I would like to discuss teamwork in general....specifically, though, working with soundless toons.

First off I have no problem working with soundless toons!! I have one of my own now on test, and I have good friends who are soundless that I play with often. So I am not in any way complaining about soundless toons - I just want to discuss working together.

There was a specific incident that brings on this post. I was in CFO with one soundless on my side. None of us were ubers. She announced that she had no sound - no problem. But it seemed to upset her that the rest of us used sound. Now, when I am on my soundless, I don't care if others use sound - to me it's as if I was on any other toon - I obviously do not use what I do not have and we all gear our strategy towards the makeup of the team. When on my soundless, I tend to pay a little closer attention to what the others are doing so I know what is needed - do I hit the biggest cog if the sound won't take it out? Or, if the sound will kill them all, I would use lure. I do NOT expect the rest of the team to not use sound - I hope they are paying enough attention to the fact that I don't have it, so we don't end up with a row of angry cogs, but I don't expect them to not use it at all.

I admit I may be misjudging the comments made by the toon today, maybe she didn't really care, but it did seem like she would rather the rest of us not use our sound at all. Again, we were all well over 100 laff so it was not an uber thing. Regardless of what she meant by it, it's a good discussion.

I guess I have a few questions I would like to discuss.

If you are a soundless toon, how do you expect or prefer the rest of the team to not use sound?
If there is a soundless toon on your team, how do you adjust your play...or do you?

I have other questions that apply to ubers but I'll post them separately.

Kari,

I had the same thing happen in the CFO the other day with a new soundless CFO uber I have never played with. The other 2 on our side who were her sfs were also for not sounding until I pushed it.. IMO it is easy to play with a experienced soundless toon as long as they know which toons will remain standing after the other 3 sound. The boss battles can be long and painful if you can sound and don't. If you have a soundless toon and don't know how to figure out how to backup sounders by knowing which cogs to take out it may be time to do some mints with Deputy Monty and Marsh because they opened my eyes to how great soundless toons can be.

When we build our toons we shouldn't look to others to play special as a team for us (ecpet in ccg vp) I even take my sell ubers (Some Duck soundless) on random runs, if the randoms are all going for sound you better believe I find a way to work with them. Whether I choose a cake on the 12 that will still be standing or a cogs miss if there are 3 level 12s that will be standing lol. I never think the rest of the team should go babying or playing special for any of my toons as I said other then a ccg vp run with the LLKR strategy.

I have been taking my daughter's toon (princess kala) to the ccg vp runs lately and she is a soundless toon.

Here is a little background on this toon. When my daughter made this toon, she played this toon regularly but became somewhat disinterested after the MM stage. Because this was her first toon and named after her, we decided to never delete it. After taking over with her progression at TB stage, I decided against sound as her last gag choice because we rarely used sound on all our other toons. This decision was made when we only had one account and just before SBHQ was introduced in the game. I've been kicking myself in the arse ever since then and have made sure to include sound in our toons' repertoire of gags. I can honestly say that I do NOT enjoy playing this toon when it comes to bux, merits, and JNs. But, on the other hand, I do enjoy taking this toon to boss battles (especially CCG VP).

The best thing about the making of this toon was that it forced me to learn gag use stategy very early in my TT days. Because of this soundless toon, I am a better player.

Now to answer your questions.

When I play this toon, I HOPE that my teammates with sound use their sound gags whenever the situation calls for it. What I do is pay special attention to the cogs and their levels as they come out and line up. I always try to make a mental note so that if the rest of the side chooses sound, I can contribute by taking out one of the cogs that their sound gags leave standing. As LadyZ mentioned, if their sound will take out all the cogs, I will choose lure after everyone else has picked. I can't tell you how often the other toons are puzzled by this gag choice. Toons ranging from newer lower laffs to experienced 120+ laff toons often give out the "Huh?", "Help!", or better yet "Are you new here?", and this is after they are informed that my toon is soundless. My favorite reply to these comments are "No", "You do the math.", "Are you new here?".

When I am playing a toon with sound and am sided with a soundless toon, I will still use sound and observe the gag choice and cog targeted by the soundless toon. If I feel confident enough that the soundless toon is experienced enough to handle the rest of the team using sound, then I will continue to use sound unless it puts the team in dire straights.

Well, I've been playing Mama for a couple of years now and she's soundless... I actually prefer that if there are sound toons present that they DO use their sound...*IF* they know how. But...there are always toons who don't know HOW to play with a soundless toon. I usually wait for them to pick something and do my best to cover whatever gag they choose to use. If I'm playing with strangers I wait for someone to put up sound and promptly say "Sorry, I can't" and hope they know how to accomidate for a toon without sound...and then cover accordingly...if they don't stink me and disappear down the rabbit hole that is. Honestly, I really don't care what gags anyone uses...when I play my soundless toon I just say I can't and hope for the best.

Bnkzsahm

I am really enjoying reading this thread. Never had a problem with soundless (or any gagless) toon. Sorry about the toon that doesn't get it! Asa for me, I do need help thinking of what strategies are effective and I appreciate the insights here.

Waiting to go last, if everyone else is using sound - that explains a lot
The lure factor to ensure the hit
Covering the leftover big cog
Using a cogs miss if the sound isn't going to kill

Love it! Thanks all you smart people!

Since you haven't introduced yourself here I am going to assume that you are as you say the toon that I was sided with that night. I do stand corrected on thoughts that the others were protecting you because you were their sf. I know very well how hard it is to make a CFO uber and you have to not only be experienced but also thick skinned most likely even more so for those who have soundless ubers.

Sue :

Pinkersmirk : I had the same thing happen in the CFO the other day with a new soundless CFO uber I have never played with. The other 2 on our side who were her sfs were also for not sounding until I pushed it.. IMO it is easy to play with a experienced soundless toon as long as they know which toons will remain standing after the other 3 sound. If I may and with all due respect. You assume too much. Not only was I not SF with those other two, I thought it was you 3 who were SFs, but I wasn't even regular friends with them. I didn't care if you used sound or not and there were a few times I would have liked you to so I could have dropped on the straggler. If you guys put up enough sound to kill all four of them then yes I'm going to lure. Does that really make me lurehappy? If you remember correctly I put up my gags last and it was in support of what everybody else does or did. Please don't blame me if the other two were reluctant to sound on my behalf, I have no control over what others do. Don't mistake my lack of laffs or sound for lack of experience.

IMHO. I don't think anyone mislabled anyone. I don't believe Pinkersmirk mentioned that they were kid gloving you in anyway, or that it was YOUR fault that they did.

I could be wrong.

I wish they had a clearer phrase about sound use. It's what I always mean when I ask "which way?" And I try to stay away from "Let's use sound" or "I think you should choose sound"....face it, she's right, there ARE toons who would off you for BOSSING them which is why I made that other post....oops, digressing again

"Hey, guys, wanna use sound? It's cool with me" would be a nice addition to the speedchat menu.

I agree that I don't want anyone coddling me through as an uber. And Varmint is right, there really are no CFO "UBERS" per se, not like Ubers used to be. There are just lowest-laff players. Clearly TT thought 71-72 laff is enough for CFO or they would not have made it possible to get the suit at that point. Since you can't make a "true" uber in the original sense of the word, we now have the NEW uber -- the definition has changed, though, so I accept the name!

GMZ would LOVE to accompany Madame Leota on a 4 toon CFO!! Wanna?? Bring it on!

Oh, and welcome, Sue, to TTF! Which Sue are you, by the way? We all want to know!

Sue,

I was not trying to label anyone and that is why I didn't name any names in my post. I will apologize if I made you feel like you were being attacked in my post. Those who know me know I have a big mouth but when it comes down to it I love to have fun and love a good challenge. I will tell you that on CCG runs nobody is going to off you as a CFO uber for reccomending which gags they use. There have been many times when I play my ubers that everyone will wait until I pick before they do anything. Then we all end up rushing to pick a gag which can end up being a mess lol! So now I am the first to pick gags and everyone follows suit. I know it is a lot different when playing soundless ubers because you have to make up the difference of what will be left standing after the pick.

I would like to welcome you to our site and hope that you don't let this run you off. PLEASE feel free to stink or grief me the next time we run together because I do love it!

Don't tell her Sue! Loopy needs the mystery in her life to drive her crazy!!

Loopy :

Pinkersmirk : I would like to welcome you to our site and hope that you don't let this run you off. PLEASE feel free to stink or grief me the next time we run together because I do love it! Yes, welcome to the site Sue. Now which one are you...and better yet WHO are you?? I have been dying to know ever since I did that four toon VP with you two!

Haha!! Sit down kids, it's time once again for another episode of "Drive Loopy Loopy"!!

The cute one, eh? Ah yes. I know the one of which you speak.