Good Evening,
I thought I would go ahead and post my guide here for your reference: Please note that this is not intended to redirect, bash, cause drama, and or in any otherwise discourage the op from continuing his post. Furthermore, I welcome any additional information that can be provided. I don't go into detail with v1.3 because I don't feel it is necessary until the politicians (devs) deliver on their campaign promises.
The CIVI Guide
Written and compiled by SwampFox
Contributions by BJC
v1.6
The basic premise of using CIVIes as a tactical weapon is to reduce the Intel points accumulated by the enemy during the game. While there is no present way to visually verify or monitor the Intel points accumulated, there are some unscientific ways to guess. Below we will discuss different strategies to utilize CIVIes to their fullest potential.
Intel Points
As stated in the manual on page 12, it takes 150 Intel points for a cache to become known meaning that for all 5 caches to become known you need 750 Intel points. Now, using the formula of ?insurgent deaths x 2? you can somewhat guess as to how many Intel points the enemy has. Now, the reason I say ?x2? is because people come and go during a round causing the death count to fluctuate as well as CIVIes being arrested or martyred. It?s a crude method and has plenty of room for error. I have requested some kind of visible monitoring system to be put in place with either a console or ingame command. I have yet to see any response from the Devs. Lastly, Intel points will never go negative it always stops at 0. I base this on experience and loose monitoring of deaths.
How do I become a CIVI?
Let?s start off by being very clear on what a CIVI kit is. A CIVI kit is very different than a collaborator as the collaborators now have guns. When selecting a spawn kit, it is extremely important to select based upon costume and your style of play. Example, if you select one of the top 3 (including officer), you will have a camo vest. If you pick the middle or last two kits, you will have a white shirt. If you pick the shotgun/scout kit, you will have a black shirt, blue pants, and red Nike shoes.
After you spawn, wait 15 seconds before attempting to drop your kit. If you try to drop your kit before 15 seconds, you will get an error message, and if you continue to try to drop it before the 15 seconds is up, eventually you will get a ?read the manual? error and have to wait for 2 minutes before you can try again. The best thing whenever you get the ?try again later? message is to pause, wait a few seconds, then try again. NOTE: If you have a squad mate that has already waited their 2 minutes for martyrdom, they can drop their CIVI kit for you but it will restart their timer. Do not move when dropping nor be near any other kit. Now, if you are moving and attempt to drop, it does drop the kit but you will need to back up to where you first attempted and then pick it up. CIVI kits are invisible so you must know where you attempted to drop your kit. After dropping your kit, you must wait 2 minutes before becoming ?martyr?able?. If you are still having issues, have one of your CIVI squad mates to drop their CIVI kit if they are willing for their martyr timer to reset.
Lastly, if you spawn with a collaborator kit, you can become a CIVI by simply dropping your kit. The only issue with this is that you will not be able to swim in any water. This is the main reason I do not pick the collaborator kit.
MARTYR!
The parameters for becoming a martyr when you die are changing but these are the basic items you have to consider as of PR v1.2.1.
1. Wait for 2 minutes after dropping your kit, exiting a car, swapping kits (regardless of type), and being revived. Any of these actions restart your timer so be careful. Refer to page 26 of the manual. NOTE: The manual states that you will become a CIVI one minute after the above but I haven?t found that to be true.
2. Stay at least half a keypad distance from any friendly gun, in a car or not. The rule is 10 meters so make sure you are horizontally or vertically 10 meters away from any friendly gun when you die. The issue is the dying. If you are shot and are within 10 meters of a friendly gun, run away and die so you can martyr. Now, what I haven?t tested yet is a CIVI being in a car and if you are able to martyr next to it. My question is, does the car count as a weapon? ←- Still to be determined.
3. Now, please note that some consider this a bug, glitch, and/or exploit. Since there is no clear visual monitoring of Intel points, I am not sure as to what to call it. If you are wounded in anyway by enemy fire and are bleeding die (martyr) by, a) jumping off of a high building, b) running into barbwire, c) burning vehicle (NOTE: this burning vehicle must be native or static to the map and not a vehicle on fire as a result of gameplay.) d) going for a swim if you spawned as a collaborator (medic).
Enemy punishment for killing ?martyring? CIVIes.
The manual states on page 26 that the enemy will incur an increased spawn time - 120 seconds for each martyr kill with a 5 minute maximum. Now, the previous versions of the manual stated that if you killed 4 CIVIes within 10 minutes, you were executed. I have not found this to be entirely accurate and seen it more like within 5 minutes. If the enemy is revived instead before officially becoming ?dead dead?, the spawn time still stays with them and is enforced upon their next death.
Now the benefit for the insurgents for killing 4 CIVIes within 5 minutes is that the person is automatically executed. This is extremely beneficial to squads that work together with bomb cars. Example, enemy armor gunner kills 4 CIVIes and is executed. The armor is undefended and can be easily destroyed by a bomb car. I have only been able to get another squad to work with me on one occasion to successfully do this. A funny side note to this is that if a pilot kills 4 CIVIes, he is executed in the aircraft thus effectively destroying the air asset. On one round of Karbala, my CIVI squad brought Brennen down 4 times within one round.
Lastly, when causing a specialized enemy squad to lose one of their members for 5 minutes, you need to remember that most of these squads only have 2 or 4 people and are usually locked. What happens is that the amor usually returns to base to wait the 5 minutes for the gunner to respawn thus effectively taking the enemy armor off of the field of battle.
CIVI Tactics
Here are a few tactics I use to increase martyr effectiveness:
1. ?Clump? together on a rope or ladder and become as one for instant 4+ martyr deaths/enemy execution. One a ladder, to know if you are ?clumped? you will see the backside of your teammates teeth/gums. On a rope, it is a bit different, to ?clump? together and to know if you are ?as one?, your hands/arms will blink. The best method for ?clumping? on a rope is to go to the top and then re-enter the rope without moving up or down. Funny side note - on a round of Al Basrah [ODS] Noam killed 12 CIVIes on the hotel ladder giving him an instant -1200 score. I think he finished that round with a -2100 or something. Here is what a clump of 7 CIVIes on one ladder looks like:
2. Spread the love so to speak. Sometimes ?clumping? or grouping together defeats the purpose and sometimes causes mass arrests. Enemy that goes around the map by themselves will kill you on the spot most of the time.
3. I have heard of this working but it is very very difficult to do. Load up a ton of CIVIes in the back of a fake Gary and drive to the enemy. The enemy will freak because they think it is the real thing and kill it fast causing mass martyrdom. Now, the tricky part of this is to actually die from enemy fire and not vehicle splash damage. This is what makes this tactic extremely difficult.
4. Use high towers to play peekaboo with the enemy to entice them to shoot you. Works 90% of the time.
5. Act as if you are scared of being shot and the enemy will usually continue to fire at you causing martyrdom.
Make sure to build a FOB near your ?play? area so you can come back in soon. Also, while you can use the ingame clock, I have found it better to use a physical timepiece such as your own cell phone.
CIVI notes
As the SL of a CIVI squad, you can still call in area attacks and spot targets for the team but you cannot use your phone to deploy FOBS. A collaborator no longer has a phone.
If you can get a squad member to overwatch the group of CIVIes, that is the best way to avoid being arrested. The problem with this is that the overwatcher never has the attention span or focus that their job requires thus causing issues with this tactic. To avoid this lack of attention, have everyone in your squad spawn in as a medic and determine who will stay CIVI and who will stay medic. Walk together so that the medics are within gunshot of the specialists so they can kill him.
Jumping off of a building or other high perch and ?martyring? on an occupied enemy vehicle will cause a martyr death punishing the driver.
Being roadkilled by any enemy vehicle will cause martyrdom.
Even if you are shot with a shotgun but are only bleeding, you can martyr.
All CIVI kits have no head dressing such as a turban. The only variance to this is the fact that the collaborator kit doesn?t as well. This has caused me to think that if people take notice of this that I should start using the white shirt spawn kits to fool them.
CIVI kits and martyrdom is faction based not map type based. This means that HAMAS and Iraqi factions can be CIVIes.
IDF and French factions are very limited in the area of arresting. IDF can only arrest with a few number of kits such as the specialist, AR, Machine Gunner, sniper, and crewmen kits. French only have crewman, AR, Machine Gunner, and specialists. The French sniper may have zip-ties as well but I haven?t verified this. This makes playing maps that have these as your opposing faction fun as you can fist fight the enemy. It takes around 5 punches to kill an enemy.
I read somewhere that the ziptie arrest method has a 3 meter reach. Remember that all of the British and U.S. forces have zipties. I have also heard that you can start your punch and then run towards the enemy causing a lunging effect allowing you to successfully punch an enemy.
Laying down on enemy armor as a CIVI especially where the turret turns is a great way to martyr. When the turret turns or if you?re near the gun when it fires, you will martyr.
While the manual still states on page 26 that it only takes one minute to become a martyr?able CIVI, this is not true and it is 2 minutes in reality.
The Insurgents have binoculars while the HAMAS kits do not.
The manual states on page 26 that if a CIVI commits suicide they are consider arrested. I believe that this only applies to you actually selecting the button of suiciding. Since there is no visual method of monitoring the Intel points, I am not sure about the validity of this.
Page 26 also states that any Insurgent can be arrested with a shotgun or zipties. It only uses the word Insurgent and does not indicate whether or not the Insurgent is armed or not.
CIVIes cannot overrun a spawn nor cap a flag. This used to be true but I am not so sure anymore. On one round of Asad Kahl, my whole ?CIVI? squad cap?ed the first flag so I don?t know that this is a fact anymore.
If you are doing the ?bait and switch? tactic with the medic kit, you will need to know which armor has rear and which one has top exits. The Scimitar has a top exit so do not jump around on top of a Scimitar as the driver can jump out and arrest you before you can do anything.
Untested and Unverified
When playing on Gaza and Marlin a day ago, I got into a fist fight with an enemy soldier. They dropped their kit to fist fight me. They had shot me before this so I was bleeding both times before they dropped their kit. When they dropped their kit, I picked it up and killed them. I dropped the kit and then waited my 2 minutes and tried to martyr. It would not allow me.
Another thing that I think may restart the timer but I?m not sure is that if you use a patch dropped by someone else, it may cause the martyr timer to reset.
If a blufor soldier kills civies and martyrs 2 or 3 and then dies himself but 2 or 3 more civies haven't finished martyring yet from his shots. They martyr, so what happens to the spawn time in the following two scenarios?
A) He is just wounded but hasn't given up yet before the extra 2 or 3 civies martyr. Will the additional martyrs add to his spawn time when he gives up or will they roll over to the next time he dies?
B) He goes dead dead before the last 2 or 3 civies martyr, since the timer is already set for his current spawn time, will the additional / punishment spawn time roll over to the next time he dies?
Conclusion
People find this type of gameplay as very entertaining and relaxing. I have found renewed interest in playing Insurgency by using CIVIes, in fact, I?ve almost become a Insurgency whore.
We will update this document with any new findings as this game evolves.
-SwampFox
So keep writing! Might find some good things here to use.