Squad Vehicles: Etiquette, Crewing & Server Rules

Vehicles are the most expensive things your team owns — in tickets, in respawn timers, and in arguments at main base. Most vehicle drama comes from unclear expectations, so here are ours, explicitly.

The economics in one paragraph

Losing a vehicle costs tickets (heavier = more) and starts a long respawn timer at main. A wasted logistics truck quietly loses more games than a missed tank shot ever will. This is why servers regulate vehicle use at all: one careless driver can spend the team’s resources faster than the rest of the team can earn them back.

Claiming vehicles on Command Squad

Simple and worth reading twice, because it differs between communities (Rule 7):

• First come, first serve. Physically crewing the vehicle is the claim.
• Squad names do not reserve vehicles. Naming your squad “MBT” doesn’t grant the tank — though it’s still a useful signal of intent that most players respect.
• No hoarding or spam claims. Take what you’ll actually use.

House specifics:

• Crew-locked vehicles (anything requiring the Crewman kit) need at least 2 crewmen — driver plus gunner, coordinating on comms. Exception: vehicles worth 5 tickets or fewer may be solo-crewed.
• MBTs must be crewed exclusively by crewman kits, and the squad leader must be one of the crew. Tanks are match-deciding assets; they get the strictest standard.

Ground vehicle etiquette

• Announce departures at main. A ten-second “anyone need a ride toward north point?” in local voice fills seats and makes friends.
• Passengers: get out when asked, gunners: talk. A silent gunner is a blind vehicle.
• Don’t take the logi for a joyride. Logistics trucks are the team’s supply line; if you take one, you’ve volunteered for a supply run. (Quietly running logistics is also the fastest way to earn a good reputation here.)
• Park like someone else needs the road. Because they do.
• If you lose a vehicle, say where and how — “BTR down, east river crossing, mines” turns your loss into the team’s intel.

Helicopter rules

Helicopters have their own section of the ruleset (Rule 8) because a helicopter is simultaneously the team’s best logistics tool and its most expensive way to make a crater:

• Practice on Jensen’s Range first. Genuinely expected of new pilots — crashes on the training range are free.
• Heli squads max out at 4 players, and the squad leader flies. That keeps the pilot on command net, where transport requests come from.
• Logistics and troop transport come first. Scouting is permitted only when the heli isn’t actively needed for supply or infantry runs.
• Infantry squads may take a heli when no dedicated heli squad exists — same rules apply.
• No heli ramming. It’s a griefing action here, not a technique.

The main-camping boundary

Vehicle players live closest to Rule 9, so know it: camping main is judged by intent, not distance. Staging to ambush vehicles leaving main, or mining their exits, is prohibited; pursuing a fight that started elsewhere is legitimate — but break contact once the vehicle reaches main protection. Firing indirect weapons from near main forfeits that protection. The reasoning (and examples) are in Rules Explained.

Learning vehicles the smart way

1. Start as a passenger, then a logistics driver, then a light-vehicle gunner. Each step teaches map routes and sightlines.
2. Take the Crewman kit only with a committed partner — crewing is a two-person conversation.
3. Fly empty on Jensen’s Range until landings are boring; then fly logistics on a seeding server where the sky is forgiving.
4. Ask in Discord — our vehicle regulars genuinely like teaching crews, and crewed nights happen regularly.