Research And Build Times

ElectroKiwiMonkey

<div class="IPBDescription">Anyone have stats somewhere?</div> I was playing a game on ns_bast, as usual the marines relocated to Atmospheric Processing. We (the aliens) knew there was a marine or two in Feedwater because a teammate had just died there, so one of my buddies hopped in the underwater tunnel from refinery to try and catch him by surprise.

Unfortunately, the marine knew my teammate was coming and shot him dead before he was even out of the water.

What I'd like to know is how. I've been playing since 1.0 so I have a fairly good idea of how long it'll take to get various research and building done, and I must say that for the marines to have relocated to atmospheric processing, built an observatory, AND researched motion tracking at this point in the game was quite suspect. I had been in their (relocated) base a minute or two earlier and got a good look around, but didn't see an Obs anywhere.

Does anyone have the various build and research times somewhere I could have a look at, to try and figure this out?

Zel

i believe arms lab upgrades are 1 minute per level. and as for your friend the marine probably lucked out on looking down there when he was at the bottom, and fired!

ElectroKiwiMonkey

This particular marine seemed to have rather good intuition though. A while later, when admittedly they easily could have had motion tracking, he managed to pick off three skulks coming through the three entrances of refinery within 30 or 40 seconds of each other - and by pick off, I mean sitting right beside the entrance waiting for them.

coil

Headphones or a well-assembled 5.1 surround-sound system will give you practically better-than-MT detection abilities, just following footsteps. I imagine you weren't using Silence (no one ever does).

hoju2

So basically, hes camping at the entrance, and it somehow seems suspicious when he see the skulks run in? Doesn't seem very suspicious to me. . .

Madjai

ive done this before, i simply heard that water noise and the skulk taking damage from lack of oxygen, i looked down and shot the skulk before he could leave the water.

evilops

Ditto the above 3 posters... headphones can make you godly if you use your head. The marine prolly just heard the drowning sound.

As for the research times... from memory:

Weap/Armour
lvl 1 - 1min
lvl 2 - 2min
lvl 3 - 3min

Mt - 2min ?

jp - 1min or 30secs not sure
ha - ?

ElectroKiwiMonkey

<!--QuoteBegin--hoju2+Mar 31 2003, 08:10 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (hoju2 @ Mar 31 2003, 08:10 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> So basically, hes camping at the entrance, and it somehow seems suspicious when he see the skulks run in? Doesn't seem very suspicious to me. . . <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
There are three entrances to the room, a significant distance from each other. For him to be camping each entrance precisely when a skulk is coming seems a bit suspicious when I don't think he has MT, yes.

Jojoshua

<!--QuoteBegin--coil+Apr 1 2003, 04:10 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (coil @ Apr 1 2003, 04:10 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Headphones or a well-assembled 5.1 surround-sound system will give you practically better-than-MT detection abilities, just following footsteps. I imagine you weren't using Silence (no one ever does). <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I use silence every game I play as alien....

Archzai

<!--QuoteBegin--Zel+Mar 31 2003, 10:58 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Zel @ Mar 31 2003, 10:58 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> i believe arms lab upgrades are 1 minute per level. and as for your friend the marine probably lucked out on looking down there when he was at the bottom, and fired! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
ummm im quite sure the first levels take less time : / if im not wrong...

evilops

Found the research times, kitsune did a nice job on the stats for NS 1.04 <a href='http://www.geocities.com/kitsune/104stats.htm' target='_blank'>here</a>.

Level 1 Weapon/Armor 1:00
Level 2 Weapon/Armor 2:00
Level 3 Weapon/Armor 3:00
Jetpacks 0:50
Heavy Armor 1:40
Motion Tracking 1:40
Advanced Armory 2:00
Advanced Turret Factory 0:30


On to the cheating accusations... come on. There are HEAPS of possibilities, eg. pure coincidence, they DID have motion tracking, headphones, intell from teammates or the commander etc etc.
Perhaps the obs was just out of sight of you eh? In a dark corner or something.

Note: just because you might not be able to do something doesnt mean others can't do it, and without hacking/cheating or whatever

ElectroKiwiMonkey

Calm down, I never said cheating. I just said suspicious. Yes, there's a number of perfectly legitimate ways for the marine to pull this off, including the chance that it was a pure fluke.

But as I said, my rough idea of where the marines could possibly have been at this point in the game suggested to me that something wasn't quite right if they had motion tracking so early on.

Anyhoo, assuming that 1:40 is right for Motion Tracking then it's quite I possible for them to have had it. I always thought it took more like 2:00 or 2:30, but I've never paid really close attention to it.