As someone who wants to start learning how to command, I have many questions but I'll ask just this one for now. How do you quickly identify the competent marines in your team? I've hopped onto the commanders chair a couple times (mainly because nobody else wanted to or the comm suddenly left XD) and I find it very hard to keep track of everyone at the same time. advice?

by actions if rine x humps armory still on 30s while rine y is in hive asking rt it shouldnt be so hard...

also chek the scoreboard

Check white dots on the map lower left and always press space when you hear the girl talking...

Your best marine might not be the guy with the best K:D score. Some traits of good marines are:

They move out of base at the start of a game - usually heading for a hive, resource node, or other tactically important place.

They ask for welders. Welders take teamwork to use, and in NS teamwork is vital. Plus, a smart marine with a welder will stop at weld points and help the whole team out by sealing off vents, opening doors, etc.

They don't hump the armory. They usually will take some ammo, but not a full loadout.

This one ought to be obvious but a marine that constantly listens to your orders.

The scoreboard does matter a lot in my opinion. If you get a marine with a 20:3 K:D ratio and listens to your orders. You've most likely found your prime candidate to give the first shotty out to.

I try to hand out shotguns in groups of 3 or 4 at a time, and as a rule with few execeptions, I almost never hand out heavy weaponry without accompanying welders. Welders extend marine life expectancy by at least 200%.

if they are used.

Look for the marines who are talkative and openly voice suggestions on how to proceed. If you offer some level of cooperation with what they're saying, this will develop into great teamwork. Another thing is to find the leader in a group of marines and ask him to lead others to do things(kind of like having a seargent). I've had great success by using players names as I find it really grabs their attention when you call out their name to do something.

Marines I like to command most: those who make helpful suggestions based on their view of the battlefield, but don't spam order/weapon requests. It's also helpful to have at least one guy you can give an order to and then let him ninja off to set up a pg on his own, while you babysit the rest of the marines defending choke points and such.

well sometimes it needes a little bind "z" "impulse 10;say_team medpack commando" to get the comm's attention which is funny because all he has to do is press space once and e, s twice. two seconds.

the finnish ns scene is so small that almost everyone knows almost everyone else (at least whoever has played more than 3 months) so its no problem finding the decent marines.

besides when i spam shotties next to the armory i dont look who gets them, i make sure theres enough for everyone.

Ye ppl need to learn taht welders aint only for HA. Only met a few that actualy uses it when there is no vents or HA. It is especially effective at lvl 2 armor and ok on lvl 1. and the armor restores in a quicky.

I like the rines that cap me res, and get into good pg position.

yeah. it's real fun when u got a team full of pro marines.
well they don't even have to be pro, just know what they are supposed to do.
one time i was comming (and i seriously can't comm for anything) but i barely needed to put one waypoint and ended up having to press space more often and in the end we won with ME in comm, which is a rare instance.

Yeah, I had a marine earlier today (im a noob comm) and he told me what to do and stuff. The interesting part was the aliens were all attacking the base with 3 hives, and we still managed to kill all the hives (one by one) and then win the game. If it wasnt for that one marine, we would have been overwhelmed and died.

Okay dudes.
This what you should look in a "good" marine:

- Communication without excess. If you need a med, use your radio command. I'll give it to you soon enough.

-Aim. If you got the aim to at least kill 1 skulk per lmg clip, you are ok. If 2, better.

-Knowledge. If I got a tf outside their hive with sieges, dont rush in unless I tell you. Why not? Because you will die. A fade or some skulks will pick you off.
Why? Because sieges will take the hive down. Just hold the sieges dudes.

My main thing I work as a comm is my micromanagement. Everytime I see a marine get a kill on the killboard, I drop him an ammo pack. I try my best to do it instantly. It gets a little hard with +10 marines but its okay.

On the minimap whenever a marine is engaging, a red blip is for the aliens. I check that area, and drop meds accordingly. I dont medspam, I just drop meds everytime he gets hit, reducing his chances of death.

^ IS what you should focus on as a commander.

If you drop a med pack while he is getting hit, you can nullify the damage.

I go by more of who is following orders but is also doing smart work on their own. I make it a trust system. If i know a player I've played a lot with is a good shot and always tries to do the right thing: teamwork, communication, combat skills.

I also am one of the few field commanders. I let my MMORPG experts sit in the comm chair and they follow my orders (a good CCC needs no combat training whatsoever). I'm out leading the main offensive squad and being a leader my troops can see.

quoting myself from a composite strategy thread in my forum:

the easiet way to separate good marines from bad marines is look how they move

good marines wall strafe when they can, and also jump more

just a general analyziation

I must agree with Agentx5 classification... I am more of a Field command / Specops... Im either the one to lead the team on the field (I don't like to CCC much) or Im the one sneaking around gettings things built and CCC informed of situation on ground.

I would have to agree with Agent on most points....however....a group of marines fighting together is often not as organized as we would like to think. therefor, it is often broken down into four groups of different specifications.

Commander
Sarge
Soldier
Ninja/Rambo

The commander is the guy in the chair, and he does all the things a comm should.

Sarge is something of a good soldier, but even if he can't shoot, wall strafe, jump at the right times, he can still be sarge. All he needs to do is listen, and get the others to follow him. His whole reason for being is to keep the soldiers following the commander's orders. I would say this is the most important marine on the team, and if you have more than one, you're in good straights. However, they are rare and hard to come by. Charisma is not a thing that can be taught.

Soldier. Shooter. Whatever. You know what to do. Kill bugs, get RFK for the comm to use.

Rambo/Ninja. Two different types of people, two different styles of play, two different views on the game. A rambo is often a soldier who disobeys orders, takes commanding into his own hands, or simply doesn't care what's going on, and plays the game in a deathmatch mode. Generally, a single marine useless to the team. Ninjas are different, they fight alone, they don't grab much-needed res towers...but they do block/hold strategic choke points, or build much-needed phases near enemy hives, AT THE COMM'S ORDERS. Ninjas are single marines who generally work for the team, and do not only work as ninjas. Often, they spend most of the game in another role (Sarge or soldier, a ninja comm means you're losing....badly).

All are important for a disorganized pub game (with the exception of a rambo), though too many of one makes for a poorly balanced team. A good marine is a marine who knows what he can do, does it, and helps the team win the game.

Guys I've found 13 completely unique and non-overlapping instances of types of styles of marines and any marine team that doesn't have at least 14 of those types will lose only 86% of the time though what is interesting is that you don't need commander type of style of marine as long as you have harbinger/yodeller or alternately, 2 fuscia/topographers and 3 yolatengo. Just join a random game and try to figure out your instance of style/type/structure/skulk! By taking this quiz.

1. Do you like to create obscure languages.
a - very much b - somewhat c - my cat smells like poop

I always listen to the com, I'm like a...listening grunt?

Yodeller stack always wins

Agentx5...nice classifications. I love to field comm as much as possible; not to order the commander around at all, but I do like to get a good feel of his battle plan and help out the commander if he's inexperienced. I take pride that I've talked many a commander through their first win by getting guys to follow me to chokepoints, get siegeposts up running and protected and urge guys off of the armory.

I always feel I'm a better team asset outside of the chair because I know that there is at least one guy on the floor looking to cap nodes as well as kill skulks.

/steps off of soapbox

just look for anyone that has a clan tag that you know is from a good clan.

Yes, and then avoid them.








But seriously, good players aren't measured by scoreboard or tag, you spot them by playing a few rounds and seeing what they do. You'll know by that point how good they are. If you play on a server often, get to know the regs. Now, it won't be perfect, as even decent reg players have a bad day, but you will at least have an idea.

The other thing is to be sure not to overestimate your troops. They may be good players but always plan for the worst.

i agree.

also, if u find out someone is a decent marine, and that marine is talking in a very friendly way to another marine, chances are that that marine is also of the same level.


of all the games i've played, ppl seem to only make friends with other ppl over the net if they are at a similar skill level or higher. Anyone agree to this?

I don't believe the commander has time to see who can do this or that; either they work together or they don't. However, if he can remember some of the fellows from the previous games, that must mean they at least know the basics.

depends what you want

for me . K/D doesn't mean all that much. I care more about how marines handle situations. if I'm setting up a fasegate outside hive and one skulk kills 3 marines before the gate goes up..... then all three of thoose go down a notch in my book.

some marines might not get many kills, but ever kill they get might have been vitally importent to the increase of my game

so my advice to you is to just play on a server a lot . find one you like and meet all the regulars ,then you'll learn better who you can trust and who has skill

well the best way is too look for one of those crazy rambos with icons next to their name.

Another way is to check K:D ratios and how consistent they are in each game with maintaining these scores.

Rambos with icons are generally idiots who see you, the Comm, as just a modified version of the Auto Commander in Combat. You drop the nodes they want dropped, you drop the meds/weapons/ammo that they want, when they want.

If they were that hot, they'd be in the chair. Also consider that some servers use icons for many reasons, so you may think you've got some elite players but really (as is usually the case) you've got a pack of morons who would rather play admin slap in the readyroom.


Second, for hopefully the last time, K:D ratios are pointless. It just means a marine can shoot things. Fat lot of good that is if he's ramboing an RT in the backwater. Watch what happens to rines when they rush through a PG - a few will be unlucky and instantly killed by aliens at the phase. They take the hits for your next wave of LIVING marines. As a result of following YOUR orders, they died more than they killed. Does this make them good marines or bad rines? Would you rather your marines got stuck in and followed orders, or would you rather they camp around the hive, terrified to go in lest they ruin their "perfect" K:D ratio?

Well i think a rambo CAN have some use, since they will probably harass alien resource nodes more often than other marines... but if they never listen then really it's like having one less marine isn't it?

Rambos are needed.
They often win the game for teams the bad thing is tho that some ppl think they are good enough to rambo but they arent, when im comm i support the rambos that deliver results and ignore the rambos that dont.
basicly rambos often change the odds in favor of the team their on

Hey guys!

If your aim sucks, dont rambo!

I like to call rambos "distractions".

While they're trying to singlehandedly pwn a hive with no meds/ammo/cats, my leet team of order-following marines are training into another hive with the firm goal of wiping it off the map.


Its always fun when they're trying to get meds, then they realise you're the one in the chair, not them, and they're getting nothing.

We love you Asal, even if you slotkick ourselves.


In terms of this thread tho, just remember folks - self confessed rambos publicly admit they don't care about the team. Think about that before you give them meds or ammo.

how do people think of vets?

Hey, I'm not old, nor am I a pro. I'm a guy who happens to have a hardly-recognizable yellow thing-a-madooble next to his name.

In any case, I find that consties tend to be more fun to play with, and vets tend to be elitist. But maybe that's just my view.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: PLEASE NOTE THE BOLD WORDS, AND REALIZE THAT THIS WILL NOT ALWAYS HOLD TRUE, NOR IS IT EXPECTED TO.