Hello. I'm Kevlar Gorilla and Natural Selection is fun.

For those of you who have ever wondered how many bullets it takes to kill something at a certain hive with certain upgrades.... here you go:

How to kill a xenoform: [Bullets /Time needed] (in seconds not including reload time)

Level 0 guns: At one Hive
Alien Skulk Gorge Lerk Fade Onos
LMG 9/1 23/3 19/2 60/6 190/19
Shotty 1/1 2/2 2/2 4/6 12/16
HMG 5/1 12/2 10/2 30/4 95/10
GL 1/1 2/2 2/2 6/8 16/20
Knife 3/2 8/6 7/5 20/14 64/43

Level 1 guns: At one Hive
Alien Skulk Gorge Lerk Fade Onos
LMG 9/1 21/3 18/2 55/6 173/18
Shotty 1/1 2/2 2/2 4/6 11/15
HMG 5/1 11/2 9/2 28/4 87/10
GL 1/1 2/2 2/2 5/6 14/17
Knife 3/2 8/6 7/5 20/14 64/43

Level 2 guns: At two Hives
Alien Skulk Gorge Lerk Fade Onos
LMG 9/1 21/3 17/2 57/6 184/19
Shotty 1/1 2/2 2/2 4/6 11/15
HMG 4/1 12/2 10/2 29/4 92/11
GL 1/1 2/2 2/2 5/6 15/18
Knife 4/3 9/6 7/5 23/16 74/50

Level 3 guns: At two Hives
Alien Skulk Gorge Lerk Fade Onos
LMG 8/1 20/2 16/2 52/6 170 /17
Shotty 1/1 2/2 1/1 3/6 10 /13
HMG 4/1 10/2 9/2 26/3 85 /10
GL 1/1 2/2 2/2 5/6 14 /17
Knife 4/3 9/6 7/5 23/16 74 /50

Level 3 guns: At three Hives
Alien Skulk Gorge Lerk Fade Onos
LMG 9/1 21/3 17/2 55/6 193/20
Shotty 1/1 2/2 1/1 4/6 12/16
HMG 5/1 11/2 9/2 29/4 97/11
GL 1/1 2/2 2/2 5/6 16/20
Knife 4/3 9/6 8/6 25/17 84/56

Useful facts:
- Shotguns spread (duh). Note this when pumping shells into non-Onos creatures.
- See how many people are shooting one creature and know how many bullets.
- Carapace, regen, and bad aim will skew these results considerably. Use caution.
- Pistols cause 20 damage per bullet, same as HMG
- One full Level 1+ LMG clip and pistol clip will always kill a Fade
- One full HMG clip will always kill an Onos
- Gorge's spit causes just as much damage as Fade's new acid rocket (minus the splash damage)

More Stats:
- Regardless of the speed that a comm works at, he can only use the number of resources that his team has
- If only one Arms lab is made, everything can be researched in 9 minutes
- Realistically, 1:1 (armor:weapons) at 3 minutes, 2:2 or 1:3 at 6 minutes, 3:3 at approximately 11 minutes - this is your goal
- Given 4 nodes + kill res, all res required for stock upgrades can be earned in less than 4 minutes
- It takes 1:00 for a res tower to pay itself off
- If you electrify a res tower, it takes 2:00 for it to earn the res back, plus what it costs to bulid it in the first place
- only electrify nodes if they are also protecting phase gates or are behind enemy lines
- mines are better for general use because they are cheaper and take almost no time to set up
- If you have a res tower, it always means your enemy doesn't have it

Time Frame of a winning Marine team:
Start - first structures built - run and cap 3+ nodes (every minute, you get 75 res including res kills)
1:00 - start upgrades and don't stop, pester enemy team; stay together
2:00 - phase tech, next upgrade, 2nd IP, advanced armory
3:00 - level 2 upgrade, shotguns, phase gates up and running
4:00 - shotguns/grenades/electrify/2nd IP - kill those fades!
4:30 - 1:2 is up (usually weapons 3 next) support and outfit / motion tracking
5:00 - armory done upgrading, move to siege hive OR research with proto
6:00 - 1:3 is up, work to siege hive OR equip and move out
7:00 - hive sucessfully sieged OR will be soon
7:30 - 2:3 is up, hive is down (or else defeat is eminent) - Onos down
8:00 - outfit more, expand, cap more nodes - endgame begins
11:00 - 3:3 is up, but you've already won


And there you have it. It takes a great many skills to have a good marine team; a decent com with a team that listens and trusts is nearly unstopable. Get a steady supply of res early, and you'll have a steady supply of upgrades and equipment through the whole game.

Can't win them all .
Still, it takes about 50-60 seconds to knife-kill an onos.

():::[]_'_'_'_>

link

this post is a very excellent overview of the commanding/marine basics. good job!

thanks for all the info kevlar. I'm a n00b commander and this could very well help me improve my game

One possibly useful tip for all you newer Comms out there is to pick up a simple beeping egg timer. Set it for 1 minute at the start of a match. Each time it goes off it'll will server as a reminder to hit the important minute marks you see above or that you set for yourself. Quite often in the heat of battle you can very easily get distracted watching for marines trying to force their way into a hive or something similar. The loud beeping every minute or so can help snap you out of it and serve as a tap on the shoulder to remind you to keep one eye on the BIG picture.

Other then that, great info Kevlar Gorilla. If anyone ever comes out with a definitive "Idiots Guide on How to Comm" Book, this will be a great reference.

This needs bumping

I found the guide VERY useful, just as I was searching for a by-the-numbers thing, I find this. v. nice

<starts attempting to comm>