Tactical Diversity

CEldin · March 2003

I do not know if I am alone on this one, but I believe that this game lacks the tactical in-depth mind that many other games require. Foremost in my mind is Red Alert 2, as well as Warcraft. There are so many viable strategies in those games it has become ludicrous. Almost every week I find myself at the hands of another ingeneous execution of some rush, or survival tactic that is extremely viable and extremely effective. In NS I see none of this.

There are only three differences on Pubs in NS (for marine team). One, the comm is a nooby or scrub, and commands the team badly thus an alien win. Two, the Comm risks an unupgraded hive rush with JP and a couple shotguns. Three is the full-fledged HMG JP jetbo rush. Now I have seen some diversity in these strategies...IE: play zookeeper on their main hive so they concentrate on it, then rush Jetbo's into their other one and rape it. But in essence the tactical diversity has stagnated.

For Aliens it is much the same situation. Unless the team has some exceptional players there are often only two viable tactics. One - rush Carpace and do an early base rush on marines. Two - Capp 3 nodes, drop an OC or two (and DC) at home hive, then run off to another hive, drop a couple OC (and DC) and wait for the hive to go up.

Now I may just be the most unlucky fellow ever, but this is the general trend of occurances that I see in games today. I even played in a couple scrimms, the same strategys were employed, but simply with more precision (and a bit of variety, IE: a sYn style shotgun rush, spawn kill). Now I was to understand this game was full of options. Apparently not.

<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'> </span> Please note that I could just be dreadfully wrong and expieriencing the game from a skewed perspective, if so please post a location in which I can expierience true tactical diversity...For now NS has lost its spunk.

Obliterater · March 2003

To some extent this is inevitable. People will find the most efficient, effective strategy and do it constantly.

1.1 will most likely change this quite a bit.

1) Aliens will be able to evolve to diffrent species without hive requirements, putting massive emphasis on res nodes instead of hives.

2) JP rush will be nerfed so more tactics will become viable

Typhon · March 2003

Simplifiying NS to have 2 strategies (rush or tech) is like, IMO, simplifying war3 to only have 2 strategies (rush or tech).

If you find NS has lost its spunk, take a break until 1.1, or come to CoFR servers, thats where i play and theres always great players on.

TheGlow · March 2003

Most pubs are just loosely run. Ive played some games where all the aliens were on point and we barely talked. We all just knew where to hide, and one guy would lure marines into ambushes, etc. Everything was smooth. Or Id go lerk and let them draw fire one way and id sneak in the back and take out vital structures.
Other games I got 3 gorges standing next to each other "saving" , shooting at each other. Then curse when 1 marine kills them all. So you never know. And you can see that the answer to winning is right there, just no one wants to listen. Like just saying, attack the unguarded nodes at cargo. They dont do it. Now the marines can afford hmgs and ha like crazy.

And to Typhon, umm, isnt war3 only teching and rushing?
www.theinclan.com , thats all they talk about the game and theyre all ranked high.

CEldin · March 2003

I do not want to simplify it to Tech / Rush because that would be far to broad, as you have pointed out. In WC3 however, you have at least 4 rushes with EACH race, and in teams it it possible to come up with up to twenty viable ones (me and my clan did it, fun stuff). Anyway, In NS the problem is that once you tech there are only so many options: JP or HA, while in WC3 there are tons. Also, the Rush aspect there is essentially only a couple effective rushes, which is basicaly what I am trying to say.

Theres not a whole lot you CAN do once you decide to rush, or tech. Only a couple options and thats pretyt much it.

BlaqWolf · March 2003

stung, dude! you sound like you'd be a good comm. why don't you kick those scrubby noobs and play as comm? i mean seriously i'm not being sarcastic we need more good comms on these pubs. you sound like you know a lot about rts games anyway. what servers you play on?

TheGlow · March 2003

You only need some rts exp really to comm well. my friend is decent at WC and what not, and ive seen him take a losing marine team and turn the tides to a strong win. But key were people who could listen. Pack of 4 HA and welders and standard light machine guns, and we won easy. From no techs, to a good solid win.

Narfwak · March 2003

SoulSkorpion · March 2003

Yes, NS lacks tactical diversity compared to other Real Time Strategy games. However, compared to other First Person Shooters it has tactical diversity coming out of its ears, so to speak. It's a hybrid of the two; you can't really compare it to one or the other.

DumbMarine · March 2003

Yeah, on one side, its a FPS like CS, but on the other, it's a strategy like W3. It's better than neither, but it has stuff that both lack.

Although, I agree, NS has reached a shortage of strategy and tactics. "Build 6 RTs, get HA/HMG, its all over." You just don't see new things these days.

Maybe if there were other NS modes.... nah. 1.1 Will sure bring new battle plans into the game.

Tactical Diversity

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