Forged Alliance Forever

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2014-01-06T15:09:51+02:00

Staying zoomed out as much and as often as you can.

I think this point isnt so obvious if you just watch replays and search for tips in the forums. But actually this is what makes a huge differents because it helps to avoid "tunnel vision". Before I realized this, i played well to some point but then suddenly i lost the game because i didnt see something coming or saw it just to late to react. Perhaps i did all things right build radar scoutet with planes and so on. but then i was too long busy to micro my acu or to eco and build stuff, without zooming out.

If you simplify your gameplay it will safe you time to get the bigger picture. Simple and universal BOs will help you more in the long term because the more schemetically you play the more time you have to develop the right plan to win the game. It leads to more creative play. The tunnel vision just prevents this.

What i want to say is, if you learn first to micro/to play tactically then you will have some beautiful won games against stronger opponents, but you will also have some very humiliating losses against weaker players. But if you learn first to play strategically you will have a very solid base which leads to a constant increase of your strength. And if you really want to get better you can train some specific micro topic.

You will lose less games because of stupidity and win more games because of the stupidity of others. You will play more strategic (less micro, more macro). That will help you also in team games.

just to be sure you understand my meaning of strategy and tactic
strategy is something like:
- general priorisation land / navy / air / eco
- play aggressivly or defensivly
- acu usage more combat / more eco
- map control of specific areas (deny or gain)
- choosing the right targets / tactics at the right time
avoid situations before they even become dangerous

tactic is something like:
- specific BOs for specific maps or opponents
- destroy specific targets with specific techniques
tml specific targets / bomb auroras / snipe acu
build a counter for specific units
- pick up aa units with bombers first
- oc with acu

much of the strategy is decided in the first seconds where you know the map and the opponents. On setons much of the strategy is predefined by convention. In most games you have to redefine your strategy several times in a game.

Statistics: Posted by RoLa — 06 Jan 2014, 15:09

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2014-01-06T13:22:57+02:00

Flipper wrote:
FYI - my ranking is about 850 in team games.

i stalled at ~900 till i made some training sessions with laPPen. After the training i reached 1050 very fast, because my intel got a lot better. Now i have a chance to win also a therotically lost game.

What helped me
- Staying zoomed out as much as you can. (At least half of the time or just very often in and out. Just whatch a stream - not a replay of a strong player)
- if you have air superiority and can afford it, just spam endless t1 spy planes from one factory and let them cover/patrol your half of the map
you can send a bunch from them anytime where you need intel.
- build more radar ( five t1 radar instead of one t2 radar)
- more reclaim
- use ACU long enough but not too long to build up base and eco. by ColonelSheppard -:)
- dont feed your enemy with mass from your units dying in front of his base.

Statistics: Posted by RoLa — 06 Jan 2014, 13:22

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2014-01-06T03:50:36+02:00

Flipper wrote:
I appreciate all of the commentary, and there is a lot here that I will try to work into my play. I think my initial build order needs tweaking, and that need to get a feel for how many engineers to have rolling out at any given time. I also tend to eco slower than others do, and that's a mystery to me, because I'm always short of mass due to fighting, just like everyone else is. Additionally, I have trouble figuring out when to tech up my factories. Comm-wise, I think I do ok. I tend to worry about trying to fill in for voids on my team too. If my teammates aren't building air, I try to help with that and vice versa with land. Maybe being a good team player means getting fewer comm kills...

Interesting. But not necessarily.

Some players do really well in 1v1 ladder matches, but not so well in team matches. Being a good team player usually means filling a vital gap, and contributing to the overall team strategy. Instead of thinking, "I'd really like to do 'X' strategy, consider what your allies are doing (especially) your top ranked ally. Especially consider the usual meta-game, and the expectations which your team are likely to have of the play in your position.

In some maps, there is a geographic separation. Other maps it is functional separation. functional separation can be land, air, naval, tactical, strategic or economic. It could also be defensive vs offensive.

Being a good team player means:
1. Watching your allies base, when they are busy, and warning them of attacks
2. Giving control of your units, in his 'battle-space', when you can't watch over them.
3. Sharing your eco (e.g. pausing your factories to float mass, and 'dumping' mass on your ally when they are building the first Monkeylord).
4. Providing timely and effective air/naval support to ground players
5. Providing adequate intel and scouting
6. Providing adequate control over your designated 'battle-space' and keeping your 'opposite number' in check
7. Not limiting your attacks to your 'opposite number' but also attacking the whole other team
8. Adapting your tactics to fit within the team strategy
9. LISTENING to what more experienced players are telling you in game.

Being a good 1v1 player means:
1. Being entirely independent and knowing exactly what to do in each situation.
2. Being efficient with your BO and economic development.
3. Matching your opponents tactics and countering them (you need to scout)
4. Being proactive and aggressive

Statistics: Posted by Hawkei — 06 Jan 2014, 03:50

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-14T00:47:48+02:00

Flipper wrote:
I think my initial build order needs tweaking, and that need to get a feel for how many engineers to have rolling out at any given time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_m53YcP9OA
TA4Life's video tutorial on various initial build orders, trust me this helped improve my first few minutes ALOT.

In fact, ALL of TA4Life's "How to play SC:FA" Guides should be well watched.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5BE347F15601899C

Sheppard's too, has some great guides, and contains a lot of other guides from other players,
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... 4b-3s5vol0

With regards to the amount of Engis, that's probably something you will get a "feel" for, depending on map, opponent, and if your in the attack or turtle mode.
As mentioned before, playing vs Ai wont teach you a thing about multiplayer, its too repetitive, gotta jump in at the deep end with Ladder games.
as vtine85 said, youll probably get your arse kicked for the first couple of weeks, but the techniques you can learn from studying all those replays are vital imho.
2-3 weeks of Ladder games, and youll have a better understanding of things, and be a better teammate in other custom games you join.

Statistics: Posted by FireMessiah — 14 Dec 2013, 00:47

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-14T00:11:01+02:00

Flipper wrote:
FYI - my ranking is about 850 in team games.

I'm not sure, but I think that playing a bunch of team games against cheating ai's with a friend early on really hurt my rank to start with. I've fought to get it up from the sub 100 level to where it is.

I appreciate all of the commentary, and there is a lot here that I will try to work into my play. I think my initial build order needs tweaking, and that need to get a feel for how many engineers to have rolling out at any given time. I also tend to eco slower than others do, and that's a mystery to me, because I'm always short of mass due to fighting, just like everyone else is. Additionally, I have trouble figuring out when to tech up my factories. Comm-wise, I think I do ok. I tend to worry about trying to fill in for voids on my team too. If my teammates aren't building air, I try to help with that and vice versa with land. Maybe being a good team player means getting fewer comm kills...

Being a good team player I think involves sometimes getting com kills and sometimes not. It's just playing well so that you win a lot . What kind of maps do you like to play? I feel like I've seen you online.

Statistics: Posted by sasin — 14 Dec 2013, 00:11

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-13T23:45:45+02:00

I've been playing this game for several years, but only with buddies or against AI. Even after I discovered FaF, I still played it casually. I've just recently decided to finally learn how to play, and have been making myself play ladder games daily. I go for a personal best of 5 each day, whether I come out positive or negative.

Just the that whuppings that you will certainly recieve, and you will find yourself no longer making excuses for yourself. No more "I lost to cheese" or "he rushed me." It will become "I didn't scout" or "I wasen't keeping up in unit production." Understanding my losses has made so much more of a difference in the way I'm playing. I remember the dumb reasons I've lost, and make the effort to prevent that from ever occuring again.

If you are looking for someone to play with, let me know. I've just reached 800 today, and have made the personal goal of `1200 by the end of next month.

Statistics: Posted by vtine85 — 13 Dec 2013, 23:45

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-13T22:43:40+02:00

FYI - my ranking is about 850 in team games.

I'm not sure, but I think that playing a bunch of team games against cheating ai's with a friend early on really hurt my rank to start with. I've fought to get it up from the sub 100 level to where it is.

I appreciate all of the commentary, and there is a lot here that I will try to work into my play. I think my initial build order needs tweaking, and that need to get a feel for how many engineers to have rolling out at any given time. I also tend to eco slower than others do, and that's a mystery to me, because I'm always short of mass due to fighting, just like everyone else is. Additionally, I have trouble figuring out when to tech up my factories. Comm-wise, I think I do ok. I tend to worry about trying to fill in for voids on my team too. If my teammates aren't building air, I try to help with that and vice versa with land. Maybe being a good team player means getting fewer comm kills...

Statistics: Posted by Flipper — 13 Dec 2013, 22:43

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-13T22:30:09+02:00

Well, a lot depends on your current skill level. If you're a true 1500-1600 ish, then you should really be asking for advice only from the top 50-100 of the ladder.
Then again, if you generally ask for opinions, here are some universal truths:

* fight for intel, try to always know where your enemy is. Sometimes, even if your game is subpar, your enemy may still make some very stupid mistakes; only that you should be aware of them if you are to exploit them.

* have a clear mind; you cannot expect to unfold coherent strategies, and have fast neurophysiology, if you're sleeping.

* try not to stall your economy by cancelling unnecessary activities.

* reclaim passively by having your engineers patrolling, actively by reclaiming the leftovers of a battle even if you may risk some engineers.

* don't forget to rebuild destroyed mexes.

*always have some spare engineers at the borders so that you may expand when possible.

*study the unit stats as much as you can.

* try to play with better players, but above all play ladder.

* learn to dance with your units, especially the acu; learn to overcharge at will.

*review tactics and strategies of other players, but above all try to apply them;
land rush, acu rush, air rush, firebase building, turtling, air dropping with transports, the art of distraction, the art of multitasking, navy building, stealth atttacks, bomber sniping, etc
* try to understand the wisdom behind the proposed build orders, so that you may modify them at will. etc

Statistics: Posted by prodromos — 13 Dec 2013, 22:30

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-11T17:33:20+02:00

A build order is important, it can give you a good advantage. Especially at lower levels I see people making 1 factory with acu then walking. You don't need a specific build order for each map, but you should have some general idea what to do with a hydro, reclaim, insane reclaim, forest reclaim, land map, navy map, air map, big map, small map, map where you need early drops, etc. Another thing that is very important is early unit battles. If you lose a couple of early tanks, that can severely put you on the back foot even if you outproduce him later. Once you are behind in tanks often you will continually lose more tanks than him because you will be fighting bigger groups with smaller groups. A good build order also helps with winning early tank battles.

Statistics: Posted by Vee — 11 Dec 2013, 17:33

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-11T15:52:29+02:00

a BO is more than just a simple list what your acu does....

On isis you may walk your acu to the mid after land and hydro/pgens
on sera glaciers you may go navy first
on Arctic you may consider getting the mid reclaim very soon.
on Craftious you can go for land hydro and than navy fac.
on EOTS you may send first engi to the mid or to the side ?

Do you build labs or tanks? you build a scaut or not.
depending on your micro / faction going air first or not.

If you know your opponetn likes air first you may tend to 2 labs first

Its also a matter what reclaim you spare for the moment to prevent overflow on maps with much reclaim like twin river.
where you expect his force to go?

realy its way more than a simple

Land, pgen,pgen,pgen,mex,mex,pgen,pgen,pgen,air,pgen,pgen,land etcetcetc

Statistics: Posted by Mr-Smith — 11 Dec 2013, 15:52

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-11T09:31:24+02:00

Mad`Mozart wrote:
Canis and Crag dunes? Or Arctic refuge and twin rivers? Point of reach and Seraphim glaciers? Badlands, Fields of isis, Roanoke, EOTS, Craftious maximus

Land, pgen,pgen,pgen,mex,mex,pgen,pgen,pgen,air,pgen,pgen,land etcetcetc

honestly i didnt bother with other build oders at all for the main time of me playing SC but hey that might be different for anyone

but ofc having good buildorders never hurts, just say that most games lost on lower level or even medium level are mostly by not scouting and poor unit use and thats the things you should probably adress first in my opinion

Statistics: Posted by ColonelSheppard — 11 Dec 2013, 09:31

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-11T04:54:43+02:00

FireMessiah wrote:
I would suggest 10-20 ladder matches a day.
study every single replay you make, wins and losses, to understand how and why things happen, what went well, would could have been done better?
some days I set myself a target of winning at least 5, and wont logoff until I do.

imo, relying on team mates in team games doesn't truly reflect the difficulty of FA. ladder is where the challenge is at.
looking at other peoples replays only helps when you fully understand what is happening. besides Pros do things the rest of us cant handle

if you can maintain that 60% win rate in Ladder, your doing well.
also, higher rank increase from winning a ladder game against a higher ranked opponent, than team games.

Danger close there.

I have often found myself trying to break a loosing streak before logging off. But this is a bad habit. More commonly, I will set myself a limit of 1 or 2 losses per day. I will continue playing until I loose. Then I will stop for the day and study the replay. If I want to continue playing, I will generally go back to playing team games or unranked matches.

See if you are tired, out of form, and chasing that elusive win. It is quite possible you could rack up four or more losses before you make that win. Especially when you are in the aforementioned condition. Which does not help your win/loss ratio or score.

Statistics: Posted by Hawkei — 11 Dec 2013, 04:54

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-11T00:37:25+02:00

he means 1 BO per map.

Statistics: Posted by rootbeer23 — 11 Dec 2013, 00:37

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-11T00:30:55+02:00

ColonelSheppard wrote:
up to 1900 at least you can use a single BO for 90% of the maps

Really? Lets say, same BO for Canis and Crag dunes? Or Arctic refuge and twin rivers? Point of reach and Seraphim glaciers? Badlands, Fields of isis, Roanoke, EOTS, Craftious maximus, etc etc? Or do all those maps fall in 10% category?

Imo, using same BO for 90% of maps is dumb play. Neglecting all the unique things that a map is offering (like terrain, mass or energy reclaim, expansions, percentage of water etc) is not the way you should play this game. Go and play Starcraft 2 instead with this mindset, i heard maps there are pretty much alike.

Statistics: Posted by Mad`Mozart — 11 Dec 2013, 00:30

Re: Attaining Higher Rank

2013-12-10T20:31:31+02:00

Having BO is good but you also need general plan, and eco balance, just in case if game last longer then 12-15 mins

Statistics: Posted by ZLO_RD — 10 Dec 2013, 20:31