Avalanche Clan

.:Avl:.C10ud · Post by **.:Avl:.C10ud** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 10:58 pm

Hey everyone. I'm going to announce what I *think* is the first clan of it's sort. The avalanche clan, abbreviated .:Avl:., is a teaching clan. Yeah, sounds odd, but here's the concept. Instead of simply getting a bunch of friends together or whatever that play really good and then go recruit the best players you can find to make your clan good, we have a different approach. We will be on the lookout for newer players that we believe have potential and desire to become great players and invite them to our clan where we will train them to become great players. Yeah, it's sort of a different approach, but we'll give it a shot. Let us know what you think of the idea

btw, we've been in existence 3 weeks or so and our official server is Flynn's Arcade, which is run by me (i used to play as ianthetechie, but it was too long for my clan name lol). our website is http://flynns.servegame.org/

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:38 am

Maybe a misconception on my side, but I think that is the normal way clans operate in practice. Sure, they normally try to get good players into your clan, but I'd say all the good players that actually want to be in a clan already are in one. So clans mostly have to recruit among new players.

Now, what would be unusual: Once training is complete, you could kick the players out of the clan again

joda.bot · Post by **joda.bot** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 1:33 pm

If the avl clan makes sure new players are given instructions on how to play and prevent teams from kicking those players this is really good.

Also tutors for tactical/techniques might be good:

for example give new players more time after you nearly boxed them, so they can learn instead of just being killed.

If the avl clan teaches players they'll know the main issues for new players and can update the wiki (with more helpful instructions).

Development might profit by getting information on why people drop armagetron and what to improve to attrackt new players.

just my thoughts on this....

Fonkay · Post by **Fonkay** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:17 pm

What would be useful would be to have a clan thats main purpose (other than playing of course) would be to teach new players. Not in order to recruit them, but when they go into a room to play and they see someone who is having a bit of trouble, tutor them a bit. Be like wandering mentors.
Of course you'd have to only have people join who are willing to teach, and don't have a reputation of being an ass.

I would actually join up for a clan like that. But I think someone who plays more than 1 or 2 servers would be needed, and I'm not one of them.

.:Avl:.C10ud · Post by **.:Avl:.C10ud** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:17 pm

Good points joda and Fonkay. I'd say you guys were reading my mind

. That's pretty much my clan's misson. I do make it a habit to play on multiple servers and if i see anyone having trouble I try to help them out and teach them ways of escaping, using speed and things such as that. Thanks for the input!

Website · Post by **Z-Man** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:24 pm

Cool, forget my little rant then

Good luck on your mission.

Infamous · Post by **Infamous** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:44 pm

Sounds really good to me. Would you just teach them about Rubber servers? or Fortress too? or CT Wild fortress? or CTF?

If you could, i think you should take them to as many different servers as possible, tell them the rules and then they can choose which ones they like to play.

I try to help new players when i can, but i remember when i first started, it was hard to read and process all the "GRIND NOOB"s and "Player 1 Grind or kick"s when i was still focusing on playing and not dying within 5 seconds.

And there's absolutely nothing that says how grinding makes you faster, or how rubber actually works (i probably played for a month without knowing that), pehaps for future versions there could be a simple tutorial mode or something? maybe it's just a pipedream but i think it would really help everyone.

ed · Post by ed » Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:02 pm

If we were able to set bots up on a fixed path it would be fairly easy set up a training server.
A variety of different levels, each introducing a new skill. You only progress to the next as they are completed.

For example, Round one might be a simple grind tutorial:
A center message: Grind the centre player to reach the win zone before the time runs out.
The centre player is just a bot on a fixed path straight up the grid.
The win zone is at the far end of the grid, the only way it can be reached before it implodes is if you grind at the beginning.

Round 2 could be a more elaborate setup with perhaps a bot either side of you. The outermost bot is set to kill you if you don't grind centre. And you have to watch your breaking too.

Round 3. Conquering a zone
Round 4. Defending, etc, etc.

It would have to be a single player server. With a slot or 2 for spectators.
You could even have a pro version, where split second timing is needed to complete.

.:Avl:.C10ud · Post by **.:Avl:.C10ud** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 6:40 pm

thx z-man

Yes, I would like to teach them how to play on all servers, not just speed, rubber and the like. I find that playing on slower servers with low rubber (like nixda) really improves your skills, so even if people don't want to play on them all the time, I still want my trainees to play on those for skill building. Fortress and CTF are alot of fun too-- i need to play those more and develop some good strategies on there before I do much teaching, but I'll work on that.

Now ed has a very interesting idea... bot-based training. I've never really thought of that before. It's obviously possible. All you would have to do is modify the AI code so that it could read instructions from a file or something that would contain the fixed paths for where to turn and such. interesting idea. I may just try to work on that. *dusts off c++ book sitting on desk*

Infamous · Post by **Infamous** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 7:14 pm

I thought about the same kinda thing a lot ed, but instead of it being a server, why not have it in the client itself? No longer would new players get kicked just because they don't know how to grind or they go through their own zones etc...

.:Avl:.C10ud · Post by **.:Avl:.C10ud** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:18 pm

That may be useful as well for getting started, but the advantage to running "training servers" is that a mentor of sorts could give them tips and stuff at the same time.

2020 · Post by **2020** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 8:50 pm

good idea cloud

.:Avl:.C10ud · Post by **.:Avl:.C10ud** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 12:56 am

thx

Another idea I had was to make a sort of beginners manual. Almost everyone I run into who hasn't played more than a week or so has no idea how double-binding, grinding, rubber and things such as that work. They also usually have no idea of the basic strategies and maneuvers, which all take time to learn. I decided that a beginners survival guide of sorts would be helpful. Yeah, I realize that some of it is on the wiki, but I would like even more, and more of a book-ish format. I have about a chapter done right now. I'm writing it using LaTex and I'll post up PDF's when I finish it.

Post by **Lucifer** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 1:07 am

Maybe you could consider augmenting the wiki with that information, where double-binding et al is fairly discussed already? Just a thought...

.:Avl:.C10ud · Post by **.:Avl:.C10ud** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:57 am

Yes, I was planning on doing that. This would simply give the beginner all the info he needed to start in one manual. I was also planning on probably including some stuff off the wiki too. (this will also be licensed under creative commons)