Marine vs Alien wins

[Hesitation]

I love it. Love it love it love it. I'm a big alien player, does it show? I think the marines just had it too cushy, and have gotten lazy.

In my opinion, old marines just had to follow waypoints, blast anything that moves, and build phase gates. Then take a nap while their base kills the enemy base and  enemy players for them.

My only problem is still the observatory. I mean cmon, how many games have rines ever won WITHOUT an observatory? The obs's abilities are pretty much required just to survive this new game. A game without an obs is an easy alien win. I think it's become too central to the marine game, and I'd like it set back a little bit (just a LITTLE bit).

[Legionnaired]

The obs being the only saving grace is not cause for nerfing the obs.

[2_of_8]

Can you survive without RTs, Arms lab, armoury, IP, comm chair, phase gates?
Only "optional" structures I could think of are TFs, turrets, sieges, and proto lab.

[Hesitation]

Well, that may be true. If it's still lopsided in a few weeks time, I'd say the marines would need some other boost to reduce dependancy on the obs to win.

[2_of_8]

I find it extremely weird that even after being tested for a year or so, the game comes out unbalanced. They privately tested this game for a long time now. This leads me to believe that it's not the game that's unbalanced, but it's the players who aren't usde to the new version yet.

[GrayDuck]

I fervently hope that people won't judge this version before they've played it for a while. It's been tested and was supposed to be great, so let's give it a chance before we mark it as "sux."

[snapback]42799[/snapback]

Quoted for emphasis.

Give it time.

[SgtFury]

One thing I would say is that on Lunixmonster the aliens had almost adapted to wining in b5 now in b6 they have an advantage and therefore are winning more. Once marines learn tactics to adjust to this (like the playtesters probably did) it will balance out more.

[SwiftSpear]

One thing I would say is that on Lunixmonster the aliens had almost adapted to wining in b5 now in b6 they have an advantage and therefore are winning more. Once marines learn tactics to adjust to this (like the playtesters probably did) it will balance out more.

[snapback]42854[/snapback]

It probably will to some degree, but according to several playtesters the marine winloss ratio at the end of PB6 was still only about 1/4 (based on statisics from the servers)...  General consensus was that it was playable to a balanced state however.

[Necrosis]

If players are still trying to shotgun snipe and siege down hives, thats probably where most of the grief lies.

In addition, hiding in dark vents and sniping passing skulks won't work anymore under the new flashlight.


As I see it, a lot of the marine "dirty tricks" have been nullified or toned down, and an awful lot of people had come to rely on these moves in order to give an edge. Now the tricks have been removed, they've had to fall back on being more intelligent and more skilled... kind of hard to adapt to if your strat consisted of getting close to a hive and shottysniping any alien while the sieges cleared it out for you.

I think we'll see a better change in marine play. More people able to use JPs, more use of catpacks. Not as many sieges and HA train wins. Mmmmmmm, balance.

[Doobie Dan]

True. If aliens have MC, and with the new spawn system, Marines have almost no chance of taking a hive down, since they'll be constantly pressured by the Aliens.
DCs first - I haven't seen that maybe once in the last week. DC has been moved to 2nd hive all the time now. The two most popular chamber orders now are:
S -> D -> M
M -> D -> S
I haven't seen either
D -> M -> S or
S -> M -> D
much; the first one is too damn overused and repetitive, while the last one makes for a very hard game for the aliens, unless they are very organized.

[snapback]42772[/snapback]

I see S -> M -> D quite often now, and it works very well.  If you go sensory first, I think it's more of a sacrifice to give up movements at the second hive.  You really don't want to be in a situation where you have two hives and a third one going up without any movement chambers - it's just too hard to defend.  The major weakness to this strat is the inability to take down turreted locations - for example double on Veil.  If you go sensory first, make the next chamber choice depend on the marine strat.  If they are fortifying an advance position, get defence to wear it down.  If they are PG-rush happy, you NEED movement or your chances at 3 hives are pretty slim.

[Necrosis]

SMD works very well if the team is right.