[Angeles2099]

If enemy A.I were spawning at manageable levels with moderate levels of aggression, how would you prefer your Antagonist match to go.

A. Friendly? (Non-Hostile)
B. Trash - They have no idea what there doing.
C. Challenge - without Coordination your probably going to lose.
D. Other

I ask because as a Raider I find matches without them are boring, i'm just going through the motions but with them I get on my toes and stay alert. And lately I've jumped back onto the Antag bandwagon and have been winning allot of them but I don't want people to Rage so I was wondering whats the common answer that will leave "Raiders" satisfied with seeing and potentially getting beating by them.

Or does none of that matter cause it all has to do with Gold & Blueprints.

[Angeles2099]

you mean like the protector?

[Angeles2099]

i agree, the only thing i'm guilty of what you said was lowing of the MMR. although I use it to have simpler Raider matches. for some reason if I get to a high MMR i get paired with tier 4's and higher which kills the team.

But anyway, so in no way do you enjoy a little pvp? isnt it too boring without them?

[Engelsgaard]

D) the Antag showing us that he could win, but then letting us win nonetheless, showing mercy. Especially when the team clearly is less competent than him.
For example he could refrain form killing the last wounded guy while in survive, or stay next to the old guy while not attacking him etc.

[Angeles2099]

I've never had that happen to me before but I've done it once or twice for others. but on one of those times I got hate mail saying how they won anyway and i told them cause I let them and they were like "yeah ok".

[Placelord]

D. No antagonist, I would say A but that just makes the enemies too easy unless they have super low mmr. Most of the antags i face are toxic pieces of shit that abuse broken game mechanics. Excuse the language but they really piss me off.

Like push weapons and the konstantin's sphere on white noise and no res. Sigh

[Placelord]

May I add a category? Ally: not just passive but assisting in completing the objective as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is my favorite but it only works when you are on mic with the raiders. Randos cannot comprehend an antag assisting even when it's extremely obvious.

For example; on low blow if you notice the antag is disabling the turrets and the final gate, don't attack. You're just slowing down your own success and being an ass for no good reason.

[Angeles2099]

Oh yeah I forgot about the Ally-Antag. Except they can only help in certain missions that allow it like Carrying Schneider, The Bomb, Shooting down Shields etc. but  I think its not so much randoms as it is low tiers raiders.
Once you figured out there friendly and they pick up the objective you could assume there aiming to help further.

[Placelord]

If only, ppl still attack even at higher levels. But yeah, there are surprisingly very few stages where an antag cannot meaningfully assist. I'mma just gush about my findings if anyone wants to speedrun some stages.

Short fused:
You can carry and set off the bombs on the first phase. For the second phase you can destroy the extractors when needed and provide aleph.

White noise:
You can destroy mines to minimize danger. You can pick up and move the extractors to more convenient positions without worrying about hazards.

Low blow:
You can destroy gates and destroy shielded turrets. For turrets without shields you can mount it to prevent ads from using them.

Beast lair:
You can drop the bridges to allow the raiders to get around more quickly.

Fistful of sand:
Provide aleph at the furthest prisoners on the first phase. Destroy or occupy the turrets on the second phase.

Double agent:
Shoot the exploding flowers to damage the mech and ads. Accumulate 1 aleph and get shot to death next to the mech.

In shock:
Accumulate 1 aleph and then get shot to death next to kuzman.

In medias res:
Mount turrets to disable them while keeping them operational for use against the beholder and squid. Carry the decoder. Carry Schneider to the end. Note that a raider needs to enter the extraction point once the boy is placed.

Mind over matter:
Destroy mines.

Upside down:
This one still needs more testing to confirm my theory. The antag can grab kuzman's head at any point unlike the raiders who can only grab it at certain times. I propose that if the antag and raiders coordinate properly they can keep it away from the spider long enough to win in as little as 2 cycles.

[Angeles2099]

Im Pretty sure you cant destroy Mines as Antags, I remember doing that in White Noise and I couldn't damage them. Also picking up Kuzmanns head in Upside Down is all you can do as you cant actually place it onto the pillar.

[Placelord]

Yeah on upside down you can't place it as antag. It's moreso a tactic to keep it away from the spider. The raiders can only pick it up from the terminal when it is burnt out. So if it is still in progress when the spider comes; they cannot take it away, whereas the antag can. But yeah I'll admit it could use some more testing.

As for the mines, last I checked antags can destroy the mines but not the miners. That may have been changed with a patch though. It's been a while since I've played.

[Poetpix]

wow I liked the antag system until you all mentioned the broken builds and even people trying to be friendly to the raiders which kinda defeats the whole purpose of being an antag, you know though, the whole antag system breaks the whole immersion if you think about it. When you first boot up the game Cortez leans into the screen a whispers to the player "If you want to switch sides later thats totally cool too." Not to mention the antag works for that giant space slug worm entity, which says really weird things that sort of break the fourth wall too by saying weird gamerish lingo like noobs or even his voice actor talks kind of weird....hm I guess the antag system needs a look under the hood after all in a future update. 

[Placelord]

wow I liked the antag system until you all mentioned the broken builds and even people trying to be friendly to the raiders which kinda defeats the whole purpose of being an antag, you know though, the whole antag system breaks the whole immersion if you think about it.

I really enjoy playing Ally antag. I would hate to see the devs patch out what I do as if it were a bug.

[Xinderoth]

C: Challenge. 

As the antagonist. I strive to show no mercy, and try as hard as I can to win. If I die during the match, I'll try even harder in the next spawn to kill those Damned Filthy Raider Scum. This is the only play-style that I find to be fun and enjoyable within the game.

[Angeles2099]

wow I liked the antag system until you all mentioned the broken builds and even people trying to be friendly to the raiders which kinda defeats the whole purpose of being an antag, you know though, the whole antag system breaks the whole immersion if you think about it.

I really enjoy playing Ally antag. I would hate to see the devs patch out what I do as if it were a bug.

I agree, when I see a low level team I try to be as friendly as possible and help them out. I don't benefit from this but as someone who just wants other players to enjoy there mission Id hate it to see them rage quit or something.

C: Challenge. 

As the antagonist. I strive to show no mercy, and try as hard as I can to win. If I die during the match, I'll try even harder in the next spawn to kill those Damned Filthy Raider Scum. This is the only play-style that I find to be fun and enjoyable within the game.

Exactly, on the other hand when I see a team of Tier - 1's and they have a well rounded team. I put the pressure on them then because I know that they'll either endure or completely wreck me.