Its a button found in the observatory. If you hit it (takes 15 res or so) you'll heal an alarm sound, and then about 3 seconds later EVERY dead marine will respawn in marine start. Useful if a skulk manages to chomp down your ips, or if your whole team gets whiped out at once and you dont want to wait the 30 seconds or more for them to all come back through the IPs.
This is extremely under used. I've seen so many comms just wait for their marines to respawn whilst a skulks is sitting on the one remaining spawn. USE THE BEACON! You can even do it mid game when you are taking heavy casualities from have attacks.
The story is that the marine drop ship is called in to deliver re-inforcements, FYI.
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.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&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> Now's a time to use beacon.
Distress beacon is one of those nifty toys for commanders that can be highly useful or even border on the cheap and cheesy at times. I've seen times when the com has just decided to leave the IPs down, and uses the distress beacon when he needs to bring some marines into the game, as well as almost instant DBs when the whole team has screwed up a rush. It's important to realize that the more obs you have, the more you can sweep, and the more you can DB. If you have a few of them hidden here and there, you can even drag a game out for another minute or three.
One of the cheesiest tricks with the DB is, when your team has relocated to somewhere and the aliens have already moved into marine start, to have about four or five of your marines console-kill at the same time. While two of them will probably respawn at the IPs in ten seconds, you can DB the other three, and they will appear in the marine start. This can be a hilarious way to re-capture the marine start res node, since often times, if you do this trick during the beginnings or the middle of the game, the aliens will have just capped the res, but not have any OCs around, or at least not a wall of them. Kill any OCs in the room, build a TF or PG, and voila, you have another res point, and a forward base from which to push the aliens from another angle. This is one of those really stupid tricks that only works if you have a commander and marines who can work well together, and know what they are planning, and only works the first time, since the aliens get smart after that. Also, you have to work fast once you've hit the distress beacon, because the aliens will know something funny is going on when they hear the loud alarm start to sound off.
Coincidentally, if you're in to Psy-Oping your opponents, distress beacons when there is nobody dead can be a great way to momentarily confuse the aliens. If the aliens don't seem to be doing anything that takes up their attention, and you have some spare res to fool around with, a random distress beacon for no reason will at the very least result in a skulk, lerk, gorge, or fade to go take a quick peek. Again, this kind of works better if you've relocated, so that the aliens get worried about the marine spawn. If you are up against a very stupid alien team though, the effect is kind of lost on them.
? <!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo--> (uhh, WTH was that?) <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> (Is teh game supposed to make that noise?)
we had relocated to cargo bay (not my choice) and our base was getting attacked. I DBd, and about 5 or so marines respawned at MS and moved to powersilo, where they took down the hive (aliens were too busy attacking cargo to stop it) we secured ps and sieged viaduct
ZXB, I think that must be a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Very cool, and almost impossible to achieve deliberately. It is probably only possible do accomplish on Hera, due to all the siege spots.
I don't believe they did not fix that in NS 2. Soo unfair. Ah well, until 2.01d is released the aliens have the advanrage anyway.
Comments
You can even do it mid game when you are taking heavy casualities from have attacks.
The story is that the marine drop ship is called in to deliver re-inforcements, FYI.
<!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='asrifle.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&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
Now's a time to use beacon.
I guess I was under the impression that distress beacon was a "last resort", not something you'd wanna do in the middle of a game.. but yeah..
One of the cheesiest tricks with the DB is, when your team has relocated to somewhere and the aliens have already moved into marine start, to have about four or five of your marines console-kill at the same time. While two of them will probably respawn at the IPs in ten seconds, you can DB the other three, and they will appear in the marine start. This can be a hilarious way to re-capture the marine start res node, since often times, if you do this trick during the beginnings or the middle of the game, the aliens will have just capped the res, but not have any OCs around, or at least not a wall of them. Kill any OCs in the room, build a TF or PG, and voila, you have another res point, and a forward base from which to push the aliens from another angle. This is one of those really stupid tricks that only works if you have a commander and marines who can work well together, and know what they are planning, and only works the first time, since the aliens get smart after that. Also, you have to work fast once you've hit the distress beacon, because the aliens will know something funny is going on when they hear the loud alarm start to sound off.
Coincidentally, if you're in to Psy-Oping your opponents, distress beacons when there is nobody dead can be a great way to momentarily confuse the aliens. If the aliens don't seem to be doing anything that takes up their attention, and you have some spare res to fool around with, a random distress beacon for no reason will at the very least result in a skulk, lerk, gorge, or fade to go take a quick peek. Again, this kind of works better if you've relocated, so that the aliens get worried about the marine spawn. If you are up against a very stupid alien team though, the effect is kind of lost on them.
?
<!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo--> (uhh, WTH was that?) <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo--> (Is teh game supposed to make that noise?)
we had relocated to cargo bay (not my choice) and our base was getting attacked. I DBd, and about 5 or so marines respawned at MS and moved to powersilo, where they took down the hive (aliens were too busy attacking cargo to stop it) we secured ps and sieged viaduct
Game over
I don't believe they did not fix that in NS 2. Soo unfair. Ah well, until 2.01d is released the aliens have the advanrage anyway.
<!--emo&::siege::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='siege.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::siege::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='siege.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::siege::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/siege.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='siege.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&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->