How to into RO.

[Mitchs98]

Seen many a player utterly fail at RO as of late, either due to them being new, randomly setting rules cause 'I da king', or them thinking it's like running cargo on any other server. Regardless of what the option is, you're probably doing something wrong/something to unnessacarily cause salt and/or hold up the game for others.

The RO rules don't cover everything, not by a long shot. This doesn't mean you should setup some arbitrary rules which will most likely end in you getting lynched by either command or the marines, such as standards getting ONLY bayonnets Imperial Guard style, passing out barrel chargers to literally everyone, giving every single standard that asks webbing before the medics/engis go first, reserving webbing for SLs and Specs when they already get it, the list could go on for days but these are just some I've seen.

Let's start off by the most problematic portion of being an RO.

Attachment Management

Yep, this is by FAR the most problematic thing to manage other than managing points, we'll get to that later.

Now, as much as you want to set up some kinda religion based upon you being the attachment god accepting offerings in turn for that glorious raillight, don't. Stick to these guidelines for maximum lynch free experience, otherwise you will most likely have pissed off marines getting the CO, XO, or MP to crawl your ass, and you don't want that do you?

For starters, no matter how much the standards/medics/anything not spec begs you, up to and including offering their left kidney, DO NOT GIVE OUT BARREL CHARGERS UNTIL THE SPECS GET ONE IF THEY WANT ONE. These things are hella expensive and should not be handed to Baldie McBaldson to attach to their service pistol/backup magnum, or god forbid a SMG. A spec with a charger can be the difference between round lost or round won if the spec is competent and doesn't decide to lel rush everything and get captured.

Next off, on the more common/cheaper attachments, it honestly wouldn't hurt to give three attachments to a marine IF they seem competent, or atleast dunt tlk lik dis or don't speak in chatspeak. You won't miss them, and you'll have a better equipped competent marine instead of some rambo jackoff that runs off 5 minutes into the round and wastes those precious attachments.

Next, webbing. The almighty debated topic of who gets it, give me it or riot, and MP HALP RO NO GIV WEBING. Now, as much as little Jimmy Johnson the cannon fodder standard wants a webbing to carry 3 more mags/a donk pocket/flares/his rock collection/what have you, don't give it to him unless all the medics and engineers have went first. Do NOT reserve webbings for SLs or specs, they literally don't need it, it comes standard in their vendors. Another option (Credit to voldirs for finding this out) is to direct squad engineers to maintence/engineering and it's storage to get webbing, this includes the good brown webbing that has 5 slots.

Next, as much as it may piss people off, one attachment type per person unless you have extras of whatever the person wants. They do not need two gyroscoped shotguns, they do not need back up attachments. Most of them won't live long enough to need them anyway, thus wasting attachments and having you waste points.

In short, follow the RO guidelines(as you should, it only takes like 3 seconds to read the plaque) and these extra rules for minimum salt and lynching, and your golden.

Point Management.

Short and sweet, don't order literally fifty crates of webbing or attachments, just don't. Marines that come late will just be outta luck, unless for some reason you gave someone other than a spec a barrel charger, in which case ORDER MORE IF THEY HAVE A SMARTGUN OR SNIPER otherwise, literally don't bother. They don't need a barrel charger on their M4, no matter what they say.

Always, ALWAYS get literally ALL the solid phoron you can beg for/trade your kidneys/steal/get fo free. Chuck them onto the supply shuttle and boom, enough points to last a LONG time. Secondly, why the hell are you ordering crates of weapons/helmets/flares/knives/ammo? You're just wasting points for more important things. Get off your lazy butt, get a crate, haul it to the prep room, and vend whatever you need outta the vendors. Only when those run dry should you order some from cargo. If it's helmets you need, get additional access to a prep rooms lockers/ask a engi to pop the door and shoot the lockers open at the shooting range/in the prep room.

You should NEVER be wasting points on spare weapons, I have never in the time I've been playing Alpha seen the vendors run out of ANY weapon except knives.

As much as you want to be a good little RO, don't order metal until engineering has none left to spare/engineering is non-exsistant. Do NOT order glass, there is literally no use for glass other than to annoy the hell out of people, it will get shot and broken withen 10 minutes flat.

As much fun as it would be to order wedding dresses and schoolgirl goldschlager, don't. That's honestly a good way to get a job ban in my perspective, and a waste of points. This is not goon/bay cargo, this is literally 100x more serious and if you fuck up and waste points it can lead to your execution/marine loss. Think before you order, don't stockpile literally everything only to find out it isn't needed at all.

Care Packages.

Now to the part where you are REALLY useful, what you were put on this ship to do, your life long dream incarnate. Well...at the least it's your damn job and you should know how to do it well, quickly, and efficiently. You should not be taking 30 minutes OR LONGER to get a simple order of helmets and a few mags of ammo, you really shouldn't.

What I did when I used to RO a bit, see, I'd have several care packages already prepared on the off chance the marines face combat, just like the normal army already has standard care packages in storage for air drop.

My care packages would include 2-3 backpacks off M4 ammo LABEL THESE OR YOUR /LOVELY/ CT WILL SHIP THEM ON THE SHUTTLE RANDMLY in one crate, repeat the same for SMG ammo in another, then again for shotgun shell boxes. Next prepare a crate of flares and helmets, chuck a knife or two in there if it'll fit. 6 helmets, and four flares. More helmets if possible, and a knife.

Lesser priority is a weapons crate, stuff 5 M4s, 3 shotguns, a smg or two, and a few side arms in a crate. Clearly label it backup weapons, and shove it into storage.

Store these away for a rainy day in your storage LABEL THEM, also have a few extra crates from other orders stored. It saves you from having to waste points ordering something random, or even an empty crate, just to get a supply drop done.

As for the sending, you have two options and either are viable, although the first is better unless by some god awful chance every single SL is dead and/or somehow there are no beacons left.

Notice those four little squares above crate storage? Those aren't just fancy floor tiles for your viewing pleasure, each one quite clearly corresponds to each squad. A is Alpha B is Bravo C is Charlie and D is Delta. Shove a crate over whatever squad the drop is supposed to go to and you're good, your job is done. Bitch at the squads respective overwatch to drop the crate, or in the event all bridge staff went SSD, break in, assume Overwatch, and drop the crate yourself. Be sure to notify the MP first unless you like getting tazed/killed/tossed down the disposals for crew amusement.

Second option, albeit the more dangerous one, can be a lot quicker than trying to worry with command actually doing their job. Notice that yellow hulking mech? It's not just for joy riding around the station like a badass and breaching to space, it also doubles as a cargo loader, and in the event of being boarded triples as a combat mech albeit poor unless you're skilled in operating it.

Your big yellow hulking friend is called a RIPLEY power loader, shy of your hand labeler it is the pride of the department. It can load TEN crates(Credit to voldirs for pointing this out) on it for transporting meaning this is a LOT quicker than sitting around waiting for command to do their job when you've already completed yours, load it in, yell at command to get you the dropship/MP/an SL and board.

Stomp your way into the FOB, clamp a few marines if they decide to shoot your ride, or maybe clamp that big black bitch failing at singing Opera mouth shut. Un-load that crate in the center of the FOB/wherever its safe and haul ass back to cargo, wish the marines good luck(most of them will need it) and hope you see their sorry asses again, they're the source of your paycheck.

Alright, I lied, there are three ways to do this but the third is by far the more dangerous. Grab an M4/Magnum, load all the crates your taking with you on the dropship, and pray to god the LZ is safer than a back road at 3 AM in the morning. Haul your ass and the crates into the center of the FOB, don't be afraid to shoot a few potshots at marines trying to harm intent past you and delay progress, also shoot that funky red thing RUNNING STRAIGHT AT YOU OH GOD WHY IS MY FACE BEING RA-, you get the picture. Get in, get out. Your job is now done, order some vodka and get drunk, and proceed to cry when you need the points later.

So, you have extra points or YAY BOOZE RUN.

Yea, no. If by some chance you've made it through the round long enough to send several if not dozens of care packages, provided you did everything I told you to do above and didn't waste points on a armor crate that only has THREE helmets, or an ammo crate, or weapons crate, then good job you can refer to this!

As much as you now may want to spend all those extra points on random things, don't. You will literally always need points, and ammo from those vendors in prep rooms will run dry eventually, they don't refill. Not to mention the specs in a squad, provided they didn't just take the B18 armor, will eventually need a supply drop of ammo, or in the case of a RL user, rockets.

The marines will also inevitably need mines and grenades too, it wouldn't hurt to have a crate of mines and grenades stored up, don't bother saving a crate of rockets the spec could very well be an idiot and die or their squad could abandon them and they get captured that way.

Now I know I said above to save up some crates for drops, this doesn't mean to save all of them. You should also make an effort to retrieve all crates you personally deliver. Why? These give even MORE extra points when sent back on the supply shuttle, giving you more points to go on a booze run be a useful RO.

With your competence and a bit of luck, the marines may just win. And yes, your role is pivitol to marine success. Not everyone is a super skilled marine player, they're gunna go through helmets like candy.

Don't forget to have your CT's brigged if they don't follow your orders/waste literally all your points. Order them to haul crates to and from the supply shuttle, bar them from ordering from the console. 9/10 a bad CT is the downfall to cargo, and ultimately the marines.

If you read this far, good job! Following these guidelines or improvising minorly from them, keyword: minorly, you can work to be the best damn RO you can be. But seriously, above all GET THAT PHORON!

[Voldirs]

Your big yellow hulking friend is called a RIPLEY power loader, shy of your hand labeler it is the pride of the department. It can load one(Or maybe more, been a while since I used it) crate on it for transporting

It can haul 10 crates. I use this to load empty crates to the shuttle as fast as I can.

Also, engies can get webbings from sulaco MT lockers. Even precious brown ones.

[Mitchs98]

It can haul 10 crates. I use this to load empty crates to the shuttle as fast as I can.

Also, engies can get webbings from sulaco MT lockers. Even precious brown ones.

O neat. Edited it with what you said, very nice.

Also finished it.

[WyattH]

Triggered by you saying there's no reason to order glass.

Glass is used in the circuit imprinter, protolathe and autolathe. You clearly havent been using your autolathe when you should.

Also it seems like no engineer knows this but you can refill your light replacers with glass, every 1 sheet of glass is 5 lights. No more need to deal with boxes of lightbulbs.
-however no one really needs tons of crates of glass since it still takes a bit to go through, unless engineering is actually using their RCD or research is making chem nades with large beakers.

[Mitchs98]

Triggered by you saying there's no reason to order glass.

Glass is used in the circuit imprinter, protolathe and autolathe. You clearly havent been using your autolathe when you should.

Also it seems like no engineer knows this but you can refill your light replacers with glass, every 1 sheet of glass is 5 lights. No more need to deal with boxes of lightbulbs.
-however no one really needs tons of crates of glass since it still takes a bit to go through, unless engineering is actually using their RCD or research is making chem nades with large beakers.

The guide is for marine use. For marines, there is no need to order glass at all really. Nor is there much use for it aside from what you said and the occasional lathe use.

I didn't include things for the rest of the ship, as they're less important.