Gamer Quirks

[Morithias]

We all have quirks that make us different, here's one of mine.

One of the things I love about steam is how it tracks how many hours you've blown on a game.

Once I realized this, and due to the fact I keep a detailed income statement, I decided to start keeping track of money-spent versus hours-played.

So far here as the results.

Most Required hours: Bureau Collection
Best Price to Hours ratio: Evil Genius (70 hours on a $5 game)
Worst Ratio: Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2
Standard Deviation of Ratios

Does anyone else do stuff like this? What kind of quirks do you have as a video gamer?

[Corlindale]

I haven't done extensive calculations, but I do often think about the time/money ratio of my Steam games. Dungeons of Dredmor would win by a landslide I think, with almost 200 hours and less than 10 euros spent (even counting all expansions). Or maybe King's Bounty: The Legend with 80 hours and 3 euros spent.

One of my quirks is that I like doing pacifist runs - even in games that weren't designed for this. Doesn't always work out, but turns out you can get quite far in many of the faction quests in Morrowind without killing anything (mage/thief ftw).
Arcanum didn't work out that well - turns out the game won't accept it if you try to incapacitate and run away from the assasins sent to kill you very early in the game. So that ended quickly.

Generally open-world rpgs are probably the most realistic candidates for such attempt, though I've always been fascinated by this guy (http://www.lurkerlounge.com/forums/thread-10277.html), who somehow made a "pacifist" run of Diablo 3 Hell difficulty viable. A game that's literally about killing monsters and only killing monsters :smallsmile:

[Jormengand]

Well, for me the winner for time/money is Team Fortress 2 because OH MY GOD WHY DID YOU DIVIDE BY ZERO!?!?!?!?!?!

[Morithias]

Well, for me the winner for time/money is Team Fortress 2 because OH MY GOD WHY DID YOU DIVIDE BY ZERO!?!?!?!?!?!

That would be a game I'm beta testing right now for me. I've been testing it for around 9 days, and I've probably blown a good 100 hours into it. I played it so much I got to the point I started worrying about my health.

Luckily I think I'm over the compulsion now. My next project is to work my Bureau Ratio down by beating all the old X-com games.

[Sith_Happens]

Hi, I'm Sith_Happens, and I'm a saveaholic.

[MLai]

I think my time spent playing adventure games like Darksiders II, Dragon Age, and Batman franchise... are artificially lengthened due to my quirk of walking rather than running everywhere. I like to stare at the scenery (even if I've already been there), and I like to walk because it makes my character look more realistic/lifelike.

My biggest pet peeve is probably the fact that in DA, your AI-controlled companions can't walk, only run. I so wanted a Reservoir Dogs style group walk through the town squares.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I love strategy games, but as of yet, I haven't finished a single one except for StarCraft II's campaigns and Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves (the latter is kinda like Dark Souls meets Orcs Must Die while playing on the defensive. No boss fights except for the very last night, but you have a stamina bar).

And going through my games list... I've only ever beaten those games plus Mark of the Ninja. I have over thirty games.

[Gamerlord]

If I'm playing a shooter, and the number of bullets in my magazine is anything less than the maximum, I reload. Doesn't matter if I just fired one or two bullets in a moment of panic or to test something, I'm still reloading. Never know when those two or three bullets could be what it takes to knock them dead. 0_o



And going through my games list... I've only ever beaten those games plus Mark of the Ninja. I have over thirty games.
*Looks at number of games in his Steam list*
*Looks at games he has under his "Complete" category*
....No comment. Same goes with the GoG collection.
Thankfully, I've beaten pretty much every game in my physical collection, but that probably has more do with the fact I very rarely buy physical copies anymore, so I've owned them for years.

Hi, I'm Sith_Happens, and I'm a saveaholic.
This.

[Crow]

I actually read reviews and let's plays of games to get an idea of the playing time I can expect. If it doesn't meet a $1 per 1 hour of play time quota, I wait for the price to come down some more.

Steam hours played is staggering when I look at them. The top spots so far go to X:3 and Blood Bowl coming in over 300 hours. Next up are Crusader Kings II and (somehow) Mount and Blade: Warband, in the high 200's.

Of course I've had all of those games for several years. Still, money well-spent there.

[Jormengand]

If I'm playing a shooter, and the number of bullets in my magazine is anything less than the maximum, I reload. Doesn't matter if I just fired one or two bullets in a moment of panic or to test something, I'm still reloading. Never know when those two or three bullets could be what it takes to knock them dead. 0_o

Yeah, I always reload all the time. And I hate being at less than maximum health in anything - in things like Diablo II, I'll always get health regeneration as soon as possible.

[Hiro Protagonest]

*Looks at number of games in his Steam list*
*Looks at games he has under his "Complete" category*
....No comment. Same goes with the GoG collection.
Thankfully, I've beaten pretty much every game in my physical collection, but that probably has more do with the fact I very rarely buy physical copies anymore, so I've owned them for years.

Oh I know it's not a lot (relative newness plus procrastination), but it is in comparison to the number I've beaten. :smalltongue:

[Sith_Happens]

Yeah, I always reload all the time. And I hate being at less than maximum health in anything - in things like Diablo II, I'll always get health regeneration as soon as possible.

This too for me, which tends to conflict with my other tendency of never, ever using any consumable that I don't know I can easily replace.

[warty goblin]

I love strategy games, but as of yet, I haven't finished a single one except for StarCraft II's campaigns and Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves (the latter is kinda like Dark Souls meets Orcs Must Die while playing on the defensive. No boss fights except for the very last night, but you have a stamina bar)..

The only way I'm done with a strategy game is if I really disliked it. The good ones enter into permanent rotation. I may not be playing them now, but I probably will again at some point in the future, once the mood for that particular kind of skirmish battle floats back across my brain. I've got no use for the campaigns though.

[Hiro Protagonest]

The only way I'm done with a strategy game is if I really disliked it. The good ones enter into permanent rotation. I may not be playing them now, but I probably will again at some point in the future, once the mood for that particular kind of skirmish battle floats back across my brain. I've got no use for the campaigns though.

I don't mean RTS, I mean anything that has "strategy" or "tactics" in its genre name. Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves, Crusader Kings II, Company of Heroes, X-COM: UFO Defense, King of Dragon Pass, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action (if I can figure out how to install the Combat Evolved mod... maybe I should just buy Commandos).

[warty goblin]

I don't mean RTS, I mean anything that has "strategy" or "tactics" in its genre name. Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves, Crusader Kings II, Company of Heroes, X-COM: UFO Defense, King of Dragon Pass, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action (if I can figure out how to install the Combat Evolved mod... maybe I should just buy Commandos).

Pretty much so did I. I still fire up the old Impressions city builders on occasion, and I've been playing those since they were released. I'll burn the occasional evening with Age of Wonders as well, and GalCiv II. But if I'm limited to a set of story missions, I'm much, much less likely to wander back; strategy games being even worse than the rest of gaming at putting together a convincing narrative.

[MLai]

If I'm playing a shooter, and the number of bullets in my magazine is anything less than the maximum, I reload.
Unless I'm almost dead and therefore in dire fear for my life, I never reload until I'm empty. Even though in all games I know, reloading does not waste unspent bullets.

That's because reloading does waste unspent bullets **IRL**. So for the sake of realism, I finish the magazine/cartridge/cylinder.

[Tengu_temp]

In RPGs that track the passage of time, like Baldur's Gate, I try not to rest more often than once every 24 hours. I also try to rest once every day, if the game doesn't have a fatigue mechanic to reinforce that.

I don't play on easy mode. Ever. I don't look down on people who do, but I simply can't do that. Couldn't finish a game in good conscience knowing that it was easy mode. Cheats are out of question too.

[Triaxx]

MLai, the only reason to reload mid-mag in real life is finding out some shmoe has loaded tracers instead of normal bullets. One game I know of that follows the wasted rounds rule is GRAW, though I've only played the PC version.

I always try to play through the campaigns of strategy games at least once, to get a feel for the units. The thing is that very often, I do find that I enjoy playing some of the missions again, because I can play with different Tactics. Knowing what the enemy is going to do changes how you fight the mission, but the AI sometimes manages to surprise you anyway.

My particular quirk is that I absolutely cannot lose my men. Which only counts if they're actual characters. If they're part of a faceless horde, they're all red shirts. But even John Smith gets treated as a hero. If he goes down, I restart the mission. Unless it was an RNG thing, like Fallout Tactics thoroughly unreliable grenade throwing. (Seriously, you can throw across a wide open flat span and it'll still occasionally explode in your face.)

[JustSomeGuy]

You should also load a fresh magazine if you are about to go full auto assault a position or fibua and stuff - you don't have to throw the old magazine away, you just pocket it and re load it up later.

[Anajamois]

I have some sort of kneejerk reaction to laugh sadistically whenever I kill another player in a way I'm sure will really annoy them.

Is that a quirk? No, I'm probably just sinister.

[Sith_Happens]

One game I know of that follows the wasted rounds rule is GRAW, though I've only played the PC version.

Dead Space also does.

[warty goblin]

Dead Space also does.

Red Orchestra tracks how many bullets are in each magazine, and only tells you roughly how much it weighs when you load it.

[Crow]

You should also load a fresh magazine if you are about to go full auto assault a position or fibua and stuff - you don't have to throw the old magazine away, you just pocket it and re load it up later.

This. It's called a 'Tactical Reload'. As opposed to the 'Emergency Reload', where you're empty and need rounds now.

[Gnoman]

Dead Space also does.

There's also 7.62mm, which tracks the type and load order of individual bullets.

[Triaxx]

Which I find strange. Yes you 'lose' the rounds left, but that presumes that you're not going to go back and look for the magazine once you've dealt with whatever you were fighting. It's one of the things I like about 7.62 High Calibre, which Warty introduced me. Yes, I can reload just by dropping the magazine on the ground, but since those things are expensive, I always pick them back up when the fight is over, and then combine magazines later. I don't see why you wouldn't, which I guess would be the justification most games use.

I even do that with real guns, practicing reloading on the fly.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Jagged Alliance 2 also had each mag treated as an individual item. Although it is kinda annoying that you can stack mags only if they're all the same type and have the same number of bullets.

Actually, classic X-COM does too, but you just lose it once you unload it. Bullets just disappear into thin air.

[MLai]

MLai, the only reason to reload mid-mag in real life is finding out some shmoe has loaded tracers instead of normal bullets. One game I know of that follows the wasted rounds rule is GRAW, though I've only played the PC version.
I assume you are/were in the military, or hang out with ppl who are/were.
Dumb question, since the answer seems obvious, but I'll ask anyways just in case: You don't like unintended tracers because they give away your position, correct?
2nd question, what are tracers for?

My particular quirk is that I absolutely cannot lose my men. Which only counts if they're actual characters. But even John Smith gets treated as a hero. If he goes down, I restart the mission.
How the heck do you play X-Com (new or old)?

[Hiro Protagonest]

I assume you are/were in the military, or hang out with ppl who are/were.
Dumb question, since the answer seems obvious, but I'll ask anyways just in case: You don't like unintended tracers because they give away your position, correct?
2nd question, what are tracers for?

I have no experience in such matters, but I believe tracers aren't actually designed to hit things (we have invented delayed tracers to not give away your position so easily). And the reason you use them is because gravity and wind.

[Tavar]

Tracers are normally just bullets with some incendiary component, right? They should be just about as good at doing damage to someone/thing as a normal bullet.

[Tono]

Tracers are used to direct fire in low light situations. Its so you can see where bullets are going. Nothing special about it. Its purely so you can say 'Oh! Bullet goes there!' Some people go as far as to stack their magazine with every 2-4 rounds being a tracer. Others hate the things. Generally it depends on where you are and what you are shooting.

[Gnoman]

They also have been used to provide feedback to the shooter. At one time (not sure if they changed it), it was a fairly standard practice to load the last three rounds in an M-16 magazine with tracers as a "You're about to run dry" warning.

[Morithias]

How the heck do you play X-Com (new or old)?

As that gold obsessed character from Ducktales put it. "Sheer willpower!"

Seriously, I agree, with that quirk X-com must be a hellish game.

[Triaxx]

I hang out with those who were. The one reason I know to load all tracers is for practicing long range marksmanship. You can fire and see the trajectory without having a spotter.

How do I play? Very carefully. I usually take about ten minutes to plan out where I'm going and what I'm doing. Can't go behind that wall, because I'll get mangled by a Berseker, don't hide by the car because it's going to blow up, and chain reaction the others...

And X-Com is still not the deadliest game I play.

[Avilan the Grey]

Quirks...

Well...

Always play female character if aviable
Always reload if not full magazine
Always sheathe weapon if possible in non-combat
Quicksave approx. every 5 seconds. Especially if I have done ANYTHING, so I don't have to repeat it (anything from long dialogue to changing gloves to changing ammo type to...)

[Morithias]

Quirks...

Well...

Always play female character if aviable

Yeah that's me too. I always play the female character unless the male character has an advantage I want over the female character.

Luckily I've found those games are somewhat rare, outside of unique characters I.e Characters that you don't make yourself like Shen Yu in Evil Genius.

[MLai]

And X-Com is still not the deadliest game I play.
Which are?
I can't think of another squad-based TBS game deadlier than the X-Com franchise. Terror From The Deep anyone?

Always play female character if viable
I always play big heavy guy if viable. Or even if unviable.

[Cespenar]

In CRPGs, try to go with the party implied as the most canon, or has the strongest ties to the main plot/main character. Arguable, I know, but regardless.

Examples: Minsc, Jaheira and definitely Imoen in BG2. Morrigan, Alistair and Leliana in Dragon Age. Varric in DA2. Liara and Garrus in Mass Effect.

[Jormengand]

Morrigan, Alistair and Leliana in Dragon Age.

I always go for Morrigan, Wynne and Leliana, because if you're a mage you can have three magi, and Leliana stands in the middle of combat stunning everyone every few seconds if they fail to resist.

I also use all my best spells in the first five seconds of the combat.

So yeah, I don't do things because they make sense or work well, I do things 'cause they're funny.

[Delusion]

If there is a way to give commands during pause, (Dragon age, some RTSes etc) then I am spending as much time paused as unpaused during combat.

[Seerow]

Not sure if this counts as a gamer quirk, but for a lot of games I prefer watching someone else play to playing myself (this has become more true as I've gotten older).

But despite this I generally dislike following Let's Plays, especially video ones.

[Sith_Happens]

I always go for Morrigan, Wynne and Leliana, because if you're a mage you can have three magi, and Leliana stands in the middle of combat stunning everyone every few seconds if they fail to resist.

I also use all my best spells in the first five seconds of the combat.

So yeah, I don't do things because they make sense or work well, I do things 'cause they're funny.

I played Rogue Warden and settled on Alistair, Morrigan, and Wynne. Taunt -> Mass Paralysis -> The Tainted Blade -> channel inner Belkar.


If there is a way to give commands during pause, (Dragon age, some RTSes etc) then I am spending as much time paused as unpaused during combat.

I did that up until enough skill points had come in that I was able to spend close to an hour setting up the perfect, near-universally-applicable set of gambits tactics.

Which leads to my particular Dragon Age quirk: Keeping every companion up date with equipment and meticulously-created tactics, even the ones I knew I'd never actually use.

[Knaight]

Which are?
I can't think of another squad-based TBS game deadlier than the X-Com franchise. Terror From The Deep anyone?

Frozen Synapse is a fair bit nastier than the new X-Com when it comes to deadliness, though it takes a while for difficulty to ramp up. Still, you might have six people on a given level, and all of them die in one hit. If you position them poorly, multiple can die in one hit.

[Triaxx]

For TBS, it's actually played. I played UFO: Alien Invasion for a while, but when they moved to the 2.5 dev version, the lethality increased to the point where there's no way to avoid losing at least one character. Either the aliens kill you with their infinite time unit reaction fire, before your unit fires, or you attempt to kill them with reaction fire and they kill your unit before you can fire. I just gave up at that point, since they wanted to make the game more lethal.

The deadliest game I do play is 7.62mm High Calibre. It's a fantastic game, but some of the situations are all but impossible to avoid losing someone unless you have excellent tactics. Even then you're likely to end up with one or two members going down, or even ending up in the 'dying' status. I've had to have three quarters of my team crawl to the hospital for healing because of that. It's as time consuming as it sounds.

[Cristo Meyers]

I'm a sidequest hound. I'll root out and complete just about every sidequest I can before moving on to the main quest. This usually means I won't hit a storyline mission for days, sometimes. I've spent hours in Assassin's Creed 4 just roaming the West Indies making trouble.

[Jormengand]

I'm a sidequest hound. I'll root out and complete just about every sidequest I can before moving on to the main quest. This usually means I won't hit a storyline mission for days, sometimes. I've spent hours in Assassin's Creed 4 just roaming the West Indies making trouble.

I'm a completionist. I wouldn't finish MARDEK without killing the crazy-powerful optional "Superbosses" and doing all the random side-quests.

[Cristo Meyers]

I'm a completionist. I wouldn't finish MARDEK without killing the crazy-powerful optional "Superbosses" and doing all the random side-quests.

I guess you could say I'm a sub-species of completionist. I love full side-quests and things like that (part of the reason I'm loving the hell out of AC4), but when you get to things like challenge/achievement lists (Do this thing 5 times) my enthusiasm runs out real fast.

To keep going with the Assassin's Creed comparison: hunting down all the Animus Fragments and taking all the forts? Sure. Winning 1000 reales playing the god-awful board games in the pubs? Not a chance.

[Sith_Happens]

I'm a sidequest hound. I'll root out and complete just about every sidequest I can before moving on to the main quest. This usually means I won't hit a storyline mission for days, sometimes. I've spent hours in Assassin's Creed 4 just roaming the West Indies making trouble.

So much this.

...Actually, I think all of my particular "gamer quirks" can be lumped together and summarized as "gamer OCD."

[Talderas]

My particular quirk is that I absolutely cannot lose my men. Which only counts if they're actual characters. If they're part of a faceless horde, they're all red shirts. But even John Smith gets treated as a hero. If he goes down, I restart the mission. Unless it was an RNG thing, like Fallout Tactics thoroughly unreliable grenade throwing. (Seriously, you can throw across a wide open flat span and it'll still occasionally explode in your face.)

Don't ever play Myth: The Fallen Lords or Myth 2: Soulblighter. It's a strategy game but you have a finite number of units and rarely get reinforcements. Each unit has its own name and it's kills are tracks and preserved between levels. You do get fresh recruits to replace the dead if you don't have enough carry overs but I have the feeling that the uniquely named units with stats might drive you crazy.

[Triaxx]

Those are on my list of never-plays. I watched my cousin play the first one for about an hour, and I couldn't stop twitching wanting to push him out of the chair to save the characters. I have trouble with games that have veterancy for units. Those are just... I can't play them. I want to save them all, and sometimes it's just not possible.

[warty goblin]

Those are on my list of never-plays. I watched my cousin play the first one for about an hour, and I couldn't stop twitching wanting to push him out of the chair to save the characters. I have trouble with games that have veterancy for units. Those are just... I can't play them. I want to save them all, and sometimes it's just not possible.

Do yourself a favor, and never play Company of Heroes. You can't save everybody. You can't even come close.

[Morithias]

Do yourself a favor, and never play Company of Heroes. You can't save everybody. You can't even come close.

Don't touch Evil Genius either.

Even though you should, because it's an awesome game.

[Triaxx]

Are they all named characters? If not that's fine. I can sacrifice units for the fight as long as I don't have to lose named ones.

Another quirk is loot. I have to make my best possible effort to loot everything. Even if I don't need it right away, I have to try and get it. Even if I don't take anything, not being able to even try annoys me. This is less a problem in modern games, where I can drag bodies, but some bodies don't drag. Fallout Tactics really irritated me, because it dropped Fallout2's clever method of arrows on the loot screen that let you flip through a pile of bodies. it was extremely useful.

[Morithias]

Are they all named characters? If not that's fine. I can sacrifice units for the fight as long as I don't have to lose named ones.

Another quirk is loot. I have to make my best possible effort to loot everything. Even if I don't need it right away, I have to try and get it. Even if I don't take anything, not being able to even try annoys me. This is less a problem in modern games, where I can drag bodies, but some bodies don't drag. Fallout Tactics really irritated me, because it dropped Fallout2's clever method of arrows on the loot screen that let you flip through a pile of bodies. it was extremely useful.

You have to double click on your minions to view it, but yes the game Evil Genius does generate names for every minion.

[Tylorious]

I have a gaming quirk...in games where your map gets revealed as you travel (fog of war style), I go for a full map and don't stop til i get it. I do this in RTS games, elder scrolls games. The witcher games. Pretty much any game that has a map like that.

[warty goblin]

Are they all named characters? If not that's fine. I can sacrifice units for the fight as long as I don't have to lose named ones.


They aren't named, but they have a lot of personality. And they yell distressingly when you're off managing something else and the Germans set them afire with those goddamned ubiquitous Flamenwerfers. There's a certain sinking feeling when you turn your attention from coordinating an assault on an enemy point, to find that your Veterancy 3 infantry team with the submachine gun upgrade and the looted MG-42 light machine gun just... ceased to exist. Or the sniper you've babied along through 21 kills gets blown to kingdom come by a mortar round. Or you push your tank destroyer a little too far forwards and it gets blown up in a final burst of startling profanity.

[Hiro Protagonest]

They aren't named, but they have a lot of personality. And they yell distressingly when you're off managing something else and the Germans set them afire with those goddamned ubiquitous Flamenwerfers. There's a certain sinking feeling when you turn your attention from coordinating an assault on an enemy point, to find that your Veterancy 3 infantry team with the submachine gun upgrade and the looted MG-42 light machine gun just... ceased to exist. Or the sniper you've babied along through 21 kills gets blown to kingdom come by a mortar round. Or you push your tank destroyer a little too far forwards and it gets blown up in a final burst of startling profanity.

Wait, people actually use tank destroyers?

I guess the ones in 2 are pretty good with their long-vision ability.

[Sylthia]

I'm a pack rat when it comes to items in games. Especially if it's rare, I'll tend to have items build up in my inventory. For this reason, I hate limited item space and encumbrance.

Also, I'm compulsive about saving. I was disheartened in my Tales of Graces play through when I reached the 100 save file limit and had to start overwriting some of my older saves.

[warty goblin]

Wait, people actually use tank destroyers?

I guess the ones in 2 are pretty good with their long-vision ability.

Have fun killing Panzer IVs without them, let alone Panthers. Unless you take one of the Doctrines that give T34/85s, the T34 lacks the power to effectively deal with German armor, short of ramming, which leaves them exceedingly vulnerable. The SU-85 is a beast to afford, and doesn't work for crap against infantry, but it's significantly more effective against tanks, and is a lot more maneuverable than an anti-tank gun. Although the Soviet AT gun does provide better infantry support, thanks to its artillery barrage ability. On the flipside, the SU-76 has the same ability minus munitions cost, and is a lot less vulnerable to flanking/kiting from Scout Cars or those goddamn flamethrower halftracks.

Now if we're talking Doctrine units, the T34/85s are quite nice to have. The IS-2 kicks much ass, but really, the ISU-152 is where it's at for ludicrously expensive endgame units. See enemy anything, see enemy anything explode. Enemy weapons team hiding behind a building? Shoot through the building. With the doctrine that lets conscripts repair armor, it's pretty easy to just roll it along as part of a self-repairing anything-wrecking blob.

I haven't played the Wehrmacht in CoH II, but in original CoH the StuG was quite handy, though it's technically an assault gun. In Opposing Fronts, the Marder IV was quite handy for its ability to cheaply counter most tanks, although its complete lack of armor meant it required some careful management. And if you could get it, the Jagdpanther was bloody murder on treads. Shermans just ceased to exist in its vicinity.

[Triaxx]

Hmm... I think I could do that.

I've only watched videos of Company of Heroes, but all the games I've played with Tank Destroyers, they were more effective in ambush situations. Set them behind some kind of cover, then lure the enemy tanks between them. Of course, I don't think it would work in this since the cover is all destructible.

[warty goblin]

Hmm... I think I could do that.
Then you absolutely should. CoH is marvelous in pretty much all its incarnations, though Tales of Valor or whatever its called can be skipped without any harm.

Plus, since they moved the original to Steam entirely, getting it patched up to date no longer causes leprosy or suicidal tendencies.

I've only watched videos of Company of Heroes, but all the games I've played with Tank Destroyers, they were more effective in ambush situations. Set them behind some kind of cover, then lure the enemy tanks between them. Of course, I don't think it would work in this since the cover is all destructible.
I say this with the disclaimer that I'm legitimately terrible at CoH; but the key to using anything is depth. The infantry always goes in front, or at worst beside the armor. Otherwise you get taken to pieces.

The other key, particularly in CoH II, is artillery. Get a mortar, put it somewhere safe, and just let it rain hell on the enemy. If affordable, a Katyusha is a thing of wonder, since it basically lets you guarantee there aren't any infantry left in an area, and can reverse an enemy offensive with one well placed volley. And the Vet 2 concentrated barrage is excellent for precision sniping weapons teams.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Well, I only played the original. I tried the Germans a bit (rocket pods!), but mostly play Allied. My style is pretty much Shermans, Rangers, BAR-equipped Riflemen, and the occasional 50mm. I use Rangers for ambush and 50mm guns for holding the line.

[Triaxx]

Then I'll definitely put that on my list.

And I do defense in depth well, because I'm a defensive player by nature. My origins as a Total Annihilation player cause me to call it Porcing, as in Porcupine, rather than turtling like most people do.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Then I'll definitely put that on my list.

And I do defense in depth well, because I'm a defensive player by nature. My origins as a Total Annihilation player cause me to call it Porcing, as in Porcupine, rather than turtling like most people do.

You can't really play that way. You have to go for early aggression, and you can't rely on defensive measures to be stronger than attacking ones (artillery pieces on both sides guarantee this). Initially, I was much better at StarCraft II than Company of Heroes, the AI in CoH kicked my ass every time I played Skirmish. Then I learned to play by its rules (that and I just got better. The StarCraft AI sucks). You don't prepare defenses. You prepare response teams. Attacks are hit-and-runs on the outer edges of your territory which will quickly wear down spread-out defenses. You have to grab as much territory as you can in the early game, and a less defensive playstyle by the enemy will be putting you under constant pressure. And in Victory Point, you have to keep the pressure on them to grab the key points as well (and why would you play Annihilation? Annihilation sucks).

[warty goblin]

Then I'll definitely put that on my list.

And I do defense in depth well, because I'm a defensive player by nature. My origins as a Total Annihilation player cause me to call it Porcing, as in Porcupine, rather than turtling like most people do.
Defense isn't really a playstyle in CoH. It's something you do when you have to, but because of the power of indirect fire, and the vulnerability of weapons teams to being flanked and destroyed, you can't just set up defenses and wait for the enemy to mulch themselves. You need to use your units to react dynamically to an enemy thrust in order to contain it, and hopefully push it back. But static defenses are a fool's errand.


You can't really play that way. You have to go for early aggression, and you can't rely on defensive measures to be stronger than attacking ones (artillery pieces on both sides guarantee this). Initially, I was much better at StarCraft II than Company of Heroes, the AI in CoH kicked my ass every time I played Skirmish. Then I learned to play by its rules (that and I just got better. The StarCraft AI sucks). You don't prepare defenses. You prepare response teams. Attacks are hit-and-runs on the outer edges of your territory which will quickly wear down spread-out defenses. You have to grab as much territory as you can in the early game, and a less defensive playstyle by the enemy will be putting you under constant pressure. And in Victory Point, you have to keep the pressure on them to grab the key points as well (and why would you play Annihilation? Annihilation sucks).

That said, the Brits in Opposing Fronts can play fairly defensively, by locking down key areas of the map with their insanely powerful defenses. Put a 17 pounder AT gun in position to cover a bridge, ford, or other strategic position, support with a machine gun, and nobody's getting through in a hurry. Then you use the howitzer to pulverize enemy units in an area before pushing infantry. Done right it's enormously powerful, mostly because any time you see an enemy, you can drop an artillery shell on his head.

But it's not invulnerable. If the static defenses can be flanked, they're easy to knock out, and are expensive enough they can't be deployed to cover every line of attack. Well managed Panzer Elite can run circles around this, because their high powered infantry operating from halftracks form crazy mobile attack teams, particularly early game.

But yes, in general, response teams are the way to think. The infantry is in front to provide visibility. Behind them are the AT guns and MG teams. Once an enemy attacks these assets can be repositioned to counter the attack, while the infantry slows down the enemy before drawing back in (hopefully) good order. Tanks and other armor can either be deployed with the infantry, or else positioned with the other assets to push back against an enemy advance.

And personally I've always liked Annihilation. It tends to produce some scenarios that don't often come up in the VP games, and put the emphasis more directly on tactical acumen.

[Tavar]

And personally I've always liked Annihilation. It tends to produce some scenarios that don't often come up in the VP games, and put the emphasis more directly on tactical acumen.
Have you ever played Supreme Commander(1, Forged Alliance, or 2)? I ask because I know that Supreme Commander and Supreme Commander: Forged alliance are considered spiritual successors to TA, but I've never played TA, and was wondering how they compared.

[IthilanorStPete]

I've got a habit of hoarding consumables, treating them as Too Awesome To Use (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TooAwesomeToUse), no matter how non-awesome they actually are.

[Dumbledore lives]

Did you know in Kotor you can kill the Rancor that you are supposed to poison with enough grenades and mines? That was the one time I used them in the game, though I would always disarm and always pick them up. By the end of the game I think I carried a bout a hundred mines and a hundred grenades, and about thirty of each special type of each, with never buying or using them. Same in all fallout games. Elder Scrolls games are the same way for scrolls and potions, especially Morrowind. I am horrible about hording in that respect.

[Triaxx]

Static defenses are fall back positions. Set up your guns and draw the enemy into their field of fire. Or they're there to provide a hang-up point to keep the enemy occupied long enough to swing the focus onto that point. One of the reasons I say Porcing instead of Turtling is that there is a stylistic difference.

In Turtling, the idea is to simply absorb the hits until the enemy expends all their resources. That doesn't work in TA/SupCom because the resources don't expend. I've seen some stalemates that not even SupCom's experimentals could break.

In Porcing you get hit and respond with all the force you can muster. Static defenses don't work for it. Instead you want lots of mobile units providing defense. They can move to counter attacks and then strike out once the enemy attack has been defeated and hit while the enemy is weak after the failed attack.

@Tavar: I know that I really liked Supreme Commander 1. It feels very much a successor to TA, and on top of that, I find it very fun. I've not played Forged Alliance. Nor have I played SupCom2. I haven't had the ready cash to get FA, and I dislike the direction SupCom2 went. It lost that huge scale, to turn into another SC clone.

Good news is that the guys who make World of Tanks now own the rights to TA and employ Chris Taylor. So perhaps we'll see a true sequel sometime soon.

[Tavar]

If you liked playing with other people in SupCom, you might try getting FA when available: there's still a very active player base for that game. They even made their own client for the game.

[Triaxx]

I'm not much for online play. I live out in the middle of nowhere, so I have Sat internet, and thus a ping rate which is too high to play anything not turn-based. That said, I'm definitely trying to get FA, I just need the free cash.

[supermonkeyjoe]

My quirk is that if a game has nameable save slots I always ALWAYS create a save right at the start of the game named "starat" and don't ever save over it, I honestly can't remeber which game this started with but I mis-typed Start and just went with it, after that it became an odd tradition.