What Does "Steamroll" Mean to You?

[Apparition]

Before sunset, teams (by and large), had three modes - kill all, steamroll, and speed.  Kill all - defeat all mobs in missions.  Speed - complete objectives ASAP and get out.  Steamroll - kill mobs that are in the way.

 

I formed a TF last night, half with friends and half with PUGs from the LFG channel.  I asked before we started if there were any objections to a steamroll run.  A few people said something to the effect of, "That's fine."  Off we went.  The first mission was a defeat all.  However, on the second mission, three members of the group went ahead to the second floor of the mission and completed it while everyone else was still on the first floor.  It happened again in the third mission.  I reminded people that we were steamrolling.  It happened again in the fourth mission.  So, before the fifth mission started, I said that we were killing through, not killing all but not speeding.  That's when it stopped.

 

A friend of mine on the TF with us suggested that most people don't know what "steamroll" means, and that it was pretty much a term exclusive to the Champion server that we played on before sunset.

 

Now I know to explicitly say "kill through" instead of "steamroll," but I'm curious... was Champion server the only server that used that term?

Edited May 18, 2020 by Apparition

[Redlynne]

Steamroll means (to me) ... Minimal Downtime ... as in spend as much time as possible attacking stuff.  It's not about being careful, it's not about being methodical, it's about plowing through as "thoroughly" as possible leaving everything flattened in your wake.  You don't stop to Rest, you just keep on (steam)rolling through everything like a force of nature.

[MTeague]

I'd never heard that particular use of "Steamroll".  I assumed it to be a generic term to mean "being overpowered"

I agree that "kill through" is probably a better term to use in LFG.

 

[cranebump]

I always took Steamroll to mean the same thing as speeding through, though I see now that speed means bypassing and steamrolling doesn’t. Which makes steamrolling something of the default for most mishes. I think I just say you’re running normally, not a kill all, not a speed.

Edited May 18, 2020 by cranebump

[Coyotedancer]

I've seen Steamroll used most often to mean "We're bringing the smash to everything in our path". Not a speed run that skips to the end or a thorough kill-'em-all... Just fighting through to the objective like a team-shaped wrecking ball.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I think of steamrolling as an overpowered group cutting swathes through enemies like butter.  For the most part, I would consider it almost any team content.

[skoryy]

A fun night out patrolling with the coalition.

[krj12]

The terms I've seen used most are "Speed",  "Kill Most", and "Kill All".  I'm guessing you were wanting a Kill Most.

 

[Chuckers]

Steamrolling is something you do to Cabbage Patch Dolls... Oh.. in terms of game play.. Steamrolling, to me, is a byproduct of finding out you have an overpowered team. I've not heard of someone setting up a TF for steamrolling because you don't normally know it's going to happen until the team starts playing together. 
But if the leader said, "We're going to steamroll this", I would know what was meant. 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Chuckers

[Bay]

54 minutes ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

I think of steamrolling as an overpowered group cutting swathes through enemies like butter.

I've always been more of this mindset than anything. Steamroll has, to me, been a matter of performance as opposed to a style of play. I can understand how PUG members might get confused. My personal preference has always been to lay things out, as far as team expectations, in as plain a fashion as I can to avoid confusion over any given particular term. Then again, it should also be on everyone present to ask clarifying questions before it really starts to avoid creating any issues.

[Jeneki]

Usually I associate it with "the whole team has scrapperlock".  I never realized this was a Champion-specific phrase back in the day. (edit to reword that)

Edited May 18, 2020 by Jeneki

[VV]

3 hours ago, Apparition said:

Before sunset, teams (by and large), had three modes - kill all, steamroll, and speed.  Kill all - defeat all mobs in missions.  Speed - complete objectives ASAP and get out.  Steamroll - kill mobs that are in the way.

This is exactly right. I think that steamroll also sometimes includes the idea of not dawdling.  

 

No matter what, steamroll clearly does not mean skip as much killing as possible and get to the end as quickly as possible. First, that is what a "speedrun" is. Second, is that even what a steamroller does? No. A steamroller crushes everything in its way without stopping, but is not known to go out of its way to crush stuff that is not in front of it. Sounds like you just had a couple jerks on the team. It's also possible they did not speak good English and have no idea what an actual steamroller is.

 

That being said, I tend use my words to be clear. Typing additional words to make sure everyone is clearly on the same page is not a big deal for me. That way I don't run into these issues.

Edited May 18, 2020 by VV

[Peacemoon]

I think steamroll is open to misinterpretation, would advise using more precise language. To me it’s a little like rush through. 

 

I do like teams that want to kill most stuff though. If you’ve got a good group that’s earning good xp, why skip? 

 

The biggest annoyance for me though is when some melee like to go off and try solo.

I organised a +3 Citidel TF and the Tanker we had would wander off and spend 20 mins trying to solo a room while we cleared the rest of the map. I asked them if they were trying to bore the mobs to death? And one of the Brutes then kept trying to do the same thing but kept dying. Shall I come rezz you I asked? 🙄 It doesn’t impress me much; it’s just bad teamwork,  makes the TF take longer, and feels like showing off. There were lots of great buffs and debuffs in the team that they could have utilised, but some people prefer to do things the hard way.  I can solo +4/x8 as my Defender, but in a team I know how to play as a team player. 

[Shred Monkey]

I wouldn't have known that steamroll meant kill through to objectives.  I would have assumed you meant a speed run.  I usually seem people say kill-most or kill-through.

 

My definition of Steamroll is a team that kills things very fast with no fear of danger or over-aggroing enemies.  It's not a tactic.  It's just something you discover you can do because your team is overpowered for the mission.

 

 

 

[Shred Monkey]

1 hour ago, Peacemoon said:

the Tanker we had would wander off and spend 20 mins trying to solo a room while we cleared the rest of the map. 

..read this and immediately thought, "I bet tanker was wondering why the team went the other way instead of following him like most teams would do." 

[quixoteprog]

I take the term to be more of a statement of how you will deal with any fight and has nothing to do with completing the mission. It is an analogy for the actual steamroller machine. You call it steamrolling because a steamroller is a massive blunt object that has one strategy, one purpose, to flatten anything it runs across and not look back. It lacks all subtlety because it does not need it. This is usually because the group is overpowered for the content, but they don't have to be. It's just that being UNDER powered and trying to steam roll a mission usually results in several wipes and the group disbanding.

 

I consider a group to be steamrolling if they blow through a mission without the need for any communication on how to handle a fight. Everyone just runs into every room spamming their attack chain until all mobs are dead. People can talk in chat as much as they like, but it is usually to do with almost anything BUT the fight at hand. THAT is a foregone conclusion.

[srmalloy]

10 hours ago, Jeneki said:

Usually I associate it with "the whole team has scrapperlock".  I never realized this was a Champion server thing back in the day.

When the team clicks, it can be awesome. And sometimes the setup makes all the difference; I remember being part of an all-Kinetics ITF that Kay ran on Guardian; it was a steamroll mostly because everyone was hopped up on boosts, with pets zipping around like hummingbirds on crack.

[Pzn]

12 hours ago, Apparition said:

Before sunset, teams (by and large), had three modes - kill all, steamroll, and speed.  Kill all - defeat all mobs in missions.  Speed - complete objectives ASAP and get out.  Steamroll - kill mobs that are in the way.

 

I formed a TF last night, half with friends and half with PUGs from the LFG channel.  I asked before we started if there were any objections to a steamroll run.  A few people said something to the effect of, "That's fine."  Off we went.  The first mission was a defeat all.  However, on the second mission, three members of the group went ahead to the second floor of the mission and completed it while everyone else was still on the first floor.  It happened again in the third mission.  I reminded people that we were steamrolling.  It happened again in the fourth mission.  So, before the fifth mission started, I said that we were killing through, not killing all but not speeding.  That's when it stopped.

 

A friend of mine on the TF with us suggested that most people don't know what "steamroll" means, and that it was pretty much a term exclusive to the Champion server that we played on before sunset.

 

Now I know to explicitly say "kill through" instead of "steamroll," but I'm curious... was Champion server the only server that used that term?

On excelsior I see most people using the terms "Speed/Speedy/Speedrun", "Kill all" and "kill most".  With kill most being used similarly to how you define steamroll.  If I joined a TF advertising at steamroll I would have assumed it was a speedrun unless you specified.  The steamroller analogy makes perfect sense but you might need to explain it next time in different terms.  Reminding them that you were steamrolling wouldn't have helped if they were misunderstanding the definition to begin with.

[Liam Neeson's Wet Socks]

1 hour ago, josh1622 said:

On excelsior I see most people using the terms "Speed/Speedy/Speedrun", "Kill all" and "kill most".  With kill most being used similarly to how you define steamroll.  If I joined a TF advertising at steamroll I would have assumed it was a speedrun unless you specified.  The steamroller analogy makes perfect sense but you might need to explain it next time in different terms.  Reminding them that you were steamrolling wouldn't have helped if they were misunderstanding the definition to begin with.

"Kill Most" is a term I've seen used on Reunion a few times.

[artemisalpha]

12 hours ago, krj12 said:

The terms I've seen used most are "Speed",  "Kill Most", and "Kill All".  I'm guessing you were wanting a Kill Most.

 

These are the terms that I'm familiar with, and use when I'm running stuff. I am quite fond of the "Kill Most" mission.

[Lex Talion]

14 hours ago, Apparition said:

Before sunset, teams (by and large), had three modes - kill all, steamroll, and speed.  Kill all - defeat all mobs in missions.  Speed - complete objectives ASAP and get out.  Steamroll - kill mobs that are in the way.

That exactly. And I was playing on Virtue mostly.

[CaptainLupis]

To me a steamroll is when the team can go through spawns pretty much without stopping to pause, the spawn is just obliterated on the way past. However I have't heard it used in the context of how you want a mission to be run, it's just the natural consequence of having lots of high damage ATs all together.

[The_Cheeseman]

I will echo what others have said: "steamroll" is a judge of performance, not a tactic. It just means that your team is overpowered enough that you don't really have to stop or think, you just nuke whatever is in front of you and keep moving.

You can steamroll a kill-all, you can steamroll a speedrun, it's just a matter of how quickly and effectively you flatten the MOBs you want to kill.

As to the "going off on their own" thing, I think there are some very good reasons to do this. First of all, if you have multiple tanks/brutes, they can often be redundant. I've run into this a few times on Brutes, especially, where I just can't build fury or leverage my PBAoEs because I am competing for aggro with the Tanker. As long as the squishies aren't dying, there's no real point to staying with the rest of the group when I can be more effective elsewhere. You say the person isn't being a team player, but I'd say sticking with the team and being mostly ineffectual is worse for the overall kill speed than heading off to solo spawns (assuming they actually can, if they keep dying they're just wasting time).

Secondly, I think we've all been on the team where a couple people's playstyles just don't mesh well. If I am playing a Brute, or an AoE focused attacker, or whatever, I'm not going to get along well with an NRG blaster or Stormy who is tossing MOBs all over the place and making it impossible for me to herd or get multiple foes in range. Everybody has fun in their own way, so I am not going to tell that person to stop using their KB powers, that could be the whole reason they play the character, after all. But I am also not going to stick around and be useless because of their power choices. If I am able, I will go kill some other spawn so that we can both enjoy ourselves without conflict.

A team doesn't have to be all in one place to cooperate. The best teams are entirely capable of divide and conquer tactics, and doing so can significantly reduce clear times and improve exp gain. If a given character build is more suited to soloing spawns, let them go do that. Don't guilt them into following the group just to play at a fraction of their potential.

[Tiger Shadow]

 

[Techwright]

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