Sensory "second"
ZiGGY
Join Date: 2003-01-19 Member: 12479Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Read before flame plz</div> Well as most of you know sensory chambers have approximately 1/3 the hp of a hive. However as some of you may not know is that a chamber being built by a gorge is almost invulnerable. A combination of these can prove a very effective stall for seieges now that sensory chambers are only 10 and that SC require spotters. Though Im not saying it is an alternative to movement its use applies to the following situation:
The marines have locked down 1 hives and are partially dependent on sieging a second hive to progress in the game (ie they cant push forward due to defenders and high DC count). The sensory chambers can be used to stall the seige and seige proof your original hive also. This stall can provide that crucial time needed to get mass fades. This then leaves you with 2 options regarding their seige camp either A, take it out immediately then rally their RTs (which leaves you without MCs and require a slightly less efficient playing style explained later) or B, allow them to seige the hive then quickly wipe them out with mass fades then rebuild the hive with the MC upgrade(in either case you will retain your sensory upgrades).
This is only useful in the designated 1 hive lockdown, 1 hive seige situation obviously but I find quite useful and rarely see executed.
Fighting Without Adrenalin: Will usually require the combatant to get into close quaters with its enemy due to the high energy use/cooldown of ranged weaponry. I personally have no problem with such a playing style aslong as there are many DCs scattered around the map, this WILL make you weaker (obviously) againt heavily armed units though against LA this is no problem for a fade due to a sweet cara blink combo. Due to your lack of adrenalin youll have to choose your combat location well preferably somewhere where you have the oppertunity to flee and heal yet also get in close enough to slice n dice. Fortunately at a 2hive evolution all 3 primary alien assault types have fast speed moves to get in close and attack. The lerk can do a steady combo of glide + flap which will get them in at a fairly high speed(approx 1/3 energy bar cost), the fades of course have blink(approximately 1/2 energy cost) and the skulks have leap (approximately 2/3 energy cost) (note: distance approximately one side of viaduct hive corridor to the other). No adrenalin makes use of special abilities such as umbra and projectile weaponry difficult; for umbra the only option for use is to suicide blink a fade onto the approaching army quickly followed by a gliding lerk who then umbras the group whilst the rest of the force piles on. Only use projectiles to take down flyers (which shouldnt be too hard if you can aim rougly 4 acid rockets or 60 ish spines).
Using Sensory: Ok Im not gonna even pretend this is useful at a 2hive stage game however here are the general basics of sensory, The chambers are great siege-stallers, you get cloak(which is damn near useless explained further down), they automatically parasite anything that touches it.
Using Cloak: Cloak is useful IF the opposition doesnt have an observatory (as scanner sweep breaks the cloak and also the obs perimeter is anti cloak), the effects of MT on cloak are by-the-by as its either close quarters where the marine is dazed and doesnt see you cloak or you are already cloaked waiting. If the comm doesnt sweep most areas then cloak is a good distance breaker. I personally do not like cloak but can be fun against bad players now and then.
The marines have locked down 1 hives and are partially dependent on sieging a second hive to progress in the game (ie they cant push forward due to defenders and high DC count). The sensory chambers can be used to stall the seige and seige proof your original hive also. This stall can provide that crucial time needed to get mass fades. This then leaves you with 2 options regarding their seige camp either A, take it out immediately then rally their RTs (which leaves you without MCs and require a slightly less efficient playing style explained later) or B, allow them to seige the hive then quickly wipe them out with mass fades then rebuild the hive with the MC upgrade(in either case you will retain your sensory upgrades).
This is only useful in the designated 1 hive lockdown, 1 hive seige situation obviously but I find quite useful and rarely see executed.
Fighting Without Adrenalin: Will usually require the combatant to get into close quaters with its enemy due to the high energy use/cooldown of ranged weaponry. I personally have no problem with such a playing style aslong as there are many DCs scattered around the map, this WILL make you weaker (obviously) againt heavily armed units though against LA this is no problem for a fade due to a sweet cara blink combo. Due to your lack of adrenalin youll have to choose your combat location well preferably somewhere where you have the oppertunity to flee and heal yet also get in close enough to slice n dice. Fortunately at a 2hive evolution all 3 primary alien assault types have fast speed moves to get in close and attack. The lerk can do a steady combo of glide + flap which will get them in at a fairly high speed(approx 1/3 energy bar cost), the fades of course have blink(approximately 1/2 energy cost) and the skulks have leap (approximately 2/3 energy cost) (note: distance approximately one side of viaduct hive corridor to the other). No adrenalin makes use of special abilities such as umbra and projectile weaponry difficult; for umbra the only option for use is to suicide blink a fade onto the approaching army quickly followed by a gliding lerk who then umbras the group whilst the rest of the force piles on. Only use projectiles to take down flyers (which shouldnt be too hard if you can aim rougly 4 acid rockets or 60 ish spines).
Using Sensory: Ok Im not gonna even pretend this is useful at a 2hive stage game however here are the general basics of sensory, The chambers are great siege-stallers, you get cloak(which is damn near useless explained further down), they automatically parasite anything that touches it.
Using Cloak: Cloak is useful IF the opposition doesnt have an observatory (as scanner sweep breaks the cloak and also the obs perimeter is anti cloak), the effects of MT on cloak are by-the-by as its either close quarters where the marine is dazed and doesnt see you cloak or you are already cloaked waiting. If the comm doesnt sweep most areas then cloak is a good distance breaker. I personally do not like cloak but can be fun against bad players now and then.
Comments
Movement plz.
Sensory is still useless. Cloaking? As soon as they get MT, useless. Standing in a place where you think marines MIGHT be coming by doesnt help out much either. Advanced Hivesight = Super raising of gamma. Not very useful. Scent of Fear is FUN, but only useful when your looking for that one last retarded marine that ran off and hasn't realized his entire team is dead. Sensory just doesn't have a purpose.
not 100% sure, but almost
if your team knows what it's doing.
Dont even START to flame me on this, becuase my team has hardly EVER lost a match when we start with sensories first, however we've noticed that it works ALOT better on some levels, and others you shouldnt even attempt it. Eclipse for example, is one of best maps around for cloaking ( as a first chamber, not a second ). Reasons ?
a) they're cheaper than every other one ...
b) They give advanced warning to anyone aproaching the place they're built - so build them in your hive! Then you have an alarm system
c) CLOAKING! Drop on unsuspecting marines heads, Have 5 / 6 skulks waiting in ambush for a herd of marines. If your team lies in ambush isntead of charging on in like a bunch of silly bulls, then you will be very successful with this...
we've found that for a 2nd chamber, it really depends on the situation of the game...
However, you should realy only get sensories if you can confirm 100% that you'll have a 2nd hive soon . . . with marine upgrades, you'll be in trouble with just sensories ...
Its nice though, to have cloaking and silence ... They work really well hand in hand ( and even better those two with regen )...
however I've gone off-topic ...
The reason you have the sensories first, is the marines should never get a CHANCE to get sieges up ... you're always lying in wait, hovering next to them while they walk over to build that res tower, or sit on top of an unbuilt phase or armoury, and then when they come to build it bite their faces! I mean, what could be a better plan !?
I honestly dont understand why it gets flamed so much, I guess because people arnt that paitient ... and they just want to charge in and spill some blood ...
sigh ...
people <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->.
A pity none is.
you wont have umbra in the time it takes to evlove the upg one assumes, its a stall ffs. You also get movement afterwards but its a stall to ram 5+ fades down the marines throats assuming a tech/siege method so that they dont have HA.
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a chamber being built by a gorge is almost invulnerable.
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Yes, but unfortunately the gorge isnt. Building a chamber infront of a siege is almost guarunteed to make your gorge go boom, even if the chamber survives. Yes the sensories are much sturdier than other upgrade chambers, but offence chambers have plenty of health, can be built faster, shoot nearby marines and don't take up an upgrade slot. Also correct me if i'm wrong, but recent patch changes have altered the behaviour of upgrades with regards to killed hives. I'm pretty sure you can't switch to movement when your sens hive dies.
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Point of story: Sensory may not be standard, but they can be a hell of a lot of fun!
-PixieHacKleric a.k.a PrincessLeia
if your team knows what it's doing.
Dont even START to flame me on this, becuase my team has hardly EVER lost a match when we start with sensories first, however we've noticed that it works ALOT better on some levels, and others you shouldnt even attempt it. Eclipse for example, is one of best maps around for cloaking ( as a first chamber, not a second ). Reasons ?
a) they're cheaper than every other one ...
b) They give advanced warning to anyone aproaching the place they're built - so build them in your hive! Then you have an alarm system
c) CLOAKING! Drop on unsuspecting marines heads, Have 5 / 6 skulks waiting in ambush for a herd of marines. If your team lies in ambush isntead of charging on in like a bunch of silly bulls, then you will be very successful with this...
we've found that for a 2nd chamber, it really depends on the situation of the game...
However, you should realy only get sensories if you can confirm 100% that you'll have a 2nd hive soon . . . with marine upgrades, you'll be in trouble with just sensories ...
Its nice though, to have cloaking and silence ... They work really well hand in hand ( and even better those two with regen )...
however I've gone off-topic ...
The reason you have the sensories first, is the marines should never get a CHANCE to get sieges up ... you're always lying in wait, hovering next to them while they walk over to build that res tower, or sit on top of an unbuilt phase or armoury, and then when they come to build it bite their faces! I mean, what could be a better plan !?
I honestly dont understand why it gets flamed so much, I guess because people arnt that paitient ... and they just want to charge in and spill some blood ...
sigh ...
people <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Listen to this person <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
The fact is, most skulk/lerk people on pubs really suck at dodging so get owned if they dont have level 3 cara.
This dont work on bast near the marine spawn, when i got on that hive my cloacking made me EASIER to find cus it just went on but went off (a bug from the rotating lift me thinks)
But i got to admit, cara3 (sounds better than cara level 3) does make it easier at the start, its like the marine equivalent of level 3 armor! except a fraction of the price! It gives great protection for those turtlers and their turret farms.
They do appear, please try it before making assumptions. Buildings don't, perhaps you put it near an rt or such.
If the second hive has just grown, but the marines are about to siege....
And you dont have res for fades..
And the marines have weapon upgrades....
The only thing which will save the 2nd hive might be sensory cannons for cannon fodder - whilst the skulks sit and wait for resources to fade.
Id rather have 2 hives with a sensory than no hives at all.
They do appear, please try it before making assumptions. Buildings don't, perhaps you put it near an rt or such. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually, I don't think they appear when near a sensory chamber unless they try to rape it and get parasited, thus rendering them a yellow blob. I think Crisqo means that he wants to see a more "ranged" area around the sensory chamber that detects marines when they walk by as opposed to just a parasite if you stand directly on top of it. Forgive me if I'm wrong...
--Edit--
Maybe he is a 1.1 beta tester guy and thats what sensory chambers do? (hopefully)
The parasite ability of the sensory chamber when someone runs into it is an entirely different (and almost never activated) effect of sensory chambers.
Honestly, before you go about insulting, you might actually want to TEST THEM! Just a wild thought. Whether you think that ability is not helpful is arguable, arguing that the ability doesn't work is just false. When you catch yourself saying "I think this is what it does", that's probably a clue that you should verify it first <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->.
To get back on topic...Sensory is a great chamber and I encourage people to try it out sometime...It's fun.
not 100% sure, but almost <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I played a game recently on caged in which we got all three chambers with only "two" hives. What happens is that each chamber is assigned to a hive in a particular location. So if you have two hives and one dies, as long as you still have chamber put down that are tied to that particular hive, you can get the third chamber if you build a new second hive at the other location.
To get back on topic...Sensory is a great chamber and I encourage people to try it out sometime...It's fun. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nope, unmodded and I've tried it in lan as well. It *is* possible modded servers could screw it up, I have no idea.