Skilled players running me out of my level 7 games.

[DarenaBryant]

I just wanted to post this here as well as on Steam, since I’m curious as to the reactions of various players.

I just reached level 7 maybe a couple of days ago. I play as Proxy the most, as I like her ability to place bombs and to run in and assault people suddenly from around a corner. I also have begun to practice a lot more with her secondary weapon and am… or was… getting better with it.

I use a sort of ‘hit and run’ or ‘take cover and provide support fire’ strategy to play her. Either I’ll run at an objective and try to quickly secure it, run at a crowd or camping area of the other team and lay mines (basically sacrificing myself), or I’ll find good areas to shoot from with a decent amount of cover where I can hide and scare players/disrupt repair efforts or camping efforts. It’s worked well for me up until I started getting matched with level 7 and up players.

It’s not that the techniques don’t still work… I still hurt people plenty, blow them up a lot, and generally help the team progress. It’s that now, I keep running into lvl 70 to lvl 90 players who see me taking cover or not running around… and they vote to kick me. Apparently the ONLY strategy in this game is charging in head first, or no strategy at all, and by now, I should have every map memorized in minute detail (which I don’t; I get turned around a lot in this game).

I can neither afford new mercs with cash, can’t get them through in game cash (on account of being kicked from every mission), and don’t see any benefit to trying to play unfamiliar mercs, since I’m getting kicked while playing the ones I AM familiar with. And of course there’s the simple fact that if I can’t get any playtime in because I’m getting kicked, I can’t actually improve any. So my only options are to play games only to be kicked out 2/3rds of the way through and gain nothing, or quit playing because I didn’t master the game in the first 6 levels of play.

I have gotten into some games where the level balance was much better, and without exception they’ve been a ton more enjoyable and evenly matched. But if I can’t play like a level 90 player who’s done 10s of thousands more missions than I have, then I get booted.

Is this really fair? Why are they allowing lvl 70 to 90 players to dictate the skill of new players, and kick them from the games they need to play in order to get better? I keep seeing these things happening and wondering if these ‘expert’ players understand that if they cull all the new players, soon there won’t BE enough players to make keeping the game going viable. I’m sure some of the others are better than me right off, but that doesn’t mean it’s right to go to the low teir games and start harrassing and kicking people.

I’m a little upset because I like this game, but I’m more just kinda resigned to it. My time dealing with people on the internet and in games like this makes me expect a ‘Well, too bad for you!’ responce from most of the people here who even bother responding, with a very few people seeing my point, or thinking I haven’t done anything wrong. Hopefully the devs will see this and consider something to keep the balance in these matches even, rather than always wrecking them by putting a few high leveled, high skilled players in with a bunch of people who are still learning.

[Sorotia]

Join a different game and don’t stand still so much? While charging in head first isn’t smart…this is a fast paced game…sitting still is a ticket to a easy death…nothing makes it easier even for these rookie snipers to bag you like standing still.

[Tom2160]

First of all, if people vote kick you most of the time they do it out of spite or they just believe that you aren’t contributing enough to the team. As a proxy you are an engineer and thus you should be having a primary focus of completing the objective, as you are an objective specialist.

As a level 44 I do vote kick players who I feel don’t contribute enough towards the game or players who are just playing poorly. In fact I remember once when I was starting of I was kicked as I was playing awfully, but to be honest now that I look back at it I’m glad they did.

Balance is an issue as people drop into matches all the time which constantly disrupts game balance. The main reason a higher level player will try and kick you will probably be because you aren’t doing the objective or you aren’t contributing much to the game. This is just an assumption so inform me if I’m wrong.

[Eox]

@DarenaBryant said:
I just wanted to post this here as well as on Steam, since I’m curious as to the reactions of various players.

I use a sort of ‘hit and run’ or ‘take cover and provide support fire’ strategy to play her. Either I’ll run at an objective and try to quickly secure it, run at a crowd or camping area of the other team and lay mines (basically sacrificing myself), or I’ll find good areas to shoot from with a decent amount of cover where I can hide and scare players/disrupt repair efforts or camping efforts. It’s worked well for me up until I started getting matched with level 7 and up players.

I think I understand why. The main reason is more or less what I put in bold.

Now that you are playing with people that can actually play the game at a decent level, you’ll learn that running head on to your ennemies with your mines out is by far the most inefficient way to deal with a crowd : anyone would just move away from the mine while shooting at you before you had the time to pick a weapon or get out, or you might just get killed before even reaching that one place where everyone is sitting. If you couple this to the fact that you are stuck at the bottom of the scoreboard, ignore the objective or do the common newbie mistakes (ex : repairing while another engineer is already repairing), I can see the reason why higher level players would attempt to votekick you. They don’t votekick you because you take cover, they probably votekick you because you are playing in an especially inefficient way.

Of course, I don’t approve the gesture at all. Votekicking for doing poorly isn’t really my mindset, and I consider that all players have the right to remain in the server no matter what their skill level is. I only votekick in game for abusive behaviour or AFK. But I can definitely see why those high level players might start to votekick you out of spite. You should question your playstyle and work on your personnal skills.

Here’s a few protips to look more skilled and maybe avoid to get votekicked :

• Only one person can repair at a time, and faster repairs have priority on slower ones. If you see that an engineer is already working on the objective, don’t attempt to repair the objective as well. A smarter move would be to cover him.
• Engineers aren’t needed on objective delivery and EV defense. You might want to pick another merc in that case. An odd merc choice for the current objective or map can attract you a votekick.
• Always check the composition of your own team, and try to fill a role that isn’t already filled at the moment. If you see that there’s already two Proxies in your team, you should play another merc, and preferably a merc that isn’t an engineer. Being the 4th Proxy on a team is litterally being a votekick magnet.
• If you’re playing Skyhammer (or Arty), make sure to toss ammo on a common basis. People who need ammo also have an ammo shaped symbol over their head. Skyhammers who do not give ammo infuriate other players a lot.
• If you’re playing Aura, don’t forget that you can revive targets with your defibrillators. Reviving is one of Aura’s main job. There’s still too much clueless Auras that don’t revive downed targets. Don’t be one of those.
• Don’t mash your space button while shooting : jumping will raise harshly the spread of your weapon and become way less accurate. You might not really get votekicked for doing that, but at least it might help you getting a bit more kills and look a bit more decent.
• Play with friends : this is basically the absolute antivotekick strategy. Nobody will be able to votekick you for being bad if you have some friends to support you.

[DarenaBryant]

@Tom2160 said:
First of all, if people vote kick you most of the time they do it out of spite or they just believe that you aren’t contributing enough to the team. As a proxy you are an engineer and thus you should be having a primary focus of completing the objective, as you are an objective specialist.

As a level 44 I do vote kick players who I feel don’t contribute enough towards the game or players who are just playing poorly. In fact I remember once when I was starting of I was kicked as I was playing awfully, but to be honest now that I look back at it I’m glad they did.

Balance is an issue as people drop into matches all the time which constantly disrupts game balance. The main reason a higher level player will try and kick you will probably be because you aren’t doing the objective or you aren’t contributing much to the game. This is just an assumption so inform me if I’m wrong.

Well, in that mission, I was always on point for the objective, repairing a fair amount of the EV several times. I was also planting tactical mines around the map in areas the other team were using to flank or get behind our team, and occasionally making suicide runs to toss a mine into a place they had holed up in, stopping us from advancing or keeping the EV moving.

I was dying a lot; they had a lot of snipers on their team and they were pretty good, but at the same time, I was laying down a LOT of supressing fire… nailing people in the face and making them run for cover or shooting various devices they had planted. One of the things I like about Proxy is how loudly she yells ‘ENEMY SPOTTED~!!’. It gives away positions and sneak attacks pretty easily and draws other team member’s attention with just a peek of someone from the other team.

I wasn’t doing anything excessive though. I wasn’t setting myself up to get shot, nor was I getting other teammembers targetted. And still this ‘getting kicked’ thing.

Personally, it just feels like there shouldn’t BE anyone that many levels higher in such matches. They tend to expect more from people who are still trying to understand the game, and often are just trolls when they win, trying to make you feel bad or get angry at them (asnd the game by association) which is f’n stupid since the game mixes up players and they might have to play with the very same people they pissed off.

I still grind my teeth a bit from the one match while lvl 5 vs a bunch of double digit leveled players who kept referring to everyone as ‘children’…

[DarenaBryant]

@Sorotia said:
Join a different game and don’t stand still so much? While charging in head first isn’t smart…this is a fast paced game…sitting still is a ticket to a easy death…nothing makes it easier even for these rookie snipers to bag you like standing still.

There’s a difference between ‘running around in a game full of good shots’, ‘taking cover’ and ‘standing still’. I wasn’t just standing in the open, or posting up somewhere far from the fighting. I was placing mines, taking runs at encamped enemies and repairing the objective when it needed it (and the circumstances allowed). I was being active yet cautious, which you HAVE to do with Proxy, since she squishes really easy.

As for ‘leaving and finding another game’? Well… I did that a few times now. And landed right back in another mission with the same @$$ho… PEOPLE… as before, complaining I wasn’t invulnerable and exploding the entire map by myself. I can handle criticism, though it might not seem like it. This is just people expecting way more than they should from inexperienced players who managed to not quit in the first 6 levels.

I WANT to improve, but I’m being pushed out of the game by people I shouldn’t even be getting matched with and it’s depressing because I like the game otherwise.

[Tom2160]

@DarenaBryant There are a lot of high level players who are dicks, but there are always going to be dicks in any game. You just have to ignore them I suppose as there isn’t much else you can do about it.

Just make sure that you are always playing for the objective whilst using an engineer and once the C4 has been planted or the EV has been repaired try and flank the enemy as best as you can - team mates can push the EV for you and will defend planted C4. Your job, once the main objective has been completed is to defend the objective or try and flank them and try and blow up their safe zones (health stations etc.)

So long as you are doing this to a good level I don’t see why they would kick you. Remember to focus on the objective, keep moving and follow the tips which Eox listed above.

[Eox]

@DarenaBryant said:
One of the things I like about Proxy is how loudly she yells ‘ENEMY SPOTTED~!!’. It gives away positions and sneak attacks pretty easily and draws other team member’s attention with just a peek of someone from the other team.

Nobody pays attention to that, and it does not truly give away the position. It’s just a voiceline that happens when someone it shooting in your general direction or when you are shooting at someone. It’s not even audible if your allies are too far away from you. Every mercs are supposed to have that.

If you want a truly helpful spotting, try to play RedEye, Vassili or Aimee. But I don’t recommend you to do it until you get much more experience in this game. You need a decent aiming if you want to play snipers. Snipers that can’t hit anything are a burden, and people tend to votekick low level snipers anyway. Proxy’s mines can also be used to tell you when someone is crossing a path that you booby trapped (like Bushwhacker’s turret by the way), but they won’t actively spot enemies. It’s mostly just for you.

[ImSploosh]

Eox made a lot of good points.

There must be a reason for people wanting to kick you. The most obvious is probably that you’re running around trying to be rambo proxy while the objective isn’t getting planted or repaired.

I’ve been in a lot of matches where this is the case. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great if you’re actually taking out the enemy team, but if you think this is MW2 and you’re trying to get a tactical nuke… well you’re playing the wrong game. I play every class and understand all aspects of each class and the roles that people may have. Rarely do I initiate a vote kick against someone. When I do, I’m normally playing medic while there’s a few engineers around who refuse to repair or plant the objective. Problem with this is that if I’m planting/repairing, that means I can’t do any reviving/healing and ultimately means we lose the match. This is just an example, but it happens often and I will vote kick engineers who do not play their roles in these cases (if they’re level 7+).

Not saying this is the case, but it could be. Basically, play your role and it’s doubtful anyone will try to kick you. I understand when people get annoyed by others who are not playing their roles. I’ve been in matches where I essentially need to play every role and it requires suiciding occasionally to fulfill roles that others aren’t.

[henki000]

I would just ignore those level 90 bastards and propably report them for being arrogant noobs if they keep blocking your games. As a innocent level 7, you could totally own those people with well placed mine or headshot. Try to train some timing and unpredictables moves, and listen footsteps. Common newcomer mistake is to shoot right immediately on sight, you will surprise how good you can blend into enemy squad and plant right behind lines. If they dont like it, they can find more competetive mindset in ranked or min level 20 servers etc. I mean, what they expect when entering open server? I votekick only for AFK. Sometimes those mr. self-important people just cry in psychological matter. Fair play, fair game.

Level 58 talk.

[DarenaBryant]

@Tom2160 said:
@DarenaBryant There are a lot of high level players who are dicks, but there are always going to be dicks in any game. You just have to ignore them I suppose as there isn’t much else you can do about it.

Just make sure that you are always playing for the objective whilst using an engineer and once the C4 has been planted or the EV has been repaired try and flank the enemy as best as you can - team mates can push the EV for you and will defend planted C4. Your job, once the main objective has been completed is to defend the objective or try and flank them and try and blow up their safe zones (health stations etc.)

So long as you are doing this to a good level I don’t see why they would kick you. Remember to focus on the objective, keep moving and follow the tips which Eox listed above.

Have been doing so. Sometimes things devolve a bit into a firefight where going for the objective is certain death, but I focus on it more than anything else. I don’t really care about kills as Proxy (though I get more than a few from mines).

And yeah, I would ignore them… but they’re booting me from my games, guaranteeing me zero EXP and money for all the work I’m doing. It’s pretty hard to ignore that and just jump into another game.

I mean, put yourself in my position. You’ve been playing for 28 minutes, then get kicked just before the end of the mission, or have people trying to kick you and blame you for the mission going sideways. How many times could YOU ignore it before starting to feel there’s no point, especially with the same situation happening again and again?

I would admit it if I was REALLY playing bad. And I die a lot, but that’s for a combination of reasons. But it’s not like I’m trying to get killed, or ignoring my purpose in the party.

[DarenaBryant]

@Eox said:

@DarenaBryant said:
One of the things I like about Proxy is how loudly she yells ‘ENEMY SPOTTED~!!’. It gives away positions and sneak attacks pretty easily and draws other team member’s attention with just a peek of someone from the other team.

Nobody pays attention to that, and it does not truly give away the position. It’s just a voiceline that happens when someone it shooting in your general direction or when you are shooting at someone. It’s not even audible if your allies are too far away from you. Every mercs are supposed to have that.

If you want a truly helpful spotting, try to play RedEye, Vassili or Aimee. But I don’t recommend you to do it until you get much more experience in this game. You need a decent aiming if you want to play snipers. Snipers that can’t hit anything are a burden, and people tend to votekick low level snipers anyway. Proxy’s mines can also be used to tell you when someone is crossing a path that you booby trapped (like Bushwhacker’s turret by the way), but they won’t actively spot enemies. It’s mostly just for you.

It’s still loud and obvious. if everyone nearby hears me yell that and ignores it, that’s not my fault… its the same as people ignoring chat statements because everyone has them (which would be stupid). Yes it triggers when people are shooting at me or I shoot one of them; that’s the point. It means at the least I have a line of sight to them, and if the rest of the team doesn’t, it at leasts says ‘They’re somewhere near me.’

Also… Proxy. There’s no such thing as ‘my team not being near me’ unless I’m running out into areas I’m guaranteed to get shot in by myself, which I never do. I try to keep within at least the potential fire arcs of my teammates.

[Tom2160]

@DarenaBryant What region do you play on? On the EU servers I don’t see that many vote kicks. How often does it happen to you?

[DarenaBryant]

@ImSploosh said:
Eox made a lot of good points.

There must be a reason for people wanting to kick you. The most obvious is probably that you’re running around trying to be rambo proxy while the objective isn’t getting planted or repaired.

I’ve been in a lot of matches where this is the case. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great if you’re actually taking out the enemy team, but if you think this is MW2 and you’re trying to get a tactical nuke… well you’re playing the wrong game. I play every class and understand all aspects of each class and the roles that people may have. Rarely do I initiate a vote kick against someone. When I do, I’m normally playing medic while there’s a few engineers around who refuse to repair or plant the objective. Problem with this is that if I’m planting/repairing, that means I can’t do any reviving/healing and ultimately means we lose the match. This is just an example, but it happens often and I will vote kick engineers who do not play their roles in these cases (if they’re level 7+).

Not saying this is the case, but it could be. Basically, play your role and it’s doubtful anyone will try to kick you. I understand when people get annoyed by others who are not playing their roles. I’ve been in matches where I essentially need to play every role and it requires suiciding occasionally to fulfill roles that others aren’t.

I promise you its not. I focus the objective EVERY MISSION I need to. It’s what Proxy does besides planting bombs and dying really easy.

The idea of someone playing ‘Rambo Proxy’ is pretty funny. She can take one sniper hit, one shotgun hit, maybe 3 or 4 rifle hits and sometimes as few as 3 secondary hits. Who, knowing how easy she is to kill, would look at her and thing ‘Rambo’? Proxy is for mining objectives and corridors to deny passage, mining groups of enemies to catch them off guard and explode someone, and mostly doing repairs and setting C4.

As I stated, I was accused of ‘not moving around enough’ by one person; the other didn’t even give a reason, just voted to kick me, and I was in the middle of the ratings page for what I was doing for the team. In both cases, I would run/sneak in for EV repair, and set the C4 several times. I even carried the detonator once, and got pretty close, but saw that wasn’t a job for a squishy like myself.

…I don’t know what else to do at this point to play her effectively in the eyes of my teammates.

[Sorotia]

I just find it hard to believe that you keep winding up in this situation…I mean the majority of the time it’s like pulling teeth just trying to kick a afk player…how are you getting kicked from game after game?

You really have to be doing pretty bad to get this kind of ire from players on multiple servers in a row…I mean I’ve hardly ever seen anyone kick anyone else for bad performance.

[Cletus_VanDamme]

Meanwhile in AUS…

AFK players don’t get kicked.
Level 9 Proxy spamming ‘Shotgun, I call shotgun, because I have autism’ don’t get kicked.
Obvious cheater getting constant headshots killing the entire team don’t get kicked.

You live in a harsh part of the world.

[Sorotia]

@Cletus_VanDamme said:
Meanwhile in AUS…

AFK players don’t get kicked.
Level 9 Proxy spamming ‘Shotgun, I call shotgun, because I have autism’ don’t get kicked.
Obvious cheater getting constant headshots killing the entire team don’t get kicked.

You live in a harsh part of the world.

I don’t get it…this stuff happens all the time on the pub servers over in the US too…I’m wondering how he got all the bad luck and kicked numerous times when 80% of the time or more we can’t even get a afk player sitting in spawn the entire game kicked.

[Eox]

@DarenaBryant In the end your best bet to avoid getting votekicked is having some friends playing with you. Votekicks won’t happen if there’s enough players to refuse it.

Try to find a group of active players to play often with, and you should be able to get out of the single digit levels while learning the game at your pace.

[GatoCommodore]

@DarenaBryant

occasionally making suicide runs to toss a mine
I was dying a lot

i wonder why they tried to kick you…
really joggin my noggin

i think you should play more to better understand the game and see how annoying if your teammate does that.

also, proxy and phantom are useless against better players.

[doxjq]

“The idea of someone playing ‘Rambo Proxy’ is pretty funny. She can take one sniper hit, one shotgun hit, maybe 3 or 4 rifle hits and sometimes as few as 3 secondary hits. Who, knowing how easy she is to kill, would look at her and thing ‘Rambo’? Proxy is for mining objectives and corridors to deny passage, mining groups of enemies to catch them off guard and explode someone, and mostly doing repairs and setting C4.”

Actually Rambo Proxy is one of the most common terms in the game. She is quick and agile, and has a lot of killing potential, so she is good to flank with. Problem is people do this too often. It’s very common to see low level players completely ignore the objective and just go off on their own trying to rake up kills, and it is incredibly frustrating for high level players (or just anyone really) to see engineers doing this sort of thing.

“run at a crowd or camping area of the other team and lay mines (basically sacrificing myself)”

This will be the main reason people try to kick you. It’s the most frustrating thing to watch a Proxy player try and do, and it seems to be the only thing new players want to do with Proxy. Proxy is a low level merc imo. She can be good, she can be fun, but as soon as you start playing against high level players you’re going to find she’s pretty useless.

I’m level 141, and while I wouldn’t kick you I would certainly get annoyed if I saw you trying to flank the enemies camping spot instead of focusing on the objective. Basically if you’re going to play engineer, you’re going to be wanting to focus on the objective 100% of the time, unless another engineer already is. If another engineer already is, then that’s a good sign you should probably switch off Proxy any way. Even changing to Skyhammer (who you do own since he is free) gives you a little more HP, more killing potential and you can provide ammo for the rest of your team.

For what it’s worth too “rambo proxy’s” are one of the most hated things in the game for most people. Always has been and always will be. Especially if the person doing the rambo moves is constantly doing the same stuff over and over and dying every time (you have no idea how often you will see Proxy’s just run at you in a straight line with their mines out like clueless, brainless idiots) and just die every single time without doing an ounce of damage.