A Little Help?

[McGuire867]

Okay, I bought Defcon when it first came out and I was having a pretty good time...

Until I realized that even against the computer I lose at EVERY SINGLE MATCH. Every one! I want to enjoy this game, but the fact that I'm constantly losing the most is making it a very frustrating experience.

I love real-time strategy games, and I'm used to stuff like Battle for Middle Earth and Starcraft, but this is, as we're all aware, very very different.

If someone could please be kind to this poor newbie and just give me some strategic pointers so that I actually want to play Defcon because I actually have a chance at winning I would greatly appreciate it.

And, please, no flaming. I'm seriously asking for help and the last thing I need are a bunch of jerks posting "hahahahah!!11!! u r teh ubersuxxorz n00b!1! pwned!!1!!!!11"

Thanks!

[Navigator]

You could always go through the threads in this forum. There's lots of tips listed.


But here's a few basic pointers:

Don't place land units directly on top of cities if you can avoid it.

Don't spread out your silos too much or put them in remote areas.

Don't mix subs with other types of ships.

Bombers are great for taking out naval units.

Fighters are great for taking out bombers.

Nukes are great for taking out... everything.


Also, you should try spectating games between other players to see in real time what kind of tactics are being used. Spectating is a great way to learn.

[torig]

Hi,

welcome to the forum and congrats on buying defcon. You won't regret it.
Don't give up - we've all been there before.

First thing is to realise the tutorial teaches you really bad tactics. Look in the general defcon related subforum for the thread called "Defcon School-Everybody learns".
Actually here is the link: http://forums.introversion.co.uk/defcon ... php?t=4234 .

It contains some of the best tips.
Don't fly bombers towards your enemy in a single file ; research what is called "the beam attack" (explained in the thread above).
Silo placement, as pointed out by navigator, is crucial for the game mode. For example in default scoring mode, you get 2 points for every kill and 1 for every death. So don't overdefend, play aggressively though!
In survivor (which is used in diplomacy games) protecting your civilians is key. Keep that in mind when setting up.

Now for some pointers: as Africa give up on Cairo. Not a lot of people have found a strategy that works, and that saves that city.
Make sure when setting up not to place your installations within radar range of your enemies. What they can see, they can take out.

Practice, join the 1v1 ladder and 2v2 ladder, and eventually you'll get better (a lot better).
Don't worry, people here won't flame you for being a new player (at least that's my experience).

Have fun!

[Feud]

A good rule of thumb for 1v1 or CPU stomps is:

Defend your units first, then cities; attack their units first, then cities.

As was mentioned, in default scoring you get 2 points per kill, 1 point per survivor. So, attacking a silo first does two things:

1) It removes up to ten nukes per silo from hitting your cities.

2) It allows more of your nukes to hit.



Also, don't be afraid to make sacrifices for the greater good. Some cites are probably best left abandoned. While it allows easy points, it also allows you to better protect both silos and other cities.

[Radiant Caligula]

remember MASS. Especially when attacking really hot targets, such as Russia teamed with EU when playing Asia. Never toss a nuke here and there. Timing is king along with co-ordination. Check out the tutorials for specifics.

[torig]

Also, some things aren't obvious to new players, but come in handy as general knowledge:

- Nukes that hit halve a city's population. Always. A 25M city becomes a 12M city after 1 succesfull hit, then a 6M, then a 3M, then a 1M and then 0.5M.
Lobbing 20 nukes at the same city therefore is never really a good idea (unless it's very heavily protected and a lot of those nukes get shot down, but see Feud's point then about taking out silos.)
- Bombers can stay up in the air for 46 minutes.
- Nukes travel to anywhere in about 30 minutes. Launching far away if there are only 10 minutes left on the victory timer is probably not going to get you any result.
- Active sonar mode on subs is usefull for detecting nearby ships. If you surface next to a battleship, you're not going to get more than 1 nuke off, probably even not that.
A sub in active sonar mode cannot be attacked by bombers or battleships!!! Only by other subs or by carriers in anti-sub mode (but that also affects subs in passive mode).
A carrier in anti-sub cannot sink a launching sub so if you are about to lose a sub to a carrier, launching might be your last ditch effort (getting only 1-2 nukes in the air as opposed to losing them all is still the best).

[McGuire867]

Thanks, you guys. This is all really helpful. I really appreciate it!

[shinygerbil]

- Nukes that hit halve a city's population. Always. A 25M city becomes a 12M city after 1 succesfull hit, then a 6M, then a 3M, then a 1M and then 0.5M.

Rounding Error!
Whatever values Defcon flashes on screen, it will *always* round to the nearest integer. So it may show 12M, but it still knows that it's 12.5M. The next one is 6.25M, then 3.12M, and so on. My point is, sometimes the figures can be misleading, but that's all down to the wonders of maths.

- Nukes travel to anywhere in about 30 minutes. Launching far away if there are only 10 minutes left on the victory timer is probably not going to get you any result.

I'd like to add a *very* important factor to remember with this; silos take time to launch all their nukes. It takes 120 seconds to ready a silo before each launch; so with ten nukes in a silo, that makes twenty minutes. So if you're using a silo at maximum distance (say, South America to Asia) it'll take fifty minutes for all your nukes to hit. So if you wait for the Victory Timer, they won't all hit. The best thing to do in that situation is either launch first, or launch a few nukes from every silo early, so that they have, for example, only half their nukes left (or whatever you choose) - and then you won't waste a bunch when it comes to the Victory Timer. For example, take a look at my failing to follow my own advice below, and you'll see that I waited until the Virtory Timer:



Those extra nukes could have made all the difference.


My biggest tip is not to be afraid, and go out and look for difficult opponents, and don't be afraid to ask questions. For example, after a 6-player match, just ask whether you made any glaring mistakes with your placement, or navy, or whatever. Most of them will be only too glad to point out where you went wrong - but not to rub in their victory, just to help you get better. After all, what Defcon needs is more good players!

[Feud]

My biggest tip is not to be afraid, and go out and look for difficult opponents, and don't be afraid to ask questions. For example, after a 6-player match, just ask whether you made any glaring mistakes with your placement, or navy, or whatever. Most of them will be only too glad to point out where you went wrong - but not to rub in their victory, just to help you get better. After all, what Defcon needs is more good players!

Like he said, go ahead and ask. Just a day or two ago I know of one forum regular who spent 30-45 minutes showing, both by demonstration and drawing with different sized fleets, a new player how to sail ships through the Bering Strait.

Those of us who play regularly want the community grow, what's good for you is good for us as well.

[torq]

You MUST gain naval superiority in order to win.
Each carrier has 6 nukes - protect them. Bombers have a great fire range so don't get them too close to enemy ships and don't launch them towards the enemy. Fighters' first task is to shoot enemy bombers, the second one is protection of your own bombers from enemy fighters. Using fighters against ships is ineffective (so use them this way only as a last resort).
Subs can attack visible enemy ships even in passive sonar mode.
Spread your fire, don't concentrate it. If you have six bombers have them fire at six different enemy ships.

[Ace Rimmer]

I've found that 99% of the time if you launch your silos no later than 43m on the victory time, you can pretty much guarantee they'll all land.

And as others have already said, spectate spectate spectate.

[Braddock]

Spread your fire, don't concentrate it. If you have six bombers have them fire at six different enemy ships.

Really? In most RTS games it is best to concentrate fire. What makes this different?

[Ace Rimmer]

Spread your fire, don't concentrate it. If you have six bombers have them fire at six different enemy ships.

Really? In most RTS games it is best to concentrate fire. What makes this different?

Because as xander pointed out once, concentrating your fire doesn't increase your chances of killing the unit (there are no hitpoints, only % chance) enough or as much as spreading your fire will/can. I don't remember the specifics.

[torig]

Spread your fire, don't concentrate it. If you have six bombers have them fire at six different enemy ships.

Really? In most RTS games it is best to concentrate fire. What makes this different?

Because as xander pointed out once, concentrating your fire doesn't increase your chances of killing the unit (there are no hitpoints, only % chance) enough or as much as spreading your fire will/can. I don't remember the specifics.

The idea was that each hit hitting the same target had as much chance as the previous one of destroying the target.
However, it boiled down to this:

assume 6 fighters and 6 bombers are nearly "meeting". If the 6 fighters shoot at 1 bomber, they have x% chance of destroying it.
Let's assume the first shot takes out the bomber. The other 5 are wasted. Now if all of those had been targetting a different bomber, you could see situations in which you are extremely lucky and take down all bombers with the first shot. You could be extremely unlucky and down none of them. However, the chance of taking down more than 1 bomber is statistically higher than if you'd only shoot at that 1 bomber 6 times.

Ok, bad explanation that will make xander cringe, but that was what it boiled down too

[Ace Rimmer]

I actually spread my fire (since it was previously discussed) when I can and haven't noticed too much of a difference. Observer bias?