sugarvalves [1963573] —
Original article
The 2016 Dog Tag competition has well and truly kicked off this week with the leading collector now soaring into a lead of nearly 2,000 points. As of 4pm today 13,450 was the target for those aiming for top spot, with 2nd place on 11,907 and 3rd on 9,519. Those who are placed 4th to 10th are separated by a margin of just 3,000 points, and last week's 2nd placed Duke is currently languishing down in 11th on 6,411 points.
However, with 11 days left before the winner is crowned literally anything could happen; if you were to misrepresent the meaning of the word literally of course. Figuratively speaking, the competition is more evenly spread than the margarine on an OCD sufferer's toast, and it's highly possible that we could actually have a low-ranked outsider taking the top spot come November 25th.
Surprisingly, many of those in the top 25 are not high-level players, they are not well known, and they are doing incredibly well to fly under the radar of the big guns. So what can these young players do to seal their victory; and what tactics should the rest of us employ in order to etch our names forever into the TC Community leaderboards?
Let's find out, with a series of helpful hints and tips from some of last year's top 25. As well as frequently embarking on long flying haul trips, ChristmasBazaar (16th) told me he achieved his 371 tag haul by compiling a list of active players and attacking them once or twice a day. His meticulous approach to identifying those with tags was done with serial killer precision.
"I would review them to see if they had any recent defends lost since to try and avoid failed attacks. If I failed 2 or 3 times then I took them off my list. I usually had 25-30 players on this list and was able to find more to keep it fresh."
"I compiled my list by keeping an eye on people in hospital, unstealthed attackers, my faction members being attacked, reviewing the prior names on Dog Tags to see who else might be collecting, reviewing the attacking records of active players to see if they appeared to be in the dog tag competition. I also used Torn search facility and reviewed lists of people in the 50-60 level range and also 61-70 to see if they had been attacked since the competition started. If no attacks then I presumed they still had their tag on them. This was used as the higher a level the player, the more the tag was worth so a bit of research helped gain more."
The Cheesinater (24th) also employed innovative search tactics, hunting for obscurely named players of a certain level, a method which allowed him to hoover up the tags of inactive citizens. He too targeted factions and failed stealth muggers, and feels his cheese-based name helped him initially, but towards the end he ran into trouble.
"Cheese definitely helped, having a long name which people frequently spell wrong allowed me to hide somewhat from the typical user.Undertaking Duke's missions I did collect a few tags but returned them to their owners to ensure when I was mugged that I had none on hand to be collected - and hence remain a major target."
"My success last year actually resulted in having two additional enemies on my list from day one of the 2016 competition. I was able to determine one was BodyBagger"
So anyone who appeared in top 25 last year should be wary, as the city's resident salt-baron Bodybagger has you firmly in his tear-strewn sights. L4suicide (10th) was 2015's highest placed lady assassin, and she believes holding your ground is the key, although she is getting tired of taking part in the competition, not least the effects on her sanity.
"Tactic - stay in hosp and keep the 50 I have already :) But eating hospital food has to be the biggest downside, and my eyes are hurting from all the white screens. I'd like the ability to sell people their own tags back via trade. It would stimulate more movement in the economy, and get more players involved. Would also be nice if players could see who had their tag, but perhaps you'd have to go to china to talk to the old lady to find out."
Kickrocks (15th) thinks that anyone can do well in the Dog Tag competition, and even if you're too weak to win, he feels you may as well join in the attacking and pretend it's for the tags.
"It's one of those competitions that every level really can compete to some extent as long as they play it smart and have a little luck on their side. This year I was planning on passingbut the dog tags went live a day after I called a bunch of wars. So whether I chose to collect tags this year or not, people were still going to think it was cause of my attack increases."
Lord_Gorgen (4th) took careful note of those who seemed to be collecting and recommends using the graph in personal stats to see who has been attacking and defending since the competition began. But despite his impressive finish last year, one thing still irks him.
"Pretty happy with my 4th place last yr, nice to see that even the avg player can beat BodyBagger in something. But bugs me a little that the only thing standing between me and top 3 was Relentless' nuisance Ra1der."
It may annoy Lord_Gorgen to know that his nemesis Ra1der (3rd) used cash to pimp his way to a bronze medal position, with players all too keen to prostitute themselves for his benefit.
"My main method for gaining so many tags and such a high position was by buying tags from other users. This involved me attacking other users that told me they had tags and taking them - they would then med out and allow me to attack again - basically slutting for dog tags - each Tag score generated a price depending on their score. (Can't remember what I paid) Also didn't profit from coming third at all after I sold the Bronze Dog Tag."
Navin (7th) also placed in the 2011 competition under the old rules, but even a Dog Tag veteran like him believes he'd struggle with changes having been made to stealth recently.
"The way I was able to do well was to stay below the radar only attacking people I knew I would stealth against. With the stealth changes in place now I don't think that strategy will work nearly as well and imagine the top scores will end up being the strongest guys."
Mightygoober (12th) used daily Xanax refills and maxed out his FHC cooldown for the entire competition, estimating that the entire venture had cost him 1 billion in cash. Based on this, he had some advice for this year's players.
"My tip for players trying to reach the top 25 is don't! It was such hard work to only place 12th, it was fun but before I start getting hit this year, I lost my original dog tag already and that's key to having a high score. Since the competition is still going, I don't want to reveal all my secrets. I will just allude to the fact that you have to be smart and use all the resources available to you."
Psychotica (20th) was only 400 days old when she made it into the top 25 last year, and her story offers inspiration to all lower level players who think such an achievement may be out of their reach.
"I just focused on chasing merits and having fun. It wasn't until the last week of the competition that I started to think I could actually finish in the top 25. I don't know if there was anything especially good in how I played the event but I doubt it, lol. Tag hunting is mostly common sense stuff. I think a lot of it just came down to activity."
DrGonzo (11th) tried searching Hall of Fame level-rankers to aid his quest for tags, but he believes underhand tactics may well be at play during 2016's competition.
"Tip for early on is search the hof level ranks and find players with no defends lost from the comp start date. I would not be surprised if someone scripted this."
Sticky (14th) earned 7544 points for his 383 tags in 2015, and as well as using faction logs to search for frequent attackers, he also suggests hunting down inactive players with no recent losses using advanced search. Or, if that fails, beg your mates!
"Ask your friends if they don't join the tag hunt and if they have a few you are allowed to snatch up. Or just go war with your faction n chain n get random presents."
Although it seems Sticky's efforts to claim victory this year are being hampered by a certain 5th place finisher from last year's competition.
"I get farmed by Mr BB. No fun. So now it's retaliating SA members for all BB steals off me and then take double back! Handy when you have some stats."
With just eleven days to go, Para (6th) believes the competition's final week to be the most important, and it seems that those who hold their nerve can often do quite well.
"The last week involved SEDs at night and then wrong blood bags during the day. Targets lined up, med out of hosp, attack, self hosp again. Often I had to fly to escape an attack. Some big guns were trying to get me. I still had my own tag so paranoia set in. If I get hit once, I will lose my precious!"
Of course, the man everyone wants to hear from is last year's champion, Kniv (1st) who stormed home with 734 tags and 13573 points to earn the coveted gold dog tag. So how did he do it, and how is he faring this year?
"It takes a lot of time doing this, checking every person I attack. I'm using the advanced search and searching one level at the time. ex. level 75 to level 75. Getting all the level 75 players up. Then I'm opening them all in new tabs. 25 people on a page so checking them before moving on to the next page."
"Clicking on their stats, first defends lost. If they lost any attacks the last 2 days, I'm clicking them out, not interesting. If they haven't I'm checking how many attacks they lost compared to how many attacks they won in the competition time. The best ones are those that have no losses in the competition, then you know they have their own still on them."
"Then I'm trying to figure out if I can beat them by looking on xanax taken. If they have more than me I'm clicking them away too, and doing this page by page until I find enough targets to have a go at."
Searching through pages and pages of players is an arduous task, but one which any player could complete given enough time and patience. However, Kniv's next step was the one that proved crucial.
"When attacking I'm just taking the weakest one first, using a serotonin, so I got that for 120 seconds, and the rest of the targets that round get a smoke grenade too, so I got as good chance as possible to not lose. Using the blacklist too I have easy targets that I found available when I don't have time to search for higher targets."
Yet even the very best players are prone to becoming victims of their own success, as having won last year, Kniv seems to be suffering from his fame somewhat. He was surprisingly keen to be interviewed regarding his success, and the opening line of his response proved why.
"I can't get more attacked than I'm being now anyway so it will not hurt. This year I will not win it, but hoping for a top 10 place, currently at 99%, but a lot of people are. I'm a target for doing well last time around. People know I have dog tags on me."
"An easy comparison is me and NAME REDACTED. No one really knows he is collecting a lot, he has done almost the same number of attacks as me, but when flying under the radar you can see he has only been attacked 16 times in the competition, while I have been attacked 63 times. (I`m not complaining about it)"
"But it is good! Should be worse repeating what you did last year, if it was more easy, it would be boring."
So there you have it. The city's finest dog tag collectors have graciously shared their wisdom with us, and now it's up to you to use it effectively. But can the young hotshots currently flying high continue to keep up the pace with their stronger counterparts? Will the 100-level players track them down and beat these young upstarts into a pulp? And if an outsider does emerge victorious, will the leaderboard become littered with complaints at how the city's strongest were somehow hampered?
I hope so, I hope not, and yes, inevitably.
However, with 11 days left before the winner is crowned literally anything could happen; if you were to misrepresent the meaning of the word literally of course. Figuratively speaking, the competition is more evenly spread than the margarine on an OCD sufferer's toast, and it's highly possible that we could actually have a low-ranked outsider taking the top spot come November 25th.
Surprisingly, many of those in the top 25 are not high-level players, they are not well known, and they are doing incredibly well to fly under the radar of the big guns. So what can these young players do to seal their victory; and what tactics should the rest of us employ in order to etch our names forever into the TC Community leaderboards?
Let's find out, with a series of helpful hints and tips from some of last year's top 25. As well as frequently embarking on long flying haul trips, ChristmasBazaar (16th) told me he achieved his 371 tag haul by compiling a list of active players and attacking them once or twice a day. His meticulous approach to identifying those with tags was done with serial killer precision.
"I would review them to see if they had any recent defends lost since to try and avoid failed attacks. If I failed 2 or 3 times then I took them off my list. I usually had 25-30 players on this list and was able to find more to keep it fresh."
"I compiled my list by keeping an eye on people in hospital, unstealthed attackers, my faction members being attacked, reviewing the prior names on Dog Tags to see who else might be collecting, reviewing the attacking records of active players to see if they appeared to be in the dog tag competition. I also used Torn search facility and reviewed lists of people in the 50-60 level range and also 61-70 to see if they had been attacked since the competition started. If no attacks then I presumed they still had their tag on them. This was used as the higher a level the player, the more the tag was worth so a bit of research helped gain more."
The Cheesinater (24th) also employed innovative search tactics, hunting for obscurely named players of a certain level, a method which allowed him to hoover up the tags of inactive citizens. He too targeted factions and failed stealth muggers, and feels his cheese-based name helped him initially, but towards the end he ran into trouble.
"Cheese definitely helped, having a long name which people frequently spell wrong allowed me to hide somewhat from the typical user.Undertaking Duke's missions I did collect a few tags but returned them to their owners to ensure when I was mugged that I had none on hand to be collected - and hence remain a major target."
"My success last year actually resulted in having two additional enemies on my list from day one of the 2016 competition. I was able to determine one was BodyBagger"
So anyone who appeared in top 25 last year should be wary, as the city's resident salt-baron Bodybagger has you firmly in his tear-strewn sights. L4suicide (10th) was 2015's highest placed lady assassin, and she believes holding your ground is the key, although she is getting tired of taking part in the competition, not least the effects on her sanity.
"Tactic - stay in hosp and keep the 50 I have already :) But eating hospital food has to be the biggest downside, and my eyes are hurting from all the white screens. I'd like the ability to sell people their own tags back via trade. It would stimulate more movement in the economy, and get more players involved. Would also be nice if players could see who had their tag, but perhaps you'd have to go to china to talk to the old lady to find out."
Kickrocks (15th) thinks that anyone can do well in the Dog Tag competition, and even if you're too weak to win, he feels you may as well join in the attacking and pretend it's for the tags.
"It's one of those competitions that every level really can compete to some extent as long as they play it smart and have a little luck on their side. This year I was planning on passingbut the dog tags went live a day after I called a bunch of wars. So whether I chose to collect tags this year or not, people were still going to think it was cause of my attack increases."
Lord_Gorgen (4th) took careful note of those who seemed to be collecting and recommends using the graph in personal stats to see who has been attacking and defending since the competition began. But despite his impressive finish last year, one thing still irks him.
"Pretty happy with my 4th place last yr, nice to see that even the avg player can beat BodyBagger in something. But bugs me a little that the only thing standing between me and top 3 was Relentless' nuisance Ra1der."
It may annoy Lord_Gorgen to know that his nemesis Ra1der (3rd) used cash to pimp his way to a bronze medal position, with players all too keen to prostitute themselves for his benefit.
"My main method for gaining so many tags and such a high position was by buying tags from other users. This involved me attacking other users that told me they had tags and taking them - they would then med out and allow me to attack again - basically slutting for dog tags - each Tag score generated a price depending on their score. (Can't remember what I paid) Also didn't profit from coming third at all after I sold the Bronze Dog Tag."
Navin (7th) also placed in the 2011 competition under the old rules, but even a Dog Tag veteran like him believes he'd struggle with changes having been made to stealth recently.
"The way I was able to do well was to stay below the radar only attacking people I knew I would stealth against. With the stealth changes in place now I don't think that strategy will work nearly as well and imagine the top scores will end up being the strongest guys."
Mightygoober (12th) used daily Xanax refills and maxed out his FHC cooldown for the entire competition, estimating that the entire venture had cost him 1 billion in cash. Based on this, he had some advice for this year's players.
"My tip for players trying to reach the top 25 is don't! It was such hard work to only place 12th, it was fun but before I start getting hit this year, I lost my original dog tag already and that's key to having a high score. Since the competition is still going, I don't want to reveal all my secrets. I will just allude to the fact that you have to be smart and use all the resources available to you."
Psychotica (20th) was only 400 days old when she made it into the top 25 last year, and her story offers inspiration to all lower level players who think such an achievement may be out of their reach.
"I just focused on chasing merits and having fun. It wasn't until the last week of the competition that I started to think I could actually finish in the top 25. I don't know if there was anything especially good in how I played the event but I doubt it, lol. Tag hunting is mostly common sense stuff. I think a lot of it just came down to activity."
DrGonzo (11th) tried searching Hall of Fame level-rankers to aid his quest for tags, but he believes underhand tactics may well be at play during 2016's competition.
"Tip for early on is search the hof level ranks and find players with no defends lost from the comp start date. I would not be surprised if someone scripted this."
Sticky (14th) earned 7544 points for his 383 tags in 2015, and as well as using faction logs to search for frequent attackers, he also suggests hunting down inactive players with no recent losses using advanced search. Or, if that fails, beg your mates!
"Ask your friends if they don't join the tag hunt and if they have a few you are allowed to snatch up. Or just go war with your faction n chain n get random presents."
Although it seems Sticky's efforts to claim victory this year are being hampered by a certain 5th place finisher from last year's competition.
"I get farmed by Mr BB. No fun. So now it's retaliating SA members for all BB steals off me and then take double back! Handy when you have some stats."
With just eleven days to go, Para (6th) believes the competition's final week to be the most important, and it seems that those who hold their nerve can often do quite well.
"The last week involved SEDs at night and then wrong blood bags during the day. Targets lined up, med out of hosp, attack, self hosp again. Often I had to fly to escape an attack. Some big guns were trying to get me. I still had my own tag so paranoia set in. If I get hit once, I will lose my precious!"
Of course, the man everyone wants to hear from is last year's champion, Kniv (1st) who stormed home with 734 tags and 13573 points to earn the coveted gold dog tag. So how did he do it, and how is he faring this year?
"It takes a lot of time doing this, checking every person I attack. I'm using the advanced search and searching one level at the time. ex. level 75 to level 75. Getting all the level 75 players up. Then I'm opening them all in new tabs. 25 people on a page so checking them before moving on to the next page."
"Clicking on their stats, first defends lost. If they lost any attacks the last 2 days, I'm clicking them out, not interesting. If they haven't I'm checking how many attacks they lost compared to how many attacks they won in the competition time. The best ones are those that have no losses in the competition, then you know they have their own still on them."
"Then I'm trying to figure out if I can beat them by looking on xanax taken. If they have more than me I'm clicking them away too, and doing this page by page until I find enough targets to have a go at."
Searching through pages and pages of players is an arduous task, but one which any player could complete given enough time and patience. However, Kniv's next step was the one that proved crucial.
"When attacking I'm just taking the weakest one first, using a serotonin, so I got that for 120 seconds, and the rest of the targets that round get a smoke grenade too, so I got as good chance as possible to not lose. Using the blacklist too I have easy targets that I found available when I don't have time to search for higher targets."
Yet even the very best players are prone to becoming victims of their own success, as having won last year, Kniv seems to be suffering from his fame somewhat. He was surprisingly keen to be interviewed regarding his success, and the opening line of his response proved why.
"I can't get more attacked than I'm being now anyway so it will not hurt. This year I will not win it, but hoping for a top 10 place, currently at 99%, but a lot of people are. I'm a target for doing well last time around. People know I have dog tags on me."
"An easy comparison is me and NAME REDACTED. No one really knows he is collecting a lot, he has done almost the same number of attacks as me, but when flying under the radar you can see he has only been attacked 16 times in the competition, while I have been attacked 63 times. (I`m not complaining about it)"
"But it is good! Should be worse repeating what you did last year, if it was more easy, it would be boring."
So there you have it. The city's finest dog tag collectors have graciously shared their wisdom with us, and now it's up to you to use it effectively. But can the young hotshots currently flying high continue to keep up the pace with their stronger counterparts? Will the 100-level players track them down and beat these young upstarts into a pulp? And if an outsider does emerge victorious, will the leaderboard become littered with complaints at how the city's strongest were somehow hampered?
I hope so, I hope not, and yes, inevitably.
Original article
Comments
Post a Comment