Put a tf next to a rt and elec the rt instead of the tf. The tf has 1/2 the hit points as an rt and the rt elec will cover all parts of tf if you put it close enough. Also put a pg next to rt and then as many turrets as you can "afford" at the time. This really depends on how late in the game and what type of aliens are currently out there. A tf will never stop several aliens with onos from taking it out but it will give you time to phase in and the turrets should make it diffuclt for an onos to manuver to the pg. Also if several turrerts and elec hit a fade that tries to take out pg he may still kill the first person that phases through but wont survive any after that.
ALWAYS LOCK DOWN THE CLOSEST HIVE. Its easy and not worth locking down farthest hive from their hive. Getting a second hive is harder when they have to travel across the map for putting it up and defending. That means they have to pass by your locked down hive or marine start.
I just put an rt into the hive. 9/10 times the aliens will try to kill the rt before the put up the hive, and it will give you a good indication of when they're going to put it up. That way you free up resources to build a base close to their starting hive, so you can win.
If they're pushing really hard for that hive, I'd stick a base in between their current hive and the one they're going for. If they bother to avoid the base and put up the hive anyway, your marines will be much closer to the building hive than they will, and you can walk in and shoot it out.
edit: much like rapier7 I almost never lock down hives with turrets and a phase gate. It's not expedient in any case, but mostly it's just boring. Putting an rt in is like an early warning system if you get too busy to check on them yourself frequently, since skulks beeline for rts.
well for a early game "lock down" i drop the rt an armory and 3x pack of mines then recycle the rt. If the mines are placed well then it works.
as for late games, you're gonna have to spend more res if you really wanna lock it down, seeing as how they *will have higher life forms. so you probably want a elec rt, a pg, a tf, 5 turrets. that's standard and costs 120 res : / that or you can do a more elbaorate version of a early game lock down and just drop 6x pack of mines. thats 24 mines.
Your typical lockdown includes a PG, TF, 5 turrets.
75 res.
That's almost both level 3 weapons and armor.
Oh, and whoever said locking down the hive closest to you is smart is a retard. IF IT IS SO CLOSE TO MARINE START, WHY BOTHER USING 75 RES TO 'LOCK' IT DOWN?
Jeez, the <span style='color:white'>Consider this your last warning.</span>. That's like relocating to a prime spot in a map, only to electrify all the nearby resource towers because those are the ones that are closest to base.
NO CLOSEST TO ALIENS HIVE!!! NOT THE ONE ACROSS THE MAP FROM THE ALIEN HIVE PLEASE READ WHOLE POST.
example if they have ec lock down cc not maintance. If they have sewer lock down refinery. If they have mother lock down port engine. GOT IT!!! <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
P.S. I dont find it too usefull to lock down hives in 3.0. In 1.04 and 2.0 it was.
dont lockdown hives just have a tf hidden somewhere, elect the rt and place a phase and some mines near. 30+15+20 = 45 res... mayb only 1 pack of mines.. 35 res
Drop node, move on, hit alien res and pressure main hive whilst using my res to tech up. No alien nodes = no hives going up + the extra res spent on tech means any hive put up can be quickly dispatched with. If you want to two hive lockdown but not pressure the aliens in any other way then you'll lose unless your alien team are inexperienced/lack teamwork. A hive one onos makes short work of a pg and from then on fades can easily remove any tfacs and turrets and these lifeforms WILL turn up if you don't pressure their nodes.
If you just have 3 nodes (assume aliens hit other rts whilst you're busy turreting the crap out of everywhere and your marines are too busy defending two hives to recap/die if they move because or roaming aliens everywhere) and you're spending all your res on farming and electrifying them you simply cannot afford to kit out your team in heavy weapons and if the aliens have 7 rts you'll just get overpowered in the end.
Locking down the res across the map is a far more effective strategy than locking down hives, unless they have sc, then i welcome you to turret farm two hives to hell because it's funny as hell watching a focus onos try and rush your turret farm only to die after 10 seconds <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I never, ever lock down hives. I drop a phase gate, rt and move on. If it comes under attack then I get men to phase. If they take it then I cap one of their other hives since they are not paying attention to it.
I never do a lock down either. I'm more interested in the res node. If i have the res, i'll electrify it, but thats the farthest i will go for a 'lockdown'.
I only lock down near the end game to prevent an alien comeback by sneaking a hive up.
So what if you've got the hive locked down? You got a tf, a couple turrets, and, hell, i'll give you an electrified RT to bewt. All it takes is for your marines to be no where near a phase gate, and a fade, and boom, your lockdown is useless. The fade will hit the phase gate, and even if you get a marine to sit there and guard it, you've taken one marine off of the field, and in a 16 slot server, every one of your marines are needed.
So simply: Don't, unless you're planning to turret farm it halfway to hell.
The rt there will gain you res, and if they don't take it down to not alert you to a building hive, all the better. More res for you.
This is why i stress using scanner sweep. Alot. Its such an incredibly useful tool, yet so little use it. Scan an "empty" hive. Hive building? pass out the shotguns. If not, then don't worry about it.
a lockdown is simply there to keep skulks and gorges off the hive; lerk at best.
A fade or a onos will take down any lockdown easy, and boom, 30 + 10x (where x is the number of turrets you so happened to waste on it, if applicable) res is gone.
Although a lockdown seems nice, so do all the more useful things you could of spent the res on.
actually, i've found that locking down the middle hive if they happen to have a side hive is very very effective. They will NOT free the middle hive with 2 electrified buildings and 4 turrets defending it, and if they ever dare to drop the hive across the map you will easily take it down.
edit: i don't mean rush the middle hive and drop a tf. What you do is get an obs around the 2 min mark, get pg, and go to the middle hive. Drop a pg there regardless of whether they have a building hive there or not, and lock it down.
<!--QuoteBegin-BOBDOLOL+May 6 2004, 08:39 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (BOBDOLOL @ May 6 2004, 08:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> actually, i've found that locking down the middle hive if they happen to have a side hive is very very effective. They will NOT free the middle hive with 2 electrified buildings and 4 turrets defending it, and if they ever dare to drop the hive across the map you will easily take it down.
edit: i don't mean rush the middle hive and drop a tf. What you do is get an obs around the 2 min mark, get pg, and go to the middle hive. Drop a pg there regardless of whether they have a building hive there or not, and lock it down. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> thats alot of res there. While the lockthemiddlehivedown strat is a very good one, it helps that you get res first. And by the time you're ready to spend:
15(PG) + 10(TF i think, i don't put down tfs alot) + 40(4 turrets) + 60(2 elecs) =135 res.
Any old joe on the street can mass electrify + turrets, but in a game you're rarely going to have 135 res to just burn away like that.
and it only further proves the point that if you need to spend 135 res to lock down a hive so that even an onos will have some trouble taking it down, then its totally not worth it
<!--QuoteBegin-Diablo_fx+May 6 2004, 04:35 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Diablo_fx @ May 6 2004, 04:35 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> dont lockdown hives just have a tf hidden somewhere, elect the rt and place a phase and some mines near. 30+15+20 = 45 res... mayb only 1 pack of mines.. 35 res <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> uh. 35 res for elec node armory phase gate 1x pack of mines and a "hiden" tf? WTH are you talking about?
Look, that's what you want ideally. It'll basically prevent anything from getting in. But 1 electrified building and mines would work just as well. Also, of course you're not gonna drop all those things at once. Basically what you want to do is keep the aliens out of the middle hive and force them to drop the far hive, take that down and you've pretty much won the game. Proceed to cap every rt on the map since 1 hive aliens shouldn't be too hard to deal with.
you don't have to lockdown a hive in order to deny access to a hive. It is much more cost effective to pressure the main hive and scan the neighboring ones once and a while. If you lockdown a hive, chances are you aren't teching as fast as you could, so not only will they get fades to break the lock, you will be so far behind in tech you won't be able to fight them off.
DC_DarklingJoin Date: 2003-07-10Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
best still is to put a small, siege only outpost in range of a hive. Siege outposts can be small so find a great place to hide it. you need no room for anything, rines shoudl neevr get there. Maybe one to weld, but if thats the case, its usually become useless anywayz.
Now you got a siege in place simply place a obs in range of the hive, preferably in a shadowed corner where its hard to see.
Keep a eye out, kharaa will swarm to find that hidden siege, use this toy our advantage to get your man to another key location. Since the siege is already up, you need noone there. Just make sure you get key locations before that hiev falls into kharaa claws.
Also watch your obs, it may be taken down first, forcing you to ping.
An electrified rt with a phase right next to it does as well as anything. No automated defense will scare off anything bigger than a skulk, so it's not usually worth the res to build much. Marines are the only thing that will scare off an onos, and to get there they need the phase.
If there's ever a blind spot in your defense, use mines to patch it. Sometimes it's better to place the mines yourself than let somebody spam them all over the floor, and miss the only important spot.
I dun see the point of setting <!--emo&::sentry::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/turret.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='turret.gif' /><!--endemo--> in the hive when a pack of <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif' /><!--endemo--> with regeneration or carpace can destroy a TF(even when is elect) in a mather of seconds. I usually put some mines, a phase and I elect the resource tower.
Best way to lock a hive is toss some mines about near the vents, and wander off. Dump a tfac somewhere OUTSIDE the hive but nearby, and just pop some sieges down if the aliens get near the hive.
If you're smart you'll have chosen a good chokepoint, easily defended, and your Sieges will make short work of any structure they manage to set up. I don't agree with locking down hives from the inside - hives are too easy to get in and out of, so it pays to be near a hive, somewhere in siege range but really easy to put a minibase in.
That way you cover the res, the hive, and you're in a strong offensive/defensive position. IMHO anything more substantial than mines *in* the hive room will only end up a massive point sink - I say let the aliens take the hive, let them try to build, then GL spam and siege them to hell.
<!--QuoteBegin-Buggy+May 7 2004, 02:47 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Buggy @ May 7 2004, 02:47 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> erm, a pg.....and ..... ah......a.....res tower....and....well um.....thats it
sometimes some mines as well though.
if i feel the game is gonna go on for a while, i'll just stick down 2 turrets or so, just to be sure. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> I will remind it to you next time you build 100 turrets in cargo :-)
A pg with mines does pretty good, though if its attacked you're rines will have a hard time to secure it...either a long walk, or taking the risk and phasing right into the spot.
The point of putting anything but turrets in the hive to lock it down is not to prevent them from getting into the hive and setting it up. You're right, a couple packs of mines won't stop anything bigger than a skulk. They're there to keep the skulks off, but also give you some kind of early warning to tell your marines to phase through, and give you that small defensive punch you need to clear out any danger.
An onos and lerk will take out <i>any</i> turret outpost extremely easy. The only case where this is not true is when you really turret farm it. Ie 10 Tfs + elec + as many turrets that'll fit the room. But if you're going to spend that much res turreting up an outpost, its res better spent on equipment suitups. Your turrets are not marines. Your turrets cannot replace marines. Turrets don't chase down the onos. Your turrets can't upgrade to HMG turrets ( <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ). Your turrets is that little static shock you get from touching something conductive after building up a charge: annoying, but not really stopping you from doing what you intend to do.
In short: 'lock down' the hives with the intention of scaring away no more than a skulk: about 2 - 3 turrets.
You need only 2 - 3 turrets to fend off a skulk, but you need 30+ to kill just about everything else.
it all depends on the hive and map. if the hive in question is far away from the other 1 or 2, then i wont bother with anything. if its close, ill maybe put mines or elect the rt with a pg. if they have good res flow. a tf + turrets + pg just so it is harder for fades to get the pg down
Comments
ALWAYS LOCK DOWN THE CLOSEST HIVE. Its easy and not worth locking down farthest hive from their hive. Getting a second hive is harder when they have to travel across the map for putting it up and defending. That means they have to pass by your locked down hive or marine start.
If they're pushing really hard for that hive, I'd stick a base in between their current hive and the one they're going for. If they bother to avoid the base and put up the hive anyway, your marines will be much closer to the building hive than they will, and you can walk in and shoot it out.
edit: much like rapier7 I almost never lock down hives with turrets and a phase gate. It's not expedient in any case, but mostly it's just boring. Putting an rt in is like an early warning system if you get too busy to check on them yourself frequently, since skulks beeline for rts.
as for late games, you're gonna have to spend more res if you really wanna lock it down, seeing as how they *will have higher life forms. so you probably want a elec rt, a pg, a tf, 5 turrets. that's standard and costs 120 res : / that or you can do a more elbaorate version of a early game lock down and just drop 6x pack of mines. thats 24 mines.
Your typical lockdown includes a PG, TF, 5 turrets.
75 res.
That's almost both level 3 weapons and armor.
Oh, and whoever said locking down the hive closest to you is smart is a retard. IF IT IS SO CLOSE TO MARINE START, WHY BOTHER USING 75 RES TO 'LOCK' IT DOWN?
Jeez, the <span style='color:white'>Consider this your last warning.</span>. That's like relocating to a prime spot in a map, only to electrify all the nearby resource towers because those are the ones that are closest to base.
example if they have ec lock down cc not maintance. If they have sewer lock down refinery. If they have mother lock down port engine. GOT IT!!! <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
P.S. I dont find it too usefull to lock down hives in 3.0. In 1.04 and 2.0 it was.
If you just have 3 nodes (assume aliens hit other rts whilst you're busy turreting the crap out of everywhere and your marines are too busy defending two hives to recap/die if they move because or roaming aliens everywhere) and you're spending all your res on farming and electrifying them you simply cannot afford to kit out your team in heavy weapons and if the aliens have 7 rts you'll just get overpowered in the end.
Locking down the res across the map is a far more effective strategy than locking down hives, unless they have sc, then i welcome you to turret farm two hives to hell because it's funny as hell watching a focus onos try and rush your turret farm only to die after 10 seconds <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I only lock down near the end game to prevent an alien comeback by sneaking a hive up.
So what if you've got the hive locked down? You got a tf, a couple turrets, and, hell, i'll give you an electrified RT to bewt. All it takes is for your marines to be no where near a phase gate, and a fade, and boom, your lockdown is useless. The fade will hit the phase gate, and even if you get a marine to sit there and guard it, you've taken one marine off of the field, and in a 16 slot server, every one of your marines are needed.
So simply: Don't, unless you're planning to turret farm it halfway to hell.
The rt there will gain you res, and if they don't take it down to not alert you to a building hive, all the better. More res for you.
This is why i stress using scanner sweep. Alot. Its such an incredibly useful tool, yet so little use it. Scan an "empty" hive. Hive building? pass out the shotguns. If not, then don't worry about it.
a lockdown is simply there to keep skulks and gorges off the hive; lerk at best.
A fade or a onos will take down any lockdown easy, and boom, 30 + 10x (where x is the number of turrets you so happened to waste on it, if applicable) res is gone.
Although a lockdown seems nice, so do all the more useful things you could of spent the res on.
edit: i don't mean rush the middle hive and drop a tf. What you do is get an obs around the 2 min mark, get pg, and go to the middle hive. Drop a pg there regardless of whether they have a building hive there or not, and lock it down.
sometimes some mines as well though.
if i feel the game is gonna go on for a while, i'll just stick down 2 turrets or so, just to be sure.
edit: i don't mean rush the middle hive and drop a tf. What you do is get an obs around the 2 min mark, get pg, and go to the middle hive. Drop a pg there regardless of whether they have a building hive there or not, and lock it down. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
thats alot of res there. While the lockthemiddlehivedown strat is a very good one, it helps that you get res first. And by the time you're ready to spend:
15(PG) + 10(TF i think, i don't put down tfs alot) + 40(4 turrets) + 60(2 elecs)
=135 res.
Any old joe on the street can mass electrify + turrets, but in a game you're rarely going to have 135 res to just burn away like that.
and it only further proves the point that if you need to spend 135 res to lock down a hive so that even an onos will have some trouble taking it down, then its totally not worth it
uh. 35 res for elec node armory phase gate 1x pack of mines and a "hiden" tf?
WTH are you talking about?
Pressure the hive and go offensive on their rts
Now you got a siege in place simply place a obs in range of the hive, preferably in a shadowed corner where its hard to see.
the sec anything goes up.. boom. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Keep a eye out, kharaa will swarm to find that hidden siege, use this toy our advantage to get your man to another key location. Since the siege is already up, you need noone there. Just make sure you get key locations before that hiev falls into kharaa claws.
Also watch your obs, it may be taken down first, forcing you to ping.
If there's ever a blind spot in your defense, use mines to patch it. Sometimes it's better to place the mines yourself than let somebody spam them all over the floor, and miss the only important spot.
I usually put some mines, a phase and I elect the resource tower.
If you're smart you'll have chosen a good chokepoint, easily defended, and your Sieges will make short work of any structure they manage to set up. I don't agree with locking down hives from the inside - hives are too easy to get in and out of, so it pays to be near a hive, somewhere in siege range but really easy to put a minibase in.
That way you cover the res, the hive, and you're in a strong offensive/defensive position. IMHO anything more substantial than mines *in* the hive room will only end up a massive point sink - I say let the aliens take the hive, let them try to build, then GL spam and siege them to hell.
exeption is bio. this is the onyl hive I also make exeptions about farming. Farm in bio and they never get it back
Better if you simply prevent any enemies from taking the hive back.
To do this, set your defenses forward so they can't even get close.
Problem solved.</span>
Better if you simply prevent any enemies from taking the hive back.
To do this, set your defenses forward so they can't even get close.
Problem solved.</span> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
p.e.: Cargo==>Room with things??
sometimes some mines as well though.
if i feel the game is gonna go on for a while, i'll just stick down 2 turrets or so, just to be sure. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I will remind it to you next time you build 100 turrets in cargo :-)
An onos and lerk will take out <i>any</i> turret outpost extremely easy. The only case where this is not true is when you really turret farm it. Ie 10 Tfs + elec + as many turrets that'll fit the room. But if you're going to spend that much res turreting up an outpost, its res better spent on equipment suitups. Your turrets are not marines. Your turrets cannot replace marines. Turrets don't chase down the onos. Your turrets can't upgrade to HMG turrets ( <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ). Your turrets is that little static shock you get from touching something conductive after building up a charge: annoying, but not really stopping you from doing what you intend to do.
In short: 'lock down' the hives with the intention of scaring away no more than a skulk: about 2 - 3 turrets.
You need only 2 - 3 turrets to fend off a skulk, but you need 30+ to kill just about everything else.