Is Commanding Fun Or Not?

Yesterday night we were having a conversation in spec about whether commanding was fun or not. And many people were saying commanding was boring and that was why even people who could command didn't volunteer to do it because it wasn't fun.

I disagreed with that many times new players are intimidated out of even trying to command even after you've learned somethings on an empty server many things you only learn when you finally command a team and commandeering a team is very difficult your constantly being asked to give targets here build a refinery here place turrets there do this type of research and if you don't listen to even one of these you instantly become a fail com and regardless of what you do if you lose its "a grief" and you are "a fail com" Thats the reason i think we only have a bunch of people that command but i digress.

The original question was do you think commanding fun and if not what do you think could be done to make commanding more fun. I frankly think its fun and if you don't think its fun don't command all strategy games are like this with the same setup when you are playing in the commanders format and if you don't think its fun that's your problem not the games.

The commanders HUD needs alot of work there are lots of maps where even clicking across the map is work and that is frustrating and i think that is the reason people can't have fun commanding because a majority of the time your just working to get passed the issues and never have time to just watch your team.

Maybe some extra features could also be added to commanding 1 suggestion i heard from heretic and zeke was that the commander could get something akin to squad powers and every few minutes he could use a power; maybe an arty strike or increasing resource production for half a minutes any feature that would give more depth to commanding.

Another thing that's possible is adding more different kinds of buildings maybe a tier 2 barracks that has turrets on it just something to make each game a unique experience.

The problem i see now that every game is the same cut and paste strategies for commanders. Alpha go north, Bravo go south, place 2 refieneries place a barracks, research ER, reflective, and fission get meds or heavies then win or lose. It just gets boring using the same strategy over and over again now i could use a diffrent strategy but how much is it really going to change for the commander. Instead of researching physics i could go chem oh joy now i can watch my team fight with absorbent instead of reflective oh what great fun. It all looks the same from the sky.

Maybe you could have a commander power up every round like 1 round you choose a power up that gives you 50% faster research, or 1 round you get a power-up that give you 15% faster resource gather from refineries. I don't know im just throwing some ideas our there.

Overall something needs to be done to commanding.

 

RTS' games are not fun to me yet millions of people play them.. So what makes those fun and empires not? Cause to me anything other than shooting the mowtar at people is boring.

 

I think it's boring because I'm not satisfied. Placing buildings, right-click dragging, and clicking a few buttons every now and then is boring.

Hence, the b00mtank :D

 

I personally find it fun (most of the time), but there are certain times where it is so frustrating that I just want to uninstall Empires. The problem is that you don't have much control over whether you win or lose (except at the margin). You can lead a moderate to good team to victory, but no amount of skill can make up for a bad one. Contrast this to a standard RTS game where winning or losing is solely based on your skill.

 

I generally find commanding fun. I do it almost every comm map, and for good reason. I find the whole strategizing and researching part fun. The bad parts are twofold - boring combat (I refuse to comm Crossroads most of the time for that reason) and, well, sometimes comming is like herding cats. It can be fun when it works, but it is incredibly frustrating when despite your best efforts, everyone just fucks off and does what they feel like, instead of what they should.

Classic examples of this:
Scout snipers
Engineers who run past things that need building/repairing (ESPECIALLY ones who leave damaged 'raxes without repairing them)
Grens who forget that they have mines
Anyone who tanks a tank solely to suicide rush, alone

And the granddaddy of all annoyances... the dreaded back -seat comm...
"Why are you getting us Ranged Cannons? We need HE! Goddamnit, Ranged is terrible, and so is DU. We need HE and Coolant right fucking now! I don't care that we have Reflective... Ranged is stupid and you're stupid!
It's even worse when I get Plasma.

 

theres nothing more satisfying than leading people to success.

 

There have been times in the past where I have unlocked the entire research tree and my team is still unable to kill the enemy team.

Now I play infantry or Spec and listen to Youzy/Sonecha mic spam.

 

Basically, this. Commanding can be boring, monotonous, and at timed, incredibly frustrating.

You can't even do much strategy - all you can do is give targets and research.

Mostly, I command because no one else will! And the best part is winning, of course, but its more like "oh man I didn't fail it up" rather than "yay I won".

To put it vaguely, give the comms more direct control/more things to do!

 

a large part of commanding is persuading your team to be enthusiastic about winning.

most players just want to get into stalemates and role-play war

 

and nothing more frustrating than losing cause half your team went lulforting.

 

Commanding is fun if you are relaxed. Just expect your team to fail and you will only have positive surprises. :p

 

The few times I have commanded have all been punctuated by various combinations and intensities of:

1. People not listening.
   I'm the guy up in the sky. See that thing up there? That's me. Their comm is right there, just rush. No, don't get ammo. Get in a tank and dri- no, that's water you can't go thro-*vehicle lost*-ugh...
   
2. People telling me what to do.
   LOL I CAN SEE YOUR ICON ABOVE ME ON THE MAP BUT IM GONNA SCREAM FOR REF WHILE BLOCKING THE BUILDING WITH MY BODY/VEHICLE
   
3. The same boring cookie-cutter-or-die research builds.
   I saw FN198 do this, so it's good right?
4. Item 2 intervening when I attempt to avoid item 3.
   No, jeeps can actually be useful sometimes.
   
5. Relying on one or two players to do everything for me.
   bsid is gay
   
6. (Personal favourite) People crying for a VF in early game when we have no res, then when I finally build one they spawn and run straight past it as engineer.
   Not even kidding, this happened to me at least twice.
   
7. And of course, how can I forget blaming the comm for everything.
   I ran out of cheetos! What the fuck, comm?! F-S-space, guys!
   
8. lists are fun

 

I've never really experienced this whole 'back seat commanding'. I tell people what I'm gonna do at the start, maybe I'll descuss this, but in the end I got voted to the boomtank and if you don't like it fugg off. Generally, I like commanding.

One of the worst things is the research tree, it's rubbish. Do or die research is prominent in every version I've played and tbh I think it's because the tree is fundamentally flawed, we need some drag scripts asap.

Also the squad-power like com powers wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Once a building (EG radar) is built unlock powers. Then maybe unlock more with time or tying to research (would only really work with drag scripts. Tier 3 chemistry would give you a powerful 'KABLAMO' like power, T3 mechanical power would make tanks invincible for 10 seconds.)

 

I love commanding.

 

comming in ELC with both teams balanced is a most enjoyable experience if your team is willing to learn.

 

I lüve it. I can flip out and cause total mayhem. And even win on it.

 

Not really.

If it is fun it's only when everyone does as they are told, and even then it's nowhere near as fun as an RTS.

Either I am stuck with incompetent units, or I'm simply doing things the game should be doing itself like drop buildings when a team secures and area or giving targets.

 

Commanding is no fun at the moment. A good player can influence the game more deeply playing as a soldier than commanding.

As commander in Empires you can't kick people out of your team if they grief, you can't give tanks to selected people, you can't give temporal buffs to reward good players, you just sit there in the skybox and watch other people playing the game.

 

Well, i think commanding is kinda fun, but it could be more fun. Its annoying when my team has obviously lost, and i decide to go with vehicle speed and run around for fun, then they say its griefing even though we lost. I also dont like how they wont read, cuz i dont have a mic, so i tell them somthing, and they say im a bad com cuz they dont know wat im doing cuz they dont read. Those are my main complaints, but the commander could be more fun with stuff added to it.

 

Commanding is only fun if you have a good team otherwise you feel totaly helpless without any chance to accomplish anything.