Commanding: an analysis of why is it easy

Being a commander is easy.

Being a good commander is the most fucking difficult thing to do ever.

 

Comming is too easy, the only thing requiring any speed is targets. Researching isn't hard either, just go physics ->heavies. I don't agree with pickled that increasing speed required for tasks would make comming much better but I think thats research needs to be spiced up and more options (balanced ofc) available.

Often I find myself boomtanking excessively (especially when my team is losely so I place risky raxes etc) and it's a bit hard to kill com in early game. I consider the "battle com support" in the first battle lame as the infantry have little chance bar being behind walls.

Early game anti-battle cv is not intuitive! I see new players going grenadier thinking that'll do something . The com can zip around with near impunity on open maps early game. I do like the pre 2.23 (or 2.22) where a LT could damage a com.

 

Tbh, I'd say 90% of the defeats I suffer are due to me getting my CV stuck somewhere. And that happens due to boredom. Today I played a game where my team did EXACTLY as I asked of them, and as such, I barely moved my CV at all, I was constantly relaying info which they were acting on, and micromanaging about 5 squads. But when they don't listen, It's worthless for me to try so I just drive around in between setting off research. It may be me getting my CV stuck that makes us lose, but a lot of the time it's the teams fault for just not being cooperative. Not to say I don't do stupid shit, but I don't really tend to care either way.

What seperates a good commander from an average commander isn't as simple as "what research path, which squads go where". There's too many small things to mention, but if you do them all, then that's what pushes you ahead. I could make some big post about the difference between leaders and managers, but to be honest, if you're a good commander, then above all you can communicate well, and that, is what your main job is.

 

its not an easy job, being commander.

 

Saying commanding is easy is like saying playing skeleton king in dota is easy because he has only one castable. Still hard to be good at it.

 

I'd say its easy because I can do it with no RTS' experience but adding in the human element makes it frustrating and sometimes difficult.

Also forgetting to do research is easy too.

 

What I hate A LOT is a noob server, the problem is, I suck at com, so i go to the noob server to practice, BUT ALL I GET ARE N00B5! there are only 2 pro's, who think they are so ninja they play as scouts, and nooblets that don't even know how to use the engineer tool! I'm placing buildings(that are vital) around, and they just run for the enemy base thinking that its a game of hl deathmatch. And what do they get you ask? turret pwned cause they have no idea how to utilize the gren's mortar.

Good com strategy when your team is full of noobs- make trench-like formation with walls with the entrance between each "trench" in random places.

 

Besides basic interface and a slim resemblance, Empire's RTS is very different from standard RTS gameplay.

 

IMO the difficulty for both NS and Empires is from how cooperative the players on the team are. When nobody cooperates with the commander, then the game becomes difficult for the commander because his strategy is changing every second because everyone is doing something different. Its not really the amount of tasks that makes the job hard its the people you deal with that makes it hard. Of course not all commander strategies are good so its understandable when nobody cooperates. Thusly, its a fail position no matter what unless you have proven yourself to be a good commander and people respect and listen to you, even if they aren't sure its a good plan.