Just A Note To 2.0 Commanders..

Jedisar · August 2003

This is a brand new game, so lets see some new tactics...so far, this game seems to be more of a battle for RESOURCE NODES than Hives. Remember, locking down two hives won't help much if the entire enemy team is onos. Remember to lock down those resource nodes. Resource nodes under your control give YOU resources and also starves the aliens of resources. This is, I believe, how NS was always meant to be played. Turrets are strong and their cost is reduced now, so don't be shy about them. An electric TF, RT, and 4 turrets is usually enough to keep skulks, gorges, lerks, and fades away, and keeping onos very, VERY busy. Also, scan frequently, sensory is a common first hive chamber. As an alien, I've stacked sensories so my alien team is cloaked through the entire map, including the marine base, until they build an observitory. Remember, Observitory = Anti Sensory defense.

Cronos · August 2003

Just a tip on the path to victory...

Jetpacks are no longer the uber winning strat they once were. Case in point - They really really suck now unless you want your marines to have better manouverability.

The way to win at the moment is to take a double res node, perhaps more if you can afford to do so and defend them. Once you have accumulated enough res, simply tech up to HA/HMG and get your squad to squash the hives one by one.

The problem with the strategy is staying organised and making sure your team mates do not die in the field.

YES! Thats right grunts! YOU MUST NOT DIE IN THE FIELD! Dying will give those alien scum res, so watch your squadmates backs, cover each other, and try to preserve each others lives as much as possible.

Also, commanders should not be afraid to stick turrets in spawn now. As it stands, aliens are far more anarchistic, and far more potent then ever before. Marine strategies must adapt, or your squad and team will surely die.

briDge · August 2003

I'm going to have to disagree with you Cronos... as far as the most effective strategy. I have found, over these last days of playing 2.0, that the best strategy is to either stay in base or relocate to a double res point, but after that quickly expand outwards, capping EVERY nozzle you come across and turret farming even the smallest res. What this does is darastically decrease your marine deaths because automated sentries are taking and dealing most of the damage. The reduced cost of turrets and a turret farm mean that if you place a TF and 3 turrets around each res you cap, it only takes about 2 and a half minutes for that res to begin earning profit for you INCLUDING the res for the nozzle.

When you do this you will find that your base is creeping across the map, turrets everywhere, alerting you of all alien presence and buying time for you to issue your troops to defend the appropriate place, and suddenly about 7 or 8 minutes into the game you start earning profit from over 6 res points. Very deadly. You can then tech to heavy armor although I have personally found Jetpacks with level 3 shotguns to be incredibly incredibly effective. Both work.

The problem with securing 2 nodes and then turtling in base and teching is that leaves almost a dozen nozzles for the kharaa to capture, which means early onos which means early devour which means dead heavy armor and on top of that any onos that do happen to die are likely at 100 res again and can just remorph into onos. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'>

WarpZone · August 2003

I've been mostly playing as Kharra, so I don't know what the best marine strategy is yet. But one time on Hera, the marines took the double node room and held it with a vengence. If they'd done that with every res node they came across, and if they'd electrified everything they built, it would have meant big trouble for us kharra.

Early 2.0 Kharra strategy so far has been to spread out as quickly as possible, everybody find a different node and go gorge with your 25 starting res, then try to get a hive up. Without that second or thrid hive, aliens have no way to destroy electified structures quickly. Lerk spikes, gorge spit, and OCs all cost res to obtain and do damage slowly, and a turret farm will make short work of these units.

It might be profitable to just build a ton of res, early game, and electrify them. Save your turrets for double node rooms or siege locations, or if you've got the res for it, go all out and turret farm the hell out of everything. Build a squad of HMG HAs and designate them your quick response squad, to go shoot any aliens harrassing structures and weld any damage they manage to do.

And please, stop complaining in-game about how Jetpacks suck now. Jetpacks were never intended to make a lone marine impossible to attack. They were meant to be used strategically to allow marines to use vents and other alternate routes. That's all. When you type "WTH they nerfed JPs this sucks" in-game, you pretty much come off sounding like the guy who posts in the forum going "I installed CD and now HL won't work somebody help me." JPs in 1.04 were exploitable. Now they are fixed, not nerfed. Live with it.

Creepin_Jeezus · August 2003

all i can say is that it is still very important to take hives, as aliens its very imprtant to get those extra attacks. an onos is nothing without stomp/charge. as is the gorge without bile bomb and lerk without umbra.
2 hive lockdowns are still very usefull, but its alot less lame for the aliens.

Lumberjack_Wannabe · August 2003

When going for the HA offensive, I cannot stress the importance of grouping different weapon groups together. Shotguns + HMGS + GL + LMGS = pwnage. Shotguns are good for closing the rear, HMGS are good cover for GLs, LMGS can fill spots for HMGS and Shotguns, and GLs do splash damage. Really helpful if there's a sensory chamber nearby, or if you want to take out a bunch of chambers quickly.

And for all of this you need res, so expanding is crucial.

Spazmatic · August 2003

I think, by now, any commanders who are going to learn in the next week or so have learned the basic concepts already (aka "resources"). That said, there is, in fact, a huge variety of opening moves a commander can make, and, to disagree with most everything posted so far (except lumberjack), none is intriniscally better than any other. Expanding slowly and thoroughly capping nodes is effective against aliens who are very offensive, relying on fewer gorges but more skulks/lerks. Expanding rapidly and grabbing every node in sight, electrifying ones in central locations, is very effective against a rapidly expanding alien team or a very slowly expanding/fortifying alien team. A rapidly expanding alien team can also be countered by two groups of lmg/shotties smacking gorgies around while occasionally building res towers. A gorge gang team can be shotty ganked. The same applies to fortified nodes.

The diversity of tactics at the beginning of the game is mind-boggling, and relies on good intel. Don't get caught up in a "one-strategy" approach.

Just A Note To 2.0 Commanders..

Comments