Rookie commanders organised plays: who's interested ?
antou
France Join Date: 2016-07-24 Member: 220615Members
France Join Date: 2016-07-24 Member: 220615Members
Hey guys.
I feel like I'm an experienced field player (sort of), but I'm only starting to explore commanding (both Marines and Aliens). I find it very intimidating because people expect me to be a better comm than I actually am. I'm sure there are many players in the same case, so I think it's worth doing something about it and give the 'noob comms' and opportunity to practice together.
I'm thinking of organised plays consisting of a 'rookie commander' on both teams, and at least one good field player on each team to help with choosing a build and strategy, and make general calls. The rest of the team can be any players, but they need to be advised that both comms are not experienced.
This training would make more people feel confident about commanding on pubs, and I think we all agree that we need those extra commanders.
This is my personal history of why I think I need that kind of practice:
I'm interested in your opinions about this. Do you also feel we need more comms ? Do you also want to learn how to command ? Do you think some people are just not made to command ?
I feel like I'm an experienced field player (sort of), but I'm only starting to explore commanding (both Marines and Aliens). I find it very intimidating because people expect me to be a better comm than I actually am. I'm sure there are many players in the same case, so I think it's worth doing something about it and give the 'noob comms' and opportunity to practice together.
I'm thinking of organised plays consisting of a 'rookie commander' on both teams, and at least one good field player on each team to help with choosing a build and strategy, and make general calls. The rest of the team can be any players, but they need to be advised that both comms are not experienced.
This training would make more people feel confident about commanding on pubs, and I think we all agree that we need those extra commanders.
This is my personal history of why I think I need that kind of practice:
- My hive skill is around 2k.
- If I try commanding with people around that skill level, I'm expected to be a good commander, which I'm not. Sure, I know the basics, but I lack practice so I forget things and I'm very slow; I understand it's not fun to have a comm whose medpacks always come a bit too late, or who forgets to drop a shift/crag, etc. I don't want to ruin other people's fun with my mistakes.
- If I try commanding with people of lower skill, it breaks the balance because I'm a player with a higher hive score, but with an actually low commanding skill. I've had this case yesterday, where a player (actually the carry player of the team) told me I should not have been commander because the rest of the team was not good enough on the field against a 1k team.
I'm interested in your opinions about this. Do you also feel we need more comms ? Do you also want to learn how to command ? Do you think some people are just not made to command ?
Comments
Its really not that hard if you want to just meet the minimal requirements of being a med pack / building dispenser. Only thing you need actual game practice for is judgement (for a lot of things).
As for commanding in pubs, you basically have to pick your poison. Do you want a bad commander that doesn't support your team properly or do you want a team that cannot win engagements/go the right places?
No reason to go through the trouble of creating another league when this league is already open for signups! http://www.ensl.org/articles/995
If you aren't interested in taking the time to learn it this way, I recommend this essay on commanding I wrote: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C4fxDy7ziET88oNv5srTaTRzqNdva2YxHGXpkvw2zyE/edit?usp=sharing
The point of this essay is to give a glimse into the logic you need to apply as a commander. Apart from that, twich.tv/nsl_caperp is a commander quite mechanicly skilled. is also an excellent comm, who unfortunately isn't playing anymore, but it goes to show what a commander should be doing with his time. You will notice he is mostly looking at marines that are likely to be engaged, and ready to med them. This is just mentioning a few of many great commanders NS2 has seen.
Its all exploration, exploration and experience when it comes to commanding. The better the people you are playing against, the easier it will be to see your mistakes.
E -> A = ammo pack
Hotkey obs to 1, then it's just 1->S to recall team.
These are really the only ones you NEED to know, and they're all for marines. Alien commanding is a bit slower paced, but if you can drifter micro well, you'll really help your team.
E -> F = select nearest drifter.
Over time you'll learn the others too, so you can drop structures faster, but for starting out, just know those first 3 I listed.
You forgot the most important spacebar.
I'm aware of the NCT, I might participate in it. I'm not talking about creating a new league... just a few games now and them so people can get in the hive/CC without fearing to get ejected and flamed at the first small mistake they make.
I've read your guide and I liked it, thanks for writing it. I've also watched many comm casts and I learned a lot from that. But there is a difference between watching someone play and trying to understanding his reasoning, and having to actually do things yourself at the right place, at the right time.
Thanks, I already use some of those (on an azerty keyboard though
___
I feel like you guys missed the point though, I wrote this post not because I want to improve my own commanding skills, but because I feel like there's a lot of players who are willing to start commanding, but never crossed the gap because it's difficult to start in the current 'ecosystem' (facing good commanders, and a team that expects you to not be a rookie comm).
There are two parts to commanding. Basic build orders and medpack/drifter micro is one part that isn't too difficult to be proficient. The other part of commanding is genuine leadership. I see very few commanders actually attempt leadership, and fewer do it well. I am not sure which part of commanding this thread is asking about, if not both.
I find it a lot easier to command in high skill servers because less leadership is required. As long as I get upgrades in a reasonable timeframe and provide meds decently, few people complain. It is the low skill games that require leadership, but are also the least likely to respond to leadership. I get more complaints in low skill servers too.
As a rule of thumb that is true, but I've also commanded a lot of mid-high skilled pubs where veteran players just run out to rambo and die all the time, so i had to constantly regiment and ask them where to go/what do defend x)
Comm is also really important to organize life-form traps, since he's the only one constantly viewing the while picture.