Tremulous Forum

Community => Strategies and Tactics => Topic started by: DeathSkull on April 16, 2009, 06:12:18 am

Title: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: DeathSkull on April 16, 2009, 06:12:18 am
Void Says: Watch These!!!

Being a Void member means I ought to start helping teh community out, right?

So I've decided to make a series of tutorials for new players on base building. I'm covering the most common base layouts for each map starting with stage one. I'll be covering the other stages later on, with the help of some other Void members. I hope my narrating improves as we go along. (Note: the first few vids here were made in the assumption that the person had watched the previous ones ( I had an arachnid video, but I goofed it up and will have to redo it). I'll refrain from assuming this in my future videos. Let's get started!

                                                                ~~~~Stage One~~~~

ATCS

:turret: Tremulous Base Building Tutorial - Humans on ATCS :turret:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eP-R07x4oI

ATCS - Human Alternative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvnh_pIe6Ig&feature=channel

ATCS - Human Alternative #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSIGA6fwtIY

:granger: ATCS - Aliens at Stage 1 :granger:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0R-pFRqCGE


Arachnid 2

Human Base #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVtjVVU9lcs

Human Base #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZShc6_cfFWA

Testing Human Base #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTuOdALEkxc

Alien Vent Base

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FTQQ_G8REk

Niveus

Tremulous Base Building - Niveus - Humans and Aliens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4az6Bc4Abc
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: Kaine on April 16, 2009, 06:18:50 am
I must admit, I didn't watch the videos.  I gave you +1 karma anyway, because I like you and can see that you're striving to do something positive.

-Kaine
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: DeathSkull on April 16, 2009, 06:21:53 am
Yeah, I think it would help the noobs out quite a bit if they ever watch them. My narrating sucks bad on those early videos, since I didn't redo them, but it's a bit better on the newer ones. I plan to get those up tomorrow or so.
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: Jedarus on April 16, 2009, 11:05:22 am
Not bad for an early effort.

-hwd
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: Urcscumug on April 16, 2009, 01:11:28 pm
On a personal note, avoid clicking your tongue during narration, it's really silly and distracting. :) Like you said, the narration is not very clear to begin with.

Now, to business. I liked the fact you intend to differentiate between stages. IMHO the base should react to game changes, including stage but also whether you are attacking or defending and sometimes even to particular situations.

For instance, you have tubes or trappers in a certain floor alcove in the alien base on ATCS and the humans catch on and take them out, then die or go away. When they come back they will expect you to rebuild in the same spot, so don't, change things around to catch them by surprise.

Tremulous Base Building Tutorial - Humans and Aliens on ATCS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrOQsw8E064

The human base was good, but the manner in which is was built doesn't take real game conditions into account. At some point you had no turrets anywhere, for example. :) The RC move should be the first move. The 2nd move should be to place 2-3 turrets near the nodes, just in case started out badly and you get a very early visit from a goon. My 3rd move is to place an extra turret at the tunnel, to gain some time.

Then you can start rearranging stuff inside the base, but pay extra attention to nodes. You did say that you should not decon something without a replacement already in place (arm, medi) but same goes for nodes, it's simply unacceptable to have just 1 node at any time (unless you're running for your life from a winning alien team). So my 4th move would be to build a 3rd node, then start rearranging.

In real game conditions all these things take 2-3 minutes so it helps a lot to have 2-3 builders doing these things with a rifleman keeping an eye out for dretches that make it past the entrance turrets. Also prevents early goon/basi visits, since nobody's going out to feed the dretches.

Now for aliens.

The anti-barricade advice is generally good, but keep in mind that one barricade in a strategic spot can gain you some time or a bit of extra protection.

The tubes in the floor alcoves can be made useful if you move them back into the alcoves so humans need to come into range to shoot them. Also helps to put them on the ceiling of the alcove or the walls toward the entrace. In any case, I'd never completely decon all of them in the early minutes of S1, you're basically opening the entire floor to them.

Not a good idea to cluster structures together, makes them vulnerable to grenades. Granted, we're talking S1, when there are no nades available, but in practice once you've placed the OM and 2 eggs near it you won't always have the time to relocate them later. Plus, it's just good practice to space stuff apart (as an alien builder).

I disagree with your placing of the tubes on the ramp leading to OM. Protecting the ramp is good, but they should be placed against the platform wall (you can squeeze as much as 3 of them there). If they're not behind the wall they can be shot from a distance.

Blocking the ramp completely is highly debatable. At S3 you should definitely not do it since you're blocking rants from defending the OM. At S1 you block the granger from accessing the platform (S1 granger can't jump very high and can't wallwalk). There is a way of placing them just right so that S1 granger can jump them but it's tricky. Plus, if the ramp is blocked and humans see that they won't even try, they will just shoot at them.

In general, when placing tubes it's a good idea to make humans get close to the sap their HP, but not to give them extra incentive to destroy them. For instance, given a known human path, place the tubes apart all along it instead of blocking any particular point completely. You will eat at their HP gradually instead of forcing them to stop and destroy them. One tactic gives you dead humans, the other dead tubes.

Here's how I prefer to approach S1 alien base:
* Move OM.
* Place 2 tubes on the ramp leading to OM, under the lip of the OM platform.
* Place an egg near the opposite ramp in the corner, like you showed in video, to give you creep to cover the tunnel alcoves.
* Place 2-3 tubes in the tunnel alcove or 2 there and leave the default one at the tunnel (although its effect is feeble and it's better to move it around the alcove wall.
* Place a tube in front of the egg you placed previously.
* Now you can arrange the OM eggs better, but always do so by building one more then deconning another, so as to always have 3 of them working.
* You can place an extra egg behind the tubes in the tunnel alcove. It serves as backup creep provider, and also its creep will prevent humans from strafe jumping to the OM.
* You can take a couple of tubes from the floor alcoves and put them on the ring inner wall. S1 granger can place them on the wall because it's slated. Takes a bit of fiddling around. Will give the humans a nasty surprise but be ready for when they're destroyed.
* You can place a barricade in front of OM to prevent humans taking pot-shots at it. They probably don't do much damage, but it's really distracting for you team to hear "OM is under attack" over and over when in fact all that's happening is a human pinching her with a blaster. Let's keep that message for when things are seriously wrong, such as a human on the OM platform.

Will comment on the others later. Kudos for doing this in any case, it's a worthy effort.
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: DeathSkull on April 16, 2009, 04:09:12 pm
Hi there, and thanks for your response!

Yes, I find myself agreeing with you. My early ATCS videos are more or less to show certain base layouts right now (as well as my Niveus video) rather than exactly what to do during battle (which, as we all know, can screw things up). I was highly unsure about my first ATCS video, my narration for one, and the fact that in the final product, I don't think it came off as newb friendly enough. I think I'll redo #1. Thanks for your tips, they come in handy! (Now that I think of it, my Niveus video also suffers from the "decon everything" disease. Redo time!).
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: UniqPhoeniX on April 16, 2009, 07:03:37 pm
Good to see someone making tutorials ;D
A few things tho: you should use some other recording method then a camera, you could even make demo and use /video (and /stopvideo) while playing it back on a smaller resolution, and then reencoding it using a better codec (trem video feature makes HUGE files) and adding sound.
The alien atcs base is very vulnerable to strafejumpers with a psaw, also I would put a max of 2 acids on the slope even with high bps.
Urcscumug: an egg in tunnel side alcove doesn't stop me from strafejumping to om unless I get really close to it.
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: Annihilation on April 16, 2009, 08:21:05 pm
Go death, glad to see someone in void being productive :)
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: Winter on April 17, 2009, 05:44:52 am
Go death, glad to see someone in void being productive :)
Darn, looks like I'll have to do something productive soon before death makes us all look unproductive. ;)

*sets La-Z-Boy chair to slightly less lazy position* :D
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: Yarou on April 17, 2009, 07:52:17 pm
I ask: who is the voice that sounds like a faggot
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: DeathSkull on April 17, 2009, 09:16:29 pm
This topic wouldn't be complete without you, Yarou! :P

BTW: I agree that my voice sucks in those vids. Don't ask me why. Another friend of mine says I sound depressed O_o
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: amz181 on April 18, 2009, 03:19:41 pm
Not bad for an early effort.

-hwd

OMG, your hwd!?!?!

HAI!
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: St. Anger on April 19, 2009, 05:34:20 pm
Sounds like you have something in your mouth.

Braces?
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: Jedarus on April 19, 2009, 08:40:59 pm
OMG, your hwd!?!?!

HAI!

Piss off. This is neither the time nor the place to be greeting me, now you know my IGN.
Title: Re: Void Asks: So you want to build?
Post by: DeathSkull on April 20, 2009, 06:59:48 pm
Nope, no braces. Only thing wrong with my mouth is I knocked out the left front tooth in a bike wreck years ago. =(