Forged Alliance Forever

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-05-04T23:10:07+02:00

Will do

Statistics: Posted by noobymcnoobcake — 04 May 2012, 23:10

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-05-04T19:31:28+02:00

Please put this link in the OP: http://forums.gaspowered.com/viewtopic.php?t=27171

_PINK made it years ago and it goes up to higher levels of play (better: ambition) than the list of mistakes here but it really applies to the list we have here as well.

A shortlist of things:
Don't build anything you don't need:

Engineers that won't help building faster when you are assisting is a waste of mass and time they need to get built by the factory.
Interceptors when the enemy has no air units. Build one interceptor if you want to protect yourself from an early bomber but if you find out the enemy has no air factory, build bombers on your own instead.

Keep your units at work:

If you have a group of tanks that's standing idle somewhere, get them to move right away.
If you have LABs, use them to harrass the enemy and run away as soon as a tank comes in sight.
Idle engineer? Get him to work.

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-05-01T13:23:22+02:00

Anaryl wrote:
You might be able to tell but your units can't

Which is why you manually control them and direct them to attack the real unit.

Statistics: Posted by uberge3k — 01 May 2012, 13:23

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-30T14:06:45+02:00

Putting TMD right by shield base is a bad idea yes agree with that one

Not moving acu when t1 arty is present will lose you the game in the first 10 mins agree with that one

Assisting shields is a bad idea because it requires so much mass to do. You are far better off just building a bunch more

Using drones offensivley when unit restrictions are on is not playing nice.

I can easily tell if radar is being jammed and a single interceptor fixes that for good. Jamming is rather useless with more skilled players

If your units are not in combat then they are a waste of mass. Sniper bots have there use but it is rather limited. I find tac missiles are more effective for killing t3 mobile arty if it is out in the open. Also the best way of preventing sneak attacks is to scout properly and have good radar coverage.

Yes it can be a good idea to have a few missiles in your launcher before you start firing as then you can devistate half the base rather than 2 mex before TMD shows up

Statistics: Posted by noobymcnoobcake — 30 Apr 2012, 14:06

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-30T12:45:19+02:00

placing tmds right next to sheild gens
they should ALWAYS be as close to the edge of the sheild as possible giving it more reach and more time to shoot down the incoming missile

overlocking options due to disabled units
the most common is the UEF ACU drones early in game
they are much faster than other engineers and players that know anti air is off wont build anti air, so you can use this to quickly build outlying mexs, and potentially steal several enemy mexs ( i prefer to capture than convert mexs as its usually cheeper )it will take him along time to build mobile anti air and get it to your drone, even if they do you can simply run away
also on maps like castles / alpha 7 you can get to the center first and build several mexs and benifit with the extra mass very quickly ( catles has 12 mass points in the center ) even at T1 thats 24 mass, all other races have to get an engineer to the edge, then build a t1 shipyard
not supercharging sheilds
having engineers assisting sheilds ( hives + kennels ) have seen many noob fall
although it will not give you much it really can save your bacon having a few idle or lower tech engineers assisting a sheild generator and can ( givern enough of them ) can keep your sheilds up long enough to keep experimentals at bay

overlooking units
in a longer game, how many t3 sniper bots do you see ?? i always have a few wandering about my base, they can outrange almost any unit and can pretty much one shot most units youll come across ( think t3 missile launchers, t3 mobile arty ) having a few of them can really mess up an experimental or provide a backup agasint sneak attacks. ive had players raging hard as a secret attack on my base was completly wiped out by a handfull of sniperbots
or how many t1 frigates do you see ?? the radar jamming really can suprise an opponent if he sees a large fleet massing when its just a few expendible t1 units ?

having firebases open up to early
ive had players build a stealthed firebase, and the second the first arty / tml is built, they start firing, this openly gives away its location and serves little purpose, a better idea is to build a few and only start firing once your location is revealed or once you have suffecient firepower to take your opponent by suprise

not moving during combat
espeically agasint early arty rush, alot of players will stand still so your arty can just blast them

Statistics: Posted by arandomuser — 30 Apr 2012, 12:45

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-30T07:13:57+02:00

noobymcnoobcake wrote:
also you dont get mass when upgrading mex - in 3599 this was true but fixed in FAF. They used up mas while paused and didnt upgrade and stuff. But it can sometimes be better to upgrade a mex to T3 in base than surround a slightly more vulnerable one in the field.

No not as simple. It stopped producing if you were upgrading it and you happened to run out of mass in stock.
The trick was to pause the mex before your storage runs out. Trick that some beginners took for cheats lol.

Oh and BTW , in some conditions even pausing the mex failed. So it stopped producing, and stopped upgrading while consuming mass (Well at least the display was showing consumption). I never figured out why.

Statistics: Posted by -_V_- — 30 Apr 2012, 07:13

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T18:37:33+02:00

Yes, a mex produces when upgrading.

There was a bug in 3599 where it was stopping if your mass stock was empty, but it's fixed.

Statistics: Posted by Ze_PilOt — 29 Apr 2012, 18:37

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T18:19:26+02:00

there , I follow you, nice point, indeed.

noobymcnoobcake wrote:
also you dont get mass when upgrading mex.

are you sure?
I was convinced otherwise.
the mex is still producing during the upgrade process.
even if you see a negative production, it is actually its consumption minus its production.

Statistics: Posted by Alcide — 29 Apr 2012, 18:19

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T18:16:57+02:00

Alcide wrote:
the T3 mex give a +12 bonus only over T2 mex (18 - 6 )
4600 /12 = 386 mass per 1 mass production
build mass storage

The numbers you are using are the numbers for a mass extractor that is NOT surrounded by storage. This is why it's important to cap a T2 extractor before upgrading it. Surrounding an extractor by storage gives it a 50% bonus in production.

T2 capped extractor = 6 + 50% = 9 total production
T3 capped extractor = 18 + 50% = 27 total production

Going from T2 capped to T3 capped = 27 total production - 9 we don't count because we already had it = 18 bonus production. The point was if you have already capped extractors it's more efficient to upgrade them then it is to cap another T2 extractor that doesn't have storage yet, NOT that you should consider upgrading a T2 extractor that doesn't have storage yet (you shouldn't)

Statistics: Posted by muzzl — 29 Apr 2012, 18:16

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T18:33:10+02:00

also you dont get mass when upgrading mex - in 3599 this was true but fixed in FAF. They used up mas while paused and didnt upgrade and stuff. But it can sometimes be better to upgrade a mex to T3 in base than surround a slightly more vulnerable one in the field.

Statistics: Posted by noobymcnoobcake — 29 Apr 2012, 18:16

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T18:05:51+02:00

muzzl wrote:
Can somebody explain very specifically how surrounding a T1 PD by walls helps it? I tried this a few times because I saw others doing it but I noticed that units could still shoot it over the wall. I saw T1 tanks, ACU, and ofc T1 Artillary shooting it past the wall, and it doesn't stop an ACU from walking up and capturing it... So is there any unit these walls actually protect it from? Which units exactly?

the walls are extremely good against certain T2 units like the riptide too
http://www.faforever.com/faf/unitsDB/un ... bp=UEL0203.

muzzl wrote:
4 storage = 800 mass for 3 bonus production (around a T2 extractor) = 266.66 mass per production.
Upgrading capped T2 = 4600 mass for 18 bonus production = 255.55 mass per production.

4 storage = 6000 energy for 3 bonus production = 2000 energy per production
Upgrading capped T2 = 31625 energy for 18 bonus production = 1756.94 energy per production

the T3 mex gives a +12 bonus only over a T2 mex (18 - 6 )
4600 /12 = 386 mass per 1 mass production
build mass storage

Statistics: Posted by Alcide — 29 Apr 2012, 18:05

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T18:02:37+02:00

It is definitely better to surround a T2 extractor with storage before you upgrade it to T3, but it is actually slightly more efficient to upgrade a T2 extractor if it is already capped then adding storage to another T2 extractor. I'd still say it's best to cap a few T2's before you start upgrading any of them for the storage itself and immediate returns, but you might find these numbers interesting if you didn't know them:

4 storage = 800 mass for 3 bonus production (around a T2 extractor) = 266.66 mass per production.
Upgrading capped T2 = 4600 mass for 18 bonus production = 255.55 mass per production.

Energy may not be as important, but it works out for that too if you only count the cost for the upgrade itself and not the fact that the extractor will continue to use more energy:

4 storage = 6000 energy for 3 bonus production = 2000 energy per production
Upgrading capped T2 = 31625 energy for 18 bonus production = 1756.94 energy per production

Statistics: Posted by muzzl — 29 Apr 2012, 18:02

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T17:52:16+02:00

Aouras have real problems with walls when they are on the water and the PD is on the beech as they cannot shoot over them. Mantis also have quite a few shots hit walls. It does increase the survivability of the PD significantly in some situations for a very cheap cost (8 mass compared to 250 for PD)

EDIT
it works against al t1 tanks when they are shooting uphill at the PD and makes it VERY stupid to attack them without arty when this is the case as they can get 20 or so kills.

Statistics: Posted by noobymcnoobcake — 29 Apr 2012, 17:52

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-29T17:38:42+02:00

Can somebody explain very specifically how surrounding a T1 PD by walls helps it? I tried this a few times because I saw others doing it but I noticed that units could still shoot it over the wall. I saw T1 tanks, ACU, and ofc T1 Artillary shooting it past the wall, and it doesn't stop an ACU from walking up and capturing it... So is there any unit these walls actually protect it from? Which units exactly?

Statistics: Posted by muzzl — 29 Apr 2012, 17:38

Re: Common mistakes made by noobs

2012-04-28T14:29:21+02:00

Exactly some setons air pros do this. Adding it

Statistics: Posted by noobymcnoobcake — 28 Apr 2012, 14:29