[Baloogan]

Originally Posted by Black_Dingo

thats a direct quote from the matrix store page. But is it really true?

I think its true. There are two big reasons why I think its true, the success I've had in making a turn based multiplayer plugin which requires periods of no micromanagement and the success I've had at making scenarios much too big to micromanage!

First I've written a multiplayer plugin for Command where your units are not in your direct control for half of the time (if playing against 1 player) or two thirds of the time (if playing against 2 players). Command still shines when you are not in direct control of your units.

At the bottom of this post is the current status of the multiplayer server, we have played about 160 turns so far across 19 games and 3 games have finished so far! (Not counting people who are using my software to play singleplayer, one of my tools called Geostream allows you to see your game log and the position of all your units at any point during the scenario. I wrote it so people could go back and see what happened during earlier turns.)

Simply it might be that Herman has not yet figured out the Mission system, I'd recommend that he try watching some of my tutorial videos before trying and failing to sound like an expert. I'll be making a mission system tutorial at some point in the future.

I'll write both of you guys a little tutorial on missions in Command.

First of here are the mission classes: I'm going to describe their use in a situation where you are unable to micromanage, for example you might be playing my multiplayer plugin in the future.

Strike allows you to designate targets or have no targets designated.
This is a 'scramble' mission. If you give this to aircraft parked at an airbase with no targets designated they will take off when a bogie is found to be 'unknown', 'unfriendly', or 'hostile'.

This is the #1 mission I rely on in multiplayer matches to make my aircraft scramble from their airfields and fight all without player intervention!


Here are the different types of the 'strike' mission. They are pretty self explanitory, but a special mention must be given to ASW Strike. I like giving this to my landed Marine Patrol Aircraft or to my landed ASW helicopters so when a sub is detected I launch a pile of A/C automatically. Seconds count! Especially when you know your multiplayer opponent has nuclear torpedoes and nuclear use authorization!

You can assign escorts to your strike groups, which is very useful too. Your escorts will fly in front of your strike groups on ingress and behind and in front of your strike groups on egress. I usually like clearing an air corridor and using feints to protect my strike aircraft.

Moving on to Patrol

This is a 'bread and butter' mission! I use this mission all the time!
Here are the different types of Patrol:

I use AAW for BARCAP, and CAPs of all sorts! I use it to achieve air superiority over a large region.
Also one thing I've been mentioning is aircraft, these missions are useful for all platforms! Imagine a Tico on AAW Patrol, a sub on a ASW Patrol or a ASuW Patrol or a Sea Control Patrol. A sub that is going after other subs will behave very differently than subs going after surface contacts.
SEAD patrol goes after radars and sam/aaa sites.

I could write a whole pile on how to use the patrol mission. : )



Next is Support missions, these are very simple missions. For example a tanker pattern in the sky where tankers will always maintain a presence for refueling aircraft.
Also very useful for Airborne Early Warning, place a Hawkeye in one of these
Also used for convoys of trucks, convoys of tanks, civilian cars moving down a road. Anything where you don't want your units to deviate from a path, unless they have targets. I sometimes use these missions in multiplayer matches if I want to launch an aircraft and my turn is going to be over in a minute and it will take the A/C about 10 minutes to take off. I quickly assign them to a support mission in the direction that I want them to fly when they take off. Basically a very simple mission.


Ferry, Mining and mine-clearing I've rarely used. I haven't really touched on mines in Command yet.

for $90+ I really want to be sure of what i'm getting into. I've watched about 5 long 'lets play' type videos of this title and i'm seeing substantial micromanagement.

During my videos I've micromanage more than usual because otherwise it would be a pretty boring stream lol!

I played Harpoon in early 90s, but fell out of love and was attracted to the sub command/fleet commmand/dangerous waters family. Now, im not trying to troll but lets be honest: Command *is* Harpoon.

What i'm looking to have answered is related to the title of the thread. Will these dots on the map fight on their own if given basic orders? (auto-engage etc). Ive seen things like ROE on some videos.

other things i'd like to know: Is there such thing as crew experience or veterancy? If I were to advocate against simulations such as this, i'd use terms like "spreadsheet war".

another question I have is are any manner of land forces in this game? even just for purposes of victory conditions, can say marines be landed somewhere to 'take' an objective? Or am I simply making my blue dots eliminate the red dots on google earth?

Things like paratroopers dropping out of aircraft, or marines landing off of hovercraft is currently performed by the event editor, where an event might be crafted:
If C-130 #21 reaches this region place 3 units of Marine Platoon here and send this message and activate its mission.
Another mission might be
If LCAC #2 reaches this beach place a platoon of Abrams here and activate its mission.

Currently LCAC (hovercraft) and other small boats can be docked inside of other large boats.

Current status of my multiplayer plugin please consider this an open invitation to play with us at some point in the future!


One thing I've really enjoyed about Command is how easy it is to modify, we are 2 months after release and I've released a mutliplayer plugin, Sluggy has released a plugin for reading your log to you. "VAMPIRE VAMPIRE" is now something that wakes you up!

Also here is an LCS modification I made about a month ago for some shore bombardment!




Please note that I did infact add a M1A1 unit to the LCS, and in fact now the M1A1 is a component on the LCS and can be specifically damaged! If the M1A1 had a radar its radar could be targeted by a HARM missile!