26 replies to this topic

[Dread Render]

I don't know why I hear so many people complain about death balling.
When it happens its fun and exciting.
Hell, I try to get them going whenever I see there is a chance for it.
On maps like River City I beg peeps to start a Death Ball because for some reason people thing they can "Defend" on that map. Defend never works, you just end up getting picked off one at a time.

Death ball is a good, valid, fun and effective tactic.

Long live the death ball...

besides, most every other tactic would require organizing over the VOIP, and yeah, that will happen... not.

[Fut]

Dread Render, on 24 June 2016 - 12:36 PM, said:

When it happens its fun and exciting.

Glad to hear that you think every single match is fun and exciting!

[Dread Render]

Fut, on 24 June 2016 - 12:37 PM, said:

Glad to hear that you think every single match is fun and exciting!

I wish I had the luck you have... I rarely see it. I'm am talking about Quick Play by the way, not FW.

[AnTi90d]

I like the ball.

I don't like the Nascar-into-conga-line maneuver that's pulled off nearly every canyon map assault.

[mogs01gt]

There are 100s of reason but I will simply type the one that means the most.


It promotes poor tactics and poor game play/play style.

[InspectorG]

mogs01gt, on 24 June 2016 - 12:44 PM, said:

It promotes poor tactics and poor game play/play style.

Yup. But, in Solo, its natural and likely the best form of coordination that you will get without a leader calling stuff.

[mogs01gt]

InspectorG, on 24 June 2016 - 12:47 PM, said:

Yup. But, in Solo, its natural and likely the best form of coordination that you will get without a leader calling stuff.

interesting...I concede that it may be natural for bad players. For plays that understand the negatives, its very unnatural and down right frustrating.

Edited by mogs01gt, 24 June 2016 - 12:49 PM.

[InspectorG]

mogs01gt, on 24 June 2016 - 12:49 PM, said:

interesting...I concede that it may be natural for bad players. For plays that understand the negatives, its very unnatural and down right frustrating.

Dont get me wrong, it promoted only brain stem level of organization, but for T3 and below thats good as it gets.

FAR better than a rabbit run. At least deathballing keeps your team's fire focused and presents more difficult targeting options to the enemy in relation to tunnel vision.

Ive noticed when i drop with, lets say, 'more goods' in Solo, people know the map, good positions, when to push, etc.

[Ryllen Kriel]

InspectorG, on 24 June 2016 - 12:47 PM, said:

Yup. But, in Solo, its natural and likely the best form of coordination that you will get without a leader calling stuff.

I believe he is correct, it is the most viable PUG strategy if the players aren't communicating. I happily let it happen if no one else shows signs of more advanced teamwork.

[1453 R]

A lot of people want this game to be more complex than it is.

Of itself, that’s not necessarily a bad desire, but many folks also have a skewed view of complexity and want the wrong kind of complexity for the wrong reasons. They’re looking for individual-yet-highly-coordinated lance actions where a large number of small skirmishes decides the overall victor, where noncombatant Scouting™ is a critical battlefield role (spoilers: it is never going to be a critical battlefield role), and where everyone can feel like a Real Soldier© at the end of the day.

Deathballing offends the pseudomilitary sensibilities of these folks, despite the fact that real military tactics mostly consists of “Find the enemy, then f*** the enemy straight in the liver until the enemy is no longer a threat”. Superior numbers and force of arms is a constant desire of military planners, and real commanders dread complexity and weirdness for much the same reason people dread complexity and weirdness in MWO matches – it is far, far, far too easy for troopers in the middle of a battlefield to mess up somewhere, miss an order or a signal, or just generally not be where the overly-complex NapolePlan™ wants them to be at any given point.

Also, people want to shoot robots. People don’t want to do figure-eights on the map following the commands of General Chairstrong trying to deploy his forces in a triple reverse Patton defilade maneuver screened by advanced multirecon elements. People who want to do that kind of nonsense go and find a pseudomilitary unit that specializes in the sort of inhumanly tight coordination required to pull that off.

The rest of us deathball because the deathball is where the fight is, and the fight is where you go to shoot robots.

[Triordinant]

Solo queue is deathball queue. If you want something more please proceed to the group or FP queue.

[Revis Volek]

Fut, on 24 June 2016 - 12:37 PM, said:

Glad to hear that you think every single match is fun and exciting!

Death Ball and Nascar are not the same thing...


Running and Gunning down targets as a group is death ball.


Just running around in a circle as the enemy mechs chase you IS NOT DEATH BALLING its stupid and thats the end of that story.

[blood4blood]

Focused fire kills enemies faster. Therefore death ball is good.

BUT...death ball also bunches you up, makes you easier targets, harder for individual maneuvers, etc. Mostly that doesn't matter much in MWO, because MWO optimal weapon ranges, detection ranges, and map layouts (cover, lines of fire) tend to favor death ball distances anyway.

Better tactics are definitely possible with clear lanes and overlapping fields of fire, mixed range loadouts, etc. but making those work usually involves pre-planning and coordination you just won't see in the QP solo queue.

[Narcissistic Martyr]

Because it's a symptom of the game modes. That the death ball is the best way to win even if you have to ignore the objectives shows just how poorly PGI has done at implementing role warfare and interesting game modes.

Also... it's boring. Drop commander says target A, and then A evaporates. Repeat until you win.

Nah the best matches are when everyone fracks up, splits up, and you end up in a series of intense one on one battles on river city.

[fat4eyes]

Nothing's wrong with a deathball. Unless you stay in a confined space and get shot at from both sides (Crimson tunnel, Canyon/Bog valleys, Tourmaline bowl). Then you get put in a crossfire and you die. It's just a tactic that works in certain situations and doesn't work in others.

[Lykaon]

mogs01gt, on 24 June 2016 - 12:44 PM, said:

There are 100s of reason but I will simply type the one that means the most.


It promotes poor tactics and poor game play/play style.

If it works it's not a poor tactic and presenting multiple targets and maximizing focused damage is a strong tactic so...Deathball = good tactic

Poor game play style: Again it is a proven and effective tactic so it's actually an excellent play style.

Poor game play: This is actually the failing of how the game is designed. There are several factors that contribute to having deathballing as a go to tactic and here are a few.

Skirmish game mode.(and extreme popularity of that game mode)

Smaller maps that do not require high mobility.

Alpha striking

Pin point convergence (maximizing effectiveness for massed alpha strikes).

Reward system based heavily on kills and damage.

Scenario victory conditions that heavily favor destroying the enemy over mobility and objective based play.

Static map spawns and objective locations (we all know where to point the deathball because there is no dynamic spawning of either mechs or objectives)

So the reason the "deathball" is so popular is it is a great strategy to kill mechs and deal damage on smaller maps that do not require mobility or having to guess at where to deploy because everything is always in the same spot always when the easiest (or only) victory condition to meet is destroy all the enemy.

If this is undesirable then it's not the deathball as the cause it's the game design that encourages the use of the tactic.

[Kalimaster]

Deathballs happen. Deal with it.

While I may enjoy a good beat down match, sometimes one side screws up and ends up getting slaughtered. It's a game people. Enjoy it. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't....but it feels so good when you cream an entire team.

[badaa]

death balling is what u call it when nascaring works which is rare

[Kissamies]

Deathball is a boring and oafish tactic with no finesse. It's also usually the best you are going to get out of PUGs. Sometimes however they manage something bit more advanced like forming a firing line or executing a simple flank. It's glorious when that happens.

[Revis Volek]

badaa, on 24 June 2016 - 01:56 PM, said:

death balling is what u call it when nascaring works which is rare

You NASCAR in this game to try to catch the enemy tail as they run away from you...

Nascar is a tactic that evolves out of fear, one team runs away and the other chases.


Death balling can RESULT in nascar (or one team chasing the other) but more often then not its just a result of two team never setting up a firing line.

Its not really a tactic, its a by product of all of our mechs being so fast that if you see a slow one everyone knows they can catch him and the race is on.