Empires Summer Scrim League Game 3 - 27th June 21:00 BST/ 16:00 EDT/ 13:00 PDT

Commentary by myself and Slade for Game 3.

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Yes, keep blaming script changes for your ineptitude. We like this. :p

Script changes that definitely occurred in the recent patch that altered the behavior of every vehicle weapon, and made plasma a 3 slot cannon!

 

i love my low scores

 

I was too drunk to crawl off the bottom of the scoreboard. Had fun all the same, felt half useful one I got into a tank.

 

In the old days of EPIC scrims it was really just Trickster and Slade talking along with Deif making rude side comments about recycling buildings. There wasn't anyone talking because everyone knew what to do.

Their are quite a few sources of the loud noise on our team.

1) The number of players
2) The map selection
3) Loud people who think they're important

The number of players isn't standard. There were only a few instances that EPIC scrimmed with 21 people. If that wasn't the case we preferred 16 and if that wasn't possible then 11. Players knew what they were doing and for the most part everyone was a bit of a quiet lets fucking win the game kind of person.

The map selection also is important. On a map like emp_cyclopean, one that is wide open, there is a lot that can be going on. If buildings don't get down immediately, the whole team gets angsty. On midbridge, the tunnel ways and APCs make it extremely hard for the team to see everything on the minimap. I honestly think the map's we've played are way too complex.

I have no clue why isle was so loud but it really had to do with us fucking up the start.

Lastly, loud people who think they're important. Posthumous is a good example of this. He was loud quite a bit but it is a bit important, especially if I am not placing buildings and we are losing. I told him to not talk and he respected that, but I would prefer his loud voice calling orders rather than him being quiet now that I think about midbridge.

Paradox is another example of a person who can be loud. However, he really isn't a problem because when we're losing, he stops talking. It's this DotA mentality that when shit goes wrong, either you get angry as fuck or you shut the fuck up.

Noobs. That is the last group I can think of. No one here is used to scrimming at all so it's a nice change of pace. If we had nothing on the line no one would give a fuck but there's so much on the line (like my commanding career and bragging rights).


For the next scrim, we can experiment with separate squad channels. The only worry that brings to me is if you guys call for buildings, I will not be able to hear you.

 

Again, you could do what we do and use the in-game voice chat along with Teamspeak. It really is a boon to be able to strongly coordinate with your own squad while still being able to communicate with the rest of the team if need be. Like, I'd easily peg 90% of the voice chat I'm in as being within the squad.

 

In game voice comms, you can't mess this up.

 

The solution is very simple:
- comments for commander and strategic decisions, ingame chat
- comments for squad members, team speak (one channel for each squad)

You can play well with 5 persons (see CSGO), but 22 persons it is nearly impossible to communicate effectively.

 

I watched lawliet's perspective second round. (And had a talk with him later on)

Quebec organisation and planning seems absolutely terrible.

For the sake of keeping up attendance and elevating the level of play, I'll give some suggestions as how to improve it (Basically what we do at Xray):

1. Have separate TS channels for each squad. The comm talks in game. Nobody else does except if it is REALLY important (apc going towards main, ninja attempt, critical building almost down). The rest goes through TS.
2. Everyone but the squad leaders ignore the commander and the second in command (in game). The squad leaders relay important information to their squads using TS.
3. If you don't have a second in command (it appears that is the case), appoint one. Have a commander and "a guy that drops buildings and does research". Our commander is usually on the field, while someone else does the actual building & research part.
4. Have separate roles for each squad. Have at least two dedicated infantry squads (with a varied roster that includes at least 2 revive engineers, a decent gren and a decent rifleman), one mechanized squad with the best tank drivers and one "subversive" squad that goes around the map wrecking havoc.
5 Have a detailed (initial) battle plan for each squad (a general idea where they all go) and a contingency plan in case things go awry. Visually draw this plan and have it discussed with the organizer, the squad leaders, the commander and the second in command. Nobody else needs to know about it.
6 ONLY TELL PEOPLE WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW - should be self-explanatory. Normal Xray squad members only know where they should be going and what they should do on a squad level. Don't bother them with stuff they don't need to know about (squad rosters, battle plans, research, chain of command, etc.). There is a lot of talking inside Xray squads, but most of that is related to tactics, focussing fire, etc.

 

I'm very much against squad channels, but to be honest, from everything I've heard I'm going to have to give in and say you probably need it.

Like Lawliet said, when EPIC scrimmed, not many people would actually speak. The commander, the team leader and the squad leaders were the only people who really used comms. Players ingame were very adept at using the F-menu to describe what they want and keep very clear comms, while anything specific could still be said over teamspeak or ingame if extremely important. Filtering is something that comes naturally to most players, but to be honest it's a lot easier when you're only filtering out everyone but your own squad leader. I generally cite these 2 games as examples of how it tends to work. I'll say the only person talking too much is Zeke. He is one of the people that generally found it quite difficult to calm the fuck down, but he was still basically a squad leader so it was pretty easy to filter him out.

In your matches I'm hearing so many people talk random shit, just communicating for the sake of it, saying 20 words when 2 will suffice. It's important to instil mic discipline within your team, but we're 3 games in now and it honestly doesn't seem that much better than game 1, it's possible some people are beyond learning.

So yeah, as much as it pains me to say it, I was probably wrong to think that level of hierarchy could be established within the comms system, so I guess you need squad channels.

 

The rest of your post is fine but come on catface you're telling them the secret recipe. That last point is pretty good too, I don't even know what research we're going when we play it's all abstracted for me, and the others, by command.

It's something you'd expect, there isn't any inherent organization, these teams are people who just joined together to play against the other team, so there isn't any inherent respect between players. At least for xray, squads function as independent units who only depend on that the other squads also do their jobs.