Profile of JibberJabberJobber

Please vote in this thread if you want to see this ability changed:

https://www.coh2.org/topic/107450/what-to-do-with-radio-silence

I mean being used 13 times in tournament they where used less in previous tournament as far I can remember even in WC2019.

Now read the post I responded to and you will see my point.

Jeez, they went from getting picked 7% to 9% of the games and their winrate went down from 25% to 23%, incredible.

I did not foresee them doing this much better before comparing stats, my bad.

I am under the impression that they actually did better than they did in previous tournaments where they where not picked at all...

You mean Isildur picking them once, losing, and then saying afterwards he never should've picked them?

I already said in a previous thread that it comes down to how we see the use of tac map: Do we see it as an equivalent play style to "normal" view or not?

It is one of the greatest benefits to CoH as an RTS series and praised by the playerbase. I doubt the competitive scene would've delivered as good or as many players without it, so yes.

I personally think that using tac map is an active choice. Players trade general overview for less situational overview. If you fully rely on it than that's a gamble, just like fully relying on the normal screen can cause you to lose awareness as well. If players are only capable of doing one playstyle only than they make themselves vulnerable.

Learning how to use the tacmap most optimally as to not impact your precision is something many players that use it can still improve on. You could argue some like Luvnest are a bit overreliant on it, I personally think Isildur uses it in the perfect way.

But in any case, most of the best 1v1/2v2 players like Isildur, Noggano and Luvnest are reliant on tacmap and it shows it's an important factor to success.

There's but a handful of players at top level 1v1 that don't use it and they usually come from a 2v2-only background, like Seeking and Expensive Runner, where engagements are less spread around the map.

Lesser still is the amount of players who used both ways at top level. I can only think of Kimbo, who forced himself to use tacmap after losing to Asiamint in a tournament in order to improve further.

Can it be beneficial to get as proficient as possible with both? Yes, if even just to understand the disadvantages and advantages of both to reach what you're most comfortable with.

Would I call one of the players better over the other by how proficient they are at either? No, and that's honestly where the issue lies with Radio Silence, it has nothing to do with strategy or gameplay and all to do with preference, which is why I believe an ability should not make one of them practically useless. I want to see both players being able to play at their best within the boundaries of the game, not the UI.

Out of interest since you obviously disagree with me:
How do you think about abilities like the spy network and others that enhance the mini map/tac map view? While not 100% comparable, those abilities also alter the usage of UI for one play style only.

I don't agree an ability you can only get much use out of with tacmap ( - and honestly in this case it's as simple as opening and closing tacmap, not really a micro style - ) is an equal problem to an ability that makes the opponent's UI almost useless at gathering information at best and forces him to completely change how to gather information, navigate, make decisions and give commands at worst.

Could argue Relic made the default hotkey for tacmap too hard to reach and not rebindable though.

PD: reminder that this whole thing became good the moment we attached sprint into it.

Also reminder that no one ever used it before it got the movement bonus.

This ridiculous assertion annoys me to no end.

Have you watched the tournament games? Did you think those games against Luvnest ending with multiple wipes and GG at 20-25 minutes were mostly caused by squads moving 20% faster?

And also the earlier games with Seeking and Noggano against weaker players ending at 10-15 minutes with the same story.

Panzer Tactician was considered weak in the first few months of this game's existence (I still remember arguments like "it's pointless, you can just attack ground through it"). What players thought was strong back then and what they think now doesn't say everything.

For one, you could call it skill ceiling rising as the playerbase discovers more strong abilities and synergies. For example: even after the speed boost it took a long while for other players to catch on, now it's the staple ability at top level. Who knows what players will find in the future.

Second, playstyles have changed allot. Around when Kimbo came to the scene, meta has been focused allot more around wipes, setting the stage for an ability like this.

Third, some aware top players like Luvnest have been using the ability since forever, it's just that the speed boost has made it accessible or at least discovered by players in automatch, because it now gives something dependable outside of an invisible benefit.

The fact remains that that invisible benefit is by far the greater evil of the two. If I had to give to give an estimate from watching it getting used, it makes tacmap players up to 50% less effective at playing, depending on how tacmap (or minimap) is used.

There is no real counterplay to this if you're dependant on tacmap, outside of completely changing your micro style for 60 seconds. Turning your micro style around by 180 degrees is not required by any other ability in the game and requires untraining things you might have been used to for years.

I frankly think if there was an ability in any other highly competitive RTS that messes with opponent's UI, it would've been removed a long time ago, unless the game was built around it.

I'd call this ability one of the worst designed in the game, only thing on the same level might be the B4 for different reasons, but B4 has almost no impact on competitive play while Radio Silence is actively ruining it in its current state.

Sadly the game is kinda stuck with its assets and design, so you have to keep the UI messing to have it make sense, but can make it so it only causes initial confusion and delayed reponse from the opponent, instead of keeping him constantly handicapped for a long duration. I'd keep the speed boost, so it has a use against players with different micro styles.

And yes, unless Radio Silence is implemented in a weird way, icons appearing again after a certain amount of time in combat should be possible, would have to take a look tho.