We have all seen the damage progress meter that’s displayed a target ship or POS, but I can tell you that if you’re looking at a targeted POS, you have much more time to study it. Sometimes you have to gauge how much shield or armor remains on a target, so here’s how you can estimate that pretty quickly.

The Targeting Icon

The first step in estimating their damage is to look at the hash marks on the frame around the target – not the damage progress meter itself. Depending on the brightness of the sky, the target frame is sometimes easier or more difficult to see. Here’s the target frame in false color:

The Targeting Frame

Notice how there are two vertical ticks surrounding the middle of the X axis on the target frame. Using the 20:20 vision of your mind’s eye, put an imaginary line right smack between these tick marks. This is the 50% spot. Notice that in this enlarged view, the damage meter no longer appears to provide a distinct boundary between red and grey. This is probably antialiasing (that’s a guess) and may not reflect real damage done to the target. If anyone has information about this, it might be helpful.

The 50% Point - Click to embiggen

The 25% and 75% Points - Click to embiggen

Zooming in even closer (and adding 1px gridlines) you can see some additional details. If you want to determine the amount of damage shown, you really just need to know what the two tick marks around the 50% spot indicate. If you count pixels, you’ll see that they’re between 6 and 7 px from the center line. Since the total width is 64px, we know that we could divide the meter into 10 equal parts if we could split it into 6.4 pixel divisions. We don’t need to go that far, however, since that information is enough to tell us that each of those tick marks are almost exactly 10% above and below the 50% spot.

In other words, those two ticks indicate the 40% and 60% spots on the damage meter. Once you know that, you can guesstimate the amount of shield or armor remaining on a target.

More Detail - Click to embiggen

* A: In this example, the shields are 2px above the 60% mark – which means there are approximately 63% shields remaining.

Gears of War 2 has been out for a few months, and one of the game modes that I’ve been having the most fun with is Hoard. My friends and I like playing co-op, and this is Epic’s take on what’s known in other games as Defend.
Think of it like this – you’re going to be outnumbered, greatly outnumbered, by increasingly hostile and effective opponents, and you and your friends need to find a way to survive. We’ve played through a number of times, and here are some strategies that may help you and your friends do just that.

Work as a Team

This goes without saying, but that can lead gamers to sometimes forget one of the basic rules of defensive play: Teams are stronger than their individual players. Maybe it’s a gestalt thing, but it’s true. Good communication with your mates, knowing where everyone is looking, coordinating movement to contact and concentrating fire actually work. Use those 8 or 10 extra pairs of eyes and ears on your team to get intel you wouldn’t otherwise have. And whatever you do, try to stick together, yes?

Find a Defensible Position and Set Up Shop

If you’re working together, your entire team should move to a location that is most easily defended. This is easier on some maps than others, but look for spots that have cover, long sight lines, and as few potential directions of attack. On some maps, like Gold Rush (from the combustible pack) there are spots that force the horde to attack from one direction. The balconies on Day One are pretty easily defended if you can keep your head down and watch for Locust getting directly beneath you. In genera, getting attacked from one direction is better than getting it from 2. And getting it from 2 is better than getting it from 3 – you get the idea.

Find Ways to Slow Your Enemy

The AI in Gears of War 2 is pretty sophisticated, but it’s not really smarter than you are. There are some things you can count on. For example, if you put enough fire on an enemy or a group of enemies, they’ll look for cover. This works for most light enemies, but even Maulers will take cover behind their shields and slow down if you’re firing on them. Most of the other Boomer class Locust (Boomers, Grinders, Flamers, and Butchers) will keep on advancing, and I believe Bloodmounts also don’t care too much about the pitiful bullets you’re sending at them.

You can also set traps using explosive and ink grenades at bottlenecks and along obvious attack paths. Do this at the beginning of the round and you may halt a flanking attack.

Another way to slow the advancing hoard is to collect the shields dropped by defeated Maulers and plant them in the ground. This is, I believe, the only way to actually obstruct the enemy. A couple shields placed at key locations on a ramp or stairway can cause a nice bottleneck that you can exploit with concentrated fire – after all you’re still playing as a team, right? One thing to remember is that any planted shields (and other dropped weapons) will disappear about 15 seconds into a new round, so be quick about grabbing a shield or two as the round starts, and then replant it after the timer has elapsed.

Pick Up Weapons and Ammo

One of the things you’ll start noticing is that the hoard not only get stronger and more accurate, they also spawn bigger and badder weapons as each block of 10 rounds progresses. By round 4 or 5 (of each 10-round block) you’ll be fighting boomers and grinders, and by 7 or 8 you’ll see Kantus and Theron Guards. Each of these enemies carries decent weapons, and you might do well to pick up a mulcher from a fallen grinder and turn its business end toward those damn Locust. Remember, fallen weapons will disappear shortly into each round, so you need to move fast to grab that nice torque bow before it vanishes.