Upgrades
Mashpit
Join Date: 2003-08-02 Member: 18763Members
Join Date: 2003-08-02 Member: 18763Members
<div class="IPBDescription">help a poor defenceless widdle n00b</div> Hey folks, ive been playing NS for about a month(ish) now and im gettin to grips but just want some pointers and to make myself known, my biggest puzzle (mind you this could be way off base as im installing 2.0 right now and that may be totally diff. but what the hey) has been which upgrades to choose on the aliens side. i like playing aliens, and a few games ago i got laughed at (a skulk with redemp is kinda funny)... so can someone give me a lowdown on the upgrades???
cheers!!! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
desperatly trying not to do the <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> DIE FATTY thing... but ya gotta admit its tempting for a n00b like me :-)
anyways, thanks in advace for the globlets of knowledge about to pass thru my fingertips.
you can catch me ingame as ][-M4sh{pit}-][
cheers!!! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
desperatly trying not to do the <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> DIE FATTY thing... but ya gotta admit its tempting for a n00b like me :-)
anyways, thanks in advace for the globlets of knowledge about to pass thru my fingertips.
you can catch me ingame as ][-M4sh{pit}-][
Comments
If you like to be sneaky then silence and cloaking are good options, for example. If you want to be a bit of a tank when you're a fade or onos then carapace and adrenaline is a good combination. However, that doesn't mean that if you're a fade you <i>should</i> take those upgrades - it very much depends on how you play and what you enjoy doing. Personally I love ambushes, so I find scent of fear and silence very useful (especially in 2.0 with the vast improvements to both). In 1.0x it was almost essential that youtake redemption, because dying would cost not only you but the whole team a lot of resources, and seriously hinder expansion. With 2.0's alien res system it's every man for himself, so if you die as a gorge it's pretty much just your problem, not the whole team's.
Also you should think about the team's situation - what would it be useful for you to do, or how is the map set up to help you? For example, if gorges have set up areas of DCs around the map, regeneration isn't very important as you can just find DCs to heal you. Also, if you want to have fun tormenting the marines and you have a good sensory network set up on the map, you might want to forego the usually very useful adrenaline and choose silence instead, so the enemy can neither see nor hear you.
Bottom line: There is no "right" upgrade for each species or chamber. Some are less useful in some situations (redemption isn't as useful for the low-health aliens as it is for fades and onos, for example), but all you need to do is work out which ones suit your style of play. Which ones you have the most fun using.
cheers!!! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
desperatly trying not to do the <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> DIE FATTY thing... but ya gotta admit its tempting for a n00b like me :-)
anyways, thanks in advace for the globlets of knowledge about to pass thru my fingertips.
you can catch me ingame as ][-M4sh{pit}-][ <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
There are a few things to consider.
1: Be aware that the new preferred build order is Sensory, Defense Movement. It's not necessarily the best solution, certainly not all the time (I prefer S->M->D, myself) but it seems to be winning so far on the servers I play on.
2: Sensory chambers cloak you anyway, and do so more effectively than the cloaking upgrade (you can move while cloaked if you're near an SC).
3: Resources come in far slower than 1.04. 2 resources are much more valuable than they used to be.
Having said that, you're likely to have sensory first, there is little point in getting cloaking, and it may be best not to get any upgrades at all, at least as a skulk.
So...
<u>Skulk</u>: no upgrades.
<u>Gorge</u>: carapace, silence, cloaking
<b>carapace</b> because your fat backside needs all the protection it can get.
<b>silence</b> and <b>cloaking</b> because you need to be stealthy, like n1nj4. This combination lets you avoid trouble - cloaking lets you hide, and silence allows you to set up a room full of nasty surprises for marines with total impunity, provided you have a sensory chamber in the room.
<u>Lerk</u>: regeneration, scent of fear, adrenaline.
<b>Regen</b> instead of carapace because you shouldn't be trying to kill stuff by yourself. Lerks are now strictly support aliens (which they excel at), so you shouldn't be taking too much fire anyway. Regen will help you stay in the combat area longer, so you can support your teammates for longer.
<b>Scent of Fear</b> so that you can see where the buggers are, and so that you can avoid trouble before it finds you.
<b>Adrenaline</b> should be fairly obvious; in a fight, you're constantly using high-drain skills like umbra and spores, and so need all the energy you can get.
<u>Fade</u>: carapace, cloaking, adrenaline
<b>Carapace</b> is still useful, and you are going to take a lot of fire as a fade. 2.0 forces people to adopt the arts of melee (which, as I've been trying to tell people for ages, is <i>more effective</i> than acid spam). You don't really need redemption because Blink does the job nicely, and regen is utterly useless since you have Metabolise.
<b>Cloaking</b>, because you can't always rely on there being a sensory chamber nearby, and you often need to hide from trouble.
<b>Adrenaline</b>, for preference, but really any movement upgrade will help you greatly. I say adrenaline because it allows you to blink more, which you rely heavily on to get you in and out of trouble. Any of the movement upgrades, actually, will help you a lot
<u>Onos</u>: redemption, celerity, pheromones
<b>redemption</b> is a must-have. It's standard operating procedure to devour someone, and then be redeemed. You're guarunteed a kill. Personally, I think this is unfair to marines (you can't possibly rescue your devoured comerade if the onos redeems when you try to kill it!) but as it stands it's ludicrous not to pick this.
<b>celerity</b>. for chasing down your meal.
<b>pheromones</b>, but really it makes no difference. I've heard other onoses say this is the upgrade to get.
redemption is a must-have. It's standard operating procedure to devour someone, and then be redeemed. You're guarunteed a kill. Personally, I think this is unfair to marines (you can't possibly rescue your devoured comerade if the onos redeems when you try to kill it!) but as it stands it's ludicrous not to pick this.
celerity. for chasing down your meal.
pheromones, but really it makes no difference. I've heard other onoses say this is the upgrade to get.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I feel like posting my two cents about this. My preferred setup is:
Regeneration, Celerity, Scent of Fear
Celerity for the same reasons as SS stated, although adren might be a good choice too for stomp spammage. Just concentrate on stomping and let the other aliens do the killing. Don't think silence is worth much, with an Onos you're going for brute force, not subtlety.
Regeneration because an Onos will regen back to full health quickly. Granted, you aren't near-invincible like with redemption, but you don't constantly get pulled back to the hive. You can stay in the combat area much longer, and a persistent Onos is quite a deterrent to marine advancement. A redemp Onos kills a marine, is redemptioned away, and then the rest of the group can pass. A regen Onos has to be more careful, but can do devastating hit-and-run attacks. And it stops the whining.
Scent of Fear because it's better than pheromones. Scent of Fear lets you see everyone around (and thus avoid running into a room filled to the rim with HAs), even those sitting still in a corner. Pheromones is only useful for tracking moving marines, and doesn't do you any good on the other side of a wall.
skulk: upgrades are useful..
if u wanna camp and be stealthy - silence and cloaking,
for camping or to hunt them down - silence and scent of fear,
for suidcide xenocide runs - celerity + carapace (if u know ur not going to survive the penetration)
i always for carapace b/c skulks are useless against upgraded rines (pretty weak against their fire)
if i'm on a parasite mission i go for regen, adren..
on one hive i usually get celerity, cara..
on 2 adren if u wanna use leap alot silence if u wanna be stealthy...
meh..
just play and experiment...
cara - armour to live longer.. (inevitably dies in heavie battles with no healing source)
regen - passive attacks, long missions
redempt - for big big hit point units.. (saves wasting res)
silence, cloak - stealthy
adren - if u need to use skills alot (eg, heal, spores, umbra, flying, charge, acid rocket, etc)
celerity - if u need speed
i personally am against peromones... with scent of fear i find no use for them..
hrm.. that should cover it.. gl hf
Skulk : Carapace - I know I'll die anyway
Cloaking - Helps in the ceilings,and Scent of Fear doesn't help anyway,you're too fast for the average marine
Silence - Scary <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Gorge : Redemption - I need to save my own rear don't I??
Scent of Fear - Early warning system,and helps if Im setting up a hive <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Adrenline - Bile bombs rock electrified RTs
Lerk : Regeneration - 'nuff said
Scent of Fear - Helps me pick out where marines are,and then I start the sporefest <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Silence/Adrenaline - I'm sort of mixed between the 2.
-If I'm support I go for adrenaline,Primal Scream and Umbra are a must in battle and you cant just sit there umbraing there all day,can you?
-If I go on hunting alone I go for Silence,helps with the spikes a whole lot,because it's still audible
Fade : Carapace - Ehh....you have your own form of Regeneration,and you can Blink to your hive quickly
Cloaking - Scary if paired with Blink
Celerity - Must have,works wonders <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Onos : I don't Onos around.
Those are mine,as you can see some of it differs from theirs,but it's just practically all preference.It's you who's using the alien,so you decide.<!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Or am I completely wrong? it happens <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
Helped me a bit aswell.
Scent of Fear does that, and more.
Defense: if this is your 1st hive ability, save the two res, and learn to ambush the enemy without cloaking, or else learn to steal other people's kills. Carapace may let you survive a little longer, but it's no longer the only thing you'd ever want. Regen is fairly useful, but you're a skulk, you're as expendable as a LA/LMG marine with one clip for each gun and two IPs at base. Redemption on a skulk is the stupidest thing ever.
Motion: Silence is alright, but once the marines get motion tracking, forget about it. Also, silence is nothing compared to cloaking early on in the game, IMO. Not to mention if your team puts down motion first, there's something seriously wrong, or else someone is working on putting up the second hive and you're guaranteed to have it, and another ability. People, let me say it, MOTION CHAMBERS ARE STUPID WITH ONLY ONE HIVE. Unless you use MCs as front line phase-gate equivalents to come back to the hive instantly for healing, there's really no use for them. They are there to phase from one hive to the next, hopefully putting you about fifteen seconds closer to your front lines in the process. Celerity, Silence, and Adrenaline are far less useful without another ability to back them up as well. Celerity is, of course, the usual upgrade of choice for motion. You get speed, which allows you to get places faster, and respond to threats as such, as well as retreat if you're in danger. Adrenaline is pointless for a skulk because you aren't going to be parasiting people rapid fire, and you can get places faster with controlled leaping, not leaping like you have all the energy in the world.
Sensory: A useful first hive ability, and as debatable a choice as opposed to DCs as the decision to go HA or JP on the marines. Obviously you can go with Cloaking in the first five minutes of the map, hang around right outside marine base, and wait for one or two of them to run out at a time, and have a field day picking them off. You get res so fast, it's not funny. Scent of fear should be avoided because you can usually hear marines, and it's easy to figure out where they'll be going anyway. I haven't seen any reason to get pheromones yet, simply because marines move around on foot so infrequently anyway, or always go the same routes. Maybe on Eclipse, it might be useful, but I find it much more fun to just cloak on that map too.
<b>Gorge:</b>
Defense: REDEMPTION, NO BRAINER. Ten res to go gorge. Unless you're the type who puts down a single chamber or tower, and console kills themselves, you're going to want to help out your team by healing attack skulks, and putting up well placed OCs from time to time, as well as occasionally Spitting at marines from a distance, and healspraying like mad in the hopes of getting a kill your skulk buddies missed. Carapace does no good without someone else around to heal you, since you can't do that yourself unless you thought ahead and spent ten res for a nearby DC. Regen might be good, but I don't trust it to keep me alive in a jam, when Redemption pretty much guarantees you won't be killed by anything more than a point blank HMG, GL, or Shottie attack.
Motion: CELERITY, although this is debatable. Silence might be nice, but again, motion tracking. They might not know what species you are, but they'll see you on their HUDs, and might come to screw you over. If you have celerity, you can atleast run away at skulk speed, while bunnyhopping like mad. Anyway, silence might have been nice in 1.04 when you really needed to be stealthy for the greater good of the team, but now? Your on your own buddy, and the rest of us know it, run like the wind or all the totally silent heal spray in the world won't save you when you hear four pairs of footsteps coming your way. Adrenaline might be good when you have two or three hives and want to heal up your Onos and Fade friends as much as you can, or bile bomb on marine structures, but I like being able to keep up with those aliens, so I don't just get left behind.
Sensory: Scent of Fear or Cloaking to avoid marine rushes and ambushes. If you cloak in a corner, you can always wait them out if they don't have motion yet. If they do, you're screwed, get Scent of Fear, and just see them coming, and know that the ones moving VERY slow and making footsteps like Robocop are bad news. Pheromones is useless as usual.
<b>Lerk:</b>
Defense: Regen. You have no armor, and you are a support alien anyway. Don't get to close to the action, and know when to run like a chicken, and you'll be fine with this. Redemption is often a bad idea compared to simple discretion and caution, since your 25 armor won't make a lick of difference even against upgraded LMGs. Just keep away and let Regen do it's job, and you'll have enough to go fade or onos by the time you die. Carapace won't make you that much more survivable anyway, and it's not your job to take hits. Umbra yourself, spore, spike, and duck away to recover energy.
Motion: ADRENALINE, NO BRAINER. You need all that energy to umbra and spore and spike, but especially to umbra. Without that, you're a vulnerable little alien birdy. If you haven't got umbra, you better have enough energy to flap away like crazy as a substitute, which adrenaline will also help with. Silence is wasted, since they see where spores come from even in the dark, ditto umbra. Spikes are harder to pinpoint, but unless you want to be a portable OC from the roof by yourself, which you probably shouldn't be, you should skip silence. Celerity is also a little wasted, since you can get around fine at top speeds with six quick taps of your jump button.
Sensory: Uhhh... Scent of Fear maybe? Frankly, the same things apply from Silence as they do here in regards to cloak. They'll know where you're shooting from. Since the two most usually useful sensory upgrades aren't that great for lerks, I get pheromones, just to see if they have a use that I missed. They still don't, from what I see.
<b>Fades:</b>
Defense: REDEMPTION, SUCH A NO BRAINER. Regen might be nice, especially paired with Metabolize on last weapon for easy mid-battle healing, but I prefer to make sure my 50 res go well spent, and last me a while before I'm killed and re-skulked. Carapace might be nice too with metabolize to give you the extra armor, but again, I prefer to not die in a tight situation to being able to take care of a situation I'd be able to take care of WITHOUT the extra armor.
Motion: Adrenaline makes Blink, Metabolize, and Acid Rocket twice as useful. Silence is alright as a secondary upgrade, but they're going to SEE you coming before they hear you anyway. You're a Fade. You're big. Celerity is wasted, since they have Blink.
Sensory: Possibly cloaking, possibly scent of fear. It doesn't matter, since your strength is your self-sufficiency with your speed, and metabolize abilities. Whatever helps you avoid marines when you want to be by yourself for a little healing time. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
<b>Onos</b>
Defense: LET THE MARINES WHINE. REDEMPTION, SUCKAZ. Regen might be very fast with Onos, Carapace might make you a hard nut to crack, but dangit, when the odds are stacked and you know you're going to get screwed over by five HA with HMG, you're going to wish you had gone the cheap, cheesy route. The only time this doesn't apply is NEVER. Re-Onosing from your previous death, even if you had 100 res at the time, takes atleast a minute. You're much more likely to be able to just get back to where you last got redeemed and just begin to gore and devour stuff again.
Motion: Celerity. Speedy Onos = Superior Onos. Run around the map like a skulk and be your team's mobile HA defense and turret-farm destroyer. Silence on an Onos is hilarious, but other than cheap laughs, not that useful. Adrenaline might be the ticket if you love stomping those poor suckers, goring them once, then restomping till they die, or if you like stomping people, and just letting your lesser-evolved teammates get the kill to earn res. However, getting around the map at blazing speed is preferable, IMO. Plus, you have atleast five rapid stomps from a full energy bar.
Sensory: Yeah, again, it hardly matter what you pick. Cloaking is a safe bet, because it just lets you sit in place and let the marines walk right up to you for easy devouring. Stops those annoying Rambo types dead. Scent of fear is okay for knowing where some hapless victims are, if you can't figure it out by yourself. Pheromones is outclassed by Scent for the usual reasons.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I thought that with res for kills it makes sense for all aliens to get redemption - that way you deny the marines those extra res for most of the time (or at least when redemption works)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The thing is, you're only worth 2 res as a skulk, I think, and as any other species, you aren't expendable, and you SHOULD be getting redemption. Redemption is far superior to any other defensive upgrade for pretty much any species except lerk and skulk. Lerks won't survive concentrated fire long enough to redeem, and shouldn't get in those situations anyway, and Skulks are the most expendable, throw-away soldiers EVER. Try not to die too much, and just save up the res to evolve into something else. It's the marines that have to worry about not getting killed. If a skulk manages to kill five guys at the start of the game, without going gorge or anything at all, he's pretty much almost a fade. If the same skulk kills ten, the aliens are going to have a First Ten Minute Onos, which is a marine team's worst nightmare.
Anyway, that's about it. They need to balance Redemption. It should work FAR less than it does to make things fair. You shouldn't end up with teams of seven Onos constantly redeeming without any lerk, fade, gorge, or skulk support.
Defense: REDEMPTION, NO BRAINER. Ten res to go gorge. Unless you're the type who puts down a single chamber or tower, and console kills themselves, you're going to want to help out your team by healing attack skulks, and putting up well placed OCs from time to time, as well as occasionally Spitting at marines from a distance, and healspraying like mad in the hopes of getting a kill your skulk buddies missed. Carapace does no good without someone else around to heal you, since you can't do that yourself unless you thought ahead and spent ten res for a nearby DC. Regen might be good, but I don't trust it to keep me alive in a jam, when Redemption pretty much guarantees you won't be killed by anything more than a point blank HMG, GL, or Shottie attack.
Motion: CELERITY, although this is debatable. Silence might be nice, but again, motion tracking. They might not know what species you are, but they'll see you on their HUDs, and might come to screw you over. If you have celerity, you can atleast run away at skulk speed, while bunnyhopping like mad. Anyway, silence might have been nice in 1.04 when you really needed to be stealthy for the greater good of the team, but now? Your on your own buddy, and the rest of us know it, run like the wind or all the totally silent heal spray in the world won't save you when you hear four pairs of footsteps coming your way. Adrenaline might be good when you have two or three hives and want to heal up your Onos and Fade friends as much as you can, or bile bomb on marine structures, but I like being able to keep up with those aliens, so I don't just get left behind.
Sensory: Scent of Fear or Cloaking to avoid marine rushes and ambushes. If you cloak in a corner, you can always wait them out if they don't have motion yet. If they do, you're screwed, get Scent of Fear, and just see them coming, and know that the ones moving VERY slow and making footsteps like Robocop are bad news. Pheromones is useless as usual.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Permanent non-battle Gorges are obsolete.
<!--QuoteBegin--Swift Idiot+Aug 4 2003, 06:54 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Swift Idiot @ Aug 4 2003, 06:54 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Lerk:</b>
[...]
Sensory: Uhhh... Scent of Fear maybe? Frankly, the same things apply from Silence as they do here in regards to cloak. They'll know where you're shooting from. Since the two most usually useful sensory upgrades aren't that great for lerks, I get pheromones, just to see if they have a use that I missed. They still don't, from what I see.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Since flanking a Lerk is the best way to take it out, scent of fear is the upgrade of choice.
<!--QuoteBegin--Swift Idiot+Aug 4 2003, 06:54 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Swift Idiot @ Aug 4 2003, 06:54 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Fades:</b>
Defense: REDEMPTION, SUCH A NO BRAINER. Regen might be nice, especially paired with Metabolize on last weapon for easy mid-battle healing, but I prefer to make sure my 50 res go well spent, and last me a while before I'm killed and re-skulked. Carapace might be nice too with metabolize to give you the extra armor, but again, I prefer to not die in a tight situation to being able to take care of a situation I'd be able to take care of WITHOUT the extra armor.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I disagree. In my opinion, carapace is the best option, because, since you already have blink, redemption is unneeded, and since you already have metabolize, regeneration is unneeded.
JMHO, I disagree here. While they sure are a lot less game-breaking if they die, it DOES take ten res and around thirty or so seconds to evolve into one of them. I've become something of a gorge fiend the last couple of days in a few games, and those ten res and thirty seconds, assuming you even have ten res when you die, are much more suited to healing up your team, and plunking down an OC on high ground where it can spike hapless LA rambos, or a convenient DC or SC. Let's also not forget that even if you have ten res, you aren't going to go gorge, because a gorge isn't that great if he can't put down an OC or chamber right when he needs to. You don't go gorge, and then WAIT for the res to do your job, so realistically, you'd only be expendable as a gorge if you had 25 or so res when you died.
I will agree on one point though, and that's that non-battle gorges are mostly obsolete. You can't just sit around at the hive waiting for ten res to come in so you can drop another DC, or whatever else. Gorges are very much second line units, not base-tenders like they used to be. You stay in the hallway behind your skulk friends, let them gang on some marines, and wait for them to come back for healing, if not charging out and healspraying all over the place to help out, and get a few extra res points to help push forward the offense. You also have to get out there and put up OCs in all the right spots to get the occasional OC kill.
However, if you're going to evolve, atleast make it worth the while. There's nothing I hate more than going gorge, and getting hit by three marines in the first ten seconds. It's a total waste. I find for me at least that it helps the team if I can save every res I get for the good of the team, not for myself to go gorge again after getting waxed by a gaggle of LA/LMGs.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Since flanking a Lerk is the best way to take it out, scent of fear is the upgrade of choice.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Duly noted. I'll try that out and see if it's any better than cloaking. Also, the best way to take out a lerk is to run after that obnoxious little buzzard with a shottie in hand and wait for him to accidentally fly backwards into a wall or pillar. Ker-SPACK, ker-SPACK!!
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I disagree. In my opinion, carapace is the best option, because, since you already have blink, redemption is unneeded, and since you already have metabolize, regeneration is unneeded. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The thing is, carapace, while being pretty nice, isn't a guarantee that you're not going to find yourself in a situation that even blink and metabolize just isn't going to save you from. Even with blink or metabolize on Last Weapon, it can be hard to get in, slash a LA, and get the hell out before his five buddies LMG you up pretty badly. As Fade and Onos, I enjoy having the ability to just run into a heavily occupied area, do a little damage, and get yanked back to hive in order to do it again. If you go Cara, you have to know exactly when to blink out, and metabolize yourself back to full health. You also have to be wary of marines actively hunting you down, which I don't recall happening an awful lot back in 1.04. Nowadays, those marines are going to want to rub you out with extreme predjudice, and it's not uncommon for me to find myself being chased by three or four LA/LMGs when I don't immediately get redeemed from the situation I'm in.
Cara on Fades is great if you want to play them as lone marine stalkers, but you may as well forget attacking groups greater than three to four unless you wait right around corners. It's a debatable point, but I just prefer not dying and having to put up the res to go fade again.
Ok. Here's how upgrades and upgrade chambers work:
For each hive your team has, your team may chose ONE type of upgrade chamber to be able to build.
At one hive you can build any you like, but once the first of those chambers is dropped the decision is made and only that kind of chamber can be built.
When the second hive is finished, you again have the choice between the remaining two chambers. Once that choice is made, the third chamber can only be built once the third hive is active.
You can see which upgrade chamber corresponds to which hive in the upper-right corner of your screen; the chamber appears in the little window next to the picture of the hive.
Each upgrade chamber type allows access to three different upgrades. You can only ever have one upgrade of each type. The level of upgrade directly corresponds to the number of that type of chambers which your team has built, up to a maximum of level three. For example, if your team has one defense chamber you may upgrade to either carapace, redemption, or regeneration (but not more than one), and that upgrade will be at level one. If another defense chamber is built, your current defense upgrade will increase by one level (maximum is level three). If enough chambers are destroyed so that you have less than three, your upgrade will downgrade.
Note that upgrades are totally dependent on which upgrade chambers you have built, and how many - if you build defense chambers at hive one, movement chambers at hive two, and then lose the second hive you still have access to the movement upgrades as long as the movement chambers still stand. In this case, if the second hive were to be rebuilt it would be possible to get sensory chambers, even though earlier that hive allowed movement chambers. Note that you then won't be able to build movement chambers until you get the third hive.
Finally, the only way you can change what upgrade you get is if all of that type of chamber are destroyed, and then rebuilt - you will lose the upgrade when you lose the chambers, and will be able to chose again when the replacement chambers come online. However, there is no way to change the decision of what chamber type to build unless the hive is destroyed - even if you no longer have any chambers of that type you will still only be able to build that type from that hive.