BP 2008-03-07: Ownage
There is a LAN for old men. Or, at least there is when the game is XMP, and the old men are myself, DangerKitty and Junior.
As I’ve mentioned before, I love XMP. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it is the most perfectly balanced multi-player game ever made.
The only problem with it is, it takes a lot to learn, and it is even harder to get anyone to play it.
Unless of course you challenge a whole LAN worth of young bucks to a three on seven game. (They took the bait.)
I’ll spare you the gory details, because you don’t really care anyway, but the fogies won three of the four games.
I think DangerKitty got two or three of his lives back too. That game means that much to him.
Anyway, to the younguns: thanks for playing, it meant a lot. Special thanks to whomever it was who always found a way to be right in front of my raptor when I desperately needed a gutblow.
I only played the first two of these games. The first of which was 5v5. My team lost because G was lightning fast with the artifacts and i’m not convinced the other people on my team realized they were playing a game or that maybe they should do something constructive. The first real 3v7 we won. But not without Gangrene running into the middle of our base with three scouts guarding the artifacts and not a single one of them firing a shot at him as he hopped in and out. It was a long battle but we finally won it in the end. This being said, i cannot deny the skill of these oldtimers. they love them some XMP.
TF2 was a bit disappointing. Some people were playing before i joined in and i think the overwhelming number of class options was too… overwhelming for them. They didn’t get what they had to do. I’ll admit the first time i played some of the capture games i had no idea why the maps changed. When i finally joined in, Moogle and i made sure we were on opposite teams as we probably played the most. I think Pottse and Taj Mahal also split temas as they both knew what they were doing. Poor Moogle was getting frustrated as his team lost round after round. I think they only real difference was me shouting “shoot your own teammates, they might be spies!”, “everyone stand on the objective!”, and “sniper, let your scope charge up before you shoot”. Communication is important in these kinds of games but especially when your team is just learning the game.
March 10th, 2008 at 09:03Markus is conveniently forgetting the first Scirocco win. (This is the desert canyon map.) The younguns didn’t win until Garden, which is the classic XMP map (it came with the demo.) Garden favors new players because it forces everyone out into the open, which is uncomfortable for me, who spends most of the game shuttling artifacts back and forth. I believe the H-MAN was on turret duty, which was a pain in the ass, and the prodigious sniping was equally unappreciated.
Now, in the hopes of getting you guys to play again, I am going to give you a hint. Whoever set up base defenses was doing a decent job in there, but the most aggravating defense is to put the force walls on the platforms in front of the teleporter in the artifact node room. Put one on the far left of the left platform, and one on the far right of the right platform. Then, put one between the two, on the far left of the right platform (a force wall can’t reach across the whole way.) Those teleporters are the only non-hacking entrance to the art room. If that is blocked, an offensive player has no choice but to hack the doors, which: 1) takes time 2) takes energy, and will reduce the hippity hopping that the player can do 3) can be heard a mile away, allowing the defensive tech to wait next to the door with the alt-fire on the shotty ready to blaze. (for maximum effect, wait until the door is almost completely haccked, then pop out, blast the offending hacker and then msg ‘PWN3D’ over and over again. Humiliating fun.)
March 10th, 2008 at 21:25As for TF2, this is why I keep advocating regimented schedules. I know that is hard at a party, but it takes a bit to get everyone together and ready to go, and it is worse when the teams are unbalanced.
In my mind, there are six major BP LAN games (ordered by my own personal preference):
1) XMP
2) Dystopia
3) UT2K4 Assault
4) TF2
5) The Ship
6) Worms
I would be happy if we rotated around all of them, but that would be a lot of hours. Anybody want to champion any one of these, and schedule it up?
March 10th, 2008 at 21:30Um Red Faction?
March 11th, 2008 at 15:27Good point. I’ll add that back in.
I’m also toying with Quake Wars. If I wasn’t out of space, it would be on there already.
March 11th, 2008 at 15:29