With people tiring of Ultimate Mode, endless leveling and owning every duped item in the game, there seems to have been a revival of interest recently in Challenge Mode. Perhaps because of this, there has been an influx of new players on Miranda 11 joining the existing cmode addicts community. Before I go any further, let me add that this is a GOOD THING! No-one is trying to be all precious and moan because loads of noobs have suddenly started invading Miranda. Anyone who wants to play for real and try challenge mode is cool in my books.
However, the Miranda blocks (11-13 and sometimes 14 when it gets busy), have been established for a long time, and have almost become their own community within PSO itself. As such, there are a few 'customary' ways of doing things that new people may not be familiar with. This can cause frustration and upset the balance of the community, but isn't usually the fault of the new people, because without being told, how are you going to know this?
For this reason, I thought it would be useful to write a few paragraphs for all those people who thought they might like to visit Miranda and kick some cmode butt with the rest of us.
Note: This is not a Cmode tactics FAQ. If you want to know how to play Cmode or learn the maps, try mamak-int.com. I don't consider myself the right person to try and teach you.
Team Names
Cmode teams (the list you see when you look for a game to join) are usually named using certain conventions. I'll concentrate on the English naming conventions, many of which are followed by Japanese players to a greater or lesser extent.
The name of a team is important, as it tells you a lot of information about the game. For example, a team name may look like:
"C7 TA 3Hu1Fo"
It's really not that difficult to work out what is being said here, but it might be helpful to point it out anyway.
In the above example, the player who made the team wants to do challenge stage 7 and requires a team containing 3 Hunters and 1 Force. Based on this, the following rules apply:
1. If you are a Ranger - DO NOT JOIN!
2. If you are a Force, and a Force has already joined the team - DO NOT JOIN!
3. If you are a Hunter, and there are already 3 Hunters in the team - DO NOT JOIN!
Pretty simple huh? Ok, you might be asking at this point "What about the TA bit - what does that mean?" - Good question!
If you see "TA" in a team name, this means the game is a "TIME ATTACK" game. The player who made the team wants to get the best time possible, and will usually be an expert player. If you are not an expert player yourself, do not join this team.
Now, this is important: There seems to be a problem with most people's egos when it comes to admitting inexperience. This does not mean "are you new to PSO?" It means "are you an *EXPERT player* in the Cmode stage you are attempting?" By expert player I mean someone who knows the complete layout of the stage ("the map") and the fastest route through it. I have lost count of the number of people who have entered TA games in the past claiming to be experts who clearly have no idea what they are doing.
If you are at all in doubt, either don't join TA games, or make it clear to the team creator that you might not be sure what to do and let them decide. Don't be offended if they ask you (politely) to leave.
You may also see Team names containing any or all of the following:
"FULL", "Reserved" - This means that the person creating the team has already found 3 other players - DO NOT JOIN!
"Under nn", "< nn", where 'nn' is a number - This will often appear in conjunction with "TA" and means you should not join the game if you haven't achieved a time for that stage that is below a certain number of minutes (indicated by nn). For example "C1 Under10" means that if you have not done Challenge Stage 1 in under 10 minutes, DO NOT JOIN!
"JPOK" - This tells Japanese players that it is ok for them to join an English game. A few people put this, but *personally I don't like it* - This is because I believe Japanese players should be free to join any game without having to be 'invited'. However, if you really don't want JP players, put "ENGLISH" or something similarly explicit in the team name. There are occasions when you want to practice a level and you want to be able to speak a lot of English, in which case it's better to make this clear in the team name, rather than trying to explain it to a JP player who has joined without knowing.
Note: Please try and avoid phrases like "No JP" as it isn't terribly polite to bar people based on their national identity.
A lot of Japanese players will use terms like "TA" in their team names, along with a few of their own characters. If you are unsure about what they are asking for in the team name, proceed with caution.
Word Select and Politeness
You will probably notice that there is a lot of "Word select" used on Cmode blocks. Most experienced players will have a range of word selects already shortcutted as this saves a lot of time wasting if you have to type common phrases during gameplay.
You may notice if you play a lot of games, that the same phrases seem to crop up again and again. Indeed, there is almost an expected level of politeness which goes along with playing Cmode. This is partly because of the international nature of Cmode (a lot more teams contain people from multiple countries) and partly just something that has grown up through convenience.
The following is by no means a definitive list of things you should do - it's just what I do and nearly every experienced Cmode player does. Most of this will be plainly obvious to decent people, but its amazing how rude some individuals can be.
1. When entering a team, greet your new teammates. Most commonly this consists of 2 word selects "Hello> Everybody" and "Good to see you> Everybody".
2. If you made the team, greet players individually as they join with "Hello> Playername". It is particularly polite to use "word select" on this occasion as you do not immediately know the nationality of the person who has just joined, so it is nice to greet them in their native language.
3. A lot of people, myself included repeat the "Good to see you> Everybody" after the stage loading sequence. I don't know why - it just happens that way. I like to think we're willing the game to make our characters appear quickly, but that's just my own dumb fantasy.
4. When you complete the challenge, a simple "Congratulations> Everybody" or "Good playing with you>Everybody" is a nice gesture. Also don't forget to say "Goodbye" before you leave the team.
5. If one of your team dies during Cmode, causing you to fail the stage, NEVER EVER critisise them unless there is an overwhelming reason to do so. A simple "np np" will do. Most non-English speakers understand "np" and will be grateful. Believe me, you *will* die many times, and you *will* cause your team to fail. Often it's no-ones fault (maybe too many monsters or a bit of bad luck). This applies even if you've gone all the way through C9 and someone has died at Falz. However frustrated you might be that someone else has caused you to fail, NEVER express the frustration openly. It is one of the worst breaches of Cmode etiquette.
As I said, how you behave is up to you, and it's a bit sad that I've felt it necessary to write about common manners, but they work; and it makes the game a much nicer place. I'm sure that most of you who come to PSO World don't need to worry as you're all nice people !
Finally, and this really p*sses me off, ***NEVER NEVER EVER*** make comments like "Oh God a JP Player" or "JP F**k Off" when a Japanese player joins your team (for JP, insert any non-English speaking player). I realise its a bit pointless saying this, because if you're that sort of childish, ignorant tosser then you're not going to listen to me anyway. Quite honestly the Japanese players on average, are by far the best Cmode players, so you should welcome them with open arms - they'll get you a faster stage time.
Cheating and Other tips
Like the rest of PSO, some sad, lonely individual seemed to think it was necessary to make codes for cheating on challenge mode. (What part of the word "Challenge" don't you understand???) Cheating is probably frowned upon in Cmode more than any other area of PSO. Please if you have to do it, take your silly little codes somewhere other than Miranda.
If you don't want to play Cmode, and you want to make a regular game (e.g. Ult mode), try not to make it on one of the Miranda challenge blocks. The blocks get very busy and the server can become laggy. The last thing that is needed is non-Cmode games clogging up the system even more.
Well thats about it. If I think of anything else, or any other players have anything to add (or if you fundamentally disagree with me), please feel free to comment.
Peace & Love,
Chi.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: LollipopLolita on 2002-08-23 15:43 ]</font>
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