Improve Your Commanding For Pubs
MrPink
Join Date: 2002-05-28 Member: 678Members
Join Date: 2002-05-28 Member: 678Members
<div class="IPBDescription">in 10 minutes</div> *EDIT*
-Base Placement (electrical): Your turret factory needs to be in the middle of your base in the most open area possible, place IP's on opposite ends parallel to the entrances of marine spawn, and the armory on the far side from the entrances to marine spawn
Base Placement (non electrical): Your turret factory needs to be in a corner, in early game 2-3 turrets placed so they cover your basic structures is ideal, add more later if necessary, but it usually isn't. Your armory needs to be in the open where the marines can gather ammo and see the entrances for incoming skulks. Your tech buildings should be in a somewhat hidden spot, with no space between them so skulks can't hide behind them. I prefer to put the proto lab in the same general area as my armory, that way I can put weapons and equitment (jetpack, HA) on top of each other.
/EDIT
-Don't be afraid to drop weapons! So many commanders are convinced that the only time you should drop a gun to somebody is if they have HA. The most deadly mid game can be a hearty mix of shotguns, HMGs, and GLs.
-Upgrade, upgrade upgrade! And don't be afraid to drop 2 arms labs either, 3/3 upgrades can be attained very quickly this way. Personally, I always drop 2 arms labs if we have 4 or more nodes.
-Always keep your soldiers waypointed. Simply telling them isn't enough, some people may not hear it/see it. Even if they are waypointed to where you want them to go, its a good idea to give them the waypoint again every 30 seconds or so, to make sure they all have it and so they know its current.
-When you give waypoints, don't put them in the middle of a room. When attacking an important position, a huge blue circle in the middle of the screen can really hurt them. They will get the idea if you put it in a vent, or for example on the top ledges of powersilo hive on ns_nothing.
-Pressure the aliens. On most pubs they get several gorges to drop the closest nodes to the hive within 2 minutes of the game. If you get your entire team except for 1-3 (depending on server size) attacking these nodes, they <b>will</b> go down. Never stop either, in 2.0 your team needs constant interaction with the enemy to be successful.
-Don't leave base undefended, but don't spend all your starting res on turrets either. Personally I have found it is best to drop an IP right next to the TF and electrify the TF, then put an armory farther away, then later in the game drop more IPs and other tech buildings next to the TF.
-Don't attack the same area for too long. If your team has made several unsuccessful trips to the same location and you can't drop them anything to help them take it, go elsewhere!
-Exploit every weakness of the aliens, don't let them have a single undefended position on the map. Have people scout hives, they often leave their starting one extremely vulnerable to the shotty rush. Keep their nodes down too, you need to know where every single one is located and which are the most vulnerable.
-Hive lockdowns are still very effective. If you can control two hives, turret farms and electrification are much more useful, onos and fades are much less useful. If they start with sensory, it is highly advisable to lockdown one hive, that way they are stuck with only movement or defence.
-Listen to your marines, but don't obey their every command. Pay attention when they give you information, but ignore them when they make demands. For example, a soldier who says "there is a gorge building outside computer core" is 100 times more useful to me than a marine that says "gimme a GL", or "build siege at computer core".
-Find out their starting chamber as soon as possible, and go through ample means to counter it.
-Memorize this list of counters:
MC's | Motion Tracking
DC's | Early arms lab upgrades
SC's | Several observatories, scan everywhere
Skulks | Shotguns, HMG's, HA, JP
Lerks | LMG, Pistol, GL if they are sporing from vents or using umbra
Fades | HMG, HA
Onos| HMG's, you NEED to move in large squads
Offence Chambers | GL's, siege
<u>Alien Counters</u>
You need to know these to know what NOT to do
Onos | HA
SC | Motion Tracking
Lerks, OCs | Jetpacks
Lerks | Shotguns
-Base Placement (electrical): Your turret factory needs to be in the middle of your base in the most open area possible, place IP's on opposite ends parallel to the entrances of marine spawn, and the armory on the far side from the entrances to marine spawn
Base Placement (non electrical): Your turret factory needs to be in a corner, in early game 2-3 turrets placed so they cover your basic structures is ideal, add more later if necessary, but it usually isn't. Your armory needs to be in the open where the marines can gather ammo and see the entrances for incoming skulks. Your tech buildings should be in a somewhat hidden spot, with no space between them so skulks can't hide behind them. I prefer to put the proto lab in the same general area as my armory, that way I can put weapons and equitment (jetpack, HA) on top of each other.
/EDIT
-Don't be afraid to drop weapons! So many commanders are convinced that the only time you should drop a gun to somebody is if they have HA. The most deadly mid game can be a hearty mix of shotguns, HMGs, and GLs.
-Upgrade, upgrade upgrade! And don't be afraid to drop 2 arms labs either, 3/3 upgrades can be attained very quickly this way. Personally, I always drop 2 arms labs if we have 4 or more nodes.
-Always keep your soldiers waypointed. Simply telling them isn't enough, some people may not hear it/see it. Even if they are waypointed to where you want them to go, its a good idea to give them the waypoint again every 30 seconds or so, to make sure they all have it and so they know its current.
-When you give waypoints, don't put them in the middle of a room. When attacking an important position, a huge blue circle in the middle of the screen can really hurt them. They will get the idea if you put it in a vent, or for example on the top ledges of powersilo hive on ns_nothing.
-Pressure the aliens. On most pubs they get several gorges to drop the closest nodes to the hive within 2 minutes of the game. If you get your entire team except for 1-3 (depending on server size) attacking these nodes, they <b>will</b> go down. Never stop either, in 2.0 your team needs constant interaction with the enemy to be successful.
-Don't leave base undefended, but don't spend all your starting res on turrets either. Personally I have found it is best to drop an IP right next to the TF and electrify the TF, then put an armory farther away, then later in the game drop more IPs and other tech buildings next to the TF.
-Don't attack the same area for too long. If your team has made several unsuccessful trips to the same location and you can't drop them anything to help them take it, go elsewhere!
-Exploit every weakness of the aliens, don't let them have a single undefended position on the map. Have people scout hives, they often leave their starting one extremely vulnerable to the shotty rush. Keep their nodes down too, you need to know where every single one is located and which are the most vulnerable.
-Hive lockdowns are still very effective. If you can control two hives, turret farms and electrification are much more useful, onos and fades are much less useful. If they start with sensory, it is highly advisable to lockdown one hive, that way they are stuck with only movement or defence.
-Listen to your marines, but don't obey their every command. Pay attention when they give you information, but ignore them when they make demands. For example, a soldier who says "there is a gorge building outside computer core" is 100 times more useful to me than a marine that says "gimme a GL", or "build siege at computer core".
-Find out their starting chamber as soon as possible, and go through ample means to counter it.
-Memorize this list of counters:
MC's | Motion Tracking
DC's | Early arms lab upgrades
SC's | Several observatories, scan everywhere
Skulks | Shotguns, HMG's, HA, JP
Lerks | LMG, Pistol, GL if they are sporing from vents or using umbra
Fades | HMG, HA
Onos| HMG's, you NEED to move in large squads
Offence Chambers | GL's, siege
<u>Alien Counters</u>
You need to know these to know what NOT to do
Onos | HA
SC | Motion Tracking
Lerks, OCs | Jetpacks
Lerks | Shotguns
Comments
Don't know why no one has commented on it, yet. Perhaps it's because you cover everything and leave nothing more to be said. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Rhuadin
I don't mean to spoil the party but I definitely think that vocalizing your orders helps get Marines to waypoints. In my jaded experience one or the other just isn't enough but voice is the better of the two. More often than not marines have a plan of their own in mind and won't follow a waypoint without proper scolding (hence my siggy <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->)
Personally I'm sick of commanders thinking that a mere vocal command does the job, because we only have location marker at our current positions, unlike the comm who has the name for whatever area he is looking at...
Comm: "Quickly, everyone to Processing!!!"
Marine: "WTH??? We have one of those on this map?"
Also just as bad is the comm who uses ONLY waypoints...
Comm: *Proceed to waypoint*
Marine: *Runs out of hive, towards res node*
Comm: *Build structure at waypoint*
Marine: *Starts building res node*
Comm: *Go to your waypoint, soldier*
Comm: *Proceed to waypoint*
Comm: *Go to your waypoint, soldier*
Comm: *Go to your waypoint, soldier*
Comm: *Go to your waypoint, soldier*
Comm: *Proceed to waypoint*
Marine: *Finishes Res node*
Comm: "FFS guys we just lost the hive"
A comm needs both to succeed. He needs to balance his waypoints and his vocal commands equally, because unless you use BOTH, you are going to be severely crippled in your attempts at communication with your marines.
Waypoints are there for a reason. Just because you can see your entire map easily doesn't mean your marines can. Sure they can see a minimap with no names on it, but that still doesn't help them one tiny bit unless the commander kindly decides to put a big old waypoint on it.
Use ur ears to locate the alien rts/movement/classes while ur slaves build stuff/are busy (armory for example).
Use the Hotkeys for squads *and* observatories (who ever has 5 squads?).
Tell ur marines to *report* the alien upgrades/Wall of lame.
Tell ur team ur strategy and their role in it,this way they can decide on their own if the need arises.
- Learn all chokepoints and sigepoints
- Know aprox how much defence a squad can take out(sending 5 people constantly to RR/Tanith dont work)
- Make sure people feel needed and important - GJ or Guard this outpost is usually better than "stay here" and "now you see what happens when you dont go to wp?"
- Dont be predictable...atmos is old and it gives the alien an uppger hand.
- Plan ahead, and follow your plans. Dont be afraid to improvise, but the major setup should be the same.
for comms with no mics:
Dont speak too much, or else you will loose grip of the comming...
....and its best to have a 1 hit wonder punch for such a fast moving object (blink crazy fades)
1 hive, the aliens built movement cause we were playing last man standing ....
it was ns_lost.. anyway..
I was just fooling around as com, giving shotties out and stuff..
So the aliens were lax and building res towers... anyway..
I found we hit the 5 minute mark.. so to end the game, i recyled everything..
Someone said it was bannable but whatever.. my teammates wanted to anyway..
So ... we set off for sewer (cause that was their hive)
we had 4 players.. the aliens had like.. 6..
so.. one of our teammates died.. anyway..
We 3 marines rushed to Sewer and sat behind the hive.
We unloaded all our guns and killed the hive.
One gorge finaly arrived to the hive to find it dead..
It was all over in 30 seconds. Marines win..
Res nodes: 0 vs 5
lol
Tactic: False sense of winning.
I think some commanders do that to discourage armory-humping, but it is bad practice to put the armory in a corner, since marines will be facing the wrong way...
Lately, I've found that bilebomb doesn't do much to any building other than the one I'm clicking right on anyway, am I wrong? <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->