Micro

Hello!

I am a pretty active keyboard warrior here, but my skills on the battlefield are sometimes lacking. My micro is decent to good on a good day. But most of the time I always seem to have some units idle or dying without me noticing until they have one or two models left. This is especially horrid for USF play (which I tend to play a bit more lately), because of their manpower bleed. I sometimes miss entire squads dying..

As games progress longer, to let's say the 45-50 minute mark, my micro goes down the drain completely. I seem to lose any awareness of the larger picture and start losing units left and right. Sometimes it feels as if the games starts to respond less and less the longer the game progresses, but this could just as well be my not so effective micro.

Does anyone have any tips regarding micro, how to improve it? I have recently started using the hotkeys, but they still feel kinda unnatural for me. I guess the latter just needs practice? Which one is more effective, the grid style or the one that has all the keys across the keyboard?

Also, regarding control groups. What is the most effective way to utilize this? I usually try to give every unit a number, but this leaves me with a shit ton of control groups, which eventually confuses me. If I try to group them, I usually can't really control every unit in it, since I constantly have to click a unit and select an ability (the hotkeys don't feel natural yet). Any tips or tricks?

This regards 1v1 and in certain extends 2v2.

Thanks in advance

About control groups, I prefer to only use control groups on "important" units, for example squads that are flanking during a fight, capping behind enemy lines etc, that way you don't have too many control groups and that allows you to prevent the random squad wipes by quickly checking the squads every once in a while

And I kinda have the same problem regarding the longer games

Well, there are a few tips that will help you a lot.

Get used to control groups. I typically give all of my mainline infantry 1 control group each early game, then consolidate them as armor hits the field. My armor alway have their own control group each, and its always left -> right armor -> mainline infantry -> officers -> artillery. Once you have your own "system" you keep between games, you should find yourself doing a lot better. Remember to double tap control groups to shift your camera to the squad in question.

Use the Tac-map. It gives you a very good view of the battlefield, an lets you keep track of multiple engagements. You may want to use scripts to get a better keybind for your tacmap than numpad 0.

If you have't become too used to using classic hotkeys, I recommend using gridkeys. They make a lot more sense mechanically, and allow you to learn them faster (everything is based off of position on screen, not arbitrary letterings). Once you get the hang of hotkeys, everything will become a lot better. (The best part of gridkeys is that they are easy to learn across factions).

Other than that, its all about practice makes perect. I hope this helps.

About control groups, I prefer to only use control groups on "important" units, for example squads that are flanking during a fight, capping behind enemy lines etc, that way you don't have too many control groups and that allows you to prevent the random squad wipes by quickly checking the squads every once in a while

And I kinda have the same problem regarding the longer games

Thank you

Well, there are a few tips that will help you a lot.

Get used to control groups. I typically give all of my mainline infantry 1 control group each early game, then consolidate them as armor hits the field. My armor alway have their own control group each, and its always left -> right armor -> mainline infantry -> officers -> artillery. Once you have your own "system" you keep between games, you should find yourself doing a lot better. Remember to double tap control groups to shift your camera to the squad in question.

Use the Tac-map. It gives you a very good view of the battlefield, an lets you keep track of multiple engagements. You may want to use scripts to get a better keybind for your tacmap than numpad 0.

If you have't become too used to using classic hotkeys, I recommend using gridkeys. They make a lot more sense mechanically, and allow you to learn them faster (everything is based off of position on screen, not arbitrary letterings). Once you get the hang of hotkeys, everything will become a lot better. (The best part of gridkeys is that they are easy to learn across factions).

Other than that, its all about practice makes perect. I hope this helps.

Thank You

How do you script the tactical map? That would do wonders for me

How do you script the tactical map? That would do wonders for me

If you have buttons on side of your mouse this is my script,I use a program called X Mouse button control that sets print screen to MOUSE BUTTON 4/5 whatever.
Show Spoiler


The #UseHook commands and everything below it basically makes it to where you dont have to double tap the control group to snap to that unit. you press it once and youre at the unit.

If you have buttons on side of your mouse this is my script,I use a program called X Mouse button control that sets print screen to MOUSE BUTTON 4/5 whatever.
Show Spoiler

The #UseHook commands and everything below it basically makes it to where you dont have to double tap the control group to snap to that unit. you press it once and youre at the unit.

I also use a smiliar script so that I can access my tact map with my side mouse button. Saves me the hassle of looking for the "0" key that needs to pressed in order to access tac map. WOULD BE NICE IF RELIC ALLOWED CUSTOM COMBINATIONS FOR ABILITIES BUT INSTEAD THEY'RE BUSY MAKING DLC AND BRITS.


But back on topic: I'd recommend improving field awareness and trying not to focus too much on an engagement where most of your army is busy applying pressure to the enemy. It can also give you the benefit of counter wiping his squads you catch off guard during your major engagements. For example, when sending a rifle to cap several points on the other side of the map while simultaneously moving up your main force of rifles to engage the enemy on several flanks on the side of the map you're focusing on make sure to check the small map in the lower left hand corner of your screen with a quick glance to see if the rifle you sent to cap spots another enemy unit or is engaging said enemy unit already. Helps to quickly click on the rifle at the top right hand corner of your screen and efficiently retreat it when you realize which rifle it is.

we should try to define micro better, do you want to get better at positioning individual units during a firefight, or do u want to get better at macroing across the whole map and making sure your units are always doing something?

for the latter, you just need to keep reminding yourself to check up on all your units every few seconds. the easiest way for me is to 1. look at the top right corner at your units cards. 2. looking at the minimap every couple seconds. other ways that are very important is audio cues! a squad will tell you when an enemy squad is throwing a grenade at you, if theyre under attack, what kind of enemy theyre under attack from, and if theyre getting sniped!

another tool some people have failed to mention is the spacebar. pressing the spacebar will snap ur camera to the last notification, such as when a unit finishes training and walks onto the field, or when a unit finishes capping a point. so when you hear your announcer telling you your unit is finished training, hit space bar and immediately give it an order to where it should go. or if a unit finishes capping, hit spacebar so u can tell it to go cap another point.

the most important thing though is to always remind urself to look at the top right and make sure everything is in order. you will know wether ur units are engaged, dying, idle, suppressed, etc etc by looking at the top right.

theres one micro technique that is similar to the cloning technique from sc2. when you have a large number of units selected at once, you can press TAB to cycle through each unit in the group, and you can give them individual commands that are only issued to them instead of the whole group. this is useful when youre controlling blobs and want to get each squad into cover quickly or to spread out when artillery hits. its also useful when you have a large force in ur base and u want to move out into several areas of the map, you can select the whole group, press tab, order them to go to an area on the map, press tab again, order them to go to another area etc etc.

Similar to auto-hotkeys, most gaming mice can have different keys bound to the buttons and have automatic game detection. For example, the "forward" thumb-button on my mouse is a combo to A-Move (a+mouse click) and the back thumb button is reverse or retreat depending on if it's a vehicle or infantry. Like Lemon said, my mouse wheel is bound to "tab" in game, so I can scroll through large groups as I have them selected.

I also use a smiliar script so that I can access my tact map with my side mouse button. Saves me the hassle of looking for the "0" key that needs to pressed in order to access tac map. WOULD BE NICE IF RELIC ALLOWED CUSTOM COMBINATIONS FOR ABILITIES BUT INSTEAD THEY'RE BUSY MAKING DLC AND BRITS.


But back on topic: I'd recommend improving field awareness and trying not to focus too much on an engagement where most of your army is busy applying pressure to the enemy. It can also give you the benefit of counter wiping his squads you catch off guard during your major engagements. For example, when sending a rifle to cap several points on the other side of the map while simultaneously moving up your main force of rifles to engage the enemy on several flanks on the side of the map you're focusing on make sure to check the small map in the lower left hand corner of your screen with a quick glance to see if the rifle you sent to cap spots another enemy unit or is engaging said enemy unit already. Helps to quickly click on the rifle at the top right hand corner of your screen and efficiently retreat it when you realize which rifle it is.

Thank You, will use

Regarding scripts, how do I utilize that? How to script certain buttons?

we should try to define micro better, do you want to get better at positioning individual units during a firefight, or do u want to get better at macroing across the whole map and making sure your units are always doing something?

for the latter, you just need to keep reminding yourself to check up on all your units every few seconds. the easiest way for me is to 1. look at the top right corner at your units cards. 2. looking at the minimap every couple seconds. other ways that are very important is audio cues! a squad will tell you when an enemy squad is throwing a grenade at you, if theyre under attack, what kind of enemy theyre under attack from, and if theyre getting sniped!

another tool some people have failed to mention is the spacebar. pressing the spacebar will snap ur camera to the last notification, such as when a unit finishes training and walks onto the field, or when a unit finishes capping a point. so when you hear your announcer telling you your unit is finished training, hit space bar and immediately give it an order to where it should go. or if a unit finishes capping, hit spacebar so u can tell it to go cap another point.

the most important thing though is to always remind urself to look at the top right and make sure everything is in order. you will know wether ur units are engaged, dying, idle, suppressed, etc etc by looking at the top right.

theres one micro technique that is similar to the cloning technique from sc2. when you have a large number of units selected at once, you can press TAB to cycle through each unit in the group, and you can give them individual commands that are only issued to them instead of the whole group. this is useful when youre controlling blobs and want to get each squad into cover quickly or to spread out when artillery hits. its also useful when you have a large force in ur base and u want to move out into several areas of the map, you can select the whole group, press tab, order them to go to an area on the map, press tab again, order them to go to another area etc etc.

Many thanks!

Similar to auto-hotkeys, most gaming mice can have different keys bound to the buttons and have automatic game detection. For example, the "forward" thumb-button on my mouse is a combo to A-Move (a+mouse click) and the back thumb button is reverse or retreat depending on if it's a vehicle or infantry. Like Lemon said, my mouse wheel is bound to "tab" in game, so I can scroll through large groups as I have them selected.

How do you utilize this? How can I put my buttons to certain abilties?

How do you utilize this? How can I put my buttons to certain abilties?

Download autohotkey

www.autohotkey.com/

Download CELO

http://www.coh2.org/topic/18454/celo--company-of-elo

Download X mouse button control if you have buttons on the side of your mouse
http://download.cnet.com/X-Mouse-Button-Control/3000-20432_4-75362562.html

Use CELO hotkey creator to change the buttons and abilities to whatever you want,if youre not good at "coding"
Once you finish,you can view the script,copy it,compile it with autohotkey

You can also do this by manually typing it into an ahk file...but thats complicated


button youre changing:button you want


For example

I want the X key (throw grenade) to be number 2

so X:2





and have this; so your chat isnt messed up from changing the keys around

~F12 :: Suspend

+~F12 :: Suspend
(no space )

Download autohotkey

www.autohotkey.com/

Download CELO

http://www.coh2.org/topic/18454/celo--company-of-elo

Download X mouse button control if you have buttons on the side of your mouse
http://download.cnet.com/X-Mouse-Button-Control/3000-20432_4-75362562.html

Use CELO hotkey creator to change the buttons and abilities to whatever you want
Once you finish,you can view the script,copy it,compile it with autohotkey

You can also do this manually

ButtonYouwant:Button you're changing



and have this; so your chat isnt messed up from changing the keys around

~F12:uspend

+~F12:uspend

Thank you so much Cookie

If all that is to complicated or badly worded, just copy my script i posted earlier,and i can help you from there

If all that is to complicated or badly worded, just copy my script i posted earlier,and i can help you from there

Thank you, I will be back home around Friday, will give it a try by then. Will pm you if I fail

Thank you, I will be back home around Friday, will give it a try by then. Will pm you if I fail

Nah post it openly so if otherts have the same problem they can read about it

Do people find the space bar shortcut useful/reliable? I always had an issue with getting other notifications, so although it mostly takes where you expect, when something else comes through just as you press the button it completely disorients you. Which leads to missing things you would've easily dealt with by doing it manually.

Vonivan can you post your script for minimap and which side button do you have it under? I thought this would be easy, but i don't understand this script shizzz..

Or anyone else?