The Community

[Otherside]

it can seem a bit harsh but its rare to have more than 1 CA game going. And usually a one stripe (new player) with no experience usually decides the outcome of the whole battle causing frustration for the more experienced CA players. Its good that people want to play online but imo the best advice for a new person is to familiarise themselves with the controls maybe even spec 1-2 games (CA is fun to watch) then have a vague understanding of how the game works.

also Chickens and AI are really good for learning. Its harder to learn CA atm because the only CA game you will probably find will be full of dev's and veterans who are ofc willing to help if you are responsive and mannered. They are a helpful bunch but sometimes someones patience has a limit especially if its game ruining and not being helpful.

Imo you shouldnt be offended some people are more outwardly vocal with there insults and are less patient than others but this is true to every game and Spring not having a easy learning curve in general for most mods doesnt help.

familiarise yourself with the controls and make sure your settings work (as in you dont lag or dont use your first game to configure your settings and you have a playable framerate) make sure it all works so you yourself can also appreciate the game aswell as listen to advice from people who are knowledged.

Dont take it badly some people just get frustrated.

So what im saying and suggest is familiarise yourself with the controls and play vs Chicken + speccing one or two games (wont take up to much of your time + it is fun think of it as the closest thing to a tutorial atm) + most CA games have good players in them. And listen to advice and in know time you should become at least a competent player and maybe eventually you will understand were people are coming from. This community can be harsh (more so in the forums) but its no different to any other online gaming environment just easier to see cos of a smaller community.

[manored]

I find it very disrespectfull to join a team game if you dont know the basics of how to play the game

It's not. If there's no rank limit, blame the host, not the players joining. If there is a rank limit, demand the players below it kicked.

Perhaps the player is a low rank, but already watched some games or in some other way got a idea of how the game is, and thus can already play, even if badly. I dont want to keep bad players out of team games, I want to keep out those who ask what a mex is after the game started :)

[Neddie]

The Spring Community taken as a whole is - in comparison to other online game communities, particularly those for free software and commercial RTS - rather good. However, that doesn't mean it is easy or kind. I am finishing a year long study of sub-communities inside the Spring Community for the purpose of advertisement, but let me direct you to some player-kinder and more helpful sub-communities with their associated channels.

Complete Annihilation; #ca - They play CA and CA: Chickens
Not Original Total Annihilation; #nota - They play NOTA
Expand & Exterminate; #ee - They play E&E
XTA; #xta
Newbies; #newbies - Generally, you can find players of all games and mods here.
Deci; #deci - They play NOTA, E&E, CA

I would also look for games hosted with no rank limit and no more than ten players. Once you've got fifteen or so hours, feel free to venture out. You'll be treated little worse than the rest of the community, and given fair odds you'll be competitive at the level expected of the greater community.

[[TS]Lollocide]

Here's a hint:

As a noob, you are the lowest rung of the ladder, because you

*Don't know the units
*The strategies
*The players
*How the game works
*Basic battle stuff.

Now being the lowest run of the ladder, you might feel worthless in game terms when one of the 8v8 games you're playing are won by two of your teammates while you + the 5 other guys porc adv fusions and mohos, but do not worry! Spent 30 minutes in a battle with a non-working AI or just watch 2 or 3 normal games, if you're smart enough (Instantly making you better than 50% of the players in spring), you should be able to see what people usually spam* what people usually porc up with** and what to do when you suck balls at spring***.

Now, going with popular demand, apply what you've seen to a well populated game (6v6-8v8 and usually on a map called Delta-Siege-Dry), try to pick 'em so its a one bar rank on each side (One ranks look like this ^, but gold and thicker), Then hit 'F4' and look for a series of green spots that are out of the way (Try picking spots the furthest away from the 'frontline' (Which in DSD's case, is either the furthest left or the furthest right). If you have a laggy computer, you might join after everyone else has selected a startspot, in that case simply point on someone either furthest left or furthest right near a cluster of green spots (f4 again), hit the '¬' key two times quickly and then enter "Would you mind if I started there? I'm learning"

Some people won't oblige, some will, but do this on people who aren't 'ready' (The list of names on the left hand side of the screen is in yellow when the player hasn't hit 'Ready' and green when they have hit 'ready', 'ready' players can't choose new startspots). Being polite is making a 'Can I start here becuz I'm a noob' point before just clicking there, since most players are going to d-gun you if you ready on their spot.

Typically, you want to hit the 'Ready' button atleast afew seconds after you've put a 'start spot' down, typically I wait until atleast 75% of the player list on the start spot of the screen have readied, this is to ensure that even the slowest typers have the chance to put 'gtfo noob' as a point on ur wanted startspot.

Now as a noob, you'll be wanting to pay attention to what is actually happening on the field, if the guy at the front is being cluster-boned by three colors, you NEED TO HELP IT, getting boned by three people while you build economic (Energy generating stuff with Energy to Metal structures) stuff means you're going to get allied-attacked.

Most of your new time will be spent being a useless article that *might* send some tech 1 units to the front 30 minutes after the battle started (USELESS, DON'T BE USELESS), if you feel that you don't have the experience to send attack units, use the H key and give resources to someone else on your team who looks productive. As long as you tell them that, you will probably be showered with praise since you're feeding someone elses spring ego with delicious resources. (If someone hasn't expanded beyond their startspot, don't share your resources or give them shit, they don't deserve it). (Also Metal is the delicious sauce of choice, share it to people for props, unless they're in a clan and are building far-faster than they should be, it might be a case of ally-share resources and they're prolly gunna win because of the teamspeak.).

In all, have a thick skin and be prepared to have your build order ripped apart by people you don't know but know that you suck, its typical spring behaviour.

And ignore most of the mods, they're fags.

*Flash
**HLT's, not LLT's.
*** Build any of the following:
Vulcan cannons (NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB)
Experimental Gantry (NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB)
Advanced fusions (Try constructing a nuke in ur backgarden that explodes when you touch it, then tell everyone to touch it when they see it)
Any Experimental Gantry unit. (NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB, NOOB)
Tier 2 kbot pyro units (USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS).

I've been Sly and you've been noobs, try the veal.

[Gota]

By the way,we need to stop smurfing.

[manored]

The vanguard from the experimental gantry is quite a good unit actually...

[Otherside]

By the way,we need to stop smurfing.

O_o i lold

thats like hitler saying we need to stop being genocidal

[Gota]

Give me a break..everyone smurfs and so do u.
Everyone would be killen and stealen if they knew they can get away with it..

[manored]

So I guess its fine if everbody stops smurfing, there will be nobody suffering more than anybody else :)

And I dont smurf.

[smoth]

Give me a break..everyone smurfs and so do u.

I DON'T.

Everyone would be killen and stealen if they knew they can get away with it..

no they wouldn't because if ultimately some sort of order would be restored.. wait you are Israeli...

[Otherside]

lol i dont smurf ???

its pretty hard for me to surf and im to lazy to proxy just to smurf

[Crayfish]

I don't smurf because I don't really understand why anyone does. Heyho, just one of those mysteries.

[BaNa]

It may be true that because of smurfing, we consider 1-stripes to be better than they sometimes are. However, a few points:

- people usually get asked if they are smurfs/good

- as someone here said, going into a 6v6 dsd or any other big allstar-ish teamgame as a noob is like playing on De_dust with awp on against pro CS-ers. With a knife.

- there are TONS of noob gold and silver stars out there. Most people cant even get the hang of spamming one unit. I mean, how hard is that. And how do you expect them to do well at advanced tactics if they fail at that.

In all honesty, if you are a beginner, ask for games in #main, #ca and #newbies. I see groups of noob friends playing passworded games all the time.

I used to be on the whole "help ze neeb" trip, but that somehow ended, maybe cause i hate waiting minutes for them to work out the UI and which unit is which (as an aside, i am teaching two lads how to spam massive flash, that project is fun). Maybe once we have a tutorial it will be more fun to teach noobs tricks :)

[Jazcash]

I SMURF BECAUSE I'M COOL.

[manored]

I SMURF BECAUSE I'M COOL.

Dont you know? Smurf means Super Mega UltRa unFun

[Dragon45]

smurfing is a despicable practice that shatters the faith people have in the ranking system.

[Gota]

If this community motvated peopel to help maybe we wouldbe halping more.

[Neddie]

And maybe this community does motivate some people to help.

[Argh]

the faith people have in the ranking system

What "ranking system" are you referring to?

I mean, what we have is not a real "ranking system".

We need to have one rank for time played, and another for w/l.

Simple. And no, this does not allow rampant cheating or w/e, that's something that can get dealt with pretty easily, without any complex safeguards.

I mean, if somebody goes 50:1 in a 3-hour period, or whatever... um, we're pretty sure they're cheating... not a big deal, frankly. And if they go 5:1 for months on end, but a review shows that they play at intervals at bizarre clock times, etc...

Or just have the client send every hundreth replay to a server for review, if people actually are really worried about a non-existent problem. Right now, we don't have enough active players for it to even be relevant, frankly. But smurfing, and the non-existence of a real ranking system, are both lame.

[Gota]

the faith people have in the ranking system

What "ranking system" are you referring to?

I mean, what we have is not a real "ranking system".

We need to have one rank for time played, and another for w/l.

Simple. And no, this does not allow rampant cheating or w/e, that's something that can get dealt with pretty easily, without any complex safeguards.

I mean, if somebody goes 50:1 in a 3-hour period, or whatever... um, we're pretty sure they're cheating... not a big deal, frankly. And if they go 5:1 for months on end, but a review shows that they play at intervals at bizarre clock times, etc...

Or just have the client send every hundreth replay to a server for review, if people actually are really worried about a non-existent problem. Right now, we don't have enough active players for it to even be relevant, frankly. But smurfing, and the non-existence of a real ranking system, are both lame.

Wise words.