Commander Mode - How Too / explained

Community Founder Joined: Jun 30, 2005 Posts: 2546

Once you're in the game press "Enter" unless you're in the spawn screen and click on the "Squad" tab and you should see "Commander" with the option to apply for the commander, mutiny the current commander and be the commander, or resign from being a commander

Apply for Commander

If you apply yourself, you have to wait a while until the game picks who should be the commander. If it has chosen you, a message should appear on your bottom left screen asking wheter to accept or decline the position of commander.

Press "Page Up" key to accept
Press "Page Down" key to decline.

Mutiny

If you pick the option to mutiny the commander, the game will present a vote to the team with the option to:

Vote to kick the current commander
or
Vote to keep the current commander

So, far I have not yet seen a commander actually get kicked, thanks to the fact that this voting system has a very low profile in people's HUD's and the fact that NO ONE CARES ABOUT THEIR TEAM! If one does get booted, then damn, that commander must have done something extremely wrong.

Also, some servers have turned off the mutiny option so if you have a lousy commander with this server-side option on, you're out of luck.

Resignation

Resigning makes you quit being the commander, quite obvoius.

How the Game picks the commander

The game claims it has chosen the player with the highest rank out of the players who applied. However, the demo does not have any ranks so it will decide based on the person's last score. So if you want to become a commadner, you better work your ass off to be one next round.

Congrats, you're now the commander, now what?

Once you have accepted to become the commander, press the "CAPS LOCK" key to open up your commander controls. You cannot access to this if you are dead.

The eye of the commander: Map

This Map is a non-transparent full map showing your squad leaders, friendly teammates, and flags. What many don't realize is that you can actually zoom in and have a bird's eye view of the map real-time showing everything, including the enemies. I could say this is almost like a map hack. To zoom into the map to a certain area, left click that area and then use your scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in or out. Now, if you do not have a scroll wheel, check your control options to see which key is used to zoom. This is damn useful for anyone who has a mic assuming he doesn't babble and actually say useful things. You don't need a special option to do this, you always have this, the only thing is you have to search for enemies or key objects.

Commander's 4 basic action

There are 4 basic and eye catching options for the commander. They are easy to use and pretty easy to understand. Just click that option and then click one of the map you want that action to be executed except for "Scan" which scans the whole map.

1) Scan

Basically this is a one time radar that scans the whole map. The enemies will show up as a red big dot. This option is useful when you use Artillery or want to monitor enemy movements.

This option is disabled if your radar is destroyed:

2) Artillery

Most likely the reason why many want to become a commander, this option makes the 2 or more howitzers launch multiple rounds at a concentrated area that is selected by the commander. The impacts are always random so it might not hit the target you want to such as directly on a flag or an armor. Artillery is very effective against infantry and light armors but never on heavy and medium armors such as the M1A2/T-90 or the LAV-25.

This option is disabled if someone destroys your artillery pieces. However, you can also repair them:

3) UAV

This option launches an invisible unmanned recon aircraft that constantly scans an area equivilant to a grid size constantly for a long time. Enemies will blink as red targets such as a red dot (infantry) or a red tank (armor). This is very useful when you are monitoring an area to find hidden or camouflaged enemies such as in a flag zone. Another great thing about this UaV is that your teammates will also see the enemy that is detected by the UAV on their radar.

This option is disabled if your enemies destroy a recon hut:

4) Supply Drop

This option magically makes a supply box appear out of the sky and falls down by parachute. Anyone can use this and it is destructable. You can actually kill infantry if the package lands right on them, but quite rare. This will most likely become useful once people learn how to request ammo! Right now, I just use it for myself on sabotage missions. Another great thing about this, this package also repairs vehicles and key buildings!

I have not yet found a building that enables the commander to use this

Squad info & comments

One of my favorite part about being a commander, ordering a squad to do something...which no one does.

Squad Info

On box on the middle left side shows the Squad info such as how many squads you have, how many members each squad has, and what kits each member of the squads have:

Special Forces: Sword/Sabre
Assault: FAMAS weapon
Medic: Equal Cross
Anti-Tank: Rocket
Enginneer: Wrench
Support: Machine Gun Mounted on Tripod
Sniper: Crosshair

If one of the member has a vehicle icon (Tank, transport, helicopters, etc.) it means that he is in a certain vehicle that relates to the icon.

To select a certain squad, simply click on that squad info and it'll become highlighted or simply press the number key on your keyboard that corresponds to the squad # such as pressing Key 3 to select squad 3*
*Contributed by Konquerer

To select more than one squad, simply press CTRL or Shift and select the squads with the mouse. This can save a some time by not having to go through squads one by one.*
*Contributed by Bloodening

Squad Comments

Right click the squad info to make comments such as:

Commend (Good Job!)
Rebuke (YOU SUCK AS A SQUAD LEADER!)
Follow Orders!
Artillery incoming
Artillery Availale
Supply Drop Available
UAV Available

Commander & Squad commands

These are the tools to command your squads effectively and quickly. You can bring these commands up on the map by dragging the mouse over the point you are concerned about and right click on it. There are 2 categories of commands:

Squad Commands

These are the squad commands that are brought up:
Move to this position (Yellow Arrow)
Defend this point (Purple Shield)
Attack this Position (Orange Sword)
Repair this object (Red violet wrench)
Destroy this target (Hammer)
Mine this point (Mine)

This will save time from having to type to the squad and you can quickly pinpoint the exact location the action to take place. It also has a better method of gaining attention to the squad leader than just regular text.

Commander's action

Zoom
Spotted
Call in Artillery
Deploy UAV
Drop Supplies

Zoom

Do I have to explain this? It's the same as zooming in and out of the map except you do it differently. The former option makes you left-click on the point and scroll the mouse wheel to zoom (or press a key that's assigned to zoom) while the latter option makes you right click on that point and select "Zoom." I prefer the former option since it's faster.

Also I have to say that if you do not have a mouse with a scroll wheel, buy it damnit! It'll make the game and internet browsing more enjoyable than having to drag here, click here, pull down here method.

Spotted

There is this one particular squad command in which works similar as using the "Spot command" in-game. Obviously it's called Spotted and the way it works is if you detect a target such as a sniper, you can give the "Spotted" Command over the target and the enemy will appear in your teammates radar for a short period of time. This can really save you a lot of time and not to wast the UAV ability just to show your guys one or few enemies.*
*Contributed by Konquerer

The other three commands (Artillery, UAV, Supply Drop) are the same options as the 4 basic options I told you. The only difference is how you order these actions. The former option makes you click and drag the "crosshair" of the action over the map. The latter option makes you right-click over the point and select the action.

Finding a specific unit or kit to do a job

In the bottom of the Commander screen, you'll notice several icons of weapon kits (and types of armors. This toolbar is used to find infantry with a certain kit or in a certain vehicle by eliminating other teammates of the map that does not fit the description. So let's say you need an infantry with a Special Forces kit to destroy the enemy's artillery, simply deselect "All" (Default setting) and punch in the SF icon (Sword), then the map should only show infantry who has the SF kit:
Now you need to find the closest medic for a certain squad, so punch in the medic icon:
This also applies to vehicles too. However, I believe you can easily find which vehicle you want than trying to find an infantry with a certain kit. Also, you can punch in more icons than one. So if you want to find two or more infantry with certain kits that are different from each other at the same time, just punch in their icons and they'll be the only infantry to show up on the map. This toolbar is an excellent way to find the right man for the job in short time in searching and execution.

Every commander's woes and annoyance

Now honestly, almost no one follows your orders. Those who do are most likely going to be your squad leaders only because Commanders can only communicate to squad leaders when using the radio commands. Now not only you have to worry if squad leaders are willing to accept, but you also have to worry wheter the squad members will follow the squad leader's orders.

However, if you are blessed with a fully functional squad, even only one squad, then with your intel and support, that squad will DEVESTATE anyone in their paths. I once monitered a six man squad from the opposition and damn, they were running and overwhelming my guys like hundreds of fire ants going through a maggot's nest. I had some squads that did what they were ordered to, but never had a squad as I saw as I mentioned.

Final Remarks

Commanders are the key to winning the battle, or at least in this demo. A bad and useless commander is nothing but a waste for the team as that means they lost a crucial supply resource, inteligence, and large-destructive support. If you're a commander just for the artillery, then by all means don't be the commander, you're better off camping for a Havoc or Cobra. Commanders also need to be very talkative or typeative to communicate info and missions. I hope my FAQ will make you readers a better and well-mannered commanders that will help the team in winning the battle.

Joined: Jul 01, 2005 Posts: 8

i do hope you copeid this mrix other wise i might think your addicted to the game Wink

Community Founder Joined: Jun 30, 2005 Posts: 2546

Who me copy from another website nooooooo wayyyyyyy Wink

cheers
mrix

Joined: Aug 04, 2005 Posts: 4

Thx for the info mate! Very Happy

Joined: Oct 08, 2005 Posts: 27

very handy, nice c&p mrix lollllll