets wounded or shot dead in a contact, you(personally and the whole team) have made a major mistake. But dont be too hard on yourself, its a game and nobody is perfect in here.
Also you should remember that time is a important resource, making to much or to less use of it leads to death. Normally you decide in split seconds based on your experience.
You got your own way to react on things so you dont have to think really much. But if you review your actions on your own, maybe you can find some things to improve to make it the next time better. Another very important fact is that in a contact situation there are at least two parties involved. Sometimes you can react and sometimes you have to. Sometimes you can force the enemy and sometimes you will be forced.(if you will reach the goal) The reaction you perform tries to deal with the most threatening target most of the time. But lets get it the easy way first and think of 1on1 situations first place but remember there are for sure some additional enemies around.
A contact can be managed not only by killing the opponent(s) but with other actions as well, for example suppressive fire or simply showing force.
In every contact there a decisions to made that leads to the way of how to handle it basically.
A contact can be separated into three parts:
A - the opening (be prepared and getting ready)
B - the clash (dealing with trouble)
C - the split up (iam alive!)
As an escape tool you can describe a fourth phase that depends on in which phase you are already in, namely breaking contact. Breaking contact combines clash and split up where you want to fight to stay alive with the main goal to escape and leave the job behind.
How this phases are connected and what you can do and should look for will be shown next.
The Opening
This is the most important phase in terms of making a decision and serve a higher goal(defeating the enemy team). Its about to have or develop an initial task if an opening happens. Any other phase is dependent on this one. As soon as you have a contact, you are in the opening phase no matter what situation your on.
So at first you should have an answer to the question if the opening and maybe a considerable confrontation is useful at all to reach the higher goal by making a kill, rescue a mate, build up or reduce pressure.
This decision you made should be the reason why you are on the move or holding a position.
If you decide that the opening is not useful you can use basic things i wrote under 'breaking contact' and 'split up'.
One major factor is the distance to the enemy and how fast he can overcome it to base your decisions on, it can lead from a spray and pray to a very precise planed chain of actions(task). So make sure you know the appropriate actions you can perform effective.(performing process)
There are two basic openings with two variations.:
1 - You see the enemy first
1.1 The enemy dont notice:
You can bring the clash to the enemy, if you decide so.
You can make maximum use of the situation and plan a intial task, so take your time to make some things clear:
- Decide in which way you want to do the job.(for example CQB can be done with melee, precise head shot or a spray down)
- You have a appropriate stance to do the job.(depends on distance, weapon and movement)
- You have enough time to do the job.(enemy movement and options to counter your actions)
- You make good use of your environment.(no one else watching you already? can you be shot be enemies sitting next to your target?)
1.2 The enemy spots you and reacts:
Still a good point to start a contact. You can start or await the clash. You got some time for planing and adapting to the enemy to force him the way you want.
So a heavy weight decision to make is depending on the enemy reaction. Is he engaging directly or going for a better place to take the fight?
If hes engaging your in the clash phase. If hes not engaging, you got four options: Starting the clash, waiting for the clash, splitting up or breaking contact.
- If you see the opportunity clearly, dont be shy, just take the fight to the enemy, this leads you into the clash.
- If your unsure about if additional enemies around or the enemy can turn the tide because hes fast behind cover, make a very quick choice of your position to await the enemy. This leads you into the clash.
- If you see no use in the contact you can simply split up if the enemy can see your escape route. You can avoid noise this way and maybe search for a better spot or time for the opening. This leads you into the split up.
- If you dont want the contact and the enemy reaches his spot before your out of sight, you can break the contact the rough way if the enemy is about to shot you in the back. This leads you into the breaking contact.
2 - The enemy spots you first
2.1 You notice the enemy as well
Almost same options and transition as on 1.2 depending on how well the enemy already pointed his rifle on you. (some way of limited here)
If you got time you can avoid the clash if necessary or deal with the clash.
If you got no time and space/route to escape you have to deal with it, welcome to the clash.
2.2 You dont notice
The enemy brings the clash to you.
You are dead.
If you survive the time your brain need to notice and response to that, and be lucky to still be alive afterwards i welcome you to the clash.
The Clash
Most of the people panicking in this situation.
You already performed the initial task and your still alive, good. Most of the time you react with a task you already planed and performed several times with good result.(experience) If you want to perform a newly planed task, you realy have to focus on.
So the first rule here, stay cool, keep your thoughts together and be a beast with pure geniuses evil.
The clash is the situation where force is exchanged, you can be forced or you can force the enemy, you can carry the fight to the enemy or await for the fight. If both sides decide to wait for the clash its a draw and you win.Hehe, nope, we are in the clash, really we are. The clahs is also the phase where the performance process is mostly involved and everything depending on the situation, influenced by the actions you and the enemy perform. But i will give some words on that as well.
During a clash the enemy got the same options you would have in his situation, remember that every time and you can predict with a high chance which action he will perform. You should know if you want the clash or not. If not you can try to break the contact.
The temporary goal of the clash is to either to maximize your options or to reduce the time to reach the split up phase, depending on the situation. With high pressure you primarily try to reduce the time for a pre-planed task to perform.
We have four hypothetical and basic tasks we can follow within a clash, killing the enemy, increasing or decreasing pressure or to split up. All four are achieved primarily by movement that is dependent on the action was picked to traverse the task, so movement is used to get into spots where specific actions can took place. (Reminder: These task can be chained several times into the whole clash phase/event.)
When we talk about movement, you always have to consider the situation you are in, is the enemy approaching your position or are you passing by each other, what are his planed actions, maybe throwing nades? Pondering options to be able to plan a successfully task. The main thing movement tells you and the enemy is that the spot was not as good as the position to be approached to perform the task that was picked. Even holding a position can be consideret as movement.
If you decide to deal with the clash, there are alot of methods and techniques out there(actions and action-chains), very dependent on your equipment, the environment and behaviour of the enemy and your team. You should know what the enemy is capable of(actions in different places) and how he might behave and how you can use this to your advantage to create chains of actions and tasks.
I'll do a separate post on the performing process because its not directly related to the concept of handling contact(decision process), but a detailed description of how to adapt and perform actions.
When you planing a task make sure a few things:
- The enemy will have trouble to interrupting you.
- You can perform the task effective and efficient(tossing a nade to bounce of two walls and landing in a 50cm space; enemy is forced to react on it)
- The task got no dead end, always keep at least one alternative in consideration to be bale to adapt to the enemy.(Alternatives may have a dead end.)
- The task matches a higher goal and is the most efficient one you can think of and perform. (covering fire instead of accurate targeting to support mates maybe better than killing)
- The enemy will have trouble to interrupting you. (double check if the task recues the enemies options of actions)
Remember:
- The easiest way if always the most lethal one.
- The main goal is to stay alive and serve a higher goal.
- The enemy does not that different from you.
The clash leads always either (directly) into split up or into breaking contact(indirect split up).
Four events indicates the end of the clash phase:
1 - The enemy was fought off by killing.
That will always lead to a split up.
2 - Your breaking up with the enemy
If you feel that the enemy is overwhelmingly strong or you cant stand a chance because the situation is very restrictive, dont be scared of breaking contact just to reach the goal.
Normaly this happens when pressure is too high. This will lead always into breaking contact.
3 - The enemy breaks up with you
Maybe you scared of the enemy by eliminating most of his effective options to plan a task. This always leads into breaking contact but performed by the enemy.
4 - You die
That will always lead to a split up with no options for task planing left.
It may appear that the higher goal can be served better than staying alive. If you see a very high value to risk you life to make the most benefit of it by risking to getting killed it maybe valit to sacrifice yourself. But this is very rare and used when there is nothing but dead end tasks. Then also the planing went basicly wrong and you have to rethink what happend.
Dont mistake dissappearing enemys as a split up. It may be a planed deception. A split up without on of those four events is very unusual in gaming and i consider this still as a contact where the clash was interrupted with a breaking contact maneuver.
Split up
The last phase of dealing with a contact.
Still not the time to rethink the whole events and result that happened just recently, you still focused on staying alive and remember that this phase, as any other, can be interrupted by a new opening or clash.
Get information about the situation you are facing now:
- Check your surrounding for signs of activity.
- Identify and managing resources left by checking your equipment and status of your teammates if this was not involved within a reacently performed task. Make sure eveything you need is ready or adapt with calculateable resources.
- Start planing a task to follow the higher goal again, prepare for the next contact and stay aware while performing this task.
Leave the split up phase with a good postprocessing to make sure you dont run into an ambush or at least be good prepared.(performing process)
Breaking Contact
When you reached this phase, no matter on which path, you try to stay alive, at least.
You will find yourself in a very dangerous situation where you or the enemy(depending on who started it) really wants to stay alive.
Most of the time it will be used to retreat and search for a better place to fight because the enemy is in advantage or to distract the opponent and quickly switch to another target area. Breaking contact is about building up new options for retreat by taking the enemys options by force.
You will notice alot of efforts in terms of suppressive fire, cutting of line of sights and slowing down the one who is in advantage.
First rule here: Never engage directly or chase a well planed and performed withdraw of enemy forces. That will lead to loosing resources without any use.
But this effort is not always shown. Sometimes because of a lack of knowledge and sometimes because a planed ambush is set up.
Second rule here: The enemy always shows his weakest points to use his strongest against you.
If he appears to run out of resources, expect to the the resources left used in the best way possible. If hes using grenades and devices only to hold you off, you must be a real threat. You do it the same way when you feel the pressure get to high, right?
Dont mistake excessive use of force to be a signal of withdrawing as a attemp to break contact.
And dont mistake a disapearing enemy with a fleeing one that has no options left.
Its better to let go then to run in a ambush without preperation.
Another reason breaking contact is used is to re-entering the clash, carrying the fight again and again to the enemy, gives you AND the enemy each time somewhat of reduced pressure and time to plan new initial tasks.
You also can counter a attemp of breaking contact with some actions. Most of the time the route the enemy wants to take is clear, he cant defend that route long so delaying his retreat forces him sooner or later to choose another route, if any left. Delaying enemy tasks is a good attemp to do that.
You have to risk a bit in this phase if you want to survive but its worth it most of the time.
The best way is to distract the enemy with something he will not expect or can handle with but be prepared of another contact awaiting you close by:
- You need a escape route first and make sure (if possible) the path is useable.
- A method that protects you fairly enough on this path.
- A moment where you can launch your break up.
- A clue how the enemy will react on it.
Ok thats so far. Iam tired now, maybe re-edeting some or alot things, dont know.
Hope you can make some use of it. If there are any questions, suggestions or criticism let me know.
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