Some Thoughts On Some General Kharaa Tactics
p4l
Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17461Members
Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17461Members
Well, after the first few days after 2.0's release were over, and all the cries of "SAVE MY MARINES!" are gone, and things seem fair... I've noticed alot of Kharaa players are making some big mistakes.
First and foremost, gorges. No one person on the team should really be a designated gorge, certainly not early game. No one has the res! I prefer the first gorge to drop 1 chamber and 1 rt, then go skulk, and everyone takes their turns being gorge, until you get that critical 2nd hive, by then you should have the res to have 2 dedicated gorges and the rest of the team evolve up into something fun. This is in pub gaming of course, 8+ players per team.
Second, upgrades. Yes, sensory are nice because they cloak. But if you aren't going to use them like you should, don't use them. dropping 3 sensory chambers at your hive and nowhere else is of little real use. Cloaking is nice and all, but I'd much rather have defense chamber upgrades myself. If you *USE* sensory well, they are a very viable first upgrade, but you need to be planning on getting that 2nd upgrade fast, as once the marines start to get some tech, you need DCs. I've seen alot of people use movement first... I just don't get it. I can't seem to use that to any good effect myself, and while adrenaline or celerity can be nice, it pales in comparison to the other two available ugprades. If anyone has a viable strategy for moves first, I'd love to hear it.
Last is placement. WoLs are alot less essentialy as a form of defense in 2.0. A single OC can now do what it took 3 to do in 1.4. Yet I see guys still put up 2 OCs and a DC/SC at pretty much every res node, and I mean early here. That res is much needed elsewhere. Also, the defenses do not have to be right on top of the hive/node, but they can't be too far away. I see alot of gorges, especially in hive locations, drop their towers in a sort of 'trap' formation, so that if the marines enter the room, they get nailed face to face by a bunch of OCs. That is all fine and dandy, but sadly folks... marines don't use the bitegun. They have projectiles. More than once today alone did I see, or was I one of, the marine team just standing outside the hive room blasting it, with no defenses at all. 4 loaded HMGs mean 1 dead hive. And a final note... all hives need defenses. Something. Even just 1 oc so someone can't stay there freely. I won a game today on ns_tanith as a marine when the Kharaa got over confident, took their 2nd hive, and left the first (waste) all alone. I KNIFED IT TO DEATH. From 6000 to 0, with a knife. No OCs. I knifed the 3 DCs first. And that was their first hive, that had nothing in it. Our comm had set up a turret farm outside there with someone else, and the kharaa couldn't get through it. They went around but by the time they got there, the damage was done. I shot the only 2 skulks who made it to me and continued knifing. SAD. PATHETIC. STUPID. This goes with my first point... if everyone does a 'shift' as gorge, you can easily defend your hive and get 3-4 res nodes up. No problem.
First and foremost, gorges. No one person on the team should really be a designated gorge, certainly not early game. No one has the res! I prefer the first gorge to drop 1 chamber and 1 rt, then go skulk, and everyone takes their turns being gorge, until you get that critical 2nd hive, by then you should have the res to have 2 dedicated gorges and the rest of the team evolve up into something fun. This is in pub gaming of course, 8+ players per team.
Second, upgrades. Yes, sensory are nice because they cloak. But if you aren't going to use them like you should, don't use them. dropping 3 sensory chambers at your hive and nowhere else is of little real use. Cloaking is nice and all, but I'd much rather have defense chamber upgrades myself. If you *USE* sensory well, they are a very viable first upgrade, but you need to be planning on getting that 2nd upgrade fast, as once the marines start to get some tech, you need DCs. I've seen alot of people use movement first... I just don't get it. I can't seem to use that to any good effect myself, and while adrenaline or celerity can be nice, it pales in comparison to the other two available ugprades. If anyone has a viable strategy for moves first, I'd love to hear it.
Last is placement. WoLs are alot less essentialy as a form of defense in 2.0. A single OC can now do what it took 3 to do in 1.4. Yet I see guys still put up 2 OCs and a DC/SC at pretty much every res node, and I mean early here. That res is much needed elsewhere. Also, the defenses do not have to be right on top of the hive/node, but they can't be too far away. I see alot of gorges, especially in hive locations, drop their towers in a sort of 'trap' formation, so that if the marines enter the room, they get nailed face to face by a bunch of OCs. That is all fine and dandy, but sadly folks... marines don't use the bitegun. They have projectiles. More than once today alone did I see, or was I one of, the marine team just standing outside the hive room blasting it, with no defenses at all. 4 loaded HMGs mean 1 dead hive. And a final note... all hives need defenses. Something. Even just 1 oc so someone can't stay there freely. I won a game today on ns_tanith as a marine when the Kharaa got over confident, took their 2nd hive, and left the first (waste) all alone. I KNIFED IT TO DEATH. From 6000 to 0, with a knife. No OCs. I knifed the 3 DCs first. And that was their first hive, that had nothing in it. Our comm had set up a turret farm outside there with someone else, and the kharaa couldn't get through it. They went around but by the time they got there, the damage was done. I shot the only 2 skulks who made it to me and continued knifing. SAD. PATHETIC. STUPID. This goes with my first point... if everyone does a 'shift' as gorge, you can easily defend your hive and get 3-4 res nodes up. No problem.
Comments
The ONLY reason to play gorge for any protracted length of time is if you're a battle gorge. Interestingly enough, 2.0 <i>needs</i> more battle gorges - healspray is needed more with DCs falling behind in chamber preference, and bile bomb is necessary to take out turret farms and those pesky electrified structures.
So... we need more battlegorges, and fewer old skool gorges.
Any self respecting offense player is rushing for his fade/lerk/onos. So people like myself, who are happy with gorge, plod along behind you and set up defences.
And so far it works. I personally build sensory cloaked OTs at hive entrances rather than the hive, since IN the hive I have spawning aliens. And later an MT. At chokepoints or main corridors, its a bunch of OTs. Now, while people CAN smush OTs, I don't use them as a means to kill the enemy - no, I use them as a mean to bog down and distract the enemy so that they can be ambushed.
Being a marine player I myself find it far to easier to duck in and out of cover shooting some nub placed Off towers. Its so funny its tragic.
Yup. Even in 1.04 I never got cloaking; always SoF <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
I hear fabled stories of Fades being able to rush better, and the more believable story of Lerks sporing whole teams to death with adrenaline (this WORKS). But this is largely clan game turf.
IMHO on a pub server, if you go move first you've probably cut your own throat. Only good TEAMS can use it, and if you're 50/50 new players or facing a competent marine player, you're toast.
General kharaa tactics - cap all the rts you can, because you can do it faster. Then go skulk, rack up quick points, and go back to base to gorge off towers and such. Very important midgame, where you will be spawning more frequently. Make SURE there's lots of def/sens/move - Ideally three at each hive, so that if any hive falls you don't lose performance. Also, its good because 3 def at a hive means you can heal up a hell of a lot faster - good if people use redemp a lot.
While many may consider sensory to be it, any comm worth his salt will have his squad backing each other up, so 1 bite is probably all you'll get. With celerity run in, bite, run away...
Unrelated, but a found a new equation in NS: Primal scream+adrenaline+SoF+regen+umbra+spikes= lvl3armorlvl3weapons HA/HMG with a welder ;-)
Or just spikes+adren+scream=hmg. I was amused at how easily I was killing HAs... even when I was a 2hive lerk going up against ugpraded HA/HMGs, umbra regen adrenaline and DCs made me able to go toe to toe with them. Awesome!
But, as far as movements, skulks with movements are deadly. Even mediocre players benefit from silence and celerity, far more so than they normally benefit from SoF (given that even knowing where 'rines are, they don't set ambushes). That and, in the right hands, you get some sick lerks fades early on. It's not clan territory.
It's vital to get a few res nodes up as soon as possible. Once you have like 3 res nodes, a full-time gorge isn't bad at all. If anything, I rather like playing games where there are two dedicated gorges, both drop a res ASAP then one builds defenses while another caps nodes for a while. A hive is best placed by a top-scoring skulk, after which he can get back to the killing. Advantages: early game defenses are available, fairly well ensured res flow, pretty early second hive, which you should have the res to build defenses for. Disadvantages: Less players available on the field, you have to convince a top-scoring skulk not to fade or onos.
The first 2 put in the empty hives, the third put in and area of the map the marines seem to want, then the 4th being put in the original hive.. I have many times snuck in hives in marine held hives, only due to that sensory.
As marines get smarter, and understand better build adjustments and overall strat adjustments, movements will be a better opening. Celerity and adren are great counters for MT with lerks and quck skulks.