Introduction

As an introduction to this issue I am first going to define what I will refer to as Nexus and Helios timing. For this letter I will refer to the two timing principles as Nexus and Helios, but it should be noted that I am not necessarily referring to the systems, just timing schemes that were used in each.

In Nexus timing, the active player has a short amount of time to shoot a respawning player before that player can fire. On Gen-2 Nexus this time is approximately the duration of the start-up sound. The effect of this is that if players are duelling at close quarters the active player has an advantage and can keep the decative player down, unless the player makes an error (forced or unforced). On Helios timing, a reactivating player’s sensors and gun come alive at the same time. This means that once familiar with the timing of the packs a deactive player will always be able to shoot when respawning. The result of this is that if two players are duelling at close quarters, the deactive player will always shoot the active player and vice versa unless one or both make an error. It is worth noting that since this timing relies on sound, and the deactive player always has an equal or better ability to hear their own sounds, this results in a slight advantage to the deactive player, which increases with distance and maze noise.

Some of the differences between the two timing sequences are fairly obvious. In Nexus timing, active players have an advantage over deactive players at close quarters. This means that to gain a positional advantage over an active player, the deactive player must tactically outmanoeuvre or outplay the active player. On Helios timing, no advantage is conferred to the player holding a position as the deactive player arriving has equal (or possibly greater) chance of winning a duel.

This is exemplified in LOR where we see Helios games almost always coming down to just a tag or two and more often than not, the player who gets a little ignored in the game will win. The effects on the team game are perhaps less obvious. There are two main differences between the two timing sequences on the team (and by extension doubles) game, which I will discuss here. In a team game, there are two main objectives: Getting a base advantage, and scoring a pack advantage. The timing sequence has a fairly marked effect on the execution and relative viability of each objective.

Base Play

In base play, the defence must stop the attackers from destroying the base through tactically outmanoeuvring the opposing players. In Nexus, the defence would normally get tags on the attacking players as they arrive, if they have an adequate setup. This is true on Helios only for players arriving active. For players arriving deactive, the attack has equal opportunity to win or lose each spawn on arrival. This severely weakens the ability of teams to defend a base from arriving attackers, which is vital for maintaining base advantage in games where you are not being attacked as often. Additionally, on Helios once the attackers have arrived, they can mark up at close quarters on the active players and have decent odds doubling. For bases where this inevitably happens near the doors, it can mean that any one player winning will score a base as all of the other duels are likely to be doubles. It also decreases the ability of attacking teams to mount sequenced attacks where they work together to deactivate one defender, then the next and so on since the first defender will normally turn back on and get a double, bringing it back to square one. In Nexus timing, this coordinated attack method is possible and often necessary to break defenders with a close quarters advantage over you.

One final difference that affects base play significantly is that if a player is shooting a base while a defending player is going to respawn, on Helios there is nothing the supporting attackers can do to stop that player denying their team mate if he has a shot. On Nexus, if the supporting attackers have marked that player and do not make an error, they can keep their team mate safe. This allows for a greater range of base designs to be viable for competition and increases the number of take opportunities of existing bases.

 In summary, for base play, Helios timing decreases the ability of the defending team to mount a defense that involves more than static holding of base doors, or dueling close quarters outside. It also decreases the ability of attacking teams to mount sequenced attacks to break these defenses. The main cause of this is that most players are normally deactive (having doubled) rather than one team or the other being deactive while the other is active.

Pack Point Game

With the objective of scoring pack points in a team game, there are again obvious and less obvious effects of the Helios vs Nexus timing. It is fairly apparent that Helios timing allows less competitive players and teams to more closely keep up with better teams on pack points. It is also apparent that the pack point difference between higher end teams becomes smaller, often even in games won by large margins. This is partly due to these teams adapting to the Helios timing sequence.

The less obvious effects are on the ability of a team to score pack points from advantageous or disadvantageous positions. In an even scenario (equal number of attackers and defenders) both Helios and Nexus players of similar skill will score a similar number of pack points. However, in an unbalanced situation (eg 2v3 or 1v2) the two systems perform quite differently. In Helios timing, each side of the fight will score similar pack points regardless of how many players from each team are in a situation. For example, in a 3v1 scenario, the 1 Helios player will normally score a double with one of the 3 opposing players every spawn. This means that the 1 player will score a total of the same number of pack points as their 3 opponents. In a similar position on Nexus timing, that 1 player would normally get close to zero pack points while the three other players get 150 every 8 seconds between them. The result of this is that to win the pack point game on a Helios system you have to be engaged in as many outnumbered situations as you can, and all your players must be engaged all the time.

Summary

When compared to a Nexus timing sequence, the Helios timing sequence limits the options of teams to play tactically around bases, or gain significant pack point advantages in games. The need to always have players engaged combined with the significant weakness against arriving attackers, severely disadvantages a team’s ability to defend their base while not being currently attacked. This has been the reason that “base dumping” has become so common and successful since the implementation of Helios timing. The dumping team ensures 100% engagement with no disadvantage for being constantly outnumbered, and it is hard to stop them finishing their bases because a tactical defence is less viable.