My First Time Commanding
Jammer
Join Date: 2002-06-03 Member: 728Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-06-03 Member: 728Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">A little story.</div> I was on CoFR last night, great group on, and I went random, got marines. I had been in a couple rounds and no one wanted to command. I bravely stepped up to the plate, making sure everyone knew I was a newb command.
Thinks started off bad, as my right mouse button worked sporadically. I was overwhelemed with all I had to do. My marines ran off, did something, died. They spawned back. We headed down to comp core (hive was EC) and tried to set up. Skulks came and ate the crew. Then I moved everyone out to Maint. We got that up and running, but the res were coming in too slowly. After a couple attempts at Station Access alpha, we gave up on that and tried to hold south loop. A massive skulk rush came and wiped that out. By this point, they were nearing 2 hives, we had 1, and only 2 res nodes. A skulk rush in our base finished us off after everyone died trying to save maintnence.
My first game commading all the way through, and a resounding defeat. It was still fun, spirits remaing high. If any of the guys who were on CoFR read this, thanks for letting me comm and lose for you. It was a pleasure :-)
Thinks started off bad, as my right mouse button worked sporadically. I was overwhelemed with all I had to do. My marines ran off, did something, died. They spawned back. We headed down to comp core (hive was EC) and tried to set up. Skulks came and ate the crew. Then I moved everyone out to Maint. We got that up and running, but the res were coming in too slowly. After a couple attempts at Station Access alpha, we gave up on that and tried to hold south loop. A massive skulk rush came and wiped that out. By this point, they were nearing 2 hives, we had 1, and only 2 res nodes. A skulk rush in our base finished us off after everyone died trying to save maintnence.
My first game commading all the way through, and a resounding defeat. It was still fun, spirits remaing high. If any of the guys who were on CoFR read this, thanks for letting me comm and lose for you. It was a pleasure :-)
Comments
StarCraft progamers are excellent comms since they're used to super fast clicking/fast map scrolling/pressure management. The problem here is that the comm has to manage his troops... voicecomm is not enough , waypoints aren't either. The comm needs to use all the communication means avaible , and send clear and coherent orders. Giving too many waypoints easily distracts your team... the comm has to listen to his soldiers frequently , and still manage the troops and buildings at the same time. Only rational comms are effective... bunches of marines scream for medpacks at the hive , no problem , they're a diversion , they will die eventually. Better give ammo to that HA GL...
The hard thing is to gain terrain while upgrading. It just consumes the precious ressources too fast...
However , there's something only the expert comms will "feel" , the marine's skills. Who is reliable enough to give a JP HMG. Who will make a good use of a shotgun. Who is the best at chasing gorges and lerks. What group can hold res nodes without turret farms...
Knowledge of the map is important too. Building things as usual makes you predictable. Your outposts on the mess hall , subspace or port engine will be constantly harassed and will eventually fall. The atmospheric processing won't be held forever either. The holoroom will see an endless flow of skulks and lerks. The reactor room is doomed to be crushed...
Playing as comm needs so much experience , and until you have it , you're likely to be flammed by the more or less experienced players.
Having people that run off and die at the drop of a hat doesn't help a newbie comm either.
Having people that run off and die at the drop of a hat doesn't help a newbie comm either. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah - you might as well comm with bots or summat...
Later in the game, there is not as much pressure to do <i>everything</i> in the right order or to respond within half a second to every request.
Also, if you start comming half-way through a game and you end up winning, it gives you the self esteem to try comming again. (plus you earn the respect of your teammates.)
-[Cosanostra]Sinter
<!--emo&::sentry::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/turret.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='turret.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::siege::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='siege.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::siege::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='siege.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::sentry::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/turret.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='turret.gif'><!--endemo--> = <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
...too bad i got banned for swearing too much :'( (im sry im just used to say the f word and stuff <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo--> )
A) Not posting just to let us know how much of a complete badass he is
B) Nor posting just to let us know how much everyone else in the world sucks
C) Posting to in fact compliment other people (!!)
Anyways, yeah, there're a bunch of standard strats floating about the fora. Pick a strat and try to comm it until you can do it pretty consistently, then pick a new strat and practice that one (my first win was a 2-hive lockdown on Nancy, and we had to siege the last hive even though everyone was in HA <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->). On a pub, a put-together alien team will still win occasionally, so I look for a 50/50 ratio. Eventually you'll get comfortable enough with the interface to make good use of rambos to plonk down RTs in strange places, kill alien RTs, and keep the gorge dead.
I first commed in 1.03 on Bast. Sweet jeebus. We got owned pretty hard. No one yelled at me, though - I find that if you do it like you did, people are pretty amenable. Say "hay, I'm a newb comm but I'd like to learn, anyone got a problem with that?" If they say no then, they'll be hard-pressed to complain later.
Kudos, sir.
commanding is fun, glad you enjoyed it. i like (or would like) sending my marines to their death but they never listen. hehe
OMG is this a glitch lol. Ive gone random 100 times and always get alien, wether im the first to join a team or anything. Same with lots of others I know.
You do your bit by supplying upgrades but the rest is up to the lmg's. Now the real trick is if you lose buildings dont replace them at the expense of upgrades.
Its stupid when comms lose Tf, after turrets after res tower and finish the game with onos vs unupgraded lmgs!
Kudos to you for stepping up though, especially in a server like CoFR (loads of skilled commanders there). I'd suggest that to build your experience, start with Nancy and Nothing, then move up to Bast and Caged, then Hera (if you find it played) and Eclipse.
Good luck, it's always nice to see more commanders in the community =)
i was the lamest thing... i cliked on a player and then whenever i cliked anywhere it would feed him orders... and i didnt want too lol...
but good luck with comming i stay out of the chair if i can
Eitherway its a long trek for the marines to get out of their base.
On the other hand they are usually very good at completing orders. If you tell 2 guys to go secure an area and wait there and you come back 3 minutes later, chances are they are sitting there holding the area after having cleaned it out.
On the othe rhand the Alien team can be a royal pain in the butt. Especially if they have certain players on it who tend to come up with creative ways to annoy you and sabotage your plan. Attacking one place for distraction while taking over another or sneaking up D-chambers in an unwanted place etc, you have to be observant, and preferably, keep the initiative as long as possible.
Anyway, good to hear it wasn't a totally negative experience, COM-ing can be very stressful and hard sometimes.
Map was tanith, started with the usual ip/armoury/mines, got a few res points, buitl obs, arms lab etc, upgraded tech, secured satcomm for a bit.
then the res starts flowing in nicely, I have finished researching and stuff, so I get team back to base, and I soon have 5 ha/hmg marines and a ha/gl, with welds and stuff, and they go on a march-of-death for the aliens, wiping out each hive one by one, sheer teamwork imo <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
The HA/hmg squad of doom is prob one of the harder tactics, considering the easier siege/jp tactic.
Once the HAs started, not a single casulty was taken <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->.
\o\ \o/ /o/
all in all, a good game, especially on a pub server <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
At the time I took comm, the aliens had 1 hive and were fixing to take another, and we had no hives captured. My first order of business was to establish a hive, so I got the team to take maint with reasonably little d to guard (so that I could use the resources for phase gates). I handed out some mines, so the important buildings in both maint and main were secure. Since the aliens were still skulks, the mines were still effective. Marines were requesting for upgrades, and while I didn't have the resources, I did the next best thing which was to cap nodes.
Once I had the resources, I was making upgrades, and everyone gathered in maint to attack computer core. The gorge was just capping the resource node after having made the hive. Luckily they didn't have better defense. After establishing the base there, and adding turrets in maint and a tf and turrets in main, the upgrades started coming along with the resources. I had jps in no time, and by that time, I had enough resources to fit the whole team with them along with a few nice hmg weapons. The team, though hesitant about my comming abilities at the start, were saying "good job comm" at this point at my ability to not only lead, but listen to the group. The key is not to know what to do, but to listen to the players and also to be flexible to do anything when an opportunity shows its head.
After everyone having jps and hmgs with ha armor on the way, the entire marine team swarmed the final hive and ended the game. I am no longer a newb comm.
I of course, did not have a rats **** clue of what I was doing. I was only working on past game experiences.
I started off doing the standard 2 ,ip 1 armory, 1 observe plan. Knowing very little, I stuck a tf down, and 3 turrets. Then we moved onwards toward the Res Node outside the base. I Dropped down a tf, rt, and 3 turrets while fending off some skulks. After a while, we took our step onto Mess, were I dropp a tf on top the table and a rt. And as usual I put down 3 turrests, and a pg. Of course one in base too. Then, my troops told me to build an arms, being a newbie I put an arms lab in Mess! =_=....course, by then rines knew very well they were screwed, And it went downhill from there...
But thats all in the past. Now in almost every game I comm, we have too much fun, (i.e. lots of HAs HMG, full upgrades, 1 hive lockdown, etc, etc.) but Im a bit lacking in hive assualt tactics, so I lose every game.
1.) The aliens are usually really good. If you aren't constantly pressing them back, you lose.
2.) The marines are competent players. If they don't think you're doing your job, they go off and do it for you.
Sometimes the above can play into your favor. I've been busy on one side of the map while one of my marines rambos off and finds a sweet undefended siege spot, etc.
My advice, if you don't have something for the marines to do, find a alien res tower (or guess where one might be) and send them to kill it. If nothing else, it makes the aliens react to what you are doing and may cost them some critical resources.
My little bit of advice from my limited bit of comming.
The simplest and most obvious attack is to have all your marines move to the hive location. This has some huge flaws in it, but if you organize your team in the base to move together and perhaps with good equipment (HA, HMG, etc.), with a little luck, it is an easy hive to take. Things can get easily complicated though. If they start breaking up, aliens will pick them off one by one. It is the team effort that keeps all the marines still around. It is exactly this sort of teamwork that has to be done by the aliens to eliminate the threat as well.
Comm difficulty: Easy
Resources: Low-High
Success rate: Low-High
Strengths: Strength in numbers
Weaknesses: Vulnerable to organized attack
Another obvious attack is to siege the hive. This is a little bit more complicated, but equipment isn't mandatory. All you need is enough marines near the siege to keep it ALIVE. Phase gates do nicely for this, because it replenishes the "marine" supply. Just make sure their orders are clear to GUARD the siege, and nothing else. Otherwise, they might go do something stupid like go off on their own and attack the hive.
Comm difficulty: Medium
Resources: Low
Success rate: Medium
Strengths: Out of range of hive defenses
Weaknesses: Vulnerable when making siege base
Another tactic isn't widely used, but it is highly effective. As a comm, you should keep track of what hives the aliens have and in what order they got them. This is very important. The gorge strategy typically is to cap res nodes until they get enough to start another hive. Then they start the hive and put up d at the hive they are starting! The aliens also tend to help out the gorge if it is ever threatened. This is the tricky part. You pick the right time in the game where you know they are all gathered in one hive, and then you sneak a scout behind the first hive and make phase gate. It has to be far enough away from the hive so that they don't hear you building to keep secrecy. Once they know you are there however, all bets are off. Get a phase up, and have your marine team on standby in the base to phase nearby and pounce on an undefended hive. If properly done, by the time they reach their main hive from the one they are building, the hive is almost dead. Also, a good idea is to send a small group of marines to attack their other hive (in an effort to destract them). This is a very complicated tactic, but it works. I highly recommend you be a hotkey-using freak of a comm before you try to pull this off.
Comm difficulty: High
Resources: Low
Success rate: High
Strengths: Unexpected ambush benefits
Weaknesses: Requires stealth and a little luck
I've seen comming where they equip everyone with jps as early as possible, and this strategy relies on guarding resources enough to have a lot of points to use, and then expend them into jps for everyone. This strategy would then follow the first one of just sending everyone to a hive and destroying it. The main difference is the mobility of the marines makes it much harder for them to die (however, jpers can still be skulk food easy if they split up).
Comm difficulty: Medium
Resources: Medium-High
Success rate: Medium-High
Strengths: Strength in numbers, difficult to hit
Weaknesses: Time alotted to collect resources could hender human team