Oswald Rant: Pass the online gaming please – A MJY Rant

Well, as promised here is the second installment of UT_CASA, only about a month later:)

I think we have gone over the concept of team vs individuals in TDM, but I would like to touch on it a bit more. As time goes along I still see peeps taking the approach of the most kills in a game of TDM is the be all and end all. The other day I saw a player…not a noob….make a statement that was old when he made it last year: “Once again …as expected”. His score? : 58-47.

Now I know, I have harped on this before…many times as a matter of fact…when you play TDM it is expected that you help the team. Sadly this is not the case in reality. That same game I saw other players on both sides with scores like: 38-12, 44-16, 28-3 etc… who do you think won that game? Well, let me put it this way. lets look at a final score tally for a match:

Now, according to this blowhard…he won the match and ruled all…but did he? For all his preening, his team lost, and although he was a huge contributor to those 217 total team points he was also a huge contributor to the opposing team by giving up an incredible 25% towards their points! Now Spawn can be excused simply because he suxors anyway and he is humble to boot:) But the reality is…Joe Bloe’s mouth was as effective as if he had basically had a 0-0 score, he only contributed 11 points to his team…but he is all about the glory and not about team which is ironically the name of this particular mode…Team Deathmatch……nuff said.

This time I will touch on the tactics of a good Blue Team…or not. Again, as pointed out, most peeps don’t play TDM as a team, TS is the only team based mode where peeps play as a unit..even on pub servers, even when they don’t know each other. The whole idea of TDM is to score as many points as possible and hope your team scored more then the other side, this is accomplished when you go out and basically play as a lone unit for one color and blow the shit out of as many of the enemy as you can while praying the rest of your team is doing the same.

No team concept here, other than in color and the occasional medic calls that are answered. If it sounds like I am bitter about this lack of “teamwork,” or repetitive…it just happens to be my own personal soapbox that TDM has never caught on in OGL or STA or in any real clan competitions as far as UrT goes. I realize that Vanilla Q3 only had one version of team, “TDM” and that UrT offers more than this by far, but when I see the number of peeps who play TDM in UrT it makes absolutely zero sense that there aren’t TDM clan matches as well as TS.

Oh well…….Shit happens.

Now to the “bad news,” and unfortunately for Team Blue…there is plenty. When we went over the Red spawns and tactical points related to them I failed to point out that they almost always have the best positions and cover almost immediately. For the Red Team it is a matter of a few bunny hops and they can be in strong defensive positions before Team Blue has even made it out of Old Alley spawn, if Team Blue is making that rare spawn in the Patio Courtyard, the dynamics change tremendously, although an overly aggressive team can have that turn into a disadvantage if they are not careful, but we will get back to that in a minute.

Once the Blue Team spawns in Old Alley they have a variety of choices for movement to contact with the enemy, however all of them represent a considerable amount of time to traverse, which spells ambush in most cases for the unwary. Add to this the fact that they are almost always fatigued and are staggering around in their effort to catch their breath, and are spread out in as many as four different areas…and you have the makings of a rather large jump in score for Team Red in a matter of moments.

Consider your approaches, You may leave the Old Alley to head to the Patio Courtyard and enter a doorway of choice: Either bridge to Fountain Courtyard or stairwell to and through the Narrow Side Hallway. These represent two choices….the next are: cutting straight through main Square Alley into the Fountain Courtyard,or to go charging into the most likely route to quick combat (and deadly sniper fire)…Alley Timbers.

Every member of your team is going to have their preferences when it comes to picking the route, along with some who just go where they hear the most activity, then you have the novice who wanders around aimlessly trying to find something to shoot at but never quite knowing where Red is coming from, when…WAMMO!!!! (not picking on you Mungo-Zen).

Lets start with the most deadly piece of real estate on this map….the fight for the Marketplace…

When you spawn you are going to head directly for marketplace via Alley timbers, I would recommend two courses of action here, one is to bound over the iron grating and directly into Alley Timbers after a quick glance to ensure its clear, if you decide to run around the iron grating and then make an immediate right turn into the alley, you are making it blindly and are apt to run into withering enemy fire, if you look straight up the alley and go OVER the railing directly into the alley, you will at all times maintain a line of sight. Also, remember this is prime sniper country, Red loves to sit up on that balcony stairwell at the other end of Marketplace and turn Team Blue into pasta strainers with SR-8 rounds as you come into Alley Timbers, so make certain you are more intimate with the wall on your left then you are with your….intimate other:) It is also a good idea to make your approach as covert as possible by covering the final ten feet or so in a crouching position. When you are certain it is clear you can go over the rail or around it checking for enemy snipers behind every fruit stall and crate in the marketplace.

The other approach I mentioned is simply this, while team red can have a lovely time buggering your teammates with that aforementioned SR-8, it is therefore quite logical that someone from team blue can do the same.

Not only can you clean that balcony of vermin in a relatively safe position, you will also have direct line of sight of any Red brave enough to venture down that alley looking straight down the bore of your scoped Tank Killer. “Look and leap.” “Wait and paste.”