Stacking, Spawncamping and You

[RumRunner]

[Makaze]

[Arcalane]

[Jade]

I'm pretty much in agreement with most of what Doom said. I think a lot of people just get frustrated when they get killed by that scout/demo/pyro, etc. that runs by the spawn exit. It's really easy to let your frustration get the better of you and start taking them out in the wrong way when you may feel something unjust happens to you. But common courtesy can do wonders to fix it. I know there have been times when my team's just plain being destroyed and I've asked if someone on the other team could help us out. Specifically I remember Doom switching teams a time or two to give us some aid.

Personally if I do something someone doesn't like and they make it known, I'll try and stop it if it's reasonable to do so. I'd prefer if they asked in a civil manner, but I can certainly understand the frustration someone goes through.

[Angry_Squirrel]

I'd forgotten about this, if you've never seen it you need to.

It's quite relevant to this topic too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y009oQEa ... re=related

[Dravu]

About a week ago on one of the CC2 servers, there was as a massive spawncamping at I think Dustbowl (it was a level with multiple stages and it was a capture point). I was on the team getting spawncamped. The other team (including some regulars) had 3 engies, 2 medics, 6 demos, and a sniper with an aim bot. So our front door was flooded with stickies and we had three level 3 sentries out there as well waiting for us. Not to mention the sniper popped you if you ever made it out as a cloaked spy. We won every single stage regardless because when they spawncamped, they went too far up and couldn't defend the points when we got out. But that should at least tell you that spawncamping is always counterable (ubers for the win). Though having to use multiple ubers and dying a lot is still something users shouldn't have to go through and is a huge waste of time. It's especially bad on Payloads where time is especially important. That's why I always call people dicks when they do it.

[Ayeaka]

The last few nights have lead to this post. Apologies.

I can understand calling stack to a degree (as much as I detest HEARING such complaints, even from my own team,) if the point difference between the two teams is astounding...

..but if that point difference is because you have.. one pyro, one medic, one spy, and...everyone else is a scout..

..and you can't advance..

and are being lead in tactics BY said spy, yet refusing to listen to said spy's pleas of "alright, move in now, before they build back up!"

...honestly, it's your own fault.

(...especially if I'm the spy. As it happens to be my worst class, as anyone that's seen me bumble about can vouch for. ...and I'm even worse when it comes to tactics. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PEOPLE, I SHOULD -NOT- BE THE ONLY PERSON WITH A STRATEGY!)
OMG SCOUT FAST AWESOME YES. We get it. However, a million scouts buzzing the point one at a time does nothing. A medic that ignores any teammates that aren't one of the four uber classes is just as bad.
And a team that refuses to use any defensive classes when they're being pummeled into submission as a result (and complaining about this) is worst, imo.

This is mostly venting I suppose. Feel free to delete it if it clutters things.

[heroofnone]

regarding team stacking

We're losing players due to team stacking currently, both with reg stacking and skill stacking. I won't name names, but go ahead and invite some players you use to play with on the server and see what they say, I've found about five that don't play as much. I'll also link this post and let them reply if they so choose.

I decided to reply to this after asking for a team scramble at the start of a new map where the teams were 75% the same as the last map, about the 3rd time I've asked for it in the server, and again I met with responses of "whiner", "stop complaining", "stop whining for losing just one round". When pointing out the teams were the same as last match, it was quickly refruted again "well I was on the winning team last map". Its sadly making me want to play less as well, where the match is decided before the struggle begins by who can get on a regular's team (who tend to also be the most skilled). The map continued to be over run for the next 2 rounds, the reg earning most of the points left, and then as more and more people left following the reg, the skill and challenge eventually equaled out, most stopping their stacking as players were auto assigned.

While I agree with Doom's definition, it doesn't cover payload maps or CP maps with attackers/defenders, nor does it cover teamstacking between maps. If the weaker team is on attackers, the map will last more then the 5 min mark, maybe getting to the first point but ultimately getting no where. Aditionally, if you had to deal with teamstacking last map and it changes, you'll see it occur the next map. Players seem to think that since the map has changed, that there can't be any immediate stacking. Typically however, if you're looking at the top 5 -7 players, they are on the same team round after round, map after map. The scores on their team is normally double per the player's cumluative score as well as double or X to 0 (X being the higher sum a map allows).

I know most are not going to agree with me, but the people that seems to have the consistent benefits of teamstacking, rarely on teams being steam rolled, are the first to dismiss in game. As stated I've only asked three or so times for teams to be scrambled, but watched as others make the same request with the same reactions. I've even left the steamrolling team to help others, but like a man standing in front of a tank it all ends rather quickly.

For admins, I request that team scramble is used more frequently, even randomly when no team stacking wasn't present the last map. Being more proactive with the scrambling stops some of the complaints, stops some of the cliques we seem to have starting, and will hopefully stop some of the stacking, though not all. Some additional administrative action to kick and regulate players that commonly stack onto the higher count teams would be nice.

For regs, please double join teams. If you can recognize the fact that people stack teams to get on your team, join one team, wait till people start to stack, and switch over. If players are stacking to be on your team, the teams should be uneven at the start of maps on a consistent basis. Its unfortunate to ask you to take some responsibility for other player's habits but its one of the few ways to break them of it.

For other players, join a team and try to be a benefit to your team. As stated in previous replies, support your team and use different classes if things need to be balanced out, if you see someone else playing a class you normally do, try out a new one. I'm guilty of doing only support classes (medic and engi) while on the laptop, but there seems to always be a need. side note: If you're an engineer and someone else has built a turret in your normally go, start whacking on it and help bring it to level 3, don't simply put another a few feet back, racing and competing for resources.

Take this reply as you'd like, agree or disagree, but if you disagree that stacking is occuring, please explain how to battle the apperance of team stacking which makes players want to stop playing. Thanks for your time.

[STrRedWolf]

A point I should make, since it happened yesterday and I called in Niko about it.

I was in a game and three guys with "[FAN]" in front in their name joined the server... and started blasting music. I asked them to shut it down, as it was affecting the game, and they stopped... and started immediately again. I couldn't play, and I switched to spectator. Others switched teams or followed suit.

Yep, stacked due to abuse. I had to ask Niko, who I thought was an admin, to come in and server-mute them. Of course, they immediately became rude, and folks were asking for them to be banned.

Things settled down afterwards.

[Erdenshire]

I regret that this is my first and likely only post here. (Not out of choice, merely that I'm lazy and don't check forums.) Unfortunately I don't have the latest views on what's going on, so please forgive me for that.

I must agree wholeheartedly with Hero's statement. This stacking has been a problem for awhile and must be addressed seriously. I haven't played very much in the last month or two simply because I'm tired of dealing with it. I'm tired of both getting steamrolled (skill stack) and feeling alone on my team (reg stack) - while the latter had improved right before I left, it was still quite bothersome. I might be acceptable skill-wise at times, but I play the game to enjoy myself and have fun with friends, so I can't do much against a steamroll.

Then again, I'll openly state that I am one of the people Hero is referring to. I practically stopped playing because of that shit. Every time i think of starting back up I know of only two communities I was at all interested in, TFP and CC2's, and my latest memories of TFP are simply not fun or enjoyable, so I go off and play other things.

I'm sure I'll be called a whiner and whatnot, but if you're thinking of calling me that, then I'd wager you're one of the people who've ruined the community server for me.