67 replies to this topic

[_____]

Hello again - HLGK rankings has no direct correlation with skill level or whatever. It's more to do with participation and contribution to the Gatekeepers community. Hope this clarifies something. And yes what Stone says. Your timezone explains why I've never been able to see you online either.

[Maxwell Albritten]

BlackhawkSC, on 31 March 2015 - 10:09 AM, said:

Hello again - HLGK rankings has no direct correlation with skill level or whatever.

The same goes for PMP. Otherwise I would never have achieved the rank of "Ultimate Savior of All that is Good and Crusher of All that is Not so Good x 10"

Though our pilot Birthday Truck really did earn his title of "A truck".

[Faith McCarron]

Yeah, but you bring out the pimp cane for a good beating all the time, Maxwell.

[wanderer]

Quote

House Kurita took 17 worlds for the event. They are the ones to worry about.

We choose our friends....wisely.

[PadreGrimm]

Stoneblade, on 31 March 2015 - 06:54 AM, said:

Hey Faith, I seem to always miss the time you play. My schedule has me online after 23:00 UTC until ussually around 04:00 UTC. So perhaps you are cursing the Gatekeepers based off you encounter with a few? That would be like me judging 4TCR based off of Padre Grimm: it just silly. I know Padre is no longer with 4TCR, but that is what makes my point more so.

lol

[Stoneblade]

PadreGrimm, on 31 March 2015 - 01:45 PM, said:

lol

Its not to insult you, but to point out that you should not make assumptions based on interaction with 1 or a few people.

(and for the defense turrets)
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Edited by Stoneblade, 31 March 2015 - 02:46 PM.

[Crockdaddy]

Davers, on 30 March 2015 - 01:32 PM, said:

Kurita has a much more 'target rich' environment than Liao.

I am still amazed that they still qualify for the highest level of bonus rewards though.

A few things have changed since early January.

Kurita completely has gotten its stuff together for the main loyal House Units. HK fields 2 to 5 House 12 mans on a regular basis in the NA timezone and on all 3 time zones during the weekend.

Kurita finally settled some of its differences unofficially with nSL (ACES / BWC / Marik) which allowed Kurita to focus completely on clans and some lolz drops on Davion (see Kentares).

While several large MERC units came (BWC, ACES, Antares Scorpions) others have left (QQ, 228th, Pheonix Legion (Large Germin MERC unit).

So as long as a few large MERC units are in HK space and HK isn't facing a mass drop against many large MERC units ... it seems reasonable that NS, NKVA, ArKab, 3TL, 9SD, 6RNT (currently on a FRR vacation) can push the borders or at least hold against 2 to 4 clan factions.

It is complicated ... but in the past Kurita had very bad relations with many MERC units. To some degree that has improved. In part due to diplomacy and in part to very strong House Units such as NS/NKVA (you may hate their troll but they are CW effective and have been a very strong complement to NS during CW drops) with Arkab, 3TL improving dramatically the past two months and 6RNT is very effective as well. 9SD guys drop part time fillers during the week and fill out 12 man ++ on the weekend. So we tend to win a very large percentage of our matches ... for NS it is at least 95 or more % of matches and I know others are not far behind.

As to why the rewards are still high? I have no idea. Maybe it is due to overall community? Kurita never seems to have many pugs. This weekend I saw more faces than ever. I hardly recognized anyone. I guess they CW'd for the mechs. For the most part the Kuritan pugs did well (I was 11 - 2 in my solo campaign this weekend which was SHOCKING).

Edited by Crockdaddy, 01 April 2015 - 02:39 PM.

[Crockdaddy]

I personally don't want to get arrogant about it beyond stating facts ... because I was there when NS was carrying hard and we were losing everywhere and 228th left in disgust because we didn't have our crap together which was generally true. That basically sucked and I am very happy things have turned around or started to turn around. I'd hate to end up like Davion a strong start then wilting badly while their allies eat them alive. (Kurita was never a Davion ally).

[ccrider]

We have allies beyond Steiner? If your referring to the nsl, I think about 6 people between 2 or 3 factions actually bought into the idea that it was actually going to work. As far as I'm concerned, we're getting eaten by enemies. But the good thing is that we are playing better units while our enemies face primarily solo players. As a faction, Davion will get stronger from these losses in the present while those we fight don't really gain anything from ROFL stomps other than a tsg on a dot. Give us a few weeks into the map reset and I think you'll either be shocked at the vast improvement of loyalist play here or we'll have another exodus of players and be stuck in rebuilding mode for another cycle. Hopefully the former; I want us to be the "sucl for Luck" Colts who went from last to playoff team in a season, not the Raiders, who stay in last and are perpetually waiting for "next year."

[Faith McCarron]

Is reset confirmed at this point?

[_____]

Faith McCarron, on 01 April 2015 - 04:56 PM, said:

Is reset confirmed at this point?

Russ is considering - http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__4332374

[SunTzu]

Faith McCarron, on 30 March 2015 - 11:34 PM, said:

How about a 2-man cw drop? Because I had that misfortune the other day, made me rage quit out of cw after the match and curse the gatekeeper name a thousand times.

Faith McWho? Mctalkstrashaboutaunitbasedon2playersinonedropsheragequitoutof. Oh, okay.

Congrats Liao, fun weekend and good matches!!

To all the tag-less Liao pilots, look around for a unit, Liao is a good home.

[ShinVector]

Oh oh... Someones looking from trouble.

Faith McCarron, on 01 April 2015 - 04:56 PM, said:

Is reset confirmed at this point?

He already gave the approximate date of Apr 21st. We will see.

[Faith McCarron]

SunTzu, on 01 April 2015 - 05:48 PM, said:

Faith McWho? Mctalkstrashaboutaunitbasedon2playersinonedropsheragequitoutof. Oh, okay.

You want to go, brah?

[Maxwell Albritten]

Faith McCarron, on 03 April 2015 - 09:52 AM, said:

You want to go, brah?

Can we all just get together and play a game of spin the bottle to get this all out of our systems?

[_____]

4TCR vs HLGK dodgeball event! I'm game.

[MischiefSC]

Crockdaddy, on 01 April 2015 - 02:41 PM, said:

I personally don't want to get arrogant about it beyond stating facts ... because I was there when NS was carrying hard and we were losing everywhere and 228th left in disgust because we didn't have our crap together which was generally true. That basically sucked and I am very happy things have turned around or started to turn around. I'd hate to end up like Davion a strong start then wilting badly while their allies eat them alive. (Kurita was never a Davion ally).

Kurita did well because its core comp house units and players didn't flounce off when things didn't go their way.

Really that simple.

Edited by MischiefSC, 03 April 2015 - 02:37 PM.

[LittleFly]

Wow, just wow. Thanks Faith for letting me know that my tactics work. I'm glad they had the desired effect on you.

[Faith McCarron]

You needed THAT to tell you that when one of my teammates sucks, I get mad? Go, shoo, peasant.

Edited by Faith McCarron, 07 April 2015 - 11:07 AM.

[Zvolimir the Blackhand]

OK - we're going to have to have a talk here.

I don't understand why you are so antagonistic towards HLGK. Whatever the issue is, we have the choice to conduct ourselves as we wish, and for myself I would rather seek to resolve the issue rather than bicker like fools.

So many things have been thown up at us.

• Every single one of us sucks.

Gatekeepers do not discriminate based on skill level, but rather participation and temperament. We take brand newbs. We take you if you suck. We take you no matter what...but our unit offers something different than most other units, and you have to be hip to that jive or we're not going to appeal to you. You must empty and polish your cup before you drink Gatekeeper Tea. This is why there is a noticable disparity in skill levels, and we do not have a structure that favors any certain set of pilots over another. We make a point of mixing skill levels and cross training everyone.

• HLGK is roleplay. Everyone knows that means Blackhand dresses up like Napoleon and all the simple folk who make up the unit mindlessly drive their 'mechs into the enemy formation. That is what roleplaying is.

Everyone loves the RP.

That's one of the reasons HLGK TS doesn't operate according to the same "rules" you will find elsewhere.

Not everyone gets it, so we usually keep it to ourselves.

• We never win matches due to our ridiculous "strategies".

Not true. However, we do consider public group drops to be "practice" and solo drops are discouraged. CW Drops and League drops are for real, but Gatekeepers have standing orders to not waste time until there are at least 8 on the drop so we can better apply our training. Command does not communicate with non-Gatekeepers, and Gatekeepers are advised to deactivate their VOIP. I cannot vouch for your experience Faith...but I can tell you we win more than we lose. Otherwise, we wouldn't have so many active members and would have ceased to exist long ago.

• I am a brutal dictator who rules through threats and fear.

I have no idea how this one got started. Someone somewhere didn't like how we did things, and thought that we should have done one thing or another. That's not how we do things, and our Command Staff is active, involved and working ahead. It should be noted that we've lost more people to inactivity and dissatisfaction with the game in general than those that have left our unit for less organized units.

• We make stupid rules that we arbitrarily decide on and enforce by home inspection.

Every rule we have is born of blood and experience. It is an evolving process, and we have built a system to teach our members basic skills as well as our specific strategies. We're not the best, but we have a limited pool to draw on and will not abandon our principles. We have never had more structure...but we've never been as large or active either, and the impetus is not slowing down.

I will add that our unit WANTED the structure and asked for it. So, we are responding to what they want, and everyone in the unit is having a great time. We do not make up rules that are spur of the moment - they are designed to create a specific effect. Granted, many of our MechWarriors in the field don't always grasp why at first, but that's why we have a Certification and Qualifier Program. We cannot expect non-unit members to understand why we do what we do, and we will not waste time during combat attempting to explain it.

• We are traitors to Liao for suggesting we attempt to make the Star League work and focus on the Clans instead of Davion.

We have never changed our tag. I have never born the tag of another faction. Our unit makes certain that recruits understand what our mission is, and has been since Beta Launch - revenge against the FedSuns.

Attempting to put an end to the Clan Block Party does not make me a seditionist. This is a sticky point for me, because when I conferred with Capellan commanders privately they supported HLGK's initiatives. TCAF acknowledged they had no control over their numberless hordes, and this breaking of faith was the first cracks in foundation of what the nSL could have become.

• HLGK doesn't play CW and we have no planet tags.

​During the formation of the nSL, we honored our agreement with the Council and fought on the Clan front. We did it knowing we couldn't win ground. We did it because we believed in what we were trying to accomplish, and the Kurita and FRR forces we augmented were greatly appreciative.

We didn't cry about the Clanner advantage - instead we learned how to fight them. It's easier than fighting Davions, and someday I may tell you why. When the ceasefire failed due to TCAF's reneging on our agreements and what seemed like every single member of House Liao had poo to throw at us, we returned to put some tags on planets - because now in MWO, if you don't have planet tags there is no way you are good unit.

Also, a lot of our time is spent defending planets we could never actually take, due to the way tags work. Planets we save right before ceasefire usually end up with TCAF tags because of the way their unit is able to stack tags. I'm not mad about this, but it is how it works. All of you are very welcome.

We don't have the numbers that our Russian friends have. We also have to actually fight 95% of the time - and I wouldn't force my soldiers to wait through a million ghost drops against an enemy that has lost the will and ability to fight when there were Clanners threatening the entire Inner Sphere. I guess that's just me.

HLGK's biggest enemies have always been inside our own faction.

There is no reason to hate and antagonize other when we could work together so much better.

I understand that it's not easy for an outsider to understand why HLGK operates the way it does. Believe me, we have an entire team of about a dozen folks who's job it is to orchestrate the training of the unit. Doctrine is constantly evolving, and we have another team of researchers to record what would be military science, propose military art techniques, and help the Command Staff develop doctrine. Once doctrine is finalized, it is marched out to the training staff to be disseminated to all Gatekeepers.

McCarron, the truth is far more complex, but it's out there waiting for you. I would very much like to engage with you on a friendlier level, and maybe by coming to know one another we can bridge this animosity so we don't have this silly bickering on the boards. We have always supported 4TCR, publicly and privately, and I have made repeated overtures to your unit to bring us closer together.

Our community Liao has always been small - but as CW brought people back to the game, a million units popped up, and most of them cannot field a regular 12 man. We have absorbed the remnants of many old units, and would be happy to bring smaller units into the HLGK fold. We have even developed a system whereby any Liao unit, be it 1, 4 or 12 members (but only 4 active) can join the HLGK organization and potentially retain it's own unique identity (dependent on size, activity and loyalty).

So, with those points in mind, let's examine our exchanges here.

Stoneblade, on 30 March 2015 - 09:17 PM, said:

Honestly, after I got my 80 points I stopped being serious in the matches....Thats how PGI wants us to play RIGHT?

Faith McCarron, on 30 March 2015 - 09:46 PM, said:

Wait, you guys play differently when you're serious? Please demonstrate.

Stoneblade is being obviously facetious. Your comment does not come off as "playful" or "sarcastic". Is this necessary, or are you flinging poo just because you can?

BlackhawkSC, on 30 March 2015 - 11:27 PM, said:

HLGK has an RP/milsim mode (serious) and a casual puggin' mode where we take whatever mechs we want. It depends on the time and day when we are required to be in the milsim mode.

Faith McCarron, on 30 March 2015 - 11:34 PM, said:

How about a 2-man cw drop? Because I had that misfortune the other day, made me rage quit out of cw after the match and curse the gatekeeper name a thousand times.

BlackhawkSC, on 30 March 2015 - 11:50 PM, said:

Did a 2-man really have that much of an influence in a CW match? In pub drops 2 noobs or even discos get carried all the time.

For the record - the HLGK Command Staff does not consider any unit less than a lance to be a "Battalion Drop" unless there is an officer present.

Faith McCarron, on 31 March 2015 - 06:33 AM, said:

That's what makes it so frustrating. It's not like it's some collection of noobs or something. There are skilled/and or experienced players that you see going into battle, knowing that they're probably going to lose because they've decided to hamstring themselves by making it "Dress up like Napoleon and practice right oblique Day" or something.

As for the specific incident I'm referring to....omg, it hurts to even try to recall how bad it was. I might not have noticed the player in question's (who I won't name) poor play amongst the slop that our pugs were giving us, but for the fact that they were actively engaging me in the chat while I was trying to get people to actually do something. It was all 'relax, dont worry, everything will be fine, dont be so serious' kind of stuff, so I started noting the guy's play. It's not that he wasn't trying to do stuff, he was just atrocious at it all. After the inevitable defeat where we got ground into the dust, I checked him out on the EOR screen, and found that while participating in the whole match, not doing any suicide charges or anything like that (it was a classic attrition match), and going through all of his mechs, he did a TOTAL of 278 damage. Ok, do you know how mind numbingly bad that is? That's 69.5 damage per mech. We've all had a bad pub match where you die early or whatever, but this is the output of FOUR of those bad matches, spread across the entirety of a full CW match. It's the kind of score you get when you're playing drunk and spend half the match walking into a wall or something, but this guy was perfectly lucid and all. So I said to myself, 'ok, maybe he's just a new recruit or something' and went to the HLGK to look, only to find that....he's a Sao-Shao... That's right....massive, massive sad face. That's the point when I ragequit for 2 hours out of CW.

This I cannot help with. You decide how much things like this are going to affect you. I can say this, however: Come play with us. You would be welcome, unless you don't want to be welcome and only have negative feedback to contribute. Learn how we operate.

Stoneblade, on 31 March 2015 - 06:54 AM, said:

Hey Faith, I seem to always miss the time you play. My schedule has me online after 23:00 UTC until ussually around 04:00 UTC. So perhaps you are cursing the Gatekeepers based off you encounter with a few? That would be like me judging 4TCR based off of Padre Grimm: it just silly. I know Padre is no longer with 4TCR, but that is what makes my point more so.

Padre quit 4TCR after he and I had a 4 hour conversation in HLGK TS. He was the recruitment officer for 4TCR and had put together an impressive campaign. We talked for a long time, and it was pretty apparent that his goal was to shut down the "upstart" HLGK and absorb them into the 4TCR, which for some reason he thought was "established".

I got quite a lot of insight into how your unit operated that night, because as time wore on and he saw two full companies of efficient Gatekeepers active and deployed he realized that we were no small or disorganized group. Padre and I had a good, long discussion. He confided in me his issues with your unit, and I trusted him with the techniques that we have used to combat those issues.

A week later he was Kurita.

I'm not saying it's causal or even related. I am not implying that your unit has issues beyond what any other one has.

It is a fact, however.

Faith McCarron, on 31 March 2015 - 06:59 AM, said:

Perhaps. Most of my drops are in the Euro attack window.

We use GMT 0 to coordinate time zones.

What time do you play if it was US Central, Eastern or Mountain?

I'll send you a friend request in-game.

BlackhawkSC, on 31 March 2015 - 10:09 AM, said:

Hello again - HLGK rankings has no direct correlation with skill level or whatever. It's more to do with participation and contribution to the Gatekeepers community. Hope this clarifies something. And yes what Stone says. Your timezone explains why I've never been able to see you online either.

Over the past two years, the Command Staff has evolved. There were less responsibilities administrating 12 men in a casual unit. Now, we are four active companies. We expect a lot from our officers, but it's more important for them to guide the teams than score lots of damage.

Stoneblade, on 31 March 2015 - 02:45 PM, said:

Its not to insult you, but to point out that you should not make assumptions based on interaction with 1 or a few people.

(and for the defense turrets)
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I don't think we have ever singled you out, Faith. You engage us with your "wit" and "charm".

Faith McCarron, on 03 April 2015 - 09:52 AM, said:

You want to go, brah?

While SunTzu's comment was unsanctioned and a breach of our Stoic Discipline, it was reactive to your slights.

Your comment here is needlessly antagonistic and potentially harmful to the entire House.

That's what you want, though...right? To make us mad so you can make us look like the bad guys.

BlackhawkSC, on 03 April 2015 - 01:55 PM, said:

4TCR vs HLGK dodgeball event! I'm game.

I have already attempted to get 4TCR involved in a scrimmage league for 4, 8 or 12 men. I had originally envisioned a scrimmage league for Liao loyalists only, so we could train against our own people to not suffer embarassment at the hands of other factions - but 4TCR and PMP cannot (or have not) taken any steps to actually bring it about.

So...the league is going to open up to other House units. This means it will be a longer wait, but some of our MRBC buddies are hip to the idea. More info on this later.

By the way, any leader of a Liao loyalist unit can contact me for the scrimmage league. If I have misrepresented your position here, apologies. We can always make corrections.

LittleFly, on 07 April 2015 - 10:20 AM, said:

Wow, just wow. Thanks Faith for letting me know that my tactics work. I'm glad they had the desired effect on you.

This also is facetious and reactive.

Faith McCarron, on 07 April 2015 - 10:48 AM, said:

You needed THAT to tell you that when one of my teammates sucks, I get mad? Go, shoo, peasant.

You should join our unit Faith. I know this feeling. I used to have it too, but I've got the medicine. Despite what your perceptions are, Gatekeepers don't experience this issue due to training, activity and camaraderie. We are building an EU team to widen our competition range and provide more activities for our members who do not dwell in NA.

Who knows?

You might be a good fit.