Xerond’s Comm/Siege Guide For ns_Altair
Why hello, first thing I should say; This is gonna be long. Real long. So sit back, crack your knuckles, cause you’re going to want to, or will skim through this.
This “guide” is going to cover my little comm style and how I like to do things, sieges spots for every map and hive, hive guides, relocations, and my commentary I how I think the map “can” be played as a commander. Before you begin looking through what I have to say here I’d suggest you go over and look at Aero’s Siege guide which is very helpful and I’ll be reiterating a lot of his points through-out this guide.
Check that out here: http://www.tacticalgamer.com/showthread.php?t=66780
To start this guide off I’m gonna break down every official map, one map at a time. So this first post is going to contain my first map, since I dont want to go back and forth figuring out which map to do next I’m just gonna go alphabetically down the list (sadly veil is last =( ).
And it begins:
NS_ALTAIR
I. Intro
Altair, a map that in my experience has been really fun to play. It features a unique sewer system that links all three of the hives for the aliens therefore making it hard to keep control of the hives unless you lock them down. The res flow on the map can be real nice for marines, and as an alien your hives are so far from MS that you can take advantage of dropping the farther nodes and having a fair chance of keeping them alive.
II. Marine Start
This is how I like my base placement for Altair. I like having the IPs far from the comm chair and symetric because when I see which ip is getting hit or structure I can hop out and take a left or right strafe and bam I can shoot him. Also a note to remember when you first hop into that comm chair, take that extra millisecond and turn around and face the area of marine start where you will drop structues before you hop in the chair, and then enter. This way when no one is respawning or at base and you’ve got a skulk on a structure, it gives you that edge when you hop out if you’re already facing the alien.
I keep my armory tucked against the wall so its easy for me to hop out and a skulk can’t get behind it, and I like my armories to be close to the ips so I can drop anything on the IPS. I like dropping weapons or mines or welders, or whatever on the ips so that when someone spawns its right there and they dont have to run around to it. It helps more if you check your scoreboard and wait until you see one of your best players in the spawn que and drop it on an ip so that he specifically gets it. I know sometimes I’ll be so quick to spawn and get to a node or phase that I leave weapons at MS, so I figure if you drop them on the IPS if keeps people in check with weapons, and they are not humping the armory asking for a weapon. You can also see I’ve got the obs and armslab tucked in corners for obvious reasons. Next is the Phase Gate, I always try to put the phase between the IPS and the Armory, that way it pushes more people to phase than hump, I’d rather drop ammo to marines and have them on the field then in base. That and I can place mines or welder between the IPS and the Phase so that they see it, get it, and use it when they phase. Thats about it for MS. You’ve got 3 nodes all about equal distances from MS, Nanite, Communications, and Docking. You should ALWAYS have those 3 nodes pumpin unless you’ve relocated.
III. Life Support Hive
This hive is on the north portion of the map and seems to be the worst of the three hives to start out on as aliens. Its pretty distal in the sense of resource nodes compared to Omega or Consistency.
Siege Spot 1
This is between Sigma and Life Support on the West end of the hive, all sieges hit (all do in this guide) and provides nice clean straight hallways for those straight shooting bullets that us marines like to use.
Siege Spot 2
This is located in the Iota Corridor on the East end of the Hive. This spot allows you to snuggle the TF down in a dark corner that is perfect for chucking grenades into, easy to cover for skulks, and if a fade or a lerk goes down there, its a little tricky not getting stuck between the pipes. The sieges themselves can be biled if a gorge gets on that upper level of the hive, but those sieges are as far back as possible. I’ve seen both of these siege spots do pretty well.
Node Siege Spot
This spot is located in the Parts Room, its really hard to get to that room from Life Support because you either have to go all the way around to docking to get there or by Sigma, and either hallways are pretty far. Don’t forget to weld the vent in there though. I’ve played a game, rushing there in the first minute with one siege up to take out their hive node, and then from parts rushed Sigma to take out their node. (Another reason why I think Life Support is a bad starting hive for aliens) Parts room seems to be completely ignored by commanders when actually its pretty secure part of the map.
Spawn Spots
Now dont take this as a guide for lone spawn camping and being an ass. But as a marine knowing the spawn spots for hives is pretty valuable information. When you’ve got two marines in a hive spawn camping and you’re trying to load the rest of your team with shottys to get there and take that hive down, those 2 spawn camping marines can be the difference between that rush failing or working. If you can remember the patterns you can place marines in certain places within a hive incase an alien spawns or decides to use a movement to get to the hive.
IV. Omega Hive
Omega in my opinion is the 2nd best starting hive for aliens, you’re close to Annex and Consistency for nodes and you get equal access to the rest of the map. And in my experience its a hard hive to siege.
Siege Spot 1
This is located at the North part of the hive at the end of Sigma. This gives you a good “hill” to protect from on top of those stairs, and if keeps that TF in a seperate room with a doorway and a bend to get through, keep an eye on it though since aliens can seem in from that vent thats starts near Annex.
Siege Spot 2a
I like this spot when you have early control in the game. Its best if Omega is their First and only hive, their last hive, or Omega is that hive that is going up and is not finished. It keeps the TF back from the hive so your marines can sit back and not be too clustered from a lerk, but its open for biling and thats why I dont think its all that great if aliens have 2 hives.
Siege Spot 2b
I like this variation better if they have two hives because it cant be biled as easily, and it keeps your marines closer to the sieges when their getting hit. By this timne you’ve got fades out and keep those marines in the action is what is going to keep that siege alive.
Spawn Spots
Here you can see that most of the spawn spots are in the back of the hive, so if you can get a couple marines in a back with a line of sight on eachother, that will spell trouble for the aliens.
V. Consistency Hive
Consistency is the best starting hive to me. You’re in close proximity to a few nodes to either cap or keep away from marines, and a lot vent access to get to other parts of the map. Its also a litle tricky to siege, but at the same time hard to defend if you have higher lifeforms since the hive has a lot of corners and obstacles that your lifeforms can get stuck on.
Siege Spot 1
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This is located on the North-East entrance/exit to the hive and is a tricky one to keep alive. Since its hard to keep a direct live of sight on the sieges they can go down easily, especially to bile. But your TF is decently protected. Not my favorite siege spot ever, but if it gets the job done then that works.
Siege Spot 2
I prefer this side a lot more than the other, it divides the aliens from omega, denies them annex and should allow you to cap it. It’s also easier to keep a line of sight on the sieges and it tucks your TF next to those barrels so that if anything is biting it, its with their back facing you as you phase and in pop some bullets up their ass.
Spawn Spots
The spawn spots on this hive are somewhat spread everywhere, its hard to spawn camp this hive unless your whole team is already in there, in which case the hive should already be down. However, if you place marines on both ends of the doors, you’re defending and covering 8 of their 15 spawn spots. Not too shabby.
VI. Relocation
Some of you reading this might have played a game with me where I relocated here. I like to relocate here because it gives you a lot of equal access to the map. With communications on your right and Annex on your left, you’ve got two nodes, Annex being a vital control part of the map for holding onto Omega or Consistency. I keep my base structures pretty close because I like to mine it up in there. Try it out sometime and if you like it cool, if not, play the game the same way you always play it. The only time I’ve had it fail on me is when all the marines die before it even gets built so, I think its pretty successful.
VII. Outro
Well kiddies, I hope you liked this guide for the map. Any suggestions, questions, or comments are appreciated and tune in next post for NS_AYUMI. (I’ll reply to this same thread with that guide)