Difference between Good Comms and Great Comms

[FordDeka]

I hardly ever see Commanders give explicit orders to people. For example, the Commander will say "OMG BBQ MINER D NOW" then "WTF BOMB THEM" and then "HOLY CRAP PROBE" but without being explicit everyone is going to get confused. Everyone will go on miner D or disregard that order and go bomb them, or even disregard that and go probe. Five minutes later when the defenseless miners get killed the commander will curse and rageboot people who tell him he changed his orders to probe. This type of commander gets frustrated easily, doesn't talk very much and although he may be good at managing tech and cons does not know how to coordinate any type of attack. He doesn't even know he SHOULD be coordinating such things. He only minimally interacts with the team.

On the other hand, the great commanders I see (I don't see too many) will order people individually and organize offenses and defenses. Unlike the other kind of comm who lets their team do whatever and only ever gives vague orders, he will use strategies in attacking the enemy and won't get overwhelmed or pissed off easily. /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> He talks a lot and to individuals. He may even have people that act as captains to micro manage his offenses. Above all, he will coordinate individuals.

In summary the good kind is the kind who treats his team as one entity, and the great kind is the kind who treats his team like a bunch of individuals.

Does this make sense?

[Florida_Phil]

QUOTE (FordDeka @ Oct 7 2007, 11:26 AM) I hardly ever see Commanders give explicit orders to people. For example, the Commander will say "OMG BBQ MINER D NOW" then "WTF BOMB THEM" and then "HOLY CRAP PROBE" but without being explicit everyone is going to get confused. Everyone will go on miner D or disregard that order and go bomb them, or even disregard that and go probe. Five minutes later when the defenseless miners get killed the commander will curse and rageboot people who tell him he changed his orders to probe. This type of commander gets frustrated easily, doesn't talk very much and although he may be good at managing tech and cons does not know how to coordinate any type of attack. He doesn't even know he SHOULD be coordinating such things. He only minimally interacts with the team.

On the other hand, the great commanders I see (I don't see too many) will order people individually and organize offenses and defenses. Unlike the other kind of comm who lets their team do whatever and only ever gives vague orders, he will use strategies in attacking the enemy and won't get overwhelmed or pissed off easily. /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> He talks a lot and to individuals. He may even have people that act as captains to micro manage his offenses. Above all, he will coordinate individuals.

In summary the good kind is the kind who treats his team as one entity, and the great kind is the kind who treats his team like a bunch of individuals.

Does this make sense?

Yep.

It also depends on the clue of the players. I've seen players when faced with a 'good' com organize the team without being declared a 'captain' and without the com seeming to even be aware.

[FordDeka]

Yea there are a lot of vets that will take the initiative like that but it seems like the commander is leaving a lot up to chance if he relies on that.

[Florida_Phil]

QUOTE (FordDeka @ Oct 7 2007, 12:43 PM) Yea there are a lot of vets that will take the initiative like that but it seems like the commander is leaving a lot up to chance if he relies on that.

I think that is why you usually see games where one side has a high percentage of players that are squaded together usually putting on a good performance. In a squad, you tend to have roles and areas that you work in. Since there is some order all ready inherent in the team as far as teamwork (this is assuming the players are playing to win, as opposed to just whore) it is much easier for people that are trying to help the team out to see the 'holes' and fill them. If no one is scouting the map, and no one is probing, and no one is d-ing miners, and no one is killing the other miners, and no one is on con-d, then everyone is in a high state of confusion and agitation.

If you can clearly see that someone is probing, and that someone is killing the enemy miners, then it's a much easier jump to see that maybe you should protect your own miners, or go on a bombing run.

More than Helo, I think that is where the 'stack' so often complained about comes from.

Though I've seen teams with a high squad content loose to a random mix of people when the random mix of people found a rhythm and played smart. Though it does take a good balance of overall skill between the sides for that to happen, and it does seem to be a bit more rare....

[Narg]

Some comms expect a certain amount of skill and intelligance from their team. So if they ask for something to be bombed and they give someone a bbr, they will help, but the pilot needs to put some effort into geting himself nanned and turreted. You ask for probes, you give orders for certain things to be done, but you also expect some initiative from your team.

[Shizoku]

Phrase micromanaged like you describe, he was far from a great commander.

[Weedman]

HAHA I GET IT

FORD DEKA

HYESHAH YESS

NUT::

[FordDeka]

QUOTE (Shizoku @ Oct 7 2007, 02:55 PM) Phrase micromanaged like you describe, he was far from a great commander.

From what I could see, all he micromanaged was miner offense and miner defense and left all the other defensive and offensive considerations to the whims of the people who were not in the two prearranged groups. So throughout the game except at the very end when we were down to one sector and he was forced to command us, there was absolutely no organized offense or defense that I could see. While Ozzy's team got owned our comm sat by and did nothing, no aid or anything. We didn't even press on green when they were busy killing Ozzy's team. Then, when his team was dead we sat back and did absolutely nothing. We didn't react when they starting picking off our bases. We even ignored purple's survival and at the end they came at us with green in full force. If our comm had taken control and been aggressive like Ozzy and had attacked with them I have no doubt we would have won. The whole game except for when we were down to one sector it felt like we didn't even have a commander.

But my perspective in the game was limited (I was on yellow miner D the whole time) so sorry if I am not giving enough credit to Phrase.

So let me add to what I said: Anything the commander doesn't micromanage is left up to chance. Whether anything happens in those areas is totally up to the whim of the individuals on the team and if anyone does work together on them it is by coincidence alone.

[Florida_Phil]

Ah, I didn't know we were referring to a specific game/event. My comments were about playing in general, since I was out of town during the Zone game this weekend.

[omegahero]

it depends to an extent how well the com knows YOU too. but i have to say grav and jimmy are two commanders who are standouts for me in terms of co-ordinating their team well, designating ppl to probe, minerO, minerD etc