Livewyr, on 12 May 2013 - 12:46 PM, said:
There was a state of mind bred by the first 4 maps and their alternates: The Blob mentality.
The whole team sticks together and moves as a single blob, focuses targets and attempts to take out the other team faster.
Yes, you look much smarter if you take a basic tactical precept and stick a goofy name on it.
Defeat in detail. Divide and conquer. Heard
those terms? look them up. When units split up beyond their ability to support one another, they've done half or more of the enemy's work for them.
Livewyr, on 12 May 2013 - 12:46 PM, said:
If anyone caps, they're automatically a noob/loser/*******/jerk/*****/moron/etc...
This is blob mentality- or what I personally call; The "Assault Racket."
So, what is the weakness of the Assault mech? Being the slowest on the battlefield.. that makes them vulnerable to being outmaneuvered. Now, as an assault mech, players know they can't go fast AND have ridiculous firepower so in order to negate their maneuverability disadvantage, they've made it socially unacceptable to outmaneuver them: "I've come here to blow up robots, not cap!" or "CapWarrior: Online" are common (un)clever epithets regarding capping.
Actually a pretty decent attempt to preemptively shoot down any counter-point, by just lumping any dissenting opinion into a group you've already implied isn't smart enough to counter your oh-so brilliant "tactics".
It's not about social acceptability. Most of us installed the big, stompy,
fighting robot game to play with big, stompy,
fighting robots. If you want a game that's not about fighting, there's much better games out there in which you can have fun just running around and no one tries to fight you. Intentionally trying to ruin other's fun by attempting to force force them to play the run-around-and-don't-shoot-each-other game, while they're trying to play the big, stompy,
fighting robot game, falls pretty squarely into the definition of trolling.
I want to have fun playing my way in a game intentionally designed to be played that way. If you want to have fun playing a completely different way, more power to ya, but wouldn't it make sense to find a game designed to be played that way? Unless, of course, you're just a troll looking to ruin the fun of others.
Incidentally, I do encourage the use of considerably more and/or better tactics than just charging the ridge, as you described above. I don't enjoy or promote a long, drawn-out ridge-humping game. Nor do I endorse attempting to fight one's way up the big hill behind Epsilon while it's covered in snipers. I'll more than gladly move enough to the side to force an enemy out of their preferred positions, and actively try to teach people to not let the enemy dictate the battle. On the other hand, there are sound tactical reasons why the fights on the larger maps mostly take place where they do.
As I said, splitting up beyond the ability to support each other is doing half the enemy's work for them. That means the non-scout bulk of your force has 3 basic options.
- Camp your base. It's a valid tactic, and works... unless both sides decide to do it, in which case anyone but the scouts may have just wasted 15 minutes. At best it's just another way to cause the scouts to be the entire deciding factor of the match, if they meet and fight. Whichever side's scouts won now has a numerical advantage and the only mechs fast enough to return to base (just in case), allowing them the freedom to advance, assuming there's enough time left in the match to do so.
- Advance and meet the enemy. The most-used option, which you've so generously labeled as Blob Mentality. It's popular because it gets to the point, keeps the enemy's main force occupied and is generally the most fun option for those that came to play the big, stompy, fighting robot game.
- Attempt to "outmaneuver" the enemy. While this can occasionally work if the enemy scouts are of the "we're not all scouts" mentality, it basically requires not advancing along the shortest path between bases. You really just have to hope that your enemy is of a more ... cautious nature, and opted to hide behind their traditional cover and wait for you, instead of scouting or otherwise attempting to see if you came to meet them. If they are a bit bolder, or their scout are... you know... scouting, you just went the long way and gave them a quick and direct route to your base, effectively conceding the game to a quick cap.
Since only one of those is both tactically sound and fun more often than not, it tends to be the default.