Vastly Diferent Skulk Performance

Bolter

<div class="IPBDescription">is it skill, upgrade, lag or bug?</div> Many times I've witnessed strange events regarding unit performance. For example twice in the same match I saw, and felt, a skulk cut through 3 Marines, like a hot knife through butter, in about 2 seconds time. We all saw him come, and we were all shooting at him, I knew we were hiting, because the green blood was squirting out of him. He not only survived the fire as he closed with us, but killed all three with what seemed one bite each. I don't know about the other 2 Marines, but I was full health, and regular armor upgraded to 70. Mind you, this wasn't circle strafing m/\d skillz demonstration, but a straight charge, not unlike an ohno's charge.
I found this strange because I play Kharaa as well, and know the Skulk fairly well. Even with level 3 carapace, it has never took nore than 30 rounds on target to make you keel over. The other strange factor is that I've caught single marines with their backs turned, and it allways took more than one bite to kill them, ussualy a couple/three will do the job. However, I've never successfully sailed through a now dead marine, and do it twice more under accurate fire.
I'm wondering if this is due to an unfortunate coincidence of the right upgrades for the Skulk, no ammo upgrade for the Marines & lag (?).
I don't use all the upgrades/attacks for the Skulk, so mabe the answer lies on the particular skulk tactics. Mabe Carapace & Celerity alowed him to close the distance before being killed, but I'm not sure how he achieved such lethality. While I don't remember hearing the distinctive sound of a Skulk pounce (leap?) attack, it may have been used. Does this leap add to attack power, or is it just to close distances? Also, does it make a difference WHERE you bite marines? i.e. leg chew Vs a head bite?
I'm not a sore loser, or anything like that. I just want to know if this is a fluke, or if the Skulk is, in fact, able to kill a Marine (or three) by sailing through them. This would be very usefull, and would elevate my already healthy respect for the Skulk. Cheers!!

CForrester

Keep in mind that a skulk can bite 2 times a second, and maybe he hit two marines or all three of you at once?

Unit

Ok:

1. No locational damage, anywhere u bite, same damage.
2. Celerity DOES help a lot with closing distances, so does leap.
3. Killing 3 marines in a row happens at least once in every game, or every 2 games, so it's not THAT extraordinary.
4. The skulk bite does 75 damage, a standard marine would take 2 bites to kill. However, since the skulk bite is so fast it would sometimes seem like he only bit once.
5. Were any of you strafing, or jumping? If a skulk closes the distance and u still don't jump or strafe, he can slice through you like butter.

ekent

Anyway, it takes a lot less than 30 rounds on target to destroy a skulk. You just have to actually hit him, which is by far the hardest part.

By the by, a skulk manages to kill 3 marines at once seemingly every time I command, several times a game, any time I'm trying to secure a vital resource node. Stupid marines. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->

Discobird

Sounds like a fluke.

Kitsune

Bear in mind that these guys had upgraded armor, so it would take three, not two, skulk bites to drop each one.

Bolter

Ahh! Okies, sounds like a Skulk can chew through marines quite well. So long as he gets in close.
Thanx for the answers folks. Cheers!

Ravlen

I'm beginning to think there's so lag that's doing some wonky things... Every now and then you get these skulks that just rock you, and I can never figure out how. Just this morning I was waiting in a hallway, and a skulk ran straight down it at me, not weaving, not jumping, just at me. One whole LMG clip later, and it is *near* me (not at me), and I died. I swear I was dead before it touched me, full HP. My only guess is that the lag made it seem like I was shooting it (green blood galore), when in reality I musta been shooting behind it or something... and while it seemed like it was still away from me, it must have actually closed the distance and gotten the second bite on me.

But that's just me speculating, I've had my fair share of times where I killed 3 marines in one go (and once 9 marines in one go, and boy were the marines unhappy about that one). I've also had my share of chomping at some marine 5-6 times, and no kills. My only guess is that lag makes it SEEM like I'm standing an inch away from him biting, when he's actually behind me or something.

Ravlen

Forlorn

It's definatly a lag issue.

TheHornet

what kind of connection you got ravlen? i seem to of had the same experience.. maybeif i try shooting in front of skulks i'll kill em better... they always seem invincible when i face em but when i play them i can never seem to kill anything even with direct back hits... maybe its just my bad pings on dial-up

Typhon

Keep in mind that just because you see blood does not NECESSARILY mean you hit him. Blood splatters are predicted CLIENT SIDE (just like bullet holes and bullet tracers), before the server actually has a chance to say "you hit him" or "you didn't hit him". Most guns fire enough ammo that 1 or 2 mispredicts doesn't matter, but just realize that cant always trust what you see.

Note that you can fiddle with some console settings that will force your client to wait until the server says 'you hit here' before drawing anything. This means you see exactly what the server says happened, but all your bullet tracers/blood splats/etc will be delayed from when you hit the trigger, creating a 'firehose' effect that can be very disorienting.

athodyd

The only thing I don't like about playing as a skulk (besides my inexplicable and unerring tendency to seek out the most experienced, most levelheaded, lowest-pinged jarhead and end up at his feet with a faceful of lead whilst everyone else is picking bits of NSPlayer(1) out of their teeth) is that with the skulk's natural speed and leaping ability the "pounce gun" seems a little useless. It seems like it does less damage than bite with more of adrenaline cost, and it whenever I try and spring off a wall or ceiling it usually falls short of the target and leaves me just kinda looking up sheepishly at the marine and hoping he thinks I'm some kind of friendly mutant dog (note: this rarely works, dear developers please support hotkey for "wag tail").

I think that maybe if pounce "stuck" to its fleshy target and hung on slashing as long as mouse1 was tapped (or held, but I think that's a bit too easy and that the tapping would correspond to the repeated slashing motion) that would make it a much more attractive and scary feature. The pounced marine could possibly shake it off if he moved around enough, but ideally another marine would be able to shoot the skulk off his buddy. I think this would add a lot to the theme, as it would reward working in numbers on both teams: two marines can handle one pouncer, but two kharaa working together can simply slaughter one patrol after another...

If nothing else it would certainly teach newbies not to wander down dark corridors alone. "cmdr need ammo and refiner thingie at nozzle at AUGH OH OUCH"

Fieari

Right now, I use leap to jump past turret farms to the factory invariably placed by the wall, where I can munch on it safely to my heart's content. Other than that, leap goes unused. Parasite and Xenocide are still my friends though.

Even if xenocide is bugged, it does do SOME damage, hurts marines badly, and is something to pass the time while I wait for resources to come in.

matso

Leap makes it possible to close on marines at the end of a fairly long hallway... leap once a bit on the right, the on the left , then bite his head off.

You can even take out single HA+HMG marines this way ... leap in, single bite, leap out, heal. Repeat until a satisifing *CLONK* signals another 60+ marine resource points down the drain.

Amzin

I can't recall what it's called for the life of me right now, but there was a console command in CS that set it to only draw blood when the server registered a hit, it was like cl_****** 0. Perhaps it's a general HL command and can be used in NS too?

Chem

cl_lw 0 (Client Side effects no leading needed)
cl_lc 0 (Removes netcode so you have to lead your shots)

JHazard

Who is THIS NSPlayer anyways...? I mean, I see him EVERYWHERE and he (she?) always sucks. For someone who plays so much you would think they would be better.

*geesh*

But they do make great snacks inbetween those damn veteran marines.

TheHornet

<!--QuoteBegin--JHazard+Nov 19 2002, 10:34 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (JHazard @ Nov 19 2002, 10:34 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Who is THIS NSPlayer anyways...? I mean, I see him EVERYWHERE and he (she?) always sucks. For someone who plays so much you would think they would be better.

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LOL! Yes they always make for an easy kill to boost my ego while playing... cept when its a really good player just hiding his name so poeple like me go easy on them and they totally own me