Hey guys, as you may have known that, I am a new player and I believe a lot of the people here have been playing for a long, long time, so if you want to pass on any tips and tricks, this is a good spot. Some clues on how you could help me, though you don't have to follow them strictly: - I often feel overwhelmed without a sense of direction. - I have very little experience in naval combat. - I don't know how landmines are useful, not that I ever tried them but the game is in such a large scale, who's going to bother placing landmines one by one?
First thing is area commands! If you build something, want to attack something, want to patrol and so on, click and dragging will apply an area command rather than doing it once. These are so helpful (e.g. want to queue up 10 factories, click and drag and you can make 10 in a line with one click). Some other things that are helpful: Mods! PA was built with modding as an officially endorsed feature, and 'UI' mods (that don't change the underlying game) are all officially allowed in ladder play and in tournaments as they only adjust things like UI or visual FX. To get mods you need to install the community built 'PA Mod Manager' (reffered to as PAMM on the forums mostly) from here: https://forums.uberent.com/threads/pa-mod-manager-pamm-cross-platform.59992/ Once you have that, you can browse through available mods (separated into UI mods as mentioned above, and 'server' mods which modify the games e.g. new units and so on). Depending on how you want to play PA these are some useful ones I'd look at: PA Stats- this is a great tool, it records your games and statistics and allows you to view them on a website http://www.pastats.com/ It also integrates a global chat room directly into the game which is a great place to ask questions or drum up interest for a large game. Infinite Build mod makes all factories infinite queue by default which I find handy (note if you want to make just one units, e.g. a fabber to replace one you lost, holding the 'CTRL' button and clicking will make just one and then go back to the infinite queue again). System sharing: This is a nice one, it allows you to access loads of pre built maps made by the community. It also allows you to access the various 'map pack' mods available from specific map makers (e.g. the Alpha2546 map pack is a good one). Then you have all sorts of FX mods to give the effects a little more 'oomph'. I'd recommend checking out the excellent "more pew pew" mod which changes weapon effects for pretty much everything. Also the 'Custom Skybox' mod is nice, allowing you to have more dramatic nebulae and so on as the backdrop for PA rather than the standard stars.
COMPLETE NAVAL GUIDE: Narwhals are for AA. Use pure Subs and Fighter Spam if you want to own the Sea without any land presence. Use Orcas ONLY for land bombardment. Leviathans are amazing for holding down a front line and slowly pushing the enemy out of their defensive positions. Subs completely own Leviathans if you have the air cover. Kraken Subs (T2) are really good for sneak attacks and are especially good at demolishing undefended bases due to their radar stealth. The Missile Ship is basically garbage. Just use Narwhals for AA. Build T2 earlier than you think you should on the sea, but only build it if you need it. Don't build T2 in this tiny lake for the laughs - people can always go around. Don't build it if you are dominating the other player unless you need the extra Leviathan range to decimate his base on land. Honestly, T2 Gunships are better for that anyway because they can harass too. Also: Dox are great for controlling outlying islands before the navy arrives, but they can't hold a candle to a robust navy. Use them sparingly, and only when needed. Going for Slammers (the Amphib T2 Bot) can be great if you need to project some Naval power onto land, but they are fairly weak against all Torpedo-wielding naval units due to their expensive cost. Good for sneak attacks and great for killing coastal bases, but it shouldn't be your first option. There. Now you know everything about naval. Go, and be golden. EDIT: MICRO SECTION: Micro your subs in the early game to kill the enemy subs and narwhals first so you can kill Orcas and other non-torpedo units without resistance. Other than that, micro is fairly self explanatory.
Interesting. I usually would say go pure narwhal into T2 leviathans. Narwhals keeps subs and air a bay and leviathans will destroy all the rest. Narwhals destroy subs and air, need a few air facs to protect your outlying mex en air fabbers but nothing more.
Narwhals are not metal efficient compared to subs. hence, pure subs. I used to do the same thing, but found that with a little air micro to protect the subs, I could get the same results + immunity to T2. It's served me well especially in FFAs against multiple opponents. EDIT: The trade isn't a huge difference - but it becomes very apparent once the game hits T2 that subs dominate the water because Leviathans will just demolish everything else. You cannot safely assume you will have T2 first in every situation, either - which is crucial in the Narwhal strat.
Maybe it might be different for you, but two things that helped me when i was new Macro and production. Find someone ingame who manages to build alot of things. Watch the chronocam and copy what they are doing. Once you got that down, go try and improve on it. Remember the two core concepts energy pipeline. Balance your energy and metal, don't choke or surplus either. fabber backbone of 1 fabber (rush), 2 fabber(normal), 3 fabber(more greedy), 4 fabber(very greedy). Don't build more fabbers at the start than this. Micro and tactical Play vs the absurd ai, or even better the queller ai using quitch's mod on pa mod manager. Literally copy the attacking patterns of the ai. Attack from many places at the same time using small ammounts of units early on. Pull them back when you can't win the fight, and use bombers to attack undefended locations. Basically, learn to do everything to your opponent that you find annoying yourself. Specifically your questions - I often feel overwhelmed without a sense of direction. The only way to win is to kill the enemy commander. PA can be a fast game, but there is nothing wrong with just stopping for a while and planning what you want to do to kill the enemy commander. Over time, this will become second nature to you. Once you decide how (e.g. t1 vehicle spam), all you need to add is more (more tanks). You should be able to learn the handful of counters and what to look out for from your lost games. Better than reading what old farts like me have to say. *If you are still really lost, just focus on getting lots of metal and spending it all. - I have very little experience in naval combat. Naval combat essentially centers around 5 units. t2 metal, advanced torpedo launcher, leviathan, frigate, kraken. And aside from normal radar/deepspace/flak, you don't need anything else. About the lack of experience, you just need to go out there and get it . Play ladder and the pacific map will pop up every now and then. - I don't know how landmines are useful, not that I ever tried them but the game is in such a large scale, who's going to bother placing landmines one by one? Either area command like others said, or click alot using shift
I'm loving the replies so far, can't wait to try all these out the next time I get to play. In the meantime, may I ask how you plan and execute a planetary invasion?
Join a clan or gaming community. People there can help you get better step by step and will point you on your biggest mistakes.
i don't know how many competitiv players use them but i always like to have some infernos in my tankpushs .. simply because they can soap up quite some damage and dish it well out against structures .. other than that there is a good guide from exodus you may want to take a good look at ... but the basic jist is ... expand as much as you can effectively control and deny mexxes to your enemy ... don't play too passive ... study the planets a bit and look were you can contest your opponent best or were you can have forward posts to put the pressure on your enemy before you start the match immidiately ... scout what your opponent is doing and adjust your strategy and tactics accordingly ...
