Sensory = Fun
Alien_Bob
Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8185Members
Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8185Members
<div class="IPBDescription">No, really</div> Playing on Bast last night, our gorge put up sensory chambers first, to the usual howls of protest and "OFMG you n00b!!1 we're doomed!"
Anyway, I ran into the marine base, found a dark corner high on a wall, and cloaked. Then I spent the next twenty minutes parasiting every single marine. It drove them crazy. Half of them went out to follow their orders (and got chomped quickly because of the parasite) and the others were running around in the base trying to work out where they were being parasited from. I'd just keep still and quiet until they were looking elsewhere and start zapping them again. With three chambers up I would only be visible for a fraction of a second. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
We slaughtered them horribly.
Sensory is great, it just requires an adjustment to your playing style. Try it, you might like it.
Anyway, I ran into the marine base, found a dark corner high on a wall, and cloaked. Then I spent the next twenty minutes parasiting every single marine. It drove them crazy. Half of them went out to follow their orders (and got chomped quickly because of the parasite) and the others were running around in the base trying to work out where they were being parasited from. I'd just keep still and quiet until they were looking elsewhere and start zapping them again. With three chambers up I would only be visible for a fraction of a second. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
We slaughtered them horribly.
Sensory is great, it just requires an adjustment to your playing style. Try it, you might like it.
Comments
Sensory does require a change in playstyle. People still try to run at marines even when they have cloaking. You're going to die really fast! when you see then coming hide in a corner and wait.
And since you're not 100% cloaked, and movement catches people's eyes, DON"T MOVE AT ALL! not even the mouse! The stiller you are the harder you are to see.
Now this is very probably going to change in 1.1, where it seems possible that Flayra is going to bring in "all aliens evolvable at all times". If this occurs it really won't matter which chamber goes first as all have useful abilities but with fades and onos at one hive then the aliens have the base cracking ability that previously was only given to them by carapace/regen.
I do like sensory. But I also like winning <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
1. cloaking in the docking bay while parasiting everything in site. ( sorry to reiterate, but this IS especially distracting to the commander. )
2. multiple cloaked fades coming up the elevator in the the docking bay while the 'rines are rebuilding the obs. ( that'll keep 'em paranoid for awhile. )
3. cloaked fades in starboard airlock. ( omg *chuckle* )
4. cloaked lerks defending the hive from the JP rush in refinery.
5. watching a HMG/HA marine walk by 1 meter away who is looking for me in a vent when i'm on the floor in the corridor and would be owned otherwise. i expect to keep 'em busy and away from my team.
6. pausing while chomping a turret factory to cloak when i hear the rines coming to investigate. ( bonus is watching the turrets lose their tracking as i go cheshire )
To really risk the flames, what do people think about S-M-D --> cloaking, adrenaline, defense. cloaked fades and lerks with adrenaline can keep the 'rines bottled HARD, while silence + adrenaline is great for fade/lerk teamwork to capture that 3rd hive, and makes it real hard for the 'rines to take out a 2nd hive. thoughts?
i just can't see fades/lerks without adrenaline. seems obvious that adren is more important than carp. and sensory is just fun. also, playing without carp sharpens you up a lot. ( kinda like playing before the patch balances... )
side note: ended up with SC + DC once because we were goofing with some bots who went gorge and... well, that was just painful...so, we ended up with two hives an no adrenaline. made our fade/lerks really impotent.
Lerks however is slightly harder to do without andrenaline because by the time your first umbra dissapates, you still don't have enough energy to throw some more umbra out... which is bad.
I agree that sensory IS fun...
I would only turn the topic into a sens vs def argument IF someone else started it. There are other threads devoted to it, why multiply the numbers?
those barrels sure were fun, thats all we had to make do with before computer games were invented...
I have seen alien wins with sensory and defense, whenever I put up a sensory as a second chamber I get the classis "OMG WERE GONNA LOOSE" situation.
Im gonna try to work on a method to block motion tracking if a marine is with in a certain range of a sens, could be intresting.
1 spawn marine (0 res) can kill an uncarapaced fade (54 res) without much trouble (about half a clip). i wont flame but i consider that a total waste.
So then, how do you "magically" dodge bullets. Fades are not skulks, they are meant to push the marines back and win the game. Sensory does not help in this role. s/m/d or m/s/d simply does not work. Fades and lerks NEED carapace.
1 spawn marine (0 res) can kill an uncarapaced fade (54 res) without much trouble (about half a clip). i wont flame but i consider that a total waste.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
true. and 2 spawn marines ( how often is a fade fighting just 1 ) can kill a carapaced fade without reloading ( assuming lvl2 carapace: requires 50 shots w/ no upgrades and two marines with LMG and moderate accuracy. )
a cloaked fade ( or fades--YIKES ) has an element of surprise that an uncloaked fade doesn't. often enough to kill groups of marines with acid rockets ( or at least soften them up ) before they know what hit them, because the cloaked fade can setup opportunities that a wandering fade cannot.
it really depends on the tactical situation though. if you just want to go toe-to-toe with the marines in their base, then you may want carapace. but that's not the only way to take the marines. ambushes, flanking, distraction of the comm, and especially confusion are all alternatives. ( read: FUN ) if a group of 5 marines sees one fade and thinks "haha, let's go hunting" and can be drawn out only to find out that just around the corner there are two more fades waiting for them to pass and flank them...or even if there's just a lerk and fade sitting waiting for them to get right up close before umbra and slicey-dicey. these are opportunities that can't be created as easily without cloaking.
pardon my ranting. a lot of this probably just comes down to personal preference. maybe the only real point i'm trying to make is that if you do go sensory first, the choice between movement and defense for the second chamber would always be movement imho.
i'm thinking specifically about the power of cloaked fade+lerk with adrenaline. the key to the alien team comes when the species stay mixed and work together. if i'm fighting a group of marines without lerk support that's my bad or my team's bad. i'd much rather have umbra than carapace any day. ( i find carapace just adds insult to injury when you've got umbra. )
if my gorge DOES go sensory first, then i push for movement next so that my offensive capabilities are there.
It's called blink, Monkey. Maybe you've heard of it? Find the proper attack location with a nice long hallway. If you're under attack, blink out and round a corner.
As for the rest, same applies. A adrenaline fade can still do massive damage with acid and medium range or short melee attacks and blink out.
I'm sorry if you can only play with carapace.
I mean.. sure wow.. you can surprise stupid marines. Any smart marine will notice you, or hear you.. and if you're whole team is cloaked.. waiting... what are you going to do about that resource tower under attack? What are you going to do if you actually plan on saving it once marine #1 looking for you spots you while marine #2 knifes the resource tower away.
The greatest stregnth that aliens have is that they can keep their structures intact by saving them before the marines have a chance to kill them.. if you allow marines to wipe out all yoru resource towers you'll get the hive slower, meaning they'll catch yoru gorge, and lock down that location.
Cloaking is more of a toy to mess around with when you're bored, rather than something you use in practical situations. Fades and Onos can't cloak, they're just to large to go unnoticed, even with level 3 sensory. Skulks and Lerks can ambush perfectly fine without cloaking.
I couldn't have put it better myself...Don't let the marines out of their base.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Cloaking is more of a toy to mess around with when you're bored, rather than something you use in practical situations. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm sorry if you can't see that and we can. We'll have fun cloaking and winning, you have fun doing whatever defense lovers do.
As for the rest, same applies. A adrenaline fade can still do massive damage with acid and medium range or short melee attacks and blink out.
I'm sorry if you can only play with carapace. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You cannot blink and attack at the same time. Sure ou can blink away from a marine you see, but what good does it when you dont even do anything to them?
Problem is that you will be low on health after fighting one marine. Lmg empties really fast, and if you are a fade, you have about a second to react and MAYBE get away when the marine starts firing. Carapace is necessary.
cloaking doesn't immediately throw turrets off of you, they will fire at you for another two seconds or so. as a skulk, this isn't gonna help you take down a turret farm (marines moved out already, remember?)
parasite, bite, moving, ANYTHING, will decloak you <i>instantly</i>. Again, no help taking out turrets.
i think you're right... sensory first <b>IS</b> fun, but you have to be playing on a server with either nubs or one with zero marine organization.
If your a fade with cloak and no carapace, you don't just run in to it. After listening for footsepts, cloak, wait for the marine(s) to come to you, then kill. You dont just charge into them thats a waste of 54 resource points.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->if you had someone go gorge at start and build sensory IMMEDIATELY.... any competant marine team would already have left their base and secured 2-3 nodes or even a hive by then. good luck containing them.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
....No, no one has that many resources.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
cloaking doesn't immediately throw turrets off of you, they will fire at you for another two seconds or so. as a skulk, this isn't gonna help you take down a turret farm (marines moved out already, remember?)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yep, sensory is only good for preventing the buildings being constructed in the first place.
They won't build an outpost in the hive because me and my friends are there cloaked and once again waiting for frontiersmen that start building.
And what's your point: that you get 15/1 with defense first? Not a good chamber, huh...?
Not trying to derail the thread or anything, but I just couldn't resist.
....No, no one has that many resources. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
IP = 22 rp
Armory = 25 rp
2 nodes = 44 rp
total cost: 91 rp. that leaves 9 left over plus whatever you get en route, plenty for 3 nodes off the start.
i can post screenshots too. i have a pic of me going 87/2 on a n00b server too....