[Originally published: 02/15/2017 – It is regrettable, that the hyperlinked youtube vids aren't available any longer.]
This guide to the psychology of Red Alert is meant to illustrate the importance of the multitude of psychological components that effect game play of our beloved Red Alert Command and Conquer. Things like attitude and psychological warfare can have just as significant of an impact on winning or losing games as strategic mechanical game play strategies.
I could have wrote “Fluffy’s pro guide”, however I did not, because fluffy is not a pro yet, and would not dare lecture others on how to be one. Fluffy has however, over a relatively short period of time, became less noobish. Follow these simple instructions and you too can become less of a noob too!
Fluffy’s Easy guide to Hotkeys and Bookmarks
Too much hassle and work to try and start using hotkeys and bookmark? Think you’ll never get it. It will take too long? Fluffy has the answer. This is by far, the easiest, simplest, quickest, and most effective method of using your hotkeys and bookmarks, and best part is, you don’t have to be a genius or have 8 fingers on each hand (like _dany does ;P). But let’s get one thing straight before we begin. BOOKMARKS AND HOTKEYS ARE THE KEY TO BECOMING “LESS NOOB”. By far. You might even become a pro! :D
But it is true that the more you play the game on your keyboard and less with your mouse, the better you’ll be. The easy answer is because it is quicker, and in this game, time = advantage. The sooner you start doing this, the sooner your game will improve. Don’t wait or put it off to learn, you should really start implementing these changes as soon as you finish reading this, otherwise you will kick yourself when you eventually learn that I was right and you wasted all this time still playing the old way. As Lao-Tzu says in the Tao Te Ching, the journey of a thousand miles begins with 1 step.
HOTKEYS
The ability to produce, group, and call, and send tanks (or infantry) is a crucial component of the game. This requires the following formula: W, E, R, Cntrl 1, Shift1, and then Q. This is the sequence needed to master the Gold medal challenge and become a pro tanker. However, for most of us, it is just too hard to get your pinky finger to go all over the place and hit 1, you will know what I’m talking about if you have tried to do this. So fluffy had to find another way. Follow these mods exactly, and you will have no problem in no time!
1. You must download the Sharpkeys program (https://sharpkeys.codeplex.com/). Don’t worry, it’s not a cheat program or anything like that. All it does is allow you to change the configuration of your keyboard. In this case, we are going to change your number 2 to Control, and your number 4 to shift. Please be advised: you will not be able to type the number 2 or 4 from now on, you will have to spell them out (like two and four) because your keys will be changed. DON’T WORRY, you can always change them back to normal if you like. Nothing is permanent.
Once you do this, the sequence will look like this: W, E, R, 2, 3, 4, 3, and then Q. Place your fingers here and what do you notice?!? I’ll tell you what you should notice: 2,3,4 is right above W,E,R. Which makes it the most efficient, ergonomical method to do shift stacking. After a week of playing like this, it will be like playing the piano. Beautiful sounds of your fingers gliding along the keyboard will signal the bitter defeat of your enemies which you previously could not beat.
In this case, you will be grouping your tanks into group 3, instead of 1. My recommendation is to practice the gold medal challenge at least twice per gaming session (whenever you log on to CNCNET). Eventually you will find it easier to incorporate it into your regular games. Later on, if you require a second group for things like MCV formation, I like to use group 5.
BOOKMARKS
You only really need two bookmarks. W and R. One for your base, the other for the front line/battle line.
If you start on the left side of the map, on RASTA for example, you will scroll over your base and press 4, W (which is actually Shift W). This will set your bookmark so that whenever you press W, it will take you back to your base. Similarly the battle line would be R, so you would go to the battle line and press 4 R (which is actually Shift R). This will set your bookmark so that whenever you press W, it will take you to the battle line. That way, when you press WER, this is actually what is happening: pressing W gets you back to your home base (where your war factory is), E will select all units (tanks) on the screen (make sure you set your bookmark so that only your tanks are being selected, and not your ore trucks for example), and R returns you to the battle line. And then of course the next part is pressing 2,3,4,3. This groups all your tanks into group #3.
Zig when they Zag
This refers to a concept known as “oppositional perceptual salience”. Basically it’s knowing what your opponent knows, or is looking at, and then doing damage where he IS NOT looking at.
So for example if you are engaged in a tesla V2 battle with your opponent and you see that he is constantly putting up teslas by the second, you know he is viewing that part of the map only (unless is resolution is so high he can see the whole map – but most people don’t play with such a high resolution, and even if they do they can still miss things). This allows you to go to work on a different part of the map where he is not looking to do some damage. Here is where the bookmarks come in handy. Use either W for your main battle front, and R for your secondary front where you are surprising the living shit outta him. The speed that bookmarks gives you here is invaluable. It will allow you to very quickly work on two different battles at once. You can tell very quickly if your opponent uses bookmarks because if he can’t, he will not be able to keep up with both battle fronts at the same time like you do. An example of this can be see the following famous and glorious video of [fluffy-DP] VS [Saul-DP] at around 13:35 mins.
Notice how fluffy slowly demolishes his forces by switching levels (top to bottom). Most opponents cannot handle the continual moving north to south of their forces. It’s essentially a divide & conquer strategy. It wears down their forces over time.
Ore Refinery Spam
The ore refinery spam method works well if you even find yourself in a situation of facing a wall of V2’s that you just can’t penetrate. Note, this method only works well if you have full or close to full cy build speed, because ore ref’s take a while to build (but not if you’re at full speed ;). It works well for the following reasons:
- They set up a base point. Which allow you to build additional structures nearby, like teslas or flames. In other words they get you closer to the action/your opponent.
- They buy you time. Ore refineries have a relatively good building security, meaning that it takes a lot of hits to destroy them. While your enemy’s firepower is concentrated on trying to destroy them, that also means that their firepower is not spent on your units or structures. This can buy you precious time if you need to pump out tanks or V2’s or start CY’ing.
- Ore truck as a kamikaze missle. You can send the ore truck into your opponent’s wall of V2’s, thus killing, or at the very least creating splash damage to his V2’s because V2’s as you know fire automatically (same with teslas).
The following video show this method at work: @ 12:52
Social Facilitation and Social Inhibition
Within the domain of social psychology exists two phenomenon’s which have been extensively studied and contain cross situational consistency in terms of replicability. Social facilitation and social inhibition are the processes by which someone either plays (anything, basketball, football, video games, chess) better or worse depending on whether there is an audience or not.
Social facilitation occurs when someone plays better due to the presence of others watching. However this only occurs if the person has a solid skill set of the game he is playing. If he is a noob, or not confident in his abilities, social inhibition will occur and the person will play worse due to the presence of others.
Why is this important? Just something to consider and keep in mind if your about to embark on a game with a room full of specs. Further, the number of specs, and their status within the RA community are also influencing factors on your gameplay, whether you know it or not.
My Social Psychology prof used to tell us 3 things effect performance when you have spectators:
1. The proximity (i.e.… How close they are to you. So if you are giving a presentation in a close knit setting like a class, or in a lecture hall, or perhaps a farther away situation like a stadium or better yet on skype - how close the audience is can have an impact).
2. The status of the audience (i.e. You will probably be more stressed/nervous if you have to give a presentation in front of the president than if you were to give one in front of your mom).
3. The amount of people spectating (i.e. You will probably be more nervous giving a presentation in front of 100 people rather than 5).
PRO VS NOOB MENTALITY
This includes things like how you deal with things like losing, or better yet, winning. The noob will be tempted to gloat at their winnings, and hide their loses. They may even get angry when they lose, rage quit, and/or act inappropriately to those whom they lost to. This is maladaptive to the long term well being of the player for the following reasons:
- A wise player recognizes that he can learn and improve from every loss (see later section on recording games). They realize they can not only learn from their own mistakes, but also vicariously through others successes/wins.
- A foolish player feeds their ego when they win, thus making it even more important to win games in the future, so as to not damage their now fragile ego that is in need of constant defending (perpetual cycle).
Pros refer to themselves as noobs for many reasons:
1. They recognize they still have lots more to learn about the game, and can always improve.
2. If they lose, no worries, because they admit they are a noob. If they win, how much worse is that for their opponent who got beat by a "noob". It’s a win win situation, you can never lose if you refer to yourself as a noob.
-Finally, on the topic of trolls: Noobs feed trolls, pros rise above them by ignoring them, or alternatively laying the occasional smack down in the main lobby when it is necessary to teach the noobs in a tactful way.
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
Psyching your opponent out before a game even begins can be an effective way to tip the scales in your favor. This is known as the art of shit talking. Especially effective if you can identify insecurities within your opponent’s demeanor which you can exploit. For example, if you notice your opponent always making excuses for losing by saying things like "Sorry I was on the phone", "my mouse stopped working" or "you cheated", you can safely assume their loss effected them. You may take advantage of this knowledge by pointing this out to them by saying something like "U mad bro?" or "you really don’t like losing do you..??"
Of course the list of possible things to say to get under your opponents skin pre game is endless. Some common topics include their laggyness/inferior internet connection, shitty country in which they live (be careful not to cross the line into racism here), their name, their clan, their mother, or calling them out in the main room which forces those with ego to defend it
(Note: This last one will not work with those who have a pro mentality, as they have no ego to defend, as they realize winning and losing are part of the same coin, and occur just as spontaneously as the tides coming in and out, now becoming then, day becoming night, here becoming there - see first section).
Conversely, there is another type of psychological manipulation that can utilized here that plays on the opposite end of the spectrum. You can downplay your abilities and skills, thus bringing down your opponents guard (and therefor won't try as hard because he thinks you are a noob). This is the best strategy. Some things you can say to signal that you are a noob include: “you will win, I’m a noob”, or "how do you talk in game??" "How do people build so many tanks". As the Taoist masters say "What you want to destroy, you must first allow it to flourish. What you want to take from, you must first truly give". The soft overcomes the hard, the weak overcomes the strong. This is the way of the ancients.
CLANS VS NATURAL ALLIANCES
There is no good reason to join a clan. Joining a clan is a natural tendency for those who are interested in promoting ego and propping up identity politics. Social hominid species such as Homo sapiens have evolved to be a "coalitional species" and form in-group/out-group factions. So it is natural to want to join a group and identify with them, especially if they are high in status among the RA community. However, the wise man will jettison any clan identifications for the following reasons:
1. You show your hands before the game even begins. When you are in a room about to play, other players look at your name and automatically know you are of above average skill level
(Depending on the clan, lol). This is valuable information, as they may then decide to jointly attack and destroy you first, as you are the greatest threat. The element of surprise in terms of what your skill level has been lost.
2. You should be able to make alliances and coalitions with other players naturally, without sticking an abbreviation in front of your name. This is sometimes referred to as "making friends", something which can be foreign to many online players. Use your friend list so you can see when they are online, and invite them to play with you. Easy. Align yourself with those who are willing to teach you and help you learn on your journey as a RA player.
3. Being part of a clan adds extra, unneeded, pressure to your games, as you are representing your clan, and (hopefully) don’t want to embarrass your clan’s reputation. Again, if you have no ego or name to defend, losing no longer matters, and you are free to engage in your winnings and loses without taking a psychological hit. If you doubt this, just look at all the bickering that goes on (even on this blog) about whose clan is the best. There are a number of pages solely dedicated to "clan rankings". If that is not about ego, I don’t know what is. Think deeply about this one before spewing out a counter argument why you justify joining a clan.
4. There is, of course, one exception to all of the above, and that is the Dark Pumas (DP) clan. We all know that they are the best clan, with the best leader, and the best members, so naturally they are exempt from all above criticisms of clan life.
MASTERING A MAP
Of course the end goal is to be a well-rounded RA player that can play on any map, with allies or soviets. However, starting off by mastering a map that you like and learning to play it well can give you confidence in the beginning stages of your development and allow you progress at a steady pace. Learn all the strategies that can be played on that map, where the blind spots are, how to use natural elements of the map to block opponent etc. It has often been said that it is preferential to "be a master of one, rather than average at all".
RECORDING GAMES
It is advisable to record every game you play, and review them at the end of your evening of playing. You don't have to watch them all through, but the games you lost, make sure to see where the tipping point was, where the tides shifted to where you started losing the game. Think of ideas you might try next time in a similar situation. Ask pros what they would do in that situation. Recording games is important because if you don’t know what your mistakes are, you can’t improve or fix them.
A good program is Bandicam. Their trail download will let you record the first 10 minutes of your games. $40 will get you unlimited recording. Highly worth it. There are other programs out there, some for free. Contact the ever so frugal Andrew Ford for recommendations, I know he uses a free program :P
SCROLL RATE
It is recommended that you move your scroll rate to the third bar from the left. It is essential to have a fast scroll rate so you can scout and get to different parts of the map quickly. It has been said to go 1 scroll ahead of where you are comfortable at, so that you will get used to it and automatically adjust.
Fluffy’s custom hotkey setup
Here you will find the best hotkey setup to accompany your W, E, R, 2, 3, 4, 3, Q method. All the keys are close by your home row of WER. Space bar is purposely set as Q because in the heat of battle u need to be able to rely on gross motor skills, thus the space bar is big and hard to miss if you desperately need to Q someone/something. Thanks for checking out my guide, don’t forget to subscribe to fluffy tube for all the latest and greatest Red Alert matches! https://www.youtube.com/user/sylviabombs15/videos
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