An Old Archer Main's Perspective on the State of the Game. . .

i'll stop farming you in game @BrandinoB

 

Interesting take on the current situation of CTF, as a player who has also recently returned I have noticed that archer does not seem to be as effective anymore like but I’m not sure how they would be able to fix this and all the other current imbalances.

 

Mobility has been an integral part of the game since the beginning. To say that people dont deserve to benefit from learning how to use mobility is absurd. In response, I can posit "Archer allows people who should not be good at the game to have a massive impact simply because they can shoot from a distance". You even said yourself that this game is a CQC game! Its absurd that theyd allow a ranged class with such complete domination!

I think its a grave mistake to return to CTF and return to posting on the forums if you want the game to ever feel "fair". The nature of CTF is unfair and people will constantly discuss what should and shouldn't exist in the game. The game is better off with slow, methodical and low impact changes that maintain player numbers and mitigate backlash. What good is the advice of a player who not only quit, but obviously cant find it in themselves to play?

Play the game for what it is, a decent time killer with a lot of cheese. It's more entertaining than other, more balanced, games that result in a lack of variety in favor of reaching "balance" in my opinion.

 

bino I taught you everything you know ever since you had that black and red normie skin in like 2014

 

This is kind of where I was at before my accounts were taken. I began to realize that even if my internet was normal, I would really only enjoy playing because of talking to people or doing dumb non-objective crap. CTF is fun and all, and while I didn't take any real notice to what Brandino said above, it was still apparent that the game itself was offering no real task other than to add 2% to some av I didn't finish yet. As former staff I can say with confidence that they are trying to work things out as efficiently as they can, but patience is something many 5+ year veterans like myself were running low on, or out of in some cases. It has become a very complicated situation over the years, and those who have given up were probably just searching for a simple answer. If all else fails, please just remember that this is a video game, and while some of you may have spent thousands of hours or hundreds of dollars making a name for yourself here, there's like, the rest of the world out there. Find what you enjoy and experience it to your heart's content - whether that be here or anywhere else. Many of you have overlooked life in general, and have been consumed by something that for 99% of you offers 0 benefit in real life. I was one of those people, and I'm just trying to give some people a wake up call. It was quite interesting to see how people's behaviors suddenly changed when I became JMOD, and I think many people looking at this thread will look back and realize how incredibly childish they were in forging certain relationships with players or the community in general.

tl;dr: block game (hopefully) not your life, be big boys/girls and figure out what you want to be.

Have A Brawltastic Day!

 

I fail to see the power of Elf. I have not played enough for total confidence but I doubt that Elf is as potent as you believe it to be from my few experiences playing casual and PPMs. I also disagree with your notion of soft and hard counters. Medic completely shuts down Pyro's main ability, that is a hard counter. Elf merely shuts down Archers when using an active skill meant to counter projectiles. Unlike Medic, Elf does not (even if it feels like it) invalidate an Archers method of killing in such an absolute manner.
I do see Elf more often in offense, but its power relative to how it was years ago doesn't feel drastic. Quite frankly, not much has tangibly changed in my eyes (besides Necro and maybe Scout).

 

This is really off-topic, don’t see why this was posted here. I don’t think you understand that like tenshi said before, many people just use CTF as a time filler because it can be enjoyable at times but people want it to be enjoyable all the time hence why they make these kind of threads. Just because people play a game a lot doesn’t mean it’s their life, I’ve started playing CTF a lot more recently however I still have a social life outside of it and I have aspirations for the future. On the other hand, I do know a lot of people that have forged such tight friendships and relationships within this community, and in many cases they do this because they find it hard to do so in real life or have other issues in their life. CTF is like an escape route for them and the fact that you don’t seem to understand that suggests you weren’t integrated in to the community really at all. Like I said this is completely off topic I just wanted to address your post because I disagreed with it.

Also agree with this, elf may be good once it gets into the flag room once it uses its water element and it can usually get out of the flag room but in many cases, the elf won’t even have reached the flag room if there are 1 or 2 roaming ninjas. There are a few good elves but there have always been since the original release, you see more players attempting to play it but they aren’t actually that effective as the proper elf mains such as 915 and TheFatalBest for example. Elf is great but I definitely think it requires a lot more skill than just learning to how to fly and f5 to use shield hence why like I said, there are only a few really good elves.

 

shut up tenshi

 

Actually, I wouldn't yell at you.. for the most part. I think that some things I discovered with defensive medic when it started becoming more of an ideal role in the current meta, are busted.
#1 issue in my opinion is giving assassinate back to assassins. this is awful, nothing else needs to be said.
#2 ninja getting constant regen from medics is also pretty op but idk if I would change that or not.. maybe making it a litttle slower for ninja, if anything.

 

this is the core issue of ctf imo

 

Was intentionally off topic, it's just become very apparent after leaving that some people take this too seriously at times. With threads like these still going around I can't help but wonder how I was dragged into all of this literally a month ago lol.
"CTF is like an escape route for them and the fact that you don’t seem to understand that suggests you weren’t integrated in to the community really at all."
Not to omit the context of the first part of that quote, but I don't see how literally talking about doing whatever you want was disrespectful to people in unfavorable situations, nor how that would make me an outcast (ppms, jmod, maps, forums? lol). I myself used CTF as a time filler, and when that got boring I applied for Jmod to be of "more use." I can see how linking playtime with social ethic was an ambiguous statement, but like I said above, the whole doing whatever you want part should have made the overall message clear. I just wanted to address your post because you appear to be holding a grudge for somebody who literally doesn't play anymore lol.

 

People still play the game and still want to improve it hence why they make threads like these? I don’t have a grudge against you I just thought that your original post was quite judgmental.

 

ctf has gone to the dogs ever since engineer turret fortresses were disabled 5 years ago. cant instacap if flagroom is sealed off by 5 mcMEN with an MVP subscription

 

I definitely see what you mean about too many abilities not having any punish. An incentive to use your abilities wisely by providing a punishment for misusing them is a part of most games. The only hint of that I really see in CTF is the cooldown timers on mage, chemist, and soldier. I'm not a huge fan of cooldowns but at least it's a punish for spamming, which many abilities don't have.

 

Throwing in my 2 cents as an older player on again. I would say the biggest difference and struggle for me is the pace of the game. However, I agree with Brandino archer but also pyro should be more pivotal. It made for a better meta than the current one.

maps-
(IN MY OPINION) most of the maps including the latest map wave are not fun. They just aren't. Maybe that's just nostalgia. However from a statistical POV I'd be interested to see what CTF stats are like. I played a game this morning that because the new map's flagroom was so big and impossible to sneak in every time I tried to get in and frenzy the flag carrier, they just ran away to the other side. Even though both teams had decent recov and meh defense the game was a 20 minute stalemate. That isn't fun.

Also to be clear some of the new maps have some terrible f*****g middle ground. They're boring to cross. To relate this to the OG by Brandino I don't believe archer is actually a meta problem right now. I think its a map problem. Maps are boring/ difficult to get across which makes mobility classes like elf/ chemist OP, archer overly-annoying, and playing the objective is less interesting.

clicking-
Okay lets be clear. I was never a good pvper. Im an okay one. But frankly I would describe the new meta as who cAN LeFt cLicK the best. Necro is an example of this. The class is basically designed to kill, same as mage (probably same as scout and engineer). Again relating to the above; mid becomes horrible to cross. Some chemists/ heavies also do the same. I remember when roaming ninjas occassionally attacked you but mainly archer was the mid class. Again I reach the same conclusion Maps are boring/ difficult to get across as a result and playing the objective is less interesting.

I'd also like to say all those years ago I was in the wrong. Insta kill classes are good for the game. Providing the maps can restrain them. The great thing about insta-kill which someone pointed out a long time ago, is anyone can kill with them. Whether you're new or old, you can do something with the class. Archer was great. Why? because it was also f2p.

elf-
here's the problem because mid is so broken rn as a meta. Most new maps I've seen are designed for elf and chemist to steal from them. Not soldier/ heavy. As a result elf is in and out within a moment. Playing pyro this is unbelievably horrible to deal with. It enforces the need to have a 200cps to kill that elf within a few seconds and you're frankly lucky if the chemist decides to let you live. As a result THE core defense class is probably one of the weakest classes right now. On top of that archer, the traditional mid class can't combat that elf with hs. Ergo it reinforces the need for quick mid clickers to kill that elf before it gets there or to recover from it.

On top of that most maps seem to have bad design for recovery because they assume that everything will die at mid and a super low ping ninja will be on recov.

TL;DR - My solution, flagroom focused map design, quick to cross but headshottable map mids and a pyro buff against chemist #MakeArcherGreatAgain

 

perspective of an elf player:
I think that although elf is good against archer or that is the stereotype it's difficult to control both shield and your current situation. I play elf a lot and in ppm's / matches I find it difficult to look at ninja's pyro's and archer's at the same time and it becomes really difficult to bypass all three at once. Using your shield as elf gives up mobility, so even if you're missing/getting shots reflected back to you by an elf, they are losing distance from the defence that could catch up and kill the elf easily. Also, elf isn't easy to play at all and it isn't overpowered. I have elf down really well but I still don't steal every time. Even if you steal as elf, you've probably been chopped a couple times and down to few arrows. It's really difficult to play elf once you're out of the flag room because you're just so vulnerable. One ninja swing does 1 steak worth of damage to elf. Even if you get a medic or even a restore, it's still significantly easy to get dropped by a ninja scout or not pay attention to archer. Archer is just such a good class. Even if there is an elf, they are most likely not with the rest of the team, or are getting dropped by ninjas. I know I'm late to this thread but here is my opinion.