Remember the time when guild tags disappeared? None of premade vs pug topics appeared during that time. Its not premades you're afraid of here, its the repeated, same guild tag in the game.
What are you even talking about? Separating PuGs and premades? Thats impossible with our population levels and, i hate break it to you, but we will not reach 3k simultaneous any time soon again. And even then It will be possible to host only ~40 GvG matches a day(compared to current hundreds of regular matches). Yeah... very enjoyable. Since its not possible to organize fun regular GvG only experience, you aren't achieving anything. Can you try to stop premades from joining matches with PuGs en mass? Well, you could try, but we filled several matches with guild only players when there were 0 guild matchmaking. You will add secret anti-guild parametres in matchmaking, that favor them less when calculating a match? We will move tags to character names, like we used to have. You can not change this. It is literally impossible, there is no way on doing anything to prevent Guild v Pub battles. Literally, you have 0 options to get rid of this. What you should do instead is improving PuBs way of coordinating, so those who would want to communicate will be. Guild stacks pose no extra threat until they fill more then half of the match. And even then, it can be very fun and enjoyable stopping them. I have win dozens of matches vs 4-8 Guild groups personally. Have a couple of extremely fun close games vs 15 stacks. Generally, if you have some extraordinary trouble when facing guilds is when you play with a completely terrible team(which happens) or when you play LSM only, since this two options have one thing in common. Both of them are not really game issues at all.
Exactly, and what does that actually tell us? That people are for some bizarre reason, subconsciously averse to people with the same prefix, nothing more, nothing less, since it is very clear that the average guild player is no better than the average pug player, with both sides of the argument also having a whole bunch of shit players and some good players.
If Pugs had the means to coordinate, i would even welcome the challenge to fight a guild. Akà Voip. Aká BRING IT BACK FINALLY! NO LONGER FUNNY!
So long as it has an off button, I have no wish to listen to other people's babbling, it's bad enough reading their drivel.
Back in the days when VOIP was a thing, you had an option to mute all VOIP. I hope it makes a comeback
personally i have mixed feelings regarding premade. The only reason, i enjoy pre mades, is playing with people who actually give a shit, and put some effort into the game. Surpass the basics, and know at least how to follow common sense orders. So as you can see, this is me setting the bar really low. What i don't like about premades, is that it's not possible to be in one everytime, then when you match against one, and your team is full of players as bright as sea cucumber...That can't follow a single order, can't read the chat for objectives, can't contribute positively whatsoever, not even get a few reasonable kills. Well then, beeing matched against a premade really stinks. And even though you'll have 5+ decent players, it always scusk, to reach the end of the game, with a big DEFEAT at the end, when you did your best, and would possibly win, if your team actually trolled a lit less. In particular this: Last 25% of the influence bar missing, 2:30 of gametime left...one last point to cap with time. You mark the objective, you put it in CAPS on the Chat, you refer you need the time from the last objective. Do everything possible. What happens: 50% of your team is still fighting on irrelevant objectives. Knowing that you are running against some guildies, and that will take extra effort and bodies...It's not very pleasant at the end, when you've tried...and the rest... not so much
Why is it that I still see people complain about "premades stomping pugs"? because people are pussies that like to complain I'm in a guild, it has 3 members and i'm yet to actually see the other two as it was created from a steam group that I played space marine with, but due to the numbers I mostly play on my own in PuG's and i had the pleasure of joining a match that had 10 members from the same chaos guild yesterday (declared a premade by the other side in the after game), wouldn't speak to me via text and during the entire game and for reasons unknown decided to rush to the obvious point and fail to capture it As i was a squad leader until all the guild people left my squad for there own all the later joiners ended up with me in my squad and was a typical random assortment of people with some having guild tags and some not and we went to C and captured it, then we went to B and captured it, the 10 peeps from the same guild still failed at A until we came and helped We (the PuG players) carried a "premade" to victory One day in the dim distant future more people will release that a guild tag is no sign of ability and personally i'd rather fight a mixed rank "premade" of any faction (with them using VoIP if they want) than a PuG made up of all lvl 5 / lvl 6 players
@Chuffster @DAG42 @Ardean @Karond - (People've linked to are linked to because they've invested effort in discussing this, not necessarily because my argument is directed at/against their side) Alright, my rebuttal: As much as you may not believe this, I do in fact 100% understand your point of view, because I play America's Army solo, and when I go up against a group clearly using VOIP, it's painful, and infuriating, and I hate it. However, there are two things wrong with this- 1. The obvious recourse is to join a group myself. This is basic Army 101 - if you are getting wrecked by a group, you bring a group to wreck them right back. One of the first things they tell you when you join the Army is that it's just like joining a gang - you now have a LOT of people who've got your back. Because of this reason, I only rarely gave a piece of my mind to stacks of guilds, and even when I did it was purely an emotional reaction; even as I typed, I knew in my head that I was just being stupid, that it's absolutely wrong to tell people who want to have fun together that they can't have fun together without it being "unfair" or "unsportsman-like", especially when the game is called America's Army - even the name is specifically telling you it's about joining something greater than yourself to pursue a common goal. PuGs/Randoms are literally the opposite of the intent of the game. 2. The nature of the game between EC and other games is fundamentally different. EC/Planetside2 and a few other games are fundamentally different from other shooters because there are defined, important separations between the factions that fight each other, with strategic level goals for each that are INTENDED to make players choose a side and focus on that side. I apologize if I'm being elitist or something here, but this is literally the intent of the game - that you pick a faction you like best, and work towards its success above the others. There's nothing wrong with playing all the factions, but this game, planetside 2, and other similar games are expressly intended to have players devote themselves to one faction above the others. What does that have to do with PuG vs Premade, you ask? It was wrong of me to be angry with the guild people in AA for that first reason, but actually less so than being angry in EC or PS2, because the two games are vastly different both in intent and in execution - actually, mechanically different. America's Army and other "lobby shooters" such as Counter-strike, Rainbow Six, Quake, any number of games over tghe years, all of these games have something in common - you can change sides in the middle of gameplay. This is an incredible important difference. AA, CS, etc, these games are NOT about a larger picture. They're about individual players and their skills. Even if the intent is to work as a team to accomplish a goal other than last-man-standing or highest kills, that goal extends no further than the match itself - capture and hold, or capture the flag. There is no larger strategic map that is being fought over. So there is no sense of belonging to either side of any match. America's Army is actually the BEST example of this difference between a normal lobby shooter and EC/PS2 - no matter which "team" you join, you are always wearing an american uniform. The other team is ALWAYS the OpFor. So EC is INTENDED for you to focus on a faction. This means it's expressly encouraging you to get better, to work better as a team, to win against the other factions as a whole. So in AA and CS, sportsmanship is in fact important, because every battle is the entire game, with the ability to switch teams available to you the entire time, and it doesn't matter which side wins, really, only how you played. But in EC and PS2, it matters who wins. And there is mechanically no way whatsoever to switch to the other side mid-game in order to balance it out. If that were possible, I would do it. I did it all the time in CS and AA, when I saw my team was just crushing the enemy? I was first in line to switch sides, or call for a vote to scramble the teams. They SPECIFICALLY made it possible to even the teams, and therefore there was more of a moral imperative to keep the teams even, to not unfairly stack experience and skill on one side. But EC does not have that. It is not INTENDED to have that. It will not have that. EC is about Imperium vs Eldar vs Orks vs Chaos. It's about a large picture. There is no moral imperative to intentionally hamper yourself or your side in order to appear to be fair. Fairness should be in the balancing of the game mechanics between factions, and in the matchmaking parity of numbers - I hate the matchmaking in this game because of this lack of parity - it is inexcusable to see more than a 3-person difference in players in the 30-player matches. That's a 20% difference in firepower, and that is HUGE. But GUILDS working together is not unfair in the slightest. They are using something that you should be using yourself as well, and it is on the players themselves to be actively trying to work together. "premades" are simply a group of people who've agreed to do just that. ADDITIONALLY, I'd just like to point out that disliking the idea of guilds on the basis that you don't want to talk/play with people younger/different from yourself is an awful exuse, and one thing GREAT about guilds, is that it brings together people of many different ages, many different nationalities together in celebration of a shared universe that we love, promoting teamwork and learning. (lol, in the best case scenarios, anyway) There's always risk of drama and hurt feelings, as in any interaction between human beings. Good rules, and active management can help minimize this, though. I say to you who are annoyed at guilds appearing to crush random groups - Organize yourself. Make a guild. Gather the crowd, and get them working together BEYOND that one match. Because EC is not about the match. It's about the campaign.
