Sup d00ds.
Not sure there's a lot of advice on this top that can be given through a forum post but thought it might make for an interesting discussion anyway.
Recently due to some roster shifting designed to keep my team alive I've switched classes to soldier and might be pocketing for our team, depending on how things shake out.
So far the biggest challenge for me has been less around the class switch and ROCKET DM and more about switching roles and controlling / calling situations.
Most of my TF2 career has been as a mindless fragging type scout, obviously I have had to know the game and my own role and do some comming but my viewpoint has always been focused on the task at hand and performing my own role while just relying on my main caller and teammates to take care of their own stuff. I've rarely dedicated much headspace to thinking about the uber situation or what my combo/demo should be doing; I'm almost entirely focused on player positions and just making tactical DM type decisions about who to engage, when to commit to a fight and aiming/dodging itself.
Transitioning to having to keep track of the situation of both teams at all times and make decisions for my own team is daunting, to say the least - it more or less requires bringing a completely new mentality to playing. I'm sure scouts at the top level of the game already think about TF2 on these terms but for me its largely new territory. I know this isn't an issue specific to TF2, as even in CS and the like you tend to have players fulfilling a fragging role vs the in-game leader etc so I'm hoping that some folks may have gone through this before.
Has anyone made this kind of transition? Any tips, or even just interesting thoughts or anecdotes from your experience?
Sup d00ds.
Not sure there's a lot of advice on this top that can be given through a forum post but thought it might make for an interesting discussion anyway.
Recently due to some roster shifting designed to keep my team alive I've switched classes to soldier and might be pocketing for our team, depending on how things shake out.
So far the biggest challenge for me has been less around the class switch and ROCKET DM and more about switching roles and controlling / calling situations.
Most of my TF2 career has been as a mindless fragging type scout, obviously I have had to know the game and my own role and do some comming but my viewpoint has always been focused on the task at hand and performing my own role while just relying on my main caller and teammates to take care of their own stuff. I've rarely dedicated much headspace to thinking about the uber situation or what my combo/demo should be doing; I'm almost entirely focused on player positions and just making tactical DM type decisions about who to engage, when to commit to a fight and aiming/dodging itself.
Transitioning to having to keep track of the situation of both teams at all times and make decisions for my own team is daunting, to say the least - it more or less requires bringing a completely new mentality to playing. I'm sure scouts at the top level of the game already think about TF2 on these terms but for me its largely new territory. I know this isn't an issue specific to TF2, as even in CS and the like you tend to have players fulfilling a fragging role vs the in-game leader etc so I'm hoping that some folks may have gone through this before.
Has anyone made this kind of transition? Any tips, or even just interesting thoughts or anecdotes from your experience?
http://i51.tinypic.com/102ku46.png
Simplify your game play as pocket. Making better calls just comes with practice. Obviously you know the maps and how they play, so just practice on keeping track of numbers, health and uber advantage. You can also use your knowledge of scouting to know what you need to tell them.
edit: I just think aloud when I'm calling. You don't need to as much micro managing (especially with a team at your level)... they just need to know what you're doing and when.
http://i51.tinypic.com/102ku46.png
Simplify your game play as pocket. Making better calls just comes with practice. Obviously you know the maps and how they play, so just practice on keeping track of numbers, health and uber advantage. You can also use your knowledge of scouting to know what you need to tell them.
edit: I just think aloud when I'm calling. You don't need to as much micro managing (especially with a team at your level)... they just need to know what you're doing and when.
some random pocket/caller ideas:
try to use every little advantage, either to push or to use to get a bigger advantage that you could then push on.
make sure the plan of what to do at mid is understood ahead of time by everyone on your team.
call all your damage/who to focus. if you aren't doing enough damage to do this, you're playing pocket wrong.
try to not position the combo behind the flank ever, and use your health to make room for everyone else.
some people would say don't ever play the blame game; I say it's based on what your teammates are like, do it if they're relatively thick-skinned but not if it will provoke an argument.
make sure to be clear about when you want other players to come with you and when you want a solo push. ideally on any non-uber push you want a lot of support, and on uber advantage pushes as well.
be decisive. when things are going wrong, try to offer a solution on the fly. ideally it's the CORRECT solution, but trying to think of something to change and having that turn out to be flawed too is better than just changing nothing.
try to foster an environment where anyone can make a call and all 6 players will listen to it, as main caller you talk the most and, depending on your team dynamic, probably have final say, but that doesn't mean you should be the only one calling stuff, there's a lot that others might be able to see that you as part of the combo cannot.
try not to generalize your own experience too much- it's possible you're really healthy and in a good position simply because lol pocket soldier, it doesn't mean the rest of your team is.
think a lot about the positioning of the other team. not just who's alive and who's not but how many of them are in the fight, which classes, where they're holding, what they'll do if you do x y or z. try to get in their heads.
if your medic has other people to play around don't be afraid to jump away if you see a good opportunity.
don't bait your team intentionally, you gotta be putting out fierce deeps.
when either you or your demo goes down your medic might need more people there to protect him, look out for that and ask a scout or your roamer to go meet the med.
on mid fights don't make protecting your medic your main priority unless you're playing a really slow developing mid. nothing pisses me off more than a pocket that calls he's gonna go aggressive on mid and then turns around the second he sees anyone bombing his side and aborts the plan, because it dicks over the rest of the team waiting to follow up on his dmg.
some random pocket/caller ideas:
try to use every little advantage, either to push or to use to get a bigger advantage that you could then push on.
make sure the plan of what to do at mid is understood ahead of time by everyone on your team.
call all your damage/who to focus. if you aren't doing enough damage to do this, you're playing pocket wrong.
try to not position the combo behind the flank ever, and use your health to make room for everyone else.
some people would say don't ever play the blame game; I say it's based on what your teammates are like, do it if they're relatively thick-skinned but not if it will provoke an argument.
make sure to be clear about when you want other players to come with you and when you want a solo push. ideally on any non-uber push you want a lot of support, and on uber advantage pushes as well.
be decisive. when things are going wrong, try to offer a solution on the fly. ideally it's the CORRECT solution, but trying to think of something to change and having that turn out to be flawed too is better than just changing nothing.
try to foster an environment where anyone can make a call and all 6 players will listen to it, as main caller you talk the most and, depending on your team dynamic, probably have final say, but that doesn't mean you should be the only one calling stuff, there's a lot that others might be able to see that you as part of the combo cannot.
try not to generalize your own experience too much- it's possible you're really healthy and in a good position simply because lol pocket soldier, it doesn't mean the rest of your team is.
think a lot about the positioning of the other team. not just who's alive and who's not but how many of them are in the fight, which classes, where they're holding, what they'll do if you do x y or z. try to get in their heads.
if your medic has other people to play around don't be afraid to jump away if you see a good opportunity.
don't bait your team intentionally, you gotta be putting out fierce deeps.
when either you or your demo goes down your medic might need more people there to protect him, look out for that and ask a scout or your roamer to go meet the med.
on mid fights don't make protecting your medic your main priority unless you're playing a really slow developing mid. nothing pisses me off more than a pocket that calls he's gonna go aggressive on mid and then turns around the second he sees anyone bombing his side and aborts the plan, because it dicks over the rest of the team waiting to follow up on his dmg.