How To Play Ns 2.0
SoulSkorpion
Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 423Members
Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 423Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Stop your whining and read this</div> Ok. I'm sick and tired of all these posts whining about the changes in 2.0 screwing over marines\aliens (mostly whining about aliens, it seems). Now, I'm not even a playtester and I've learned how to adapt to 2.0 - it is genuinely better than 1.04. The major problem is that people are still trying to play as if it's 1.04, and are getting frustrated that their old tactics don't work.
So rather than froth at the mouth at every one of these posts, I'm just going to explain how to play NS 2.0. Make yourselves comfortable, this is going to be a <i>long</i> post.
But first:
<b>Disclaimer</b>
The contents of this post are just my way (or ways) of doing things. They are a starting point, intended to provide a good guide about the subtleties of 2.0 playstyle. Doubtless there's tons I don't know yet (after all, I've been playing 2.0 just as long as you have) but this better than nothing. Don't think that this is all there is, and don't take my word as gospel.
Oh, and while this guide does focus primarily on Kharaa strategy, I have deliberately not posted it in the Kharaa strategy forum because most of the whining and frothing at the mouth takes place on <i>this</i> forum, therefore these people are more likely to see it here. Anyway, if more people read and posted on the Kharaa Strategy forum this post would be redundant. But I digress.
Right...
<b>Alien Tactics Under 2.0</b>
This is by far the biggest problem area. People seem to be having difficulty adapting to the changes to the alien classes (fade in particular), and are having a <i>lot</i> of trouble dealing with marine expansions, or with large groups of marines. The second problem is due to the fact that, under 1.04, a skilled and determined alien, working alone, could singlehandedly destroy marine outposts if given enough time. That and the ease of dealing with HA purely by sheer numbers (and by the fact that HA was rare).
The short answer is: teamwork. And this isn't just propaganda. Teamwork is absolutely essential to alien victory in 2.0. But more to the point: combined arms is essential. In a lot of (flawed) strategy games, it doesn't much matter *what* units you use long as you have a lot of them, or your best bet is simply to use as many of your most powerful units as possible. <i>This is no longer the case in Natural Selection</i>. For maximum efficiency skulks need lerks to provide cover, and lerks need battlegorges to provide healing. I'll cover this in greater detail below when I get into evolution-specific stuff, but the general idea to keep in mind is: support units dramatically increase the effectiveness of the main attackers.
Anyway, this doesn't solve the biggest source of whining. Namely: "Species X is so weak now, it was unfairly nerfed." So here's what you're doing wrong:
<u>Skulk</u>
Well... I haven't seen too many people complain about skulks under 2.0, and that's a good thing. The increase in armour makes them much more effective against unupgraded marines. The only real thing to bear in mind about skulks regarding 2.0 is: since territory control is so much more important, skulks are much more valuable as scouts. Patrol resource nodes looking for marine expansion, and <i>parasite</i> resource towers on sight! Gorges need to know which res nodes are safe and which aren't.
Well, there is something else you should know: don't get locked into the mindset of being <i>just</i> a skulk. But I'll get to that in greater detail when I discuss...
<u>Gorge</u>
(that was quick, eh? <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->)
The first thing to remember is: there is now a difference between a "builder" and a "gorge"; they are not necessarily the same thing. Gorges get res no faster than any other alien, so the evolution must now be considered on the basis of its own merits.
There are two reasons why you'd want to gorge: to build stuff, or to battlegorge. There is no longer "designated gorge", or builder gorge. There is no reason to stay gorge when you don't have the resources to build something, if you don't intend to battlegorge. If you're low on resources and you want to get some construction work done, go skulk. Go kill some stuff. The res boost from your kills can then be put to good use building defenses, upgrades, res nodes and hives.
So what's this "battlegorge" I keep talking about? A gorge that goes out looking for trouble. Sort of. The gorge is a support class, and like the lerk is most effective when backing up the combat classes than wandering off alone. And here's the thing: having a battlegorge provide support makes a <i>massive</i> difference to the effectiveness of the combat aliens who you're backing up! If you're doing your job right, skulks don't have to go all the way back to the hive to heal after a successful skirmish, Lerks can stick around fights for longer, Fades can get back into the action faster... you get the idea.
One excellent example is Tram Tunnel on ns_bast, when trying to reach feedwater (taken by the marines) from refinery. Skulks on their own can't get down the tunnel because of all the marines pumping lead down it. Lerks can make life hard for the marines, but they can't really finish them off (certainly no more than the marines can return pistol fire). And gorges by themselves certainly can't do much. So put them all together: skulks rush down the corridor while the lerks soften up and disorient the enemy with spores and spikes - they can do their job because the enemy isn't concentrating on them. They are still going to take some damage, and so can't stay there forever - but if you're there healing them they can stay as long as they need to.
Think of it this way: the net effectiveness of combat aliens is doubled by each support class helping them, and the effect stacks. A fade with a gorge hanging around to provide healing (and possibly chamber backup) is about twice as effective, a fade with a lerk providing umbra, spore and spike cover is about twice as effective. A fade with a lerk softening up the enemy with spore and spike, protecting the fade with umbra, and a gorge healing both of them, is four times as effective.
Basically, a battlegorge acting as field medic is the kharaa answer to medpack spam <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->.
Then there's bile bomb. Bile bomb makes <i>very</i> short work of enemy structures (especially those pesky electified ones). It's probably the most mis-used skill in the game, at the moment; most of the time it seems to be used by newbies against marines, and forgotten about when structures need taking out. Let me make it perfectly clear: <b>bile bomb does no damage to marines, only to marine structures</b>. How do you deal with electrified resource nodes? Bile bomb. How do you deal with those infernal turret farms? Bile bomb. But, as I've already said, aliens can no longer get the job done alone - you'll need another gorge so you can heal each other, you'll need skulks to deal with marines, and having a lerk or two helping couldn't hurt at all. But as long as you have a (relatively) safe shot at your target, bile bomb works wonders.
Of course, you can also build battlefield fortifications to assist the combat aliens. This was helpful even in 1.04, it just wasn't viable to have so many gorges. Now that you're free to gorge whenever you want: rememeber that it's extremely helpful for attackers if they have places to fall back on. A handful of chambers makes a world of difference. Just watch out for siege cannon <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->.
<u>Lerk</u>
Repeat after me: I will not go off by myself. The Lerk is a support class, now. Spores, spikes and umbra don't really do a whole lot when you're on your own [edit]unless you're <i>very</i> good <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->[/edit], but when you use them to assist aliens in combat they're so effective it's almost unfair. It's hard to spike a target that's dodging you and firing back, but it's easy to spike a target that's firing at someone else and is dodging <i>them</i>. It's hard to spore a target that just runs out of the way, and is firing at you - it's easy to spore a target that's more worried about not having its legs chewed off and <i>can't</i> run away. When you're lerking, follow skulks (or wait near trouble spots) and back them up in combat. It's amazing how effective this is.
It used to be that the classic pair was lerks and fades, with the lerks umbra'ing the fades, who spammed acid. Now that acid spam is gone (for good, let's hope. /me spits and mumbles something about "chicken acid fades"), probably the best duo is lerk and gorge. If you stay out of trouble you aren't that fragile, but you still can't stay in combat for very long. If you've got a gorge healing you, you can stay in the fight for ages. It certainly helps in spike\spore duels with marines if you can get healed.
Another effective strategy is to team up with other lerks - at least another two, three or four for preference - and attack some marine outpost. With one sporing the enemy, one umbraing your party, and the rest spiking the crap out of anything that tries to attack you (and spiking important things like turret factories and phase gates) you're well-nigh invincible.
<u>Fade</u>
Most of you seem to be having trouble with the new Fade. More than any other evolution, you can't expect your old tactics to work, especially if you were an acid Fade.
Basically, the way to Fade in 2.0 is to do what I've been doing since 1.04 was released: stop with the acid, get in there, and tear the crap out of them. You don't need acid. You <i>never</i> needed acid. The Fade is still a big, badass killing machine once you know how to use it.
First of all: blink. Blink (and, to a lesser extent, metabolise) is what being a Fade is all about. I suspect that one of the areas of difficulty is that peoples don't know how to use it properly. So here's a quick rundown: Blink makes you temporarily invisible and propels you forward very quickly, at the cost of energy. If you hold down jump, you will fly up (so if you hold forward AND jump you'll fly at an angle). <i>You can still be hit while you blink</i> - it only makes you invisible.
[edit]Further experimentation has shown that holding down jump makes you fly directly where you're aiming, not straight up.[/edit]
[edit again]As -Vash- has pointed out, I was wrong: blink doesn't actually make you invisible. It does make you go so fast that marines can't track you properly <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->[/edit]
So, having said that, use blink to close the distance to your target. That's fairly obvious. But more importantly: do not blink directly at your target; you can still take fire. Aim just next to them (or even behind them). Or, you could try blinking right over their head, if you have the clearance (try it in Atmospheric Processing on ns_bast). What might also help is to use blink in short burts while you're in a melee - it'll <i>really</i> confuse the enemy if they can't track where you are because you keep disappearing.
The next thing is: dodge. Do <i>not</i> try to go head-to-head with <i>anything</i>, not even an LA\LMG. There's just no point in taking more damage than you have to. Blink past your target, circle them (just like a skulk) while you pound the crap out of them with your claws. It is possible to do this to HA\HMG.
Third: hit and fade. This is where metabolise comes in. Watch your health, during combat, and bail as soon as you get into the double digits (ideally, just before). Blink makes running away <i>extremely</i> easy, but bear in mind that straight lines will still get you killed. The key is to know when to back off and heal up. If you didn't already know: metabolise heals you per attack, and doesn't really use all that much energy.
Many people struggle with the new Fade because, in a melee, they always used to charge the LA\LMGs and just flail away at them, relying on their tough armour to survive. Don't do that. Rely on your own skill, and your ability to dodge gunfire. Let me tell you: the marines should be whining that Fades are too overpowered. If you're doing your job right, you blink in, kill two marines relatively effortlessly since you can take them almost completely by surprise, and then blink out. You can get Fades very quickly, by comparison to Onos. Why wait for the enemy to get HA before you start kicking their arses with a superior evolution? The great advantage of the Fade is that for a lot of the time your opponents will not have heavy armour or weapons, and are easy prey.
Unfortunately, I see movement chambers being used less and less. You know how Oni need defense chambers? Well, Fades need movement. The movement upgrades were practically <i>designed</i> for Fades. Celerity greatly boosts your melee ability, and adrenaline allows you to blink faster and for longer. This is possibly also another source of "oh, Fades are so weak" - with either of these upgrades they're like twice as strong.
As far as playing as a team goes, you'll find that having a gorge around is very helpful. You aren't so effective against turret farms any more; you'll need your gorgie's bile bomb for that. But in return, you have to keep marines off his back. You're an assassin, not artillery.
<u>Onos</u>
Ah... you don't need my help here. Nobody's complaining about the onos <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->.
But you do need to know how to be a team player. The 2.0 onos is kinda the replacement for the 1.04 fade. You're a tank.
In a lot of role-playing games, there's a type of player who is as tough as possible, with the idea that the enemy attacks <i>them</i> and not the rest of the party, who are more geared towards doing damage. Also in a lot of real time strategy games; you have your swordsmen engage the enemy directly with your archers backing them up, so that the heavily armoured swordsmen are taking most of the heat rather than the fragile archers. If you're playing for the team, your role as onos is the heavily armoured swordsman. You can charge into the thick of turret farms with your support lerks providing umbra cover and your battlegorges bombing the enemy base. Your job is to draw fire.
That's not to say there isn't a hell of a lot of arse-kicking power packed into the Onos. You're supposed to crush the enemy, too. But if you want to help your teammates, work together with them.
<u>Evolution summary</u>
Skulk: scout, light infantry, small can of whup-****
Gorge: field medic, artillery, field engineer
Lerk: battlefield support
Fade: assassin, big can of whup-****
Onos: tank.
I really mean it about the support class business. A really good analogy is... Warcraft 3 Orcs. You know how there's little point in having shamans and troll witch doctors going in to battle by themselves. But when they're assisting grunts or raiders or whatever by enhanding them with bloodlust and dropping healing totems into the melee, the grunts decimate enemies who don't have these benefits.
<b>Alien Stategy Under 2.0</b>
As you know (or should know), 2.0 has far greater emphasis on securing locations for their strategic benefit than 1.04. General territory control under 2.0 is very important - more important, in fact, than simply having all the hive locations. In short: the side that controls the map controls the game.
This is where sensory chambers are so effective. As much as people extol the virtues of the new sensory chambers, I still rarely see them used properly. A sensory chamber in the right location effectively secures the room for the Kharaa, but they still aren't being dropped very often. When they are, they're usually right next to resource nodes, or in some other reasonably obvious location where they're going to get run into or shot at.
Place sensory chambers where they're going to be useful, such as within range of high-traffic corridors and other vital locations (processing, double res, in siege locations, red room, junctions, rooms in the middle of the map). And when you place them in these rooms, place them where people aren't going to look. Put them around the back of boxes, on top of ledges, stuff like that. As high up and as far away from the other chambers as you can. Putting them next to OCs is stupid, because the OCs will uncloak when they fire and the return fire will likely uncloak the SCs when they are hit. Putting them next to RCs is stupid because the enemy can see that there is no steam coming out of the nozzle; when they fire at the RC they might hit the SC in the crossfire. Just because they're invisible doesn't mean they're impossible to find - treat it like hide and seek.
Basically: get out there and secure territory! If you want to maintain your advantage over the marines, you have to stop them getting the res to deploy HA\HMG. The more territory you control (that is, have significant amounts of chambers in, or protecting) the more safe places you have, the more res you have, and the less res the enemy has. Do not underestimate the power of securing territory.
And by "secure", I mean secure. There's no point at all in cleaning out a hive, or twinres, or Processing, and then just moving on to the next place. It'll just get retaken when the marines arrive with reinforcements. Once you've taken a location (skulks, lerks and fades: I'm talking to you) <i>stay there</i> and defend the gorges while some defence is put up. It makes no difference how many key areas you can clean out if you can't hold any of them.
Right. I think that's enough for now.
So rather than froth at the mouth at every one of these posts, I'm just going to explain how to play NS 2.0. Make yourselves comfortable, this is going to be a <i>long</i> post.
But first:
<b>Disclaimer</b>
The contents of this post are just my way (or ways) of doing things. They are a starting point, intended to provide a good guide about the subtleties of 2.0 playstyle. Doubtless there's tons I don't know yet (after all, I've been playing 2.0 just as long as you have) but this better than nothing. Don't think that this is all there is, and don't take my word as gospel.
Oh, and while this guide does focus primarily on Kharaa strategy, I have deliberately not posted it in the Kharaa strategy forum because most of the whining and frothing at the mouth takes place on <i>this</i> forum, therefore these people are more likely to see it here. Anyway, if more people read and posted on the Kharaa Strategy forum this post would be redundant. But I digress.
Right...
<b>Alien Tactics Under 2.0</b>
This is by far the biggest problem area. People seem to be having difficulty adapting to the changes to the alien classes (fade in particular), and are having a <i>lot</i> of trouble dealing with marine expansions, or with large groups of marines. The second problem is due to the fact that, under 1.04, a skilled and determined alien, working alone, could singlehandedly destroy marine outposts if given enough time. That and the ease of dealing with HA purely by sheer numbers (and by the fact that HA was rare).
The short answer is: teamwork. And this isn't just propaganda. Teamwork is absolutely essential to alien victory in 2.0. But more to the point: combined arms is essential. In a lot of (flawed) strategy games, it doesn't much matter *what* units you use long as you have a lot of them, or your best bet is simply to use as many of your most powerful units as possible. <i>This is no longer the case in Natural Selection</i>. For maximum efficiency skulks need lerks to provide cover, and lerks need battlegorges to provide healing. I'll cover this in greater detail below when I get into evolution-specific stuff, but the general idea to keep in mind is: support units dramatically increase the effectiveness of the main attackers.
Anyway, this doesn't solve the biggest source of whining. Namely: "Species X is so weak now, it was unfairly nerfed." So here's what you're doing wrong:
<u>Skulk</u>
Well... I haven't seen too many people complain about skulks under 2.0, and that's a good thing. The increase in armour makes them much more effective against unupgraded marines. The only real thing to bear in mind about skulks regarding 2.0 is: since territory control is so much more important, skulks are much more valuable as scouts. Patrol resource nodes looking for marine expansion, and <i>parasite</i> resource towers on sight! Gorges need to know which res nodes are safe and which aren't.
Well, there is something else you should know: don't get locked into the mindset of being <i>just</i> a skulk. But I'll get to that in greater detail when I discuss...
<u>Gorge</u>
(that was quick, eh? <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->)
The first thing to remember is: there is now a difference between a "builder" and a "gorge"; they are not necessarily the same thing. Gorges get res no faster than any other alien, so the evolution must now be considered on the basis of its own merits.
There are two reasons why you'd want to gorge: to build stuff, or to battlegorge. There is no longer "designated gorge", or builder gorge. There is no reason to stay gorge when you don't have the resources to build something, if you don't intend to battlegorge. If you're low on resources and you want to get some construction work done, go skulk. Go kill some stuff. The res boost from your kills can then be put to good use building defenses, upgrades, res nodes and hives.
So what's this "battlegorge" I keep talking about? A gorge that goes out looking for trouble. Sort of. The gorge is a support class, and like the lerk is most effective when backing up the combat classes than wandering off alone. And here's the thing: having a battlegorge provide support makes a <i>massive</i> difference to the effectiveness of the combat aliens who you're backing up! If you're doing your job right, skulks don't have to go all the way back to the hive to heal after a successful skirmish, Lerks can stick around fights for longer, Fades can get back into the action faster... you get the idea.
One excellent example is Tram Tunnel on ns_bast, when trying to reach feedwater (taken by the marines) from refinery. Skulks on their own can't get down the tunnel because of all the marines pumping lead down it. Lerks can make life hard for the marines, but they can't really finish them off (certainly no more than the marines can return pistol fire). And gorges by themselves certainly can't do much. So put them all together: skulks rush down the corridor while the lerks soften up and disorient the enemy with spores and spikes - they can do their job because the enemy isn't concentrating on them. They are still going to take some damage, and so can't stay there forever - but if you're there healing them they can stay as long as they need to.
Think of it this way: the net effectiveness of combat aliens is doubled by each support class helping them, and the effect stacks. A fade with a gorge hanging around to provide healing (and possibly chamber backup) is about twice as effective, a fade with a lerk providing umbra, spore and spike cover is about twice as effective. A fade with a lerk softening up the enemy with spore and spike, protecting the fade with umbra, and a gorge healing both of them, is four times as effective.
Basically, a battlegorge acting as field medic is the kharaa answer to medpack spam <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->.
Then there's bile bomb. Bile bomb makes <i>very</i> short work of enemy structures (especially those pesky electified ones). It's probably the most mis-used skill in the game, at the moment; most of the time it seems to be used by newbies against marines, and forgotten about when structures need taking out. Let me make it perfectly clear: <b>bile bomb does no damage to marines, only to marine structures</b>. How do you deal with electrified resource nodes? Bile bomb. How do you deal with those infernal turret farms? Bile bomb. But, as I've already said, aliens can no longer get the job done alone - you'll need another gorge so you can heal each other, you'll need skulks to deal with marines, and having a lerk or two helping couldn't hurt at all. But as long as you have a (relatively) safe shot at your target, bile bomb works wonders.
Of course, you can also build battlefield fortifications to assist the combat aliens. This was helpful even in 1.04, it just wasn't viable to have so many gorges. Now that you're free to gorge whenever you want: rememeber that it's extremely helpful for attackers if they have places to fall back on. A handful of chambers makes a world of difference. Just watch out for siege cannon <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->.
<u>Lerk</u>
Repeat after me: I will not go off by myself. The Lerk is a support class, now. Spores, spikes and umbra don't really do a whole lot when you're on your own [edit]unless you're <i>very</i> good <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->[/edit], but when you use them to assist aliens in combat they're so effective it's almost unfair. It's hard to spike a target that's dodging you and firing back, but it's easy to spike a target that's firing at someone else and is dodging <i>them</i>. It's hard to spore a target that just runs out of the way, and is firing at you - it's easy to spore a target that's more worried about not having its legs chewed off and <i>can't</i> run away. When you're lerking, follow skulks (or wait near trouble spots) and back them up in combat. It's amazing how effective this is.
It used to be that the classic pair was lerks and fades, with the lerks umbra'ing the fades, who spammed acid. Now that acid spam is gone (for good, let's hope. /me spits and mumbles something about "chicken acid fades"), probably the best duo is lerk and gorge. If you stay out of trouble you aren't that fragile, but you still can't stay in combat for very long. If you've got a gorge healing you, you can stay in the fight for ages. It certainly helps in spike\spore duels with marines if you can get healed.
Another effective strategy is to team up with other lerks - at least another two, three or four for preference - and attack some marine outpost. With one sporing the enemy, one umbraing your party, and the rest spiking the crap out of anything that tries to attack you (and spiking important things like turret factories and phase gates) you're well-nigh invincible.
<u>Fade</u>
Most of you seem to be having trouble with the new Fade. More than any other evolution, you can't expect your old tactics to work, especially if you were an acid Fade.
Basically, the way to Fade in 2.0 is to do what I've been doing since 1.04 was released: stop with the acid, get in there, and tear the crap out of them. You don't need acid. You <i>never</i> needed acid. The Fade is still a big, badass killing machine once you know how to use it.
First of all: blink. Blink (and, to a lesser extent, metabolise) is what being a Fade is all about. I suspect that one of the areas of difficulty is that peoples don't know how to use it properly. So here's a quick rundown: Blink makes you temporarily invisible and propels you forward very quickly, at the cost of energy. If you hold down jump, you will fly up (so if you hold forward AND jump you'll fly at an angle). <i>You can still be hit while you blink</i> - it only makes you invisible.
[edit]Further experimentation has shown that holding down jump makes you fly directly where you're aiming, not straight up.[/edit]
[edit again]As -Vash- has pointed out, I was wrong: blink doesn't actually make you invisible. It does make you go so fast that marines can't track you properly <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->[/edit]
So, having said that, use blink to close the distance to your target. That's fairly obvious. But more importantly: do not blink directly at your target; you can still take fire. Aim just next to them (or even behind them). Or, you could try blinking right over their head, if you have the clearance (try it in Atmospheric Processing on ns_bast). What might also help is to use blink in short burts while you're in a melee - it'll <i>really</i> confuse the enemy if they can't track where you are because you keep disappearing.
The next thing is: dodge. Do <i>not</i> try to go head-to-head with <i>anything</i>, not even an LA\LMG. There's just no point in taking more damage than you have to. Blink past your target, circle them (just like a skulk) while you pound the crap out of them with your claws. It is possible to do this to HA\HMG.
Third: hit and fade. This is where metabolise comes in. Watch your health, during combat, and bail as soon as you get into the double digits (ideally, just before). Blink makes running away <i>extremely</i> easy, but bear in mind that straight lines will still get you killed. The key is to know when to back off and heal up. If you didn't already know: metabolise heals you per attack, and doesn't really use all that much energy.
Many people struggle with the new Fade because, in a melee, they always used to charge the LA\LMGs and just flail away at them, relying on their tough armour to survive. Don't do that. Rely on your own skill, and your ability to dodge gunfire. Let me tell you: the marines should be whining that Fades are too overpowered. If you're doing your job right, you blink in, kill two marines relatively effortlessly since you can take them almost completely by surprise, and then blink out. You can get Fades very quickly, by comparison to Onos. Why wait for the enemy to get HA before you start kicking their arses with a superior evolution? The great advantage of the Fade is that for a lot of the time your opponents will not have heavy armour or weapons, and are easy prey.
Unfortunately, I see movement chambers being used less and less. You know how Oni need defense chambers? Well, Fades need movement. The movement upgrades were practically <i>designed</i> for Fades. Celerity greatly boosts your melee ability, and adrenaline allows you to blink faster and for longer. This is possibly also another source of "oh, Fades are so weak" - with either of these upgrades they're like twice as strong.
As far as playing as a team goes, you'll find that having a gorge around is very helpful. You aren't so effective against turret farms any more; you'll need your gorgie's bile bomb for that. But in return, you have to keep marines off his back. You're an assassin, not artillery.
<u>Onos</u>
Ah... you don't need my help here. Nobody's complaining about the onos <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->.
But you do need to know how to be a team player. The 2.0 onos is kinda the replacement for the 1.04 fade. You're a tank.
In a lot of role-playing games, there's a type of player who is as tough as possible, with the idea that the enemy attacks <i>them</i> and not the rest of the party, who are more geared towards doing damage. Also in a lot of real time strategy games; you have your swordsmen engage the enemy directly with your archers backing them up, so that the heavily armoured swordsmen are taking most of the heat rather than the fragile archers. If you're playing for the team, your role as onos is the heavily armoured swordsman. You can charge into the thick of turret farms with your support lerks providing umbra cover and your battlegorges bombing the enemy base. Your job is to draw fire.
That's not to say there isn't a hell of a lot of arse-kicking power packed into the Onos. You're supposed to crush the enemy, too. But if you want to help your teammates, work together with them.
<u>Evolution summary</u>
Skulk: scout, light infantry, small can of whup-****
Gorge: field medic, artillery, field engineer
Lerk: battlefield support
Fade: assassin, big can of whup-****
Onos: tank.
I really mean it about the support class business. A really good analogy is... Warcraft 3 Orcs. You know how there's little point in having shamans and troll witch doctors going in to battle by themselves. But when they're assisting grunts or raiders or whatever by enhanding them with bloodlust and dropping healing totems into the melee, the grunts decimate enemies who don't have these benefits.
<b>Alien Stategy Under 2.0</b>
As you know (or should know), 2.0 has far greater emphasis on securing locations for their strategic benefit than 1.04. General territory control under 2.0 is very important - more important, in fact, than simply having all the hive locations. In short: the side that controls the map controls the game.
This is where sensory chambers are so effective. As much as people extol the virtues of the new sensory chambers, I still rarely see them used properly. A sensory chamber in the right location effectively secures the room for the Kharaa, but they still aren't being dropped very often. When they are, they're usually right next to resource nodes, or in some other reasonably obvious location where they're going to get run into or shot at.
Place sensory chambers where they're going to be useful, such as within range of high-traffic corridors and other vital locations (processing, double res, in siege locations, red room, junctions, rooms in the middle of the map). And when you place them in these rooms, place them where people aren't going to look. Put them around the back of boxes, on top of ledges, stuff like that. As high up and as far away from the other chambers as you can. Putting them next to OCs is stupid, because the OCs will uncloak when they fire and the return fire will likely uncloak the SCs when they are hit. Putting them next to RCs is stupid because the enemy can see that there is no steam coming out of the nozzle; when they fire at the RC they might hit the SC in the crossfire. Just because they're invisible doesn't mean they're impossible to find - treat it like hide and seek.
Basically: get out there and secure territory! If you want to maintain your advantage over the marines, you have to stop them getting the res to deploy HA\HMG. The more territory you control (that is, have significant amounts of chambers in, or protecting) the more safe places you have, the more res you have, and the less res the enemy has. Do not underestimate the power of securing territory.
And by "secure", I mean secure. There's no point at all in cleaning out a hive, or twinres, or Processing, and then just moving on to the next place. It'll just get retaken when the marines arrive with reinforcements. Once you've taken a location (skulks, lerks and fades: I'm talking to you) <i>stay there</i> and defend the gorges while some defence is put up. It makes no difference how many key areas you can clean out if you can't hold any of them.
Right. I think that's enough for now.
Comments
-JohnnySmash
Only 1 thing though, are you sure you become invisible when you blink?? I've had many fades fly at me with thier arms out at super speed. I was pretty sure that was blink...
Ah well, great guide none the less,
Path
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Good yes.
I am probably one of the few who uses the SCs to the fullest extent, and I do not ever stick them in the middle of hallways, or in obvious places, but I don't gorge often.
Nicely said, but it is not the Aliens we should be concentrating on (even though it is the more diverse of the two).
I'd like to hear your Marine strategies, I had enough of the Aliens.
1.)Onos=Tank
Onos are very weak in 2.0 and can be brought down even by 2-3 vanilla marines if they charge them head on. Like the other aliens its a hit and run unit. Enter a room stomp gore/devour a marine retreat heal rinse and repeat. Even with carpace a hmg can waste a onos in under 1 clip. If theres some lmgs or a shottie too you dont live longer than 5 secs. If you are new to onos then choose redemption. Until you master hit and run it will save your expensive **** many times. Your purpose is to wreck marine outposts and res nodes. By killing their res you deny them HA. Just devouring HA´s is useless since with 4+ res nodes marines can replace them faster than you can kill them. Charge the turrets gore one redeem rinse and repeat till the outpost is down. After taking out their res assist the others in charging the main base.
2.)Dont wait till your gorges secured the captured res.
Bring the battle to the marines. Dont let them get a chance to retake a res. Charge the next res to keep em busy there and your gorges will be save. Res denial is the most important thing in NS 2.0 since aliens are underpowered once marines can aford HA in numbers. Taking out their res as fast as possible wins you the game. Res are the #1 priority everything else is a secondary objective. Its rare that marines retake a res once fades and onos come into play so waiting and doing nothing is the worst thing you could do. They will all get HA from the remaining nodes and wipe you off the map.
<!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::onos::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tiny.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tiny.gif'><!--endemo--> < <!--emo&::fade::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/fade.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='fade.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&::lerk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::lerk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/lerk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='lerk.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo-->
This deserves a sticky.
Bring the battle to the marines. Dont let them get a chance to retake a res. Charge the next res to keep em busy there and your gorges will be save. Res denial is the most important thing in NS 2.0 since aliens are underpowered once marines can aford HA in numbers. Taking out their res as fast as possible wins you the game. Res are the #1 priority everything else is a secondary objective. Its rare that marines retake a res once fades and onos come into play so waiting and doing nothing is the worst thing you could do. They will all get HA from the remaining nodes and wipe you off the map. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
True, for simple res points. I meant more for areas which are really, <i>really</i> strategically important such as hive sites, double res, and siege locations like Processing. Areas which are going to dramatically alter the flow of the game. I'm not saying that res points don't alter the flow of the game, I mean that *individual* ones don't change the course of the game so much.
One tiny thing to add - as a fade, if you bind a key to "lastinv", you can easily switch between blink and claws, and be much more effective in battle.
For example, if you use the arrow keys (like me), bind it to your Page Down key like follows:
bind "PGDN" "lastinv"
One tiny thing to add - as a fade, if you bind a key to "lastinv", you can easily switch between blink and claws, and be much more effective in battle.
For example, if you use the arrow keys (like me), bind it to your Page Down key like follows:
bind "PGDN" "lastinv" <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Good point. Personally, I use hud_fastswitch 1 and have my weapon keys very close to my movement keys. Whatever lets you switch weapons quickly. But yes, Fades do need to switch their weapons faster than any other other class.
LastInv and hud_fastswitch 1 are best when used togther to blink in swipe and blink out before the marine can think twice.
Try to think of the 2.0 fade like the 1.04 lerk. It may seem weak and fragile when you first try and use it but keep working and you'll see that this unit can dominate.
"Like the other aliens its a hit and run unit. Enter a room stomp gore/devour a marine retreat heal rinse and repeat"
This is the reason why endgames last so long - onos are camped outside while skulks fades and lerks are going in and making a difference. Yes, devour camping kills marines, but if you don't follow it up you'll be there all day.
BTW I have to agree on the blink,marines didn't notice me when I took out their commchair,and they didn't know when I blinked into the hive and took out their TF due to bad turret placement
I still think the Fade is as deadly as before,only more fragile....
But I don't agree with you on the Lerk thing,I enjoy going solo and scrapped more kills than the Onos could (haha nub!:p)
Very Good!
I think you left out some info about Movement and Defence chambers, but you covered Sensory very well.
Sensory is your covert chamber, you always want to drop it out of the way, in an area that they will only find it with a sensor sweep, or never at all (under the floor).
Some ppl will say that a row of OCs are really only ment to be a speed bump, slowing down the marines long enough for you to get better classes to bring the fight to them. I don't agree with that at all!
If you place your OCs correctly, they can be Area Denial for marines and will have to be Sieged out, Which costs alot of res to be able to do!
Players forget the importance of Defense chambers, don't just place them around a hive and expect that to save the hive room. "If they can't get to the area of the Hive, they can't hurt it!" So if you set up a proper Row of OCs as perimeters of defense and back them up with a equal number of DCs, they will last forever even versus SGs.
Example: Don't just place OCs in random locations, look at the map, find Areas of Interst (Areas of the map, like a Corridor junction, a hall that leads to the Double Res room, a corridor that branches off toward two different hive) and block off these AoI. If the marines can't get past a particular area that could lead them to the other side of the map, you don't have to worry about your hives as much.
OCs alone wont last more than 3 clips each. This will never keep an area safe. Always make sure that you have an equal number of DCs behind the OCs, or more. 3 is all you need to be able to provide maximum healing to 1 structure but if the DCs are healing the OCs, whats healing the DCs? More DCs, you always want to ahve an equal number to keep everything alive longer, this will cost you less res in the long run becasue you wont have to retake an area twice or 3 times.
Also a Lone OC is a useless OC, always place them in groups of 2, 3 or more. Cloaking OCs may not seem like much sence becasue they will just uncloak and give away the hiding area, but its the surprise that will get you the kills, the other marine who doesn't know about them is the guy who you want to get when they are cloaked. Not to mention, they can't be snipered from range if you don't know they are there till its too late!
I have pointed out how DCs are important in number behind OCs now for Movement Chambers. MCs don't seem like something that you would place in the frontlines, when infact they not only are helpful but one of the most important life savers in the game. They provide a quick escape for a Onos under heavy fire or a way to run away as a Gorge trying to advance the territory and your found.
Also they recharge your energy faster. Having a pair of MCs off to the side is like having Adrenaline, and if you have Adrenaline, its like being on SPEED! Always cloak your MCs, ALWAYS! its defensless and important for escape back to a hive.
Place them around your areas, not as WoL or anything like that, but as quick renforcements to hives, remember a MC will warp you to any hive that is under attack. So if your out at the other end of the base, having to run to a hive to find a MC isn't very helpful to anyone, if there was a MC off to the side in a area of interest, if makes getting to that Hive and saving it alot faster!
SO REMEMBER: Always place DCs behind OCs in equal numbers. Cloak everything and make sure the SC is out of the way. Place your OCs in Areas of Interest, places when the marines can get a powerful location to control. MC provide a quick escape and provide fast energy replenishment!
Least for the time being!
This is, as will sound cliche, exactly what I had in my mind needed to be said, but I just don't have the time these days <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif'><!--endemo-->
Nice work... very well thought out, and explains a lot more indepth what is the overriding point... NS2.0 is now more focused on teamwork than anything else, rather than focusing on the 'tipping points' of 1.04 by which one side had a massive advantage.
The side with the massive advantage in 2.0 is the side that works together.
NS2.0 is genius, and I see very bright things for this game in the future <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
GG!
Oh, and never underestimate the power of 4 xenocidial skulks with silence.
Ok, ok, I'll get to it <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
I haven't played as much marine in 2.0 (or even 1.04) as I have alien, and there isn't really as much to say. But I'll get to it <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
One thing though (sorry, I'm a nitpicking bugger I know):
Metabolise is basically a self heal for fades. Its original purpose was to turn hot lead into health (ie heal you when you're under fire), but it was changed so that once you're wounded and you've blinked the hell outta there, you have the means to heal yourself back up to full health.
This coupled with blink is one of the reasons a fade is a perfect assassin in the right hands.
Apart from that, spot on.
Good work mate. Now you just need to drill the meaning of <b>teamwork</b> into each and every TSA marine's head.
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=31&t=41193' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...ST&f=31&t=41193</a>
Another thing I would like to add, do what's best for the team. Saving for onos/fade when the team needs a new hive probably isn't a good idea. Also starting your saving at the very begining of the game isn't a good idea either. If you drop a res tower first and help defend them I guarantee you will get your evolution faster as well as the upgrades required for it. Get your res through res for kills; it's key. Finally when you have that 100 res don't go onos right away, check your scoreboard to see what everyone else is, and evolve into something the team needs. I've had a 100 res and gone lerk, fade, even gorge a bunch of times.
Finally sense first is not mandatory, all chambers are pretty much equally viable. Ask what the team wants, if they get what they want they'll do better than if you throw down some random chamber. Also second hive chamber is CRUCIAL; it has the power to make or break the game. If res flow isn't that great, you'll want a MC for fades and lerks. If res flow is decent make sure you have a DC for the onos. Sense requires a lot of res in the beginning, keep that in mind. You need to place a lot them for you to be using them correctly. I think a MC1/DC2/SC3 is the best way to go in MOST scenarios. At two hives you have adren/regen fades(uber assassins) and celerity/redemption onos(protected investment tank). It's harder to control the map without SCs but for experienced players, silence is just as good as cloaking if not better, and celerity or carapaced skulk force the marines to spend money on upgrades if they aren't all ready.
Oh and great post soul, you touched on a lot of important things in the new build. I wish there was one for marines but I doubt very many people could write a good one at this stage in the game.
edit: Tonzak, that has nothing to do with what he's talking about. This thread isn't even about balance, it's just about effective strats, especially compared to 1.04. Maybe you posted in the wrong thread, there's no ranting here.
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=31&t=41193' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...ST&f=31&t=41193</a> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
NS 2.0 is more balanced than NS 1.04. Anyway, I didn't say anywhere that it is completely balanced.
But that's besides the point. I wrote this post because of people who believe that aliens are getting a raw deal in 2.0.
Yes, a well skilled fade will pretty much make everyone stop what they are doing on BOTH SIDES and say
wow, you are really good, can you join my clan?
I believe excessive Fade combat might become the new "fad"..
In early NS, it was about the siege from a ridiculously far place. In 1.04 it was JP HMG's.
Early 2.0 is about the endless onos.
Perhaps the new thing will be Fade mastery?