Silica - 10 Tips For Beginner Human Commanders 

Hey guys, thank you so much for all the support on this channel so far! NOTE: These tips are all subject to change. We are in Early Access, and the sands of Balterus are always shifting! In the meantime, i hope you find these useful. What are some tips you've found so far?

Another tip.... If you place refineries with the ramp facing toward the crystals, harvesters often have to turn 180' around when coming and going. *SO INSTEAD* _place refineries at 90' to the crystal field, so that the most your harvesters ever have to turn is 90' degrees._

Dealing with unwanted crabs - sponsored by Manscape.

Here are a couple more tips that have worked for me: 1) Try to always have a human commander at all times to lock in the economy and units. The A.I. has a tendency to waste money on a flood of smaller units and you always want your unit creation to support some sort of strategy. 2) Harvesters get stuck all the time, which can cripple your economy. Don't be afraid to have a human "unstuck" one! I only recently found out that you can drive one because you can't just press "e" next to it... you have to wait for a stair to come down underneath it and circle around the stairs to the top. Super annoying. 3) Since you mentioned "shift" run, it may be good to know there is a "control" kneel. Infantry will kneel and move to their commanded point. It reduces their profile and helps a little bit with their survivability. Just don't use it from across the map! Use it when they're already at their appointed marker. I like kneeling them just on the other side of a rock or Dune with just their head and gun poking out, which you can see when you fully zoom in. 4) Speaking of cover, putting infantry in rough terrain or hard to reach spots with good visibility is a must when playing against aggressive quad players who get great joy in running them over. But quads are easy to tip over, so having rough terrain around the infantry will give them an edge against quads. 5) Don't bunch infantry together. One (un)lucky shot from a rocket will take them all out. If they need to be together to support each other, spread them out (preferably along a line and in cover). Having a line of infantry in their "sweet spots" raining down hellfire into a canyon area is very satisfying. Infantry are squishy, but they can hit hard (especially heavies) if you protect them.

Tip no 12. Play with as many friends as you can get, it is more fun that way ;P

Good to see all the research y'all have been doing refined down and presented well! Looking forward to more!

Great video! Look forward to picking this one up

Well done vid as always mate :D

FPS players always respawn on the nearest barracks or HQ so building barracks closer to the frontline is usually advisable.

These are all good tips!

I think the fast move is more situational. Standard move lets them shoot and run but shift clicking lets them force sprint which lets them relocate or retreat while not being able to shoot. This also means They are less concealed while sprinting but CTRL Click lets them sneak. Gotta be sure what is needed first.

Found that you can ride on the back of the heavy quads, just gotta be careful of bumps and what not.

Got the game yesterday, and been playing it for the most part since lol. It's a good game, obvious balancing issues, a few key missing features, and an assortment of other problems, but it's a game I appreciate since it brings me back to an old genre I love. I'm hoping to see a Tips and tricks video from you soon that goes into more than just commander side, but that Tip at the end was certainly one that helped me out a lot. I'm looking forward to seeing where this game goes, and if you ever get a server let me know, I'll play along side. I've never really been a fan of bugs, and playing humans has just been right up my ally, one tip I can suggest to pretty much anyone that plays this game as a commander for the humans, is MAKE SURE the harvester is piloted by a player. It will almost 100% of the time turn your resource gathering into perfection, over the clunky mess that is those harvesters pathing.

Wow, the comments are full of great tips also. Might need another video featuring some of those 😏

Good game👌👌👌

i really cant wait for the day where personal equipment is costing ressource (like in natural selection 1/2) and there are APCs and Air transports available.

I learned the hard way to make sure my refineries are on my outer edges and easily accesible because otherwise my harvesters would get stuck everywhere

You can select a unit and then right click the mini-map to order your units there, rather than zooming about everywhere.

Great tips. Shift click move units, shift and camera move will help me a lot. When you press "T" to redeploy, do you lose the unit you leave?

Very usful tips

I always wonder why it is called FPS-RTS when infact, it is all 3rd person execept for infantry with basically useless scopes/ADS-devices?

How do you go about getting your economy recovered if your refinery gets shot down and the harvester stops collecting? Its my first time playing this and noticed I did not have enough resources to build another refinery.

Have the devs mentioned fixing the pathfinding issues? I think once that's done and maybe when he makes infantry play a little more fun to play I'm get this game it looks soo fun and something new.

There needs to be harvester upgrades to enhance defensive weaponry. If I gotto put them on the outskirts of my base they need to have a little bit better defenses

Hi, i don't know where to ask this haha. Is it possible to have a 20 v 20 ish player matches in this game. Like for example 2 commanders and other players control units. Sounds cool

I play PVE mostly but I was able to save $120k felt great

I would really appreciate some teamplay footage if youre interested in uploading some, I'm STILL waiting on my rig coming back and chomping at the bit for some voice cues and team gameplay footage.

2:20 "Those pesky qwabs"

Not for Xbox ?

If humans don't win in the first 15 minutes, they lose. Aliens are just better and can win without players.

(V =D

Advanced tips: 1. Silos ARE useful. I completely disagree with video, they are perfectly suited to expanding your base due to how cheap they are, and the fact that harvestor pathing is horrendous. The last thing you need is for a refinery to make it difficult for a harvestor to reach its own refinery. Not only is their smaller profile good for pathing, but it also has less obstruction on your field of fire for defenders than a full building does...speaking of which, silos are expendable, so sending them outwards isn't much a risk. Then you can have refineries built exactly where you need them, rather than chaining. There is also the not impossible chance that multiple harvestors return with their resources at the same time, while you are microing the defense forces. Speaking of which... 2. Maintain QRF squads (Quick Reaction Force). A lot of humans lose late game because they send all their units to the front, only for their base to get back doored by a Goliath. To advert this disaster, I recommend making a stay-at-home army of both light and heavy armored cars, with a two-to-one ratio of light to heavy. Despite not having as much armor or firepower as tanks, they move faster, and punch hard for their speed. They can kite alien units, killing them before they can reach them. The only thing that can kill a QRF squad that is composed of light and heavy armored cars is a mass scorpion attack, which the aliens will not have if they are busy defending against your own attack. That said, they will dispatch solo scorpions easy, so long as you micro them correctly. Be warned, however: the easiest way for the enemy to kill your QRF force is to draw them out or position. Speaking of which... 3. RESPECT THE DUNE CREST. It is not uncommon at all for the enemy to camp behind the dunes, both humans and aliens. If you haphazardly cross over them, you are likely to get ambushed, making your expensive units go bye-bye. To properly cross a dune, split your forces, so that they can cover each other as they cross over the top at the same time. You DO NOT want them to cross over single-file, as they will block each other's field of fire, and get killed one-by-one. Another way to lower the chance of ambushes is to scout with light quads or heavy quads. That way, you get a peak at the other side, while only risking a cheap unit. Speaking of which... 4. Building near cliffs is BAD as a human faction. Cliffs easily cover aliens, right up until they are right next to your buildings. Moreover, it is difficult for your units to kill aliens if they can't get a firing angle due to the cliff. Try to have a buffer zone between yourself and the cliff, so that your forces actually have a chance to kill the aliens as they vault over the top. This puts the situation in your force's advantage, because units like Scorpions and Impalors won't be able to out DPS your forces, blocked by the same cliff that gave them cover. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if you have the low ground of a cliff, player aliens can just jump and reach the bottom of the cliff instantly, behind the cover of your buildings. If you can, expand you base away from cliffs ASAP, turning defensive weakness into a strength. Lastly, a human rocket launcher can snipe buildings at the edge of cliffs. Speaking of which... 5. Know what your units can and CANNOT do. It is extremely tempting to spam Railgun Hovertanks and Siege Tanks; but you will be throwing your money away if you don't give them support. The most expensive vehicles are prey to some of the cheapest units, whether it be alien Crabs, or human heavies. Mass alien Crabs are a direct counter to mass Hovertank and above. You need Quads or Armored Cars to protect your expensive units. If you don't, Siege Tanks, Rocket Launchers, Railgun Hovertanks, Pulse Trucks, and even regular Hovertanks can fall prey to getting boarded by Crabs and either slowly eaten to death, or getting dogpiled. The most notorious example of death is a lone Siege Tank getting boarded by an entire Scorpion, and being unable to do anything. Speaking of which... 6. Protect your Harvestors at ALL COSTS. It is too easy for an enemy alien to board a harvestor, and human vehicles will have a field day with them. This ties back to having a QRF squad, but early game you want to keep the majority of your quads home. Speaking of which... 7. Redundancy is your FRIEND. You always want to be expanding, but having extra HQ's, extra refineries+harvestors, and extra research facilities mean a single attack is unlikely to cripple you. If you can afford it, also have multiple production buildings, preferably so that you can make multiple kinds of units (for example, one heavy factory might be dedicated to heavy armored cars, another might be dedicated to Hovertanks). The more redundancy you have, the easier it is to bounce back from a bad situation.

Best tip- uninstall and refund game