From Deity to N-UBER
By Earl “LostInDreams” Guevarra
People, if you were expecting to see an “instructional manual” or a “strategy guide”, then go and rot yourselves in hell. In addition, if you wanted to see a memoir, then you might just as well pack your bags and move somewhere else. For this work is neither a basics book nor a collection of anecdotes; this is intended for all of US (me included) to see Mini Troopers (MT) from a different pair of eyes; to see beyond the rivalry, the records, and the whatnot; and to be able to see new perspectives “in-game” and “away from keyboard”, that is, AFK!
The game
Everyone who has played this game at least once should have gained some rudimentary knowledge of MT’s basics. And going to the basics mean that we should use the words that the international E-sports (or if you want a more general term, gaming) media bombard teenagers 24/7: metagame, insights, words, strategy and the like.
Enough of this baloney.
These terms are connected to two concepts alone: The Rig and The Maker. The former encompasses everything that has ones and zeros (and are used to support these functions), while the latter is related to everything that has a mind, soul, body, and heart.
Goddamn it. I’VE had enough of this rubbish!
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see new things unless we reflect upon the old ones, right? So to cut this one short, let me give an introduction for you (or re-orientation, if you must) to MT’s basics and mechanics.
The official tagline is that MT is a stand-alone title that is not anymore being updated by its makers, who are also responsible for the making of MyBrute, Die2Nite, and 10 other games…They are no other than Motion Twin, a French-based company that specializes in creating online browser games in four languages: English, French, Spanish, and German.
As for the game, it basically allows users to create an army with a maximum of 12 troopers; each trooper is offered a random set of choices per level up; the ability to buy troopers and do upgrades is determined by “credits”, and the game is basically fights against other people’s armies, infiltrations, rat-killing missions, epic battles and daily raids that occur at random (not all of them can be found in a single day). That’s pretty much it (and it’s boring, believe me) unless you have access to the Muxxu forums and/or clan in-house leagues that allow people to have tournaments.
Even though there’s a sense of randomness and chaos in-game, its mechanics does not give much room for making mistakes; it’s a common sight to see an army go OP (overpowered) with a single level-up, and the other side of the coin is also possible. This fact is well-known from the noob commander to the stronk general who has played this game from Day 1.
Here’s a map of what to expect, guys:
Levels 1-6=CORE
Levels 7-10=OPTIONS
Levels 11-14=COMPARTMENTS
Level 15 and above: I’M SO IMBA, I DON’T CARE!
If you ask what they mean, I’m willing to dice some words for you: Core means collecting weapons, getting the most imba low-tier skills and getting a well-placed class (or helmet in MT speak), Options mean experimentation, diversification, and/or specialization of skills; the third one is mainly concerned with more specialization, and the last one is something that most players don’t tend to pursue for two reasons: high costs and low tactical returns (this stems from the fact that the troop is too strong already as to have a tactical “path”).
I guess that’s more than enough for an introduction. If you want to find out more, go to http://minitroopers.wikia.com, and they will be more than happy to help you with your concerns…And a few more lines of text: Well-thought armies make strong ones, themed armies carry surprises, and copycat armies are goners!
I guess that’s enough. Let’s go to the things that matters.
Experiences and insights
I’m playing this game for four months now, and even though I’m not as good as the old-timers and the prodigies (if there are any), I can say that I’ve seen a lot of MT play and tactics up to this time. Ranging from CK Magellans to Twinoids, tank rushes to surgical spy strikes, everyone tries to make strategies…and if they see that it works, then people create counters to this strategy in the shortest possible time.
I’ve also done the same during my time at Kill League D (which was the only tourney I’ve won so far); but as the days progressed, I thought that I should not “counter-react”, I should create options and make people play a different game!
For those in the Twinoid forums, you may have known that I carry the most number of grenade-based in-game records. The reason is that I made it my game: My most successful battles involve grenades practically raining on the enemy, causing a squad to be wiped out from the face of the earth within the blink of the eye.
And that’s my playstyle; no one would be able to dissuade me from it, even if I suffer a spell of defeats that last several days. That’s the only thing that separates me from being a copycat army; I know very well what it means to have one!
For those new to this game, my advice is this: Create something new, even if it leads to your loss. Because one day, when all strategies have failed, yours might just get the extra mile ahead, and win you not just the game, but even the tournament!
Furthermore, if the two of you are countering each other hard, then you can try and make him/her play outside his/her comfort zone (It works in such games as SC2, COD:MW series, and DOTA, but I don’t know whether it works around here..), and if all else fails, you can always go and hammer them the hard way…or wait for luck to come by your side (which, I’m afraid to say this, comes only 10-15% of the time).
I know that there will people will criticize my views heavily, and that I’ll get lots of crap out of it. Don’t worry; everyone’s free to vent their anger; people have rights to freedom of expression…
Anyways, let’s go to another aspect of the game that many would agree with: game updates and development. As far as Motion Twin is concerned, there haven’t been any updates on the game for a very long period of time. That means that there will be no new things in the near future; however, considering that builds are created from random selections, then there’s not much chance for the metagame to go stale.
However, it would be really helpful if the developers allow a “tournament mode” (similar to MyBrute) where players can go solo or in teams of 3/5 and draw it out with another team in real-time. Picks and bans would also be welcome; seriously, who doesn’t want team play and more strategies? Also, they can add at least more vehicles/introduce some weapons, skills, and equipment into the game…that would help the game to be more diverse.
Graphics is also a topic of contention here: since the models were taken from a Nintendo game, they seem to be outdated for this age…Just saying. Other than that, MT is a freaking great game that is free and accessible by anyone who has access to Internet, and that alone makes it very good already.
Community
Any wall of text that talks about a game would be incomplete without the people and the key players in the community. MT, for its part, has a surprisingly updated and detailed Wikia page with several admins and many contributors; in addition, it has one of the most tightly-packed forums on the Twinoid website, with almost everyone knowing each other, helping others, and getting angry towards trolls together!
Most of the time, the site has a set of administrators, moderators, and community representatives that help keep things going as smoothly as possible. Honestly, I’ve never seen spamming, flaming, or other things of the sort; it’s because the ones in charge quickly take action when they know something bad is wrong (even if the response is utterly delayed or late!); and if there’s something that you can call a “competitive scene”, you can find it in the forums, from the monthly double-elimination melees to the continuously-running leagues, although some small-scale clans and organizations do tourneys of their own.
The community is good for a game like this. If it stays this way, Minitroopers can have the potential to be one of Europe’s, if not the world’s, premier browser game titles. After all, in order to games to grow, one must have a strong community behind it, right?
I guess that’s all I can say for now. After all, I’m still young (and pretty much new to this game); I believe I must learn a lot of things before I can get a complete grasp of this game.
Hope you enjoy playing guys. GL and HF to the new kids on the block, and…GG WP for those guys on the leagues!