AN ARTICLE ABOUT SIEGE

[weerwolf]

Introduction:
Siege, a game mode written by Nadeo, is team based game mode, best played in teams 5 vs 5. The objective: capture all the gates and the final pole. The attackers may capture the gates and the final pole by standing on it, after the capture period countdown has begun or by eliminating all the defenders. Before a capture is possible there is a limited time the gate or pole is locked. After a gate is captured, all the defenders will respawn at the next gate, so different stages of the map are played, until the final pole.

A new round will begin after all attackers are eliminated and the other team gets the attack round. If a second round of attack is initiated, the attackers will have an extra armor, the defenders will always get 1 armor. This last until a set point limit is reached or at the final pole is captured.

Attackers spawn with rockets, and may switch to laser during game play (and back), Defenders spawn with rockets, and may switch to nucleus during game play (and back)

About the weapons:
There is a vivid discussion online about the use of these weapons. Mainly because there are a lot of players who find the use of rockets in attack and nucleus in defence really bad, and no skill. But is it? Siege is a team based game mode, skills are both personally and for even a bigger part skills of the team.

Strategically seen, both teams need to balance their teammates with a combination of both weapons and movement on the field. The attackers with rockets as frontline, backed by the quick lasers (snipers). The defenders with rockets for long range shelling, backed by the nucleus (mining) for last defence and corridors. The ability for both teams to switch their weapons enhances this game play if mastered both personally as team based.

‘If you are speeding around a corner without looking, u deserve a nucleus up your ass’

About the Gameplay:
At this moment Siege is played in online ‘walk in servers’. What we mean by that is that u can join the server whenever u want, leave whenever u want. This causes a lot of trouble. First of all, the teams are constantly unbalanced, balancing options are there, but players getting in/out all the time, so not really functional. Second, most likely a few teammates u don’t know, their movements, their interaction, their skills on either weapons, which makes team play more difficult. Third point here that there is no communication between team members. Yes u can team chat, but in such a fast paced shooter that is hardly going to work. Using a voice chat like Mumble Or Team speak is vital here. As last point there is a good deal of players that will play for the hits and ladder points to achieve ranking, so are not playing team based at all.

Defenders ‘attacking’ attackers with nucleus which is fatal, attackers running around corners like rabbits, which is equally fatal.

About the maps:
Mapmaking for Siege may even be entitled to have its own article written about it, so i will highlight some things of it. Creating maps for Siege is one of the most difficult things to do. The path to make with different stages, keeping the map balanced for both attacker and defender are some examples of it. Siege is not mellee where the size of the map is not influenced by the number of players as long there are enough spawn. No, a Siege map has to be made for a specific number of players. (by default 5vs5). So if u have a ‘walk in server’ with a map designed for 3vs3, but the server is on 32 slots (16v16), u will have a problem when so many are connecting. The other way around would be evenly unbalanced.

Siege matchmaking:
Siege matchmaking will solve a lot of the points given above here. U will enter a lobby, where u can shoot around for some fun with other waiting players. For example the default number for a match is 5vs5. After 10 players have set their status to ready, u will be transferred to a match server. So u will always play 5vs5 matches. If there’s someone who leaves, a substitute will be sent by the lobby to balance the teams again. Thus far u are still playing with unknown players. But the lobby has for u the options to use allies. U and your teammates choose each other as allies, and when u are transferred, u will get in the same team. Now use your team communication, skills, and practice to walk over your enemy!

A little note:
Matchmaking has been rewritten by Nadeo to get rid of its dependencies for ManiaLive and made it very easy to create it through the player page, so there is nice development in progress here. But for Siege this will be the only good way to play this fantastic game mode. The latest version of matchmaking is running @ our Siege lobby with 3 match servers.

Weerwolf & Scrwdrvr
LYNX

[plopp]

Strategically seen, both teams need to balance their teammates with a combination of both weapons and movement on the field. The attackers with rockets as frontline, backed by the quick lasers (snipers).

Strategically speaking having all rocket attackers on your team is the way to go. Rockets, as it is now, are the weapon of choice in close/mid range because of how much ammo you have and the reload time. At a longer distance it becomes a spamfest which is not really fun but effective. Lasers at long distance aren't accurate because of the trilaser, rockets move slow but you have 4 of them and they don't have the trilaser issue.
If you as an attacker let the time run out and have to cap the pole, 1 miss will screw you. A rocket attacker has 3 more rockets to back him up.

I don't really want to play only Rockets vs Laser, I do think rockets have a place in attack, but they're too boring or OP in certain situations. IMO nucs are fine, it depends on how tight the map is or how much cover there is around pole.

[novationx]

siege sucks in its current form!
it sucks! #rage

[feeenix]

My thoughts on multiplayer public (not tried 5v5 clan stuff):
You say balancing is available but it isn't really effective.

You have to wait until the entire round ends before spawning. On a 5 life attack and you join in defence, you're waiting - spamming chat etc. until the game ends. You should be able to spawn after a pole cap for example.

You cannot switch team mid round.

Make each team have a maximum number of players. So someone can't join Red just because their mate is on Red and fubar the balance.

There needs to be an imbalance detector or some shit. When one team is out-manned by two (or more) players, one (many) gets switched. After a pole cap for instance..

As for weapon choice, let the server admin decide. Rox v laser is fine, but allow them to choose if the server is vanilla or RvL. simples. People will moan about any particular weapon they are up against To make nuc not so whiny, how about making the laser auto reload or half reload on shootdown. Or if I shoot a nuc, switch the colour?
Allow the weapon choice to be made in the spawn timer. Waiting to spawn and then switching to nuc-def, rox-att is crap (since rox-def, laser-att default) as you don't spawn with half ammo.

[burningschnitzel]

I think one of the old weapon choose modes was nice: you have to decide before every round, which weapon you take and than you have to play with this weapon the whole round. Maybe a good team should balance their nuc/rox in def and rox/laser in attack. And in this mode you have to play with tactics because you don't want you nuc-defenders shot down in the beginning

[novationx]

I think the problem is that u do not know that the enemy u are facing has a nucleus of rockets.
There should be a visual difference so u can prepare urself and counter the nucleus.

In other games ( perfect example is TF2 ) u know that player has rockets, that one has a sniper.... And you adapt/react.
Here everybody is the stormman and when ur dominating 20rocket players and u get double tapped by a nucleus suddenly = RAGEMOD / HULKSMASH



Well at least for me, thats a problem.
Maybe NADEO should release a 2nd official stormman. Or even a 3rd.

[weerwolf]

1st of all, for u -everything- is a problem, because u want it to work the way you want it to work
2nd This is not tf2 or any other game, why do something that has allready be done
3rd Ir we are comparing, u couold also compare with RL battle, u dont know what the other has

BTW this topic has become useless because Nadeo choose to implement so much settings there isnt a Siege mode anymore. Its now nothing more than a storm thing with 20+ gameplay options.

Therefore i would kindly ask a moderator to close this thread (or remove it), cause this article is depricated by the changes from the last update.

TnX

[novationx]

this article is about siege. Not about me. Thx for the personal attack...
#uncool

[weerwolf]

Condider is a observational personal comment, nothing more.
Whether u wanna do something with that info is entirely up to you.

Regards,

Weerwolf