Forged Alliance Forever

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-06-02T22:24:18+02:00

I agree completely. The ai, even if you master it, is not even close to playing vs other people. For me, my rating is my barometer for my improvement, so I prefer to use it for certain things in "offline" mode so I don't hose my ladder progress. It would surely be better though to practice on maps you struggle on with someone else. The AI can't explain what you're doing wrong

Statistics: Posted by Flipper — 02 Jun 2014, 22:24

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-06-02T22:31:02+02:00

Flipper wrote:
I think practice vs a cheating sorian ai is better than just sandbo ing for map practice. It is like playing speed chess with a clock. You will learn to react faster and not have to think so much about details. Things will become second nature, at least in theory. My rating is growing but I'm still pretty bad...so who am I to say?

I think practice against the AI can be useful at the beginning, or like you said if you want a particular map, but very soon it can make you acquire bad habits. If you need to know how to expand quickly and grab map control, than go ahead, otherwise I'd stick to humans! ; )

Statistics: Posted by Szakalot — 02 Jun 2014, 22:19

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-06-02T22:14:34+02:00

Here are my notes from watching the lessons that Zock has kindly provided on his you tube channel. I'm sure that I missed a whole lot, but here's what I got down:

zock notes:

get acu to front as soon as possible

build only as much energy as you need or will need very soon, but have enough to spend all
mass production.

get a very good build order

scout

figure out how many engys to include in build

look at economy all the time and try to fix any problems very fast

pause air facs to stimulate power prod temporarily

engys take 30 power to build power

it's good to have tech 2 or 3 fac centrally located, and have a tech 1 engy fac close by
also, good to have air fac close to land fac hq so you can switch engy assist between them quickly

scout scout scout

don't assume you will lose if you haven't scouted

if you have lost, go for a cheese win with snipe or ghetto

you need a lot of games to learn the maps

try to learn from all of your games, not just some -- watch replays of all.

if you have more tanks than the enemy, kill something with them, be aggressive - use your unit advantage

scout

build radars to get good coverage - scouts don't give enough range

you can often use acu to secure first expansion early on

get 2nd land factory early on maps where 2nd air is not good, don't wait long for it

point defenses provide good retreat points

tech transitions: switch when you can't make use of what you currently have

scout

reclaim

All credit for the above goes to Zock, and any mistakes are mine. I highly recommend you watch the videos, Zock is a very good teacher and a great ambassador for FAF.

Statistics: Posted by Flipper — 02 Jun 2014, 22:14

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-31T17:15:51+02:00

JeeVeS wrote:
Good tips. I would cut 5a and add "Spend time sandboxing if you're unclear about how certain units and abilities work. And trust me, you are."

Playing against the AI doesn't help you. If you want to practice a build order on a new map, you don't need the AI around to do it.

TheNinjas wrote:
Flipper wrote:
8) Learn what mods are popular and get them. You are at a disadvantage if your opponent does and you don't. It sucks, but it's true.

Elaborate upon this please? Do you mean to say that someone can download a mod that will apply to them ON LADDER but not to their opponent, kind of like an advanced options menu? How does this work and where can I get some?

Many mods are for the UI only. Thus they only apply to the person running them. Hotbuild, gaz, ecomanager, the various alerts, etc are all UI mods.

I think practice vs a cheating sorian ai is better than just sandbo ing for map practice. It is like playing speed chess with a clock. You will learn to react faster and not have to think so much about details. Things will become second nature, at least in theory. My rating is growing but I'm still pretty bad...so who am I to say?

Statistics: Posted by Flipper — 31 May 2014, 17:15

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-31T14:34:11+02:00

Ecomanager, Notify, Mex manager. These are all great moods. Not required to move up as a player, but I like them

Statistics: Posted by rockoe10 — 31 May 2014, 14:34

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-31T10:57:52+02:00

RandomNameGenerator wrote:
Search the mod vault for UI mods using the filter. I'd recommend GAZUI, which has some useful functions like showing your reclaim, flashing eco to warn you you're stalling/wasting and showing enemy life bars, and Hotbuild, gotta get used to new hotkeys though. I also use Zep's autohide minimap mod.

wait what?
DO NOT INSTALL GAZUI AND HOTBUILD! even more: DELETE GAZUI AND HOTBUILD FILES FROM MOD FILES!!!!!!

hotbuild and gazui are implemented to faf, if you have them installed from somewhere even if that is from vault, they will break current gazui and hotbuild and they stop work and anything can happen to your ui
here is guide:
1)gazui and hotbuild are implemented to faf, so do not install them
2)delete gazui and hotbuild files from all mod folders (one im my docs->my games-gaz powered games, and one in game files)
3) if it will not help you enable gazui/hotbuil then delete game.prefs file, it will reset all your settings including templates and hotkeys
4) to check if gazui hotbuild works/enable just go and try set them up, by enabling reclaim window, or trying rebind keys with F1
5) if they do not work go to 1)
that is how it all worked for me, i am not 100% sure how it will work for others

edit: http://www.faforever.com/?p=1380

Statistics: Posted by ZLO_RD — 31 May 2014, 10:57

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-06-01T04:15:13+02:00

Disregard, see ZLO's post below.

Statistics: Posted by Sir Prize — 31 May 2014, 03:34

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-31T02:43:59+02:00

JeeVeS wrote:
Good tips. I would cut 5a and add "Spend time sandboxing if you're unclear about how certain units and abilities work. And trust me, you are."

Playing against the AI doesn't help you. If you want to practice a build order on a new map, you don't need the AI around to do it.

TheNinjas wrote:
Flipper wrote:
8) Learn what mods are popular and get them. You are at a disadvantage if your opponent does and you don't. It sucks, but it's true.

Elaborate upon this please? Do you mean to say that someone can download a mod that will apply to them ON LADDER but not to their opponent, kind of like an advanced options menu? How does this work and where can I get some?

Many mods are for the UI only. Thus they only apply to the person running them. Hotbuild, gaz, ecomanager, the various alerts, etc are all UI mods.

KEWL! How do I do it?

Statistics: Posted by TheNinjas — 31 May 2014, 02:43

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-31T01:20:11+02:00

Good tips. I would cut 5a and add "Spend time sandboxing if you're unclear about how certain units and abilities work. And trust me, you are."

Playing against the AI doesn't help you. If you want to practice a build order on a new map, you don't need the AI around to do it.

TheNinjas wrote:
Flipper wrote:
8) Learn what mods are popular and get them. You are at a disadvantage if your opponent does and you don't. It sucks, but it's true.

Elaborate upon this please? Do you mean to say that someone can download a mod that will apply to them ON LADDER but not to their opponent, kind of like an advanced options menu? How does this work and where can I get some?

Many mods are for the UI only. Thus they only apply to the person running them. Hotbuild, gaz, ecomanager, the various alerts, etc are all UI mods.

Statistics: Posted by JeeVeS — 31 May 2014, 01:20

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-31T01:01:53+02:00

Flipper wrote:
8) Learn what mods are popular and get them. You are at a disadvantage if your opponent does and you don't. It sucks, but it's true.

Elaborate upon this please? Do you mean to say that someone can download a mod that will apply to them ON LADDER but not to their opponent, kind of like an advanced options menu? How does this work and where can I get some?

Statistics: Posted by TheNinjas — 31 May 2014, 01:01

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-30T23:18:49+02:00

Good guide

Statistics: Posted by The Hoff — 30 May 2014, 23:18

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-30T18:29:31+02:00

Number 6 gets me a lot. I'll be doing very well and have a possible chance to get a "cheesy" win and try desperately to get it, but end up giving up my lead and lose the game. When all I had to do was keep hacking away at his Eco like I do all game until my victory is assured.

For me, that's a common problem.

Statistics: Posted by rockoe10 — 30 May 2014, 18:29

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-30T07:10:20+02:00

Probably doesn't improve your play to know the names though. Don't get me wrong Gyle entertains and attracts people to the community which is GREAT, but he won't improve your play very much compared to ZLOs links.

E8400-CV wrote:
Some mass in storage is a good idea. If you don't, planes will not repair on air staging facilities and you're probably at minus mass, meaning SMDs and nuke launchers take forever to load (not really proportional to shortage). Also: if you have spare build power all over the place (not that hard), mass in storage is very useful.

Example: you have a few hyves assisting a nuke launcher and you see a cloud of unexpected enemy gunships coming in. Just grab an engi, let hyves assist and you can coat the area with SAMS. If you don't have mass in storage that's not gonna happen.

Usually enemies will be rather pissed off when they find 20 SAMS standing there while last spyplane 20 seconds before showed no AA.

Generally unspent mass is not a great idea, in that example you're better off checking Flipper's first point and frequently scouting enemy factories and build power than keeping mass on hand for spamming emergency static defences. There might be some situations where floating mass is ok (I really can't think of any), but that's advanced or at least highly situational play and should probably not be in a noob/average joe guide. Just my 2c.

Statistics: Posted by Sir Prize — 30 May 2014, 07:10

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-30T04:26:42+02:00

ZLO_RD wrote:
Flipper wrote: and from Gyle.

From Gyle you only learn unit names

Which isn't the worst thing actually... I know I wouldn't know half the names I know without gyle.

Statistics: Posted by errorblankfield — 30 May 2014, 04:26

Re: A non-pro's Guide for other non-pros

2014-05-30T04:23:32+02:00

Some mass in storage is a good idea. If you don't, planes will not repair on air staging facilities and you're probably at minus mass, meaning SMDs and nuke launchers take forever to load (not really proportional to shortage). Also: if you have spare build power all over the place (not that hard), mass in storage is very useful.

Example: you have a few hyves assisting a nuke launcher and you see a cloud of unexpected enemy gunships coming in. Just grab an engi, let hyves assist and you can coat the area with SAMS. If you don't have mass in storage that's not gonna happen.

Usually enemies will be rather pissed off when they find 20 SAMS standing there while last spyplane 20 seconds before showed no AA.

Statistics: Posted by E8400-CV — 30 May 2014, 04:23