Overview
I could not stand it any longer to see fresh recruits being led to the slaughter. In short, eight rules to stand up on your feet long enough to make it last. Quick reading, quick to understand. These tips never get told in flashy how-to-play youtube RS2 video’s.
Short introduction.
You spawn. You see bushes, grass, houses. Looks neat, doesn’t it? You start running to a direction you see other teammates running towards as well.
Before you know it, you black out and return in the spawn screen.
What did you do wrong?
You did not know the 8 rules of dodging death.
Rule 1. Get a grip.
1. Creating situational awareness.
Situational awareness is key to everything. It’s key to quickly understand the situation you are in and, as a consequence, which decisions to take.
When you spawn, always check your map where other teammates are, where most teammates are, where enemies are and where artillery is falling.
Bind the mapkey to ‘C’ and toggle crouch to ”left ctrl”. This way, you will always have the map close at your left hand to pop-up anytime you wish.
Also, use your ears. Enemies/threats reveal themselves long before you can see them in CQB. You will hear their footsteps and voices if you pay attention. You will often know their direction. Do not primarily rely on your sight. It’s the audio that can make you the deathdealer instead of the enemy.
It’s the mental picture that matters. Using ears and map are essential tools for this. And some imagination, ofcourse.
Rule 2. Be a goaldigger.
2. Creating a goal for yourself.
Using the map, plot a course to head to. RS2 maps have great detail, everything that is in the level is on the map. Study the terrain. Does it have good cover or not? What about concealment?
^
Head towards cross A, then cross B, then cross C(apzone), etcetera. The longest route to the objective is usually the safest.
^
If you do this, you can make yourself a route to follow. Preferably a route that has the most cover and has the least amount of threat to you. This is, ofcourse, always susceptible to change. As you never know where enemies may pop up or artillery may fall.
This rule is very important, not only because it makes the game more fun for you for creating purpose, but it also means you stay alive long enough to experience good gameplay. It intertwines with the next ‘headless chicken’ rule…
Rule 3. Quantity divides death.
3.Safety in numbers and the exposure divider.
It is true that there is safety in numbers. Check your map and see where the bulk of your teammates are. It’s usually the safest to be there. Do not follow the herd though. The herd often makes stupid decisions. It’s up to your decision making wether or not to benefit from any possible safety the herd can provide you.
The herd also functions as an ‘exposure divider’: the more teammates are present in your proximity, the less overall exposure you get. In other words: they share your chance to die, making the overall chance to die lower. In MMORPG’s this can be called ‘aggro’ or in other games ‘heat’. What exposure means in the context of this game, you can read in rule 8.
3b. Headless chicks have a tinderdate with death.
My experience is that in both RO2/RS1 and RS2 most players are running around like headless chickens with one direction: towards the enemy to make kills. They end up dead quickly.
DO NOT automatically/thoughtlessly follow other teammates, unless they are:
– high level squadleader
– in the capzone
Your primary goal should be: stay alive long enough to get you in the capzone. This requires more dedicated, independent critical thinking. Particularly in map plotting and communicating. Something that sounds like working the grey matter. In a game. Yuk. But it’s fun work nevertheless.
Rule 4. Smoking does not kill you. On the contrary.
4. Smoke grenades help you relax.
Use them. Run back. Then resupply. Then use them again. Throw them at the sides and flanks on coverless areas on the route towards the objective. Not in particular the front. Your teammates are already covering the front. Gazing through their ironsights.
Why smoke the sides and flanks? Because of rule 5.
Rule 5. Pythagoras ain’t got nothing on you.
5. The grim reaper is a diagonal geezer.
Death. It’s always present. You can only prolong it long enough in order to make it (your life) last.
Death is creeping from every angle. But has one favorite angle. It’s the diagonal angle.
8 out of 10 deaths are from bullets. Where do those bullets come from? Usually out of nowhere. Experience from RO1, RO2, RS1, RS2 learned me this: bullets that hurt you come from diagonal (and side-) angles.
Why from diagonal angles? Because diagonal angles give the best protection and stealth for the player sending you to your death. Therefore:
– always check your side angles. Enemies are always there. Always.
– check every bit of cover on the far flanks. Clear it with explosives, cleanse it with bullets.
Rule 6. Suppression suppresses death and a few words on the machinegunner.
6. Volume of fire is your friend. Suppressive fire is your best buddy.
”Eeeehw. Suppression. It rewards players that miss. Oh my god, so devoid of skill. So skillless. What a noobtool! ”
– players that die quickly and often, start to complain about the game and eventually limp back to CS:GO or CoD.
Suppression works marvelous if performed correctly. Particularly in squad cohesion. Shoot every bush and house (the bullets have a tendency of penetrating a great deal of materials, the M16 in particular) just to clear areas and help cover teammates.
Suppression is a misunderstood, hated scapegoat. It saves your life and that of your teammates.
There are resupply points dotted over every map where you can refill your ammo. They are there for a reason.
You have bullets. Lots of them. Many magazines even. Why not actually use them?
There is this thing called ”firing cover”.
When your squad/teammates move in, shoot the cover where the enemies may be or camp behind (which can be called ‘defending’). The cover at the sides is to be prefered because of the diagonal angles of death. Suppression helps messing up their aim and they will tend to keep their heads down while your squad/teammates move in.
6b. ‘But where do I fire? I do not see any enemies!’
You silly. Suppressive is not firing on enemies. It is firing at enemies. It’s firing on possible and known enemy locations. Mapknowledge, knowing where cover is helps a great deal in dealing succesful suppressive fire. It tells you where to fire.
God (TWI, AntiMatter games) did not gave you 160 bullets just to let them go to waste by dying. Fire them! Put your rifle on full auto. Burstfire. Make a bang while moving to the big old PTFO capzone!
Important note for machinegunners: when applying suppression, try to keep a small angle of field of fire. Because the wider your angle of field of fire, the bigger the angle in which the enemy sees you.
^
Suppressive fire often pays off for both you and your team
6c. Some notes on playing the machinegunner
If playing machinegunner your role is that of a supportrole. Meaning: you support your teammates in achieving things. Your (suppressive and covering-) fire will help your team to move up and/or secure capzones. This can be achieved in both a defending and attacking manner with mainly two options of ‘intentions’.
If your intention is to give suppression, keep your distance from the frontline at all times. This does not mean you should camp, it means you should frequently shift yourself from position to position along with the ever shifting frontline. A frontline even shifts continously if your team is struggling to cap one capzone. Keep refreshing your angles of fire and see the kills roll in.
Keeping distance from your firing positions also means that the possible first, second and third bullets that are fired at you are more likely to miss, which gives you more chance to duck behind cover and survive. See rule 8.
If playing machinegunner and your intention is to give covering fire and help cap or solidify territory gained by your team, run with the squadleader, (always keep teammates in front of you while moving up) install yourself in areas where the teammates ahead of you just recently killed enemies. Your role is valuable. Use prone alot.
Rule 7. The cautious capzone rambo.
7. When in capzone, be careful. Use all your ammo.
Far too many times I see players finally reaching the capzone. They start assaulting it like if it were CoD or Battlefield. They charge in like bulls. *TIK* That’s the sound of death grasping their ankle. Tripped a mine.
How to secure a capzone:
1. get yourself to a point from where you start, in or very near the capzone, behind or near hard cover. Sandbags are best cover.
2. From there, slowly creep up. Keep your angles tight. Shoot walls. Bullets go through them. Throw your grenades, this also cleans up any traps present. Then enter rooms crouching WHILST firing, like cutting a pie. Why fire while entering? Because enemies could have re-entered or are watching the room from a door opening after you have thrown grenades in. It also throws off their aim, thanks to the suppression effects. See the principle of using your ammo here? Do not worry about your ammo. A cache is always nearby to resupply.
2b. do not start firing if you see an enemy, Fire before you see the enemy. Try to anticipate possible enemy locations. Sound often gives their estimated position away. Ears before eyes.
3. Secured the chunk of capzone-area you wanted to secure and you are still capping? Good. Now it’s time to be the diagonal booger and find hard cover, install yourself, lay traps, defend and wait for the enemy to come to the capzone. Which leads us to the last point or rule. Rule 8.
Rule 8. The one and two -seconds rule.
8. One, two, … dead
So you are in decent cover. Behind some cozy sandbags watching the area. Peeking your head out with your boomstick. *CLANG*. You dead G.I. You go home in bag.
Common mistake to make. Players install themself, think they are in a decent camping position behind cover to farm kills. Looking at a wide stretch of relatively open terrain. Then, before they know it, they are back in spawn screen.
What did the player do wrong?
It’s very simple. The player exposed himself for too long.
RS2 is a dying simulator!!! So frustrating!
Well that’s because, RS2 is another type of game. It punishes long exposure times much more than any other type of shooter game.
Exposure time: ‘the duration in which you are exposed to the view of the enemy player’
And what you see, you can see shoot accurately. (more or less contrary to the valuable suppressive fire).
Every player in this game has to expose himself to be effective, it’s to get a good view on the battlefield. To see where enemies are, and where to shoot. Many players do not take the effort of getting back in cover after seeing something moving. This will prove to be fatal.
Rule of thumb: never expose yourself for longer than two full seconds. Never expose yourself longer than one second if your position is known and enemies are closing in.
Note: individual player effectiveness can only be pushed to the max by using rare, high level teamwork
Two seconds: the time needed for a player to accurately aim (holding breath, aligning ironsight and all that) at your exposed silhouette at range
One second: the time needed for an enemy player to quickfire at your silhouette closeby and for enemies faroff from firing positions (sniper, machinegunners) that roughly know your location.
The one and two second rules generally govern how firefights take place. This can roughly be divided in 3 steps:
1. Rest weapon on hard cover or shoulder weapon (bring ironsight up). Look and/or shoot for enemies, then get back behind cover.
All of this will have to take you 2 seconds max. Eager to make a kill? Tough luck. It’s better to survive in the capzone useful then useless to die again.
Furthermore, try to remember the 2 second rule when you are running/moving up from cover to cover. Try to set a route using your map that facilitates cover and leaves gaps that have about two seconds exposure time.
Bullets start whizzing by? Now you have come under, what we call, ‘under fire’.
Let me tell you: RESPECT THE BULLETS. I see many players NOT popping BACK into their cover when the first bullet starts hitting closeby. The second, third and fourth usually kills them. All this is usually taking place in a blink of an eye. Only quickly tapping the toggle crouch key or prone to use your cover can safe you here.
^Deployed machinegunners can use crouchkey to quickly get their head down, a not much used lifesaver
2. Relocate a few meters to keep the enemy guessing, then pop back up from your cover (so enemy player has to take the time to accurately re-aim to your exposed silhouette again)
3. And quickly start firing on enemies. All of this takes one second max. This is called taking ‘potshots‘. It’s a viable real life tactic that works in every other game as well. This game favors that playstyle the most. The ”left ctrl” button binded to toggle crouch will be your best friend here.
This exposure time is extremely short and you will often not be accurate (unless your hand-eye coordination and gametime in this game is top notch). Is this a bad thing? No. This keeps enemies at bay and as a plus, gives you a great experience of you actually being in a dangerous firefight, but more importantly:
YOU SURVIVE LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE YOUR LIFE LAST
Additional notes to dodge the grim reapers’ scythe.
– once you are in the capzone and you hear an attack helicopter or artillery incoming, GET UNDERGROUND. If no underground tunnel is there, get in a trench and PRONE. Crouching or standing will often send you flying into the air as a testdummy
– do not camp just in front of the capzone, a majority of the playerbase often tends to do this in the hunt for kills or because they are afraid to die if they move further. Enemy artillery will often fall just in front of the capzone (oh my, who would have guessed?) and you will be RPG food
– if clearing corners of houses, obstacles, push Q or E often (lean) while burst or autofiring. Death loves an exposured body
– do not worry about being stealthy silent that much unless you are deep in enemy territory, the enemy will often already roughly know where to expect you through the spotting plane and common knowledge from the natural flow of the Territory-gamemode and often not-that-large-maps
– try to not crouch-run unless the cover of terrain demands it. It is much slower than standing-running. The 1 and 2-seconds rule love standing-running.
– RS2 maps, just like the maps in RO2, are setup or made in such a way that capped objective zones are a great stepping stone towards the next objective. Use the cover of the former capped objective to move up as close as safely possible towards the next capzone.
– in this type of game (and in war), it’s not who’s the best shooter but who is the best thinker.
– always listen to your commander and squadleader. Even if he sends you into death. An honorable death is always paramount.