How not to suck on big maps and late game

[Darth_Google]

Ok how to?

The thing is when there's no early aggression i really get lost. I dont know what to do and build a t1 units and then realise im behind in eco.
Or when there's big map so early aggression os non-existent, like on Shards.
Or when there's a little reason for early aggression if map lacks a neutral mexes as happened today.

What should i do?

I realise the game is not only about t1, but man, i get really confused. Like.. ok, ive got T3 ground HQ, what do now? Hmm...

[biass]

t3 mexes

[keyser]

drop engie, drop engie, drop engie... until you get mentally ill.

[angus000]

It really depends on what map we're talking about.

[biass]

flexible is correct
if you have a replay please upload it for us

[Darth_Google]

First game was Shards and second being vanilla Sung's.

And literally nothing happened at first 30 minutes. I can drop replays here but they must be really boring to watch since you know.. there's little to no fights.

5263468-Darth_Google.fafreplay

Shards are boring

(111.72 KiB) Downloaded 95 times

Here is the Shards one where i try to be aggressive and drop everything but nobody else bothers with it so i get lost and do weird things like building a whole lot of a t2 transports or loads of stealth generators or something.

The ending is very anti-climactic.

[Darth_Google]

And here's the Sung's with the same problem. I could've sniped the Cybran com coz i had battery of tacs, but i built them like 10 minutes before and since nothing happened forgot about them(

[codepants]

First off, that's why I don't play big maps or turtle maps. You build for 30 minutes and then whoever does <xyz> first wins (makes a nuke, t3 arty, telesnipe, whatever). It's a 45 minute game for 5 minutes of action and very little critical thought. There are fewer things to counter and you usually lose because you didn't build <specific defense> or only eco'd 98% as efficiently as your opponent.

But if you enjoy them, then you stated the problem yourself:

I build t1 units and then realise im behind in eco.

The crux of FAF is this:
1. Make the minimum number of units necessary to increase your eco faster than your opponent.
2. When you have enough eco to make something that can kill your opponent before they can counter it (which will be possible since you have more eco than them), do so.

On small maps, t1 matters because there's much less travel time. As the maps grow larger or more turtly, you need to focus more on stronger and faster units that will still be effective after their travel time -- or have little to no travel time at all, like t3 air, t3 arty, and units that can teleport. Those units are more expensive, so more of your mass should go into building your eco until you can afford them, but don't make them until you need them or you're spending mass that could go into yet more eco.

If you'll never use it, don't make any t1 at all. If you do and realize you don't need it, ctrl+k it and reclaim it.