Topic: Tactics and Gameplay

[Mike Bobbitt]

Afghan Operations starts out fairly simple, but as you progress through the ranks, more options and features become available. The decisions you make can affect your gameplay and how successful you are.

Feel free to discuss the finer points of tactics here. E.G. is it better to increase your Combat Readiness max, or your initiative? Does the answer depend on how far along in the game you are?

[Petamocto]

Tip 1: Always take missions that give you a high ratio of experience gained vs CR spent.  For example, if there is a 2EG:2CR mission and a 3EG:2CR mission, of course take the one that gives you more experience for the same CR.

Tip 2: Going up a level will refill your CR metre, so try to time your metre running out just as you make it to the next level.  For example, it would be very inefficient to get 100/100 experience to the next level when you're at 28/30 CR because you'll only get 2 free CR.  What you could have done was the last time you emptied the CR metre (0/30) if you were at 98/100 for experience, make sure to come back online really soon when you can get that last push to get you to 100/100 experience, which will then give you 30/30 CR with 30 free CR.

Tip 3: It's all about the medals!!  Not just doing what it takes to earn them, but specifically reading what you need to get each one and then doing it.  For example, if a medal only requires you to own X number of things in your inventory, go out and buy lots of cheap stuff.

Combine those tips and you'll end up riding a wave of momentum going from level to CR to medal to level to CR to medal, etc.

[Mike Bobbitt]

Tip 2a: If you're already at 28/30 CR and about to level up, do something else with your CR so it's not wasted. E.G. tackle an insurgency or train on some equipment.

[Petamocto]

Excellent point.  And it would appear that not many people are taking advantage of that cycle.

If anyone else other than Mike and I are reading this, I can't stress enough how much you just keep that rotation going and the game just keeps skyrocketing.

Check out what you get for certain medals and do them, then take out the high-ratio missions, as Mike said use up all your points on useful things before upgrading your level on training or squashing insurgency, then when you get bumped up a level your metre fills up and you just keep repeating that cycle.

For example, one of the medals gives you a ton of Int points that gives you all sorts of VIPs to go after, and squashing the insurgency in CNS opens up a Shura mission that has a massive payoff.  Then you combine that with other tips like training with the tea it takes to do that mission so the probability of it succeeding gets higher and you're gold.

Then keep going back to check the medals, drain your meter, get promoted, etc.

[kratz]

Something to finally spend out MilPoints on 

After playing for 2.5 days, I've spent more MPS than I have made on the game (-1465).

[BYT Driver]

Do you have to keep the screen open in order to play???I did the start missions and now I'm back a square one on time~~

[Petamocto]

Well well well, it would seem that some more people have caught on to the tricks of the game!

Going to be much more interesting now 

[bdave]

Tip 3: It's all about the medals!!  Not just doing what it takes to earn them, but specifically reading what you need to get each one and then doing it.  For example, if a medal only requires you to own X number of things in your inventory, go out and buy lots of cheap stuff.

Combine those tips and you'll end up riding a wave of momentum going from level to CR to medal to level to CR to medal, etc.

Where can I see what I have to do to get medals?

[PuckChaser]

Level 4 opens the Medals tab. All of the requirements are on there. Progressive requirements for each medal (levels 1-5 on each) open as you complete the lower levels.

Though the Double Double sounds like something cheap and easy to buy to get one of the medals, wait. Level a few more times and buy tea. Its super useful for low CR and high CE missions in later levels.

[crooks.a]

Save your medal rewards that say "+x Max Combat Readiness for x hours" for when you are about to level up. You'll then have however many extra combat readiness for the set amount of hours.

Get CR with your Merit points, don't focus on initiative. The more CR you have, the faster you get points (as of writing this post, I get 1 point per 30ish minutes with 47 max CR).

[Petamocto]

Get CR with your Merit points, don't focus on initiative.

I agree early in the game, but there is an element of diminishing returns compared to what awaits you when you find Int later on.

Once your CR gets in the hundreds and you cash in the first medal that gives you 500 Int, you'll see how valuable Int is when you go after HVTs (it will get to the point where capturing one gives you 1000s of CE).

[crooks.a]

Yeah, sorry. I'll clarify on what I said there.

CR: A good one to increase. Increasing this essentially covers the other attributes (less AtD).

Initiative: If you increase CR then it replenishes faster, and at a better rate then buying one unit of initiative, so get CR (unless this has another use at later levels..?).

SA: Right now, my missions are all sitting at around 95% with 4 SA. Again, I'm not sure about higher levels, but I know that this isn't necessary for at least the first 5/6 levels.

Reputation: If your CR is high enough, then you'll generally be able to fight insurgency down to 0% in one go, so you won't need this.

Attention to Detail: Another good one to increase. This helps you get intelligence, and enough intel can get you tons of experience.

[PuckChaser]

CR, SA, and AtD should be the focus for low levels. SA especially if you're taken the Officer route, as you don't get the +20% mission success bonus.

[crooks.a]

Is SA fairly effective per point? I'm an officer with 4 SA and all of my operations are "Guaranteed (95%)" less one which is 92%.

[Petamocto]

Personally I haven't seen that much benefit to Reputation in the game, but I don't let it sit half-squashed for days either.

I don't start on one until I know I can get it in one level or two and then I go to town before I do whatever mission/HVT will push me over the edge.

So I don't think I even needed to spend 1 point on Rep so far.  We'll see later on if it becomes impossible to stop somewhere.

[crooks.a]

Yeah, and I've found that the insurgency level rises quite slowly, so if you don't manage to get it in one go, then you'll be able to finish it off after waiting a couple of hours.

[PuckChaser]

The gap is higher at once you get up over the 20s. I have 50 SA, and there's one mission in Gumbad that's at 71%. I haven't tested it yet, but I believe 1 SA gives you 1%. Keep in mind the training level of your equipment is going to help make sure you don't fail missions as well.

Once I had enough CR, and could get myself relatively close to leveling without blowing all my CR, I would spend the rest on training equipment, and save just enough to level.

I trained my Reputation twice, at the very beginning. Just blew all the CR I needed to and got the things to Locked Down. Going to open up a few more areas now though, as there are medal incentives that will really save CR and drop the insurgency.

[crooks.a]

Yeah, I trained Reputation 5 times, and initiative once at the start. I didn't know how useful they'd be, so I just trained on how useful they sounded.

[Trinity]

Is there a chart/formula that we can see for adding points to the CR?

Adding to it once it significantly reduced my CR, but other times I added to my CR in the PER and it appeared nothing happened.  If it doesn't give away any secrets could that be posted?


I maybe wrongly assumed the Beginners Luck medal incentive would not only increase the 10 CR for 12 hours, but it would also award the  10 CR points with the increase.  That didn't happen.  At which point what is the use unless you plan on using right before you level up. 

[PuckChaser]

Is there a chart/formula that we can see for adding points to the CR?

Adding to it once it significantly reduced my CR, but other times I added to my CR in the PER and it appeared nothing happened.  If it doesn't give away any secrets could that be posted?

Not quite sure what you mean, unless you're looking for a graph that covers Regen Time vs Total CR. Wouldn't be too hard to build, if Mr. Bobbitt would be willing to divulge if it's possible to max out CR and what that max value is.

I maybe wrongly assumed the Beginners Luck medal incentive would not only increase the 10 CR for 12 hours, but it would also award the  10 CR points with the increase.  That didn't happen.  At which point what is the use unless you plan on using right before you level up.

When it says "Max XXXXX for XX hours", that means your possible top end is artificially raised by that amount. If you got "+10 Situational Awareness", it would raise both the current and maximum amount of SA. Yes, I know SA doesn't deplete but I'm using it as an example as there are no +CR incentives.

[Mike Bobbitt]

The formula for CR regen is (sort of) simple. If you were at zero right now, in exactly 24 hours you would have regenerated back to full again.

The timer you see is how long until your next point regenerates.

So when you start, you have 10 CR. 24 hours / 10 = 2:24 to regenerate each point. As you increase your CR, that regen timer changes. Right now for example Trinity's CR max is 31. 24 hours / 31 = 46 minutes to regenerate each point.

Now Initiative changes this, it drops that 24 hour timer down by 1 minute for each point. So a user who has 60 initiative will completely regenerate their CR every 23 hours. Initiative tops out at 18 hours, so in theory if you hit that, you could regnerated from zero to max every 6 hours.

A final example:

Let's say you have 120 Max CR and 90 Initiative. We're now looking at
22.5 hours / 120 = 11 minutes, 15 seconds to regenerate each point.

Hopefully that makes sense!


Cheers
Mike

[PuckChaser]

Math makes my brain hurt. Good thing Microsoft Excel does math for me.

To make a simple calculator to figure out how Initiative will effect your CR regen, use the following forumla in Excel (A1 is CR, A2 is Initiative):

Code: [Select]

=(((24-(A2/60))/A1))*60
Initiative seems to only make more sense at the higher levels, however it still a better investment to use 5 Merit Points on CR than Initiative (the same gain in time made with Init for me would take 15 more Init or 3 levels). At the lower levels, its a huge difference: 7 mins off regen with +5 CR vs. 12 seconds off regen with +5 Init. That being said, I'll probably use the merit points from incentives to boost initiative later on to get the extra kick.

[ArmyVern]

Math makes my brain hurt. Good thing Microsoft Excel does math for me.

To make a simple calculator to figure out how Initiative will effect your CR regen, use the following forumla in Excel (A1 is CR, A2 is Initiative):

Code: [Select]

=(((24-(A2/60))/A1))*60
Initiative seems to only make more sense at the higher levels, however it still a better investment to use 5 Merit Points on CR than Initiative (the same gain in time made with Init for me would take 15 more Init or 3 levels). At the lower levels, its a huge difference: 7 mins off regen with +5 CR vs. 12 seconds off regen with +5 Init. That being said, I'll probably use the merit points from incentives to boost initiative later on to get the extra kick.

Good gawd ... the "code" bit is worse than math. 

How about you just email me your excel sheet??

Pretty please ... 

[PuckChaser]

Good gawd ... the "code" bit is worse than math. 

How about you just email me your excel sheet??

Pretty please ... 

No problem, I can't attach files using the Army.ca email format, so if you PM me your email I'll send the file to you tonight.

[ArmyVern]

No problem, I can't attach files using the Army.ca email format, so if you PM me your email I'll send the file to you tonight.

I am functionally illiterate when it comes to 'siggy' stuff.

 


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