Communications

Taking care of the first three things comes easy: COMMUNICATE. Let's look at two scenarios:

Scenario One: You're playing an allied soldier in dod_caen2, hiding out at the second flag. You spot two German soldiers heading into your alley, out to cap both the point you're at, and your first one. So, you rush in there, chuck a couple of grenades, and move in, only to find both of them not only survived, but two more came in while you were maneuvering into the alley. Before you can scream out, "KRAUTS!" you're riddled with more lead than the paint on the George Washington Bridge.

Not so fun, huh? Let's look at the second scenario.

Scenario Two:You're playing a German Leicht Infantry on dod_zafod, hanging out in the ground level of the castle, when you spot two guys crossing the bridge. You key your mic, and say, "We got two enemies coming into our castle, I'm gonna try and go after 'em, help if you can." As you start moving, you hear a sniper rifle go off, and one of the guys crossing drops to the ground, motionless. The other poor shmuck, spotting the sniper, starts popping off shots, while you move in, level your Kar 98 sight onto his head, and pull the trigger.

Much better. You see, if you hadn't called it in, that sniper up in your castle might not have had the chance to help you out, and, if you had died, probably would have been killed when they cleared the castle.

Wildcards

Sure, if you don't have a mic, it gets really hard to say that on your keyboard, but that's why DoD implemented Wildcards.

Wildcards are nifty shorthand terms that display your health, location, etc. I've seen entire sentences bound to one key, and with the touch of a button, "I'm at The Big Horse with 45 HP, and I need help!" pops up.

The following are wildcards I'm aware of:

Location: %l
ex.: "I'm hiding out at %l!" is seen by other players as, "I'm hiding out at (this location)!"

Health: %h
ex:"I've got %h health, and need some cover!" is seen as: "I've got 23 health, and need some cover!"

Class: %c
ex:"I’m a %c reporting in!" is seen as: "I'm a sniper reporting in!"

Last person you identified: %i
ex:"I’m with %i over here!" is seen as: "I’m with [LJ]Jeff over here!"

Health of the last person you identified: %r
ex:"%i has %r health left" is seen as: "[LJ]Jeff has 45 health left"

For best results, combine these wildcards and bind them to a key. For example, bring down the console and type:

bind m "say_team I'm a %c at %l with %h health, I need some backup!"

And every time you press M, your teammates will see "I'm a Sniper at Big Horse with 33 health, I need some backup!" Get it?

Being a Team Player

STAY TOGETHER. Sure, DoD makes no bonuses for group activity, ie, Front Line Force, but let's face it: there's a better chance the guy on the other side is gonna get hit if he's being shot by more than one person. With the exception of snipers, seasoned players -- and the occasional cheater -- wandering into the lion's den with out someone watching your back is tantamount to suicide -- DON'T DO IT.

Ideally, you would want to advance as a fireteam of four or five, but in the small-man groups of many DoD servers -- usually 18-20 per server – that means that a lot of ground is left unguarded. Generally, when I play, I try to go in groups of two or three, with a sniper watching over us -- our angel in the wings, if you will.

When I play as a sniper, I love to watch as groups of two or three advance all at once. If I could have my way, I'd smack them upside the head for being a tool. Many military institutions adopted the "Fire and Movement" concept for a reason. When one man moves up, the other should find some cover and watch the advancing player's back, so that if he drops, he can (hopefully) spot where it came from, tell the rest of his team, and keep the attacker occupied while his teamates come to help and/or flank him. I have seen this done to devastating effect.

Also, another thing: sure, getting the best score is the ideal aim of any player, but people should also remember: DoD is a TEAM game, not an INDIVIDUAL game. Sure, playing by these hints may not get you the highest score around, but if you play the game for your own score, you're playing for the wrong reason. Besides, if you play as a team, more often than not, you will get a decent score.

Lay of the Land

Knowing where everything is in the map is a BIG advantage. New players come into the DoD community everyday, and more often than not, they get killed because they walk into someplace a veteran would know not to venture into. For example, many n00bies walk into the fire alley of dod_thunder, only to get toasted, 'cause they didn't know the fire was there.

If you know all the routes of a map, it's very easy to get behind the enemy and waste them. Many a time have I taken an alternate route to the enemy's area, rounded the corner, and found the backs of 4-5 enemy troopers, and me with a full clip. They might as well have painted bull’s-eyes on their backs at that point.

This is also useful when a teammate calls in an enemy position. If you know 2 snipers are in the Bank/White House/Pillar building (yes, I've heard it called those things and more) in Caen2, then you don't look like such an idiot when you speak/type back, "Uhm, Where is that, exactly?"

Lastly, but not leastly, remember the first thing I told you: COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE. It's no good getting yourself killed and, by failing to inform your teammates where all this enemy fire is coming from, you helped your enemy get more kills. Not what you were hoping to do.