Navy Seals: Covert Operations - Quickstart Guide

Introduction

The bywords of real SEAL team Commanders are equally applicable to playing Navy SEALs: Covert Operations. On the surface NS:CO may look familiar to fans of the fps realism genera, but NS:CO is something new, original and different! A hasty approach to just getting the game going and playing will almost certainly result in frustration and disappointment.

Navy SEALS: Covert Operations is not a difficult game to understand and play but it is different from what you may know from other fps realism shooters. With an emphasis on realism and player configuration NS:CO offers depth and realistic skill/class like variation that you won't find anywhere else. We recommend everyone reads the NS:CO Manual, but realize you are anxious to play so we've compiled the essentials you need to understand and know for basic effectiveness in this Quick Start Guide. This guide does not include basic or detailed game configuration, please see the included NS:CO documentation:
NS:CO Manual, Skill Instruction Sheet, CVAR Sheet, and Commands Reference Sheet.

KEEP READING: you will need to know and understand these essential features just to function in-game, so read on and save yourself a lot of time, frustrating experimentation, and dying.

TASS™ - Ability System

TASS™ or "Ability System" is the core element to NS:CO player configuration. Through TASS™ you configure your attributes and skills; different abilities give you skill in certain areas at the expense of others that are required to access and effectively use specific weapons, weapon attachments and equipment. You get a starting number of experience points (often abbreviated "XP"), and additional points are awarded for kills and achieving objectives at the end of each round. All players also get experience points for time in-game so game-play won't get imbalanced. If a game gets out of hand and sould get lamed or become imbalanced TASS™ will award extra points to the suffering team; the successful team and players will always lead in experience points by some small margin however.

TASS™ abilities and their effects include:

  • Accuracy effects your weapon control accuracy when moving and jumping; more accuracy points are required for certain weapons.
  • Strength effects your ability to control recoil and grenade throw range; more strength points are required for certain heavier weapons.
  • Stealth effects how much noise you make running, sprinting, jumping and climbing (see minimum requirement for using weapon supressors).
  • Stamina adjusts stamina and toughness, more stamina lets you sprint longer, recover faster and sustain more injury.
  • Technical adjusts your skill in handling grenades, bomb defuse and bandage times.

At the start of the game you must distribute your points to be effective; choose carefully! Starting points are limited by the server Administrator and at the beginning of a game you may feel very limited in certain abilities. Most players initially choose to put the bulk of their starting points in one area that best suits how they like to play. If there are specific weapons and attachments you want to use, select them in he weapons load-out to see the point requirements for those you are interested in (be sure you re-select the weapons and attachments you have enough points for or you will be loaded with game defaults in the next round).

Things to keep in mind:

  • Everyone has accurate single fire regardless of experience, but you need additional Accuracy and Strength to control full-auto and high power weapons.
  • Everyone can walk silently, but you need a good deal of Stealth to run silently, and even more to sprint silently.
  • All weapons, attachment and gear have realistic scale weight which will slow you down (dynamic total weight is displayed in Player Configuration).

Everyone will be more limited then you in some regards and more capable in others; this is one of the key challenges of NS:CO -- being mindful of your capabilities and limitations while staying cool under pressure to employ them decisively.

See the NS:CO Manual for more details about TASS™ and load-out integration, also check out the Skill Instruction Sheet for a detailed synopsis of of the TASS™ point structure.

Missions & Objectives

NS:CO rolls with variations on five basic mission scenarios, all must be completed within a time limit and move with the pace and pressure of real surgical SEAL and Tango covert operations.

Bomb Defuse (BOMB):

One team has the mission to place explosives in one of several strategic locations. The opposing team must either prevent the explosives from being placed or defuse them once placed. NS:CO has very realistic (high tension!) bomb defusing tools, you may use the defusing tool and your skill to trace correct wires to cut, but this takes time and lots of it if you lack sufficient Technical experience points. You may also choose to "guess" and cut wires before they are traced, but with unfortunate consequences for your team if the bomb timer runs out or you guess wrong!

VIP Secure (VIP-S):

One team has the mission of VIP protection for the duration of the round, the opposing team must assassinate the VIP; like all NS:CO and real SEAL missions you are under the pressure of time.

VIP Rescue (VIP-R):

One team has to escort the VIP to one or more extraction points.

Information Retrieval (INFO):

One team must recover one or more document cases to one or more extraction points, the other team must prevent the case from being retrieved. Only the team attempting the recovery can move the case.

Assault (ASSAULT):

Teams must control one or more areas of a map preventing members of the opposing team from entering for a set amount of time. The timers start as soon as one team enters the area, but will reset as soon as an opposing team member enters the area. All areas must be captured for one team to win. This mission has variations where only one or both teams may capture areas.

Combined Missions (COMPLEX):

Combined Missions have multiple mission elements integrated into one map, for example combining VIP-S & INFO on the Neighborhood map where the Tango team has a VIP and document case, and the VIP can both move and hide the case; The SEAL Team must assassinate the VIP and recover the case to their extraction point.

See the NS:CO Manual or the respective level briefing for level specific mission details.

Basic Tactics

Move and maneuver as you would in a real live fire situation.

NS:CO weapon performance is very much in scale with reality; getting hit is traumatic and quickly lethal; avoid it!. NS:CO's reaistic scale weapons and movement make aimed single fire the most effective means for dispatching the opposition; "spray & pray" and "full flow" supression tactics work realistically but are realistically less effective.

Don't "B-Line"!

The shortest rout from A to B in NS:CO is not a straight line, it's the path that gets you there alive. The effective use of cover is vital for your survival.

Use stealth...

...appropriate camouflage, terrain, and slow careful movement; don't contrast yourself against the sky or other large high contrast surfaces making a conspicuous target.

Listen,

NS:CO has very realistic surface, distance and directional sound, betraying your and enemy positions. Move carefully, if you hear enemy in your area, walk and silently stalk them, approach all corners, barriers and doors with extreme caution.

Use tactics appropriate to your abilities;

If you focus experience on weapon control through Accuracy and Strength at the expense of Speed you should play more defensively.
Speed and Stealth can make you an powerful raider but you need to be close and use surprise to successfully engage enemy.
Other combinations and concentrations enable similar tactical advantages that you should apply while yielding to your limitations.

Teamwork!

Teamwork is essential to mission success in NS:CO and two reletively unskilled playes working carefully as a team can overpower and beat players of greater skill that outnumber them but work as individuals and don't coordinate their efforts. NS:CO offers a very friendly and feature complete radio system that you can easily access and quickly setup completely through the in-game menus;
Do It! Setup your custom in-game radio menus so they are easy for you to use, and make a habit of using them; it's enormous fun and will make NS:CO game-play much more rewarding.

Be Patient, Try New Things, Team, Have Fun!

NS:CO has a learning curve that will reward your initiative and patience with some of the richest and most fun team focused game-play you can find in FPS Realism multi-player gaming! Most players are glad to help new players get acquainted but are often pretty deeply involved in game-play. If you have questions, wait till you have died or the end of the round and be patient for answers - many players have the message system turned off for all players but those on their team and may not even see what you're typing.
There are a lot of exciting NS:CO features not detailed in this Quick Start Guide;
for more help and exciting information about the future of NS:CO visit the NS:CO Forums, NS:CO Website,
read the NS:CO Manual, Skill Instruction Sheet, CVAR Sheet, and Commands Refrence Sheet.

[ www.ns-co.net | www.team-mirage.net | Written by hoak | Designed by Democritus ]