The Newbies Guide To Ns
Cronos
Join Date: 2002-10-18 Member: 1542Members
Join Date: 2002-10-18 Member: 1542Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Very Very Long, and unfinished...</div> This started as a side project and has ballooned into 6 pages worth of instructional and recommendational material for new NS players. It's very long, and unfinished. I'm putting it up in case there are any glaring errors that I'm missing, or if some parts are too vague.
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The Newbies Handbook to Natural Selection
Written By Cronos
This manual is by no means definitive. This manual is intended to give new players a basic understanding of both sides, marines and aliens, so that they may better understand how to get started playing NS.
Chapter 1: The Ready Room
You have installed NS; you’ve set up your keys and your rearing to go. You join the game, and you’re in this weird little room. This room, or collection of rooms, is known as the “Ready Room” it is made to enhance the atmosphere of NS and add a place where players can socialize without having to risk getting shot at. It is useful for “AFK” (Away From Keyboard) players so that they are not in the way, and if you need to leave the computer for any reason, simply press the F4 key and you can walk away and come back without fearing abuse from your team because you’ve done nothing for a whole hour.
There are four things you can do in the ready room. Join the alien team, Join the marine team, Spectate, or idle. If you choose to idle, you can have a friendly chat with other more experienced player before you start playing. They can give you tips that this handbook will undoubtedly omit or misconstrue. If there are no players with which to talk to, I would recommend that you Spectate for at least one game to get a handle, both on the map, the tactics used and the various hiding spots and buildings which are vital to NS. Of course, you can jump straight into the action if you wish; it’s totally your personal choice.
Now, to join either marines or aliens, simply walk into the door with the sign “Join Marines” or “Join Aliens” to join that team. If you chose to Join Aliens, skip ahead to Chapter three. If you wish to choose marines, read ahead to the next Chapter.
Chapter 2: Marines
If you are new to NS, the marines will be the most familiar side to play with. If you have joined the game at the start, you should start inside, or very close to the marine start. This room will serve as your base. At first, there are usually only two buildings in the marine start. A funny, squat, four-legged thing, and a white rectangular structure. The four-legged thing is called a “Resource Tower”. It gives your team the currency to buy more buildings with; the more of these you have, the better. Resource Towers are built only on Resource Nodes, resource nodes appear as grey nozzles that have a fine white vapor steaming out of them. The white rectangular building is the command console. The command console allows one marine to initiate “Commander Mode”. This special mode takes the player into an overhead view, much like star craft. From here, your commander can place new buildings, such as spawn portals, armories and phase gates. This will aid you, as a marine, to eliminate the enemy threat. It is recommended that if this is your first time playing NS, you should not command. Try waiting a few weeks to get a grip on the game, NS has a very high learning curve and it takes quite a while to get used to it. Even if you have many years of experience with Half Life mods, NS will be rather difficult to master.
One of the largest difficulties that new players to marines have is actually building structures. It’s quite simple, but many people seem to miss it. Once your commander has placed a new structure, move up to the structure, point your gun at it, and press your “Use” key. The structure will slowly build until it is completed, more players building the same structure will speed up the rate at which it is built.
Additionally, getting more ammunition for your weapons poses some confusion. In NS, there are two ways to get ammunition. Either the commander drops ammunition in green packets on the floor, or, the commander builds an armory. An armory is a cylindrical structure with four panels sticking out. Simply move up to the armory, and press your use key to receive half a clip of ammunition for the currently selected weapon.
Below is a short description of the weapons that marines can have.
LMG – Defualt spawning weapon. If used correctly, it is devastating. Without damage upgrades, this weapon deals 10 damage per bullet. This weapon fires in a cone shape, so, accuracy decreases proportionally with range. Put simply, the longer the hallway your shooting down, the less shots will hit the target.
HMG – This is a little more powerful then the LMG. This weapon can only be dropped by the commander after he has upgraded the armory and only when he has the resources to do so. A HMG costs quite a few resources, so don’t lose it. This weapon is very powerful. Without upgrades, each bullet deals 20 damage, and each clip holds 150 rounds. This is more then enough ammunition to kill any alien you encounter. However, this weapon will slow you down to half your speed (It is a “Heavy Machine Gun” after all) and it’s accuracy is disastrous at long range.
Welder – The welder is not truly an offensive weapon as such. It has many purposes. Welders can be used to repair other marine’s armor, it can repair damaged structures, and on certain maps they can be used to close off vents and alter the map geometry. I’ll leave it up to you to find the weld points on different maps.
Knife – Also part of the default marines repertoire, I don’t think I need to explain it’s use.
GL – Grenade Launcher, this is difficult to use, but very very useful. The grenade launcher allows the marines to fire around corners by bouncing the grenades off of walls. If a grenade hits an alien directly, it will explode on contact. If it does not touch an alien, it will sit on the ground and explode six seconds after you fired it. The GL is great for taking out enemy defenses and deterring aliens from going down a path, but watch your ammo, you only get 32 grenades and four grenades per clip, and at the rate you’d love to fire them at you will run dry on ammunition fast, so conserve your ammo and don’t leave base without backup. The GL will slow you down about as much as a HMG would. The GL is primarily a support weapon, and as with the HMG, it costs resources. Do not lose your GL, if you do lose your GL, inform your team where it is so others can pick It up.
Pistol – Another weapon that default marines get, this weapon is simple and effective. You have 10 bullets per clip, and can have a maximum of 3 clips spare. Each single bullet deals 20 damage, without upgrades, not only that, this weapon is the only hit scan weapon in NS that has absolute perfect accuracy. Wherever your crosshair is pointing is exactly where the bullet will land, additionally, the pistol will fire as fast as you can click your mouse. If used correctly, the pistol is a dangerous weapon.
If you read all the above, you may have heard me mention damage upgrades a few times. Put simply, if your commander builds an Arms Lab, he can upgrade the amount of damage your weapon can deal out, as well as how much armor you have. This costs resources, so don’t expect upgrades straight away.
In addition to the weapons you can receive, you can also get some equipment. Heavy armor slows you down a lot, but you’re a walking tank. With this HA on, you have 230 points of armor that absorbs 90% of all incoming damage. When you have heavy armor on, the aliens will fear you. However, you are by no means invincible, stick with your squad and get a welder buddy to keep your armor maxed out.
Also, you can get Jetpacks. Be aware, you can have either Heavy Armor and be a tank, or, A Jetpack and fly around the map. YOU CANNOT HAVE BOTH. It is either one, or the other. To fly with a jetpack, simply press your jump key and move around as normal, you may need a bit of practice to get used to it, but the increase in your maneuverability will be invaluable.
Finally, Trip mines. Trip mines replace your pistol slot, but, if places correctly they make an excellent early game defense. Place them on vital structures such as Infantry portals, phase gates and resource towers. Mines do become redundant later on when more powerful alien classes come into play, but if your commander is worth his salt, you should never even see those higher alien classes.
To find out what structures do what, look in your Natural Selection directory for the NS manual. Although slightly outdated, it gives detailed descriptions and pictures of structures and what they do (look for the “Structures.html” file).
To sum up the marines, teamwork is god. If you do not work as a team on marines, you will die. Obey your commander, stick with your squad, and you will live. Go Rambo off, leave your team mates, and give away your position to the aliens and you could lose the entire game for your team. Always listen to more experienced players and try your best to help your team achieve victory over the alien menace.
Chapter 3: Aliens
If you are new to NS, the alien team will be very complex and difficult to master. Each alien species practically deserves a chapter all to itself.
If you’ve joined the beginning of the game, you will spawn in a room with a big brown/yellow/green object inside. This is called the hive. This is the single most important structure for the aliens to have. It is even more important then the command console; the aliens are nothing without their hive. The hive allows you to spawn, it allows you to use higher-level weapons, and it heals you if you are hurt. The hive also gives you important tactical information. If you look around, you may see white, yellow, and red circles. This is called “Hive-sight”. White circles are your teammates; yellow circles are marines that your teammates can see or marines that have been parasited (more on that later). Red circles are structures or players that are under attack.
Upgrades for aliens work differently from marines. When a gorge (alien builder class) builds and upgrade structure (Defense Chamber [DC] Movement Chamber [MC] or Sensory Chamber [SC]) you can pick different upgrades.
The Defense Chamber allows three upgrades. Regeneration, Redemption, or Carapace. Carapace increases your armor, redemption will transport you to a hive when your health falls below a particular level, although not 100% reliable, it can save your life many times over before it fails. Regeneration will allow you to heal damage over time without the hive or a DC. DC’s will heal you if you are hurt and within their range.
The Movement chamber also allows for three upgrades. Silence, Celerity, and Adrenaline. Adrenaline allows your alien to continue to use it’s weapons for longer, it speeds up the rate at which the yellow bar to the right goes back to full. Celerity will deliver a speed boost to your alien, making you move even faster. Silence allows you to make no noise as you move through the level, allowing you to sneak up behind marines without arousing their suspicion.
The Sensory Chamber allows for three upgrades as well. Advanced Hive sight, Scent Of Fear, and Cloaking. Cloaking allows you to become almost completely invisible to the marines, which is wonderful for ambushes. Scent of Fear will allow you to see hurt marines within a certain range of yourself, while Advanced hive sight will allow you to see through enemy buildings and to see marines better in dark places.
For each alien class, I will give a set of recommended upgrades. However, you are allowed to choose any upgrade you want, these are only recommendations but your play style may demand different upgrades. Feel free to pick and choose your upgrades as freely as you wish.
Now, you have just spawned. You are the default, level one alien. This alien is called a “Skulk”. Skulks have many unique abilities.
One of these abilities is the “Wall Climb”. To wall climb, simply go to the nearest wall and walk up it. You will stick to the wall, and can even walk across the roof. Wall climbing does have some limitations, but you will be able to learn what those are better through experience rather then through here. Wall climbing gives you an advantage in maneuverability. You have four times the surfaces to walk upon, use it to your advantage! Sit above doorways to ambush marines as they walk through, dodge and weave side to side to avoid their bullets rather then running in a straight line. Skulks are 2 – 3 times faster then a marine, this speed will also play into your favor as a skulk.
Always remember, as a skulk, you are not a tank. You will have only 70 health and 10 armor to begin with, meaning 9 LMG bullets can kill you and even heavier weapons will kill you in even less time. Ambush the marines, take them by surprise and try to avoid running straight down long hallways.
The first weapon in your inventory is called “Bite”. Biting a marine will deal 75 damage to him. Biting him twice will kill a standard marine. The bite is a melee weapon, so you will have to get very close to the marine to kill him.
The next weapon is called “Parasite”. Parasite is not an offensive weapon, but it is ranged. Parasite will do only a little damage to marines, so it will take many many parasites to kill a marine using it, but parasites usefulness comes in under hive sight. Parasite allows your team to see the parasited marine (yellow circles) so if you see a squad of marines rolling by, parasite them before attacking so your team knows where they are.
The third weapon in your inventory is called “Leap”. At one hive, leap is disabled, however, when your team has built a second hive, leap is usable. When you use leap, you shoot forward at tremendous speed. If you touch a marine as you leap, you will damage him slightly. A common tactic is to leap and close the distance to a marine and then quickly switch to bite and kill him. Leap also works in mid air and can be useful for taking out jet packing marines.
The fourth and final weapon in your inventory is called “Xenocide”. It is a third hive ability, meaning that your team must have three hives up before you can use it. Xenocide will turn you into a timebomb. Simply press the fire button, and run in towards your target until you explode. You will deal massive damage with Xenocide, it’s not unusual to kill multiple marines, in addition, you will heavily damage all structures in the blast radius.
The recommended upgrades for the Skulk are Carapace, Celerity, and Cloaking. Though, as I said above, change these according to your playing style.
The next alien is the Gorge. It is very important to know the following. The Gorge is near useless for direct combat. Also, being one drains resources away from other gorges and players. The gorge is the alien builder class, it builds hives, Offense Chambers, all the upgrade chambers and resource towers. I recommend that you practice with building structures in a Lan game before gorging in game.
Although the gorge is not an offensive class of alien, it does have some weak weapons at it’s disposal.
The first weapon is spit. Put simply, the gorge spits out a green glob that does 50 damage. It moves slowly and can be dodged easily by marines. Alien offense chambers use the same weapon, but they have the advantage of not being as vital to the alien team, and of numbers.
The second weapon for the gorge is called Healspray. Healspray does exactly what it says. It is a spray that heals aliens and their structures, while damaging marines. HEALSPRAY DOES NOT AFFECT MARINE STRUCTURES.
The third weapon for the gorge is called web. Web is very very special. A gorge can web a hallway by shooting one glob of web at one wall, and another glob at another wall. Bingo, you got web. When a marine walks by and into the web, he gets slown down horrendously, his weapon holsters and he is skulk food. Webbing can slow down the marine team considerably, as well as stop jetpackers in their tracks. Web carefully however, there is a limit on how many you can lay down in an area, so be very strategic in it’s use if you are a gorge.
The final weapon for the gorge is Babblers. When used correctly, babblers are pure evil. Babblers are much like half-life’s snarks, though, a little less intelligent. They run around, bite things, and then explode. The devilish thing is, they look exactly like skulks, providing excellent camouflage for the real skulks while damaging enemy positions. Be aware however, babblers aren’t very bright and can get lost in the middle of a room, but this should not discourage use of them in any way.
Remember, the Gorge is not an offensive class. The gorge is the most important alien species to the alien team, so if your new you shouldn’t be one until you have a good grip on the game.
The best upgrades to have, as a gorge is Redemption, Adrenaline/Celerity, and Cloaking.
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The Newbies Handbook to Natural Selection
Written By Cronos
This manual is by no means definitive. This manual is intended to give new players a basic understanding of both sides, marines and aliens, so that they may better understand how to get started playing NS.
Chapter 1: The Ready Room
You have installed NS; you’ve set up your keys and your rearing to go. You join the game, and you’re in this weird little room. This room, or collection of rooms, is known as the “Ready Room” it is made to enhance the atmosphere of NS and add a place where players can socialize without having to risk getting shot at. It is useful for “AFK” (Away From Keyboard) players so that they are not in the way, and if you need to leave the computer for any reason, simply press the F4 key and you can walk away and come back without fearing abuse from your team because you’ve done nothing for a whole hour.
There are four things you can do in the ready room. Join the alien team, Join the marine team, Spectate, or idle. If you choose to idle, you can have a friendly chat with other more experienced player before you start playing. They can give you tips that this handbook will undoubtedly omit or misconstrue. If there are no players with which to talk to, I would recommend that you Spectate for at least one game to get a handle, both on the map, the tactics used and the various hiding spots and buildings which are vital to NS. Of course, you can jump straight into the action if you wish; it’s totally your personal choice.
Now, to join either marines or aliens, simply walk into the door with the sign “Join Marines” or “Join Aliens” to join that team. If you chose to Join Aliens, skip ahead to Chapter three. If you wish to choose marines, read ahead to the next Chapter.
Chapter 2: Marines
If you are new to NS, the marines will be the most familiar side to play with. If you have joined the game at the start, you should start inside, or very close to the marine start. This room will serve as your base. At first, there are usually only two buildings in the marine start. A funny, squat, four-legged thing, and a white rectangular structure. The four-legged thing is called a “Resource Tower”. It gives your team the currency to buy more buildings with; the more of these you have, the better. Resource Towers are built only on Resource Nodes, resource nodes appear as grey nozzles that have a fine white vapor steaming out of them. The white rectangular building is the command console. The command console allows one marine to initiate “Commander Mode”. This special mode takes the player into an overhead view, much like star craft. From here, your commander can place new buildings, such as spawn portals, armories and phase gates. This will aid you, as a marine, to eliminate the enemy threat. It is recommended that if this is your first time playing NS, you should not command. Try waiting a few weeks to get a grip on the game, NS has a very high learning curve and it takes quite a while to get used to it. Even if you have many years of experience with Half Life mods, NS will be rather difficult to master.
One of the largest difficulties that new players to marines have is actually building structures. It’s quite simple, but many people seem to miss it. Once your commander has placed a new structure, move up to the structure, point your gun at it, and press your “Use” key. The structure will slowly build until it is completed, more players building the same structure will speed up the rate at which it is built.
Additionally, getting more ammunition for your weapons poses some confusion. In NS, there are two ways to get ammunition. Either the commander drops ammunition in green packets on the floor, or, the commander builds an armory. An armory is a cylindrical structure with four panels sticking out. Simply move up to the armory, and press your use key to receive half a clip of ammunition for the currently selected weapon.
Below is a short description of the weapons that marines can have.
LMG – Defualt spawning weapon. If used correctly, it is devastating. Without damage upgrades, this weapon deals 10 damage per bullet. This weapon fires in a cone shape, so, accuracy decreases proportionally with range. Put simply, the longer the hallway your shooting down, the less shots will hit the target.
HMG – This is a little more powerful then the LMG. This weapon can only be dropped by the commander after he has upgraded the armory and only when he has the resources to do so. A HMG costs quite a few resources, so don’t lose it. This weapon is very powerful. Without upgrades, each bullet deals 20 damage, and each clip holds 150 rounds. This is more then enough ammunition to kill any alien you encounter. However, this weapon will slow you down to half your speed (It is a “Heavy Machine Gun” after all) and it’s accuracy is disastrous at long range.
Welder – The welder is not truly an offensive weapon as such. It has many purposes. Welders can be used to repair other marine’s armor, it can repair damaged structures, and on certain maps they can be used to close off vents and alter the map geometry. I’ll leave it up to you to find the weld points on different maps.
Knife – Also part of the default marines repertoire, I don’t think I need to explain it’s use.
GL – Grenade Launcher, this is difficult to use, but very very useful. The grenade launcher allows the marines to fire around corners by bouncing the grenades off of walls. If a grenade hits an alien directly, it will explode on contact. If it does not touch an alien, it will sit on the ground and explode six seconds after you fired it. The GL is great for taking out enemy defenses and deterring aliens from going down a path, but watch your ammo, you only get 32 grenades and four grenades per clip, and at the rate you’d love to fire them at you will run dry on ammunition fast, so conserve your ammo and don’t leave base without backup. The GL will slow you down about as much as a HMG would. The GL is primarily a support weapon, and as with the HMG, it costs resources. Do not lose your GL, if you do lose your GL, inform your team where it is so others can pick It up.
Pistol – Another weapon that default marines get, this weapon is simple and effective. You have 10 bullets per clip, and can have a maximum of 3 clips spare. Each single bullet deals 20 damage, without upgrades, not only that, this weapon is the only hit scan weapon in NS that has absolute perfect accuracy. Wherever your crosshair is pointing is exactly where the bullet will land, additionally, the pistol will fire as fast as you can click your mouse. If used correctly, the pistol is a dangerous weapon.
If you read all the above, you may have heard me mention damage upgrades a few times. Put simply, if your commander builds an Arms Lab, he can upgrade the amount of damage your weapon can deal out, as well as how much armor you have. This costs resources, so don’t expect upgrades straight away.
In addition to the weapons you can receive, you can also get some equipment. Heavy armor slows you down a lot, but you’re a walking tank. With this HA on, you have 230 points of armor that absorbs 90% of all incoming damage. When you have heavy armor on, the aliens will fear you. However, you are by no means invincible, stick with your squad and get a welder buddy to keep your armor maxed out.
Also, you can get Jetpacks. Be aware, you can have either Heavy Armor and be a tank, or, A Jetpack and fly around the map. YOU CANNOT HAVE BOTH. It is either one, or the other. To fly with a jetpack, simply press your jump key and move around as normal, you may need a bit of practice to get used to it, but the increase in your maneuverability will be invaluable.
Finally, Trip mines. Trip mines replace your pistol slot, but, if places correctly they make an excellent early game defense. Place them on vital structures such as Infantry portals, phase gates and resource towers. Mines do become redundant later on when more powerful alien classes come into play, but if your commander is worth his salt, you should never even see those higher alien classes.
To find out what structures do what, look in your Natural Selection directory for the NS manual. Although slightly outdated, it gives detailed descriptions and pictures of structures and what they do (look for the “Structures.html” file).
To sum up the marines, teamwork is god. If you do not work as a team on marines, you will die. Obey your commander, stick with your squad, and you will live. Go Rambo off, leave your team mates, and give away your position to the aliens and you could lose the entire game for your team. Always listen to more experienced players and try your best to help your team achieve victory over the alien menace.
Chapter 3: Aliens
If you are new to NS, the alien team will be very complex and difficult to master. Each alien species practically deserves a chapter all to itself.
If you’ve joined the beginning of the game, you will spawn in a room with a big brown/yellow/green object inside. This is called the hive. This is the single most important structure for the aliens to have. It is even more important then the command console; the aliens are nothing without their hive. The hive allows you to spawn, it allows you to use higher-level weapons, and it heals you if you are hurt. The hive also gives you important tactical information. If you look around, you may see white, yellow, and red circles. This is called “Hive-sight”. White circles are your teammates; yellow circles are marines that your teammates can see or marines that have been parasited (more on that later). Red circles are structures or players that are under attack.
Upgrades for aliens work differently from marines. When a gorge (alien builder class) builds and upgrade structure (Defense Chamber [DC] Movement Chamber [MC] or Sensory Chamber [SC]) you can pick different upgrades.
The Defense Chamber allows three upgrades. Regeneration, Redemption, or Carapace. Carapace increases your armor, redemption will transport you to a hive when your health falls below a particular level, although not 100% reliable, it can save your life many times over before it fails. Regeneration will allow you to heal damage over time without the hive or a DC. DC’s will heal you if you are hurt and within their range.
The Movement chamber also allows for three upgrades. Silence, Celerity, and Adrenaline. Adrenaline allows your alien to continue to use it’s weapons for longer, it speeds up the rate at which the yellow bar to the right goes back to full. Celerity will deliver a speed boost to your alien, making you move even faster. Silence allows you to make no noise as you move through the level, allowing you to sneak up behind marines without arousing their suspicion.
The Sensory Chamber allows for three upgrades as well. Advanced Hive sight, Scent Of Fear, and Cloaking. Cloaking allows you to become almost completely invisible to the marines, which is wonderful for ambushes. Scent of Fear will allow you to see hurt marines within a certain range of yourself, while Advanced hive sight will allow you to see through enemy buildings and to see marines better in dark places.
For each alien class, I will give a set of recommended upgrades. However, you are allowed to choose any upgrade you want, these are only recommendations but your play style may demand different upgrades. Feel free to pick and choose your upgrades as freely as you wish.
Now, you have just spawned. You are the default, level one alien. This alien is called a “Skulk”. Skulks have many unique abilities.
One of these abilities is the “Wall Climb”. To wall climb, simply go to the nearest wall and walk up it. You will stick to the wall, and can even walk across the roof. Wall climbing does have some limitations, but you will be able to learn what those are better through experience rather then through here. Wall climbing gives you an advantage in maneuverability. You have four times the surfaces to walk upon, use it to your advantage! Sit above doorways to ambush marines as they walk through, dodge and weave side to side to avoid their bullets rather then running in a straight line. Skulks are 2 – 3 times faster then a marine, this speed will also play into your favor as a skulk.
Always remember, as a skulk, you are not a tank. You will have only 70 health and 10 armor to begin with, meaning 9 LMG bullets can kill you and even heavier weapons will kill you in even less time. Ambush the marines, take them by surprise and try to avoid running straight down long hallways.
The first weapon in your inventory is called “Bite”. Biting a marine will deal 75 damage to him. Biting him twice will kill a standard marine. The bite is a melee weapon, so you will have to get very close to the marine to kill him.
The next weapon is called “Parasite”. Parasite is not an offensive weapon, but it is ranged. Parasite will do only a little damage to marines, so it will take many many parasites to kill a marine using it, but parasites usefulness comes in under hive sight. Parasite allows your team to see the parasited marine (yellow circles) so if you see a squad of marines rolling by, parasite them before attacking so your team knows where they are.
The third weapon in your inventory is called “Leap”. At one hive, leap is disabled, however, when your team has built a second hive, leap is usable. When you use leap, you shoot forward at tremendous speed. If you touch a marine as you leap, you will damage him slightly. A common tactic is to leap and close the distance to a marine and then quickly switch to bite and kill him. Leap also works in mid air and can be useful for taking out jet packing marines.
The fourth and final weapon in your inventory is called “Xenocide”. It is a third hive ability, meaning that your team must have three hives up before you can use it. Xenocide will turn you into a timebomb. Simply press the fire button, and run in towards your target until you explode. You will deal massive damage with Xenocide, it’s not unusual to kill multiple marines, in addition, you will heavily damage all structures in the blast radius.
The recommended upgrades for the Skulk are Carapace, Celerity, and Cloaking. Though, as I said above, change these according to your playing style.
The next alien is the Gorge. It is very important to know the following. The Gorge is near useless for direct combat. Also, being one drains resources away from other gorges and players. The gorge is the alien builder class, it builds hives, Offense Chambers, all the upgrade chambers and resource towers. I recommend that you practice with building structures in a Lan game before gorging in game.
Although the gorge is not an offensive class of alien, it does have some weak weapons at it’s disposal.
The first weapon is spit. Put simply, the gorge spits out a green glob that does 50 damage. It moves slowly and can be dodged easily by marines. Alien offense chambers use the same weapon, but they have the advantage of not being as vital to the alien team, and of numbers.
The second weapon for the gorge is called Healspray. Healspray does exactly what it says. It is a spray that heals aliens and their structures, while damaging marines. HEALSPRAY DOES NOT AFFECT MARINE STRUCTURES.
The third weapon for the gorge is called web. Web is very very special. A gorge can web a hallway by shooting one glob of web at one wall, and another glob at another wall. Bingo, you got web. When a marine walks by and into the web, he gets slown down horrendously, his weapon holsters and he is skulk food. Webbing can slow down the marine team considerably, as well as stop jetpackers in their tracks. Web carefully however, there is a limit on how many you can lay down in an area, so be very strategic in it’s use if you are a gorge.
The final weapon for the gorge is Babblers. When used correctly, babblers are pure evil. Babblers are much like half-life’s snarks, though, a little less intelligent. They run around, bite things, and then explode. The devilish thing is, they look exactly like skulks, providing excellent camouflage for the real skulks while damaging enemy positions. Be aware however, babblers aren’t very bright and can get lost in the middle of a room, but this should not discourage use of them in any way.
Remember, the Gorge is not an offensive class. The gorge is the most important alien species to the alien team, so if your new you shouldn’t be one until you have a good grip on the game.
The best upgrades to have, as a gorge is Redemption, Adrenaline/Celerity, and Cloaking.
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Comments
For example, cl_autohelp dosent instruct you how to wallclimb, what the best upgrades are, nor how to dodge bullets and how some of the weapons work and what they do, as well as in what situations they are effective for.
How many times have you heard new players asking how to buy guns? Or how to evolve and upgrade? Or jumps straight into the command console/gorges on their first shot? The handbook aims to achieve at least some kind of educational level where new players will know some of the game mechanics to a degree.
Chapter 1: The Ready Room
You have installed NS; you’ve set up your keys and your rearing <u>(raring)</u>0 to go. You join the game, and you’re in this weird little room. This room, or collection of rooms, is known as the “Ready Room” it is made to enhance the atmosphere of NS and add a place where players can socialize without having to risk getting shot at. It is useful for “AFK” (Away From Keyboard) players so that they are not in the way, and if you need to leave the computer for any reason, simply press the F4 key and you can walk away and come back without fearing abuse from your team because you’ve done nothing for a whole hour. <u>Please also note that some servers aren't big fans of people using the Ready Room to socialize, so you may see a warning to join a team or you may even get kicked. These servers are doing this generally because they are close to full and need to keep spots open for people playing. </u>
There are four <u>(five)</u> things you can do in the ready room. Join the alien team, Join the marine team, Spectate, <u>(join a random team)</u> or idle. If you choose to idle, you can have a friendly chat with other more experienced player(s) before you start playing. They can give you tips that this handbook will undoubtedly omit or misconstrue. If there are no players with which to talk to, I would recommend that you Spectate for at least one game to get a handle, (removed both) on the map, the tactics used and the various hiding spots and buildings which are vital to NS. Of course, you can jump straight into the action if you wish; it’s totally your personal choice.
SNIP!
If you are new to NS <u>(yet familiar with First Person Shooters or other Half-Life mods)</u>, the marines will be the most familiar side to play with. If you have joined the game at the start, you should start inside, or very close to the marine start. This room will serve as your base. At first, there are usually only two buildings in the marine start. A funny, squat, four-legged thing, and a white rectangular structure. The four-legged thing is called a “Resource Tower”. It gives your team the currency to buy more buildings with; the more of these you have, the better. Resource Towers are built only on Resource Nodes, resource nodes appear as grey nozzles that have a fine white vapor steaming out of them. The white rectangular building is the command console. The command console allows one marine to initiate “Commander Mode”. This special mode takes the player into an overhead view, much like star craft. From here, your commander can place new buildings, such as spawn portals, armories and phase gates. This will aid you, as a marine, to eliminate the enemy threat. It is recommended that if this is your first time playing NS, you should not command. Try waiting a few weeks to get a grip on the game, NS has a very high learning curve and it takes quite a while to get used to it. Even if you have many years of experience with Half Life mods, NS will be rather difficult to master. (EXCELLENT POINT!!!!!!)
SNIP!
One of the largest difficulties <u>(of the new gaming concepts)</u> that new players to marines have is actually building structures. It’s quite simple, but many people seem to miss it. Once your commander has placed a new structure, move up to the structure, point your gun at it, and press your “Use” key. The structure will slowly build until it is completed, more players building the same structure will speed up the rate at which it is built. <u>(Of course, if everyone builds, then your team is open to potential attack, so be mindful of the number of people building vs. the number of people observing the surroundings. If there are many people building, you would be better served keeping an eye out. If there are only a few people building and many watching, then jump in and help build those structures.)</u>
SNIP!
(What happened to the SHOTGUN?)
Finally, Trip mines. Trip mines replace your pistol slot, but, if places correctly they make an excellent early game defense. <u>(If they are placed against an object like a wall, a red laser streams across the open space until it is stopped by another object (Think Doorways), Any alien creature that breaks the beam (friendly units are not affected) triggers the mine and blows it up. Now, obviously if the mine is far away from the spot where the beam is broken then the mine will blow up and no enemy damage will be dealt so keep mines for small locations (such as hallways, doorways, vents etc) when you are using them this way. Mines can also be placed on the ground which does not display a red laser. These mines are handled like Land Mines and can be placed on friendly structures) </u> Place them on vital structures such as Infantry portals, phase gates and resource towers. <u>(To do this, look at the object and press your primary fire button, often crouching helps with mine placement.)</u> Mines do become redundant later on when more powerful alien classes come into play, but if your commander is worth his salt, you should never even see those higher alien classes.
SNIP!
(I would probably go into more discussion about the fact that each map has 3 hives and that the hives are important to the development of the aliens etc..)
Sounds like a great start!
Hope my edits are OK for you..
I'll be adding them in in my own words when I get back home tonight, and you can count on getting a mention in the "Thanks To" section <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Sorry to bump the post after a period of inactivity, but I have since made additions and revisions to the data contained within the handbook. I will now supply to you Chapter 1 and 2 of the handbook below, with the revisions and additions suggested by others, as well as some corrections (IE; HMG deals 18 damage per bullet and not 20 as I had thought).
[Begin Copy]
The Newbies Handbook to Natural Selection
Written By Cronos
This manual is by no means definitive. This manual is intended to give new players a basic understanding of both sides, marines and aliens, so that they may better understand how to get started playing NS.
Prologue
The time is the future. In a vast new frontier, known as the Ariadne arm, a threat for humanity looms. An insidious alien species has infested ships and bases all over the frontier. The trans governments wish to quarantine the entire Ariadne arm, but this, to the Frontiersmen, is unacceptable. The TSA (Trans System Authority) is the only organization that wishes to stand up to this threat, The Kharaa. The Frontiersmen are the only things that stand between humanity, and whatever would threaten it. Your actions on the front lines of this battle, will decide the fate of humanity.
Chapter 1: The Ready Room
You have installed NS; you’ve set up your keys and your raring to go. You join the game, and you’re in this weird little room. This room, or collection of rooms, is known as the “Ready Room” it is made to enhance the atmosphere of NS and add a place where players can socialize without having to risk getting shot at. It is useful for “AFK” (Away From Keyboard) players so that they are not in the way, and if you need to leave the computer for any reason, simply press the F4 key and you can walk away and come back without fearing abuse from your team because you’ve done nothing for a whole hour. It must be noted however that some servers are not appreciative of this; you may get warned to join a team or risk getting kicked. These servers generally do this because the server slots are filling up and wish to maintain active traffic, so don’t feel to bad about it.
There are five things you can do in the ready room. Join the alien team, Join the marine team, Spectate, Join a Random Team, or idle. If you choose to idle, you can have a friendly chat with other more experienced player before you start playing. They can give you tips that this handbook will undoubtedly omit or misconstrue. If there are no players with which to talk to, I would recommend that you Spectate for at least one game to get a handle, both on the map, the tactics used and the various hiding spots and buildings which are vital to NS. Of course, you can jump straight into the action if you wish; it’s totally your personal choice.
Now, to join either marines or aliens, simply walk into the door with the sign “Join Marines” or “Join Aliens” to join that team. If you chose to Join Aliens, skip ahead to Chapter three. If you wish to choose marines, read ahead to the next Chapter.
Chapter 2: Marines
If you are new to NS, but are familiar to half life and first person shooters in general, the marines will be the most familiar side to play with. If you have joined the game at the start, you should start inside, or very close to the marine start. This room will serve as your base. At first, there are usually only two buildings in the marine start. A funny, squat, four-legged thing, and a white rectangular structure. The four-legged thing is called a “Resource Tower”. It gives your team the currency to buy more buildings with; the more of these you have, the better. Resource Towers are built only on Resource Nodes; resource nodes appear as grey nozzles that have a fine white vapor steaming out of them. The white rectangular building is the command console. The command console allows one marine to initiate “Commander Mode”. This special mode takes the player into an overhead view, much like star craft. From here, your commander can place new buildings, such as spawn portals, armories and phase gates. This will aid you, as a marine, to eliminate the enemy threat. It is recommended that if this is your first time playing NS, you should not command. Try waiting a few weeks to get a grip on the game, NS has a very high learning curve and it takes quite a while to get used to it. Even if you have many years of experience with Half Life mods, NS will be rather difficult to master.
One of the largest difficulties of the unique gaming prospects that NS has to offer is that new players to marines have is actually building structures. It’s quite simple, but many people seem to miss it. Once your commander has placed a new structure, move up to the structure, point your gun at it, and press your “Use” key. The structure will slowly build until it is completed, more players building the same structure will speed up the rate at which it is built. Be wary however, if everyone in the room is building, then no one is defending, which essentially makes the entire group a sitting snack for the nearest skulk. Always keep at least one man building, with one man defending. It’s up to you to decide weather you will build or defend, whatever your better at doing do it, but under no circumstances should you leave builders, or un-built structures undefended.
Additionally, getting more ammunition for your weapons poses some confusion. In NS, there are two ways to get ammunition. Either the commander drops ammunition in green packets on the floor, or, the commander builds an armory. An armory is a cylindrical structure with four panels sticking out. Simply move up to the armory, and press your use key to receive half a clip of ammunition for the currently selected weapon.
Below is a short description of the weapons that marines can have.
LMG – Default spawning weapon. If used correctly, it is devastating. Without damage upgrades, this weapon deals 10 damage per bullet. This weapon fires in a cone shape, so, accuracy decreases proportionally with range. Put simply, the longer the hallway you’re shooting down, the less shots will hit the target.
Shotgun – If you have played FPS games before, the shotgun is the ultimate close ranged weapon. The shotgun holds 10 shots, with 50 shots reserve, one single shot should kill a skulk no matter what depending if all the shotgun pellets hit. The shotguns accuracy does decrease with range, so just make sure that you’re close to your target before you engage, or retreat. There is no shame in retreating to an ambush point
HMG – This is a little more powerful then the LMG. This weapon can only be dropped by the commander after he has upgraded the armory and only when he has the resources to do so. A HMG costs quite a few resources, so don’t lose it. This weapon is very powerful. Without upgrades, each bullet deals 18 damage, and each clip holds 150 rounds. This is more then enough ammunition to kill any alien you encounter. However, this weapon will slow you down to half your speed (It is a “Heavy Machine Gun” after all) and its accuracy is disastrous at long range.
Welder – The welder is not truly an offensive weapon as such. It has many purposes. Welders can be used to repair other marine’s armor, it can repair damaged structures, and on certain maps they can be used to close off vents and alter the map geometry. I’ll leave it up to you to find the weld points on different maps.
Knife – Also part of the default marines repertoire, I don’t think I need to explain it’s use.
GL – Grenade Launcher, this is difficult to use, but very very useful. The grenade launcher allows the marines to fire around corners by bouncing the grenades off of walls. If a grenade hits an alien directly, it will explode on contact. If it does not touch an alien, it will sit on the ground and explode six seconds after you fired it. The GL is great for taking out enemy defenses and deterring aliens from going down a path, but watch your ammo, you only get 32 grenades and four grenades per clip, and at the rate you’d love to fire them at you will run dry on ammunition fast, so conserve your ammo and don’t leave base without backup. The GL will slow you down about as much as a HMG would. The GL is primarily a support weapon, and as with the HMG, it costs resources. Do not lose your GL, if you do lose your GL; inform your team where it is so others can pick It up. It should be noted that each grenade launched from the GL deals out 200 damage.
Pistol – Another weapon that default marines get, this weapon is simple and effective. You have 10 bullets per clip, and can have a maximum of 3 clips spare. Each single bullet deals 20 damage, without upgrades, not only that, this weapon is the only hit scan weapon in NS that has absolute perfect accuracy. Wherever your crosshair is pointing is exactly where the bullet will land, additionally, the pistol will fire as fast as you can click your mouse. If used correctly, the pistol is a dangerous weapon.
If you read all the above, you may have heard me mention damage upgrades a few times. Put simply, if your commander builds an Arms Lab, he can upgrade the amount of damage your weapon can deal out, as well as how much armor you have. This costs resources; so don’t expect upgrades straight away.
In addition to the weapons you can receive, you can also get some equipment. Heavy armor slows you down a lot, but you’re a walking tank. With this HA on, you have 230 points of armor that absorbs 90% of all incoming damage. When you have heavy armor on, the aliens will fear you. However, you are by no means invincible, stick with your squad and get a welder buddy to keep your armor maxed out.
Also, you can get Jetpacks. Be aware, you can have either Heavy Armor and be a tank, or, A Jetpack and fly around the map. YOU CANNOT HAVE BOTH. It is either one, or the other. To fly with a jetpack, simply press your jump key and move around as normal, you may need a bit of practice to get used to it, but the increase in your maneuverability will be invaluable.
Finally, Trip mines. Trip mines replace your pistol slot, but if placed correctly they make an excellent early game defense. If a mine is placed on a wall, a red laser will come out. When an alien breaks this red laser, the mine will explode, so don’t place them at one end of a long hallway, always try to use the shortest path to where the laser will end up, such that any alien that triggers it will take damage. Also, trip mines placed on the floor will not use a red laser beam, but rather act more like a land mine. Once again, no marine will be able to set off the mines, only aliens can. It should be noted that other marines do not set off trip mines under any circumstances. Place them on vital structures such as Infantry portals, phase gates and resource towers. The best way to place mines is to look at where you want the mine to go and press your primary fire button, crouching helps with placement. Also, place them in strategic locations such as vents, doorways and narrow hallways. Mines do become redundant later on when more powerful alien classes come into play, but if your commander is worth his salt, you should never even see those higher alien classes.
To find out what structures do what, look in your Natural Selection directory for the NS manual. Although slightly outdated, it gives detailed descriptions and pictures of structures and what they do (look for the “Structures.html” file).
To sum up the marines, teamwork is god. If you do not work as a team on marines, you will die. Obey your commander, stick with your squad, and you will live. Go Rambo off, leave your team mates, and give away your position to the aliens and you could lose the entire game for your team. Always listen to more experienced players and try your best to help your team achieve victory over the alien menace.
[End Copy]
A larger post will be made in the Kharaa strategy forum on the Kharaa section to the guide.
Thanks for all the patience in reading that large slab of text above, it is greatly appreciated.
Also...the right click menu for marines...also need to know...if you don't know where you are, don't be afraid to ping the commander with your menu system...that's what it's there for. We can then find you with the click of a button.
i belive it is 22 damage