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Squad XML
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Annex Guide
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Posted by Lhowon on Friday 30th of April 2010 at 11:15 PM
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This guide is a work in progress, as is the mission, but should be mostly correct.
Outline
Annex is a PVP game mode that seeks to provide accessible drop-in gameplay while retaining the tactical depth and teamwork that make for a compelling PVP experience. The Annex battlefield is one of combined arms where the whole arsenal of both sides can come into play. It is tactical choices made throughout the game on an individual level that determine the team's assets and capabilities.
Annex has both Vanilla and ACE mod versions. The ACE version requires ACE and ACEX.
Objectives
► Press space bar (the Commanding mode bind) to see a HUD icon appear over your current objective.
In Annex both teams fight for the same five objectives which are laid out in linear fashion. At the start of a match the two teams hold two objectives each and begin by fighting for the middle objective. When an objective is captured the successful team's spawn location is moved forward, to a position behind the objective they just captured. Conversely when a team loses an objective their spawn location is shifted back. Teams will never spawn on an objective that is being contested.
While the number of objectives always remains the same, with enough players on the server they dynamically spread out to provide a larger battlefield, with three different spacings in total.
   The three increments of objective spacing activated at different player counts, shown here on the Utes map (click to enlarge).
Both teams always have two goals (the neutral middle point at the start of a game excepted): to capture the enemy's objective and to defend their own. Because the objectives have to be captured in linear order there are never more than two objectives in play throughout the game.
All objectives have two parts: a smaller capture zone and a larger defend zone. To capture an objective simply stay in the capture zone until the timer on your HUD reaches zero. If the countdown stops this means that either the capture zone has been blocked by at least one enemy (any number in this area will halt the capture) or an equal or greater number of defenders are inside the defend zone (typically twice the radius of the attack zone) as there are attackers in the capture zone. If there are more attackers in the capture zone than defenders in the blocking zone the capture will continue.
A defender will know if they are successfully blocking a capture from the blinking objective name on the HUD - if it isn't visible and blinking they are not preventing capture and need to call in more help, or else move inside the capture zone to guarantee a block.
Respawning
► When dead you will enter the spectator mode, which allows you to spectate your teammates in first person view. Press space bar (the Commanding mode bind) to switch between players.
Players respawn in waves. These are in two parts: a timeout period where nothing happens, and the actual countdown to spawning. The number of squad members who are dead at the same time determines the length of the timeout period - if only one squad member is dead they will have to wait for the full 20 second timeout, but if two or more are dead they will skip straight to the 20 second countdown (these values are default and can be changed in the parameters).
 A dead player spectates an AI Grenadier with 10 seconds left to respawn.
If a player dies while one or more of their squad members is in the countdown phase they will join the same countdown and spawn at the same time. Similarly if a player is in timeout and a squad member dies the timeout will be cancelled and the countdown will start.
Voting
► Vehicles and personal weapons that have been successfully voted for or requested are generated when players respawn.
Voting is the way equipment and assets are generated in Annex. Players can both vote for a vehicle and request a personal weapon upgrade - until the vote is successful (this is when a vehicle the vote counted towards is spawned) the player will receive the weapon upgrade instead. After that and for as long as the vehicle remains active the upgrade will be discarded for the default weapon.
Votes on both teams are evaluated within squads. The votes of the eight players in a squad count only within that squad and do not influence the rest of the team. Every potential vehicle is worth 2 to 6 votes depending on its potency, so to get powerful assets squad members need to coordinate their voting.
 Press t (the Team switch bind) at any time to bring up your voting and options menu.
Vehicles are requested not by specific type but rather by purpose and ability. Players are given three options when requesting a vehicle: the vehicle's intended purpose, the desired attribute of the vehicle, and the position in the vehicle the player would like to occupy. A +[number] next to a voting option shows what other squad members have voted for. See the screenshot above for an example.
 Vehicles used in support can make an attack devastating.
The voting menu also displays the current vehicle (that is, only the vehicle your vote counted towards) in green text if it is being used, orange text if it is abandoned, and red text if it is destroyed but still 'active'. When a vehicle is spawned it is considered active for at least the next ten minutes, even if it is destroyed, so during that time your votes cannot count towards any new vehicles. After the ten minutes a vehicle is still considered active if it is being used (has players in it) and for a certain length of time after it has been abandoned.
Finally the voting menu also shows the expected vehicle - this calculates what vehicle, if any, will be spawned based on the current votes, allowing squads to modify their votes accordingly.
Squads & Scoring
► Press space bar (the Commanding mode bind) to have the names of the team-mates close to you appear on your HUD. Green names are players in your squad, purple names are other players on your team.
Teams are divided into squads of eight players. As each squad votes separately to the rest of the team squads must vote for the same options if they wish to acquire more powerful vehicles. This decision must be balanced against requesting weapon upgrades instead as both can make the difference between success and failure. Each squad is structured as follows (note that currently fire teams serve no purpose):
Squad 1
Fire Team 1: Grenadier, Automatic Rifleman, Rifleman, AT/AA Specialist
Fire Team 2: Grenadier, Automatic Rifleman, Rifleman, Designated Marksman
The first eight player slots make up the 1st squad, with this same pattern repeated exactly to define all subsequent (2nd, 3rd etc.) squads.
 Press i (the Multiplayer statistics bind) to see the scoreboard - this only works when you are dead.
To encourage teamwork scoring is earned individually and also by each squad collectively. When a player earns a point each of their squad mates receive a quarter of that value as well (note that the scoreboard rounds to the nearest whole number). For example if one player in the squad gains 8 points each other member of his squad will also receive 2 points.
Wounding
There is no medical system implemented in Annex. If a player considers their injuries too limiting to make fighting on worthwhile they may simply press Escape then click Respawn to return to the fray with their squad's next wave.
 War in Annex admits no mercy - kill or be killed!
Indirect Fire Control
The following is for now copied directly from a forum post: "If you switch to the map and hold down space [your CommandingMode bind] it will draw a ruler between the first and second points you click and show the angle between the two. If you're in an artillery crew position you only need to click once and it'll draw the ruler from your location to where you click and again show you the tangent, use the distance (metres) and tangent (mils 60/64) to set your tube azimuth and elevation. You can also request periodic radar registration of your outgoing rounds (via your action menu) and these will be tracked and their landings marked on your map."
Griefing
Team-killing is handled by a forgive system during the game. When a player is team-killed they are given the option to forgive or not forgive the player responsible. If they choose to forgive the team-kill will go unpunished. If they do not forgive the offending player will be informed when they are about to respawn that they have missed the current spawn wave because of their infraction.
When being not forgiven for a fourth time the offending player will be immediately slain, in addition to missing the next spawn wave, and this will continue for the rest of the match. On top of this all players lose 5 points every time they team-kill.
Spawn camping is limited by all players having spawn protection for 10-20 seconds after they spawn (this is by default and is configurable in the parameters).
Competitive Play
Annex by default is configured to play smoothly on a public server, but it is easily adapted to suit more competitive games, for example a match between clans or a competition. Here is a list of recommended parameters to make for a more punishing game, where every life matters, every asset must be used with care, and teamwork is essential:
Requisition Expiry: 20 Minutes
Wave Threshold: 4 Squad Members
Wave Timeout: 60 Seconds
Wave Countdown: 30 Seconds
Team-Kill Penalty: None
Teamspeak Plug-in: Required
AI Activation: None
All of these options are configurable in the mission parameters.
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