Just yesterday I was in a game on Veil. We didn't have the best alien team but we some how managed to own every thing but pipe and control. We managed to some how take out pipe but soon after lost all our high cost life forms. At this point we just had a team of lerks, gorges and skulks.
Well the comm dropped the sub hive and marines made a hard push and killed it quickly. After that the comm refused to drop another one and instead just kept spending his res on hallucinations. I didn't like the idea at first but it worked. They made a few more pushes into pipe but we held them off. He kept flooding them with skulk and onos hallucinations that it kept the marines busy at base while aliens pulled their head out of their ass. It also bought time for the higher life forms to appear again.
That has been the only time I've seen it work in a tactical situation and It worked great.
Put in multiple hallucinations with a push to drag fire off of actual life forms. Make a beacon. Fake a hive.
It costs too much right now, though. Needs to be able to actually do fake damage so that it's more convincing, have more health, or have next to no cost.
Hallucinations can't do nothing but move. Not even wallrunning or jumping. Hive illusion - 15 res. Meh, way to expansive. Can be killed with just 1 clip and disappears after some times. Skulk goes down in just 1 shot. All this stuff is way to expansive and weak to be any use. If onos was like 2 res and skulks were 1 res for 2 or 3, and fake hive for 5 and whips for 1, I'd might consider it. Longer lifetime and some more health would be great as well. And why no fake upgrades? That is something that might actually help.
At current state, hallucinations are just a waste of res.
I once saw an alien comm send in a few hallucinated Onos with a some real player Onos against a marine turtle. The players ran straight to the powernode and focused it down while the hallucinations were made to run around the marine base randomly until they died.
It kept the heat off the real Onos long enough for the power to go down.
<!--quoteo(post=2045896:date=Dec 14 2012, 10:49 PM:name=xen32)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xen32 @ Dec 14 2012, 10:49 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2045896"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Oh gosh, hallucinations are even countered by scan! Built a fake base with fake oni for tons of res. One scan - everything is gone... srsly<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Unless you fire off Ink to protect them
<!--quoteo(post=2045896:date=Dec 15 2012, 12:49 AM:name=xen32)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (xen32 @ Dec 15 2012, 12:49 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2045896"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Oh gosh, hallucinations are even countered by scan! Built a fake base with fake oni for tons of res. One scan - everything is gone... srsly<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This!
1 Scan can destroy tons of Res, and makes em usless.
Hallucinated units will never be useful until the attack command ACTUALLY works. Its kinda obvious which aliens are real and which ones are not when you have guys just standing in a marine base while everyone else is attacking stuff.
<!--quoteo(post=2039556:date=Dec 4 2012, 12:07 PM:name=Rokiyo)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Rokiyo @ Dec 4 2012, 12:07 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2039556"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I once saw an alien comm send in a few hallucinated Onos with a some real player Onos against a marine turtle. The players ran straight to the powernode and focused it down while the hallucinations were made to run around the marine base randomly until they died.
It kept the heat off the real Onos long enough for the power to go down.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Pretty much along these lines. Best use of hallu involves team work, mixing in real skulks with hallu skulks etc. when making quick pushes to deny early phasegates and the like. Basically just an expensive version of camo.
<!--quoteo(post=2045921:date=Dec 14 2012, 04:34 PM:name=Dwavenhobble)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dwavenhobble @ Dec 14 2012, 04:34 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2045921"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Unless you fire off Ink to protect them<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> The second they are scanned they are gone. You can't really counter it, unless you sit and spam ink and do nothing more.
the problem to me seems to be that hallucinations are too expensive for the timeframe in which they are at their peak in terms of usefulness.
They can be very useful midgame when marines are trying to push their first hive. If you can force a beacon to one of the marine bases it gives your team the time they need to hit something else; whether that be a phase gate, double RT, or base.
The problem lies in the fact that during this time, aliens are trying very hard to tech up and can be very easily res locked. The other problems like scans can be countered. I would start by reducing the cost of res to 10 for hallucinations because the window where these are really useful is before marines get heavy weapon upgrades and exos, I.E. before lategame.
Edit: Also may need some mechanics tweaks. By this, I mean perhaps creating different sized groups of hallucinations quicker than presently. There are a lot of ways you could go. Regardless, I like the ability's concept, but not the current outcome of it. I've felt that way for the entire time I was beta testing too though, lol.
They are only useful against noob marine comms. Send in a few onos and he will panic hit the beacon.
1 scan and they disappear.
Only thing that keeps them useful lategame is spamming them into marine base when you are swimming with res. It forces marine commander to likewise waste res scanning or distracts marines from the real aliens.
But yeah, like echo and whip armies, most alien commander's interesting tech is useless unless you happen to be swimming in res (and so don't really need it).
Comments
Well the comm dropped the sub hive and marines made a hard push and killed it quickly. After that the comm refused to drop another one and instead just kept spending his res on hallucinations. I didn't like the idea at first but it worked. They made a few more pushes into pipe but we held them off. He kept flooding them with skulk and onos hallucinations that it kept the marines busy at base while aliens pulled their head out of their ass. It also bought time for the higher life forms to appear again.
That has been the only time I've seen it work in a tactical situation and It worked great.
I'm not sure, is a hallucinated skulk able to attack an RT to trigger an alarm? That seems like the main use for it to me.
Make a beacon.
Fake a hive.
It costs too much right now, though. Needs to be able to actually do fake damage so that it's more convincing, have more health, or have next to no cost.
Hive illusion - 15 res. Meh, way to expansive. Can be killed with just 1 clip and disappears after some times. Skulk goes down in just 1 shot.
All this stuff is way to expansive and weak to be any use. If onos was like 2 res and skulks were 1 res for 2 or 3, and fake hive for 5 and whips for 1, I'd might consider it. Longer lifetime and some more health would be great as well.
And why no fake upgrades? That is something that might actually help.
At current state, hallucinations are just a waste of res.
Would be more effective if hallucinations could fake attack.
It kept the heat off the real Onos long enough for the power to go down.
Built a fake base with fake oni for tons of res. One scan - everything is gone... srsly
Built a fake base with fake oni for tons of res. One scan - everything is gone... srsly<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Unless you fire off Ink to protect them
Built a fake base with fake oni for tons of res. One scan - everything is gone... srsly<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This!
1 Scan can destroy tons of Res, and makes em usless.
It kept the heat off the real Onos long enough for the power to go down.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pretty much along these lines. Best use of hallu involves team work, mixing in real skulks with hallu skulks etc. when making quick pushes to deny early phasegates and the like. Basically just an expensive version of camo.
The second they are scanned they are gone. You can't really counter it, unless you sit and spam ink and do nothing more.
They can be very useful midgame when marines are trying to push their first hive. If you can force a beacon to one of the marine bases it gives your team the time they need to hit something else; whether that be a phase gate, double RT, or base.
The problem lies in the fact that during this time, aliens are trying very hard to tech up and can be very easily res locked. The other problems like scans can be countered. I would start by reducing the cost of res to 10 for hallucinations because the window where these are really useful is before marines get heavy weapon upgrades and exos, I.E. before lategame.
Edit: Also may need some mechanics tweaks. By this, I mean perhaps creating different sized groups of hallucinations quicker than presently. There are a lot of ways you could go. Regardless, I like the ability's concept, but not the current outcome of it. I've felt that way for the entire time I was beta testing too though, lol.
1 scan and they disappear.
Only thing that keeps them useful lategame is spamming them into marine base when you are swimming with res. It forces marine commander to likewise waste res scanning or distracts marines from the real aliens.
But yeah, like echo and whip armies, most alien commander's interesting tech is useless unless you happen to be swimming in res (and so don't really need it).
Also wtf hallucination rts. worst things ever.