A Pub Commanders guide to aliens
Confused
Wait. What? Join Date: 2003-01-28 Member: 12904Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester
Wait. What? Join Date: 2003-01-28 Member: 12904Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">What it sounds like. I need some feedback</div>Howdy everyone,
Thought I would share something I wrote up last night. It's a basic overview of how to be an alien commander. People seem to do an okay job as a marine commander as a rookie, but aliens seems to be really scary. I put together a generalized guide, using google docs, that I was hoping that you would read it and let me know how it goes.
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1td2X7mUHL3Y9FXSmS3VuSwGGN0SqM-CeNCjtswaSav4" target="_blank"> Read it here</a>
I took it to IRC last night and the impression was that it was good advice but that my sense of humour sucks. Can't really change that it.
Thoughts, feedback etc?
Thought I would share something I wrote up last night. It's a basic overview of how to be an alien commander. People seem to do an okay job as a marine commander as a rookie, but aliens seems to be really scary. I put together a generalized guide, using google docs, that I was hoping that you would read it and let me know how it goes.
<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1td2X7mUHL3Y9FXSmS3VuSwGGN0SqM-CeNCjtswaSav4" target="_blank"> Read it here</a>
I took it to IRC last night and the impression was that it was good advice but that my sense of humour sucks. Can't really change that it.
Thoughts, feedback etc?
Comments
That sucker has got to be placed when you can. I see too many commanders going cyst crazy and cysting out to grab all these farway nodes instead of placing the second hive and trying to either get the upper hand on the rines or just playing catch up.
Dropping the second hive is scary for alien comm's and they hold back from doing it, generally costing the game for the aliens. They've got to know the importance of doing so.
Considering the number of maps in the game are currently very few and very disctinct, can you provide quick metagame based tips on individual maps? I'd particularly love to hear more about Refinery, because I had 3 games yetsterday where the marines just locked the aliens down at one hive.
Second of all... how do you easily tell which alien is which just by looking at the map when holding C? I'm referring to your advice of "Always use names if you can. You get better results by saying “Sir Reginald and Princess Fluffybutt are going to take generator†that by saying “everyone in courtyard push generatorâ€
Edit: Your discussion of whips... have you read this thread? <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=123264" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index....howtopic=123264</a>
If it is true then your proposed whip rushes can't really work?
AFAIK, aliens slowly heal period, regardless of where they are, and infestation doesn't help at all (though I could be wrong there). There used to be a researched upgrade on Crag Hives to give a boosted heal on infestation, but that was removed about 10-12 builds ago.
That said, spreading infestation is usually a good thing anyway; it prevents marines from building in that area unless they take it out, and that gives you warning that they're there. Also, some marines can't seem to help themselves and kill every cyst they come across, even if it's not connecting anything or blocking them, so again you get early warning.
I'd also add Drifters. They are a vastly underutilized unit for the aliens (even I often forget them) that pretty much act like a movable Observatory. Again, map knowledge is key.
Otherwise, looks good.
<u>Drifters</u>
Has a passive cloaking ability that allow it to be a good forward observer. I recommend placing several around the map in critical locations so you can detect enemy movements (e.g. ARC pushes, hive rushes, exos, that one annoying dude who keeps sniping your upgrades). Their enzyme ability speeds up alien attacks speeds (i.e. DPS) which is particularly useful for surgical strikes on power nodes, observatories, or command stations.
<u>Shift egg spawns</u>
Aliens will preferentially spawn at eggs produced from eggs. You can use this to your advantage by spawning shift eggs in the middle of a map (to minimize the time a newly spawned alien needs to get to anywhere on the map) or near locations you want to attack (marine start) or defend (an unbuilt hive).
<u>Higher lifeform and upgrade management</u>
Basically, you need to tailor your upgrade path to the composition of expected higher lifeforms on your team. It makes no sense to rush spores first if nobody is going to go lerk. Ask your teammates how many and which higher lifeform they are planning to evolve and tailor your upgrade path to suit (e.g. if many players say they are saving for fades, prioritize upgrades such as blink, carapace, and adrenaline).
<u>Comm-dropped eggs</u>
You can purchase higher lifeforms with TRes by selecting and upgrading an egg. This is typically done to either give a player a higher lifeform before they could purchase it with PRes (e.g. 5min Onos) or to replace a recently lost higher lifeform. It can be an effective way to maximize the number of more effective lifeforms, such as lerk, fade, or onos.
<u>Use infestation to deny marine territory</u>
Marines can't build on infestation and cysts are cheap. You can use this to delay marines from recapturing recently lost res or tech nodes, prevent the dropping of ninja PGs or armories, or distract marines long enough for your teammates to take down a power node or command station.
<u>Infestation spikes</u>
The infestation spike ability causes a temporary set of spikes to emerge from infestation. Its most useful as a way to prevent marines from chasing an escaping onos or gorge, delaying a large marine assault into alien territory, or shielding a hive from taking some damage.
<u>Ninja shading</u>
Shades cloak any structure or stationary alien from marine vision. This has a wide range of practical uses such as hiding unbuilt hives or upgrades, setting up ambushes, or pushing infestation into marine bases undetected. One of my favorite strats involve using the shift's echo ability to teleport whips onto cloaked infestation in a marine base. However, simply cloaking every alien structure on the map can be an effective defense against those annoying marine res/upgrade sniping marines.
Also the first thing I generally do is check where the marines are and drop a hive as far from them as possible. Then cyst up to the nearest res tower and then gorge and get the hive up. Alien comm has no need to be in the hive most of the game especially not early on when you could be doing something useful instead of waiting on res for a tower.
Whips... Don't do well against grenades anymore, they throw the grenade away from the closest hive, which generally means into another building of yours which still does damage to everything in the area. And if you're dropping whips for a whip rush instead of eggs or just saving the overflow, well you're doing it wrong. Players will ALWAYS be more effective than a whip.
Honestly I don't think you can be a truly good comm until you master the different lifeforms and actually understand what upgrades are useful and which aren't. Your team may say "oh let's get cloak or silence first, it's awesome" but that's cause they haven't learned how good celerity is yet. You have to know enough to not listen to this guy.