Mulsiphix's Guide To PUGing In UT4
Page 3: PUGbot Commands
Before You PUG, There Are Some Things You Should Know
There really aren't any hard and fast rules for PUGing, but there are some expectations concerning participation. Balanced teams are very important in a PUG. If you join a PUG, you are expected to be available when it fills up and to stay through the entire duration of both matches. If you must leave before either match is over, you will need to find a substitute to take your place. If a PUG loses a player and no substitute can be found, then the PUG is over. The best case scenario being that the current match will be allowed to finish.
In a CTF match a team is split into two parts, defense and offense. The Captain's job is to assign each player on their team to one of these two roles. Throughout the game the Captain may switch players between roles as the match evolves. Players are expected to play the role that they are assigned. Not observing these PUG practices can lead to social consequences within the community or attract the attention of one of the IRC channel's Ops.
Ops are the guys in charge of the IRC channel. Should it be required, they have the ability to assign bans, which prevent players from accessing the channel and, as a result, from participating in PUGs. Bans usually start out small and increase in duration based on the individual's history, pattern, and type of offenses. However, bans are not handed out lightly. As with everything else in life, using common sense, being friendly, and not intentionally causing others grief, are all good practices to follow in any community.
Like all interactions on the internet, you're bound to cross the path of individuals that irritate or offend you. How you deal with these situations is your business, but a good rule of thumb is to take anything negative you hear with a grain of salt. Whether it be someone offering you advice, general feedback, a harsh critique, or ripping you a new one for some slight or failure that they have perceived... just don't take it to heart. In a highly competitive environment folks are bound to be wound tighter than usual. Some people have no manners, some have good intentions but horrible execution, and others just don't have a clue.
All that really matters is that you enjoy yourself. It will probably take a handful of games before you understand the flow of a PUG match. It may take a few more before you feel confident that you know what you are doing. But when you hit that point, when all the uncertainty and awkwardness has melted away, PUGing is like nothing else you've ever experienced. The quality of these matches is simply so much higher than anything you could ever encounter on a Public server.
Joining Your First PUG
Once you're ready to play and have joined an IRC PUG channel, you'll need to join the queue for a PUG. To do this you will need to type specific commands into the channel that are then processed by PUGbot. To see what game types are available, type !list. PUGbot will respond with something similar to this. Here you can see an overview of how many people are signed up for each game type.
To join the queue for a PUG, type: !join [game type], and you will be added. For example, !join CTF. It's as simple as that. If you want to join multiple game types, go right ahead. You can do this with a single command. For example, !join CTF TDM TAM. Note that you will automatically leave any other game type you are queued for, as soon as one of the PUGs you've selected fills completely. When this happens, Captains will be chosen to pick players for their teams.
Players can either volunteer to be Captain, by typing !Captain, or if two players haven't signed up within 30 seconds, the bot will randomly pick two people. The individuals who have been elected Captain then type !here so that the bot knows that the Captains are present. The Captains then take turns picking players until all players have been distributed. Note that in some game types, teams are chosen automatically by PUGbot and others have no team selection at all.
Finally all players will hop into TeamSpeak and coordinate the match from there. Time varies but this part of the process can take 10 to 30 minutes. "Coordination" can differ between channels but likely involves:
What Are The Different PUGbot Commands?
There are many commands possible, but I'll only be going over the ones you're likely to utilize concerning PUGs.
What You Need To Play
There really aren't any hard and fast rules for PUGing, but there are some expectations concerning participation. Balanced teams are very important in a PUG. If you join a PUG, you are expected to be available when it fills up and to stay through the entire duration of both matches. If you must leave before either match is over, you will need to find a substitute to take your place. If a PUG loses a player and no substitute can be found, then the PUG is over. The best case scenario being that the current match will be allowed to finish.
In a CTF match a team is split into two parts, defense and offense. The Captain's job is to assign each player on their team to one of these two roles. Throughout the game the Captain may switch players between roles as the match evolves. Players are expected to play the role that they are assigned. Not observing these PUG practices can lead to social consequences within the community or attract the attention of one of the IRC channel's Ops.
Ops are the guys in charge of the IRC channel. Should it be required, they have the ability to assign bans, which prevent players from accessing the channel and, as a result, from participating in PUGs. Bans usually start out small and increase in duration based on the individual's history, pattern, and type of offenses. However, bans are not handed out lightly. As with everything else in life, using common sense, being friendly, and not intentionally causing others grief, are all good practices to follow in any community.
Like all interactions on the internet, you're bound to cross the path of individuals that irritate or offend you. How you deal with these situations is your business, but a good rule of thumb is to take anything negative you hear with a grain of salt. Whether it be someone offering you advice, general feedback, a harsh critique, or ripping you a new one for some slight or failure that they have perceived... just don't take it to heart. In a highly competitive environment folks are bound to be wound tighter than usual. Some people have no manners, some have good intentions but horrible execution, and others just don't have a clue.
All that really matters is that you enjoy yourself. It will probably take a handful of games before you understand the flow of a PUG match. It may take a few more before you feel confident that you know what you are doing. But when you hit that point, when all the uncertainty and awkwardness has melted away, PUGing is like nothing else you've ever experienced. The quality of these matches is simply so much higher than anything you could ever encounter on a Public server.
Joining Your First PUG
Once you're ready to play and have joined an IRC PUG channel, you'll need to join the queue for a PUG. To do this you will need to type specific commands into the channel that are then processed by PUGbot. To see what game types are available, type !list. PUGbot will respond with something similar to this. Here you can see an overview of how many people are signed up for each game type.
To join the queue for a PUG, type: !join [game type], and you will be added. For example, !join CTF. It's as simple as that. If you want to join multiple game types, go right ahead. You can do this with a single command. For example, !join CTF TDM TAM. Note that you will automatically leave any other game type you are queued for, as soon as one of the PUGs you've selected fills completely. When this happens, Captains will be chosen to pick players for their teams.
Players can either volunteer to be Captain, by typing !Captain, or if two players haven't signed up within 30 seconds, the bot will randomly pick two people. The individuals who have been elected Captain then type !here so that the bot knows that the Captains are present. The Captains then take turns picking players until all players have been distributed. Note that in some game types, teams are chosen automatically by PUGbot and others have no team selection at all.
Finally all players will hop into TeamSpeak and coordinate the match from there. Time varies but this part of the process can take 10 to 30 minutes. "Coordination" can differ between channels but likely involves:
- Waiting for everyone to show up in TeamSpeak.
- Choosing the UT4 server.
- Waiting for everyone to join that server and download the map, if necessary.
- Selecting which map will be played for the first match.
- Sorting everyone into the proper teams.
What Are The Different PUGbot Commands?
There are many commands possible, but I'll only be going over the ones you're likely to utilize concerning PUGs.
What You Need To Play
- .list or .ls [game type] - A list of the people queued in the game type specified. If no game type is specified, shows the available PUGs in the current channel. Example: .list or .list tam
- .join or .j [game type] - Join the queue for a single or multiple PUGs. Example: .join 2idm or .join ictf 2v2tdm
- .leave or .l [game type] - Leave the queue for a single or multiple PUGs you previously joined. Example: .leave as or .leave sd lts
- .leaveall or .lva - Leaves all PUGs you are queued for in that specific channel.
- .last or .la [game type] - Show when the last PUG of the specified game type occurred. If no game type is given, show the last game played and how long ago it was. Example: .last ctf
- .captain - Once a PUG is filled you can type this to volunteer as a Captain.
- .here - If picked as Captain, type this within 60 seconds to avoid being kicked from PUG and channel. This prevents idle users from being Captain. Kicking only works if PUGbot is an Op.
- .nomic - If you do not have a microphone you should use this command. It will add the suffix [nomic] to your IRC nickname. Note that you will have to type this each time you enter IRC. A more permanent option is to simply add [nomic] to your IRC nickname. Example: /nick Mulsiphix[nomic]
- .promote or .p [game type] - Alerts others in the channel of how many slots are left to be filled for the game type specified. Example: .promote 1v1
- .mystats - List your PUG participation stats for this channel.
- .stats [IRC nickname] - List PUG participation stats for the nickname of an IRC user. Note that their UT4 or TS names may be different. Example: .stats Mulsiphix
- .turn - Shows which Captain is currently picking.
- .teams - Shows the current teams during the picking process.
- .ts - Lists the TeamSpeak connection information, if any, set by a channel operator.
- .servers or .hub - Lists the UT4 PUG server(s) information, if any, set by a channel operator. Use .servers for #ut4pugs, .hub for #UT4.eu.
- .rules - Lists the rules information, if any, set by a channel operator.
- .maps - Lists the maps information, if any, set by a channel operator.
- .stream or .youtube - A web URL to videos of select previous PUG matches. Use .stream for #ut4pugs, .youtube for #UT4.eu.
- .facebook - A web URL to the channel's Facebook page. Currently only available for #UT4.eu.
- .lastt [game type] - Show when the 2nd to last PUG of the given game type occurred. If no game type is given, show 2nd to last game played and when that was. Example: .lastt itdm
- .lasttt [game type] - Show when the 3rd to last PUG of the given game type occurred. If no game type is given, show 3rd to last game played and when that was. Example: .lasttt iduel
- .liast or .lia [game type] - Performs both .list and .last; specifying a game type is optional. Functionality is identical to each command's description above. Example: .liast 2ictf
- .taunt [IRC nickname] - PUGbot taunts the individual specified. Example: .taunt Mulsiphix
- .ip# - List a specific server (versus listing all as when using .servers or .hub). Example: .ip4
- .pickorder [game type] - Lists the order that Captains pick their players in, for the specified game type. Example: .pickorder 2tdm
- .pugstats - Shows stats regarding the total number of PUGs run in that specific channel.
