Counter To Early Sensory
Sgt_Doompy
Join Date: 2003-08-09 Member: 19264Members
Join Date: 2003-08-09 Member: 19264Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Oh the agony</div> What would be a good counter against very early SCs?
You see it more often on public servers than on clangames... What seem to happen in most games is that the aliens places a SC somewhere near the marine base very early, the skulks getting a level 3 cloaking and annihilates entire marine teams should they choose to come out. While all that happens, the aliens just spit up RTs over the map while the marines waste time getting past that invisible blockade...
Sure a possibility would be placing an observatory in your base but often the range of it doesnt uncloak the aliens outside. Should you choose to place the observatory more in front of your base it gets eaten by skulks due to its low hp. Scanning itself costs 25 energy and it only slowly regenerates so comms would be forced to spend an additional 20 res on an extra obs just so he can scan more often for those cloakers.
While skulks benefit from a level 3 cloak, usually they get scent of fear as well as an very early and destructive MT ability. The marines can try to get MT themselves to find those little pesks but again thats 45 res. So a skulk has a level 3 cloaking AND a level 3 scent of fear. Who cares if 1 SC cloaks you slower than 3 SCs... the result is the same.
A possible fix to me seems that by using only 1 SC, nearby buildings still get their level 3 cloak but nearby aliens only get a level 1 cloak. That way gorges will be forced to spend a ton of res (30) early game in assaulting the marine base and gives them less res to spit up those RTs. It also allows a comm scanning to be more effective since marines can wipe out those 3 SCs outside their base.
Any thoughts? Or am I really so wrong about this?
- D
You see it more often on public servers than on clangames... What seem to happen in most games is that the aliens places a SC somewhere near the marine base very early, the skulks getting a level 3 cloaking and annihilates entire marine teams should they choose to come out. While all that happens, the aliens just spit up RTs over the map while the marines waste time getting past that invisible blockade...
Sure a possibility would be placing an observatory in your base but often the range of it doesnt uncloak the aliens outside. Should you choose to place the observatory more in front of your base it gets eaten by skulks due to its low hp. Scanning itself costs 25 energy and it only slowly regenerates so comms would be forced to spend an additional 20 res on an extra obs just so he can scan more often for those cloakers.
While skulks benefit from a level 3 cloak, usually they get scent of fear as well as an very early and destructive MT ability. The marines can try to get MT themselves to find those little pesks but again thats 45 res. So a skulk has a level 3 cloaking AND a level 3 scent of fear. Who cares if 1 SC cloaks you slower than 3 SCs... the result is the same.
A possible fix to me seems that by using only 1 SC, nearby buildings still get their level 3 cloak but nearby aliens only get a level 1 cloak. That way gorges will be forced to spend a ton of res (30) early game in assaulting the marine base and gives them less res to spit up those RTs. It also allows a comm scanning to be more effective since marines can wipe out those 3 SCs outside their base.
Any thoughts? Or am I really so wrong about this?
- D
Comments
Just tell the team that you will ping the area in 3 seconds, then find the sensory chamber and give them a waypoint to it. Then move out and lock down a hive or two, remember to put scanners there. Also, make sure to spend some time congratulating yourself and your team for having an actual chance to win.
- D
Also try and lockdown hives, sensory gives only a deffensive advantage so they will have a hard time assaulting a turreted hive, and without more hives they cant get real upgrades.
Keep your men in teams, and don't be stingy on the shotguns. Shotguns mash up chambers good. Chambers only seem to shoot one man at a time, so if you rush them with 3 shotties, you've only one man to worry about. And med spam solves that.
As opposed to men running in one by one, dying, and leaving their shotgun behind.
If you find sensory outside base, then EXPAND so that the aliens are revealed earlier. Otherwise they'll literally be invisible until they attack IN the base, and at that point you're screwed. If you can catch them outside the base, they'll go visible and you'll see them coming in the door. Also it means that they can't build on the base doorstep, only on the outer perimeter, giving you some reaction time and fallback space.
If you play to my other suggestions then your routes to base will be covered by chokepoint minibases. So you should have more than enough res to afford the Obs and turrets required - and your PGs allow rapid redeployment of troops.
At first, people were all: SENSORY FIRST OR I KILL U!
But now, when I ask what the team wants (im always a gorge at start) they say sensory, defense and movement at about the same percentage.
Anyways, sensory is fun.
The big benefit from SCs is not cloaking - its Scent of Fear. In NS, as in any wargame, information is the key to victory. With even 2 or 3 aliens on the team using scent of fear, you suddenly lose the ability to surprise the aliens. Your entire team has been revealed, and 1 skulk camping in a vent in the middle of the map can effectively dispatch aliens to counter any pushes you make, because they can see the moment you step out of base. Moreover, you can't negate the advantage that SoF gives the aliens until you research motion tracking - and even that isn't anywhere near as good as SoF is for the aliens.
So when you see sensory as the first hive, you need to be many times more alert, not simply be of the attitude that obs = the win for your team.
do sensory emits sound?
But Scent of Fear lets the aliens be proactive, instead of reacting to your pushes. Information, as in any other game, is going to be the key to victory. And lets be frank - most aliens don't take cloaking over the much more superior (and not to mention non-redundant) scent of fear. After all, sensory chambers cloak people, and its not always obvious where they are going to be. And I've rarely seem comms be able to scan in time before their marines are already under attack by cloaked aliens / structure. Not to mention the HUGE scan charge time.
And if YOU have the resources to spam obs everywhere, then obviously you're facing some really crappy aliens. As an alien, the obs is always the first thing to go if cloaking is a big part of the attack - and even then, you can't effectively cover the map with them like you can sensory chambers, because you can't leave marine structures undefended or they'll be eaten by the first passing skulk.
So I'll state again - anyone who thinks that sensory first means gg marines is probably one of those who are still stuck in the 1.04 mindset. Sensory first still remains a powerful choice, because lone marines will be homed in on and picked off, and terrorist aliens will be able to accurately locate your team to keep them busy with random attacks.
Cap res nodes on the side where alien activity is low e.g. if marines start with archiving on hera do NOT go to holoroom, but go to cap maint/vent rt, perhaps cargo hold, and elec/turret them..
If you manage to get in a situation when its upgraded rines vs 2 hive aliens who have sens and defence, and you hold a hive, you are in a much better situation than if they had movements and defence.
Id be more concerned for you if they were smart and got movements first.