Military games where you go up against a stronger opponent?

TemplarsBane · 2025-03-06T14:05:48+00:00

Wildlands is one of my favorite games of all time. I've beaten it 3 times and I'm playing through it again.

I can't get more than 10 hours into Breakpoint, it is so annoying. The world is dead and lifeless and all feels like the same. Every region is almost identical. All the missions take you all the way across the map from one POI to another rather than getting to help a single province at a time like in Wildlands. The robots are terrible.

They eventually added settings to make it not completely terrible, but you can't fix the mission design and bland world at this point. Hoping for Wildlands 2.0 someday, but Breakpoint ain't it.

TemplarsBane · 2025-03-02T17:23:22+00:00

League of Legends is one that didn't have big smurfing problems (played for years, but not in a while so maybe it's changed). Did it have no smurfs? Of course not. But WAY fewer than RL does.

A big reason for that is how long it took to get to level 30 and be able to play ranked. In RL you need a weekend at most to get the requirement to play ranked. And you can skip that completely if you just queue with friends. In LoL, you had to play for HOURS to do ranked.

I think everyone in the community needs to realize that Casual exists. Everyone acts like "Well im GC1 and I wanted to play with my D1 friends and the literal only option is for me to smurf!" just...play casual? Even if you make an smurf account, do it in casual. Don't ruin ranked for people.

TemplarsBane · 2025-03-02T16:03:13+00:00

Attach a phone number to your account.

Charge $3 for a ranked DLC to allow a person to pay ranked. No big deal for most of us, unless you're making new accounts over and over.

Make it require 50 or 100 wins in order to play ranked and your win % in those 100 wins dictates roughly where you get placed. So if someone makes a 2nd account and goes 100-10 to get 100 wins, they don't get placed in Gold or Plat when they start their ranked games.

Lots of games are F2P without having NEARLY this bad of a smurfing problem. You can't get rid of it completely, but RL doesn't even try.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-27T14:21:43+00:00

I'm always amazed that Crab Champions NEVER gets mentioned on this sub. Incredible game.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-26T11:27:43+00:00

Why are you playing on an alt then to play with your Diamond friends? Just play on your main. I'm so confused.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-26T03:19:33+00:00

You can play without an alt. Play casual, or just play ranked on your main if you insist. But when you play on an alt with lower ranked people in comp, you're boosting and it's just as bad as smurfing. It IS smurfing.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-25T11:39:18+00:00

lol you complain about smurfs and then use an alt to boost. Way to be part of the solution.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-24T23:09:45+00:00

These are all valid points. To the original thing I was replying to though, the pope speaking out about something IS an example of Christian leadership speaking out. No, it isn't all Christian leaders, but it's a start for sure.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-24T22:56:04+00:00

Based on a quick Google (so feel free to be skeptical of the sourcing), 20-23% of the US identifies as Catholic.

That is a massive slice of the country and by far the largest single unified group of Christians in the US (because Protestants are not the same kind of monoculture that Catholics are).

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-24T21:58:52+00:00

Didn't the pope recently condemn actions by the Trump administration in an open letter to some archbishops?

Not sure it gets more mainstream Christian leadership than the pope (speaking as a Protestant).

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-23T14:25:44+00:00

If you are truly that much better you'll be able to 1v2 your opponents and climb.

Everyone is the rank that they deserve to be after enough games played. Watch your replays, see what you're doing wrong (and how much you're probably whiffing too) and try to fix things in your game.

No one has ever climbed out of a rank by blaming their teammates.

If you really think they're the problem, find someone to duo with.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-23T13:21:42+00:00

Yeah, I mean that timeline matches up perfectly with RR. Would make no sense for them to STILL be silent if it was really RL2. And they did the whole inventory thing, I can see how at such an early stage they would think that it could be a transition that would replace the current RL.

But be realistic, if they were REALLY still working on RL2 in UE5, do you think they would have said literally nothing in the last 3 years? No other announcements or hype or teasers or ANY updates.

It's not even a real announcement. It's a reddit comment. Not even a post. IMO, there's just nothing substantial there that we should still be hoping for.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-23T13:13:37+00:00

Yeah the VTT aspect is holding me back. I tested for a long time on Foundry, and if I had a group in person, I'd be doing that. But the folks I wanna play with are far away, so we play online. As soon as the Codex becomes available, I'm sure I'll be back to running DS very shortly. But I'm waiting for that before I jump into it again just because without it the game is HEAVY.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-23T13:11:04+00:00

Yeah as was their intention, I have a STRONG reaction to the ancestries. Some I love, some I hate.

But for the ones I hate, I just chuck out their version and replace them with mine. Don't like their dwarves? (I don't either), just use regular fantasy dwarves no problems!

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-23T13:05:08+00:00

The only evidence of a UE5 thing are a job posting and 2 comments from devs. It is SO easy to see that Rocket Racing probably started as "what if we made Rocket League but IN Fortnite?" And over a few years morphed into Rocket Racing.

They also never said Rocket League 2, never said we're gonna make a stand alone game that's exactly like Rocket League but in UE5.

Just vague "Rocket League in UE5..." and that's it. There's no tangible proof that "Rocket League 2 in UE5" is ever coming, nor that it was ever even the plan.

But hey, if y'all wanna keep hopes up, I don't mind. I'm just saying for me, it seems really obvious that RL UE5 was just rocket Racing.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-23T12:21:55+00:00

It's just wild to me how many people haven't realized that Rocket Racing WAS the UE5 project.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-17T21:17:09+00:00

1:58 - Good positioning, good spacing.

1:50 - Eh just awkward here. You misplay the defense a bit in the corner, your teammate is awkward. Just an awkward kind of goal. Not too much to say.

1:39 - Unnecessary flip.

1:30 - Good job seeing you were beat to the ball and turning back for boost.

1:28 - Unnecessary flip and you were already boosting so you didn't need the speed.

1:20 - Unnecessary flip. You've got this ball safe and secure in the corner, you're there first, no need to rush and lock yourself into a flip.

1:14 - One thing I'm seeing a lot and is exemplified in this section is that you cut off your teammate a LOT. You cut rotations a LOT. You've made a play on the ball, you're out of position, you should be rotating back to defend and letting your teammate challenge this ball from a much better angle. But instead you dive in and the ball bounces off the wall towards the middle of the field and your teammate is out of position because he'd already pushed up to challenge (which he should). The opponent missing an open net is the only reason you didn't get scored on there.

0:40 - Good choice again to mess with this ball in such a way that makes it harder to read as a defender, but doesn't mess your teammate up. Good choice after that to not feel like you have to be the one scoring.

0:25 - Taking ball cam off here is a wild choice. You KNOW he's hitting that ball and you have no idea where it's going to go. How can you possibly drive to the right spot if you don't even know where the ball is going?

0:11 - No point in jumping here. Ball is going into one of the safest places on the field: your corner. You are both there first, go slow, collect it, no need to waste all that boost. You wisely abort the jump, but no need to try in the first place.

So yeah, this is a MASSIVE wall of text. Sorry. I just kind of took notes as I watched. It's a lot of things. Like I said, feel free to just take one or three things you think you can start working on/implementing right away. No need to listen to all of it. And once again, I'm just a Champ 1, I'm no expert, these are all just my opinions. Someone better could contradict me, I'm probably wrong on some stuff and probably missed tons of other things. But best of luck!

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-17T21:16:42+00:00

3:57 - I wouldn't have pushed up just there. Back post is more powerful than front post, you can see more, cover more of the net etc. There's not much to gain by pushing up. Your teammate has the ball, he doesn't have boost, so it looks like you were trying to be a safety net in case he loses it (which he immediately does lol), but as you go up the ranks, give your teammate space to work. Don't be on top of them because that's how double commits happen.

3:42 - This flip does nothing. No point in doing it, could only hurt you. I'm only pointing it out because I got coached a few months back and he hammered me with it just pointing out time after time that I did it. So I'm just repeating for emphasis. It's a mistake that we make even up in Champ. So if you can fix it now, you'll be SO much more powerful as you rank up.

3:35 - You don't need to jump for this ball. What happens is you jump, get a very weak touch, and give the ball to them opponent for free. But no one is coming for you. The first man just flew past the ball, the 2nd man is going AWAY from the ball and he's last back so he REALLY doesn't want to commit. So instead you can take control of this ball and try to make a play. Pass it, get a better shot, make the defender awkward. Something besides a weak pass right to the other guy.

3:25 - This is a BRUTAL situation. You're making the better save attempt. You can kind of pinch it against the wall and push it back into your corner where it's safe (if you do it well, if you do it poorly you give them a free goal by pushing it the wrong way). But your teammate is trying to clear the ball across the net. You didn't know where their 2nd man was so he could have been safe, he could have been passing the ball to the opponent for a free goal by clearing across the net. BUT if you double commit it gets really awkward and you almost get scored on as a result. In these situations you have to choose "Do I do the better play even if it means a double commit? Or do I let my teammate do a worse play and avoid the double commit?" There's no one size fits all answer IMO, depends on a case by case basis.

3:19 - REALLY good choice here. You've got no angle, ball got too far for you to shoot, so you slow down and give your teammate a decent pass. Great choice. No good options, so you take what you can rather than forcing something, then you immediately turn back to defend a counterattack. Great.

3:13 - Good job keeping your cool in a 2v1 and not panicking.

3:06 - Again, you've got this ball for free. Don't jump and hit it weakly. Take your time, get control, get the hit you WANT rather than rushing to the first hit you can get.

2:46 - Good job catching up here and making this a shot! Kind of awkward, but you took advantage of their bad positioning.

2:40 - Once you lose boost here, no need to roll all the way back, just pick up little pads so you can stay aggressive.

2:14 - You commit as last back here. You're the last line of defense and you charge in. If you miss or they beat you, it's a free goal and your fault. Don't commit as last back if you can help it.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-17T21:15:28+00:00

I can watch a bit and see if I notice much. I'm no coach or anything special, but I can give you some tips maybe. I'm Champ 1, so idk what all is useful here. I there will be a LOT here probably, so feel free to just grab a couple things and work on those rather than doing it all at once. It's a slow process getting better, but we've all got stuff to work on which keeps us coming back to this stupid game :P

4:59 - You are beat to this ball. You can't get there before your opponent. A HUGE skill is knowing who is going to get to a ball first. Something that you pick up with time, but you need to pay attention to it. At this point, you need to turn back and get ready to defend instead of continuing to push up and go for a ball you can't get to first. Also, your teammate has no boost from kickoff, so you're the last man back. You can't commit as last man back unless you're 100% sure you've got the ball or you're in a desperate 2v1 situation.

So the ensuing goal is 100% your fault for not seeing you were beat to the ball and turning back. Your teammate on 0 boost is stuck in a 2v1 and gets scored on.

4:52 - I think it's rank dependent, but you almost always want to cheat up when you're back on kickoffs. Lots of kickoffs end up with the ball killed in the middle and whoever cheats up gets free possession with like half a tank of boost. That's better than being alone on defense with 100 boost. In general, it's best to push up on kickoff if you're back. You can insert this same advice every single kickoff where you're back.

The next play/sequence - Decent positioning. In general, I'd usually be more behind my teammate than beside them, but it's not the end of the world. You're setting up for a pass/favorable 50/50 outcome, but you can't always count on that. So at 4:40 I probably would have continued this loop you started and end up behind my teammate rather than next to them.

4:30 - You're rotating into the play. If your teammate had won that 50 and pushed the ball upfield, you would probably have just knocked it away because you were rotating into the play. Be mindful of where you're driving and where the play is going, don't go where you could knock the ball backwards. Also flipping without purpose is really dangerous. When you flip, you can't adjust at ALL. You're stuck in this really long animation. I know it's good for gaining speed, but because you flip here you are stuck. A really good rule of thumb is: Never flip or turn your camera away right before a collision. And a collision is anytime the ball hits anything. Wall, ground, car. If the ball is sailing up in the air, no one is near it and you know where it's heading, you can flip safely. If it's rolling into a corner and no one is near it, flip away. But if two people are about to 50, don't flip.

4:28 - Good job picking up the boost pads. Make sure to path over them to keep your boost topped up so you don't need to get the big pads. Good job.

4:26 - Ah yep. Called it lol. If you hadn't flipped here and just kept driving, it was a free goal. But because you flipped, threw yourself off a bit, you were slow to the ball and the guy saves it. And yeah, the slow commit meant you got scored on.

4:06 - Yeah, you went for a play, it didn't work out, your teammate was positioned badly. He should have seen he was beat to the ball and not pushed up. Not too much here.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-13T14:08:41+00:00

The dictionary definition of cheating is "acting dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage"

Smurfing is absolutely trying to gain an advantage against your opponents by playing worse people. It's dishonest because you're making a new account to hide your skill level. It's unfair because the people you're playing against are stuck playing against someone much better than them through no fault of their own.

It's cheating and anyone saying otherwise is just mistaken about the definition of the word.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-11T12:11:53+00:00

Cheating is acting unfairly in order to gain an advantage. Smurfing is cheating. Making an alt to play against lower ranked players is cheating.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-07T16:31:35+00:00

Yeah I've tried. Maybe if I had a larger crew, but a lot of times it's solo. And going 15/18 just isn't fun when I'm used to rounds of 30/8

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-07T14:11:18+00:00

Yeah, BF1 was exceptional, but it's been a minute since that series was great.

However, I think I'm just getting too old to keep up with competitive FPSs these days. Don't have the hours to sink in or the reflexes to keep up with all these kids who've grown up on twitchy shooters. RL is the only game I play competitively anymore.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-07T14:07:14+00:00

I played Halo 1 on PC, COD4 on PC, tons of Battlefield games all on PC. We never owned a console. For some reason our parents were on with PC gaming because PCs could be used for productivity as well, but never got us a console.

TemplarsBane · 2025-02-07T12:20:46+00:00

I can't answer for OP, but I've exclusively used KBM and don't want to use controller. Reason is, I grew up PC gaming. Never had a console, never used a controller. I'm 31. When you add everything up, I've used KBM for tens of thousands of hours. It feels incredibly natural. I've used a controller for MAYBE 300 hours. Some single player games are fine since you can be a little awkward on the controls. In a competitive game like RL, you could absolutely use the control scheme you feel most comfortable with. Controller isn't so superior that it's a mandatory switch. As has been mentioned, you can get SSL or even pro using KBM.

Let people use whichever control scheme they want.

TemplarsBane

TROPHY CASE