Manual And Comm Tips
Necrosis
The Loquacious Sage Join Date: 2003-08-03 Member: 18828Members, Constellation
The Loquacious Sage Join Date: 2003-08-03 Member: 18828Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Newb info/help please?</div> I'm new, but I've played a few games and I'm moderately competent at the lowest level work. I've read the forums, but I'm noticing problems.
I use the European servers a lot so if this sounds different to the US situation then thats why.
Comms are thin on the ground in NS. Scarily thin. 5 minutes of each and every marine game i've been in has been "I can't comm, I'm a newb" or "I haven't played since version X". Marines get wiped piecemeal and next game everyone runs for aliens.
I like the idea of comming, and hit the manual for information, but it was sparse. I didn't find any info on the shiny effect on structures (later I found out it was electicity) no idea of how to hotkey squads (can you??) and in the Alien section some of the info was wrong (bile bombs and babblers for one).
Those who do comm end up riushing for HMGs and JPs. Shotguns (while good by all accounts) never appear. Comms seem ignorant of their soldiers requests and suggestions. Point out that a tunnel could be welded? No response. Say that aliens are fading in from nowhere? No response. When the whole squad is camped at a phase gate screaming for guns in the face of a fully powered onos? No response.
Make no mistake - I'm not talking about a marine going rambo and complaining about the RT he found across the map. I'm talking about following Comm objectives and being sent into the meatgrinder before being told to fall back. When facing an objective full of Offense and Sensory and only half a clip of LMG left.
And then there's those who listen to much. JPs handed out right at the start. Nice upgrades, sure, but when we're expanding the base???
Even basic expansion plans are whack. I've seen comms marines on truly fruitless missions, such as sending the whole party over to a Hive RT, bypassing everything on the way, and then wondering why they have zero RTs. Or half the squad die, respawn at base, and either Rambo to death or sit there waiting for nonexistant orders.
So I'm wondering, how can basic Comms be taught to someone? We're in need on the Euro servers. Getting hammered by aliens over and over and over is just not fun. The thread on how to be the worst comm was good but I was hoping for something in the manual that most people would read.........I've seen mistakes ingame that I know wouldn't have happened if the Comm had been to the forums here at least once..
I use the European servers a lot so if this sounds different to the US situation then thats why.
Comms are thin on the ground in NS. Scarily thin. 5 minutes of each and every marine game i've been in has been "I can't comm, I'm a newb" or "I haven't played since version X". Marines get wiped piecemeal and next game everyone runs for aliens.
I like the idea of comming, and hit the manual for information, but it was sparse. I didn't find any info on the shiny effect on structures (later I found out it was electicity) no idea of how to hotkey squads (can you??) and in the Alien section some of the info was wrong (bile bombs and babblers for one).
Those who do comm end up riushing for HMGs and JPs. Shotguns (while good by all accounts) never appear. Comms seem ignorant of their soldiers requests and suggestions. Point out that a tunnel could be welded? No response. Say that aliens are fading in from nowhere? No response. When the whole squad is camped at a phase gate screaming for guns in the face of a fully powered onos? No response.
Make no mistake - I'm not talking about a marine going rambo and complaining about the RT he found across the map. I'm talking about following Comm objectives and being sent into the meatgrinder before being told to fall back. When facing an objective full of Offense and Sensory and only half a clip of LMG left.
And then there's those who listen to much. JPs handed out right at the start. Nice upgrades, sure, but when we're expanding the base???
Even basic expansion plans are whack. I've seen comms marines on truly fruitless missions, such as sending the whole party over to a Hive RT, bypassing everything on the way, and then wondering why they have zero RTs. Or half the squad die, respawn at base, and either Rambo to death or sit there waiting for nonexistant orders.
So I'm wondering, how can basic Comms be taught to someone? We're in need on the Euro servers. Getting hammered by aliens over and over and over is just not fun. The thread on how to be the worst comm was good but I was hoping for something in the manual that most people would read.........I've seen mistakes ingame that I know wouldn't have happened if the Comm had been to the forums here at least once..
Comments
But you're never going to have good comms unless people just start trying more. I hadn't commed since about 2 months after 1.04 came out, but I try not to hesitate taking the chair now. It's only a matter of time before you get the hang of it and can start getting good.
I was at least trying to comm back with 1.0, but I'll bet it was until 1.02 before I considered myself good.
1) There's no gentle entry into comm. Its usually a public server with players of equal or better skill level, or they're all rambos, and you don't even get to taste what giving orders is - instead you become the happy ammo/med cow.
2) There's very little in the manual which is the first port of call for players - more probably than those who hit the forums.
3) I've played Starcraft, tabletop games, chess, you name it, and basic strategy from games like that is totally nonexistant on the servers. Comms rush for unholdable positions, bypass choke points and in one case I've seen them relocate to the most wide open potential skulk nest on the map. Not only are commers unsure of the buttons, but unsure of what basic strategy is.
The big discouragement to me about comming is that I'd not one clue about certain upgrades (electrify - didn't even know it existed) and that there's no "dry run" available. I'm not talking a full tutorial (which would be nice, but anyhow) but rather 5 minutes of what icon does what. A flash movie would do. Anything.
As for strategy, I'm happy there, although I'm at a loss as to how to instill it in others, since even when they get pulverised for a poor strategy some comms turn around and blame something else entirely (ie didn't get the double RT room that we went at continually for the bulk of the game).
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Just keep in mind this is 2.0, and few people have adapted yet. If you're really as new as you say, wait a while before comming. Learn the strategies. Going with a blank in mind is bad. Don't be a health/ammo cow, remember, health spam is quite useless unless it's an HA etc.
I'd love to write a 2.0 comming guide, ... hell I'll make one soon <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Practice offline:
Start a lan game and type sv_cheats 1 in console. This nixes the endgame conditions and makes everything build faster. Practice placing buildings and rez bases, and then change teams and see how well you fare against taking them down. Remember the qwerasdfzxcv layout, and where everything is. The less time you spend fumbling around in the menus, the more time you have.
And remember to use Squads (+duck plus 1-5). bind +jump to something else if it's on your right mouse button. If you use wsad for moving around, You may need to rebind things so that those keys can operate. You can squad buildings also.
I'm certian about half the people here probably know about the sv_cheats thing, but I honestly didn't and I've been playing since 1.1. And since the Manual's written for apmosphere rather then tech and specs, I couldn't find it. Myea, that's all.