So then I ran in to my certain death, dancing through the fire of three enemy defenders to put that one more shot on the enemy moneyball! It didn't matter that I died, because just before I did, I heard that beautiful "ch-ching" sound that let me know that I had bought my team another potentially match-winning 30 seconds of downtime on the enemy shields. ... Or did I? Maybe a teammate had just sucided to shoot the ball 2 seconds ago, and I would have been far better off to clear that turret and hit the ejector to bring in another wave of bots and maintain the positional pressure on their already-wobbly defense, and then pushed in together with some bots and teammates to do some real moneyball damage. I wish there was some indication of the reamining countdown to the "30 seconds of no damage restores the shields." If there was, not only could I make the correct strategic decision, but the game would have these huge intense moments where everybody on O and D knew to put it all on the line for that close play. As it stands now, I can choose between repeatedly hurling myself into death like a lemming and hope that my team plays the positional aspect, or I can work to maintain our positional advantage only to watch the sheilds come back up if my teammates do the same (or are too worried about their K/D to even consider taking one for the team). Everybody else on the team has to make the same independent random guess, and it only works out well if we happen by luck to fall into a good distribution. I do not consider the argument "use the microphone to coordinate that" to be very strong.
If anything give the defending team a timer for that, the offense shouldn't be rewarded for suiciding. Smart play needs to be promoted, despite that it's already painfully easy to keep the shield down on just about any map.
Not sure I get what you mean. My persespective is: - The offense is already rewarded for trading exactly 1 death for a reset, if the timer is almost up. - Since it is the rewarded play, it is by definition the smart play. Is that not how you think about it? The problem is that it's *NOT* rewarded (and thus NOT smart) to trade your life for a reset when only 2 seconds of the timer have elapsed, and this information is not available. So adding the meter would promote smart play by allowing you to know when it is smart to suicide and when it is not.
And this is where teamwork does play a role; because you decided that suiciding was a good option due to a lack of communication you want it to be changed so you no longer have to keep track of stuff you should be having an eye on. That is not "promoting smart play" in my book.
"You can't fix stupid." The game lets you know in so many ways possible that the Moneyball shields are down. A loud crash to signify that the shields have dropped, the icon in the lower left-hand will be missing letting you know the shields are down and above all else the is a huge freaking beam of light shooting into the sky. Overtime your internal clock will just "know" how much time is left before the shields go back up. Know what I don't understand players haven't even played the game for 3 months and already want to chance aspects of the game. This is with any game, they play it for a few weeks and decide something is wrong and needs to be changed. /rant sorry
Fair enough, I'm certainly new, and maybe I'm stupid not to have figured it out. So help me out here... How do you vets keep an eye on whether your teammates have recently landed a shot on the moneyball? You blame my lack of communication... do you get on the mic every time you hit the ball? I have never once heard a player do that. What I see all the time though is the ball go up when several of my teammates could and should have rushed in to grab the reset. It's kind of amazing to me, as a stupid newbie, that the moneyball shields would EVER go back up in this game. Can't those faster lighter classes just go into a rushdown/respawn loop to keep the shields down forever?? I can come close, even playing gunner. Dead, all that stuff you're talking about is kind of not what I'm asking. I am being clear, right? I'm NOT talking about "is the ball down?" I'm talking about "how much time is left before it goes back up due to not being hit for 30 seconds?" If you told me, for example, that you contantly watched for the red flash on the moneyball life bar indicating that it's taken damage, and used that to reset your internal clock, then I could see you had a system. But you can't "just know" if you don't recieve as input the information that your team has landed a shot. It just isn't possible. So if you guys don't think we should have the meter, please give me some advice at least. I didn't really get anything from your above posts that I think I can apply, unfortunately.
Don't need a meter; true. It's like 30 seconds or something, so you better tail it to their ball to keep it down!
Other than just knowing, which is something you'll get to after some experience, you can also land safe shots as any class but support from practically countless angles, there is no need to rush in whatsoever. In fact and this is a very important point: there is no need to die in this game. Nothing in this game warrants a suicide, not even the annihilator. Stay alive, pay attention to what is happening, be mindful about the game when you play it and everything will come together.
"How do you vets keep an eye on whether your teammates have recently landed a shot on the moneyball?" was the first thing I was going to answer but then I read to the bottom and seen this "If you told me, for example, that you contantly watched for the red flash on the moneyball life bar indicating that it's taken damage" that question answered itself. As for what I said, yeah I guess I was a bit vague but I honestly don't have a way of actually knowing. I just know how long it feels like if it hasn't taken damage and/or I haven't seen the bar flash.
OK, I'll watch for the flash and see if I can develop a better feel for it. I do believe most of the server population on PC underestimates the importance of resetting the shields in general. And hitting the annihilator. I would gladly trade a respawn for either, but maybe that's just growing pains of a new player.
Lemmings, nature's retards... and the lemmings running across the road and/or off the cliff, remind me of assassins when the enemy's moneyball shields are down. about as fun to watch either happen.
You guys are not being fair The idea would only benefit the game but only slightly. It the devs had unlimited time to do all this and it took no effort, why not? but it is unnecessary effort imo. also, we don't need more HUD clutter.
Wouldn't have to clutter the HUD, just make the shield icon that dissapears regenerate like how turret indicators do. Also on-topic, I got juice three times as a tank on one LazeRazor game. Guess what? I got cock-blocked by the ******* moneyball shields IMMEDIATELY after I juice when I reach it. EACH TIME. So this idea +3 for each of those failed attempts by pure bad luck.
It would be kind of cool if the moneyball slowly started rising back to the top and the shields were restored when it reaches the top. This would also help alleviate an almost game breaking advantage support has. I can take the moneyball from 100% to 0 by myself with one juice being right next to the moneyball with a shotgun. This would give a visual to how close the moneyball is to restoring the shield and slightly slow down savvy support players from winning the game by themself in a really short amount of time. Bots hitting the moneyball should instantly drop it back down to the bottom to continue to encouragement of pushing lanes, but pro damage should lower the ball at the same speed it rises without a pro attacking it.
this sounds like a cool idea. when the bots take the shields down, pros can only undo the shield's recharge at maybe twice the rate they regenerate. for instance, if the shields have went 20 seconds without damage, then a pro knicking it wouldnt set it back more than 2 seconds, but a pro firing on it for 10 seconds would set it back all the way. but this belongs in a different thread, about moneyball shield restore changes. ill borrow it from here and post it there. however, just putting a timer on the screen may be unnecesary work for the devs. i have a watch, i actually use it in game. yes, its a tryhard move, but im sure its possible for everyone to get a timer of some kind to use and place it on their desk to use when the shields go down. i swear it works when you get used to doing it on reaction, especially if your team lets you know when the bots are walking up to the ball.
