Spring RTS Engine

I commbomb.

Everything you can do is valid, in many schools of thought.

1: make flash/gat
2: attack
3: goto 1 until text1="victory"


Thats one of 1000 patterns :p

Does anybody know of any (good) unconventional players? A couple of the better XTA regulars have some pretty rarefied tactics (re: Mygs spidar reclaimness for eg) and i was wondering if that kinda madness shows up in high-end aa, amidst the swarms of flash/gators ofc

[SmuG]Steven does alot of cool stuff on traditionally boring maps (like altored divide)


He was playing Arm on Comet when everyone else was playing Core, and he was doing fine.




PS:

http://www.smuggoat.net/random.php?goat=16

You wont see many untraditional tactics when two top players play vs each other. Its more often when skilled player plays vs someone less skill and "goofs". I myself like capturing enemy comm :D.

I dont meen goofing about with easily counterable stuff (eg comnap etc) i mean genuinely weird or cool looking stuff that works in competitive play. I appreciate their is far less leeway for wasting resources on interesting units in *real* games, but AA (compared to xta) seems to have some highly specified units you could combine in an intersting way, and im wondering how much that really happens.

Say for example, could a core player gradually expand, spamming those para-fliers and a few transports, ferrying para'd units to the com and capturing them? Or do those fliers drop like flies to minimal AA (im still sore about 15 gunships not killing a com standing next to 2 MTs in one of my few AA games).

When i do play AA i am not hugely experimental, and pretty much try and transplant my xta game across (eg. 5 flash rush, split into 2 groups, then com push with samson support, get out a few jeffies and see what enemy is up to) and never really get the chance to use any of the weird units before i'm either owned or i "out-economy" a nooblet and just flash spam em.

This is a really convoluted post, basically: anyone got replays of weird/unusual ownage?

They drop like flies. Although many times enemy doesnt have any AA at all. But it would still take lots of micro, making you busy and neglectic more important things. It's more usefull if you just paralyse and kill them and reclaim there metal (you still get around 2/3 of its metal).

There's probably more creativity in team games than 1v1s, however some of the top players do creative stuff in 1v1 e.g. Heze. I do creative stuff in sea games and to a lesser extent in maps that are still viable for kbots.

Tired always does really cool stuff, get some of his replays if you can.

i bet lots of people have replays of tired.. they just dont know its him! hehehe

In current version air drops are very effective, considering the reduction in build time and cost of the atlas, and they are reasonably sturdy little bastards in a big bunch if the enemy doesnt have anti swarm AA.. course if they do you can normally find a way around it.

Played steven at 1v1 last night and he made actual use of banshees, raided all of my mex's in the middle of map on comet, bringing me from around +70 down to +30 metal.

Everyone knows about fighter comm since Nixa introduced it fully a few months back, still a viable tactic for team games and 1v1s. Not sure who initially tried it so dont flame me for saying nixa, but he was the first person I saw use it effectively, way before everyone knew about it.

Theres a lot of strategy to be based around reclaiming, but average players generally miss the opportunities. Its easy enough to run an economy from reclaiming alone if you have the means to do so (air cons are particularly effective early game, just flying around sucking up corpses from all the small battles going on in a team game) They are less effective in 1v1 because the metal count is generally so large that reclaiming isnt needed to such an extent (its not a stall war for tech 2 or a mass of flash tanks because players arn't limited to 6 or 7 mex) but reclaiming can still be a necessity if your metal income gets raped by the enemy, if anything just to recover.

Crossing 4 is a good example of a map where reclaiming is more or less vital to gain an advantage over your enemy in a stalemate game. Personally i tend to use a combination of t1 air and t1 vec on that map (the air cons to reclaim and fund swarms of flash and atlas air transports) and then mass air drop the enemy after 12-15 mins taking out their economy to let teammates push through with relative ease. Course, the extra metal from reclaiming can also help in teching up quicker, thus giving you your first few tech 2 cars and moho mexs a good few minutes before your opponent.

Personally i find a good method is to focus on destroying all of the enemy units/structures in a particular spot, (leaving nothing to shoot down or take out your cons coming in behind to eat up the corpses). Then the next raid is basically a minute away because you dont stall in pumping out the next bunch of units. In effect you are "recycling" your units and on top of that eating up some enemy units and structures that your raid destroyed.

Tech 1 metal makers can be extremely useful to gain a good +10 to +15 extra metal early in a game, obviously at the cost of a load of extra energy, but I find in team games they are very useful if you're going for the tech 1 push through the enemy, because it allows you to mass far more units and perhaps even build a 2nd tech 1 lab (maybe air to reclaim as you push forward), aswell as pump out a load of fighters.

Initially you will have less metal to fund your labs due to the extra cost of wind/solars/adv solars/metal makers you need to get the extra +10 to +15, but after a few minutes of extra metal income, it definately pays itself off.

Reclaiming is more or less vital on any map, including 1v1 games on big maps. There is golden rule, there is never to "much metal" if youa re able to pump 15 factories at same time then you pump 15 factories at same time.

how common is ressing in AA? As FARKS and Necros have uber build speed and can both res, i imagine its a lot more common in xta

pintle wrote:how common is ressing in AA? As FARKS and Necros have uber build speed and can both res, i imagine its a lot more common in xta

too much trouble most of the time.

I used to do a lot of Rez work, but it requires considerable micro and isn't as viable in 1v1. I was and am a mediocre player, but with the correct run of Rez K-Bots and a little ingenuity you can make a difference.

Nothing like wiping out three points on the map, letting my allies rush past, and then essentially reestablishing these outposts for our continued use without expending my resources directly or transporting constructed units.

I remember a game where one of my foes got so annoyed at facing his own units resurrected (I was Arm, he was Core) that he actually nuked an area that I was overrunning with L1.

But yes, in general, it simply is too much work.

Hmm... spam rezing might be easier in new spring version, since you see unit order, I might try it.

my xta 3v3+ strat

on large maps, I always go air and airdrop my com near the opponents base and whack up llts, use con plane to get an early hlt up, stopped their early exapsnion. then one const plane relcaims the air plant while the com build bot lab. and the, 3/4 of the map is yours, until their teammaps laugh a join attack and crush you out the game

I dunno how fast the nanolathe is on the rez units in AA but in xta anybody who isnt rushing a t2 tank/arti force (M0ng im looking @ you) will most likely have plenty of farks/necros, and on top of whipping up hlts and mohomines very fast, can res a failed t1 attack very quickly

That is one of the things I like about XTA.