Throwing in one of my secret techniques in sins...

from Sins Forums

The most important resource in RTS is "real-time"

Now think for a second how much time is wasted in sins in repositioning viewpoint

The answer would be lots .

I would hedge a bet that most people will get from one grav to another through mouse wheel rolling. Roll out , then roll in . Try it in-game and see how much valuable "real-time" is spent doing this.

Now what I use ,that many dont unless their mouse wheels break or they have touchpads are the c and x buttons. Instant jump out and instant jump in. Ive reduced the amount of real-time spent on viewpoint respositioning and redirected it to fleet micro and empire macro.

I remember games such as Total annihilation where noobs would use the arrow keys to scroll or use the mouse to the sides. This takes ages , but the true experts use the radar to move viewpoint thus using 99% of their real-time to micro units.

edit: another valuable tool is using the sidebar efficiently but thats another thread in the making.

 

strategy
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Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I typically move around by double-tapping a hotkey I've assigned to a unit group.  Doesn't work for queuing up structures or upgrades on a random planet, but when you're jumping between multiple fronts it's an invaluable tool.  I'm always amazed by how many people who don't know about this (I do LAN parties and people will ask me how I'm jumping between my armies so fast)

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

clicky the thing in the empire tree you wont to zoom to. or use a hotkey if its a fleet or planet you've already made a control group for. 

 

then hit the space bar to auto-center it. sometimes it even brings you to the right zoom level. then hit z, x, or c to get to the right zoom level. 

 

the whole process takes about 3 seconds. probably half the time it takes to do it entirely with the mouse. 

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

i play the game in the empire tree....

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

ill do you one better P5, saving time when it really counts... when your microing. set your rally points and use the side bar to build all ships and structures so you esentially never have to scroll out from fights other than to predict enemy strats, thus maximizing effective micro time. if you scroll out cover all bases at once que all movements, builds, abilities, etc. in the fight then zoom out and evaluate "the big picture". set rally points, que builds, trade, research, que your nuetral grabers and recon scouts, etc. then you can settle into the fight and never have to worry about anything but clickin on the side bar to build more ships/buildings and the fight at critical moments thus bringing the superior micro skills!

it takes longer to type to your naggy allies than it does to do anything else in the game now, and youll find yourself with much down time when you master time managment skills in sins. even on the fastest speed i find plenty of time to watch movies, fold laundry, cook dinner, etc. by automating my whole game. the only time i really dedicate 100% to the game is when im microing a battle or setting a trap/ prepareing for imminent battle. which is probably why i have my reputation for top notch micro, because i have so much time to just focus on every tiny detail of ruining peoples shit

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Speaking of the empire tree. sometimes it gets full, and then starts jumping up and down, as fleets enter and exit phase space. This can make micoring in the tree very hard sometimes. I will often want to apply an ability and the target has 8 other ships around it so I target into the empire tree. But when it jumps around bad things can happen.

 

Is there any way to freeze the empire tree so it won't move one me.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting markarian, reply 5
Speaking of the empire tree. sometimes it gets full, and then starts jumping up and down, as fleets enter and exit phase space. This can make micoring in the tree very hard sometimes. I will often want to apply an ability and the target has 8 other ships around it so I target into the empire tree. But when it jumps around bad things can happen.

 

Is there any way to freeze the empire tree so it won't move one me.
End of markarian's quote

 

If there is, i havent found it.

 

 

The only tip i can give is to deactivate auto pinning of things. Just pin there what you need.

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

I agree with Tyr.  Eventually, your micro gets good enough that you are left waiting in MP for fleet movements to catch up to what you've ordered.  Of course, in the begining of the game, Vasari players are spent microing the crap out of neutrals, and I really get ticked off when my allies (or friends in the lobby) want to chat with me and I'm trying to grab a metric butt ton of neutrals.

By the way, you know your micro skills are getting good when you can play a whole game at 8x speed in single player mode.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Tyr222 and others speak of queuing a ton of actions up.  I would like to do this - in fact I *TRY* to do this.  The problem is, half the time it doesn't work.  In other words, you might grab a colonizer frig or scout and say "go here, take this neutral resource, then jump out and go here, yadda yadda."  What happens is, after "certain actions" (say, taking a neutral or a planet), your unit (say, a colonizer frig or scout) forgets the rest of the actions you queued up.

Anyone else notice this?  Anybody figured out a workaround or solution?  I posted about this a long time ago (I think I called it a "bug") but not many people commented and nothing happened to my knowledge.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

No, this doesn't happen.   It it highly probably you gave it orders in the incorrect manner.  It will ALWAYS do what you tell it.  It won't forget.

The most likely cause of you incorrect manner of giving orders is that you are giving orders on top of it using an auto-cast ability.  This is a big no-no.