Diary of a Noob

[Myxir]

if you want to learn hotbuild,this might make it a bit easier viewtopic.php?f=41&t=12866 (selfish ad here)

[lextoc]

There's a lot to learn at the beginning, not sure if you should put Hotbuild on top of that. Like first learn how to drive the car before putting a beast engine in it. I started using Hotbuild around 1400-1700 rating.

[Heaven]

Here's the video on BOs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2pTYbY ... fn6i6ipnaS

[partymarty81]

All been quiet on the Western front past few weeks, time has been used up decorating house and had another baby

Since last post, played some offline games and some online games, watching other people play on casts is definately helping me see what i am doing wrong, practice will hopefully make me realise what i need to do in heat of moment to stop them happening real time!

Anyway now i have some more time my play time will increase so more detailed post next time!

[partymarty81]

OK so past few days have seen a sleeping baby and wife so lots of time to do housework.... or play this!!!

Decided on a new angle, realised that my game knowledge is not great so to build this up - start to work through the UEF campaign, the natural progression taught me a bit about the units one by one and have also been watching a lot of brink youtube vids for the faction tutorials and also the unit descriptions/stats - these are really useful. Also decided that until I know how the game works rather than just remembering what people are saying, I'm just going to stick to UEF so I can learn faster.

Mixing this up with some sandbox to try out different things and a few offline skirmishes.

Yesterday played 3 online games, one of which host lagged out and game ended early..... second game on white fire went pretty well.

Positives on this one for me were that I got my mexes up fast, built way more engis than i ever have and have started reclaiming a lot. Did find that I probably sucked up a lot of the big mass wrecks too early as most probably wasted a huge amount so need to time this better. Also made a good push with my frigates to wipe out opponents are and then just sat on his bay taking his base out - this was happening same time as my team mates did the same on other side of map (didn't know this so clearly the communication was not there) - things need to work on are teching up the mexes quicker (team mates did this much earlier than me and they got so much stronger faster) and also not scouting/radar anywhere near enough, of all the things to learn I want the eco nailed first as from what I can its the way to go

Third game was a 3v3 on open palms, much different game - intense action from the off in the front position! found it interesting on this one that I was ahead on the eco up to 3rd minute and from there did not keep pushing forward, assuming the micro required for getting units to front meant i was distracted. planned to just stay tech 1 spam labs and arty and pushed forward with ACU building point defence, pushed the opponent back who had eco far better and plowed into his base. was helped by team mate but was a good attack and took his base out - very satisfying that i now feel like I'm contributing to games rather than waiting to die!

Anyway - focus for now is just playing and gaining experience, scouting/radar and teching up the mexes faster and see where we go from there

[biass]

Hello, i wrote this: http://wiki.faforever.com/index.php?title=UEF_1v1_Guide , you might like it
If you want a (1v1) replay looked at for some tips, message biass or biass_irc in aeolus.
Good luck!

[partymarty81]

Hello, i wrote this: http://wiki.faforever.com/index.php?title=UEF_1v1_Guide , you might like it
If you want a (1v1) replay looked at for some tips, message biass or biass_irc in aeolus.
Good luck!

Thanks for that, will take a look. What's aeolus and where can I find it? Thanks

[Gorton]

#aeolus is the main channel of the irc chat in the faf client.

[partymarty81]

#aeolus is the main channel of the irc chat in the faf client.

Thanks I'll pop in and say Hi when I'm on next

[partymarty81]

Update since 3rd Week September:

Since last post decided against offline play, after playing through some missions and also offline skirmishes, realised pretty quickly that the way the computer plays is far away from how human players play, used this time to learn units more to a level I'm now OK with.

Heaven's new range of tutorial videos are very useful to me, have watched and re-watched most of them and practised some of the concepts; initial build orders are becoming more second nature.

VAST improvement of scouting, both air and land scouts/radars in key areas. On down side, after teching up need to remember the new build orders to keep intel units in build queue as after T1 it is a bit less familiar, my expectation is that this will only improve with experience of games played

Rank from 300 mid September to 500 as of today, no where near setting the world alight but progress is progress.

In terms of games played; was mainly team games, which were hit and miss. On most the start would be fine but due to some players lag/problems recurring issue and most games were imbalanced after first 5 minutes - not on each and every game but around 50%. Have found team games difficult to know what my "role" is in the team; only down to lack of strategy which is clearly a traight of playing other noobs who like me trying to get a grip with their own game rather than thinking of bigger picture.

Also playing with Cybran - think this will suit my play more than UEF - will see how this goes

Last night started playing a couple of 1v1's against other similar rated players; this will be my way forward. First game won by early expansion and map control; aided mainly by my opponents lack of. Second game against higher rated player was very satisfying; playing on Loki was under big pressure from around 5 minutes on; my opponent had gone heavy on air and had amassed a heavy T1 army. Lost early expansion base and factory bottom right, decided to go T2 land and just use air for scouting (which in heat of battle and intense micro could have been much better) - didnt have the numbers but a good mix of units carved through opponents land force; discovered his central land base with commander stranded with no backup and took him out - this one moment (manic silent celebrations due to sleeping children) has made all the reading and watching/learning worthwhile

Next steps/focus:

- Improve eco balance (T2 power gets forgotten about, mass extractors fine)
- Work on building base/expansion defences (shields, tactical missile defence, T2 air defence and T2 PD) - just not yet done enough of this so just keep playing
- Keep playing 1v1 games against similar/better players

Question - Is there any way when watching replays to rewind? Also on some casts I watch - Others have a reclaim total box to side of eco for both players - how do I get these? I watch all my replays back and this would be really useful - Thanks in advance

party