Posts made by PaulWay

Feel free to offer your own corrections Sylph.

Mate, all I can say is keep persevering. I get the impression that the team is doing their best to resolve the issues. I had a good game last night with no drops and minimal lag. We're getting there...

I think there's a key question that needs to be discussed here:

How do experienced players pass on what they know?

It's like experienced drivers being able to teach new drivers. At some point we automate how we drive; we don't think about all those checks of mirrors and the ability to seamlessly change down a gear, indicate, check lanes and talk at the same time. For some people it takes a lot of work just to be able to describe what they do. Other people learn how to describe this and can train new drivers.

In my experience (in ANZ FAF) there are lots of people who can tell you what to do in the moment, but can't describe why or how they decide to do that. The most obvious example of this is when people say "press shift-G and then ...." - when my shift-G may be mapped to something completely different. This doesn't tell me why to build exactly four generators, or why to build that particular unit mix, or how to manage the factories I have or to not power stall.

And the real point is that players build up habits - not just of which units or structures they build but also of how they analyze the map and plan out what to do. A good player will be subconsciously checking the power and mass meters all the time, and will be able to pause all factories to get through a power stall without really having to think. A really good player will never even power stall because they've seen that they're getting close to it and have just built enough power. An ordinary player like me will know to build this many power generators at this point in the game to avoid a power stall, but will still hit the stall at some point and have to consciously work at that point to get through it. A struggling player will hit a power stall and will spend a minute or more trying to deal with it, distracting them from the rest of the game.

How did the great player know to avoid the stall? They probably only vaguely recognise that condition. They could try to describe the things they do - build generators now, pause factories now, restart production now, etc. We need to try to describe how we came to that conclusion - when the power draw went from a minor issue to something to deal with to a major problem that takes their full attention.

So my general advice for players lower than me is:

• keep zooming out and looking at the map.
• build radar coverage, all the time.
• build up habits of unit builds, factory builds, etc to minimise how much you have to think about what you're doing.
• start that T2 mex upgrade by three minutes - no later than four - or you'll struggle.
• watch your team mates and chat. Reinforce them, try to work together. Tell them what you're doing when you can.
• never blame another player for something that happened. No-one likes being told they got it wrong. Just accept it and move on.
• power stalls are much worse than mass stalls. Build a bit more power than you need, all the time.
• don't build fire bases unless you absolutely have to. Go around them when you see them. Long range artillery or experimentals win the fire base battle.
• the 'why did you do that' is more important than the 'how did you do that'.
• accept that you will lose games. Sometimes it's not your fault. Keep playing, keep trying to have fun.
• You can always improve - but it's rarely by doing exactly what you did last time. Try to keep expanding your repertoire of game tactics and play styles.

I hope some of that's useful.

In general we can help new players stay with the game by being welcoming, by being fun to play with, and by helping when we can.

Matr1 said something helpful in a game I was in a while back. I was facing a player much higher rated than I am, and I was struggling. Someone on my team criticised me for not being able to fight back effectively. Matr1 said "Paul's a 900 - don't expect him to play like a 2000." Sometimes my role in the game is to be the ablative shield that slows down their attack for long enough that the other players on my team. That's not exactly fun, because I'm struggling constantly, and I can't balance my economy and my forces as well as a high rated player can. But I still serve a role. Criticising me because I'm not as good as you doesn't help anyone. Supporting me to help me be more effective - either by just being there in game with forces to help defend, or by telling me what I can be doing to help - makes it more likely that I'll improve.

Hope that all helps,

Paul

Is this available?

Test?

BTW, I run the Aussie TURN server, and it's up.

Will try rebooting again.

I'm using an USB sound device, so AFAICS disabling in the BIOS won't change anything for me there...

I've tried disabling all other sound devices in Windows. No luck. Surround Sound and other enhancements have always been turned off.

At least I can get feedback on this quickly, because sounds in the lobby also only play after one or two repeats.

Any advice greatly appreciated,

Paul

I've recorded two so far - basically of the same tutorial on Open Palms. One is just my natural voice, and the other is more in the style of Commander Zachary Arnold. Obviously, being Australian makes it more difficult to do an impression of a gruff US military commander. So I'd like to know people's thoughts on what style of voice they'd like to hear in a tutorial settings:

a) In the style of the original game voice-overs - i.e. US military sounding for UEF, etc.
b) Direct and clipped, no-nonsense - e.g. a standard instructor.
c) Neutral sounding - not friendly, not unfriendly.
d) More engaged and personal - more friendly rather than any of the other voices.

I'm thinking this particularly in the context of FAF trying to get more people into the game. I think we've already appealed to the military simulator people; maybe we can appeal to a wider audience with a less military style?

Thoughts?

Have fun,

Paul

Yep, AcidVash has a pretty smooth voice

I'm happy to do this. I've got a professional mic and mixer, and I can do a variety of accents (some better than others). Drop me a line

Have fun,

Paul

@arma473 Heh. "You obviously aren't interested". I find that judgements make a bad conversation, you know? Have you tried being more collaborative?

Retention and competition are inextricably linked in this game. It's fun to win, and no-one plays for long if they keep losing, even against the AI. But there are levels of competition, and I totally agree that people will stay if they have a good time even if they occasionally lose - that's why I stay

So you're right in that I'm not interested in beating Jagged or Zlo or whoever. But you're wrong in that I'm still interested in winning ladder games and team games I'm not afraid to be told what that is, but "you should know what you did wrong" isn't telling me what that is, it's being ineffable and superior.

I am totally interested in your lessons! I think small bites are good, lesson plans are good, and giving people rewards for progress is great. I hope I can contribute to this!

And the more plans and activity we have to train and retain people, the better. They'll reach more people and will apply to more people.

Have fun,

Paul

I bought SupCom when it was released in 2007 and played most of the way through the storylines; then SCFA came out and I played that for a bit but life intervened. Then I discovered FAF but mostly didn't like the actual online community because it was punishing being a noob still and the only advice people had was "play more games", "learn to play better" and "watch your replays to see what you did wrong". A friend of mine played FAF together vs AI for a while and then we discovered the ANZ FAF discord channel and I've been having a lot more fun.

So firstly I think that players stay if they have a group of friends to play with. You can lose to those friends occasionally but you can cope with that if people support you, you work together as a team and your mistakes are overlooked. People who trash talk need to be called out and settled down, and people who contribute to the team's success need to be complimented. A "learners discord server" or similar, with a small complement of experienced coaches there, might help contribute a community for new players.
But really the big problem I see is that if we taught drivers to drive the way we teach people to learn FAF, we'd have carnage on the streets every day.

With driving, you start a new driver out just doing the very basics in a safe environment. Then you might take them for a drive around an empty parking lot to learn a bit of control. Then and only then do you take them out into the world to do some driving on known routes in good conditions - and all the while an experienced driver (hopefully) is there to take control if they need to and give advice and encouragement.

The way we 'train' in FAF it's like we throw a new person into the drivers seat and say "OK, go". And then we blame them for crashing and say "just look at what you did wrong and don't do that next time".

Here's an example of a single exercise from a FAF training plan I'm working on:

• Map: Cobalt Valley or Theta Passage
• Exercise: Build one engineer, five labs, and one scout. Assign the lab/scout group a number and target enemy mexes and engineers. Practice moving the group around while continuing with your normal build orders.
• Objective: To kill one engineer and at least two mexes not in the core base using that lab/scout group.

This could be played vs an AI by oneself, or against a trainer playing the opposing faction who was in voice chat with the learner. That's a very basic exercise but it's clearly one that some newer players never learn. Then they get ravaged by LAB raiding and they think "this is unfair, I don't know how to do that". I've got ideas for exercises right up to T3 and experimentals. I'm happy to share this with other people - it's in its early stages (too many things to do, you know?)

The other thing I'd recommend is that in team games one person in the team take charge (a bit) and give directions. Coordinate your actions and make sure that people are getting the assistance they need. If there are newer players, check on them to see how they're going - and lend a hand if they need it. If you see them getting into trouble, help them out! You're almost always better off with two players than with one player dying early. People know they're struggling but they're doing their best and they'd far rather be helped than cursed.

I love this game and I love the community around it. Some of my best gaming moments have been winning, and losing, in Supreme Commander. If we can keep new players interested and learning, we'll all enjoy it more.

Have fun,

Paul