1v1 Ladder Guide for New Players and Intermediate/Advanced Topics

Welcome to FAF. We are glad you are here.

I’m glad that you have decided to play 1v1 ladder games. That is the purest and most intimate way to play Forged Alliance. It is the best way to develop well-rounded skills for Forged Alliance.

But it is not easy, and at first it can be overwhelming, even if you have played many team games. Or, perhaps you have played many ladder games, and you just keep losing.

The fun stuff in FAF is marching your armies around, but you need an economy to build an army. You need an economy to build a T4 experimental doom weapon. You need to build up your economy, and not die, to get to the part of the match where you get to decide “should I go for T2 navy, and build up an awesome fleet, or should I go for T2 air first to raid him with gunships?” I want to help you to get there, so you can have fun.

I split this guide into 5 parts, which are set out in separate forum posts below. They are linked here:

Part 1: a strong start is for players who still don’t know how or why they should push out of their base.

Part 2: moving out gives a little more advice about how to get out of your base. These are intended for people having trouble getting past 250 rating points on the 1v1 ladder, but they’re worth a quick read even if your rating is better.

Part 3: big maps and master turtles deals with specific matchups that may frustrate low-rated players.

Part 4: intermediate ladder concepts is advice aimed at more advanced ladder warriors. If your rating is somewhere in the 250-500 point range, you should get a lot of value out of these.

Part 5: lessons from Zock is a summary of advice from one of the top players of all time, that he gave in personalized 1-on-1 lessons, which he uploaded to YouTube. That is intended for advanced ladder warriors. Even players at and above 1,000 rating points will probably find something of interest in what Zock teaches.

Please read before commenting:

Any corrections where the guide is wrong are appreciated. I welcome any discussion in this thread in more depth about any of these issues and any other advice that you think would be valuable.

I appreciate the perspective of higher-rated players (obviously they know what they are doing) and I also appreciate the perspective of lower-rated players (because this guide is for you, and you know what it is like to try to learn this stuff). Please keep discussion civil and don’t drag out arguments. Don’t try to get the last word. Accept that people are going to disagree about things. Make your point, make your post count by stating your opinion as clear as you can, and then stop posting, let other people say their opinion. We don’t need 20 posts in this thread of back-and-forth between two people who disagree about one thing.

I tried to include only the advice that I think you would find most useful. Part 4 in particular is a list of the things that I wish someone had told me when I hit about 400 rating points. “Okay arma, you’re a big boy now, you are ready to hear this.” Instead, I had to learn it the hard way. No, I don’t mean playing ladder matches. I was not smart enough to learn this stuff for myself just by playing the game. I learned it from watching YouTube videos and Twitch streams, and chatting directly with better players.

I am grateful to everyone who has responded to my questions, given me advice during games, shared advice and wisdom in Twitch chat, and especially everyone who streams and casts games (their own, and replays). Thanks also go to @Biass and @FtXCommando for providing a little very valuable feedback regarding this guide.

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance is on sale from Steam, it costs only $2.59

This is a great time to give it as a gift to anyone on your Steam friends list

The sale lasts for TWO WEEKS, until January 4, 2024

While Russian and Belarussian players can't buy copies from the Steam store, Steam allows people in the West to send gift copies across the border.

I don't want to see people locked out of the community, so as long as SC:FA is on sale, I will buy a copy for any Russian or Belarussian player who wants it. Send me a direct message so I can add you to my Steam friends list.

В то время как российские и белорусские игроки не могут покупать копии в магазине Steam, Steam позволяет людям на Западе отправлять подарочные копии через границу. Я не хочу, чтобы люди были заблокированы из сообщества, поэтому, пока SC:FA находится в продаже, я куплю копию для любого российского или белорусского игрока, который этого хочет. Отправьте мне прямое сообщение, чтобы я мог добавить вас в свой список друзей Steam.

Я не прошу никого вернуть мне

Mass can only be stored locally. Each player no longer has a "bank" of mass (represented by the mass bar--you would permanently have a completely empty mass bar). Mass extractors leave reclaim around them. Mass needs to be gathered by engineers and brought to a factory in order to spend it at that factory (or brought to mass storage building, and buildings/engineers near the storage could feed from it)

Every player would have to establish "supply lines" in order to exploit mexes. Which would create a whole new dimension in terms of setting up logistics and for raiding your opponents. It would create incentive to put factories near mass (e.g., build a factory near reclaim field to make engineers to grab the reclaim + be a convenient place to spend the mass on new units, or build a factory next to a mex so you don't have to transfer the mass anywhere, it always gets spent immediately).

There would probably need to be new commands (e.g. assist command, ferry command, patrol command, etc.) so you can set up these supply lines. Maybe it could be done just with the "assist" command, like if you assist a mex and then assist a factory, the engineer knows it has to go back and forth between the two to deliver mass.

@MazorNoob said in Why would you have left FAF?:

How about we make use of the achievement system and make a bunch of low-effort scenarios to beat?

Yes, and have the client keep track of user progression. Treat each simple scenario as a lesson, so when one is finished the client can suggest the next one. The client itself would encourage low-rated players to play these scenarios.

Some of them would have limited tech. So you might have a scenario where the only possible thing you can do to survive/win is to spam land factories and T1 tanks (because the other units/buildings are disabled). In this way, players would learn how to do a simple build order and how to spam T1.

So some scenarios would be about teaching people to build/use a single unit. The campaign already does that, but not as well as it could. For one thing, campaign missions tend to be too long. And they encourage turtle-style gameplay. A scenario that encouraged a faster start (encouraging a fast build order so they can deal with immediate threats) and then taught players to use a particular unit and only lasted 8 minutes would be better than a 30-minute campaign mission turtlefest.

Or just have a premade base to skip past the turtle phase. Mix it up between teaching build orders and skipping them entirely. Just giving people premade bases with adjacency bonuses in place will give them the idea to make bases like that for themselves. If noobs have a hard time even imagining making 12 land factories with mex adjacency and only 15 pgens (most noobs would get 50+ pgens before their 12th land factory....), then drop them into a lesson where they start with that and they will start to think that it's normal.

You could have a scenario where there are no mexes close to home, so the player would have to take reclaim to get started, fight there way to more reclaim, before they could fight their way to some mexes, and then have a normal game against an easy AI from there. So the player could learn how to use light artillery to break some civilian PD, with limited mass so they have to build the correct unit types. Maybe in that scenario they don't even get an ACU (no generated mass/power + you can't bulldoze through the PD with your ACU).

There would also be scenarios where the only goal is to grow your economy to a certain size. There might not even be enemies at all in these scenarios. That would help to teach players about how to grow their economy efficiently. And they would always have a few examples of replay files they could watch to see how other people did it. So a lot of the lessons would essentially be puzzles: "you can do this 8-minute puzzle to learn the game better."

Every scenario would be intended to teach a small amount of information in a memorable way. Some would be more open ("beat this AI, however you want to do it") and others would be much more rigid ("overwhelm 3 triads by making a lot of lobos and then the scenario ends immediately").

How about a scenario where there are no mexes, no ACUs, you start with 4 land facs, 20 tanks, 5 engineers, and 1 scout plane, the AI has like 70 tanks, and you have to scout out the map and pick off AI forces with "defeat in detail" in order to get enough reclaim to make new tanks to win. It would teach scouting, looking for mass-efficient fights, and taking reclaim. For some lessons, you completely remove eco management so they can focus on units. Other missions, completely remove combat stuff so they focus on eco. Instead of always throwing players into a situation where they can win by improving eco OR by being smarter with units (which doesn't specifically teach anything, it does push them to get better, but not in the same way as specifically teaching 1 skill/idea)

The idea would be, if a player completes all of the lessons, they should have enough skills to play at the low end of 1v1 ladder without feeling bad or to participate in low-end team games without feeling completely lost.

Rather than going for voice acting or lots of text in the scenario itself to explain things, the explanations should be kept brief and outside of the scenario, to make them easier to prepare. People who can't beat a scenario would watch replay files to learn how to do it. That way, there is no language barrier for anyone. The "mission briefing" in the client for each scenario (before you click on it to open it) could be a simple picture showing a good base layout along with arrows showing the order to make the buildings.

Having the lessons would be a way for people to get a sense of accomplishment, and an easy way to blow off steam if they're annoyed about losing. If they take some of that negative energy, and put it into completing lessons for 30 minutes, they would hopefully feel better about coming back to the competitive part of the game and trying again.

The worst thing is when people take that energy and spend it on playing pointless games against AI, which only teaches the players to turtle and not to learn new ways to play. "1 human + 3 AI vs 4 AI" is not a way to learn anything. Puzzles could provide more satisfaction, with not a lot more stress.

Of course we would also plant the message that once you finish all the lessons, you SIMPLY MUST try the ladder. Like: how can you complete all these lessons and NOT get on the ladder? You gotta show off your skills! We need you out there!

Any time someone posts an icon set, they should include at least one picture. A screenshot or a picture listing out various icons. Show us what they might look like in-game. You can't expect people to download and install icon sets just to find out what they look like. Ideally there would be a side-by-side comparison shot showing what your icons look like against some other set (against default icons, against "Advanced Strategic Icons" if you're competing with that set, etc.). And maybe at least 1 sentence describing the theme behind your icons. As in "same as the default icons, but scaled in size" or "StarCraft-themed icons" or whatever. All I know about these icons is that they are the MacDeffy re-dos and they come in different sizes.

RECLAIM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h43m31s
On a map with mass that can be reclaimed, like stones, you need to have factories that send out engineers to grab the mass. You can use a patrol order, which you don’t need to worry about, or you can do an attack move order, which gives the engineers extra reclaim range. If you use attack-move, you then press shift so you can see the attack move order and drag the factory attack move order to another place. If you keep moving the order around, the engineers that have been produced will then keep moving and reclaiming, but this takes your APM. When you have reclaimed about half of the stuff that can be reclaimed, stop making more engineers for reclaiming. At that point, let your existing engies finish reclaiming the things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h51m33s
One advantage to have so many engineers reclaiming things is that you have build power around the map, that you can use to quickly build things like T1 anti-air turrets. If you are using gunships to raid, you want to kill engineers first before they can build up T1 anti-air.

THE TRANSITION TO T2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=37m02s
As soon as your tech 2 factory finishes, you want to try to get as much out of it by pushing out as many units as possible. The first few Tech 2 units (1-5) matter a lot, and are a lot more valuable than later Tech 2 units (like the 10th). So you want to assist your factory and crank out T2 units as soon as it gets online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h15m42s
Tech 2 transition: the goal is, once you are tech 2, put 100% of your unit production into tech 2. But for Cybran, you also want medusa, Zock says “count” as tech 2. (Zock doesn’t say this, but it is okay to produce land scouts.) You don’t want to keep making mantis, unless you are using them for raids (like the way you might use LABs at the start of a match.) You don’t want to get overrun. If you completely stop your unit production in order to switch to tech 2 support factories, you will be very vulnerable. There could be a full minute where you have zero unit production. So you may want to upgrade 1-2 at a time before upgrading the next ones to Tech 2 factories. Even so, if you have lots of Tech 1 units, and you don’t want to play super aggressive, you could upgrade all Tech 1 at once. The goal is to upgrade to Tech 2 as fast as possible. If it is safe (because you have enough units) you would upgrade every single factory to Tech 2 at the same time. It is convenient to upgrade them 2-3 at a time, instead of all at once, because you can judge how much strain it puts on your economy.
Similarly, with Tech 3, once you get a Tech 3 factory, stop making Tech 2 junk. (It is fine to keep using MMLs, flak, and deceivers once you get to Tech 3, but stop making Tech 2 tanks.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h40m12s
Would you ever increase your T1 production at the same time as you upgrade an HQ to T2? Only if you need to spend your mass super-badly. There can also be a situation where you start upgrading to T2 and you realize it was a mistake because you need more T1 units. You are vulnerable while you upgrade to T2 so you should try to make the upgrade happen as quickly as possible (lots of engineer assistance on the HQ). You should go to Tech 2 when you decide to go to Tech 2, not because of a habit or a simplistic rule.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h21m33s
Once both sides have T2 tanks, you don’t want to have mantis in the front of your army. The mantis won’t kill the enemy’s units, and they will just get in the way of your own T2 tanks. If you keep making mantis for your frontline force you are just wasting mass. You could pause the T1 factories (the ones making mantis) and use the mass to eco.
When you have T1 and T2, don’t move your whole army together. Move your rhinos up front as a concentrated fighting force. Keep the mantis behind, in case there is an all-in engagement. If he overruns your rhinos you can bring the mantis in as well. Until then, keep them out of the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h12m37s
When you transition to T2, you stop making T1. That is true regardless of your economic situation. It doesn’t matter if you are ahead or behind in economy. Just stop making the T1 tanks once you can make T2 tanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h15m00s
You want to make the transition complete as soon as possible, which means no more mantis. You can have a factory making mantis if you want to use them as raiding units, because they are fast. Zock’s example is to send out 3 mantis on a raiding mission to attack outlying T1 mexes. The point is to stop making mantis for use in combat once you can make rhinos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h26m22s
Zock would avoid ecoing heavily AND upgrading to T2 at the same time. Do one, then the other. You can eco first, or you can go to T2 first. But if you try to do both at the same time, you will end up ecoing more slowly and it will take longer to finish your T2 factory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=28m05s
Transition to Tech 2: you have to decide whether you can win with Tech 1. If not, then move to Tech 2 instead of building more T1 factories. If you can just make a few more T1 factories and spam units to defeat your opponent, then you can do that. But if both players make more and more T1 units, it stops being feasible to win with T1. So you should stop making T1 factories, and move to T2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h54m18s
Some people go to Tech 2 very early. It is still a good idea to go tech 2 to match them, even if they are going very early. If you see your opponent going tech 2, you will usually have more tech 1 units than your opponent. You can try to use your tech 1 units to do damage. Especially if it is an early switch to tech 2, you might have a significant tank advantage. But you should not produce any more additional tech 1 units. By the time your new tech 1 units arrived at the front line, he would have tech 2 at the front line. You punish him with your existing tech 1 units, stop making tech 1 units, and transition to tech 2 as fast as you can. If you can’t punish your opponent for going tech 2, then it wasn’t a mistake for them to go tech 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=32m50s
At some point, think about: do you actually want more T1 factories, do you want more T1 units? Ask yourself this question. If the answer is “no,” then you go tech 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h52m16s
Here you can see the problem with having too many T1 tanks: they can’t all shoot at once and they will block each other. The tank blob is too big to be fully effective. If those were a mass-equivalent number of t2 tanks they could all be shooting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h10m14s
The rule for Tech 2 factories is: the first unit out should be a T2 engineer. If you’re getting attacked and you have an immediate need for T2 combat units so you don’t just die, get the combat units. Otherwise, get a T2 engineer first, or two. Queue up 1-2 T2 engineers and then 30 T2 tanks. At some point, you should notice your Tech 2 engineer, you will want to give it an order (make a TMD, make a T2 pgen, etc.) and that should remind you to pay attention to your T2 factory to update the build queue. Tech 2 power is one of the best things about going to T2. Even if your first unit is not a T2 engie, you should queue them because you always want a T2 engineer eventually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=28m30s
There is no rule to always make your Tech 2 headquarters after the 5th factory. There are a number of factors. It depends on the play style, the map, and the situation. If there is too much pressure on you (you need more t1 units so your commander doesn’t die) then don’t start upgrading a headquarters to tech 2. Ask yourself if having 10 more T1 units would make a difference for you. Can you actually win something with more tech 1, like taking away an expansion from your opponent? If not, then make Tech 2. A very simple rule, how to not lose against Tech 2: if your opponent is Tech 2, as soon as you see that, you also go Tech 2. If you don’t scout it too late, your Tech 2 will be in time against his Tech 2. You can also go Tech 2 before your opponent if you feel safe doing it. One good rule for new players is just to wait for your opponent to go Tech 2 before you do. Then you don’t have to worry while you are playing about when to go Tech 2. You can focus on other things.

THE TRANSITION TO T3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h28m38s
When you get a T3 factory up, you want to stop making T2 tanks/bots because T2 direct fire units are very inefficient against T3. (Note: this video is from early 2016, before the “T3 rebalance” happened, but it is probably still valid advice.) Just stop your T2 factories completely. T3 factories have much more build power than T2, so you don’t need very many of them to spend the same amount of mass.
You can still make flak, MMLs, deceivers, mobile shields, and T2 engineers. If the flak or MMLs are going to be part of your unit composition, make them out of the T3 factories. You don’t need to have a T2 factory cranking out flak next to a T3 factory making Percivals. (Zock does not specifically say this, but I think if you just want a couple units, like you want a T2 engineer for some special purpose, or you want to make a couple flaks for your base, it is perfectly fine to use your T2 factories to build that. There is no absolute rule that you are forbidden to use your T2 factories for any purpose. But according to Zock, your war production should only come out of T3 factories.)
In contrast to the transition to Tech 2, where you may have a need to keep making T1 units, once you get to the T3 stage, you can immediately completely stop making T2 tanks/bots. By the time you transition to T3, you should have enough engies to assist your T3 factory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h16m17s
Zock describes using transports to move his first bricks from the T3 factory. He says a weaker player would just have them walk out of the factory. (By using transports, Zock gets his first bricks into the fight much faster. This goes back to what Zock was saying about your first five T2 units coming out of the T2 factory being more important than the next five. The same thing applies to the first five T3 units to come out of your T3 factory. They are more important so if you can transport them to get them into the fight faster that is an important benefit.)

AIR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h27m46s
Corsairs are nice, you can use them even if you don’t have air control. If your opponent has unshielded power generators, you can send them in (on a suicide mission) to snipe the power, and that can win you the game. But if you don’t have air control, you should only use them to snipe power. You shouldn’t just make lots of corsairs when you lack air control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h53m26s
On 10x10 maps, you don’t want to make too many air factories too early. Five air factories early is too many. But a second air factory early is not terrible. If you’re going tech 2 air, you want a second air factory. (Zock doesn’t say why, but I think the point is so you can keep making interceptors so you don’t lose air control, because then you won’t be able to use your fancy Tech 2 air toys. Or perhaps he means you should have a T2 support factory so you can make more T2 air units, faster. I don’t know.) If you want more transports, it can be good to build them from a second air factory. But (at least for 20x20 maps) your first transport should come out of your first air factory. With Tech 2 air, you don’t want to make gunships on an infinite queue. You want to queue up about 15 only. Because after you start doing damage with them, your opponent will make a lot of flak.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h29m58s
Mixing mobile AA into your tank forces: it’s not bad. For tech 1, Zock normally doesn’t do it unless he is losing air. The problem of course is that you will have fewer tanks. (Every mobile AA could have been a tank.) Having mobile AA with your tank forces can help to reduce risk of taking damage from air and reduce the amount of attention you need to pay to the game. It’s easier to let your mobile AA kill t1 bombers than to constantly move interceptors around the map to deal with them. For tech 2: Zock will mix flak in. If he has air control, he will make 1 flak for every 10 t2 tanks. If he does not have air control, he will make 1 flak for every 5 t2 tanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h02m00s
When you are ahead, you want to get air control. When you are ahead, air snipes are the main cause of death. Taking air control is not only good by itself, but it is an extra layer of security. And, air is the fastest way to win the game, if you decide to end it. When you decide you want to kill your opponent, you make some gunships, fighter/bombers, or strat bombers.

BEING AGGRESSIVE AND BEING DEFENSIVE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h33m30s
One way to get ahead is to be aggressive, which is to make attacks in order to try to hurt your enemy. The other way is to be more defensive and put more economy into eco. If your opponent is putting 5% of their economy into eco, you put 10% in to eco and just have 5% fewer units. You can still defend well with 5% fewer units.
Aggression can be more risky. If aggression fails, you can leave behind reclaim. If you make a mistake with aggression you can give the game over to your opponent. But if you hang back and eco, that style of play is more forgiving of mistakes. Being defensive and out-ecoing your opponent can be a more boring way to play potentially. It is a matter of preference. Being aggressive, or out-ecoing your opponent, are both legitimate ways to play the game.
Also, you can shift back and forth between the two strategies. It can be good to move back and forth between both strategies (aggression vs. ecoing) rather than investing all of your resources into a single strategy. It’s better to have a mix than to do just one thing. (Zock does not specifically say this, but I think it’s obvious: if you only do one thing, you will be more predictable.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h14m07s
Timing: if you are building more units from the start of the game, or if your opponent pauses or slows unit production for some reason, you may have a unit advantage (meaning: more units on the field than your opponent). Presumably, whatever he is spending his mass on instead will benefit him eventually. So if you wait too long, your unit advantage will disappear.
The example shown in the video is: Zock paused his factories in order to upgrade his land factory HQ to T3, so for a brief time, his opponent had unit advantage. His opponent (the student) attacked at the right time, taking advantage of the opportunity. If the student had held back, soon Zock would start making Bricks, and then the student would no longer have a unit advantage. During this brief time, there was a window of opportunity to attack Zock with more effectiveness.
You want to take advantage of the opportunity created by having unit advantage. You want to convert your unit advantage into other advantages—for example, by raiding your opponent’s mexes. Another way to use your unit advantage is to pause unit production and focus on ecoing, because you can effectively defend yourself with the units that you already have. You don’t want to miss these opportunities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=26m46s
If you choose aggression instead of ecoing, you do need to attack your opponent. But then you need to scout, or maintain radar coverage, so you are not surprised when you attack. It is not necessarily a mistake to choose aggression over economy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=19m54s
If you don’t eco, you need to go all-in. If you build up a fighting force (including: getting the gun upgrade for your commander) then you need to attack your opponent. If you just wait for your opponent to out-eco you, that is wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h33m55s
Send all of your units to one place? Only if you are going all-in. Even if it’s 90% in one place and 10% in other places, that is better than 100% in one place. It’s not really a question of ratio or percentages. You want to have enough units to hold your stuff. That is going to depend on where your opponent’s units are. When you are ahead, you want to distribute your units widely to prevent your opponent from taking anything, rather than collecting them in just one place to prepare for a push.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h29m24s
Some players have a problem of lacking aggression. They make an effort to be more aggressive. If they then get into a situation where they are ahead of their opponent, there might be no use for aggression in that situation. But they have it in their head that they need to be aggressive. If you are trying to be more aggressive in the way you play, there are still times when you should back off from that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=10m03s
You should not feel like every single game you must be aggressive. Before every act of aggression, you should ask yourself if you think it’s a good idea. You only have a limited amount of attention while you are playing, but this is a good use of your brain power during the game. Questioning yourself is a very good way to improve while you play. Some other players launch attacks mindlessly. Zock does not like that. (Note from the author: Zock’s way is not the only way to play. I gathered these notes to share his ideas but you should also consider other ways of playing. Perhaps you try out mindless aggression some time and see how it works for you.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h51m43s
When map control is fairly even, you can tell who is ahead by counting who has more T2 mass extractors. If you can maintain as much map control as your opponent, and get more T2 mass extractors than your opponent, you should be winning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h27m23s
When you are ahead, you can use your units just to keep control of the area. You don’t have to attack your opponent. You can just park them in a good place to surround your opponent, so he can’t slip units out past them. You shouldn’t go in for the kill early. You just build up your units and slowly move them closer and closer to your opponent’s base. You put a rope around your opponent’s neck and you slowly tighten it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h04m03s
Different people react differently to being under pressure. Even if you are good in theory, if you perform poorly under pressure, that is something you need to work on. You want to pressure your opponent. Players often underestimate the amount of pressure that their opponent is under. When you put your opponent under pressure it won’t feel like pressure to you. From your perspective, it feels easy, so it is common to overlook that from your opponent’s position, it feels terrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h32m58s
You can’t always stop the enemy from taking something. If you try to stop the wrong thing, you over-commit and you can lose a significant battle. The example in this lesson is that the two ACUs are on opposite sides of the map. The student does not have enough units to stop the enemy ACU from taking an expansion. The correct perspective is to accept that you can’t stop the enemy ACU from taking it. You should still use units to harass and raid the enemy. You can use a few tanks to deny him from getting the expansion with engineers. If he has to send his ACU in order to get the expansion, you are getting a benefit from that: you are denying his ACU from being somewhere else and you are slowing him down. Just by slowing down your opponent from getting the 4-mex expansion, you get an economic lead, which you can invest into extra tanks or t2 mexes.

SCOUTING AND RADAR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=25m35s
You scout before you attack, then you decide whether you should attack or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=25m45
If you send units forward, but you see that it would be a bad attack, you retreat them. It’s not so bad to make a mistake. The important thing is to fix the mistake by retreating. Don’t try to avoid making mistakes. Just focus on fixing them. Trying to avoid mistakes in the first place is stressful. You will develop better as a player by fixing your mistakes as they happen. It is the same for economic mistakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=27m25s
Create a habit of scouting. Have air scouts in your queue. Have a hotkey for scouts. It’s really hard to watch all of your scouts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=23m20s
Sending scout planes is very important but it is also important for the player to look at what the scout plane sees. If you don’t look, you lose the benefit of having the scout plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h08m12s
Air scouts are good if you are planning an attack (to look at what is there to decide whether you want to attack) but radar is better if you are being defensive with your units. That way you can see the enemy army coming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=12m30s
You can attack your opponent without radar/scouting. If you expect your opponent to play well, he will do certain things, which makes him predictable. You can proactively send units based on what you expect your opponent to do. Against bad opponents, it is very hard to predict their actions because they make a lot of mistakes. It is easier to scout them, find their mistakes, and punish them for it. For example, a good player would use his units. But a bad player might have an idle army. So if you don’t see enemy units on the field, you can’t assume that a bad opponent didn’t make them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=35m17s
If you don’t know what to do: look at what advantages you have, do what you need to do to make sure you keep them, and look at what advantages your opponent has, and do something to take away those advantages. That is a safe way to try to win. Zock recommends to always try to end the game in a safe way. If you try to end it fast, more often than not, you screw up and you will lose. Don’t try to kill your opponent. Take everything away from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=18m59s
When you have the same or more units than your opponent, the question is where on the map you should be aggressive. Scout your opponent, see where their units are, where their ACU is, to decide where to attack.

Nomads in ladder, zero people waiting in every queue

Sounds right to me

It's rare that people will upgrade a lot of radars, but it's normal to upgrade multiple support factories and mexes.

It's only fair to make people pay extra for the privilege of upgrading a shield in place when a certain faction can't even do that at all.

It just comes down to this: do we want to give people the option to do a little song and dance, to trade APM in exchange for about 600 extra mass? Or do we want to streamline the game here.

I'm definitely in favor of streamlining the game by equalizing the cost of upgrading in place vs. ctrl-k trick. The game is complicated enough. Making it a little simpler here is more good than bad.

USER INTERFACE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h31m20s
Rather than having factories idle, Zock will queue up a single engie and then pause his factory. That way, there is no icon appearing on the right side of his screen showing an idle factory. You ought to pay attention to the icons on the far right side of the screen for idle engineers and idle factories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h39m41s
Use the upgrade key (“m”) so you can more quickly upgrade mexes without clicking as much. Zock changed this hotkey to “caps lock” so he could press it more easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h40m37s
There is a hotkey, “select nearest idle mass extractor, lowest tech” – it picks the mex closest to mouse cursor. This might be the mex that you want to upgrade next. So if you click that hotkey, and then click the upgrade button, you can very quickly start a mex upgrading with less time spent clicking.

ON MAKING A PLAN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=51m46s
“In the first minutes, while your factory is building, or maybe even in lobby already, try to make at least a very rough game plan, so you are not completely lost, and you don’t play out of complete instinct, because that will lead to many mistakes like this . . . . Try to think of a very rough plan what to do . . . Because once you start playing, once you start moving around and something, you don’t really have time to think any more, so you just act out of basic instinct and basic gut feeling what to do. I would say it is much more ordered if you have a basic idea. So you make like a few focus points what you want to do. So one focus point, I want to get this transport, and I want to get this second engie factory, and then I want to just want to expand and protect those units. But that will be my game plan. Just get early factories, expand here with engies, protect that with units and spam, relatively much tech 1, because it’s a very open map try to raid a bit, and then get my transport relatively early to go here. So it doesn’t need to be a very complicated, the plan doesn’t need to cover too much. But something, so you are not lost.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=53m28s
“It doesn’t really matter how good the plan is. It is really important to have something to hold on to and something. You can always change the plan as well. I think it is really useful to at least have one. So you don’t end up in the situations that you, think about, you have lots of things to do, you need to protect raids, you have idle engies, idle factories, and so on, and on top of that you have the feeling in your mind like ‘holy shit, what should I do, I have no idea.’ . . . Even if your plan is not the best thing you can do, it is better than being completely lost because that will just stress you and lead to doing a lot of mistakes everywhere. And it is still better to have something to fall back to, in case you don’t really know what you want to do.”

ATTENTION

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=24m48s
Don’t focus 100% of your attention on just one battle. Zoom out and give orders to other groups of units even while a very important battle is happening. Even if the battle is very important, you can zoom out, give orders to other units, and then bring your view back to the battle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h05m50s
Losing takes away your attention. Losing makes you busy because you are losing things everywhere. Winning is much less stressful than losing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h33m42s
You should keep an eye out for unbuilt mass extractors while you are zoomed out. An unbuilt mex glows, in order to draw your attention to it. That is a design decision that was made in order to help players to save APM. The reason to look for these is so that when they get raided, you are reminded to rebuild them. But also, if you just forgot to build it in the first place, you should take the opportunity to notice it and build it. You should be in the habit of looking for that while you are zoomed out. You should have an automatic habit to look for open mexes and rebuild them immediately when they get raided.

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h17m08s
If you get into the habit of “every time I get to Tech 2, I make two T2 pgens” that is bad. On the other hand, if you try to only build as many as you need, and overestimate your power needs, and you end up building two T2 pgens and it wasn’t really necessary, that is less bad. In the first case, you are committed to playing the game in a thoughtless, sloppy way and you will not improve over time. In the second case, you are trying to improve and over time you will get better at deciding how many pgens you actually need. Being good at SupCom is not just about making the right decisions, it is about having a process to constantly improve. From the outside it looks the same (both people built two T2 pgens) but it’s actually very different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwwVVS5aGeA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=2h22m03s
When you play, if you realize you made a mistake, next time you change something. It doesn’t even matter if the change that you make, makes things worse. The point is to try something different to see if you can’t improve. That is how you fine tune a build order over time. It doesn’t really matter what you do. The point is to change one thing every time. Don’t get into the habit into repeating your mistakes every time. It’s about not forgetting to improve your process. So if you force yourself to always find 1 thing to change, after every game, you are less likely to forget to attempt to improve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=29m50s
Staying on Tech 1 is really good to learn the game. You can learn so many basics while spamming tech 1. When to move up in tech level is a difficult decision and it can lose you games. But if you stay at Tech 1 for a long time, you can learn the basics of the game: eco balance and unit management, the basic things you need to play the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h56m00s
In this lesson, we focused most on 20x20 maps. But that’s not what I would normally prioritize in teaching a player. Try your best on 20x20 maps, but to learn the game your focus should be on improving how you play 5x5 and 10x10 maps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h00m30s
When Zock is teaching people, he teaches strategies that work against the best players. He doesn’t want to teach things that only work against low-level players who make basic mistakes. He could teach people who to exploit those mistakes, but in the long term, they won’t learn how to fight against better opponents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=43m35s
It’s not bad to copy what you see in other replays. But don’t just copy it blindly. When you watch replays, if you see a strategy, think about whether it seems good or not. (Author’s note: I do see lower-rated players “copying” behavior without understanding it. For example, putting mass storages around T1 mexes. Or putting T1 pgens around all of their T1 mexes. If you don’t understand the reason behind the strategy/tactic that you are copying, you can end up with a “cargo cult” mentality.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=22m58s
Create good habits. For example, when you first get T2 power, make a T2 radar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=24m30s
If you understand the theory about how to use units (where to send them, when to retreat) then as you play, you will get better and better at unit movement. As you get better at the game and develop good habits, you will spend less time managing things like economy, you will have more time to spend on unit movement. (I think Zock’s point is that you don’t need to practice unit movement to become a better player. You need to practice everything else, but this part will just come naturally.)

SPECIFIC MAP ADVICE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=14m46s
Regarding Twin Rivers: this is an eco-heavy map, since it is so easy to defend the expansions, because the mexes are close together. You can’t really get an advantage by having map control because the expansions are so easy to defend. Once you feel safe, you should either start ecoing, or go all-in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=49m09s
Zock talks about where you should send your transport for rapid expansion on the map Tabula Rasa. You don’t need to drop close enough to your base that your engineer can just walk there in a short time. You want to drop the expansions that are far from your base. If your opponent drops engineers on your side, the important thing is to win the fight so that you end up securing your side. You will be delayed in getting all the mexes because you have to fight your opponent, but if you win the fight, you will get extra reclaim to make up for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=59m01s
It is a mistake to wait too long to make a transport on Flooded Tabula Rasa. The student made too many interceptors before making the transport. You don’t want your first transport to be too late. You want to build the power generators for it and assist it as soon as possible. Even if you don’t build factories on your opponent’s side to fight for it, if you just drop some engies and build 6 mexes, you might get to hold them for 2 minutes because it takes time for your opponent to get there. That’s still worth something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2WFQxymNMA&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h02m48s
On a naval map, making radars and sonars: in Roanoke Abyss, sonar is much less necessary because subs are not much of a factor. You use frigates to raid the islands and sonars would die really easily because it is such an open map. On Flooded Tabula Rasa, sonars are much more important. It is important to keep them alive, though. If they are going to die, then they’re not going to provide value to you so don’t make them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h36m38s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=1h57m42s
Regor VI Highlands: on that particular map, it is a big advantage to control the middle, because you can threaten to attack two places, the main base as well as the expansions on the other side of the pond (the 3-mex and 4-mex expansions clockwise from the enemy’s main base). The enemy has to try to defend both. You can build up tanks in one place and they need to have defenses in two places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcP-2px8yPw&list=PLJclJGPtIxW1Znl4idf8EEdHMnTzDJ810&t=51m46s
On Niflheim: if you can hold the two corners (bottom left and top right) you will basically win the game, because that (plus your base) represents about 80% of the map control (in terms of the number of mexes).

The FAF administration is planning to remove the ability of players to "ping" their teammates after their ACU dies:

@snagglefox said in Questions about performance:

Pinging after dying is disabled because of a potential exploit. For more information, read this PR: https://github.com/FAForever/fa/issues/2259

The "exploit" in question is:

Observers can use the "setarmyview" command to go from obs to an army view and then write messages and set map markers
that should not be possible since observers can see the entire map and thus can give vital information that might not be available otherwise

These OBSERVERS are people who were allowed by the host to observe the match. To be an observer, you need permission from the host (who can turn observers on/off)

These observers can ALREADY cheat. The easiest way to cheat would be for observers to be on voice chat with one of the players. Cheating that way is basically undetectable. Even having a referee in the same room as the player wouldn't pick up this cheating if the player was wearing headphones. It's basically impossible to stop.

IF an observer cheated using this method, by placing map markers for one team only, that would show up in the replay file. Cheating this way would leave a PERMANENT RECORD, easily verifiable, that the admins could use to instantly permanently ban the cheater. This permanent record would be part of every player's local replay file, including the team that was victimized by the cheating. Anyone who watched the replay could see that cheating happened and exactly what the cheating was and who did it.

The "problem" that they are trying to solve is not a problem in the first place: observers can already cheat in a way that is undetectable, so why do we need to ban a method of cheating that would leave evidence?

Now let's talk about the COST of imposing this fix: taking away the ability of "dead" players to participate in the match by giving helpful pings to their teammates. Why would you want to take that away from people? It's one of the ways that people cooperate and communicate. People who otherwise can't participate in the match are about to contribute something. It's hard enough to play when you are outnumbered by the other team. Being able to receive pings from your teammates can make a huge difference. It's something all of the players (with living or dead ACUs) want. If those players leave, they aren't even allowed to queue for ladder or TMM until the match ends. We gain nothing from tying their hands. It just makes the game worse.

The "problem" is not a problem at all. It's an interesting technical glitch that has no real-world consequences. It is an exploit that is useless to cheaters because it leaves complete evidence. The fix, on the other hand, is a HUGE PROBLEM. This fix is already part of the "FAF Develop" branch. I'm writing this to bring attention to this "fix" so we can prevent it from ever getting into the game.

Alternate method if you don't want to mess with game prefs:

Make a new sandbox game, pick a big map with lots of space

(optional: turn on cheats, set speed to +4 or variable. Just use cheats to get lots of mass and energy, don't use cheats to place buildings)

Build all of your templates

End the match

On the new computer:

Play the replay file

Step in to your own point of view

Select each of the things you built and choose "make template"

End the replay

You will have the templates saved, they will be there the next time you start playing

This is also an easy way to share templates between different players

@mr-rashy-pants

Open the FAF Client

Go to the "Hamburger Button" at top left - what is a hamburger button? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger_button

Select "show game.prefs file"

@jip How much would it cost to pay someone to figure out which bits to flip in the engine file to fix this nonsense forever?

Is there a way to change the amount? Right now it cuts off around 80%. Can that be boosted to 200%? Then it would never trip.

Please just put this into the game, it would help in team games a lot (people can overflow to teammates and won't have to worry about teammates overflowing to them to break tree reclaim orders)

We don't need the computer to handhold us to protect us from accidentally reclaiming things too fast

I had a lot of fun playing 1v1 on Setons Clutch and Sirgis. It's overwhelming to have so much going on but it's the same way for the other player. It's a different kind of experience than playing on a small map where you can control everything more optimally but it's not a bad experience.

If someone tries to ctrl-k more than half of their mass in a team game, change the order to "ctrl-k the acu only and nothing else"

Maybe make an exception if there's only a tiny number of units selected, like if someone ctrl-k two monkeylords to reclaim them you don't want that to be interpreted as a "throw"

@indexlibrorum said in T2 Bombers:

You weren't under 'constant T2 bomber attack', you were an overextended 3k HP com without AA in a game where your teammate was just airsniped and where you—10 minutes in—haven't scouted the enemy team even once.

If you don't scout, danger can be anywhere. Not even the forums are safe.

@Kilatamoro wrote: "Now do"

c'mon man, you have to make more effort than that if you're going to troll people

telling people "Now do [X]" is the laziest form of bad-faith argumentation

@kilatamoro said in Why do so many things have friendly fire disabled?:

Even with splash damage. It's like people with bad micro don't want it to be enabled. It would add more realism and start requiring occasional micro.

Example: I fly above friendly cruisers with splash with my ASFs with impunity while we both murder enemy torpedo bombers. Enabling FF would mean I have to intercept them earlier.

Reason 1: for some units, friendly fire creates problems even in a 1v1 setting. It's not fun if people have to do things like disable their cruisers from firing and then turn them back on again later. And if you forget to turn them back on, that's a problem. Or you might have to manually target your T2 PDs to make sure they don't do splash damage when a bunch of LABs try to run by.

Reason 2: the exact same thing, but it's even worse in multiplayer games, because you not only have to do that for your OWN units, you also have to do that for your allies, and you need your allies to do that for you. It would be very frustrating to have an ally's cruisers shoot down my own planes and then we're both mad at each other ("why didn't you turn off your cruisers and turn them back on again" "why did you fly there, why didn't you ping me first")

Reason 3: friendly fire creates a lot of opportunities for mischief, like intentionally killing allied units in a team game. That's why TMLs don't do friendly fire any more. People used to use TMLs to assassinate teammate ACUs.

=

One way to address this, without turning friendly fire back on, would be to reduce the damage that splash does to enemy units when friendly units are around. Every time a flak fired, the game would ask "is there at least one friendly plane in the splash zone?" and if the answer is "no" it would do full damage and if the answer is "yes" it might do half damage.

That would take away the potentially-unfair advantage of fighting over flak

But I don't know how eager people are for that -- I think most people don't want a fix for this