Comments on: Strafe Left: The Formative Years #28

By: jgreynemo

jgreynemo — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:29:36 +0000

I begin having neatish and ordered CTRL groups (all put in big splash damage hating blocks – you know, the ones that move across the minimap in a satisfying block of green that blots out the rest of the landscape while it moves…),

1 is always the regular units that are scouty and expendable, 2 and 3 being heavy armour and support, 4 and 5 being artillery and repair. 7, 8, 9 being special units and 0 being something terribly special and possibly game-ending.

However once the namby pamby hand towel arranging ends and you’re being attacked or doing the attacking.

The mechanics of having something being repaired or built halfway across the map just has everything either joining the supreme cluster-trucking 300 unit strong groups of “1″ or the tiny, resource barren I-can’t-produce-enough-replacement-units-with-a-factory-that-is-on-fire-and-38-units-queued “2″.

1 – GO ATTACK THAT THING I WANT TO BE ATTACKED NOW!!! GO!! That thing now!!! I don’t care if all you do is repair buildings and plant herb gardens. ATTACK NOW!!!!

2 – DEFEND BASE… OMGWTFBBQ!?!? WHY AREN’T YOU DEFENDING BASE 2??? My god, 2 is so full of FAIL… Why can’t you be more like 1? Hey wait a minute… where did 1 go??

By: Duoae

Duoae — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:18:47 +0000

Ctrl-5 is always my airborne units, regardless of whether six and seven are land-based as 1-4 are.

By: Fat Zombie

Fat Zombie — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:55:28 +0000

I’m not sure about ordering groups. Whenever I play Homeworld, CTRL-GROUP 0 is either the Probe unit, or scouts. CTRL-1/2/3 are usually the largest wodges of units, which usually end up becoming CTRL-1 after a fight.

By: Chris R

Chris R — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:14:31 +0000

Haha, awesome.

By: 18Rabbit

18Rabbit — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:29:12 +0000

For most RTS’s ctrl+7 for me would be an empty group. I rarely use more than 3. Of course I almost never play multi-player either so those 2 may be related.

By: Jochen Scheisse

Jochen Scheisse — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:57:35 +0000

I bet Fumarole is a pain to play against. I never got around to handling my base with the CRTLs, but its the most obvious choice really, except for arty like stuff, which I also normally put on 8-0. Keeps your screen on the action.

By: Pod

Pod — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:19:23 +0000

Fumarole: How odd! To me, 1-3 scream out to me “BIG THINGS, IN ORDER OF BIGNESS”. So “1″ is always the stuff wot kills the most.

7, is of course “engineer” territory. I rarely use 8 or 9. 0 ir sometimes my scout group in Rise of Nations.

By: wyrmsine

wyrmsine — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:32:22 +0000

Seven is my engineer/special builders group. They only get called when I need to take over an enemy structure or repair something fast, so they tend to stand around a lot, then die in a hail of gunfire.

Ctrl+Groups 6 and 8, on the other hand, tend not to see much action at all…

By: Fumarole

Fumarole — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:02:49 +0000

Hmm, 7 always seems to be my most used control group. But I use 1-5 for buildings in most RTS’. This means I often use all 10 control groups. Of course, games like Company of Heroes are largely making this null and void.

By: Optimaximal

Optimaximal — Sun, 04 May 2008 15:56:20 +0000

I originally thought that bombers were moving into attack them because the guy removed his helmet ala. the blackouts :)

By: Grandstone

Grandstone — Sun, 04 May 2008 14:50:51 +0000

I’m pretty sure that’s a metal detector for spotting mines.

I thought the joke had something to do with the medic on the right smoking in panel 3, attracting a sniper who shot his helmet off for panel 4.

By: Alex Dodge

Alex Dodge — Sun, 04 May 2008 14:20:53 +0000

I kept trying to figure out what the joke was. I thought it had something to do with that one guy being armed with a sitar. I still don’t I get that. Did they finally send a poet?