Farms

InexorableInexorable Join Date: 2002-09-28 Member: 1360Members
<div class="IPBDescription">A vision of the future</div> I'm contemplating some of the bugfixes that Flayra has said will be in 1.03. (at least, I think he did. I haven't been eating much recently, so it's hard to tell reality from a fevered dream.)

Most important are the Siege Cannon bugs (both the damage and the fact it's unrecycleable), and the Bile Bomb/Xenocide damage bugs. As it is, turrets alone (for either side) are essentially useless past early game. At the 2 hive mark, the only reason to build static defenses is for the few seconds it will delay enemy troops so that you can reinforce and engage.

On the Marine side: A group of organized, determined marines can take down smaller walls rather easily. Moreover, it doesn't take too long to set up siege. For 80 resources you can plop down an Adv. Turret Factory and 2 Siege Cannons. Assuming a group of 4 marines, this can be finished in about a minute. If you build less that 80 RP worth of defences, it's rather quickly taken down even by LMGs; if you build more, I can take it down with a lesser expenditure of resources with siege. And if it does come down to siege, the mini-base is semi-mobile as it can be recycled and rebuilt elsewhere.

It's even worse for the Kharaa: With an investment of ~80 RP (notice a trend here?) I can get a Lerk and a Fade with upgrades. Truth be told, I don't even really need the Fade, just the Lerk's Umbra. With these two it's child's play to take down Turret Factories. Combine a little bit of healing, and you can take down several outposts in mere minutes. You're only real concern here is that there might be a Phase Gate nearby. This is the purpose of the Fade. I don't care what equipment you've got; if you teleport into an Umbra cloud beside an angry Fade, you're dead. And even better than the marines, this entire setup is mobile. You don't need to recycle or rebuild, you simply walk to the next location.

What's my advice for this? Not much actually.

Don't depend on turrets. Maybe you play on servers that have lots of newbies on it. Maybe even these relatively simple tactics are above them, and turrets have won you the day every game for the past week. But one day somebody who's realized these facts will get on your server and dominate. Forewarned is forearmed as they say.

Keep mobile. If you're on the marines make sure you're never too far from a Phase Gate. It doesn't take long for an outpost to go down, so be sure you can get where you need to be quickly. Make sure somebody on your squad has a Grenade Laucher. Nothing sucks more than seeing a group of Fades, but not being able to kill them because they're in an Umbra cloud. Aim for the Lerk if you can, retreat otherwise. If you're the Kharaa, make sure that somebody on your team is keeping an eye on the marines. If you know where they are, you can make sure you're close by when they start something. Most of the time you'll be able to traverse the map quicker and with more freedom than the marines, so it's not as important to stick close to your defences. Just make sure that when you hear "Structure/Hive under attack." that you come running.

Comments

  • bigjanginbigjangin Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2090Members
    When I command we usually win with only LMG's. I go straight for two hives in the beginning, and get phase gates and turrets. Fades can tear up turrets, but skulks and umbra-less lerks can't. If the aliens are stuck to one hive, they will lose.

    On the other hand, If you go from one resource nozzle to another building turrets it puts you in a bad position. All that time wasted putting up turret farms allows the aliens to get a 2nd hive up.
  • KhaimKhaim Join Date: 2002-06-28 Member: 841Members, NS1 Playtester, Constellation
    2 hives from start is my fav stratagy, but it doesnt work if you have experianced alien players against you and/or a big map.
  • InexorableInexorable Join Date: 2002-09-28 Member: 1360Members
    I'm not quite convinced that denying them the second hive is required (though if you can, by all means go for it). I just think that a major review of the strategies I'm seeing particularly on the Marine side are in order. Sure, turret up a Hive/base or double-node; it'll give you the time you need to phase gate in. But don't have a turret farm at every single resource node. It's just fodder for intelligent players.

    More people are learning that Lerks are great for long distance Turret Factory destruction when Fades are not available. Spikes (particularly with Adrenaline) can provide a relatively risk free way to take down turrets when you don't have the durability to run up and chew them to death. Every day more people figure out how vunerable turrets/OCs are.
  • Sloth1024Sloth1024 Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7788Members
    Hmm, not really sure about this, more of a question then a comment.

    Didn't they change it so only 3 defense chambers can work at the same time while randomly picking 3 targets to heal?

    Personaly, ive come up against walls like that and have taken them down with a LMG. Sure, it took everything I had to take down one chamber then had to run back and fill up on ammo again. But it works if its undefended. Also, at first sight of a Dchamber you start takin that out then the Ochambers.
  • InexorableInexorable Join Date: 2002-09-28 Member: 1360Members
    edited November 2002
    Is there a gibberish to english translator in the house? I can't understand a word you're saying. I <i>think</i> you're trying to refute a post you admit you didn't read.

    Then there's a bunch of numbers and calculations, most of which I'm sure are incorrect. I have no reason to believe DCs heal chambers any faster than players, and they heal players at a rate of 5 HP/second. Unless it's been changed without me knowing, OCs do 50 damage/shot (not sure about RoF). OCs can kill marines quickly, but can't really hit anything farther than 4 feet away, so it's a bit of a moot point. Assuming you have enough DCs to heal your chambers at 70 HP/second, that's still only enough to cancel out the effects of a single LMG. The listed damage for a Siege Cannon is 330, not 90 (again, not sure the exact RoF) and they aren't unfair.

    At then end you mention Skulks. This is good, because half my point is that players need to be the main defensive force if you want to remain competitive.

    -edit: To answer your question, taken straight from the front page.<!--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-->- Defensive chambers now only heal up to three nearby buildings or players per tick (prevents undestructible Walls of Lame). Targets are chosen randomly.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
  • greydmiyugreydmiyu Join Date: 2002-11-18 Member: 9234Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--L0G4N+Nov 22 2002, 04:18 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (L0G4N @ Nov 22 2002, 04:18 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->they get 10-15 hp from each defence chamber per second giving them about 70 hp second!<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Uhm, maybe next time before you go off on a rant as poor as this one you'll do some fact checking? Let me tell you about the first flaw. Defense chambers don't heal every second. Your homework assignment is to figure out the other errors in your statement as every sentence has one. Good day.
  • WindelkronWindelkron Join Date: 2002-04-11 Member: 419Members
    good luck GETTING to the turret factory, when they do 23 damage per hit (the lerk will not survive unless he umbras constantly, but he can't umbra when he's flying b/c too little energy)
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