New player perspective

I used to play Bolo back on a Mac LC. We got angry but we didn't kill someone in our own team.

I have just returned after discovering WinBolo and I have been playing for two days. I joined a game of 9 people, thinking that 5 v 5 would be fair, regardless of how bad my skills have faded - ie I am very slow.

I was told to fix pills, and I did that,. I must have made a mistake by running in and away from our line to fix a pill to avoid my LGM getting killed and it probably ended up being a bad result for our team.

We were spiked soon after and I had just refuelled and their pill was ripe. I was waiting in the trees and a player on my team kills me.

Is that the way you play WinBolo? I have been taken care of by some very nice people - Kaos, LucaZ, Bear are the names that come to mind. Something like this is very disheartening.

How can I get any better if I can't make mistakes in a real game?

Am I supposed to start playing only once I have pill-taking down to 5.8 seconds and have totally mastered all manner of strategy?

Good luck Boloing.

It's a rough gig to be new in any online game. Just stick with it. Don't pay any mind to the mean players.

Killing your teammates is not typically very normal. However you'll find jerks everywhere. Winbolo is no exception.

Min

hey Bud,

That may or may not have been me. I remember killing you, but it was only after i did a take and you took 2 of the dead pills.

There's a bunch of good guides, but try not to take the pills your teammates kill. Cause chances are they're going to use those pills.

***
I just took a look and i did kill you, but for the reason i said. Go watch this log at 18:10 on the west side

http://www.winbolo.net/gamelog.php?mode=logfile&key=d00a28f154a574c2e4ce11c0803d8c22

Sorry man, i wouldn't have killed you but i needed those pills to spike that nw quad.

for faster viewing and to clear my name :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiVW_zVUMpM

in this game, we are not all in a lab where we can talk to eachother. so if your doing something wrong, we shoot you. if you do something really dumb, we kill you.

if someone set up a take, shot the pill down, and is headed in that direction, that means they dont want you to sweep it.

then you sweep it, that gets your ass shot at.

http://www.winbolo.net/gamelog.php?mode=logfile&key=65de6187c474cc558cec928fe8aa0c35

Knuckles wrote:

hey Bud,

That may or may not have been me. I remember killing you, but it was only after i did a take and you took 2 of the dead pills.

There's a bunch of good guides, but try not to take the pills your teammates kill. Cause chances are they're going to use those pills.

***
I just took a look and i did kill you, but for the reason i said. Go watch this log at 18:10 on the west side

http://www.winbolo.net/gamelog.php?mode=logfile&key=d00a28f154a574c2e4ce11c0803d8c22

Sorry man, i wouldn't have killed you but i needed those pills to spike that nw quad.

for faster viewing and to clear my name :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiVW_zVUMpM

Hey knuckles, it was not you, I understand why you killed me, that was cool.

It was someone else. Names are not important. I don't care if someone screams at me but don't kill me when the game is still winnable.

Siren wrote:

http://www.winbolo.net/gamelog.php?mode=logfile&key=65de6187c474cc558cec928fe8aa0c35

Whoah? You are right Siren. Not sure how but that is correct the log. I realise that I did not help much but i was just trying to fix pills. I ran in and got a pill killed, along with my own LGM.

F.U.B.A.R. wrote:

so if your doing something wrong, we shoot you. if you do something really dumb, we kill you.

When did that become normal? that's fucking idiotic. Why would you even think that's a good thing to do??!??!?

No wonder we have problems keeping new players.

Min

No wonder we have problems keeping new players.

i stayed, and everyones piss-pants happy about that

whatdya mean 'no'?

wait until he meets lance.....

Min wrote:

F.U.B.A.R. wrote:

so if your doing something wrong, we shoot you. if you do something really dumb, we kill you.

When did that become normal? that's fucking idiotic. Why would you even think that's a good thing to do??!??!?

No wonder we have problems keeping new players.

Min

its been normal for a long time. i get shot all the time haha.

This was one isolated incident. Other people have been really helpful.

ColdFinger and lancelot helped me a lot yesterday.
Kaos spent time showing me some tricks and the logger - that is an impressive tool for learning.

I think constructive criticism is great: something like "don't rush the pill line to get a pill or you might lose the whole line".

I think one thing you need to learn is to be quick. I see you sitting around doing nothing way too much. You need to make as big of a dent as you can. Run around shoot bases and pills, at least be doing SOMETHING at all times and be as quick as you can about it.

I think it was me who shot you and Im not a typical shoot the bad ally to get results player but I apologize none the less. As for understanding some good tactics to get better read through all of Min's strategy guides. after u do this and practice them message me and I will happily spend a few hours with you showing some things I learned from others that will make u an incredibly effective team player. Im always willing to help others id anyone wants some help getting from 1 level to another. Talk to me on IRC is the best bet and we can have some practice runs.

http://www.winbolo.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2845

read through all of that. Join IRC and talk to me or min and we can help you a little more from there.

Spintega, Nemokrad, it wasn't you that caused me to write this post. That is in the past now.

I was sitting around because I was apprehensive and not sure of what to do. If I ran in instinctively then I was scared of screwing the line or losing a pill. In some ways this was because of what happened.

There is a lot of instinct in bolo that can only come from experience, knowing when and when not to do certain things. I know I can be at least semi-effective, particularly in a team, if I know my role and the things I should and should NOT do. If it is to fix pills, then I can do that. Risking my LGM which is probably not as important as that of others; killing bases; decoying at the right time; hammering full pills for others to finish.

One important thing I learnt was not to take neutral pills in the vicinity of the enemy without a supporting pill.

Dont be demoralized because of some jackass eryan, they come and go. As someone who has been playing for around a year now [as such i can relate specifically to your experience], i can already tell from what you just said that you are the kind of player the community will welcome easily

Thanks jinx.

Thus far almost everyone has been very helpful and I am thankful.

Cmdr_X wrote:

There are a few instances where shooting an ally is OK:

- one shot says 'follow me, I need your help.'

- two shots says "I'm irritated with what you just did. Cut it out."

- and, of course if you have requested that someone kill you because you're carrying and have no lgm; no armor or whatever, that's perfectly OK.

Sorry but your incorrect. one shot towards what you need help with says "I need help" you don't shoot your ally. If you shoot your ally it could be the difference between them having enough armor to do a successful maneuver and them dieing horribly. Shooting your ally is not acceptable. Unless they've requested that you kill them. period. Its a waste of resources, it pisses people off, it doesn't accomplish anything useful. It doesn't 'teach them a lesson'. Its negative reinforcement of bad behavior. Implicit messages between allies have been covered elsewhere multiple times, shooting your ally has never been an implicit message.

Min

i shoot towards the pills im trying to get my ally to do a double with. If they dont get it i shoot NEAR their tank to let them know i want them to do something. that usually works. never shoot your ally.

I accept Min's correction to my previous statement and hasten to add that I don't personally shoot allies deliberately. It's just that I've been 'plinked' with the methods I related in my first post and I won't take offense when the shooter is vastly more experienced than me.

If the expert consensus is NEVER to shoot your ally (deliberately), I'm totally happy with that.

Thanks for the correction.

Min, is it possible to remove my previous post so that it won't mislead anybody?

done.

Min