Making the best of a "stacked" situation.

**CivilWars** · 07-04-08, 10:44 AM

This is a rough draft of my forthcoming article. It is mainly geared towards BF2, but would apply to any FPS game.

It is inevitable. At some point you will be the victim of being stuck on a team with a sad case of the epic fail. It may last 1 round, or it may last a full day, but be advised, it will happen. So the question is what do you do to try to keep the game fun, and hopefully turn the tide?

First let's do a quick review of what has been tried, and usually fails:

1. Bitch at members on the other team to switch and help. While this sounds good in theory there are two problems with this. First, not many players want to switch from a team that is working well together to a team with a bunch of players that could not follow an order to the local gas station, let alone an appropriate area of the battlefield. Second, the players that will switch are restricted by auto-balance. If teams are even numerically the game does not care how uneven they are statistically, it will not allow you to switch.

2. Ask the admins for help. The admins will not move players to balance teams. This is not a cure for the problem, it is simply a treatment of the symptoms, First, how would they decide who to move, when and why? If we are all here to have a good time how could the admins justify moving player A who is having a good time with players B, C, and D, and that is why player A is playing in the first place? Second, why should the admins punish the teamplayers who are working together and accomplishing their goals by moving them to the team that lacks coordination. While it might stop the complaining of the losing team it would just start more from those moved and their friends.

3. Randomize teams after each round. While it sounds good in theory there are a few issues with this proposed solution. First, if I am here to have fun and play with my friends why should I be moved away from my friends' team every round? Second, if players truly are jumping to the winner they will do it even with randomization. Third, if a team is working well together and giving and following orders why should the server/admins break that up?

4. Come to the forums and start a new topic voicing your frustration. This has been attempted many, Many, MANY times, and usually fails. The people that need to hear this don't even visit our forums, so you are complaining to the wrong audience. The people who do hear it feel that TTP is the best server on the planet even with any warts it might have, so when you criticize OUR server, and the hard work we put into it we do take offense. To me when you speak poorly of my baby I do take it personally. I know the forums are a place to vent, but more importantly, they are a place for resolution. Complaining about what is wrong without offering new advice on how to resolve it usually just brings animosity, not results.

So now that we know what does not work, what can work? When in doubt ask what would Civil do?

The Civil plan of attack when the odds are stacked against him are to win small battles even if I can't win the war. On virtually every map I have a favorite flag that I feel is most valuable to my team. My only goal is to capture and hold that flag. If I can do this I feel as though I, and my squad, has won the battle even if we lose the war. Because the flags I choose are so vital to both teams I usually also win the battle of how many notable names can my squad decimate during a round. I love nothing more than seeing wave after wave of squads led by reservists and regulars attacking MY flag.

Based on my experience when a team seems stacked it is not the ranks/skills of players that is causing the other team the problem, it is the teamwork. Before you start looking at the ranks on each team look at the structure on your team. Do you have a commander? Is your commander doing the job well? Is your commander organizing the squads so that each one has their own objective, whether it be attack, defend, or distract? Is everyone in a squad? How many one or two man squads do you have, and why don't they consolidate? Are the squads you have working together, or is everyone doing their own thing? On most non-teamplay servers a few skilled individuals can win enough battles to win the war. On TTP you have to have 30 players working as one. If not you WILL lose every time. So how does Civil accomplish this?

The most important thing Civil does is look in the mirror and asks himself if he is in the best position to help his team. Am I in a leadership position? If I am commander am I issuing orders? If orders are not followed am I letting the admins know so they can remove insubordinate players? If I am leading a squad am I issuing orders? Am I communicating the orders with my commander, so he can adjust the rest of the troops accordingly? Am I reporting non-teamplaying commanders and squad members, so the admins can remove them and make room for someone who will follow orders? Or am I just sitting back as a member of someone's squad hoping it will get better some day?

Before you say it, let me answer your next complaint. Yes, you might suck as a squad leader, but you are better than the ones we already have that are doing nothing. If you think you suck how will you ever get better if you never practice? Did Michael Jordan say he sucked at basketball as a kid, so he would not play anymore, or did he go to the gym and work harder? Suck it up, be a leader, and lead your team to victory. Even if you can't win the war you can still win some battles along the way.

Civil

**Walkerxes** · 07-04-08, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by CivilWars

2. Ask the admins for help.  The admins will not move players to balance teams.  How would they decide who to move and why?  If we are all here to have a good time how could the admins justify moving player A who is having a good time with players B, C, and D, anf that is why player A is playing in the first place.  While it might stop the complaining of the losing team it would just start more from those moved and their friends.

3. Randomize teams after each round.  While it sounds good in theory there are a few issues with this proposed solution.  First, if I am here to have fun and play with my friends why should I be moved away from my friends' team every round?  Second, if players truly are jumping to the winner they will do it even with randomization.  Third, if a team is working well together and giving and following orders why should the server/admins break that up?

Before you say it(comma here) let me answer your next complaint.  Yes, you might suck as a squad leader, but you are better than the ones we already have that are doing nothing.  If you think you suck how will you ever get better if you never practice?  Did Michael Jordan say he sucked at basketball as a kid, so he would not play anymore, or did he go to the gym and work harder?  Suck it up, be a leader, and lead your team to victory.  Even if you can't win the war you can still win some battles along the way.

Civil

Just a few quick things I noticed.. typos, and punctuation stuff. I put them in bold.

**dex71** · 07-04-08, 10:53 AM

Well put Civil.Good work! :9

**CivilWars** · 07-04-08, 10:57 AM

Fixed the anf, comma, and a lower case i. The friends' is correct since I have more than one friend on the team, no?

**Walkerxes** · 07-04-08, 10:58 AM

AH, yeah, you're right.. I was reading that as "the team of my friend" not "the team of my friends"

**jabberwock** · 07-04-08, 06:16 PM

Good stuff.

You might add a little more detail on why it's pretty much impossible for admins to balance the teams.

Entertaining, and something you should post a link to in every team stacking thread from here on in.

**Adsartha** · 07-04-08, 06:23 PM

Nice. Well-written, though jabber makes a good point about what else to add. I can always go through the BF2 forums for more team stacking threads if you want more suggestions on what to add... but I'm gonna need more scotch first.

Also, this:

I know the forums are a place to vent, but more importantly it is they are a place for resolution. Complaining about what is wrong without offering new advice on how to resolve it usually just brings animosity, not results.

My subject-verb agreement bell went off. Toss in a comma after "importantly," too.

**CivilWars** · 07-05-08, 12:35 PM

Edited.

**11Bravo** · 07-06-08, 12:07 AM

If only teams & squad leaders knew when to pull out the DEFEND Marker. By making a choice to defend a flag, you are making a choice for the team. Most squad leaders who pay attention, know when the team they are on is going to over extend. Capping flags at a nasty pace but without forethought for making sure they have a flag to spawn at when they burn out, which has been the demise of many a team.

Sometimes taking it on the chin, by sacrificing your squad while defending, so that the rest of your team has a chance to learn how to work together; is one of the best things you can do for an ailing team. It takes courage to commit your squad to a gruesome task, it takes squad members that believe in what you are doing.

I would venture to say that if most teams had a good even balance of working squads, then most games would be nail biters. Alas, all the bitching and whining will never accomplish a good well organized team. Having regulars/reservists leading those squads and teaching them what is important and how to do it, is one of the surest ways of helping to even the playing field.

Sadly, we have regulars/reservists who wont step up to command or squad lead. That is something I have seen for a very long time, by many different players on the server. As a player I've seen it, as an Admin I've seen. One of the worst problems we have is when no one applies to command. At the point your team has no leadership, how can any team expect things to get better. The next worst problem is when someone takes the command chair and then gives up on their team, I hate that with a passion that borders on a desire to inflict punishment. If you take the command chair, don't walk away from your team, make them mutiny you. Or at least have the balls to let your squad leaders know that you are leaving the position, that way they can either assume the position or at the very least ask one of their squad members to go command.

Everyone rushes to see team-stacking as the issue, the root of the problem is: regulars/reservists/non-regulars who don't know how to work together as a team. Hell, at this point I'm almost to the point of recommending the randomizing of teams in an effort to force people to either leave the server because they don't care about their team or grow some fucking balls and learn how to play with anyone. If there is one thing I learned in the ARMY; it's how to work with anyone towards a common goal. People I couldn't stand, I had to learn to work with and trust.

I placed these points here in case you would like to use them. If my thoughts were not desired then I apologize for placing them here.

Last but not least; when there are a bunch of non-regulars on the server, how the fuck does it look when all they see is bitching & whining. What do they see to motivate them into learning how to actually play as a team. Who's going to step out and educate them? If we don't teach them how to play as a team on this server, then we have failed them; as reservists, as regulars, & as admins. And no amount of complaining has ever taught someone new to the server how to play as a team on this server.