[poll] Playing TF2 in a New Way

Stib

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Jan 20, 2008
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Have you ever been an engi and wanted cover while you build a sentry?
Have you ever wanted to hit the opponent with a double uber rush?
Have you ever wanted to be with a small group of players that you could get to know and work together with?

Half the pull for me to buy TF2 was “Team” was in the name. I’m a sucker for team based events and games. I love working with other people to achieve some goal. When I first started playing though I realized I was on a team but we all pretty much did our own thing. This does in some instances win the game but not always.

Then I joined eGO and played in a couple of scrim events. I am happy to say eGO members are much more likely to help each other in different ways. In fact in a pub game in warpath I was able to dominate many people, as a heavy, because I had the help of an engi and a medic ( the engi built a dispenser for ammo and the medic healed me. This creates what I loving call a Bullet Wall. Infinite ammo and lots of health equals lots of kills ;) ). I’ve also worked with Cpt. Obvious, Drunken Sailor, Kolak, and others and had a blast beating the people into the ground.

What’s my point? The more I work with other people the more fun I have. So why not capitalize on this. Here is what I propose:

•Create small groups of eGO members that enjoy working in a team – This can be as formal or informal as we like. 4 to 8 person teams with a common team name (like Sigma). Groups could even be as small as 2 people if you like. A facilitator could help here in organizing and creating groups ( I, Stib, volunteer <insert blood stain here> ).

•Have a rotating leader position within each group – This wouldn’t be a person to bark orders but simply someone to set a meeting point before an assault. “Sigma meet in the left tunnel.” Simple as that. The group will congregate there and attack together. The leader could rotate every round possibly.

•Help each other with smaller tasks – Engi’s could get cover while building or help from other engi’s. Groups could easily do double ubers. You could have a whole pyro ambush squad if you like or two heavies with two medics. Sapp and stab spy teams. Uber chain bonesaw medics ect…. (doesn’t that sound like Fun!)



Now I know what you are thinking…

•”What about the guy that just runs off and doesn’t help anyone at all.” Well talk the person then to your other teammates. If they agree then consider him/her removed from your squad, tell the facilitator, and you’re done.

•“What if no one in your squad is around?” This is why you might want to have 8 man squads to make sure someone is always about to help out. Also you could be absorbed into another group temporarily as well. eGO’s are quite welcoming. Squads could be used during scrims, in pub games, and maybe (if lots of people are on board) in a squad event.

•“What about the whiners.” Whiners are not welcome at pretty much anything. Tell them to, “stop whining or find a new group.” The collective group can route out punks. If the group agrees tell the facilitator and they are done.

•“We tried CAL teams.” I don’t know what this event was like or supposed to be like. It sounded like its focus was to create competitive teams. That is NOT the focus here. The focus here is to play with people you know (or are getting to know) in Small groups and have fun playing together. Again this is NOT about creating Fragtastic Teams but your squad could become one ( over time with teamwork of course ;) ).

•“Sometimes I want to just go crazy.” I don’t see anything wrong with that ;) Let your buddies know you are going AWOL for a bit. When you want back in let them know and enjoy.


Again this can be as informal or formal as you like. Players in the Sigma squad could put a tag at the end of their names identifying themselves (=(e)= Stib [Sigma]) or simply listen for their squad name when they are called for help. I think a common way to communicate would be helpful though. Like “[Squad Name] meet [Location]”. Just keep it simple and Fun!

This is not about barking orders or getting barked at…This is about having fun and working together. So that is my idea. Vote yes if you are interested. Thanks for your time guys :)
 
I can attest to the success of working with the same people (same person rather) constantly. It will take practice, but there is no limit to your achievement once your processes are worked out.
 
this reminds me of the houses that is on the dod:s side.... specially with having tags at the end... and council already agreed we are not going to be doing houses..... i would say if you guys want to have teamwork thats great i love working in teams its better thats how the game is suppose to be played but not make it as the clan is broken down into smaller groups..(like houses do)
 
Dude, I thought of this idea back some time ago.. but I think what you really need is to keep the "groups" small... for reasons:

*8 people would be hard to get onto one team at the same given time
* it would get messy trying to coordinate 8 players for off or def
* 8 people is practically a full time now with 24 man servers
etc....

I would suggest maybe pairing up 2 or 3 people that work well together and YES... name the group. (maybe put the name at the END of their game name)... and they can id themselves on the server as focused on "attacking" support, defense, etc.. and if they meet online enough and work together it will improve the team play of all our servers. We could even have several groups on each team... PLUS it would make scrims maybe a bit more organized, and the e's can get the dogtag back =)

Great idea Stib... I nominate Stib to organize the groups...
 
It's certainly an interesting idea, and although I agree with the merits of working with the same people, I think there's also value in spreading the wealth a bit. The way that we can help each other to be more successful is to partner up with as many people as possible. In the example of the "bullet wall," there's nothing that says the three people who have successfully done this in the past can't then encourage two other people each to do the same thing. Suddenly, we have three of the same thing on a team, and it's that much more of an exciting game.

What might be more valuable, perhaps, is to share these tactics with one another, to experiment with variations of them, and to remember, most importantly, that "Team Fortress" has the word "Team" in it for a reason.
 
Well I'm on the fence with this one but I have played squad style TF before in QW so I'm comfortable with it. I just dont know how it functions in a much larger group without alienating people.
 
Great feedback guys keep it coming. I'd like to hear more about DOD houses and any other experience you guys have. Please Share :)

[blockquote]but I think what you really need is to keep the "groups" small...[/blockquote]

Just to clarify one point that estoroth brought up. I wouldn't really expect a squad (playing in-game) to be bigger than 4 people because it would get to hard to organize (I totally agree with estoroth). I was just thinking that not everyone in a squad is going to be playing at the same time all the time. People will be missing so it might be advantageous to enlarge the squad to more than 4 so that the chances of being able to play with a squad-mate would increase.

[blockquote]and council already agreed we are not going to be doing houses..... [/blockquote]

Lastly Dr. Gauma369 wrote the above. I'm not sure how DOD houses work but I am not suggesting the clan be broken up into independent subclans if that was the case. As long as people follow the rules already established by the clan the only change this would effect is in-game play. Again I'm not suggesting a change to the clan dynamic. What I am suggesting is a few small guidelines, with a facilitator's help, to increase the enjoyment of in-game TF2 for those who wish to play together. If you don't want to be in a squad/house you don't have to be. No worries ;)

Thanks guys. Keep your comments coming


P.S. If you want to see evidence that people do want to work together...Look at the Team Work Movement (TWM) 100k members!
 
My friends and I already have this going on. If you ever see me, ArclighT, Genus, Wingless, Kiir, or Casiopium (I've managed to convert all to eGO except Wingless and Kiir.. Wingy because she's new, Kiir because he's stubborn), we have [Lawl] appended to the end of our names. This is a very informal "clan" we've used on every other game we play to signify that we're playing together, and to make it more obvious that we're working as our own team. It also looks good when 1st through 4th or so place on a team ends in [Lawl].
 
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to set up gear for the benefit of the team and ended up dead with my gear destroyed because nobody stopped to help the engineer. I love the idea of working in small groups together. It's not a new idea, either. The military does this for a reason: it's incredibly effective. I think we'll want council approval before making it formal, but there's nothing to stop you from talking to friends and setting up times you can be on server together and work together.

There is one problem or catch that I see. As a clan member, in addition to working together well with our clan family, we have to make sure our servers are fun and popular. Our non-clan friends need to see that we don't stack our teams, and if one team is completely trashing the other, we need to be willing to switch teams to balance things out and bring back the fun. While it can be fun to pwn, it's not so fun to be pwned, and you can end up with half the players disgruntled and leaving. Then you have to divide up your team anyway, because autobalance will kick in, and you may end up struggling to fill the server.

So, provided the squads are willing to split in half at need to balance teams out, I think this is a great idea.

The other opportunity with this plan is that if your team loves playing on one map, we can have squads with admins dedicated to a single server, which is something I believe council would like to see happen. If pubs know you, like you and see that your squad or half you squad will happily switch teams as necessary, we'll find more regulars coming back to enjoy that environment. You can get the map on any server. It's eGO friendliness and fun that keeps people coming back to ours.
 
Sounds liek a beautiful idea, and if properly orchestrated, it'll do great to improve on in-clan relations, as well as keep up our friendly environment, as Monkeybits previously stated. It might also be a good idea to keep different types of squads, from Eagle Scream palyers to those who dont play as often. It wouldnt be fair to be in a team, only to have one player miss out often. However, it might be a bit unfair if the squads were comprised of only one rank individuals, for example: Squad A is only eGO, and squad B is only eG. While it's ok to make some of these squads, it would be nice for an edmin or two to team up with the e's :)

My vote is a definite, positive yes. I hope this will rocket through the council.

My vote is a definite yes. :)
 
Dividing by ranks wouldn't be the best idea, I agree. That's not normally how we do things anyway, though. We have fantastic people from =(e)= to =(eGO)= that are a lot of fun to play with, so I don't imagine that sort of division would develop.
 
Having a winning team that works together comes down to a few things. One of the main parts is leadership ability, I cant tell you how many times Ive had to join a terrible team. Sometimes my team is so bad that we get rolled over and over again. This is extrememly frustrating on my part because I like to win. I can usually turn even the worst teams around in a couple of rounds and begin to not only win the rounds but totally slaughter them.

I agree with Stib that its much easier to get ppl to work together if you already know them, but many of my greatest moments in game were with random players in our servers that I never saw again. Anyone who has played with me before knows that I bark orders, thats just the way I am. But if you listen to me we have a pretty good chance of winning. Me and a single trusty medic that will listen to me have walked through entire 12 to 16 man teams not once but even after thier second respawn.

Stib's idea while noble sounds to me overly complicated and divisive. I dont mean that like it was thought up to be that way, its just I believe our strength as a clan comes from unity as a whole. Once you start dividing up folks just because they like to play a certain way, it could open up a can of worms that could possibly cause some hurt feelings.

What makes up a team? Individuals make up teams, some people are born leaders while others are born followers. To be a great leader you have to first be a good follower, a lot of great men in military history have said that.

I see no problem if you guys would like to work out little "buddy" teams and such but I dont want anything to be formal. We promote teamwork here but not at the expense of the fellowship and brother/sisterhood that this organization is all about. Personally I see no need for this because when I join a server I work with whatever team I join. It is part of the fun to see if they will listen to you, once they see that its possible to win they will listen to you alot more.

As far as teamwork is concerned, I believe that is what makes this game so much fun. Without your teamates working together, you will not be successful. Part of the teamwork process is adapting to change and overcoming problems. It does not matter to me who I play with, I just like to shoot people :)
 
[quote1205945627=DrunkenSailor]
It does not matter to me who I play with, I just like to shoot people :)
[/quote1205945627]
Now that's a bumper sticker if I ever saw one!
 

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