31 replies to this topic

[Inviticus]

I've recently taken to asking my team who the Premades are within the Team chat channel. Usually they will answer if there is one present within your group. Hit Q to find the name(s) of the folks who say they're in a group and try to follow those players. It's also a good idea to tell them in Team chat you'll be folloing them and helping them to focus their targets as often times they will call those targets to each other on VOIP so try to be aware of who they are firing at and help them take those targets down. It might be tricky to spot at first, but after a few games you'll get teh general idea of how a team works.

Obviously you won't have the benefit of their VOIP program, but I've found this approach is a lot more successful than not trying to communicate and letting chaos determine the outcome of the game. By doing this, I've increased my W:L ratio significantly.

The short of it is, even if you don't like to 4man you can still work well with those that do and increase the team dynamics just by asking a couple questions before the match starts. It's worked out nicely for me so far.


From Budor, Thanks:

These easy things work to:

As you have no voip pay even more attention to the tools that you have:

Minimap/map. Watch where your team is heading and which direction they look at/got covered. Same for spotted enemy mechs.

Use thermal to check for enemy movement afar.

If someone spots a target lock it and check what its loadout is.

If you see a high priority threat (cheesebuilds) lock it and SCREAM! in teamchat.

Memorize the current trial mechs, they are low priority targets. Some are XL'd...

Ask for help, people will come once its possible.

Listen to good music since you dont have to listen to people that are about to hit puberty soon.

Edited by Inviticus, 12 February 2013 - 04:27 AM.

[Apoc1138]

if you look at the faction icons on the pre-round screen, if you see 4 of the same and the other 4 set to different ones or nothing, then chances are you have a premade on your team

Edited by Apoc1138, 12 February 2013 - 04:12 AM.

[Inviticus]

Apoc1138, on 12 February 2013 - 04:12 AM, said:

if you look at the faction icons on the pre-round screen, if you see 4 of the same and the other 4 set to different ones or nothing, then chances are you have a premade on your team

True. While this isn't always the case, I like to ask to be sure. It also puts the same thought in the heads of those on the team and will hopefully tune them in to the idea of following the group just by communicating my intentions of following the premade and focusing their targets. I've had quite a few matches where just that simple question caused the rest of the group to stick together resulting in no deaths on my team at all.

[Moonsavage]

vs an 8-man synch drop yesterday - it was all I could do not to ALT+F4.

Strangely enough it was Apocand his merry band of lamers. (Head hunters of Davion)

Edited by Moonsavage, 12 February 2013 - 04:16 AM.

[Apoc1138]

Moonsavage, on 12 February 2013 - 04:16 AM, said:

vs an 8-man synch drop yesterday - it was all I could do not to ALT+F4.

Strangely enough it was the last poster and his merry band of lamers. (Head hunters of Davion)

what?
if it was me, then it definitely wasn't a sync drop

[Inviticus]

Moonsavage, on 12 February 2013 - 04:16 AM, said:

vs an 8-man synch drop yesterday - it was all I could do not to ALT+F4.

Strangely enough it was Apocand his merry band of lamers. (Head hunters of Davion)

I've NEVER sync droppped. In fact, last night I was purely solo doing exactly what I described above! I guess it's working!

Edt: Ooops. Missed the name in the above. I need coffee

Edited by Inviticus, 12 February 2013 - 04:18 AM.

[themoob]

When dropping in 4 mans, we always tell the PUGs which way we're going, and usually they follow and help win the game.

[Budor]

Inviticus, on 12 February 2013 - 04:11 AM, said:

...try to be aware of who they are firing at and help them take those targets down. It might be tricky to spot at first, but after a few games you'll get teh general idea of how a team works.

This works.

As you have no voip pay even more attention to the tools that you have:

Minimap/map. Watch where your team is heading and which direction they look at/got covered. Same for spotted enemy mechs.

Use thermal to check for enemy movement afar.

If someone spots a target lock it and check what its loadout is.

If you see a high priority threat (cheesebuilds) lock it and SCREAM! in teamchat.

Memorize the current trial mechs, they are low priority targets. Some are XL'd...

Ask for help, people will come once its possible.

Listen to good music since you dont have to listen to people that are about to hit puberty soon.

Edited by Budor, 12 February 2013 - 04:25 AM.

[Moonsavage]

Nah we got the usual "You're facing the headhunters of Davion" and when I asked if it was a synch drop one of you guys said "No, just lucky".

Not lucky for us, but lucky for you guys - you get to pugstomp, congratulations.

Since there was 8 of you online, you should be playing 8 v 8, not milking easy kills.

[Chrithu]

Two thumbs up to the OP. I came here expecting another rant about how PUGs have to join a team or stop complaining.

Refreshing to see an actual helpful advice in here.

[Moonsavage]

Yeah sour grapes (on my part) aside - some good advice from OP.

I would add though, it's not easy to be effective with a brawler by huddling with a group of long-range mechs. (easier as a long-range to help brawlers)
I've tried to think of a way to split the group into two groups (long and short) but it's not an easy concept to get across in team chat.

[Apoc1138]

Moonsavage, on 12 February 2013 - 04:26 AM, said:

Nah we got the usual "You're facing the headhunters of Davion" and when I asked if it was a synch drop one of you guys said "No, just lucky".

Not lucky for us, but lucky for you guys - you get to pugstomp, congratulations.

Since there was 8 of you online, you should be playing 8 v 8, not milking easy kills.

as a general rule, I do play 8 mans whenever it is possible
just because there are 8 players on teamspeak does not make it conducive to playing in 8 mans however, we have a lot of new recruits and you can't get any meaningful training done when half the players on your team are running trial mechs / new mechs with no mods and people don't even know what Alpha Beta or "prime the atlas in D5" means

if we have 16 players on then we often switch to sync dropping 8 mans, because we can even up the teams and train on our own terms

I can't apologise for a broken matchmaker that sometimes ends up choosing two 4 man teams and puts them on the same side - we hate this just as much as you do, but it is the exception rather than the rule - hopefully for everyone ELO will help to alleviate this problem.

I kinda take exception to the we got the usual "You're facing the headhunters of Davion" comment... this isn't something we do as a general rule but as mentioned, we have a lot of new players who don't quite know the rules as of yet, if I'd seen it at the time I would have commented on it to the perpetrator.

if you ever see someone openly engaging in smack talk who claims or who you suspect of being HHoD, please PM one of us (we have a thread in the Davion section of the forum if you want more names to PM to), it's Article One on the Code of Conduct for HHoD.

Feel free to drop on to the Davion TS server and run some drops alongside us to see how we usually play.

[The Jove]

Apoc1138, on 12 February 2013 - 05:03 AM, said:

as a general rule, I do play 8 mans whenever it is possible
just because there are 8 players on teamspeak does not make it conducive to playing in 8 mans however, we have a lot of new recruits and you can't get any meaningful training done when half the players on your team are running trial mechs / new mechs with no mods and people don't even know what Alpha Beta or "prime the atlas in D5" means

This bothers me... 900+ matches, and I have no idea what "prime" in "prime the Atlas in D5" means. Primary target? x)

[Ares Morgan]

HHoD does not sync drop 4 man groups, but since we have close to 400 members and sometimes 8-10 4 man groups playing it happens that we find ourselves on the same team as another HHoD 4 man group, but more offen we are fighting against our own people.

Edited by Ares Morgan, 12 February 2013 - 05:24 AM.

[trebormills]

Apoc1138, on 12 February 2013 - 05:03 AM, said:

I can't apologise for a broken matchmaker that sometimes ends up choosing two 4 man teams and puts them on the same side - we hate this just as much as you do, but it is the exception rather than the rule - hopefully for everyone ELO will help to alleviate this problem.

I kinda take exception to the we got the usual "You're facing the headhunters of Davion" comment... this isn't something we do as a general rule but as mentioned, we have a lot of new players who don't quite know the rules as of yet, if I'd seen it at the time I would have commented on it to the perpetrator.

if you ever see someone openly engaging in smack talk who claims or who you suspect of being HHoD, please PM one of us (we have a thread in the Davion section of the forum if you want more names to PM to), it's Article One on the Code of Conduct for HHoD.

Feel free to drop on to the Davion TS server and run some drops alongside us to see how we usually play.

I think i may have been stomped in the same match by "headhunters of d"...it was seriously painful roll. Some trash talk happened but cant recall who did the trashing. Some of it may even have been on my team.

Glad to hear your reply.

Maybe we could all just get along...hmmm...ok

Edited by trebormills, 12 February 2013 - 05:32 AM.

[OneEyed Jack]

Apoc1138, on 12 February 2013 - 04:12 AM, said:

if you look at the faction icons on the pre-round screen, if you see 4 of the same and the other 4 set to different ones or nothing, then chances are you have a premade on your team

Yeah... ummm... no.

There's simply not enough factions available to pick for 4 of the same to even remotely suggest a premade. Sure, you'll probably get 4 of the same if it's a premade from a unit, but plenty are just people hooking up on the voip servers with no affiliations in common. Also, I''ve never dropped grouped with a single person, but I can pick a faction as easily as anyone. It's not something restricted to units or premades.

[buttmonkey]

f we ever run in premades, we usually et the team know asap. we say something like "4 of us going down 3/4 line)"
then the puggies can either come with us or risk it on their own. usually they come with us, its also nice just to acknowledge that they are there, i do feel sorry for pugs sometimes

[SI The Joker]

1 simple thing to ease the pain of being a lone wolf player?

Connect up to the Comstar TS3 servers and find other lone-wolf players to group up with.

Edited by SI The Joker, 12 February 2013 - 05:38 AM.

[Inviticus]

trebormills, on 12 February 2013 - 05:32 AM, said:

I think i may have been stomped in the same match by "headhunters of d"...it was seriously painful roll. Some trash talk happened but cant recall who did the trashing. Some of it may even have been on my team.

Glad to hear your reply.

Maybe we could all just get along...hmmm...ok

I know I have but it's the premades that make me want to come up with some kind of way to help marginalize the advantages of organized groups vs. PuGs. I don't think it takes more than simply getting your team on the same page.

I try to shorthand my typing with commands to some degree of effect like:

"K2:G5" or K2 in G5
"PRI AT:E4" or Primary Atlas in E4

Obviously, not everyone can decipher what I am trying to say but it works in a lot of cases and it's better than not doing anything. Of course nothing is better than voice communication but if all the players can understand and follow suit, it usually works out.

[Critical Fumble]

Inviticus, on 12 February 2013 - 04:11 AM, said:

Spoiler

I've recently taken to asking my team who the Premades are within the Team chat channel. Usually they will answer if there is one present within your group. Hit Q to find the name(s) of the folks who say they're in a group and try to follow those players. It's also a good idea to tell them in Team chat you'll be folloing them and helping them to focus their targets as often times they will call those targets to each other on VOIP so try to be aware of who they are firing at and help them take those targets down. It might be tricky to spot at first, but after a few games you'll get teh general idea of how a team works.
Obviously you won't have the benefit of their VOIP program, but I've found this approach is a lot more successful than not trying to communicate and letting chaos determine the outcome of the game. By doing this, I've increased my W:L ratio significantly.
The short of it is, even if you don't like to 4man you can still work well with those that do and increase the team dynamics just by asking a couple questions before the match starts. It's worked out nicely for me so far.

From Budor, Thanks:
These easy things work to:
As you have no voip pay even more attention to the tools that you have:
Minimap/map. Watch where your team is heading and which direction they look at/got covered. Same for spotted enemy mechs.
Use thermal to check for enemy movement afar.
If someone spots a target lock it and check what its loadout is.
If you see a high priority threat (cheesebuilds) lock it and SCREAM! in teamchat.
Memorize the current trial mechs, they are low priority targets. Some are XL'd...
Ask for help, people will come once its possible.
Listen to good music since you dont have to listen to people that are about to hit puberty soon.

Hey, look, a post that offers advice to help with playing solo without saying, "stop playing solo".

In other news, would you Feds stop making me want to join you?