350
« on: February 28, 2011, 06:16:52 AM »
We talked about this to some extent, sicksadworld, so I'll throw in some of what was discussed:
The biggest thing about some of these "dishonorable" tactics is that some things are easily exploited, or some situations easily abused. E/W/M tanks being hoarded in duels are obviously dishonorable, but there are some situations that do call for that in terms of strategy. Logically, therefore, there isn't anything wrong with these sort of tactics, but I find that they don't tend to be aesthetically pleasing (and being an [a]rtist, I tend to be an authority on what is [a]rtistry in battle and what is not).
Here are some examples of legal, though "dishonorable" combat:
E/W/M tank hoarding: A form of camping where it is difficult to dislodge an opponent from the position since he in essence has two or more lives to work with via tanks. I've found that striking hard and fast with quick weapons or power weapons seems to work best here, but it depends on the weapons that are available, because the opponent will typically have access to the same weapons that the challenger does.
Spamming certain weapons: Magnets, Gravity, and a few other weapons are subject to spamming. Defeating spamming depends on the weapon. In terms of magnets, strafe-running and close combat tend to be best. In terms of gravity, I've found that quick-killing weapons (such as atomic fire) work best. It varies a lot, but some spammed weapons are tough to beat.
Weapon abuse: Different from spamming, these are weapons that are so powerful and/or useful that an opponent will always tend to use them. Pharaoh and Top comes to mind most here. Lots of players use Pharaoh since its a power-charging weapon. Mid-to-long range weapons tend to be best against a Pharaoh user. Wave in particular is extremely effective Pharaoh and Top both.
Weapon exploits: Needs no explanation. I don't think I have to mention the exploits in wave man's stage. Mirror in particular also comes to mind. It can be hard to beat a mirror buster when exploits are used (like with tango in mm3dw1, which can produce a chain-mirror buster blast). Instead of aiming at the target head-on, aim slightly off target to effectively land shots. Hit-and-run tactics tend to work against mirror exploiters, too, but...
Hit-and-run: These tactics can be abused, too. Some people will just fire a few shots and run for more life when hurt. It makes sense in some situations to do this, but it can be frustrating to fight a person who always fights in this manner. Quick weapons (like Bass) or power weapons (like Crash) tend to work best, especially at close range.
Shield weapons: On some maps, shields are all but broken. Take the skull barrier on heat man's stage; you can get the skull barrier, trigger it, and live forever grabbing weapon energy as you go. Granted, you can't win if you do that, but it's still annoying. Also, Leaf Shield on wind man's stage is neigh-unbeatable without the use of Bass or Eddie. Speaking of which....
Eddie: He makes some levels broken when you get particular items/weapons. G-hold on just about any level is broken, and Eddie is the ticket to that. He occasionally gives other special weapons (shields) that break maps in duels. At Wily's Other Kastle, I once got G-hold here in a duel. I used it not to kill the opponent, but to force the opponent out into the water currents, which caused a suicide on the opponent. I eventually stopped (you still have to get frags to win!) but the damage was done at that point; the opponent needed several more kills to just get back to 0 points!
Geographic traps: Not nearly as common as one would think, but can still be annoying. I'm thinking of flame man's stage, and burning the oil pools. Repeated stuff like this can put an opponent beyond any capacity to win a match.
Item-1 trap: this also gets abused at times, but it can be hard to pull off. It's much easier when you have time stopper, and can stop an opponent that's not moving at all (a la quick man or Eddie). An immobile player is a dead player.
Rush Jet/Beat: Common enough items, they allow you to move along three axises more freely, since they let you fly. Flying opponents automatically have the higher position, making them harder to hit. A few players will abuse these items, since they're occasionally plentiful (ring man). Careful aim can beat them, or just fly with them and try to attack that way. Quick weapons can help land shots, too.
With this knowledge of "cheap" tactics (I may have left some out; if so, just add them), we can judge which maps are "honorable" and "dishonorable". It should be mentioned that some situations can't help be taken advantage of with one or more of these; it just happens at times. So, the maps should be judged on a case-by-case basis or even a player-by-player basis.
A player that combines some or all of these tactics can be extremely difficult to beat without using the same tactics in kind. So, I've made the point that I'll generally copy to an extent what the opponent in a duel will do or try to do. If (s)he uses a few of these, I'll generally use a few. If an opponent uses all of these tactics, I will (try to) as well.
That's why the items/weapons available on a map are so important. Terrain matters a lot in FPS and strategy games, but in most FPS's, the weapon availability is far more important, since most of the maps have similar geographic features anyway (high ground, middle ground, low ground, narrow corridors, open areas). Then again, in most FPS's, the maps aren't that different in terms of weaponry, since there's only 7-8 or so weapons in any particular game. Mm8bdm is different in the fact that it features a far greater number of weapons. That's why, in duels, I'll choose maps more for the weapons and less for the terrain itself.
Choice of map = choice of weapons. Simple as that.
Show Posts
