Learning curve pretty high

[bigphesta]

Man... I'm just struggling to get out the gate and I got enemies pounding all over me. I can't seem to move fast enough. Grant it, this is the first rts I've played, but I thought I was a better gamer than this. Never got into AOK or SC or WC or any of those games, trying to get the hang of this seems like a lost cause for me. I keep getting ate up every move I make. Any pointers for a TOTAL rts newbie? Not so much as what troops to bring out.. but how to manage them all?

[darthfergie]

build up your economy quick and fast. the more villies you have the better off you are. Also if you only have one resource or two like you only have carbon and food...build a spaceport. Then at the spaceport sell carbon and food off and get nova for it, but make sure you have a TON of workers working on the carbon and food...

[Jedi_Knight]

have a couple of allies and they will hold back the enemy while you get better at the game

[Compa_Mighty]

It's tricky. You have to play for a while, but you'll start winning soon enough!!! Good luck!

[Guest Supreme Warlord]

For someone that just got started in it, it will be hard. Just continue to play and lose but each time you lose You learn more . As Darthfergie said just pump out workers and mine the four different resource. By the time you get to tech 4 you should have at least 30 workers on carbon, 15 on food, 10 on nova, and 10 on ore. That is sixty five workers. You generally want half your pop to be workers and of course the other half to be the army. Just continue to play and you will find your playing style. Hope this helps you a bit.

[Zygomaticus]

play the learning campaign

 

after that you should be all set to be able to win a game in easiest random map

[Guest Nerf Herder]

Another advise I would give to manage or control your troops is to group them by a number. I don't know if that sounds clear. Lets say you "build" 10 troops. Instead of always having to drag a box around them to select them you can easily select them with a touch of a key.

 

First thing you will need to do is select the troops (or whatever you want to have in that group). Once the troops are selected you press Ctrl and 1. This will assign this group to #1. Now when you press the 1 key it will select those troops. This is helpful when you want to manage a group of troops and a group of anti-air (or whatever group you want to manage). You can group the troops as 1 and group the AA as 2 and just select them by their respective numbers.

 

I hope this helps you out. It also take a lot of gameplay to get better. Practice, practice, practice.

[duder]

try playing no rush games on the net, or on easiest setting. Concentrate soley on building your economy, you need to constantly pump workers out, and eventually try to average a time of 30 mins or so to get to tech 4. Once you can do that work out the military side of the game. Eco must be done first though, as a bad eco means a bad army.

[Zendjir]

If this is the first rts you ever played I would strongly recommend doing the single player part first. It is challenging and teaches you the basics. Multiplayer is much more fast paced, and you'll have to learn too fast.

[duder]

i dont agree i think the single player missions are a waste of time. Learn the hard way you will become a better player for it. IMO.

[bigphesta]

Thanks for all the tips... I still am having a problem getting used to following all the action, but I think I'm starting to grasp this. It's a big change from Madden let me tell you LOL I finally got a game where I made it to Tech 4 (a offline game where I teamed up with 3 cpu oppts to take on 4 cpu opponnents) and although it took me a while, and on easy, I started to get a feel for what I want to do.

[duder]

madden...what a game though!!!

[Zendjir]

duder, single player is not a waste of time if you want to learn the basics.

Just imagine a game; say a very difficult flight simulator.

In single player all the controls are explained, and you learn basic flying skills you can use for multiplayer.

Now, if you dont know any controls, and you immediatly start playing multiplayer, how much fun would that be? You die all the time without learning much.

 

Dont forget that this guy has never played an rts before.

[duder]

maybe not for you but i think it is a waste of time. AoE was my first RTS and i just played mp. Sure i died a lot but i got good fast. the missions are just dull IMO. The game is designed for multiplayer.

[Zendjir]

Well then I guess I'm very different from you. I would totally freak out when I just jumped right to the multiplayer part of a game without knowing the basics. And I DO like the singleplayer missions

I think I'm going to go play multiplayer after I finish single. If my internet connection and my crappy computer let me that is.

 

Well, happy gamin'

[duder]

i used to play AoK on a crappy comp, and it was fine. its all on ur connection :cool:

[Guest Destroyer Droid]

It's not all about connection. I have a p2 300 with a good 56k connection. I can play someone that lives down the street with the samp isp and the game will lag to shat. I can then go over his house and play someone on the other side of the world on his p3 700 and not even get a hint of lag in the game.

[Guest Destroyer Droid]

Also btw Gungan Warrior nice Sig and Personal Pic. really caught me eye, very good stuff.

[falconeer999]

As a dedicated Turn Based Strategy game enthusiast where I could sit and think as long as I liked before moving 1 unit 1 inch, I know I found jumping into a very fast paced RTS game a bit unsettling. It seemed I could never keep track of everything at once with it constantly changing. Instead, I slowly eased myself into RTS thinking and playing.

 

While in single player games, you can use F3 to pause the game. While the game is paused, you can still scroll around, see where everything is at and what's going on around it. You can also issue commands while the game is paused.

 

As you get more familiar with the commands and the action constantly flowing, you start using F3 less and less until you can completely play without it.

 

This is the complete opposite of the "toss yourself into the frying pan" approach mentioned above, but I'm one of the belief that this method allows you to inspect everything that's going on and understand <i>why</i> one approach is better than another than simply having it forced on you through trial and error. You may pick up on some new thinking/approaches that others might not because you'll understand more of how things react and be able to predict what will happen instead of being set into a preset checklist of things to do or ways to respond.

 

Good luck!

[bigphesta]

Hey guys, thanks alot for all the tips... I have found myself playing "multiplayer" games against the computer for practice to be the most helpful in preparing for "real" multiplayer combat, BUT the single player missions have given me a greater understanding for the strengths/weaknesses of each individual unit... so BOTH stratagies of training seem to work. Thanks

[Brac64]

I started playing multiplayer right away, but of course the peoples I was playing against was their first time too. So we kinda learned the game together, it worked for me.

[Guest Supreme Warlord]

That is a rare event man... Most people that says it their first time is usually sickos that like to beat up newbie for the pleasure of winning....

[darthfergie]

I love single play playing...because you have a good chance of winning;)

 

But really, I like campaigns. They are cool because they have a storyline effect and have a pupose...you acctually drive towards a certain idea rather than..."I MUST WIN!!!" you think "WHERE IS DARTH VADER??? I KNOW HE IS OUT THERE" or other things pertaining to the storyline. You can do so much in single player that is impossible in multiplayer.

 

Personally I like the blend of game types...

[Chessack]

Originally posted by bigphesta

Thanks for all the tips... I still am having a problem getting used to following all the action, but I think I'm starting to grasp this. It's a big change from Madden let me tell you LOL I finally got a game where I made it to Tech 4 (a offline game where I teamed up with 3 cpu oppts to take on 4 cpu opponnents) and although it took me a while, and on easy, I started to get a feel for what I want to do.

 

Sounds like you might be biting off more than a beginner can chew.

 

I recommend playing the entire training game all the way through. That will teach you what you need. Then, using a regular random map, play Easiest level 2-on-1 against the computer. You and 1 computer ally vs. 1 computer opponent. I know, not fair, but do it that way until you win once. Then make it 2-on-2, Easiest. When you win at that, switch to Easy. Try 2-on-2 a few times that way. I bet soon you will find Easy too "easy" and will then be able to move up to the harder stuff.

 

Good luck!

 

May the Force be with you.