Electrify On Rt's
Eidal
Join Date: 2002-11-18 Member: 9229Members
Join Date: 2002-11-18 Member: 9229Members
I comm quite frequently on pub servers (Team Fun's, [FAT]s, NS 2.1 Lerklift, Scotts House). I'm not sure at the general skill level of these pubs, but I'd assume them to be average.
My strategy for every map aside from bast/hera (in which case I relocate first) is to build only a TF and IP at base, have two guys guard while the rest of the people run out dashing from place to place and dropping RT's while I slap electricity on them. Not only is the armory not required until I'm ready to upgrade it, but on pub servers, it activly <i>weakens</i> my team. With no armory, people do things that I want them to do instead of humping the armory and dying -- and if they live long enough to need another clip or two, they probably deserve it anyway.
Sometimes people yell at me and say Electricity is a waste of res, but this confuses me. In a pub, quite often the teams will be 8v8 or 10v10. I've even played 14v14. Given the current resource model, it seems to me that with player counts above 16, its prudent for the commander to electrify RT's capped early game because he knows the RT will be guaranteed to survive minutes longer than normal, and those guaranteed minutes are quite the flood of resources.
Generally with this play style, I can have lvl3/lvl3 upgrades and adv armory/proto lab at the 10 minute mark in game (using two arms lab for upgrades). This is assuming I have marines willing to stay in groups of three to six that have average aim.
Remember: having a large influx of resources gives me the power to med-spam as required, and its quite frustrating to alien fades as they their usual kill-one-marine-then-flee tactic, because not only will we have lvl 2 upgrades sooner than a less aggressive style of gameplay, but I am an attentive commander who can keep marines alive with meds in the heat of battle.
Also, from an alien perspective, electricity on RT's is quite frustrating because I know that every one of them that I cannot kill earlygame is another minute closer to high marine tech.
My strategy for every map aside from bast/hera (in which case I relocate first) is to build only a TF and IP at base, have two guys guard while the rest of the people run out dashing from place to place and dropping RT's while I slap electricity on them. Not only is the armory not required until I'm ready to upgrade it, but on pub servers, it activly <i>weakens</i> my team. With no armory, people do things that I want them to do instead of humping the armory and dying -- and if they live long enough to need another clip or two, they probably deserve it anyway.
Sometimes people yell at me and say Electricity is a waste of res, but this confuses me. In a pub, quite often the teams will be 8v8 or 10v10. I've even played 14v14. Given the current resource model, it seems to me that with player counts above 16, its prudent for the commander to electrify RT's capped early game because he knows the RT will be guaranteed to survive minutes longer than normal, and those guaranteed minutes are quite the flood of resources.
Generally with this play style, I can have lvl3/lvl3 upgrades and adv armory/proto lab at the 10 minute mark in game (using two arms lab for upgrades). This is assuming I have marines willing to stay in groups of three to six that have average aim.
Remember: having a large influx of resources gives me the power to med-spam as required, and its quite frustrating to alien fades as they their usual kill-one-marine-then-flee tactic, because not only will we have lvl 2 upgrades sooner than a less aggressive style of gameplay, but I am an attentive commander who can keep marines alive with meds in the heat of battle.
Also, from an alien perspective, electricity on RT's is quite frustrating because I know that every one of them that I cannot kill earlygame is another minute closer to high marine tech.
Comments
I really think dropping an armory at the beginning is essential. Instead of having to speed 20+ res on ammo packs, you can just drop it, and let your marines decide how much ammo they need. Also, it helps reduce the amount of things you have to do. I'd rather only have to deal with med requests than med and ammo requests. I really can't see any arguement about not placing the armory early. Your arguement of players getting too much ammo/wasting time is moot, if you are playing on a decent server (there are very few good pub servers).
The main point is any game with 8v8 or greater is in the marines favor, so pretty much whatever you do, marines will win in those 10+v10+ games.
1. The Marine *thinks* he/she knows better and ignores my orders and runs around doing what they want
2. they are general pub fodder who does what they want any way and seems like they havent got a clue whats going on
3. the marine is doing what i asks and at least i can get some stuff done
now number 3 id like more of but they are in the minority at the moment. i hate elecing res nodes i think its so unneccessary in 90% of cases and can find a better use of the res to advance quicker the only time i want to elec is if im going to build a PG at the node, or the node is in a forward position.
happend to me last night i was commanding on ns_origin i asked 3 *** to stay at Comp/xeno/Bio Res nodes and just patrol the nodes they agreed and i dropped them an armory close to xeno so wouldndt have to bother dropping them ammo. cut to less than 30 seconds i had only one marine in that area and the other 2 in that squad were off dying in cargo. and surprises of surprises i lost 2 of the nodes in the area
spending 90 res elecing 3 nodes is just plain rediculous when i can have marines guard them effectivly. these nodes werent close to the aliens starting hive and wasnt the main area of combat and so there was only the odd 1 or 2 skulks turning up in that area. that 90 res allowed my to Upgrade earlier and advance quicker so i could deal with earlier fades easier.
im all for armories in fact i dont hesitate dropping an armory in a combat area as long as i feel my marines can hold it, it works out cheaper than 8 packs of ammo.
Paying 30 res to secure a RT is far superior from my perspective than to trust the RT to some random pub player who may not stay at the RT or may not be able to kill the skulks that come.
but id drather lose the nodes in a pub game than spend stupid amounts of res trying to save Rts that will get munched anyway.
keeping on top of the alien nodes and pressuring the hive <u>should</u> make my nodes last longer. in games when i have compitent marines that i can rely on to do this (and who know how to do it right), basically just means marines are almost guarenteed to win anyway.
Most of those players wont be willing to spend most of their time guarding those rts, so its better to protect them somehow by electrifying them.
Also, the aliens will have 10+ players, which will dramatically decrease the res flow for the single alien player, which increases the time until the first fade will appear to take down the res towers. Until then, the res towers will most likely have brought in the cost of the electrifation, plus more that you can use for other stuff.
A single fade needs some time to take down res towers, and if you see the first fade attacking your rts, just give out shotguns and let the marines hunt those fades. Chase them, give your men ammo and health, and with a certain level of skill you will kill the fade or at least keep him from killing your resource towers.
I do this all the time on a server with 24 players, and it works perfectly. If you think your men are good enough or you dont want to spend the res on shotguns, you can just send them over to scare the fade off with their sheer masses.
1: ip/tf/armory so i can electrify res, or
2: ip/al/armory so my team will have earlier upgrades
lets imagine what both strats will do on a team with low skill
1: marines will have trouble even building nodes, let alone guard them for a while cos they lack skill/loyalty. elecing res SHOULD be the way in this case. however, what are you gonna do when those fades come along and own your already lacking marines because they hardly have any upgrades? oh and yes the fades will take down those 45 res towers while they're at it, cos your low-leveled marines cant keep them away from the rt's.
2: your marines will get early armor1 and might have less trouble building rt's. however, since they're not that loyal/skilled your nodes will fall when the annoying type of skulk just bites on other end of a tower, whom will panic and waste his ammo when the skulk goes in for easy kill. so you WILL lose those res towers earlier, and may not even have the res to upgrade quickly. and even with lvl1 armor lvl2 weapon, what you gonna do with 1 or 2 res towers
my point being erm.....erm..... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
when your rines suck, ul anyways ?
when your marines do have decent skill, you should always go for early armslab
though a mix of tf/al strats will work as well when you got like 6 res towers. (elec all first then 2 arms lab)