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« on: June 22, 2004, 02:55:28 PM »
Draft 2: 27/06/04
Spell checked; Added communication; Added final word; Revised sections to make it easier to read.
LM is a very lucky server, a lot of servers are filled with people who will never command however here we have a number who are willing to get in the chair and give it a go and I salute you for doing so even though sometimes my actions could be mistaken for thinking I’m not grateful. (It means I don't have to comm after all)
Anyway, this post is here to hopefully be useful for the comms on this server, some have the potential to be very, very good and hopefully even some of the more experienced comms like rad or niteowl can learn something or add something to it which I didn't know.
Start of the round:
One of the most important things that a commander should do but what a lot forget to do is listening for what hive they have. That's actually a misleading term, when you listen for what hive they have you're not actually listening for noise from a hive as they emit any, rather from the resource tower or the sound of spawning or moving aliens. Do not spend too long on this though, if you cannot tell from sound try and go from where the skulks are. For example: if you're on a eclipse and inside the first 10-20 seconds you run into a number of skulks at triad there is a good chance hive is eclipse.
Knowing this is key and you'll find that your approach to the round is very different if you don't know it. It's not knowing the actual hive location that is so important though, it's what you can tell learn about what the aliens are doing/planning from knowing first hive. So what do you learn from knowing hive location?
- You can tell me what second hive aliens will be going for. EG ayumi, if starting hive is ae35 then pressure hive will not be their second hive, rather hamasaki will. It's simply too much distance for the aliens to travel to be able to defend a building hive, which is why they won't drop it. (Unless they have MC)
- You can probably guess what res nodes they'll drop. Example of ayumi and ae35 again. You can expect aliens to drop gorges hideout, eastern entrance and either cold turn or hamasaki. I'll jump between these nodes listening for the sound of gestating/building/resource node
- You can tell that a hive like pressure will be pretty empty so as long as you have pressure on the aliens you'll only need one guy to be down there to cap res nodes.
You should be looking to have marines move out to these nodes as fast as possible. Getting alien nodes down and teching as much as possible is your sole job in the first few minutes. If you're pressuring and taking out alien res nodes then obviously that means slower res, later fades, later second hive, more time for you to tech before you get yourself into the more interesting situations those two things bring. Try and get marines into second hive as soon as possible too, 9/10 there is an alien res node there so you'll want to get that down but also just the fact you have marines in these locations unsettles the aliens and forces them to group and rush you or have no second hive. Another advantage of all this is that the aliens are constantly occupied meaning your res nodes are safer, the guys you have running around capping are safer and your base is less likely to find a roaming skulk in it.
It is very important that you get Armour 1 as soon as possible. Armour 1 is much more useful than weapons 1 as I’m sure most of you know so the sooner you get it, the better. At the start the recommended buildings to drop are: IP, armory, arms lab. Getting your marines to build your armory first means then your arms lab means you get a1 an extra 10 seconds earlier, doesn't sound like much but if you're a marine and a skulk turns up and kills you and THEN you get A1 it's not much use. Also, your IP shouldn't be needed in the time it takes you to get a1 going, if people die in that small time frame then they better have a good reason.
Teching:
Advanced armory, after A1 is one of the most important things to upgrade to. I like to have an advanced armory by 5-6 minutes MAX meaning I have HMGs when fades turn up. HMGs are so much better at dealing with fades than shotguns are and they're obviously a skulk-slaughtering machine.
Phase tech HAS to be done by 5 minutes, by about 5 minutes you can expect aliens to have a second hive going up and it's 10x harder to take down a hive without phase gates. Also by 5 minutes you should have weapons 1 and weapons 2 done or very close to done, if you're swimming in res get weapons 3 going as soon as possible. Weapons 3 is so much more useful than armour2.
Motion tracking is a very useful upgrade but it costs a lot of res and if fades do turn up then weapons 2 or an advanced armory is FAR more useful. It isn't something I’d recommended rushing unless you're confident with your marines and that the aliens are sub par.
Time Frame:
0-2 minutes: Get rts near base, get a1, get w1 started, have a squad at a danger/pressure point i.e. cargo on tanith or hive they'll put up. Get advanced armory on 2 minutes if possible.
2-4 minutes: Hit their nodes and make sure yours don't go down, pressure as much as possible during this. Get weapons 2 at about 3 minutes.
4-5 minutes: Fades and second hive turn up now. Be prepared. Try and make sure you have their nodes down by now and prepare for a hive assault.
That is the time frame you can expect things to happen in, if they have a lot of res nodes then of course it speeds up and of course, if you're getting their res down then 5 minutes never happens or if it does, it only delays the inevitable.
Base layout:
-Feel hypocritically saying this but remember to mine the IP!
-Try and place the IP as far away from the CC as possible. Sometimes all you have to do is just get out the chair yourself and kill the skulk, with plenty of distance between you and him hopefully you'll get him. If you have mines a good chance he'll jump onto one if he reacts.
-Two choices with base layout, spread out so they can't eat lots at once or hide behind things but no defense or close together with mines, your decision, I spread out because half the time I don't bother with mines.
-Two ips as far away from each other as possible. It's much harder for one skulk to kill everything that way without someone spawning other side of the room.
Know the map:
This is one of the most important things ever and it's so obvious, you need to know the map, not just location names but also the best routes to take, vents, and most importantly: danger zones. An example of a danger zone would be somewhere like cargo on tanith or power sub junction in eclipse. You need to know about these locations where you can expect marines to in trouble and get attacked. When you see marines in these areas you need to press e, press s and hold the marines hand through that area. Keeping marines alive with a few med packs in these areas gives you such a better chance. Great, a marine got all the way to cargo but if he dies because you were busy somewhere else then he accomplishes nothing.
Prioritizing:
It's important that you prioritize your troops, this really links in with the above point, a marine outside cargo is more important than a marine building a res node in west access corridor. Turret farming base is the last thing on your priority list, if I see a comm drop a turret in base when I request a med and I die I will vote to eject you.
Listening to your marines:
Your marines are your best source of information, they often know things before you do and will tell you, don't ignore them and what they say. Also, don't ignore their requests; they want a med pack? GIVE THEM A MEDPACK. There is no excuse for not medding unless it's a total dire straights situation that even a med pack couldn't solve. (Marine with no ammo vs a full hp fade etc) Keeping your marines is so important; a living marine can kill skulks, can kill RTs and can pressure aliens.
A marine is worth two res, just because they are free to spawn doesn't mean you can let them die whenever. Keep your marines alive, watch them through danger zones, med pack them when they request and when you see they're in trouble and they will not only love you but also cause so much hassle. It's disheartens for aliens too, how often do you see "bloody medspam" after you've kept a marine alive with a few meds? Often. KEEP YOUR MARINES ALIVE EARLY AND YOU WILL FIND IT SO MUCH EASIER
Don't just med your marines when they request, linking back to prioritizing and knowing danger areas, watch them through these areas and be ready to med them when needed. 90% of the time when I comm my screen is on my marines who are pressuring, watching them, dropping them meds and ammo when they're in a fight.
Communication:
Okay, so you're now lissening to your marines, this is good but communication is a two way street. I don't think i can stress enough the importance of communicating back with them. Marines feel much more comfortable when they know what the comm is thinking, knowing that you have a gameplan rather than just going with the flow. Tell your marines where you want them, what you want to see happening, what you're planning on doing doing etc etc.
This is one of the reasons why i think a microphone is a must for commanders, you simply can't communicate as well with typing and also be doing all the other tasks that need doing. Simply talking at all isn't acceptable. I've found from experience that marines are more likely follow orders from a commander with a microphone, who knows why.
One last thing:
Squad 5 is the best use it. Not only does it sound cool but marines can just smell victory when they're in it, when I squad 5 marines a lot of the time you get some over the mic going "I'M SQUAD 5, LETS KICK ALIEN BOOTY" and I think that marines realise you might know what you're doing because squad 5 isn't something newer comms know about.
Final note:
I hope that you find this useful and that people can learn something from it, stay tuned for updates to this post or other threads by me.
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