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Noob to Noob: Battle Communications

Discussion in 'Game Discussion' started by Snapshot, 29 Dec 2017.

  1. Snapshot

    Snapshot Well-Known Member

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    OK, since I've been frustrated by battle spam and had pretty much decided to totally ignore it before I found some answers (thanks to various youtube videos) I thought I'd comment here for other newer (or low infamy) players. All of this is, of course, just my relatively uneducated and personal perspective.

    Together: Yes, I know it's traditional to spam endless exhortations for togetherness at the beginning of the match. I used to do it too. It never worked for me and I assume your experience is the same. I'm sure you know why. When 3 people say "together" then there's nowhere to group at... together where? You end up with 2 or 3 clumps on the map rather than any sort of battle group. What I've found works a lot better is this strategy: Pick the likely highest damage dealer... typically the highest mark shooter with the highest infamy. Tell your team to "Follow xxxxxxx". That gives everyone a specific destination. If that person is on an unusual mission (or a floater) where following them would be... uh... contra-indicated then they (or you) just say "negative" and you move onto the next likely candidate. For myself personally I utterly ignore "together" but will aggressively go to a specific team-mate and follow them. I also find other players respond to this command when I give it markedly more frequently. If the call is to "Follow SnappleBC" then I'll either accept the leadership role and NOT do my normal scouting mission or I'll say "Negative, Follow YYYYYYYYY".

    Attack: Please, please stop spamming this at the beginning of the battle. It does not mean "wake up". If someone is not at their keyboard or simply floating to sandbag the team then telling them to "attack" is not going to motivate them to do so. What this ought to mean, in my opinion, is that it's time to stop spraying torpedoes randomly down range and actually go start the battle. It ought to be your designated leader that does this but I frequently find myself doing it since I have a much shorter tolerance for the "spray & pray" session at the beginning of the match.

    Capture: Do NOT say this at the beginning of a match. While it is possible to win a game this way it takes way more coordination than just all 5 boats going and floating in the little green circle. You need to have 2 people or so in the circle to make the clock pressing and the other 3 need to be AGGRESSIVELY blocking outside to keep the enemy distracted and away from the capturing sub-team. "Blocking", in my mind, does not mean hiding behind an obstruction and lobbing mortars. I suspect for captures like this to work the unfriends need to be distracted which means an actual dog-fight all hot and sweaty. I have no specific recommendations for how to make this work but I know that I will obey a specific order for ME to capture but I ignore generic capture commands. In my mind that just means the team is going to lose so I can go ahead and play hard this game and not worry about racking up the win. My guess is it's best not to use this command unless you have at least 3 people on voice comm (in other words, a guild team).

    Attack XXXX: This version of attack is useless at the beginning of the battle. Think about it. When the ships first see each other what happens is those who can range on each other do. In the beginning there isn't much of an option to pick a target. So the generic attack command is useless. What is NOT useless is the targeted "Attack SnappleBC" command which conveniently puts a little icon over the unfriend's boat. That tends to get people's attention even if they missed the battle spam. The hard part is firing this command off when you're already in a fur ball but I'm learning. So far, in the games I have played, the single largest determination for who won and who lost is who managed to focus their fire on individual targets at the beginning. It is amazing how quickly even a beefy enemy boat goes down when there are 3 shooters on it. If you can turn it into a 5v4 at the beginning of the match you've got a HUGE advantage. What that means is that if you're the leader, try to call targets when they are within range. If you're a follower, obey to win. Yes, sometimes that means you need to abandon your current fight to... you know... help your team. That's how teams win.

    As a side note, attacking the healer is only the right thing to do some of the time. Each match starts off chaotically. If one of the enemy shooters, for instance, gets knocked down to half health in the opening salvo then it makes a LOT more sense to finish that boat off before worrying about the healer. If some overly aggressive speeder has decided to rambo your team even two boats on him can sink his plans pretty easily. You'll get to the healer as the order of battle allows. Obviously, prioritizing the healer is important but not more important then the reality of how the battle unfolds.

    Help!: Honestly, if you're not the healer then I don't know why you're saying this. If it IS the healer saying this then the rest of the team really needs to rally unless, of course, you want to go the rest of the battle without your healer.

    That's it. Try to be more specific and timely with your battle commands and you'll get better results from them. You also won't train people to ignore the battle spam.

    Now, for me, the problem is learning how to do all that while I'm driving and shooting. I hope that helps someone.
     
  2. Mr. Chompers

    Mr. Chompers Well-Known Member

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    This is a great guide! Very helpful.
     
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  3. Rinse & Repeat

    Rinse & Repeat Well-Known Member

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    As a speeder I don't have a lot of health so besides fixer I'm usually the first target, sometimes I get caught out of position with no where to run and a an enforcer or another speeder(I only have blast and mines so my direct damage capability isn't that high unless I manage to get them to run into my mine or I get a crit I'm pretty much screwed) So ill ask for help to get my pursuers off my tail...
     
  4. TheAntiSnipe

    TheAntiSnipe Moon's haunted

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    A well-written, comprehensive report. Also:

    1. There's a great baiting strat on DDepot. You can say, capture! Attack! Then fire a shot on the bus. Some people might get it. To those who don't, say help! Attack! And fire again. Go to capture with ONE MORE person, maybe(preferably your fleetmate). Then:
    Hold capture while your fleetmate guards the alley exit. The enemy team will think that the point is being guarded from the inside, and move in from the mid. WHERE YOUR SHOOTERS ARE WAITING. RIP.

    2. Of course, the attack xxx! Command is pretty redundant at the start of the battle in most cases, leagues like Ace 2, 1 and NM are places where you run into known players more often than not. In such a case, if there's a noob fixer(whos doing it for a GQ) you can tell immediately that they are not on their main boat and tell your team, attack (noobfixer)! Negative! To convey that intel to all of them.
     
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  5. Snapshot

    Snapshot Well-Known Member

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    First of all, I play my shooter like a speeder with more guns and less tricks. So I completely sympathize. I am frequently deep behind enemy lines and sometimes I "get caught out of position".

    My question to you is, "What, exactly, do you hope the rest of the team is going to do?" You have the boat, the skills, and the gear for that sort of mission (or else you shouldn't be on it). They do not. They might toss a few mortars your way but that isn't going to save you... or it never saves me anyway. My attitude about solo missions is that I got myself into this. I need to get myself out. Nobody can help me because they simply cannot. I'm thrilled if I manage to limp back towards my team and the healer tosses a healing bolt my way. I never expect more.
     
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  6. TheAntiSnipe

    TheAntiSnipe Moon's haunted

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    I usually run with my superb deadeye friend Beast Hunter, known on the forums as @00starlord00 . He can run pyro, sniper and torp support from across the map. When I play with him, I try to cause lotsa confusion so that he can just snipe down targets. Also, if people don't play attention to him, he's free to run his torps.
     
  7. Snapshot

    Snapshot Well-Known Member

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    Just call me SuperNoob!

    More seriously, any chance you could make an addendum to this thread with a bit more "high level battle command" stuff. I was deliberately keeping this noob to noob because my experience is in the low infamies and there are specific problems to address there. I'd LOVE to add a "Part 2: How do the Gods of Battle talk?"

    For the problems I'm seeing, a two part command is hopeless. Simply getting all non-speeder dots on the same place on the map is a massive undertaking. I'd like to document (and learn from) some more advanced communication strategies but I don't want to muddy the noob waters :)
     
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  8. TheAntiSnipe

    TheAntiSnipe Moon's haunted

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    The finer nuances of commanding are too conditional to be put into a thread, imo. The stuff some of us say under pressure in a battle can be gamechanging, out can be just gibberish xD.

    If I could, I would, but it's a job for better players than I.
     
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  9. Snapshot

    Snapshot Well-Known Member

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    LOL, is that the guy you said could snipe a speeder on nitro with a torp... at range? That is mind blowing. I hit 'em with my sniper and canon regularly. Everything slower than that is pretty iffy. A torp though? I bow down.

    edited to add:
    I wasn't expecting you to make a commander's manual to BattleBay. I was more hoping some simple situations and cookbook commands you've seen work effectively... just like the one you provided. Think on it. Maybe they'll come to you.
     
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  10. Epekka

    Epekka Well-Known Member

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    in the not too distant future
    we have a new MPV...
    look out!
     
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  11. TheAntiSnipe

    TheAntiSnipe Moon's haunted

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    He's beast hunter. And he makes sicker torp montages than me. He once took four scalps and was like EZ. Prob is, you cannot see how much calculation he does before firing since he only records in replay mode. Plus, I dont think he puts them up on YT, he's an IRL friend of mine.
     

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