Khammanders, please upgrade your team...
Slice
Join Date: 2008-03-19 Member: 63903Members
Too many times I have played with Khammanders focused on growing their whips, playing with drifters and bone walls and I'm running around with 0/6 upgrades. You aren't a lone RTS player. Assign your hives and get the upgrades for your team FIRST before playing with your toys. 2nd hive goes up, I want to see Leap, Bile, Blink and Spores out ASAP.
Comments
Also it's very rare you don't get upgrades, I've got to say I never played a game without a single upgrade, I'm feeling the troll vibe from your thread.
But Drifters are very good, capable of taking bases very quickly and helping killing marines.... but yea, the troll vibe is really there.
Last bit you're a RTS player with the FPS interface, remember that, you have your part in keeping the strategy working..... sometimes called field commanders.
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this point. While the Alien commander isn't as directly involved with the team as the Marine commander, taking the overarching responsibility for the team strategy out of the hands of gorges has allowed them to actually play as part of the team. I always thought it was odd in NS1 that the Aliens never had some sort of hive mind that connected them all in someway.
It's not a troll post. I'm just asking others who want to learn how to be a good Khammander, please take care of your brood first. Don't get distracted by some of the other tools. Sure drifters and whips have their benefits but make sure your teams abilities are placed at the top of your res priority list.
Marines are better now. It used to be okay running without any upgrades for a long time, but it's not really anymore. You're taking a big risk if you do that.
When 2nd hive goes up, you should be holding your finger on the trigger to research leap. Is there any excuse not to? And if you went Shift or Shade first, you know your team REALLY wants that cara, now that marines have better weapons.
DISCLAIMER: I don't mind different tech paths, or ways of doing things. But it's SO many times that I see comm going for harvesters first, THEN 2nd hive, and THEN, like 8minute mark, he gets WHOOPTY-DOO: Celerity. (You're not gonna need extra eggs anymore ffs why don't you go cara for a change...-.-)
I guess it's hard to blame 'em tho. Comm hostility when someone takes an unorthodox way of doing things is still alive and well.
That's exactly my tactic. Beside, that I can manage to get the first upgrade around the 5 minute mark. Extractors first! (this helps the p-res of the team too!) Than 2nd hive, because it takes ages to grow, better start sooner than later. Than there comes the upgrade (not too late because we have enough harvesters and don't need to wait long for t-res income) and after that I save up for leap and the second upgrade to get it as soon as the 2nd hive is ready. At the 8 minute mark, my team has leap and 2 - 3 upgrades.
But yes, Craigs, Whips and stuff has to wait until the upgrades are there. And I only follow this tactic when we can hold enough RTs. This causes a tech explosion at the alien team that really hurts the marines right into their morals.
Getting whips early game is a little silly though. And bone wall requires 2 hives anyway.
but remember that RT's are pretty damn important, taking a bunch of semi-risky RT's isn't always a bad strat for pub. if you sit back on 2-3 RT's then marines can be afk eating pizza or something for the first 5 minutes and not be punished for it.
also, you need to pay attention to how many RT's your team is losing. i'm fed up of being told i'm a noob commander when people nag me to drop an RT, then 5 seconds later they've all run away or died and we lose almost every RT before it gets in the black.
no RT's = crap upgrades... duh!
like starcraft... it's madness to blindly go tier3 armor/wep upgrades and units on a single base income.
If it works for you, great. I still think it's risky though. Yes, the tech explosion aliens get when 2nd hive is up is huge, but marines who have 2 bases with phases and obs are more than enough to withstand that explosion. I rather take the route of trying my best to deny marines having any ground to begin with, because I feel it's harder to take back later than hold in the beginning.
Although perhaps the biggest reason I go upgrade asap is because it SUCKS to play without one as a Skulk. There's an entire team of skulks playing for you, and they're just not having that much fun playing so long without any upgrades. Sure, it may end up with their victory, but it's kinda meh when half the game feels like a total bummer.
Disclaiming again: I don't mind different ways, but I wish there'd be more people going varying paths.