Yes it is hard to gain commander experience when other players on the server don't let you.
Look at it from their point of view: they have hundreds or even thousands of hours of experience, they are playing for a few hours a day and want to enjoy the game after a hard day's work. They are devoted players, and have taken the time and made the effort to learn the game well. 99% or more of the others who bought the game have already left, long ago.
Now if you just jump in to the commchair, and with just 75hours of experience, they fear you will start making loads of nooby or rookie mistakes, and that is going to be very frustrating for the rest of them.
NS2 isn't Starcraft. You don't become comm to start ordering around some AI-players. Unlike other RTS games, you can actually learn how to be commander by playing as a field-player and then observing what the experienced commanders do at various times, in various situations, on various maps.
Only then, once you have closer to 200 hours, should you venture forth, explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
This permission requesting method was the approach I used, but of course I got into the commchair within just a few hours of playing, because back in 2012 there were TONS of rookies around, tons of rookie servers, and it was the best time to get in to the game 99.9% of the players back then DIDN'T know what to do, so couldn't complain about "rookie comms." Now only 0.01% or less of the players don't know anything, so you face a very uphill struggle.
If you can't wait for 200 hours, then just ask people BEFORE jumping in: explain you have 75 hours only, but really want to learn to command, and please could people be patient and give you guidance.
Well excuse us for trying to learn a game.
Mind you, this is a game, lose or win, you had fun either way, if you didn't, you're playing wrong and should redefine what "playing a game" means to you.
That's the problem were addressing, people who have 100s of hours of gametime are the ones who should be okay with new people asking to give them a chance because the pros have had their share of NS2 experiences, while the rookies just joined and would like to learn more about it, how do you expect them to learn more if you don't give em a chance, and how do you expect them not leaving the game if everyone's like "You need to be pro to do that thing"?
I realize it requires skill, but skill doesn't just come from thin air, it is gained through practices, and they cannot simply practice with bots because they're too easy, even for rookies.
You think i'm that impolite to just "barge" into the Comm Center? I usually ask and they either let me in for a few seconds until one player sees the rookie behind my name and votes to eject me, or they just don't let me plain and simple.
There are really very few requirements to learn as a rookie comm:
#1 be communicative. If you're new, you're in the chair, and you don't respond to voicecomm or team chat, you get the boot. No communication = you're ruining the game for the 6-9 other players on your team, don't be a douchebag.
#2 listen and be receptive to advice.
There's really very few people who won't tolerate a rookie comm who can do both of those.
Isn't that an obvious thing? you cannot simply type fast enough and you cannot learn fast enough without advise.
explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
That is actually a very good point, i only learned the Ammo and medpack hotkeys plus usual space bar to go the warning area!
When did i ever mention splitting up being a bad idea?
I didn't imply it either, but never the less this is not what i am talking about.
I am talking about team competition (not between Aliens and Marines but between marines and marines)
That can be a good thing sometimes, but not always here's an example :
Marine 1 and Marine 2 get into an argument
Marine 1 has a welder and Marine 2 injured and the comm still hasn't sent in a medpack
Marine 1 does not weld Marine 2 and leads to his death, now that isn't a big deal you think but it messes with the cooperation between the team and that happens a lot of times, heck it happened to me when i was a little rookie not knowing anything about the game.
The problem is that, the game has a lot of rookies, and the pros wouldn't let them learn, they'd help with small things like how to crouch how to evolve etc, but big things like being a commander or which structer to build first, they're on their own.
Like the last time, my friend joined a game and tried to be a commander (mind you he's an execellent RTS player) when he entered the command station, they demanded that he left because he's a rookie.
How do you expect rookies not to be rookies without a bit of experience.
That is what i mean by it's turning into a competitive game rather than what's it's truely is, Cooperative deathmatch.
EDIT
The server we played on was a rookie friendly server.
i've welded people, and then pushed the medic button next to them... they were probably thinking "this comm is really on top of his game today."
maybe, but it was also me saying "he hasn't hit it yet, i'll just hit it for him in case"
explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
That is actually a very good point, i only learned the Ammo and medpack hotkeys plus usual space bar to go the warning area!
personlly, i was on hour 300+ before i jumped in a chair. and that was aliens.
it was probably another 50 hours before i braved marines.
you might not realize but a poor comm is the quickest way to end a game. it's the easiest way to waste what, 5 minutes of 12+ peoples' time, you can literally waste a man-hour by being a bad comm.
i'd say 100 hours in the field before comming, at the minimum.
explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
That is actually a very good point, i only learned the Ammo and medpack hotkeys plus usual space bar to go the warning area!
personlly, i was on hour 300+ before i jumped in a chair. and that was aliens.
it was probably another 50 hours before i braved marines.
you might not realize but a poor comm is the quickest way to end a game. it's the easiest way to waste what, 5 minutes of 12+ peoples' time, you can literally waste a man-hour by being a bad comm.
i'd say 100 hours in the field before comming, at the minimum.
I hear that a lot, but really the only way you are going to get good at comming is by comming. You'd be surprised how little people learn about comming from field experience.
What you need to do is put in the effort to learn the tech tree, the abilities, and what people expect in terms of strategy. Only the last of those things even benefits from field experience and only if you know what to pay attention to to begin with, otherwise the number of hours doesn't matter.
I started commanding when I had played the game for about 50 hours. Starting earlier than that can be done but it's not going to be easy and you need to prepare well.
Play the game until you understand the tech tree, basic strategies and the different stages of the game, practice the commander interface with bots, learn the maps and where to place structures, ARCs and such and communicate and let people know that you're new. Like others have said, I don't think anyone would complain as long as you listen and communicate.
@Vector19 The Thirsty Onos servers are open for players of all skill levels and you are welcome to play there. I've got a couple of hundred hours as comm and I can help you get started if you want. Add me on Steam and we'll play some rounds together.
explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
That is actually a very good point, i only learned the Ammo and medpack hotkeys plus usual space bar to go the warning area!
personlly, i was on hour 300+ before i jumped in a chair. and that was aliens.
it was probably another 50 hours before i braved marines.
you might not realize but a poor comm is the quickest way to end a game. it's the easiest way to waste what, 5 minutes of 12+ peoples' time, you can literally waste a man-hour by being a bad comm.
i'd say 100 hours in the field before comming, at the minimum.
I hear that a lot, but really the only way you are going to get good at comming is by comming. You'd be surprised how little people learn about comming from field experience.
What you need to do is put in the effort to learn the tech tree, the abilities, and what people expect in terms of strategy. Only the last of those things even benefits from field experience and only if you know what to pay attention to to begin with, otherwise the number of hours doesn't matter.
i think why many people say you straight up need a good amount of field experience because this is a 12-20 man game. you're not controlling AI.
It's important to have first hand knowledge of say why shotguns are necessary for lerks and fades. it's important to know why telling your people to kill a gorge tunnel is important, why going after early gorges are super crippling.
why cutting off res for aliens is vital. why 1 shell or spur doesn't do too much, but one veil is pretty damn powerful.
why shade first is risky and weaker mid game than the other starts.
you get a feel for these things playing on the field, what these upgrades actually mean to rest of the team's combat effectiveness...
... why gorges take one look at some marine bases, and just get gleeful at how poorly placed the buildings are.
I don't think i've ever clumped buildings like i've seen some comms do... or put phase gates with a back to a wall... etc.
You honestly don't need 100 hours of playtime to comm, especially if you have a background in RTS. 20-30 hours on the field, and a few rounds of comming while a vet handholds and you should be able to pick up 75% of comming, at least enough to win with decent players. The most important thing is that in order to get that chance you NEED to communicate to the rest of your team.
Comming a good round is an incredibly satisfying experience (at least on marines), and it would be silly to expect people to invest 100 hours into the game before they can be exposed to that.
Yes it is hard to gain commander experience when other players on the server don't let you.
Look at it from their point of view: they have hundreds or even thousands of hours of experience, they are playing for a few hours a day and want to enjoy the game after a hard day's work. They are devoted players, and have taken the time and made the effort to learn the game well. 99% or more of the others who bought the game have already left, long ago.
Now if you just jump in to the commchair, and with just 75hours of experience, they fear you will start making loads of nooby or rookie mistakes, and that is going to be very frustrating for the rest of them.
NS2 isn't Starcraft. You don't become comm to start ordering around some AI-players. Unlike other RTS games, you can actually learn how to be commander by playing as a field-player and then observing what the experienced commanders do at various times, in various situations, on various maps.
Only then, once you have closer to 200 hours, should you venture forth, explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
This permission requesting method was the approach I used, but of course I got into the commchair within just a few hours of playing, because back in 2012 there were TONS of rookies around, tons of rookie servers, and it was the best time to get in to the game 99.9% of the players back then DIDN'T know what to do, so couldn't complain about "rookie comms." Now only 0.01% or less of the players don't know anything, so you face a very uphill struggle.
If you can't wait for 200 hours, then just ask people BEFORE jumping in: explain you have 75 hours only, but really want to learn to command, and please could people be patient and give you guidance.
Well excuse us for trying to learn a game.
Mind you, this is a game, lose or win, you had fun either way, if you didn't, you're playing wrong and should redefine what "playing a game" means to you.
That's the problem were addressing, people who have 100s of hours of gametime are the ones who should be okay with new people asking to give them a chance because the pros have had their share of NS2 experiences, while the rookies just joined and would like to learn more about it, how do you expect them to learn more if you don't give em a chance, and how do you expect them not leaving the game if everyone's like "You need to be pro to do that thing"?
I realize it requires skill, but skill doesn't just come from thin air, it is gained through practices, and they cannot simply practice with bots because they're too easy, even for rookies.
You think i'm that impolite to just "barge" into the Comm Center? I usually ask and they either let me in for a few seconds until one player sees the rookie behind my name and votes to eject me, or they just don't let me plain and simple.
Look, I was trying to be helpful by explaining why people would be so hostile to a rookie comm, and by advising how you can get around it.
It may be a game but no one wants their chance of winning ruined by an entitled noob who thinks getting in the comm chair turns the other 9 players on the team into AI-zerglings. No one likes to lose. Just because you don't care whether you lead your team to a loss through stupid mistakes or not doesn't mean everyone else doesn't care too.
NS2 comming can only be learned by watching other comms first.
Unfortunately, you are joining the game waaaayyyy too late to have this sort of arrogant attitude.
explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
That is actually a very good point, i only learned the Ammo and medpack hotkeys plus usual space bar to go the warning area!
personlly, i was on hour 300+ before i jumped in a chair. and that was aliens.
it was probably another 50 hours before i braved marines.
you might not realize but a poor comm is the quickest way to end a game. it's the easiest way to waste what, 5 minutes of 12+ peoples' time, you can literally waste a man-hour by being a bad comm.
i'd say 100 hours in the field before comming, at the minimum.
I hear that a lot, but really the only way you are going to get good at comming is by comming. You'd be surprised how little people learn about comming from field experience.
What you need to do is put in the effort to learn the tech tree, the abilities, and what people expect in terms of strategy. Only the last of those things even benefits from field experience and only if you know what to pay attention to to begin with, otherwise the number of hours doesn't matter.
i think why many people say you straight up need a good amount of field experience because this is a 12-20 man game. you're not controlling AI.
It's important to have first hand knowledge of say why shotguns are necessary for lerks and fades. it's important to know why telling your people to kill a gorge tunnel is important, why going after early gorges are super crippling.
why cutting off res for aliens is vital. why 1 shell or spur doesn't do too much, but one veil is pretty damn powerful.
why shade first is risky and weaker mid game than the other starts.
you get a feel for these things playing on the field, what these upgrades actually mean to rest of the team's combat effectiveness...
... why gorges take one look at some marine bases, and just get gleeful at how poorly placed the buildings are.
I don't think i've ever clumped buildings like i've seen some comms do... or put phase gates with a back to a wall... etc.
While all of those things are good to learn, most of them will be overlooked completely by someone who has absolutely no experience in the chair, unless maybe they listen to the team bitching about it in game but if you are going to learn from THAT you could just as easily learn from a tutorial or by listening to them when its YOU in the chair instead of some other screwup.
You just can't learn the finer details without a grasp of the basics, and the only way to learn those is hands on experience. Also, the sooner you learn to com the sooner you can start putting things together and improve on your ground game as well.
Really as long as you listen I don't think it matters your experience, everyone has to start somewhere and unless you are some sort of savant you are probably going to suck regardless. The only thing I really, REALLY recommend doing before trying the chair is a dry run just to figure out how the buttons work and how buildings are placed (IE on infestation or with power). It's tedious as hell to try to explain that to someone over voice even if they are listening.
In my own personal experience there are two types of rookie players;-
"The silent unresponsive newbie"
The first kind won't engage with the other teammates in any way, blindly set out on their own treating this game as a Call of Duty experience, getting destroyed and disheartened so now they decide they don't want to play on the ground anymore and decide to jump into the command chair or hive. This causes a whole another array of problems as they still won' t communicate with the team either via text or VOIP which causes the team to become frustrated as it is clear there is no strategy or communication in place which in turn leads them to being ejected and onto having a negative experience of NS2 as a whole. This has caused a domino effect of the years.
"The eager beaver rookie"
The second kind is markedly different this will is all to keen to get himself into all sorts of trouble, he will wander into all kinds of danger and will keep getting himself killed for it, this disheartens him however he communicates with his team via text or VOIP and will learn from his mistakes in time.... He then decides to give commanding a go, due to the high level of micromanagement, on the fly strategies needed to adjust to certain scenarios and the "standard" tech research path its all too overwhelming as he will be met with a barrage of abuse and faced with rejection and ejection!
However what we need is the latter not the former, as the latter does one thing correct which the first one doesn't, can you guess what it is?
C O M M U N I C A T I O N
He will take shit and he will be slow but in time he will LEARN, these are the players we need, NS2 is one of the few games where you MUST be able to interact and actively communicate with other players, there are many games where "the silent unresponsive newbie" can get away without talking to other people, NS2 isn't one of those games.
There is nothing more frustrating for myself where our team have had a rookie commander jump into, that doesn't know what he is doing AND doesn't talk or respond to you, he wonders why he was met with rejection.
I always notioned the idea of maybe in the tooltips or with help mode enabled to feature "Please use a Microphone or communicate with players during Commanding".
Your marines / aliens aren't bots they are real players, they need to be actively involved in what you are doing, they need to know that you don't know and maybe then they can help you achieve a more positive experience.
Look, I was trying to be helpful by explaining why people would be so hostile to a rookie comm, and by advising how you can get around it.
It may be a game but no one wants their chance of winning ruined by an entitled noob who thinks getting in the comm chair turns the other 9 players on the team into AI-zerglings. No one likes to lose. Just because you don't care whether you lead your team to a loss through stupid mistakes or not doesn't mean everyone else doesn't care too.
NS2 comming can only be learned by watching other comms first.
Unfortunately, you are joining the game waaaayyyy too late to have this sort of arrogant attitude.
And i thank you for doing so, everyone who contributed to this conversation has my gratitude!
I realize this is a different RTS i really do, and i'm a big RTS game fan, back to the days of Command and Conquer, Act of War, Rome Total War (the first one) End War, Ground Control...and the list goes on. Most of those are different from each other, what makes you think we won't learn it? it's just a matter of practice!
I have had Natural Selection Deluxe Edition since the 1st of September 2013 but i have not played it til July-August 2014 ( My PC wasn't strong enough ) And i have played it each time i got the chance to. And i would like to apologize for that attitude, i am not really having best of times these late months.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
That's a great attitude you got Vector
I'd just follow what has been suggested and keep up the positive vibes and remain communicative.. there's also plenty of servers that can be recommended to ya by people in here.
Hope to see you in game comming!
explain to the others that you haven't commanded much before, that you would like to, and ask people to please be patient and to give you guidance on what to do.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
That is actually a very good point, i only learned the Ammo and medpack hotkeys plus usual space bar to go the warning area!
personlly, i was on hour 300+ before i jumped in a chair. and that was aliens.
it was probably another 50 hours before i braved marines.
you might not realize but a poor comm is the quickest way to end a game. it's the easiest way to waste what, 5 minutes of 12+ peoples' time, you can literally waste a man-hour by being a bad comm.
i'd say 100 hours in the field before comming, at the minimum.
I hear that a lot, but really the only way you are going to get good at comming is by comming. You'd be surprised how little people learn about comming from field experience.
What you need to do is put in the effort to learn the tech tree, the abilities, and what people expect in terms of strategy. Only the last of those things even benefits from field experience and only if you know what to pay attention to to begin with, otherwise the number of hours doesn't matter.
i think why many people say you straight up need a good amount of field experience because this is a 12-20 man game. you're not controlling AI.
It's important to have first hand knowledge of say why shotguns are necessary for lerks and fades. it's important to know why telling your people to kill a gorge tunnel is important, why going after early gorges are super crippling.
why cutting off res for aliens is vital. why 1 shell or spur doesn't do too much, but one veil is pretty damn powerful.
why shade first is risky and weaker mid game than the other starts.
you get a feel for these things playing on the field, what these upgrades actually mean to rest of the team's combat effectiveness...
... why gorges take one look at some marine bases, and just get gleeful at how poorly placed the buildings are.
I don't think i've ever clumped buildings like i've seen some comms do... or put phase gates with a back to a wall... etc.
While all of those things are good to learn, most of them will be overlooked completely by someone who has absolutely no experience in the chair, unless maybe they listen to the team bitching about it in game but if you are going to learn from THAT you could just as easily learn from a tutorial or by listening to them when its YOU in the chair instead of some other screwup.
You just can't learn the finer details without a grasp of the basics, and the only way to learn those is hands on experience. Also, the sooner you learn to com the sooner you can start putting things together and improve on your ground game as well.
Really as long as you listen I don't think it matters your experience, everyone has to start somewhere and unless you are some sort of savant you are probably going to suck regardless. The only thing I really, REALLY recommend doing before trying the chair is a dry run just to figure out how the buttons work and how buildings are placed (IE on infestation or with power). It's tedious as hell to try to explain that to someone over voice even if they are listening.
. I come from fps side of things. So my only experience with getting map knowledge is running a map. Might be different for those that have more rts experience.
Gotta walk everything once with each thing before you can really get the full measure etc.
And i thank you for doing so, everyone who contributed to this conversation has my gratitude!
I realize this is a different RTS i really do, and i'm a big RTS game fan, back to the days of Command and Conquer, Act of War, Rome Total War (the first one) End War, Ground Control...and the list goes on. Most of those are different from each other, what makes you think we won't learn it? it's just a matter of practice!
I have had Natural Selection Deluxe Edition since the 1st of September 2013 but i have not played it til July-August 2014 ( My PC wasn't strong enough ) And i have played it each time i got the chance to. And i would like to apologize for that attitude, i am not really having best of times these late months.
Even though you have many RTS they're all based on the same principles and mechanics. Even if you need training to make the best of any unit, this isn't like NS.
No micro management. It's replaced by the players on the field. The human part suddenly takes a weight that is quite not like the RTS any player knows. When someone doesn't go where he's told to go (usually on public servers) it become annoying at best. When you the team is doing the right thing but ultimately fail to win (quite often on competition), it is frustrating.
The strategic elements aren't the same. You don't discover things in the map except the opponent location. You know where the resource nozzles are, where are the possible opponent starting location, etc.
Training is always required but in different areas.
Love to see a mod where a team of human VS alien bots or human alien team VS marine bots. That way we can't blame stacking so we can blame these damn aimbots instead
Love to see a mod where a team of human VS alien bots or human alien team VS marine bots. That way we can't blame stacking so we can blame these damn aimbots instead
There was a mod that did that. It was called xenoswarm. It was not ns2 though, more like ns2 themed left4dead.
The server TGNS has a bots seeding mode. Say there is only 3 marines on the server. Instead of doing nothing they add a few alien bots to fight against. They manually add more as more people join, and at 14p the mod makes the alien bot team concede so that real ns2 can be played.
Comments
Well excuse us for trying to learn a game.
Mind you, this is a game, lose or win, you had fun either way, if you didn't, you're playing wrong and should redefine what "playing a game" means to you.
That's the problem were addressing, people who have 100s of hours of gametime are the ones who should be okay with new people asking to give them a chance because the pros have had their share of NS2 experiences, while the rookies just joined and would like to learn more about it, how do you expect them to learn more if you don't give em a chance, and how do you expect them not leaving the game if everyone's like "You need to be pro to do that thing"?
I realize it requires skill, but skill doesn't just come from thin air, it is gained through practices, and they cannot simply practice with bots because they're too easy, even for rookies.
You think i'm that impolite to just "barge" into the Comm Center? I usually ask and they either let me in for a few seconds until one player sees the rookie behind my name and votes to eject me, or they just don't let me plain and simple.
Isn't that an obvious thing? you cannot simply type fast enough and you cannot learn fast enough without advise.
+1
I've got lots of comm experience at this point, but depending on the calibre of my team, I will still ask for field comms. The best thing you can do is to learn the hotkeys, and practice responsiveness. Nothing will make a player want to rage quicker than a comm who doesnt drop rts or respond to med/ammo calls.
That is actually a very good point, i only learned the Ammo and medpack hotkeys plus usual space bar to go the warning area!
i've welded people, and then pushed the medic button next to them... they were probably thinking "this comm is really on top of his game today."
maybe, but it was also me saying "he hasn't hit it yet, i'll just hit it for him in case"
personlly, i was on hour 300+ before i jumped in a chair. and that was aliens.
it was probably another 50 hours before i braved marines.
you might not realize but a poor comm is the quickest way to end a game. it's the easiest way to waste what, 5 minutes of 12+ peoples' time, you can literally waste a man-hour by being a bad comm.
i'd say 100 hours in the field before comming, at the minimum.
I hear that a lot, but really the only way you are going to get good at comming is by comming. You'd be surprised how little people learn about comming from field experience.
What you need to do is put in the effort to learn the tech tree, the abilities, and what people expect in terms of strategy. Only the last of those things even benefits from field experience and only if you know what to pay attention to to begin with, otherwise the number of hours doesn't matter.
Play the game until you understand the tech tree, basic strategies and the different stages of the game, practice the commander interface with bots, learn the maps and where to place structures, ARCs and such and communicate and let people know that you're new. Like others have said, I don't think anyone would complain as long as you listen and communicate.
@Vector19 The Thirsty Onos servers are open for players of all skill levels and you are welcome to play there. I've got a couple of hundred hours as comm and I can help you get started if you want. Add me on Steam and we'll play some rounds together.
i think why many people say you straight up need a good amount of field experience because this is a 12-20 man game. you're not controlling AI.
It's important to have first hand knowledge of say why shotguns are necessary for lerks and fades. it's important to know why telling your people to kill a gorge tunnel is important, why going after early gorges are super crippling.
why cutting off res for aliens is vital. why 1 shell or spur doesn't do too much, but one veil is pretty damn powerful.
why shade first is risky and weaker mid game than the other starts.
you get a feel for these things playing on the field, what these upgrades actually mean to rest of the team's combat effectiveness...
... why gorges take one look at some marine bases, and just get gleeful at how poorly placed the buildings are.
I don't think i've ever clumped buildings like i've seen some comms do... or put phase gates with a back to a wall... etc.
Comming a good round is an incredibly satisfying experience (at least on marines), and it would be silly to expect people to invest 100 hours into the game before they can be exposed to that.
Look, I was trying to be helpful by explaining why people would be so hostile to a rookie comm, and by advising how you can get around it.
It may be a game but no one wants their chance of winning ruined by an entitled noob who thinks getting in the comm chair turns the other 9 players on the team into AI-zerglings. No one likes to lose. Just because you don't care whether you lead your team to a loss through stupid mistakes or not doesn't mean everyone else doesn't care too.
NS2 comming can only be learned by watching other comms first.
Unfortunately, you are joining the game waaaayyyy too late to have this sort of arrogant attitude.
While all of those things are good to learn, most of them will be overlooked completely by someone who has absolutely no experience in the chair, unless maybe they listen to the team bitching about it in game but if you are going to learn from THAT you could just as easily learn from a tutorial or by listening to them when its YOU in the chair instead of some other screwup.
You just can't learn the finer details without a grasp of the basics, and the only way to learn those is hands on experience. Also, the sooner you learn to com the sooner you can start putting things together and improve on your ground game as well.
Really as long as you listen I don't think it matters your experience, everyone has to start somewhere and unless you are some sort of savant you are probably going to suck regardless. The only thing I really, REALLY recommend doing before trying the chair is a dry run just to figure out how the buttons work and how buildings are placed (IE on infestation or with power). It's tedious as hell to try to explain that to someone over voice even if they are listening.
"The silent unresponsive newbie"
The first kind won't engage with the other teammates in any way, blindly set out on their own treating this game as a Call of Duty experience, getting destroyed and disheartened so now they decide they don't want to play on the ground anymore and decide to jump into the command chair or hive. This causes a whole another array of problems as they still won' t communicate with the team either via text or VOIP which causes the team to become frustrated as it is clear there is no strategy or communication in place which in turn leads them to being ejected and onto having a negative experience of NS2 as a whole. This has caused a domino effect of the years.
"The eager beaver rookie"
The second kind is markedly different this will is all to keen to get himself into all sorts of trouble, he will wander into all kinds of danger and will keep getting himself killed for it, this disheartens him however he communicates with his team via text or VOIP and will learn from his mistakes in time.... He then decides to give commanding a go, due to the high level of micromanagement, on the fly strategies needed to adjust to certain scenarios and the "standard" tech research path its all too overwhelming as he will be met with a barrage of abuse and faced with rejection and ejection!
However what we need is the latter not the former, as the latter does one thing correct which the first one doesn't, can you guess what it is?
C O M M U N I C A T I O N
He will take shit and he will be slow but in time he will LEARN, these are the players we need, NS2 is one of the few games where you MUST be able to interact and actively communicate with other players, there are many games where "the silent unresponsive newbie" can get away without talking to other people, NS2 isn't one of those games.
There is nothing more frustrating for myself where our team have had a rookie commander jump into, that doesn't know what he is doing AND doesn't talk or respond to you, he wonders why he was met with rejection.
I always notioned the idea of maybe in the tooltips or with help mode enabled to feature "Please use a Microphone or communicate with players during Commanding".
Your marines / aliens aren't bots they are real players, they need to be actively involved in what you are doing, they need to know that you don't know and maybe then they can help you achieve a more positive experience.
And i thank you for doing so, everyone who contributed to this conversation has my gratitude!
I realize this is a different RTS i really do, and i'm a big RTS game fan, back to the days of Command and Conquer, Act of War, Rome Total War (the first one) End War, Ground Control...and the list goes on. Most of those are different from each other, what makes you think we won't learn it? it's just a matter of practice!
I have had Natural Selection Deluxe Edition since the 1st of September 2013 but i have not played it til July-August 2014 ( My PC wasn't strong enough ) And i have played it each time i got the chance to. And i would like to apologize for that attitude, i am not really having best of times these late months.
I'd just follow what has been suggested and keep up the positive vibes and remain communicative.. there's also plenty of servers that can be recommended to ya by people in here.
Hope to see you in game comming!
Gotta walk everything once with each thing before you can really get the full measure etc.
Even though you have many RTS they're all based on the same principles and mechanics. Even if you need training to make the best of any unit, this isn't like NS.
Training is always required but in different areas.
There was a mod that did that. It was called xenoswarm. It was not ns2 though, more like ns2 themed left4dead.
The server TGNS has a bots seeding mode. Say there is only 3 marines on the server. Instead of doing nothing they add a few alien bots to fight against. They manually add more as more people join, and at 14p the mod makes the alien bot team concede so that real ns2 can be played.