Guide for 8v8 Tournament. By iBalrog_[ESB]

[xKostyan_ 898]

Game mode: Team DeathMatch 8v8
by:iBalrog [ESB], original post is here
  
1. Get a Team

You will need 8 pilots and a BadAss team name, no team = no win!

2. Team Composition

So you got a team, you got a name, now you need a l33t fl33t. You can always work out your own setup, but i am going to use a team composition of Evil Space Pandas:

3x  Gunships , 1x  Engineer , 1x  Command , 1x  Sniper , 1x  ECM , 1x  Guard 
Strike Force

2x  Empire Gunships
                     Actives:                                                   Weapons:                           Missiles:
             и \      \ \   
 
1x  Federation Gunship
                     Actives:                                                   Weapons:                           Missiles:
                                                 
 
1x  Empire Engineer
                     Actives:                                                   Weapons:                           Missiles:
                                                 
 
1x Command
                     Actives:                                                   Weapons:                           Missiles:
          \                      
 

Gunships
It's Focus fire is capable of destroying any target fast
It's Mobility allows for quick dive on targets and reliable get away
 
 Engineer
It knows how to stay in a position and repair comrades, sometimes it moves, and sometimes it even moves very-very fast, when under focus
If there is no engineer, you are screwed. Just get in, use auras and use Eclipse to heal buddies.
 
 Command
Provides Speed to get in and extra dmg to eliminate targets
 

Rest of the fleet.

1  ECM
                     Actives:                                                   Weapons:                           Missiles:
            \                      
 
1  Empire LRF
                     Actives:                                                   Weapons:                           Missiles:
                                                \ \
 
1  Federation Guard
                     Actives:                                                   Weapons:                           Missiles:
                                                \
 
Note: Unlike the strike fleet, you can swap/replace these roles for something else.

 
Implants

Rank	[/td][td]
1		We are looking only at «Armadillo», it goes on top of all other dmg modifiers (ship size, resistances, weapon inhibitors), In T3-T5 is relatively easy to get Resistances very high, especially with dedicated Command, so mere 25 resistances from J1 gives very little dmg reduction
2	—	All implants are good, choose by situation and ship role
3		«SR Mark II» is the most useful here
4		«Sting» Allows more reliably hit targets with missiles, and «Malleus» for extra dmg if your targets aren't dodging well.
5		«Velox» For close proximity dogfight, and «Cheetah» for mid-long range engagements
6		«Ox»The must for crit builds.The rest can use «WPN-FS2»,«Gladius» isn't to bad in soem builds as well
7		«Predator» no alternatives
8		«Armadillo II» allows you to gtfo from sticky situations
9		«Gigas II» the best for organized type of game-play, the best there is due to coordinated focus fire
10		«WPN-FS3» is the most useful
11		«Oculus II» or «Ant» both are good and defined by your main weapon
12		«Gladius II» is most effective here
13		«Rapidus III» is the most efficient and very useful for Strike Force, «WPN-F70» should be looked at if you are not actively dogfighting and do more of a long range engagements
14	—	up to you
15	—	up to you

3. Map

Every team member must be familiar with the map and utilize that knowledge during the battle while annihilating the opposition, go to Custom game, chose a map and fly around it :)

Top View

Side View

Some Distances

4. Practising

It is very important to practice as a team before the tournament, have custom games within corporation or vs another corporations, use forums, in game communications, contact other corporation officers directly.

5. Art of a Team-play

So you have found friends to kill in Custom game, but you find yourself sitting around asteroids most of the time, - not good, that won't get you far.

 First.

2 Pilots becomes Target Callers, their job is simple, call targets for their team to blast at
- First caller (and main caller) should be the one charging in on a Gunship, he goes in first, he can see situation first hand and for how it is
- Second should be on a Command or Engineer, he is not directly engaging and picks up when main Caller is in intense dogfight, falling back, dead and can not clearly see the situation.
 When target has been called, everyone must follow up on blasting at it, so Target Caller must mark target in advance avoiding empty wasted chaos time.
 
Target Priorities
On Offence: Tackler (as soon as he goes invis, call next target),  Engineer/ Command.If tackler came out of invis and close enough, change focus back to tackler.
On Defence(much harder) : Tackler, Gunships , then Command/Engineer
Tackler is very dangerous if left unchecked and running wild, in the same time it is a relatively easy to destroy an out of position Tackler

Second.

All hail the great Commander!
He is in Command/ Engineer, and always at mid-long range engagements, he spends 60% of it is time on tacktical map (TAB) looking at all symbols and working out sneaky-sneaky plans.

1. He control whole fleet movements, where on the map fleet or individual pilots go
2. He calls parts of the map to take cover and prepare for assault at.
3. He calls enemy movements on the map, trying to see enemy weaknesses and where to strike and watches for enemy flanking attempts.
3. He calls retreats and regroups if fights get to Chaotic "Group on me in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... mf@*&^%!"
4. IMPORTANT. HE constantly calls a command: "SILENCE! No chit-chat! Focus on the game, little b^*(&^*S"
Because unnecessary voice traffic is destructive and goes in the way of coordination. 
All commands of a Great Commander have a priority "Holy God!" and shall be executed immediately, failing to execute command sright away, shall result in removing a "man card"(i.e. balls) from team members
Note: Most legendary Commanders spend 80% of fly time in tactical map.[/size]

Third.

Role Behaviours
  ECM
Disabler
After Target is called he goes ion beam+energy drain the target, when target at 20-30% HP -> stasis to finish him off
 
  Guard
Hedgehopping style
Fly by enemy group, activate pulsar, baiting and gtfo under cover, enemy will agro, and often chase him down, while enemy punches you, your team punches enemy, at 40-50% Hull left, activate self healing.
 

 
 
Sniper
Tanky as mother-xxxx, dmg through the roof, bait enemy into Snipers working area and collect souls

 
 
Example from Evil Space Pandas:
1. ECM found an enemy
2. Commander calls a map position 4-5 km away from the enemy to move into, when you established a position, Target caller takes over, he calls a target right away
3. First goes in a Guard, ECM and Gunships are awaiting behind, Guard agroes enemy team and as soon as he gets shot at, 

4. Command Uses 
5. Guard gets in range and activates and turns around to get into cover
 
 
6. Gunships   and align on a target, while ECM , Command uses the moment when gunships start shooting, later ECM  for a finish, In the same time LRF supports with   with cover fire.

 
7. If gunship gets focus fired and getting low on HP,  and gtfo (use this module only to get OUT of the fight,  is enough to get into the fight)

8. After killing targets, regroup on Commander, repairs and wait for Modules to recharge (which happens relatively fast) as soon as recharged dive in again, that lets no time for enemy to take a breath and regroup.

9. Rinse and repeat.
 
Everything is relatively simple, just takes some practice in Custom games to get use to rotations

 6. Signup for a Tournament

The simplest part, as soon as tournament is announced - register!

Good Luck!

[xKostyan_ 898]

having technical difficulties on posting translated version

coming up soon

Thank you Error

[Kine_ 303]

deserves sticky ?

[xKostyan_ 898]

deserves sticky ?

TeamComposition/Ship builds/implants gonna change patch to patch, so i dummo about that

[Smooticus 23]

Do we know when the next tournament will be? I cant wait to have another go at some competitive gameplay. Devs, you should do more tournaments! the competitive play in this game is great and it is what is keeping me here.

[LatexIdo 24]

xKostyan, you make me miss Firefly even more  :sad:

Thanks for the guide !

[yeahalex 249]

smart baiting with the guard, nice

[Rakza 409]

Sacrifice the Guard !

 

Wait... *Brain Process*... 

 

It's supposed to be a natural act when you fly a guard :D

 

 

Edit : *VOMIT* Hull tanking Fed Guard.... HERESY !!!

[fasz 72]

This obviously worked, even though the guard died a couple times.

[Snib 346]

Edit : *VOMIT* Hull tanking Fed Guard.... HERESY !!!

 

Successful bait is successful. Besides, adaptive hull tank is stronger than shield tank and shutting down tacklers was their first priority. It all makes sense in the big picture.

[Farfalla 6]

Perhaps you'll not be blown up today they said...

[residente 717]

Perhaps you'll not be blown up today they said...

 

Having negative energy regen when afterburning hurts, specially in a fed Guard

[xKostyan_ 898]

Having negative energy regen when afterburning hurts, specially in a fed Guard

Especially while using Liquid Metal Injector, that consumes another ~100 energy per second for 20 seconds alone :D, so many federation guards are killing them slef by using terrible energy management+adaptive shield tanking guards swlf healing modules

[Tillowaty 377]

Perhaps you'll not be blown up today they said...

 

There is guy using that... with short range HBlaster and torps =,= Pilots like that are reasons to have multiple weapontypes in team  :bomber:

[residente 717]

 

There is guy using that... with short range HBlaster and torps =,= Pilots like that are reasons to have multiple weapontypes in team  :bomber:

 

wtf is that...

[MrTwiddlez 52]

wtf is that...

That is one oddly equipped ship.

[JPhack 394]

Does it......does it actually boost only for about 20 seconds only!? 

[NeoCodex 178]

First, thanks for posting this! This is some seriously good stuff.

 

Now, there is just one thing I cannot fully comprehend: the commander part. Is coordination really that much important to have one person dedicated to looking at the map 50-80% of the time instead of flying/doing some actual support? It's true that those gunships can do their job by themselves if well coordinated but that is just 1 number less you have active on the field. You cannot control your ship if you are looking at the map, and all of us are used to keep peeking to tactical map frequently anyway (it happens at surprisingly subconscious level, watch some replays of good players and focus on counting how many times someone looked). And how do they even call their movements? The map sectors are not marked by designations ie "move to G5", not to even mention that tactical map is 2D, while in reality you have the third dimension, where you can move either upside or downside of an asteroid, so how do you see/call that just by looking at a 2D map? At least the new version of tactical radar gives information on object's eleveation, while 2D map does not provide that. So how useful the map knowledge, and taking the time to command on precise map positioning and angles using the tactical map  instead of "doing it the ussual way" really is, is beyond my understanding. I mean, is it really worth the effort and having someone focusing on just that role, instead of being more present with the team (shoot your guns maybe?). Don't tell me he's shooting at people and using the tactical map his 50% of the time, because that's just not possible imho.

[Snib 346]

So how useful the map knowledge, and taking the time to command on precise map positioning and angles using the tactical map  instead of "doing it the ussual way" really is, is beyond my understanding. I mean, is it really worth the effort and having someone focusing on just that role, instead of being more present with the team (shoot your guns maybe?).Don't tell me he's shooting at people and using the tactical map his 50% of the time, because that's just not possible imho.

From my experience FC'ing in EVE and WoT it is definitely worth it. As you correctly said, you cannot shoot and use the map at the same time, so having someone dedicated to do it is the way to go.

And it's not that you do not participate in the battle at all as the commander. You do but your first priority is (fore)seeing the enemy's moves before they are made and making sure your team is always in position to counter them. Basically for the commander it's mostly a game of chess.

Once the pieces are in place and battles ensues you do join in that, but in between the clashes you go back to planning mode. It's not like you'd scout in your empire engineer anyway.

That's my take on it anyway, ESB may handle it differently but you'd have to ask them.

[xKostyan_ 898]

- I personally do not know how, exactly "commander" behaves in ESB games, but as they mentioned, Commander mostly is an Engineer plus they have a Eclipse on an Engineer, so you can poke on - targets once in awhile, but you definitely have way more "free" time for looking at the map, I am not convinced on 60-80% myself, especially now that you can change your radar to a mini tactical map, and go to full T Map when really needed. In the same time i have watched quite a few of ESB "wing" tournament games, with their TS voice coms (in Russian), most of the time they do have mostly 1-2 person talking and calling moves and targets, not so sure about grand map maneuvering though( for example comapring it to DNO or SYN recordings, where they have almost everyone flooding voice com with unrelated and QQing stuff, ESBs is relatively clean)

- About "fleet movement", if you look at out maps and how team maneuver over them in general, it still relatively 2D in the same time, knowing amount of practice ESB puts in to their game, i am sure they know most of the "best" spots on most of the maps, so you can kinda describe that spot on the fly and everyone knows where it is.

[Snib 346]

i am sure they know most of the "best" spots on most of the maps, so you can kinda describe that spot on the fly and everyone knows where it is.

Going by those custom maps with distances measured that he put in his post I think you can assume they don't need to "kinda describe" but have every spot named & trained.

[xKostyan_ 898]

Going by those custom maps with distances measured that he put in his post I think you can assume they don't need to "kinda describe" but have every spot named & trained.

that is actually a property of NASA :D we supplied them with distances

[Snib 346]

that is actually a property of NASA :D we supplied them with distances

NASA - We measure space? :lol:

[xKostyan_ 898]

NASA - We measure space? :lol:

yeah , those distances are measured in bodies of our enemies :lol:

[Snib 346]

yeah , those distances are measured in bodies of our enemies :lol:

:salute: