Comming

[Tombomb]

i had an idea or a suggestion that i want to say.  well i find myself wanting to com yet i think "why should i com i suck and theres no place were i know people will give there 100% cept here".  so i was thinking maybe to help the more noobish people who want to comm, maybe have like a day once a week or summin were the server encourages newbies to comm.  this way we can have more poeple comming and more vareity in strats and fun.  i would love to com but i havnt in a long time and i dont want to make a game ****ty just cuz iam ****ty.  so i was thinking this might benifit some LMers, i know it would make me much more comfortable trying out and comming even tho i suck...

whats every ones idea?

[Vinegar Ninja]

I say go for it.
I would fully support such an idea.

[GrayDuck]

no, there won't be a structured 'comm learning' day.  Just hop in the chair (should be easy seems noone really likes commanding now). And announce that you're learning.  Regs will be supportive.  Heck, I've commanded a few games recently and nobody on my team was mean even though I lead them to a quick painfull defeat.  Its a learning process, don't be scared, and keep trying!

[That Annoying Kid]

^^

at the begining tell people to get the eff out of base, but have 1 or 2 stay to build, be sure not to forget about climbing the tech tree, and keep them nodes up, and the aliens nodes down. It's been a while but around 5 min go second hive hunting or sumat.

[Tombomb]

my whole thing is i dont want people going

NO MORE COMING FOR U U SUCK!
man this game blows cuz my commander is a twit

[george]

yeah, im against a comm learning day aswell.
New commanders are always welcome to jump in the chair. You have to learn sometime and even if you do really bad its only one round, remember its a game and anything anyone says about you is just part of the game. Have to suck it up and see it as it is.
Take nothing personal! Dont get mad, or sad. Just be happy you got to play.

My advice on commanding:
ctrl+(a number) will place marines in squads, or structures on you're squad system.
So its a really good idea to have an observatory as your squad 1, so that you can get to beacon and scan/ping super fast. Not to mention when its under attack it blinks red.

Players like you or hate you in the first 30 secs of the game, memorize the locations of the ip, armory and their hot keys. and get those down super fast. (learn these in a listen server)
Memorize the hot keys to center on players wanting orders/meds/ammo.
To be liked as a comm just give the players what they want, meds,ammo, orders, upgrades, weps. If you dont have a plan and theres another reg on (especially one who comms they'll jump in and get people to follow them to certain locations, and give you ideas on stuff to do) Things like this are cool when you're learning , later its aggravating as certain people want to do what they think is right and it affects your overall plans.
Always be friendly, always be nice. Never blame anyone for dieing not following orders, they could be new and you dont want them to have a bad experience. Use waypoints if you dont know the room names, and even if you do its nice to use the waypoints. Voice is a really great thing to use, as it assures marines of your existence.

Remember key locations on maps. Siege points etc.

Theres no perfect comm, and we all are continually learning to do things better.
If we see you do something not-efficient we'll let you know if theres a better way to do it.
Infact Thanks goto Niteowl for letting me know that my armory placements were in a bad spot due to LOS.
I had been dropping them in best locations for access and maximum humpage. Which meant that aliens could get behind it. From his suggestion i now put them in locations with all things (i know of) inconsideration.

Anyways thats my 5 cents, spend them as you desire.
<3 George

[Mr.Bill]

Tombomb, I saw you comm today, wasn't all that bad, except one major thing was you didnt drop enough meds, or ammo, and when you did it was one or the other, We could of kept cargo a lot lnoger and possibly locked it down had we had ammo/meds and such, other then that your comming wasn't anything too bad, you did good until that normal point were the fade come in and rapes team. It was a good try, nothing to be ashamed of, just need to drop more ammo and meds, together if at all possible

[Necrosis]

Regs will be supportive

For emphasis.

[SwiftSpear]

Jump in the chair any time I'm on the rine team and anyone who objects get me flaming the hell out of them for being elitist.

We had a bad habit of over exuberant vote ejects going on a little while ago. But that is looked apon as extreamly llamaish behaviour and can acctually result in logs being searched through to apply bans to offending players.  So if the regs are around don't fear the chair, just tell people that you want to com and that you are new at the begining of the game.

[Malevolent]

Tombomb, I saw you comm today, wasn't all that bad, except one major thing was you didnt drop enough meds, or ammo, and when you did it was one or the other, We could of kept cargo a lot lnoger and possibly locked it down had we had ammo/meds and such, other then that your comming wasn't anything too bad, you did good until that normal point were the fade come in and rapes team. It was a good try, nothing to be ashamed of, just need to drop more ammo and meds, together if at all possible

[snapback]43783[/snapback]

Yeah, Bill. All of us killed quite a lot of skulks. A couple of meds and if he actually dropped a TF (we asked for one), they would of only had one hive.

[SwiftSpear]

Tombomb, I saw you comm today, wasn't all that bad, except one major thing was you didnt drop enough meds, or ammo, and when you did it was one or the other, We could of kept cargo a lot lnoger and possibly locked it down had we had ammo/meds and such, other then that your comming wasn't anything too bad, you did good until that normal point were the fade come in and rapes team. It was a good try, nothing to be ashamed of, just need to drop more ammo and meds, together if at all possible

[snapback]43783[/snapback]

Yeah, Bill. All of us killed quite a lot of skulks. A couple of meds and if he actually dropped a TF (we asked for one), they would of only had one hive.

[snapback]43803[/snapback]

Ah, sounds like he just needs to get used to the hotkeys.  They are pretty easy to figure out but if you want advice/help with that kind of thing just ask tombomb

[UKchaos]

The comm interface is tricky at first, but 90% of commanding is communications and strategy and you dont need to be in the chair to learn those aspects. Thats why i get anoyed when new people hop in to "practise" commanding when they dont even know the basic build orders.

[2_of_8]

Here's one tip; never, ever give up commanding mid-game. If you started the game as comm, finish it as comm. I haven't seen this happening much, but it's quite annoying to see someone jump in, drop IPs/armoury/TF and hop out, saying "I can't comm".

This applies to you all! *shakes fist*

[Manta]

Always try to keep the big picture in mind. You have to kill the hives. Don't focus too much on killing the RTs, or you'll never get the hives. Conversely, never forget the RTs, or the aliens will all go onos and stomp on your ass.

Use meds/ammo packs when you have to and don't be frugal. However, try to be sparing when you can. Don't make the mistake I once did of dropping 50 res worth of medpacks on Ranger.  <_<

Be aware of what your marines can and can't fight. Lerk in powersilo is a big threat to your marines, so you might be better off sieging or giving them better guns as they go in.

[Necrosis]

Generally on LM you can get away with medding the players you know that play well. Find out what the regs can use, make them use it.

IE giving Ebnar an HMG is a good thing for the marine team.
Giving me a GL is also a good thing.

Most of the time the team will run itself. What you really REALLY need to memorise are:

Build orders
UPGRADE orders (what you have to upgrade in order to get X, Y, or Z)
Meds/ammo shortcuts


Knowing these is generally enough to keep you alive til midgame, which is more than most totally green comms can do.

[lolfighter]

Familiarize or re-familiarize with the interface in a listenserver with sv_cheats 1. Then just jump in the chair. We all know how tough it is to comm, and we won't flame you just because you don't win the game for us. After all, it's US who have to do the killin'.
You can also expect me to direct a quick "shut up" at people who flame you just because you cannot match the likes of Nooblet or rad4christ yet.

[GrayDuck]

Last night was my first 3.0 commanding win!!!!

How did it do it?  I was pressured into the chair by Nooblet and then I listened to what he said to do.  It was GREAT.  Much <3 for teh nooblet!

Last night I also had a comming loss but I give partial credit for the loss to the frequent lag spikes at terrible times.  That game Newborn was helping me out.  (again Newborn <3 for you too).

Listen to either of these guys, they know their stuff.

[DarkScythe]

yah nooblet and newborn are good comms.
i'm still trying to learn to comm as well and i have a really bad ratio of wins to losses in the chair, but if ur new and no one wants to comm, i find it easier to tell your team "i'm a bit new at this so please bear with me"
it will let your team know ur not the fastest person around and they won't try to blame you as much.

when ur in a pinch as to what to do, ask your rines. they're out on the field and know the situation far better than you in their location, and they can offer tips as to what you need to do (such as they spot a chamber and request an immediate counter whether it be MT or armor1)

another thing to remember is NEVER forget to drop guns.
yes level3 LMGs are nice but a shotgun will kill so much faster and it's only 10 extra res.

i'm not the best comm, but i've done more comming playing here on lm than anywhere else and most of the regs here have played under me. most of the time the comments i get for losing is not enough med/ammo spam

if you lose, or even if you win, feel free to ask both teams what u did wrong and what worked. they'd be happy to tell you their stories on the field

other than that, the basic thing is to have an idea of what you're gonna do, say rush a certain tech or push for a 2-hive lockdown really fast, etc.
the most important thing in the game whether you're a comm or not is to get nodes, but even above getting ur own nodes, it's destroying the alien's nodes.

in one game in ns_eon with newborn as comm, we rushed out to cap one rt, but then we hit their hive area and all their rts. we destroyed all 4 alien rts resulting in rines 2, aliens 0. this stunted their growth pretty heavily.

that's all i can say, and practice is always good.

and GD:
HA, you lose, not every game on your team results in a loss :p

[moofree]

The single most important tool of comming is a microphone.

No mic com = game over most of the time.

Just get in the com chair and make sure everyone knows you're a noob com. We'll help you out

I suck at comming too so i know how you feel.

[Mr.Bill]

moofree that's wrong, if a person with a mic dosn't talk, it's bad. just like if a comm dosn't type, it's bad. Generally it's good to have a mic for communication, and while your giving orders your hotkeys arnt all taken up.

the key is good communication, and a stratgy of such