Your Comming Style

[CommunistWithAGun]

Everyone is equal. You never see me use squads. Except for my obs. When I have 2-3 obs (when the dastardly aliens go sensie first) I hotkey my 2-3 obs into squads :p


I haven't pub scrimmed in a week or so, I may be a bit rusty but I'm willing to help anyone who wants to beef their strats/methods.

[Malevolent]

I wish comming was more like starcraft. See playing starcraft is fun because I get to giggle while watching my 200 zerglings swarm a base, or giggle as I send my marines off to their doom, but I can still win. You can't have fun like that in NS.

lol, exactly. You kinda feel bad when you can't help your marines in NS (unless it's some stupid person), but in StarCraft, no matter how many guys you lose, you usually can still pull it off. And people yell at you when you're comm asking you for this and that.

[Jane]

I comm pubs like I comm scrims, and just hope people listen.  :p  Just make a pressure group, and a node group, and depending on how many I have I love the rambo distraction guy thing (don't do this when I scrim).  So yeah that's about it.

[Black Mage]

the first person to get me a node gets a cookie
anyone whom i feel is useless will get nothing for the entire game
if you want a medpack you'd better be:
a) moving to a node/hive
B) at a node/hive
c) moving away from a secured node/hive
if you're at base and ask for a medpack, /kill yourself

well ... after about the time the armory gets upgraded (even in pubs) i'm swimming in about 150-300 res and all my rines are lv1. shotgunspams ensue.

then again. this is assuming there are less than 2 rambos and at least 6 on my team.
then again, we have uses for our rambos  

[crack]

to lazy to read all these posts but:

1. Put 1 or 2 ips
2. TF near it
3. Sometimes armory, sometimes no.

4.Assign Squads maybe 3. RES HUNT!
5. ill have about 100 res in 4 mins then drop a arms lab. upgrade armory.get mt. get armor 1

6. Get Pg tech then try to get 1 hive with 1 pg. by now the aliens should have 1 hive building. scan the hives.

7. start an early attack on hives. if the hive is down we lock it down.

8. Jps over Ha = weiner

[Niteowl]

style guys, not build order

[Satiagraha]

One word: Electrification!

I tend to elec stuff (like RTs...  damn skulks) and then cram all my buildings together around the elec TF.  Perhaps if I'm feeling specifically rich, i'll build 2 TFs.  Although, i have this bad habit of ignoring the marines running around the map by themselves... oh well...

Basically, the whole game is centered around res.  Maintain a majority of the RTs, and you're set. (Electricity helps maintain RT :p )

[Niteowl]

that is a strat that can work, and work quite well. efficient coutners are gangs of skulks and gorges and early fades. because i find i can't up the rines as early as i'd like to with lots of elect.

i'm starting to like the 3 turrets instead of electing the tfac. leads to a less cramped and telefrag happy base, can keep skulks away, and is a nice warning system for anyone at base

[devicenull]

ip,armory,tf, electrify tf
Rt, rt, rt, rt, rt all electrified
Armory, Obs
l3 w/a
pt
Shotty spam
mt
kill hive 1
arm up
attempt hive 2
if sucessful then hive3
else hmg spam, hive3
if hive3(failed) then proto, ha, hmg rush

rush 3rd hive

Flexibility and RT's are the two main things

[Satiagraha]

i suppose i should explore other styles, after all, elecTF and elecRTs are really expensive when you're just starting the round...

i could try the 3 turret thing, without *shudder* electrified defences  o_O

how come when marines try to get a resource node, the aliens get to it at the same time, kill the marines and build RT. Then the 'rines go, take out the RT, build another RT, get it half finished, recycle it as aliens ravage the room again, and the process starts over.  This seems like an all too common series of events...
How long should a comm persue that resouce node?

[Niteowl]

comms should almost enver constatnly throw marines at a point where they are dying constantly. rines dying before building nodes means that they are not covering each other properly, or you are sendin them to a tough area (upper proc rt comes to mind). so send them to a more open node, or micromanage them better

[Uranium - 235]

I wish comming was more like starcraft. See playing starcraft is fun because I get to giggle while watching my 200 zerglings swarm a base, or giggle as I send my marines off to their doom, but I can still win. You can't have fun like that in NS.

lol, exactly. You kinda feel bad when you can't help your marines in NS (unless it's some stupid person), but in StarCraft, no matter how many guys you lose, you usually can still pull it off. And people yell at you when you're comm asking you for this and that.

That's actaully one of the reasons I lose as comm... when marines yell at me, I tell them 'Hive is empty! Attack!' and send them on a waypoint suicide mission

[lolfighter]

how come when marines try to get a resource node, the aliens get to it at the same time, kill the marines and build RT. Then the 'rines go, take out the RT, build another RT, get it half finished, recycle it as aliens ravage the room again, and the process starts over.  This seems like an all too common series of events...
How long should a comm persue that resouce node?

I see that happening all too often myself. I'm thinking: If both sides seem hellbent on taking that node, why not let it work to your advantage? Order two marines to keep the pressure on that node. Tell them that you're not gonna build it, but that you want 'em to guard it. If the aliens keep attacking them, you'll get rfk if the marines can aim decently (since we know that marines, dug in, can be quite hard to kill ). Tell your two marines to group up at base at go back to the node again if they get killed. With any luck, they'll take out the node that the aliens may have built in the meantime, resulting in wasted alien res. You'll have the gorge screaming for skulks to save his node, too.
Most important, this'll work as a nice diversion while you concentrate on screwing the aliens over somewhere else. Eventually your rines will wander off, tired of dying to a node fortified with OCs, or the aliens will just give up. In the meantime, you've had your diversion. And if the aliens were the ones who gave up the field, you've got your node, too.


I'm not a comm. I can't handle the interface, can't handle the constant pressure, lose the overview, lose the game. Bleh.

As an alien, however, I'll usually know what's going on. If I run into a large group of marines, I'll often know exactly where they're going. I'll usually know which hive the marines are going to try to take first. I'll usually know which nodes they have, simply based on the node counter. And I'll tell my team. Over and over again, until they listen. And it seems to work.

Part of this, my dear commanders, is that you guys are terribly predictable sometimes. What, you tried to siege our hive and got massacred horribly? Don't be surprised that I'm waiting for you to try it at the other hive next.

[LaYkE]

After reading the topic..

Esuna i'm in the same boat as you with the temper. I'm used to clan comming, so when marines don't go where I want them or run off with that shiny new hmg(that I had to scrimp and save for) to battle 4 OC's by himself, I lose it.

No word of a lie, I will scream at the maines, type "GO TO THE FU**ING WAYPOINT" etc.. If they don't listen I punish em by no weapons for a while. Or when they ask for weapons ask them will they follow orders if I give them one.

It may seem a bit harsh but I think when people comm they tend to think of the game at hand as theirs. For exampe when i'm in that chair, your MY marines and youv'e got MY weapons.


How I comm:

3 basics first: IP, Tfac, and Armoury.

Tfac will be built close to the CC with the other 2 structures in close proximity for that electrical defense. I don't build turrets until fades start appearing, a waste of res imo at gamestart. If you do the job right you'll only see about 2 or 3 fades (and the od Onos) during the game and 6 marines kitted with HMG's no problem.

Now, all marines go cap me some res.. and gut me some towers. 2 marines head off towards where I think a Gorge has been the rest are cappers. Once I have 3-4 res towers I start to look at what chamers they have.

Now pending on what is put up I will drop an Obs or a Armslab.

MC :: well your best defense for movement imo is armour.Lv1 weapons will work if you can actually hit them (as an experienced skulk can use celerity with great effect).

DC :: ah the big bad boy. This has got to be the worst chamber for me. This warrents more research into Lv2/Lv3 weaps which costs teh .

SC :: Personally as an Alien I prefer these as my starter chamber. As Comm Armour + MT (MT priority)

I move fast and by Lv1 armour/weapons I expect to see a hive go down. Most games I comm we rarely make it to level 3 weapons or HA/JP(which kinda kills the fun tbh). PG's are a must, I usually have them ready to go by the time we make our first assault.

Best,
Pete

[Legionnaired]

Elec TF Defense at base, Hotkey two squads of 4 guys into groups one and two.

Send marine squads on bee-lines to the two unnocupied hives, capping 1 res node en-route, no more, no less. Set up phasegates and nodes at each hive, electrofy the two intermediate nodes, have ground commanders delegate troops to patrol my 5 nodes, until I get a proto lab, upped armory, and 6 shiny pairs of HA/HMG.

No waste, no retreat, no failure .

[Lito]

I'm an electrification commander.

Usually, its 2 ips, and a elec'd tf as skulk repellant, then for the first 3 minutes of the game, i need res nodes (OMG! NO ARMORY?! NUB CORNMANDORE!).  I electrify the most outward resnodes or nodes nearest to thier hive first, but some special situations warrant an emergency electrification ie. skulks are closing on to the marine guarding that res node.

i stress upgrades, and i always get a1, w1, w2, w3, a2, a3, because armor upgrades give you more bang for your buck, while w2 is a much better investment than a2.

I almost always have 1 digit res, unless i'm saving for something, or my attention is directed elsewhere which warrants more attention than to spending it.

Rambos: love one or two every game, it'll keep the resnode ratio down.

Back-seat commanders:  Commanders knows stuff that marines don't know, but also, Marines know stuff that commanders don't.  Like if 3 marines get owned by a 2-hive Holy_Devil, they know its Holy_Devil, but the commander doesn't always, and he'll scream "NUBS!" and quit the game.  I accept and respect the advice of my marines, but of course there are limits; The commander is still the commander, and the grunt is still the grunt.

equipment distrobution:  Shottys are good enough, why hmg when you can have 3 shotguns?  Also, if res is low, the better players/players who listen get the stuff first, not as a reward of some sort, but you know that stuff is being put to better use.

Strategy:  Never let them breathe.  If they have time to munch on resnodes, or munch on your cc, then you're not pressuring them hard enough.  Keep moving forward, gaining ground, and shoot that hive!

[Niteowl]

Layke: that's quite the solid process you got going. we seem to have similar styles. i rarely am handing out the ha/jp unless on the last hive.

LF: yer right about the predictability, but what else should we be doing :S

Legion: 2 hive lockdown? every game? altho i like your slogan

Lito: (wait a second, what is with all these L themed names?!?!?)  yeah, i concur with pretty much everything you said. altho i'm much less tolerant of backseat commanders. rines who inform me of what's going on, great. rines who tell me to "LOCKDOWN DBL OR WE LOSE!!" , bad.

[devicenull]

Heres a hint: Marines like their armory.
I didn't build one yesterday and got ejected from the comm chair, we lost that round

[Grimm]

I think its always a great idea to have at least one or two good rambo marines scouting the map and getting open resource towers while you have the other marines focus on whatever other tasks there are. I was in a game on ns_caged the other day where the comm wanted to relocate to double node (as usual for this map), but instead of going to double, I meandered off to Upper Sewer to get the node.

I didn't exactly listen to comm a couple times, cause he told me to get to double, but he finally gave in and dropped the tower cause he knew I wasn't budging. From there I continued on to check the hive, just to scout it out, then to Purification to get that node also, all while skulks and such were busy trying to attack our relocation. Again, comm didn't want me to be there then, but he dropped the node again and I built it. It was only then that I went to our relocation to help defend.

Of course in most situations a marine should not disobey their comm, but I know from my experiences that I generally suck at defending an area unless I at least have a shotty. So I knew I would be more useful running about and getting us some early res. For much of those first 5 minutes we held the 5 resource towers, until the skulks decreassed their attack on our relocation as we fortified it, but instead went for Marine Start res node.

[Niteowl]

i don't mind at all 1 or 2 good rambos securing RTs if i'm focussing mainly on one point. you'll get my support. but i we're in assault mode, or fade hunting mode, i really need y'all together