4 replies to this topic

[ZealotTheFallen]

As the topic says, unless you have a team you know all 12 and they will do what is needed. Pushing into the enemy is become a nonevent. So we throw out the non team players after each drop till we get team players. If we have non team people in our drop after match we drop out and form another team. Non team players are slowly loosing their ability to be in teams and will be told they will not drop with our group unless they learn to be team players period.

[Saint Scarlett Johan]

So there is a problem in culling the ones that aren't team players?

Have they been told they're not not cooperating? If they have and they're still not cooperating, I see no reason to keep them in group.

If players are getting booted from a group due to poor performance and not lack of teamwork, then those group leaders are losing out on teachable moments.

If it's unit tagged players booting non-unit members to make room for more unit members, then that's up to the unit. QQ doesn't do this, but it's not unheard of in other units.

[Jman5]

You run your groups your way, other people will run it their way. Some teams are really into those coordinated pushes and gen rushing, other teams prefer to stand off, trade, and win on kills. Those are both team-oriented strategies.

Personally I think a lot of premades are too quick to blame pugs when things don't go well. A push fails and everyone yells at the pug. No one reprimands the unit-member on teamspeak who died 3 seconds into the push because he doesn't know how to torso twist and runs 30 back armor on all his builds.

[nehebkau]

ZealotTheFallen, on 06 May 2016 - 11:24 AM, said:

As the topic says, unless you have a team you know all 12 and they will do what is needed. Pushing into the enemy is become a nonevent. So we throw out the non team players after each drop till we get team players. If we have non team people in our drop after match we drop out and form another team. Non team players are slowly loosing their ability to be in teams and will be told they will not drop with our group unless they learn to be team players period.

Nothing more annoying to have 2 or 3 pugs in your lance who stay at the back and snipe while your group / you are pushing the front. Some people just don't get the simplest concept that sharing incoming damage is as important and outputting damage.

What gets me even more steamed is when someone chooses to drop call then some squibs decide not to follow the calls -- I don't give a rats arse if you don't agree -- someone steps up and takes command do what they say or take the drop yourself next time. I have followed many an order I didn't agree with because it was called and that is what you do. I have left groups because of this and do not hide the reason why i am leaving the group.

And yes, I do make notes of players who are chronically 'doing their own thing' to the detriment of the team and exclude them. There are times for poo and Giggles drops and there are times for when you need to get poo done. Don't confuse them.

Edited by nehebkau, 06 May 2016 - 04:42 PM.

[crustydog]

The requirements of team play differ so radically from those of solo play, whenever I go back to playing quick drops, it inevitably takes me a while to deprogram the whole set of team playing instincts, and get back to those skills that make for effective solo play. Day one of this transition is usually quite painful.

Team play tactics are great when everyone on the team uses them, but without a team they lead to a short life. In a sense, many of the team tactics go in the opposite direction to your natural instincts.

Sacrifice my mech, share my armor, deliberately push into a wall of enemies, don't bring the Dire Wolf, always use all the consumables, eject a perfectly good 50% mech, ignore the long range fire? Ignore the Arty strike? Shoot a mech then charge past it without killing it? Shoot the gens when perfectly good mechs are available to shoot at?

These ideas seem insane to any veteran full time quick player, yet tend to be essential for effective team play. They run counter to your natural instincts, and it takes time for your brain to come to accept the deeper truths upon which they are based.


A lot of drop callers and experienced team players don't like to work with the newer players because they don't have the patience needed to put up with all of the antics. It's stressful, and it burns you out after a while. Yet, the patience of the drop callers and the support and peer pressure provided by the more knowledgeable group members is required if the training of the new players is to be accelerated.

The trick is to keep the new players playing together in a team environment long enough for them to adapt to the new skill set of effective team tactics. It is not something that happens in a day, and it takes a certain willpower to keep playing when you are losing a lot of fights. For the trainers it is more like gardening. Over a day or two it is hard to see progress, but over a couple of months real progress can be observed.

Progress, like at the last battle of Tukayyid... that didn't happen by accident. Many months of deliberate effort and hard work went into achieving that outcome.