I like more placing tf/pg/turrets than electrifying the rt.

how about you?

Phase gate + mines in a corner. All I need.

Why a corner?

1) Easier to telefrag
2) Hard to surround and destroy on FF on servers (They'll bite eachother.)
3) Easier for mines to take them down.
4) Marines don't have to aim in all directions to kill the attackers.

and other countless reasons.

I wrote first one much longer but the fked up with refresh/back :ccc

And yes tf on corner is really easy to defend also placing the pg in middle of these all so that for munching tf you need to be on pg works really good....

Putting a PG in a corner is just as ridiculous as putting an IP in a corner. Your marines pop out, are knocked into the wall by the skulk bite knockback, get "stuck" and are dead before they can really react. Elec hive RT and put PG next to it, mining the far end of the PG if needed. Really keeps annoying skulks out, without having to renew mines or anything. Any gorge or fade harassing it can be taken out quickly, either with 1-2 marines or beacon+phase.

They only get knocked back if they jump. Lets say the skulk does knock the marine back into the wall. if he goes any further he'll most likely die to the mines placed around the phase.

Phases in open areas is more dangerous, and eletrification is too costly. We're talking seven minute games here, not 15.

Well that's great, except what happens when you lose a single mine? Then you're in a corner and can't dodge. Or something stronger than a skulk comes along? No automated defense will shield you from a fade or onos, yet spawning in a corner removes your only effective defense: your marines.

You know, if they are getting bitten and can't get knocked back, then they're just standing in someone's mouth and dead meat anyway. Knockback really can't hurt you in that kind of situation.

It doesn't help any that you will telefrag yourselves more than the enemy. If you can't get off the gate to dodge your attackers, you can't really get off it to avoid the telefrag. An onos doesn't even need to step on the pg to keep you pinned in the corner, and a fade can just move a little to the side.

In pubs, I just put the phase right next to the rt (away from the corner if it's even possible to avoid), and electrify it. More reliable than mines, equally as (un)effective as a turret farm but cheaper and requires less building.

For a pug or scrim/match, I would probably use mines when feasable, but I still definately would keep away from the corner.

bonsai pg mines rt.

Every hive relocation/minibase is fundamentally flawed because hives are easy to get into. Accept this and come to realise that no amount of turrets will prevent a hive lock from being broken.

If you MUST defend a hive, do so from a nearby corridor. Aliens won't bother attacking it because they'll be laming up their retaken hive. You've not lost the minibase, so you can siege at will. Also, rooms NEAR a hive are much easier to defend that anywhere IN the hive.. and can also cover more nodes for less cost, which means you can spend a little extra on permanent defences.

But as I first commented, if you MUST have something inside a hive, make it something fairly cheap you won't miss.

Youll find thats its alot better to only lock down the middle hive, then go push thier hive. if they put up the 2nd hive, right when they put it up. catpack sg rush to kill it real quick. or what ever.

If they start with a middle hive. Lock down the closest hive to middle hive, then make a base between the middle hive, and the farthest hive from middle hive.

Waste Hive on ns_tanith is my favorite base location. I've done two complete comebacks from that hive on the 2.01 version. Really good teamwork. I forced HAs to stay up on the high platform and the GL pwnage was awe inspiring on both games.

Anyways to answer you question, hive lockdowns are on of the rare instnaces where I might use a turret factory. Mostly because I can advance it and seige if the aliens try to sneak a hive in.

Typically I build my base in a hive location or double and thus are defending both an important location and my base at same time. I don't like two-hive lockdowns though. I feel that it is the only actual "exploit" in NS.

My goal is to grab one hive or double as my base (typically which ever is furthest from the starting hive; I relocate first thing in the game), then I go grab all the RTs as I can. Not hives, RTs. So I'm saying,"Fine you go fight over that second hive so I don't lock it down. I wasn't going to anyways. I'm just going to grab all of the res nodes and out tech you ftw. You can have MS and the second hive while I get res and then rush your first hive."

Pg near elec rt works on most pubs, if you have both hives. And when things are getting serious you have spend too much res on defense, instead on offense.

dead aliens build no hives. keep thier spawn que filled, and youll be doing well.

Yep basically securing hive is waste of res because it will go down if aliens really like hive there. Thou on not-sogood player server you might want to lock that hive due your rines might be too incompetent to get pg there AFTER the hive is ready. and also 3 hive is easy to get after second and thats gg

I place them in the corner because if that fade / onos goes in for the kill (The marine will be up against the wall after the first hit.) then if they get any close a marine teleports in and instagibs the fade / onos. Out in the open a fade / onos (A good one.) will win anyway, but if one makes the mistake of stepping on the phase to attack the marine, then it gets telefragged.

If the mines blow up, just replace them.

Electrification takes too long for it to repay for itself and isn't worth it if you're looking for short games.

If you MUST electrify then bonsai everything. You'll get your money's worth.

TBH tho mines are just as effective, and are guaranteed kills if placed right, whereas any persistent skulk with Regen can take out your elec toys.

A persistant skulks will not take out an elecRT/phase gate combo unless you're doing something very, very wrong. Just an rt, yes, but use the freaking phase gate.

If you have an onos or fade running around loose, I wouldn't put any defenses at all. Nothing will pay for itself. Drop guns, kill the onos/fade first, then put up your defenses. And after that go kill their rts so it doesn't happen again.

and its never a bad idea to get Jps first so you can control more RTs, and hunt thier fades and onos.

the single best way to defend a hive is to attack another one. That way the aliens are focused on defending the hive you're attacking rather than attacking the hive you're defending.
Offensive comming = win.

As a comm you have no guarantee anyone will use the phase, and in a worst case scenario the only person to use it will be the laggy guy who promptly dies to the skulk. Still, a bonsai means even the worst marine can camp the phase and hope electricity kills the skulk if he can't shoot it.

I usually use a pg+elec rt. I only play on pubs, so I doubt very many people would know how to mine the pg effectively. Sometimes I throw turrets in the center hive, though. The money I save by using just elec will pay for ~2 heavies w/sg/welders.

If I want that hive REALLY, REALLY defended, I put the PG next to an RT, along with 2 TF's, electrify ALL of them, place turrets in a full 360 as well as in unpredictable places, (and put an extra PG in a non-bile bomb spot OR an extra PG to lead them away from my primary one)

A normal hive defense is 1 PG, 1 TF (not electrified) and a bare minimum of 6 turrets. Mostly 8, or if I feel like it, 10.

(only applicable in pubs)

i put 1 tf at the corner, and 2 turrets just to scare away noobs.
a pg.
once i get adv armory
put a marine with hmg in it.

or hmm.....forget about defending.

UGH why do you guys insist on ruining games with the turrets. STOP USING THEM. THEY DON'T WIN GAMES. THEY PROLONG GAMES AND MAKE NS BORING.

STOP.


0 turrets, 1 PG, 1 node, a few mines.

PG, Tfac, 4 turrents, evenly placed. Elec the RT the mini-base is built around. That should keep skulks away, with regen gorges and anything higher you are screwed.

The best place to put turrets? Outside the alien's current hive. Go go seige for the win!

Instead of locking down an empty hive, I like to try to seige an existing one (or one that's building) because not only are you taking a hive (arguable for only a bit more res than if you locked down an empty one) and you're pressuring the aliens at the same time.

Instead of wasting res holding a hive that most definitely won't stay held against a team with any intelligence, spend the res on something more important. Cap the RT and move on. There is almost 0 need to even put a PG in a hive unless the game is very close and you need to hold their 2nd hive. Locking down 1 out of 3 hives is a waste of resources, because once they have a second hive they'll be able to break the lock on the third one. Don't lock down two because if you can do that, the team is obviously incompetent and their hive can easily be sieged, so there is no need to wait around and slowly strangle them. I've personally seen the need to lock down a hive less than 10 times in my career as commander, and that was because they games were incredibly pitched and very balanced in terms of skill, and the marines needed all the help they could get to push the aliens back. In 99.999999999999999999^10% of the cases, this is not needed at all. Save the res and spend it on something useful: upgrades and medpacks.

Just want to point back to my earlier comments about not putting anything in the hive if you can possibly avoid it.


Tho I'm saying that if you NEED to put something into a hive you use PG and mines, I also want to clarify my long term stance on it. I've always said that you can't afford the time to lock down one hive because the aliens *will* be rushing to the other vacant hive in order to make it theirs.

Your best bet if you knock a hive down is to proceed directly to hive 2, and from there straight into hive 3. As long as aliens are going ape trying to find res to rebuild a hive, your rines will have few problems training or pging from 1 to 2 to 3. If you must build a base, build one near 2 hives OR near a pile of res nodes AND a hive. Aliens won't worry about your minibase because they'll be fixated on the hives, and if they're all clustered in a hive as gorges building chambers and waiting for the hive to drop.... then they're perfect fodder for a counterattack. And if you're really lucky to have a minibase near a hive and in siege range then you can blitz the hive by rushing the team in under siege cover.

This is much more efficient than rushing to a hive, stopping dead, building a tfac, building some sieges, then trying to get the momentum back to train into the hive.

I would love to have plain pg+rt at hive BUT it would take 2-3 members of our team screaming at hive AMG COMM DEFENCE!!!11. Ive had enough of that and just make that tf and 3 turrets there...

elec rt and pg next to it seems to work best for me, both against experienced players and not so experienced.

if a skulk is coming along, the elec rt should take care of it, with possibly welders every so often. if it's a fade or something big then turrets only delay them and cannot be used as the only defence.

Hive defending works just as long you get there fade or something equal.

For defending hive against fades (10 turrets) is just waste of res.
Most best would be just make there pg and rt without any def.....

i just tend to elec the rt to keep skulks away

Or you could upgrade the armory instead of spending 30 res to defend a SINGLE resource node and send a marine(s) to save the node when it's under attack.

Acquiring passive upgrades like armor 1, weapon 1 + 2 is the best defense to holding a hive. Sometimes I prefer leaving the hive with only a RT built and get the upgrades as soon as possible. This way the aliens thinks it is safe to drop the hive, they drop it, using up 40+10 res from a player, then you rush it with the upgraded shotties and take it down. Sometimes you even take down a fade trying to defend the hive as well which is an added bonus. That's 100 res down the drain, aliens most likely lose.

Not only that, it's useful to let skulks spend time trying to take down RTs and the time wasted by having to respawn in after they accomplished pretty much nothing besides taking a couple thousand points off a node. The more occupied they are with nodes, the less likely you are to see lots of marines die or fades to appear faster (don't feed the trolls).

I just place a RT in the hive. If its a important hive ill drop a pg and some mines in it (ie the Cargo hive on Veil) or in a nearby location (Cargo on Tanith, defending the Fusion hive).

an RT in the hive to defend a hive? that's a new strat, maybe it's worth considering?

If u have the RT in thier hive they prolly wanna take in down and u can send marins there. Some hives dont need more defence (ie Pipe on Veil, noone will take that hive second if not forced to).
U shouldnt spend res on pg/turretfarms in hives they not gonna take.

FFS ruined one post again with refresh

J3st lets change the topic to: "omgszor what to make to the hivezorrr"

And leaving the hive to be putted up makes the game better. You might not get the hive down but at least you had fun time fighting over it. after that you really have to work in chair(=naturally good thing eh?)

pg, rt (NO ELEC) and maybe a few mines if res.

turretfarming comms make me feel sick.

turret = shotgun in terms of res but not in terms of usefulness.

so, drop shotguns, not turrets.

As we have made quite clear now there is no idea to put turrets in hive (efficiency 8%) BUT you need them to prevent half of your team sitting on hive asking torrents...