Game Flow
Deacon
Join Date: 2002-11-24 Member: 9852Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-11-24 Member: 9852Members, Constellation
A critical part of strategy is, of course, studying past battles and deriving successful (and unsuccessful) patterns from them. Since I can't play 24 hours a day, I'm hoping to supplement my own experience with that of others. I think once we get a general picture of how games are playing out, we can come up with more informed ideas on how to help aliens control the early game and close the end game.
I played through a half-dozen games yesterday, three on one server, three on another.
Marine wins progressed like:
1. Marines grab a few RTs and hang on for dear life.
2. Aliens put up all three hives, grab most of the RTs, but can't close the game.
3. Marines hook up the HA Man Train, and house the aliens.
Alien wins progressed like:
1. Marines sort of fritter around and don't have any real direction. May cycle through several comms.
2. Aliens put up all three hives, grab most of the RTs.
3. Aliens mop up the marines.
So far, it seems like marine coordination is driving alien performance. Which is, you know, no good. A coordinated, competent group of aliens needs to be able to compete with equally competent marines, not just mop up noob comms and lost rambos. I don't think this is a balance issue; I think we just haven't figured out how to work the alien side yet.
I played through a half-dozen games yesterday, three on one server, three on another.
Marine wins progressed like:
1. Marines grab a few RTs and hang on for dear life.
2. Aliens put up all three hives, grab most of the RTs, but can't close the game.
3. Marines hook up the HA Man Train, and house the aliens.
Alien wins progressed like:
1. Marines sort of fritter around and don't have any real direction. May cycle through several comms.
2. Aliens put up all three hives, grab most of the RTs.
3. Aliens mop up the marines.
So far, it seems like marine coordination is driving alien performance. Which is, you know, no good. A coordinated, competent group of aliens needs to be able to compete with equally competent marines, not just mop up noob comms and lost rambos. I don't think this is a balance issue; I think we just haven't figured out how to work the alien side yet.
Comments
wait a week or two first.
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Aliens only win once the marines have 1 or 2 RTs (and even then it takes quite a while to crush the nasty marine turret farms) else the marines have the opportunity of a come back , usually featuring the whole team taking the hives down one by one.
There is one sign that shows the likely outcome of the game :
Do the marines have an active phase gate ?
If they do , this means they have seized controll of nodes near alien territory , easily taking out borderline chambers (costing the aliens res to rebuild them or breaking their offensive capacity) having access to remote parts of the map. Best exemple would be the double node room in ns_veil , which grants an easier access to the hives when phased up and cripples alien movement.
If the marines haven't phased anything midgame... they should better start a massive assault or hungry bunches of onos will soon camp at their door.
The cool thing is that the 2nd hive can be up 3 or 4 minutes after the round starts, which grants you some good and stronger attacks for all alien lifeforms.
The OCs are my special favorite because enough of them will delay marines long enough to have a skulk munch em up so you can heal the OCs afterwards.
Skulks are too weak and get mowed over by HA+HMG is less than a second if the marine can aim, they generally only engage at the hive en masse to defend it, quite possibly dying a few a times before they win.
Haven't used Fades yet, so I won't comment on that.
Gorge is well... the Gorge. Not exactly a fighter. He can heal his teammates in battle though.
Lerk is good for Umbra-ing things and shooting spikes from a distance, or flying up and harassing the Marines while the rest of your ground forces come in to add to the chaos.
I'm basing this all off of 2 hives however. At 3 hives a whole new world of possibilities open, Xenocide being one of the best. As the poster above said, a few well-placed Xenocides will obliterate any Marine force. Gorges get web, which is still a very good weapon (I think?). Lerks get Primal Scream, which will further increase the effectiveness of Alien troops.
But stomp+devour still remains the most effective counter, as it instantly takes an enemy marine out of action.
I've seen a pretty significant shift to alien dominance, now that this technique (combined with redemption) is pretty widespread. In the early games I played, carapaced onos would try to gore/charge HA to death. Now uncloak-stomp-gulp-escape seems to be the standard.
I'm also seeing good alien players go onos FAST. I was gorging last night, and by the time I had built 3 RTs (plus 3 sensory), we had two onos (who were nagging me for DCs and a second hive).