Shade rush counter

CalegoCalego Join Date: 2013-01-24 Member: 181848Members, NS2 Map Tester
edited February 2013 in NS2 General Discussion
Alright so this was touched on a while back in another thread of mine but I wanted to ask again for a more in depth answer.

How does one counter Camo first Aliens?

Assume its something like 3 minutes in and you've only just become certain that they're camo. What now?
This is what I've gotten before in a nutshell.
There's no such thing as camo counter really, scans cost money so you're just making a trade of sorts. Skulks don't become useless when camo is removed, just normal skulks. Also scans only last 10 seconds, (cost 3res), so it's hardly the end of the world...

Marine side the best shot from my experience is to rush phase/obs into 3 tech points. If the alien team is really good, just camp your team in 1 tech point with obs till you get phase and then get the third one.

If you manage that, aliens won't have a 3rd hive, meaning they'll be lacking cele/adren which is helpful endgame.

If aliens secure 3 hives with camo start, they've basically won the game.

But I've never commed against a decent camo team. I've only ever seen late camos, and then it's simply a matter of scanning around, since your rt's are already up, and you can't bite an rt while being invisible...

Comments

  • VolcanoVolcano Join Date: 2011-07-27 Member: 112496Members, Constellation
    my suggestion would be to 3 man push their veil so any new units cant use the upgrade, and once you have taken enough rts drop obs in key parts to limit the amount of money spent on scans
  • SampsonSampson Join Date: 2012-01-06 Member: 139769Members
    edited February 2013
    shade is good for a quick hive... as long as the aliens can use silence or cloaking well.... cloak the new hive as it builds then u can get carapace... good for lerks, skulks, and onos...
  • gnoarchgnoarch Join Date: 2012-08-29 Member: 156802Members, Reinforced - Gold
    get 2 tech points, build obs there and get pg
    mine the pg
  • deathshrouddeathshroud Join Date: 2010-04-10 Member: 71291Members
    attempt to egg lock them or rush for 3 tech points and secure them if you are sitting on 3 tech points the aliens will hurt badly with missing either crag or shift hive.
  • CrushaKCrushaK Join Date: 2012-11-05 Member: 167195Members, NS2 Playtester
    Try to take a lot of RTs, so your commander has enough res for constant scans available until you've plastered the tech points in Obs. It also provides your marines with res for a lot of mines, which is a good counter to camo since it slows aliens down even more and mines don't need to see aliens to work. Plus aliens are no longer cloaked when they are going for your RTs. Ideally the commander will scan the area then to make sure there aren't more Skulks waiting to ambush you.
  • Not SureNot Sure Join Date: 2013-01-06 Member: 177758Members
    Pretend it's soccer. Move together but stay spread out, keep each other covered. It's best with 3 guys or more. Try to move around like an idiot all the time (i.e. unpredictably).
  • SopsSops Join Date: 2003-07-03 Member: 17894Members, Constellation
    Stay in groups and stay mobile, ping before building anything and put an observatory in every base. Aliens using camo will be slower to expand in general so take advantage. Camo is actually pretty easy to counter, if it wasn't you would see aliens use it more often.
  • CalegoCalego Join Date: 2013-01-24 Member: 181848Members, NS2 Map Tester
    edited February 2013
    Sops wrote: »
    Stay in groups and stay mobile, ping before building anything and put an observatory in every base. Aliens using camo will be slower to expand in general so take advantage. Camo is actually pretty easy to counter, if it wasn't you would see aliens use it more often.
    Thing is you have to have the res to ping and build. The aliens can just sneak past your marines and take down the extractors you set up, res locking you more. Since the aliens expand independant of the troops, as long as they keep marines hemmed in, they can expand quickly. But since marines have no idea where the aliens are, it's more difficult to expand.

    I guess the biggest thing is how fast you can adapt your strategy and convince your troops to completely change how they've been playing (In pub games where one guy can cap a few res nodes on his own or with one person backing him up).
  • WheeeeWheeee Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    egg lock is the easiest way. once you scout the shade just put up an extra ip and have the comm lay down some scans, run into their hive room and shoot all the eggs/aliens.
  • ResRes Join Date: 2003-08-27 Member: 20245Members
    edited February 2013
    Facing a well coordinated early shade/camo, the marine comm is forced to use early res for multiple scans to expand into locations so the marines can kill things, then putting up pg/obs in those areas afterwards OR just researching mines to cover things for awhile.

    Once marines have an area, it is much harder for camo skulks to take out a base compared to if they had celerity or carapace. It is just the initial act of securing a location that takes marines longer.
  • ZEROibisZEROibis Join Date: 2009-10-30 Member: 69176Members, Constellation
    gnoarch wrote: »
    get 2 tech points, build obs there and get pg
    mine the pg

    Correct! Obviously you will need to scan your team during this to ensure safety. Normally aliens will hold back when you scan so they can be used to buy time to fortify the area. With 2 hive locations locked down you just need to get armor so you can push out with less fear of cloak and mainly hold your ground. Late game they will either not have speed/energy or armor/regen. This will make their late game tech less effective. Once you hold off their eventual onos push (assuming normal pub logic) then they will be at a large econ loss at which point you then make a big push on the most exposed hive.

    Also keep in mind that holding good obs placement in the map will not only counter shade but give you better map awareness all game to properly counter pushes. Let the aliens be cost inefficient and attack into you until it is time to flip the board over. Patience is key to win once you have a 2 hive lock down in place.

    What you should not do is try to rush out tech other than general upgrades. Remember cost efficiency is key here.
  • ritualsacrificeritualsacrifice Join Date: 2012-11-14 Member: 171148Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I find that shades are countered pretty hard by bullets.
  • pendelum5pendelum5 Join Date: 2012-10-29 Member: 164317Members
    Armor 1, 2nd tech point with phase+obs, mines, shotguns. If possible, grab double res and put up 3rd phase+obs.
  • hakenspithakenspit Join Date: 2010-11-26 Member: 75300Members
    Its been mentioned numerous times in other threads and a couple of times in this one already,

    Simply put its no longer a res node war but a tech point war.

    Send your team in one direction to take nearest tech point, put up obs...phase, then depending on map push to a third tech point, obs and phase.
    You now have 3 res nodes and tech points (aliens will only be able to get 2 hive...so have to do without shift or crag) and your team should be turtling these points...camping near phase gates.
    Tech up with weapons upgrades, those onos will be slow or weak so you want to be able to do more damage.
    Build CC's at these three locations to allow for a beacon if you get pushed, JP's are your main marine tech (as you can fly away from a skulk that suddenly is munching on you....not so as an exo (besides the Onos are weak so the extra guns of an exo are a waste.

    Once you have these 3 secure, you can try to take down res nodes that aliens may have near your bases.
    Actually expanding yourself is not really needed but it is important to hurt the alien economy at least a little.

    Camo first does work for aliens sure....but not if the marine comm has half a clue about what to do and a team that listens.

    Personally I like shade 1st as I think these games have a slower building early game and mid game as marines have to care about tech points instead of just worrying about res nodes.
    A lot of marines have very 1 dimensional marine strats with a lynch pin of holding a lot of extractors.
    Shade means this is not possible for marines to do as they are spread too thin to cover all res towers and not be solo or pairs.

    I think this is tech tree brings something to the field that creates a slower and longer game at lower tech levels.
  • CalegoCalego Join Date: 2013-01-24 Member: 181848Members, NS2 Map Tester
    hakenspit wrote: »
    Its been mentioned numerous times in other threads and a couple of times in this one already,

    Simply put its no longer a res node war but a tech point war.

    Send your team in one direction to take nearest tech point, put up obs...phase, then depending on map push to a third tech point, obs and phase.
    You now have 3 res nodes and tech points (aliens will only be able to get 2 hive...so have to do without shift or crag) and your team should be turtling these points...camping near phase gates.
    Tech up with weapons upgrades, those onos will be slow or weak so you want to be able to do more damage.
    Build CC's at these three locations to allow for a beacon if you get pushed, JP's are your main marine tech (as you can fly away from a skulk that suddenly is munching on you....not so as an exo (besides the Onos are weak so the extra guns of an exo are a waste.

    Once you have these 3 secure, you can try to take down res nodes that aliens may have near your bases.
    Actually expanding yourself is not really needed but it is important to hurt the alien economy at least a little.

    Camo first does work for aliens sure....but not if the marine comm has half a clue about what to do and a team that listens.

    Personally I like shade 1st as I think these games have a slower building early game and mid game as marines have to care about tech points instead of just worrying about res nodes.
    A lot of marines have very 1 dimensional marine strats with a lynch pin of holding a lot of extractors.
    Shade means this is not possible for marines to do as they are spread too thin to cover all res towers and not be solo or pairs.

    I think this is tech tree brings something to the field that creates a slower and longer game at lower tech levels.
    I'll definitely have to try something to this effect next time I'm up against a shade first.
  • 11monkeys11monkeys Join Date: 2013-01-01 Member: 177001Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Don't go for RTs, skulks will sneak past your lines, attack them, and camo when marines come in. Then eat the marine when he welds.
    Secure Tech points, preferably so the aliens can't get three hives.
    Dump PG and Obs at every point, have strike squads take out alien res and tech up, as you will be stronger if you can hold.
  • AurOn2AurOn2 COOKIES! FREEDOM, AND BISCUITS! Australia Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140224Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Forum staff
    push out in groups, put mines and observatories at every pg you can. mattering on the size of the map, this will generally solve basial problems, but, when moving out, you generally want to have a group, and an objective.that way spending scans on a singular marine won't happen, and you'll save your commander monies.
  • KalabalanaKalabalana Join Date: 2003-11-14 Member: 22859Members
    Remember Shade structures have no armor, so that infinite range, accurate, light damage side arm is ready
  • Angry ChildAngry Child Join Date: 2012-12-05 Member: 174256Members
    scan, don't suck, gg aliens
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