Shade Hive start tactic
Cannon_FodderAUS
Brisbane, AU Join Date: 2013-06-23 Member: 185664Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
Brisbane, AU Join Date: 2013-06-23 Member: 185664Members, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
I know this is done a bit to death, but just had to share this tactic with you guys to deny marine natural.
Map was Summit, marine start Sub, Alien start Atrium. Shade first.
Me and another skulk pushed to Observation, and we both went Phantom. He was above door way leading out of marine base, I bit the RT in Obs. He was spotting for me so I know when marines where coming (I had minimap open when biting). I then stop when i see marine coming, and go to parasite the marine, then back off. While marine was busy looking for me or trying to aim at my direction, he could drop down and kill the marine. We baited a couple of marines like that and got the RT.
Map was Summit, marine start Sub, Alien start Atrium. Shade first.
Me and another skulk pushed to Observation, and we both went Phantom. He was above door way leading out of marine base, I bit the RT in Obs. He was spotting for me so I know when marines where coming (I had minimap open when biting). I then stop when i see marine coming, and go to parasite the marine, then back off. While marine was busy looking for me or trying to aim at my direction, he could drop down and kill the marine. We baited a couple of marines like that and got the RT.
Comments
Basic rabbit (distraction) and wolf close combat tactics. Nothing new for comp players I'm afraid.
Sorry.
He shouldn't need to scan anyway. Marines should be travelling in pairs, especially on pubs, especially at the start of the game.
Checking corners should be the first thing the tutorials tell you, closely followed by 'THIS IS WHAT A CLOAKED SKULK LOOKS LIKE.'
I know it's different on different people's machines (apparently... I've used several setups and it's always the same for me), but seeing cloaked skulks is really pretty easy, especially once you know what you're looking for - ie you know they have gone shade hive. The shimmer is quite obvious.
Not to mention the marine should be able to snipe you off the RT with a pistol if they don't want to push in.
Sigh, pubs
Were all those setups nvidia? I've noticed nvidia defaults with higher gamma than amd.
Moving cloaked alien - yes, easy to see.
Not moving - very hard. We once did some testing, two aliens hide in sub sector and two marines must find them. Marines know there are cloaked skulks. Man, We couldn't find each other for ages. At one point, marines thought we a trolling them and are in other room actually. When I was marine, I had difficulties finding them as well. And we knew they are there. In combat situation, aliens can switch position or just leave while you are looking the other way.
I've never had trouble spotting still or moving cloaked skulks. I run at reasonably high gamma tho, wonder if people with full atmospherics, bloom, AO, AF and normal gamma are the ones having the issues?
He didn't say need. I agree that you don't need it.
Sure, if he was a really great skulk he could do this tactic without Shade. He may have implied that you need Shade with the naming of the tactic but this kind of thing definitely works for public players and newbs better on the Shade Hive.
Shade helps lower level players ambush more easily when commanders don't scan and buy armor early.
Not a very helpful or productive comment honestly Anze - you could at least explain how they could do it better without Shade instead of being the "arrogant comptitive player" :P
... says the man with a functional graphics card. Crevice is a fucking nightmare for me, even after the upgrade on my hardware. shade is just not fair with that much eyestrain.
You have a point Roo but any skulk worth a damn is not going to be sitting on an open wall waiting to pounce, a clever one is one that utilizes the environment to his advantage in positions that are not very likely. Even if marines move around in pairs, one marine is still likely to die which is a decent trade and if marines are checking every corner, that's time not spent elsewhere. Also, the time you spend trying to find a skulk cloaked can be the difference between keeping an RT and losing one.
In addition, unless there's some magic mod or graphical setting, finding stationary skulks while not especially difficult when you are actively looking can be easy to overlook especially when quickly scanning corners and walls. Trying to find a skulk in ventilation or crevice on summit lol, good luck.
Not every room entrance allows a marine to snipe off a skulk and again, a good skulk is not sitting still when biting res.
hillarious when there are rookies on the aliens and you do this *sees shimmer on roof* *shoots* "that guy is a hacker! how he see me!?"
i actually fear shade hive starts when i'm playing on marines. because of the silence! you never hear them coming, and in some rooms like gravity on descent it's nigh impossible to find the cloaked skulk without a scan.
not to mention the hallucinations mid game those things...you turn to shoot one and then the real one gets you
The only one that isn't convinceing are the lerk ones. lerks just glide in slo-mo, hillarious.
Silence is the ultimate advantage to biting res because they can't hear you bounding down a corridor nearby; you can get to any rt at pretty much full speed and they won't realise until you're on it. You can also hear them coming a mile off without having to stop chewing