Greetings NS General Discussion forum goers. Recently I have embarked on a journey into the world of (combat) commonly refered to as "co" and also commonly referred to as "the plague". Through this less-than-a-week journey I have been to many exotic and mesmerizing places such as co_faceoff, co_daimos, co_angst, and many many more.

When I started my trek into this section of the NS universe I found many things that amazed me, skulks would cloak and focus! There was no commander yet I found ammo and health being dropped right onto me no matter where I stood, and I didn't even have to ask for it! The amount of explosions, Fades, Oni, and JP'ers was astounding. And depending on what server I went into, occasionally I would witness the miracle of a marine with Heavy Armour AND a Jetpack as well! But one thing that stood out more than anything else to me was that I was not able to kill any aliens, and they were all able to kill me.

So I continued to play, and I watched, viewed, and spectated the top CO players in the servers that I had joined. Now for my benefit, your benefit, and the benefit of anyone who wishes to venture into this forsaken land on combat - I have compiled a list of the top 10 ways to do well in CO as a marine, and so you can pwn - like me.


Disclaimer 1: Above image my have been slightly altered from it's original form.

10. Cut in front of your teammates as they are running out into combat. The first person to get out there is going to be the first person to kill those aliens! Why risk letting your teammates get those kills when they could be gotten by YOU! Don't forget, it's the person who gets the kill that gets most of the experience!

9. Don't contribute to the fight until the alien is weak enough to be finished! Save those bullets for when you know you're about to get the final hit! (This one may take some practice). This is especially true for when fighting Fades and Oni.

8. When your teammates are shooting an alien, walk in front of them so their bullets hit you instead of the target (be careful with this if Friendly Fire is turned on). This way you can sneak in and grab the final hit and get the experience for yourself! For perfection, use this in conjunction with #9.

7. In some cases getting that final hit on the Kharaa might just be impossible. In a situation like this make sure you stand out of the way of being hit, but at the same time close enough to the action to leech experience off of your teammates kills. DO NOT contribute to the fight unless the alien decides to attack you in which case you should defend yourself (but not your teammates).

6. If you walk into a situation where a teammate is fighting a Kharaa and has run out of ammo or has to reload, make sure you let the alien kill him first BEFORE you finish off the weakened alien. This way you get 100% of the experience for the work your teammate has done and he doesn't get any. If it looks like he has plenty of ammunition left, then try to steal his kill. This way at least you'll still get most of the experience.

5. When in a group fight and you know you're not going to come out of it alive, concentrate on attacking only the lower level life forms such as Skulks, Gorges, and Lerks. These little guys are a lot easier to kill than Fades or Oni and in a situation such as the one I've described, you as may as well get all the experience off of these kills as you can before you go down. Let your teammates fruitlessly deal with trying to take on the more evolved lifeforms.

4. Never get a Welder. This is a complete waste of a skill point as all it's good for is welding your teammates armour and your structures. It's true that welding your Command Console will yield you experience, but this amount is so small it's not worth your while. Let your teammates worry about keeping players and structures welded and use that skill point on something more conventional such as a Jetpack or Shotgun.

3. Ask to be welded, and often. It's much more important for you to be keeping your armour full than for another player to be shooting the Kharaa. If possible, convince a player to follow you around and keep you welded throughout the entire match. This way not only are you staying healthy but this player will be too busy to shoot the Kharaa and get experience. Tips on convincing another player:
a) Bribe him with something, cookies are always safe and this will work particularly well if the other player is your younger brother.
b) Blackmail him, you can be creative on this but try telling him you'll hack into his computer and erase all of his files (it doesn't matter if you can't, the threat is usually enough). This works very well if the player is younger and can be intimidated easily.
The only downfall with having a player follow you to weld you is he will most likely be leeching experience off your kills. If friendly fire is on kill him before you shoot an alien.

2. Complain whenever an alien kills you and accuse him of hacking. Later when you've mastered these steps this will become extremely efficient as you will be so good it will be obvious that the alien must have been hacking in order to kill you. Befriend a server admin (but don't let him get any kills) and it will become all the more easier to get those nasty aliens kicked and banned from the server. After all, who needs competition? Anyone who tells you shut up and stop complaining is a noob and must be removed from the server as well. Get your server admin friends to ban these players for you.

1. Just plain hack! Seriously, who needs to play Natural-Selection when you can have your computer play it for you? Use Aimbots, Speed Hacks, and everything out there to make sure that it's you who has the advantage when it comes to fighting. Also, try to hack the server to grant yourself administrator access. This way you can ban any player who tries to accuse you of hacking and it will also save you the trouble of having to befriend a server admin for #2.


Well I hope that everyone out there finds this guide useful! And happy pwning!

Disclaimer 2: If anyone actually takes anything in this guide seriously, you should seriously consider consulting your local psychiatrist.

Sounds like Counter-Strike.

?

Excellent guide.

#3 is the best of the bunch.

Personally, my favorite line is the "impersonating a famous NS player" line. The welders just flow after that...

Hmm, definatly a way to get a welder support! But on the downside your teammates might then try and stick near you to cover you (taking away your experience). The idea definatly has its ups and downs.

I think you forgot to mention catpacks...

rage

i always camp on a save spot so i leech 4 exp points and then onos to get to 40-0 score, Take redemption, cloak, focus, carapace.

This is where I combine your above techniques and threaten to hack their computers. Since they think I'm super-awesome at NS, I must be super-awesome at hacking their computers, and they respectively hide (I use the attack "I can disable your comptuer by looking at you". Quite effective)

you're killing ns

The person who invented co is killing NS.

NS is killing itself

wats NS?

0. Change a CO map to a NS map.
this way u own every single coer in the server

To the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"

Bait, bait, bait your team,
It's the only way to win.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Pubs are but a dream.

Sad thing is that more people are playing Combat than NS maps.

dumb

Actually, this advice is good. Marines should alwayts aim for the smaller guys first to get the most exp. That way when the Fade kills you the skulks won't get the exp since they're alreayd dead.

just lmao

Exactly what I was thinking, killing lower lifeforms reduce their numbers (a skulk or lerk bite is nearly as deadly as a fade swipe, yet the body is much weaker) while preventing them from getting XP.
Besides, trying to kill a fade while there's two or three skulks/lerks will only get you killed while at best one marine will down the sloppy fade and the rest of the team died.

Excellent one, thanks for a good laugh.

Why would you go first? Why not just hide behind your stupid teammate and let him get jumped on by hiding skulks and then just clean up?

Ben didn't got it yet.

plz consult your local psychiatrist

The thread started has been reading too many Something Awful guides.

Bah. Total ripoff of Readyroom's What (not) to do in NS article.



Although I'm still convinced the best way to win in CO is to be a member of .txt (or hack). I think my greatest achievment is getting a para kill on teppla.

Scarily enough I actually haven't been to Something Awful in probably over two years. Likewise, this is the first time I've seen this "What to (not) do in NS" article (which I just read through and lol'd many many times now )

i like mak's on the spot ventrilo version better

(shake shake shake shake yo booty)

Bait bait bait
Bait bait bait!
Bait your teammate
BAIT YOUR TEAMMATE!

it's more catchy...and only noobs die to teppla

Like the similar humorous Kharaa strategy post I just moved out of gen. disc, I'll be moving this to the marine strategy section.

Lol, believe it or not, reading through this top 10 list, I know there are many people who do some of these on the list. Generally people who are CSers follow a good deal of these to some degree in my oppinion (not including the "rejects"). Though some of these would actually be useful to me in NS (I'm getting worse over time, not better ).

My Motto: Go away CO! Bring back v1.04! (lol)

You guys don't get it do you?

CO_ is NS_ only with xp lots of strange plugins..

It is not CO who ruins NS it is the plugins such as Xmenu and Buildmenu, you guys need to understand that!

A typical Co server with plugins like Buildmenu is just a cry for help. People want to play ns however someone wants to be allmost 100% invincible with 50 lvls of Static field, Uranium shells and nanoarmor... Personally i recommend that those folks create their own server with 1% damage percentage to the alien side this way they can be invisible as long as they want.

BTW yesterday i hit a seagull with the rocket launcher on HL-2

gosh, so much CO bashing. And yes, i know this thread is mostly a joke.

I used to play ns exclusively, then moved onto co exclusively for the longest time. 10 levels? Not enough once you have learned how to play co. It only takes me about 2 minutes to max out with only 10 levels. At that point the game becomes stagnant. As a marine with early lvl 10 I have two options most of the time.

1. rush the hive, try killing it (rambo), and simultaneously kill all the weak skulks. "SPawn killing" becomes the only way to win. This usually gets you called "hacker" or makes other people leave.

2. Don't "spawn kill" and wait for the inevitable alien level up, at which point the aliens are usually more powerful than marines as a team.

And I can apply that strategy for aliens too. As a lerk in CO you can often completely dominate a map by yourself early in the game. You quickly get to level 10, but spawn protection often forces you to run for cover, thereby stopping your chances of killing the comm chair. What happens? Eventually the marines get shotties and lerk becomes less viable.

So, in summary. With only 10 levels you are forced to depend on teamwork, even if your individual skill is high, and your teammates may suck.

With more than 10 levels there is a chance that a rambo (like me) can actually win and end a game, instead of the game becoming stagnant.

After playing on those servers with extra menus, it's disappointingly easy to win on a 10 level only server using a rush tactic (marine at least).

You guys are stupid, I'm killing ns.

2ndhive ability -> Celerity -> Fade (I can't be killed from this point on anymore) -> Regen -> Focus -> marines rageleave

Not anymore, they're not...
It's over, CO is finished.

i lolled

Is it out of place to point out that it's more important that your team has high kills then that you personally have high kills? If you do things that get your teammates killed, the aliens have high experience, and that means by the time you get your shotgun you are shooting at fades rather then skulks, so you basically missed the entire level rush.

If you do things that keep your teammates alive then your whole team levels up to a higher point then your opponents, and you get a team full of marines that can shotgun own a bunch of skulks. At that point maby put some of the lame stuff into action to get a quick jetpack, but still, don't let the aliens gain ground on your team. Get your advantage edge as soon as possible and keep it.

everyone who plays >1week (co) should know this.
fades and onos' dmg-output is low - compared to their HP. so its the best to erase the damage-dealers first.
a lot of advantages:
1. you get xp easier
2. you highly reduce the enemies dmg output faster
3. you can kill more cause lower lifeforms die faster
4. lower lifeforms can not run off/redemp as easy as higher lifeforms do

and finally.. killing an onos/fade on co is not as usefull as it may look first,. he can easily re-evolve.. ;s

some of your 'tips' are really funny, but others just sad, because they are true and reflect how stupid CO can be (or is)

i bet this guide is the origin of all the NS n00bs out there that make a server miserable...thanks a lot....

Yes it does. It sounds like CS alot.

I think his point is that a one lvl 0 lmg mag almost kills a fade if all bullets hit (which doese never happen thx to the unaccuracy of the lmg and the lagging and teleporting fade hitboxes). Though if 2 or 3 marines lmgs shoot a fade and at least hit it with a few bullets it is down or will retreat to the hive.
I find myself very oft in that position, emptying my clip on the fade yet im the only one shooting it and the fade reaps the whole team.

I think I almost puked when I was reading this.

At least, until disclaimer 2. That made me smile. Well done, I'm glad I don't have to kill you.

...but if you don't weld me, I'll cut your throat in the middle of the night.

Freak you ###### hacker...


Bad guide.