EDIT: well, I've no intention to touch WB with a ten foot clown-pole in the near future, but I imagine this guide became a touch outdated with the introduction of the duel mode.
Since Armagan and the team apparently didn't consider a gamemode dedicated to dueling a necessary addition, dueling has to be handled via DM. Because of this feelings tend to get heated every once in a while because of misunderstandings and such, even when we don't count the backstabbers, an unfortunately common species of illiterate halfwits. Because of that, and also because of being immensely bored, I have decided to write down some guidelines to newcomers and people who usually don't duel.
These are not necessarily strictly enforced rules, as those vary between different duel servers. These are general guidelines to follow if you wish other players to think you're a worthwhile opponent and a nice person.
Challenging:
EDIT: With the implementation of the duel gamemode, all this blocking up to greet stuff can be ignored, but please, people. After the fight has started, back the **** down a few steps and give your opponent a few seconds to prepare. Repeatedly instakilling folks who accept your challenge isn't about mastering a working strategy, like some halfwit insisted a while back, it's about being an annoying ****.
-To greet, face your opponent and do an upwards block. Some people do some other block and when they come at me, I'm a touch uncertain whether I should attack them or not. It's not nice. Greet with an up block. If you have a shield, nudge it towards the sky(by looking up while you block) for a bit to make things more clear.
-When you greet, leave some distance, so that when your opponent accepts your challenge, he has a second or two to prepare. It is a dirty trick, and quite rude to walk up to hugging distance of your opponent with the upwards block, and the second he accepts, stabbing him in the gut before he has a chance to react.
-If the person you wish to challenge doesn't react to your upwards block, do not go kicking or punching him to get his attention. It's annoying, and may bring an end to quite a killing streak if he has low HP. Your opponent is most likely able to see you, but he may be writing something or altering his equipment, for example. If he doesn't accept your challenge, go look for someone else to fight, or wait until he finishes whatever he's doing.
During combat:
-If you have multiple shields with you, it's generally not very nice if you switch to another one if the first one gets smashed. If your opponent smashes your shield, be a gentleman and rely on your manual blocking until one of you dies. This is a rule on the Einherjar server, although not a very strictly enforced one. I suppose using multiple shields is understandable if the person is quite a measly blocker, but it's also frustrating if the opponent happens to be a measly attacker as well.
-Let your opponent know what weapon you're planning to use against him. It's not very nice at all to have a person challenge me with a shortsword, and immediately switch to a gigantic warhammer and smash through my block. This is especially important on a duel server which allows ranged combat. If you have a shield and throwing axes for example, and you challenge by holding your shield up, your opponent can not see your throwing axes. He'll quite likely get mighty annoyed when he receives one in his forehead, too. Many unnecessary ban & kick polls can be avoided by following this simple guideline. Throw your axe to the ground next to you, or simply tell your opponent that you're using them.
-If you feel like jousting or some archery duels, and find people who wish to do that as well, be a gentleman and move away from the infantry duelists. The maps are large enough, and everyone is happier when they don't have horsemen bumping into them in the middle of a duel and when they're not receiving stray arrows/bolts in the eyes.
-If you knock down your opponent, let him stand back up. Now this is the gentleman move. It's not necessary at all, and many people agree that you're using an advantage you well deserved when you kill an opponent you just knocked down with a blunt weapon. However, when I'm knocked down and instead of finishing me my opponent backs down and lets me stand back up, I wish there were an animation to raise my hat.
-Do not attack horsemen randomly just because they're on horse. While it's true that a good percentage of horsemen on duel servers are backstabbers about to lance duelists in the back, there's still a chance that they're not. They might just want to joust, or use the horse to move from point A to point B quickly, for example to train with a particular player away from the others.
General behaviour
-Be friendly. If your opponent is clearly worse than you, and getting frustrated, give him some hints & tips and general advice. LOL NOOB STFU & LERN 2 PLAY =/= constructive criticism.
-Swearing, calling names etc are ok as long as you make sure your opponents know you don't mean to offend. Add a smiley there somewhere.
-Kicking, feinting, spamming, hugging, backpedalling etc. Any of these words raise your blood pressure? Well tough ****. They're there to bring variety and balance to the combat. Please don't complain if your opponent repeatedly utilises one or more of these tricks. None of them are unbeatable strategies, if you have enough skill. I admit that falling to that same triple upwards strike - stab - upward strike feint five times in a row is embarrassing and frustrating, but to start calling my opponent an abuser or somesuch is just another of saying "I can't beat you, please be a worse player because I'm a bad loser and about to burst in tears" the way I see it.
-Polls. If you start a poll to kick/ban a person, always state why you're doing so. If the person is backstabbing, say "xxx has backstabbed me twice and I've witnessed him do so on others as well" for example before you start the poll. It makes things a lot more clear.
-Voting in polls. Now this is important. Whenever's there a poll to kick/ban person without any explanation offered to why the person should be kicked out, do not just vote yes, unless you're absolutely positive that the person being voted out is indeed breaking the rules, like the person has backstabbed you and/or you have witnessed him do so(don't decide by his nick if he's a backstabber or not, you may very well be wrong.) This is because the backstabbers are rude cocksuckers, and occasionally start polls to get rid of people who they dislike as well, like a person who stopped their killing spree, for example. I see this happen every once in a while, and it's quite underwhelming to see an innocent duelist get banned for nothing, just becuase the other players go "well he's probably just another backstabber. I'll just vote yes." I know the duel servers occasionally get crowded with backstabbers, and that it's very frustrating, but trust me. It's far more annoying to be banned for doing absolutely nothing wrong, and knowing that the ban poll was started by a backstabber himself.
Well, that's about all I can think of. Discuss.
Since Armagan and the team apparently didn't consider a gamemode dedicated to dueling a necessary addition, dueling has to be handled via DM. Because of this feelings tend to get heated every once in a while because of misunderstandings and such, even when we don't count the backstabbers, an unfortunately common species of illiterate halfwits. Because of that, and also because of being immensely bored, I have decided to write down some guidelines to newcomers and people who usually don't duel.
These are not necessarily strictly enforced rules, as those vary between different duel servers. These are general guidelines to follow if you wish other players to think you're a worthwhile opponent and a nice person.
Challenging:
EDIT: With the implementation of the duel gamemode, all this blocking up to greet stuff can be ignored, but please, people. After the fight has started, back the **** down a few steps and give your opponent a few seconds to prepare. Repeatedly instakilling folks who accept your challenge isn't about mastering a working strategy, like some halfwit insisted a while back, it's about being an annoying ****.
-To greet, face your opponent and do an upwards block. Some people do some other block and when they come at me, I'm a touch uncertain whether I should attack them or not. It's not nice. Greet with an up block. If you have a shield, nudge it towards the sky(by looking up while you block) for a bit to make things more clear.
-When you greet, leave some distance, so that when your opponent accepts your challenge, he has a second or two to prepare. It is a dirty trick, and quite rude to walk up to hugging distance of your opponent with the upwards block, and the second he accepts, stabbing him in the gut before he has a chance to react.
-If the person you wish to challenge doesn't react to your upwards block, do not go kicking or punching him to get his attention. It's annoying, and may bring an end to quite a killing streak if he has low HP. Your opponent is most likely able to see you, but he may be writing something or altering his equipment, for example. If he doesn't accept your challenge, go look for someone else to fight, or wait until he finishes whatever he's doing.
During combat:
-If you have multiple shields with you, it's generally not very nice if you switch to another one if the first one gets smashed. If your opponent smashes your shield, be a gentleman and rely on your manual blocking until one of you dies. This is a rule on the Einherjar server, although not a very strictly enforced one. I suppose using multiple shields is understandable if the person is quite a measly blocker, but it's also frustrating if the opponent happens to be a measly attacker as well.
-Let your opponent know what weapon you're planning to use against him. It's not very nice at all to have a person challenge me with a shortsword, and immediately switch to a gigantic warhammer and smash through my block. This is especially important on a duel server which allows ranged combat. If you have a shield and throwing axes for example, and you challenge by holding your shield up, your opponent can not see your throwing axes. He'll quite likely get mighty annoyed when he receives one in his forehead, too. Many unnecessary ban & kick polls can be avoided by following this simple guideline. Throw your axe to the ground next to you, or simply tell your opponent that you're using them.
-If you feel like jousting or some archery duels, and find people who wish to do that as well, be a gentleman and move away from the infantry duelists. The maps are large enough, and everyone is happier when they don't have horsemen bumping into them in the middle of a duel and when they're not receiving stray arrows/bolts in the eyes.
-If you knock down your opponent, let him stand back up. Now this is the gentleman move. It's not necessary at all, and many people agree that you're using an advantage you well deserved when you kill an opponent you just knocked down with a blunt weapon. However, when I'm knocked down and instead of finishing me my opponent backs down and lets me stand back up, I wish there were an animation to raise my hat.
-Do not attack horsemen randomly just because they're on horse. While it's true that a good percentage of horsemen on duel servers are backstabbers about to lance duelists in the back, there's still a chance that they're not. They might just want to joust, or use the horse to move from point A to point B quickly, for example to train with a particular player away from the others.
General behaviour
-Be friendly. If your opponent is clearly worse than you, and getting frustrated, give him some hints & tips and general advice. LOL NOOB STFU & LERN 2 PLAY =/= constructive criticism.
-Swearing, calling names etc are ok as long as you make sure your opponents know you don't mean to offend. Add a smiley there somewhere.
-Kicking, feinting, spamming, hugging, backpedalling etc. Any of these words raise your blood pressure? Well tough ****. They're there to bring variety and balance to the combat. Please don't complain if your opponent repeatedly utilises one or more of these tricks. None of them are unbeatable strategies, if you have enough skill. I admit that falling to that same triple upwards strike - stab - upward strike feint five times in a row is embarrassing and frustrating, but to start calling my opponent an abuser or somesuch is just another of saying "I can't beat you, please be a worse player because I'm a bad loser and about to burst in tears" the way I see it.
-Polls. If you start a poll to kick/ban a person, always state why you're doing so. If the person is backstabbing, say "xxx has backstabbed me twice and I've witnessed him do so on others as well" for example before you start the poll. It makes things a lot more clear.
-Voting in polls. Now this is important. Whenever's there a poll to kick/ban person without any explanation offered to why the person should be kicked out, do not just vote yes, unless you're absolutely positive that the person being voted out is indeed breaking the rules, like the person has backstabbed you and/or you have witnessed him do so(don't decide by his nick if he's a backstabber or not, you may very well be wrong.) This is because the backstabbers are rude cocksuckers, and occasionally start polls to get rid of people who they dislike as well, like a person who stopped their killing spree, for example. I see this happen every once in a while, and it's quite underwhelming to see an innocent duelist get banned for nothing, just becuase the other players go "well he's probably just another backstabber. I'll just vote yes." I know the duel servers occasionally get crowded with backstabbers, and that it's very frustrating, but trust me. It's far more annoying to be banned for doing absolutely nothing wrong, and knowing that the ban poll was started by a backstabber himself.
Well, that's about all I can think of. Discuss.
