Found NS roughly three days ago, and after constant play, and scannings of these forums, I can honestly say that it is the best, unofficial HL mod out there (and in mho, only has DoD as competition). Though I still have questions, ones that (without a good community) I'd have to learn myself, which would take time, and be less convieniant than simply asking right now. So, here it is.

Motion Tracker: How to avoid it.

Commander: Popular (Most used, prefurably) strats, and counter strats.

Game-related Slang: Any, and all slang that you know, that I have not already used here. *Any*

The severity of difference between levels of weaponry. Ex: How much difference is there between a level 1 LMG, and a level 2? etc, etc

Popular map names

Popular(/best) building orders (What to build when, and where to build it)

Anything else that I can think of will be added in later posts.

HOW TO AVOID MOTION TRACKING
Well, there is no real way to avoid Motion Tracking, unless you stand still, or are cloaked.

WEAPON UPGRADES

Weapon damage upgrades just decrease the # of bullets it takes to kill a skulk. I'm not sure about the exact Number. For armor, however, i know it takes about 2-3 hits to kill a marine without armor. For LVL 1 armor, it takes about 4-5 hits. It goes up every armor level. A skulk with focus doubles it's bite damage, so it takes about half the # of bites it takes to kill a rine with a normal skulk.

BUILDING ORDER

I usually go with...

1.2 IP's
2.Armory
3.Observatory
4.Arms Lab(build a second one after you get 4 res towers)
5.Turret factory
6.Protolab

It is good to drop a res tower between each of these steps. Also, secure hives and drop tf's Phase gates, and turrets as necessary.

POPULAR MAPS

CO_Faceoff
CO_Angst
CO_Core
NS_Eclipse
NS_Caged
NS_Hera
NS_Mineshaft
NS_Origin


Hope I helped

With level 0 armor, a marine takes 2 bites to kill. With level 1 armor that number increases to 3, and with level 2 or 3, 4 bites are needed.

For more of this type of information, use the Damage Simulator.

Clarrification:
Cloaking does not guarantee that you will not show up on MT. In fact, I did not think it made a difference (). It is the speed that you walk that affects MT. If you walk (as in, not run, ) in burts, you should not show up on MT. However, it takes ages to get anywhere.

While playing combat, if you must get the cloaking upgrade, walking is essential. I personally bind it to "q" so I can hold it down whilst moving forward.


JatinR30, at the start of the game I think having an elec tf and one less IP would be more benificial. Currently you're too vulnerable to skulk rushes IMO. Still, at least you get arms lab early.

NETSTATA, You may want to to take a look in the Frontiersmen Strategy forums too.

HTH

Ehh....cloaking DOES guarantee complete protection unless they have changed it only so that SCs protect you from MT. But then, SCs are your best bet for avoiding MT.

As for the most popular build order...well, let's say there's

- 1 IP
- 1 armory
- 1 TF + electrification
- Spread marines into small squads to secure about 2-3 RTs

Generally, once marines do this, aliens are 75% guaranteed screwed (unless the managed to get the same amount of RTs up)

Thats a good way to secure the doom of the game if they manage a 3 minute fade. Upgrades>Elec

@a_civilian:
HMG should be doing 18 base not 20 in 3.0.

@Netstata:
Commanding is more about dealing with people - use co_, some offline commchair experimenting and some plain old ns_ grunt experience to figure out the upgrades and their effects, prices and prerequesites before starting to learn. But after you have that, you're pretty much on your own to figure things out - just don't be afraid to get bitched and moaned at alot, and learn from your failures. Theres only 2 generic rules that always grip, and they are :

1. Talk to your marines. Pretend you know what you're doing, and tell them what to do and possibly what the plan is (as far as they need to know). Don't be afraid to be frank with them either when they get on your balls with their whining. "ONG SKULK KILLED ME.. I BLAME LEVEL 0 LMG!")

2. Armor 1 is your friend.

You're invisible to MT when you're inside sensory cloak - that means you can be running at full movement speed inside the sensory and not show up on MT.

On the other hand, sitting still uncloaked doesn't always work - the code for that is somewhat buggy, and will often still show you. I've had this too often as a marine, where the MT circle simply did not disappear and let me turn a corner and open fire right at the hiding Skulk.

I appreciate the helpfull (and surprisingly large ammount of) feedback. It's been usefull, and hopefully will make me a somewhat better NS player. Again, appreciated.

Only cloaked WALKING (ergo being cloaked effectively) doesn't show up on MT. To keep it simple, whatever you do, as long as you see that you're cloaked MT won't show you.

Also, MT isn't perfect - it lags behind the lifeforms actual position a good bit, so you don't have to run straight at them just because they have MT anyway.

seems to be some confusion here.

This is what I believe happens.

A sensory chamber blocks MT (motion tracking) ANY movement inside that sensory chamber's area of effect will not only be cloaked, it will not show up on the marine's screen. Attacking will cause you to be uncloaked, but moving while attacking still will not show up on MT.

ANY directional movement outside of a sensory chamber's area of effect WILL show up on MT. Walking while cloaked will also show up. Standing still should eventually get rid of the circle on the marine screen, but the code is "interesting" and the circle can stay there for quite some time.

An observatory negates all effects of any sensory chamber within its (the obs) area of effect. MT works, aliens and structures are not cloaked.