Quinc3y

So recently, I've been trying a different playstyle, where I'd focus on killing enemies ("poi style"). And honestly, I might be too soft for this 😆 While I always knew that there are plenty bad players on public servers, it's when you adopt this focus-on-killing playstyle that you see it even more clearly. There are people who reguarly stand still / walk in straight lines / have zero game sense / don't notice enemies around them / storm into a group of enemies / make other poor choices, etc. They don't contribute much at all to their team and instead, they donate VP to the enemy team. Killing them takes little to no effort or skill. 99% of the time, they are simply new players. They installed the game last week, have a nostalgic feeling about the C&C universe, tried maybe one or two games against bots but they would prefer playing against other players because it's more fun and they want to reminisce the old days when they played with their friends. At the same time, due to low population / only 1 active server, they are forced to play against veterans with many years of experience. Obviously, they stand no chance: Ren X is not that easy of a game, especially when it comes to aiming. How are they supposed to explore the game and have a positive first impression, when they keep getting sent back to spawn every moment? The second they leave their base, they get sniped or destroyed by a supreme infantry player. And when they try to shoot that infantry player back, they deal almost no damage because of their bad aim/cheaper unit/lower veterancy. I'd hate to be them in this scenario. Of course, I'd like to keep these people around and not discourage them from Ren X. This is why, after I kill the same guy twice and see him again standing still in the same spot, I aim at his head and hesitate before pulling the trigger... please, learn from your mistakes, dude... I say to myself. And then I end up shooting him anyway because well.. it's part of the game. If I don't do it, somebody else on my team will kill him... a few deaths later, he quits and I never see him again. Sigh. This kind of guilty feeling I get especially when I snipe people inside their base. This can be easily done on maps like Walls, Complex or Under, when your team is already dominating. Really, buying a new hard-earned unit, exiting a building and getting sniped immediately has to be the worst feeling in Ren. So this is just a couple of my thoughts. What do you think? Am I the only one who has this problem?

Team Slavs: 1. Quinc3y - the Tsar 2. Vertigo AKA Fucking - Tsar's advisor and right-hand man 3. MARIUSZ - public games GOD 4. Morskoy Kotik - public games GOD. Highest KD on the team 5. Slavic Knight - obviously 6. ks.ol - sniper from Siberia 7. dr.schrott - the most positive Slav 8. testman - the most Slavic accent 9. Hackerham - best shotgunner east of the Urals 10. DenWellingston - if someone can give him the password the bench: WickedJack[RUS], Nafig[RUS], and paulzycz

Ah yes, that Islands game was a gg I agree that mental fortitude is needed to be a commander both in PUGs and and PUBs. After all, you're often the person to blame if the team is losing, people will demand that you come up with plans (and by a plan they mean a rush, because they don't consider "take control of the field" to be a real plan, it's too boring for most), people will demand that you control the harvester, de-mine buildings, mark targets, use CP correctly, listen to their suggestions, etc.... it can be a lot of work that can be overwhelming for some. That's why there aren't many willing to command. Surely, earning people's trust & respect makes things easier. Although even the best commanders will get flamed occasionally. I also agree that voting out / volunteering to be a new commander without even talking to the current commander is a bit toxic. Especially if the current commander is trying his ass off to make something work. People often don't appreciate it enough. Some general commanding tips I can give: 1. Use the mini-map often. The default key is M, but I have it bound to my mouse because of how useful it is. It gives you intel on how the game is shaping and who controls vehicle / infantry areas. It can give you a hint where the enemy rush can come from. It can help you make decisions which map area to reinforce and whether it is a good time to rush or no. If you see that most of the team is in field, then organizing an infantry rush will take a lot of time & will likely lead to losing field. Is it worth it? Etc. 2. Learn all commander powers. All have their own use and can make a difference. Smoke, EMP, and cruise are generally more tricky and require more practice to make best use of. If you're a beginner, start with using radar scans and buffs during rushes. 3. Try to respond to people's suggestions. It can be a lot effort, but I think it's worth it to comment on what teammates write on the chat. This way the team is more organized. I personally don't like it when I try to gather people to do something and, at the same time, there's 2 other guys giving other orders. There should only be one commander in order to reduce chaos. Your team should always have clear instructions on what to do.

OK, maybe I should say something. Leaderboard / impact of stacks on game balance The win/loss ratio on the leaderboard really does not say much at all. We have to keep in mind that sometimes poi does play solo, and sometimes jpj also plays solo. Also, sometimes they join in the mid-game / late game, perhaps with a building or more down. These kind of matches are sometimes not winnable no matter what. Not to mention the WLRs of some players on the leaderboard are clearly inflated, which can be done in many ways. With all due respect to MARIUSZ, his impact on the game is nowhere near poi's. What would be interesting to know is the win rate of poi and jpj playing together on one team from the beginning till the end of the map. I bet that it is much higher than 60%. You can't tell that from the leaderboard. I will tag @Tytonium here, as I believe he is preparing a data set that may put more light on the issue of stacking in general (correct me if I'm wrong, Tytonium). And, as many have already said, it is not only the fact that poi, jpj & friends win a lot of games. Their playstyle - kill farming - plays as much of a role. Team stacking in general While it is true that team stacking / lack of team balance has been a part of the game since forever, the issue has never been as severe and never sparked as much emotion as in the recent 1-2 years. There is a reason why you, poi & jpj (and your other friends), became the symbol of stacking. Your skill, your playstyle, and your prevalence is what differentiates you from any other stack (including the "CT stack"). There were weeks (if not months) when you were stacking teams and farming kills day after day in the EU evening peak hours. Of course this was (and still is) frustrating people. You and your friends understand where the frustration comes from (you and Sarah both admitted that). Of course, many people went too far when venting their frustration. Rules should be enforced, and all cases of harassment / personal attacks should be punished adequately. At the same time, there were many people who legitimately criticized your and your friends' ways by pointing at how fundamentally unfun for half of the server is the game experience that you create. More often than not, you and your friends have ignored them. I condemn all haters and people who have insulted you or even touched real life stuff. That should never take place. That being said, putting yourself in the position of a victim is creating a largely false image. You call other bullies, but it is you who have been bullying others - with the way you and your friends stack and dominate games. All of you who stack together are perfectly aware of your impact on the game and of the hate that you generate. But did you or your friends ever care? @poi As a competitive player, I have tons of respect for your achievements in the game. In my opinion, there are very few players - if any - who have mastered Ren X to the level you did. Frustration is one thing, but playing against you is always a challenge for me. As a person, I have my best wishes for you. I hope you make the best use of your break. God bless you.

(we were actually winning) I think this famous guy has "FU LOSER TEAM" on a hotkey or something. Here, he tried to quit the game using console, but it seems like he ended up pressing that hotkey. What a legend 😂

The maturity of stackers, you meant. Agreed. Unfortunately, the notorious stackers have long forgot about the idea of "good challenge against enemy team" and "fair, competitive game", and "let's make Ren X better for everyone". They take too much pleasure from stomping their enemies to care about such. No hope there, I'm afraid. Anyway, thank you for your honest post, Reivax.

You guys ain't beating this one. Proof:

I agree, but this is not a reason to vote Field, which is one of the smallest maps. It is too small even for a 20v20 match (and I remember many people sharing this opinion back when we had servers capped at 40 players). This means that a 30v30 Field game offers worse gameplay than, say, a 30v30 Field X game. My opening post was of course more of an expression of my emotions after another boring Field stalemate than an actually solid argumentation / polemics. If you want me to, I could write a long post about why such games are bad and should be avoided, and try to comment on the commonly used arguments of people who think differently. But I don't think there is a point in that. Most people who vote Field on public games won't read it, and really - if people like to play on that map, what would any rational arguments change? After all, it is a matter of personal preferences. I like one way of playing Ren X, and others like a different way. I can't force other people to dislike a given map or style of play. But yes, this kind of long, stalemate games, on overcrowded maps with a choke point in front of each base are really just frustrating for me, and Field is a prime example of that. And I think many people share this frustration, too. So I ended up creating this thread as a way to sort of vent my frustration and point at (in my opinion) a problem. Forgive me.

Field is the worst map in the game. Field is not designed to be played 30 versus 30. A 30v30 Field game can be played "for fun" every week / every few weeks or so, but not every day. After a 1.5h long 30v30 Field game, it is not smart to vote Under as the next map. There are many maps that offer far better gameplay than Field that we could play on, also including some new ones. In particular, Field X is much better, it can hold many more players, and moving away from the old design of Field to the new Field X was simply a step forward for the game. - Wait Quinc3y, isn't this common sense? Why do you think these opinions are "unpopular"? - Because I know that tomorrow people are going to vote for a 30v30 Field game again.

Another thing: when pressing V, the player table does no longer show which players are engineers / advanced engineers.

I hate campers!

I think med rushes stopped being a thing after mammoths were buffed 1 or 2 years ago. Mammoth tanks are simply stronger, especially in the late game. What's more, in public games vehicles rushes are generally difficult to organize, because a big portion of the vehicle limit is usually taken by people who do not work with the team. Especially now, on 32v32 servers. So you rarely get to see any kind of vehicle rushes.

Get meds.

Whoa, this thread escalated quickly. On the topic of developers, I have nothing but respect and appreciation for everybody who contributed to creating this great game. Ren X has been improving for years and I'd say it's in a very good state right now. As for the community, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. Really, it's a pleasure to play with you all. On frustration in the game: I have voted for map design. I think maps have a great impact on gameplay, and too many of them are too small & with too many choke points. I'm actually suprised how few votes this option got.

As it is now, EMP's range and short time before activation means it's very difficult to evade an EMP thrown at you with anything but a humm-vee or buggy. The effect of getting hit by an EMP is also very harsh. It feels bad, because often you can't really do anything about that. No matter how good of a tank player you are, too often you can't help getting EMP'd and focused down by enemy team. This results in gunner or LCG spam being very effective, especially on maps with a lot of high ground. It should be noted that this is more of an issue in PUGs that in public games, because of better target focus in the former. I suggest reducing the explosion range of EMP grenades a little bit, or adding a second or two of time until the grenade detonates. To counterbalance for this, the EMP strike (commander ability) could use some sort of a buff. I feel like it's the weakest support power right now.

I really think that right now the game is more balanced than it was at any point in the recent years, both faction wise and infantry & vehicle wise, with no evidently under/over powered units or strategies. Of course it's not perfect and it's never going to be, but hey, I feel like we should really be happy about what we have right now.

Holy moly.

Good effort Mint, you must have put a lot of time into this! However yeah, there's a lot of debatable marks out there

Good post, Jeff. The limited voice chat is something that should be at least tried... although I can understand how some people would be offended if not given the right to speak.