Hey guys,
Had a ladder war on agora last night (GameArena) and after some messing around on a local server for some strats, we tried a relocate to Analysis Lab (that big res room in the middle of the map with 2 triggered doors).

Reasoning for this:
a) much more room for marines to circle strafe skulks
b) you can plant 4 mines just in front of the doors so that aliens open them and rush in to their death
c) the large corridor in the corner is long enough and wide enough to take out skulks before they have a chance to reach you
d) relatively easy access to sewer hive (~20 seconds from spawn to sighting the hive)
e) two nearby siegeable res nodes (anx2 and the wedge)
f) 3 res nodes within relatively easy reach (the room directly north of Analysis lab, The Pit, and the room east of sewer)

The only downsides I could see were that:
a) the large corridor I mentioned before makes for easy onos access, and quick fade escape (this is countered by the fact that the corridor is darkish and can hide mines rather well)
b) there's a vent a couple metres east of the southern door, but that can be fairly easily defended, and there's a bulkhead and some glass to stop lerks sporing the ips

Thoughts?

--Samah

Make no mistake, Agora is a HUUUUGE map. There are probably more places for relocation on that map than any other, and if you want to try and win the game without phasegates, moving your home base closer to the hives is a must.

Analysis Lab is a nice reloc, certainly the one I've seen most often on Agora. More coms need to try relocating on Agora, since it's a map that guarantees some odd looking base locations.

<3 Agora, most fun map to sneak around in ever devised. Even Nancy doesn't have this much cool ventilation.

I've tried this relocate and it has its ups and downs. The amount of nearby res is hard to beat, as is the proximity to Sewer (and Tunnel I guess, but that elevator can be a death trap). However, those doors can really screw you over if you get lerks and fades harassing you in base. The surrounding area has a lot of twisty hallways and if you don't keep the pressure on the hive the whole time, the aliens can often lock you in your new base.

In my opinion, inside analysis lab isnt all that great. You might have the res nodes nearby, yes. But do your people spawn behind them (meaning they have to go by the nodes to get to the places they/you want)? No. Can you hear skulks at either of the res nodes nearby? No. Of course you can tell people to go save the res towers, but even then theres a load of variables which can make your res node situation quite unpleasant. Ive been an alien facing analysis lab reloc quite a few times, and ive had little to no problems taking out /every/ single res node they had, bar the ones with a base, or a phase gate, simply because marines wont patrol them out of their own actions. Of course this makes for an inexperienced comm, but still, inside analysis lab is a bad spot either way, because lerks and onos can have the time of their life with all the entrances and exits.

Of course analysis Labs still has good sides, but I prefer relocating to the other side of the top door, which is RIGHT in the middle of those three res nodes, hearable when under attack. And, well, a walk to sewer still wouldnt take more than 27 seconds, while a walk to cargo would actually be shorter. Its a bit more of a balanced relocation in my opinion. That is, of course, if you want to bother relocating at all. Its always a risk, mainly because you cant defend your base with the greatest thing since sliced bread; Beacon.

I dont think agora is good map for reloc, RTs are very close and easilly accesible..
On agora im using MT first, because it's large map, MT really gives rines huge early benefit on complex agora-like map.
Reloc is very riscy, you are loosing time, and if aliens have good skulk, they can fade at 3 minute..
If your reloc is not going ultra well, you are loosing almost 2 minutes of times, leaving you undefended and without res when elite fade comes and allowing aliens to expand through whole map (because rines were concentrated on relocing and not taking over map).

Reloc is worth only on some maps and preferably close to hive, caged is good map for relocs, beacuse res are really far apart and easy for aliens to defend. Metal might look similar, but metal is stupid for ambushing and decent rines have no problems on this map..

I have played a game once where we relocated to analysis lab, but all the reloc did was to drag on the game far too long. We eventually lost, because we had no rts (except analysis) and the aliens had effectively blocked us in. In ns_agora, reloc usually means the game is over, or so I've seen.
As for the triggered doors, all they really do is allow onos to get away w/out much of a chase. It is true that they can get trapped inside, but more frequently they get away (with a ha inside 'em) and the door closes in the rines' faces.
Analysis lab -> sounds great, not really. Stick to rine start in agora.