When floaters aren't

Just had a battle and starting out I see there's 2 higher league players (blue strip) so I decide I'll follow one of them because they have more experience. QAship, one of the blues, is right in front of me but just floating.

So I switched to following the other blue, Zoro, who was moving into battle, and periodically checked on QAship, which still looked to be in the same place.

After some engagement I take cover to bandage up and notice a red taking on QAship, still in the same place, and figure it's a lost cause. They'll kill the floater and the red had like 4500 hp which I'm not prepared for 1 on 1 so I head out to the action elsewhere and forget about QAship.

We won though, I set a new infamy high (yeah!), but was most surprised that QAship dealt a whopping damage. I don't get it. I'd all but written this battle off as a loss because of the floater but they turned out to be the power hitter.

Is this a strategy, let the enemy come to you? Is there a way to know when a floater is not a floater?

 

There are some possibilities... Lag on your side, or maybe that player just got disconnected right at the start of the match and tried desperatly to reconnect in time. Or he got a phone call/got something to drink/had to go to the toilet.

But as far as I know, this is never a strategy.

 

Most of the time floaters are disconnected. Either because they battled and closed the app (to purposely lose infamy) or disconnected. If you walk up to them and their weapon points at you this guarantees they are still in the game and not disconnected. But they could be away from their device. But just because their weapon does not point at you doesn't mean they are out of the game. They could have sticky targets off.

 

I've tried that a few times and haven't seen the turrent turn yet, but wouldn't that only happen with Repair Bolt, otherwise the turrent only angles onto reds?

 

Yeah probably. Though I do think with coordination something like it could. Position yourselves somewhere near spawn with strategic weapon coverage such that reds are sailing into a trap. Basically you decide where the engagement takes place. If they simply go to the capture zone then a backup attack plan is needed.

 

I've seen this behavior and always thought it was people trying to get something quick done during match-making and just got back a bit late. What threw me about QAship is the length of time it stayed at spawn, never noticed an active player wait that long.

I'd prefer a little wiggle or slow driving at start to show there's a player in the game, but everyone plays their own way and I can live with it.

I'm still learning where to head out on most maps and on start I look around to other players to get ideas. Sometimes there's several late movers or everyone goes different directions and I don't know which way to go