Auto Assault How To: Convoys

Picture this, you’re cruising Highway 21 in your brand new Asteria M-2, all Tricked out, brimming with your new pulse laser and flamer, looking for trouble. The Scavs that trolled the southern portion of the highway were easy meat, and now you have the craving for something with more bite. Carving north, the highway winds into an ancient, rusting railway center called The Railyard, teeming with those ultra-militaristic brainwashed nutcases, The Corps. Now all of a sudden the infantry is a lot tougher, the tanks are meaner, and the helicopter gunships just made a call to INC mandatory.

These Corps guys aren’t that tough – maybe you need to change up tactics. Alternatively, maybe you just need some help. Don’t feel embarrassed by your dysfunction – it generally happens to nearly everyone. Auto Assault has a built-in mechanism that makes it easy to team up with people: the Convoy. Now, the Convoy is the term used for a pick-up group of players where you can share experience, money rewards and special loot amongst the other Convoy members, but since there are more of you, there’s a lot more destruction going on at once.

So how do you get in a Convoy? You can go around looking for one to join or you can start one yourself. There’s a specific radio channel for those looking to get into Convoys (channel #3, “LFC” – Looking For Convoy) through which you can transmit your pedigree (your class, level, etc.). You can also send out an automatic LFC signal by clicking on the LFC button at the bottom of the Convoy interface.

If someone is looking to add members to their Convoy, they should get in touch and after discussing a meeting place will invite you into the Convoy. When you get invited, a box will pop up detailing who is inviting and if you want to accept. In this case, don’t be rude – join up already.

Of course you can always make your own Convoy, since the purpose at this point isn’t being a Convoy of One. Now, the interface is actually slightly transparent in the UI; it’s on the upper right-hand side of the display but only appears if you put your mouse over it. Once you put your mouse over it, mouse over the upper right corner where there is a small icon for Convoy Options. All you have to do to invite someone is to click on their vehicle chassis (or their avatar if you are in a town), then click on the Convoy Options icon. A couple of menu items will pop up, though the only one you can currently use is “Invite to Convoy.” Click on it and that player will get invited. A message stating whether they accept or decline will show up in the chat.

If the player does accept, an icon of the player’s avatar will show up in the Convoy display on the upper right. As you add players, more icons will show up. Each icon also has bars displaying the vital statistics for that player. Players are essentially easy to manage, you can kick them out at any time by selecting the Icon, then Convoy Options and selecting “Kick from Convoy.”

Note that the invitation, kick, and leaving commands can also be typed in the chat interface – you don’t have to use the menu at all. For instance, if you want to invite someone to the Convoy, click on them, then type in /invite in chat. Very easy.

In future versions it’ll be even easier to join Convoys; you’ll be able to right-click on a player and invite them that way.

As a Convoy leader you choose what option to distribute Loot with in the Convoy Options menu. Currently there are two options: Distribute, which attempts to evenly distribute loot and clink across the convoy members, and Killer, which gives the loot to whoever makes the kill. This can be changed at any time through the Convoy interface.

Out in the Central Wastelands, you can see where all your Convoy members are via icons in the display and on the map, so you can always tell where your Convoy members are (if you’re on the same map). The icon and minimap color will also be in green, so you can tell them apart from the losers that aren’t in your Convoy. Now you can go out and really do some damage as part of a team. Don’t forget that some classes’ Battle Modes and skills give additional benefits to Convoys on a whole, so be sure to use ‘em if you got ‘em!

Not only do you have your own Convoy chat channel, you can actually talk to them. If you have a microphone-equipped computer, you can use the game’s built-in voice chat to communicate to your Convoy friends. Just hit the keypad delete button to transmit. You’ll soon be shocked to hear what your online buddies sound like. Better yet, you can even silence them by hitting the Mute button on their avatar icon if you feel your like your eardrums are about to explode.

If you don’t want to be in the Convoy any more, you can always “Leave Convoy” (you can also type /leave in the chat). If you happen to be the Convoy Leader, that position goes to the next person in the Convoy. Remember that Convoys are very basic pick-up groups and are not permanent in any way, shape or form – you can join and leave them as much as you want (but can only be in one Convoy at a time).

Now you can go take on those Corps whack-jobs. Just be sure to bring your Convoy buddies and lots of ammunition.

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