Updated Guide To Gorging
sawce
Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10787Members
Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10787Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Tips on how to be effective</div> This guide is meant to help the inexperienced gorge on how to be a little more effective. It's meant to help replace <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=21&t=9365' target='_blank'>this</a> thread, which has an outdated guide.
This version is written for NS 2.01 final.
<b>The basics</b>
The gorge is the second "level" life form. Every alien starts the round with enough resources to evolve into gorge immediately. A gorge costs ten resources to evolve into.
It has 150 health, and 50 armor, 100 armor with level three carapace.
Uncarapaced, this is enough to take 22 LMG shots, or 11 pistol shots before death.
The gorge has, like every other alien, four unique abilities. They are:
<ul>
<li> Spit - Shoots a projectile towards the target. Damage: 25
<li> Healspray - Heals friendlies, damages enemies. Damage: 16
<li> Bile bomb - Damages marine structures and mines. Does not damage players. Radius damage. Damage: 200 at center.
<li> Web - Creates a web between two points, causes any marine who passes into the web to be "ensnared" for a few seconds. He cannot shoot or move quickly while ensnared.
</ul>
The gorge has the unique ability of building structures. While his structure list isn't as extensive as the marines, every possible need can be covered by his chambers.
He can build:
<ul>
<li> Offense chambers - Shoots at enemies in range. Damage: 20 per shot. Cost: 10 resources.
<li> Defense chambers - Heals friendlies units within range. Rate: 10 health per tick. Cost: 10 resources.
<li> Movement chamber - Allows for teleporting between hives, and gives an adrenaline boost to friendlies in range. Cost: 10 resources.
<li> Sensory chamber - Allows for cloaking of friendlies in range. Cost: 10 resources
<li> Resource tower - Collects resources for the alien team at a regular interval. Cost: 15 resources.
<li> Hives - Required to live, evolve, build, upgrade, and unlocks alien abilities. Cost: 40 resources.
</ul>
<b>Building</b>
To build a chamber, simply bring up your radial menu (right click, by default), and go to the "Build" section, then select the form of chamber you want to build. If you have enough resources, and a chamber is capable of being built in that area, a chamber will appear. Every type of chamber will slowly build itself, or the gorge can move right next to the chamber, look at it, and hold down their "use" key. This will cause the chamber to build faster. This does not work on hives.
Resource towers and hives are required to be built in specified locations on the map. Resource towers can only be built ontop of resource nozzles, which are indicated by a circular metalic lump on the ground, with white "steam" coming from it. Hives can only be built at locations you can see on your hivesight as hive locations. They will be indicated by a transparent hive in the area. Walk near it, and select "Hive" from your build menu. If you have the resources, a hive should appear, and slowly build itself.
<i>Early Game</i>
A common early game tactic is to go gorge immediately upon the round beginning, waddle over to the closest resource node and build it. This can prove to be quite effective, as the more resource towers you have active, the faster your resources will come in to you. Meaning, you can build more things quicker when you have more resource nodes.
<i>Offense chambers</i>
Offense chambers, alone, are quite weak structures. They can be taken out with 1 clip from a grenade gun or shotgun, and two clips of an LMG. They take a few shots to kill the marine (8, with level 0 armor to be exact), and they're extremely easy to spot.
A common practice which was played out in 1.X was stacking offense chambers. This was done to deny the marines the ability to enter the area, and happened mostly at enterances or doorways. This was effective, because in 1.X, the game was for the most part over when aliens had fades, and offense chambers hardly ever hit their target anyway. However, now in 2.X, aliens can and do become onos very early into the game, and the OC aim has been greatly improved. It is often times a hinderance to your onii to stack chambers in common areas. Also, any form of chamber ontop of another chamber will, often times, block the bottom OC from firing.
One of the more effective layouts for offense chambers is a "reverse wall of lame". This means, that the OCs are lined up at the wall behind the door they are guarding. When a marine enters the area, every offense chamber will fire at once. This also makes it harder to kill the chambers with grenade launchers. Place defense chambers around the offense chambers, and you've got yourself a very nasty trap for marines.
Another common layout, and quite cheaper, is to lay the offense chambers in a triangular pattern, so that no chamber has a blind spot. When a marine can see one chamber, two or more chambers can see him. This makes it difficult for marines, especially early game marines, to kill your ocs. Place a defense chamber around the offense chambers if you're not going to be around; odds are those ocs are going to need healing.
Sensory chambers will help strengthen this offense chamber "nest", because the OCs will become cloaked when a sensory is nearby. Defense chambers will also be cloaked, and remain cloaked until either the sensory is killed, or the defense chamber is attacked.
Note: A common misconception is that movement chambers will speed up the rate of fire of offense chambers. This is untrue. The OC affecting area affect of a movement chamber was pulled out of 2.0 before the release, along with the hive effect.
<i>Upgrade Chambers</i>
All forms of upgrade chambers will give your team mates the ability to evolve with new traits that will help them in combat, or help them live longer. Defense chambers help your aliens live longer, movement chambers help your aliens move faster, quieter, or more effectively, and sensory chambers will help you hide from the enemy and locate the enemy. Take into account which form of upgrade would be the most useful for your team as a whole before placing a chamber. Do not place a chamber simply because <i>you</i> want that form of upgrade.
<b>Combat</b>
The combat role as a gorge, for the most part, is a supportive position. Your primary job is to make sure your team has constant healing, and, if you have three hives, that the enemy is being webbed properly. Although the gorge can hold his ground against a vanilla marine, that takes some practice to perfect.
When a gorge is in a group of friendlies who are attacking an undefended outpost, use bile bomb first, unless your team is taking heavy damage from the outpost. Bile bombing the outpost could prove to be more effective than simply healing a skulk because he is being shot at by one sentry turret.
When a gorge is in a group of friendlies who are attacking a defended outpost, your primary job is to heal. Follow your attackers (onos, fades and skulks) in and keep them alive, but do not get in their way. Stay a far enough distance back to stay out of their way, but close enough so that your healspray is healing as many as possible.
When a gorge is alone, and approached by a light armor marine, firstly try to run. If running is not possible, you need to defend yourself. Try hiding behind an object, such as an oc, dc, or rt, and spit at the marine. If they come closer yet, then begin heal spamming. Healspray does damage to marines, though not as much as spit, and I find it comes in more handy to use against marines than spit, especially in a fight like this, simply because it is easier to aim than spit is. Do not expect to be able to kill any marine that comes at you, you aren't built as a fighter, after all.
<b>Gorge Gangs</b>
Probably one of the most powerful groups in early game of NS is a gorge gang. This consists of three or more gorges grouping up, and following each other around. When approached by an enemy, do not spit at them, rather, every gorge begins heal spraying. The heal spray will keep all gorges around you alive while it damages the marine. This is a <i>very</i> effective tactic when properly done. Probably the best upgrades for gorge gangs are carapace and adrenaline, as carapace allows you to take more damage (You're being healed anyway, remember), and adrenaline lets you healspray more frequently.
<b>Myths</b>
This section will clear up some of the false information you may hear about gorges.
<i>Gorges have babblers!</i>
Wrong. They had babblers in 1.X, and they were taken out with the release of 2.0. Babblers were weak, ai controlled skulks that, frankly, were a waste of a weapon slot.
<i>I can suck resources out of a resource nozzle!</i>
Wrong. This was taken out in one of the 2.0 betas, and no longer works. The only way to get resources from a resource nozzle is to build a resource tower ontop of it.
<i>I can web with two hives</i>
Wrong. In 2.0, webbing was moved to a three hive ability, and instead, at two hives you get bile bomb. Bile bomb is designed for tearing apart marine bases, and it works quite effectively at that.
<i>There should only be one gorge each game!</i>
Wrong wrong wrong. This was something left over from the flaws of 1.x. More gorges in NS 2.X mean faster growth. More gorges in NS 1.X meant slower growth. It was because in 1.X gorges counted as three people when the resources were shared. That meant that for each gorge, the rest of the alien team got resources slower.
<b>If anybody has anything they would like to add to this, feel free to post it.</b>
This version is written for NS 2.01 final.
<b>The basics</b>
The gorge is the second "level" life form. Every alien starts the round with enough resources to evolve into gorge immediately. A gorge costs ten resources to evolve into.
It has 150 health, and 50 armor, 100 armor with level three carapace.
Uncarapaced, this is enough to take 22 LMG shots, or 11 pistol shots before death.
The gorge has, like every other alien, four unique abilities. They are:
<ul>
<li> Spit - Shoots a projectile towards the target. Damage: 25
<li> Healspray - Heals friendlies, damages enemies. Damage: 16
<li> Bile bomb - Damages marine structures and mines. Does not damage players. Radius damage. Damage: 200 at center.
<li> Web - Creates a web between two points, causes any marine who passes into the web to be "ensnared" for a few seconds. He cannot shoot or move quickly while ensnared.
</ul>
The gorge has the unique ability of building structures. While his structure list isn't as extensive as the marines, every possible need can be covered by his chambers.
He can build:
<ul>
<li> Offense chambers - Shoots at enemies in range. Damage: 20 per shot. Cost: 10 resources.
<li> Defense chambers - Heals friendlies units within range. Rate: 10 health per tick. Cost: 10 resources.
<li> Movement chamber - Allows for teleporting between hives, and gives an adrenaline boost to friendlies in range. Cost: 10 resources.
<li> Sensory chamber - Allows for cloaking of friendlies in range. Cost: 10 resources
<li> Resource tower - Collects resources for the alien team at a regular interval. Cost: 15 resources.
<li> Hives - Required to live, evolve, build, upgrade, and unlocks alien abilities. Cost: 40 resources.
</ul>
<b>Building</b>
To build a chamber, simply bring up your radial menu (right click, by default), and go to the "Build" section, then select the form of chamber you want to build. If you have enough resources, and a chamber is capable of being built in that area, a chamber will appear. Every type of chamber will slowly build itself, or the gorge can move right next to the chamber, look at it, and hold down their "use" key. This will cause the chamber to build faster. This does not work on hives.
Resource towers and hives are required to be built in specified locations on the map. Resource towers can only be built ontop of resource nozzles, which are indicated by a circular metalic lump on the ground, with white "steam" coming from it. Hives can only be built at locations you can see on your hivesight as hive locations. They will be indicated by a transparent hive in the area. Walk near it, and select "Hive" from your build menu. If you have the resources, a hive should appear, and slowly build itself.
<i>Early Game</i>
A common early game tactic is to go gorge immediately upon the round beginning, waddle over to the closest resource node and build it. This can prove to be quite effective, as the more resource towers you have active, the faster your resources will come in to you. Meaning, you can build more things quicker when you have more resource nodes.
<i>Offense chambers</i>
Offense chambers, alone, are quite weak structures. They can be taken out with 1 clip from a grenade gun or shotgun, and two clips of an LMG. They take a few shots to kill the marine (8, with level 0 armor to be exact), and they're extremely easy to spot.
A common practice which was played out in 1.X was stacking offense chambers. This was done to deny the marines the ability to enter the area, and happened mostly at enterances or doorways. This was effective, because in 1.X, the game was for the most part over when aliens had fades, and offense chambers hardly ever hit their target anyway. However, now in 2.X, aliens can and do become onos very early into the game, and the OC aim has been greatly improved. It is often times a hinderance to your onii to stack chambers in common areas. Also, any form of chamber ontop of another chamber will, often times, block the bottom OC from firing.
One of the more effective layouts for offense chambers is a "reverse wall of lame". This means, that the OCs are lined up at the wall behind the door they are guarding. When a marine enters the area, every offense chamber will fire at once. This also makes it harder to kill the chambers with grenade launchers. Place defense chambers around the offense chambers, and you've got yourself a very nasty trap for marines.
Another common layout, and quite cheaper, is to lay the offense chambers in a triangular pattern, so that no chamber has a blind spot. When a marine can see one chamber, two or more chambers can see him. This makes it difficult for marines, especially early game marines, to kill your ocs. Place a defense chamber around the offense chambers if you're not going to be around; odds are those ocs are going to need healing.
Sensory chambers will help strengthen this offense chamber "nest", because the OCs will become cloaked when a sensory is nearby. Defense chambers will also be cloaked, and remain cloaked until either the sensory is killed, or the defense chamber is attacked.
Note: A common misconception is that movement chambers will speed up the rate of fire of offense chambers. This is untrue. The OC affecting area affect of a movement chamber was pulled out of 2.0 before the release, along with the hive effect.
<i>Upgrade Chambers</i>
All forms of upgrade chambers will give your team mates the ability to evolve with new traits that will help them in combat, or help them live longer. Defense chambers help your aliens live longer, movement chambers help your aliens move faster, quieter, or more effectively, and sensory chambers will help you hide from the enemy and locate the enemy. Take into account which form of upgrade would be the most useful for your team as a whole before placing a chamber. Do not place a chamber simply because <i>you</i> want that form of upgrade.
<b>Combat</b>
The combat role as a gorge, for the most part, is a supportive position. Your primary job is to make sure your team has constant healing, and, if you have three hives, that the enemy is being webbed properly. Although the gorge can hold his ground against a vanilla marine, that takes some practice to perfect.
When a gorge is in a group of friendlies who are attacking an undefended outpost, use bile bomb first, unless your team is taking heavy damage from the outpost. Bile bombing the outpost could prove to be more effective than simply healing a skulk because he is being shot at by one sentry turret.
When a gorge is in a group of friendlies who are attacking a defended outpost, your primary job is to heal. Follow your attackers (onos, fades and skulks) in and keep them alive, but do not get in their way. Stay a far enough distance back to stay out of their way, but close enough so that your healspray is healing as many as possible.
When a gorge is alone, and approached by a light armor marine, firstly try to run. If running is not possible, you need to defend yourself. Try hiding behind an object, such as an oc, dc, or rt, and spit at the marine. If they come closer yet, then begin heal spamming. Healspray does damage to marines, though not as much as spit, and I find it comes in more handy to use against marines than spit, especially in a fight like this, simply because it is easier to aim than spit is. Do not expect to be able to kill any marine that comes at you, you aren't built as a fighter, after all.
<b>Gorge Gangs</b>
Probably one of the most powerful groups in early game of NS is a gorge gang. This consists of three or more gorges grouping up, and following each other around. When approached by an enemy, do not spit at them, rather, every gorge begins heal spraying. The heal spray will keep all gorges around you alive while it damages the marine. This is a <i>very</i> effective tactic when properly done. Probably the best upgrades for gorge gangs are carapace and adrenaline, as carapace allows you to take more damage (You're being healed anyway, remember), and adrenaline lets you healspray more frequently.
<b>Myths</b>
This section will clear up some of the false information you may hear about gorges.
<i>Gorges have babblers!</i>
Wrong. They had babblers in 1.X, and they were taken out with the release of 2.0. Babblers were weak, ai controlled skulks that, frankly, were a waste of a weapon slot.
<i>I can suck resources out of a resource nozzle!</i>
Wrong. This was taken out in one of the 2.0 betas, and no longer works. The only way to get resources from a resource nozzle is to build a resource tower ontop of it.
<i>I can web with two hives</i>
Wrong. In 2.0, webbing was moved to a three hive ability, and instead, at two hives you get bile bomb. Bile bomb is designed for tearing apart marine bases, and it works quite effectively at that.
<i>There should only be one gorge each game!</i>
Wrong wrong wrong. This was something left over from the flaws of 1.x. More gorges in NS 2.X mean faster growth. More gorges in NS 1.X meant slower growth. It was because in 1.X gorges counted as three people when the resources were shared. That meant that for each gorge, the rest of the alien team got resources slower.
<b>If anybody has anything they would like to add to this, feel free to post it.</b>
Comments
I've been reading the changelogs for 2.1, and aside from the web limit change, I've not seen any drastic gorge changes. Although, I'd never have expected cat packs or lerk bite to be added with 2.1, so something may be changing for gorges ^^
"if you have three webs" Do you mean hives? <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
One thing i have to add at the beginning of game nothing is more funnier than gorg rush:
All go to gorg and make mc then u forward to marin base if u have even 4 gorges marines dont stand a chance!
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--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--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.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--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.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--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.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-->
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo-->
One thing i have to add at the beginning of game nothing is more funnier than gorg rush:
All go to gorg and make mc then u forward to marin base if u have even 4 gorges marines dont stand a chance!
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--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--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.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--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.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--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.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-->
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Unless they drop mines and shotguns, then they will slaughter you.
First, the placement of chambers is DEFINITELY a thing to be seriously considered. With upgrade chambers, they should generally be placed a small distance away from the hives and chambers you want to be affected, though they should be grouped or stacked together with other upgrade chambers. It's also pretty wise to have backup clusters of similar chambers nearby, in case the marines find and oblitherate them.
Another thing to keep in mind is to keep upgrade chambers out of walkways whenever possible! If you're going to build them in a hallway, try to build them at the edges of it or on some structure that's somewhat out of the way. In rooms, you should try to follow the same strategy. Even if the room is really big, (like in ns_bast where one of the hive locations is freaking huge) you should worry about marines stumbling into your structures and getting trigger-happy on them.
Unlike upgrade chambers, offense chambers can be placed almost anywhere, as long as they can hit their targets. As with upgrade chambers, offense chambers should be placed where they can be the most effective. Try to set up traps with them, where there would be very little escape for marines without jetpacks or heavy armor. I'll let you guys figure out the best ways to trap the marines. It's always best to be clever when you want to play mostly as a gorge, so if you're more for fighting, it's best to go play as some other creature.
Rizor raised a good point about dropping additional "backup" chambers. Redundancy is very useful especially if your hives are under threat of destruction. Dropping backup clusters of the primary or secondary chambers means that if one hive goes down and your team succeeds in getting another up, you'll be able to drop the third kind of chamber. Get what I mean? It's possible this way to get DCs, MCs AND SCs with only two hives, if one of them has been "sacrificed".
To add a few more points on upgrade chamber placement:
DCs - it's a good idea to cluster them, usually beneath hives or behind/beside OC walls. DCs can heal each other, so if they take damage they'll regenerate each other. That's how you get Walls of Lame (WOLs), the bane of v1.02 marines (when healing was not capped at 3 chambers max). <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> I like putting DCs up under the first hive because they're safest that way and can heal the hive if marines do an early rush.
MCs - try spacing them apart at hives and somewhere near the centre of the spawn area. This way team mates who respawn can easily locate and use the MC to get to other hives. Drop MCs near forward WOL/DC positions to help in the main fade/onos/lerk assault, since they regenerate energy. If your team succeeds in taking the central double resource area, drop an MC there too so that they can quickly teleport to any peripheral hives under attack.
SCs - placement is most critical for SCs, compared to the other chambers. The great thing about SCs is that it becomes invisible when built, so it's possible to keep them around if you drop them in places marines wouldn't normally walk to or shoot at. Don't drop them in the centre of corridors or rooms, or in obvious corners - place them in little nooks and crannies or odd places along a corridor you wouldn't normally go as a marine. They have a significant (but limited) cloaking range, so make sure you don't drop them too far from what you want them to cloak. Dropping them at key points of contention (at double resource nodes that are contested) will help your team in assaulting and ambushing marines, and if you have sufficient resources dropping them in regular intervals over the map will give your team entire stretches of cloaked running. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> Be careful of observatories, though - dropping an SC near them means you're effectively losing 10 res to the marines.
That's all from me about placement of upgrade chambers. sawce's strategies for OC placement are excellent. I personally prefer the good old OC-stacked-on-DC WOLs. It's possible to leave a space beside or in the middle of the WOL for oni and gorges to pass through, unless the corridor's too narrow. Stacked WOLs in narrow corridors are the only effective structural counter to early jetpackers when you don't have webs yet.
Now that 2.0 doesn't penalize the team for excessive gorges I wholeheartedly encourage new players to gorge. Going gorge, dropping res nodes, and listening to (and granting) requests for upgrade chambers from your team is a great way for new players to be very useful to the team's winning strategy, leaving more experienced players to do the wetwork. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->