Frequently Asked Forum Questions
Search the HBO News Archives Any All Exact		Search the Halo Updates DBs Halo Halo2		Bungie Webcam HBO XBL Gamertags *Ar's Simple HTML Guide Shishka's Guide for Newcomers The Lowdown on Download Accelerators Red Loser's Anti-Spamming Guide Egg FAQ | More Egg Stuff c0ld's Movie Starter Guide Shishka's HaloPC Pre-Release FAQ 3.1 AutoMagic 117 StripzMaker
Search Older Posts on This Forum: Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts

Re: Halo Wars 101: Macro and Build Orders
Posted By: Hawaiian Pig	Date: 2/7/09 10:35 p.m.
In Response To: Halo Wars 101: Macro and Build Orders (Psychophan7) This is what I mean by how impressed I was with the macro in Halo Wars. Good stuff, though I think you didn't quite address a lot of the things new comers to RTS games often overlook. There was a neat article on Starcraft strategy I read once regarding "strategic" and "tactical" advantages. goat and I were actually explaining this concept the other day to cody, and it applies throughout all RTS games; if you're aware of these concepts you might want to include it in your next "installment." As for conveying build orders the best way to do it is just about how you said it. A Leader Rush would go: --- Temple Warehouse Simple as that. What happens after that is dictated based on what you scout, and in all good RTS games that's usually how it works. If you can plan out your build to far ahead and not be contested by a competent player for playing in such a regimented style, then there's a fundamental problem with the game. Early game builds are usually extremely reliant on scouting. In this instance: If you scout a Turret, you back off, build another Warehouse and add Honor Guards at your option (considering that you'll only be up against marines and more turrets, you just gotta make sure you have a significant amount of resources in the bank for eliminating your threats Honor Guards>Marines Prophet>Turrets). After that you just maintain pressure on your opponent while you tech up or expand your resource consumption. At worst, you at least manage a containment of your enemy in his base and you can use this time to expand or tech safely. If you scout Supply Pads, add Warehouses of your own (to match his "strategic advantage") and rain down hell (with your already-acquired huge "tactical advantage" in the Prophet) If you scout a Reactor (will allow the UNSC to actually contest your Leader fairly well) eliminate it immediately with your beam before adding a Warehouse. --- In any case, what I think needs to be stressed, since the majority of the readership here is fairly new to RTS games, are the basics. You're already discussing things at a bit higher level and you've got a lot of concepts lying around without coherent direction. Teach overarching concepts first and specifics second. Things like why it's a good idea to keep your resource count low by spending as soon as possible, why it's a bad idea to queue up multiple units at once, and why it's a bad idea to be idle in almost every situation. I can well imagine the average actions per minute here are below 20. If there's one overarching tip I'd give to any player learning what's most important in RTS strategy is that, in most games, you should always either be: expanding your resource consumption capability, teching or attacking; if you're doing neither of these, you're doing nothing at all and creating a disadvantage for yourself. Just some things to think about for your next little article.

Message Index

Halo Wars 101: Macro and Build Orders	Psychophan7	2/7/09 2:27 p.m.
Nice work, but one error.	SonofMacPhisto	2/7/09 4:38 p.m.
Re: Halo Wars 101: Macro and Build Orders	Hawaiian Pig	2/7/09 10:35 p.m.
There we go	Hawaiian Pig	2/7/09 11:02 p.m.
One question for the Covies	SPU7N1K	2/8/09 12:12 a.m.
Re: One question for the Covies	Spec ops Grunt	2/8/09 12:44 a.m.
Re: One question for the Covies	7he grunt w/a plasma pistol	2/8/09 11:06 a.m.
I see what u did thar	Spec ops Grunt	2/8/09 12:49 a.m.