My Wish List For Commanders.

Spamurai · November 2002

<div class="IPBDescription">stuff I like to see when I'm a Marine</div> The Observatory with its Motion Tracking Upgrade. Give me just 1 of these over 10 Sentry Turrets. The "Eyes" in the sky are a badly neglected Structure, it pains me to see Commanders trying to carpet the level with turret farms as a means of Defense. If I know and can see the Skulks coming, my LMG is more bang for the buck the a Turret Factory and 3 turrets.

Speaking of bang for the buck. Upgrading the Armour and Firepower Attributes. Again, Heavy Armour is NOT always the wisest item to shoot for (same goes for the HMG), the more subtle effects of upgrading bullet power will produce better results over the long run. No matter how many Marines are wearing HA, if their HMG and GL's don't pack the punch, Fades and ONOS will laugh and walk all over your troopers. With Regen and Carapce LvL 3, fortifide Defense Chambers and a Lerks Defense Gas, you may as well start spawning Fisher-Price and NERF shooters for your marines. Your Marines in HA will not overcome, they'll just die slower and get overrunned. Secondly, upgrade that Armour! HA is not cheap and it really slows down the Offensive drive of your team if your attention has to be repeatedly dropping HA at the spawn. Your starting Level Marines are paper thin, in the later stages of the game they are GOO-FODDER, they spawn nakid and useless. Upgrading that Armour doubles their defensive strength and its FREE after the initial investment. Add in increased Firepower upgrades and your Spawn Marines are kept competitive. Grenade Launchers can grow serious TEETH at Level 3 Firepower, thats what you need for clearing out those fortifide "Walls of Lame" and flush out the Cloaked Fades trying to regenerate.

Shotguns. Against the Skulk Rush, these things are KING, make sure you hand some out. The LMG is great and works well, but never underestimate the point and click power capable of insta-gibbing a Skulk. When you are covering that Marine building your precious Turret Factory, this thing is your best friend, don't neglect it. Its no good to kill the skulk AFTER its already munched your Turret Building buddy, because then YOU'LL have to build the turret and who is going to then cover you? 

Tactical Offensive Haste. Securing up your spawn point is fine, but the name of the game is killing and controlling Hive locations. Protecting the 1 resource nozzel outside your front door with Sentry Turrets is wasted effort if you let the Aliens claim and fortify their Hives. You want... no NEED to claim atleast 1 Hive location ASAP when the map starts, this is your primary beachhead, not your start location. Spend what you have too to reasonably secure your Start point, then save those precious RP's for fortifying your captured Hive. Technically, I consider the Marines on the short end of the stick if the Aliens manage to Fortify 2 Hives heavily, the momentum is not in the Marines favor unless their making strong advances and keeping the Aliens on the edge. Remember though, the longer your Marines are engaged with trying to take that second Hive, the more expensive and stressful it will be on your Resource Reserve. You can't hold out forever, eventually the RP's will dry up and the Marines will be forced to fall back. So, get on the ball early and press the Aliens right from the start, its a race against time and you dont have the luxury of ensuring every square inch of the Spawn Area is swept with a magic wall of Sentry Turrets.

the_stalker · November 2002

quite a few good strats there <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Demise · November 2002

Indeed, recently I've seen too many games lost because the Comm didn't capture a hive early on, once the Onoses start coming through the doors it's over, you might be able to stretch it for a while, maybe even kill a few Onos but if you don't capture that hive soon after it's over.

Another thing which I noticed is that Comms seem to be too busy building stuff to actually give orders to marines, resulting that many marines run off alone, get killed, respawn, rinse, repeat. The marines have no clue where the fight's at when they're not told what to do, and they can't see everything, relying on your marines to kill stuff and capture points and then build stuff is a sure way to get your CC and you splattered against a wall. Command your troops, you have the tactical overview, you can see the map as a whole, you know which spots are important, you know where the hives are, lead us there and help us cleave our way to them.
A Comm alone won't win the game, nor will a team of marines, a Comm needs marines to execute his orders, the marines need a Comm who gives them orders and backup.
<img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='asrifle.gif'> <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tiny.gif'>

Blackout · November 2002

Early Offense is right!

I'm still getting the hang of this commander thing; but early offense is key, even I know that.

Example to illustrate:
I was commanding on ns_tanith, which is roughly divided right in the middle, movement-wise. After barely surviving the skulk rush, I had a platoon of 5 guys move on the left half, where we took 4 new resource points.
Then: NS crashed!
When I came back to the same game 15 minutes later, my team had 1500 resource points. 1500! Turrets everywhere, full upgrades, total domination except for one last hive. The commander hadn't done anything except hand out weapons every once in a while, then drop the console and go fight. No strategy at all. Just goes to show you what an early, strong offensive move can do to secure your victory.

Tempest · November 2002

I agree with most of it except that marines are in the disadvantage if aliens manage to fortify 2 hives. It is almost impossible to prevent them from getting a second hive (If teams are fair). I would say, as a general rule, the longer the game goes on, the better the chance is marines win (this is assuming they have a hive secure and some resource income).

Aliens start with the advantage, skulks are better then LMG marines if you ask me. Then eventually aliens will get lerks, generally lerk players arent that great and die too fast (Few ppl are dedicated lerk players, I am one of them tho). Once marines get HMG it becomes a little easier, but soon fades will arrive which are hard to beat again (untill HA). My point is aliens start out stronger, and will stay stronger unless you stop them. If the aliens get 3 hives it's pretty much over. The onos is the strongest unit in the game for a reason.

That's the whole point. Aliens have the stronger units as long as they can keep capturing hives are marines upgrade, but unlike the marines, the aliens need special locations on the map (the hive locations) for those upgrades. You cannot prevent a marine team from upgrading (other then trying to stop resource flow), but you can stop an alien team from "upgrading", hold the 3rd hive. If you hold down the third hive you will outtech them and get stronger units then them (IMO a fully upgraded HA/HMG marine is stronger then a fade, of course the fade can run to d chambers but thats what siege is for). If marines can last to have a hvie secure, a team wearing HA/HMG/GL/welders, and as long as that team is good, you are on the winning hand. Sure aliens can stack a ton of O and D chambers together to create those walls and have fades attacking you and falling back every 3 seconds to heal, but that's where siege comes in. Marines dont even have to enter an enemy base to destroy it. Just set up siege and watch that hive fall to pieces.

I think the NS team did a great job. My view on the game is this. The aliens start stronger, they have to push this advantage and keep the marines on defense. The marines on the other hand have to work together well and slowly gain ground on the aliens to secure a resource node and a hive. The aliens have to get a second hive ASAP, and they most likely will. Once they have the second hive the fun begins. Marines should have a hive locked down by now, and that's where the battle will be. For the aliens it's very important to push through and take that 3rd hive from them (or move for the win and attack base if it's poorly defended). If aliens go goofing off deathmatching, marines should win. Aliens need to secure that 3rd hive while they still have the advantage (fade being stronger then a HMG marine without HA). If they dont, soon you'll see <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='siege.gif'> and the aliens start yelling omfg siege is overpowered. =p

FlatlineUTD · November 2002

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Tempest @ Nov 17 2002, 02:06 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Aliens need to secure that 3rd hive while they still have the advantage (fade being stronger then a HMG marine without HA). If they dont, soon you'll see <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='siege.gif'> and the aliens start yelling omfg siege is overpowered. =p</td></tr></table>
I don't get that, I get the "you guys need to fix the teams" once the people on their side start losing.

Who is really going to change sides after an hour-long game if they're on the winning side? It's not the winners' fault the people on their team are sore losers.

I just got out of a game in which the Skulk I killed in the *initial rush* accused me of stacking the teams.

I wish people would stop being whiny and just enjoy the game. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'>

Demise · November 2002

Well IMHO, team playing Fades are just as good as a team of marines with HA and welders. If you get a few Fades and a Gorge healing sprayer they can just as easily clear out an occupied hive room. I mean those bilebombs hurt no matter what armor you're in.
The problem just lies in the fact that marines *have* to play as a team and follow orders to win, if not they get their guts handed to them on a platter. Aliens on the other hand can be fairly successful as solo playing skulks, when they then evolve into fades they keep going solo, sometimes they're successful and manage to kill a team but when attacking positions defended by heavily armored and armed marines who on top have welders is almost impossible, as it should be, the marines aren't One Man Armies, neither are the aliens.
Again the key is teamwork, if you attack with a few Fades from several directions at once I can assure you the average marine pack will panic and have no clue which one to kill first, often splitting up into several pieces (chasing fade1, chasing fade2, staying at base) making them an easy prey for a bit of a good Fade and leaving the hive spot weakened.

Rokiyo · November 2002

Yeah, and lets not forget that fades only really play as a team because all the enemies tend to be concentrated in one area. Not even the lamest team-hating players will attack a marine base alone simply because there is nothing else for the others to do.

That is also why skulk rushes work so well: There is nothing else for the skulks to do

My Wish List For Commanders.

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