Marine basics
Swiftspear
Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
Custim tital Join Date: 2003-10-29 Member: 22097Members
<div class="IPBDescription">The guide</div>Once again in the lifecycle of NS we have a situation where there are tons of new players who don't understand some of the fundamental best practices. Honestly, this whole post will stem mostly from me being annoyed at seeing other people make obvious mistakes, but I legitimately hope this helps people all the same. Marineinging in NS2 is like Othello, it takes a minute to learn but a lifetime to master, none the less, there's some simple stuff that you should know that will help you be a much better marine, and help your team be a better team. So without further ado...
<b><!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Marines:<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
The job of the Marines: To win the game
The job of the Commander: To help marines win the game
The commander is not your minimap, the commander is not a quick fix for you making grave tactical errors, the commander is not there so that you don't have to have any map awareness. Marines get the 'c' key for a reason (it opens a map and displays what all your buddies are doing). It's really not the commander's fault if you're not sure what to do, and it's also not his fault if you die to aliens. The commander can do a lot of things, some of those things can really hurt your chances of winning, but the commander can never actually make you do the damage that your team needs you to do in order to win the game.
So, how do you win the game? The job of winning the game comes down to 2 main things for marines. Building res nodes/tech points, and killing any enemy building they can. You don't actually need to kill alien life forms to win the game... however, it can be very hard to kill all the alien buildings without the alien lifeforms trying to do something about it to stop you. What I want to impress on you, is that your primary job is not killing as many skulks as possible, only kill aliens if it's something that helps you do one of the other two things. You don't need to chase skulks, you don't need to run off alone into trouble. No matter what happens, you need to do those 2 jobs, the commander cannot be blamed for you doing a poor job of building RTs or killing alien structures.
<b><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Building:<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
A lot of people do this wrong. Building is very simple, here's how it works
- Your first priority is to build the power node
- Your second priority is to build any structures that helps you be a better marine in the field, or immediately makes your army stronger in that position (phase gates first, armory and obs second)
- Your third priority is to build any structure that helps the comm out or is needed for the late game. (arms lab, RT, comm chair, protolab)
- if and only if there is no building near by for you to be doing, you can run off and do something else
- at the same time, don't wait around an area for the comm to drop something unless he expressly tells you he will when you ask him to
The logic behind this is as follows. The powernode is usually the most high risk building in the room to get up, get it up as quickly as you can before aliens have time to prepare a more effective ambush on you. After that, your priority becomes staying alive in your position. That res node is only good for the comm if it actually lives AND is powered for one and a half minutes. So if you die before the powernode is finished, your time was wasted building the res node. If the power node is up, the comm has the option of dropping you more offensive support structures (a phase gate, an armory). He generally has better map awareness than you do (not always though). If the comm has dropped a res node, and you die while building the power node and the extractor is still ghosted, it gets automatically recycled when the aliens attack it. Anything more offensive for you will hopefully make you live longer, and give you better ability to defend that area from attacks, prioritize things that make you live longer, the comm really hates having to try to get others to go fill the spot you just left vacant by dying.
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Map Awareness:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
As I said before, it is not the comm's job to be your minimap. The comm has better situational awareness over some things than you do, but he shouldn't need to tell you where the most action on the map is, or which res nodes need to be run towards. You can see yourself what things are under attack, what things are down, what things are up. There is literally no more disheartening thing for an experienced commander to jump into the chair at the beginning of the game, and every marine runs in one direction. How are the res nodes on the other side of the map going to get built? There's a point at which the tactics of the game are basic enough that you really shouldn't need to be told. If a commander does tell you most of these things, be aware that he is very fairly going to be a little bit frustrated. Oh, and always phase when someone is yelling "PHASE PHASE PHASE!" repeatedly. Phase until you get into serious action. That's when you know you can stop phasing. Don't kill the 2 skulks in marine start before phasing, just phase. Someone dying will respawn and kill them later.
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Aggression:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
Ok, now for your final job as a marine. You need to kill any and all alien structures! The BIG mistake I see people making here is not working as a team. This can be a tough thing, you run into a hive room, and there's 30 different targets that are all helping the aliens in one way or another, and people just seem to be doing a bit of everything... and it's confusing. The fact of the matter is, the worst thing you can do is pick something different from what everyone else is doing. It can be hard to judge sometimes weather you can actually kill a hive, but if one person is attacking the hive, then everyone else should be attacking it too. After that, if one person is attacking the resource node, then everyone else should be too. The commander can't really see how many aliens there are, where and how their defense are positioned, or make a good call on how much egg density there is. Generally speaking, the commander wants the hive killed the most, but if it's really only realistic to take out the upgrade chambers, make that judgement call and don't feel guilty for it. If you can shoot down the res node from a safe place, but going deeper into the hive entails a big risk, it's fine to just kill the res node and see how far you can get a bit later. The real trick is, whatever the biggest target being attacked is, everyone else should be doing the same thing. Once a hive is attacked, aliens will respond, at that point you really just have to roll the dice and do your best. If half the team is attacking one thing and the other is attacking another, THAT's when your whole rush collapses and you don't even kill anything to show for it. At least do your best due diligence to get a target down. Voice chat, coordinate, and do it. Don't expect the commander to do it for you.
You almost always have to kill some aliens in order to get an alien structure down... often you need to prioritize alien kills first, but there reaches a certain balance point. When you are at the point that you have to wait for more things to spawn, you should probably be attacking the hive instead. If you have been attacking the hive, but some things do spawn and start threatening to kill some of you off and decrease your total damage output, then you can take a little break to kill aliens again. However, if suddenly 2 onos appear, be realistic, you're not gonna shoot them down unless most of your team are exos. Throw your cards on the table and put everything you have into finishing off whatever you were working on.
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Other Tips:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
- pressing 'x' to bring up the order menu, and issuing a "request order" message brings a popup for the commander. This is best used to ask for a res node or power node you're standing near to be dropped. If you're standing in the middle of nowhere... the comm may just be confused by what you want. It's very rarely taken as a legitimate "I have no idea what to do, tell me to do something". If you have an unusual request, like a request for a scan or a request for an armory to be dropped, unfortunately your best bet is voice chat. You can use the "request order" command to help the commander quickly locate you however.
- requesting meds and ammo is annoying. Some players have a bad habit of instinctually requesting meds as soon as they're injured. If you really have no reasonable expectation of staying alive without more than 1 medpack, don't request them. They're quite expensive in NS2. Ammo is a little less so an issue, but be aware that it's also more expensive than it was in NS1 (although you get more ammo per a drop). Don't feel afraid to ask for field armories. They only cost 10 and they heal armor as well. Most comms will take a risk on dropping them for you if you honestly feel you can hold that position down.
- Check ceilings. Skulks hide there more often than you'd expect.
- Listen, sound is your best friend in NS2, you can honestly tell exactly where a skulk is coming from when you get good at it.
- In the official maps, any vent a gorge can bilebomb an RT or a tech point from can be climbed into somehow. Take some time to learn those routes some day.
- If you see something cloak or uncloak, call it out, it's a very counterable upgrade, but the commander needs to be aware.
- Positioning and teamwork are the two big things that significantly increase your deadliness. Especially while learning the game think about those 2 things a lot.
- All these things are strictly basics. If you're an experienced marine feel free to add more advanced techniques and strategies to this thread!
Above all, have fun, shoot slimy green things, and don't be afraid of the dark :)
<b><!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Marines:<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
The job of the Marines: To win the game
The job of the Commander: To help marines win the game
The commander is not your minimap, the commander is not a quick fix for you making grave tactical errors, the commander is not there so that you don't have to have any map awareness. Marines get the 'c' key for a reason (it opens a map and displays what all your buddies are doing). It's really not the commander's fault if you're not sure what to do, and it's also not his fault if you die to aliens. The commander can do a lot of things, some of those things can really hurt your chances of winning, but the commander can never actually make you do the damage that your team needs you to do in order to win the game.
So, how do you win the game? The job of winning the game comes down to 2 main things for marines. Building res nodes/tech points, and killing any enemy building they can. You don't actually need to kill alien life forms to win the game... however, it can be very hard to kill all the alien buildings without the alien lifeforms trying to do something about it to stop you. What I want to impress on you, is that your primary job is not killing as many skulks as possible, only kill aliens if it's something that helps you do one of the other two things. You don't need to chase skulks, you don't need to run off alone into trouble. No matter what happens, you need to do those 2 jobs, the commander cannot be blamed for you doing a poor job of building RTs or killing alien structures.
<b><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Building:<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
A lot of people do this wrong. Building is very simple, here's how it works
- Your first priority is to build the power node
- Your second priority is to build any structures that helps you be a better marine in the field, or immediately makes your army stronger in that position (phase gates first, armory and obs second)
- Your third priority is to build any structure that helps the comm out or is needed for the late game. (arms lab, RT, comm chair, protolab)
- if and only if there is no building near by for you to be doing, you can run off and do something else
- at the same time, don't wait around an area for the comm to drop something unless he expressly tells you he will when you ask him to
The logic behind this is as follows. The powernode is usually the most high risk building in the room to get up, get it up as quickly as you can before aliens have time to prepare a more effective ambush on you. After that, your priority becomes staying alive in your position. That res node is only good for the comm if it actually lives AND is powered for one and a half minutes. So if you die before the powernode is finished, your time was wasted building the res node. If the power node is up, the comm has the option of dropping you more offensive support structures (a phase gate, an armory). He generally has better map awareness than you do (not always though). If the comm has dropped a res node, and you die while building the power node and the extractor is still ghosted, it gets automatically recycled when the aliens attack it. Anything more offensive for you will hopefully make you live longer, and give you better ability to defend that area from attacks, prioritize things that make you live longer, the comm really hates having to try to get others to go fill the spot you just left vacant by dying.
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Map Awareness:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
As I said before, it is not the comm's job to be your minimap. The comm has better situational awareness over some things than you do, but he shouldn't need to tell you where the most action on the map is, or which res nodes need to be run towards. You can see yourself what things are under attack, what things are down, what things are up. There is literally no more disheartening thing for an experienced commander to jump into the chair at the beginning of the game, and every marine runs in one direction. How are the res nodes on the other side of the map going to get built? There's a point at which the tactics of the game are basic enough that you really shouldn't need to be told. If a commander does tell you most of these things, be aware that he is very fairly going to be a little bit frustrated. Oh, and always phase when someone is yelling "PHASE PHASE PHASE!" repeatedly. Phase until you get into serious action. That's when you know you can stop phasing. Don't kill the 2 skulks in marine start before phasing, just phase. Someone dying will respawn and kill them later.
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Aggression:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
Ok, now for your final job as a marine. You need to kill any and all alien structures! The BIG mistake I see people making here is not working as a team. This can be a tough thing, you run into a hive room, and there's 30 different targets that are all helping the aliens in one way or another, and people just seem to be doing a bit of everything... and it's confusing. The fact of the matter is, the worst thing you can do is pick something different from what everyone else is doing. It can be hard to judge sometimes weather you can actually kill a hive, but if one person is attacking the hive, then everyone else should be attacking it too. After that, if one person is attacking the resource node, then everyone else should be too. The commander can't really see how many aliens there are, where and how their defense are positioned, or make a good call on how much egg density there is. Generally speaking, the commander wants the hive killed the most, but if it's really only realistic to take out the upgrade chambers, make that judgement call and don't feel guilty for it. If you can shoot down the res node from a safe place, but going deeper into the hive entails a big risk, it's fine to just kill the res node and see how far you can get a bit later. The real trick is, whatever the biggest target being attacked is, everyone else should be doing the same thing. Once a hive is attacked, aliens will respond, at that point you really just have to roll the dice and do your best. If half the team is attacking one thing and the other is attacking another, THAT's when your whole rush collapses and you don't even kill anything to show for it. At least do your best due diligence to get a target down. Voice chat, coordinate, and do it. Don't expect the commander to do it for you.
You almost always have to kill some aliens in order to get an alien structure down... often you need to prioritize alien kills first, but there reaches a certain balance point. When you are at the point that you have to wait for more things to spawn, you should probably be attacking the hive instead. If you have been attacking the hive, but some things do spawn and start threatening to kill some of you off and decrease your total damage output, then you can take a little break to kill aliens again. However, if suddenly 2 onos appear, be realistic, you're not gonna shoot them down unless most of your team are exos. Throw your cards on the table and put everything you have into finishing off whatever you were working on.
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Other Tips:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
- pressing 'x' to bring up the order menu, and issuing a "request order" message brings a popup for the commander. This is best used to ask for a res node or power node you're standing near to be dropped. If you're standing in the middle of nowhere... the comm may just be confused by what you want. It's very rarely taken as a legitimate "I have no idea what to do, tell me to do something". If you have an unusual request, like a request for a scan or a request for an armory to be dropped, unfortunately your best bet is voice chat. You can use the "request order" command to help the commander quickly locate you however.
- requesting meds and ammo is annoying. Some players have a bad habit of instinctually requesting meds as soon as they're injured. If you really have no reasonable expectation of staying alive without more than 1 medpack, don't request them. They're quite expensive in NS2. Ammo is a little less so an issue, but be aware that it's also more expensive than it was in NS1 (although you get more ammo per a drop). Don't feel afraid to ask for field armories. They only cost 10 and they heal armor as well. Most comms will take a risk on dropping them for you if you honestly feel you can hold that position down.
- Check ceilings. Skulks hide there more often than you'd expect.
- Listen, sound is your best friend in NS2, you can honestly tell exactly where a skulk is coming from when you get good at it.
- In the official maps, any vent a gorge can bilebomb an RT or a tech point from can be climbed into somehow. Take some time to learn those routes some day.
- If you see something cloak or uncloak, call it out, it's a very counterable upgrade, but the commander needs to be aware.
- Positioning and teamwork are the two big things that significantly increase your deadliness. Especially while learning the game think about those 2 things a lot.
- All these things are strictly basics. If you're an experienced marine feel free to add more advanced techniques and strategies to this thread!
Above all, have fun, shoot slimy green things, and don't be afraid of the dark :)
Comments
Specially if you are in a group of 2-3 people, you have enough firepower to take down an RT, so go to the RT together and shoot it down. Killing cysts don't cost much to aliens, reveal your position, make you vulnerable, use ammo and most importantly destroy group cohesion.
The exceptions are early game when the aliens don't have much res, and when you are alone and have little hope to accomplish anything better than killing a few cysts.
Unless you have a jetpack or follow my clogs that I usually destroy, this is incorrect. I can make a building block out of clogs and access vents that way.
Specially if you are in a group of 2-3 people, you have enough firepower to take down an RT, so go to the RT together and shoot it down. Killing cysts don't cost much to aliens, reveal your position, make you vulnerable, use ammo and most importantly destroy group cohesion.
The exceptions are early game when the aliens don't have much res, and when you are alone and have little hope to accomplish anything better than killing a few cysts.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
you don't really want everyone to pull their axe and hack the extractor or even shoot the extractor. what if a bunch of skulks come in while you're all reloading or clustered?
i would have 1 person hack extractor and the other guys spread out while watching the entry points for skulk.
also, i think it's bad advice to ignore cysts... obviously some things take priority like a hive, RT or other structures etc but killing cysts is a constant drain for the alien commander. if you go around killing cysts which need to be replaced then you can drain almost as much resources as killing an RT. (obviously kill them with axe to save ammo)
Specially if you are in a group of 2-3 people, you have enough firepower to take down an RT, so go to the RT together and shoot it down. Killing cysts don't cost much to aliens, reveal your position, make you vulnerable, use ammo and most importantly destroy group cohesion.
The exceptions are early game when the aliens don't have much res, and when you are alone and have little hope to accomplish anything better than killing a few cysts.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Depends which cyst.
When attacking an harvester, it's always a good idea to kill the cyst beside it for 2 reasons: It damages the harvester when it's off creep, and the Khammander won't be able to instantly place another Harvester once the first one is down.
Also welders kills Cysts very fast.
For the guide:
Well it's basic and the same as all the other guides I've seen. Don't expect people to suddenly become pros after 3 weeks; it takes time for those that had no access to the beta. If you play pubs, expect pubs.
<b><!--sizeo:5--><span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Marines:<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
The job of the Marines: To win the game
The job of the Commander: To help marines win the game
The commander is not your minimap, the commander is not a quick fix for you making grave tactical errors, the commander is not there so that you don't have to have any map awareness. Marines get the 'c' key for a reason (it opens a map and displays what all your buddies are doing). It's really not the commander's fault if you're not sure what to do,<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
actually youre wrong here. the commander is supposed to be... commanding. i know thats a hard thing to understand and all. so its the marine players fault if there is a com chair rush and your team isnt in the room to stop? the com isnt supposed to be saying or doing anything? the one person with constantt map view/awareness/etc is somehow not supposed to supply input? yes, the commander is the minimap+. hes the eye in the sky. the com and see and do things you cant. as for tactics its the coms job to be supplying the attack orders.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->and it's also not his fault if you die to aliens. The commander can do a lot of things, some of those things can really hurt your chances of winning, but the commander can never actually make you do the damage that your team needs you to do in order to win the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
only partially false. if a com sends me to hold and area but then fails to supply me ammo or health when i need it (and i only call for ammo when im almost dry or when my health is low) then if that com doesnt supply it or gives a reason why i cant have it then yes thats the coms fault.
ps, com can put your team in the correct position to win, since he can see overhead. com can scan and NOT send the entire team into the room full of cloaked onos or he can send the team to the other side of the map to the completely open hive with no defense whatsoever (putting the team in better position to send some damage to the alien team).
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->So, how do you win the game? The job of winning the game comes down to 2 main things for marines. Building res nodes/tech points, and killing any enemy building they can. You don't actually need to kill alien life forms to win the game... however, it can be very hard to kill all the alien buildings without the alien lifeforms trying to do something about it to stop you. What I want to impress on you, is that your primary job is not killing as many skulks as possible, only kill aliens if it's something that helps you do one of the other two things. You don't need to chase skulks, you don't need to run off alone into trouble. No matter what happens, you need to do those 2 jobs, the commander cannot be blamed for you doing a poor job of building RTs or killing alien structures.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ill make it even easier to understand than that. you win by holding more area than the other team. you do that by killing at many alien lifeforms as possible. killing skulks enables the com to expand without worrying about retaliation. if your team is destroying skulks that usually means that your team will win if you have a competent com (and players do what he says). no, you dont need to chase skulks, but by all means chase a high value lifeform that is running for his life. so many times i see marine teams completely stop firing on an onos running for its life. but yea, kill as many skulks as possible, hold choke pts so the com can expand and spit out upgrades faster , preventing alien expansion.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Map Awareness:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
As I said before, it is not the comm's job to be your minimap. The comm has better situational awareness over some things than you do, but he shouldn't need to tell you where the most action on the map is, or which res nodes need to be run towards.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
its the coms job to be directing the action. com should be constantly relaying map info, since like you said before players are too busy building all that crap you mentioned. it would be helpful if the guy with the overhead view of the entire map tell us whats going on.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Don't kill the 2 skulks in marine start before phasing, just phase. Someone dying will respawn and kill them later.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
dont agree, losing part of main base to POTENTIALLY kill whatever is on the other side of the phase gate isnt worth it. what happens if every spawner thinks that exact thought. then you have 4 ppl phasing and no one shooting the skulks eating the base power node. or even worse you have a com jumping out of the chair to kill skulks..
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>Aggression:</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
Ok, now for your final job as a marine. You need to kill any and all alien structures! The BIG mistake I see people making here is not working as a team. This can be a tough thing, you run into a hive room, and there's 30 different targets that are all helping the aliens in one way or another, and people just seem to be doing a bit of everything... and it's confusing. The fact of the matter is, the worst thing you can do is pick something different from what everyone else is doing. It can be hard to judge sometimes weather you can actually kill a hive, but if one person is attacking the hive, then everyone else should be attacking it too. After that, if one person is attacking the resource node, then everyone else should be too. The commander can't really see how many aliens there are, where and how their defense are positioned, or make a good call on how much egg density there is. Generally speaking, the commander wants the hive killed the most, but if it's really only realistic to take out the upgrade chambers, make that judgement call and don't feel guilty for it. If you can shoot down the res node from a safe place, but going deeper into the hive entails a big risk, it's fine to just kill the res node and see how far you can get a bit later. The real trick is, whatever the biggest target being attacked is, everyone else should be doing the same thing. Once a hive is attacked, aliens will respond, at that point you really just have to roll the dice and do your best. If half the team is attacking one thing and the other is attacking another, THAT's when your whole rush collapses and you don't even kill anything to show for it. At least do your best due diligence to get a target down. Voice chat, coordinate, and do it. Don't expect the commander to do it for you.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
com can see how many there are, com has scanning abilities and most of the time you can see them on the map anyway. com DEFINITELY can see all of the things you said he cant. com can see literally anything on the map after the obs is dropped.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Generally speaking, the commander wants the hive killed the most, but if it's really only realistic to take out the upgrade chambers, make that judgement call and don't feel guilty for it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
and then it all made sense, this is a rambo guide. disregard everything ive said, carry on.
A: Marines have a macromap, and they need to get in the habit of using it. I'm not arguing that the comm has zero responsibility for map awareness, I'm arguing that RIGHT AWAY when you start trying to master marines, you should be thinking of map awareness as a collaborative effort, not something the comm does for you so you don't have to. As a marine it's your responsibility to be as map aware as you can be on your own, and it's the comm's responsibility to do his best to fill in any details you've missed.
B: I don't want to imply that you shouldn't be shooting at lifeforms you see. What I'm saying is that killing lifeforms is always a means to an intermediate ends. You kill the skulk so he can't kill your nodes, you kill the onos so he can't kill your tech point, you kill the lerk so you can't stop you from killing the harvester. You should almost always shoot at any lifeform that you see or that comes near you, at least unless you think it will prevent you from taking down an alien structure you're in the process of killing, in that case it's acceptable to sacrifice your life... but what I'm saying is don't "defend" just outside the hive, don't sit and wait for long periods for aliens to move into an area when they can easily choose somewhere else to go. Your job isn't to have the highest kill score possible, as you identified, your job as a marine is to control the map as effectively as possible. That means if you're not in a place where you're going to build things, you're not preventing aliens from killing something already built, and you're not in a place where you can kill alien buildings, or moving to one of those 3 objectives, then you're wasting time.
C: The comm does not "place" marines. I can shout at you, I can issue you orders, but most of the time you'll just run off and do your own thing anyways. I'm not arguing that that frees me from the responsibility of issuing orders or telling marines what I want them to do, but it IS by design, and it ultimately means the comm is not responsible for what marines ACTUALLY do, whether or not he asked them to do it. This is not starcraft2, where if your marine runs into a group of zerglings and dies terribly... well, you made a mistake to click him there. Every marine in NS is a living thinking person with a brain usually just as smart as the comm's is. After the comm issues you an order, you take responsibility for what you choose to do, and how effectively you do it. I'm only trying to give newer players a better sense of what is strategically needed from them to win the game. Study a bit before you start, rather than trying to do it on the fly at the moment.
Marines on the ground have a better idea of the front line conditions. I might WANT you to kill that harvester 2 rooms away, but if it's really an unrealistic request, the marines would know that better than the comm would. Ultimately, it's a myth that the comm has more information than the marines. The comm has a different perspective, he has more intimate knowledge about what tech you have, about what tech you will have next. He generally has surface level information about what is happening to all his marines, although it's very easy to miss details while you're busy off doing something for someone else. Almost always marines have a better sense of what the conditions in their immediate area are than the comm does. Marines can see aliens that just outright are not visible for the comm yet, as aliens must be visible by a marine, AND be within a certain range of that marine for the comm to see them. Additionally, AGAIN, everything the comm sees on the map, is also on your macro map, and all tech has begun and tech has finished researching warnings pop up for marines. The comm is usually MORE aware of what tech is in process, but he doesn't actually have information the marines have not gotten.