Hello Everyone, the Personal Trainer team has just finished a meeting in which we discussed a lot of topics for this year, and I wanted to share it with you!

I hope this document excites you as much as it excites the trainers, we have plenty to offer for this year, stay tuned.

If you're interested in assisting us or joining the trainer team, please get in contact with me

You can access it here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XGvbKdxiUQfmPHOlV8El--7NdQk_Xu_S34p_-mqYT6E/edit?usp=sharing

For those who want the shortened version:

1. Redoing The Guides System
2. TD Partnership (See Topic Six)
3. Map Breakdown project (based on mappols)
4. FAQ
5. TGS Air Guide
6. PoV Guides
7. Advanced BO Guide
8. Aeon Only Guide
9. Bronze - GM Series (needs authorised)
10. Co Op Openings (Side project)

I hear Janus cannot be stopped by Aeon Gun

Hello Everyone! As part of the Personal Trainer teams mission to be more proactive in this community, we thought that part of it should be you knowing more about us! In this Forum post you will see a quick summary of each trainer that is currently on the team, and what they may be able to offer you should you need training!

2025 Trainer Team

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FtXCommando

FAF ID: FtXCommando
Discord ID: FtXCommando

I am an analytical trainer that prioritizes solid fundamentals over unit interactions. This means I'm interested in instilling the habits that make you solid in the long term and which improves your overall gameplay rather than what specifically is needed to win in a precise scenario. I'm open to giving advice at any rating level or type of game.

Why did you join the trainer team?

I was here since the team first started, might as well as ask why the team joined me!

In your opinion, what is the best aspect of FAF?

Ever changing prioritizations of what matters. For example, something that is "nothing" can become valuable thanks to reclaim. In some late game situations, what once was an empty plain can become the most important part of the map and mexes can become luxuries just because of a particularly intense T3+T4 fight. Who wins it now wins the game.

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Grimplex

FAF ID: grimplex
Discord ID: grimplex

2.3k+ 1v1 player. Will teach solid fundementals and more advanced gameplay to anyone 1.8k+ 1v1 (Exceptions apply!)

What's your favourite unit and why?

Aurora as you can get great value out of it when used well.

What UI mod can't you live without now?

Idle engineers.

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Judoka

FAf ID: Skill-Issue
Discord ID: therealjudoka????

I'm a 1700-1800 ladder player, my global ranking doesn't really matter that much for me. Mostly playing 1v1s now but I'm also down for 2v2-3v3 teamgames.
Currently I have quite a lot of trainees in the 'FAF dojo' (Side project of mine) where I teach basically anyone who wants to improve regardless of ranking, my goal is to train as many people with a competitive spirit as possible in the best way so they can motivate each other for the ranking grind. I mainly got trained by Sladow and now I sometimes get training from Grimplex as well.

How did you get into Supreme Commander / FAF?

My neighbor showed me FAF, we used to play vanilla the classic way over LAN

What's your favorite unit and why?

Used to main UEF for the first 1500 games but now I'm either playing random in teamgames or Cybran in 1v1s. Favourite units so far:
#1 place: Brick as it doesn't miss as much as percies do and have a better use for drops
#2 place: Broadsword, simply bc it looks the best among all gunships
#3 place: Janus, cuz fire. I like fire.

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maudlin27

FAF ID: maudlin27
Discord ID: maudlin27

1400 3v3 mapgen player and formerly 1700 astro craters player), my main area of expertise is replay reviews for people playing against AI or sub-1k rated mapgen games. Developer of the M28 and M27 AIs.

How did you get into Supreme Commander / FAF?

I played supcom many years ago (campaign only) before playing it again through FAF in 2020 after watching Gyle casts.

What UI mod can't you live without now?

Advanced strategic icons (makes it easy for me to spot important units such as nukes and TMLs)

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Paradox_of_War

FAF ID: Paradox_of_War
Discord ID: Paradox_of_War

1.8k+ Team game player (prefer smaller team sizes)
1.8k 1v1 player (favorite game mode and specialty)

How did you get into Supreme Commander / FAF?

Originally played supreme commander on the xbox 360 as a kid. Then played supcom 2 for a while. Discovered FAF via Gylecast in 2013, but finally started playing FAF in 2016.

Why did you join the trainer team?

I joined the team simply because coaching is a very enjoyable activity for me. Especially when it comes to 1v1 I'm happy to share my knowledge and build up my trainees.

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Razana

FAF ID: Razana
Discord ID: Razana.XFP

1500 global rated map-genner and 1300 1v1 ladder warrior. Happy to teach anyone who is very new to the game.

How did you get into Supreme Commander / FAF?

I've been a fan of the original game since it was announced but never had a rig strong enough to even run it. I watched a random Gyle cast during the height of COVID and discovered FAF from there. Took the plunge a few years later.

What's your favourite unit and why?

The iconic Cybran Monkeylord because a stealthy ML popping out of the water to start lasering someone's base is never not funny.

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Seraphim-Noob

FAF ID: Seraphim-Noob
Discord ID: Seraphim-Noob

I am a 2.2k Setons Trainer who likes to break down things systematically. I have a variety of standard strategies which i can execute very well. And even though you know whats coming you cant defend against it.

What's your favourite unit and why?

Aeon Battleship - high damage, high speed of the shots, best Battleship

Why did you join the trainer team?

I got trained by people and wanted to pass this knowledge on. People got trained and train new people and i want to continue this cycle so FAF keeps being interesting to new Players

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Skrat

FAF ID: Skrat
Discord ID: Skrat

1700 global and 1600 1x1 player. There are no bad maps or modes for me. I usually help newbies who have just started playing the game or haven't logged in for a long time.

What's your favourite unit and why?

My favorite unit is the t1 bomber.
This little guy can do anything and doesn't care what minute of the game it is. Destroy important drops? - No problem! Burn your opponent some reclaim? - You've gone to a specialist. Destroy an experimental unit? - And this task will be done, just make him some friends. I probably won't list all of his abilities, just know that he's a cool guy.

Why did you join the trainer team?

I joined the FAF coaching team because I often saw questions and requests for help from newcomers on streams, in the comments under videos and in discord messages. I remembered how difficult it was for me to learn how to play. And I decided that I want to help newbies and share my experience with them.

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Sladow

FAF ID: Sladow-Noob
Discord ID: Sladow

I'm a more or less retired pro player who was active in multiple teams but focuses more on training people rather than playing now. Interested in any gamemode I hope I can answer your questions regardless whether it's about the game itself or the FAF structure around it.

How did you get into Supreme Commander / FAF?

My brother showed it to me back when I was in second grade. I guess he didn't expect me to play tournaments 15 years later lol.

In your opinion, what is the best aspect of FAF?

The reclaim mechanic. It's not a thing in most other RTS games causing the gameplay to be more linear as mass donations in FAF can immediately turn around whole games.

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Strydxr

FAF ID: Strydxr
Discord ID: starstrydxr

I have been playing FAF since May of 2022, and in that time I have gotten to 1200 1v1, 1400/1500 Global, and around 1300-1400 in other TMM modes. I tend to spend a lot of time teaching beginner players, and typically taking only one or two people on to teach them in a qualitative manner rather than having a massive group of people that I train. I tend to prioritise the basics, and help encourage growth in a competitive spirit and foster a more positive experience of FAF, including later seeing them contribute to the project, even if indirectly.

I have three main responsibilities within the FAF Project, which are:

• Trainer Team Lead
• Tournament Team Member
• Community Game Night

Each of these responsibilities in my mind can positively influence FAF to be more community orientated, and help foster a new generation of competitive players, even at the midrange ratings of 1k-1500.

I also run a 1v1 tournament discord that rotates tournaments on a Biweekly Basis, which you can see here (Discord invite link).

What's your favourite unit and why?

Janus! I love the versatility and utility of the Janus in the early stages of the T2 air stage in team games. They can help clean up armies, kill pgens, build power or even help snipe important targets! I remember recently seeing Yojih use 60ish Janus to almost one shot a Megalith, which is really impressive to me. (Replay ID for reference: 24034639)

Why did you join the trainer team?

I wanted to apply myself to a team that could genuinely make a difference to FAF in my eyes, and Sladow was gracious enough to give me a spot and help me gain my footing by training 1k and under players, helping me find myself in a team of like minded people, which would later change my duties to being more logistics and helping Sladow manage things until he stepped down.

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WilloWisppsi

FAF ID: WilloWisppsi
Discord ID: WilloWisppsi

2k global rated map gen mad man whose known for my less than orthodox strategies. Happy to teach anyone anything.

What's your favourite unit and why?

The Billy Nuke as most people see it as a crude tool used to squish enemy T3 armies when in reality it's a far more elegant weapon, capable of destroying disgusting amounts of enemy mass in ways many people don't realise are possible.

In your opinion, what is the best aspect of FAF?

The sheer number of strategies one can use to win a FAF game are staggering, not to mention the amount of unit combinations that are available to the players.

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Tournament: u1100 1v1 Tournament 2
Tournament Dates: 19/ 1 at 17:00UTC
Tournament Director: Strydxr

Challonge: https://challonge.com/vtwrhlrw
IRC: #u1100-2
Coverage: https://www.twitch.tv/unluckyseb77_

Rewards:
TBA

Tournament Format:
Following the first tournament's style, this tournament will be a Single Elimination Best of 3
Map Pool:
Announced on the day

Players Signed up:
Soverign31
05-13
UmbraSolis
Ktosiek
BodoFigwit
OriginalAngel

Feel free to sign up here and also join our discord for more tournaments!
https://discord.gg/XkkVSyDeft

I disagree with it being a rule, just foe whoever it is and don't play with them anymore. Rules are great in theory but n oy only do they cause a disconnect between players and mods, but they're also rarely honored and it creates more of a backlog for mods to handle, just foe and ignore imo, much simpler.

@phong reject titans and loyalists, embrace mech marines and hunters.

A little while agile, the FC clan and the remnants of T3 hosted a tournament of where the EU and USA were against each other, playing a series of maps, and the attendance was so great we had to draft an A team and a B team to make sure as many people could play as possible. Once asked about the tournament, people had positive reviews, and there were always talks of another being possible, I'd like to make that happen.

The last one was during the summer, as this is when the most people had a common period of free time. I would like to organize one for the start of Summer '25, in the hopes of giving FAF players from Europe and USA something to look forward to besides Summer Invitationals.

I'm unsure what would work best for everyone in regards to format, rules, and management in regards to the tournament, some suggestions or even feedback from the last one would be helpful.

Is this of interest to people? I think it'd be fun to reintroduce fun based seasonal tournaments besides Rainbow Cup.

Two years ago we had Community Game Nights run by our old Community Manager (CM) Deribus, after some time these lost interest and died down. Although, we have recently brought them back and are on our way to have our 3rd CGN on Saturday 28th of September, 2024 (Current projection as of this post being written). Although the progression of attendance has been constant full lobbies (or even overflow), the feedback given to these events this far seems to be rather sparse or outright not said at all, which is fine to operate under, but how can we improve this Biweekly event if we don't know the good, the bad, and the ugly?

I'd like to use this Forum post as a way to gather insights on this event, hopefully if this continually goes on and on the insights gathered can be used to make adjustments, improvements and to help other aspects of FAF.

Please feel free to make any comments you'd like in regards to the Community Game Night, I'd prefer you'd have been there for at least 3 of the games since we've started them back, but I know a few of those who have been in vc only may have some insights and concerns as well.

P.S. If you have any suggestions for themes as well, we'd love to hear those as well.

Hello Everyone, with the first tournament now concluded within the collective project of Bully, Paradox Vindex and I now completed with a resounding success, I feel its time we looked a bit more outward.

We'd like to make this project as public as we can, and incentivize active participation for both enjoyment and improvement.
Currently, we have a u1100 bracket and a u1500 bracket, with the latter having finished it's first tournament, and our winner being Razana.

So without further ado, feel free to come and play in these tournaments, we plan to have these regularly and welcome casters and players alike.

As for u1900 1v1 players, is there interest in having a bracket made for you? I feel like the numbers dwindle massively due to lack of organized play and therefore loss of motivation, perhaps this will help?

If there's any questions or feedback regarding the project, feel free to approach me about it, any insights are good insights : )

Discord: https://discord.gg/XkkVSyDeft

Bro's leaving, take this on your journey.

Cya around Sladow, good luck on the other RTS scenes.

@yew Community Game Night is an organised event that started two years ago when Deribus wanted to have more community interaction as the Community Manager. It was stopped due to lack of interest, however it was pushed back into a trial period that is doing quite well.

Essentially, it's just a night of where there's anywhere from 2-6 lobbies of a certain theme, we've done 4v4v4v4, FAF Beta (technical difficulties iirc) and Multiple Armies Union Control, with many more planned : )

All are welcome, people who are int he CGN VC do get priority, and those who are toxic and such can be removed to make space for those who can genuinely enjoy the event people put effort into hosting.

Overall just good times i suppose.

Hello Everyone, following the success of the u1500 tournament, we're now hosting a u1100 tournament!

All u1100 1v1 players are allowed to participate, although those who are exceedingly higher in other ratings may be asked to queue some 1v1 games to certify they're within the right rating bracket. This tournament will be Double Elimination and Best of 3

See you there : )
https://discord.gg/XkkVSyDeft

@phong Maybe if we buff UEF again she'll dm us back : (

Hello Everyone,
I think it's time we formalized Community Game Night as a permanent event within the FAF Community, and in my opinion that includes centralization of information and resources, as well as sharing a bit more of my vision for this project.

What is Community Game Night?
Community Game Night is self explanatory as a concept, it's a bi-weekly event ran by @Deribus and myself typically, this event is a series of games in which the community simply plays together, although I have a grander theme for this idea, and I want to make it a reality.
This event typically has a theme, such as Common Armies Union Control, 4v4v4v4, SACU Madness, SACU Rebalance Testing (UEF) etc, and these all bring us together as a community, where 2ks can come to chill, and new players can get themselves acquainted with regular faces. Overall it's a win win for everyone, and I can say with full confidence that they're very fun to be at for all ratings, if you haven't already participated I recommend you partake at least once, you don't know what you're missing!

How do I partake in Community Game Night?
We have a dedicated channel on the main FAF Discord which is now viewable by everyone, but only those with the Game Nights role can type within it. You can show interest there, or simply pop into the Community Game Night VC, as people in VC do get priority when we have games! There is no requirement other than showing up and playing, other than no toxicity, it won't be tolerated at all.

Where can I go for additional resources with this project?
For additional resources, this forum post will be continually maintained by myself and any other contributors to the project, you may also go to the Community Game Night channel on the main FAF discord, or get in contact with me directly any way you'd prefer, all three methods will catch you up to date, and may give you the insights you need!

My Vision for CGN
I always wanted CGN to be integral to FAF, and since it's return it's seen a resounding success within the community. I think this is a good opportunity to not only build upon that community spirit, but that we can use it as a way to make FAF better in terms of how it operates, bare with me for a second.
If you've attended a CGN before, You will likely have heard me say "We're doing x y z for Game Dev team" or "We're testing a b c for the Balance Team", and typically people are more than okay to contribute, making this an efficient way for contributor teams in FAF to get something useful out of it, and allowing players to see a more transparent insight into what we do behind the scenes.
Community Game Night is the stepping stone to a more cooperative community, and it helps everyone, I genuinely believe it will only get better, and that the more support it receives from players, the more it benefits them.

Can I contribute to this project?
Yes you can! We're always looking for more hosts, particularly within the EST timezone, as this will expand the amount of players who can reasonably partake, If you don't wish to host or help organize, just playing or promoting the project is more than enough, it helps more than you guys realize!!

That's about it, if there's anything I missed, or if there's any questions I'll reply to this post, feel free to get in contact with me about anything CGN related, I'm active on the discord and semi active on forums, you'll also see me on the client semi often.

Thank you guys for supporting my vision for this project!

Sign up, 1245

@phong Buff novax, I need muh lasers to autowin!!!

@phong said in Aeon Gun ACU:

@strydxr I'll be honest mate, I'm legitimately sad the Colossus is still in such a sorry state, a full 9 months after Jip published videos on how he fixed the bugs with the grabby arms on the official FaF Youtube channel. I'm not sad because I die to it, but because of what it means.

But that is more or less a settled issue warranting no further balance deliberations. It just raises the question, what good are discussions anyway, if problems linger for so long even after they're decided upon?

I recently hosted a game with beta balance by mistake (i was meaning to pick fafdevelop) and was informed it's not up to date, so I can't even provide what little help I might, by testing, although I want to.

With regards to @FtXCommando's proposal, I tend to agree that T2 is in a good enough state right now to consider such a change, but again, I'm not really confident my opinion on this matter is of much worth.

reject colossus, embrace percival push.

I'm interested

@blodir
1063 in 4v4 TMM, QueueSlaving is hard work.

@phong repent my brother, we make Aeon Gun Chrono and OC the GC into submission. For allah.