How to get people to listen to you?

Whenever I command there always seems to be this thing where only about 20% of the team will listen to what I have to say, no matter how important it could be. Beyond yelling louder, which I really can't bring myself to do, how do I get people to listen to me???

 

Sometimes it isn't a killspawn I need, though that does make up 50% of my needs, it is usually getting people in a tank/apc and getting them to go somewhere. Like where my comm vehicle is. Surrounded by walls. And turrets. That are the enemies. Yeah.

 

I think people want me to be a bit more annoying. Mostly because things tend to go bad because I use to assume people knew what to do. Anyways if I ever spam a guard order for something right next to you is because you or whoever else keeps demanding a building when I already dropped it next to them.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I feel like this is sarcasm because I kinda do that in a way.... I can't help it though, I don't know how to support a team from the back when they can't even defend the front. Gotta push with them or something.

 

• dont ask what your team can do for you, ask what you can do for your team. if they dont play along your plan, follow theirs - no matter how retarded. you cant force players, so if they dont build tanks, spam the map with bases, maybe even get lvl3s, it helps infantry more then researched heavies noone drives.
• dont panic - never - they can smell your fear/uncertainty over the internets (or at least hear it in your voice)
• be supportive, acknowledge what people archieve even if it feels minor to you. distinquish players though, applauding youzy for building a ref seems unnecessary.
• make use of the words "please" and "thanks"
• be polite even when you insult someone - learn to insult subliminal without falling into passive agression.
• give reasons with your orders. "if we can hold position x we will have a resource advantage later" or "im not gonna research compo because we wont get enough money and we will need it endgame". if your reasons are valid, they make you sound more competent.
• address people with name, dont say "can someone build xy", ask a specific engi - someone means noone.
• be vocal about everything you see and do. tell people what research you just started, what research just finished, how long it takes for this and that, that you rebase or hop out to build. tell them to wait for research to finish before they build tanks. the more they know about your status, the better their big picture, the better their choices.
• learn to read the minimap. its a comms best friend, you should be able to tell whats going on somewhere just by looking at the map. also, relay the info, players dont look at the map so much, do it for them. the first step is, have noone ever ask you for a refinary.
• remind people to be conservative with tanks.
• remind people to stick together with tanks. 5 tanks in a group are very hard to stop, 5 tanks one after the other is just wasted res.
• treat vets like the divas they are
• grow a thick skin
• give up feeling repsonsible for your team fucking it up, but also admit when it was you (to yourself at least)
• repeat yourself over and over. always assume noone heard you the first time.
• give orders multiple times if people dont react in an appropriate timeframe. if they still obviously dont care, mark them as useless in your head, ignore them and play with the rest - dont hold yourself up with arguments, theres always someone around where you can put your time to better use.
• dont resort to a single tactic. try out things. its not as important since a lot of players are learning resistant anyway, or hobbes hobbesing wouldnt be working anymore (sidenote: if you see the enemy boomtanking, explain to players how to deal with it), yet being flexible certainly isnt a bad trait
• in general - as long as you dont know 2/3rds of your team - assume noone knowing anything, explain everything unexcited and with a nice soft voice showing calmness and competence.
• if you plan special strategies/tactics like fast vf, make sure you team knows AND agrees beforehand. nothing is more worthless then a early vf noone uses.
• research is free now, depending on player counts (im talking low pop now) radar can be more important then forward raxes you only lose because noones gonna killspawn there anyway. single base layouts seem more popular with lower player counts. it makes sense i think since you wont lose as much res to rebuilding bases. rax, vf and repair station together cost as much as 2 meds or 1 decent heavy.
• moral is important. if you fail to motivate your team and/or have a bunch on pussies on your side, once the general mindset is "we lost this", youve lost it. if your teams motivation and morale is high they can move mountains ... sometimes
• having people respecting you as commander is mainly a matter of status - the higher your social status in the empires communtiy, the more people listen. infact what you asked for was "how to lead" - this actually is independent on being in the comm position or not. make yourself a name as someone willing and capable of leading. dont give up if its not working out instantly. the rest comes by itself. the technical aspect of comm is rather easy.

(random order)

and some bonus things to consider as comm

• always have at least one ml turret able to fire into the vehicle bay of the vf (need reason? no its obvious isnt it?)
• dont forget placing some turrets behind your base. there usually are many spaces to park an apc without it being threatened, thats bad, bad, bad ...
• block passages with armories - that doesnt mean you shouldnt place walls infront the armories - most buildings (except turrets and walls) take 30s to disappear when dead - make use of that.
• drop armories everywhere, dont care if they die, they are just 75res - but worth a million.
• put stuff in the direct path to your base, you dont want the enemy to approach at full speed and infantry will have cover to save themselfs from being run over - be careful to not hinder your own team more then the enemy though
• large open areas are death zones for infantrists, place some wall pieces, for 25bucks nothing is wasted and if they start to help the enemy you can recycle them in 5s (leaving them in the open)
• conceal your turret farm and space it out as much as possible. if you have them all very visible people will stop and take them out beforehand. if turrets are around a corner they often rush by and only notice them when its too late - dont expect to kill them, but forcing them to retreat is a semi-victory already. sometimes buying some time to breath is just what you need to regroup and counter attack.

 

yeah sorry i expanded the list a bit in the meanwhile ...

but honestly i think the most important and at the same time the hardest thing about playing comm is to not give a shit about your team fucking it up.