Hey!
Aiushtha
Join Date: 2016-02-23 Member: 213349Members
Join Date: 2016-02-23 Member: 213349Members
New player here! An old friend of mine gifted me this game on steam 2 days ago and I've been playing nearly non-stop. I was looking for a new game to play after burning myself out on Dota 2. The game is very interesting and I am absolutely hooked.
I've some questions to ask regarding commanding:
1. I had a Marine player who kept trolling by spamming the medpacks key while I was commanding. How do I mute a player who does that?
2. Sometimes when I try to place a resource structure, it won't let me build on the node and says "out of range"
3. What is the difference between getting just 1 alien upgrade structure as opposed to having 3 of them?
and last question, not related to commanding, how strong is a single marine expected to be? I had many situations where I got easily killed by a single marine as a Lerk or Fade. I know for sure it's a skill difference issue, but is a good marine able to 1-man kill any expensive alien?
I've some questions to ask regarding commanding:
1. I had a Marine player who kept trolling by spamming the medpacks key while I was commanding. How do I mute a player who does that?
2. Sometimes when I try to place a resource structure, it won't let me build on the node and says "out of range"
3. What is the difference between getting just 1 alien upgrade structure as opposed to having 3 of them?
and last question, not related to commanding, how strong is a single marine expected to be? I had many situations where I got easily killed by a single marine as a Lerk or Fade. I know for sure it's a skill difference issue, but is a good marine able to 1-man kill any expensive alien?
Comments
to your 3rd question: 3 upgrade structures increase the effect. let's use veils as an example. when you have 3 and the range for aura is way higher than on 1 and cloack makes u absolut silent even on highest speed while 1 upgrade leaves some noice.
to your last question: normaly it should not be easy for a single marine to kill a fade without shotguns aromor 2 and medpack support but still possible. lerks however are a bit different. as they rely on their dodging and are a bit squishy. remmeber bigger lifeform bigger target. straightlines are the death of an alien. so it'S probably a skill difference.
but: i've seen marines kill of a lerk a fade and a skulk of equal or above skill in one engagement with a shotgun. happens. when a marine hits he hits and when the lifeform is not able to clear him fast enough or dodge enough chances are high the marine kills the lifeform.
let's give you something we use to say in competetive: a marine in a good position with medpack support should be able to take out to skulks on his own ez. however there is several factors influencing this. so don't take it as given.
for a marine in a position where he can dodge easyly it's even possible to take out an onos on his own. given he has the firepower (weapon upgrades or shotguns, in competetive there is an hmg) a jetpack makes this task even more easy.
keep that in mind. marines always have the ranged weapon advantage, while aliens have their speed and moveability.
Oh and welcome to NS2
1. If you open the scoreboard and click on the player in question you should be able to mute them, this will also mute requests. Just be sure you're sure they're trolling you and not pre-emptively hitting Q before combat begins. Often times a more skilled player will know he's about to start wading through alien guts and ask for meds before he might need them.
2. Same applies to Tech Points
3. It's similar to Weapons 1, 2, 3 in that each tier increases its power. Generally you want to get two levels off the bat, then upgrade the third as soon as you can.
Lastly it all depends on the accuracy of the marine. There's a super high skill ceiling here as you've found out. There's a couple players in the world that hit 40% accuracy consistently in games. These people will solo anything that gets thrown at them and probably not break a sweat. More commonly the marines who hit 25-30% accuracy can usually solo a medium skill Lerk, and a poor fade, with a rifle and some well placed medpacks; they'll also be able to clean up two-three skulks if they were hurt a little bit before and the marine had time to engage them. 20-25% will usually be enough to either kill or at least scare off a Lerk with solid med support.
Shotguns change the nature of that entirely. A solid 20-30% player can usually wreck any lerk that comes in for bites with a shotgun (pro-tip: don't ever bit shotguns as a lerk). Fades are more problematic but with a good meatshot they'll usually scurry off to find heals. In a best case scenario (W2), it takes two solid meatshots with a shotgun and then a chip shot to kill a Fade. As a solo marine, odds are you can only hurt the fade enough to buy you some time. A lot of engagements are buying time. If you can just stay alive long enough to let your buddies cut off the life form's escape, you win.
Also some clarification about positioning. Positioning is an abstract concept that boils down to standing a the optimal position in any given room such that you have the most time to shoot at aliens trying to attack you before you're in range of their attacks. Atrium's North wall is objectively the best place in the room to stand for any engagement there (for example). Other rooms depend pretty heavily on where you're coming from and where the aliens are coming from.
Profit $$$
Then with shade hive it is a little odd in that it does not follow the same pattern. 3 veils makes the alien completely silent and 99% cloak. The 1st and 2nd veils just make you quieter with a less effective cloak. Aura just gains more range. For shade hive to be useful at all you need at least 2 veils while the other hives get some benefit out of even 1 spur/shell
Welcome to the game. You seem to be on the right track. I hope you come to love this game as much as we do, and subsequently play the game for 1000's of hours.
@Absurdon & @Calego : Yeah I've run into some freakishly good players. Watching them from their POV, they aim like robots. I've played with a lot of extremely good players back in the day on Unreal Tournament 3, these guys feel the same way.
@Nordic : Oh yeah, that reminds me something regarding Shade Hive. A lot of players are always against me doing the Shade Hive tech. No one has clearly explained to me other than saying "it's useless". What's useless about it? I feel like skulks are able to reliably pick off some easy kills with the Invisibility skill.
still midgame u'll run into trouble so u might want to get the second hive up by then.
It's realy hard to play a strong shade hive especially vs a marine commander who knows his stuff. that's y ppl don't like it. it's rly hard, ez to counter and needs a way different play style than the 2 other hives. plus it's completely useless if you are not going for 3 veils instantly.
U might just ask your players what hive they want to start with. If they cannot agree on one decide for them and let them know or tell them what you are plaining: "We go Shade bois. ambush the hell out of them and keep em low on res. second hive will come in fast if you keep them busy and of my rts." or something like that. ppl often don't know what to do when you do unregular stuff. tell them so they can act accordingly.
You are the commander.
I think it is really comparable to TF2 spy, from what I heard that class is not really used in "competitive TF2"? Mostly because good players will easily counter a good Spy.
Stealth play multiplayer tends to have a stealth monster that is vastly more powerful and usually 1 v Team. NS2 is based on low HP lifeforms that have to sneak and as a result have less map presence and less durability ergo harder to play as, as soon as the marines know you are on Shade (element of surprise diminished), usually when the skill levels are similar. It's a bit of a... Luxury or rather oddball techtree, so to speak
[edit]
Ah, situational is what I meant. NS2 Shade hive is very situational >_>
[edit2]
AAAND hehehe, it is also a good complimentary ability/upgrade path. Because of the hard counters against it and the situational issues with it, it is a hard techtree to use as an initial stand alone one...
1) Shade hive is hard countered by observatories. A good commander will scan before and during an engagement, or when a marine pushes into alien territory negating all effects of shade hive. This is highly res dependent though. If a commander has enough res, he will even places observatories in key locations so aliens can never hide.
2) The other hives are useful in more situations. You can always use more health or more speed, while being silent is good until your seen. As much as I dislike shift hive, it is the most popular upgrade. Shift hive also can echo structures, which a lot of commanders really enjoy.
3) Less skilled players do not use it correctly. The power of shade hive comes from silence, not from cloaking. Less skilled players focus on the cloaking aspect. Sometimes they focus on it so much, they crawl all over the map removing any advantage shade hive gives them. In ns2 you got to be aggressive, and shade hive makes less skilled players less aggressive.
The key to win engagements as marine is good aim and good positioning.
Just watch this: