Alright, out of various reasons (Zunni saying he wouldn't be against it and my eternal lust to have a "good idea") I would like to make a suggestion.

Have more maps with four hive locations, but restrict the maximum able to be built at one time hives to three.

Upsides
- No more "good hives" and "bad hives" caused by the trinary (ooo big word) structure present in NS maps. The "middle hive" is always the best one etc. With four, there would be no best "hive", because all four would be in opposite quadrants (corners) of the map
- Hive location is now that much more important and mysterious, because you never know which direction the aliens are coming at you
- Encourages mappers to have 4 hive locations
- Allows aliens more variety in dropping the hive/which hive to drop. (Almost always in maps, if you get the left hive, you drop the middle hive. If you get the right hive, you drop the middle hive)
- Encourages marines to put pressure on the second hive as it's going up, instead of locking it down before aliens can get there.

Downsides
- Four hives is alot, and mappers may not have enough space to place them all
- Does hinder some custom maps where 3-8 hives exist on the map
- Not possible on some regular NS maps
- Marines would have a hard time locking down 3 hives with turrets to prevent the aliens from getting a second hive (which usually leads to long boring games which take forever for marines to win)

Cases in point (not sure if it's good or bad)
- Marines will now need to lock down 2 hives to prevent aliens from attaining 3 hives (vice versa).
- Current maps would have to be redesigned or new maps would have to be made

Please post your thoughts/problems. Were bound to come up with something good if we put our heads together

I think it's worth testing, though this is just some threories.

I would like to see it be tried. I think there is a plugin where you can drop a hive in MS, which makes for some big surprises when rines relocate to cargo or Double.

hehe some one was close to a thread title of mine

Anyways:

*vote yes*

Wait...so you want four hive locations in the periphery with the marines in the center area?

I'm sorry, but that's just freaking stupid.

It basically defeats the purpose of the Kharaa's superiority (alleged) of speed and getting there before the marines.

No no. I think what was meant was a way for when marines are always trying to lockdown the two hives so aliens can't get abilities to challenge them that aliens would in turn get options to have different hive sites. Marines would also not be able to use process of elimination so easily when figuring out what hives the aliens have. You have to admit there are some good pro's Rapier7.

Another pro is that if you already have 4 hive maps, Kharaa vs Kharaa becomes much easier.

Good pros yes. But herse a CON that rapier already mentioned. Having hives in the 4 quadrants of the map is a CON. This is because now all maps are effectively the same damn build. No longer will you have that "man I like this map, but this other one sucks", now you'll have the "wow this map was almost like the other one, except heres a door that leads to the center hive."

Good hives and bad hives still exist. This one is perfect because its almost impossible to siege, vs this one can be taken by jetpackers easy. Just because the middle one is the closest to the furthest hives on the map (hives in the 4 quadrant dont have a middle hive btw) doesnt mean its the best one. What if its like a really crappy fusion where the siege room is huge, and its right outside marine spawn? A few good shooters will lock it down and blow that middle hive away.

You will always know which direction aliens are coming from. Its called scouting. Send a marine towards a node, if the aliens reach him within alotted time, you can pretty much guess safely that the hive is in that direction. If not, repeat. Not sure still? Go into the hive and take a look.

Encouraging mappers to have 4 hive locations isnt a Pro exactly. If Ns maps are now to have 4 hive locations they will do it. Otherwise, they will go with 3 because thats the standard.

Most 2nd hives are dropped before marines get a chance to lock it down...unless the alien team really is having trouble killing marines. If thats the case, its not about the marine team locking down the 2nd hive, its about the marines totally owning the aliens when fighting. So they will kill the 2nd hive if you cant kill them anyways.

Make Marine Start a 5th hive location then

I don't think he meant the "four quadrants" literally.

i.e, a square map with 'rines in the middle surrounded by hives.

I believe he simply meant, figuratively, it would be "four corners". even now, the "right corner hive" is not always situated exactly in the right corner, etc.

the "quadrants" are relative to the other hive and MS locations.

I'm thinking that's all he meant. you're probably missing the concept if you're taking that terminology literally.

maybe in NS II

maps are already huge in NS and making them even bigger might be a problem

Rofl, taking that concept literally doesnt mean Im missing the concept. Besides:

Well if you look at it now, most maps are 1 hive on one side, 1 hive on the other, 1 in the middle. Same here, there's still variety though. There are alot of good mappers who could work with this ya know

Rapier I disagree. The hives would still be a decent distance away. Plus, as Avs stated, there is less pressure on that middle hive. I have played many games where (let's take for example, ns_eclipse), the marines have ran quickly to computer core and locked it down with four-five turrets. Right then and there, the game is over. Simply because they have comp core and the aliens will have a hard time defending eclipse. The marines will lock down comp core then quickly go over to eclipse and just lock that down too. This way, the marines can run and lock down a hive but it doesn't mean it's the end. There is far too much pressure on that second hive, this would remove some of it. I mean, haven't you ever played total lame games where marines lock down the middle hive and you know it's over, but it's going to go on for another 15 minutes? This would certainly put an end to that.

But as Avenger-X reitterated, it would be hard to make a map with four hives, simply due to mapping restrictions in HL.

Either way, UNCHAIN THE CHAMB- errr, FOURTH HIVE!

Randomize Marine Start? Make it a random variable where marines start from, just like it is for aliens? (suggested before? probably..)

Four possible Hive locations, with a max of 3 built at any time.
Rather easy to adjust present maps.
Encourages marines to not abandon base completely (good/bad? probably both).

What if the fourth hive started a ping of death for marines? Something about the bacterium infesting the station too much.

Would help cut down on the boring marine endgames, and wouldn't make classic much longer than it is now.