Eidal's Commander Guide
Eidal
Join Date: 2002-11-18 Member: 9229Members
Join Date: 2002-11-18 Member: 9229Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Who knows, it could help.</div>I just thought I'd write up some guidelines that I think would be helpful for people interesting in commanding.
First off, lets hit some --BASIC-- points.
1) If you don't have voice communication (microphone), you have to be able to type fast and legitably. Furthermore, just having a mic isn't enough. Make sure you can pronounce words properly.
I command as often as I can and I don't have a mic, but I try to make up for it by giving easily read instructions via text. You --CANNOT-- expect your troops to know everything you are thinking. Commanders should constantly be giving advice and instructions (i.e. "I see two of you building... I want one of you to guard the duct instead.")
Remember that the troops are not peons/grunts in Warcraft3. They are players with, more often than not, their own agenda. The best solution to the Rambo-inspired players is to give them waypoints frequently and often. If a player insists on playing rambo, just ignore him from that point on and hope that he can kill a skulk on his journies.
2) Waypoints. Probably the most difficult concept for a new commander to get familiar with. The best way to make waypoints useful for you and your troops is to know the map inside and out. Once you understand the map from a troop/skulks viewpoint, you know the importance of certain rooms. Remember, left click + drag lets you select a group of marines. DO NOT set waypoints 50 meters away through ducts, walls, or massive groups of enemies. Make your squad move together and efficiently, which means setting waypoints 10-20m apart and usually in eyesight from the last waypoint. Nothing is worse then having a commander give a waypoint to the team and having everyone run off in different directions because they don't know the best route. Explain via voice/text what your intention is, so that your troops know what they are going to do.
3) After you are familiar with the idea of communication and waypoints, print out or write down a tech tree. What I mean is until you memorize it, have a written reminder on your desk that shows you how to get Motion Tracking, or Heavy Armor. Write in big capital letters ("UPGRADE"). New commanders will forget to upgrade the weapons/armor.
4) Make sure you can drop health/armor quickly and accurately to your team. If you have your "squad" selected (remember: left-click + drag to select everyone), you can see their health circles. Nothing will inspire your troops more than to come close to death but be healed by their commander. This is --VERY-- demoralizing to enemy aliens, by the way. I know that if I'm trying to skulk a guy and I see that his commander is dropping health on him while he fills me with lead, I know its not a fight I can win.
5) Make sure you can find every single weapon, INCLUDING the welder/mines. Drop welders when you can -- and encourage your troops to weld everyone, especially heavy armor. A squad of three people with heavy armor/hmg's shouldn't die easily.
6) Memorize which drops require an advanced armory. Remember that the heavy armor requires a prototype lab.
7) Remember that waygates require a waygate at the base AND at the outpost. Also -- waygates work in a circle. You can have 4 waygates on the map and cycle through them by walking into them. Think strategy, and I will probably elaborate on proper waygate usage in a later post.
8)Siege turrets are --invaluable--. Once you have a functional firesquad, don't have them rush into a hive to battle the defenses + aliens. This is most likely suicide, unless you have some very accurate shooters. Instead, drop a turret factory near the hive and immediately upgrade it to Adv. while your squad guards. From the alien perspective, nothing convinces me that a hive is lost more than the booming of multiple siege cannons backed up by three heavy armor/heavy machine gun troops.
A related tactic is called a "siege crawl". This is essentially advancing and establishing outposts at resource nozzles and other points of interest. Every outpost with a siege cannon to prevent enemy towers/nozzles. Some maps pretty much require a siege crawl, other maps may be more receptive to other tactics.
Tactical thinking is the type of thing that comes naturally to some people, or slowly with practice. I may elaborate on tactics (i.e. how to clear a hive fast and efficiently, how to survive the first 5 minutes...) in later posts.
Suffice it to say, following the points I've listed above will probably make your life in the command chair far easier. By far the most important is keeping communcations open. Silent commanders make your troops think you are a moron, and encourage them to play rambo. By being active/verbal, your troops can have faith that you know what you are doing.
Hope this helps!
First off, lets hit some --BASIC-- points.
1) If you don't have voice communication (microphone), you have to be able to type fast and legitably. Furthermore, just having a mic isn't enough. Make sure you can pronounce words properly.
I command as often as I can and I don't have a mic, but I try to make up for it by giving easily read instructions via text. You --CANNOT-- expect your troops to know everything you are thinking. Commanders should constantly be giving advice and instructions (i.e. "I see two of you building... I want one of you to guard the duct instead.")
Remember that the troops are not peons/grunts in Warcraft3. They are players with, more often than not, their own agenda. The best solution to the Rambo-inspired players is to give them waypoints frequently and often. If a player insists on playing rambo, just ignore him from that point on and hope that he can kill a skulk on his journies.
2) Waypoints. Probably the most difficult concept for a new commander to get familiar with. The best way to make waypoints useful for you and your troops is to know the map inside and out. Once you understand the map from a troop/skulks viewpoint, you know the importance of certain rooms. Remember, left click + drag lets you select a group of marines. DO NOT set waypoints 50 meters away through ducts, walls, or massive groups of enemies. Make your squad move together and efficiently, which means setting waypoints 10-20m apart and usually in eyesight from the last waypoint. Nothing is worse then having a commander give a waypoint to the team and having everyone run off in different directions because they don't know the best route. Explain via voice/text what your intention is, so that your troops know what they are going to do.
3) After you are familiar with the idea of communication and waypoints, print out or write down a tech tree. What I mean is until you memorize it, have a written reminder on your desk that shows you how to get Motion Tracking, or Heavy Armor. Write in big capital letters ("UPGRADE"). New commanders will forget to upgrade the weapons/armor.
4) Make sure you can drop health/armor quickly and accurately to your team. If you have your "squad" selected (remember: left-click + drag to select everyone), you can see their health circles. Nothing will inspire your troops more than to come close to death but be healed by their commander. This is --VERY-- demoralizing to enemy aliens, by the way. I know that if I'm trying to skulk a guy and I see that his commander is dropping health on him while he fills me with lead, I know its not a fight I can win.
5) Make sure you can find every single weapon, INCLUDING the welder/mines. Drop welders when you can -- and encourage your troops to weld everyone, especially heavy armor. A squad of three people with heavy armor/hmg's shouldn't die easily.
6) Memorize which drops require an advanced armory. Remember that the heavy armor requires a prototype lab.
7) Remember that waygates require a waygate at the base AND at the outpost. Also -- waygates work in a circle. You can have 4 waygates on the map and cycle through them by walking into them. Think strategy, and I will probably elaborate on proper waygate usage in a later post.
8)Siege turrets are --invaluable--. Once you have a functional firesquad, don't have them rush into a hive to battle the defenses + aliens. This is most likely suicide, unless you have some very accurate shooters. Instead, drop a turret factory near the hive and immediately upgrade it to Adv. while your squad guards. From the alien perspective, nothing convinces me that a hive is lost more than the booming of multiple siege cannons backed up by three heavy armor/heavy machine gun troops.
A related tactic is called a "siege crawl". This is essentially advancing and establishing outposts at resource nozzles and other points of interest. Every outpost with a siege cannon to prevent enemy towers/nozzles. Some maps pretty much require a siege crawl, other maps may be more receptive to other tactics.
Tactical thinking is the type of thing that comes naturally to some people, or slowly with practice. I may elaborate on tactics (i.e. how to clear a hive fast and efficiently, how to survive the first 5 minutes...) in later posts.
Suffice it to say, following the points I've listed above will probably make your life in the command chair far easier. By far the most important is keeping communcations open. Silent commanders make your troops think you are a moron, and encourage them to play rambo. By being active/verbal, your troops can have faith that you know what you are doing.
Hope this helps!