Propkid
Member
This post is my personal view of the way PUBs should be played. For anyone that’s wondering why am I drilling this topic: it’s becoming hot again, especially with the mortar spam/llama/HOes whine spreading out. A while back it was really ‘trendy’ to talk about PuGs on the forums as they were the thing that clearly needed community attention. Now that PuGs are all good I think it’s time to pay some more attention to our approach to PUBs. After all it is them that will decide upon the success/popularity of L:O. Not everyone will be playing organized games, it never is like that.
Why am I the one to do this? I’ve been a low-end PUBs player ever since IA and I’ve noticed that I tend to enjoy them more than the majority of current vets and so do my PUB teams (usually). I’ve also noticed that newbloods tend to listen to me because I actually talk to them, quite often individually. They like being ordered around a little as long as they start winning afterwards/ the game becomes more fun.
So here it is; a list of ‘rules’ that will hopefully provide a GG to both vets and newbloods if just a few sensible people on the server follow them. They are mostly aimed at the forum community, as I have seen your approach to and opinion about PUBs.
1. Do the dirty work yourself if you are a vet. (Realistic self-assessment recommended)
2. Always try to balance the game SCORE-WISE.
3. Rely on your team, especially if they are awful newbloods.
4. Talk to your team, especially if they are awful newbloods.
5. Pay attention to first timers, take time to help out/ if a newblood is repetetively doing something wrong, tell them so.
6. Newblood dedicated clause: acknowledge the authority of players that are more experienced than you.
7. Every tactic is allowed as long as it’s effective.
That’s it; this is my opinion. You may discuss/suggest/whine/ tl;dr etc. If you bring up a good point it might just change my opinion and I’ll edit the post. I tend to be persuaded quite a lot on these forums, so feel free to go all out on me.
/exit stage Propkid
Why am I the one to do this? I’ve been a low-end PUBs player ever since IA and I’ve noticed that I tend to enjoy them more than the majority of current vets and so do my PUB teams (usually). I’ve also noticed that newbloods tend to listen to me because I actually talk to them, quite often individually. They like being ordered around a little as long as they start winning afterwards/ the game becomes more fun.
So here it is; a list of ‘rules’ that will hopefully provide a GG to both vets and newbloods if just a few sensible people on the server follow them. They are mostly aimed at the forum community, as I have seen your approach to and opinion about PUBs.
1. Do the dirty work yourself if you are a vet. (Realistic self-assessment recommended)
This one is long-established, but it needs an emphasis. If your team can’t get hold of the enemy flag and you find yourself being the most skilled player wearing a blue uniform then you are the one who’s meant to be capping/ providing cap opportunities by playing LO. If you find that you are in a team full of eager kids that leave the base empty when your flag is taken, then you are the one who should stop the llamas and become a stay-D.
2. Always try to balance the game SCORE-WISE.
I cannot emphasize this enough in game. PUBs are not competitive games, they are there for people to have fun. Notice the detail: they aren’t there for solely you/your team to have fun, but for both teams. If your team is winning by 4+ points and it doesn’t look as if the situation is going to change, you need to switch teams. If you’re on the losing team and nobody wants to switch, try harder (and rage/link other team's members to this thread). The number of players on each team does not matter, the game should be balanced skill-wise. If winning by means of unfair teams in a PUB excites you and is your main target in game, then you should probably take a cold shower, go out, abuse some substances and have a 2 hour walk in the forest/on the beach to understand something big about life that you’re missing out.
3. Rely on your team, especially if they are awful newbloods.
This is aimed at people like RipTack who are a one-man army in PUBs and make their team feel like they’re only good for cannon fodder (no offence rip ^^). It’s not a big issue, but it still makes the rookies feel alienated and useless (I’ve gone through that myself). If your team already has 3 chasers returning the flag or 3 Ds then just let them handle it themselves; there’s no need for you to fly around and show everyone that you can do this and that better than they. If they’re massively failing at a task then just babysit them: LO to help them grab, cover them to help them return with the flag, D to help them touchdown etc. That is how they’ll learn to play the game better; they won’t learn anything by looking at you pewpew half of the enemy team in 10 seconds. Once again, the PUB isn’t for your own personal enjoyment.
4. Talk to your team, especially if they are awful newbloods.
That is how you make them reliable. You might not realize this (or you might know this too well) but sometimes you are The Guy to them, the pro on the server. Sometimes it means respect, but almost always it means authority that you should take an advantage of. Try to organize a proper stay-home D, LO and a capper, then take the best fitting position yourself according to rule 3 and rule 1. If you wanna talk to them in person (ie more specific than [We need more defence]) then you should get to know them or at least their playstyle. Trying to assign an eager capper to stay-home D will not work well and won’t earn you many points. If a capper is taking too many RJs tell him so and make sure he understood. If your team has an unaware O-sniper (unaware of how wrong his playstyle is) then tell him to D-snipe/ explain what D-sniping is. Rookies like it when a pro talks to them and they are ready to take any advice.
5. Pay attention to first timers, take time to help out/ if a newblood is repetetively doing something wrong, tell them so.
If you see someone who is clearly struggling with skiing/movement/capping/fighting then please take care to help them out. Quite often you’ll see these people in rather empty servers. Just take them to the side/another server and start teaching them how to play the game. You can do so for the people that know the basics too, you just need to have a good eye for people’s potential. One day you might see that rookie you schooled playing competitively or even being better than you. I can’t help it but mention Vertex who began to play L:O relatively late and has received enough attention and schooling from others to catch up with or even surpass a lot of the old IA vets.
6. Newblood dedicated clause: acknowledge the authority of players that are more experienced than you.
All of the effort taken by the vets in following the above rules will be rendered useless if they are stuck with 12yr old stuck-up eager kids (no offence, but some of you kids are awful ^^). A good game requires cooperation from both the small part of the server which knows what it’s doing and the large part of the server which is still learning. I can’t stress enough how many times has Paraelisa raised my pulse by desperately OD-E-grabbing/llamaing the flag when I’m playing the only capper and I’m on a high speed route. The same rule applies to the rookies as to the vets: PUBs aren’t solely for your entertainment, especially if it messes up the fun for others. The vets won’t sacrifice all of their fun so that you can do what you think is... well, I’ve got no idea what Paraelisa is thinking every time I rage at him ^^.
7. Every tactic is allowed as long as it’s effective.
O-sniping just might be an exception in this case, but sometimes newbloods come up with genius ideas... or they just decide to spam mortars. If they are being useless then tell them to make a better use of the gun, but even if they are getting free skill-less kills then let them be. If they are llamaing (the still-hot topic in game) in the right moment and they manage to cap the flag several times then also let them be. Yes, there are better ways to cap the flag but eventually the metagame (the game of the game... complicated MMO-related term) will react to this and llamas won’t be possible anymore due to a very aware defence. SO, as long as the rookie is doing something that’s useful for the team, let them continue. Even if it’s pissing the hell out of you.
That’s it; this is my opinion. You may discuss/suggest/whine/ tl;dr etc. If you bring up a good point it might just change my opinion and I’ll edit the post. I tend to be persuaded quite a lot on these forums, so feel free to go all out on me.
/exit stage Propkid
. If you spend enough time in PUBs without many other vets around you will eventually become recognized.
), but it's just the score that will grow faster. Every newblood around you is still snailing about, knowing even worse what to do as they don't feel needed anywhere. Sure, the other team somewhat learns what to do when they see you pewpew, but they just as well get the point if your team does the job instead if you
