Communication Is The Key

Asterisk

<div class="IPBDescription">My commanding tips.</div> this goes out to all commanders and troops alike. talk to each other! ground men, tell your comm what the situation looks like from your view. If you notice the comm being single minded, tell him you think there may be another way. DO NOT demand that he do things your way. if you have a waypoint and you run into a giant road block. tell MR. comm, he may be able to find you and alternate route. or drop you a gl to take down the OCs. Edit: ONe more thing, if on your way to your waypoint in eclipse hive you hear a gorge at SAA DONT automaticly assume the comm want you to go after it. LIke i always say "if you fallow the comms orders to the T and you lose. it is his fault." i cannot stress these points enough. communication wins the game.

This section is for comm's only. Talk to your troops. If someone asks for a med pack. Acknowledge them. tell them yes or no. it cuts down on the confusion. dont just leave them to guess what your gonna do. they may think you didnt hear their call or they just stand there and wait for the medpack thats not coming. if a guy asks for and hmg and you dont want to drop it, Tell him your not gonna drop it. dont leave him there to wait for the HMG. not everyone is gonna leave after a few seconds. they may ask again or just get mad because they dont know what is going on. if you will drop the med/gun but dont have the time, tell them. be right with you on the medpack. let the troops know your listening to them. it makes everyone happy.

if your having trouble understanding what i am saying. let me be your comm some day. My Game name is "Yellow Asterisk". i will show you what communication is.

that is all, thank you for your time.

Asterisk

either i'm so right that nothing more can be said, or so wrong that nobody can comment.

blimp

Communicating is important.

I usually do a "say No.", "say Yes." or "say You are muted."..
Works like a charm, and I don't have to show people I'm yelling cous they aren't following my orders.
Norwegian servers seem to have idiots not wanting to be bossed around..

GLW_Phunktion

another thing. a comm without a voice mic almost always loses. so get one.

Denial

Communication is <i>the single one way</i> the commander gets the attention of his marines. If your marines do random stuff like ramboing, you didn't tell them what to do. If they are frustrated with your leadership, you didn't tell them why you want them to do certain things and how it will help your team. If they regularly lose their fights, you didn't guide them to tactical advantages. I firmly believe a commander <i>needs</i> a microphone and should be talking almost all the time. Even when nothing happens, you just secured, say doubleres and told all your guys to just defend until upgrades are done - even in such situations, communication is vitally important. Tell them when the upgrades will be ready, remind them to watch out for enemies, ask them which hive they'd like to attack next. Communication creates teamwork, and teamwork is what all commanders ceaselessly beg, but few work for. It also gives you authority, because it shows you know what you are doing, and you can use this authority to have people follow your orders and generally play well and behave.

For marines, communication is equally important, but they arguably have the tougher end of the stick, because they have to give short and precise feedback. Its no use sending endless messages to the comm about how stupid his sieging is and how much better an HA attack would be - even if you are right, and even if the comm was bound to listen to you, he can't do what you say or he'd lose his authority. May be stupid, but thats the way hierarchy works. If you don't like it, play Kharaa. So as a marine, give short and precise information about enemy presence, your own status, and whatever is important <i>to the execution of the commander's plan</i>.

Ice

When the marines know what they are doing, giving orders can be done with only waypoints. Just finished a game where I typed max 5 lines of orders and didn't use voice comm.

Javert

It's just that communication is so <i>inherent</i> to success that any disscussion about it, while useful, is ultimately redundant. You HAVE to communicate with your comm. Though there's always the problem of a comm out of the loop of things, or rines not paying attention to the comm.
As iterated and re-iterated b4, a comm has to have voice because many (unfortuanately) do not read while playing a game.

Sakura

While I do agree, that communication is the key to successful comming, I disagree on the level of communication. I think it is important for the commander to inform his marines of his plans and the general strategy and give them orders and occasional pep-talks, but I do not think that he should be talking all the time. A lot of marines (myself included) rely heavily on sound for getting early warnings of cloaked or hidden kharaa. A comm or marine who is constantly chatting away on the voice will make it near impossible to detect incoming aliens before they are all over you.

Huntsman

I have noticed this problem. When I have commanded, which numbers only about 4 times, I haven't gotten much feedback from my ground troops. I go back to upgrade something in the base, my attack force gets slaughtered, it would be nice to know that it's because the alien team got a sensory chamber there. All it takes to tell me this is "sensory in X". Marines on the scene have a better view of what's going on in that area. Not only do they see things up close and personal, but they don't have to focus their attention all over the map.

Too much communication can be worse than no communication. Voice can't be heard if more than one person is talking. If five people type long messages at once none of them may be heard. Keep communication short and to the point and there should be no problems. Voice is excellent for a commander. Something within my laptop denies me the ability to use the microphone in half-life. It takes a little longer to get points across and you have to have both hands on the keyboard. I've seen it done well but I'm sure it would be easier for said commander if he had a working microphone.

Fodder

<b>I firmly believe a commander needs a microphone and should be talking almost all the time.</b>

I think that one statement is probably the most important in this thread. I couldn't agree with it more.

ArchangeLCN

i guessed i played with you before.

taboofires

It can be a bit much to expect the commander to reply to everything. The comm will be busy, and sometimes you're going to get ignored. That's the whole reason the display about what the comm is up to is in the corner: so you don't feel neglected when he's busy. There are even some things that the comm shouldn't have to tell you, like if you die sieging a hive, and all of your buddies are still there when you respawn, you should get your butt back there ASAP. The comm should never have to tell you to stick together either, because you shouldn't go off alone without a mighty fine reason.

As a field marine, how often do you really need orders anyway? Once you have a general goal established, you can work to accomplish it without the commander telling you how to do it. Ordered to get res? That one's simple. Conquer a hive? Go there and report on how it looks. Standing there looking stupid won't get anywhere, so take some initiative. Expecting your comm to be perfect is doomed to disappointment. Make up for whatever skills he lacks, and you can succeed.

Also, there are both helpful and annoying things to say from the field.

Helpful:
- "There are lots of OCs around the corner"
- "No one has noticed I'm here yet"
- "I think we can just charge right in"
- "I hear a gorge/lerk/onos/egg"

Not helpful:
- "OMG I'm gonna die!"
- "That tf should have been 3 inches to the left" If it's too late to fix it, shut up (no offense) and leave the channel open for useful marines.

XandoX

I think I can really emphasize this!
I am playing NS with headset since yesterday.
And if you talk to the commander, even if he hasnt got a microphone, he'll do everything faster than usually.

<b>Communication</b> <i>IS</i> the key...

Wyzcrak

<!--QuoteBegin--*Fodder*+Aug 29 2003, 11:57 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (*Fodder* @ Aug 29 2003, 11:57 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <b>I firmly believe a commander needs a microphone and should be talking almost all the time.</b>

I think that one statement is probably the most important in this thread. I couldn't agree with it more. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Bravo, Asterisk. This thread speaks the truth. I agree that anyone commanding should have a microphone. I also agree with those who have stated the importance of letting the marines HEAR the field. As a commander, there's critical, urgent communication, and there's "everything else." Relying on your judgement, do not hesitate to use the keyboard to communicate "everything else" (which admittedly may only be a very few statements throughout the game, or it may be several) to your marines. This allows them to hear what is going on around them.

But by all means, never stop COMMUNICATING (which doesn't always mean speaking).

Wyzcrak

Necrosis

"- "That tf should have been 3 inches to the left" If it's too late to fix it, shut up (no offense) and leave the channel open for useful marines."

Actually I find that helps new comms learn about bad tf placement. If you tell them when they drop it, they'll hear you.

If it dies quietly while noone's watching it, the comm will have learned nothing, and chalked it up to "damn aliens always win" or some other convenient excuse for poor placement.