Make Co Games Lame!
afratnikov
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18931Members
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18931Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Xeno marines to hell</div> WARNING: Marines will curse at you, call you lame or noob, and f4
Why is xeno so effective?
1) You don't have to be an extremely good NS player
2) Marines won't get any kills
3) Hits multiple marines at once
4) Can kill marines without armor
How to get started:
First of all, you probably won't be able to become an efficient higher level form unless the server has extra levels. If the server DOES have extra levels, this just may be the best way to go because it gets you kills quickly.
The first upgrade you get is leap -- it will help you close the distance to marines quickly and that will help you get some kills. Now you play for a while saving the 2 points. There isn't really anything all that great for a skulk anyway (silence? carapace?) Once you have 2 points get xeno and start having fun. With next level you should probably get Scent of Fear to see where marines are so you can find the biggest group. After that you should get Adrenalin because it will allow you to get through the map faster and then when you start the xeno countdown you will be able to leap several times to close on the marine. Then, carapace will help you survive longer, and celerity is nice too. Also, save a couple of points for higher life forms! You should always have 1 point to go gorge and web and heal the hive. You might also want to keep one point for lerk. Fade's acid rockets are pretty useless but Onos' charge might be a fun way to play too, especially with adrenalin.
How to xeno well:
Your main goal is to explode near a marine without getting killed. It is very important NOT TO GET KILLED -- if you explode and the marine doesn't die, it's OK because you destroyed his armor and your next xeno will kill him. If he kills you, then he gets XP and he doesn't lose any health.
The best way to xeno is to first start the xeno countdown (the skulk screams and you have a couple of seconds before explosion) and then quickly select to leap (by pressing "Q") and then leap at the enemy. You'll have to try it out a couple of times before you get it right. You should never just run at the enemy. If you run at the marine, you'll get killed or you won't get close enough to do much damage. Again, the most important thing is not to let the marines kill you.
Some tips for advanced xenoing:
1) Time the xeno so that you will explode just as you reach the target
2) Leap around corners
3) Leap into the ceiling above marines because everyone always aims at the ground
4) Use SoF to find a large group of marines and try to jump into them. This is hard to pull off because all of the marines will be shooting at you. Try letting another skulk/fade rush in before you and while everyone shoots at that skulk you leap in and xeno the crowd.
5) This is hard but very useful in smaller games: Xeno, leap into marine, and bite once, then boom -- marine's dead.
6) when you are lvl 5, become gorge, web the hive: You should make the webs a) as long as possible b) going from ground to ceiling and c) spread them out throughout the base. When you got to the max # of webs, die to a marine and go back to xenoing.
Xenocide goes pretty much against all the marine CO tactics:
A) Usually marines are encouraged to stay together to fight off skulks and fades together because it maximizes their firepower -- xeno simply shines when you explode near groups.
B) Marines like to take resupply because it allows them to survive a bite from skulks. Many good marines will end up with 0 armor but full health -- Do you ever envy thos focus leets who will get 5 kills in a row? Well that's because they only needed 5 hits to kill all these armorless marines. With xeno you will frequently get double kills and in larger games 3 or more!
C) Jet Packs are feared by many because only very good players can blink swipe or leap bite those JPs in the air. It also requires focus because without focus they'll just get the health back through resupply -- you should be able to go gorge and web the hive by the time marines get JPs. If you're good at webbing (again, long webs that are well spread out throughout the hive area) Jet packs will not be able to do much damage. You can also try to xeno them, thought you will probably need two skulks to explode simultaneously to get kill the JP in one try.
There is not much marines can do against xeno:
The best way to "counter" xeno is for marines to weld each other. Another is to go Heavy Armor. Lastly, marines can go for Motion Tracking and try killing the skulks before they explode, but that is very difficult to do. Most marines will just whine and call you a noob hoping that you'll stop doing it just because it's lame.
Final words:
Lately i have been using xenocide all the time and it works very well for me -- playing on a 16-people server i get into the top 3 scores without much effort. What i noticed, however, is that noone except me was using xenocide. When i asked why they didn't xeno they said that they don't like diing all the time -- they want to play and not be dead all the time. This is not a problem at all, because after you die you will spawn right back. Aliens don't have huge death sprees too often, and if they do, then you are probably losing badly. One guy was making fun of my kill to death ratio (of 1:2 or something) -- the low k:d ratio isn't surprising because for every kill i get a death from explosion. However the marines do not get any experience from these deaths so the k:d ratio is completely irrelevant. I hope more people will be using xeno in the future, especially if aliens have trouble winning. I was playing alien and i kept losing even though i went the xeno route: the rest of my team kept diing so a couple of outstanding marine players could go JP early on. So i had to become a gorge and I kept webbing the hive. Two games we survived for 25 minutes (30 min time limit) but eventually we lost. Noone else used xeno on our team. Then, three people (including me) decided to xeno and that quickly destroyed the marines' moral. The best player on their team left because he couldn't keep a positive k:d ratio and others were complaining. We won easily because some people started leaving and others were being literally bombarded by skulks.
I'm sure there has to be SOME way to counter xeno so I'm all ears to your suggestions. Still, i believe the 3rd ability upgrade is highly underused so i hope i have made at least some of you try it out. Xenoing can be a lot of fun! My current top kills were 4 out of a 6 player team and 5 on a team of 10. Though the marines will be a bit annoyed, everyone will praise you for 3 or 4 kills in one hit. Xeno may be a bit overpowered, but in that case it is our duty to speak out and make sure that it gets nerfed a bit for combat game. I advise everyone to try to blow marines.
Why is xeno so effective?
1) You don't have to be an extremely good NS player
2) Marines won't get any kills
3) Hits multiple marines at once
4) Can kill marines without armor
How to get started:
First of all, you probably won't be able to become an efficient higher level form unless the server has extra levels. If the server DOES have extra levels, this just may be the best way to go because it gets you kills quickly.
The first upgrade you get is leap -- it will help you close the distance to marines quickly and that will help you get some kills. Now you play for a while saving the 2 points. There isn't really anything all that great for a skulk anyway (silence? carapace?) Once you have 2 points get xeno and start having fun. With next level you should probably get Scent of Fear to see where marines are so you can find the biggest group. After that you should get Adrenalin because it will allow you to get through the map faster and then when you start the xeno countdown you will be able to leap several times to close on the marine. Then, carapace will help you survive longer, and celerity is nice too. Also, save a couple of points for higher life forms! You should always have 1 point to go gorge and web and heal the hive. You might also want to keep one point for lerk. Fade's acid rockets are pretty useless but Onos' charge might be a fun way to play too, especially with adrenalin.
How to xeno well:
Your main goal is to explode near a marine without getting killed. It is very important NOT TO GET KILLED -- if you explode and the marine doesn't die, it's OK because you destroyed his armor and your next xeno will kill him. If he kills you, then he gets XP and he doesn't lose any health.
The best way to xeno is to first start the xeno countdown (the skulk screams and you have a couple of seconds before explosion) and then quickly select to leap (by pressing "Q") and then leap at the enemy. You'll have to try it out a couple of times before you get it right. You should never just run at the enemy. If you run at the marine, you'll get killed or you won't get close enough to do much damage. Again, the most important thing is not to let the marines kill you.
Some tips for advanced xenoing:
1) Time the xeno so that you will explode just as you reach the target
2) Leap around corners
3) Leap into the ceiling above marines because everyone always aims at the ground
4) Use SoF to find a large group of marines and try to jump into them. This is hard to pull off because all of the marines will be shooting at you. Try letting another skulk/fade rush in before you and while everyone shoots at that skulk you leap in and xeno the crowd.
5) This is hard but very useful in smaller games: Xeno, leap into marine, and bite once, then boom -- marine's dead.
6) when you are lvl 5, become gorge, web the hive: You should make the webs a) as long as possible b) going from ground to ceiling and c) spread them out throughout the base. When you got to the max # of webs, die to a marine and go back to xenoing.
Xenocide goes pretty much against all the marine CO tactics:
A) Usually marines are encouraged to stay together to fight off skulks and fades together because it maximizes their firepower -- xeno simply shines when you explode near groups.
B) Marines like to take resupply because it allows them to survive a bite from skulks. Many good marines will end up with 0 armor but full health -- Do you ever envy thos focus leets who will get 5 kills in a row? Well that's because they only needed 5 hits to kill all these armorless marines. With xeno you will frequently get double kills and in larger games 3 or more!
C) Jet Packs are feared by many because only very good players can blink swipe or leap bite those JPs in the air. It also requires focus because without focus they'll just get the health back through resupply -- you should be able to go gorge and web the hive by the time marines get JPs. If you're good at webbing (again, long webs that are well spread out throughout the hive area) Jet packs will not be able to do much damage. You can also try to xeno them, thought you will probably need two skulks to explode simultaneously to get kill the JP in one try.
There is not much marines can do against xeno:
The best way to "counter" xeno is for marines to weld each other. Another is to go Heavy Armor. Lastly, marines can go for Motion Tracking and try killing the skulks before they explode, but that is very difficult to do. Most marines will just whine and call you a noob hoping that you'll stop doing it just because it's lame.
Final words:
Lately i have been using xenocide all the time and it works very well for me -- playing on a 16-people server i get into the top 3 scores without much effort. What i noticed, however, is that noone except me was using xenocide. When i asked why they didn't xeno they said that they don't like diing all the time -- they want to play and not be dead all the time. This is not a problem at all, because after you die you will spawn right back. Aliens don't have huge death sprees too often, and if they do, then you are probably losing badly. One guy was making fun of my kill to death ratio (of 1:2 or something) -- the low k:d ratio isn't surprising because for every kill i get a death from explosion. However the marines do not get any experience from these deaths so the k:d ratio is completely irrelevant. I hope more people will be using xeno in the future, especially if aliens have trouble winning. I was playing alien and i kept losing even though i went the xeno route: the rest of my team kept diing so a couple of outstanding marine players could go JP early on. So i had to become a gorge and I kept webbing the hive. Two games we survived for 25 minutes (30 min time limit) but eventually we lost. Noone else used xeno on our team. Then, three people (including me) decided to xeno and that quickly destroyed the marines' moral. The best player on their team left because he couldn't keep a positive k:d ratio and others were complaining. We won easily because some people started leaving and others were being literally bombarded by skulks.
I'm sure there has to be SOME way to counter xeno so I'm all ears to your suggestions. Still, i believe the 3rd ability upgrade is highly underused so i hope i have made at least some of you try it out. Xenoing can be a lot of fun! My current top kills were 4 out of a 6 player team and 5 on a team of 10. Though the marines will be a bit annoyed, everyone will praise you for 3 or 4 kills in one hit. Xeno may be a bit overpowered, but in that case it is our duty to speak out and make sure that it gets nerfed a bit for combat game. I advise everyone to try to blow marines.
Comments
We tried that once and we were pressuring the marine team hard, however because many ppl xenoed at once there was a long alien spawn queue just as marines started getting shotties = dead hive.
With another new spawn 2 more aliens go in and kill the marines... And just timing it with the marine spawn que means that the alien spawn doesn't get exceptionally long... Of course thats with a nice team.
splliting does <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
One thing I would liketo emphasize:
<u><i><b><span style='font-family:Optima'><span style='color:red'>ALLWAYS XENOCIDE WITH FULL ENERGY BAR</span></span></b></i></u>
This allows you to make that leap and also bite -maybe the killer bite- before you blow up. It is allways quite sad to kill the marine with the bite and then explode to none, still that can get you the kill.
doesn't xeno require a full energy bar anyway?
But yes, this is one of the reasons why no one takes competitive CO seriously. Aliens almost always win assuming equally skilled team due to redemption Onos and Xenocide.
Not really true. Upgrades don't have any direct relation to skill as a player.
Xenicide gives you easy kills – while it takes virtually no skill to use – and marines have no real counter for it. They can go out for HA/Welder and they will fall to Cara/Redemption-Onos with their crappy Lv2 Shotgun or Lv1 HMG.
Because of that I never used Xenocide or Onos/Cara/Redemption. It’s oppositional to my effort to improve myself in the game.
<!--QuoteBegin-afratnikov+Mar 20 2005, 07:10 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (afratnikov @ Mar 20 2005, 07:10 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Xeno may be a bit overpowered, but in that case it is our duty to speak out and make sure that it gets nerfed a bit for combat game.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
There were already threads about it. Unfortunately combat game play doesn’t got balanced in 3.0f and is still default alien win if the alien survives to level 3.