by Rhymane Flameheart on Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:32 am And it seems we've been fortunate straight away! If you look over to your left by the red goal, you will see an example of one of our most common species here in the reserve, The Newbie. This species is characterised by it's almost exclusive use of the Octane, Marauder or Renegade cars, and it's common behaviour of following the ball around the arena wherever it goes, without a thought for positioning or counter attack. It should be noted that this carelessness is in no way intentional - they often do it simply by accident, not having the experience or skill of the arena's hunting ground to develop any better tactics. Often as they gain this experience they will slowly begin to adapt their ways over time.
Meanwhile across the halfway line over by the blue goal we have a prime example of a Team Player. Note how exceptionally useless his cautious skills are in a 1v1 match, always being caught at the wrong end of the arena and unable to get back fast enough to defend his terretory from rivals? Where he excells is supporting a more adventurous ally in the hunt, by hanging back at the halfway line and knocking the ball back into contention whenever it threatens to come too close. These characters are oppertunist hunters, very skilled in leaping in on a freerolling ball to score a goal while other players are recovering from a crash, and also have admirable skill in setting up goals for their hunting partner to finish off.
Okay everyone, if you would like to don your space suits, we're about to enter the next habitat on our tour, the Cosmic arena. The unique shape of this landscape has given rise to some rather unusual creatures...like that one over there, for instance, flying over our heads with a trail of boost smoke following behind! We call that type The Airline Pilot, a player who tends to spend more time flying through the air than driving along the ground. They have honed their mid-air manuverabillity into a fine art, and rarely miss the ball when they leave the ground.
Oh, and it looks like he's been paired up against an unfortunate Landlubber who's escaped from his native habitat of the Wasteland! The poor soul doesn't really stand much of a chance here on the rolling hills of Cosmic - his type are very skilled playing along a flat surface, and can intercept bouncing balls with incredible precision, but when their target starts rising over their heads they rapidly lose the will to live and are unable to put up much of a fight. Their flailing attempts often end with them lying on their back playing dead while their opponant leaps over them and toys with them mercylessly.
And so we come to the third stop on our tour, the jungle-gardens of Utopia. Oh and we're in for quite a treat, there's a fiercsome hunt going on here at the moment! It looks like a Bully player has been pitted against one of his most feared natural enemies, The Striker! You can often recognise Bullies by their appearance, most of them drive the heavy vehichles like Marauder and Renegade, and pay no heed to the ball, prefering instead to hunt down and kill the opposition at all cost. This Striker is doing well at dodging his attacks, however - no doubt all the natural speed and manuverabillity of his gameplay style are helping him out here. He is an expert at ducking and diving around the net, keeping the ball right on the line as he searches for that ever elusive goal, and sometimes he moves so quickly it almost appears that he is in two places at once!
And now we're moving into the final arena on our tour, ladies and gentlemen, the already famous Stadium habitat, quite the favorite with all manner of our native creatures, although I believe there are a couple who have not settled in so well. Hopefully if we're very quiet as we drive through, we might be able to catch a glimpse of a slightly more rare and skittish species of player, the elusive Goal Camper. There creatures are quite unusual here in the Battle Cars reserve, as most of our native animals have a natural instinct to persue and subdue the ball at every oppertunity. These critters, however, have learned to supress that instinct and instead let the ball come to them while they sit quietly in ambush on their goal line. As soon as an unsuspecting ball comes close, they leap up and pounce on it swiftly, sending it scurrying back across the arena towards the opponant's goal, while the Camper once again burries itself in the undergrowth and awaits it's next victim.
Ah, unfortunately it seems we have no Campers out on court at the moment, they really are quite a rare breed. Ah well, I do hope you enjoyed our little tour of the Battle Cars Player Type reserve. Please visit us again, as we are soon hoping to open up our other habitat Galleon to the tour parties like this, however we have had some difficulty in getting many of our animals to visit that arena often.
If you would be so kind as to complete our little survey which you will find on the back page of your tour brochures before handing them in, we would be most greatful. We're conducting a little reaserch as to which player types people find the most useful and enjoyable as a teammate, and which they find the most irritating and unworkable. Perhaps you could even put in a note as to what type your game most closely resembles too. Remember, with our innovative breeding programs it's possible that an individual may display traits from a number of different parents, so if your game fits more than one of these species, it's possible it was raised in a number of different habitats and is a crossbreed.
And as always, if during our short tour you happened to spot any new species of player that are not listed in our leaflets, please be sure to write up a description yourself and submit it to our archives via the appropriate posting form below.
We hope you enjoyed your visit to the SARPBC Safari. Please come again soon.
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EDIT: Important notice - new creatures added to the reserve!
Rhymane Flameheart wrote:Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to announce our first new addition to the Battle Cars Reserve, a currently rare and endangered species, but one which seems to rapidly be growing in poppulation and could well become one of the most common in a short time - The Dribbler.
As best we can tell, this breed seems to be a rare offshoot from the Striker line, and is characterised by an innate capacity to nudge and push the ball across the arena with surprising control, rather than the approach of most other creatures to simply hammer it up field as hard as possible. This is a very difficult technique to master, and it's believed that many young Dribblers are killed in their early years by vicious Goal Campers and Team Players who block their attacks. A few individuals do survive to maturity, however, and perfect their hunting tactics into an impressive display of skill and dexterity, able to bump the ball to the side to avoid an incomming attack, then swiftly duck around the other side to power the ball into the now open goal. Most other players seem to find young Dribblers easy to pick off, but a skiled and practiced adult is a serious force to be reckoned with.
So far, our interoduction scheme for this new species has been concentrating on the Urban and Wasteland habitats, which the Dribblers seem to favour most. It's also believed that they will take very well to the Stadium, although it remains to be seen how they will fair in more uneven landscapes such as Cosmic.
Pluto Bass wrote:How about the endangered Twin-Headed Battle Car(mastery of the camera) ? ...With it's two heads it has the ability to focus it's two sets of eyes in almost any direction. This species has become extremely proficient at driving backwards and can counter attacks from nearly any angle.
Or how about The Pack(split-screen)? Almost never spotted alone, "The Pack" hunts together in a group. Although they have poor vision, they are masters in communication and strategizing in order to take down their prey. Commraderie is crucial for this species success.
Rhymane Flameheart wrote:Ladies and Gentlemen, it is our great pleasure to welcome yet another new species into our growing menagerie here in the Battle Cars reserve, this one descovered and christened just a few moments ago by one of our avid nature spotters! Designated under the temporary classification contendia phantomia, or Phantom Player, this genus can exhibit traits of almost any of the afforementioned parent players already in the reserve. The distinctive feature about this particular specimen, however, is it's unique hunting methods - when faced with a threatening ball bouncing in the direction of their goal behind them, the Phantom Player will actually go so far as to quit his team and reselect it swiftly via the in-game pause menu, thereby respawning his vehichle before the goal line in much less time than it would take to turn around and drive back to save the shot.
There is some discussion in our warden lodge as to wether this new species is actually a fair and acceptible addition to the microclimate of our habitats, or wether it is actually an invasive pest that should be eradicated for the benefit of the reserve's general pupulace, however until a decision has been reached on this matter it has been added to the safari's records for cataloguing and classification. Fortunately for the moment only two individuals of this species have been spotted, it is unknown if they may be a breeding pair.
