nhammen

Well, today I ended up on a team that had no commanders, and so I decided to step up to the task, even though I had no experience. The first thing I noticed about being commander: I don't know how to bring up the menu... Oh crap. Oh well, T still allows me to do stuff when I am looking at the flag icons, so I gave UAVs and Orbital Strikes at the appropriate targets, but I know you can order that stuff at places other than flags, and I had no idea how, other than by driving my buggy there and pressing T myself which is pretty dumb (but its what I ended up doing). I could look at the instruction book to find out, but only if I stopped commanding for however long it took me to find the information, and I decided that that wasn't worth it, because I would be going from slightly useful to completely useless for a period of time if i did this. So, I used B to talk to my squad leaders over the mic and ask them how, but didn't expect much, because they hadn't been using their mics at all before this. But I still got pissed off because I got no answer. Eventually I lost (by only 20 or so tickets!), and immediately reached for my box and got the instruction book out. Caps lock. That's all that they had to tell me. And they didn't because they are evil little... wait a second. According to the instruction book, when you are commander, B only talks to selected squads... and I didn't know how to select squads yet, so my mic chat was going to precisely nobody. They never heard my question. And so I got very embarrassed about getting angry when it was my fault. Luckily, by the same reason they couldn't hear my question, the squad leaders didn't hear how angry I got either... Anyways, I thought someone might get a good laugh about my stupidity. I sure did after the embarrassment wore off.

Edit: Oh yeah, and one of my squad leaders kept saying requesting supplies, but wouldn't tell me where..., and of course, I used the same incorrect method to ask which flag he wanted them on. My personal thought is that since the game knew it was my first time commanding, and I had the smart messages or whatever they are called turned on, the game should have said that I need to press caps lock to access the command screen. That's who I should be angry at! EA, for not including in-game instructions. Well, it doesn't matter... I don't think I'll be forgetting that particular control very soon.

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- Drake_Anra

Arithea

Commanding for the first time can be very intimidating. I still won't command on certain maps because I don't feel I have a good enough idea of the normal flow of battle on them to be much good, and I like to think I've gotten decent as a commander (though I'm miles away from Ainselie and a few others). Squad leading still incorporates most of the skills you use as a squad member with some instruction-giving additions, like setting waypoints and objectives, but commanding is a whole different ball game. Props for taking on the mantle; most people will go without a commander and complain about it instead of filling the position themselves. Also, check out Zoraster's commanding guide 2.0 for some really good advice on commanding effectively. It really helped me.

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MDFubar

Cudos to you for stepping up to the plate. To take charge and make mistakes is better than to sit back and let things just happen.
Great Job!

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Augustus Gloop

Completely screwing up (which if you brought your team to within 20 is NOT what you did) with good intentions is worth 10 commanders just looking to pump their score. Command more, but now that you've been there you know what the important basics are and make sure you brush up on your default keys beforehand.

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Specterr

My hats off to you, commanding can be scary for the first couple times, nobody wants to feel the wrath of 25+ annoyed teammates when you OS the wrong team

Most people (especailly TG people), will never get upset with a commander who is at least trying, as long as you don't use it to stat pad, start running around in a walker, or head to the front lines with your ubber zeller, nobody likes those commanders.

Pfeil22

Kudos, nhammen! The role of Commander is a vital one and extremely important on our servers. As already mentioned, so long as your issuing orders and giving your all, no Squad Leader in their right mind will fault you for making a few mistakes. Very few people start off as great commanders, but I doubt you will find a better place to learn how to become one than here at Tactical Gamer.

To put your experience in some perspective, I just commanded for the first time this week and ran into some of the same troubles. Quite embarrassing for someone who has logged over 800 hours playing BF2142. I couldn’t figure out how to drop supplies on a Squad Leader for the life of me!

Lorax74

What a n00b...

I have quite a few hours logged in the game as well and am not at all proficient at the commander's interface.

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TG-9th Lorax74

rage4order

Props to you for stepping up. It is a rewarding experience commanding on the TG servers, take the time and you will be an awesome commander.

If you have not done so already here are a couple of great guides to commanding:

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...de-v2-0-a.html

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/battlef...d-leaders.html

Best of luck in your journey.

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|TG-8th|RAGE

birdie_in_Texas

way to go...just keep at it..if you can get the morons to communicate, or even if they are willing to "try" and follow orders, it is a rewarding experience....you making th effort speaks volumes, and we hope that you will try more and more....as stated above, it is better to try and fail than to not even try at all..

you freakin rock!

birdie

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spiff913

Was that the round on Sidi? I thought you were awfully quiet...

Kept sending us in to die attacking Offices, but we finally did take it.

Good job and keep it up - if you CO, I'll SL !!! What could go wrong?

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SharinganTH1422

PLEASE PRESS CAPS LOCK WHEN COMMANDING FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!!

After that it's fairly easy

Lol, just kidding, firstly, just saying well done in filling those commander boots, it's a tall order, so expect to make some mistakes when doing it the first few times, and you won't hear criticisms from anyone here if you're giving it your best attempt, and I doubt most would've gone round in an FAV deploying things, and even less people would've thought of their team first and thought, "I'll still be more useful to my team doing this than taking a few minutes looking that up."

Just remember all the things you hear your SL complaining about the Commander while in a squad over VoIP like "Why didn't the CO tell me that they slipped past us to the back flag? He should be doing regular SAT Track's to see if people are breaking through, and then by pressing the B (default) button he could tell all of the SLs about it, or if he wanted to tell an individual SL, he could click on the squad in the top left corner and press V." or "A UAV, Orbital Strike or EMP Strike would help right now, I mean they're breaking right down the side and camping there, the commander should be able to see that with the SAT Track and maybe they could help us out a little bit here."...

...Or something like that...

Remember, the SAT Track lets you see EVERY ENEMY ON THE MAP. You are the eyes for your SLs, you must tell them if there is even a slight chance of a serious danger coming, and spot it, by right clicking on the red dot and then left-clicking the option "spotted." (Spotting it multiple times will also mean that the dot will stay on the map for longer, and even after the dot has disappeared, clicking where it disappeared, and then pressing spotted will reveal it again. Note: you might see a red dot, but when you spot it it may be an enemy that was eliminated, so it will come up as a question mark, in which case you'll know what it is.) Also, when dropping Orbital Strikes, remember that they attack a very large area. Try to get as little of your men in the strike as possible. Also, using EMP's and OS's with the goal of getting a solitary vehicle should only be on a map that is mostly infantry based. E.g. They're walker is wreaking havoc on the section between Harbour and Toll Station on CampG, you are PAC, you have Harbour (the flag closest to the PAC UCB if you are not familiar with the map) and EU have all of the other flags, you're Walker is down, so you can not rely on the walker to take the opposing walker down. An OS followed by an almost instantaneous EMP will take that walker down (or it should at least do a great damage to it, in which case a lone engy/rorsch can hopefully finish it off). However, if there is a walker on a map with lots of vehicles, e.g. Sidi Power Plant, you can hope that another vehicle/rorsch/engineer will take it out, and should instead use the OS for something else, (not the UCB, it is against the rules to OS the UCB)

I would appreciate criticisms on what advice I have given, because I'd not want to give wrong advice, on a subject that I have decent experience, but not lots, especially compared to quite a few other TGers (I'm looking at you ainselie ).

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Anger is a gift - Malcolm X

...If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same...

daithi1

One thing to bear in mind, snipers using gost recon yokie I THINK come up as a slightly bigger red dot and cannot be spotted and don't come up on UAV but do on Sat Track (Voip = man-down, no-voip = flag lost). Also don't spot while Sat Track is up it doesn't do anything. Another nice thing todo is EMP a squad which is defending a flag before one of your squads ruush it, SLs love it . Never (well almst never) accept requests from SLs. Due to bad design you can't zoom while there is a request up. So I just reject and say over voip to wait a second. Then obviously zoom in and assess the situation. So to all you SLs out there it is easier for the CO if you make requests over voip rarther than through the game interface. At least once in around I usually launch and orbital rarther than spot , so be careful when spotting!

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MDFubar

When taking down a vehicle, it is better to EMP then OS. You disable the vehicle and the shields, the enemy cannot move and then you place the orbital right on them. If you really have a problem with someone getting through and you have a moment, zoom in and help the squad chasing him. You can actually see where they are and guide the SL in.
SPot, SPot, SPot, Spot! The Sl's will tell you what they see, but you need to tell them what you see. You can see the bigger picture, they are more focused on thier particular area and staying alive.

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Specterr

Also, not sure if everyone knows this (I didn't when I first commanded) it's faster to right click and select EMP and OS than if you used the button at the bottom of your command screen.

Geranium

At least you stepped up to the post. Besides, it sounds like you did really well for your first time commanding!

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Please forgive my frequent grammar and game knowledge flubs; I'm rusty in both areas. :)

Hope to playing BF 2142 and COD 4 on the TG server as soon as I've built a respectable PC.