Hello Maurice, in my On-line Unreal Tournament Game, in Onslaught mode, the game starts with a 5 second countdown and then a signal.
Each teams members of the opposing sides scramble for weapons …
o sniper rifles
o machine guns
o machine cannons
o anti-personnel dumb rockets
o anti-vehicle/aircraft smart rockets
o bio/chemical sludge dispenser
o smart mine dispenser
o laser weapon
o laser designator that allows a satellite weapon to zap the designated target
o magnetic hammer that also allows the user to jump down from high places without harm, and
o shoulder-fired/camera-guided tactical nuke
… and supplies (extra health, mucho personal armour, adrenalin pack) inside respective base camps. This mad scramble takes about 5-10 seconds, unless one is a newbie to the particular scenario being played and is unfamiliar with the layout and the site of various necessities, in which case one sometimes must go into battle armed with nothing more than a machine gun or sniper scope, and hope to find heavier/nastier implements outside the base camp.
Once provisioned, the blue and red team members scramble to hop into or (riding shotgun) onto their favorite vehicles …
o dune buggies
o humvees
o armored cars
o non-line-of-sight mobile artilleries
o tanks, hover crafts
o vertical takeoff-landing fighters and
o stand-off bombers
Then the clashes, anywhere and everywhere on a very large landscape.
The folks in vehicles converge on the scene of the action (which initially tend to be geographically dispersed ‘power node’ locations rather than the opposing base location) guided by their GPS system. The guys and gals riding shot gun jump off and disappear into the woods, crouch down, and weapons ready. The non-line-of-sight artillery mobile pieces and stand-off bombers start to do their wet work. The vertical takeoff/landing fighters dog each other.
Some observations:
o All the fancy vehicles are very vulnerable, clearly seen, and to be picked off in sequence and in turn;
o The fast, well-trained, and courageous guys die first.
o The folks in the woods riding shotgun live the longest, and can only really be cleared out with a larger opposing force of folks on foot, or a tactical nuke.
I tend to hang back and hand loose, fully explore my own base area, figure out where to hide and lay in ambush should enemy get in, and then I hop on to a remaining and less popular vehicles (hover scooter), avoid the areas of contention (the power node locations), skip over to the enemy base camp generally empty (because the base is not vulnerable until certain number of power nodes fall to one side or the other), and spray down a pretty arrangement of smart mines (that only kills folks from the other side), and satify my kill-urge by picking off the occasional re-spawned enemy combatants (while they are busy trying to avoid the jumping smart mines I mentioned earlier) so that they never make it to the front line to aid their comrades (so their comrades will be easily picked off by my comrades), or the every-so-often enemy aircraft that stray within range of my smart rockets with the clever guidance system.
My approach to the game in the Onslaught Mode (as opposed to Death Match Mode) involves quite a bit of studying, reflective learning, patience, and occasional fast reactions to the unexpected (such as a previously ambushed victim coming back to life after re-spawning, coming after me with a single-minded pettiness :0)
When and if my base camp comes under attack (when enough power nodes fall to the opposing team) and is supposedly in imminent danger of falling (the announcer says, “Blue Power Node at base camp is at 50% power”), I would commit suicide by shooting a rocket at my feet, cut loses, respawn at base camp, and carry out mission in accordance with earlier survey and plan to defend the base.
Any similarity between On-line Unreal Tournament Onslaught / Death Match games and On-line boom.com equity trading game is purely coincidental.
By the way, when in doubt, we can always get to a not-so-busy but otherwise fundamentally desirable stock location, take up the high ground in measured pace, lay in ambush, patiently, and wait for the crowds to show up where they eventually must, and then greet them with a fusillade of sell orders, or at least try to :0)
Chugs, Jay |
