SVER Level 43 July 13, 2010

I haven’t played MAG in over a month. Red Dead Redemption has had my full attention but last night was MAG Monday in my gaming club. I was home so I logged on to play.

I thought it best to go through the training mission before I got on the battlefield since it has been awhile and I’ve forgotten what button does what on the controller. Training has improved 100%. Zipper finally created training that is useful.

Basic Training Screen

You start out by learning to crouch, go prone, jump and sprint.

Start of Basic Training in S.V.E.R.

Then you learn how to resupply your ammo and health. After that you are instructed to shoot mines with your primary weapon then your pistol. When I shot the first mine, it showed that I got 5 XP and 5 FRAGO XP. Cool! Little did I know that it doesn’t count toward your actual XP score.

Mission screen explains what the objectives are

Throwing grenades is next, followed by arming a charge on a gate to blow it up. Then you climb a ladder onto a bunker, jump off and repair a motor pool.

The last objective in training is to activate communications and you’ve completed the session.

This screen tells you all about the gear that you can use and how to use it.

Zipper has added descriptions for Missions, Gear and Leadership which would have been nice to have when I first started playing so I’d have some sort of inkling on what I’m supposed to be doing.

The Leadership screen explains the tools you have at your disposal if you're a squad leader, platoon leader or commanding officer.

 I also noticed that paratroopers have red triangles above them so it makes them easier to snipe at while they’re descending to the ground. I should know, I got sniped twice in a row. I moved my respawn location after that.

After I completed the training mission, I went into a Suppression mission to get used to playing before I started Sabotage or Domination. Good thing, because I wasn’t doing much killing at first.

As much as I like the SVER faction, I’ll be glad to get back to Raven because that’s the faction my gaming club has chosen. There were only 2 of us playing SVER last night. Everyone else was Raven. I still have a way to go before I hit level 60.

MAG – SVER Faction April 22, 2010

On Monday I deleted my Raven soldier then joined the S.V.E.R faction. Starting at level 1 was painful. No skill points, no useful gadgets and forced to use the default weapons. But surprisingly, the default assault rifle is pretty lethal. I got more kills in one game with that than I ever did using the Raven default AR.

One thing  that I noticed  after a few games, teamwork is better. Yesterday I played an Acquisition mission. It was the Corvus Research map attacking Raven. The squad leader announced right away what the plan was. He FRAGO’d everything as we went along. We made a quick sweep, taking every bunker, destroyed the Mortar Battery, AAA and Sensor Array and acquired both vehicles. It was amazing. Everyone worked together. People resuscitated you when you got hit instead of running past you like you weren’t there.  I have not experienced that at all after playing for nearly 3 months. Not even with the BPC. Yes, we all rez each other, but we’ve never swept through the map like that. At least not on the nights I played.

I’ve made it to level 17 in just 3 days. Right now my load out includes the Medical Kit with full resuscitation. I have the AG-94 assault rifle as my primary. I’m just shy of 400 kills to get my Assault Master Specialist Medal. I already got the Machine Gun Master Specialist Medal. You receive these medals by killing 1000 enemies.  And with my measly kills, it takes awhile.

There are 58 medals and 40 ribbons to achieve. I doubt I’ll get them all, but I’ll certainly try. I would imagine you’d have to play the game for a very long time to get every one of them. There are 38 trophies to be gotten. As much as I’d love to get the platinum, I doubt it will happen. But you never know.

MAG – Level 60 April 17, 2010

Yesterday I reached level 60 in the Raven faction. I can now switch to the  S.V.E.R faction which is the one I belong in, according to the short quiz I took on the Shadow War recruitment website. So we’ll see if my stats improve once I start playing.

I dread creating a new character. Starting over isn’t appealing. You lose all your skill points and have to use the default weapons until you get enough skill points to acquire better ones. But before I get a better weapon, I’ll get the medical kit and the ability to resuscitate. That’s the way to get lots of XP, resuscitating the wounded.

So on Monday, I’ll delete my Raven soldier and create my new S.V.E.R soldier. No other members of the BPC have switched to S.V.E.R. from Valor yet.  Some are waiting for others to reach level 60 and then switch. I may get a head start on them, but a handful will surpass me because they are better players than I. Doesn’t matter though, that’s one of the things that makes the BPC so beautiful, you don’t have to be an awesome player, we just enjoy playing together.

BPC MAG Night February 18, 2010

Well, the title says BPC MAG night, but really every night is MAG night. Probably until Battlefield Bad Company 2 comes out. I won’t be getting that one. I finished the first one in 5 hours and any game that I can finish in a day or even a week isn’t worth getting. That’s just me though.

I really need to start keeping track of what maps we play and whether we win or lose. Just for my benefit. I like stats, what can I say? We won a few games tonight. The first time for me winning several matches in one night. I am a level 26 now. I have 9 skill points I need to spend on something. I’ll do that tomorrow. I think I’ll try anti-personnel mines. That’s what they’re called in MAG. When I was in the Army we called them claymores, so I still call them that.

MAG Night February 17, 2010

Just finished playing a few Acquistion and Domination missions with my peeps. I applied for Squad Leader and luckily the first go around was in Acquisition. That was earlier today. Then this evening, we played a Domination round and oh no! I was Squad Leader. I am not comfortable with this mission playing grunt, and now I’ve got to lead the squad. Fortunately, my peeps helped me out, but I found it very confusing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do a few rounds of Sabotage and see if I get SL so I can practice. There’s only one Frago you can set, so it will be a little easier. However, I’ll be playing with random strangers and most likely foreigners who may or may not speak English. That’s okay by me.

Females in MAG February 15, 2010

I often wonder how many women actually play this game. There are at least 5 of us in the BPC who play it.

Two weeks ago I was playing in the afternoon with random players. When I’m playing alone I usually stick to Suppression or Sabotage. And I rarely use my mic when playing with random players. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you why. But I will anyway. harassment. Some guys just can’t help making a fool of themselves. “Hey, will you be my girlfriend?”   “Are you hot”?  Or they will run around trying to violate your character.

Anyway, I was playing a round of Sabotage and I was helping 3 or 4 guys defend objective A. One guy went down and I said “don’t bleed out, I’m a medic”. Another guy said “Wow, you are the first woman I’ve heard in this game.” I told him about the BPC and that a few of us play. He really didn’t say anything after that, but a few guys learned to call for me when they were down. And we won.

Last week me and a fellow BPC’er were playing in the afternoon. When the mission started, we were talking about strategy and a female voice chimed in. I couldn’t believe it! She was skilled in the game and knew it well. We all communicated well together, we healed each other, but with only 5 people in our squad, we lost. But we gave Valor a run for their money.

I hope to run into other females in game. And I have probably played with other females, but they weren’t using their mic. Understandably. I think it would be cool to have an all female squad. I can always hope.

Raven

I play in the Raven faction right now, mostly because the BPC voted on that faction. I took the quiz at http://www.jointheshadowwar.com and according to the results, I should be in the  S.V.E.R faction.

Now that I’ve had a couple weeks to play the game, I have to say, I really do enjoy it, but only if I’m playing with my clan. It’s more fun when you “know” the people you’re playing with. They support you even if you screw up. They help you out if you have questions. They don’t care what your K/D ratio is. Everyone is there just to have fun and if we win, great, if not, another time.

I find that when I’m playing during the afternoon, no one really communicates. I would say it’s because several nationalities are playing…French, German, Asian, Spanish speaking, and a couple others I’m not familiar with. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a jerk (American) who starts yelling and cussing because no one is doing what he wants them to. Not everyone speaks English. I wish people would keep that in mind before they curse and yell. It only gives American gamers a bad rep.

MAG January 25, 2010

Midnight tonight. There will be a frenzy at Wal-Mart of people buying this game. I pre-ordered it back in November from Amazon.com, so I won’t have it for a few days. Some members of the gaming group I belong to are taking the day off tomorrow to play it…all day and night long. It’s going to be the favorite game of this quarter among the group.

I think I’ll be the only one that won’t have it until next week, which means everyone will already out rank me and have more experience than I will. But I’m sure I’ll catch up. No, I won’t play every night, but maybe twice a week. Maybe more if anyone plays during the day.

MAG (Massive Action Game) is a First Person Shooter (FPS). I normally don’t like FPS, but I played the beta and it was exciting and frustrating. I had no idea what the heck the objective was and what I was supposed to be doing other than killing the enemies. Thank goodness I was playing with my gaming group instead of strangers. Ladies, I’ll say this now. If you like to play online games and you don’t belong to a group that plays together, then send me a message. I’ll tell you about the group I belong to. They are a fantastic, mature bunch of guys and gals.

I guess I’ll post again once I’ve had a chance to play.