SOCOM II FAQ/Guide

(Credit to IGN Boards)

Section 1—Basics
1.1------Controls
1.2------Interface
1.3------Menus
1.4------Online Etiquette
1.5------Voting/Muting
1.6------Rank Info
1.8------Troubleshooting

1.1 ------ Controls

D-Pad Left: Peek left
D-Pad Right: Peek right
D-Pad Up: Zoom in
D-Pad Down: Zoom out
Left analog stick: Move forward/backward; strafe left/right.
Right analog stick: Rotate left/right/up/down
X: Perform special actions (Rifle butt, Planting bombs, etc.)
Circle: Talk
Square: Jump
Triangle: Change body position (Stand, Crouch; Hold for prone)
L1: Primary weapon quick select
L2: Secondary weapon quick select
L3: Change fire mode (If you have Option Switched this may be
select)
R1: Fire gun, throw grenade, or place PNMmine/Claymores
R2: Display your inventory
R3: Force reload
SELECT: Display scoreboard (If you have Option Switched this may be R3)
START: Pause game and display Options.


1.2 ------ Interface ------

Shots Remaining: (Bottom left, just above the picture of your weapon)
This displays how many bullets you have left, how many bullets your gun can hold, and how
many magazines of bullets you have left.

Current Weapon: (Bottom Left)
This represents what gun you currently are equipped with.

Rate of Fire: (Bottom Left)
This will tell you what your current setting is. If there is 1 bullet shown, then you are in

single fire mode. Three bullets is Burst mode. And 4 bullets is full automatic.

Crosshairs: (Center)
These will show you where you are currently aiming. Look for little red arrows around them
to show you where shots are being fired.

Tactical Map: (Top Right)
If you look at your tactical map you should be able to see who has the bomb, and other
important landmarks.

Special Action Icon: (Bottom)
When you are close to something, such as a turret, or a door. You can press X to perform the
special action.

Countdown Timer: (Bottom Right)
This tells you how much time is left in the current round.

Headset Icon: (Bottom Right)
This is represented by a picture with people in it, and a number on the top left of it. That
number tells you how many people you can talk to. When you are dead the icon changes to a
skull.

Health: (Bottom Right)
This is represented by a green bar. When you are shot, or fall long distances your bar will
momentarily turn yellow as it loses the health. Then the health you have lost will remain
red; health you still have left is green.


1.3 ------ Menus ------

Friends Lists:
This is to help you manage your friends, people you meet online that you love playing with
and would love to know where they are. First, meet a player you want to add. Second, make
sure you are both online, and go on your screen to Friends List (on the SOCOM II Online Main
Menu) hit "Add New Friend" and type their name exactly how it is spelt (Do not
include clan names) and an authentication message will be sent to the other player. Once
he/she accepts it then you both appear on each others lists. There are some problems
reported but I have encountered none thus far. The list does support alternate letters, but
it is very hard to add someone to your list with alternate characters in their name.

Ignore Lists:
This is a lot easier then the friends list. Click on "IGNORE LIST", also on the SOCOM II
Online main menu. Click on Ignore, type the name in exactly how it is spelt (again, without
clan tags) and boom they are on your ignore list. Basically this means when/if you’re in the
same room together, he/she is automatically muted.

Clans:
Most of the clan system is handled like in S1—if you get an invite and you accept it then
you’re in. But the clan system is much more player friendly. There is no more need to create
a new name and add the clan tag (unless you want too of course). The clan tag appears in
Reddish color at the beginning of your name. This tag is not actually part of your name, so
when you add someone to your friends/ignore lists don’t type the clan tag with it. Clan tags
are limited to 3 letters. Also, by highlighting the "Clan" menu selection on SOCOM II
Online, you can see if your clan mates are on or not, and see where they are. Leaders can do
the usual, but now clan messages appear below server messages. Also, you no longer have to
be online to receive an invite.


1.4 ------ Online-Etiquette ------

Do not accuse someone of cheating because they killed you 3 times in a row, it happens
sometimes... sometimes its caused because of lag, that is neither your, nor his fault.
Sometimes it’s just because you plain old suck. It’s alright to get on you mic and be upset
about it, or even say that there was no way that just happened. But don't accuse someone of
cheating unless you are 400% sure. As of now the only real cheating is taking advantages of
glitches in the game, none of which are completely game altering.
Know when to stop trash talking... Its good to a point, but you have to know when to stop.
There comes a point when it stops being in good spirit, and just turns into being really
annoying.

Don't hog Giveaway points... Points such as on crossroads where you can blow the bomb, take
turns with someone else. Just because you start closest to the switch, does not mean that
you have the right to hit the switch every time.


1.5 ------ Voting/Muting ------

Voting is the same as in the last game, except now it takes 75% of the team to vote someone
off. Muting is achieved the same way as voting, except you pick "Mute On" and now whenever
they talk you won’t hear them (great for muting those 5 year olds screaming and singing
badly into the mic). Spectator support is also something new. Select "Watch Game" on the
briefing room lobby screen and then select your game. Some games require a password for
spectators.

Some have spectating disabled. Look on the Room Select screen in the briefing room lobby to
see if spectators are enabled and how many they are. If the max spectators is 0, watching is
disabled. If it asks for a password to connect when you want to spectate, it requires a
password. Also, people normally vote spectators out for lag reasons. Getting voted as a
spectator does NOT affect your rank.


1.6 ------ Rank Info ------

The SOCOM II Ranking system is based on the Chess Ranking system developed by Dr. Arpad Elo.
However, it is much more complex in order to take into consideration the SOCOM II game
format which has multiple players per team, multiple rounds, and individual performance
differences. Your score (as seen when you select a player from the Player Ranking Screen) is
the master value that tracks your relative ability vs. other players. ([link=http://www.
schaakbond.nl/rating/elopaper.html]Chess Ranking[/link])
The SOCOM II Ladder is just an indexing of every player's score (i.e. the player with the
highest score will be #1, the second highest #2, etc). Your position on this ladder
determines your ranking as indicated below:

ADMIRAL = Top 10 players
CAPTAIN = The next 5% of players
LT. COMMANDER = The next 25% of players
LIEUTENANT = The next 55% of players
ENSIGN = The remaining 15% of players

The first time you play SOCOM II online you start with 1000 points. If the highest ranked
Ensign does not have 1,000 points, you would be ranked as a Lieutenant before you even
played a round. Even though you have yet to
accumulate any statistics, you would have a better ranking than many players that have been
playing SOCOM II online because they may have lost games and died a lot while you have not.
The primary means to improve your score is by winning games (not rounds, full games). In
almost all cases, if you win a game your score will go up and if you lose a game your score
will go down. The following factors will effect
how large or small your score will move in any single game:
Relative strength of the teams: The scores of members of your team are compared
against the scores of the opponent's team to determine who is 'expected' to win. Winning
against stronger teams will increase your score faster while winning against weaker teams
will increase your Score much slower.

Number of players in the game: Full 16-player games have larger score moves than say
an 8-player games.

Number of rounds won by losing team: If you win by a sweep (i.e. winning the first 6
rounds in a best of 11 game), your score will go up more than if you just won by one round
(i.e. winning 6 rounds and losing 5 rounds in a best of 11 game).

Individual performance: Doing more to contribute to the victory like getting more
kills, having less deaths, rescuing hostages, creating breaches, destroying bases, etc. will
result in a larger personal score increase.  

1.8 ------ Trouble Shooting -----

If you are unable to get online, your best bet is first to unplug both your cable modem and
/or router. Plug them both back in and then restart your Playstation. It fixes the problem
90% of the time. If you are still unable to get online, call your provider.