Some TDM/FT basics for qrunks... (Read 1,502 times)

[Marcer]

Lolzy's simple TDM/FT guide 
This guide is geared towards less experienced players or the ones who are new to TDM/FT. Feel free to add your 2 cents if you have somehing of a substance to share with us. Therefore consider this guide to be an ever-evolving thread.

As a long time TDM/CTF player (Q1, Q2, Q3 and QL) and an avid team player, I found out that several things need to be pointed out for the less experienced qrunks to take note and heed the advice for the common good of planet Qrunk.

• How the hell does FT differ from TDM?
  FreezeTag is played mostly as TDM with a twist. It's a far easier version of TDM.
  
  Since TDM has small amount of guns, long gun respawn times, non-droppable PUs, it is a haven for learning efficiency. In TDM, you've got to be efficient and make every shot count. You learn how to conserve ammo and how to work together towards getting a big W instead of sad L.
  
  Therefore any good TDM team will find FT (especially allweapons) to be a walk in the park. The only added twist is the issue of thawing - you have an additional layer of strategy to carry on since you've got to control the frozen enemies to force the remaining team to attack you  - and if it's your team that is frozen, you must try to turn the tides in your favor.

• How to properly use the PU?
  Remember that PU trails not leads the way. When your team enters the room, the PU always enters last.
  
  This is an oldschool strategy that always works. Nubs get the PU and run alone thinking theyre invincible, or spearhead their team. And surprise surprise, they get killed FAST. Why is that? When you enter area that is filled with enemies, the PU is always the first target. Enter the room first and you will be the first one to die and leave PU for the taking.
  
  Real good players let the team jump in and force enemies to get engaged with them, then they jump in with their PU and take advantage. When the bad guys are occupied with your teammates, you put out rail or LG and circlestrafe them to death while they try to refocus on you.
  
  Also when you've got a PU never ever be alone. Always stay together with your team. Your team is to safeguard you. This is wherre TDM practice comes to mind - in TDM dropped PU is a gone PU, so teams support their PU wielders to allow them to stay alive for the entire duration of the PU.
  
  Take the same tactics in FT: Never think that "well duh, if he dies, I will take the PU". Make your PU-ed player the most important person and support him. 

• Who the hell is that Team Captain and why should I even care?
  Team Captain is a dude who is designated by the Clan Leader and is there NOT to command you and boss you around - he's there to coordinate the game and lead by example.
  
  That means example of intelligence and strategic thinking, not foolishness. TC requires a steady input of info from his teammates to adjust the tactics and strategy to the ever-changing game. He's also the one who thinks in macro scale and manages the team, using the valuable assets when needed.
  
  Team Captain's word is LAW. If you elected a dude to be TC and you agreed to work under him, you must obey everything he says during the match. If you have reservations or objections, save them for after the match, do not argue in the middle of it. Report completion of orders, and if you cant execute them say so. Listen to what your TC says. And trust him. He's there to support you but he won't do a thing if you don't help him with info you gather.

• Blablabla, or how you should learn to use the TeamSpeak
  Voice comms are used to convey short messages yet that doesn't mean you should keep quiet. Communicate often and communicate with substance.
  
  Say everything you think is important. Listen to TC's orders and report back progress. Inform teammates about enemy PU, enemy gatherings or particular events that might prove important. You seeing that guy walking into that room might mean life or death for two of your teammates with their backs turned to him, for example.
  
  And remember - shut up with your witty remarks during the match. is not for showing how angry you are or telling jokes. It is for communication purposes. Leave the storytelling for breaks between or after matches.

• What the hell does "Mega in fifteen" mean, man?
  Time pickups, for God's sake! It is VERY important to get hold of YA/RA and MH and STAY THAT WAY.
  
  Get early control of the pickups and enforce your reign over them. This is another nod towards TDM - the team that stacks best and times best often wins the match.
  
  You do this by controlling important pickups and preventing enemy from restacking. ALWAYS acknowledge important item pickups - this will save yours and teammates' time.

• It's not like you're alone on the map, duh.
  Share, share, share! The glory of TDM lies in wonderful micromanagement it enforces. You might not need that 50 hp bubble coz you've got 85 hp, save it for your teammate who's at 40!
  
  If you have enough guns or picked up guns you're not going to use, drop them for your teammates. Everyone should be evenly stacked with weapons and pickups. 

• The team overlay is your friend
  USE THE DAMNED TEAM OVERLAY. Really, I cannot stress this enough. It is there for a reason lol. TO allows you to see teammates' location, hp/armor status and engagement status.
  
  Use it to know what's going on with your team and if you see a guy with low armor and 15 hp, guide him to pickups and guard them for him, let him restack. Team Overlay is for your help, sadly most newbies and casual players don't take advantage of it.

That's it for the first part If I wake up tomorrow without a massive hangover I might write in some more advice.

[Marcer]

• I'm a dueler, how should I play TDM/FT?
  Duelers find TDM/FT difficult in that they're used to playing item control on an almost empty map, interwoven with short clashes with enemy player.
  
  Duel is basically 90% being alone and stacking and 10% using that stack against enemy and denying him to get stacked himself.
  
  Therefore duelers will add lots of goodness to TDM/FT since they know how to time everything on map.
  
  Still they might find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of enemies at first and they're used to playing solo (most duelers I know and knew back in the day were "lone wolves"), so they sometimes lack in team department. It's not that they're bad team players, but they tend to work alone. This is bad mojo. Work on it.

• Deatchmatch is my middle name, what now?
  FFAers will find themselves hard to convert into TDM/FT. FFA is you against the rest - you don't have to worry about items, PUs and other crap mainly because timing them often is useless.
  
  During a proper FFA match the guys you're up against will be as adept at timing as you are, so doing all you can to get to that RA and find it taken 4 seconds ago and get nailed by 4 other guys running towards it is ironic at best.
  
  Basically FFAers are good at crowd control and they're used to being overwhelmed by enemies - but they usually can't time for nothing and they spam a lot (not a bad thing in itself but having it as a habit can be bad in TDM/FT).
  
  Also FFAers are prone to not listening to any commands and they usually play their own game apart from the team.

• Clan Arena rules. But I want some TDM/FT 2...
  CAers are adept at teamwork but they're also used to all guns, maxed hp/armor from the start so they might find TDM/FT more difficult in that the resources are limited.
  
  Also - what one of my CA mofos from q3 pointed out - CAers often find the self-damage on to be a serious drawback. In CA you can move almost like in DEFRAG using your RJ, plasma climb, grenade jumps and what have you. This is used for rapid taking of position and getting out of the harm's way quickly. In TDM/FT these skills will only decrease your hp/armor so there you have it.
  
  Oh, and TD is ON on many FT servers. No more spam!!!!!!

[kan3]

Very well put.

[thewookster]

I will read it properly when I get a bit of time and will post a comment then.

(Space reserved for wook comment)

[Marcer]

You might have noticed it all sounds like a military affair...and to an extent, it is

• I am a nub in terms of cups, what to do?
  Quake series has a nasty habit of not being casual-friendly. If your enemy is better than you, there will be no, and i mean NO easy ways out for you. Each and every weakness of you and your team will be put to the light and abused mercillessly. This means that if you want to play a cup (even a casual one), you must understand you will be up against some opposition that is well organized and has all their bases covered in terms of their strengths and weaknesses and that knows how to use them well. That means you must do the same yourself.

• I want to play like a god that I am in FFA or DUEL!
  Remember: you might be a god when playing a solo gametype, but in team games you depend on your team and your team depends on you. Try as you may, you wont win against 4 LGs while playing equally or better skilled team when you attack them alone.
  
  You might have the reflex of a fly and speed of a cheetah and still you will be plastered on the wall because the numbers game will catch up with you. Or even if you DO get that fancy stats, your team will still lose it because of your gung-ho attitude.

• Learn to be part of a team
  Clan is an army. You're a soldier. Face it, this is a military team with single objective: winning the game which can be equaled to a war; that is, you might win a single skirmish but the war may be lost, and vice versa; you might lose several battles but still win the war.
  
  So start thinking as a whole team not just one person, think strategically and think fast.
  
  There's usually a moment in evolution of every clan where CL makes a decision: this one doesn't fit, this one does not listen, this one do not train. And remove them and replace them with someone who does. This is called team building. If your CL knows what he's doing, he will root out the ppl who do not cooperate and replace them with guys who follow orders well and contribute to the team. Do not be the one he will find to be the proverbial black sheep.
  
  
  The best TDM and CTF clans back in the day were made of absolute elite - it was very hard to survive tryouts let alone stay aboard for longer period. You had to constantly PROVE yourself. Now we have QL and casual players but the cups remain the same and the gametypes are largely the same. 
  
  As any good military team, your clan requires you to play with your MATES. You must play with the same pople again and again and again so you all get used to each other's gameplay and you will finally grind each other enough to fit into the mold of the team. Gameplays where your team is composed of random clanmembers and friends from outside the clan will be nothing more than mere fun games, but not real training.

• Oh no, they're far better than us. What to do??? OMG???!!!111
  First of all, let get one thing straight. You will be beaten. A lot. The skill ceiling in QL is so high you won't be able to find its upper limits. So deal with it and accept it. You're going to be put against people for whom you move like a diseased snail and aim like a drunk Russian soldier after 5 days of a hangover. What to do, then? Is all lost?
  
  You must ask yourself: If they are better than us, does that mean that we are going to throw our hands down and wait to be squished? Or do we give them hell and cause them to sweat and bleed, snatch some points from them and ruin their thinking of a fast and fat victory? You must maintain your composure.
  
  The first thing any good TDM team does is dishearting enemies. Causing discontent amongst them. Make them chaotic. It's really easy because most people break down when the game is not evolving their way and they make more and more mistakes. Then its downhill from there and you end up beaten to the ground and humiliated. You might notice that more often than not really good teams humiliate their enemies - kill them in the most obvious, blatant ways like a sad telefrag, chatfrag or sudden grenade to your butt.
  
  This is not simple F***K YOU sign - it's done to cause you to lose your brains and start chasing them on stupid vendettas. Then it's not a team but a bunch of angry kids seeking revenge on bullies who bitchslapped them. When you're in that mode, you will lose and you will lose bad, believe me. Do not let yourself be provoked into such behavior.
  
  So go into a learning mode. Learn from them. Yes, do something what is called MIRRORING. If the enemy camps one spot, try to camp it yourself. If enemy uses a particular strategy, do the same. If they use particular weapons in one situation, think why and use them yourself. Think WHY they're so effective. Mimic their movements and techniques.
  
  Remember, the worst thing you can do to your enemy if they're better than you is to play in the same way they do. In some cases it really disrupts them and I won several games this way. But be warned - they also know full well how to counter the very moves they make, so you might think you've got the upper hand when suddenly they have another ace up their sleeve. Do not care. Learn and put that into use.

• Maintain discipline and team integrity in face of overwhelming odds.
  Do not break down. Stay on your track. Quake is mind games as much as 3D environment. You duelers out there know full well how to make enemy helpless - you also were helpless at many points during your dueling career as it is a gamemode that's probably the most humbling of all. You also know that as long as the clock is ticking there's still a chance of comeback. So you can put that knowledge into use.
  
  More often than not, you will find yourself being lead by 5-6 points by the enemy team. Do not falter - if the gap increases and you can't help it, do everything you can to deny them reaching the scorelimit. A match that ends 8:4 is way better than 10:4.

• My stats suck hamster testicles! I'm the worst player in the world!
  In TDM there were a lot of snobs who said that if your net is lower than 1, you suck.  Fact is, it's not true. Anyone of us who played a lot of TDM and CTF knows that k/d ratio is bollocks.
  
  The thing that matters is reaching the scorelimit/cap limit. You might call my k/d noobish in a particular map, but what if I managed to get 3 caps during that match? I'm in a way better than you and your 2 defs and 1 assist and 2:1 k/d. You might look at a guy's TDM net being -3, but what if he managed to support his team blocking the PU access or hoarding and distributing weapons? Is he any worse? NO. Remember that stats are good for nothing - ultimately it's the final score that counts.

• Bind Wars 3.20
  Many of you also know how much good proper binds do. Binds that show ironic and funny mood should be spammed in such dire cases. This shows the enemy that you say to them: "F***k you badgers!!!" and do so with a big fat grin on your face.
  
  Show them that they do not make you angry. In Quake 1 my team lost to guys who really fked our minds by suddenly chatting about their ways of making lasagna during the most intense parts of the match. Then they abruptly started spamming smileys and we became so disrupted that we lost it by 1 point. Sounds stupid? yes, it was stupid. And we lost because the team we thought was weaker made fun of us and shat in our faces with their attitude. So we got angry and started making mistakes ourselves.

[MARS^]

Read the first two parts, will read the third later on. Looks really good so far. A ton of helpful advice that I agree with. I have a little criticism though. As of now, this "guide" is only a wall of text. Edit it and bring some structure in. Headlines, bold text, etc. Makes reading it a lot more enjoyable and encourages to read all of it. Additionally, there are some minor typos you could fix. ;)

<3

[Marcer]

MARS, all is fixed <3. reformatted the guide, should look better and be easier to read.

[Marcer]

• The game of thaws
  You might have noticed that the FT is based on freezing your enemies. Well da. It is. The catch 22 of this gametype is that you have to stand for three seconds near your frozen teammate to thaw him out. Sounds simple - unless there's an enemy camper nearby waiting for you. Setting traps near frozen enemies is a constant source of pain in the rear section of your body and often you will find neatly constructed kill-o-matic surprises set up by the enemies.  
  
  How to thaw and don't get killed, then?

• Moving that lovely icicle around
  Yes, a frozen guy is movable. You can move him using any weapon that causes splash/rebound and move him to another spot where he's easier to thaw or at the very least hurt the enemy hiding behind/near him or draw them out of their hiding.

• The void method
  As long as your teammate is near void or lava or slime, you can restore him to life by pushing him using the above method straight into the nasty thing. Problem lies in you not getting a point for thaw, but you've got a buddy alive and well!

• X-ray
  Yeah, thats what some of my pals in q3 called that method when we played FT mod back in the day. It's nothing more than you standing behind a wall/under the floor/above the ceiling close enough to your teammate to be thawed safely as if with invisible rays. You have a particular area around the frozen person that counts as the "thaw zone" and it is ignorant of obstacles. As long as you fit into it, you will cause your teammate to thaw.

• Organize your corpses!
  Sounds nasty...hey, it's what you have to do. You've got three enemies frozen in one room. DO NOT let them stay close to each other as the enemy player will thaw two or three of them for the price of one! Move them - either into corners or in the middle of the room; depends on the layout and idea of trap you're about to arm in the place.
  
  But space them wide and in place where not only they're unlikely to fall into void/lava etc and get thawed automatically, but where the enemy will have to expose themselves. Favourite ideas involve moving the frozen corpse into the middle of the room and aiming all your guns at it - the enemy player will have no way to get to them unnoticed and will have to pay a lot of armor/hp to get that thaw, or putting it in a place where the enemy will be cornered and with no place to go if they elect to get there to thaw their teammate. 
  
  Despite what many FTers do, putting frozen enemies into corners - near walls is not recommended at all times. In some cases this will help the enemy to thaw them out thru a wall or you won't be able to see them or react in time. So think when you organize these icicles! 

• PU bait
  Another favourite amongst TDM/FT oldschools is baiting you to PU. In TDM this meant camping the spot where PU spawns and killing the guys who rush in trying to snatch the PU. Kinda nasty! But in FT it gets another dangerous twist: you can drop the PU for a short amount of time. This way you can drop it in plain view, hide behind a corner and let the enemy run straight into your guns. 
  
  This tactic is used by the most experienced and seasoned players, mainly because it is very risky. If the enemy manages to get that PU eventually, it might mean a world of hurt. In TDM it's especially problematic because if you kill enemy PU you won't get it at all so it's a denied affair. But in FT...watch out for silly PU freebies and for"empty" PU rooms that suddenly become swarming with flying projectiles the moment you jump into them.

• Stack before PU!
  Another thing that's often overlooked in the heat of the battle is the nearby guy getting PU and getting killed because he only had like 30 hp. Remember, PU makes you an instant numero uno target in the entire known Universe. Feel free to call yourself the most magnetic guy of all. Sadly, this means you have to get a lot of armor/hp to stay alive.
  
  Many newbies think that the enemies will instantly flee them because they got the PU. WRONG! When dealing against seasoned players you will be pummeled by sudden rails from wicked angles, you will eat surprise grenades while walking around the corner, and you will be generally picked at until you die. 
  
  Therefore both in TDM and FT the person who gets the Quad should be the guy who's most stacked. Use the Team Overlay to find out who's the most beefy teammate and protect Quad for him. It isn't unheard of in pro TDM to see almost entire team dying to protect PU so that one lone teammate of theirs who was getting stacked grabs it and gets on a rampage that might suddenly and painfully end the match in their favor. In FT you can drop the PU, so if you can grab it then do so and carry it to the most stacked teammate and drop it for him.

[Marcer]

• How far should the teammates stay from each other?
  One common mistake made by newbies and casual TDM/FT players is that they think the team controlling an area means teammates stringed far away from each other's sight. This is NOT it.
  
  The team should be close to each other at a preferred distance of the LG beam and definitely in each other's eyesight. The maximum distance is for when one of your teammates gets jumped at you won't have to do much than move slightly closer to them and start pummeling enemies with LG and switch to SG or RL as needed. But each and every member of your team will be looked at and after by each other. And four pairs of eyes is better than one, believe me.
  
  A definite deal breaker is every member of the team in a different point of the map for longer periods of time or even worse for the entire match. Before you answer to your mates' call of help, they will be long dead. Stay close to each other.

• OK, now how do the team moves?
  Exactly as they stay in one place - that is, in one single file. When the team moves, you move. When the team secures area, you secure the spots assigned by the Team Captain (for example RA spot or LG spot or near tele or else). Coordination is the key here.

• Well duh, mr smartypants, what if I need to restack? 
  The way to do this is rotation. Two guys go to stack themselves, two wait. Repeat with the second pair. The reason to stay in pairs is obvious - you can support each other. Or you can sacrifice yourself so your mate can snatch PU/pickup and return to the team.
  
  The worst thing you can do in TDM is staying alone for extended periods of time. Because i guarantee you that if you play against a good team you will always meet two or three of them, not one - and you will be killed like a fat duck.

[Marcer]

• The sad story of a lone spawn
  All of you found yourselves spawned alone from time to time, away from team and with a measly pepper gun (or all guns if it's allweapons FT), with mediocre 100 hp and no armor. Sucks! What to do now?
  
  The thing that hurts the most is getting killed in such state. While obviously you can't help getting nailed by stacked enemies by luck when you respawn as they just happen to be where you are the instant you get spawned, you can DEFINITELY help yourself to stay alive by playing smart.
  
  This is basically a reiteration of what I wrote on QL forums about FFA gameplay because you're in almost the same situation here; you're alone and (almost) everyone wants to kill you. First of all, do not panic. Do not rush into battle and avoid confrontation at all costs! Stack yourself first. Get some guns, find armor. Try to work your way towards the team. Or if need arises the team will move to your location. Hide from enemy view. Walk, not run so you won't be heard.
  
  I cannot stress this enough: STAY AWAY FROM TROUBLE! In TDM you will simply die then respawn and cause the enemy team to get more points. in FT you will be frozen and become an instant liability to your team - they will have you down and out, the enemy will use you as bait and you will be waiting there for whatever, frozen in one place and going mad from anger. In FT you must run like hell after spawning and get everything you can along the way before you even think about engaging anyone. Because of what I wrote before about teamwork, you will face not one but two or even more enemies at once. This will hurt and cause the mess that will make things difficult not only for you, but your team as well.

• Check those corners!
  Sounds like a reiteration of capt. Price's words from the first mission in CoD? Heh, that's also a real piece of advice that's given to soldiers in the training. Because the handheld and most of the mounted projectile weapons that are used today fire in a straight line, it's obvious that if you're in a proper angle somebody who's got it covered might pin you from a mile or onemeter away and you won't even know what hit you.  
  The same applies to QL and especially one nasty gun - the RG. Yes, RG + angles = lots of yummy frags and lots of rage on part of the fragged dude(s). The favourite place for such nasty traps are huge central rooms of the maps, but also beware corridors that sometimes arrange themselves in a way that allows the attacker to be able to fire straight thru them at a certain angle.
  
  In TDM controlling angles is important because of the precision that is employed by players who frequent that gametype - you can be sure you will be railed not once, not twice but a gazillion times by someone who's far away enough for your SG to take out his 1-2 hp but positioned well enough to remove 80hp from your total by one clear shot.
  
  In FT angles mingle in a really fun and great way with setting traps around frozen enemies. Position the enemy corpse in a way that the enemy teammate will have to walk into your gunsight to thaw his pal, and fire away! Do it with LG, RG, RL, or what have you. 

• Oh man, they're shooting me like fish in the barrel. HELAP LOL!
  Sometimes you will find yourself the last of the Samurai, alone on the map, your team frozen or dead or squared away in some hole. You will be hunted. This is where that angle shooting again jump into the spotlight, what is also a part of that dreaded mind game. It really hurts when you're shot at and shot bad and you can't even respond. First thing to do is do not chase the attacker - you're already weakened and he's probably backed up by his team and definitely stacked.
  
  Second thing is restacking fast. The enemy knows you're weakened so they will probably follow you and trail you. The thing they do not know is how much you have left. But that's both a blessing and a curse. Why?
  
  Because you might walk into another angle  and recieve another potshot. So you must do a third thing: avoid obvious routes. The enemy that's probably trailing you will set up camp in the nearest way out and wait for you to stick your head out. Such situations are like a perverted version of whack-a-mole with you as the guest star of the moment.
  
  So do not be obvious. Move in a way they do not expect you to move. Avoid obvious and less-obvious angles. Hide. Expect every pickup to be guarded. Play more Sam Fisher than Duke Nukem for a while. Wait for the lucky shot or at the very least sell your life at a highest price possible taking as many enemies as you can with you.

[terrorj]

Lolzy,that's to much
Why are you explaining all this?You know what that means?
I know it because I made a ictf tuturial long ago
It simply means the players arent good enouch to know what to do etc.
Good players you dont have to explain it all,they know what to do.
Look the q-i players for example,they all never played ft and we won everything till now.
And im not telling what to do,it works as a team.
Same for the ictf,make a new team they al never done ictf and immediatly its a good team.
We  beated the best of tb last week,and I putted in postmetal wo did immediatly 4 caps lol
Strange because he never played ictf with us?Nope its just the skill they have.

[Marcer]

It's because it's aimed @ less experienced players what I also wrote in my first post.
It's also mainly an FT/TDM guide, not iCTF

[kan3]

Do you have a guide for us L33t players? Switching broadband from sky to bt hope to be up and running tomorow.

[MARS^]

I think the most important thing for 1337 players is communication, timing and of course aim.
This guide is really good for less experienced players. You should delete all unnecessary posts as soon as it is finished so it looks clearer :)

[terrorj]

yeah make it shorter and put it in the same trhead as the ictf tutorial..?
Sow newbees got something to read