Basics for SG
Posted: Fri 25. Jul 2008, 14:09
I just put on paper a few basics of SG that most of us already know but that some might not. It always good to refresh our knowledge of the game if we want to improved. I would like everyone to participate to that ''manual of basics'' by replying things they know and that can help us. I will update the manual with your knowledge.
•Battle end bug
When you rein a battle and the ‘’battle has ended’’ message appear even if the battle is obviously not finished, hold your request for 30 seconds. You will then rein the battle normally.
•Retreating
Hit F11 key instead of right-clicking the portal. This way, you won’t need to confirm your desire to retreat with the F5 key or the mail icon. Be aware that you still might need to micro a bit (with ground units) when retreating that way to ensure that your units don’t block in the portal graphics.
Also, once you have press F11, even if you right-click the portal, the F11 order still in memory (for a certain time –around 1 minutes or so… need to be confirm) so you still won’t need to confirm your desire to retreat. BUT!!!! If you modify one of your unit’s ability, the order is removed from memory.
Ex : You hit F11 to retreat your nix and then realise that you are not on after burner (AB). You then turn your AB on, the F11 order is removed from the memory. Therefore, once your units reach the portal, you will need to confirm your desire to retreat. To avoid such an annoying problem, once you activate or deactivate an ability, simply re-hit F11.
•Retreating while changing port
Sometimes, you need or want to change port after reining a battle. Many reason can motivate that decision, but it won’t be discuss here. I prefer to explain the best way to do it.
First you need to know that you can only retreat in another portal if :
1. You didn’t already retreat earlier in your initial portal. You still can change portal if all your units died and you re-rein the battle though.
2. The portal you want to retreat lead to a map that was owned by your faction when you enter the battle AND is still owned by your faction when you retreat (that is one of the reason why BC sometimes wait before letting you in…). A battle can occur in the map where lead the portal as long it is the color of your faction.
To retreat, right-click in the direction of the portal you want to change for. While moving in that direction, press F11 and then right-click AT the portal you want to change for. The reason you do that is because when you F11, your units will automatically try to retreat from the last portal you rein.
By doing that, your units will retreat automatically in your new portal without the need to confirm your desire to do so (F5 or mail icon…)
•Microing and selecting units
This will be treated in another tread and also need practice to really be effective. But you should know at least that you can :
1.select all your units by hitting backspace (usefull to move all units at once but horrible to bloc or poc a poc)
2.Shift-clic a unit to select all of your unit of the same type in the screen (usefull to prepare your group…)
3.select a single unit by hitting the nuber related to hit OR by left-clicking on that unit (usefull to block a poc and poc a arbed or splash-damaged poc)
You can always use ctrl-S or ctrl-E to move a single unit. By doing that, you have more control on the unit path.
•Skipping intro
When you CTD or simply when you start your game, at the moment you see an intro page, press ESC frenetically until the logging screen appear. You save about 5 seconds when you do that…
•Skipping lab intro
As for the skipping intro tips, when you enter the lab and you choose between equip and upgrade, as soon you click one of those 2 icon, press ESC. The page you want will appear instantly without its animation. Not much, but between 1 and 2 seconds saved here…
•Reining units
Wait for clearance : try to be aware of your portal. Don’t rein ground units when the portal is full of other ground units OR when an allied try to retreat its units. Wait a few seconds, holding your rein. The less traffic we have at a portal, the fastest units are where they suppose to be on the map. You can also estimate when people will rein from your portal. If you retreat your hawks at the same time someone retreat its arbs, you can already know that he will probably rein at the same time of you. Wait 2 or 3 seconds for him to rein before reining yourself.
When you rein, try already to move from the portal. Don’t stay there. If you have phasic units, select your phaser, move them where you want to phase your units and then select your phasable units and move them away from the portal. DON’T bloc it!!! Also, don’t arb/treb/balls from port in a way you block it unless its essential. If its not a matter of losing the game, take a few seconds to move your arbs/trebs/balls out of the way to the portal. Then, you allow other to rein and retreat without any problems.
•Moving units while an allied is moving other direction.
When you cross other units, you will be able to see that the AI path become completely f**k-up. Units continued trying to go where they suppose to go, but sometimes they simply stop moving or even worse, start going in the wrong direction. It’s because the AI try to find a new path to go where it need to go while having an interactive obstacle to deal with. In a perfect world, players would analyze what units have priority. But assume that you will be the only one to make that analyze… The simplest thing to do then is to stop your units. The AI will easily find path, and the situation will be resolved in a matter of seconds. Same thing happen when you are followed by a faster type of units. If you judge (don’t be selfish here pls) that it is more important that the units behind you get to a poc or something, immobilize your units, let the units pass, and continue your walk as soon the way is cleared.
•Prepare wight for phasing (on Mp not Relic)
You want to stop a poc with your phasic wights… you have 2 jorias and 10 wights. Only use hotkey to select them. In my case : jor 1 =1, jor 2 = 2 and wights = 3. I’ll continue with those hotkey, but adapt the example to your configuration.
I press 1 and right-click the poc to send my jor to the poc (a spot that I have carefully chosen) I want to stop. I press 2 and right-click the mini-map to send my second jorias in position (sometimes to prepare to defend a poc, but sometimes, I prefer to send my 2nd jor as a back-up at the poc I want to stop). I double hit 1 to get a view of my first jor. Once it’s near the poc (I already know its final destination), I double-hit 3 (having then my wight on my screen) and start the over loader (OL) of my wight. I then SINGLE hit 1 to select my jor but keeping my wights on my screen and right-click as fast as possible on my wights to phase them on the poc. As soon your wights are phased, double hit 3 again to center on the new position of your wight and aim units ON the poc.
Except for the OL, you can use that technique for any phasable units.
•Dealing with mines
When you face air mines or ground mines and you judge that your team will benefit from them to be removed, alt-Q your units and activate your AB. You will then be able to destroy more mines than in other alt-position or without AB on. Its also possible to stop all your units, select 1 unit and move it in the mines in order to create a corridor. You repeat that process until you have a safe corridor to move your units, but I generally find that technique way to long and useless to tell you to do it…
•Try not to use broken portal
Some portal in SG are what we called : BROKEN. A broken portal is a portal that has been stupidly placed by the level designer of the map. The result of a broken portal is usually a lack of space for a good mobility of the units, creating a congestion really easily (sometimes, with only one player…)
•Use fast hero!!!!! /fasthero cost 3 Uran for 3 Hours
No text really… Just use it if you can!
•Double hit nbr to get view of your units…
When double hit a hot key that is assigned to units, you will automatically be centered on that unit. Do it when you need to see what’s happening to your unit.
•Being MWed, SCed or Emped?
When you are in one of those, turn your TK on and call in the faction chat that you need a TK. A good/aware BC will normally pinging your units. If you see that no one can or will come to TK you, retreat from the battle and re-rein (unless the battle is cut… be aware of that too).
•Always use name when calling
When you want someone to have an information (Yrus, tk me!!! – Link, you suck :p – StRage, poc b3 – etc.), always start your sentence with at least 4 letter of the name of the character you want to talk to. Yup, if you type in four letters in anyone's name, it flashes on the screen. Take UScitizen for example. You could type citi, usci, or scit and make the comment flash on my screen. By doing that, the sentence will flash on the character’s owner screen. You have then more chance for him to read it!
•READ CHAT BOX!!!
DO IT!!! It's simple and usefull!!!
•BC, PING!!!
BC, be aware of the reality of the battle… ping dangerous units (arbs, balls, etc.), emped or MW/SC allied units, poc that are being poced and that need to be stopped, poc that are empty and can be poced, etc. To do so, alt-double-left-click on the map or the mini-map.
•Choosing port
When you choose a battle, try to identify before reining the best port to take. Try to remember if there is a broken port in that map and what is the map that lead to that port, try not to go at the same port that EVEYONE else is going unless really needed (use your judgment), select a port that fit better with your units (ex : you have arbs, choose a port where you can easily reach a poc from that port instead of an isolated no-life port far from anything…). A good thing is to call the port you choose… It usually help other people choosing their own port and also usually avoid a massive crowd at the same port.
•Split damage
Don’t over kill. I’ll take Pelicans as example. When you see that your Pelis are killing the enemy units in one blow or that after 2 shot, the target unit have only a few hit point left, separate your pelis in 2 group. Assign a number for each group (by ctrl-hitting a number) and micro between those 2 group to maximize the damage and minimize the time needed to get rid of the units targeted.
•Leave a unit
Exept in some rare case, it usually a very good habit to leave 1 or 2 units from a set, forcing that player to retreat all the way to his portal or even better, if that player is stupid, to let him continue to play with his 1 or 2 units, creating then a (lets say) PR 10 with no impact at all
•Cycling your units
Until your units reach level 10, they usually gain level just by reining in a battle. You don’t need to kill any other unit. To avoid having no impact in the game, it is often better just to cycle these units until lvl 10. To do so, rein them wait 1-2 second and retreat them. That’s it!!! Try to choose a portal with few player so you’ll minimize the chance to be in their way.
•Don’t hesitate to ask questions to more experimented players. They usually happy to help.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions to more experimented players. They usually happy to help :p
•Retraeting from a battle
Before retreating from any battle, make sure you'll have enough space to get back in. It's really annoying when a BC counts pr perfectly only to have a low pr guy retreat. Do not retraet a battle that is cut... the reason is obvious!
I might have done some mistake, please tell me if so!
One last thing : even if you know all this, it's always possible to play without applying it. In a battle, we sometimes forget stuff, we deal with stress and so on. The only thinkg that is very important is to try to incorporate these tips as a natural way of playing. With time, you won't even need to think about it, you will do it. And then, you will start to be different from bad and just normal players.
-----LeiTwOlF-----
•Battle end bug
When you rein a battle and the ‘’battle has ended’’ message appear even if the battle is obviously not finished, hold your request for 30 seconds. You will then rein the battle normally.
•Retreating
Hit F11 key instead of right-clicking the portal. This way, you won’t need to confirm your desire to retreat with the F5 key or the mail icon. Be aware that you still might need to micro a bit (with ground units) when retreating that way to ensure that your units don’t block in the portal graphics.
Also, once you have press F11, even if you right-click the portal, the F11 order still in memory (for a certain time –around 1 minutes or so… need to be confirm) so you still won’t need to confirm your desire to retreat. BUT!!!! If you modify one of your unit’s ability, the order is removed from memory.
Ex : You hit F11 to retreat your nix and then realise that you are not on after burner (AB). You then turn your AB on, the F11 order is removed from the memory. Therefore, once your units reach the portal, you will need to confirm your desire to retreat. To avoid such an annoying problem, once you activate or deactivate an ability, simply re-hit F11.
•Retreating while changing port
Sometimes, you need or want to change port after reining a battle. Many reason can motivate that decision, but it won’t be discuss here. I prefer to explain the best way to do it.
First you need to know that you can only retreat in another portal if :
1. You didn’t already retreat earlier in your initial portal. You still can change portal if all your units died and you re-rein the battle though.
2. The portal you want to retreat lead to a map that was owned by your faction when you enter the battle AND is still owned by your faction when you retreat (that is one of the reason why BC sometimes wait before letting you in…). A battle can occur in the map where lead the portal as long it is the color of your faction.
To retreat, right-click in the direction of the portal you want to change for. While moving in that direction, press F11 and then right-click AT the portal you want to change for. The reason you do that is because when you F11, your units will automatically try to retreat from the last portal you rein.
By doing that, your units will retreat automatically in your new portal without the need to confirm your desire to do so (F5 or mail icon…)
•Microing and selecting units
This will be treated in another tread and also need practice to really be effective. But you should know at least that you can :
1.select all your units by hitting backspace (usefull to move all units at once but horrible to bloc or poc a poc)
2.Shift-clic a unit to select all of your unit of the same type in the screen (usefull to prepare your group…)
3.select a single unit by hitting the nuber related to hit OR by left-clicking on that unit (usefull to block a poc and poc a arbed or splash-damaged poc)
You can always use ctrl-S or ctrl-E to move a single unit. By doing that, you have more control on the unit path.
•Skipping intro
When you CTD or simply when you start your game, at the moment you see an intro page, press ESC frenetically until the logging screen appear. You save about 5 seconds when you do that…
•Skipping lab intro
As for the skipping intro tips, when you enter the lab and you choose between equip and upgrade, as soon you click one of those 2 icon, press ESC. The page you want will appear instantly without its animation. Not much, but between 1 and 2 seconds saved here…
•Reining units
Wait for clearance : try to be aware of your portal. Don’t rein ground units when the portal is full of other ground units OR when an allied try to retreat its units. Wait a few seconds, holding your rein. The less traffic we have at a portal, the fastest units are where they suppose to be on the map. You can also estimate when people will rein from your portal. If you retreat your hawks at the same time someone retreat its arbs, you can already know that he will probably rein at the same time of you. Wait 2 or 3 seconds for him to rein before reining yourself.
When you rein, try already to move from the portal. Don’t stay there. If you have phasic units, select your phaser, move them where you want to phase your units and then select your phasable units and move them away from the portal. DON’T bloc it!!! Also, don’t arb/treb/balls from port in a way you block it unless its essential. If its not a matter of losing the game, take a few seconds to move your arbs/trebs/balls out of the way to the portal. Then, you allow other to rein and retreat without any problems.
•Moving units while an allied is moving other direction.
When you cross other units, you will be able to see that the AI path become completely f**k-up. Units continued trying to go where they suppose to go, but sometimes they simply stop moving or even worse, start going in the wrong direction. It’s because the AI try to find a new path to go where it need to go while having an interactive obstacle to deal with. In a perfect world, players would analyze what units have priority. But assume that you will be the only one to make that analyze… The simplest thing to do then is to stop your units. The AI will easily find path, and the situation will be resolved in a matter of seconds. Same thing happen when you are followed by a faster type of units. If you judge (don’t be selfish here pls) that it is more important that the units behind you get to a poc or something, immobilize your units, let the units pass, and continue your walk as soon the way is cleared.
•Prepare wight for phasing (on Mp not Relic)
You want to stop a poc with your phasic wights… you have 2 jorias and 10 wights. Only use hotkey to select them. In my case : jor 1 =1, jor 2 = 2 and wights = 3. I’ll continue with those hotkey, but adapt the example to your configuration.
I press 1 and right-click the poc to send my jor to the poc (a spot that I have carefully chosen) I want to stop. I press 2 and right-click the mini-map to send my second jorias in position (sometimes to prepare to defend a poc, but sometimes, I prefer to send my 2nd jor as a back-up at the poc I want to stop). I double hit 1 to get a view of my first jor. Once it’s near the poc (I already know its final destination), I double-hit 3 (having then my wight on my screen) and start the over loader (OL) of my wight. I then SINGLE hit 1 to select my jor but keeping my wights on my screen and right-click as fast as possible on my wights to phase them on the poc. As soon your wights are phased, double hit 3 again to center on the new position of your wight and aim units ON the poc.
Except for the OL, you can use that technique for any phasable units.
•Dealing with mines
When you face air mines or ground mines and you judge that your team will benefit from them to be removed, alt-Q your units and activate your AB. You will then be able to destroy more mines than in other alt-position or without AB on. Its also possible to stop all your units, select 1 unit and move it in the mines in order to create a corridor. You repeat that process until you have a safe corridor to move your units, but I generally find that technique way to long and useless to tell you to do it…
•Try not to use broken portal
Some portal in SG are what we called : BROKEN. A broken portal is a portal that has been stupidly placed by the level designer of the map. The result of a broken portal is usually a lack of space for a good mobility of the units, creating a congestion really easily (sometimes, with only one player…)
•Use fast hero!!!!! /fasthero cost 3 Uran for 3 Hours
No text really… Just use it if you can!
•Double hit nbr to get view of your units…
When double hit a hot key that is assigned to units, you will automatically be centered on that unit. Do it when you need to see what’s happening to your unit.
•Being MWed, SCed or Emped?
When you are in one of those, turn your TK on and call in the faction chat that you need a TK. A good/aware BC will normally pinging your units. If you see that no one can or will come to TK you, retreat from the battle and re-rein (unless the battle is cut… be aware of that too).
•Always use name when calling
When you want someone to have an information (Yrus, tk me!!! – Link, you suck :p – StRage, poc b3 – etc.), always start your sentence with at least 4 letter of the name of the character you want to talk to. Yup, if you type in four letters in anyone's name, it flashes on the screen. Take UScitizen for example. You could type citi, usci, or scit and make the comment flash on my screen. By doing that, the sentence will flash on the character’s owner screen. You have then more chance for him to read it!
•READ CHAT BOX!!!
DO IT!!! It's simple and usefull!!!
•BC, PING!!!
BC, be aware of the reality of the battle… ping dangerous units (arbs, balls, etc.), emped or MW/SC allied units, poc that are being poced and that need to be stopped, poc that are empty and can be poced, etc. To do so, alt-double-left-click on the map or the mini-map.
•Choosing port
When you choose a battle, try to identify before reining the best port to take. Try to remember if there is a broken port in that map and what is the map that lead to that port, try not to go at the same port that EVEYONE else is going unless really needed (use your judgment), select a port that fit better with your units (ex : you have arbs, choose a port where you can easily reach a poc from that port instead of an isolated no-life port far from anything…). A good thing is to call the port you choose… It usually help other people choosing their own port and also usually avoid a massive crowd at the same port.
•Split damage
Don’t over kill. I’ll take Pelicans as example. When you see that your Pelis are killing the enemy units in one blow or that after 2 shot, the target unit have only a few hit point left, separate your pelis in 2 group. Assign a number for each group (by ctrl-hitting a number) and micro between those 2 group to maximize the damage and minimize the time needed to get rid of the units targeted.
•Leave a unit
Exept in some rare case, it usually a very good habit to leave 1 or 2 units from a set, forcing that player to retreat all the way to his portal or even better, if that player is stupid, to let him continue to play with his 1 or 2 units, creating then a (lets say) PR 10 with no impact at all
•Cycling your units
Until your units reach level 10, they usually gain level just by reining in a battle. You don’t need to kill any other unit. To avoid having no impact in the game, it is often better just to cycle these units until lvl 10. To do so, rein them wait 1-2 second and retreat them. That’s it!!! Try to choose a portal with few player so you’ll minimize the chance to be in their way.
•Don’t hesitate to ask questions to more experimented players. They usually happy to help.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions to more experimented players. They usually happy to help :p
•Retraeting from a battle
Before retreating from any battle, make sure you'll have enough space to get back in. It's really annoying when a BC counts pr perfectly only to have a low pr guy retreat. Do not retraet a battle that is cut... the reason is obvious!
I might have done some mistake, please tell me if so!
One last thing : even if you know all this, it's always possible to play without applying it. In a battle, we sometimes forget stuff, we deal with stress and so on. The only thinkg that is very important is to try to incorporate these tips as a natural way of playing. With time, you won't even need to think about it, you will do it. And then, you will start to be different from bad and just normal players.
-----LeiTwOlF-----