PvP CTF Guide: Code of Conduct
This post is a reflection on my thoughts about the way DL players behave in CTF. The reason I am posting this is because the atmosphere in PvP seems to be getting worse and worse, with a lot of complaining, trash talking, etc. This is meant as a guide to new players and a reminder to older ones.
Note: I'll be referring to brim users (users who use fatal burst and brimstone combo, which kills instantly unless stopped by unholy blessing) and nuke users (players who use a high level unholy blessing at the same time with fire aura, in order to land a burst of critical hits and kill their enemy instantly). Both these builds are exploits of an overpowered combination, but since they are part of the game, I don't consider the use of either one to be a bad way of playing. In fact, 99% of lvl 36 players use one of them, or both.
So what are the main issues about an honorable/dishonorable way of playing CTF in DL?
Running
This refers to a player who runs away from an opponent. Everyone does this more or less. There are different ways people do this:
Sometimes it is simply a matter of strategy, such as running away from a nuke, since if you don't run you die in seconds.
Or you run in circles until your powers re-charge, keeping your distance from your enemy but not actually running away from him.
Or you may run behind a close by wall/pillar so your enemy's attacks will miss, then attack him.
Or you may simply run away from multiple enemies attacking you at the same time, because the odds just aren't fair.
Or you may run towards a window switch because well, its there, you are close by and you might as well use it.
In these cases above, I do not consider running to be in any case an act of cowardice, but merely a way of playing smart.
Brim users may run further and more often, since without re-charging fatal burst and brim, they have no other way of killing their enemy. This does not bother me since I know it is a part of playing with the specific build.
Some players may use hit and run attacks, that is they hit you with their powers and imediately run and hide (this is called a Kite for reasons that escape me). Now this is fine as a strategy, however when a player repeats it again and again as the only way of playing, it can get annoying.
On an extreme, some players might run all the way around the map just to prevent you from killing them. Although rare, this does happen, and yes, in this case, I would consider it a cowardly way to play.
Generally, even if a player runs away often, I would not complain, since running is just a way of playing, so we have to deal with it. Many players however cry "runner" and insult you at the first sign of you moving away from them. This can be extremely frustrating, especially since most of the time they themselves will run in exactly the same way if the circumstances call for it.
Running for the hearts
When I first started PvP I considered it dishonorable to run for a heart (health boost) in the middle of a fight, since you get a huge advantage against your opponent. I no longer think this way, and experience has taught me that if a heart is there, I need to go and get it, because if I don't, my opponent will.
Running for the heart is even more ok if you are either being attacked by multiple opponents or you have low health from a previous fight and you get attacked by a new enemy before you had a chance to get your health back. Nowdays pretty much everyone will leave in the middle of a fight if he can and search for a heart, which is why many players play exclusively in the middle of the CTF arena, in order to always stay close to the hearts.
The only time I would say getting a heart is bad sport, is in the cases of 1 vs 1 when both players have full health (they both came from their respective spawn areas). Since this is an equal situation, then running for the heart is unfair. In this case, I will either try to take it before the first powers are fired or avoid the heart all together. However, sometimes I regret this, because my opponent gets it in the middle of the fight, in which case I will probably comment on it.
Grabbing a heart when there is a teammate going for it who needs it more than you do is also a sign of bad teamplay, but sometimes it is hard to pay attention to all your teammates health so it can happen by accident. No excuses though for grabbing a heart from your team's flagger, who needs it the most. Don't do it.
Windows
The windows are part of the arena and I love using them to kill my opponents without losing too much health. Some players camp next to the window switch in order to use it against their enemies as soon as they attack, in which case it is wise to either go around or use shadow dance to pass the window really fast. Windows are also often used by players to suicide if they have low health, when hearts are not available or in order to respawn faster in case they need to help their teammates.
A frustrating thing about the windows is when players run into them in order to suicide just to stop you from killing them. This is bad sport, because they will get a death anyway, and their only reason for doing this is to prevent you from getting a kill, which is not a nice way of playing.
Perhaps the most retarded thing I've heard in CTF is that only 'noobs' use the windows to kill an opponent, while using them to suicide is ok. The people saying it only prove that they are 'noobs' themselves, since the windows are part of the game and are meant to be used, and no, the devs didn't think of suicides when they included them in the arena.
Another frustrating thing about suicides is that some players will open the window just to suicide even if their teammates are in front of the window at that moment, instead of waiting 1 second. In other words, just to die, they make their teammates lose health. Another no no.
Ganging
This is many players attacking a single enemy at once. It happens ALL the time, so it is just a part of the game. Many players will complain when they die from being ganged, even though they gang enemies themselves, which is just hypocritical. I can honestly say that 90% of the time I die I am being attacked by 2, 3, 4 or even 5 enemies. Ganging happens, deal with it.
Unfortunately, lvl 36 PvP seems to be all about ganging nowdays. Ganging has become a playstyle, so even if you don't want to follow your teammates around like a puppy, the fact that you always run into 3-4 enemies at once (the opponent team is ganging) forces you to do so (you start ganging yourself). It is sad that you can't afford to play normally, but again, nothing you can do about it.
Kill steal (ks)
Perhaps my favorite insult, is when a player calls their teammate a kill stealer because they had been fighting an enemy when the teammate swoops in and gets the kill. CTF is a team game, so there is no gurantee that YOU will get the kill you've been fighting for. Get over it. Personally, firing my rats has gotten me kills that have landed me this "insult" many times. I am even accused of "ks" when I rush to save a dying teammate from death. Oh well. I don't even bother replying to this.
To be fair however, some players may use it as a strategy to hide behind their teammates until they die or are low on health and then swoop in and kill the low health enemies. Not a very team spirity way of playing.
Farming
This refers to playing CTF simply to get kills, usually by staying in the middle area so you can have easy access to hearts and therefore reduce your chances of dying. While a farmer can be useful for a team, if all players in a game farm and ignore the CTF goal of actually going for the flag, the game gets boring and pointless pretty quickly.
The annoying thing about farmers is that sometimes even if their team tries to flag, they may actively NOT help and run away, just to avoid being killed. Bad sport, bad teamplay.
So if my whole team farms, I have learnt NOT to go for the flag, since they won't help anyway and I will certainly face 3-4 enemies and die. The game then lasts forever and I usually end up leaving, unless some other teammate attempts to flag as well.
Team stacking
When teams have a difference in players of more than 1 (for example 3 vs 5, 2 vs 5, 2 vs 4, etc) the game is unfair and the team with the least players is bound to lose. When players join a CTF game, sometimes they will all join the same team, mostly because their friends or guild members are in that team, even if this means that the game starts with unbalanced teams. This is ok as long as the extra players "sit" (stay at spawn and don't play) until the teams get even or at least until they have a difference of only one player. If teams become unbalanced during the game due to players leaving, again, the honorable thing to do is for some of the team with the most players to sit.
It is extremely frustrating when you tell the opposing team that the teams have been unbalanced and ask for some of them to sit, but instead of that, they just keep playing normally, even at 3 vs 5 or 2 vs 5. It shows they have no interest in fair play, in which case I will probably leave.
Camping
This refers to players who stay at their base to defend it, and is usually used when there are 4-5 base defenders. While sometimes many defenders may be necessary (when teams are uneven for example), if all the players of a team stay at their base the game does not progress easily, since they neither score any flags nor is the opposing team able to take the flag easily. Camping for a bit may be fine, but camping for a prolonged time can ruin the game, and is thus frowned upon. Besides, the purpose of the game is to take the enemy's flag, not to just defend your own.
Spawn killing
This refers to killing and attacking players who have just spawned and have not had time to charge their powers and defend themselves. This is also considered bad sport, however it may be done in terms of strategy, for example when a flagger is leaving the enemy base and his teammates need to stop the enemy players from reaching him at all costs.
I usually comment when I am spawn killed by more than one opponent, but I have to admit that I do it myself sometimes if I just happen to run past an enemy spawning, or even two enemies spawning (in which case I may just end up dying for my trouble). What I consider bad sport, is doing it on purpose, that is going from spawn to spawn just to kill spawning opponents. Spawn killing players who sit also shows very bad manners in playing.
Disconnecting on purpose (relogging)
Accidental disconnecting happens often at CTF, but sometimes players will disconnect just when they are about to be killed, in the same way they would suicide in windows. This does NOT avoid the death most of the times, but simply prevents their opponents from getting a kill. Bad sport, no fair play.
Playing against the team
The worst thing you can do in CTF is to join a team and then sabotage them and play against them, by locking your flagger out of your base, opening the windows on your teammates, etc. All such players do is ruin the game for everyone, which is why they shouldn't play at all.
Insulting: Cry
The automatic response by some players to pretty much any comment is that they are "crying". Although this response may be appropriate for those who complain about something every time they get killed, this response is itself just another way of flaming. "Stop complaining, it's all in the game" is a much better way of getting the point across. Annoyingly, some players respond with "cry" even to legitimate comments about their PvP behavior, which just makes it even worse, so try not to use it.
Insulting: Noob
This isn't used so much against new players (even though it is supposed to mean "newbie") but rather it is spoken towards anyone by players who have just been killed in a way they didn't like. It is a pathetic insult and unworthy of response, even though when it is directed at me I do like to swing it around by pointing out an unfair and dishonorable way of playing by the player who said it. This isn't difficult at all since the players that insult others are usually the ones who play in the worst way.
Bragging: Pro
Calling someone a professional is great unless you are actually talking about yourself. Then it is just bragging, and in most cases, shows you are not "pro" at all. But what is a pro?
Is is someone with great PvP K/D ratio in their statistics? No. Many players have stacked their stats by killing new players at low levels under totally unfair conditions. On the other hand, players with negative K/D ratio can actually be great CTF players.
Is it someone who gets the most kills in a match? No. Farmers usually get the most kills but they are not the best players, since they don't help their team and they ignore the objective of the game, which is to score flags.
Is it someone who gets the most flags? No. Scoring the flag has nothing to do with how good you are, mostly it is about picking it up at the right time.
So who is a pro?
For me, it is someone who plays for the team, by supporting, flagging or defending. Even just by standing between a flagger and an opponent and dying in the process, you are a much better player than someone who plays only for himself.
Someone who knows all strategies of CTF and uses them to their advantage. This can include when to close the doors to a base and when not to, how to use the zombies to your advantage, how to use the windows, how and when to use your powers and charged attacks, how to keep the flag from being returned after being locked out of your base, how to save your flag in the last moment before the enemies score etc.
The above two things make you a pro.
As for killing, a good player is someone who can kill an opponent even if the opponent has just ran for the heart and gotten a full health boost.
Someone who stands against 2 or 3 opponents and maybe even wins.
Someone who can kill an full health brimming opponent after being brimmed to 10% health.
Someone who can defeat a nuke at close range while not being a nuke themselves.
And, in my personal opinion, a player who relies neither on brim or nuke but can still hold his own against those who use brim, nuke, or both, is a good player.
Even though it is just a part of the game, I consider using both nuke AND brim to be a sign that a player relies too much on overpowered combos and as such cannot hold his own otherwise. Britches (brim users) and nukes are fine, but britchukes (both) are just overkill. But again, this is just my opinion.
Trash talking
This is swearing at other players or bragging every time you kill them. Unfortunately, it happens a lot, and is the worst part of CTF nowdays. Those who play just to trash talk shouldn't bother playing in the first place.
These are the things that come to mind right now, feel free to post below stuff I may have forgotten about CTF behavior, or comment on what I've said!
