This is from my understanding and in no way is authoritative of SplatBrother's Official Rulings. It's going to be a bit lengthy but I hope will help the staff see things from our perspective, and will be productive for everyone. Wherever I describe "vehicle" below, I mean PLANES, TANKS & PUGS, and wherever I reference TANKS by themselves, this should also include PUGs.
Background:SplatBrother's historically has considered a "building"/"structure" to be anything which, in its entirety, can be roped off in a satchel explosion. Such as, a full "tower", the SplatHouse, The Barn, Area51, Cinderblock City, etc.
Bunkers are things like, Spools, Maze City, the new mobile metal fence bunkers, trees, the bunker things on the Towers field, etc.
They apply the "safety radius" to certain vehicles, according to "structures" not bunkers. In other words, planes/tanks can be near spools, trees, etc, but they can't "fly" or "drive" through the Barn, or in close proximity to these structures.
As Wallace said, the problem is the full understanding of these rules vary according to player. As I politely explained to a Ref at the last game, I was not in any way aware of the "catwalk" ruling, and I do my best to keep up on rules, and had also witnessed "vehicles" getting close to the towers before, going under or around them.
At Bastogne a plane once or twice used the Cheeseburger-side Tower as "bunker" to keep alive from some of my rockets, and then ran to the back end of the tower's field to drop players off and try to kill our CP. Also once, the Social Hazard tank came next to the opposing-side tower. At games in the past, I've seen stuff like this as well, moreso planes than tanks. I've never seen a ref on the Towers field warn or call a vehicle out for doing such.
Questions/Considerations:I think the overall rules are known by some of us, but the fuzzy details need to be worked-out and fully explained each safety briefing. I think Ronn said he would start doing this. A couple of things I feel need to be noted and covered by official rulings:
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As a reminder to everyone, Grenades will disable a tank/pug from moving for a set period of time (5 minutes), but a Rocket or Satchel are the only 2 things which can actually knock it out. Satchels CAN NOT be thrown--some people were asking this on the field.*
What some people think is 20', is totally different what another person thinks--the Safety Briefing should include a demonstration of what this distance truly is so people can visualize it. If my PUG (or another) is nearby, we could include it in the example to show players the ruling. My car is 18.5' long, so I was using my car's length as a gauge for that in my mind. Further, how this perimeter is defined is something I cover below.
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If a tank/pug/plane is trying to "deploy" (leave their CP), will the safety boundary be waived temporarily until they're "away"? In other words, if you have troops filling the Spools (friendly troops, not a base under attack), can they move a few feet away (5' or more)--just enough to let the vehicle by--without either being called out? Common sense would say yes, there's no need to employ the safety perimeter ruling until the tank has cleared these obstacles.
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Is there a point where friendly troops CAN get close? In the past there have been discussions and rulings in varying ways, depending on if a vehicle is stationary or mobile. Typically, a stationary vehicle (one which is fully parked, not mobile in any sense) allows friendly players to get close (not opposing players). This allows troops to (dis)embark the vehicle (which is allowed at SplatBrothers and in the GSRP).
The Tank walker is responsible for declaring the tank stationary and only then would players allowed to get close. Of course when a vehicle is mobile, under no circumstance can anyone except field staff or the tank walker, be near the vehicle.
Bear in mind, how many times have we seen a group of players on a Plane standing next to their "ground troop" friends, talking? We need rule uniformity--if a plane cannot approach near a structure, and a tank cannot be near friendly troops, then a plane should not be near troops either--unless you allow tanks--while stationary--to allow ground troops (friendly) near them as well.Historically at SplatBrothers, and other fields, a stationary tank is allowed to have friendly troops around it, but may not begin moving until the players have moved out of the safety perimeter.
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Can vehicles (friendly only) be closer to each other than the designated safety perimeter? I ask this because during Cold Harbor at one point the Social Hazard tank was trying to move down the road near SpearPoint, and I was at Spear Point, and the ref said we could not get within 20' of each other, so we had to sortof "move around" each other. I realize this is for the safety of the tanks, but perhaps the perimeter could be a bit less to accomodate road situations, 5' or so?
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Can a vehicle (plane/tank/pug) be counted during a hold, assault or intel mission? I ask this because during Cold Harbor, I was trying to run a mission to "hold" Spear Point. The referee wouldn't count just myself as holding it, but required my troops to be touching it in order to count. Whenever a troop died he would allow a few seconds for other troops to fill their position, as I was there trying to help defend it. Bear in mind, we allow Planes to do "intel" missions, and we allow Tanks to do "assault" missions, so why can't a vehicle of any sort, be allowed to do a "hold" mission (whether it's a structure or a bunker) ? Or, if not a Structure, then why not a Bunker?
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Does the 20' radius include the vehicle at the center (ie, 10' mark), or is it 20' from the vehicle, all the way around? Some people were confused about this. This is where it gets grey. Under the first context, 20' radius with the vehicle at the center, would actually mean 10' (2 SOVANATOR lengths) in all directions; under the latter context, it would actually mean a 40' overall diameter radius, 20' in all directions from the vehicle. I submit that how all rulings have been going in general in the past year or so, SplatBrother's has been actually ruling using the "first" example (10' radius in all directions from the vehicle, 20' overall safety perimeter), instead of the "second" form of it. (see image below for example, "first" on top, "second" on bottom)
I believe the
proper context would be the first, 20' safety perimeter (diameter) with the vehicle at the center. Otherwise vehicles couldn't pass the Barn using the road. The problem is, sometimes people say "radius", sometimes "diameter" and sometimes "perimeter".
Radius is the distance from the center to the perimeter, and describe the 2nd example, vehicle at the center with 20' extending around it in all directions.
Perimeter/Diameter would mean the distance from one side of the perimeter to the other, passing through the center.
It would describe the first portion of the example, with the vehicle at the center and 10' extending out in all directions. This is how I feel SplatBrother's has actually been making rulings, whether or not it realizes itAt SplatBrother's, you'd have to be using the first example, otherwise you could not go down the roads with the tanks, as there are structures (Barn, Cinderblock City, Coop, Fort Poyer) too close to the roads. Further, you couldn't deploy a vehicle from the Spools Field if you were using the 2nd example above, as the big circular thing on the Spools field is considered a Structure (as William explained to me), because there's not enough room on either side of it.
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The Catwalk ruling, as kouza asked, was explained to me by Refs as follows: "Though you can go in between two towers, and you're far enough away from the towers, the catwalk is considered a "structure" and is 12' off the ground--less than 20', thus you cannot go under it--planes, pugs or tanks."Here's where confusion comes in.
If, using the graph above, you're using the 40' (20' radius around the vehicle) diameter safety ruling, then you could NOT go "under" the Catwalk. However, using the first example with 20' perimeter (10' radius) -- which is what you'd have to be using in order to operate a vehicle on the "roads" -- you COULD go under the catwalk, which would leave you 2' of extra space. This is how I read the rules, and also based it on past examples of vehicles going under and around the Towers.
Additional proof was offered to me that they were using the 'first' example, as some refs were telling me I had to keep 10' or more away in any direction from things.
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In the ruling, "encroachment" upon a player means the "aggressor" (person encroaching into the safety radius) would be called out. There is a grey area in actually working this rule, let me give an example which I witnessed at Cold Harbor.The Social Hazard tank was moving up the road, a player was huddled behind one of the bunkers which lay about 5' from the road. The tank walker was looking all around as he was walking to ensure nobody was in the safety boundary. I was trying to yell to the walker that there was a player hiding behind a bunker but was too far away. Now, in NO way was the player in danger of being hurt by the tank, and I think the player knew the tank was there (he saw the walker coming down the road).
Once the tank was about 5' away from the player (on the road, safely away from the player) the walker saw the player huddled down behind the bunker. Now, whether out of fear of being shot by the tank, or wanting to use himself as a preventative measure to keep the tank from being able to move past him (via the safety ruling), the player refused to move anywhere, but the tank had already (unknowingly) moved a little closer than normal (due mostly to the walker not being able to see the player).
This is similar to the situation described by ron, about a Demo player "hiding motionless" behind something, and "ambushing" a tree. You're not allowed to be but so close to a plane, but the catch-22 in the GSRP allows you to ambush a plane if you're a demo player. As Ronn said, you can't move while they're close to you.
My question is, how do you handle a situation like this if the player is using themselves as a stationary pick, to prevent the vehicle from moving, or can the players simply do that? I'll use myself as an example. At Cold Harbor, I had no marker, and my launcher was NOT designed for my PUG (the launcher I built for the PUG wasn't ready yet, so I couldn't bring it). This meant I had no defensive means against ground-troops.
If someone got wise, and used some players to make a circle around me (say, 30' around me), they're within their GSRP rights, and it prevents me from moving if I cannot eliminate them.
Some fields give allowance to the vehicle, which means if the vehicle wants to move, it can move (albiet it has to do so slowly) and the tank walker has to tell people to move, and the fields' ruling is the players have to yield to the vehicle. Otherwise, given the right circumstances, you could cripple a vehicle's mobility by using stationary forces. Usually in these situations, the vehicle (either due to field rules or honor) will not shot players which are "that" close and are clearly relocating to yield right of way to the vehicle.
Final thoughts:All this can be worked around by simply setting some static rulings such as, you can't go under the catwalk (regardless of the size of the safety perimeter), or within a set distance of the towers--forcing tanks AND planes, to go through the woods. Same thing for other "structures".
Further, simply define once and for all what are "buildings", by using their name. This way, nobody can contest an on-field Referee ruling, as they're told up front at the safety briefing they cannot be within X distance of the following buildings. The fewer on-field contestings or confusion you have, the smoother and easier things run.
Also, a PUG according to the GSRP has the same role as a Tank, minus a tank walker. Meaning, just because it's small and man-powered, OpFor still cannot encroach into this safety zone (though I know it's tempting because there's no true endangerment), and I feel some of them probably felt because there was no danger, the safety zone was smaller or nonexistent. People need to realize the perimeter still exists. Even though a PUG doesn't pose a danger, the rules apply just the same as a tank in order to keep things uniform and easy to remember.
Remember, those of us who play frequently at this field, or who have memorized the GSRP, are more aware of these rules than someone who doesn't know--those who don't know the GSRP or don't play as frequent, will instead play according to how they see others play and how referees apply rules.. It's one reason why we need to apply all rulings evenly in order to be effective, and keep things simple.
Ensure everyone knows these rules apply ALSO to planes, because sometimes this gets lost on the field it seems. It's hilarious watching a group of guys dragging that plane around behind trees and buildings, but let's just make sure they don't accidentally knock themselves out of play by getting too close to the buildings/structures.
I feel some players really do study the GSRP and do their best to work within the guidelines given, it's just that through playing we uncover some areas which can be polished on a little bit. This is one of them.
This was probably boring and exhaustive, but I hope lends itself to improving gameplay, safety and reducing stress the refs have to deal with.