Outfits and you in PS2.

[Piper]

Bit of a dual purpose thread I guess.

First, a chance for old PS1'ers to describe, lament or wax lyrical about some of their former outfits and why they were the right (or wrong) fit for them as an individual.

Secondly a chance for me to have a crack at describing the kinds of outfits that existed in PS1 and are likely to exist in PS2 for those that haven't been in PS1, especially in its heyday. Now you might be an old hand at all things MMO' and therefore think Outfits are just like guilds in MMOrpG's or clans in small scale map based FPS's. While that's mostly true there are some oddities that make them stand apart I guess.

So...er...

1/ The Zerg-fit.

My first outfit was a Zergfit I guess, that is to say it was interested in being BIG and unwieldy as a result. To be fair at least the Outfit leader did actually send me a /tell asking if I'd like in, upto till that point I'd had nothing but blind spam invites.

The Zergfit isn't very organised, focused or likely to demand much from you. :p Teamspeak, if it exists will be very optional as will grouping with outfit mates. Chances are next to no one actually knows each other prior to being in it. Like random footzerging? Join a Zergfit today!

2/ The Ego-fit.

PS1, on Werner, had a few Egofit's that I remember. None of them looked that appealing to be in. Characteristics of one will be that it might well be named after the leaders character in some respect. It's likely to be very top down, with pretensions of quasi-military organization. In fact, think cult. :p Got a masochistic itch you just can't scratch? Egofit is for you!

3/ The Friend-fit.

The Friendfit will have a core of a few folks who actually know each other in the flesh, they tend to be small and rarely add new people to their ranks. Because of their small size they tend to be highly organised yet relaxed at the same time. My third and final outfit was a friendfit, and I enjoyed my time in it immensely.

4/ The "Elite"-fit.

The word "Elite" just rubs me up the wrong way. But my second outfit was sort of along those lines, but it had the good taste to be a bit more modest really. I ended up in it because I found myself always in the same place at the same time on the map as them, doing re-secures and opening up fresh cont's. Organised, but more open and without the Egofit top down structure. Teamspeak and squad play very much non optional. Some of my best gaming memories of PS1, in terms of organisation and general kicking of buttocks, were from this outfit.

5/ The No-fit.

The unwashed masses almost made an outfit of their own in PS1. Between /b (what looks like /yell in PS2) and those that got their command ranks up from random squad leading. If you just don't give a rats arse about an outfit, with 666 people per cont' at any given time on your side but not on Teamspeak you can still have a social enough game I bet.

Did I miss any? :)

[Atheosim]

You also have killwhore outfits who basically migrate to wherever the best farm is. You get in if you can make them a lot of squad exp.

[Piper]

You also have killwhore outfits who basically migrate to wherever the best farm is. You get in if you can make them a lot of squad exp.

Oh yup. I was very uninterested in my stats in PS1 (they were very uninteresting themselves, which helped :p) and always thought of kill'ores as more of the solitary type. Yet, you're right, they did sometimes come together in Whore-fits.

[p0intman]

so, first outfit i ever joined was D2A on Markov (http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=42990) right after launch. I got along well with a bunch of thier members, some of whom im still good friends with to this day. Then they opened a second division on Emerald and I moved over there to play NC. I stuck with them for a while, and left because I just had different goals at the time than zerging a lot. They weren't doing the same things I wanted to do. Good people though, and I always enjoy fighting with and against them. That was the largest zergfit I ever joined, but it was worth it.

Then eventually, I moved onto Forgotten Soldiers. Left after three weeks or so because again, they weren't doing what I wanted to do. Same with another couple outfits, though I remain good friends with many of them to this day. One of them was Army of 1 (http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=45218), I left when they went inactive after a while. They had some of the best tankers and ground transport guys ive ever ran with.

Then I joined Cerberus Company, stayed with them until late 2007. We did a lot of resecures, opened new conts and all of that fun stuff. Wele on Cyssor, and Igaluck on Ceryshen were our regular haunts. Cerberus Company no longer exists, many of its members are apart of other notable outfits, such as Delta Triad, Black Widow Company, and a few others.

I took a four year break in 2008 until 2011. Came back and joined S.A.S (http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=36685) until a month or two ago when it went inactive, like Cerb Co, SAS does resecures and all of that stuff. Good group of people and many of them I am still friends with today.

Today, I'm a member of the Praetorian Guard (http://www.planetside-universe.com/showthread.php?t=39606). Its a mobile infantry group that hits hard, moves fast, completes objectives and moves on. Its also pretty funny to be in vent with these guys.

What should you learn from this? JOIN A GODDAMN OUTFIT. Seriously. Its worth it.

[Emperor]

You sure jump around a lot, p0intman. :lol:

[AzureWatcher]

Are zerg-fits similar to those guilds from WoW and Co. that just invite random people to try and get as high a member count as possible?

If not, then I'm sure there will be these kinds of outfits as well.

[EVILPIG]

The 666th was very large and very organized. We ran many different divisions which coordinated and supported each other. A lot of people called us a "zergfit", but had no idea the level of organization we put on the battlefield. Each of our divisions basically did what other specialty outfits did, and had each other to lean on. We had a friendly open door policy and weeded out those who did not fit in or didn't want to follow the rules. Our Code of Conduct takes a moral high ground in gameplay and was the highest expectation we had of our members. We trained a lot of new players the basics of the game and promoted a casual, friendly environment. Were we elitists? Hell no, and proud of that. Did we have a lot of great players? Yes. Did we have a lot of noobs? Yes, and many of them grew up in the outfit and became much better players. We pretty much did it all in the game and after the first few years, we hung it up and just played on auto-pilot. BFRs were in the game and many players were leaving.

The 666th is rebuilding for Planetside 2. Many old school players are back and we've picked up a ton of very promising new blood (to Planetside).

[p0intman]

You sure jump around a lot, p0intman. :lol:

The ONLY outfit I've left before it went inactive or into hiberation where it wasn't viable anymore, was Forgotten Soldiers.

Are zerg-fits similar to those guilds from WoW and Co. that just invite random people to try and get as high a member count as possible?

If not, then I'm sure there will be these kinds of outfits as well.

Yes. For Example, Azure Twilight, Blue Lions, The 666th and Enclave are all (imo) examples of zergfits.

[Flaropri]

Got a masochistic itch you just can't scratch? Egofit is for you!

Or if you've got a sadistic itch, make one! :lol:

[GreatMazinkaise]

The 666th was very large and very organized. We ran many different divisions which coordinated and supported each other. A lot of people called us a "zergfit", but had no idea the level of organization we put on the battlefield.

Dude, by Markovian standards I'm pretty sure that the 666th is a zergfit. Maybe it's not D2A level zergfittery, but everything I've heard suggests that you yourself are a diamond in the less exceptional rough that is the 666th.

There were only ever three decent outfits on Markov, after all...

[Sephirex]

I'll be curious to see who's infrastructures hold up and are able to rebuild upon entry into Planetside 2.
Definitely going to be keeping my eye out for a friendly Vanu outfit.

[Blackwolf]

Ran with Wolf Brigade which was my first outfit and stayed with them for the first years of the game. Good group to hang out with, but not very disciplined or organized. We came up with objectives and took them down more often then not but it was more casual then tactical.

Second outfit I ran with was for a very short time before I quit playing all together. I forget the name but it was a dedicated sniper outfit with secondary air combat division forming. They grouped as many as 6 snipers together and took out MAX suits at range with BDs in very short order, not to mention infantry. The group was far more organized, with the air combat division flying in formation at all times out of combat. But PS was wearing on me by that time so I quit the game.

Both outfits were small and tightly knit groups that relied more on the core members then the rest of the group to keep the 'fit rolling though.

[EVILPIG]

Dude, by Markovian standards I'm pretty sure that the 666th is a zergfit. Maybe it's not D2A level zergfittery, but everything I've heard suggests that you yourself are a diamond in the less exceptional rough that is the 666th.

There were only ever three decent outfits on Markov, after all...

Oh, I understand that. I just know that "zergfit" implies no organization, and that was simply not the case. "Zerging" is actually throwing numbers at an enemy and well, it worked for Ghengis Kahn. lol

[Helwyr]

Did I miss any? :)

Solo stop-sending-me-invites-fit

I started out PS1 in no outfit, and ended up joining an outfit of a group of players I had played other MMOs with, they didn't stick around long in PS1 which left me alone in the Outfit, which was perfect. It was perfect, because as a player without an outfit you got spammed outfit invites all the time, worse you'd also get way more squad invites from players trying to gain Command Rank.. mostly players that had no business speaking in the command chats...and the game definitely didn't need more OS spam. Anyway, being in an outfit made most assume you were already in a squad and save you a gazillion invites.

I'm all for working for the common goals of my chosen Faction and listening to the natural leaders of the Faction (Ie not people just with a backpack and a mouth), but I don't want to be on voice, or feel compelled to play certain times or play in any other way than what I choose, and I see no point in grouping with a bunch of randoms, half of whom are probably 4th empire. So Solo stop-sending-me-invites-fit is what works for me. :)

[ringring]

Oh, I understand that. I just know that "zergfit" implies no organization, and that was simply not the case. "Zerging" is actually throwing numbers at an enemy and well, it worked for Ghengis Kahn. lol
You're quite right.

The term zergfit is a put down and not an accurate description of many of the larger outfits.

I used to get a little techy about it at one time, now I just think meh, if you don't know you don't know.

[Dart]

Yes. For Example, Azure Twilight, Blue Lions, The 666th and Enclave are all (imo) examples of zergfits.

Ugh oh... Now you've done it!! :rolleyes:

It's an interesting list but fairly subjective in my eyes. Now that's perfectly understandable since we can only interpret games through our own experiences but I'm not sure this has much use as an objective document with which you could categorize Outfits. For instance I'm sure some would consider our clan an Ego-fit (by your definition), yet if you played with us you'd know that wasn't the case. Others have described us as "killwhores" but contrary to the definition above we've always created our own fights and been against "whoring" someone else's 'farm'. Like you I'm not a massive fan of the word 'Elite' either so I wouldn't choose that designation.

Really I think most Outfits try to do the same thing - with whatever resources they have, by whatever means they most enjoy - they try to affect the game in a positive manner. Some are simply have more of an impact than others.

[Sunrock]

Well I have played online game now for... let me think... sens 1995-1996 so that will be 16-17 years now. All from different MUD, FPS and MMOs and I been in my fair share of different guilds, clans or what ever they are called in the game I was playing.

And none and all guilds can fit into what the description that the OP is giving. It is quite big generalization that can fit into any game on any server. If we are going to be honest most guilds are a mix of different things. You can have elitist friends and family guild. You can have a ego zerg guild and so on.

And your view of what type of guild also depends if you're in the guild, an ally or a rival. You might think outfit X is an elitis jerk guild because they are your rivals but those that are in outfit X think its a friends and family guild with good players.

[Dart]

Well I have played online game now for... let me think... sens 1995-1996 so that will be 16-17 years now. All from different MUD, FPS and MMOs and I been in my fair share of different guilds, clans or what ever they are called in the game I was playing.

And none and all guilds can fit into what the description that the OP is giving. It is quite big generalization that can fit into any game on any server. If we are going to be honest most guilds are a mix of different things. You can have elitist friends and family guild. You can have a ego zerg guild and so on.

And your view of what type of guild also depends if you're in the guild, an ally or a rival. You might think outfit X is an elitis jerk guild because they are your rivals but those that are in outfit X think its a friends and family guild with good players.

Outfits tend to differ from 'Guilds' due to the nature of PlanetSide. As the game is an MMOFPS you tend find groups have a particularly 'identity' which often defines the entire group. There are not many 'family/relaxed' Outfits which also have an 'elite' element.

In fact if you find yourself in a relaxed or social Outfit but realise you're more of an elite/hardcore player this tends to be the time when you start looking for a new Outfit. Having run both a large relaxed Outfit and a small competitive one I've seen players go both ways.

[Marinealver]

In outfits it is sort of hard to enforce a theme regulation. I think the one outfit that has done something like that is Azure Twilight which requires a MAX cert.

The first outfit joined required Magrider which wasn't verry well enforced and end up going defunct.
Then I joined another outfit because I saw them with a tripple gal drop. Well as time went on and pop started to die down (especially with the merger) I ended up going into an Allied outfit (if you could call it that because there is no official alliance in planetside.) as an outfit merger.

Well that outfit has had really low turnout and we end up joinging another outfit squad. So I am seing what are their PS2 plans if any before I choose to join another outfit. I really don't have enough time to commit to running my own outfit.

[Sunrock]

Outfits tend to differ from 'Guilds' due to the nature of PlanetSide. As the game is an MMOFPS you tend find groups have a particularly 'identity' which often defines the entire group. There are not many 'family/relaxed' Outfits which also have an 'elite' element.

In fact if you find yourself in a relaxed or social Outfit but realise you're more of an elite/hardcore player this tends to be the time when you start looking for a new Outfit. Having run both a large relaxed Outfit and a small competitive one I've seen players go both ways.

Yes I understand that most outfits act more like clans in FPS games then a guild in WoW for an example. But they are all made out of human players and we might think we all are unique snowflakes but we are not.

I think its best to brake down different players in three categories and the same wtih guilds.

Hardcore - This is the type of players that never miss an event, hang up to phone in his/her parter when in an event or take a rain check when some one wants to something outside of the game. They do what ever it takes to win or achieve that goal within the rules of the game.

Core - This is the players that are passionated about the game and play as mush as they can but would never forsake work, friends or family over the game.

Casual - This is the type of player that just play to kill some time while waiting for something better to do.

And what type of guild/clan/outfit it is depends on how many players they have of the three categories.

Sure this is a generalization too. There are differences here too. But if you know where you fit into this three categories you can find a outfit that suit you better. As the best outfit for you in PS2 is to find one where most players have the same play style and goals as you.

[Hamma]

A Zergfit for me anyway is an Outfit that invites like crazy w/o much in the way of screening anyone. Has nothing to do with their level of organization (at least for me anyway) a Zergfit can be organized they just invite everyone under the sun and kick those who refuse to be organized.