Online Game Questions

[Gregoshi]

When playing online, how much time should you take in 1) selecting your army, and 2) setting up your army? I have a tendency to be slow in these areas (my impression), and I don't want to annoy my opponent before the battle even begins by taking too long. Is there any etiquette in these areas that a relative newbie should be aware of? I've played 3 games online against a friend which is a much more tolerant situation than against strangers.

Concerning latency - what is a good/bad latency and is there a way to tell what your latency is? The only latency I see is for games waiting for players to join. Is there any etiquette in this area? I was a hair's width away from joining a 2v2 game tonight but backed down because I was concerned my latency might be too bad and/or I'd be dropped. I know my internet connection is bad from my Starcraft days (where I could see my lag meter - always in the red zone).

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Gregoshi

[Link Shumeisan]

Hi Gregoshi,
Take your time for the settings (but no more than 15' lol ) if some guys say hurry up don't pay attention to them it's one of the most important part of the battle in some case http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
Also take some time to look at the map at the begining of the battle if you dont know it.

For the lat thing, you cant see your lat in the EA/forum you have to rely on the others to know it. I never had problems with lat

[solypsist]

And if you're the attacker, make some deliberation over what weather you choose. I won a game simply because my gun-happy opponent's choice of weather consisted entirely of rain...so he flashed through five days and I never even got a chance to use my army!

I have a question: I just played Defender on a timed game. He killed a few horse archers, I killed a few YC, but our main armies never met. The time ran out, and he won. I was under the impression that if the timer ran out, it was the Attacker who lost. Any answers?

[Yabusama]

If the two armies never meet in full combat and the battle is primarily skirmishing as you describe Solypsist, and the time then runs out, the winner is the side with the most kills after losses are deducted.

Gregoshi. As for how long to chose and setup I didnt think there was a problem online in how long you took within sensible limits. That was until lastnight when I was attempting to set up my defence of 15 units and my opponent ESCed on me. His excuse in the lobby was that I was taking to long. Excuse me, but there is a minimum time that you can set up 15 units. A simple text warning that he was getting bored would of done, but no he just bombed out on me. That is the only behaviour that annoys me, not taking too long to set up.

[This message has been edited by Yabusama (edited 11-14-2000).]

[The Black Ship]

Gregoshi,

Just let peeps know you're really trying to deploy, I think when it takes awhile most people are afraid the games hung or a player was dropped. So talk! Don't be bullied tho http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

Your lat can drive people nuts if it's too slaow tho, so if someone won't replay you citing lag don't be offended, it's not your skill it's the lag http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[The Daimyo]

Since I have had much experience with people who deploy in slow motion - or they train their units up before deploying (cough-Jaydee!) it is to my understanding that these types of people have some things going for them or against them -

For Them:

1 http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif They are mathmatically inclined to spend each koku to the best of their ability - some people won't stop rearranging till they are left with 0 Koku -
(IMO - This is pointless - but it helps to aggravate your opponents and causes them to play aggressively*)

2 http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif They Are AFK - They have left you sweating the match so that they can go get some food and relieve themselves - This is another Expert* tactic than should only be used by experienced Generals. If one lets this drag on too long - The Connection Will Timeout -

3 http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif They are using the "Battle Calculator" to decide their unit choices based on the Koku allotment given. These people should do this on their own time and not yours. Unless you are playing a LAN game though - you can't all them on this dubious trickery.

Things Stacked Against The Slow Deployment:
1 http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif Connection Timeout - This normally happens within 5 minutes. If you don't get a move on the connection will terminate.

2 http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif The lack of speed in your deployment tells the tale of an inexperienced player. If you are this - it doesn't really matter how careful you deploy - you'll get rolled over by a simple formation such as a variation on the "Skirmish Center" group formation which is a favorite of many. Not many experienced players use the default formations unless they are overly confident - but most use them to set up an easier transition into a tighter grouping.
**Keep your Taisho in the back and out of battle as long as you can**

As far as latency is concerned - it depends on you. I advise staying away from games that have a latency higher than 500. Shoot for hosts that have less than 300ms ping to you. If you have DSL or Cable - this isn't too hard. If you have a 56k or ISDN connection - pickings are slim since the majority of players you'll see online are from ALL over the world when it comes to Shogun Total War.

IF you take a long time to select your units and deploy them my best advice for you is to play the custom battles for a bit. This will allow you to practice the positioning and formations. Then go and find some matches with players that you know are good. Play them and watch their set-up tactics, unit choices, and their general rollout as the match progresses. It might take you 20-30 matches like this to develop some style and speed - but it will come.

*Special Note*
Don't play any FPS games prior to playing STW. It always messes with the STW style of play. Going from a speedy game of Quake 3, or UT to playing a 30 minute match of 2vs2 in STW is like jumping into mollasses. Your playing ability will suffer.

Hope this helps!

The Daimyo
@ http://www.planettotalwar.com

[Gregoshi]

Thanks for all the input. I guess I'll test the waters with some friendly games first.

As for latency, while I was lurking last night, most games I saw were running 800-1000+. According to the above, that is very high. I think I saw one game below 500. Is that normal?

Unfortunately DSL and cablemodem are "not yet available in my area." http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif

Gregoshi

[The Black Ship]

Alot of the super-high lats are people who havn't patched http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif Most modem hosts are in the 300-500 range, while cable is 150-300, and best of all is the T1 boys at 100+/-

[DragonCat]

I do a couple of things to speed up set up.

1) I immediately choose yoke. It puts my men in nice lines and also groups them by type. Then I can pick and choose among them.

2) I like to set my YA to hold formation and my SA off of Fire At Will and my WM to wedge.

3) I have a pretty standard configuaration I happen to like and it works for me. So every set up is VERY similar. Biggest change is whether I set up to the right or left flank, and how far back or forward. I never set up in the center as it gives opponent an advantage if they choose a flank set up. By chooseing the flanks, I am never at a disadvantage at the get-go.

4) I know all the maps pretty well at this point (at least the ones that are played online) and so I already have ideas about my strategy and hence my set up.

5) Even for an older guy, I am still pretty fast ;-)

Hope this helps



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DragonCat
"On the prowl . . . ."