Arm's Lab Rush? Good Or Bad.
BattleTech
Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4137Members
Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4137Members
I've been pondering about, which is better.. Arms Lab or Motion Tracking upgrade's early on the game..
All the time, I usually start off with one infantry portal.. armory.. observatory.. either motion tracking or arms lab..
Then I save up for a second node then drop a second infantry portal.
All the time, I usually start off with one infantry portal.. armory.. observatory.. either motion tracking or arms lab..
Then I save up for a second node then drop a second infantry portal.
Comments
If you want to go for early 2 hives securing, you bet you want MT early.. In fact, it works if you want to go for some quick res node pick up strategies.
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Hopefully this will change a lot in 1.1! I'm giddy!
Defense upgrades add 10% absorption and 20 armor
Carapace adds 20 armor TOTAL and 30%absorption from bullets (at lvl 3, 3 defense chambers)
Weapon upgrades add 10% damage to bullets per upgrade
30% carapace - 10% upgrade = 20% or takes off 1/3 of carapace
"% " - 20% upgrade = 10% or takes off 2/3 of carapace
"% " - 30% upgrade = 0% or nullifies carapace entirely
The arms lab was a counter-balance for upgraded and advanced evolution Kharaa. The observatory is a balance for movement and sensory chambers, at least it is to me. The motion tracking ability negates Silence of the movement and somewhat decreases the effectiveness of sensory's cloaking. Thus, unless the Kharaa team gets one of these chambers first an Observatory is really only good for Distress Beacon and the ability to build Phase gates. But I digress...
Overall, here is my build list:
Infantry Portal
Armory
Mines (1-2 packs, place them on the ground around your structures to allow your team the freedom of not guarding spawn)
Arms lab
Defense Upgrade - increases TSA soldier life expectancy dramatically
Resources
Whatever
-OldManRipper
That is true.
There is also one problem: if skulks manages to bite your marines couple of times, they dont die, but after you drop medpack to them, they have really low armor and will die as easily as regular marine (unless you start to give welders to everybody)
But i think that level 2 weapon is more important than level 2 armor. With level 2 weapons you have better change against fades and it is easier to destroy buildings.
Usually i first research weapons to level 1, then armor to same level and after that weapons again.
Then motion track and if i have enough res i build prototype lab.
As far as the welder bit, one is usually needed early on if the Kharaa are decent at all, and if your team is able to respond in time to beat 'em off a location. Just have that guy weld everyone he comes across and everything works like gravy.
-OldManRipper
1 ip
Armoury
Arms Lab
Level one weapons
One pack of mines used on the res node which came next
I then kept two marines in base while having four others (one with welder one with mines) running round getting res nodes. Before they knew it they had level three uogrades and the skulks were dropping like flys, then came MT, jps and hmgs. Unfortunatly, the aliens still managed to win (go figure) even though at one point I sent three marines buzzing round their second (practically undefended) hive fully equipped and with med pack support......
I felt robbed, bought a shottie hopped out of comm chair (n00b thing but I was REALLY annoyed) and just went mad.
Generally:
Know thy enemy. Spotting their strategy, exploiting their weaknes, perform pincer maneuvers.... All in that for just 45 res, folks this is a bargain, no matter how you put it.
As comm:
Because it lets me see enemy movements, gives me way better reaction times to counter massed skulk assaults, and lets me do something use full with that rambo you allways get on pubs (send him hunting for the gorge, he'll usually try if you tell him its the gorge).
As grunt:
Nothing beats turning the tables on that skulk who thinks he's gonna ambush himself some marines... You can almost see the surprise on his little face when you open up on him <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo--> .... <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
At any rate, I find MT to be the ultimate defensive upgrade as it lets the smart marine avoid getting hit at all, as oposed to "only" tolerating one extra hit at armor upg. 1.
Even though you know they're coming it is hardly possible to stop them without upgrades.
My first post by the way <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
There is also one problem: if skulks manages to bite your marines couple of times, they dont die, but after you drop medpack to them, they have really low armor and will die as easily as regular marine (unless you start to give welders to everybody)
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The 70 armor of a lvl 1 armor upgrade marine takes about .. eh, 40% abs, halve that, base dam 75 ... 15 armor lost per skulk bite. So the armor is good for about 5 bites. I'd say that four healthpacks will let the marine live for 7 bites, about.
The best reason to drop healthpacks on wonded marines is that the soldier gains trust in his commander.
Especially when they haven't even asked for one yet.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In my view, MT won't help the marines much at the beginning if skulks have lvl 3 carpace.
Even though you know they're coming it is hardly possible to stop them without upgrades.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->It doesn't help much rambos, but if your marine team sticks together, they can kill carapaced skulks pretty easily even without any upgrades. Team work is the key word here. And in that case MT helps a lot.
it really does help us stay alive.
and i u are thinking of getting an arms lab, take defence upgrade first.
against a plain skulk, the first weapon upgrade wont do any diffrence on how many bullets it takes to kill em.
Its probably because I played 1.0-1.03 on a linux server and rarely had the opportunity to enjoy MT. I usually just have my marines run out and patrol, or I'll just pay 3 and scan real quick for some recon. As a marine, if I have, thats nice. If I dont, thats just fine as long as I get the arms lab upgrades. If I get neither, then I'll start bitchin.
I will say that armor 1 is probably the most important upgrade marines can get tho. I see a lotta people on my server complaining when I get armor1 even in desperate situations, saying that weapons are better. But I mean jeez! You cant even get close to a fade without armor, cuz you drop in like 3 acid rockets.