CELESTA AUNGM
Kang Lo Directorate
Gallente Federation
113
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Posted - 2014.01.20 21:52:00 -
[1] - Quote
Many of us "Advanced Players" (I won't dare put myself in the masterful "Veteran Player" class), ground our SP and practice-practice-practice almost exclusively in Nightowl gameplay. Nightowl is the time when that player attendance number in the Start-up screen drops to 25000 or so (not 40 and 50K as in the daytime). Even the venerable Learning Coalition enters a period when it is not so easy to access their full staff of tutors and instructors, or even practice what they've taught you with helpful players watching over you, and you can presume that not only your timezone is fast asleep, but MOST of the timezones playing Dust on the Servers are relatively "sleeping".
But Nightowl Newberrys and Beginners shouldn't have to be left entirely alone:
Players like myself have always tried to contribute to learning groups in Dust, but we are also stuck in that same "sleep period" where there is little we can do to fully commit to being Tutors or Instructors. We'd like to give help to Beginners as a supplement to whatever you learn at Learning Coalition and similar Schools.
NO, I don't mean this as a substitute for the Learning Coalition, because they are doing invaluable work for this game.
But, during THE LATE TIMEZONE HOURS, when your classroom PC environments may not be populated enough to support you, I and others like me, can provide you with enough coaching and safekeeping to allow you to practice in the ordinary Public Contract matches, and still retain some of the safety that the classroom-district matches give during the more active hours.
 I am a DS operator by career, and an Artificer by game-style.
 No, I won't teach you how to drive a dropship---that's something you learn happiest on you own, believe me.
But my role in a fight is most successful when my passengers experience the value of grouping together, in a squad or not, using "the actions that protect and cover each other" as much as possible. (Some actions and tactics in Dust are so wild they can only be performed from a DS.)
I can keep you safer in locations of the map where you can practice (yes, even the wild DS-based tactics) with less of the strain of being assaulted every 10 seconds. And I will only expose you to gradually more danger in the match only when you feel more comfortable to try.
But, just like the Learning Coalition itself, I'm gearing this toward true Newberrys, the players who have the most trouble keeping alive in Dust, and need some safer play. So I have to keep some restrictions:
 My practice squads are usually locked, by invite only, to give REAL beginners and genuine learners some comfort without abuse or yelling-sergeant trauma. Sorry, but if I don't, these sessions just won't work.
 "Safer play" does not give a guarantee---the cramped fishbowl-size Pub matches can get even a careful practicing squad ambushed or killed. Please wear your cheapest hobo dropsuits to my sessions, to safeguard your ISK (a good covering squad can eventually rely on proto dropsuits less, and on each other more).
 If you're going to forget the group seduced into hyperactive run-n-gunning because you're really just here to LFS and find a proto gun...you'll have better results at that by just using the Squad Finder,....you don't really NEED to hook up with a learning/practice group just to abandon them.
 "Learning/practicing" means sometimes 20 minutes of Dry and Dull before you get to the face-shooting.... New Ones practice walking before they run, right? Truly new players tend to feel more comfortable with this discipline than familiar players, so again, if you're just looking to LFS, Celesta's DS will probably just bore you, so better not to sign up.
If you haven't been scared away by the description, you can find me on the Learning Coalition channel late nights, and the earliest I start is 22:30 (10:30 pm) US eastern time. Or send me mail if you wish.
There are a couple more Nightowls like me on the Learning Coalition channel, so feel free to bring your keyboard or MIC... yes, there is MORE than just a dropship to learn from at 1 am in the morning. |