Newcomer questions

Discussion about the game and its default mods.
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andraaspar
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:24 am

Newcomer questions

Post by andraaspar »

OK, I read all the docs, watched tutorials and a release video, read some of the later forum posts and experimented myself. Here are a few remaining questions though. Sorry for the long list.

1. My units appear a bit dumb. Like, one trooper is actively engaging the enemy, and the guy next to him is... doing push-ups. Is this a design choice? Do they need my attention even for this? Is the default stance the wrong choice if I want to avoid this?

2. What do the AI names mean? Which one is the easiest to beat for a beginner? This is not documented anywhere.

3. Is there something like a Loser AI? Even better, an I-Will-Just-Stand-Here-Till-You-Murder-Me AI? Just so I have time to read all the tooltips and experiment with controlling units? I know I'm a sissy, but I can't beat three AIs alone (as suggested here and there). I have a hard time beating even one. Probably improves with practice, but I'm not even the worst player around here.

4. How to figure out if my building will fit / be in range before I spend the money?

5. Can I make the announcer shut up about silos? I won't build silos no matter what. (Am I wrong about that? Are silos super useful?)

6. When he announces that the base is under attack, I hit space like crazy but it never seems to center on the event. I thought it would focus on the last event... as it was documented.

7. ‘A’ for attack move / ‘Ctrl-A’ for assault move. What is the difference?

8. Is there an ‘unload there’ command for transports?

9. What is the best way to quickly select the unloaded troops (but not the transport)?

10. Is there a command line switch for watching playbacks? And which program do I launch? All I could do is copy playback files to magic folder and then dig through menus. I wish I could set it as the default action on Windows (the installer supposedly set it up – but for the admin account only).

11. There are some documented shortcuts that do not seem to work. Right here: https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/wiki/T ... -to-OpenRA it says: Deploy> "P" >"B">"E">"W">"E">"D">Start Producing Tanks!

Umm, no. It doesn't work. It seems to me that clicking the buttons works best. Is there a better shortcut profile? Or do people just use AHK? Or...?

12. Is there any documentation on unit prices, build times, movement speed, sight range, DPS, etc.? Like a spreadsheet or something? So I could see what costs how much and do stuff accordingly? I bet it would help devs to see it. An interesting metric could be the time / price till you can build the first unit. Including all prerequisite buildings, power plants, etc.

13. I heard (though not mentioned in the docs) that building multiple war factories means you can build faster. How much is the speed gain in percentages, and is it worth it? (Another spreadsheet idea.)

14. What counters mammoth tanks?

Thanks!

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TiTo
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 9:41 am

Re: Newcomer questions

Post by TiTo »

If you want to learn more join discord servers:
- ORA Academy https://discord.gg/C2CadJT
- Open RA general server: https://discord.openra.net/

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FiveAces
Posts: 707
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 11:22 pm
Location: Vienna
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Re: Newcomer questions

Post by FiveAces »

Welcome to OpenRA! Unfortunately, the guide you've found on GitHub is very outdated since the game receives frequent updates, while all the information contained within is from before 2015.
There's a ton of newer resources available, most notably the OpenRA Academy server on discord,
where you'll find teachers who can tutor you if you have the patience: https://discord.gg/C2CadJT .
I'll also point you to my youtube channel with 200ish OpenRA shoutcasts, giving you an overview on how the game is played on a competitive level: https://youtube.com/channel/covertflobert

With that out of the way, I'll try to answer your questions:

1.) That behaviour is well-known and can be modified with different stances: Infantry are by default set to defend to prevent them from chasing after enemy units and getting baited into an ambush. You can set them to aggressive with alt+a, but that will make them chase enemies way more often than you'd like.

2.) The AIs just execute different build orders; their names have nothing to do with difficulty level (as a matter of fact, after a bit of practice you'll quickly get bored of bots because they play terribly).

3.) Trust me, the AI is truly terrible, but if you want, you can activate developer mode to experiment around with units: Open a skirmish against an AI, then select the checkbox for "Debug mode"; as soon as the game starts, type /all to have instant access all tech, vision and money.

4.) Buildings can be placed exactly one empty tile away from other buildings (defences don't count for that purpose), so that should come naturally after some practice.

5.) The easiest way is to spend your money ;) You should definitely open the menu and disable "Cash ticks" though, that will help you maintain your sanity. The only other option is to disable the announcer altogether, but I don't recommend doing that.

6.) Maybe you remapped space to some other action? This one should definitely work if you dig around in the menu.

7.) Attack move only targets enemies that pose a threat: Units and defences. Assault move allows your units to employ scorched earth tactics and leave no enemy structure behind.

8.) Not directly, but you can queue all orders in OpenRA if you hold down shift. This means you can assign a transport a route to a destination and then insert a shift+f order at the end of the chain.

9.) Not selecting transports is currently not supported, but you can assign your combat squad a group hotkey (e.g. ctrl+1) and your transport another one (e.g. ctrl+2).

10.) I'm not tech-savvy enough to answer that one, maybe someone else can help.

11.) Yup, hotkeys have changed a ton since the inception of this guide. I use the function keys for build shortcuts: f to deploy, f1 for a powerplant, f2 for a barracks, f4 for a refinery, f5 for a war factory and then whatever you need to build next.

12.) The academy has some good info on that, check out the link earlier in this post.

13.) The maximum production speed reduction you can reach in OpenRA is 50%; for war factories, you need 4 to reach the maximum, while all other production buildings require 7 to cap out.

14.) As Soviets: Mass heavy tanks, mass tesla coils. MiGs if you have crazy good micromanagement. And if you are Russia, Tesla tanks are an absolute hard counter.
As Allies: Mass medium tanks, thoughts and prayers. Longbows if you flank them from behind so the turret can't rotate fast enough. Include a radar jammer to deflect the Tusk missiles.

Hope that helps!

andraaspar
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:24 am

Re: Newcomer questions

Post by andraaspar »

Thank you! That's very helpful!

andraaspar
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2019 9:24 am

Re: Newcomer questions

Post by andraaspar »

@FiveAces: Please note that the YouTube link you posted above shows ‘This channel does not exist.’

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FiveAces
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Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 11:22 pm
Location: Vienna
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Re: Newcomer questions

Post by FiveAces »

andraaspar wrote:
Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:19 pm
@FiveAces: Please note that the YouTube link you posted above shows ‘This channel does not exist.’
My bad, slipped a typo in there: https://youtube.com/user/CovertFlobert

That should work!

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Punsho
Posts: 143
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2018 2:56 pm
Location: Lithuania

Re: Newcomer questions

Post by Punsho »

FiveAces wrote:
Fri Aug 16, 2019 12:05 pm
5.) The easiest way is to spend your money ;) You should definitely open the menu and disable "Cash ticks" though, that will help you maintain your sanity. The only other option is to disable the announcer altogether, but I don't recommend doing that.
I see no problem with cash ticks, they only help me ;)

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