Buzzy's Teamwork Workshop Lesson Notes

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Buzzy Beetle
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Buzzy's Teamwork Workshop Lesson Notes

Post by Buzzy Beetle » Sun Dec 16, 2012 10:42 pm

After discussing with a few fine folks I have realized that people would really like to have the lessons in text to be reviewed after a sesson, so I guess I'll start posting the lessons in this thread. I'd like to keep this strictly to the lessons, if you have any questions about the material feel free to start a new thread, PM me, send me a message on Steam or something like that. More than happy to clarify.

I guess I'm also going to start putting stuff in here we didn't get around to covering during the lesson. I could be talking for a long time and some practice time is very useful.

Will be doing a new post for each topic to avoid TL;DR syndrome.
Last edited by Buzzy Beetle on Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:04 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Buzzy's Teamwork Workshop Lesson Notes

Post by Buzzy Beetle » Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:09 pm

Before I go forward and begin to recap the lessons I'm going to use this post for terminology. I'll write down what I can think of for now and will add more terms as I remember them and/or am reminded the things I've gotten used to saying are not common terms.

Combo: Refers to the medic and defender, meant to be a major driving force during a hold and a push.

Flank: Any route that can be used to get behind a team and attack them from behind.

Hold: When a team does not have enough advantages to perform a push but does not lack enough advantages to fall back. Essentially keeping territory and presence with an established front line.

Lit/Low: Synonymous with a player who has taken a lot of damage. Think of when a player has their HP low and is now red and flashing.

Pick: For example "getting a demo pick" simply means to get a kill that was intended as a tactical or opportunistic decision.

Pocket: IS NOT THE MEDIC. For convenience we will say the role of the Pocket is to be the medic's defender. This is not technically true but the actual purpose of the Pocket will be covered later. For now we'll just stick with Medic's defender.

Push: When a team attempts to take territory from the other team by making use of their advantages against the other team.
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Re: Buzzy's Teamwork Workshop Lesson Notes

Post by Buzzy Beetle » Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:18 pm

Lesson 1 - A: Establishing Class Roles
Lesson date: Dec 8th @ 9pm VST

Purpose: This was more of a preface than an actual lesson, and this stems back to the nature of communication. In order for people to be able to understand information communicated to them they need to be able to understand the terms that I will be using going forward. Definition for class roles will come later, we are merely establishing what they are for now.

Like in the class selection screen there are three major groups for class roles tailored to what the classes are good at doing and what they aught to be doing. These roles will also dictate a variety of other metagame which will be discussed later.

Combat Classes are classes that are designed to primarily be engaged in combat, though they all have their distinct nuances and uses aside from just being able to deal damage.
Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, and Heavy are considered Combat Classes.

Picking Classes are classes that are primarily meant to get key picks on the other team though alternate uses are also possible if considerably narrow in scope.
The picking classes are Sniper and Spy.

Support Classes are classes that don't exactly perform similar duties, but are still incredibly important to taking and holding territory. They may be considered "support" but you could think of it along the lines of the supports that hold up a building rather than being supplementary.
The Support Classes are Medic and Engineer.
Last edited by Buzzy Beetle on Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Buzzy's Teamwork Workshop Lesson Notes

Post by Buzzy Beetle » Sun Dec 16, 2012 11:35 pm

Lesson 1 - B: Targeting Order
Lesson date: Dec 8th @ 9pm VST

Purpose: This is probably the simplest thing to integrate into everyday play and doesn't take long to explain. The short lesson complemented Establishing Class Roles well and gave participants something they could start working on right away.

Your Targeting Order dictates how to choose who to shoot at. The main emphasis is to keep your allies alive (and hopefully they will do the same for you) and give them support when they need it. This also comes with the collary of "within reason" as you will likely be unable to travel accross the battlefield in time to support a near-death teammate.

Your current class role will dictate what targeting order you will be following.

Combat Classes
  • 1) Players who are an immidiate threat to your or your teammates
    2) Players your teammates are currently engaged in
    3) Called targets
    4) Players who are low
    5) Key targets (demo, medic for sure, maybe heavy, sniper, whoever's dangerous on their team)
Picking Classes
  • 1) Players who are an immidiate threat to your or your teammates
    2) Called targets
    3) Key targets (demo, sniper, medic and heavy for both, engy & equipment for spy)
    4) Easy targets
Engy
  • 1) Players who are an immidiate threat to your or your teammates
    2) Players your teammates are currently engaged in / Called targets
Medic
  • 1) If you're with a pocket, never
    2) If you're alone, retreat with your weapon out; don't stick around to fight. Don't risk losing your ubercharge!
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Re: Buzzy's Teamwork Workshop Lesson Notes

Post by Buzzy Beetle » Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:00 am

Lesson 2: Defining Class Roles
Lesson date: Dec 15th @ 9pm VST

Purpose: A good way to create effective team play in game, regardless of one's ability to communicate, directly relates to the ability of working off your teammates actions. To help facilitate that, we will establish a set group dynamic, which will result in more opportunities to practice this tactic and train on what to look for in day to day play.

We will be working with two groups of Combat Classes and one group of the remaining classes (Picking Classes and Engy specifically) acting upon quasi-independantly the situation. There are a few good strategic reasons for this structure and it don't hold for all maps - such as some payload maps. The two Combat Class groups are the Combo group and the Flank group.

The Combo's main defining trait is the presence of the Medic and the team's Pocket, plus one more player which the Medic or Heavy feels would give them a good tactical advantage for whatever task they are aiming to accomplish.

You guys are the core of the team's offensive. Heavy has a high DPS and is, more importantly, an attention grabber. If a combo moves in the Flank need to move in too with back-line support from the sniper and the spy acting according to the situation. The call of a heavy being on the offensive will attract most of the attention (and damage) of the other team. That means you (if you're not the heavy) will not be taking much damage (logically).

Heavy
  • You are the Pocket! (Pocket is NOT a medic)
    • Always be with your medic
      • If you are not with your medic, return to your medic.
      Stay alive (if you go down, your medic will probably go down too)
      Take it slower (medic needs to heal more than just you, that takes time. Wait for your medic to be done before advancing further)
      Work with your medic to decide when to push in, don't just go. (if close to uber, wait for the uber instead of pushing in and hoping it comes up before you die)
      Is your medic healing someone else?
      • No - Refer to the above.
        Yes - DO NOT TAKE DAMAGE OR DRAW AGGRO (basically wait for the healing to finish and the medic to go back to you).
    Remember you'll be drawing a LOT of fire. Try not to stand near anything/anyone terribly fragile if you can help it, but it is more their fault than yours if they take splash from damage intended for you. If you get low and are not committed (can escape easily) back out and heal up.
Medic
  • Always be with your heavy.
    • If you are not with your heavy return to your heavy.
    Stay alive and keep your heavy alive (if s/he dies, you'll probably die too)
    Always be healing SOMEONE. If your heavy goes down and you get away, find someone to stick with you IMMEDIATELY and keep healing. Keep building that uber and get back to your heavy asap.
    Don't stand so close to your healing target. This minimizes splash damage done to you by explosives and stray bullets.
    • Experiment and find out how far away from your healing target you can stand while keeping the healing beam on your target with max distance.
    Don't stand still. Ever. You're a favoured target of snipers and spies and an unmoving medic is an easy target.
The Third Player can come down to combo preference as well as the current situation. These are not the be-all and end-all reasons to have a specific class in the group but here are some situations each class can be useful in.
  • A Demo is a good complement for indirect fire and additional DPS (essentially a walking artillery)
    A Pyro is a good choice when the other team's spy is proving very dangerous for the Heavy or the Medic.
    A Soldier is useful if the nearby terrain can be taken advantage of for height.
    A Scout can be handy chasing down would-be attackers or in taking down the other team's Medic if the Heavy is distracted, however this isn't restricted to being in the combo.

The Flank group consists of the remaining three combat classes that are not in the combo. They go, essentially, whatever route the Combo does not to prevent the opposing team from getting past the front lines.

You have a lot of freedom and therefore a lot of responsibility
  • DO NOT ADVANCE ALONE. I cannot stress this enough. If you do you will likely be killed resulting in a loss of presence and gives the other team an advantage.
    • Instead work with the teammates around you. Keep one another alive by keeping an eye on routes where the other team could be pressuring from and follow Targeting Order.
      • If you see someone coming take them out if you can and try not to take too much damage as you can't be as easily healed as you would be if you're in the Combo.
        If you need heals, let your teammates know and go and get some healing from health packs or the Medic. Just... don't all go at once and leave the flank unguarded!
      Keep in mind that not advancing is a legitimate strategy. If you're not sure if you can continue pushing on a position try to hold one the has a heath kit, an easy way to back out, as well as a position that isn't easily flanked.
      That said, advancing together doesn't mean you need to be in arm's reach. Always be conscious of potential splash damage that might hit you from standing too close to another player (ESPECIALLY HEAVIES)
      Ideally you will be pushing in either at the same time or shortly after the Combo has pushed in to help secure the territory you're taking so listen for the comms!
If a medic latches on to you
  • Is the medic's pocket alive?
    • Yes - He's healing you up and giving you a top-up. At least wait for your health to be refilled before becoming aggressive again, preferedly with a bit of a buff as well.
      No - S/He NEEDS someone to protect him/her.
      • Are you the only offensive class player in the area?
        • Yes - DO NOT GO ON THE OFFENSIVE, Back out if you can.
          No - Continue the push; the medic will designate a new Pocket.
          • Did the medic choose you?
            • Yes - Refer to the section under Heavy about Pocketing
              No - Behave as normal.
As mentioned previously Picking Classes perform tasks separately of these two groups. The Spy will be doing whatever they believe will be most beneficial for their team or whatever is called for them to do. Some tactical options include (but are not limited to):
  • Harass the Engy and his gear
    Cloak and Dagger loadout, doing no damage but feeding intel on everything the other team is doing
    Going for picks
    Back-capping last while 2nd is contested and about to be won
    Dead Ringer for persistant intel carrying
The Sniper will be moving to whatever position will give the best line of sight to his/her target without putting him/herself in too much danger. Usually this means s/he'll be going wherever the best sight lines are which can be either behind the Combo or Flank groups.

The Engineer will be running whatever gear they feel will be best for the current situation as the role doesn't change too much from normal: build gear as close to the front lines as possible and maintain it, defeating dastardly Spies whenever nessicary.
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