Counting the aliens' blessings
Katana314
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166379Members
Join Date: 2012-11-03 Member: 166379Members
So it seems there are plenty of threads bringing up lots of points of comparison between the marines and the aliens. I think many of them have valid points; just as many have invalid points, and often the case is brought up that the two races are meant to be very different.
In the interest of providing two sides to such discussion, I thought I'd make a thread where we point out any particular advantages the alien team has over the marines. Feel free to debate the usefulness of any particular trait, but I don't think it would be productive to do direct comparisons to the marines just yet (ie; "Welder = 5 res. Gorge = 10 res. and can't fight.")
Here's my basic list:
-The alien commander requires <b>no</b> help from his minions in order to expand, unless he meets resistance. If he's quick on his keyboard shortcuts, he can spread infestation every few seconds of the game.
-Aliens are much better at stealth and sneak attacks in general.
-All aliens are to some degree specialized in speed (and thanks to air vents, skulks can get around even FASTER) This allows aliens to be wherever they're needed on the map, right away.
-The two races' biggest units, in 1v1 matches, will usually result in alien victory. (I will grant a 1v1 is an uncommon case, and this usually counts on an Onos getting to close-range in some way)
-Aliens have more variety in their personal upgrades. Marines can't really upgrade their speed, cloak, or anything about themselves. The most mobility they can gain is from jetpacks.
-Aliens don't need to reload. (Energy is a different factor, but in general, it's not nearly as much of an issue as your magazine running dry during a fight) In addition, even for ranged attacks, they can never run out of ammo completely and need to resupply.
-The marines have no mobile healer, apart from the commander. Medpacks are useful after a firefight, but more difficult during one. Discounting direct commander support, if a marine is injured, his teammates can weld his armor, but the only other thing he can do is head back to an armory.
-Aliens do not need to approach any building in order to enhance themselves. If an alien is hidden near a battle and decides the race he picked would, in reality, be useless, he can then decide to completely switch his setup (at some great personal risk)
Bonus: Rookies are often obsessive about solely playing marines. Thus, non-rookies often end up on the alien team.
In the interest of providing two sides to such discussion, I thought I'd make a thread where we point out any particular advantages the alien team has over the marines. Feel free to debate the usefulness of any particular trait, but I don't think it would be productive to do direct comparisons to the marines just yet (ie; "Welder = 5 res. Gorge = 10 res. and can't fight.")
Here's my basic list:
-The alien commander requires <b>no</b> help from his minions in order to expand, unless he meets resistance. If he's quick on his keyboard shortcuts, he can spread infestation every few seconds of the game.
-Aliens are much better at stealth and sneak attacks in general.
-All aliens are to some degree specialized in speed (and thanks to air vents, skulks can get around even FASTER) This allows aliens to be wherever they're needed on the map, right away.
-The two races' biggest units, in 1v1 matches, will usually result in alien victory. (I will grant a 1v1 is an uncommon case, and this usually counts on an Onos getting to close-range in some way)
-Aliens have more variety in their personal upgrades. Marines can't really upgrade their speed, cloak, or anything about themselves. The most mobility they can gain is from jetpacks.
-Aliens don't need to reload. (Energy is a different factor, but in general, it's not nearly as much of an issue as your magazine running dry during a fight) In addition, even for ranged attacks, they can never run out of ammo completely and need to resupply.
-The marines have no mobile healer, apart from the commander. Medpacks are useful after a firefight, but more difficult during one. Discounting direct commander support, if a marine is injured, his teammates can weld his armor, but the only other thing he can do is head back to an armory.
-Aliens do not need to approach any building in order to enhance themselves. If an alien is hidden near a battle and decides the race he picked would, in reality, be useless, he can then decide to completely switch his setup (at some great personal risk)
Bonus: Rookies are often obsessive about solely playing marines. Thus, non-rookies often end up on the alien team.
Comments
This is only an advantage offensively. Defensively, marines are much much much quicker and more easily coordinated thanks to the instant teleporting phase gate.
Marines are EZ mode. Not a lot to QQ about there when your most advanced tactic is to hold 'E', or guard while someone else holds 'E'.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=123307&st=0" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....123307&st=0</a>
There's a list in this thread, which includes things like:
How marines go faster - hold 'shift'. How aliens go faster - do some weird wall-jumping thing.
How marines destroy an entrenched alien defense: spam grenades wildly and use your magic shoot-through-walls cannon. How aliens destroy an entrenched marine defense: with careful synergy of all lifeform types working together, and a lot of death, respawning, and time wasted.
How marine counter alien upgrades: build an Observatory, 1/3rd of alien tech tree becomes obsolete. How aliens counter marine upgrades: they don't.
Marines get to feel like badasses throughout the entire game, they're always strong no matter what they're doing, and they spend most of their time moving around in the map hunting aliens. They spend little time in spawn queue, in the base getting equipped, and they aren't punished for squandering pres since they made sure the LMG was viable throughout the entire game.
So no, there's not much to complain about there at all.
-The alien commander requires <b>no</b> help from his minions in order to expand, unless he meets resistance. If he's quick on his keyboard shortcuts, he can spread infestation every few seconds of the game.
-Aliens are much better at stealth and sneak attacks in general.
-All aliens are to some degree specialized in speed (and thanks to air vents, skulks can get around even FASTER) This allows aliens to be wherever they're needed on the map, right away.
-The two races' biggest units, in 1v1 matches, will usually result in alien victory. (I will grant a 1v1 is an uncommon case, and this usually counts on an Onos getting to close-range in some way)
-Aliens have more variety in their personal upgrades. Marines can't really upgrade their speed, cloak, or anything about themselves. The most mobility they can gain is from jetpacks.
-Aliens don't need to reload. (Energy is a different factor, but in general, it's not nearly as much of an issue as your magazine running dry during a fight) In addition, even for ranged attacks, they can never run out of ammo completely and need to resupply.
-The marines have no mobile healer, apart from the commander. Medpacks are useful after a firefight, but more difficult during one. Discounting direct commander support, if a marine is injured, his teammates can weld his armor, but the only other thing he can do is head back to an armory.
-Aliens do not need to approach any building in order to enhance themselves. If an alien is hidden near a battle and decides the race he picked would, in reality, be useless, he can then decide to completely switch his setup (at some great personal risk)
Bonus: Rookies are often obsessive about solely playing marines. Thus, non-rookies often end up on the alien team.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Here's is the truth about your basic list:
- The alien commander will immediately lose everything he puts down without the help of his units
- Better at stealth only when not in the vicinity of an obs and sitting in one place the entire time leaves the rest of the map open
- Aliens are fast with celerity, without it they don't compare to phase gates
- I don't often see an onos kill a dual exo with upgrades all alone
- Marine sprint is about as fast as a skulk and they don't need to move that quickly with ranged weapons and phase gates. Also marines get weapon and armor upgrades that don't really go away.
- Yea aliens don't need to reload but to be fair it takes about 9 lmg bullets or 5 pistol bullets to kill a skulk, an accurate marine doesn't have much issue doing this.
- Medpack spam is considerably better and more reliable than gorges, also have nano shield.
- Marines don't ever have to spend pres on changing life forms, a shotgun costs 20 res and can be picked up infinitely if dropped. A lerk, fade, or onos costs 30, 50, and 75 and once they die that's it. Also marines don't actually have to pick upgrades they just get 6 really good ones automatically.
I'd really like it if people were less hostile about their opinions. That's all.