NSLearn http://www.purework.net/nslearn/ now has a very comprehensive and in-depth article on competitive commanding written by yours truly and [t]Annihilator - go and check it out.

Quite a good read, but one thing in particular I disagree with: The better your marines are, the less you should need to order them around, but rather give them general goals, support, and good intel.

"There aren't any OCs in X hive" + "let's keep the preasure up, try and take out some kharaa rts" + "Fade is in the middle of the map" should be enough for your (experianced) marines to figure out a useful plan based on where they are standing and what they're packing. You'd never get it all done if you had to decide for yourself how to best allocate each marine, with error for the ones who don't listen or have better plans, and still perform all your other duties.

It's not like you can pause and calculate your next move. The pace of NS is just too fast. Part of successful commanding is figuring out how to best spend your concentration, as well as res and manpower.

missionred.com ftw

: "Good day commander!"

Nice read!

Something I would add for clanplay atleast is to keep all your marines as squad one, this way its much easier than selecting your players in certain areas to check health. The downfall is you usualy end up spaming spawn points all across the map from giving certain orders or dropping structures, in which case you can give your team custom waypoints that dont obstruct view.

I only get 180k (99% accuracy) on missionred. I must suck at comming

(Hint : Low windows sensitivity = horrible missionred scores)

I disagree on playing other RTS for any sort of skills though. Other RTS are pretty generally very single minded - the biggest challenge in actual commanding is keeping a balance of social aspects, awareness and communication. Meaning - realizing whats going on, and crafting a plan within split seconds that your marines will understand how to execute and know why they're doing it.

A big problem with fresh teams is the lack of intuitive commander/marine understanding - they might not be used to the level of laissez faire vs control freak, or his specific lingo, leading to often game-breaking misunderstandings.

Commanding sucks without a mic. Early morning pugs where I cant use my mic suck.

When I command for my clan (#blackmarket-ns) and my mic is working fine, I love it. Its about getting down to earth with your marines and understanding them.
I allocate the skill pool I got where it does the most damage.

Like if I have a great aimer, I'll send him either by himself or with the worst aimer in our team, so it evens out. I put my better marines on offensive and the such, but on my team everyone knows how to aim, so... ))))))))))))))))

Its about trying to survive. Thats what I think.
Just ask yourself.

"How will I win this?"
The answers will come up to you.

Remember this: When most marines are unattended, they go die. Simple. Keep them on the leash. I tell my clanmarines to just idle and stay in position until given further orders. Like starcraft style. I talk a lot :>>>>

Being a team is about sharing. Share your ideas, ideals and your goals. And dont be harsh on them. They are already on themselves.

I rarely command, I prefer following orders, its much more exicting. But when the Commander doesnt do his job I dont mind going over the console to save the situation. One of the most tactics is always moving to a Hive location where your team can hold up when the situation is bad. Also moving around the map building RTs is good, even if they stay unprotected. Another thing is not wasting the Resources in useless buildings but waste them in necessary things like armor or more firepower, depends. I believe that the Team is only sucessfull if it has a good Commande, not even a Pro marine team of 20 guys can win a round without a good commander.

Those are my cents

hey! i posted this in the other article you thief

Please give us proof

i love you ck

IF you get a team that listens to your god damn orders.
Ive had it so many times over and over that the rines where just ignoring me ><''
And then they keep screaming that you are a bad comm just becouse I dont pass out shotgun in the first minute of the match, or get an armslab right away....hell ive won sooo many times without even putting down an armslab.

HERE are a few basics

- always medspam..the kills that the marines make will pay off the res spent
- one ip first, then arms lab, then armory --> ARMOR 1 FIRST
- drop ammo when your mates need it
- don't electrify anything
- get as many nodes as you can on the map
- keep track of everyone if you can

I wonder if anyone still has a copy of this article.

Nice bump lol

http://nslearn.readyroom.org/?doc=TheoryCommanding.php

Then there is this one http://ensl.zanith.nl/index.php?view=articles/commander

not being mean or anything but whats this supposed to contribute to the topic?

lol'ed

thats good advice

You'd be surprised how many people don't follow that. I have a couple screenshots of comms saying stuff like "I don't drop ammo because you can get it at the armory."

I will read it more thorough lateron but it seems nice indeed.
As a thoughed.. way back I wrote a Guide for 3.x which I placed, for example, on Brys. (in lack of a webhost made it a forum post)

HERE it is. What you think about it? Always nice to compare guides (thats why I am gona read yours better lateron)

Think Bry's had the last version