General Tips/Fundamentals/Wisdom and QTDDTOT

[PLUSMINUS]

Hey all, thought a thread like this could be useful for some people to learn the game better. I, for one, most definitely do not understand or know as much as I would like to about this game and maybe through an exchange of knowledge, lesser players can see why the players they view as superior are as such. There are many hidden or obscure mechanics in NS2 that aren't obvious but when kept in mind, can change your play in a positive way. PS: QTDDTOT = Questions that don't deserve their own threads. So ask away.

Marines:

1. Reload your rifle, not your pistol. (I am extremely guilty of this) 50 bullets for 500 dmg > 10 bullets for 250
2. Build with welder (Press E with rifle out to raise rifle when you quit building instead of pressing an extra key)
3. Align yourself with an entrance/vent and be prepared to react.
4. Always expect more enemies than what appears
4a. If you kill a skulk with 15 bullets, keep the 35 in the mag and don't reload until you're sure you're safe
5. Always weld fellow marines if you are carrying a rifle, if you have a shotgun or advanced weapon it is understandable you not welding in the heat of battle. It's free HP! (effectively)
5a. Especially against Onos and Fades, armor is key. An onos will one shot you without armor and fades have a much easier 2 swipes to kill as opposed to 4 with armor 2.
6. Clean players should enter a room before parasited players. And the parasited player should be ready to clear their buddy immediately. (Personal opinion, more experienced players may disagree)
7. If you are in an exo, you should have your own welder as it is easy to hop out now and weld yourself. (Similar to scenarios in #5, don't weld yourself if in their hive, etc)
7a. If your exo is surely going to die, press G and jump out, don't go with it. You may be caught in a deathmatch and your rifle can finish the job, especially if you invested into a JP.
8. Sound is your best friend, hive drops, aliens making mistakes with audible footsteps, eggs popping, RTs dropping. All things you can hear and react to accordingly.
9. If you're with a friend, give each other space but always feel confident that you can assist with any threats present, don't leave your battle buddy hanging.
10. If you play with health bars (good for learning and a little cheap IMO), learn to focus fire lifeforms that are being shot by your teammates. Without health bars, you just have to pay attention to the tracers as well as the behavior of the lifeform. If an Onos is jumping around with his back to you, he's likely pretty low and inviting you to his funeral.
11. Axes kill structures much faster than the welder. AFAIK cysts and shades(?) are the only structures susceptible to fire damage and therefore the welder.
12. The bulkier the weapon, the slower you run. Pistol and axe are the two fastest run speeds but are still hindered by your primary. (Flamethrower is the slowest).
12a. If you're running to a recycled weapon, drop your primary and enjoy roleplaying The Flash.
13. NS2+ Recommended Settings: Autopickup weapons ON (nice to catch welders/pick up mines), Show Welder Icon (visualizes armor count on friendlies)
14. Buying a jetpack refills your armor.
15. CHECK YOUR CORNERS! Get in the habit of checking every spot in a room, I've learned many sneaky spots just from paying attention on marines.
16. Get in the habit of jumping through phase gates. If it isn't a grinder (two sets of teeth on either side), you can usually jump over the skulks head and clear the gate. Get a running start, jump thru and look down while unloading your clip and you will typically get the frag. Even if it is being ground, a team of marines doing the same can eventually do enough damage to coax the lifeforms off the gate leaving only skulks.
17. When an alien leaves a room, keep your map open because for a short time after losing line of sight, they will still be visible on your map giving you an advantage if they decide to fake running away and try setting up an ambush somewhere near their exit.

Aliens:

1. Hold crouch as a skulk for the best walljumping experience. Your thumb may get tired from all the spacebar but you will move faster guaranteed.
1a. Holding crouch while spamming jump on a ceiling will cause the skulks feet to be towards the ground, making it hard to predict when you will actually fall and may cause the marine to begin aiming in the arc of your fall.
1b. Orientation isn't the easiest to convey in text but if you are attached to an RT, looking towards the top of it, the skulk will orient itself vertically on the RT. Similarly, if you are attached to a wall looking on towards a door, for example, your skulk will orient itself horizontally and this is sometimes why you may die when you feel you are hidden, a part of your leg is likely sticking out for a keen eyed marine to zero in on. I don't know the commands but there is a way with cheats on to go into 3rd person and it may be easier to understand that way.
2. Set up ambushes with other skulks, one skulk in a forward hidden position and another deeper towards a room. Deeper alien commits while the other watches map for the initiation, ready to react.
3. Parasiting is invaluable, even if you just run away from the fight after landing it. Intel is often more useful than dead marines when playing against more skilled players.
4. Ambush marines early, before they even get to the doorway. This gives them less time to react, is less predictable, gives them more things to think about after the first death giving you a psychological advantage.
5. The skulks movement speed on a wall or ceiling is faster than on the ground. If you watch some skilled skulks, you will see them use this to full effect and is the reason it feels like some players can kill you so fast.

Looking forward to seeing what people have to contribute, there are a lot of great players in this community and this could be a useful tool to bringing the average skill level to a more competitive level. Alien tips will likely be the most useful and there's a reason why I have only 3..

[Wyzcrak]

Marine Commanders: announce next orders DURING the klaxon, not after. Marines are a most captive audience when they know their movement autonomy is soon to be violated (the precise moment of recall, at the end of the beacon), and less so when that violation is in the past.

Know what you want to say before you beacon. Say it DURING the beacon. This most optimizes the strength of whatever tactic or strategy warranted the beacon.

[Wyzcrak]

If you're scanning defensively for a distant building Marine who knows his immediate location is presently clear, don't scan right on top of him. Nudge the scan's location a touch toward the potential threat's ingress.

Same goes for misting. Don't center the mist directly on the request. Place the perimeter of the mist boundary on the request such that other eggs or structures might be in range (the boundary of the mist you're about to drop is clearly marked as a large circle on your Khamm HUD when you select mist from the menu). The mist request you're servicing gets satisfied with the same quickness regardless of the recipient's location within the placed mist's boundary.

[Wyzcrak]

Consider echoing eggs out of hives to raise your team's egg inventory. Eggs resting in locations beyond a hive's location do not count toward that hive's capacity, so the game will continue to give your team eggs until your hives all reach capacity. Some egg shortage scenarios price this more competitively than hatching eggs in the hive, and of course it diversifies your map coverage options.

[Samn]

Skulks: Work in pairs of 2 (as opposed to pairs of other numbers) . The skulk closest to the marine should run PAST the marine and spin him around so that the second skulk gets the kill. The most wounded or least good skulk should be the skulk closest to the marine. If you are bad at being a skulk, like me, you can make your life so much more valuable by making sure your team controls the room after an encounter, instead of trying and failing and letting the marine get two skulk kills.

Commanders: Try to get the other team to surrender. If you try to kill their last base, you risk losing it all. Instead, safely set up shop outside their door to demonstrate your prowess. Lock down your base with observatories and drifters to prevent Hail Mary rushes. Kill cysts to make aliens think they have less ground. Kill their base RT. Demoralize them and make them concede the game. It's not farming, it's legitimately safer.

Commanders: To follow up on that, in this game, when you are winning, YOU ARE VULNERABLE. When your team is not dying, you are not respawning. When your pressure is on their front lines, no one is on your back lines. Aliens can and will and do night after night slip out and open tunnels. Phase gates go up right outside of bases. Stretching your neck across the map is the best way to get your head cut off. If you are winning, you should be very paranoid. If I'm on the server, you know I'm trying to find a way.

Gorges: When you have nothing else to do, put on celerity and crush and go kill something. If you take 1 RT out, you're trading 10 pres for their 10 tres -plus- the pres difference the marines would have had from the RT still being up.

Gorges: Build clogs around your entrance tunnel in base. Some wise guys on the server like to find an empty lane and rush your base at the start of the map and gun down your juvenile tunnel entrance.

Gorges: You can build a very tight clog nest and THEN place your tunnel inside of it. If you place your tunnel first, you will not be able to build as tight of a clog nest.

Gorges: Before you bile bomb a target, get someone to come help you distract marines. If you try to bile a phase gate alone you are likely to get interrupted and die. Open your mic and get a friend.

Gorges: The new gorge tunnel mod means you no longer have to gamble with your tunnel exit. Place your tunnel entrance at base like usual, then place a safe tunnel exit at the first tech point you can get to. IF you're able to get to another tech point later, you can move your tunnel exit.

Gorges: If you have chosen to be a gorge, your primary responsibility to your team is tunnel up-time. If you have a tunnel entrance but no exit, and you are a skulk with more than 11 res, you have done a wrong thing. You must place the other end of your tunnel. Don't save for Onos or whatever you're doing.

Gorges: If you have a tunnel entrance and no exit, and you are a skulk, get into position to drop the tunnel exit AS A SKULK. Get there BEFORE you have 11 res. When the coast is clear, gorge up and drop your tunnel. If you died along the way, at least you didn't lose your gorge and you can try again.

[cupricdagger]

Is there a consensus on how marines should kill RTs? Should we kill the cyst first? When should we use rifle vs axe/welder?

[Nominous]

cupricdagger It's situational like most things in NS2. I have a habit of de-cysting from beta before cysts were buffed. If I was killing an RT, I would at least kill the cysts that covered it. The de-cyst damage can be decent over time and I've had RTs die to it even after I die to an alien response. Sometimes khamms are slow to mist and cyst.

I usually just axe RTs in early to mid game if I think the coast is clear. The main benefit is that the comm doesn't have to waste ammo on me. This forces me to stay in melee range of the RT, of course, which can open me up to an ambush depending on the room layout. When aliens come to respond, I need to be ready to switch back to the rifle asap. Using the rifle is generally the safer option since you can position yourself better for a response, granting you better line of sight and the lack of a need to switch weapons.

[jack^]

As a gorge if you heal spray and look down at the ground you heal yourself more but don't heal anyone around you.

[Sargon]

1. If you want to kill an RT as a gorge but don't have bile bomb, your babblers can be a viable alternative. Keep spitting on the RT whilst your babblers damage the structure. The amount of damage will be high, though obviously not as high as the damage bile bomb does, but certainly better than nothing. I have destroyed many RTs using this tactic. Do make sure to keep your distance whilst spitting on the RT in order to be able to quickly escape any approaching marine.

2. When using gorge webs, it is better to build them on the floor in a way that makes it difficult for marines to notice them when approaching. If you build them above floor-level they will be clearly visible to marines who will simply bypass them by crouching, jumping, or welding.

3. As a gorge, always have babblers attached to you after you build your second gorge tunnel entrance. I can't even count how many times babblers saved my life when marines were chasing me.

[rad4Christ]

Here's some thoughts. May be repeats, but I'm just typing as they come to mind.

Marine Commanding Tips:

• Explain your strategy pregame in broad strokes, even if it's initial play only.
  • "Going early gates, powerbuild the armory"
  • "Looking to pressure alien res, MarineA and MarineB I want you to be the pressure team. We're going to ARC X later."
  • "Make sure we always have guys on lanes X and Y, at least until we place a gate in X."
• It is becoming more common and advantageous to skip the second RT and push the alien naturals. In other words, build your naturals, then SKIP the next ones to pressure. Let the second wave of spawners cap the next set.
• Plan all tech paths on 4 nodes. For some maps, that's the usual max, but for most, 5 is what you CAN hold, but with res pressure, it's often 4 that are active most of the time. Plan accordingly.
• Marines favor early rushes, aliens late. Don't be afraid to commit to a quick tunnel rush or upgrade kill.
• Speaking of which, it feels counter intuitive, but the alien's hive is often MUCH less defended than that tunnel exit. Kill it from the other side.
• Starting Veils means mines, armor two, and shotties.
• ARCs are great when you're established, not when you can barely hold ground. It's a big investment, use it wisely.
• WATCH YOUR MAP. I know it's busy, and your attention is constantly pulled, but try to watch your map at all times, and call it, EVEN WHEN IT SEEMS OBVIOUS. Your marines are working as hard as they can to focus on their situation. It's your job to provide intel and direction. A silent commander doesn't help your marines.
  • Example: http://rr.tacticalgamer.com/Replay/W...KNX2Kd0&t=4m4s
    • At 4:35 Wyz sneaks past marines to Logistics. If you watch my comm stream, you'll see him as a brief blip. Notice for 2 minutes Wyz doesn't attack the RT. Wyz ALWAYS attacks RTs unless? Look at the 6 min mark. Confirmed.
• As an addendum to the above, if you're not using voicecomms, that's OK, but please someone on the team echo verbally what your commander types.

Alien Commanding Tips:

• When in doubt, echo out.
• When in doubt, echo out. Seriously, that drifter and harvester aren't cheap. Rather have a delay than a full loss.
• One gorge, use a drifter. Two gorges, no drifter. Don't always drop a shift immediately, wait until you need it. An extra spur may need to happen first. Your engagements will tell you.
• Ensure your team understands and wants the upgrade you're intending. If your team doesn't buy into veils, they won't work.
• A good gorge is a game changer. A lot of newer players like to go gorge because
  • They're not great at skulking
  • They want to be useful
  • They like variety.
  • That's ok, but guide them more, and sometimes, having a second more experienced gorge is necessary. In other word, don't discount the gorge
• Mid game, when lines are defined, and good gorge tunnel BEHIND their lines is important. Not just for rushing, for res pressure.
• I love Biomass 3, I do, but 45 res for 3 biomass, or 40 res for 2 biomass with 2 hives is a winner. It gains map controls, disheartens marines, and opens tech. Don't be afraid to do it.
• Mobile Stations: Once you have Shift upgrades, generally after second hive, get a shift, crag, and shade/whip and echo it around as needed. Shore up an RT under attack, or help an offensive position. But always be willing to echo out an advanced cluster of structures. Too many aliens lose structures they don't have to.
  • As an example, just tonight a marine commander held Falls on Biodome, and sent an arc back and forth from Agri to Filtration. What he didn't know was every time he moved his arcs to take the other resource tower, I simply echoed the same one back and forth. he wasted time and res trying to kill the same RT over and over again.
• Echo out of danger. You'll know what hive locations are the most vulnerable, so don't keep upgrades there. Echo them out, and be ready to move them in an emergency.

General Thoughts:
Commanding is as much as demoralizing the other team as it is outplaying them. Early shift upgrades make the marines more wary of silence. Forward OBS make aliens feel exposed on the map. Veils make them more cautious of open rooms. Either way it slows the other teams down. Early hives make them pessimistic of taking that ground. A PG in a strategic spot makes aliens think that whole lane is now closed. One crag at an RT can make some marines feel the location is "too protected".
Know when to use these things to change their behavior.

Most teams avoid hives/marine starts until time to go for the kill. be willing to regularly test the defenses. So many games have turned from one or two players testing a spawn and taking out an arms lab or upgrades/tunnel. be willing to pressure.

I say it ingame, but every game is an alien win unless the marines do something about it. Aliens, be willing to play it for the long run IF you can see the strategy. Don't hold out for a miracle if you lose every engagement. Marines, you HAVE to push. Mediocres teams with Onos will be a fight for skilled teams with shotguns. You've got to slow their advancement.

[jedd]

1. If you want to kill an RT as a gorge but don't have bile bomb, your babblers can be a viable alternative. Keep spitting on the RT whilst your babblers damage the structure. The amount of damage will be high, though obviously not as high as the damage bile bomb does, but certainly better than nothing. I have destroyed many RTs using this tactic. Do make sure to keep your distance whilst spitting on the RT in order to be able to quickly escape any approaching marine.

2. When using gorge webs, it is better to build them on the floor in a way that makes it difficult for marines to notice them when approaching. If you build them above floor-level they will be clearly visible to marines who will simply bypass them by crouching, jumping, or welding.

3. As a gorge, always have babblers attached to you after you build your second gorge tunnel entrance. I can't even count how many times babblers saved my life when marines were chasing me.

The gorgemaster has spoken :o