Episode 6 Shownotes

Episode 6

Sunday 28, 2005
92 minutes, 14 seconds.

Written by fooluaintblack

Edited by MasonC2K

Illustrations from Gesar

NOTE: Big thanks to these guys for all their hard work on this, these have got to be the best show notes of any podcast. You guys rock! -Foo Mo

WEB RESOURCES

What’s the deal with all the long intros… :)

OVERSWARM INTERVIEW

Here is an interview with Overswarm. He wrote and recorded all the great content for Not So Common Sense (NSCS).

fooluaintblack’s best-as-he-could-do transcription follows. Kudos to him for even attempting it.

Foo Mo Jive: Well hey guys, we got overswarm over here with us, say hi Overswarm.

Overswarm: Hey.

Foo Mo Jive: Overswarm is the author of a series of articles called “Not So Common Sense”, over at halo.bungie.org, and I just wanted to uh, ask a couple of questions uh, see if uh, what we can do to help out the community. So Overswarm how long have you been playing Halo 2?

Overswarm: Uh, I got it at like 12:35 p.m. or a.m. actually on the day that it opened-

Foo Mo Jive: Nice.

Overswarm: Got it at my local EB Games came back played halfway through the campaign, went to bed, woke up, beat the campaign, and then started playing on Xbox Live in a week.

Foo Mo Jive: Awesome. Went to the store with a cup of coffee huh? So ah what level are you?

Overswarm: Uh my highest level I think is a 22, 21, or 22, in Rumble Pit. I don’t play too often in matchmaking. I usually stick to major league gaming.

Foo Mo Jive: Ok ok. How long have you been doing the, uh, major league gaming?

Overswarm: Uh, when I first, uhh, got Halo 2, uh, I didn’t really know anything about the competitive gaming community or anything like that. Around December I met a few people that liked to play a game type called MLG. They sent me to the web site. I went on the forums. I liked their philosophy. I liked their game types, I’ve just become more and more apart of that. And as time goes on, I’ve been getting more people into it. It’s a lot of fun. There’s chances to win money on the side, and just about every tournament you use their game types. It’s a good practice.

Foo Mo Jive: Awesome. That’s great! Ok. well. uh, are you in a.. do you do any, uh, clan matches. I’m not saying you do matchmaking, but do you get more into clan matches at all, or is just sticking with the MLG stuff?

Overswarm: Uh, the clan I’m in right now is called Play Z, and Zios is the overlord, and it’s his uh.. it’s his old texas zios account, and it’s not as… his actual account. Not the one that he plays with, at TMG, what was straight rippin now.

Foo Mo Jive: ok, alright, well kool man.

Overswarm: Not really clan matches are played. We just play with zios when he’s on. And everyone on that list knows who zios is, and if they know who zios is they’re an MLGer, so you always have some people to play MLG.

Foo Mo Jive: Sweet. Well, uh, I guess let’s get into some tips here. One thing that I really loved about your articles is how you describe team communication, and teams working together. How would you describe good communication within a team, and can this help help?

OverSwarm: Well some teams can play really well together. They know where to go, and what to do, and they need to hear a word. But me, personally, I can’t guess where people are gonna be all the time, and if someone is constantly saying things, even really obvious things, just there’s a guy here, there’s a guy there, he has this weapon, he has that weapon, you can categorize this all in your head, and once you start hearing stuff over and over again, you learn where to look, and if you start off, and you say top floor br, sniper spawn, top floor br, you just check those locations, about mid game you start checking sniper spawn, and top floor br, and you’ll see people before you normally would have, and you can keep calling them out. And if everyone shoots at the same time, it’s a lot easier to take ‘em down when everyone just keeps talking again, and again, and again. No one can do everything on their own.

Foo Mo Jive: Hmm, excellent! Ok. What advice would you give to a new clan, or a team that has only just started to work together?

Overswarm: Well my best advice would be dedication. If you’re not dedicated, then don’t feel like you can stick to that team. If you’re playing a lot, and you want to get better, and you wanna get a higher rank, or win some tournaments, and your team mates don’t, drop ‘em. because you need dedication to do anything. That is the number one most important aspect. I woke up at 9:30 this morning and I’ve been playing MLG all day. I’m gonna be going to nationals this week end, and I know my team isn’t going to be practicing that much. So I know we’re gonna go to national and our team isn’t gonna be doing very good. I’m probably not going to do very well in the FFA, but I mean I’ll probably try and drop ‘em off, and find new team mates, just because they don’t practice. You need dedication for everything.

Foo Mo Jive: So you need lots of practice to really beat the high levels right?

OverSwarm: Mostly practice together.

Foo Mo Jive: Yaah… hmm ok. Um how about getting into some maps, and more specific strategies here, what’s your favorite map, and why?

Overswarm: Ah my favorite map is probably Midship. I like it because: it’s not horizontal; it’s not vertical; it’s pretty much balanced, on everything. There’s no real strong point. It used to be that, ah, you could get up on top of the pink room, and you would be fine for a long time. But now that plasma grenades are stronger you can just throw a few up there, and who ever is up there pretty much has a death sentence. It’s just really good for br fights. It’s really good for maneuvering. And I love plasma grenades so it’s a lot of fun playing and it never gets old.

Foo Mo Jive: Ok so speaking of weapons, what’s your favorite, weapon or combo, and why?

Overswarm: My favorite weapon is definitely the battle rifle. I’m a big Halo 1 fan, and I played that a lot. It reminds me a lot of a pistol fight, and out-maneuvering your opponents. And I mean there’s no weapon that can really beat the battle rifle, but the battle rifle really isn’t better than everything either. The sniper rifle will always beat the br in long range. The shotgun will always beat the battle rifle in short range. And dual wield combos will always beat the battle rifle in mid range. there’s nothing you can really do with the battle rifle except out maneuver your opponent, and shoot .em. It just takes consistency.

Foo Mo Jive: Alright, alright. So getting back into some more general techniques, what are some good ah, basic techniques, in different things with close combat weapons like the plasma rifle, and smg.

Overswarm: Well with plasma weapons it’s good to focus on the melees, and to get as close as possible. There’s a couple of different melee tricks, b y b, melee switch weapons, it melees faster, b x b, if you hit x while you melee, it cancels the animation and you can hit your opponent 2x faster. With human weapons, b x r, melee, cancel, shooting, with the battle rifle you can get a head shot, from full shields.

Foo Mo Jive: How about getting into some long range weapons like sniping?

Overswarm: Sniping is probably my worst aspect of game play, just because I focus more on maneuvering, than anything else. And when I’m sniping, I generally just try and find my safe zone. Get my back to wall, and stick in sort of corner with a lot of cover, and just hope someone comes across my path, and through my reticle. but I’ve talked to a lot of really good snipers. The best thing is just give the enemy a reason to poke their head out. Working with your team to get the enemy to poke their head out. Never work near your sniper. Never give your snipers position away. And if you are the sniper, always move. If you have the sniper and the enemy doesn’t know where you even if you are a bad sniper, or fairly mediocre, like me, you can get head shot after head shot, because they can’t see you and can’t shoot you. It’s really easy to kill ‘em. You just have to make sure you aren’t seen, ever.

Foo Mo Jive: Ok moving onto some objective games, can you give us some basic strategies for CTF, and Assault games?

Overswarm: For CTF, generally what I do, for touch return, my team has set places to go to. Some one will be on top of our base, some one will be inside our base. One person in their base, and one on top. So the person inside throws it up, the person on the roof grabs it goes through the teleporter, and throws it up, the person on our roof, grabs the flag, drops it in, and the person in our base grabs in and score. You can do this 3 times in about 45 seconds with that.

Foo Mo Jive: That’s an awesome strategy. It’s neat to see it when things like that happen, with people working together, and waiting in different places to cover. It’s just fantastic.

Overswarm: With, uh, a lot of the matchmaking, skirmish, and MLG Sanctuary CTF, the flag touch return is off. It can be hard to do the whole human chain thing, because offense is really easy, and defense is really hard, so most people just rush your flag, and if you cant score your flag while it’s at home… it can be hard to do the whole human chain thing and keeping everything in motion. So generally what my team does when it’s not touch return, we’ll just grab it and hop it straight to our base, focus on our slayer skills trying to keep the enemy on the respawn. Once we get the flag to our base, we try and get our flag back.

Foo Mo Jive: Excellent ok.

Spelchek: Ok well I’ve been pretty quiet for the past awhile, but, uh, I’ve got a couple of questions I wanted to ask you. What is your opinion on modding? Do you think it is a good thing or do you think it is a bad thing?

Overswarm: Well there are good modders, and there are bad modders. Good modders are people who modded before halo 2 was on Xbox Live. I’ve seen a lot of really interesting mods. There is a Mountain Dew Mod out that makes everything green, just fun stuff like that. People shooting banshees, people shooting warthogs, flying across the map, jumping high. People are actually making a mod, there is a forum on mlgpro.com it makes Halo 2 a lot more like Halo 1. the br is a single shot, the sniper has 2x zoom, things like that. Those are good modders. The bad ones are the ones that bring it to Live. Modding is supposed to be for goofing off and having fun not for winning. If you mod to win, you’re cheating flat out.

Spelchek: What is your opinion on super bouncing on matchmaking?

Overswarm: [the beginning is too difficult to understand] It’s there, it always will be. It’s like saying the headshot for the sniper rifle is too powerful. You’re just limiting yourself. If it’s in the game do it, anything else you are just limiting yourself for no reason.

Spelchek: What do you think about the whole Xbox 360 thing? How one is going to be $400 with the hard drive, and the $300 dollar one comes with a wired controller.

Overswarm: I’m personally going to use a wired controller because I’m going to be going to MLG events and you have to have a wired controller, so that doesn’t bother me. The reason why the Xbox 360 is $300, and $400, for without and with the hard drive respectively, is probably because Microsoft wants some breathing room when the PS3 comes out. PS3 is supposed to go on sale at $400-$450. The moment that comes out the Xbox 360 with the hard drive will drop to at least $350 or $300. They’re not really making it a bad deal. If you want a headset, a wireless controller, a remote, you’re gonna need to buy a hard drive thing anyway. The hard drive costs $100, and the rest of that stuff adds up to $100. So you’re saving money in the long run. You just have to cough up some more
money now.

Spelchek: What do you think about the Halo movie? Do you think it might be a really really really good movie, or will it ruin the whole Halo franchise?

Overswarm: It scares me. It could be a great movie and every one comes out of the theatres thinking “Wow! That’s awesome!” or it might flop really bad. A lot of movies are like that. I read the first Halo book, The Fall of Reach, and it was one of the best books I ever read. It was really good. I never read the Halo books before because I didn’t realize I was that iffy, but then i did. So I bought the book, and I read about the Master Chief’s history, and how he grew up. If the movie is like that, and focuses on the story then I think it will be great.

Spelchek: Don’t suppose I could trouble you for a Sarge impression could I?

Overswarm: Sarge impression? Nah. I don’t think so. I’m 5’6 and I’m white.

Foo Mo Jive: What advice do you give to people just starting out in Halo 2?

Overswarm: Just starting out? Well play a lot, and a lot of Rumble Pit. I only play Rumble Pit because it really works off of your reflexes and your accuracy. Eventually it will become second nature. You can play Team Slayer, Team Skirmish, and you will make bad habits. That really shouldn’t work, and you start playing off how other people make mistakes. In Rumble Pit it’s you on seven people, and you will never survive that long, and you can always find someone to fight. Playing Rumble Pit is like lifting weights. It’s not like Team Slayer, which is the actual sport. So you will play the sport a little but you will need to train to get better at the sport.

NEWBIE TIP

This is our new segment for all the newbs out there. [and finally a good intro]

TIPS

MAP OF THE WEEK: SANCTUARY

CUSTOM GAMES

Spelchek didn’t show enough enthusiasm when given props to us show notes people, so he still sucks, and podtacular is still the best clan. – fooluaintblack

Slayer: Beat Down

Match Options:

Number of Rounds: Default

Score to Win Round: Default

Round Time Limit: Default

Rounds Reset Map: Default

Resolve Ties: Default

Player Options:

Max Active Players:Default

Lives Per Round: Default

Respawn Time: Default

Suicide Penalty: Default

Shield Type: Overshield

Motion Sensor: Default

Active Camo: Default

Extra Damage: Default

Damage Resistance: Default

Team Options:

Team Play: Default

Team Scoring: Default

Team Changing: Default

Friendly Fire: Default

Respawn Time Modifier: Default

Betrayal Penalty: Default

Force Even Teams: Default

Slayer Options:

Bonus Points: Default

Suicide Point Loss: Default

Death Point Loss: Default

Vehicle Options:

Vehicle Respawn Time: Default

Primary Light Vehicle: NONE

Secondary Light Vehicle: NONE

Primary Heavy Vehicle: NONE

Banshee: NONE

Primary Turret: NONE

Secondary Turret: NONE

Equipment Options:

Starting Weapon: Rockets

Secondary Weapon: Default

Starting Grenades: Default

Weapons on Map: Rockets

Weapon Respawn Time: Double

Grenades On Map: Default

Overshields: Default

Active Camouflage: Default

How it works:

The rockets are not as effective because of the overshields so it can be easier to kill people by beating them down [this game type is called beat down… why don’t you just start with a normal pistol… well not for me to decide, I’m just a stupid show notes writer person guy].

Slayer: Ghost Busters

Match Options:

Number of Rounds:Default

Score to Win Round: Default

Round Time Limit: Default

Rounds Reset Map: Default

Resolve Ties: Default

Player Options:

Max Active Players: Default

Lives Per Round: Default

Respawn Time: Default

Suicide Penalty: Default

Shield Type: NONE

Motion Sensor: Default

Active Camo: ON

Extra Damage: ON

Damage Resistance: Default

Team Options:

Team Play: Default

Team Scoring: Default

Team Changing: Default

Friendly Fire: Default

Respawn Time Modifier: Default

Betrayal Penalty: Default

Force Even Teams: Default

Slayer Options:

Bonus Points: Default

Suicide Point Loss: Default

Death Point Loss: Default

Vehicle Options:

Vehicle Respawn Time: Default

Primary Light Vehicle: Default

Secondary Light Vehicle:Default

Primary Heavy Vehicle:Default

Banshee: Default

Primary Turret: Default

Secondary Turret: Default

Equipment Options:

Starting Weapon: Sentinel Beam

Secondary Weapon: Default

Starting Grenades: Default

Weapons on Map: Default

Weapon Respawn Time: Default

Grenades On Map: Default

Overshields: Default

Active Camouflage: Default

How it works: ...kill stuff.

Slayer: Agent Neo

Match Options:

Number of Rounds:Default

Score to Win Round: Unlimited

Round Time Limit: Default

Rounds Reset Map: Default

Resolve Ties: Default

Player Options:

Max Active Players: Default

Lives Per Round: Default

Respawn Time: Default

Suicide Penalty: Default

Shield Type: NONE

Motion Sensor: OFF

Active Camo: Default

Extra Damage: Default

Damage Resistance: Default

Team Options:

Team Play: Yes
Team Scoring: Default

Team Changing: Default

Friendly Fire: Default

Respawn Time Modifier: Default

Betrayal Penalty: Default

Force Even Teams: Default

Slayer Options:

Bonus Points: Default

Suicide Point Loss: Default

Death Point Loss: Default

Vehicle Options:

Vehicle Respawn Time: Default

Primary Light Vehicle: NONE

Secondary Light Vehicle:NONE

Primary Heavy Vehicle:NONE

Banshee: NO

Primary Turret: NONE

Secondary Turret: NONE

Equipment Options:

Starting Weapon: pistol /shotgun

Secondary Weapon: Default

Starting Grenades: Default

Weapons on Map: pistols/shotguns

Weapon Respawn Time: Default

Grenades On Map: OFF

Overshields: Default

Active Camouflage: Default

How it Works:

basically it works the same as normal zombies, two teams, one is the hackers, one is the resistance. the last person alive on the resistance team gets to duke it out melee style, with the original “Smith”

Slayer: Cops and Robbers

Match Options:

Number of Rounds:Default

Score to Win Round: Default

Round Time Limit: Default

Rounds Reset Map: Default

Resolve Ties: Default

Player Options:

Max Active Players: Default

Lives Per Round: Default

Respawn Time: Default

Suicide Penalty: Default

Shield Type: None

Motion Sensor: Default

Active Camo: Default

Extra Damage: Default

Damage Resistance: Default

Team Options:

Team Play: On

Team Scoring: Default

Team Changing: Default

Friendly Fire: Default

Respawn Time Modifier: Default

Betrayal Penalty: Default

Force Even Teams: Default

Slayer Options:

Bonus Points: Default

Suicide Point Loss: Default

Death Point Loss: Default

Vehicle Options:

Vehicle Respawn Time: Default

Primary Light Vehicle: Warthog

Secondary Light Vehicle: Warthog

Primary Heavy Vehicle:None

Banshee: Off

Primary Turret: Off

Secondary Turret: Off

Equipment Options:

Starting Weapon: Pistol

Secondary Weapon: Shotgun

Starting Grenades: Default

Weapons on Map: None

Weapon Respawn Time: Default

Grenades On Map: None

Overshields: Off

Active Camouflage: Off

How it works:

The funnest, I repeat, FUNNEST game ever. Here’s the quick version: Three teams, one must be blue. The blue team is the cops and no matter what there are three of them. The other two are the rival gangs. You need to have human weapons on and make sure you are starting out with a magnum and SMG. If you have any other weapon than that a cop will check your weapons and he can choose to shoot you if you have an illegal or let you go. Also, if a cop sees you kill a rival gang member he can kill you. It pretty much centers around what the cop wants to do, if he likes you or your team he might let you off. The cops can also Blacklist you which is when all the cops will kill you on sight. No shields. Warthogs only. BEST ON HEADLONG.”

Slayer: Republic

Match Options:

Number of Rounds:Default

Score to Win Round: 25

Round Time Limit: Default

Rounds Reset Map: Default

Resolve Ties: Default

Player Options:

Max Active Players: Default

Lives Per Round: Default

Respawn Time: Default

Suicide Penalty: Default

Shield Type: Default

Motion Sensor: Default

Active Camo: Default

Extra Damage: Default

Damage Resistance: Default

Team Options:

Team Play: Yes

Team Scoring: Default

Team Changing: Default

Friendly Fire: Default

Respawn Time Modifier: Default

Betrayal Penalty: Default

Force Even Teams: Default

Slayer Options:

Bonus Points: Default

Suicide Point Loss: Default

Death Point Loss: Default

Vehicle Options:

Vehicle Respawn Time: Default

Primary Light Vehicle: Default

Secondary Light Vehicle:Default

Primary Heavy Vehicle:Default

Banshee: Default

Primary Turret: Default

Secondary Turret: Default

Equipment Options:

Starting Weapon: Default

Secondary Weapon: Default

Starting Grenades: Default

Weapons on Map: Default

Weapon Respawn Time: Default

Grenades On Map: Default

Overshields: Default

Active Camouflage: Default

King of the Hill: Zombie Safehouse

How it works: The zombies can’t attack you while you are in the hill. The hill moves.

VOICEMAIL

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:

Edwin Mcdunrah[?]: (343 guilty spark impersonations)

Decidus: (this is just too good for me to write, you must listen to this)

Dentic[?]: to have 3 magnums (or any other weapon you can dual-wield)
pick up a magnum, then pick up a plasma pistol (or any other weapon you can dual-wield),
then dual wield a magnum with that, and then replace your plasma pistol with
a magnum. get someone to ARM the bomb in your base, and then kill them. then
take their bomb (which is still armed) and plant it in their base. very risky.

Rugbyrocks101: Wants to set up a clan tourney, and Fooluaintblack is better than Spelchek. When you’re turning in a warthog, hit the handbrake, and you will turn sharper.

FoH Avalanche: “I’m a complete nerd, and my Master Chief armor is made of cheap plastic, and cardboard.” (ill bet the sounds it makes sucks, and he probably duct taped a flash light to it.)

SHOUT OUTS

TRANSMITION TERMINATED