Echo'ing eggs to cloaked locations
tk-421
Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58315Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58315Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Hey all,
Just something fun I've been trying over the past few days on some pub servers - only three simple steps.
1) Place a shade somewhere on your infestation close to an enemy position or in a strategic location (try to tuck the shade away into a corner or against the wall).
2) Build a shift in the middle of your egg spawning location at the hive.
3) Echo eggs from your hive(s) to the cloaked location for a constant stream of aliens seemingly appearing out of no-where.
Out of the dozens of games played since 250 - I haven't seen a single other commander try this so I figured I'd post here.
A few tips if you're going to try this - be sure to place your shifts at base in the middle of your egg spawning area, as to allow for the greatest chance to have an egg spawn within the range of the "echo" command. Also, I tend to hotkey both the hives (1,2,3, etc) and the shifts (as 5,6,7, etc, one per hive). This makes it easy to quickly echo eggs around the map AND if there are no eggs available, you can click the hive (e.g. 1) then spawn eggs and quickly click the hotkey'ed shift at that hive (e.g. 5) to echo a newly spawned egg.
One other note - I usually do not place crags or shifts at the "forward base shade" location to discourage friendlies from returning and possibly revealing its location. These other forward structures get placed at a close-by location.
The ability to place both shades / shifts immediately (due to 250 changes) makes this strategy much more viable than in 249.
Just something fun I've been trying over the past few days on some pub servers - only three simple steps.
1) Place a shade somewhere on your infestation close to an enemy position or in a strategic location (try to tuck the shade away into a corner or against the wall).
2) Build a shift in the middle of your egg spawning location at the hive.
3) Echo eggs from your hive(s) to the cloaked location for a constant stream of aliens seemingly appearing out of no-where.
Out of the dozens of games played since 250 - I haven't seen a single other commander try this so I figured I'd post here.
A few tips if you're going to try this - be sure to place your shifts at base in the middle of your egg spawning area, as to allow for the greatest chance to have an egg spawn within the range of the "echo" command. Also, I tend to hotkey both the hives (1,2,3, etc) and the shifts (as 5,6,7, etc, one per hive). This makes it easy to quickly echo eggs around the map AND if there are no eggs available, you can click the hive (e.g. 1) then spawn eggs and quickly click the hotkey'ed shift at that hive (e.g. 5) to echo a newly spawned egg.
One other note - I usually do not place crags or shifts at the "forward base shade" location to discourage friendlies from returning and possibly revealing its location. These other forward structures get placed at a close-by location.
The ability to place both shades / shifts immediately (due to 250 changes) makes this strategy much more viable than in 249.
Comments
This is an excellent question, and I'm not completely sure I know yet but - it would appear that there is a greater-than-normal chance of having the next wave spawn from these echo'ed eggs. However, it could also be I'm only noticing people spawn from these eggs since I'm watching them more closely.
If any dev's or anyone who has insight would like to answer this, it would be most appreciated.
Not sure if there's a point building a shade. Marines almost always spot it if they take a nearby cyst down, (woops a cloaked cyst starts bleeding and reveals itself, marine asks for scan), and marines will spot the eggs if they're there anyway, and if they're not, there's no need for shade either... Mind, I haven't tried any of this this patch lol, I'm just theorycrafting.
Before 250 you would place shifts at strategic locations and spawn eggs. I thought with 250 that would be gone, which is very sad. But thanks for the workaround tk. Awesome!
Just 20 res for no limit transport instead of 50 res for your first 5 eggs and doesn't require a cyst chain or committing to a hive tech route
Some maps have excellent locations and don't require cloak because the GTs are simply out of reach
Sending a bunch of eggs to the farthest front line cyst during a bigger push is worth while. . .
I'd just go with something more substantial if you're trying to maintain a forward base and are pressuring instead of going for a spike
I'd agree, the tunnels are always extremely useful. Cost-to-benefit I might put them above eggs most of the time.
However, I find egg echo'ing helpful in pub servers where it's not always easy to coerce players to defend important locations (akin to "herding cats" or something of that nature). Forcing the players to spawn on the front line is awesome for holding chokepoints.
But yes, just like you said, tunnels are great for a long term solution while echo'ing eggs is more dynamic and spontaneous. It is nice to have the shift in your base on standby, just in case you need to start sending eggs somewhere.
Where are you getting your numbers? A shift costs 10, each egg echos for 2 and the shift-hive upgrade costs 10. The first 5 eggs then cost 30, and two thirds of that is one-time only.
I still think the egg echo is a little off balance. At the very least the per-egg should be reduced down to 1 res instead of 2 like all the other echo costs. It's not like the shift is producing eggs. Of course, they could actually make the shift egg echo produce new eggs instead of taking ones nearby, that might make it worth the extra.
1. Spawned eggs
2. Eggs at hive under attack
3. All other eggs (not sure how it chooses your first egg spawn with multiple hives)