How "teamy" should teamwork be?

[Frank Lucker]

People just need to learn the role of their class and stick to it.

Beserkers should sit at the front, taking out clots, gorefasts, stalkers, FPs. Nobody else should be even alongside him. Yes, he'll get the most kills. So what.

Sharpshooters should be aiming for sirens and bloats (both easy one shot kills) primarily, followed by scrakes (still a one shot kill, but beserkers can deal with them easily so less threat), then crawlers (commandos should get these, but putting one HC shot into one makes for easy and useful kills). Only in a situation with none of those types should a sharpshooter even look at another type of zombie.

Firebugs should be igniting then ignoring everything (except FPs) at long range, trying not to fill the team's line of sight with flames too much.

Commandos should focus on crawlers (weak) and bloats (easy headshot) primarily, secondarily sirens (easy headshot too, but more health so easier for an SS) and stalkers (rarely a threat, but can be sometimes if not noticed). They should be completely ignoring FPs and scrakes.

Medics should be sitting behind the beserker, making sure he's alive. When no healing is required he should be picking off weaker zombies that are a threat to his beserker (crawlers, sirens, bloats).

Support specialists are pretty decent all round classes. Normally they should be aiming to cause the maximum possible damage with the least possible ammo. When the **** hits the fan they need to be ready to clear the entire area with grenades and hunting shotgun secondary blasts. What they should NOT be doing is charging out in front of the beserker to kill whore, throwing random grenades that achieve nothing but give the zombies a smokescreen, or trying to snipe with a shotgun. Definitely a class that doesn't have as much of a specific "right" way to play, but plenty of ways people can go wrong.

If everyone sticks to these roles there will be minimal wasted fire, given the nature of the overlapping and complementary roles. A friend and I typically play beserker and sharpshooter respectively, and by understanding our roles can generally (and with little difficulty) hold off a 6 man suicidal wave when the rest of the team (nigh inevitably) dies.

I agree with the above 100% but finding a server with a good bunch of players who consentrate on their class is quite difficult. 9 times out of ten if I find a random server it's full of greedy kill whores who straddle all forms of attack to maximise their kills.
Personally, if I see someone chasing down a potential kill with a katana I don't rape them of a chance to improve their beserker level by shooting the zombie before they get to it. If a player is taking care of a few zombies and has them under control I leave him to it and search out other zombies. I wish players would afford me the same courtesies but unfortunately this kind of behavior appears to be the norm.

With regards to team work; I think it's important to stick together as a team but don't all shoot in the same direction FFS.

 

[Dioxin]

imho I think the best way for teams to function would be in smaller groups.
2 roaming teams of 3 members, with each team having a Berserker/Support with Katana as a Front man, a Commando as Sweeper, plus another heavy damage dealer.
By roaming you keep the specimen density lower enabling much more fluid take downs, but still having sufficient fire-power to blast your way through if you start getting crowded (Blasting through as a means to keep mobile).
I see too many teams hole themselves up, tearing through ammo hitting nothing but air, and then once a big threat comes along they totally empty themselves into it, and then die to the clots and gorefasts behind!
If you are going to hole yourselves up, ensure everyone is able to contribute to the specimen take downs to spread ammo usage.

 

[DarkFenix]

I agree with the above 100% but finding a server with a good bunch of players who consentrate on their class is quite difficult. 9 times out of ten if I find a random server it's full of greedy kill whores who straddle all forms of attack to maximise their kills.
Personally, if I see someone chasing down a potential kill with a katana I don't rape them of a chance to improve their beserker level by shooting the zombie before they get to it. If a player is taking care of a few zombies and has them under control I leave him to it and search out other zombies. I wish players would afford me the same courtesies but unfortunately this kind of behavior appears to be the norm.

With regards to team work; I think it's important to stick together as a team but don't all shoot in the same direction FFS.

You're absolutely right, the average player is a kill-whoring twit with gristle between the ears, who will unload into anything and everything, running out of ammo before a suicidal wave is even half over, then *****es at you for money because they can't afford all their ammo from the trader. Fortunately for me a friend of mine runs two servers (one hard, one suicidal) and I tend to play with him on it a fair bit. Just by forming a beserker-sharpshooter pair we can basically deal with anything anyway. The other players, even if they have no comprehension of their role, just add weight in firepower, and if worst comes to worst, zombie food while we leg it.

 

[Oldih]

I wish players would afford me the same courtesies but unfortunately this kind of behavior appears to be the norm.

It is rather annoying in general.

There's few enemies in front of, let's say berserker, everyone starts shooting like it's the end of days. Then let's say there's few clots lined up against a sharpshooter with a crossbow, everyone starts shooting again like it's the end of days. Triple the amount of effect if there is decapped enemy running on the other side of the map.

Even more so annoying when everyone is having a linedancing competition in front of the enemies and basically racing who can dance beter than the other guy and keep fragging at the same time while everyone ignores the possible threat that might be coming from some other direction. I've seen once flesh pound taking entire team down on normal because they were too busy looking down one hallway instead of looking around and by the time they realized FP was there they were also sandwiched by clots and couldn't escape. It was quite amusing to watch though