Pick Up Games (PUGs)

[Profane Pagan]

Is it possible for a scripter to automatize this organizational process? But I believe, even if the answer is yes, that would be a hell of a work. I wouldn't ask such thing.

[Mystic~]

Is there a PUG on today?

[boxes]

yes

[RoundShades]

There was. Played 3 games, first one was campy but alright, next 2 weren't, but then... I had a terrific match... on SuperMNC, after having left the PUG early. Teams were 17-18, making it 16-18 couldn't make it more unbalanced than it already was, and might have actually encouraged someone to move players around. Wouldn't know, didn't stay around to find out.

Wasn't the only one that openly suggested we rank and balance PUG players at this point. Last one was good, so I belayed it, but I'm doing it this week. If nothing else, it'll give me an accumulative score to give PUG teams and if one side dominates I will have obvious numbers to flaunt.

#Balanceteams #RemixTeams

[Profane Pagan]

My game crashed miserably on the second level. Well, such thing happens. I hope you had a good game.

[Quinc3y]

Meh.

Canyon

Nod won the first harvester battle and proceeded to dominate the field with arties and flame tanks for the rest of the game. GDI tried to push forward (they even tried massing meds and pushing at once), but was unable to. At one point the advantage became so big that Nod tanks just rushed in GDI base and destroyed buildings one by one.

Under

GDI controlling the field with meds & having a comfortable point advantage for the whole game. After being unable to leave the base, Nod tried some infantry rushes but all failed bad. In the final seconds GDI did a mobius rush that destroyed Nod PP (whatever).

Volcano

Pretty much like Canyon. Nod won by base destruction.

Islands

The most interesting of the games (if you can even call a game on this map interesting).

GDI had the advantage on field for the most part of the game and destroyed Nod refinery at about half of the game. With 10 minutes to go, Nod managed to destroy GDI refinery with some 2 nukes combined with an inf rush or something like this and at that point GDI was leading only with about 500 points.

Nod failed to take initiative and come back though and GDI won on time.

4-0 total, not so much action.

I played the first 3 games in the winning team and moved to the other team for Islands. I do think team Bong had better players - better vehicle drivers, dedicated defenders and Canuck with his mad aim. But at the same time I feel team Yosh/Madkill didn't really try, at least in the game where I played in their team. After 15 minutes of not being able to take control of the field, someone said "if you're not doing anything, get an SBH and come to HoN" and it was at that point when I thought we probably have no chance to win. Playing non-standard infantry rushing instead of vehicle spam is always risky. This time it kinda paid off and we got the GDI ref, but after that Nod failed to go for arties&flame tanks and take control of the field (even when it was empty), instead we went for rocket soldiers. On that last game team Yosh/Madkill played to have fun and not to win, which was not much fun to me Especially being the only arty in team and having no repairs...

Oh well. GG

[RoundShades]

1) We tried. Me, Yosh, Vertiso, and Ryz tried many angles of attack. Under, we did tanks, we did "kill repairmen", we did "sbh wf", we did "push tanks now that they retreated to defend base", we did "LCG PP", we did tanks again, we did "chem rush AGT", we did "chem rush WF"... AND, respectively, you guys simply "put Canucck in a humvee killing harvester", then "Profane Pagan stood literally on the WF with chaingunner for 20 minutes later-game", then "simply took field again since you are GDI on Under", then "defended 12 chem warriors with 3 guys and c4", then "Pagan again". We weren't worse, the teams were just stacked, and 20 people on Under will always see GDI win.

2) You had Quinc3y, Mamba, Canucck, B0ng, Jeff(?). We had "players" but what were we supposed to do? No Ks.ol, no snipers, we had Vertiso but he was trying to infiltrate (AND DID DO SO SUCCESSFULLY AT PP IN UNDER BEFORE BEING CAUGHT BY 6 HOTWIRES DEFENDING, R U SERIUS?), and we had a bunch of other people that can entirely compete on even ground if they have a foundation to do so on, and not being able to repair or counter vehicles with infantry because an unopposed sniper is completely nullifying.

3) We asked for Canucck in round 3. We asked for him again in round 4. We got... someone... I think. I can't remember, all I remember, is leaving when it WASN'T Canucck. Apparently, we still ended up with Quinc3y as well. We could have used Quincey... the round prior.

I will leave when games are like this. I shouldn't have to explain why, I shouldn't catch flak for it, I shouldn't have to defend flak, I should "be banned from future games", and I won't be the only one that'll do this. Minji has done it before, people WILL leave if teams can't shuffle by round 3 when things like this happen. Even if I were banned, you have 44 interested players on a good day, updates promise growth, 38 players today, 37 without me, 29 by time I had left, and while PUGS will quite honestly function even better with 28 players instead of 40, when happenstance ties up at least 4 of those people, population is jeopardized.

Just. Balance. And. Shuffle. Teams. I'm not the only one asking. #MakeThePUGGreatAgain

[Glacious]

Just so you know Yagi your team had Jeff not ours, also saying that our team won by just fact we had Canucck and Profane Pagan as you mentioned above is quite wrong if you where in our TS channel you would be able to tell straight away we won due to a team effort there was no arguing no shouting over each other it was great and hence lead to a team effort, the camping as you called it in game was also defending we did not have 6 hotties or large numbers defending base all game camping, all your rushes where called way before you go to our base, hence a large group of us suicide to get back to base asap and we defend until rush is over.

Just wanted to state that information as the way you said it above makes it sound completely unfair to rest of our team.

[Canucck]

It's nice that suicide to reposition is catching on. Tribes ftw

setbind k suicide

[Madkill40]

I will leave when games are like this. I shouldn't have to explain why,

You said you were leaving because you didn't have the time to play more or something? I see you were lying.

You also just explained why you left.

-2/10 for contradiction and inaccuracy.

[Ryz]

Yeah what some people 'above' said. We couldn't even get the map vote straight...

For almost every plan we tried:

a) a lot off people didn't care

b) it took to long

When someone suggest stankrush on Under we tried and someone else and I were in the field. Vertiso went afk (in stank!) and while we had a small time window to leave our base the rest took up to five minutes to... still not come. When asking about the stanks someone replied: "Shut up Ryz, we are not doing your stupid rushes.." It wasn't even my rush, but apparently complaining about the fact a few people tried something was more important than actually work together...

You just know if from the start. Machette also said that a few weeks ago (when we lost a few games by points) it was clear what everybody had to do. Some people (like him and I) even stayed on defense one two games. There was teamwork, people had roles and if you needed something, someone was to help almost directly. I believe Quincy, while he joined us, waited hours for repairs... When mines disappeared it would also take a while for some people to respond and one person even went to the ref of Islands saying: "Ref is fine" before it got killed the SAME second..

And so on. On Islands (again) for example I caught two hotwires and asked for help. Reply from someone on team was just : "Kill them" and something like don't bother us. While I chased one, another almost got in the strip and I also killed it myself without any help. If I was a bit later the strip would be down. It was almost like people were mad if you gave them viable info, cause it bothered them in their soloplaying...

Next week I won't be there. But we also decided that if the PUG is like this, we might even leave halfways. Don't want to be a ragequiter, but I also don't want to waste my time on this. It's not about winning / losing, but about the way it (isn't) played...

[Profane Pagan]

Profane Pagan stood literally on the WF with chaingunner for 20 minutes later-game"

I am really sorry. I had no idea. I have bought a Laser chain gunner, took a few steps and Built with UDK error came . After I crashed, the 39/40 seat quickly got filled up to 40/40. To tell you the truth I just glimpsed at the launcher. So I was unsure whether my newly accuired mic was working properly, I wrote a message into TS chat, and quit from everything and went away. I didn't dare to imagine my character was still in the game on Under. Why? Again I didn't came back because as I saw, there was a point where 40 players were there, if I am not mistaken. Heck I was so beat up I didn't even want to come back.

Now my mic is working, next time I will communicate if such thing happens again. Again, I am really sorry

Edited May 22, 2016 by Guest

[yosh56]

I won't lie.... I actually had more fun than you'd expect last night. Especially when MadKill took over. I think teams were better balanced than realized... it was more a matter of coordination.. and not having so many damn chiefs; not enough Indians.

Islands kind of went to show that our team was perfectly capable... after trimming a bit.

[Glacious]

It's nice that suicide to reposition is catching on. Tribes ftw

setbind k suicide

Ahhhhh good idea! Didn't think to bind suicide to a button Now also known as the

"SHIT PANIC! RUSH INCOMING BUTTON"

[Glacious]

I must admit when I first saw the teams on Teamspeak I though Ohhhh crap, Team 1 have more of the regular players and sneaky players and master race Jeff, so kinda thought well we may loose but nevermind then found our team I dunno just seemed to work together really well and when orders as such where given by b0ng everyone listened and when shout outs for rushes where made everyone listened, can imagine having 2 teams like that would be fun, seems the renegade PUG is far more about communication on Teamspeak/ingame and confident leader rather than player skill and think that is something that maybe needs to be worked on especially the comms on teamspeak.

[boxes]

We had no fraggers on our team, thus no way of killing repairs and 1Ks. We had good repairmen and somewhat ok tankers, but it's hard to keep them alive without inf support.

Tbh I didn't really do much nor did I care, we had random people shouting out random plans that would never work against a coordinated team. The team confusion at the start was also irritating because somebody was on the wrong teamspeak and never said a single word, and ended up having almost 3000 unspent credits that could have been donated.

[testman]

renegade PUG is far more about communication on Teamspeak/ingame and confident leader rather than player skill

I completely agree with that.

There should be a "communication check" before PUG starts. I would love to see "teamwork check", but just checking if we can communicate with all team members would be a good start.

That would prevent some basic inconveniences from happening, for example having people on the wrong team the whole time without even noticing.

And so on. On Islands (again) for example I caught two hotwires and asked for help. Reply from someone on team was just : "Kill them" and something like don't bother us.

To be completely honest with you, most of the time the information you are trying to present is relevant, but the from of delivery is not the best. We have single voice channel that all people with microphones have to share, so try to compress the information as much as possible. Don't start a dialogue about how it would be nice if some good-hearted people came to assist with the problem. Say "two hottys at strip tower" and start shooting them. Yes, it's personal judgement about how bad the situation is and how much you should be panicking about it, but try not to present it as doomsday if you only need one more person to sort it out. However, people not responding to distress calls or even not acknowledging them is another communications-related issue.

I get really irritated when I see that we can't even vote as a team.

Everyone's participation is extremely important when voting for map (and of course clear team-wise decision about which map to vote for).

Also I apologise for making risky and/or irrational decisions.

On Volcano I got out of MRLS to repair barracks because it's health was declining very quickly, but of course the MRLS got stolen, and with that I brought shame and dishonor upon myself. Will commit sudoku as soon as I find pencil-shaped katana.

And I like the idea of teams shuffling at 3-0 score. But that would require quite a lot of work and would break the flow of the game.

[yosh56]

I'm not entirely against an intermission where teams get reevaluated...

[Guest Gliven]

I uploaded the First match to youtube...but the video quality dropped massively after i uploaded it...obviously i did something wrong

Originally i had tried to upload the whole PUG in its entirety last night, but i had a power failure before it could finish. I decided to split it up into four parts. The rest will come later after i figure out how to fix the upload quality.

[Guest Gliven]

nvm fixed it

[Guest Gliven]

All 4 matches are uploaded, unfortunately my voice wasn't recorded. I know i had my mic on because people were responding to me. Anyways i plan to record every match from now on regardless if people want to watch me play or not

[Xtractor]

All 4 matches are uploaded, unfortunately my voice wasn't recorded. I know i had my mic on because people were responding to me. Anyways i plan to record every match from now on regardless if people want to watch me play or not

I Have the same with my voice when I recorded idk why.

Your video quality is very nice. What do you use and on what setting ?

[RoundShades]

All 4 matches are uploaded, unfortunately my voice wasn't recorded. I know i had my mic on because people were responding to me. Anyways i plan to record every match from now on regardless if people want to watch me play or not

I Have the same with my voice when I recorded idk why.

Your video quality is very nice. What do you use and on what setting ?

I'll give it a watch.

As far as chiefs and indians, the thing is, you need to throw more manpower at things when you have 20 people, but way fewer people have to defend to thwart it. 1 person defending, can take out a 4 man rush, 2 can take out 8, 3 can take out 12. At that point, the enemy team has 9 other people on offense, while your team is out of base being massacred by 3 people. This is more of an argument for "why 20 or 32 player teams, why not 14 player teams" than it is "why so many chiefs".

Even if it were a problem, there is nothing that remixing teams cannot do for "morale" and "team composition" at least. I am not insisting it can even always balance skill. I am insisting that it'll at least give team B0ng a taste of what it feels like, for Canucck to humvee gunner their entire early rush down, like they did us, so it won't be a "just us for all 5 games solid" sort of problem, which again, I shouldn't have to explain why I'll leave.

[Guest Gliven]

I used shadow play, and max settings in game. Voltex figured out the voice problem for me. I had audio set at in game only, instead of in game and mic.

[voltex]

This is what PUG's used to be like, or at least how they were when I started playing, doing things like mass engi rushes and in general just trying to have fun not complaining about team balance and who is in charge, of course a lot more people listened then. I just wish we could go back to that

[Glacious]

Also I apologise for making risky and/or irrational decisions.

On Volcano I got out of MRLS to repair barracks because it's health was declining very quickly, but of course the MRLS got stolen, and with that I brought shame and dishonor upon myself. Will commit sudoku as soon as I find pencil-shaped katana.

I am sorry testman that was me lol, I was there as an SBH just spotting and marking every vehicle your team had (Love the commander mod) and then all of a sudden empty MRLS, I couldn't resist it

[Mystic~]

I'm not entirely against an intermission where teams get reevaluated...

I agree with this after the end of the 2nd game. Swap a few players if things seem one sided, allow people to get drinks and use the bathroom without missing the map vote or going AFK at the start of the next game.

[testman]

Is that how Mammoth tank MKII gets made?

[MrSeriousOak]

Is that how Mammoth tank MKII gets made?

Can somebody please explain the "the tanks and cars" speech to that med tank before he tries to join the action with his parents again?

Also, Glacious your avatar is perfect for your response to testman there

[RoundShades]

So, to once again encourage balance this week, can we please have a few of each type of player on each team? That way, neither team is high and dry a sniper, infiltrator, or leader-type? For instance:

Leaders: Yosh, B0ng, Quinc3y, Jeff

Anti-Infantry: Canucck, Ks.ol, Minji

Infiltration: Quinc3y, Vertiso, Minji

Could any one of the list of people above, not get put all on the same team? I tried expanding on the list, but it was harder than I thought and I had less time than I thought to deal with it (a lot of other frustrating issues this week). I felt this way fine for the moment to ask for.

[LavaDr4gon]

I thought there was a Google docs. that categorized everyone?

[Profane Pagan]

It was a good PUG. Ffreak deserves a medal, he did a great job as our commander. Did anybody make a recording? *Edit: 'good' is an understatement. It was a great pug! With well balanced teams, and coordinated players.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Guest

[Guest Gliven]

I recorded, but i was having all sorts of problems, keyboard was dying on me with full batteries, sound was cutting out, computer shutdown on me. the last half of grassyknoll my keyboard completly died, so i just sat in the hon repairing, and then my mouse cut out......

[Profane Pagan]

My God Gliven, your computer has turned against you.

[Quinc3y]

Sorry, I was watching the Champions League final, hope someone can do my job of pug reporting

[boxes]

We played 2 pugs with different teams, with the losing team picking the map

1st pug:

Eyes - Arty rush takes out GT, Hotties chip down nod ref to 44 HP and an Orca rush finishes it off while a stank rush killed the bar. Nod had the point lead and played defensively, denying all of GDI's rushes (2 orca rushes, 1 APC "rush") and getting an even bigger point lead. Won by time.

Islands - Artys chip down GDI ref to 60 something HP while GDI struggles to take hold of the field. GDI eventually breaks out and has Nod holed in their base with max meds, mammys, and mrls. While a mass SBH nuke rush goes on, GDI moves in and places a single ion that kills both Nod Ref and Strip while the nuke rush kills the GDI ref. Nod tries a mendoza rush but fails due to camping APCs. GDI's tank force moves in for another ion attempt and destroys the Hon.

Canyon - Arty/Tech with flamers absolutely destroyed GDI and a nuke at the Barracks sealed the deal. 5 people on GDI left the game after that while Nod tanks continue to blow up GDI's base.

~

2nd Pug:

Goldrush - Mcfarland rush kills Hon and Nod PP while a single person in the AGT denied the Nod rush. GDI then rolls Nod down with meds.

GrassyKnoll - Easily the best game today, points were pretty much the same throughout the whole 40 minutes. GT gets destroyed by a flame tank quite early in the game, Nod ref gets infiltrated by an engineer, chipping it down to 47HP and GDI tanks finish it off. Stank/Tech+SBH destroys the GDI refinery soon after that. Hon gets damage down to 16 HP from the same tank force. Later, GDI's tanks and Nod's tanks move in opposite directions of the map, trading the WF for the Airstrip while damaging the Bar down to 50 something HP. Nod rolls out a lot of laser infantry and finishes off the remaining tanks except for one mammoth. Once vehicle drops started, GDI got an APC force and outside c4d the Hon, finishing it off with less than 10 seconds remaining.

[Profane Pagan]

So there were the people! You were watching football! Nice. My recollection:

I can't remember who was the commander of the Team 1. Team 2 had Fffreak9999 at the helm.

Eyes: Team 2 Nod managed to get rid of the first Team 1 GDI harvester. A little bit later NOD destroyed the defense tower at GDI base entrance. From that point, Nod was presenting a 'flexible turtle' strategy, effectively the team sliced it's forces into separate task forces, one's job was to harass the harvi, others went for the silo, and basically the rest of the team was just defending on the entire scale of the map. When GDI attacked, Nod pulled together at the base. GDI showed a perfect teamwork: I have never seen bigger Orca rushes ever before. GDI too was well coordinated, from my perception they were sticked together in order to be more effective with meds or with apc rushes. We lost the Ref, I think GDI lost something in return (Barracks?). Nod's opening and closing umbrella-tactics won the map, by points.

Islands: Balanced fight between the two teams, however Team 2 GDi won with continous med rushes. SBH presence was very heavy, GDI defense squad made miracles.

Canyon: Well, after killing the harvester, and securing the silo, Team 2 Nod just rolled in to Team 1 GDI base with partying arties and flamers. Just like last time. A GDI operative almost sneaked in to destroy the Airstrip at the very beggining. That was a pivotal point.

So it was 0:3 to Team2

After the third map, raging quitters essentially ended Team 1. So new teams were formed. Fffreak remained the commander of Team 2, Sorry, I didn't pay attention to GDI, please write down the commander's name

Goldrush came, Team 2 Nod lost. GDI blew up the HON and PP simultaneously. Great execution, later in game they came with tanks to finish the business.

Grassy Knoll: The best. There is only one thing I would like to add. This is why this game is great. There are so many ways to lead your team. Like in a real strategy game! Boy, wish there were a spectator mode to record this carnage. Team 1 Nod was succesfully infiltrated the GDI base, and they were heavily covered by snipers and raves from the hill. Nod nicely defended combining smoke grenades with tank counter-attacks. Team 2 GDI however wanted to push the med rush. At the beginning GDI was able to lead with only a few hundred points, but Nod managed to turn the table! Eventually both teams suffered, only the barracks and HoN survived. Nod was leading, when GDI pulled out an APC rush against HoN in the last 4 minutes. Nod defended heroically, but the defenders inside the building were overruned, and C4s did the trick on the outside. I knew a Patch would come in handy when I was mowing down the technicans at the MCT.

Oh and don't we forget the mighty mammoth-medium tank tower. Where the med tank was worn as a mammoth-hat. They were destructive on a whole new level. Pity the med bounced off later in the game.

Tally: Team1: 1 Team2: 4

[Crowsy]

It was nice pug,even if there were fewer players than usual , it was really nice. About that mammy / med thing..we saw it and we laughed at it, it was really funny ><.

[MrSeriousOak]

Again, I forgot about this PUG. I was screwing around on TS reborn. I hope the next pug is as awesome as this one! I really missed out this time

[Crowsy]

Again, I forgot about this PUG. I was screwing around on TS reborn. I hope the next pug is as awesome as this one! I really missed out this time

I could kill some of your brethren to make a calendar out of them.... >

On a serious note..hope to see you there next week!

[MrSeriousOak]

Again, I forgot about this PUG. I was screwing around on TS reborn. I hope the next pug is as awesome as this one! I really missed out this time

I could kill some of your brethren to make a calendar out of them.... >

On a serious note..hope to see you there next week!

Fine by me. Just remember if you kill all of us, you guys won't have anything produce oxygen for you! >

[RoundShades]

After the third map, raging quitters essentially ended Team 1.

Sorry, one of those were me, and I live in Northeast Houston where we are flooding a lot in the area. Happen to had something that needed my attention. If you need proof, use Google, it checks out, trust me.

[DoctorB0NG]

The rage quitters are very annoying. It makes it very difficult for the coordinators of the PUG and sours the mood.

PS: sorry I wasn't there yesterday, I'm up at my folks' place for memorial day weekend.

[yosh56]

PS: sorry I wasn't there yesterday, I'm up at my folks' place for memorial day weekend.

I'm in Tokyo for the weekend.

#1upper

[Fffreak9999]

I originally started on team 1 and moved to team 2 after the shuffle to ensure the numbers caught up.

[TK0104]

Next week, pls not that annoying rule: winners will choose the next map. They will always choose a GDI map when they are on GDI and a Nod map when they are on Nod

[Profane Pagan]

I originally started on team 1 and moved to team 2 after the shuffle to ensure the numbers caught up.

HAHA Who was my commander then?! Or was I Team 1 then and Team 2 after the shuffle? Dunno..

My style is the oblivion.

[boxes]

Next week, pls not that annoying rule: winners will choose the next map. They will always choose a GDI map when they are on GDI and a Nod map when they are on Nod

It was losers choosing the map, and we made that rule so it'll be less likely for the better team to sweep.

[sterps]

What time do these pug matches generally happen? I always get up on a Sunday morning and i think they've finished already. I'd love to participate some time.

[Profane Pagan]

Yagihige and DoctorBong, and Yosh, you are too nice, I cant belive you are saying sorry. Memorial day, family or flood are pretty good reasons to say the least. It was nothing like an empty shell of a character in the game and the unnoticed disappearance of the player after the crash of his game. So I just did this last time.

@sterps Every Saturdays, at 19:00 GMT. Check out Yosh's first post on this topic. But hey here is the countdown timer from the first page.: https://countingdownto.com/countdown/re ... down-clock