MT first is really good, but my only dig is that by the time it comes online, it's already 2 minutes into the game. That's another 2-3 minutes to a fade. If your team was good enough to cap and hold rts to get upgrades within the first 2 min, they are probably good enough to win any game with a decent comm.
Whereas if upgrade-less and MT-less pubrines get raped for the 1st 2 min, then dominate for the next 2, the res you get before mr fadey would be too little to counter them.
Upgrades, on the other hand give you about 40 seconds' head start. Find it ironic really, most of the atmosphere and tense game-deciding times are within the first 6 minutes, and that's really too short to enjoy and take advantage off before World War 3 with mass fades/onos against HMG and GL totting marines.
A 15 dollar pair of headphones from wallmart gives about as good situational awareness as motion tracking.
My philosophy is: Any game you win with motion tracking means your marines are good enough that you would have won as fast or faster with arms lab upgrades. I have won many many games without motion tracking, I have won very very few games without arms lab upgrades (the occasional shotty rush thats about it).
I wouldn't call motion tracking "noob" though, it really is a strategy for experienced players who can benefit from the additional info. If you give mt to the average newbie, he just gets overconfident but it doesn't actually help him kill most of the time.
Just had a couple of games with MT first, and to my surprise, it worked rather well. The only other pre-requisite other than decent marines is decent marines with patience.
They can capture 1-2 rts without any problems, as it should be. Then, they wait until MT kicks in before moving off to take out alien res nodes. With MT, they can knife with impunity and not worry about ambush, and know how many are coming. Marines can solo-build and kill RTs, which really frees up manpower. A single marine can do this while the rest attack, a boon.
Since they die less often, map control is there, and they can even camp the hive exits. Once the RTs around the hive belong to the marines, they can camp at their leisure and let the skulks come to them. There's no need to be active anymore, since the res is with them. By the times fades come, there is enough res for upgrades and shotguns, so MT's weakness is addressed.
But if the marines have no patience whatsoever, rushing in and dying, leaving rts and the map to the kharaa, then MT is useless where it counts most - the first few minutes when marines can own anything solo. Then again, if the marines can't do anything even with MT, then you probably would have lost anyway, no matter what you tried.
All people that keep saying they can use listening instead of MT are simply wrong..
Sound if you have headphones (=a must if you use microphone too): -you cant really tell if its in front of you or behind you -you cant tell if its above or below you -you cannot hear anything outside "range" -you cannot hear slow moving aliens -you cannot hear silenced aliens -if you do noisy sounds or people around you do, its hard to hear weak sounds
With MT you have not only blue circles but also awesome map filled with red dots which allow every single marine to know current tactical situation, see lone aliens running to eat RTs expect rushes and react on them.. I know it comes just 1-3 minute before fades do, but its still worth it, it also allows you to determine exact position of fade and prepare/encircle it..
<!--QuoteBegin-moomin.+Apr 18 2004, 11:23 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (moomin. @ Apr 18 2004, 11:23 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I don't know about you but I can hear <b>exactly</b> where anything that makes a noise is, whether it be in front, behind, above or below. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> But you can't hear the 2 skulks heading to chomp on the rt in Maint hive from eclipse MS.
<!--QuoteBegin-moomin.+Apr 18 2004, 08:23 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (moomin. @ Apr 18 2004, 08:23 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I don't know about you but I can hear <b>exactly</b> where anything that makes a noise is, whether it be in front, behind, above or below. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> No sorry this is not possible with just headphones :-) You can achieve it only by moving in game (turning around, up and down) but simple headphones cannot give you up/down impression! Only "horizontal" and behind and front sound same way!
You percieve complex directions with just 2 ears only because of way outer ear bolt is specially formed and causes some sound reflection brain detecs and evelautes. But headphones are fixed sound sources and your brain can only detect direction by comparing relative strength of sounds in left and right ear.
So everything headphones allow you is to just detect sounds on horizontal level and sounds 30degree behind you is exactly same as 30degrees in front of you. You must use other information to learn position of skulk in game... (they dont even make doppler effect so just logical reasoning + mouse turning are remaining to help you locate sound source).
That's all very nice Licho but you're forgetting that when marines are listening for skulks they usually don't keep their view dead straight, they're moving it slightly to look for them too. I'd have to agree with moomin here that I can usually tell if a skulk is behind me just by listening. I totally agree with you though that headphones can only give you left/right positional audio, but even the slight movement as you're walking or aiming seems to be enough to trick the brain into thinking you can hear front/behind, and to a lesser degree, up/down. If you were sitting dead still you'd have trouble telling, but if you know the map then you can take a pretty good guess where they're coming from <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Comments
Whereas if upgrade-less and MT-less pubrines get raped for the 1st 2 min, then dominate for the next 2, the res you get before mr fadey would be too little to counter them.
Upgrades, on the other hand give you about 40 seconds' head start. Find it ironic really, most of the atmosphere and tense game-deciding times are within the first 6 minutes, and that's really too short to enjoy and take advantage off before World War 3 with mass fades/onos against HMG and GL totting marines.
My philosophy is: Any game you win with motion tracking means your marines are good enough that you would have won as fast or faster with arms lab upgrades. I have won many many games without motion tracking, I have won very very few games without arms lab upgrades (the occasional shotty rush thats about it).
I wouldn't call motion tracking "noob" though, it really is a strategy for experienced players who can benefit from the additional info. If you give mt to the average newbie, he just gets overconfident but it doesn't actually help him kill most of the time.
They can capture 1-2 rts without any problems, as it should be. Then, they wait until MT kicks in before moving off to take out alien res nodes. With MT, they can knife with impunity and not worry about ambush, and know how many are coming. Marines can solo-build and kill RTs, which really frees up manpower. A single marine can do this while the rest attack, a boon.
Since they die less often, map control is there, and they can even camp the hive exits. Once the RTs around the hive belong to the marines, they can camp at their leisure and let the skulks come to them. There's no need to be active anymore, since the res is with them. By the times fades come, there is enough res for upgrades and shotguns, so MT's weakness is addressed.
But if the marines have no patience whatsoever, rushing in and dying, leaving rts and the map to the kharaa, then MT is useless where it counts most - the first few minutes when marines can own anything solo. Then again, if the marines can't do anything even with MT, then you probably would have lost anyway, no matter what you tried.
Sound if you have headphones (=a must if you use microphone too):
-you cant really tell if its in front of you or behind you
-you cant tell if its above or below you
-you cannot hear anything outside "range"
-you cannot hear slow moving aliens
-you cannot hear silenced aliens
-if you do noisy sounds or people around you do, its hard to hear weak sounds
With MT you have not only blue circles but also awesome map filled with red dots which allow every single marine to know current tactical situation, see lone aliens running to eat RTs expect rushes and react on them..
I know it comes just 1-3 minute before fades do, but its still worth it, it also allows you to determine exact position of fade and prepare/encircle it..
But you can't hear the 2 skulks heading to chomp on the rt in Maint hive from eclipse MS.
No sorry this is not possible with just headphones :-) You can achieve it only by moving in game (turning around, up and down) but simple headphones cannot give you up/down impression! Only "horizontal" and behind and front sound same way!
You percieve complex directions with just 2 ears only because of way outer ear bolt is specially formed and causes some sound reflection brain detecs and evelautes. But headphones are fixed sound sources and your brain can only detect direction by comparing relative strength of sounds in left and right ear.
So everything headphones allow you is to just detect sounds on horizontal level and sounds 30degree behind you is exactly same as 30degrees in front of you. You must use other information to learn position of skulk in game... (they dont even make doppler effect so just logical reasoning + mouse turning are remaining to help you locate sound source).