Rupture is something I find impossible to evaluate because I simply havent experienced it enough first hand.
try it, it's extremely effective, it obscures 90% of marines' vision, they can't see anything, let alone aim at aliens. The most common reaction I get from ruptured marines is they run straight back for cover, it's exactly the same as someone in counter strike who just got flashed in the face. This is the best time for me to drop a bone wall at the hive room entrance, they all get trapped and the aliens move in for the free kills.
It's really sad that alien commander is given so many useful abilities and yet people get all defensive when they are told to use them.
If you're lucky, maybe one or 2 of your skulks will use their minimap. Otherwise, you have to constantly watch where marines are pushing...... Oh whoops this is NS2, not NS1.
Just drop a whip and crag at your forward extractors. Pathetically viable in both comp and pub games...
commanding is just more then commanding to me... it's multitasking
- crying baby in the background.
- gf wants attention, hangs around my neck, blocking my view deliberately.
- an unsuspected friend shows up at my house while ingame and is not interested and only talks about pussy & boobs.
- damn dog wants attention, or tries to get under the desk or something else.
- helping out some moron who thinks the game evolves around him.
- same moron tries to eject comm because i safe res to help out the entire team.
commanding is just more then commanding to me... it's multitasking
- crying baby in the background.
- gf wants attention, hangs around my neck, blocking my view deliberately.
- an unsuspected friend shows up at my house while ingame and is not interested and only talks about pussy & boobs.
- damn dog wants attention, or tries to get under the desk or something else.
- helping out some moron who thinks the game evolves around him.
- same moron tries to eject comm because i safe res to help out the entire team.
i'd say, and don't quote me on this, this might be one of those times when the crying baby would take priority over items 2-6.
lets narrate a bit, the baby is crying because it's hungry and soiled itself, the gf wants attention because she needs help changing and feeding the baby, and the friend is talking about shit and boobs, ie. dirty nappies and feeding as well... FEED AND CHANGE THE DAMN BABY ALREADY.
I find that a lot of alien comms (Marine comm too sometimes) are too busy playing 1player sc2 campaign when they are in the chair.
Lets be honest, aside from drifter micro, alien comm doesn't really have a lot to pay attention to, besides the couple of seconds it takes to drop buildings/click on upgrades. Yet still (and we have all experienced this) some of them are extremely slow on dropping nodes that have been killed, dropping upgrade chambers, etc.
Now we can attribute some of this to beginner comms. But I'm talking about commanders who have already gotten past that stage and still have these bad habits. Usually these are the worst because they won't listen to teammates request, because they are the COMMANDER OMGZORS LISTEN TO ONLY ME I'M ALWAYS RIGHT!
Just want to say that Alien comm also have to deal with:
- Bad pathing and no-collision floors especially in Docking East Wing + Stability which messes with Drifters
- "You Must Wait!" for 3-4 sec whenever you want to redrop an RT/Cyst
- Drifter ignoring commands at least once per game
- The cysting system which prefers to try and redrop all the cysts from the hive rather than cyst from the closest point on infestation
- The cysting system which quite often pops 2-3 cysts when you're trying to cyst somewhere and I dont know whyyyy
- clicking on the map for a drifter to go to one place, and its waypoint appearing somewhere completely different
- drifters stop travelling to waypoints halfway there for no explicable reason
- Teammates not telling you if a room is clear or occupied by marines. Screw sending my 8 res drifter in to scout
- The cysting system which prefers to try and redrop all the cysts from the hive rather than cyst from the closest point on infestation
- drifters stop travelling to waypoints halfway there for no explicable reason
I think it cysts from the hive because unconnected cyst chains slowly die, and new cysts have very little HP. Thus extending cysts backwards from an unconnected cyst would eventuate in the cyst dying pretty much immediately (we already had this when the 'cystem' was first introduced, and this is basically how it turned out).
EDIT: actually I just realised that's not what you meant. And yeah, it's annoying.
The drifter stopping moving used to happen to me a lot but I realised it's because I sent it to go build a building that has already been completed. It pays to add a second waypoint next to the structure if it does build before the drifter gets there. I dunno if doing this has completely fixed the issue for me but I don't really notice this happen anymore (although only just started doing this recently). It would be nice, however, if drifters still move to the waypoint even if the structure is built as long as it's the last thing on it's order chain (and still stop dead in its tracks if the structure is killed instead).
Another thing I dislike about drifters is that if a drifter is building something that gets echoed, the drifter moves to the location its echoed to - often eventuating in it getting half-way there and stopping dead in its tracks like above. It would be nice if once a structure is fully echoed that the building order is cancelled.
Another thing I dislike about drifters is that if a drifter is building something that gets echoed, the drifter moves to the location its echoed to - often eventuating in it getting half-way there and stopping dead in its tracks like above. It would be nice if once a structure is fully echoed that the building order is cancelled.
It would be nice if unfinished structures would have the least echo priority, so the shift takes a finished one whenever possible.
You can watch the minimap to see if rooms get cleared. (Since you don't have to fight marines, your c-map should be up 80-90% of the time)
And while drifter problems exist and are annoying, I believe that is when you have to make priorities. If you have been playing with drifters for 30 sec trying to make it do what you want, maybe you should ignore it and drop rts/chambers and go back to it later.
Auto cysts destroying itself is extremely frustrating, but as someone who has experienced it many times, when cysts get too close I just place cysts individually.
Back to complaining about commanders..I find that some commanders jump in with the mindset "my team better be good enough to rape the enemy team, so I can ez mode comm"
Instead when I jump in I try to think more like "I better try to keep up with my team so I can give them necessary res and upgrades so they can kill better". Naturally sometimes that doesn't matter, but I would rather rely on human players instead of static structures.
being yelled at by the team because you didn't do your upgrades the way they want lol
but seriously, micro managing since not everybody in pub games know what they are doing...
i don't get yelled at, unless i forget something, which does happen.
enzyme, when i can, drifters spotting, greedy cysting + res nodes.
don't usually have access to bonewall and rupture when it matters, ie. early game, as i'm focused on the greedy expansion and biomass can wait.
calling out harvester defense, marine positions etc. echo rts.
i don't really coordinate attacks, focus on defense and setup, i figure, if we're going 5:3 res, we're good, do ask them to harass enemy rts though. spurs as before hive 2, res before spurs. getting higher life-forms is my main goal, and starving them of res. life-forms are the biggest game changer.
Exactly amoral. Two things that a comm can help higher lifeforms(which attributes to winning the game).
Keep up with resnodes. (So you can get higher lifeforms out quicker and keep them out when they die)
Keep up with upgrades. (So the lifeforms can fight upgraded marines effectively)
There have been too many times when a comm forget these and instead we have 3 whips in base, another 2 whips at the next tech point. Shades, crags, shifts everywhere, only one spur, a rt nozzle open and the comm complaining about how his team can't kill anything and he has no res.
/facepalm
Play mutiplayer teamplay, not singleplayer campaign SIM city.
40% trying to tell their team how to win and 60% watching them do the exact oppiset of what you told them.
Maybe it's time we start saying the opposite of what we want them to do. Pubbies can keep their fight the powah attitude, everyone wins.
"Loadsa sentries plox"
Echo eggs doesn't seem worth the res in pubs at least. 2 res to have a single player spawn closer is a bit too expensive for my taste. I found this a better tactic when a shift could still spawn eggs as it was a lot cheaper.
I must confess I haven't really tried em much of late. I usually just support large groups or support singular experienced players with drifters instead.
I try and support weaker players with drifters as well but they have the tendency to just hide on the ceiling and watch the drifter get shot at, not understanding I'm drawing attention so they can pounce.
40% trying to tell their team how to win and 60% watching them do the exact oppiset of what you told them.
Maybe it's time we start saying the opposite of what we want them to do. Pubbies can keep their fight the powah attitude, everyone wins.
"Loadsa sentries plox"
or just lie to em. if you shoot close to, but not hitting the enemy, it applies a 25 % intimidation debuff. watch them all disobey you and start plowing through the aliens.
Honestly, I typically forget to use mucous membrane and rupture seems to be highly situational. I probably use enzyme the most since most pub games are Shift first rather than Crag. Bone wall gets used some but by that point most of the attention is on rebuilding the resource towers that are constantly dying.
I use bone wall to block a escaping exo or jp marine exit. Works heavily when skulks are biting the knees. Its not too useful for stopping someone from entering, it doesn't hold up well. My name is FlatBreadFISH, im sure at least one person know my comm skills, just lacking a mic.
Comments
try it, it's extremely effective, it obscures 90% of marines' vision, they can't see anything, let alone aim at aliens. The most common reaction I get from ruptured marines is they run straight back for cover, it's exactly the same as someone in counter strike who just got flashed in the face. This is the best time for me to drop a bone wall at the hive room entrance, they all get trapped and the aliens move in for the free kills.
It's really sad that alien commander is given so many useful abilities and yet people get all defensive when they are told to use them.
This.
If you're lucky, maybe one or 2 of your skulks will use their minimap. Otherwise, you have to constantly watch where marines are pushing...... Oh whoops this is NS2, not NS1.
Just drop a whip and crag at your forward extractors. Pathetically viable in both comp and pub games...
"dammit, bite better" isn't exactly Sun tsu. l2p sometimes is the actual optimal strategy.
- crying baby in the background.
- gf wants attention, hangs around my neck, blocking my view deliberately.
- an unsuspected friend shows up at my house while ingame and is not interested and only talks about pussy & boobs.
- damn dog wants attention, or tries to get under the desk or something else.
- helping out some moron who thinks the game evolves around him.
- same moron tries to eject comm because i safe res to help out the entire team.
i'd say, and don't quote me on this, this might be one of those times when the crying baby would take priority over items 2-6.
lets narrate a bit, the baby is crying because it's hungry and soiled itself, the gf wants attention because she needs help changing and feeding the baby, and the friend is talking about shit and boobs, ie. dirty nappies and feeding as well... FEED AND CHANGE THE DAMN BABY ALREADY.
i did not play today
Yeah,
Drop that extractor like a baby that wont shut up
Lets be honest, aside from drifter micro, alien comm doesn't really have a lot to pay attention to, besides the couple of seconds it takes to drop buildings/click on upgrades. Yet still (and we have all experienced this) some of them are extremely slow on dropping nodes that have been killed, dropping upgrade chambers, etc.
Now we can attribute some of this to beginner comms. But I'm talking about commanders who have already gotten past that stage and still have these bad habits. Usually these are the worst because they won't listen to teammates request, because they are the COMMANDER OMGZORS LISTEN TO ONLY ME I'M ALWAYS RIGHT!
This post is about pub play obviously.
- Bad pathing and no-collision floors especially in Docking East Wing + Stability which messes with Drifters
- "You Must Wait!" for 3-4 sec whenever you want to redrop an RT/Cyst
- Drifter ignoring commands at least once per game
- The cysting system which quite often pops 2-3 cysts when you're trying to cyst somewhere and I dont know whyyyy
- clicking on the map for a drifter to go to one place, and its waypoint appearing somewhere completely different
- drifters stop travelling to waypoints halfway there for no explicable reason
- Teammates not telling you if a room is clear or occupied by marines. Screw sending my 8 res drifter in to scout
I think it cysts from the hive because unconnected cyst chains slowly die, and new cysts have very little HP. Thus extending cysts backwards from an unconnected cyst would eventuate in the cyst dying pretty much immediately (we already had this when the 'cystem' was first introduced, and this is basically how it turned out).
EDIT: actually I just realised that's not what you meant. And yeah, it's annoying.
The drifter stopping moving used to happen to me a lot but I realised it's because I sent it to go build a building that has already been completed. It pays to add a second waypoint next to the structure if it does build before the drifter gets there. I dunno if doing this has completely fixed the issue for me but I don't really notice this happen anymore (although only just started doing this recently). It would be nice, however, if drifters still move to the waypoint even if the structure is built as long as it's the last thing on it's order chain (and still stop dead in its tracks if the structure is killed instead).
Another thing I dislike about drifters is that if a drifter is building something that gets echoed, the drifter moves to the location its echoed to - often eventuating in it getting half-way there and stopping dead in its tracks like above. It would be nice if once a structure is fully echoed that the building order is cancelled.
It would be nice if unfinished structures would have the least echo priority, so the shift takes a finished one whenever possible.
And while drifter problems exist and are annoying, I believe that is when you have to make priorities. If you have been playing with drifters for 30 sec trying to make it do what you want, maybe you should ignore it and drop rts/chambers and go back to it later.
Auto cysts destroying itself is extremely frustrating, but as someone who has experienced it many times, when cysts get too close I just place cysts individually.
Back to complaining about commanders..I find that some commanders jump in with the mindset "my team better be good enough to rape the enemy team, so I can ez mode comm"
Instead when I jump in I try to think more like "I better try to keep up with my team so I can give them necessary res and upgrades so they can kill better". Naturally sometimes that doesn't matter, but I would rather rely on human players instead of static structures.
Just my 2 pennies.
but seriously, micro managing since not everybody in pub games know what they are doing...
enzyme, when i can, drifters spotting, greedy cysting + res nodes.
don't usually have access to bonewall and rupture when it matters, ie. early game, as i'm focused on the greedy expansion and biomass can wait.
calling out harvester defense, marine positions etc. echo rts.
i don't really coordinate attacks, focus on defense and setup, i figure, if we're going 5:3 res, we're good, do ask them to harass enemy rts though. spurs as before hive 2, res before spurs. getting higher life-forms is my main goal, and starving them of res. life-forms are the biggest game changer.
Keep up with resnodes. (So you can get higher lifeforms out quicker and keep them out when they die)
Keep up with upgrades. (So the lifeforms can fight upgraded marines effectively)
There have been too many times when a comm forget these and instead we have 3 whips in base, another 2 whips at the next tech point. Shades, crags, shifts everywhere, only one spur, a rt nozzle open and the comm complaining about how his team can't kill anything and he has no res.
/facepalm
Play mutiplayer teamplay, not singleplayer campaign SIM city.
Maybe it's time we start saying the opposite of what we want them to do. Pubbies can keep their fight the powah attitude, everyone wins.
"Loadsa sentries plox"
It was frustrating, but occasionally you could get a crag or spur or shift on the roof.
At least you can still echo eggs to important locations. Not that this happens much, either.
I must confess I haven't really tried em much of late. I usually just support large groups or support singular experienced players with drifters instead.
I try and support weaker players with drifters as well but they have the tendency to just hide on the ceiling and watch the drifter get shot at, not understanding I'm drawing attention so they can pounce.
or just lie to em. if you shoot close to, but not hitting the enemy, it applies a 25 % intimidation debuff. watch them all disobey you and start plowing through the aliens.
I use bone wall to block a escaping exo or jp marine exit. Works heavily when skulks are biting the knees. Its not too useful for stopping someone from entering, it doesn't hold up well. My name is FlatBreadFISH, im sure at least one person know my comm skills, just lacking a mic.