I'm hoping some of the more experienced coms might put down a few tips for the new ones in this thread. Comming is going to shit lately. Particularly tips on: RT's, ARMS LAB UPGRADES, TURRETS, AA and MT, BUILDING PLACEMENT, simple stuff, nothing specific, critique suggested strats if warranted.

If you're a new com pay special attention to when Zoe (1*, Trashman), Tabasco, Goobag, Oldro, Yogurt or Anime, watch and learn is the best advice. Not saying these are the only good coms on, but they're pretty reliable.

-ARMS LAB UPGRADES: Armor 1 is a good idea for first upgrade. It stops the para + bite + bite kill which is so effective for aliens at the start of the game. Weap 1 should be no no no later than 5 minutes. If you "don't have enough res", as is so often the excuse used, then you have to prioritize.

-TURRETS: Use sparingly, usually just turreting one spot on the map is fine. Particularly the middle hive, or the middle of the map (e.g. Dbl in Veil), which can help move rines around. No more than 4 turrets on a lock down. It's for skulks not fades. Also, you don't need turrets (IMO at all) if you have a good team. Give them upgrades and guns.

-RTS: No more than 2-4 at the start of the game. This should be before upgrades. Anymore than that, particularly with less skilled teams, the nodes will just get taken down, and you have no res.

-AA and MT: AA is probably the biggest upgrade. Best to get after weap 1 if u have the res. MT after that, unless the aliens go SC first, in which case it should be the first upgrade.

-BUILDING PLACEMENT: always against the wall!!! It stops aliens getting behind the buildings, and also lets marines move around easier.

It all depends on what kind of team you are working with and what you are up against but are my guidelines.

For the arms lab I do
Armor 1 --> weapons 1 to 3 ---> armor 2-3

I only break it and do armors 2 and 3 before/with the weapon upgrades for two things
1. Massive res that allows for two arms labs
2. My marines are dying to much

For turrets I have a few different methods.
1. Lock unoccupied hives (sometimes double depending how critical it is)
2. Lock unoccupied hives & strategic points on the map. This one is more of a harassment strategy than anything else. When I have control of the map but seem to be having trouble getting into the last hive I do this. It does a few useful things:
a. Keeps skulks in the hive (no res node chomping to worry about)
b. Gives the marines a nice "drop zone"
c. Prevents meat grinders
They are wonderful anti-lerk devices when you have a team can't shoot, but, they should be used sparingly (until you have map control :p)

I generally try to get a 2 hive lock before going AA. This is mainly due to the fact that I forget about it until then >.>
It's nice but not critical. Level 3 lmgs can take a 1 hive onos out pretty easily.

MT is generally more important for me than the AA. By allowing my marines to know where aliens are allows them to setup traps which increase the effectiveness of each gun on the ground.

Building placement is indeed critical. ALWAYS put IPs out in the open and armory/armslab/obs/proto either next to a wall or far enough from the ips that skulks can't use it to push marines up against. Keep the base open and easy to move about.

My $.02

I think we tried this once, but the noobs never read the forums.



No! Try very hard not to place IPs and phasegates by the wall (except in special cases). If I die one more time to a badly placed phasegate, I'm going to CRY, and the tears shall make a mighty stream, and the stream shall cleanse the intruders.

Also, try to place the armory so marines' backs are not turned to incoming aliens. This is tough to do as you need to keep the armory safe too, but on a couple maps (Eclipse, for example), it's possible.

I don't even bother getting a AA, cause its the first thing they kill at MS. Probably up it at the 15 min mark, or later.

Sometimes I hear that I suck, sometimes I hear that I'm glorious... Regardless, I've commed/played too many games to not know the basics.

I can't stress enough how important a hive lockdown is. Middle hive is always best, obviously. Please god stop rushing the main hive under 3 minutes of the game. Unless you're all going and you know the aliens are horrid and the thought of a lerk won't even come up. Other than that, lock down a fucking hive. If there's a double, fuck it... let them waste their rez so we can just seige it out AFTER we lock down a hive. By then we should have enough rez/upgrades to at least hold the pg there and have them waste even more rez/feed us more to take it.

Also, at game start, I always try to drop mines to someone who knows what '5' does when you hit it. I feel it's better to spend ten rez on ms rather than having to bacon 15 rez and screw up the lockdown we were going for.

When locking down a hive ill drop the pg next to the rt, then the tf next to that... That way electrifying the rt (only when rez flow is decent) will fuck with pesky skulk/gorge attempts at taking it down. It will usually also get whoever is fucking with the tf on the other side as well.

Shift 1-4 can be your best friend. i put obs at one and arms lab at 4, just for quickness. When someone is building somewhere just hit 1, then a for a quick scan.

It's also fun to try and hold in a meaty shit when comming a long game. It keeps you on your toes and makes you memorize hotkeys like you wouldn't believe.

Meh, it all depends if you team has some super heroes on it.

I would like to take this moment to stress the "don't defend dirt" point.

If you spend time locking down the third hive out, while the aliens take the second, you WILL lose, every time. Time is everything. Speed is the essence of war. (So says Sun Tzu, and, more importantly, Zoe).

If you can't lock the second hive down, don't bother with the third - unless you have upgrades up the ying yang and some super heros, the aliens only need two hives to kill you. Concentrate instead on taking one of the active hives. If you fail, well you woulda lost anyways and that Alamo you guys seem to dread so much will be that much shorter. (But at least you wasted time trying to win, rather than simply making your demise inevitable.)

Other time wasters:
• Welding unelected RT's
• Recycling damaged RT's and waiting around to build new ones
• Locking stuff down when elect and a PG/mines will do
(There are of course others, but most are out of the comm's hands: crawling though long vents, stacking to kill a single chamber / lerk / gorge, etc.)

I haven't commed enough to be good since before 3.0, but at least back then, good marines v good aliens = no lockdown. I think the same rule still applies now, because a handful of turrets won't stop 2 hive aliens ever. In fact, they tend to do worse than mines against a rush. If the aliens have superheroes, for example, it'd be very ill-advised to spend the effort on the lockdown versus getting up the 2nd hive siege a little earlier.

In fact, I'll one up that and say, unless it's crappy marines v crappy aliens, lockdowns are risky at best. The res spent on a hive lockdown will leave you screwed when it comes time to take the 2nd hive. If the map is big, drop a pg in the third hive and stick some mines there, but no lockdown is required early on. Better to pressure their res, get yours up, get upgs up the wazoo, then lay the smackdown on hive #2. A lockdown requires sacrificing 2 of those, which is never good.

This doesn't apply, of course, on special maps where there's a middle area that really splits the map in two, or in other special cases. Or if you're playing against good teamwork aliens that don't have superheroes (seemingly rare on Jigs), cuz then #2 is less a threat, but they will rush #3.

Oh, and the golden rule of comming which I've broken every time I've played recently: get a mic. If not, get really good binds.

The only time I get the third hive is, when the aliens get the second hive up and defended and there is no way to take it without big guns and advance equipment. It also applies to having too many pgs...It would be nice if the comm could set up the order of phases the marines go through.

For I don't know how many betas, I kept complaining that somehow how pgs needed to either be orderable or toggle-able. I'd be fine with being able to turn them off without recycling them, for example. Damnit.

I concur with some of what you're saying about locking down the hives, but you have to remember, we play on a pub. There's usually 3 or 4 rines either humping the armory, or just not phasing. Sure, there's some nights where everyone is on the same page, and usually that's when you'll win anyways.

But even seeing a hive locked down tends to keep the aliens occupied else where, especially if its under the 1st 10 min of the game. And if they do hit it, it gives you a few more seconds to save that shit. I dunno, today I had full upgrades/ha with a hive and they only had about 3 or 4 rt's... as we tried to take out the second hive, i had about 4 marines killing oc's outside ms when we had about 3 rines that were actually where they were supposed to be. I dunno... I've won with a team of shit marines before, but it's rare.

You need a core group of marines that either a) listen or b) know what to do without needing your orders. Without either that or a superhero, GG. Doesn't matter how good a comm you are.

I realize we play on a pub, because unless the marines are st4x0red, I basically never use shotty rush tactics and what not. The danger with locking down the third hive is, given mediocre marines versus mediocre aliens, you've just taken yourself out of the running. Even on a pub, the hive goes up pretty quick, and after that, one good fade will run rampant over your mediocre marines.

Drop a pg and some mines for hive 3 in a mediocre v mediocre and you should be golden. Assuming your marines aren't outclassed, in which case you've probably lost no matter what you do.

Agree with thoth, most coms on the server at the moment lock the 3rd hive, most using 4 turrets AND ELEC AND mines, then complain about not having the res for upgrades and gunz, welcome to game over. IMO lockdowns are a waste, and only effective for the first few minutes.
Lock the second hive if u have to, but your're better off using the res to keep pushing.

Well, if you have a aggressive team you can keep pushing and attacking their RTs and while they are busy defending them, they can't take down yours. While thats going on teching away is the way to go.

/agree

Two hive lockdown should be a fall back strategy. There's just too many ways it can be turned around, and it's very time consuming.

Granted, I almost invariably seem to wind up doing that, as it seems lest you have at least two superheroes camping the hives and/or the nearby nodes, there's no way to keep up sufficient pressure on the aliens to stop expansion.

But if you have those two, and an obedient nub or two to cap nodes / sweep up long-distance gorges, yer good to go, no lock required. Just concentrate on getting enough upgrades to handle the inevitable Fade that you'll see at around 4 minutes, even if you manage to keep the aliens down to 1 node that whole time.

Even if that Fade does kill your superheroes, by then you should have enough cash on hand to send a nastily upgraded fleet at them and any second hive they may start pulling out of their collective asses.

Granted, I prefer advice that lets me win with n00bs - but I also realize the scarcity of said.