On the premise that no one wants to command because commanding simply sucks half the time, what's actually fun about commanding? What makes it an enjoyable experience? What would make players opt in to spend the round trying to get players to do their bidding instead of running around shooting people? For me it's just different, it's another part of empires to play around with. Building bases is probably the biggest draw though, placing turrets and walls to make impervious forts. Occasionally placing buildings on the front to help funnel your troops in a certain direction like lemmings in kinda neat at times too.
Telling Freak what to do after he loses the com vote to me? Nah, but seriously though, building placement is fun.
Micromanaging the troops, placing buildings, advancing research. Basically what makes commanding commanding, the RTS thing. I just suffer from anxiety and I tend to have more fun on the field
Getting my own 3p vehicles killed by placing walls in front of them. Right there with stupid dwarf fortress shit in the "few thing that can actually make my day" department. There is something poetic about killing a full partybus of people who gave you shit earlier in the round.
Okay, I'm going to go right back a few years because it's practically the same thing. I know not a lot of people have seem me comm now, but trust me when I say I've done it a lot. What's always been the most fun thing is when things go well. When people listen and your advice is good, you're coordinating things well and your buildings go down just when they're needed, not to mention a few targets that save a few lives. That's what makes things fun. When you feel like you're dj'ing a concert that's going awesomely, and people are having a great time. Personally, and just for the comm, some other things are pretty cool too. The mental game of adapting to a situation with tactics and research is great when you pull it off. Out-foxing an opponent with interesting research and knowing the tree well also accounts for a lot. Back when research cost resources as well as time, you'd have to balance the right time to do certain things and gamble a bit more to respond to enemies. You could continue on a path, or perhaps take another route to respond, and depending on how well you knew the tree you could weigh what to do, and make the choice. Now it's a bit easier, so you don't really have to deal with those mistakes so badly. It's less hardcore, but considering the whole team paid for those mistakes it's pretty justified. Other things that are cool are trying new strategies and new tactics. This...I basically never managed to do, because players can't really respond to complex plans easily, so it mostly falls apart.
The thing is, it's not fun at all. CV commander in Empires is not rewarding in anyway. Your research can fuck up the game easily. Even if you did everything right, 90% of the game is still in the hands of your team. If you lose CV, people would yell at you even when it's their fault. You don't have absolute control over your units. The most fun you can have is targeting for your team and watch them die anyway. Telling people what to do? Well, you don't have to be inside CV to do that. Any loud field commander can take over the fun part, making you a pure refinery dropper.
When people listen, exactly to what you say and execute orders precisely. When you are able to be 1 step ahead of the enemy commander and really blind side them. Pretty much anytime your team is excellent and behind you 100% on some cheeky strategy that involves fooling the enemy commander. Really, really owning the other team - but not with a cheap APC rush or other "pro" tactic. I mean like throwing misdirection, those times where you can get inside the other commander's head and get them doing what you want them to do and you just wreck everything they have in minutes.
the good thing about empires' commander is that it allows to dream about a better implementation. it also creates the image of RTS, its vital for the game. its the only thing in this game where "if you remove this, its not empires anymore" is true. change is well possible though and would do the game good i think. more direct involvement in battle, something keeping comms from boomtanking, more to do. isnt that "just" teamwork? sure, the top down view gives a better overview, but in general its independent from the commander. a lsothe name of the position - and also having a lot of time - helps taking the position, still ... :D
a lot of people who I've seen command lately get this weird bug of an idea in their head that sitting in the command chair gives them inherent authority. like it gives them a ticket to scream at people telling them what to do. what I like about commanding is being able to appeal to and empower your team to accomplish the goals they want to accomplish. like the "commander" is anything but "a commander." they have extreme power at their hands and it's their responsibility to meet their team halfway instead of the other way around. it's a relationship of mutual respect and it's not just "do this because I am the 'leader'"
I liked commanding because I couldn't trust anyone else with building placements and research paths. On large maps, it allowed me to be really aggressive with the CV like running people over or rushing resource points.
Its not fun for many people, because it takes a lot of effort to do all the things mentioned above which make it fun.
Commanding is fun because of the sense of accomplishment one gets by taking a unique sort of responsibility for the victory of your team, one based on the accumulation of good leadership, rational decision-making, a thorough knowledge of the map and its potentialities, the benefits and cons of individual team-members, and everything else that you as a comm have to manage all at once in order to win. Being a skilled comm is the pinnacle of achievement for any Empires player.
