New Mixer Rule...

[MuMuTheCow]

I feel it went poorly because several people found an honor fusor game to be an excuse to just dick around. Splitting potty and rick was a good idea, but then rick just went sabre-bringer (knowing that missiles can't be shot down) and left his team without a chaser. Potty started TKing people for "fun." Others viewed it as a reason to start playing TDM and go for midair duels instead of playing CTF as a team. This kind of stunk since there was a decent game or 2 before that (I sat out to watch so teams would be even). I know a couple people left before the fusor game because of the same people/attitudes that tend to keep regulars from returning.

[OldeWolfe]

Thanks for the insight MuMu, clearly the gentleman's agreement for exclusive use of certain weapons won't work for some of the players...and may not be a viable alternative for fun at all at our Mixer.

[Gorthaur]

Yeah I warned cupcakes several times and then he came after me with shotgun which looked like intentionally so I banned him and left myself near the end of the game.

[ThePlaneswalker]

Wow sounds like things are getting unhinged. Do we need to change things up in a way everyone will appreciate? Yes.

The biggest thing in my opinion is the fact that we have basically played out every possibility of the current game as long time players, ie. we only use the weapons/loadouts that are the best, we cap the best way, we know every inch of the maps, etc etc. The only room for variance is our choices of teams, the player cap, the server settings, and our gentlemans rules.

I say, since we're finding the gentlemans rules to be causing conflict (basically a discriminatory rule against those who have honed auto skills and prefer those weapons) and the experiment of banning whole weapon types went astray, why not try tweaking the other variables to reintroduce elements of New and Interesting to our group gameplay? I'd say, lets try making our server more mod-like.. physics changes, base asset changes, free vehicles or no vehicles, rotate banning an entire class each week, change the gen regen time, lightning rounds of short matches with fast skiing, whatever else there is that would be an across the board change that everyone would be challenged by in a novel way.

For example, we could have Biker day - everyone has to be on a gravcycle, flying leaps to get the flag excepted. Drive by shootings and tech repairs pitstops encouraged.
Defense handicap day.. no turrets, no forcefields, no mines - no static defence, just player skill building like bodyblocking +/- superheavy, good chasing, good capper spotting and so on. This one could be worked on.. first thought would be to ban mortars so the offense wont dominate the flag area from afar, and given theres no static defense to blow up.

And more.. we could become the saturday mixer of mystery, where every weekend is a new challenge to even the most seasoned T:A player!

[MuMuTheCow]

I'm not that interested in zany mod types. If you guys were playing it I'd probably join you but... I just want a team-based competitive game where its intense and fun for everyone. I know that's a fine line to try and walk, but I think we've done a good job of it on many occasions. Doing grav cycle night or crazy physics night might be fun, but you'd lose that edge that makes tribes what it is (at least for me). It would just make people start dicking around more, and teamplay would break down.

I like our attempts to tweak the game to what our vision of a "good" tribes match should be. Right now, the thing upsetting most people is autos. I think there's a clear division of people who get it and people who don't. Some of the high skill auto-ers still get it and can rein it in for the sake of everyone's enjoyment, there own included. Other just can't seem to. We've tried explaining it on multiple occasions. Unfortunately this leaves us with two comparatively unpopular decisions - banning the weapons in question, or banning the people that exploit them. I don't know what the answer is, and I'm having trouble finding another option. I hate seeing people get frustrated nearly every week from the same shit - people that cause no frustration to others.

Which leads me to another worry of mine - players who enjoy causing this frustration. I'll refrain from naming names, as I'm sure anyone who reads this board has names in mind. Changing game types or rules isn't going to solve this problem. If a player gets his or her enjoyment out of finding that one thing that pushes/bends the rules, or honestly just gets enjoyment out of stirring the pot or causing "drama," then no amount of tweaking we do game-side is going to fix that. I'm always reluctant to simply ban people who haven't committed a grievous offense. It's an attitude thing. It's a maturity thing. It sucks, but that's how I'm starting to see it.

[OldeWolfe]

I appreciate the suggestions Planeswalker and it would be a novel approach but would not be a true solution to the situation, I tend to agree with MuMu. We could from time to time and on special occasion implement one or more of your ideas ... maybe on a per map basis.

Although I tend to complain about machine guns and knives and excessive snipers (and fractals), I think there are no "true", "pure" solutions short of banning weapons or people, either of which I find to be unpalatable. Perhaps the only way to deal with their excessive use is to "grin and bear it". I'll try to do a better job of controlling my temper and my mouth should follow.

[Gorthaur]

If I notice my team is using a lot of autos I will switch to shotgun for example so there will be only 2 guys with them instead of 3 for example. I also like to run a technician instead of a heavy on flag so that cuts down another possible machine gun dude and replaces him with a thumper dude.

Personally I would like to work with you Oldewolfe and anyone else who would like on solutions to minimize auto effectiveness. For example, you going raider like you did on crossfire last time was very effective. It's much harder to machine gun raiders and they can also hide better with the jammer pack. The way Tribes: Ascend is balanced the autos are designed to kill heavies in particular so if you are going heavy you will attract more autos than other classes. In addition to mixing it up like that I would like to help people practice other evasive maneuvers like hiding just behind the crest of a hill to avoid enemies until the last minute and always having an escape route to draw the defender far far away. Also staying moving fast circling the enemy base instead of standing still and getting into the enemy base fast and spamming the flag from inside the base so you have the advantage. Also let's mix up roles so you aren't always going HO. Technicians are in short supply so if I knew someone was practicing that I would be happy.