I agree that the power node should be the last thing you go for unless you're attacking marine main base.
However, after everything is cleared you should still take out the power. If you just wiped out a forward base, you probly had some help and three skulks can take down a power node in like 10 seconds. It's worth the time.
There is literally no "right answer" to "should I take out the power" because every decision in this game is made in the context of a hundred other considerations rather than in a vacuum, but the general rule is that unless you are assaulting a marine base there is almost certainly something you can do that is more important than taking down a power node.
I get seriously lost whenever I turn on alien vision. I've trained myself to recognize where I am on the map with lighting and color cues, which is completely useless when everything becomes the same shade of green.
I really only use it in pitch black shortly after a power node is destroyed.
+1
WhiteZinfandelYour insidesLet me show you themRegistered Userregular
how much have you played? its an advantage to use it, i have a hard time tracking aliens as a marine partly because i always play random and get aliens more often (but partly also because i get fuck all fps >:( )
Testing some changes, potentially for 236 (updated 1/03 6:05pm PST)
O Cysts now start with 25 health (down from 100)
O Increased minimum distance that Cysts can be placed near other Cysts (now 6 meters up from 2 meters)
O When Cyst is destroyed, it's infestation dies instantly (we will improve effect if we keep this)
O Removed Res While Dead (want to try this first before addressing lifeform explosion)
O Changed marine armor and damage upgrade costs from 15/25/35 to 20/30/40
O Upgrading Whips, Shifts and Shades to get their higher abilities costs 10 instead of 15
O Grenade launcher damage radius reduced from 8 to 6
O Marine respawn time increased from 7 to 9
O Nano-shield cooldown increased from 10 to 12
O EMP cooldown reduced from 8 to 6
O EMP now takes 65% of alien energy instead of 50%
O Fade health increased from 250 to 300
O Mine health/armor reduced from 80/10 to 60/10
I like most of those changes, though I don't see why mine health needed dropping. It's already annoying that lerks can trivially take out objects that are 5 personal res a pop.
Fade and cyst changes are my favorites from an armchair perspective.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
I get seriously lost whenever I turn on alien vision. I've trained myself to recognize where I am on the map with lighting and color cues, which is completely useless when everything becomes the same shade of green.
I really only use it in pitch black shortly after a power node is destroyed.
There's a mod that changes alien vision to be only having marines and their structures outlined and leaves everything else as is. I tried it out but it failed consistency checks on Scarytown. Used it on a different pub and it was really nice but oh well.
I get seriously lost whenever I turn on alien vision. I've trained myself to recognize where I am on the map with lighting and color cues, which is completely useless when everything becomes the same shade of green.
I really only use it in pitch black shortly after a power node is destroyed.
I use it when I'm expecting a fight or am in one otherwise I keep it off for just navigating around the map. I usually have the map up when I'm running around anyway so there's no real use to having vision on as well.
It would also be helpful if they'd just give in and let aliens have a minimap on the screen. I run around a lot holding C, which is certainly effective but also kind of annoying.
Aim better. They're slower and larger and more HPier than they were in Natural Selection. Back then they were much harder to hit, but more fragile to make up for it. So be thankful that your targets are relatively large and slow.
I assigned it to one of my mouse's thumb buttons and it's very effective and not really disruptive. Besides, C is how God meant us to crouch.
Blasphemy!
Strg is for crouching
And if a game features going prone, that's Y
Good ol' BF2 controls!
On another note: How do I killed Skulk? I know their mobility is offset by low HP, but damn is that a good trade if you can't hit the darn things!
1. Get better at aiming. Slow steady motions are the key, focus on the predictability of their movement and start moving your mouse to match. Average skuks move predictably all the time - even great skulks move predictably in close range since they're trying to aim their own bites.
2. Don't waste your bullets. If you don't have a good lock on your target, stop firing until you do.
3. Keep your distance and let them come to you. Don't walk into an ambush unless you have no other choice. Always take the outside of a turn you suspect might have a skulk around the corner.
4. Move unpredictably to juke their bites in melee. Never just back away from them, at least do a circle strafing motion while you shoot and occasionally reverse directions. I find that jumping forward past them(and then spinning around to keep shooting) also disorients most Skulks a lot.
Dear god I hate that move. I still haven't mastered dealing with it as a skulk. By the time I get turned around, they've either circled farther around me or (with any weapon upgrades at all) already killed me. I actually do a jump-bite now with my first attack just to try to prevent this maneuver.
The one-on-one marine vs. skulk battles in this game are really, really silly.
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
I assigned it to one of my mouse's thumb buttons and it's very effective and not really disruptive. Besides, C is how God meant us to crouch.
My thumb buttons are used for walking/leaping. Makes fade fun to roll the thumb down to shadow step and up to blink.
Crouch goes on the spacebar and right mouse click jumps. Those two were worked out a decade ago in NS and I've kept them through 99% of games since and now I'm too old stubborn to change habits.
Dear god I hate that move. I still haven't mastered dealing with it as a skulk. By the time I get turned around, they've either circled farther around me or (with any weapon upgrades at all) already killed me. I actually do a jump-bite now with my first attack just to try to prevent this maneuver.
The one-on-one marine vs. skulk battles in this game are really, really silly.
Theoretically as a Skulk there's really no reason it should work. Marines don't move fast, and you don't have to be touching them to hit them with a bite so they shouldn't escape your view that easily. The main trick to playing Skulk is to never ever hold the Bite button down. Always click your bites one at a time when you're certain your aim is lined up. When you hold it down you're basically praying that the bite timing lines up with your aim timing, and you also have less peripheral vision due to the viewmodel.
Also use your environment to your advantage. If the marines are in a wide open area you probably shouldn't be attacking them anyway. Take a bite or two and run up the wall and jump off, or dodge behind an object. You never want to be in the marines line of sight for the whole time he empties his clip since it takes < 20% of his clip to kill you. Not to mention most marines aren't as good at tracking up and down as side to side.
And especially if you have leap, don't always worry about staying around for the kill. Get a bite or two and get out. One of my favorite things to do is to take a bite or two on an unsuspecting marine and leap away to cover. over half the time the marine will fire a partial clip and then reload which gives a good opportunity to leap back to finish him off.
Gorge clogs - what are they for? Trying to seal doors? The wiki mentions you and other aliens can consume them with the use key - does that restore health?
No, the E key just gets annoying clogs out of the way. It's grief prevention.
Clogs are pretty good at slowing down marines, they either have to run to axe range to get them out of the way or waste ammo shooting them.. which gives aliens a good opportunity to set up for a retaliation.
Absolutely fantastic 80m game just now on Cavern It was about as pub as it gets... I lost 3 onos myself to 1-2 jetpackers each time, but managed to take out 4 or 5 exos as a skulk. Our commander actually gave up when you guys nearly got one of our two remaining hives... we had nothing but skulks and gorges, no res, both hives under attack. After pushing back both and taking Deposit, he got back in the comm hive
you guys.
Fleur de Alys on
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
Absolutely fantastic 80m game just now on Cavern It was about as pub as it gets... I lost 3 onos myself to 1-2 jetpackers each time, but managed to take out 4 or 5 exos as a skulk. Our commander actually gave up when you guys nearly got one of our two remaining hives... we had nothing but skulks and gorges, no res, both hives under attack. After pushing back both and taking Deposit, he got back in the comm hive
you guys.
That was a pretty amazing game. Also I just randomly found this server figured there would be a thread on here for it Great playing with you guys, good to find a decent server. Also what was with the marine running out using only his axe spamming taunt.
Absolutely fantastic 80m game just now on Cavern It was about as pub as it gets... I lost 3 onos myself to 1-2 jetpackers each time, but managed to take out 4 or 5 exos as a skulk. Our commander actually gave up when you guys nearly got one of our two remaining hives... we had nothing but skulks and gorges, no res, both hives under attack. After pushing back both and taking Deposit, he got back in the comm hive
you guys.
That was a pretty amazing game. Also I just randomly found this server figured there would be a thread on here for it Great playing with you guys, good to find a decent server. Also what was with the marine running out using only his axe spamming taunt.
-Hudson
When you see a marine running around nonstop taunting with his axe out, it usually means he's given up trying.
I like most of those changes, though I don't see why mine health needed dropping. It's already annoying that lerks can trivially take out objects that are 5 personal res a pop.
Fade and cyst changes are my favorites from an armchair perspective.
Do the cyst changes make it so that red circles never appear on the map?
Actually, the old hive teleport system in NS1 was much closer to phasegates in the gameplay function, since it was an instant teleport and only the one team side could use them. The gorge tunnels will not be an instant teleport, and there is much more gameplay potential that can happen with the tunnels both inside and outside of them. Trust me, I think they are going to be very cool and very fun, and feel different enough from PGs.
The Exo rail gun is going to be added as a separate option for purchase, not as a replacement to any of the existing options. It will be a much higher damage weapon compared to the spammy minigun, but require much more precise aiming, and the slow rate of fire will make it risky but with high reward. There are also some other features that it will have, that we aren't quite ready to talk about yet, that will also make it very useful and distinctive from the minigun options.
You can see what the babblers look like (though without the final textures) in another thread in the general discussion. They are going to be AI controlled units that the Gorge can create, and they will follow him around, and both protect him and other alien players, and also attack and harass enemy units. The Gorge will be able to target both locations and enemy players, to send his Babblers in to attack. It will cost res to create each Babbler egg, and from each egg multiple Babblers will hatch.
--Cory
Sounds like Gorges are getting some cool shit. My guess is Babblers will be hive 3, and it sounds like gorge tunnels will be like a phase gate but with a physical space inside that either team can enter. Really curious to see how the heck that's going to work.
0
DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
I need to look up how to play the Gorge. I've noticed situations in each match I've played so far where I could have done some good as a support class when playing the xenos. I just have zero idea how they work. I did try it one time and I was so lost it occurred to me that I'd probably be more use shifting back to a skulk or lerk to (try to) nom faces.
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
I already enjoy playing Gorge.
Feels awesome to slide around repairing and building shit, find a vantage point you can hock a giant ball of vomit onto a bunch of structures and run away, heal dudes in combat. (Running in with a skulk and healing him so that the heal cloud also hits the marine he's biting is priceless)
I'd like to think I am a pretty decent Vomit Piggy.
Posts
However, after everything is cleared you should still take out the power. If you just wiped out a forward base, you probly had some help and three skulks can take down a power node in like 10 seconds. It's worth the time.
I really only use it in pitch black shortly after a power node is destroyed.
Fade and cyst changes are my favorites from an armchair perspective.
There's a mod that changes alien vision to be only having marines and their structures outlined and leaves everything else as is. I tried it out but it failed consistency checks on Scarytown. Used it on a different pub and it was really nice but oh well.
I use it when I'm expecting a fight or am in one otherwise I keep it off for just navigating around the map. I usually have the map up when I'm running around anyway so there's no real use to having vision on as well.
Blasphemy!
Strg is for crouching
And if a game features going prone, that's Y
Good ol' BF2 controls!
On another note: How do I killed Skulk? I know their mobility is offset by low HP, but damn is that a good trade if you can't hit the darn things!
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
1. Get better at aiming. Slow steady motions are the key, focus on the predictability of their movement and start moving your mouse to match. Average skuks move predictably all the time - even great skulks move predictably in close range since they're trying to aim their own bites.
2. Don't waste your bullets. If you don't have a good lock on your target, stop firing until you do.
3. Keep your distance and let them come to you. Don't walk into an ambush unless you have no other choice. Always take the outside of a turn you suspect might have a skulk around the corner.
4. Move unpredictably to juke their bites in melee. Never just back away from them, at least do a circle strafing motion while you shoot and occasionally reverse directions. I find that jumping forward past them(and then spinning around to keep shooting) also disorients most Skulks a lot.
Dear god I hate that move. I still haven't mastered dealing with it as a skulk. By the time I get turned around, they've either circled farther around me or (with any weapon upgrades at all) already killed me. I actually do a jump-bite now with my first attack just to try to prevent this maneuver.
The one-on-one marine vs. skulk battles in this game are really, really silly.
My thumb buttons are used for walking/leaping. Makes fade fun to roll the thumb down to shadow step and up to blink.
Crouch goes on the spacebar and right mouse click jumps. Those two were worked out a decade ago in NS and I've kept them through 99% of games since and now I'm too old stubborn to change habits.
Theoretically as a Skulk there's really no reason it should work. Marines don't move fast, and you don't have to be touching them to hit them with a bite so they shouldn't escape your view that easily. The main trick to playing Skulk is to never ever hold the Bite button down. Always click your bites one at a time when you're certain your aim is lined up. When you hold it down you're basically praying that the bite timing lines up with your aim timing, and you also have less peripheral vision due to the viewmodel.
And especially if you have leap, don't always worry about staying around for the kill. Get a bite or two and get out. One of my favorite things to do is to take a bite or two on an unsuspecting marine and leap away to cover. over half the time the marine will fire a partial clip and then reload which gives a good opportunity to leap back to finish him off.
If you aren't out of control, you aren't in control.
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Clogs are pretty good at slowing down marines, they either have to run to axe range to get them out of the way or waste ammo shooting them.. which gives aliens a good opportunity to set up for a retaliation.
That was a pretty amazing game. Also I just randomly found this server figured there would be a thread on here for it Great playing with you guys, good to find a decent server. Also what was with the marine running out using only his axe spamming taunt.
-Hudson
Finishing off an Onos with an axe is my finest moment in NS2
When you see a marine running around nonstop taunting with his axe out, it usually means he's given up trying.
So complicated I have no idea what I'm doing 90% of the time, but fun.
Do the cyst changes make it so that red circles never appear on the map?
You're a tremendously useful gorge.
Sounds like Gorges are getting some cool shit. My guess is Babblers will be hive 3, and it sounds like gorge tunnels will be like a phase gate but with a physical space inside that either team can enter. Really curious to see how the heck that's going to work.
Feels awesome to slide around repairing and building shit, find a vantage point you can hock a giant ball of vomit onto a bunch of structures and run away, heal dudes in combat. (Running in with a skulk and healing him so that the heal cloud also hits the marine he's biting is priceless)
I'd like to think I am a pretty decent Vomit Piggy.