[img]http://i1153.photobucket.com/albums/p50 ... LTitle.png[/img]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So you like CTF? Wanna get into priv? Maybe you just hate being the worst player there is? Well here you go! All the information you could ever want, here for your lovely digestion pleasures!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So you like CTF? Wanna get into priv? Maybe you just hate being the worst player there is? Well here you go! All the information you could ever want, here for your lovely digestion pleasures!
Spoiler: Preface (Open)I assembled this little guide from the IDL forums some years ago. I noticed it hasn't been available anywhere for a good long time. I figured I'd reformat it, and make it available for everyone to read. I know a lot of this information is old, but it really strikes a chord within me.
There's quite a few new people out there in the CTF scene, and while it's seemingly been shrinking for a couple of years, my passion for it has not. I still play every now and then, and when I do, be it pub or priv, I've seen some glaring issues. I hope this will help clear some of them up.
All posts are the intellectual property of their respective owners. I take no credit in any way for any information presented here other than the act of collecting them into one place and possible additional information that I will have clearly marked.
Without further ado, I present the Unofficial IDL CTF Guide.
Spoiler: Ladna's Guide (Open)After playing a rousing session of PCTF, I have decided to create a helpful guide to playing Capture the Flag with the pros. Here goes.
Exceptions[/size]
Players tend to think they are exceptions to rules, but they are not. To be clear: you are not an exception. You are not bad at this game. You are definitely not good. This is a way you can avoid people hating your guts while you improve your owning skills.
Proper Offensive Cover[/size]
Unless you are Ralphis, and by Ralphis I mean completely full of himself and thoroughly uncoachable, then it is never appropriate to wait at the enemy flag stand while your runner runs back to your base with the flag. The odds of you scoring are shitty, way worse than the odds of your teammate scoring if his teammate wasn't a glory-hogging douchebag. Help yr dude out, and kill people for him.
Jumping[/size]
Jumping is one of the worst things you can do. "Why," you ask? I'll tell you. IDL servers have no air control, so as soon as your little DOOM boots leave the ground, you're completely prone. You might think you're being unpredictable. You might think you're hopping bullets. You might think this saves you, even once in 100 shots. You are completely wrong. It actually just sends your sprite, as it chokes, screams, and dies, flying through the air. This only increases your opponent's bloodlust, and you can be assured he is laughing at you, because this is hilarious.
Rocketing[/size]
Unless you are Nostar, and by Nostar I mean completely full of himself and thoroughly uncoachable, then it is never appropriate to use rockets in the base. Don't shoot them while you're standing in the base. Don't shoot them into your base from anywhere else. In fact, keep your hands off that fucking thing altogether until you know what you are doing. If you should be so unlucky as to inadvertently (because I know you would never do it on purpose) run over the RL, think to yourself, "is cockblocking the balls off my runner really worth a couple of spam kills", and "what are the odds of LordBritish selling enough 'LeBron + Cleveland 2011' t-shirts to purchase a bus ticket to my parents' house so he can beat the hell out of me in person for hitting him with 18 consecutive rockets, causing him to be shot several times in the ass"? These things do happen in real life, even when pros are doing their best to avoid them (there are some great demos of HumanBones rocking mikehail in S2009, or you can watch my demo from Week 3 in W2010), so there's really no need to add to those unfortunate, yet hilarious occurrences with shitty RL usage. Just say no.
Shooting[/size]
You are going to whiff shots (whiffing a shot is shooting directly at someone, but nothing happens), and you're gonna be pissed. You will feel like this always happens when you really need to shoot someone. This is not true. ZDaemon is, overall, a pile of junk written by crackheads and broke assholes, you should not trust crackheads and broke assholes to treasure your packets, or to give you accurate information about where your opponents are. Try and put yourself in positions and situations where you don't have to hit every shot to be successful. Give yourself the reaction advantage (hide), and plenty of opportunities to shoot your opponents (don't hide right next to your flag).
Whoring[/size]
Let your poor runner get the fuckin powerups. This means all armor and supercharges/megaspheres. That guy is gonna die 1000 times and get maybe 2 flags a round (the highest flags/round stat from last season was mikehail with 2.083). Increase his odds, and don't fucking wait at the goddamn flag stand while he's running his ass off, wondering where his cover is.
But, health in the base belongs to the defense (supercharges/megaspheres are NOT health, they're powerups!). I know scoring multiple times in one life is really cool, but just concentrate on not sucking for now.
Locker Room Etiquette[/size]
This really only applies to IDL, definitely not to PCTF. It is never okay to be a faggot to your team, not in private (team channel, PM, etc.), not in public (#idl, practice) and certainly not while you're playing a fucking game. The best way to make your team lose is say a bunch of mean, angry, negative shit to them. Many captains have been known to perma-bench, and curb to free-agency players with shitty attitudes, and I can personally say that we take every opportunity to talk shit about you if you should transgress in this manner. You can get a long way in the IDL with a good attitude, and really, yelling "WHERE IS THE FUCKING MID YOU ***** KILL YRSELFZZZZZZ" all the time is unhealthy.
Where is the Defense?!?!?111?![/size]
If you are asking this question, it is you. You are the defense.
Let me clear this up, because you probably don't think you're the defense if you're asking this. There's really one of three things happening here:
- You are really the defense, and you are fucking up
- You are playing mid and you aren't fragging well enough
- You are running, and you're not clearing the base when you spawn and fragging as you go
So you can see that there is always something that each position can add to defense. I often see runners zombie-running, sometimes just barely ahead of the other team's flag runner. Of course, that idiot gets shot in the asshole and flagged on. Turn around, goddamn. Be aware of what is going on around you.
Where is the Mid?!?!?111?![/size]
If you're a runner and you're asking this question, you are not running correctly. If you grab the flag and run out as fast as possible, guns blazing, you will die. You'll die in the same goddamn spot every time, because that's called a pattern. Even worse, you've given your team no time to push up and help. You can't expect help to magically appear if you didn't wait for them before you grabbed the flag, or if you didn't wait for them after you grabbed the flag. Mid has other shit to do, fuckin give them a break.
If you're defending and you're asking this question, you are not defending properly. Stop camping one tiny spot where you can't see shit, and move the hell up. Anticipation is like, 200% of defense. Shot is the rest.
Where are the Flags?!?!?111?![/size]
Scoring in the IDL is much harder than PCTF or (ugh) Public CTF. The best runners DOOM has ever seen hover around 2 flags around, and they're considered dominant. Just think about that for a minute, that means that if your team scores 2 flags, then the odds are that you are going to win. So first, relax.
If you're defense, then it is never acceptable for you to run. You might think, "hey, we're 4 flags up, I'll take a taste". No, you will not taste anything but the sick bile of defeat. We used to call this "supermanning", because a player would have to think they're superman in order to pull this kind of thing off. Now we just call it "Tai". Don't be Tai. Tai's a lot better than you are, and not even he can avoid our ridicule.
If you're the mid, you should consider the fact that every time you frag someone, they respawn right next to your runner... and shoot him in the face. Getting shot in the face blows, don't do this to your teammate. Be careful about who you frag and when. There are a lot of players that just run to the middle and shoot everything that moves, but unless your runner is a dominant runner, he'll never score if you do that. You might think, "but if I kill enough people, my runner will have a clear path". You will never pull that off. The highest frag ratio last season was Shakal with 165% - which means every time he died he'd killed 1.65 people. Shakal was playing defense, so he was waiting for people who'd already been shot, and knew where they would be coming from. You will have none of those advantages. Multi-kills and killing sprees are rare in the IDL. Don't count on them to make up for your shitty play.
Attitude[/size]
Probably the most important quality for an IDL player to have is a sense of humor. Laugh, make other people laugh, and remember that this is the internet. Above all, be competitive but don't get raged. I can honestly say that I want to win every game that I play, even when I know it's impossible. But afterwards, don't go into #idl and say something like:
<rookie> ladna ur a chump faggot cheater
or
<rookie> ROFL was that a game? i thought you had to be good to be in IDL bahahahahaha *burp*
Not only will Ladna ridicule the shit out of you, others will too. You'll feel like IDL is not a place for you, and that you should leave. Don't feel that way. Just don't be a bitch, and we'll all get along just fine. In case you were wondering, the proper thing to do after all IDL games (win or lose) is GG. Be gracious when you win:
<rookie> ladna i can't believe i scored on you, that was tough d
and constructive when you lose
<rookie> i think we did well that game, but with a little more practice we could've been awesome and won
I know, I know, sometimes people are real assholes to you. The average response is to either erect an e-penis, or try to be funny. If you honestly think you can accomplish any of those things (I assure you that you cannot), give it a try (once or twice). After you fail, just laugh it off from then on. Let your game do the talking.
Spoiler: Mikehail's Words of Wisdom (Open)There are probably a few exceptions to some of the things here but I don't think a lot of newer players will readily be able to recognize these opportunities and be able to fully take advantage of them. If you can read quickly I would highly suggest reading obituaries. I also play with show scores on almost the entire game, knowing who has the flag can let you more easily preempt them, knowing the defense can allow you to play in more aggressive, confusing ways. If any of you do not sr-50, I would highly recommend it getting stuck behind slow teammates is terribly annoying and not getting backup because your teammates cannot perform difficult jumps or move quickly is also annoying! As a runner I have become pretty used to being on my own, not much makes me happier than to see a teammate trying to support me (except scoring maybe) One of the best ways to improve yourself is to ask older players how they would act in certain situations or for general tips/strategies like Ladna has ragedumped here. Have fun!!
Spoiler: Fastidious's Guide (Open)Defense - When you are confused or don't know what to do, play more fucking defense. After you've locked the D down, then go ahead and start taking back the rest of the map. It only takes one flag to win or lose. The best winning setups in a 3v3 are going to be closer to 2D 1O than 1D 1M 1O or god forbid 1D 2O. You can't play offense to make up for defense and trying to do so will generally get you owned. A good example was when SUC was all cocky pre-season and played KGB with 2O, we lost a bunch of games horribly. We learned from it and went on to win the MB but it just goes to show even the best team of the season couldn't make 2O work.
There is a reason Nostar does so good in the IDL and that is because he can always play solid D. Few other players can do that or are willing to do it. Better to play 2D and lose 1-0 than play 1D and lose 5-0. Anytime you can keep a game close you have a much better chance to win. You never know when your runner will get lucky.
There are two theories of defense floating around right now I'd say. One is lure the enemy as far into your base as you safely can and try and keep them there alive for as long as possible. This means even if you die you'll respawn on their ass and take them out whenever you want basically. This allows your O to get into the enemy base without much resistance and usually means there will not be many people respawning on him in there. This works great but it is risky and hard to do. If you allow people into your base you can risk getting over run.
The second theory is to control the map and just push the enemy team back so far they are cowering on their own flag. This takes a lot of brute fragging power or coordination. Your team can do pushes where everyone pushes up across the map clearly as they do. This can work just as well but only the strongest teams can pull it off in more than timed pushes. The risk here is if you push up and someone sneaks by your push they get a free run at your flag. Not only is that going to be bad but likely you will have no clue where they are going with the flag. A smart enemy runner will play tricky and hide until his own team can push back your own push to clear the way for him. Sometimes a runner can just hide for a long time and your team will get so confused he can almost walk back to his base.
Middle - This is the position I usually play, and my ego aside I think I'm one of the best, if not the best here. Why do I love middle? I think it's the most dynamic position and takes the most awareness. You need to fill the gaps on D and O on occasion, but overall middle is a defensive position. I usually like to play middle at middle if possible but on many maps there is no middle area. Instead you have a zone running from your base to the enemy base. You can to keep moving around in this zone hitting targets. Your goal is usually to take off 95% of the enemy runners health then let them waste time crossing the map only to die to your D. You should get up close to their D and take off 95% of their health so your runner can one shot them at his leisure.
Balancing this is hard and when in doubt play more D. A successful middle player will go for covering his own flag carrier over flagging himself. It is much better play to get pickup flags off your own dead runner than to try and extract them yourself as middle. You should have the most frags as middle but a worse frag ratio than your D yet a much better frag ratio than your O. You can get up in people's faces and provide constant pressure on both the enemies runner and defense. Camp the occasional spawn frags if you think it's fucking with their heads. Go for map control, push or lure people into traps for your own D and O. You know situations where your own team will win out, as middle you can influence the flow of battle.
One of your main objectives to soak up damage as middle. You want the enemy gunning for you, not your O or D. This requires you stick out your neck and die a lot. Better you die than anyone else on the team. Your body is a meat shield, let Denny feast on your corpse than the tasty runner SR50ing away.
Offense - There are a couple difference strategies on O. One is to be a zombie runner. The best examples of this are Ralphis and Potent. As a zombie runner you SR60 like LordBritish to the enemy flag without looking back over and over and over and over and over and over ad nauseam. You want to wear down the enemy D through sheer flag touches. You know you will fail 85%-99% of the time but all it takes is one flag to win a game. Through sheer attempts and repetition you will eventually get lucky. Even the worst flag runners usually can score if they touch the flag 200 times a round. Zombie running only works if your own D is strong.
Next is what I would call the finesse runner, they will time their runs and do all sorts of nice tricks. They are not looking for high touches necessarily but the right touches. These guys mix it up with the enemy D. The risk here is if your runner can't beat the enemy D they often don't get in enough touches to get lucky. Variety is the spice of life however and eventually they usually trip up the D on their varied and numerous attempts to get a flag out. The best way a finesse runner can run a flag is without being shoot at or seen.
A finesse runner worries about timing a lot so they often are free to make defensive plays if a flag gets out of your own base. They need to play a little bit like middle at times. A zombie runner needs to keep on constant pressure and max out their flag touches. A zombie runner seems almost as likely to score when the enemy team has 3D as when they have 1D.
Exceptions - There will be times when your team can just own the other team. Then most of these tactics and strategies go out of the window. They are still valid but usually when teams are lopsided to a large extent any strategy will work.
Spoiler: Hatred's Guide (Open)
To be honest, as far as defense goes, I believe that awareness is key. Often times, we mention the word "awareness" and people immediately assume this is a natural born talent and can't be taught. To an extent, that is true. Some people (like chaindude for example) are freakishly aware of everything that goes on around them; even behind them, without looking! To that extent, it can't be learned (and to cheaters, no wallhack gives you the ability to see whats behind you without looking!).
Awareness a lot of the time comes with practice and learning the dynamics of the map, the spawn points (so you can expect some help from a respawning teammate)weapon locations (the faster you get to a weapon, the faster you can get back to playing defense) and tendencies of runners. As Ladna mentioned, people immediately think being a dominant flag-runner is scoring everytime they touch the flag. This is not true, in fact, they will have more failed attempts than successful--that's just the way it goes. So the point I'm making is that even the best of the best are predictable at times, watch them, analyze their routes, directions to the flag and what-not.
Immediately, people assume a great defender has the best aim in the world and in some instances, that is true. But I would say roughly 80% of the time, that isn't the case. The best defenders are aware of their surroundings, experienced doom players and great at positioning. Sometimes setting your opponent up to move in ways that makes him more open and puts him right in front of you is just as good. This isn't done with pure aim, it's done with movement and dodging. If you're able to cover yourself (even if you take a shot and don't die, this is just as good in some instances) or dodge a shot, you have the whole time while they're reloading to get a good shot off. So maneuvering around in a way that puts your opponent right in front of you as opposed to dodging hard, completely turning around and trying to make a great shot is usually a better route. Think of it as what you can do to make aiming as easy as possible for you, not how many shots you can accurately place everytime (though you do want to be accurate). That being said, you still have to have good aim and timing to accomplish this and it is this reason why rusty players can still play at high levels even when they're nowhere near as dominant in the aim department--because they know how to position themselves well and setup the enemies to make shots easier for them.
As a defender, you have the advantage because flag runners and back-up runners are trying to get in and out as fast as possible. Delaying this gives your offense on the other side more time to take over on their end and gives your mid D and respawning teammates more time to help you, thus lowering the opponents chances of successfully capturing a flag. It's vital though that you do your best to frag incoming runners and maintain base stability on your own so your mid can also concentrate on backing-up a runner when the opportunity presents itself.
I'm posting this because it's what I've learned over the last 7 years of DooM. Some of it isn't 100% accurate but it is a good guideline to understand some of the basic fundamentals of doom, not just CTF. You'd assume that this is something people at this level shouldn't have a problem with, but unless you're JKist3 and have an IQ of 610, you're going to break fundamentals occasionally. Sometimes being reminded of them sheds some light on what problems you could be having with your individual game. If this helps a few players, then good. If not, welp, Rus...dicks.
Spoiler: Fastidious's Addendum (Open)That is a good point about positioning Hatred. Defending can really pay off if you know a few good tactical positions. Many people bitch at Nostar when he camps his favorite corners, but it is amazingly effective at times. Offense and middle you can not be immobile but on defense you can sometimes stay in a little area while being super effective.
I would still contend that middle and O need more dynamic awareness of the game unfolding than D does however. D needs a good solid knowledge of tactics around the flag but many standard defensive positions can see anyone entering the base, which means their awareness is different. Compared to mid and O who often have players behind them or on any side or map area. D can almost always see people attacking if they play right. As O and mid you have to be able to predict where people will be. Maybe we should call it predictive awareness which is almost like an intuition where you feel someone is going to be there or there, etc.
Spoiler: NoStar's Guide (Open)I'll be honest, I've seen some smart guys D and have little success. And I've see some of the best shots D and have little success. I'm pretty good at D so I'll tell you what I think makes a difference.
1.) Does your team suck ass?
If you answered yes to question one, your D will be crap. You can be a tornado of murder and awesomeness but 3 guys running at you for 10 or 15 minutes is just bad odds. So setup your mid in a smart way, put your strong fragging players there and push up to mid as often as you can. This is called a grind and gives you both the maximum amount of encounters with their offense and allows you to help out your runner. You can call this positioning if you want, I call it helping. Currently the most successful strategy in this dumb game is grinding. When you're playing at a high level in any sport this seems to be the norm.
2.) Can you shoot at all?
If you answered no to question two you are also fucked. You can have cheater prediction but if you can't aim you can't D. It's very very very fucking important. Never leave Legion on D. I would say that at a minimum you need Ladna.
3.) Can you keep track of deaths (obituaries) ?
Defense has to keep track of people. Plain and simple. The best defense is a defense that helps his team manage the middle while keeping track of his opponent's offense. What I mean is that if you haven't seen their primary offense in let's say...20 seconds, you've been tricked. Go clear your base and for fucks sake spam help until it's all your teammates can possibly see on their screen.
-------------
I wanna pause and say that I don't expect any of you the get better at anything. If you're reading this great. If it helps you, great! This is how I defend. I also use rockets and plasma which I guess people disagree with. I'll explain those choices a little so you can decide if they are for you.
Why spam?
Well I can think of a couple of reasons. First, It's really fun. I enjoy rocket spamming. Specifically when I throw a random rocket down a hallway and LB runs smack into it, regardless of how easy it would have been to avoid. It's just really funny to me. The second and more useful reason is that IF YOU DO IT AT THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE it allows you to occupy at least one player in a known location, and if successful, allows the defense to push back multiple opponents more effectively than fighting 2v1 with your trusty shotgun. Should you spam? How the fuck should I know. I do and I'm successful with it.
Now I know many of these things are map dependent. Sometimes mid isn't as important, sometimes your team isn't your fault, connection spiking...blah blah blah. All of these things have happened to me also. The idea behind most of this is to not let your team go (at best) 1-on-1 with their counterparts. Usually the offense is forced to go 1-on-3 anyway. You, as the defense should be active in trying to lop side the battles to your benefit. Do as many things effectively as you can. Also find this out through practice. Good christ practice your ass off. None of you are good enough to not practice except like...White, who probably cheats to be honest.
Good luck!
Spoiler: Xenaero's Guide (Open)I'll share some of my genius to help dudes understand the principles of Defense, which is typically where you should start. Let me point out why this is, how this fits into the dynamics of Defensive players in a 3v3 format, and what anyone looking for pointers on Defense should do, and why they should do them. This requires a fresh look at CTF and the team dynamics, so bear with me here. There's a good few posts here that outline Defense pretty well so I'm gonna try not to repeat what others have said too much.
======================
The Wall-In Effect[/size]
Now I just accused the faaaabulous nostar of letting his teammates do all the work for him. You might ask, "How would his teammates do all the work for him if he's on defense, and typically they're playing other, more offensive positions?" It's an excellent question. The reason for this is that if the offense is strong enough, and manages to perpetually stop the opposing team's runners at the middle or, even worse competitively, their own base, the defense will not see a great amount of action inside their base. This is what I call the Wall-In Effect. The entire enemy team has fallen back to their own base in an effort to purge your team so their defensive line is secured and they basically don't get spawnfragged out the ass while someone like mikehail runs flag after flag.
In this position, the player in charge of Defense would typically move up to the middle to provide a much closer area of support to the teammates playing a more offensive role, yet still playing Defense. What you should not do in this position is continue to push up into the enemy's base or in range of their spawns. What you typically want is to stay in a zone of control to where you can see any stragglers that take advantage of the chaos to make a quick get-away with your flag, thereby slipping past you and touching your flag. This is another key focal point of playing defense. Awareness, which will be covered more in a bit.
But...What about if your team is the one being pinned in?
======================
D&O Railroad[/size]
There are two primary (key word, as there are many secondary roles in CTF) separations of players in the league. Defensive players and Offensive players. Offensive players either cuss the hell out of the enemy (wholly ineffective) or, if they aren't Bloodstrike, they run flags / support the runner.
It's supporting the runner that we'll be focusing on. What is supporting the runner? First, one must understand the definition of Support.
Pay close attention to 9. 9 is what you'll be doing as a Support player. Support players typically play in a region of the map that benefits both primary groups of players (Defense & Offense), some players call them 'mid' or 'middle' players but really that's not a fair definition, since being a versatile Support player requires you not to be anchored to one place at any time.
Now, if you ask "How does this relate to Defense in any way?!", I'm about to tell you. Support players not only occasionally drop back to a momentary Defensive role if the Defender is in a heap of trouble (for any multitude of reasons), but they also are the front line defense against the opposing team's runners!
Picture this. One Defensive player each team. Two runners on the opposite team, while you have one runner and one Support player. Support runs to the middle with the Offense in the first 'wave' (more on waves' importance later) except unlike Offense, he's gunning explicitly for enemy players. He meets the two runners, manages to either heavily damage both or frag one of them before dying himself. What does this leave you? Support spawns back in your base but probably not in time to finish the job. The point is, your runner is going toe to toe with the enemy's Defense while you have an advantage due to the weakened Offense of the opposing team!
Support is incredibly underrated and I rarely see players credit them, and never as often as the runner gets credit. The principle of a CTF team is that the entire team is at fault if you are losing. Every player helps the other out in some way, and if they aren't, that drags your team's chances down dramatically.
Think about this. If the Offense is doing well, that either means they will sacrifice O for D, making your job easier and able to more effectively control the map, or send a balls-to-the-wall counter-push with a strong O force, sacrificing their D, making your runner's job easier, but your job harder. Using your base's layout to your advantage and communicating properly to your Support player it shouldn't be an issue.
Every shift in the opponent's play is a shift in yours, and one to be taken advantage of, especially if your team is the one that's forcing the shifts. Note that word, "communicating". Defensive players have to communicate with the rest of their team to be successful. Again, the team all has to work together, and you're an integral part of that.
======================
Pins and Needles[/size]
In the first part I asked what would you do if your team was the one getting pinned inside their own base? As Defense, the weight falls largely to you, since this is your forte. Clearing out the base can be easier said than done, but it can be done. I'll give you some tips on how to go about clearing it easily, although a good deal of it depends on the maps' spawns, your teammates actions and your own judgment, which is practiced, not learned.
1. How many are there? Very important. Approach killing them with a step system in your head, with # of steps based off # of opponents in your base.
2. Can I kill the runner? The undoubtedly second step you should take is looking for the enemy team's main flag runner inside your base. Killing him is vital because he's the strongest player to you right now. With his teammates holding you down, he would be in a position to run your flag. Kill him first.
3. Sweep the rest. Self-descriptive. You want to get rid of the rest of them ASAP now that the main threat to your team is down. Focus on one, then the other, don't try to keep track of both else you'll probably delay the purging further, and the runner will be right back in your base.
4. Push up! Chances are once their push is eliminated, they'll be busy collecting weapons/armor and as a result, not launching a jointed attack like they did before. This give you a chance to catch your breath and re-settle into your groove as a unit. Watch your Support and Offense to see what they're doing and adapt accordingly. Defense is not a static role.
======================
Awareness[/size] (most important part)
So most of the other focal points of a decent defending player and the logic behind them is covered, now this is what you need to practice a lot in (besides aiming, like nostar already pretty much covered).
What constitutes awareness on Defense? Three things: Sound, Visual, Mind. You can call it SVM if you want, but it's kind of lame so don't really.
Why is sound so important? If you need this answered you prolly shouldn't be playing in IDL. Using sound you can gauge distance, direction, and status. So if you don't have a good pair of speakers, get some headphones. Sound can mean a multitude of things. Spawns, hit points of an opposing runner, where runners are coming from, and even more. You're going to need to think about the sounds as much as hear them in the first place, which loops it into using your head.
At the same time, you're going to want to pay attention to the actual visual display in front of you, all the while doing little calculations in your head. One specific concept where all three of these focal points of awareness come into play is waves.
Waves are what I like to call the time period between the death of a runner in your base, and that same runner respawning, the time between his respawning and his appearing in your base. these are waves, and if you play a map (READ: PRACTICE) enough you'll be able to tentatively time in your head when you'd expect runners and their support players to appear on your screen.
What the bottom line here is for you, is that you basically need to take all the posts here with a grain of salt, find the information you feel helps you, and most importantly, take that into practice. Practice is what you pretty much need to do constantly if you want to be a good D player.
I'd say Defense is the hardest position to play, since a lot of the team dynamics and even the success of the Offense depends on it. A great thought to have about practice is that you're practicing for when, not if, your middle/support fails and you have to push back every player from the opposing team from your flag.
The difference between losing and winning depends on a lot of learned-through-experience factors, but it's really all about you and your team. But you know, if your team loses be sure to expect everyone to blame you. That's the Xen Effect.
Spoiler: MassVC's Guide (Open)
Dear "new" guys I have seen in priv:
Some of you are pretty good and some of you have been around for a long time. But, I have been F12-ing you in priv, and I thought you could use some pointers on what better, older, or more experienced players take to be common sense. This list ended up being a lot longer than I initially expected.
I don't pretend to be good at CTF or to follow all of these. I also don't pretend that all of these are true all of the time. In fact, some of them are not. They are just a rough guide to playing the game.
First of all I'd like to direct you to a post of this nature that Ladna has already written: [See Top Post!]
Please read Ladna's original post and, at your discretion, the proceeding comments. I have tried to summarize some of the wordier advice here without overlapping Ladna's advice by too much. Without further ado, here it is:
My biggest piece of advice is: stick to your position. If you are the defense, please do not run. If you are the runner, please do not defend.
HOW TO D[/size]
- Keep track of where everybody is. The worst thing that can happen is for the enemy runner to get behind you without you knowing it. This means he only has to kill you once on his way out the door, and you have probably lost a flag. Secondly, if more than one guy gets through mid and into your base, you need help. If this happens, scream for help. If this happens without you knowing about it, you have probably lost a flag. In order to prevent these situations:
- Find vantage points in your base where you can see all paths to the flag. Any time you are standing anywhere other than one of these spots, you might be missing a runner. Go back over your tracks often.
- Move the D up. These points are in some order further from the flag and closer to the mid. Your goal is to move from point to point successively without missing any runners until you are at the mid. The reason for this is that many runners are better than you, and the only way to stop them is to fight them over the course of several lives. By moving the D up, you can start damaging enemy runners early on. Additionally, do not let them get behind you. Block them with your body if you have to, but kill them or make them kill you, spawn, and repeat. One advantage of being the D is that you get to spawn where the fight is taking place.
- As you're doing this, check your corners. Runners will often camp corners on the outside of the base and wait for you to move up past them. Map07 is notorious for this. As you move up, keep looking behind you to make sure this is not happening. In fact, DOOM Guy only sees 90 degrees around him at any time, so the D should pretty much be constantly spinning about like a lighthouse.
- Time the enemy O's arrival. If it has been 20 seconds (+/-10 based on the size of the map) and you have not seen the enemy runner, he is behind you stealing your flag. Go back and sweep your base out.
- Use sounds. You don't always have to see the runner to notice him: you can hear the lift on map07, the tele on map20, the doom guy oomph from the sludgefall on map15, and a hundred other things. If you hear a gunfight coming from a certain hallway, there is a good chance that a damaged enemy runner will be along in a second.
- Camp. Another advantage of being the D is that you have the element of surprise. If you can start the fight out with a good 80% shot to the butt, you're doing good. Obviously, do not use the same spot more than once or twice consecutively, or else it will not be a surprise. One thing this does besides giving you a leg-up in the fight is that it forces the runner to start checking his corners, which slows him down significantly. Slower running for him means fewer runs per game, which lowers his chances of getting flags.
- Do not fall for jukes. Very often the runner will pretend to go one way to get the D to go in that direction, and then suddenly go the other way. Try not to put yourself out of position based on what they do. If they are coming in, stay between them and the flag no matter what; if they are leaving, stay between them and the mid.
- If you are low on health, kill yourself. If you have just killed the enemy runner and are left with less than 40 health, you will be ineffective in stopping him the next time; the easiest way to get back to full health is to die. You can rocket yourself in the face, jump in the shit, or, what's riskier but more helpful, run out into the mid, shoot the runner at long distance for a little of his health, and let him shoot you dead.
- Push up when the flag is incoming. There will be many times when the enemy flag can only make it to your doorstep; it is your job to bring it the rest of the way. When the enemy flag has been taken for sufficiently long, or your runner is spamming someting relevant, head to the front door to greet him, kill any chasers, and, if necessary, pick up the flag and score it.
- Let the M know when you need help as soon as possible. He is busy camping the enemy D and it will take him a few seconds to get back to your base. If your sixth sense tells you that you are going to fail it in the near future, start screaming for help, and your M will be happy to head in your direction. False alarms are better than losing flags.
- Unless you are returning the flag, do not leave D. If your flag gets out, it is your first priority to go and get it back. (There are some maps on which this is arguable, and if your flag gets out, it is up to your mid and runner to get it back, and up to you to stay in the base and prevent successive flags from being stolen.) If you accomplish this and you are standing next to the enemy flag, you might as well take it and head back. Otherwise, you should never be found on the other side of the map; it is impossible to manage the the enemy runners from that far out.
HOW TO M[/size]
- Keep track of where everybody is. The M is sometimes reffered to as (and sometimes distinguished from) what Mr. Jolly calls "the floater," which is the player who goes where he is needed whenever he is needed. Unfortunately, it is difficult to explain exactly what needs to be done when. Only years of practice will show you the answer, you must pay attention to the flow of the game in order to begin to do this at all.
- Do not let more than one dude in your base. If this happens, go back and help out.
- Warn the D about incoming dikheads. Let your D know (preferrably over teamspeak but, if not, then through binds) how many guys are coming in and where. This will help him anticipate when/where they will arrive.
- Damage, do not kill the enemy O. Killing the enemy O every time he leaves his base makes him spawn back in his base and makes it impossible for your runner to score. It is better to damage the enemy O and let him get killed by your D.
- Kill the enemy M. Do not let him massacre your O or bother your D.
- Distract the enemy D. Take long-distance shots at him (or use the chaingun!). Mess with the enemy teleports/doors to make noise. Hopefully this will cause him to get out of position and/or pay attention to you instead of your O.
- Steal the enemy health and powerups. Anything at mid or the enemy base is free for the taking. (Items in your base have specific assignments: see Ladna's post.) Even if you are about to die, it is better to deny them the blue armor and waste it.
- Get the lift/door for your runner. On any map that has a special way of getting out that requires activation from the outside, that is obviously your job.
- Spawn camp the enemy or camp the enemy gun. In your free time, this is an effective way to piss off the enemy and get them out of position. Some will make the argument that this keeps your runner from scoring, but more often than not it is actually distracting and helpful.
- When the opportunity presents itself, you are the O! This includes getting the megasphere or for whatever reason finding yourself alone in the enemy base. Let your team know this.
- Err on the side of D. Your first, primary job is to make sure you do not get flagged on. Your secondary job on the side that you should only do in your free time is to help the O.
HOW TO O[/size]
- Keep track of where everybody is. You cannot avoid or trick people if you do not know where they are. You cannot guess where the D is camping if you do not take stock of where he has been camping the whole game. Adapt your running game to suit the habits of the enemy M and D.
- If the enemy M or D are somewhere, go the other way. Your primary tactic should be avoiding conflict. Most defenders are better shots than you, and you will not often win against them. You will have more luck if you can go around.
- Take different routes to the flag. Obviously, if you run the same way every time, the D will anticipate this and you will never score. Change it up. Be unpredictable. This applies to your journey to and from the enemy flag.
- Better yet, juke the D. Pretend to go one way, then double back and go the other way. Or, double-juke: pretend to go one way, wait a few seconds, and then actually go that way. This throws off the D's anticipatory timing. Triple-juke, quadruple-juke, you can never juke too much until you have a clear path out of the base and you do not take it.
- Let the enemy O and enemy M leave the base, preferrably without seeing you. If you are keeping track of everyone, and find that they are all in their base, chill out. You cannot take three dudes. Instead, find a corner to hide in and wait until you see them leave. Then, quietly sneak inside.
- If the M or the D does not notice you, do not alert them to your presence. If the D has his back toward you and does not know that you are there, do not shoot him. The 35 health you knock off is not better than the opportunity to touch the flag unnoticed. Once you grab it, however, all bets are off, and you may shoot like crazy.
- Let the mid know you need help ahead of time. If you have snuck past the D, or you are near the flag and have just killed the D, spam binds to have your M come help you out. In all probability you are going to die and will need him to pick up the flag.
- Grab the flag from behind. Running into the enemy flag head on, turning around, and running out of the base puts another three seconds between the steal announcement and you getting out, which might give the enemy M or O enough time to double back and stop you. Instead, especially if you are trying to make a speedy escape, get behind the flag, and run through it, toward the exit.
- If you are low on health, kill yourself. If you have 20 health, there is probably no reason for you to even try a flag run. To do so is to wastes times and reduces the number of legitimate flag attempts for that game, and thus your chances of scoring.
- Fall back when absolutely necessary. It is more important that the other team not score a flag than that you do score a flag. If your flag has been out for a few seconds and the D is spamming help binds, slow down, take a peek behind you, and see if you can't help out.
- If you (or somebody else) have just scored a flag, stick around until the base is clear. If the enemy flag gets to your base, usually the enemy D, M, and O follow it. While this seems like a great opportunity for a double score, it is an even greater opportunity for a rebound flag. As soon as the situation resumes, it's back to positions.
- Otherwise, do not leave O. Do not stick around to D. You may shoot the enemy O or M as you run to the enemy base, but do not chase them back. In fact, unless you are juking the D, do not take a single step toward your own base until you have the flag. Leaving O allows the enemies to swarm your base, overwhelm your D, and steal your flag. Hanging out in your own base also gets in the way of your D and blocks his excellent shots with your fat DOOM body.
HOW TO SUPPORT O[/size]
- Do not Ralphis. See Ladna's guide.
- Run directly behind the runner. This serves two purposes. First, it makes you a body shield. You are like his own personal soulsphere, and if runners had soulspheres on every map, well, that would be awesome. Second, and more importantly, it allows you to instantly pick up the flag without breaking your stride. On many maps, almost all of the caps are pickups.
- Kill the chasers, starting with the one closest behind your O. Only do this if you can stay behind the O (or at least remain the closest person to him at all times). It is not helpful to kill one of two chasers if the other one returns the flag before you get to it.
- Make sure the base is clear. If the D has come forward to finish off the chasers, feel free to go in front of your runner to make sure the base is clear. This is important on maps like zd15 and zd27, and sometimes the runner will hesitate in order to indicate this need.
- Stay with the runner until the flag is scored. By this I mean what I said in the last bullet. Just keep in mind that the flag isn't in the bank until the announcer says so. Get it in the bank.
GENERAL TIPS[/size]
- SR-50 everywhere all the time. If you don't have binds that make this easy feel free to ask me or anybody else. This takes practice to do generally and on specific maps, and furthermore to do backwards when helpful.
- Use headphones with 3D sound turned on. This gives you a better sense of what is going on than desktop speakers.
- Use binds. Help! and Clear! are necessary; other helpful binds are Need help at mid! I'm at mid! I got your back! Back me up! I'm offense! Powerup recharged! Lift! And anything else you might have seen...
- Pay attention to announcements. They tell you what is going on in the game.
- Pay attention to binds. They tell you what is going on in the game.
- Pay attention to obits. They tell you what is going on in the game.
- Always RTF. Without questions, if there is a flag on the ground, whether it is yours or the enemy's, your first instinct should be to run directly at it.
- Don't be a wigger. Nobody likes Kid Cudi. There are three black people in DOOM, and two of them are the whitest people in DOOM. The other one is Beast, who is actually the alive-and-well Biggie Smalls.
Spoiler: Chain's Guide (Open)In a situation where you have 3 players on a team, you'll likely have one dedicated defender (let's call him "flag D"), one offense, and depending on the strategy for the specific match, a guy who will either support D for a 2-man defensive formation/another fully-dedicated runner for 2 O, or a "floater."
Regardless of the formation, the actual FLAG D player should never, under ANY circumstances leave his post during a standoff. You see it all too-often: There's a standoff and both teams empty their bases completely and leave their flag carrier running with his cold, shriveled-up and flaccid dick hanging out while trying to fend off as many as two enemies coming at him (or 3, if the other team is that stupid). In a standoff:
-It should be the FLAG D guy's primary responsibility to clear the base or flagroom first and foremost.
-Once the base is clear, follow the flag carrier wherever he goes in case he is killed or has low health. This increases the chance for a game-saving pickup or second chance at the flag (not to mention, the other team's carrier will likely abandon his hiding spot once he hears the enemy carrier dropped his flag).
-On the other hand, it's important for the flag carrier not to move too damn much, as it hurts more to have a carrier and escort in the midfield of a map, only to come back to their flagroom to be greeted by shotgun blasts.
-In the eventuality that the FLAG D guy does pick up the flag when escorting a carrier who dies, there has to be communication on the part of the remaining two players on the team to decide who takes over temporary defensive duties. This will typically be the floater or secondary offense (1st attacker should work tirelessly to return the flag).
These guidelines ensure that the standoff does not become a simple game of luck. Emptying entire bases during one of these is textbook pub crap and looks quite hilarious in IDL matches to this day.
Spoiler: Xenaero's Addendum (Open)[Q] So , if you're playing D ... Both flags are stolen (standoff), should you leave the base to Return the flag or not?
This is a really tough question to answer, and my opinion will differ strongly from most players, due to my playstyle and that I've played primarily defense for a very long time, but that in no way puts what I'm about to say above other opinions!
I feel that in a standoff it largely depends on the position and skill of the runner. If he's well-off in both health and in a position to defend himself from chasers the other team sends in, you can venture out, and typically you will already have died from their mid covering their runner or have gotten a not-great spawn off dying to their runner. In both cases, I tend to move to mid and clear out their next 'wave' of chasers. Since they're moving for speed and not necessarily taking time to wipe out everyone crossing paths, you can have the advantage, and then push up to deny further choice 'paths'/weapon spots which gives your flag carrier even more leeway.
I never ignore enemy chasers, because you're still a defensive player, and you'll want to at least damage them while they seek out your runner. At the same time, I have to make a decision to either hunt down their carrier, which most of the time takes a lot of time to track and kill and effectively you're not doing anything to their other ranks as they do the exact same to try to hunt down your carrier.
Occasionally, if I see my third go towards where their carrier is, I will divert to enemy spawns or SSG locations and deny as hard as I can to buy more time. I'll watch obituaries (every player in mid or defense should do this all the time anyway) to get an idea of how the battle is unfolding, and if their carrier kills my other chaser, I'll give pursuit since usually he's damaged, or if I feel I can drop him quick, then hightail it back to mid and then defense to 'reset' the flow of the battle.
What do I mean by that? Typically if you return your flag, the entire enemy team will push hard at your base, and even if your team scores, you will still be hammered and typically against the ropes position-wise as they continuously rush in to try to get a score through sheer might, as now your whole team is usually near the flag, and essentially on defense. Other times, you may have another player on your team hang back in the enemy base to try to run a back-to-back flag, and this can either work for you or against you. Again, the mere awareness of this happening as a defensive player can alter your positioning and handling of an onslaught of enemy players rushing you down.
The rule of thumb of post-cap defense is generally if you can hold off two waves of attackers, their own defense will fall back to protect their flag again. Why is that? Typically your runner will have been able to apply pressure again.
Now for something unconventional. What if your runner isn't so great or is in a bad spot? I will do one of two things. Guard him for a little while and escort to any health if he's bright enough to go grab it or if there is any health to grab period. Then I might apply pressure. If I choose to do as before and apply pressure to their carrier, and a standoff ends with your carrier getting destroyed and they're in a position where I'm in my team's side of the map, I will hang back and clear the base of any people trying to do the back-to-back cap. This will reset the flow and allow me to set up for another wave of attackers. If you cannot see / do not know the position of every enemy team member, assume they are in your base waiting to run another flag instantly or camping key points. This is a very focal point of standoffs.
Never get caught out of position, and err on the side of preparing for someone to run a back-to-back. In the long term this is preferable for the less-certain chance to return your flag if the enemy team has the better position, and allows your offense to spawn again and go for another flag attempt without being pushed in by constant streams of enemies or set off balance by the mayhem of letting enemies in behind you post-cap. The opposite is also true, if you clear too much, their passive defense position (being that they have all three of their team on their side of the map) will make their carrier harder to assassinate as well. It's a very fine line, but I always try to heavily damage enemies seeking my carrier, rather than outright kill them. It gives time for me to move easier around the map without running into another wave of enemy spawns, and set up a better position to kill their carrier.
Defensive players in standoffs are positively the most integral part of the team, and the actions of them in those situations can easily make the difference between wins and losses. A lot of it is experience, a lot of it is awareness, but above all, never let the enemy team have the run of your base. Even if their members can outgun out, putting pressure on them will make your carriers job significantly easier. Note that if they have two people hunting your carrier in a 3v3, their carrier is alone. If you are damaging/clearing, then not only does your carrier benefit, but the enemy will be more inclined to push back, and leave their carrier solo. That's where your third person should be, assassinating the enemy carrier!
In priv these points hold less water due to 4v4/5v5 being the standard and changing the dynamic flow of defensive roles, but in 3v3, proper defense positioning is incredibly important. Mental awareness of enemy locations is 100% key in preventing very quick losses of 2 flags. In short, dance with them, but don't let them set the tempo. That's your job as a defensive player.
A footnote, I don't condone suiciding as a runner unless the map is very sizeable, and you can easily get back to that point before possible enemies in your base realize where you died. It can backfire very, very badly. It's a chance the carrier takes, however. Just be prepared to fall back very fast to deny any chance of them returning it as best you can. A lot of what I said varies based off team makeup and the map being played. That's where experience comes in. I tried to only cover principles I utilize that apply to the situation, and it ended up being a fucking thesis. Whoops.
Spoiler: Links to other resources (Open)CTF & Priv Resources
Watermelon's Private CTF Guide - Contains a lot of information I have missed here.
Spoiler: Blitz's Opinions & Closing (Open)And my two centsIf anyone wants to make any additions or updates to this, do let me know, or better yet, go ahead and post it below. I feel like this is a really good place to start if you're interested in CTF, and hopefully it will help some new and old players alike take their game to the next level.
As for my feelings on all of this, the most important three things to take away are as follows:
- It was certainly mentioned in the text, but if you see your O with the flag, don't throw a god damn banana peel in his way and make him trip with your fatass red or blue marine body. Playing with high ping and on euro servers, nothing is more painful than getting shot around, disoriented, having that sickening lag jar from contact with an ally, and then proceeding to get anally invaded from behind while plastering your drunken ass against the nearest shitty metal textured wall. Trust me, when you have high ping, it really...really hurts when you bump into people. Do yourself a favor, get the hell out of the way of the offense.
- Learn to use SR50 and to Rocketjump. Map08 is a great example of maps that RJing is useful on. It's gamebreaking when you can RJ into someone's base, take the flag, and then get back up and out. Easiest flags of your life if the defense is not prepared or has not a soul to retrieve a flag with that can RJ.
- Frag as you go. Seriously, Ladna hit this one on the head with a god damn sledge hammer. Turn around and shoot people as you go, but don't be retarded like me and get SHOT IN THE FACE from someone right in front of you. Be aware of your surroundings but don't run backwards like a retarded mime-clown on a unicycle all the time. I've paid for it, and so will you.
Spoiler: Disclaimer (Open)Hope this helps someone, y'all take it easy!P.S.: If you don't like the colors FUCK YOU.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feel free to add to this guide with any wisdom that you see fit that was not covered here, be it maps, or anything else!
Feel free to add to this guide with any wisdom that you see fit that was not covered here, be it maps, or anything else!
