I'm a brand new player to the series, starting with RS, and it seems like there's a lot of things that aren't explained in detail anywhere. Is there some sort of manual that explains the basics, like the differences between the various game modes and "difficulties", how leveling up works, suppression, giving ammo, etc.?
I don't want to be spamming chat when people are trying to play with basic questions if they're answered somewhere else in detail, but my search so far has just led me to many tactics/teamwork guides. While useful, they tend to focus on general concepts instead of explaining game mechanics with concrete numbers or definitions.
ex. When I go to give a Machinegunner ammo, where does the ammo come from? Do I carry extra ammo only for MGs? Do I give one magazine, or fully replenish? Can I get more if I run back to an ammo cache?
Any direction towards a manual or more detailed guides on the basic game mechanics/rules would be welcome. Thanks.
Surprisingly, while TWI tried to reach a bigger audience with RO2 (nb: this is a great thing when the game remains interesting and challenging), they forgot the most basic element: making it easier to learn how the game works.
The singleplayer campaign was supposed to play that role, but it barely covered the key elements of the game, while leaving tons of unexplained parts. And no complete guide was ever made.
A few elements are explained on the
official Tripwire Interactive wiki though.
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I'll try to explain the points you mentioned, I hope it will help some people.
A)
The various game modes:
1)
Territory: most played mode (by far), players have to capture zones (CZ) to win the map, respawns work in waves (with limited "reinforcements"/tickets depending on the map/playercount, at 0 no one can respawn but all living players can still win/lose the map).
Round only ends with full capture by a team, or time reaching 0, or overtime (need a capture going on) being over, or all players of a team being dead with no reinforcement left.
Territory comes in 2 flavours:
*
Standard Territory: both teams attack and defend, fighting over the currently active CZs (= not all CZ can be captured at any time - rule of thumb: the CZ adjacents to the front line).
Victory condition:
- full capture of all CZs.
- or which team has the most points (who held the most CZs most of the time) when the time/overtime is over.
*
Attack/Defend: one team has to attack, one team has to defend. On some maps capture-zone are paired (A-B, C-D, E-F), so defenders can recapture one of the two 'currently active' capture-zone, until the next 'row' is unlocked (when both CZ are captured and held by attackers at the same time).
Victory condition:
- Defenders win by holding at least 1 CZ (the last) when the time runs out.
- Attackers win by capturing all CZs.
2)
Multiplayer Campaign: strings together multiple maps (in Territory mode) in a grand campaign. Each team has "Combat Strength" points, spent attacking and defending sectors (= a sector hosts 1 or 2 maps). Winning/losing a map will determine how much "Combat Strength" points your team spent defending/attacking a sector. Holding territories grants you "Combat Strength" points (never enough to climb back though).
Victory condition:
- capturing all sectors.
- or, when both team do not have enough "Combat Strength" points to attack, the team holding the most sectors win.
3)
Countdown: much more slow paced and focused than Territory, very rarely played (very sadly), played best with less players.
One life per CZ (CZs are "mini-rounds"), and after a little time (can't remember the duration) the attacking commander can trigger (two times during the entire big-round) a reinforcement (a spawn wave, for all dead players).
After the attacking team won all CZ (mini-rounds), winning the round, or lost all its men (and reinforcements), or let the time run out, teams are swapped - defenders are now attacking.
The team who captured the most CZ (won the most mini-rounds) win the map. If there's a stalemate (regarding CZs), the fastest team wins.
4)
Firefight: TDM = spawn, move, kill/die,
rinse and repeat. Really only about the gunplay.
---
Realism level (aka "Difficulties"):
1)
Action: an attempt at opening RO2/RS to players coming from fast paced FPS (with unrestricted mobility), such as CoD or BF3. Movements and how the weapons are handled are not *that* far from the FPS previously mentioned, while still different. Might be a way to take a look at the game. Not really the "Red Orchestra" experience though.
2)
Realism: the default mode, as intended by Tripwire Interactive. The movements, weapons, features, etc are all balanced around the experience wanted by Tripwire Interactive. The most played mode, and the recommended mode for all new players.
3)
Classic: a mode later added to Red Orchestra 2, after most RO1 veterans left RO2 because the game went away from the slow paced tactical shooter formula, and took some historical liberties, for reasons that weren't really explained - many RO1 veterans suspecting not-so-ethical commercial motives (misleading BF3/CoD playerbase into buying the game).
The
Classic mode:
- removes all unlocks (nb: the PPSh gets its drum mag, bolt-action rifles get their bayonets, etc = historical accuracy)
- damages are instant (no bleeding mechanism, no bandage)
- no FOV zoom when "focusing", higher sway
- reduces the movement speed, increase the transition between sprint/shooting
- removes the "spawn on squad leader"
- no killcam
- delayed kill message (! very important for the game's tension !)
It results in much less "run and gun" behaviours among the players, and globally in a more tactical gameplay. Usually played on 1 or 2 high-population servers (and ~3 other less-populated servers).
Recommended for RO1 veterans, or anyone wanting the "real", deep Red Orchestra experience (after trying the "Realism" mode).
---
"how leveling up works"
There is two categories of leveling:
classes and
weapons.
1) To level up a
weapon, you need to make
kills.
It seems that since the release of Rising Storm, the amount of "points" you get per kill is much higher than before. Before RS, you needed around 1500 kills (nb: kills are rare in RO2) to unlock the main upgrade of a weapon = it took forever (in Countdown, each kill counted as 16 kills, but people almost never played CD). Just tried RS, it seems that 1 kill = 4 or 8 points now. Good news.
There is a stats page in the game (don't forget to select "Red Orchestra 2" or "Rising Storm" at the bottom to view the right stats).
2) To level up a
class, you need to play that class (and score
Team Points).
Every time you defend or attack a CZ, make an assist (= participate in a kill, but not get the final shot/blow), make a kill, save a teammate/Squad Leader/Commander, give ammo to MG, etc... you get
Team Points.
3) For both the Class and Weapon leveling, you'll still need a level of "
Honor"
Honor points are gained by earning Team Points, making kills from/into a CZ, and specific kills (protecting a Commander or a Squad Leader). Playing the game normally and being near the capture-zone should be enough for that.
nb: leveling up gives you small (but important) bonuses, they're visible in the stats menu.
nb
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