Why shade near Harvester?
BishopC
Germany Join Date: 2014-02-18 Member: 194139Members
Germany Join Date: 2014-02-18 Member: 194139Members
Hi, there is something I see constantly, and I simply can't understand it, so I would love for someone to explain this to me: Why are shades being dropped near a new build harvester? For example, eclipse, start of a round, aliens push back a first group of marines in keyhole, the khammander drops a harvester - and then a shade. And nothing else.
Is there a reason I don't get? My thought is, there is a fixed point where the harvester can be dropped, it makes no sense to cloak something the marines will find in an instant, so a crag would be ten times more useful.
Is there a reason I don't get? My thought is, there is a fixed point where the harvester can be dropped, it makes no sense to cloak something the marines will find in an instant, so a crag would be ten times more useful.
Comments
With a crag, the marine would have taken considerably longer to kill the harvester, oh heck, he would even take a lot longer to kill the crag alone, since that thing has armor and constantly heals itself, where the shade hasn't, and after the marine has been offed and 40 seconds time, harvester and crag are fully healed again, ready for the next single marine attack.
Dropping a crag, a whip, I totally understand. A shift, I'd slowly shake my head, but okay, that's kinda useful sometimes, and it could also be used to echo harvester and the shift itself out, saving 18 res. I'd understand that. A shade? I simply don't get it. That feels like painting Times Square grey and saying "Nothing here.". Damn, people KNOW it's there, so why cloak it?
Even if you want to drop some other structures after a while, why not drop these first? Maybe move them afterwards if you are OCDed and don't want the marines to know where they are.
I asked a khammander once why he dropped the shade not a crag, and he got angry and yelled "That's my decision, take care of your own business!" and "I don't have time to explain this!" and then went on to explain for 10 minutes why he has no time to explain, so my impression was "He doesnt know and is incapable of admitting a mistake." I also thought it's probably hard to have him as a workplace collegue.
I asked another, and he said "To hide the whip." (there was no whip at that time). I understand that (kinda), but why not drop the whip first?
It works because most people aren't Sherlocks.
I'm not saying it is something that can protect your harvesters, but it can win you some time, i.e. marines will start building power, some will proceed to next room in hopes of finding other structures to destroy, some sneaky bastards can hide near RT and wait for khamm to drop fresh harvester (this is the most comical scenario).
However, I might shade all the crags and whips I've put around the harvester
When skulks arrive, they can be invisible before they enter the Marine's line of sight
But what tends to happen is skulks start walking when close to the area so the marine doesn't hear them and then they come into the cloak area and continue walking and then by the time they get to the marine the harvester is already dead...
This. (Also, this is what I described in the second post.) Time is of the essence when you try to defend an RT, and a crag can buy you a lot of time, where a shade costs time. Also, harvester heal and self heal. If you don't have a gorge close by, the second marine attack will kill the almost dead harvester for sure.
I don't think you have to be Sherlock. Actually, you have to be pretty dense to miss a cloaked harvester, and in my 1000+ hours, I can't remember having seen a marine coming by a cloaked harvester, thinking "Oh, nothing here, will move on." Even cloaked, it makes this gargling swallow sound. And it will decloak the moment the marine touches it. So even if a marine comes to an empty node, he tends to call the commander and then WALK INTO THE CLOAKED HARVESTER. Time bought: Zero!
I have to admit, the universe and stupidity are infinite, so I suppose I will some day witness a marine passing a harvester. And I will probably laugh my a$$ off.
Totally agree. I do this too when I have excess res.
Cloak a gorge tunnel, totally agree. That's what shade is for, hide upgrades, hide gorge tunnels. Totally understand. But that's not the case. I really see this all the time, there is nothing but a harvester and a shade. I swear, these khammanders drop a harvester wherever they can, and then drop nothing but a shade with no one being around.
Okay, I think we can close this thread now. I still think this is not a viable tactic and will facepalm everytime I see a khammander do that.
Thank you for your posts!
on the other hand, I'll shoot empty nodes to check, almost always. and crag is much more useful.
What you do, mate, is you put a shade in a position where it only covers the crag that you put also within range, but out of LoS of the RT.
Marines shoot at the RT and will take a couple of seconds to realise it's under crag (if they realise at all), and then either a) attempt to kill the RT under crag healing, which takes more time, or b) first FIND and then kill the crag that they otherwise would have destroyed straight off.
If you shade the RT, you make it freaking obvious you've got hidden structures and they will be quickly scanned for and focused down.