How to Play: Frontlines PVP -- Important Breakdown of Mechanics

[Mecan]

Disclaimer:

After 50+ Campaigns on the Frontlines, 25+ of which were 1st place victories, I saw several problems emerge from lack of proper information. Without good information your Grand Company will have a harder time making good choices.

Basic Game Mechanics can be found on GameEscape, follow this link to read their guide on the mechanics of Frontlines.

Beginner Tips can be found on my Blog.

How to Play: Frontlines PVP

Edits: Made some calculation Corrections. Points remain solid, just getting the math exact.

The Misconception of Middle

A very common misconception that I've run into is the importance of Middle. For those who haven't read the two links above, Middle is a PVE element which spawns creatures and a boss: killing them nets your teams points; however, how many points is often misunderstood.

I've seen people shouting on Frontlines stating that killing the boss will net you 500 points. I've also seen people say 400, 300, etc. Well actually the boss will only score your Grand Company 200 points -- which can be acquired in roughly 2.5 minutes of holding 3 objectives.

Note that waiting for and killing the boss normally take about 1+ minutes. Killing the small creatures will only net your team 20 points a head, which again isn't worth much at all to a victory score.

It's easy to assume that these bonuses feel like a lot, but actually you're netting 0.93333 points per second while in middle.

Doesn't seem all that much when you compare it to this:

Over a 10 minute duration...

Holding 1 Objective = 200p (0.33 PP/s)

Holding 2 Objectives = 400p (0.66 PP/s)

Holding Mid = 560p (0.93 PP/s) << Bonus Points! Worth +1 Objective

Holding 3 Objectives = 800p (1.33 PP/s) << Bonus Points! Worth +2 Objectives

Holding 4 Objectives = 1200p (2 PP/s) << Bonus Points! Worth +4 Objectives

When is Middle viable?

Middle, despite it's pitiful net worth in points, can still be very valuable toward victory but its value comes a lot later into the match than many people think. The purpose of middle was and always will be designed as a Tie-Breaking Mechanic.

This means that if your team is in 3rd place: killing the boss, maybe at best, inch your team into 2nd place. Never will it ever sling-shot your team from 3rd to 1st. Why? Well often a 1st place team understands the purpose of holding points.

A good Grand Company will keep their teams very strong in certain portions of the map throughout the game holding and defending objectives. If a Grand Company is better at holding & defending than the others, then they are the Grand Company that is winning the match.

Why is Defending Important?

More times than I'd like to count I've seen several players take a strong disinterest in the concept of Defending. Critical points are left abandoned because there is simply "no action" going on, and so they move on to find "action".

Winning Grand Companies understand this concept and know that a defending team will have action come to them -- all they have to do is wait for it. But what is the right way to defend?

Well that is difficult to nail down. The flow of battle changes very often and people need to shift depending on it. But one thing your Grand Company should always be mindful of is their Outpost. A secure Outpost means healthy battle lines. Teams who have to fall back to re-capture an outpost risk scattering troops, which may result in a loss.

Primary Outposts: Flame, Storm, and Serpent -- should always be under a garrison of at least 4 people. Within that group of 4 should be 1 Healer. When the Outpost comes under fire, that team needs to hold it. If things get too overwhelming, they need to call for help and hold it as long as possible until help arrives.

A common tactic is to send a large force toward the winning Grand Company's Outpost to nail it down and form a "barrier" locking the leading team in place by killing unorganized players as they trickle out from the spawn. Grand Companies need to be ready to react to this ASAP.

More on Defending

The point of the game is not to kill enemy players. That is what the Arena is for. Killing enemy players doesn't net your team any points (5 per kill). What net your team points is Hold Objectives. Absolutely nothing else in Frontlines will ever net you more points than holding objectives.

As proven numerous times, a team can quickly acquire hundreds of points in mere seconds; all they have to do is control their territory with numbers. In 180 seconds, a team holding 3 Objects nets 240 points. Every following 180 seconds is another 240, etc. In six minutes they can acquire 480 points.

A single team can spend the entire game in middle, which I've commonly seen, but despite all of their effort they may -- at best -- score no more than 560 points for their team after 10+ minutes of work.

Let me break this down more clearly: 6 Interceptor Drones spawn every 3 minutes. If a crack team kills all 6 that's 120 points. 3 minutes later another set will spawn, which is another 120 points. Finally another set will spawn -- again 120 points. Then the boss. If they kill the boss, that's 200 points + maybe a 1 minute to kill it.

Congrats, in 10 minutes you've earned no more than 560 points. Give your team a pat on the back for doing what could have been done in 7 minutes elsewhere.

But Videos and Reddit say....

If you watch this video, you may think they're doing a job well done. You may neglect to notice a few things. You can tell via the point income at the right side of the screen. From here on out I will break down the flow of the game for you so you know why Middle team got lucky and did little to help their Grand Company's victory.

People have argued that, citing this video, that you can hold 2 objectives while holding middle. Take notice that when this team claims middle they had a massive 40 point lead over the other two Grand Companies. Being in 1st place is crucial to such a tactic being successful in the first place.

Most players who cite this video misinform others. They demand their Grand Company go into middle when they do not hold 1st place, which is a huge misstep.

The players in the video take a huge risk camping middle so soon: at 1:30 mark their Grand Companies is about to lose their 1st place lead. At 2:40 this risk pays off as they managed to get get mid points without a challenge.

But also note in the video that they get several enemies moving in on them in middle. Their allies, though not shown fighting or on the map, have claimed objectives from those enemies who went middle.

Note: A lot of Grand Companies don't make this mistake anymore, they will secure their lines and use their forces to steal back objectives from a team controlling middle.

According to the income rate in the video, the other teams within the Flames Grand Company are firmly holding at 4 objectives.

The income rate generating the lead is no longer fueled by middle, but instead a steadfast and proactive alliance taking advantage of ignorant enemies not knowing where to go or what to do. This is rare.

According to the video, Flames Teams held 4 Objectives between: 2:08-2:12 -- netting them a whopping 6 points in 4.5 seconds. Furthermore, the enemy Grand Companies only held 1 objective between them for the mast majority of early game -- giving the illusion that the middle is actually helping, when in fact the other 2 Teams are doing he bulk of the work denying the enemy Grand Companies.

As time progresses Flames holds 3 Objectives for 95 seconds following that. Within that time, enemy Grand Companies only hold 1 Objective -- giving Flames a huge 127 point lead. This was not because of the efforts in middle as middle does not count as an obtainable objective.

At 4:07, when the map is shown for a second time in the video -- Flames had just been beaten back down to 1 Objective. Anyone in middle not paying attention to what happened in the previous 2 minutes may have come to the wrong conclusion. This is because they only saw 2 points capped before, but then only 1 later.

They missed the fact that 4 Objectives were under their Grand Company's control at one point. They may walk away thinking that they did all work, when in fact they did very little to help the overall score -- they were being carried by the other teams.

Post the 4 minute mark, Flames now has a huge lead to burn. The team in middle nets another 120 points to curve this downturn, but all it does it help to keep the lead stable.

Take notice that at 5:18 -- Order of the Adder nets 4 Objectives. Watch closely how quickly they narrow the game between 2nd and 1st place. But regardless of the effort, the enemy Grand Companies were too poor and unorganized. They neglected to hold points early game.

Now the boss has spawned in middle at roughly 5:40. With Flames holding a stupidly strong lead -- Middle team is largely an afterthought to victory. All they have to do is kill the boss to end the game sooner, which you think would be the case.

But income of points stalls entirely at 6:30. Middle team didn't help very much, once again they helped to ensure a lead that their allies already worked very to give them. Once more they may feel that they are doing all the work, but in reality they've only netted 560 points total.

With the score at 1399 at 6:31 -- the other two teams scored a huge 839 points doing an amazing job holding 3 objectives between them for as long as they did.

Post the death of the boss, the middle teams makes the huge mistake of remaining in middle. Taking advantage of the lack of defense Flame now has, Order of the Adder nets 4 Objectives and quickly catches up in an effort to steal the lead.

In a matter of mere seconds they skyrocket to 1150 points (difficult to tell because of the view of the video). The game could have been over sooner if the team in the middle took points away from Adder. Instead they remained in middle and made the end-game slog along very sluggishly.

Doing their best to win the game, the other two teams held 2 Objectives without the help of middle team. Making the team in the video very lucky that they got carried.

Please, treat this video as what NOT to do while in Frontlines. So many people cite this video, and those like it, as what teams should do in middle. This is only hurting players -- not helping.

Ambushing

Growing in popularity in Frontlines is the concept of Ambushing.

Strong defending teams now will use Ambush tactics to get the better of very aggressive kill-eager players. These tactics are used two promote two kinds of outcomes but will always be found in the same places again and again.

Ambushing is a DEFENSIVE tactic and a very effective one too. This is how an Ambush plays out:

1 full team defends a critical point.

Critical = Neighboring enemy territory or an over-extended objective.

Normally 2 or 3 DPS will remain on the flag. Bards, Dragoons, BLM -- generally "Squishy" targets.

Tanks and Healers will hide behind debris in the local area, out of range and sight.

Enemy players will see the 2 or 3 squishy targets and attack the point, often without support -- thinking they can claim it easily. Low and behold the moment they attack the tanks and healers pop out of the woodwork to reveal a FULL team of defenders. This is an ambush.

What are the benefits?

1. Kill off enemies easier and pick them off when they charge without support.

2. If more enemies attack than planned, the WHM and TANKs can retreat and fall back to a prior point to defend and wait for the DPS to respawn.

Be wary of ambushes and use them wisely, they are now ALL the rage on Frontlines.

[hours]

Fantastic guide!

SE should make everyone who intends to play Frontlines study this and write an exam before letting them play because I am so fed up with derps coming in and telling everyone "to stay as one group and move around to kill everyone!" while losing every single objective.

[Mecan]

Finished up some minor edits on my previous math. My points remain the same, but you need to read carefully to see why seconds/captures matter. I try very hard to illustration why 0.933 points per minute is not good for middle.

[Vandril]

Finished up some minor edits on my previous math. My points remain the same, but you need to read carefully to see why seconds/captures matter. I try very hard to illustration why 0.933 points per minute is not good for middle.

Well, you did a good job, because you convinced me. I was a strong proponent for middle-focus strategies until just today, after having actually taken a look at the point gains per base - I didn't know that each consecutive base literally multiplied current point gains from bases by 2, I thought it was a much smoother climb in point gain. I began to question if mid was the right way to go once I realized this. I was going to do my own math on the matter sometime soon, so it's ironic that you posted this guide, which has the math all spelled out for everyone, when you did.

I do find it odd, though, that every single victory I've experienced so far involved heavy focus on middle by my GC. I mean, I'm not at all doubting your results, but I have trouble fully convincing myself that each and every time was mere coincidence. I almost wonder if there's a less obvious effect that going middle had, such as forcing the enemy teams to put more toward middle or lose it. Not that that would be a very consistent strategy, given that it relies on how unorganized the enemies might be. Anyway, now I'm just ranting.

In short: Good Job. Nice guide!

Oh. And how do you feel about the "Middle and OPs" strategies? I've been in some groups where A and C will take and hold their respective bases, while B will take outposts until it is time for a middle spawn, which they then head to middle to handle, then immediately go back to zerging outposts in order. The trick is that we not only got middle most of the time, but we also had an average of 3-4 nodes (2-3 when we're in middle and the outposts are taken back, 4-5 when we're zerging outposts). Since OP defense teams are also generally fairly small, B also gets an average of 4 kills per OP rush between mid spawns, all the while rarely losing one of out own, giving us a net gain in points of about 15 from kills (if we assume one person on B dies every OP zerg attempt). In addition to all of that, the 20-30 we get per between-spawn OP zergs from capturing said OPs is a gain as well, because while those bases are soon taken back by their respective GCs, the points from recapture are split between our two enemies, while the points for the initial capture all go to us.

What are your thoughts on that? Viable, if not a little risky?

[ruskie]

Hmmm only played twice on frontlines but both times it was a mass confusion. Do like this as a general guide.

[Shake0615]

I do find it odd, though, that every single victory I've experienced so far involved heavy focus on middle by my GC.

I find that this is true in my own case, but I mostly chalk it up to the fact that once an established strategy comes out too many people are unwilling to abandon it. Mid-focused games are easier to organize in pugs because every Alliance has a single set goal that doesn't require inter-Alliance teamwork: lock down your post (or lock down OP and mid if you're B). In order to make a strategy like Mecan's work, it would require a lot of communication, adaptability, coordination and commitment to the plan that frankly doesn't exist in your average Frontline. Until Alliances are allowed to queue together I see don't abandoning mid to be a feasible alternative to the current strategy. Mecan proved that the math works in his/her favor, but that pesky human element is what always foils even the best mathematical models! :P

[ZaxLavayi]

Awesome guide, thanks!

[Zagam]

I do find it odd, though, that every single victory I've experienced so far involved heavy focus on middle by my GC. I mean, I'm not at all doubting your results, but I have trouble fully convincing myself that each and every time was mere coincidence.

That's because you never leave out PvE, the guide is horribly wrong and extremely misleading. Making numbers work to prove false points. The biggest mistake losing teams make is to try and win/hold 3 locations instead of 2 with PvE. the 3OP strat worked the first few days but is easily destroyed now with much better strats. The only strat that is full proof is reacting to the other teams. If you find ones like the OP then hit the weak points right before pve and rake in the win, while the OP is scrambling to win back precious OPs that do nothing when you keep losing them.

[Mecan]

That's because you never leave out PvE, the guide is horribly wrong and extremely misleading.

I never said to leave out the PVE. I even stated that: "Middle, despite it's pitiful net worth in points, can still be very valuable toward victory but its value comes a lot later into the match than many people think." I said that right at the beginning of the guide. Did you just read the first section and throw up your hands and say "Misleading!". If you read the Beginners Tips section too on my blog, you'll clearly read that I insist people rush in at one point an kill the boss -- that will always help assure victory! All this guide is trying to suggesting is that it's a bad idea to keep a team in middle for the entire game. Camping middle doesn't benefit anyone. Please try and read. I know I have a lot to say, but I am really trying to cover basics and not give exact battle plans. I don't list any strategies at all, just facts.

[Mecan]

Mecan proved that the math works in his/her favor, but that pesky human element is what always foils even the best mathematical models! :P

Yeah the human element is far worse than you may think. It's not that the people are just unwilling, is that they are aggressively unwilling. They will fight tooth and nail, whine, moan, and call you a balled-faced liar just by even remotely suggesting other ways to approach a match. Even the mere mention of trying something new will often get bad reactions. But here is the catch --- I know it's possible. I've seen many Grand Companies on the opposing sides do some nifty and very effective defensive tactics. So I know it's possible to achieve.