Commander's Downer
Ardesco
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7831Members
Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7831Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Why you just don't wanna lead...</div> I've been playing more Natural Selection lately, and I've had the fortunate chance to be able to command more than once on several ample occasions. However, on more than one of these occasions, I've just been overwhelmed by a sense of "Commander's woe", that I had to eject and let a newbie take over because I simply felt unable to deal with the overwhelming sensation that came with commandering.
I've basically broken down the "Commander's woe" into a few parts:
a) Whining
"Where's my gun? OMG j00 N00b! Get out of the command pod now!"
"Commander, I've been waiting for a welder for the last DAMN MINUTE. I NEED IT Now...aaaaagh! *CHOMP*"
b) Miscommunication
"Dude, I can only make out every third word you're saying"
"Where is (such and such location)? Waypoint me!"
"I can't find the damn waypoint!!!"
c) Incompetence (A biggie)
Note: Early on, marines seem to get owned by almost anything, especially on a whole lot of pubs I've visited. You need heavy armor and hmgs to tip the scale, and when you start massing this stuff, it tips the balance significantly.
Four marines get chewed up by one skulk
The entire skulk team comes rushing in, and instead of finishing that last second of welding the infantry portal, the last soldier on your team goes out to shoot skulk and dies...
Skulks seem to team up a lot more than marines do early on (for rushes, etc). This leads to, I believe, a great number of their successes. Mid and late game, the alien's advantage diminishes because of the lack of teamwork that most marines have throughout the game.
d) Situation Omega (things are spinning out of control)
What I dread the most: I've brought the team to a successful midgame, and through a series of successful sniping techniques, aliens chew down my resources and eventually bring down one of the hives I've managed to secure. This may not necessarily be entirely my fault (some soldiers just can't shoot for their life), but I feel complete responsibility. I played this one game where the marines were dominating the aliens the entire time, and then a continous skulk attack against my command pod brought it down... we ended up holding up for a good hour, but the marines were going down a slippery slope as the aliens slowly struggled to regain their dominance. At the end of the game, we had 6000+ spare resources, and I felt like such a complete idiot for having let the team lose.
Essentially, the issue with being a commander is that when you make a mistake, the n00bs make sure everyone knows, and even if there aren't newbies to echo this sentiment, the team knows who'll eventually contribute to this team loss.
Unlike any other RTS games, natural selection involves an element of unpredictability that makes victory nothing assured. And when you're a commander who is expected to bring his team to victory, and that victory doesn't come to the marines, there's a feeling that you are the entire reason that the team lost, even if there were other factors involved.
Maybe we should start a commander self-help group for those commanders who need the confidence to lead his troops to battle =P
<!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I've basically broken down the "Commander's woe" into a few parts:
a) Whining
"Where's my gun? OMG j00 N00b! Get out of the command pod now!"
"Commander, I've been waiting for a welder for the last DAMN MINUTE. I NEED IT Now...aaaaagh! *CHOMP*"
b) Miscommunication
"Dude, I can only make out every third word you're saying"
"Where is (such and such location)? Waypoint me!"
"I can't find the damn waypoint!!!"
c) Incompetence (A biggie)
Note: Early on, marines seem to get owned by almost anything, especially on a whole lot of pubs I've visited. You need heavy armor and hmgs to tip the scale, and when you start massing this stuff, it tips the balance significantly.
Four marines get chewed up by one skulk
The entire skulk team comes rushing in, and instead of finishing that last second of welding the infantry portal, the last soldier on your team goes out to shoot skulk and dies...
Skulks seem to team up a lot more than marines do early on (for rushes, etc). This leads to, I believe, a great number of their successes. Mid and late game, the alien's advantage diminishes because of the lack of teamwork that most marines have throughout the game.
d) Situation Omega (things are spinning out of control)
What I dread the most: I've brought the team to a successful midgame, and through a series of successful sniping techniques, aliens chew down my resources and eventually bring down one of the hives I've managed to secure. This may not necessarily be entirely my fault (some soldiers just can't shoot for their life), but I feel complete responsibility. I played this one game where the marines were dominating the aliens the entire time, and then a continous skulk attack against my command pod brought it down... we ended up holding up for a good hour, but the marines were going down a slippery slope as the aliens slowly struggled to regain their dominance. At the end of the game, we had 6000+ spare resources, and I felt like such a complete idiot for having let the team lose.
Essentially, the issue with being a commander is that when you make a mistake, the n00bs make sure everyone knows, and even if there aren't newbies to echo this sentiment, the team knows who'll eventually contribute to this team loss.
Unlike any other RTS games, natural selection involves an element of unpredictability that makes victory nothing assured. And when you're a commander who is expected to bring his team to victory, and that victory doesn't come to the marines, there's a feeling that you are the entire reason that the team lost, even if there were other factors involved.
Maybe we should start a commander self-help group for those commanders who need the confidence to lead his troops to battle =P
<!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
I always put down a spare CC in outpost bases when I can. So even if you lose your primary CC, your not out for the count.
Also I like to mine up my primary CC. Really puts a stone wall up for those annoying skulks <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
People just don't the have patience to understand that the commander has the <b>entire map</b> to watch, and may not be watching your little squad that needs a resource tower built.
As has been suggested before, a little menu that shows all your soldiers and their status would be <b>much</b> appreciated.
remember, the good comes with the bad and its a great feeling when you come into a server and someone says "Oi commander get out and let Explosive in" or the like
and when you lose a game badly you can always hack the computers of the people in your team and screw em up so that by the time their comp is fixed they wont remember to bad mouth you <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I've recently really started to like commanding, it's a really unique aspect of this game. I have noticed that after commanding a long match I am often drained and need to take a break though.
My advice is to keep trying and learning, you'll get the hang of it. If you keep getting marines who don't know how to play try to find a server with more experienced players.