"Because the stupid Hive system won't let me as I have < 40 hours since it was integrated, despite having 600 hours on Steam"
Sounds like you are playing on The Thirsty Onos servers. Blocking the command chair for players with less than 40 Hive hours is something I added and it's not in NS2 by default. If you know how to command I'll add an exception for you (pm me your NS2 ID please) or play on other servers as most of them have no checks for commanders.
"Because the stupid Hive system won't let me as I have < 40 hours since it was integrated, despite having 600 hours on Steam"
Any reference to hours recorded, or hive hours, is hours in a live game in a hive enabled server. These are not the same hours as steam. These hours are only from when a live game's timer starts until the timer stops with a team winning. Hive only counts games if there are enough players, so low player count games are not recorded.
Not every server does that, so you could try another server.
The mod that does that usually uses whichever has greater hours, steam or hive stats. If you can't wait to get a full 40 hours in hive, maybe contact your favorite servers operator and see if he is willing to change the requirements to include steam hours. Edit: That is if it is not the thirsty onos server.
whenever I spectate a commander all they do is pretty much spectate themselves half the time, then drop the occasional medpack and click on the building/tech point to build/research. Its not like commanding gives you any more insights than a normal marine has, and because of that, strategic choices can as well be made by a field marine. Sure as com you see all the marine to lf interactions but all you can do is:
- drop medpacks, and sometimes not even those, and catalyst lol sure
- 1 or 2 beacons per game, usually make or break moments
- arcs "yeah shoot in that general direction"
- command helpers lal
...where is the fun in that?
Then of course there are commanders that like to smoke and drink while commanding...uh ok I guess...
Apart from medpacks a commander spot seems like a dead role to me. I guess you get bragging rights (or shaming whips) compared to a person who directs the game from the field and that's it...
imho either it needs to have a couple more ways to help marine actual combat, or it needs to be dissolved into actions that can be done by marines so that if a guy tells you to build something you pick from a menu the right item and you build it (TF2 engy style) (and these thing I think is amazing because can give you the actual feeling of being part of a team), and make medpacks something different like adrenaline shots which you can self instant activate...
Aliens com must be something like 2-3apm average
whenever I spectate a commander all they do is pretty much spectate themselves half the time, then drop the occasional medpack and click on the building/tech point to build/research. Its not like commanding gives you any more insights than a normal marine has, and because of that, strategic choices can as well be made by a field marine. Sure as com you see all the marine to lf interactions but all you can do is:
- drop medpacks, and sometimes not even those, and catalyst lol sure
- 1 or 2 beacons per game, usually make or break moments
- arcs "yeah shoot in that general direction"
- command helpers lal
...where is the fun in that?
Then of course there are commanders that like to smoke and drink while commanding...uh ok I guess...
Apart from medpacks a commander spot seems like a dead role to me. I guess you get bragging rights (or shaming whips) compared to a person who directs the game from the field and that's it...
imho either it needs to have a couple more ways to help marine actual combat, or it needs to be dissolved into actions that can be done by marines so that if a guy tells you to build something you pick from a menu the right item and you build it (TF2 engy style) (and these thing I think is amazing because can give you the actual feeling of being part of a team), and make medpacks something different like adrenaline shots which you can self instant activate...
Aliens com must be something like 2-3apm average
Wow. Just wow.
The system of commanding is far more involved than dropping an odd medpack and beaconing once or twice a game.
FrozenNew York, NYJoin Date: 2010-07-02Member: 72228Members, Constellation
That's how I feel about commanding and why I don't.
But realistically I know how it feels to be on the field supported by a commander who doesn't feel that way. Pretty fantastic to watch the micro go on around yourself and try to help out with minor calls of placements to support fights and stuff.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
For aliens I may agree that the khammander can often be a buff bot or a drifter controller, but for marine.. nonono, a marine comm works perfectly fine with full control.
The sad thing is that there lies the problem. Control. In pub many people do not listen. If a commander has a full team which does EXACTLY what they are told WHEN they are told, that commander will be very busy. But beautiful strategy can be the result.
There is no way a field comm can see as much as the commander from overview on a strategic point. Tactical yes, strategic.. no.
For aliens I may agree that the khammander can often be a buff bot or a drifter controller, but for marine.. nonono, a marine comm works perfectly fine with full control.
The sad thing is that there lies the problem. Control. In pub many people do not listen. If a commander has a full team which does EXACTLY what they are told WHEN they are told, that commander will be very busy. But beautiful strategy can be the result.
There is no way a field comm can see as much as the commander from overview on a strategic point. Tactical yes, strategic.. no.
I think a field com can see as much and more, because he's LESS busy. The interface doesn't allow quite as much information, but the more a commander is doing the less he sees. A field player is only busy when he's shooting something moving, which actually turns out to be a small percentage of the time. That, and the field player is in a better position to judge opponent skill levels. When a com sees his team losing a battle all he sees is his team failing. When a player loses a fight he sees how difficult it would have been to succeed.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
@sotanaht
what the hell are you doing as field player, if you have that amount of time? (or better said not doing.)
Do not get me wrong, I spend a god awful amount of time in the map as field player. But the comm is pretty much into such views nonstop.
His overview just lends better to strategy then field does.
@sotanaht
what the hell are you doing as field player, if you have that amount of time? (or better said not doing.)
Do not get me wrong, I spend a god awful amount of time in the map as field player. But the comm is pretty much into such views nonstop.
His overview just lends better to strategy then field does.
If you want to carry a game, you pretty much have to be commanding from the field and yelling at people by name who are walking past things. I can win a lot more games when I'm feeling like doing it. See a skulk near an RT not biting it? Call them by name and tell them over and over again to bite the RT to the point where it's more annoying to hear you telling them to start biting the RT than it is to bite the RT so they start biting the RT.
I went up in hive skill from 1000 to ~2200 really fast doing this. Then I got really bored of it and it's been a much slower climb trying to carry without field yelling. I don't play much outside No Rookies Captains Pub, but it does work elsewhere too
@sotanaht
what the hell are you doing as field player, if you have that amount of time? (or better said not doing.)
Do not get me wrong, I spend a god awful amount of time in the map as field player. But the comm is pretty much into such views nonstop.
His overview just lends better to strategy then field does.
If you want to carry a game, you pretty much have to be commanding from the field and yelling at people by name who are walking past things. I can win a lot more games when I'm feeling like doing it. See a skulk near an RT not biting it? Call them by name and tell them over and over again to bite the RT to the point where it's more annoying to hear you telling them to start biting the RT than it is to bite the RT so they start biting the RT.
I went up in hive skill from 1000 to ~2200 really fast doing this. Then I got really bored of it and it's been a much slower climb trying to carry without field yelling. I don't play much outside No Rookies Captains Pub, but it does work elsewhere too
My climb has stopped, and i'm pretty sure it stopped around the time i decided the most fun i have in the game is go balls out aggro gorge.
It's just so amusing to outdps a poorly medpacked marine.
or hear your own comm starting screaming "gorge needs support in cafeteria, someone get ther- oh nm."
or stealing weapons.
3-3 marines thinking they're hot shit, coming at me like it'd take 15 spits to kill them, yeah yeah, but they forgot about bile bomb.
The system of commanding is far more involved than dropping an odd medpack and beaconing once or twice a game.
I don't think I ever said commanding is just "odd medpack and beaconing once or twice a game."
I was just referring to a fact which is that the commander does very little in term of active influence. You have medpacks, cat, scans, and beacons, that's it, of which you only actively use medpacks. Savage xr/2 in comparison has plenty more of active skills that can directly influence combatants and choose what to give to whom, even tough in that game the player number is supposed to be higher, ns2 still comes short proportionally.
If a commander has a full team which does EXACTLY what they are told WHEN they are told, that commander will be very busy. But beautiful strategy can be the result.
There is no way a field comm can see as much as the commander from overview on a strategic point. Tactical yes, strategic.. no.
Timing is important factor as it is in any RTS that adopts research based tech trees, but the way you are saying that seems like marine players would be a little too much clueless. I mean, if you are considering tight scenarios where timing windows are clutch, you should also assume marines know the drill, they know that in that particular map if they have that particular dis/advantage they have to do X, so you have to explain to me what more can a commander help accomplish there?
You mention strategy and tactics. If you mean what tech point to capture, what to research and what to build I still don't see why an isometric view of the map would give you an advantage compared to making the same decision from the field. Aren't people supposed to memorize maps anyway? Strategy is something you prepare before a game in general (not particular to ns2) and you don't really change it during a game, maybe you have a backup plan, or a third, but then you call gg, so what can a commander do better?
I was just referring to a fact which is that the commander does very little in term of active influence. You have medpacks, cat, scans, and beacons, that's it
Wat. Yeah so uninfluential to drop a nanoshield reducing incoming damage by 33%, and then med spam to keep him alive whilst he's flying the jetpacks you researched, away from that corner where an ambush was laid revealed by a scan all the while reloading his SG at the speed of light because of dem cat packs.
What does the commander have access to that a field comm doesn't?
There is no field commander. "Lieutenant" would be accurate. Yes the map tells a lot. But to some extend it blinds the lieutenant. The commander can detect many thing before any field unit can see it on the map. It's richer than it looks at first glance. You can imagine several channel. Up to the player who command to tap into these channels.
I was just referring to a fact which is that the commander does very little in term of active influence. You have medpacks, cat, scans, and beacons, that's it
Wat. Yeah so uninfluential to drop a nanoshield reducing incoming damage by 33%, and then med spam to keep him alive whilst he's flying the jetpacks you researched, away from that corner where an ambush was laid revealed by a scan all the while reloading his SG at the speed of light because of dem cat packs.
There is no way a field comm can see as much as the commander from overview on a strategic point. Tactical yes, strategic.. no.
What does the commander have access to that a field comm doesn't?
I think the biggest thing is that he can see enemy life totals if he can click them accurately. He also has the benefit of seeing any point on the map in 3d compared to someone on the field only being able to see the room they are in and the 2d map.
What it really comes down to though is how much time they spend looking at the map. A field player can be staring at the map: while respawning, while running to position, while building, while waiting in ambush... Fighting doesn't actually take very long. Spawning and running into position takes about 30 seconds on average (assuming you aren't defending a phase gate), but if you spend 30 seconds or more actively fighting at any given time SOMEBODY has probably screwed up, unless you are assaulting a base with arcs. In the course of 30 seconds you probably will either die, run away, or clear the room, and in all cases you bring the map back up.
Meanwhile as long as there is a fight going on somewhere on the map, at least the marine commander is probably busy with meds, ammo, and scans. In between all that he needs to keep his tech going on schedule. The moments when NO ONE is fighting are far fewer than the moments when YOU are not fighting. How busy the alien com is depends on his strategy regarding drifters, mainly, but alien com being boring and not having anything to do is a common enough complaint even if it's not always completely accurate.
I was just referring to a fact which is that the commander does very little in term of active influence. You have medpacks, cat, scans, and beacons, that's it
Wat. Yeah so uninfluential to drop a nanoshield reducing incoming damage by 33%, and then med spam to keep him alive whilst he's flying the jetpacks you researched, away from that corner where an ambush was laid revealed by a scan all the while reloading his SG at the speed of light because of dem cat packs.
There is no way a field comm can see as much as the commander from overview on a strategic point. Tactical yes, strategic.. no.
What does the commander have access to that a field comm doesn't?
I think the biggest thing is that he can see enemy life totals if he can click them accurately.
Yes, but he can just relay that information in the voice comm - the field caller should be able to absorb that information and act accordingly. The commander does not actually need to make any of the calls. He does need to have awarenss over the map and relay the important information, like "60 hp left on that fade in repair" or what ever.
But the commander doesn't need to say, "Sotanaht go to Trash Ejection and cut off the fade", a field caller can do that just as well - in fact, the individual should be able to make that connection without a field caller, but you know what I mean.
As soon as someone start to vomit on the commander role, i can't help thinking they're absolutely not 'on point'.
They usually thinks it's so easy as they got to play one or two RTS but uninstall the game as soon as they are stuck with one mission. The kind that barely finish any game except FPS.
And this is the kind of people that was probably bashing to nerf the commander to completely separate it from the field units. The commander do not have Pres anymore. There are little and subtle cool down times (bug/lag or not) that disable medpack showers and other things. Many nerfs with obs, drifters... the list goes on forever. I mean this is the reason the Lieutenants exists today. The REAL commanders have a lot to do.
At an above average level, the commander has to have eyes everywhere because the opponent will exploit every weakness in no time. It can turn any game upside down. In fact it's the point of it when playing with that kind of dudes: Fighting the odds and flip coins.
So the real question becomes in that case : Why these so called field commanders don't do it ? They're so skilled at commanding after all.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
I would say a commander has more time then a 'field comm', on marines at least.
A field player should be defending, pushing or recapping. Paying attention to his/her surroundings first. Its all great mr fieldcomm is looking on the other side of the map, but that does me no good if he gets hit by a skulk. Paying attention would save me a medpack.
The comm itself is 'only' doing upgrades, dropping some ammo, and meds. Now I do not know about your comm style, but I tend to not want to bleed away all my res in meds. Not every engagement is worth the meds the field players ask for. So the commander actually has a lot of time to spend on strategy. If you keep a eye on your marines & their health you are already hopping like mad around the map. The better the marine's their spread the more you will see of the map while doing your job.
The simple fact that a field comm has to delay their own job to watch the map to help do yours is already a reason why its much more suited for a comm.
Its relative simple. Humans can not truly multitask. We multitask by, very quickly, swapping focus. So the field comm is wasting more and more time, while the real comm can fit it into his/her already running views.
Of course any field player should see stuff and react, as many have mentioned above. But suggesting calls, and thinking for yourself is not the same as planning the whole teams strategy.
@DC_Darkling The way I marine com is a LOT different than yours. I hotkey everything. I've even started to hotkey IP's, CC and powernode to key number 9. This way I never have to look back at my base. And all my focus as marine commander is spent on watching my marines. Not every marine is worth a med pack. But for those who are I'l be ready with just 1 click. Medpacks cost 1 tres per pack. And in the long run they can buy you the game.
If a life form is over extending. Then you might use way more meds than you like. But killing life forms is necessary to win the game. And it's usually worth every med.
Personally I feel that I have a better overview of the game as a player rather than commander. Unless I've been pushing nonstop the whole game. In which case I will know nothing. But as marine commander you are constantly engaged in every fight that occurs. While keeping taps on your marines, structures, and resources.
@DC_Darkling The way I marine com is a LOT different than yours. I hotkey everything. I've even started to hotkey IP's, CC and powernode to key number 9.
I go a step further, I hotkey my marines - only the ones in the front tho. So if I have a marine in Ore, hub, mezanine, elevator, repair. I will only hotkey Ore, hub and mezanine - as elevator and repair are naturally lane blocked etc.
A field player should be defending, pushing or recapping. Paying attention to his/her surroundings first. Its all great mr fieldcomm is looking on the other side of the map, but that does me no good if he gets hit by a skulk. Paying attention would save me a medpack.
By definition paying attention to the map means he can anticipate the chance of being ambushed himself by eliminating the number of skulks on one side from the total number of alien players.
The simple fact that a field comm has to delay their own job to watch the map to help do yours is already a reason why its much more suited for a comm.
Now if everyone on the field was aware of the map and their surroundings then calls don't need to be made.
So the field comm is wasting more and more time, while the real comm can fit it into his/her already running views.
Well then the comm has to relay that information concisely and precisely so that the field player can process it properly which I'd argue leads to much more inefficiencies and more problems than if the marine were just aware himself.
Commanding used to "fun" but now i find it can be quite annoying,
as games are either stacked so much that it was pointless even starting,
players that run off and do nothing to help the team by just ramboing into groups off aliens trying to kill 1 of the aliens 6 RT's
Players that refuse the listen as they think they know better and again do nothing for the team
Dont get me wrong, there has been games that have been amazing simply because players have listened and worked as a team, even if we failed and lost, it was still a fun game.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
I think we may not be on the same page here.
I do not mean that field players should not pay attention to the map. They should. Yes, they must keep themselves roughly aware of where aliens are. You are correct that more awareness = less calls.
I am saying however, that a comm should easily be more aware then a field player because he/she is spending more time in said map. So pointing out advantages of field players watching the map is pointless, its about who is watching it more.
Which brings me to the next point. A comm does not need to precisely tell a field player everything in minute detail. Its more a question of 'do as your told'.
Moving the pieces on the board itself.
When a piece gets to its mark it can and should pay attention on its own to make sure the actual job gets done.
I am saying however, that a comm should easily be more aware then a field player because he/she is spending more time in said map.
Well seeing as a commander should be involved in EVERY engagement of which sometimes two occur simultaneously, I find it hard to believe that a commander actually does spend more time looking at the map than the marines do.
So pointing out advantages of field players watching the map is pointless, its about who is watching it more.
No you're wrong here. It's not just about who is watching it more (btw field marines do, or should), it's about who can see, process, and act on the information they get. A commander has to see, process, and communicate which then requires the 2nd party to listen and process; a much more tedious process in terms of brain processing than simply doing it youself.
A comm does not need to precisely tell a field player everything in minute detail. Its more a question of 'do as your told'.
See argument above. Doing as your told is harder when you have less information or have to spend more time processing information. It is easier to get the info yourself and decide yourself. Whether that field marine making the decision makes a good one or not is a completely different question and is still not answered by simply having a commander do the calls.
Comments
Sounds like you are playing on The Thirsty Onos servers. Blocking the command chair for players with less than 40 Hive hours is something I added and it's not in NS2 by default. If you know how to command I'll add an exception for you (pm me your NS2 ID please) or play on other servers as most of them have no checks for commanders.
Will it be such a problem for you to gain just 40 hours of Hive experience?
Just play some more.
Any reference to hours recorded, or hive hours, is hours in a live game in a hive enabled server. These are not the same hours as steam. These hours are only from when a live game's timer starts until the timer stops with a team winning. Hive only counts games if there are enough players, so low player count games are not recorded.
Not every server does that, so you could try another server.
The mod that does that usually uses whichever has greater hours, steam or hive stats. If you can't wait to get a full 40 hours in hive, maybe contact your favorite servers operator and see if he is willing to change the requirements to include steam hours. Edit: That is if it is not the thirsty onos server.
I would like to use Steam hours but then it won't let players with hidden Steam profiles command.
- drop medpacks, and sometimes not even those, and catalyst lol sure
- 1 or 2 beacons per game, usually make or break moments
- arcs "yeah shoot in that general direction"
- command helpers lal
...where is the fun in that?
Then of course there are commanders that like to smoke and drink while commanding...uh ok I guess...
Apart from medpacks a commander spot seems like a dead role to me. I guess you get bragging rights (or shaming whips) compared to a person who directs the game from the field and that's it...
imho either it needs to have a couple more ways to help marine actual combat, or it needs to be dissolved into actions that can be done by marines so that if a guy tells you to build something you pick from a menu the right item and you build it (TF2 engy style) (and these thing I think is amazing because can give you the actual feeling of being part of a team), and make medpacks something different like adrenaline shots which you can self instant activate...
Aliens com must be something like 2-3apm average
Wow. Just wow.
The system of commanding is far more involved than dropping an odd medpack and beaconing once or twice a game.
Dammit, I guess I shouldn't have fed this troll.
But realistically I know how it feels to be on the field supported by a commander who doesn't feel that way. Pretty fantastic to watch the micro go on around yourself and try to help out with minor calls of placements to support fights and stuff.
The sad thing is that there lies the problem. Control. In pub many people do not listen. If a commander has a full team which does EXACTLY what they are told WHEN they are told, that commander will be very busy. But beautiful strategy can be the result.
There is no way a field comm can see as much as the commander from overview on a strategic point. Tactical yes, strategic.. no.
I think a field com can see as much and more, because he's LESS busy. The interface doesn't allow quite as much information, but the more a commander is doing the less he sees. A field player is only busy when he's shooting something moving, which actually turns out to be a small percentage of the time. That, and the field player is in a better position to judge opponent skill levels. When a com sees his team losing a battle all he sees is his team failing. When a player loses a fight he sees how difficult it would have been to succeed.
I personally like a commander who has a rough idea what they want and uses their mic.
what the hell are you doing as field player, if you have that amount of time? (or better said not doing.)
Do not get me wrong, I spend a god awful amount of time in the map as field player. But the comm is pretty much into such views nonstop.
His overview just lends better to strategy then field does.
If you want to carry a game, you pretty much have to be commanding from the field and yelling at people by name who are walking past things. I can win a lot more games when I'm feeling like doing it. See a skulk near an RT not biting it? Call them by name and tell them over and over again to bite the RT to the point where it's more annoying to hear you telling them to start biting the RT than it is to bite the RT so they start biting the RT.
I went up in hive skill from 1000 to ~2200 really fast doing this. Then I got really bored of it and it's been a much slower climb trying to carry without field yelling. I don't play much outside No Rookies Captains Pub, but it does work elsewhere too
My climb has stopped, and i'm pretty sure it stopped around the time i decided the most fun i have in the game is go balls out aggro gorge.
It's just so amusing to outdps a poorly medpacked marine.
or hear your own comm starting screaming "gorge needs support in cafeteria, someone get ther- oh nm."
or stealing weapons.
3-3 marines thinking they're hot shit, coming at me like it'd take 15 spits to kill them, yeah yeah, but they forgot about bile bomb.
Marine comms SHOULD spot such stuff.
I was just referring to a fact which is that the commander does very little in term of active influence. You have medpacks, cat, scans, and beacons, that's it, of which you only actively use medpacks. Savage xr/2 in comparison has plenty more of active skills that can directly influence combatants and choose what to give to whom, even tough in that game the player number is supposed to be higher, ns2 still comes short proportionally.
Timing is important factor as it is in any RTS that adopts research based tech trees, but the way you are saying that seems like marine players would be a little too much clueless. I mean, if you are considering tight scenarios where timing windows are clutch, you should also assume marines know the drill, they know that in that particular map if they have that particular dis/advantage they have to do X, so you have to explain to me what more can a commander help accomplish there?
You mention strategy and tactics. If you mean what tech point to capture, what to research and what to build I still don't see why an isometric view of the map would give you an advantage compared to making the same decision from the field. Aren't people supposed to memorize maps anyway? Strategy is something you prepare before a game in general (not particular to ns2) and you don't really change it during a game, maybe you have a backup plan, or a third, but then you call gg, so what can a commander do better?
What does the commander have access to that a field comm doesn't?
I think the biggest thing is that he can see enemy life totals if he can click them accurately. He also has the benefit of seeing any point on the map in 3d compared to someone on the field only being able to see the room they are in and the 2d map.
What it really comes down to though is how much time they spend looking at the map. A field player can be staring at the map: while respawning, while running to position, while building, while waiting in ambush... Fighting doesn't actually take very long. Spawning and running into position takes about 30 seconds on average (assuming you aren't defending a phase gate), but if you spend 30 seconds or more actively fighting at any given time SOMEBODY has probably screwed up, unless you are assaulting a base with arcs. In the course of 30 seconds you probably will either die, run away, or clear the room, and in all cases you bring the map back up.
Meanwhile as long as there is a fight going on somewhere on the map, at least the marine commander is probably busy with meds, ammo, and scans. In between all that he needs to keep his tech going on schedule. The moments when NO ONE is fighting are far fewer than the moments when YOU are not fighting. How busy the alien com is depends on his strategy regarding drifters, mainly, but alien com being boring and not having anything to do is a common enough complaint even if it's not always completely accurate.
Yes, but he can just relay that information in the voice comm - the field caller should be able to absorb that information and act accordingly. The commander does not actually need to make any of the calls. He does need to have awarenss over the map and relay the important information, like "60 hp left on that fade in repair" or what ever.
But the commander doesn't need to say, "Sotanaht go to Trash Ejection and cut off the fade", a field caller can do that just as well - in fact, the individual should be able to make that connection without a field caller, but you know what I mean.
As soon as someone start to vomit on the commander role, i can't help thinking they're absolutely not 'on point'.
They usually thinks it's so easy as they got to play one or two RTS but uninstall the game as soon as they are stuck with one mission. The kind that barely finish any game except FPS.
And this is the kind of people that was probably bashing to nerf the commander to completely separate it from the field units. The commander do not have Pres anymore. There are little and subtle cool down times (bug/lag or not) that disable medpack showers and other things. Many nerfs with obs, drifters... the list goes on forever. I mean this is the reason the Lieutenants exists today. The REAL commanders have a lot to do.
At an above average level, the commander has to have eyes everywhere because the opponent will exploit every weakness in no time. It can turn any game upside down. In fact it's the point of it when playing with that kind of dudes: Fighting the odds and flip coins.
So the real question becomes in that case : Why these so called field commanders don't do it ? They're so skilled at commanding after all.
edit:groam'har
A field player should be defending, pushing or recapping. Paying attention to his/her surroundings first. Its all great mr fieldcomm is looking on the other side of the map, but that does me no good if he gets hit by a skulk. Paying attention would save me a medpack.
The comm itself is 'only' doing upgrades, dropping some ammo, and meds. Now I do not know about your comm style, but I tend to not want to bleed away all my res in meds. Not every engagement is worth the meds the field players ask for. So the commander actually has a lot of time to spend on strategy. If you keep a eye on your marines & their health you are already hopping like mad around the map. The better the marine's their spread the more you will see of the map while doing your job.
The simple fact that a field comm has to delay their own job to watch the map to help do yours is already a reason why its much more suited for a comm.
Its relative simple. Humans can not truly multitask. We multitask by, very quickly, swapping focus. So the field comm is wasting more and more time, while the real comm can fit it into his/her already running views.
Of course any field player should see stuff and react, as many have mentioned above. But suggesting calls, and thinking for yourself is not the same as planning the whole teams strategy.
If a life form is over extending. Then you might use way more meds than you like. But killing life forms is necessary to win the game. And it's usually worth every med.
Personally I feel that I have a better overview of the game as a player rather than commander. Unless I've been pushing nonstop the whole game. In which case I will know nothing. But as marine commander you are constantly engaged in every fight that occurs. While keeping taps on your marines, structures, and resources.
I go a step further, I hotkey my marines - only the ones in the front tho. So if I have a marine in Ore, hub, mezanine, elevator, repair. I will only hotkey Ore, hub and mezanine - as elevator and repair are naturally lane blocked etc.
By definition paying attention to the map means he can anticipate the chance of being ambushed himself by eliminating the number of skulks on one side from the total number of alien players.
Now if everyone on the field was aware of the map and their surroundings then calls don't need to be made.
Well then the comm has to relay that information concisely and precisely so that the field player can process it properly which I'd argue leads to much more inefficiencies and more problems than if the marine were just aware himself.
as games are either stacked so much that it was pointless even starting,
players that run off and do nothing to help the team by just ramboing into groups off aliens trying to kill 1 of the aliens 6 RT's
Players that refuse the listen as they think they know better and again do nothing for the team
Dont get me wrong, there has been games that have been amazing simply because players have listened and worked as a team, even if we failed and lost, it was still a fun game.
I do not mean that field players should not pay attention to the map. They should. Yes, they must keep themselves roughly aware of where aliens are. You are correct that more awareness = less calls.
I am saying however, that a comm should easily be more aware then a field player because he/she is spending more time in said map. So pointing out advantages of field players watching the map is pointless, its about who is watching it more.
Which brings me to the next point. A comm does not need to precisely tell a field player everything in minute detail. Its more a question of 'do as your told'.
Moving the pieces on the board itself.
When a piece gets to its mark it can and should pay attention on its own to make sure the actual job gets done.
Well seeing as a commander should be involved in EVERY engagement of which sometimes two occur simultaneously, I find it hard to believe that a commander actually does spend more time looking at the map than the marines do.
No you're wrong here. It's not just about who is watching it more (btw field marines do, or should), it's about who can see, process, and act on the information they get. A commander has to see, process, and communicate which then requires the 2nd party to listen and process; a much more tedious process in terms of brain processing than simply doing it youself.
See argument above. Doing as your told is harder when you have less information or have to spend more time processing information. It is easier to get the info yourself and decide yourself. Whether that field marine making the decision makes a good one or not is a completely different question and is still not answered by simply having a commander do the calls.
It's not as simple as chess. In NS2 each "piece" doesn't have perfect information where as on chess they effectively do because you have 1 player.