Public Commanding Etiquette
SaltzBad
Join Date: 2004-02-23 Member: 26833Members
Join Date: 2004-02-23 Member: 26833Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Should there be such a thing?</div> Continued from the <i>"Turret centric pub strat"</i> thread :
One of the largest problems in current public games is the endless amount of frustration for any mildly faulty alien team (which, under public conditions, is almost a given). Not only do basic marines sodomize Skulks at about a 4:1 ratio and take areas, walk across the map and dominate at a high pace in the earlygame - almost without exception do they like to drag the game on with a lack of decisive offense, sometimes even to utterly blatant levels like killing active Hives with Electricity/Sentrys alone.
Amongst the reasons for this is that, while NS is pretty heavily marine biased in the earlygame, it starts turning towards aliens as Fades or a second Hive appear. The easiest thing on a pub is to bank on the lack of Alien Skulk-teamwork, walk in on vital areas, throw up some static defense and sit back for 20 minutes until 3/3 HAs stomp a lone Hive and one RT. I honestly wish this was a dramatization, but most of the time its an understatement - 1 Hive games can take up to 40 minutes before the commander pulls that stick out of his ****.
The whole situation is made worse by the fact that the only other generic playstyle, the offensive one, is almost entirely outlawed on many public servers - walking in on active Hives (spawncamping), structure blocking retreating creatures, drawing OC fire, nodeblocking, mineladders and even total res denial tend to be kickable/bannable offenses. This in turn encourages the less controversial, but in effect much more frustrating alternative of using turrets massively.
My question in the end is, would it be practical to enforce a rule that says Commanders may not drag games out by general inability or over cautiosness (waiting til every RT is electrified, and every node has 5 sentrys to gaurd it together with another elec TFac) ? Couldn't that go towards making the majority of public games less amazingly stale and more fast-paced and fun, or is it simply not as practical as all the knee-jerk rules in existence?
Just an idea. Become a non-wank comm today <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
One of the largest problems in current public games is the endless amount of frustration for any mildly faulty alien team (which, under public conditions, is almost a given). Not only do basic marines sodomize Skulks at about a 4:1 ratio and take areas, walk across the map and dominate at a high pace in the earlygame - almost without exception do they like to drag the game on with a lack of decisive offense, sometimes even to utterly blatant levels like killing active Hives with Electricity/Sentrys alone.
Amongst the reasons for this is that, while NS is pretty heavily marine biased in the earlygame, it starts turning towards aliens as Fades or a second Hive appear. The easiest thing on a pub is to bank on the lack of Alien Skulk-teamwork, walk in on vital areas, throw up some static defense and sit back for 20 minutes until 3/3 HAs stomp a lone Hive and one RT. I honestly wish this was a dramatization, but most of the time its an understatement - 1 Hive games can take up to 40 minutes before the commander pulls that stick out of his ****.
The whole situation is made worse by the fact that the only other generic playstyle, the offensive one, is almost entirely outlawed on many public servers - walking in on active Hives (spawncamping), structure blocking retreating creatures, drawing OC fire, nodeblocking, mineladders and even total res denial tend to be kickable/bannable offenses. This in turn encourages the less controversial, but in effect much more frustrating alternative of using turrets massively.
My question in the end is, would it be practical to enforce a rule that says Commanders may not drag games out by general inability or over cautiosness (waiting til every RT is electrified, and every node has 5 sentrys to gaurd it together with another elec TFac) ? Couldn't that go towards making the majority of public games less amazingly stale and more fast-paced and fun, or is it simply not as practical as all the knee-jerk rules in existence?
Just an idea. Become a non-wank comm today <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Comments
Commanders need to be more wary of the game, and as Saltz is referring to, think about the alien team. WHilst laming the ENTIRE map may be interesting to you, the reason the alien team is getting smaller is because it isn't so amusing to them.
A good barometer is if you are screwing around on the map and you see aliens begin to F4/leave, beacon and shotty rush the hive to finish it. If you fail, so what, the aliens can claim a small victory, and you'll have plenty of res to finish it. And if you end up losing for it, so what, you'll probably win the next 95% of the games, let em enjoy it.
As a marine, I've often wondered why I've not been xeno'd out of a lamed up defensive position. Evidently there are clueless people on both sides, people who consider that everything MUST be defended before you can attack, and those who think that Onos must be the best alien for end game activity.
Sadly on the forums we're preaching to the converted - most of the problem players don't read the forum, or simply don't care.
They need to be punished for being so stupid.
It tends to be out of habit now that commanders lame places up because they are so used to incompotent marine teams. Perhaps this is unjustified in some situations, but in the overwhelming majority it is almost vital (due to lack of marine understanding) for a win. Commanders play the game like an RTS and the objective of winning. If it necessary on pubs to engage in lameness then so be it.
Plus I think by making the game more fast paced, You will find its alot more fun for you. And if you try to keep up with all requests around ammo and medpacks, even better. I mean sure, you do need a tad bit of expressing you emotional opinions so your team will listen, usualy.
Now it is hard to gauge your team, so test em. what I like to do, is start a agressive. and rush armor one. And no base defence, I mean on a pub, a delayed skulk rush is rare. But after that its responsive. if they die alot, I build more ips, I slow my expansion, and get phase gates, building like 2 out posts. get armor 2, pass out welder, then get weapons up grades. And just try to build enough stregth. But if they aint dying a bunch, then im more offensive. getting armor 1 then weapons 3. passing out more shotties. etc. but generaly not ever building a single turret factory unless I feel like seiging, even then, i try and shotty rush, unless they have to many OCs. wont even get heavies, get Jps instead.
I mean Worst case senario my team isn't good enough and with 3/3 reens they can't kill a hive 2 skulk. and you lose? But hey, if you focused on making the game fun, that 8-60 mins, was well worth it
besides, it's best to never be on the defense, especially if youve just achieved something, like kill a hive. you must ride on the momentum, and hand out heavy weapons. because immediately after a such morale boost your rines will fight more efficiently than usually.
Turret farming is a no no, this isn't SimTurretFarm...
CC Blocking and laming in general is a no no as well.
Dragging out a game that is won and just getting res/spawncamping (eg: hive full of heavies and explicit instructions not to kill the hive)
Spawncamping is ok in <b><i><u><span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:red'>moderation</span></span></u></i></b>, let me say it again, having 1-2 marines wait for spawners to cover thier teammates is ok, but when you have 1 guy out of 5 knifing the hive as people spawncamp and fight for kills (ie: wait for the spawner and everyone shoots at him) then thats different...
Yea, those are some simple things, also as a comm you have a responsibility to be nice to teammates at the beginning, but if the prove that they are worthless, send em as a meatshield/suicide missions (eg: knife hive to make a distraction before we seige another hive)
Also when handing out weapons/equipment: if your res is limited, only give the stuff to reliable people, when you have 300 res and your just searching for the last guy, theres no reason why not to give the nublar a jetty and hmg when he asks..
well said