Commanding for a beginner?

I downloaded this game yesterday. I would like to discuss something that I think possibly severely prevents this game from taking off more than it has. I imagine everyone begins this game playing as a unit with the thought in the back of their head of someday commanding a successful team. There is just one problem with this. In order to become experienced with the commander, a beginner must play the commander and learn his way around the menu, how to build things, how to issue commands, how to research, what to research, when something is good to do or something is bad to do. During this little learning process, the beginner is open to tons of mistakes and bad plays which harm his team in the process.

This usually leads to people treating the beginner poorly. It usually provokes a flamefest and micspam and people forcefully kicking the beginner from the commander vehicle or even worse in kicking or banning the player out of the presumption that he is purposely trying to annoy his team. This usually leads to the beginner forgetting about the game or losing his incentive to play commander and remaining a lowly ground unit. Summary? The only way to learn how to play commander is to be 'thrown into the fire'. You must play the commander to become experienced with the commander. Mistakes and poor play are inevitable, so therefore being treated poorly is inevitable. There's no soft way to learn. There is no learning curve. Either you do bad, lose the game, and get treated like trash or you win and get treated like anyone else.

The solution is to provide some artificial intelligence so the beginner may play commander offline without the criticisms of his team and the repercussions of his mistakes or defeats. Reading the Wiki page or a nice forum post is one thing, but actually translating that into a real game is a challenge. My point was never to rant, but I think that needed some addressing. My actual intention with this thread was to ask as a beginner for some help commanding. What is a good build order? I know build orders are map dependent, but there has to be a general order I can follow for some level of success. What are the best upgrades? When am I justified going bio on my tanks over nuclear? When does one engine best another? When do I choose this armor over that armor?

So far, almost all of my commanded games have been with my friend as a two-man team to avoid the criticism of a full team. We have lost every single one. The one time I commanded a larger team opened me up to smug attitudes by a few of my members to which I told them teaching me was a better investment of their time than insulting me. I would like to avoid both the defeats and criticisms and for once, command an actually decent game where we win.

Thanks. . .

 

Well, the best thing to do is just watch people command. If one wants to learn the trees on their own and interface and such, non teamessential stuff like that, they can make their own server and explore it.

The next best thing is just to have a microphone and be responsive to the demands of the team. Experienced players have an idea of what they want and the better ones will be helpful about learning. Different from traditional RTS, it's better for the commander to extend the capabilities of the unit instead of pressing any sort of agenda on top of the team.

The key is: don't be a deaf mute retard.

 

Or ask someone to teach you.

When you're starting off, listen to the veteran players on your team. You should get used to the idea of being on the grill (the veterans = the grill, you = on the grill with all the burners on max).

Later (after 3+ months of commanding experience), you'll be able to take a more active role in directing your team.

 

This has been a persistent problem in Empires for a while. However, my suggestions are:

1. Learn where to place important buildings (barracks mainly) in each map
2. Be responsive when people ask for buildings (especially refineries)
3. Give targets as much as possible as fast as possible
4. Memorize (or print it out and have it handy) this tech tree: http://wiki.empiresmod.com/index.php?title=Image:Empires224TechTree.gif
5. Learn the tech tree paths of more experienced comms

Basically, if you know the maps well, are pretty quick to drop refs and give targets when asked, and have 2-3 decent tech paths for each side, you'll be fine.

 

i am a fan of the "squadleader mini commander" thingy

like, a squadleader goes in the second seat of an apc for a limited commander function buying stuff like turrets or armouries in return for squadpoints or resources

 

Heres a very good reasearch TIP
Brenodi Empire: Deals whit cannons..... Learn the The Reasearch Tree to go for cannons. But remember u need tanks to put on cannons.
Northern Faction: Deals whit Missiles.... Same thing Learn the tree. Its not that hard if u look over it a couple of times (and if u forget ask the team where it is located)
But NF could use some awsome cannons like Rail Guns some times and BE Could use some nukes so go for those when ur sure u got a strong hold on the lead

 

It'd be great if you could spectate the commander in the command view.

I think that'd help.

 

4a. Avoid ADD Research (ADD = Attention Deficit Disorder): Try to stay in 1 or 2 research branches to provide your team with useful items in the early game. Do not research 3 armors and 4 engines, you only need 1 armor and 1 engine in the beginning. In the late game you might research additional engines or armor depending on what your enemy is doing.
4b. Balance research with available resources: You probably want your composite heavies with nukes but if you dont have the resources to research them its probably better to stick with the already completed research until you get your team to get more refineries.

 

4c. Never research composite armor. Ever (experienced commanders research it once in a blue moon).

 

And don't command when you see many people from this forums or many clan guys playing.
They will rage really fast, when you don't do exactly what they want within some seconds.

Play the game some weeks to learn the maps and tactics and watch other commanders.
Then go to a server with only a few players and try it.

And I would say, that every commander has failed when he has commanded the first times.

 

hi i'm recon and i like answering posts before reading them

 

Feel free to command all you like, this is 2.25, we're all figuring out what's OP again.

 

This is definitively true for 2.24d.

Is it true for 2.25? (I am away from home for a couple of weeks and I really dont know how the balancing is working on 2.25)

 

I dunno...traditionally my recommendation has been:

1. Learn the game for a while (read t3h manual yo!)
2. Hop on your own server to learn your way around the command interface - research and building costs too.
3. Command small games of less than 10 people per side.

You MUST ALWAYS preface being voted in with telling the team you are a newbie commander and need help. If you don't get voted in because of this, that is FINE, because it means you don't have a forgiving team.

Also I must stress that having a microphone decreases the overhead about 20x. It is quite hard to communicate in text and do all the other things you should be, at the same time. Commanding became a lot more fun for me when I got a mic, before it was fun but far too stressful...now it's just regularly stressful for being responsible for your whole team, lol.

Also, if in doubt, ask a CW clanner for help - if you can see one. We're supposed to be there to help anyway.

 

fact: only way to be a good commander is to be a good player

Play till your good at the game and commanding should be fairly easy.

 

First thing you got to realise is that 90% of the community are social missfits that hangs around on 4chan and are hostlie and rage all the time at everything, you need to prepare yourself for this by drinking 5 beers before commanding.

Now go forth my apprentice!

 

Yes, the commander paradox.
Experience -> Being good. Being good -> Getting voted in. Getting voted in -> experience.

Starting off is nowhere inside this loop. Why are people so hostile to noob comms? I just need to try it out to see if I'm any good...

 

Because it's not fun to lose an entire round due one person not being able to drop buildings, drag the mouse while holding A and click on small buttons when he has enough cash to do so.