Noobs in Conflict
Author: nova
World in Conflict! A real time tactical game that combines the intensity and objective-driven gameplay of the Battlefield-series with the tactical/strategic level management elements of real time strategy games and adds in a few spoonfuls of realism. The result is fast-paced yet diverse game where quick wits and gut feeling are everything. Also as being clearly unorthodox game without executing strict building order time and time again or trying to get a headshot before the opponent succeeds at it first, the game has thankfully remained under the radar of most multiplayertards who populate the PC-gaming world. While the listings aren’t overflowing with thousands of servers, I have yet to witness notable scale “HOW DO I SHOT NUKEZ?”, “MOAR MONIES PLZ!11″, “U FUCKING HAX I KNOW U DO” and the sort, the basic stupidity and incompetence of some players still surfaces at times.
After some rather lulzworthy happenings I decided to write an article about some of the most common stupidities one comes across with in the fantastic world of WiC Online. While they’re funny and enjoyable from a spectator’s/opponent’s view, these logic-defying antics can prove to be a true horror to those unfortunate enough to be in the same team.
1. Arty Fever!
Support-role is one of the most diverse roles in the game, being able to greatly enhance the capabilities of the entire team by providing anti-aircraft cover, repairs and artillery fire. The problem is though, that the last option seems too tempting to resist. It’s not uncommon to see Support-role being populated first at the start of a round and 2/3 of the new Support-players order two heavy arty units and maybe some AA to cover their own ass. These players will then proceed by sitting in a corner launching barrages at random targets and redeploying their artillery units every time they get destroyed. Although this will prove some annoyance to the opposing team, it’s a cold hard fact that very, very rarely heavy artillery has had anything to do with the outcome of the round and usually the players solely depending on it end up getting the least score. So what’s wrong with heavy artillery then? In addition to being ridiculously expensive and thus preventing the player from deploying a diverse selection of units, it’s very slow and vulnerable. Heavy artillery cannot move along the battle lines very rapidly and although it has very long range, the barrages are very hard to time so that they hit anything that’s moving at longer ranges. As pretty much every fking thing in the game that’s player-controlled except heavy arty itself is almost constantly moving, heavy artillery doesn’t usually do much damage.
The other thing artillery campers do besides destroying their allies – running as far away from the battle as possible.
Incompetent newbies take these flaws and turn them into worse or even catastrophic – I’ve seen terribly timed artillery wipe out friendly tanks in the middle of an offensive or at least completely miss their target (which has moved away from the target area long since). The worst thing however is that heavy artillery players are almost complete waste of space, thus being the weakest links of a team that produced neligible results instead of being a usually sorely needed aid on the frontline. I’m not saying all heavy artillery players suck ass and can still double as repair players, but a team simply does not need a horde of arty-aces when there’s a need for meat and metal out in the field. A player with a complement of AA-units, a repair tank and one light artillery unit can provide immeasurably significant support to his teammates and also gain much higher score. A good support player is always loved by everyone, and correspondingly an arty camper is hated with passion.
2. CAN I HAS MOAR NUKEZ PLZ?
Tactical nuclear missile is undoubtedly the most powerful tactical aid in the game and can cleverly used turn the tables in a flash. However nukes are more likely to be just a massive waste of resources that may yield in a nice flow of points to the one who launches it but have no effect whatsoever on the situation at hand. Unlike people like to think, nuke doesn’t destroy everything on the map but a rather small circular area and usually well placed carpet bombing combined with a fuel-air bomb or daisy cutter can cause much more significant damage. Overall heavy duty one-shot TA’s are always risky business and a player is usually better off using cheap artillery barrages and paratroops. I’m not saying that nukes and other powerful TAs shouldn’t be used – but please consider using your points in a way that also contributes to the goal of your team.
3. “My rank is higher than yours, I don’t need you telling me shit”
No, obviously you do. Like a few smart guys said over Voip once during a round in which a high ranking player was being completely useless arty-camper, the rank only tells you who plays the most. It has nothing to do with how good the player is in the terms of teamwork and as we know, in WiC online teamwork is the factor that mostly determines the outcome of a battle, not ranking. WiC is a game that has almost unusually mature playerbase and the chances are that if your teammates are bitching at you, they have a very good reason to. Being stubborn and refusing to contribute and communicate with the rest of the team not only makes you look like a diva but also weakens both your team and your own score outcome.
4. HAY DO U WANT TO JOIN A CLAN?
Modern gaming has made clans into something you gotta have to be 1337 and internets tough guy. By having that little cool tag in your nick sure makes you sound like a tough opponent right? Once the noob-stage has been cleared in WiC, expect to have a clan invitation waiting for you every single time you log in the game. Now this might be just me but I don’t really feel like joining a clan that recruits any random nobody they spot online. I used to think clans were groups formed by bunch of people who know each other well, in attempt to strenghten their teamwork and act diversify their gameplay to form one well greased machine of war. But nowadays it appears that the only function of a clan is to gather a bunch of people as high score as possible to lift the global rank of the clan and provide e-pen0r for all the players in it. Personally I see no point in joining these bunches, especially when the recruiters don’t even bother asking anything about you and much less actually tell anything about themselves and their clan – these two are the first signs from which you can judge that the clan in question is most probably just a waste of time and megabytes on the Massgate servers.
Victory of great teamwork over high rankings.
However I think the most notable thing players lack in general is communication with the rest of the team. WiC is a game in which Voip is at its best, so don’t be afraid to use it, not to mention all the request/attention markers. Lately I’ve been seeing servers with heavy artillery player count restricted to one per team so at least some progress is being made. No patch or server setting can cure human stupidity though, so I guess I’m going to continue witnessing chemical strikes being delivered on the infantry in the middle of a field where they can escape the cloud in a few seconds without taking any damage whatsoever, artillery blowing up friendly tanks and nuke deployments that give the advantage to the enemy.