Podtacular Episode 11

October 2, 2005

86 minutes, 40 seconds

what kind of blood pumping ass kicking music was that for an intro…

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• the2cheat, has started a new tricktacular group for those tricksters amongst us, he is also setting a “trick together” for lots of people to come and get to together if you want in send him a friend request.
• spelchek has just got down a notch for those… guests.
• haloplanet.com added podtacular as a permanent feature to their site.
• Alexander Cruise has started a hog racing tournament… [if this turns into nascar I’m going to break something]
• There is a new podtacular clan, Podtacular 05! some ass decided to steal the name Podtacular 5… ass.
• Everyone in Podtacular 2 has been booted by a shifty person that Spelchek made a staff member [no names…], if you want back in send spelchek a message, or go here and post your tag.
• CapnKrunk is heading up the Podtacular.com team for our new web site, so just hang in there kool stuff is to come!
• Podtacular TV will accompany Podtacular Episode 12! it will be available some time around the show notes.
• Podtacular Showdown! 29 of October there will be another Podtacular Tournament, for more information click this dot .

WEB RESOURCES

• www.hyperhalo.com, cheaply made halo site to discuss the 360…?
• www.halo2mania.blogspot.com blog.
• www.custom-halo.blogspot.com customs blog.

GENERAL TIPS

• Don’t worry about wasting ammo on team snipers… there’s lots of it.
• Use a point of reference when giving directions, or use landmarks.
• Communicate! Tell your team where they are, what they have, and what there status is [health, shields etc.].
• Support your sniper! If you support your sniper and he’s good, that’s around 12 easy kills
• Never leave on your own, 2 is better than 1.
• If your friend has no shields, try to block the bullets coming at him.
• When you’re ahead, camp, make them come to you, the battle will be on your ground and to your advantage.
• When playing objective games and your ahead, play defensively. Covering the objective carrier
• Decide who is going to snipe during that game, and let him do his thing.
• Have one guy stay with the sniper, he can take care of the close range, and pick up the rifle he dies.
• Make treaties in rumble pit to gain an advantage over everyone else. Be careful, your ally should be someone you trust [note you will piss people off].
• B X B, hit x to cancel the melee animation after you hear the sound of you hitting your enemy. There is a small window of opportunity, so be fast.

BATTLE RIFLE TIPS

• When aiming at someone’s head a small dot will appear in the middle of your reticle. make sure that you are within optimal range [when the reticle turns red, this also indicates when auto aim will assist you].
• A great way to reload quicker, is to press Y twice, there is only a small window of opportunity but after a while this will become instinctual.
• You can shoot down incoming grenades. Shoot a grenade when someone is just about to throw one at you, and you can blow it up before they even release it, giving you a huge advantage.
• Crouch quickly in a close range battle to surprise your enemies.
• If you have a friend that can work well with you, dual wield 2 plasma pistols and give him a battle rifle. You take out the shields and he takes off their heads.
• If someone tries to combo you, you can block his plasma burst by meleeing one of your plasma pistols in front of it. if you are good enough you can do the same thing with a grenade.
• To improve your newb combo abilities, play “newbie booby”.
• To improve your reaction time play swat, or similar games.
• Get good with frag grenades, this can work very similarly to a combo.

MAP OF THE WEEK: BACKWASH

• In standard Slayer games, the Energy Sword on Backwash is the main priority (because there are no other power weapons on this map). The person with the sword is most likely going to score a lot of points. The only problem is, it’s really easy to spot an energy sword’s glow through the mist. The best plan when you have the sword is to hide in the shadows, with the sword hidden as your secondary weapon. When someone is unlucky enough to walk near you, take them out quickly and quietly. Be sure not to stay in one spot, though, or people will catch on to your guerilla tactics and come at you with full force.
• Get the shotty or the n00b combo to take out the sword and everyone else.
• “Wirtjes One says: i just want to say that this level is just a ginormous swamp with a boring building in it. I’m sorry to any one i offended. i don’t care though. this level is not like frosted flakes… it SUCK! sincerely,WirtjesOne (wer-chess-one) ” [moron, learn some grammar. if your going to flame something, do it right].
• Play on your own or with a few friends in non-matchmaking games to learn where the grenades are. Especially in the multi-team or rumble those can be your best friend when tossing them into a huge firefight to gain multi-kills.
• I hate this map because you can’t see anything. Just get the shotgun or brute shot and get into the upper part of the building. When this map comes up in matchmaking, I just grab the sentinel beam and advertise my location because it sucks so bad. And by the way, I know how to use grammar and spelling, I just messed up on my last post by leaving out an I. Great show. Keep it up.
• Usually people go for the energy sword. Well don’t do that just yet. Wait under the log or near the energy sword because you can guarantee some is gonna come for it. When someone least expect knock them out before they grab it or when some people start fighting over it take out the weaker guy grab the sword and run for the camo. Just take it so no1 else can. Then jump down to the lower level and hide on the side of the thing at the base of the building (I don’t no what it is called). When some1 comes jumps over it to get to the other side or go in the bottom of the tower attack them. Also this worked for me after you get the energy sword go drop it on the ground for the shotgun or somewhere were some1 might see it. When you drop it go hide and when some1 comes near it take them out. This strategy only works a couple times. And last but not least if you need additional power grab the sentinel beam and melee people. It hurts. Just don’t shoot it unless you wanna tell people where you are at.
• A lengthy spawn timer on the Active Camo should immediately show you one thing about Backwash—if it spawned faster, it’d be overpowered. The Active Camo works so well on Backwash that your team should be fully aware of the three-minute timer on the Active Camo. In the dark swamps of Backwash, being invisible should give your team a couple of easy kills in either objective-based game types or team slayer.
• The most important weapons on Backwash funnel to the outside of the map, so when the map launches head to the outskirts and start grabbing the weapons. The important ones here are going to be scoped weapons first (Battle Rifles and Carbines) and secondly plasma pistol and shotguns.
• As much of the map is covered in darkness, using the light (or lack there of) is to your benefit. As fun as the Sentinel Beams are to use, on Backwash they are Bungie’s way of having people give away their exact locations. The beams pierce through the swamp and are Backwash’s equivalent of a “kick me” sign. Another thing players should be doing is hiding the Sword (if they aren’t anyway, for shame). The Sword is another beacon of light in the swamps.
• Backwash is a good map for CTF, but the slightly off-center placement of the Sword by the tree, one team will get to the Sword first, giving them a Sword, Carbine and Shotgun, to the other team’s Shotgun and Battle Rifle, so depending on your base color, it could be a bit of an uphill climb. Don’t forget you can jump from the tree into base to grab Active Camo.
• The Grav Lift in the bottom of the base will boost you to the top floor, but this often times isn’t a good thing as the traffic in the middle of the map gets a little bit hectic. On Backwash, players don’t start with grenades, so it’s important to grab those from where the map is lit around the base.
• In Slayer game types, Backwash is all about holding down a section of the map. You and your teammates need to hole up away from the light and protect one another. You can crouch up underneath trees on Backwash. Backwash is a map that requires people think a little bit and because of the dark environment, teams that work together as a unit will find more success than teams whose members spray dual SMG fire constantly.
• Camp in the middle of the map, but be careful, most people are wary of the middle, and might grenade you or avoid the middle entirely. You can’t stress this enough, especially if you have any close range weapon or the brute shot. Since players start with no nades, it’s easy to camp there without constant nading.
• So you’re playing a nice slayer match, and you go into a battle with a guy, he sees you first and he’s got a lead on your shields, so you point your reticle up and press the left trigger to see if you can clip him with a nade, but to no avail, there are none in your inventory, and you die a miserable death. Know where the grenades are, they can really turn the tide in the battle here, and its really annoying when you press the left trigger and find you have nothing.
• Sentinel Beams can be useful here at close range, since it has the melee power of the rocket launcher. A few seconds of the beam on an enemy’s shields, and a quick melee can really help.
• Try putting Light Vehicles and Turrets on here, it can make a pretty fun custom game.
• On an objective game like CTF or Assault go strait through the middle. it is the most dangerous but the easiest to get to if you drop the flag or the bomb because it has so many ways to get in.
• On an objective game like oddball stay on the outskirts when you have the ball. In slayer I try to get the sword and a BR and you should be gravy. I usually run around the map in circles more towards the edge of the map with the sword hidden unless you are cocky and dumb. If you get someone else to run around with you on Team Slayer its even better because you sort of get like a wolf pack thing going on and just continue to sweep the level. You will usually only meet up with 1-2 players from the opposite team if you are constantly killing them properly.
• Sometimes it is better to stay still for a second or two in the shadows and wait for a kill to come by. Also run to the middle to get the Camo or bad juju will come down upon your face.
• Usually I like to get the BR and the sword for this level, it helps out a great deal if an enemy comes up from behind you in the mist and you can’t kill them with the BR. I mostly stay with my team because like every other level your team can own if you all stick together. Having BR is also a great help because it is kind of hard to find if you don’t know where to look and when you have it you can take out enemy’s quickly and efficiently since its harder to find the enemy with all the mist in the way.
• Good SWAT strat: The reason why i have the edge over my opponents when playing SWAT on this map is because what i do is put my BR cross hair on the horizon and move it left and right slowly and you can pick up the enemies names that come over their heads before you can see them so i fire below the name and i get them with no challenge. An even harder thing to pick up when your looking across the horizon is try to pick up the auto aim trying to focus on the enemy its hard but more effective because it finds people more further away in the mist. So it gives you the edge than someone using the name to try and kill you!
• Backwash is the most unique small map for you to be placed on for small game types like Team Slayer, Team Skirmish, Rumble Pit, etc. What most people don’t do in any of these game types is blend in with their surroundings. One fact about a highly defined environment: MAKE FRIENDS WITH IT. Because of Backwash’s fog, it’s hard to decipher what is an enemy and what is a figment of your imagination, so start practicing with a custom-made game with your friends.

• Team Slayer:

• You either end up at Red Base or Blue Base, both have a sentinel beam and plasma pistol already there when you spawn. Be sure to pick up the plasma pistol before you go out, it will come in handy at times. By now either your team or the opposing team has the sword. If you do, you have the upper hand. If you don’t, take the time to grab the brute shot and/or shotgun along with some of the scattered grenades on the map.
• The sword is a dead give away in the mist, so conceal it behind your other weapon if you have it. If an enemy has it, hope that they have it out for you to shoot him with the plasma pistol and throw a grenade. When one person starts shooting, EVERYONE starts shooting. Within one second you have engaged the enemy. If they come in groups, and they do, throw a welcome party of grenades to greet their arrival.
• If your team is dying or dead, then start weaving through trees to avoid fire. Because of all the commotion and weapons lights, your team will find their way back with no problem. This game type is easily won by means of a brute shot, sword, battle rifle, shotgun, and any other weapon, along with grenades. This may seem like a long list, but when you have it, you will definitely win the game.

• Team Skirmish:

• Backwash is Assault and Capture the Flag capable. On Assault, If your team has the bomb, try to go ahead of him with everyone else on your team, and take the tower in the middle, save the Active Camo for your bomber. Then secure the sword with is to be given to your bomber also. Giving your bomber man the best weapons can give him a one-man army of his own. If he wants it give him a battle rifle, the bomber man is your leader during your turn of Assault.
• Infiltrate the enemies compound after you have given your bomber a good self defense, the enemy will most likely be waiting with a shotgun, plasma pistol, and sentinel beam. If they have grenades and you have grenades, sucks for them. You can easily throw three grenades and take out everyone on their team for they will wait on the INSIDE of their base for your bomber man. Being in an enclosed area with grenades is a bad combination. They will certainly be dead within their base by your grenades, so go on in.
• Once inside, it’s a straight shot to plant the bomb, be sure he is crouched and looking down directly over the spot so that if he gets killed, the bomb will not bounce a lot off its mark.
• On Capture the Flag find the same good weapons for yourself and take out anyone in your way that is an enemy. Grab the flag and have your team create a human chain for you to jump to pass the flag to your comrade have him do the same for the next teammate, and so on until you are back to your home to score a point. This is a weird game type to play on Backwash, and I don’t have enough experience to give more tips for CTF on this map.

• Rumble Pit:

• What I think is the most intense game type for Backwash. There is really an easy way to win over your enemies, actually. Grab the sword and a battle rifle or carbine with a full stock of grenades and watch for any commotion of a large firefight within the middle of the map. Be sure to have you battle rifle out rather than sword to not give away your position.
• Your position should be on the very sides of the map, away from the middle, midway to either base. When a fight breaks out, start shooting from your distance and throw grenades. If a person starts shooting you from a long rang, use your battle rifle also, but when they are close range, take out the sword.
• If everyone sees you with the sword, throw a few greeting grenades and use the sword through close combat. If you die, your score should be he highest. If you don’t have the sword, get a shotgun, and if that’s taken too, then a brute shot. People are suckers for grenades on this map for ANY game type, so if you can’t beat them, join them.

• To get on top of backwash simply go to the hill at the entrance of any base. crouch jump onto a bent over tree and turn around and jump onto the support for the structure in the middle. this spot is PERFECT for battle rifles! thaxgt effrum117 (remember me you guys won me 20$)
• The best combo on this map is the shotgun and BR combo! since the shotgun doesn’t have a “glowing problem” like the energy sword does, it is best for close-range attacks. Since the BR can kill you in 4-5 head shots, its the best for ranking up fast kills from afar. One combo that i found works quite well is to take the shotgun out, fire once (it doesn’t matter how far away you are as long as you see their shields flare), then whip out the BR and it will take them down in 2-3 head shots before they have a chance to even fire two BR shots back at you.
• I’ve only come across this map in Rumble Slayer games. Usually I “go hunting” on this map. Yes, there’s a lot of killing going on in the middle, but if you circle the outside of the map you’ll be surprised at how many kills you can pull off. The trick is to kill and KEEP MOVING. Once you’ve shot, you’ve announced to everyone on the map where you generally are. I’ve also noticed a couple of the typical spots people pick to hide in are the outside base door edge. People love climbing it, and camping. The other one is right under the roots of a tree near the sword spawn. As far as the sword, keep your distance and BR ‘em to death. Of course a couple grenades wouldn’t hurt either.
• An easy tip that not enough teams use is to not be afraid of assists. The PP/BR combo dominates in backwash, but the initial rush is so important, it can be a tough combo to put together. Instead, at the start of the match, have one player fall back into the base to grab the PP and on his way out pick up the frags one the left or right side of the base. This allows the rest of the team to rush for BR, Shotty, Sword, brute shot, or whatever else they want. Working in tandem, the PP guy can drop shields rather quickly and leave another player with BR or smg/mag combo to finish things off. If you maintain a rotating offense, you can circle the map with just 3 guys and constantly refill ammo. Just make sure to use the 4th guy for recon to keep an eye out for camo and sword.
• I’ve found the most important skills in this map are the four shot kill with the battle rifle, since that lets you take down people in an instant before they know where you are, and knowing how to spot the difference between an innocent shadow and a snipers silhouette while scoped with any semi-long range weapon (br, sniper). also, DONT USE COVY WEAPONS! it is stupid since they glow so bright and if u haven’t already heard this 100 times, remember it this time. oh, and don’t us plasma nades unless u can get a stick for sure. i don’t have live, this is my real name, and it is pronounced st-eff-un.
• We all know Backwash is pretty much a circle that people run around. Deviate! Do not run on the outer rims of it, but rather inward and through the brush if you can. There’s been so many times that i’ve gotten someone just because they were running on the usual path towards me, but I was off to the side.
• The camouflage is in the upper part of the center tower. It’s very important to get this because of the foggy atmosphere to begin with.
• Battle Rifles are great for this map. Enough said.
• There are openings on the lower tower and elevators that will push you to the second tower quickly, make use of this if you’re caught between a grenade and a wall.
• Oddball is played a lot on this level for some reason. There are plenty of places to hide. For instance there are a series of tree roots off to the side of the circular path that make it easy to hide in. Also there are two bases across from each other, ducking in these once in awhile proves useful, but don’t stay in them as people often check them, it’s usually best to keep the ball moving. I personally don’t clam over the sword, but the shotgun is fairly useful on this level as the advantage is you can often get close to a target.

CUSTOM GAMES

Jeep Jamboree from inajeep:

Crazy King variant

Enable machine gun warthogs (no gauss), no heavy vehicles, no grenades, no rocket launcher, no brute shot, rifles or duals only.

This should be played so that each team has two warthogs and should be played on the largest maps. The hill should be random. The teams need to hop into the warthogs(jeeps) to quickly get to the hill. You have some awesome battles
at the hill, during the trip and jeep jacking attempts. If you set it to make sure everyone get’s a minutes or so then you will make sure the drivers will have to pick up passengers. The key to this is utilizing the jeeps as much as possible and to keep them from the enemies hands and keeping them from being destroyed. Disabling the really destructive weapons makes this game type better. Sniping weapons can be an added to increase difficulty.

Mosh Pit by King Hoodlum

It’s king of the hill with only shotguns on map and you start with a shotgun and sword.

The Hill is non moving and uncontested hill is off.

Score to win round is 2 minutes.

Normal Shields, normal damage and is best played on Midship, Lockout, Or Warlock!

Texas Hold ‘em by testdrug

Assault played on Coagulation with 5 players. One person acts as the bomb carrier and the four others gets into Warthogs. The object is for the carrier to try and get the bomb across the field and detonated in the other base while everyone else is trying to splatter them with the vehicle. The only way to win is to be the first to detonate the bomb. If you manage to splatter the bomb carrier, you must change teams to the carrier team and you’re the new carrier once the bomb returns to the base. If the carrier manages to get into the base without being splattered, he must go untouch and can blow up the base. You can also make it a first to 2 or 3 so everyone gets a round to run with the ball. If the carrier gets blown up by accident, he’s allowed free passage to at least 15 yards within/around the spot he died.

Roadball by testdrug

Oddball played on Coagulation with 5 players. Much like Texas Hold ‘em, but instead, played with the oddball and the first to avoid getting splattered for 3 minutes while holding the ball, wins the game. The ball holder must stay
in the middle of the map, while everyone rushes him. In the case the ball holder gets eliminated by explosions, he’s allowed to pick up the ball again and continue his time.

Star Wars from Major Payne

Ok, this is a custom game called star wars, it is best played with 4 teams:
Rebels (Green) Empire (Red) Ewoks (Brown) and Gungans (Blue)

Rules: Rebels can only use human weapons (no sniping if possible/ no rockets)

Empire can only use non-ballistic covenant weapons (aka no brute shot)

Ewoks can use only frag grenades and brute shots

Gungans can only use Sticky grenades (like in Episode 1)

Time limit: between 15-20 minutes

Kill limit: about 50

Works best on small levels like backwash or elongation where people cannot use weapons like BR’s or Snipers to a huge affect against the Ewoks and Gungans

note to hosts: this game type is like zombies or other unofficial rule games aka working on an honor system of the person actually using their assigned weapons so its best to play with people u know

Tank Scramble by testdrug

Any number is advised, this is best played on Coagulation. One person sets one of the tanks in the middle of the field. Everyone assembles on opposite sides of the field. Once one person says go, everyone scrambles to try and get into the tank, whomever gets into it first, gets it and is allowed to kill everyone else. If you do not get the tank first, you have to jump off and try to get away, you can’t take over the tank. You can only take over the tank if you successfully get away and come back for it. You can either continue to game with everyone trying to take the tank, or end the game once everyone gets killed at least once by the tank. This is also can work well in unison with the following game type.

Rover Dawgs by testdrug

One person in the tank. Everyone else, in a Warthog with gunners (and other vehicles depending how many people there is). The object, take out the tank. The playing field? Coagulation. No grenades or rockets can be used on the tank. Only vehicles. This is also fun being played with just one vehicle against the tank with the others pelting it with shots from their fun. It’s also fun to divide by teams of two with one team being one man in the tank. First team to take the tank out consecutively, wins.

Grape Ball by testdrug

Objective : 2 player oddball with TWO oddballs, one for each player and a 7 minute time limit. The objective, find the other holder and melee him to death to help buy time for yourself. Best played on small maps with increased damaged. Also can be played with three players with three oddballs (think this is the max amount of oddballs you can have though).

Odd Man Out by testdrug

This is a secondary oddball game to the above game (Grape Ball). Played with four people and THREE oddballs. Meaning there is always going to be someone without a ball which will be the odd man out. The objective, not to be the odd man out and not be the one with lowest time. Time is set to 5 minutes.

VOICE MAIL

To get on the show, listener voicemail is 206-888-HALO. You can email us mp3’s up to 3 minutes long.

You can say what ever you want, but if you want to be heard by the masses here are some general rules for you to follow:

• You have 5 minutes to Leave one message, say everything you want to say in that one message. Other messages will be ignored, and deleted.
• Keep your messages short and to the point.
• Leave your nickname or gamertag.

SHOUT OUTS

Crowned Sun

Robert Adams

WRAP UP

Iron writes in about the stupid use of the word gay throughout the halo community. I agree with him.

Gabe Duv says: Spelchek I heard a Homestar quote “What Is Your Malfunction?” From The Strong Bad Email Dangeresque 2 lets hear some more!

Thanks to Robert Adams who paid our hosting bill for a month.

Testdrug says: BTW, I have a request for Sarge impression . Don’t remember where he says this, but he says “Last one dies gets double duty”

TRANSMITION TERMINATED