5 General Tips
Little_Hunter
Join Date: 2003-01-26 Member: 12793Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2003-01-26 Member: 12793Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">stuff you should know, but many don't</div> <b>#1 Commanders should set aside 22-44 of their starting res for resource towers.</b> Why? The marine team has a huge advantage over the alien team at the start. The marines have 100 res to use however they wish, while the alien gorge will use all of his 13 evolving. As an alien the gorge always caps 2 more res towers before ANYTHING else. However, marines tend to spend all of their 100 res on ips, and getting an arms lab in the first 30 seconds. While IPs are needed, arms labs arnt. Sure, you got an arms lab in the first 20 seconds of the game, but you wont have the res to upgrade it for another minute.
<b>#2 Skill doesn't matter.</b> Ok, so this isn't totaly true, but "skill" isn't as important in NS as it is in games like DoD or CS. Teamwork is much more important then skill, and I have seen a team of semi-skilled players take down a team of crazy good players because all the crazy players did their own thing, while the semi-good players worked together. Even if your comm does things differntly then you, still do what he says, it will get your team farther then if you don't listen to him.
<b>#3 Know your teams limits, don't over expand.</b> In NS you need a balance between offence and defense. If you ignor one, you will lose. While you cant "defend your oponent to death" (unless they f4 :-P); if you lose ground that you just took, then why bother taking it? For example, as an alien I saw a comm drop a lone guy a res tower to build. As he was building, me and 2 other skulks rushed him. The comm then droped 20 medpacks on the guy to keep him alive. After I respawned, i ran to the res tower and finding it undefended, I ate it. The comm spent 45 res to get that tower up, yet it went down with out a fight.
<b>#4 Keep your fields of fire clear.</b> When marines are moving in groups, make sure you don't block your teammates shots. When you see a skulk, just drop to a knee and fire at it. This way your teammates can fire over your head. Too often I see the first marine strafe infront of his teammates fields of fire, and protect the skulk they are trying to kill.
<b>#5 Adapt to the problem at hand.</b> NS is all about adaption and thinking outside the "box". Be open to new ideas, after all, how do you know turrets are useless until you try them (more then once). When playing NS try to keep an open mind. Don't let the first words out of your mouth be "why the F@#$ did you relocate here you stupid F@#$ing commander! n00b!!!11one!11!". Instead let the comm (or gorge) try his plan and see if it works.
<b>#2 Skill doesn't matter.</b> Ok, so this isn't totaly true, but "skill" isn't as important in NS as it is in games like DoD or CS. Teamwork is much more important then skill, and I have seen a team of semi-skilled players take down a team of crazy good players because all the crazy players did their own thing, while the semi-good players worked together. Even if your comm does things differntly then you, still do what he says, it will get your team farther then if you don't listen to him.
<b>#3 Know your teams limits, don't over expand.</b> In NS you need a balance between offence and defense. If you ignor one, you will lose. While you cant "defend your oponent to death" (unless they f4 :-P); if you lose ground that you just took, then why bother taking it? For example, as an alien I saw a comm drop a lone guy a res tower to build. As he was building, me and 2 other skulks rushed him. The comm then droped 20 medpacks on the guy to keep him alive. After I respawned, i ran to the res tower and finding it undefended, I ate it. The comm spent 45 res to get that tower up, yet it went down with out a fight.
<b>#4 Keep your fields of fire clear.</b> When marines are moving in groups, make sure you don't block your teammates shots. When you see a skulk, just drop to a knee and fire at it. This way your teammates can fire over your head. Too often I see the first marine strafe infront of his teammates fields of fire, and protect the skulk they are trying to kill.
<b>#5 Adapt to the problem at hand.</b> NS is all about adaption and thinking outside the "box". Be open to new ideas, after all, how do you know turrets are useless until you try them (more then once). When playing NS try to keep an open mind. Don't let the first words out of your mouth be "why the F@#$ did you relocate here you stupid F@#$ing commander! n00b!!!11one!11!". Instead let the comm (or gorge) try his plan and see if it works.
Comments
#1 is more of a opiniated sort of thing though, and doesn't always apply. It's very much like the aliens' choice to build a defense chamber or two before a resource tower. Most alien teams build around 3 resource towers, then get up three defense towers, then a hive. Some, however, spend all the initial resources rushing defense towers so that the aliens will have a much easier time wiping up vanilla marines. If the commander spends his initial resources building resource towers, that's his choice. Those resource towers could very easily go down (*points to Eclipse*), and be a complete waste of money. If the commander rushes an arms lab and early defensive/offensive upgrades, that is also his own choice. As a veteran commander, I can definitely say both strategies have their own merits. The latter is almost always preferable in the larger (8v8 or above) servers, where alien resource harassers are all over the place and you get larger resource flow because of the number of players, and because your marines are basically your best assets.
Thinking #2 is true is just naive. Yes, an unskilled group of marines stands a chance when coordinated, but never underestimate the power of a few good players. It's helpful to remember, in fact, that the very BEST players can shoot AND follow order. The sharpshooter rambos that don't follow orders lie somewhere in between the n00b and the skilled NS players, IMHO. Anyways, having a skilled group of marines can make or break a team. A good gorge hunter can turn the tide against the aliens more often than not, one sharpshooter can hold a location from hordes of aliens. I once commanded a guy who killed no less than 6 skulks, alone (his teammates died), while constructing a crucial minibase in the early game. As a commander, it's your job to find the skilled players, keep them in check, and put them to the best use possible. At the same time, it's your job to see to it that the more n00bish players also do whatever they can that will most benefit the team - usually either moving in groups with the better players, guarding outposts, or keeping all marine structures in tip-top shape. with a welder.
When you comm marines you can't fire for them, and if they lack skill, in a clan game they will cost you the match. You need players who can win the early 1v1's and hold a point if you ask them to hold it (within reason) - say 2 marines holding station access on eclipse at the start of a game.
In the opening minutes of a game, the marines should be well capable of holding down the aliens and securing at least 2 areas the comm wants if he is in support. Generally in a game I want 1 hive res point and 1 external random res point (3 in total) for the early game. If my marines can't hold this - while one looks after mines in base with me, or gorge hunting - the game becomes an uphill struggle.
Rambo's have won a lot of games by taking the iniative and being in the right place at the right time. Whereas sheep can simply be deadweight who distract the comm constantly.
I guess it's all just balance.
it is like those traps you set for BEE'slike a funnel it guides them in but wont let them out..
it is trickey to explain... let me see.. on Hera... (the one with the Maintenance access hive.../could be eclipse.. )
there are these flooring panels which look like lifts they cant be seen or hit with acid rockets from outside.. so i place around 4 on each plate... and 4 in the middle bit in between the doors.. now this is a HUGE drain on res.. cos i back it up with at least 2 TF's
and so what happens is mr.Fade walks in and first thing they do when they walk in is strafe onto the panel to avoid the main area of that room.. which puts them RIGHT onto my turrets now if they are upgraded then it will hurt them... it may not be one shot one kill but it does do damage. and bearing in mind i have the 4 by the wall aswell you have around 8 turrtes focusing on one central location... and it does kill fades off pretty quickly especially as they have to turn to deal with marine threat from behind..
they cannot be taken out form outside atall... which makes them GREAT because when an alien can see it.. it can see them and fire at it.
it isnt complex and it DOES work... you just need a willing team to do it..
- RD
I agree with this one. As I try to always do when 2 completely different sides face off against each other, I try to emphasize my strengths and exploit the weaknesses (not like, map exploit) of the enemy while mitigating my own. What this means is basically: Do what the enemy physically cannot. Sure, the gorge can 'choose' to put down D first, or 'choose' to wait for several minutes and put down his first resnode. He can't put down 2 resnodes in the first 40 seconds of the game though, and get that res flowing fast and freely. I get called a noob comm a lot when I have 50 res and refuse to spend it because I only have 1 res node. My next goal after resnodes, however, usually is an arms lab (or an obs for MT)
<!--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--><b>#2 Skill doesn't matter.</b> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I sort of agree with this one. I mean, as long as they do what I tell them to, it *usually* works out. For example, once I was really incensed by the alien clan stacking that was going on in a server (later I found out that it was *their* server.... oops! Didn't notice, the clan's tag isn't the same as the server tag, and nothing in the server's MotD said anything about their clan.). So I went comm and oversaw a bunch of noobs. To make a long story short, we ended up blowing the bejeezus out of them (given it was a marine oriented map -> ns_nancy, but still.)
On the other hand, I just recently played a game on CoFR where the newbie commander relocated the team to Eclipse Command (oops). Frustrated that he couldn't do anything, he jumped out and asked me to comm... after he spent all the res on turrets. So now I'm stuck with this unupgradable base with useless buildings that are a waste of res (I can only select the CC, although for some reason I was able to research MT and then was never able to select the obs again). I quickly grab a bunch of resource nodes, secure keyhole, siege it, and build my arms lab there so I can actually upgrade. Maint goes down but they had time to get one fade out (who, I might add, was amazingly good at staying alive). Finally we kill him, and I research MT W3/A3 while controlling the rest of the map and my marines adding pressure to CC. What finally happens?
A gorge builds a WoL outside Eclipse that I can't siege (no upgrading) and despite the fact that the previous commander turreted up the place, I had 3 IPs (my 'rines kept dying to skulks) AND my marines had full upgrades, one amazing lone rambo skulk by the name of Tiio (very, very good job dude. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> ) comes in, kills all the turrets, kills all the marines, kills all the marines that spawn THREE at a time, and then kills all the IPs. Amazing. Before he kills the obs, however, I drop a new CC in keyhole and prepare to distress beacon... but I can't select the obs. Since I already researched MT I didn't feel the need to build a new one in Keyhole. So we lose, partially due to bugs, and partially due to the fact that my fully upgraded marines and turrets couldn't take out a single skulk chomping on base.
So in short, skill does matter somewhat, but I try to stack the odds in such a way that they don't matter *that* much. (i.e. 3 ips when needed, defend siege outpost).
<!--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--><b>#3 Know your teams limits, don't over expand.</b> <b>#4 Keep your fields of fire clear.</b>
<b>#5 Adapt to the problem at hand.</b> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Amen. Nothing more to say.
I particularly look forward to 1.1 to have more problems to adapt to. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Rhuadin
(PS. OMG I'm verbose. I need to use less adjectives or something)