Armories

I have three pet peeves when it comes to commanders. I can't stand it when they don't read text chat, and I can't stand it when they don't give targets. Most annoying of all, though, are comms who don't drop armories.

I mean, they're 75 res. They provide better cover than comm walls, which can become prohibitively expensive. They cost the same as an ml turret, but 1 grenadier and an armory can do far more damage to tanks and buildings that a single ml turret can. They're useful for walling off chokepoints, as even if they do get destroyed, their building carcasses take a while to despawn. But nooooooo, over and over and over again, commanders simply refuse to drop armories. Even more insultingly, a commander will sometimes only drop one armory and go "herp de derp there's your armory". I mean, for fucks sake, they're cheap as hell and huge morale boosters. LEARN TO DROP ARMORIES, COMMANDERS

/rant

 

Server message says:

"As a commander, drop Armouries. They're awesome."

I love Armouries.

 

Why don't you just play commander. There problem over.

/thread.

 

I can haz armories with human controllable MG turret on top? ( ͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡ ° )

 

Because I'm generally more useful on the ground than in the comm chair.

Not saying that I'm a skilled and good player on the ground, mind you, it's just that there are people who are much better commanders than I who simply fail to give targets/read text chat/armory spam. I like to play when AZK is commanding, because I generally find him to be quite reliable, but he doesn't read text chat much/give targets regularly (no offense AZK).

 

None taken.

I'm making an effort to do both of those things more, I'm usually OK with targets during the first engagement but I find it hard to micro consistently throughout. I wasn't really commanding often before they were removed, though when I do give targets I always try to give them on the highest threat and if there are more than one I split them amongst the squad.

 

I try to focus my micro on the squad that's struggling more. For instance, in Canyon as BE, I know that it's easy to hold SouthWest because of the hill advantage, as well as the woods. However, taking over NorthEast can be a problem, because of the same things; NW tends to get more targets, turrets, walls, and armories.

That said, managing to find high-priority targets amongst the muck of war can be a pain in the ass. T_T

 

Someone mentioned this earlier, but it really does seem like the commanders that came AFTER targets were removed struggle with them a lot more. For a lot of us before that time, it's almost second-nature. I do it almost subconsciously. But it's not an easy routine to get into.

 

On that note, I was desperation-comming in a pub the other day and I couldn't figure out to give targets. I'm cool with move and attack orders, but targets are beyond my meager button-pushing abilities.

 

Less useful as commander? Do it like herbie, he is engineering all the refs and raxes while his team goes all offense. basicly the only defense is herbie and his turrets. It is close to boomtanking but he is always after his army so accidental sticky stuns are no prob... except bad luck.

 

Just press 'A' for attack then draw a box around people I assume.

Atleast thats the way it used to be before targets were removed, I havnt commed in ages

 

It works like that, although it seems to be random on who it targets if there are more then one in the area.

 

There's a rudimentary priority system in place, but it isn't that specific. I think it just puts infantry > vehicles > buildings or something. People will never really realise it, but a fuck tonne of thought and code went into to how people are targetted specifically. Expiry distances, times, update rates, what happens when that changes mid-target etc. Infantry, vehicles and buildings all have different levels. There's quite a lot of depth to it.

 

lol you say rudimentary but, then go on to say how much work was put into it and how much depth it has.

 

I find I almost always get the target I want. Usually the closest infantry

 

So I have my friendly guy highlighted, hold a and draw a box around the enemies I want to target (and the algorithm picks one guy in the box to target)? I think I've tried that and it didn't work, but I'll give it a shot the next time I have to com.

 

You hold down a to switch into attack selection.
select the friendlies you want to give orders to. Hold down a and drag the mouse across that which you wish to target. If you select multiple targets then it will automatically select one. Occasionally I find it doesn't work but repeating the process usually works on the second attempt.

 

You could just do this, but it's more precise (and you're less likely to screw up) to simply draw a small box around the enemy you want to target.

That said, I just realized that I have no idea what the actual method to give targets are. I got used to giving them, I guess.

 

There are two ways to give attack orders. The first is to right-click on the target. The second is to hold down the attack order key and left-click-drag a box over the target.

If there are multiple targets in the box, it will target an infantry if there is one, otherwise it will target a vehicle, otherwise a structure. If there are multiple targets in a group, e.g. multiple infantry, the game will appear to randomly choose a target from the group (it actually chooses the first entity in the entity collection but there is no way to know which one from in-game).

Attack orders targeting infantry are cleared if the targeted infantry leaves the area where it was targeted. The target indicator will start flashing on the client of the player who was given the order when this is about to happen.

Attack orders on vehicles and structures work as normal.

Also, the order indicators are more consistent now. Orders on entities (e.g. guard, attack player) are always diamonds. Orders on positions (e.g. move, attack ground) are always hexagons.

Sometimes, giving an order will fail if you target a dead entity. If anyone finds reproduction steps for this please post it in the bugs forum.