MC to hive under attack

[Manta]

The ability to movement over to a hive under attack is a great tool. It's a useful strategy. I love it.

However, people have become much too reliant on it. I have seen it happen several times -- a hive will be in imminent danger (e.g. a Marine is sitting in a hive, waiting for a PG) and half the team is too lazy to get off their asses and just GO. All they can do is say, "Bite the hive so we can MC rush! Bite the hive! Bite the - " and by that time, the phase gate is up, Marines are in and the hive is as good as dead. Repeat.

Earlier today, I had just put up a hive when a Marine walked in. He shot me several times, but I managed to hide out in a little corner. The Marine walked in to a spot where he had a clear view of the hive (I could tell where he was by the sounds he made climbing up a ladder). If I moved at all, I would most likely be instantly dead. I told everyone (including an Onos, a lerk, and two skulks) to just get over to the hive because there was no way I would be able to get to the hive without getting shot to death.

Still, they ignored my pleas, insisting that they would MC rush if I would just "BITE THE HIVE!" So, finally, I tried. I jumped up to go for the hive and, as expected, I was shot down.

Only then did some lerk finally decide to get up and fly over.

My point is not that the MC rush or FF should be removed. I am simply urging everyone to stop relying so much on this ability. If nobody can reach the hive to bite it, then get over there yourself. The only time in which you shouldn't try to walk/fly over is if you're an onos or if the hives are too far apart. Even then, a good fade or lerk should be ably to zip over and hopefully catch the Marines from behind.

I'm tired of lazy aliens.

[2_of_8]

Agreed. Too many times, all the aliens are in one hive location waiting by an MC, saying  "bite the hive".
Skulks can get to a hive in <30 seconds, as specified in the mapping guidelines (at least, they should be able to).
Fades can get to a hive in <20 seconds, taking into account a few bumps while blinking.
Lerks can get to a hive in <15 seconds, there is absolutely no reason that the lerk shouldn't be the one biting the hive. (I'm assuming the lerk has celerity

[duherman]

Yeah well said, I've seen it happen alot of times.

[george]

So let me get this straight...
This marine sees you, shoots you, then you hide. And he stops???
Weird.
2. If you drop a hive and a marine runs in and sees you, while the first chamber is MC just start spitting the hive.
NO reason to hide at that point, and if there is someone near an MC im sure they'll try to MC in.
Even with the one marine killing you its taking away time for him to be building a structure, hence giving your team more time to get in.
Ideally in such situations people would already be near an MC as soon as you drop the hive to secure it immediately.
Unless you're super battle gorge and see a lone marine as an easy meal.

[Manta]

He saw me as I was egging back to skulk. He shot me as an egg, then reloaded. I gestated then ran for the hive, because I had 35 hp. I actually did bite the hive once, before he climbed up the ladder. Then I heard him coming up, so I hit it again and hid. It was too early though; nobody was near an MC when I bit it. That, or they ignored it.

And yes, if I had not gone skulk (a mistake on my part), I might have been able to spit the hive, though I was in a position where he could easily kill me before. I was on top of the door ledge in ns_nothing's Ventilation hive.

That's not my point though. In my situation, I'm sure I could have done a dozen things differently. That doesn't change the fact that some people are getting lazy because they have the option to use MCs.

[Necrosis]

Its a catch 22. Do they run across the map and hope to get there fast enough, or do they wait and hope that one guy can bite the hive so that they can drop in right on top of the enemy?


I don't think its a matter of laziness, so much that its a lot easier to wipe out marines by an MC rush as opposed to training across the map and hoping nothing is in the way.

[Manta]

I'm not really asking for the entire team to walk over there. I'd just like at least one other person to get up and try to hit the hive or kill the lone Marine.

The problem I'm talking about mainly applies to situations in which nobody is there to bite the hive, or nobody is able to. I was essentially trapped, and I kept telling my team that I could not bite the hive and that someone should get over there, but they kept telling me to bite the hive.

I just get really frustrated when the a Marine is setting up a phase gate and sieges IN THE HIVE and half of the alien team is camped around an MC, yelling, "Bite the hive! Bite the hive!"

[Diablus]

The problem I'm talking about mainly applies to situations in which nobody is there to bite the hive, or nobody is able to

if nobody is going to take responsibility to guard the hive, and stick close to it while it's building, the creators of thegame set it up that you deserve to lose the hive. It promotes "teamwork" sure one less skulk or gorge on the field can be devistating to the team, but it happens. Thats why when I drop a hive i plan to drop a few OCS inside if I decide to depart from guarding (because nobody else will and I don't blame them, hive guard duty is the suck)

But on a side note, I do catch myself sometimes runnnig back to a MC if the hive is too far, other than that if Im half way there or closer ill dart over.

[[JFF]Kirby]

heh.. yeah.. i was the onos.. i didnt know there was only one marine in there.. and i just plain didnt want to go to the hive because its an onos death trap.. if there was only one i prolly could have gone, but i certainly didnt want to run all the way over there..

if i thought it was a huge threat i probably would have taken more action but i decided not to..

[Manta]

Well, I never expect the Onos to run unless it's incredibly urgent.

[Absinthe]

Chalk it up to confusion..I only recently found out that you could use the MC to go to a building hive and I'm sure there are other who were just as clueless. You might be the only one in the hive and in the middle of an attack so it might not occur to you that the message is for you personally.

I still don't know if that's a game bug or not, anyone else?

[Settler]

Chalk it up to confusion..I only recently found out that you could use the MC to go to a building hive and I'm sure there are other who were just as clueless. You might be the only one in the hive and in the middle of an attack so it might not occur to you that the message is for you personally.

I still don't know if that's a game bug or not, anyone else?

[snapback]44140[/snapback]

i think it falls into the "feature" catagory... dunno if they actually made it work that way, but if not, they probably just said screw it, and left it in.

   :ph34r:

[Manta]

I don't know if it's actually a feature, but FF being on allows you to hit the hive and have people MC over. And I highly doubt it was confusion, considering half the team was telling me to bite the hive so they could move over. Using the MC by friendly fire hive attack is also a pretty widely-used tactic on this server.

[SuicidaL MonkeY]

There are other tacticts we could use with MC's.....in which i try to drop OC's behind the hive so if it spots a rine it'll shoot the hive like an rt....I agree with Diablus in which i see....many...many times there are no aliens in a hive going up with no chambers in it...i usually end up running to it and telling the other players.. "our hives empty help check it"...

If your a skulk or a lerk it should be no problem to run back to the hive...shouldnt take more then 30 sec at the most with the vents...where as the fades and onos rely on the MC's because of their size and capabilities...an onos runs pretty slow compared to the other lifeforms...then down the wrong hallway the onos goes and finds a coulpe hmgs...thats all she wrote....(cant remember how many times)....fades "should" be able to blink to a hive no sweat and usually do but it tends to take a little longer....

Having one alien...be it a gorge stay in the hive as it builds...helps one heck of alot then you may think...I think the real question here is why aren't gorges dropping a few MC's in the field as they should?

[Manta]

Generally because they either don't want to spend the extra res or because they think the MCs will just die.

[RangerAlpha]

i usually try to drop an mc in the hive that will eventually get built when i build chambers.  But yes, field mcs are great for gorges, they make spit machineguns!
what i hate, is when a gorge is sitting under the hive, watching the marines do stuff, and NOT spitting the hive.