Aliens Refusing To Kill The Marines.

wlibaerswlibaers Join Date: 2002-11-15 Member: 8685Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Usually it's the opposite situation.</div> I'm sure all of us have experienced the scenario when the marines take two hives, and then do not leave their bases until they have every single upgrade available, while the aliens are getting frustrated with eternal suicide attacks against turret farms.

But the opposite situation, aliens teching up and not doing anything against the marines, is very rare. Probably because tha aliens can't get stronger when the marines have two hives locked down, but the marines can always increase their tech level and get resources for better weapons. So leaving the marines alone will allow them to become a real threat as they slowly gain resources. Aliens have to keep the pressure on the marines to prevent that.

So, I never expected to see aliens waiting for a very long time before attacking. Until it happened.

ns_hera. The command console was killed (the placement of the CC maens it is always at risk on this map, and the commander didn't tell us he was being attacked, most marines were out of the base trying to expand).
Now, we have an armoury, a turret factory with two turrets and a vulnerable side, a few infantry portals, and some useless structures (arms lab, resource node). As soon as the aliens figured out we had no spare CC, they did not attack very much anymore. We had expected a base rush, but the amount of attacks reduced significantly.

the typical signs of aliens in a two-hive lockdown were inverted now: "Hey aliens, when are you going to attack us?"
Alien answer: "We aren't, you should attack us."
Even telling them our exact base layout and the undefended side of the turret factory couldn't encourage them to come play with us.

The aliens were really sloppy. So sloppy, in fact, that a rush of 5 unupgrades marines (no CC, so no HA, no HMG, no jetpack, and no other upgrades either) took down their hive in archiving without meeting any significant resistance, Only after we did that and proved that we could be a threat against them did they start attacking with fades.

So the marine behavious of slowing down the attacks when victory is 99% certain is not really specific to marines after all, aliens just have few cases where they can afford it. However, once one side feels certain about victory, there's a tendency to relax and wait, leaving the other team to wait for the inevitable. One team becomes as lazy as they can possibly afford to, until that last upgrade is finally obtained.

Comments

  • p4Samwisep4Samwise Join Date: 2002-12-15 Member: 10831Members
  • SavantSavant Join Date: 2002-11-30 Member: 10289Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    I actually had this happen on a game and I was surprized. However, when they started saying "don't kill the IP! don't kill the IP!" and I asked WHY, the answer told all. "We never get a chance to play as fades or onos, we lost the last 5 games as skulks." <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->

    While I did encourage them to finish it to be respectful, it nevertheless did surprize me. I'm sure 1.1 will help to address these problems though. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

    Regards,

    Savant
  • MadjaiMadjai Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2986Members
    like you said, its very rare to find such sloppy aliens.

    in the situation you described i would have just kept attacking your ip because you cant weld it. unless your ip was too well guarded by your team. because after the marines lose their CC they realise they are screwed and so generally sit in their base waiting for the inevitable. because if they do leave theyll lose everything much faster. and you at least want to give the aliens a fight to the finish.
  • OlljOllj our themepark-stalking nightmare Fade Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10696Members
    get enough res untill you have enough for a massive team based gorge rush before they get sieges in the hives.

    I saw way too often gorges just defending the last hive instead of taking back the second with their team.
  • RionRion Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7752Members
    I find the "Don't kill them now let's play with them a bit more because we can" syndrome all over the place.. marines and aliens alike.. it's nothing new.

    Although you may have told them the weakspot to your TF.. I'm sure every one of you would have fired your LMGs at them as they came into what was left of your base.
  • babygirlbabygirl Join Date: 2003-01-16 Member: 12378Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Savant+Mar 27 2003, 06:40 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Savant @ Mar 27 2003, 06:40 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I actually had this happen on a game and I was surprized. However, when they started saying "don't kill the IP! don't kill the IP!" and I asked WHY, the answer told all. "We never get a chance to play as fades or onos, we lost the last 5 games as skulks." <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->

    While I did encourage them to finish it to be respectful, it nevertheless did surprize me. I'm sure 1.1 will help to address these problems though. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

    Regards,

    Savant <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I seriously doubt that 1.1 will fix the fact that sucky players suck.
  • WindelkronWindelkron Join Date: 2002-04-11 Member: 419Members
    I was in an interesting game today where the alien team perfected the 3-hive-counter-relocate-rush. Basically, the marine team (all 8 of them, minus the comm) all rushed for Port Engine, relocating to that funky two-pillar room outside. While the rest of the team fought the marines, I went gorge to harass their CC with an OC and build RTs. While I was building an RT, the hive started to disastrously go down. So I hurried myself over to Subspace, building RTs on the way. Turns out another gorge was doing the exact same thing and he set up a hive at Noname. Shortly after, I put mine up, and we surprised the marines with 3 hive abilities. Unfortunately, they killed (sieged) the hive they had been trying to kill for so long to death. However, we still owned them with fades.

    Anyway, just an interesting story, we had 3 hives up verrrry early in the game, which was fun.
  • wlibaerswlibaers Join Date: 2002-11-15 Member: 8685Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Rion+Mar 27 2003, 06:58 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Rion @ Mar 27 2003, 06:58 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I find the "Don't kill them now let's play with them a bit more because we can" syndrome all over the place.. marines and aliens alike.. it's nothing new.

    Although you may have told them the weakspot to your TF.. I'm sure every one of you would have fired your LMGs at them as they came into what was left of your base. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Firing our LMG's at them? Sure (just like skulks keep biting after a two-hive lockdown), but only if we're in our base, not while we're rushing one of their hives.

    I think Savant is right about players not getting to play the higher tech/evolutions very often, so they want to wait when they feel they can get it. Not sure if 1.1 is going to help that, while evolutions may be available at one hive, 1.1 is also supposed to halve the average game time. Not much time to evolve/tech up in 10 minutes <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
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