Don't insult the commander

Game after game after game I see commanders, new or experienced, abused and insulted by their team. This has to stop.



The commander does a tough job, a VERY tough one. most people that play will never cut it as a commander... 90% is a very safe estimate. Those few people with a lot of experience with RTS games are also going to need a good amount of experience with empires before they can even cut it as an "average" commander.

I want to emphasis again: the commander has a TOUGH job. While you think you're having a tough time pointing and clicking on the enemy's face every once in a while, he's playing 100mph action chess. I was going to say command and conqour but frankly that doesn't even come near the number of decisions and options that you need to be taking. every second you are in charge of a massive mobile intelligent army and likely against one too. Whats more players are rarely thankful, very often disobey direct orders and I could go on for hours about how difficult it is to command, so it's a point every player has to consider.

Did you know that on average, half of all commanders lose on EACH game that is played? Your commander might be one of that 50% so take it in your stride. it is NOT your job to tell the commander what to do. I've seen many a game between two excellent commanders ruined when a team decides that it's all their commanders fault that they're losing at that exact moment, so they are no longer going to try hard, and may even stage a coup.

If the commander needs help, offer it. offer help even if you arn't sure. But don't tell him how to play if he wants to do it his own way. what no commander needs is to be insulted. insulting your commander is a discraceful action, demoralising the team and not helping in the slightest.

one more important notice I have to post: DRIVING THE COMMAND VEHICLE is NOT a "noob" thing to do. An ancient phrase is "the commander's armour is the least used tool on the battlefield" Yes, OK you (reading this) have probably been playing for two weeks. well done. There are several commanders that have been playing for two years. Many of these people understand the power of a well used command vehicle, and like the tactic or hate it, that's their style and this does not give you the right to insult them. learn some damn respect before you run your mouth at these people.

no commander gives a DAMN about how you like to command. Beside helping a new commander, he doesn't care or need to hear if you think he's a noob for not getting turrets.

Never again do I want people calling their commander a "noob" or a "prick" or a "twat" or assigning him a religion, all of which I've seen other people be called and have been called myself. With a bit more respect, a bit more accepting that some games you lose, and more appreciation for a good commander. The public that I have seen recently seems to have the impression that there are hundreds of good commanders just sitting out there ready to take over, so if you abuse and take your anger out on one he damn well deserves it and it'll be OK. this isn't true. Lets make empires the fun, tactical, mature game it used to be instead of this monkey poop fight i've been seeing recently.

 

Well posted. I've tried being a comm once, and it's not a mistake I'm going to repeat. :p

 

or you will put us on the big sandbag "blacklist" of empires? i dont see anything wrong with insulting comms, it's pretty hilarious usually, especially when people insult hsm , comms can take insults, they're not fragile little 8 year old girls
also +1 free speech - 1 sandbag

 

HSM can take it. I can take it, honestly I just laugh as the noobs decide to vote me out and then we win 5 minutes later (though stealing the CV while i'm making turrets is a little underhand.)

It's the new players that I worry about. Not only is commanding staggeringly difficult and overwhelming in a game which you 99% guarenteed to lose the first time around (the other 1% being when you have a commander as noob as you are on the other team), but now you are being constantly insulted and degrades. Almost no-one would want to command again. I'm sure you've all been there as a team rips the life and soul out of whatever poor newbie is voted in because they brought their clan tag over from counterstrike. It's not fair. it's gotta stop.

also, what blacklist?

 

How will they know that they need to get better if I don't tell them?

 

I can be an asshole to the commander and I don't mean to be; I lack self-restraint, I guess. At any rate, hear hear, well said, I agree. You have to remember that MOST of the time, the commander is doing the job no one else wants to do, and thus he's really doing the best the team can--bad commander, or NO commander whatsoever.

Now, on those occasions where he's NOT doing ANYTHING, i.e. not placing buildings or NOT researching or not letting someone else give it a go who may be far better, then I reserve the right to get a bit snotty. Also if he refuses to read text thus ignoring half to three-quarters of the team.

 

Lol yeah I hate to command. One of the very first times I did so was on island and it was going ok after fleeing from the old base setting up a new one at the beach that could recieve both attack from above and both sides... but that was what the most demanding dude wanted OMG FAST VF HERE...... and then HSM joined my team... commanding became more intense and I placed a lvl 3 turret to protect me and just focused on the front.

BUT just before we were about to completely kill their base I got 9 mined somehow and the shitstorm generator was started and pointed in my direction. I have only been comm like 6-7 times over the past what 2+ years? often taking the comm when No one at all did it and thereafter getting blamed for the lack of progress.

It often seems almost like people saying GG at the end someone just have to say COMM SUCKED to justify it was not their own fault.

What I hate even more is people who for some reason feel a need to insult the ENTIRE team if it is not going well. This team sucks! and this team is full of retards!..... and often they are not even close to the nr.1 score on their team.

Hmm do I encourage the team or call them retards?.... what will bost the morale and effort the most ?

well ofcourse calling them retards and declare that everyone single one of them sucks.

I rarely care much if I lose and it was a bad comm and mostly I enjoy it just as much as winning the game if my team atleast did a glorious standoff at the end of the game.

 

are you referring to me? No, I don't think so, when I advocate the global ban list I advocate it for those big situations and consistent griefers-- I don't have to link them. They're on the forum. For about 40% of the matches I play with a bad commander I do maintain the whole 'it's either him or nothing' opinion (the other 60 percent I lose my temper ), and although I bitch at the commanders that I listed as bitchable, I have not once demanded or even suggested a ban for this. I didn't even ask a ban of the idiot who votekicked me and spammed racism and insults because he thought I was aimboting; even though I probably should have taken that straight to the ban hammer forum.

edit:
I can see that comment was not aimed at me; and furthermore it was deleted.

 

Don't give the "free speech" bullshit. There's criticism, and I welcome it. Then there's running your mouth without putting an ounce of thought behind it, which is where I will proceed to lay down the law

Example:

Noob: ZOMG, WE LOST BECAUSE WE HAD NO RESEARCH. YOU'RE A NOOOOOOB
Me: I researched armor, engine, and weapons. Maybe if you stopped sniping tanks with a scout rifle, you could've seen the 'research completed' message, bought a tank for the first time, and actually helped us.

This thread reminds me last weekend. In fact, the example above is a paraphrase from one of the games. I was playing under a pub name and I lost as comm, always. It was mostly because they wouldn't follow my orders and would spend more time going, "OMG, STOP MOVING THE COMM ALL OVER THE PLACE" than cap refs. I disconnected and got into my normal name. Now everyone actually followed my orders and won most of the games because they felt that they have a decent comm and were motivated that they had a chance of winning.

So, what was the point of the above paragraph? A good comm isn't going to win a game. A good team will. And of course, a bad comm hinders a good team.

Empires is a VERY competitive game like CS, so mud slinging is expected.

 

Whenever I point out how the commander is bad, I give a reason. When someone else accuses me of being a bad comm, they either fail to state a reason or say "YOU DIDNT GET HEAVY TANKS FIRST OMFG NOOB!" after which I proceed to say "Heavy tanks are fucking useless without armor, engines, and some good weapons on them. Noob."

 

I had some noob trying to wall me in because I started the round by capping three refs and running over a few enemies. XD

 

I can't believe this. I really can't. do not believe ONE FUCKING WORD of what skald said in that thread. Reading that, I felt a part of me die inside. The fun, forgiving part of my died a little.

Having sat in silence for half an hour of CONSTANT racism and abuse over microphone, as well as the comments copied directly from the console which I could post, I warned them that they could get banned for their behavior, and a little later I told them I was going to get them banned. Having made the post, I went back in the game to get the steam ID's, and after copying them to clipboard, I decided to play a little longer.

what I discovered was that those people had the capacity not to be horrible people at all. I played the match and, through my threat or otherwise, they generally stopped being racist or abusive. Next match I told them I wasn't going to get them banned. I guess I thought that they were OK, they deserved a second chance. Through that entire game, I sat through abuse after abuse of how I was power crazed and an idiot, insulted constantly. Having just said I wasn't going to ban them, this seemed really sad, because I felt that actually I hadn't been wrong at all. without me having threatened a ban, their pack mentality kicked in and again I was a target to be abused. but I rose above it. I didn't report it. I let people get on with the game. what they were doing wasn't harming anyone beside myself and I could live with that.

The bit where i felt really hurt though, was reading skald's post. Instead of defending his position or whatever (I didn't give steam ID's, i wanted to let the matter drop) he lied through his entire post. I can't understand why after I'd said they were not going to be banned that he had to come and LIE, saying "It was just a riot against the commander for not letting us do anything. All we wanted was to simply make our own tanks, but it dragged unto this terrible business." after I had had to listen to their antisemitic and hateful chat for a whole fucking half hour before I'd even given them a warning.

These people on the server for the first time i really felt had gone too far, what they were saying was absolutely discusting. I've seen plenty of griefers and idiots in my time, dozens, probably more than a few of them should have been sanctioned. but this is the first time I really felt upset enough to do something about it. I didn't write that thread on some sort of "personal vendetta" against the people involved. I wrote that because I don't want to think that new players would see empires and the community in that terrible way. Anyone remember that message on another forum where someone said "the game is quite fun but the community is terrible". Well, you might not give a damn, but that hurt, and the impression that people get of this game is what makes them want to stay or leave. As much as I love empires, it's the amazing community that has kept me playing for so long.

Thats a real kick in the teeth Avair. I do my best to help the mod, but it seems that the only effect has been that people think i'm a power crazed nazi obsessed with getting his own way.

 

Just ignore the little pissant.

Either way, it can be annoying when commanders don't know what they're doing or just simply terrible at commanding. When you consider the fact that the newbies aren't going to know the people in command or their experience in command, anything they see that might look like inexperience or bad commanding is going to be a frustration and it's to be expected that they're going to vent about it.

Still, that's never an excuse to be abusive towards the commander or anyone for that matter.

Ideally, people should be helping new commanders find their feet and work out what they should be doing but failing that, at least show some respect and some bloudy dignity.

 

um, do you want me to edit my post back again, i started writing before you posted that.

 

When I see my comm doing wrong I try to give them friendly advice and most of the time the guys will listen - it's really a difference if you say "GTFO OUT OF COMM!!11! N00B!!1111" or "When you comm next time, you should try to get armor and engines before medium chassis, because well upgraded lights will beat even heavy tanks". Often even a comm without much experience can do well with a little help from vets.

 

Whilest on the woes of commanding... This Saturday night a friend was over and we started playing at about 6pm and didnt stop till about 7am lol. Anyway about 4amish was on Slaughtered and I volunteered to com even though i was hesitant after having watched all the abuse heaped on previous coms, I had forgotten how bad that was from 1.0 and why I didnt learn untill just a couple of months ago when hardly anyone was playing.

To get back we were doing ok game teetered back and forth for awhile and finally had them pinned in a small pocket (i was NF com). Finally I felt the end was near and was parked near the originall base, got out having not seen anyone spawn up there for awhile, built a VF. Got back in cv and did some more research soon as I got out again to finally get a tank.... Some idiot spawns up there, takes the cv and promptly goes to the Bren pocket and jumps out of it. OMG I was soooo mad. Having worked so hard to win that.

Ironically enough few games later my friend was on the other team and had the same thing happen to him when he Com'd.

 

Ish up to you. I have no problem with it.

 

Well as for me to Avoid flameing to make a little bit of room for experimenting, for example, i researched regen, bio diesal and was planning plasma cannon over he, because its better for their engine to overheat so its ether dead as a dodo in the water or can move with no gun.

one have said comp is better then regen , but i have resources and hit and run in my mind.

also you have got to expect hardly no one to defend the main base if its a big map..

 

I can't believe that anyone- anyone- would actually buy into anything those idiot trolls could think of. They didn't even bother forging proof for their libel; the very least they could have done was attempt to fake some transcript or something. It's surprising and disappointing to see this kind of gullibility by most people, let alone the people who should know Sandbag better then this. And if this misconception isn't gullibility then it's merely an attempt in ITSELF to troll and cause irritation, which is despicable.

edit: I guess it was edited by admins; that's a small correction but hardly rectifies the comment.

 

Now i agree with what sandbag said about RTS experience and still needing lots to be an Empires Commander right. It is soooooo true i mean i play lots of RTS were you have to manage MULTIPLE sets of resources eg: Food,Oil,Wealth and General commerce caps among other thing and at least on those ya don't have a bunch of selfish gits that don't respect the amount of these games ya play i mean i think i'd know alot about tactics since these.


Great post mate.