You don't command for Exigent unless you're "kinda good", so I like to think I know a little about commanding, competitive or otherwise.
The point of attacking the hive isn't just to waste the res, it's to slow the alien team down. One alien might have 40 res to re-drop it with, but that's 3 more minutes before they get 2 hive abilities and armor, and 3 more minutes for you to push the tech advantage you have. Not everything is about 100% domination and forcing them to a point of no-return, delaying tactics are often necessary in order to stave off defeat long enough to gain competitive advantages. If you can get the second hive down, your tech level is automatically better than the alien's level, so use the advantage to destroy their res base. Start killing their RTs, and when you find another hive building, kill it too. This can be repeated until they don't have anything left, while you have a full tech tree. This is one of the things I mentioned already, it's exhausting their resource supply by forcing them to spend everything they have just to hold on. What you're describing is exactly the opposite, the alien team is forcing you as the commander to spend everything you have, which is what you have to avoid in order to do the same to them.
The most common way to get a hive down is to kill all the skulks nearby and force the higher lifeforms to flee, all the while hitting the hive with whatever weapons you have that aren't needed to kill aliens. sieges can work, but are very slow in comparison to simply pushing into the hive room to directly engage it. The key to marine midgame (which is what you're describing, the point when at least one team reaches mid-tech level, mid being the AA or a second hive) is to withstand the explosion of alien tech and continue teching yourself. This means defending your res nodes and not relying on the structures to do it themselves. Actively moving marines to res nodes under attack is the number one thing that new commanders do not do. They rely on electricity or turrets to defend areas for them, which is quite simply the wrong answer. The cost of these structures versus their defense value is almost no comparison, aliens are intelligent players that can manipulate them in a way that renders them worthless. Marines are also intelligent players, so use them for defense instead of turrets or eletricity when dealing with nodes. The key to marine mid-game is getting the most out of what you have, and wasting resources on fruitless RT defense is not a good answer when compared to the strength of two hive aliens.
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I'd give an undisclosed didget to see LMers shooting well enough to acctually kill all the lower lifeforms in a hive as well as chase away the large ones while still being able to shoot the hive down.
I guess that says a lot about what you think of most of the LM players Swiftspear. I've had a lot of games I won as comm by simply telling every marine to run into the hiveroom and start shooting, very few times did it not work that was due to the marine's aiming ability. Other factors usually were the blaim if it failed.
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Casaulty rate and team numbers are also key. In a cal match 6v6 a team can effectivly engage that force, but with attrition as it is 8v8 or larger, other calculations have to go into it. Clans can go in the kill everything, but in pubs a random tf can save alot of hassle. I know the res to defense power is lower, but for a moment consider the number of marines it will save from having to defend that area, if you are grouping people up to hit key map areas, aliens wont bother with mildly defended areas. This way you are saving your best weapon, marines for the primary fight. This of course is in pub games, in scrims, matches, and small games building tf's and sieges just isn't a viable option. As they just slow you down too much.
Casaulty rate and team numbers are also key. In a cal match 6v6 a team can effectivly engage that force, but with attrition as it is 8v8 or larger, other calculations have to go into it. Clans can go in the kill everything, but in pubs a random tf can save alot of hassle. I know the res to defense power is lower, but for a moment consider the number of marines it will save from having to defend that area, if you are grouping people up to hit key map areas, aliens wont bother with mildly defended areas. This way you are saving your best weapon, marines for the primary fight. This of course is in pub games, in scrims, matches, and small games building tf's and sieges just isn't a viable option. As they just slow you down too much.
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The number of players does not matter, in fact the larger the teams, the more you can afford to send out marines to defend nodes or important areas. The marine team has something the aliens lack: Centralized logistical capabilities. It takes the entire alien team to form a coordinated defense and move what they need back and forth to different areas, the marines do not have this liability. The commander can get the entire marine team to any location on the map in less than 10 seconds via a beacon and a phase gate, aliens lack this incredibly logistical capability. The commander can also keep the entire marine team supplied with health and ammo at ANY location, while the aliens have to run away to the hive for serious damage. One does not have to "save the best weapon" for anything, because the commander has nearly unlimited logistical resources to move personnel and equipment anywhere, anytime. This is why the marine team needs to dictate the pace of the game, because that way it is up to the commander to direct the game, not the alien team.
You don't quit Exigent unless you're "kinda fired", so I like to think I know a little about losing, competitive or otherwise.
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Fixed.