Avoiding Friendly Fire
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 1:23 pm
One of the things about this game that makes it a little more realistic is the fact that there's friendly fire. Due to the nature of the game, it's really easy to attack your teammates since often you're shoulder-to-shoulder with them while you kill the other team. Many people don't take to friendly fire too well and often attempt to votekick people for stuff that is clearly accidental, such as this one time a guy attempted to votekick me after I missed the guy he was fighting and impaled him instead with more than one javelin (it was pretty embarrassing and I probably shouldn't have been throwing them in the first place). Here's a few tips I've picked up from my time playing to help cut back on such incidents.
In General
-In situations where you have one or more friendlies helping you kill people, try to avoid just mashing your "swing" attack (left-mouse by default) to prevent hitting teammates. Switch to overheads or stabs in tight groups.
-Practice swing control; use your mouse to direct your weapons away from teammates or feint cancel attacks (default Q) if you can to avoid swinging at teammates all together.
-With ranged weapons, it's usually better to hold your fire if the number of friendlies in a group outnumbers the hostiles.
-Players using shields who get autobalanced are subject to a bug where they will wield the wrong team's shield (if they had one on) until they switch their loadout. Especially with Knights and Crossbow Archers, be wary of who you're attacking if a guy with the wrong shield appears to be ignoring you.
-Especially true for Agathan players, heavily bloodies players can be hard to identify, and Agathans close to death almost look like Masons. Again check your target before you swing.
-As a quick note, the Agathans are unable to harm "Filthy Peasants" and the Royal Family Heirs when they need to protect them. However the King, who is a player, is vulnerable to friendly fire so avoid hitting him whenever you can.
Class Specific
-Archers definitely need to take heed of how many friendlies are in a group, since their ranged weapons do much more damage than throwing axes and such, especially if you're using the high damage variants of the ranged weapons since even with reduction they can do significant damage and a Heavy Crossbow headshot can still one-shot a friendly Vanguard.
-As Man-At-Arms, watch where you throw oil pots. Fire doesn't do that much damage, but prevents health regeneration for a short time, which can mean longer waits before your comrades rejoin the ranks.
-Vanguards need to especially watch swing control since they have the largest swing reach of all the weapons. Zweihander and Halberd swings have massive range that will more than likely trip up people helping you; overhead or stab in close quarters or even pull your shorter secondary weapon or fists if you're still having trouble.
-Knights have the strongest weapons overall, so friendly fire with weapons such as the Messer or Maul will really hurt. Watch your swings.
Some other notes
-Most servers have friendly fire damage reduction. By default, it's 50% reduced damage to teammates. Try to avoid it anyway, but know that most attacks that would cripple the enemy will likely only bruise friends. Still, avoid swinging too close to bloody teammates as they will likely die from your move.
-In Last Team Standing games, it's common for the winning team to go berserk against their surviving members. Don't take offense to this as the round is already over and everyone will respawn in five seconds anyway.
-In a similar boat, there's a 15-second "Waiting for players" period before a round officially starts in any mode except Free for All. Many people choose to whale on their teammates at this time as well, don't take offense and fight back and stop when the round starts.
Responding to friendly fire
-First and foremost, don't fight back. Unless the person is clearly trying to specifically kill you or other teammates fighting back only encourages the behavior and/or is completely uncalled for. Yes I am in favor of team attacking only in self-defense.
-Accidents happen, if you're accidentally cut down or shot by a teammate don't go for the kick button or curse out your buddy, just take a breath and respawn.
-If people are swinging at stupid times, such as away from the enemy and close to you, a quick kick is usually enough to tell them to stop, though a warning through chat is probably more appropriate first. It does very little damage (2 I think) and stops them from swinging the moment you land. I generally kick people and walk away if they get rowdy and they usually stop.
-From what I can tell, it's considered good to apologize (in chat) to teammates you hit or kill. Most will but they may wait until they're safe to do so.
Hope this helps reduce the number of arms lost through preventable means. Feel free to add some more suggestions if you have any.
In General
-In situations where you have one or more friendlies helping you kill people, try to avoid just mashing your "swing" attack (left-mouse by default) to prevent hitting teammates. Switch to overheads or stabs in tight groups.
-Practice swing control; use your mouse to direct your weapons away from teammates or feint cancel attacks (default Q) if you can to avoid swinging at teammates all together.
-With ranged weapons, it's usually better to hold your fire if the number of friendlies in a group outnumbers the hostiles.
-Players using shields who get autobalanced are subject to a bug where they will wield the wrong team's shield (if they had one on) until they switch their loadout. Especially with Knights and Crossbow Archers, be wary of who you're attacking if a guy with the wrong shield appears to be ignoring you.
-Especially true for Agathan players, heavily bloodies players can be hard to identify, and Agathans close to death almost look like Masons. Again check your target before you swing.
-As a quick note, the Agathans are unable to harm "Filthy Peasants" and the Royal Family Heirs when they need to protect them. However the King, who is a player, is vulnerable to friendly fire so avoid hitting him whenever you can.
Class Specific
-Archers definitely need to take heed of how many friendlies are in a group, since their ranged weapons do much more damage than throwing axes and such, especially if you're using the high damage variants of the ranged weapons since even with reduction they can do significant damage and a Heavy Crossbow headshot can still one-shot a friendly Vanguard.
-As Man-At-Arms, watch where you throw oil pots. Fire doesn't do that much damage, but prevents health regeneration for a short time, which can mean longer waits before your comrades rejoin the ranks.
-Vanguards need to especially watch swing control since they have the largest swing reach of all the weapons. Zweihander and Halberd swings have massive range that will more than likely trip up people helping you; overhead or stab in close quarters or even pull your shorter secondary weapon or fists if you're still having trouble.
-Knights have the strongest weapons overall, so friendly fire with weapons such as the Messer or Maul will really hurt. Watch your swings.
Some other notes
-Most servers have friendly fire damage reduction. By default, it's 50% reduced damage to teammates. Try to avoid it anyway, but know that most attacks that would cripple the enemy will likely only bruise friends. Still, avoid swinging too close to bloody teammates as they will likely die from your move.
-In Last Team Standing games, it's common for the winning team to go berserk against their surviving members. Don't take offense to this as the round is already over and everyone will respawn in five seconds anyway.
-In a similar boat, there's a 15-second "Waiting for players" period before a round officially starts in any mode except Free for All. Many people choose to whale on their teammates at this time as well, don't take offense and fight back and stop when the round starts.
Responding to friendly fire
-First and foremost, don't fight back. Unless the person is clearly trying to specifically kill you or other teammates fighting back only encourages the behavior and/or is completely uncalled for. Yes I am in favor of team attacking only in self-defense.
-Accidents happen, if you're accidentally cut down or shot by a teammate don't go for the kick button or curse out your buddy, just take a breath and respawn.
-If people are swinging at stupid times, such as away from the enemy and close to you, a quick kick is usually enough to tell them to stop, though a warning through chat is probably more appropriate first. It does very little damage (2 I think) and stops them from swinging the moment you land. I generally kick people and walk away if they get rowdy and they usually stop.
-From what I can tell, it's considered good to apologize (in chat) to teammates you hit or kill. Most will but they may wait until they're safe to do so.
Hope this helps reduce the number of arms lost through preventable means. Feel free to add some more suggestions if you have any.