Tribes 2 competition tips
Would you like to be effective in Tribes 2 competition? I implore those with competition experience to impart their knowledge to those interested in participating in competitions and ladders, but have little experience. Start with the basics of various roles and positions played, and move up to advanced strategies.
Comments
Oh! Oh! I do! I do!
If someone could go over the basics so inexperienced players could become familiar with the differences between pub play and comp play, that would be helpful as well...
-Offense >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> defense. Meaning, if you spawn, and your base is getting fuxored for juggs, do not focus on killing them, if your base is already raped they can only do so much. Pickup an epack or use a remote invo and attack the enemy base; focusing on invos, but that depends on the map I spos. The noobs on your team will focus on killing (or more likely just distracting) the HOs.
-If your going HO grab an invo and deploy it before leaving the base.
-Learn to mine disc.
-NEVER STOP MOVING
-Stick to your pos unless its not working. Example, if your LD and your team is not having any trouble defending go O or play the field. Or if your actually playing a match or PU disc their dep. turrets from far away. Lame tactic but shit works. Don't do that in a pub, many frowns will be upon you.
-Also if your playing in a match don't cloak... or use vehicles unless absolutely necessary.
-PLAY THE GODDAMN FLAG. So many times have I seen a teammate close to the enemy flag in our base and ignored it, letting the enemy return. Grab the enemy flag if they are going to soon cap unless you hear someone's "I HAVE THE ENEMY FLAG!".
All for now.
If your referring to my post, reread it. I said disc snipe their dep. turrets.
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Here's another tip, beacon your mines; and when you hit beacon hit it twice. Instead of the green circles connected by a line its just an orangish circle (like a dep. invo).
Again why is that lame? Does shooting a deployable turret instead of anything else magically make it more lame?
Mostly because the server is 50%+ noobs, and there are other ways of blowin up their shit. I think of it like o-sniping.
watch demos of old school good players and high level matches
the players nowadays are better, but these guys are still way (and i mean way) above your average player
edit: as for learning how to play in a more competetive setting, i encourage people that are interested to go into irc.tribalwar.com and get the information for when pickups are held on branzone pickup server and, in addition, ventrilo info if you really want to know what's going on, since a large number of us frequent the same vent channels whenever we play
your typical team is going to have a combination of the following:
Offense:
capper - caps flag (duh). These guys in 14 man generally were less important than the HO that helped setup the flag to be cleared, but in 7 man these players really have come into their own, since they need to have the ability to clear flag stands by themselves, juke multiple defenders, approach the flag correctly and at the right time, and be good enough duelers to help during standoffs. Cappers nowadays are typically extremely versatile.
HO - heavy offense - this is typically the position you want to have the most (as in the most numerous) talented players in. The ability to control an enemy's base and disrupt the defense at will is probably the most important thing in any match
LO - light offense - this, along with ld, are probably the most demanding positions. LO takes an incredible amount of smarts and timing, as well as the need to be probably among the best duelers on your team, for both standoffs and for staying alive while distracting multiple ld.
MO/SMO/MSO - medium offense (in shield pack) - these are for taking over a base. HO are much better at taking bases down, but if you really want to hold a base for a long time, MSO are the best at staying alive and killing lights in most bases
Defense:
ld - light defense - light defense have historically, both in t1 and t2, been the most talented players on the field. The are typically the best duelers and have the best aim, particularly with the chaingun and sniper rifle. It's also a position that takes a great amount of smarts and discipline compared to many other roles. Despite that, they are less important in the scheme of things than solid offensive players and cappers. Think analogously of ld as a cover cornerback in football: possibly the most physically demanding position to play, but in the overall scheme of things, not the most important (think of the pass rush as your HO :P )
HD - heavy defense - extremely important and often overlooked position. A good HD is key to stopping the inevitable HO train on certain maps.
HoF - heavy on flag - not used on every map, but extremely important on some. The HoF ideally functions as an impenetrable wall to cappers, and a good hof should be able to stop almost all cappers by himself, leaving the ld more free to concentrate on the rest of the offense coming in.
farmer - puts out turrets/invs - like HD, this position is extremely overlooked and also extremely important. It also in 14 man was underappreciated, because the farmer in 14 man was almost entirely dedicated to putting out turrets and invs most of the map (and it was very common for teams to just put their least talented players in the farmer role, thus earning a sort of newbie status compared to other positions). In 7 man, however, a farmer is often expected to switch between farming, HD, and LD depending on what the offense is sending, and should be aware enough to help out the ld or hd depending on the situation.
shrike - shrikes are typically used defensively or in midfield moreso than offensively. Offensively they are used by cappers to set up routes and rapers (in medium shield) to destroy mpbs/turrets/sensors/etc before they go into the base (or sometimes they will start shriking down an mpb and finish it off on foot). however they typically are not an offensive role outside these duties. Defensively, they typically roam around and ram HO off their routes and generally disrupt the enemy's offense, as well as help the ld chase down cappers. In matches, typically shrikes do not engage each other very often considering they usually stay closer to their base and side of the map. Engaging in a shrike is not only usually pointless (as good shrikers typically will just continue flying around dodging you until they get back to their base where you almost assuredly can't kill them), it also wastes time for both shrikers from doing more important duties.
Midfield:
mf - traditionally, in base and base++, midfield (mf abbreviated) would essentially play in an LD loadout and just intercept cappers and HO as well as osnipe and generally harass everything in sight. Ideally they were very talented chasers, snipers, and duelers. In classic, however, the midfield role is much less effective, as most ski routes can easily take enemies around the mf very quickly where they aren't nearly as effective. Sometimes it can be effective to temporarily play mf in certain situations, but the closest thing to mf in classic is more closely related to LO; that is, as an osniper closer to the enemy base and inbetween the enemy's and your own base that can distract ld and then escort cappers that get off the stand. I would consider this role LO more than mf, however, for nomenclature purposes.
Other miscellaneous positions:
other vehicles:
grav cycle: not used as much anymore, but it's still pretty effective when used as a getaway vehicle. Typically, however, teammates will just bring a shrike, as they're also hard to take down and they are more likely to just be flying in a shrike anyways, as it has many other uses, unlike the grav cycle.
tank: tanks typically fill 2 roles (thanks to team 311 for exploiting both of these excruciatingly against numerous teams): 1) to long distance spam (generally the vpad of the other team). In this situation, the tank will have a pilot and gunner with long distance spam on the enemy vpad, and a third person, either in shrike or in heavy, will escort them to protect the tank from any enemies coming in. 311 used this on slapdash extremely well (and i believe they were undefeated on that map), completely shutting down the enemy vpad for almost the entire map while their team ran bombing runs and constant shrike grabs. 2) as a tank on flag, or tank near flag, whatever you want to call it. They basically annoy the piss out of offenses and kill every capper until the offense does something about it. Think of it as sort of a super HOF
mpb - these are used exclusively on defense, and are very important on any map that has them
shrike - already been over that
havoc - totally useless. has not been used since the early days of base to any effect whatsoever. There is no reason to bring a really slow vehicle that can be killed very easily by any shriker when all those offense can ski to the enemy base in half the time.
bomber - these are actually most commonly used to bring rapers to the enemy base, not to bomb. They are quicker than the havoc and allow one of the passengers to bring an inv. If they are used in a bombing run, it's usually a suicide run (because generally no team will allow more than one run before it's destroyed), and if they are bombing will usually not use a tailgunner, since enemy shrikes will be the one taking it down, not missiles. On some maps, like slapdash, the bomber will make a single strafing run over the flag and then continue to the base to proceed to base rape. Also, as was stated about the tank earlier, if one team's vpad can be completely controlled, a bomber can be extremely effective in totally dominating a flag area. Typically, however, they aren't used in 7 man because there are so few players.
Ok, now to the meat and potatoes (typical setups):
In 7 man, the setups will naturally fall as 4 offensive players and 3 defensive players or 3 offensive players and 4 defensive players (in a strange way, similar to how defenses in football use a 4-3 or a 3-4). Having more players on offense or defense is referred to as an offensive stack or defensive stack, respectively. As has been said before, Offensive is typically more important on most maps, so the vast majority of teams will run a 4O/3D stack. typically, 3 HO and 1 capper, or 2 HO, 1 LO, 1 capper or 2 HO, 2 cappers. There are other variations of course, but those are the most common. Defenses will usually run 2 LD and one farmer/HD (which will change depending on how much/what kind of offense the other team sends). Beyond this, the strategies get much more map specific, and I might get into them at some point, if there's any interest.
Example, your capper doesn't need to be at your own base trying to chase down heavies and suit up. He needs to be going out to this inventory afield and keep the flag moving.
my fav tip is: if you want to stay hidden, hop.
On riverdance:
place a beacon on the underside of turrets (while cloaked)
a very suicidal tip: base rape with a plasma rifle and SL, when you run out of ammo, go look for a heavy and lance his behind.
Other than Lonzo playing Jagged Claw, the cloak pack really shouldn't be mentioned in a thread discussing competition. 9999 times out of 10000, the SJ pack is strictly better.
For once we're in agreement. If you're paying any amount of attention to the enemy base before you try getting in odds are nobody will ever really notice the one dude without the big red "SHOOT HIS ASS" triangle.
Extra asshole on top raping tip: Steal their repair pack on the way out.
for more standard LO purposes, i think sj suits better, but I really like cloak pack for standoff situations.
And for jagged claw, of course. gotta love cloak capping on that map
this of course is all moot if you have guys like darkstrand who can hear cloakers coming a mile away because he changed his sound settings (legally, mind you). But for all intents and purposes, most teams and players haven't done that
If Darkstrand can hear cloakers "a mile" away it shows how Kryandish theyve become.
Im done preaching.
Happy Mod ring a bell?