Movement First?

steamedhams

<div class="IPBDescription">break out of the norm</div> With 1.03 fixing the carapace bug, carapace is MUCH less effective on skulks. Im sure you guys are going to scream "but def chambers heal buildings and units blah blah", but movement chambers benefit early game aliens alot more than d chambers. Think about it for a second. Gorges get unlimited healing spray (which helps do def chambers job somewhat) with adrenaline. Lerks can actually fly and they can do full auto spikes. Most importantly, skulks get celerity which in my opinion are twice as deadly as a carapaced skulk. I could go into why, but i don't feel like explaining it to you guys. Does anyone know how many lmg hits it takes to kill a carapaced skulk as opposed to a non-carapaced skulk? Celerity skulks are incredibly hard to hit for the marines and they can get in bite range superfast.

Sycophant

<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->anyone know how many lmg hits it takes to kill a carapaced skulk as opposed to a non-carapaced skulk? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Off the top of my head, I think it's less than a second of direct LMG fire in the difference. Now that I mention it, it doesn't seem like much, does it? <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

<i>note: if I'm wrong in my estimate, please correct me!! I make no claim that I'm 100% correct!!</i> <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->

TheGunslinger

With my style of play, I hit and run. Taking many bullets in the process and need somewhere close to heal.

Carapace still makes you take 211% more bullets. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->

Lt_Warhound

Sorry, but carapace is Not 'much less effective', its still a major enhancement. Still more effective than movement for the early skulk game.

Paladyne-TPF

The crucial thing to remember is, ideally those 2 chambers should be going up about a minute or two apart, no more. So you'll basically be granted both upgrades at the same time, or something's going wrong. That makes #1 and #2 order mostly irrelevant, unless those 2 minutes in between are vital to you somehow.

Bearing all that in mind, I still think DCs are a little more important as a #1. The idea being:

1) They provide excellent backup for OCs, which may well need to be constructed as an emergency measure against incoming marines towards the gorge if the skulks aren't effective at containing the marines.
2) They provide emergency healing for the gorge, both via the DCs directly and via regeneration upgrades, which may make the difference between his escaping a bloodthirsy marine or not.
3) Ditto redemption. 13 resources is a lot early on, and losing a gorge is a serious blow to the alien team!
4) They provide regen or carapace for the rushing skulks, both of which help their effectiveness. Carapace still allows skulks to do <i>a lot</i> more damage per run than they would otherwise, and if the ninja skulks can do effective hit-and-fades on the marine bases using regen, more power to them.

Movement chambers are almost as good, but IMO they're not <i>quite</i> as useful in a #1 spot as DCs:

1) They provide hive-to-hive teleportation, but are very limited in their destinations. Most of the time they don't really take you where you want to go.
2) Skulks with celerity are unbelievably fast, but against a big enough turret farm they'll still get nailed eventually. I'd say this puts it about even with carapace, personally.
3) Skulks with silence are great. In many cases it's a million times more effective than cloaking. Still, I've thanked the gorges for putting up DCs and giving me defensive upgrades first a lot more often; many, many times that's been the only reason I was able to get that TF down, followed by most of the rest of their structures before a marine finally got me.
4) Lerks serve little purpose until the 2nd hive goes up. Save those resources so the gorges can build faster, and go lerk once fades become accessible.
5) Nobody really needs adrenaline until the 2nd hive is up anyway. Fades aren't available until #2 is up, gorges ideally shouldn't need to heal anyone, skulks probably won't drain their bar before they die, and lerks shouldn't even be used at all at this point.

Basically, my point is that the #1 slot should be kept open for DCs in case they become needed early, but under ideal conditions DCs and MCs will be going up nearly simultaneously anyway. Still, ideal games rarely happen, so why lock yourself into a choice that may become unfavorable should the marines break through and go on the offensive?

Terr

I'd actually say that if you have a team of people who are GOOD at skulking, get sensory. If your skulk team is good at ambushes, a nice cloaking ambush line is a wonderful thing, so long as you don't let a lone marine by who then goes on to build a phasegate.

As always, it depends on the teammates.

I'd be attracted to silence a bit more if it silenced attacks too, then I'd bother to use it more <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->