What this is about
A mission loadout is the equipment for a kind of operation, not for one particular evening. With four base loadouts you pack in two minutes instead of twenty – and forget less.
Preparation
The operation checklist is the starting point: armour, weapon, ammunition, medical, tools, comms. A loadout is a filled-in checklist you remember.
Pack before the meeting, not at the ship. Packing at the ship holds the group up and makes you forget exactly what you usually carry.
Tasks and roles
Not everyone in the team packs the same. Four roles, four emphases:
- Point: handy weapon, little weight, light.
- Cover: weapon with more range, more ammunition.
- Medic: medical first, weapon second – see healing / medical.
- Lead: inconspicuous, comms secure, enough ammunition to hold out.
Whoever takes everything is slow – and indoors speed is half the job.
Equipment
Four base loadouts:
- Bunker/interior. Short weapon, medium armour, light, plenty of medical. You do not need range indoors.
- Open ground/outdoors. Longer weapon, optics, less medical, more ammunition.
- Zero-G / wreck. Sealed armour, oxygen in view, handy weapon – see zero-G FPS.
- Escort/security. Light, enduring, plenty of ammunition, little baggage: you wait more than you fight.
The values for armour, backpacks and undersuits are in tables from the game data in armour, the weapons in understanding weapons.
Inventory, helmet, visor, light and weapon selection – the functions you use to get at your equipment during an operation.
| Game action | Default keyboard/mouse | Default joystick | Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flashlight (Toggle) | T | not bound by default | toggle |
| Helmet (Equip) | Left Alt + H | not bound by default | toggle |
| Wipe Helmet Visor | Left Alt + X | not bound by default | single press |
| Toggle Inventory (short press) | I | not bound by default | toggle |
| use | E | not bound by default | single press |
| Firearm - Attack | Mouse left | not bound by default | hold |
| Aim Down Sight | Mouse right | not bound by default | hold |
| Reload | R | not bound by default | single press |
| Change Fire Mode | B | not bound by default | single press |
| Holster Weapon | R | not bound by default | toggle |
| Weapon Select Radial Menu | 1 | not bound by default | hold |
Game default binding, game version 4.10.0-hotfix (55227). If you rebound it yourself, your binding applies.
HOTAS/HOSAS: the joystick column is the default binding of ONE stick. On two sticks you assign pitch, yaw, roll and lateral strafe yourself – which axis a manoeuvre needs is listed in the HOTAS / HOSAS section.
Sequence
- Determine the kind of operation. One of the four above – not “we will see”.
- Pack the loadout. By checklist, before the meeting.
- Cross-check briefly. In the team, one sentence per person: “I have short, medium armour, four medpens.”
- Close the gaps. If nobody has medical, sort it now, not in the bunker.
- Debrief after the operation. What was missing, what was unnecessary?
- Goal
- Pack a loadout for a specific operation and afterwards check what was missing.
- Preparation
- A planned operation, the [operation checklist](hub:guide.fps-einsatz-checkliste), access to your storage.
- Task
- Pack before the operation using the checklist and note what you take. After the operation everyone notes: what did I not need, and what was missing? Next time change only these two points.
- Success criterion
- After two operations you have a loadout where nothing is missing and nothing goes unused.
- Partner
- required
- Functions needed
- Flashlight (Toggle)
- Helmet (Equip)
- Wipe Helmet Visor
- Toggle Inventory (short press)
- use
- Firearm - Attack
Risk and reward
The risk of a loadout is loss: what you take you can lose. So every loadout comes with the question whether the operation is worth the kit.
The second point is weight: equipment that slows you down costs you more indoors than the extra armour gains. The values are in armour – the decision stays yours.
Typical mistakes
- Packing at the ship. Holds everyone up and goes wrong.
- Everyone packing the same. Then the team lacks one capability and has another twice.
- Taking too much. Weight costs speed.
- No medical. The most common mistake in groups of under four.
- Never reviewing the loadout. Then on your tenth operation you still pack like on your first.
Next step
That completes the FPS path. The complete operation preparation – goal, fireteam, roles, medical, weapons, phases, extraction – is a template in Mission Control: FPS ground operation.