Enemy Territory - An Attempt to de-noobify
Hello and greetings. I'm Sphinx and if this is your first time to visit this site, thanks for checking it out, I appreciate it. I've been playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RtCW) for some time and, like many, have now started playing Enemy Territory.
This article is an attempt to help any new people along with the basic premise of Wolf and how the gameplay breaks down and more importantly, differs from other first person shooters you might have played such as straight up shooters like Quake, Doom, etc, and also how it differs from something like Counter-Strike which is still pretty popular.
I'm making some assumptions as you read this. First, you are not a complete newbie to FPS games. You know how to strafe and what I mean when I say something stupid like WASD keyboard layout. You are not an idiot and so I am not trying to cater to the lowest denominator. If you are a complete newbie to FPS, the only thing I can suggest is to read this now or later but continue to work on your basics like shooting and so forth.
I will also not go into great detail about the different classes of troops, the ranking system, and the experience system. If you need more information regarding that please visit this site. It appears he had to move the site and many of the images are gone. I don't have images right now but I just wanted to get this out.
Quick basics
There are five classes of troops: CovertOps, FieldOps, Soldiers, Engineers, and Medics. Each unit needs the other to win. A Medic can't build a bridge, a Soldier can't heal other units, and CovertOps are useless if no one utilizes the information they provide. Teamwork is the name of the game so you better get used to it or else you'll get nowhere.
Teamwork
So then, in the context of Enemy Territory, what is teamwork? Teamwork is basically helping each other out (well duh Sphinx, thanks for the brilliant insight). Let me expand a little bit on that. Say you get into the game and you join a team? Ok, so what class do you take? Well, first look at the Limbo menu (the L key by default). What's on your team now? If there's no FieldOps (ammo giver, artillery/airstrike caller) then take that. Someone's always screaming for ammo. Dishing out ammo is a great way to get experience.Too many FieldOps but not enough Engies? Then go Engie, plenty of stuff to do. This first test map (fueldump) will keep you plenty busy. You get the idea I'm sure. If something's not being used, go for it. Even if you aren't the best sniper, CovertOps isn't a bad thing to take either. Fortunately they give you the ability to carry a non-sniper rifle (the Paratroop rifle), as well as lay satchel charges to blow up objects, sneak around, steal uniforms, spot mines, and generally be a pain in the ass for the other team. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Let me state this though. If you still aren't sure what class to take or what to do, just go medic. Why? First, you'll always, and I mean ALWAYS be busy. Someone's always getting shot. Reviving them is easy and you don't even have to have the best ping to do it. Plus you're ensured to be much appreciated for your efforts (unless the person is a complete ass) and you'll almost always be in the thick of the action. If you really want to boost your medic skills, find a server with limited lives such as [id]Xian's or ND80's. The only difference between those two is that Friendly-Fire is off on Xian's and it's on with ND80's. Limited Lives means that you get X number of lives at the start of the match. If you die X number of times you're done for the match. However, if a med revives you before you tap out or are gibbed, hey no gib no foul and you're back in business.
Since this game requires teamwork, the lone wolf mentality of a game like Quake3 is highly discouraged. Working as a group, running in groups, and helping each other is what separates a good team from a bunch of people playing on the same team. This is why you also need a balance of class types. On offense you probably want to avoid the heavy weapons save for the panzerfaust. Perhaps when they get the mortar settings corrected you'll want that in your offensive fire team since FieldOps can spot for the mortar humpers but, if ET is anything like Wolf, heavy weapons are more of a pain than they're worth since on offense you want to move fast. Now again, though, FuelDump depends on the movement of the tank so the offense is limited to it's movement. In which case heavy weapons server some use.
As that last paragraph illustrates, there's a myriad of things to consider along with team balance. Just like in CS or Quake games you adjust to the terrain. I'm sure you wouldn't take the rocket launcher in close in battle or the shotgun in a more open map.
Spamming
Spamming messages completely suck. Right at the start of the map or right when you spawn don't spam "I NEED AMMO." Yes, we all do. Shut up. FieldOps can only dish out so much so please be patient. Besides which, IMO, if you're a medic and you're doing your job you'll probably be too busy reviving or dishing out ammo packs to be shooting back anyway. Get to work and keep your engies alive.
Playing
Ok, so you got the team thing down and you and your buds are ready to rock and roll. Army of One and all that stuff. Now you need to act like a team. You want to get somewhere or you want to prevent someone else from getting somewhere. This is where Enemy Territory gets interesting.
Each unit complements the whole and if you use the terrain right you should be able to give the other team a good running. Let's take an example from fueldump. This is just one example so bear with me on this. There's of course a thousand different variations. You're on the Axis and you have a team of eight. Let's say the team is pretty evenly mixed with 2 Medics, 1 Soldier, 2 FieldOps, 2 Engies, and 1 CovertOps. It never hurts to have more than one medic (as stated before). The Soldier has a mortar (I know the sightings don't work right just yet but bear with me).
So the game starts and you all head out to the first bridge. The CovertOps and FieldOps should lead the way. The CovertOps should try to pinpoint the enemy on the command map and from that the FieldOps could call in artillery strikes on where the enemy will be or appears to be going. Once the FieldOps does that, the mortar can then kick into action and begin laying down suppressive fire on that path of approach. Under that protection the engies could start laying mines either in the tank path or cross the river and try to plant on the other side or build the command post to increase everyone's recharge time. Or they could build the first tower and man the gun.
The Medics should be moving between teammates ensuring they have charged med bars and moving to suppress the enemy. The FieldOps should be refilling ammo packs and the CovertOps should continually try to sniper enemy stragglers and report the enemy location.
It honestly becomes very fluid and I know this description is hard to picture. Everyone's running everywhere and so forth but if you remember your goal and how you're part of a team then you should do fine.
If you're on a team that knows what it's doing it's a very good thing to see as the team works together to reach the final goal.
Anyway, hope this helps someone out there some.
