Commander Basics
radforChrist
USA Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6871Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Subnautica Playtester
USA Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6871Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Subnautica Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">Pulled from map strategies</div> <span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><b>Commander Basics:</b></span>
If you're new to commanding, looking for new strategies, or just trying not to lose so much, here are some basics to help you out.
<i><b>Learn the Interface</b> -</i> Learn the interface you're going to be dealing with. Start to memorize hotkeys for meds/ammo, and learn how to move around the map quickly. Learn how to assign squads (duck button plus numbers 1-5). Sometimes a timely placed medpack is the difference between losing a resource tower, or even a strategic location.
<i><b>Communication</b> - </i>Good communication is the key to a good commander. If you're marine team knows what you want to do, and what you are doing, then they'll be more apt to trust you and follow orders. Almost all marine teams really need the commander to use voice in order to listen, but if you just type, make sure you keep the team informed of what's going on.
<i><b>Early Base Defense</b> - </i>On some servers if you drop a turret factory in marine start in the first minute, you'll get ejected in no time. The reason is that the less resources spent on defense in the first 3-4 minutes are more resources spent on nodes and upgrades. When a marine team that knows the value of starting resources thinks a commander is going to waste it on turrets, then they'll take action. If you want to place a turret factory in base, don't immediately build turrets or electrify. Wait until you're base is being pressured. And turrets are often better than electrifying straight off, because it alerts you when they fire, and can cover more area for the same cost (three turrets cost the same as electrification). I would highly recommend mines instead of turrets. I generally drop one pack, and have them dispersed around my keys buildings.
<i><b>Electrification</b> - </i>Electrified turret factories and resource towers are great at keeping skulks at bay, and even offering area denial. But they are a major resource investment. For the cost of building and electrifying one node, you could build three separate nodes. Tie that with the initial 10 resources for a required turret factory, and electrification can eat your resources early game. I recommend only electrifying resources in hives, in out of the way locations hard for marines to quickly respond to, and at outposts. It's cheaper and more effective to just rebuild nodes lost near base. Remember, once early fades show up in the three to four minute mark, and two hives are up, electrification won't be worth anything.
<i><b>Getting out of the chair </b>- </i>Never jump out of the chair unless there's no other option. I'm sure that building can wait an extra few seconds to be built. The only reason you should jump out of your chair is when base is under attack and you KNOW what you're up against.
<i><b>Assigning Squads</b> - </i>This important feature can help you organize your marines into individual squads ready to do your bidding, or be a great early warning system for your base. I recommend placing important structures in squads to be alerted when they're under attack, and so you can cycle through them to check upgrade status.
<i><b>Early upgrades</b> - </i>The sooner you make your marines stronger in the field, the more quickly the aliens are forced to react. Most commanders have the problem of reacting to the strength of the aliens, when they should be anticipating DC's or fades, and upgrading in preparation. I don't think any marine team will argue with dropping an arms lab at the beginning. And I'd recommend getting Armor 1 before Weapon 1 because you can't always rely on the aim of your marines. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<i><b>What to Build First</b> - </i>Don't waste a lot of resources building stuff in base, even if you know your going to need it later on. If you drop 2 Infantry Portals, an Armory, an Arms Lab, and an Observatory, that's 95 resources. You don't even have the resources to drop a resource tower, much less upgrade anything. To start, I drop one IP, because you may not need two yet. I drop an armory, an arms lab, and one pack of mines, two I place around the armory, and two I place around the arms lab. I immediately research armor 1, and I have the resources left to drop 2 resource towers. Once I have at least 4 nodes, I build my second IP and focus on killing alien resource towers.
<i><b>Playing Defensively</b> - </i>Playing defensively will guarantee a loss. You MUST pressure the alien team from the beginning. Having more than one resource tower for the aliens is NOT acceptable. You should always have at least one marine immediately pressuring the nodes around the starting hive, and in the next nearest hive. You can find the starting hive by listening in each hive location for aliens spawning or by dropping an ammo pack where the hive is. If it drops slowly, you got a hive. Once you know where the aliens are starting, send marines to cap the nodes furthest away while sending a few to the nearest nodes to kill gorge eggs and freshly built resource towers. Don't try to cap every node you can. Instead, pick 3 or 4 near base or easily defendable, cap them, then pressure the aliens with every marine. Alien resource towers are harder to replace than marine ones.
<b>Siege Position Basics:</b>
Here are a few tips I use when placing/building siege points for hives.
<i><b>Phase Gate Positioning</b> -</i> Try to place the PG in a spot where it can easily be defended, and where marines have room to maneuver when phasing through. Never place a PG in a spot that will bottleneck your marines. Also remember to consider lerks and spore by placing it in such a place that marines can move away quickly. Placing the phase gate against a turret factory or resource tower and electrifying is a great way to protect it. Also dropping a pack of mines to place around the PG is extremely helpful.
<i><b>Turret Factory Positioning</b> - </i>I always try to place a turret factory against the PG to electrify later, but if not make sure marine can quickly get a line of sight on all open sides. Try to place a turret factory against a wall so at least one side is unreachable to aliens. Also, on some maps, place the turret factory around a corner so you can see skulks coming, and not in a corner where lerks can easily spore from a distance.
<i><b>Amount of Sieges</b> - </i>With limited lame in a hive, three sieges can take down a hive in 4 pings. Try to have at least three siege cannons up before you ping, unless you are sending in shotty re-inforcements.
<i><b>Turret Placement </b>- </i>If you are building turrets or placing sieges, don't place sentry turrets in optimal siege turret spots. Place them against the walls if in a hallway so your marines can easily maneuver around them. Try to have some type of cover for the sieges, whether it's marines or turrets, of placed against an electrified turret factory. Remember, marines are cheaper guards for TF's and sieges, and if they refuse to phase, beacon them and try again.
<i><b>Electrifying the Turret Factory</b> - </i>If you're sieging a building/active hive, always upgrade siege BEFORE electrification, and I wouldn't electrify until I had at least three sieges down. If you can place the turret factory against a resource tower, electrify the resource tower, not the turret factory. Remember, a resource tower has more health than a turret factory. Always think whether you're going to recycle the siege base once the hive is down before you decide to electrify, because you don't get any of those resources back.
If you're new to commanding, looking for new strategies, or just trying not to lose so much, here are some basics to help you out.
<i><b>Learn the Interface</b> -</i> Learn the interface you're going to be dealing with. Start to memorize hotkeys for meds/ammo, and learn how to move around the map quickly. Learn how to assign squads (duck button plus numbers 1-5). Sometimes a timely placed medpack is the difference between losing a resource tower, or even a strategic location.
<i><b>Communication</b> - </i>Good communication is the key to a good commander. If you're marine team knows what you want to do, and what you are doing, then they'll be more apt to trust you and follow orders. Almost all marine teams really need the commander to use voice in order to listen, but if you just type, make sure you keep the team informed of what's going on.
<i><b>Early Base Defense</b> - </i>On some servers if you drop a turret factory in marine start in the first minute, you'll get ejected in no time. The reason is that the less resources spent on defense in the first 3-4 minutes are more resources spent on nodes and upgrades. When a marine team that knows the value of starting resources thinks a commander is going to waste it on turrets, then they'll take action. If you want to place a turret factory in base, don't immediately build turrets or electrify. Wait until you're base is being pressured. And turrets are often better than electrifying straight off, because it alerts you when they fire, and can cover more area for the same cost (three turrets cost the same as electrification). I would highly recommend mines instead of turrets. I generally drop one pack, and have them dispersed around my keys buildings.
<i><b>Electrification</b> - </i>Electrified turret factories and resource towers are great at keeping skulks at bay, and even offering area denial. But they are a major resource investment. For the cost of building and electrifying one node, you could build three separate nodes. Tie that with the initial 10 resources for a required turret factory, and electrification can eat your resources early game. I recommend only electrifying resources in hives, in out of the way locations hard for marines to quickly respond to, and at outposts. It's cheaper and more effective to just rebuild nodes lost near base. Remember, once early fades show up in the three to four minute mark, and two hives are up, electrification won't be worth anything.
<i><b>Getting out of the chair </b>- </i>Never jump out of the chair unless there's no other option. I'm sure that building can wait an extra few seconds to be built. The only reason you should jump out of your chair is when base is under attack and you KNOW what you're up against.
<i><b>Assigning Squads</b> - </i>This important feature can help you organize your marines into individual squads ready to do your bidding, or be a great early warning system for your base. I recommend placing important structures in squads to be alerted when they're under attack, and so you can cycle through them to check upgrade status.
<i><b>Early upgrades</b> - </i>The sooner you make your marines stronger in the field, the more quickly the aliens are forced to react. Most commanders have the problem of reacting to the strength of the aliens, when they should be anticipating DC's or fades, and upgrading in preparation. I don't think any marine team will argue with dropping an arms lab at the beginning. And I'd recommend getting Armor 1 before Weapon 1 because you can't always rely on the aim of your marines. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<i><b>What to Build First</b> - </i>Don't waste a lot of resources building stuff in base, even if you know your going to need it later on. If you drop 2 Infantry Portals, an Armory, an Arms Lab, and an Observatory, that's 95 resources. You don't even have the resources to drop a resource tower, much less upgrade anything. To start, I drop one IP, because you may not need two yet. I drop an armory, an arms lab, and one pack of mines, two I place around the armory, and two I place around the arms lab. I immediately research armor 1, and I have the resources left to drop 2 resource towers. Once I have at least 4 nodes, I build my second IP and focus on killing alien resource towers.
<i><b>Playing Defensively</b> - </i>Playing defensively will guarantee a loss. You MUST pressure the alien team from the beginning. Having more than one resource tower for the aliens is NOT acceptable. You should always have at least one marine immediately pressuring the nodes around the starting hive, and in the next nearest hive. You can find the starting hive by listening in each hive location for aliens spawning or by dropping an ammo pack where the hive is. If it drops slowly, you got a hive. Once you know where the aliens are starting, send marines to cap the nodes furthest away while sending a few to the nearest nodes to kill gorge eggs and freshly built resource towers. Don't try to cap every node you can. Instead, pick 3 or 4 near base or easily defendable, cap them, then pressure the aliens with every marine. Alien resource towers are harder to replace than marine ones.
<b>Siege Position Basics:</b>
Here are a few tips I use when placing/building siege points for hives.
<i><b>Phase Gate Positioning</b> -</i> Try to place the PG in a spot where it can easily be defended, and where marines have room to maneuver when phasing through. Never place a PG in a spot that will bottleneck your marines. Also remember to consider lerks and spore by placing it in such a place that marines can move away quickly. Placing the phase gate against a turret factory or resource tower and electrifying is a great way to protect it. Also dropping a pack of mines to place around the PG is extremely helpful.
<i><b>Turret Factory Positioning</b> - </i>I always try to place a turret factory against the PG to electrify later, but if not make sure marine can quickly get a line of sight on all open sides. Try to place a turret factory against a wall so at least one side is unreachable to aliens. Also, on some maps, place the turret factory around a corner so you can see skulks coming, and not in a corner where lerks can easily spore from a distance.
<i><b>Amount of Sieges</b> - </i>With limited lame in a hive, three sieges can take down a hive in 4 pings. Try to have at least three siege cannons up before you ping, unless you are sending in shotty re-inforcements.
<i><b>Turret Placement </b>- </i>If you are building turrets or placing sieges, don't place sentry turrets in optimal siege turret spots. Place them against the walls if in a hallway so your marines can easily maneuver around them. Try to have some type of cover for the sieges, whether it's marines or turrets, of placed against an electrified turret factory. Remember, marines are cheaper guards for TF's and sieges, and if they refuse to phase, beacon them and try again.
<i><b>Electrifying the Turret Factory</b> - </i>If you're sieging a building/active hive, always upgrade siege BEFORE electrification, and I wouldn't electrify until I had at least three sieges down. If you can place the turret factory against a resource tower, electrify the resource tower, not the turret factory. Remember, a resource tower has more health than a turret factory. Always think whether you're going to recycle the siege base once the hive is down before you decide to electrify, because you don't get any of those resources back.