Building as Aliens in GPP: a Discussion

[Venkman]

So, a certain Lord Limecat has shown me what I thought was an interesting approach to building as an alien in 1.2.

Now, I know egg-spam and hard-forwards are not a new idea. I just never realized how helpful they can be for an Alien team in 1.2. There's the extended creep range, of course, and also not having to wait for fallen teammates to book it back across the map. It can also help to break up early human rushes.

Basically, what I'm talking about here is

Strategic Egg-Spamming:

Not just one forward that can be taken out in a single rush or a bunch of sporadic eggs spread willy-nilly across the map (side note: Who was Willy Nilly and why was he so RECKLESS?) but two to three well-concealed well-positioned eggs and later boosters and/or defensive structures that would essentially force the human team to divert their efforts whenever they wanted to rush. And on larger maps, which is really what this strategy is meant for, it can help keep the press on an otherwise hard-to-reach human base.

I put this thread in General Discussion and not Strategies and
Tactics because I'd like to hear feedback on the idea more than anything.
Right now, feeders are the main problem as I see it. If you put the feeders closer to the enemy base, they're just gonna feed harder. But, other than that one aspect, I think strategic egg-spamming could really help give smart 1.2 Aliens the edge on bigger maps.

 

[Nux]

I thought egg-spam was the worlds best breakfast combination.

I thought egg-spam was the aforementioned willinilliness. If it's not willy and neither is it nilly... aren't they called forward bases?

In any case: Eggs are good and you noobs need to build more of them. Especially now our base is going down.

Don't look at me! GO! SPAM EGGS.

[RAKninja-Decepticon]

conversely, having eggs strewn throughout the map makes it much more difficult to defend the base when it comes under fire.  there is not a whole lot that sucks more than spawning halways across a map from your base when there is a human rush.

[zybork]

This is not correct, outside eggs make it in effect easier imo to defend the base, because you can attack the humans there from behind, mind that aliens are usually fast enough to be there quickly even if that egg should be farther away from their base.

One classic example is the window room in Niveus, (which I consider actually to be a design flaw of the map, by the way) where humans camp outside the door and spam the second it opens. If you now have an egg outside, you can evolve and attack them from the back, breaking up their formation pretty fast.

To add to the general discussion about alien basebuilding, I want to add that the  plays an important role now, for with good booster placement (somebody made up even a thread on that) you can allow to regenerate your teammates quickly outside the base, best example is the tall hall at Nexus6, where a booster on the first floor opposite the cavern where the Overmind is on default reaches to, allowing big aliens quickly regaining their health on a spot quite close to the human base.

[Saliva]

All you need as aliens are eggs, boosters and maybe trappers.

Eggs have multiple functions: They slow humans down with creep and have high hp that makes humans shoot them a while allowing aliens to attack while they are doing that, they make aliens act better as a team because of close spawning to the action and shorter supply line and they must be destroyed for humans to win the game.

They are often better when compared to acid tubes or hives because both are there to slow humans attack and eggs do that better. You could think that acid tubes and hives are better defensively because they do damage but often they are shot where they can't attack. Trappers are an exception because only one hit from them will stop a rushing human.

The improvement to teamwork can be essential. For example putting down 5 eggs near human base before rush can mean the difference between victory or a loss by human counter attack. People wouldn't normally attack in large groups but close and near simultaneous spawning makes that happen naturally. In general spawning close is a good thing. Even if an alien loses a fight against human close spawning allows the alien to finish the wounded human before he manages to escape to heal.

Booster close to human base combined with multiple eggs makes aliens naturally be in larger groups because of short supply line. It's great for gathering forces before a rush or it can even be enough in itself to win the game.

I could go into more detail but I think you get the idea.

[Venkman]

outside eggs make it in effect easier imo to defend the base, because you can attack the humans there from behind, mind that aliens are usually fast enough to be there quickly even if that egg should be farther away from their base.

One classic example is the window room in Niveus, (which I consider actually to be a design flaw of the map, by the way) where humans camp outside the door and spam the second it opens. If you now have an egg outside, you can evolve and attack them from the back, breaking up their formation pretty fast.

Niveus|Window Room Base (which I'm not really very fond of, though it seems to be the fan-favorite so I usually end up building there regardless) is actually the first map where I tested this strategy. I made one outside-egg at the edge of the drop-off on the 3rd floor behind Alien default (sorry, I'm lapsing on room-names right now and pressed for time...) and later placed a booster on the curved ledge adjacent to it, making the booster harder to nade while still immediately accessible when spawning. This was my anchor-forward, meaning it was outside of base yet still close enough to flank any rushing humans.

I hid my hard-forward (the one closer to H-base) in the 2nd floor room with the shadowy boxes up on a wide ledge. I hid the egg behind the boxes and put a booster up on one of the small rafters above it. I like this spot because both exits are in close proximity to H-base and the lower exit is still relatively close to Window.

The point is for both forwards to be:

  / Conveniently placed for attacking the enemy base/defending your own

  hard for humans to reach

  / located where a hard-to-nade egg/booster can be easily hidden


Now on a map like Nexus6, 3 forwards can be really effective but risky.

Of course, my entire strategy still hinges how well you can build a base with the remaining BP you have at your disposal. Really, all of this would be a whole lot easier to explain with graphics, so I'll try to make some later. Right now, I'm late for work.

[Lecavalier]

More games have been lost this way because of over-spamming. Often what happens is humans will feed off of the forward eggs and when they attack, you can't defend because you spawned too far away. It's a live by the sword, die by the sword type deal. Although in large pub games, it's almost always a die by the sword.

[jm82792]

Egg spamming can be a very good tactic if properly utilized and won't work in a good portion of situations.

[zybork]

Works well if there are two (or even more, depends on the situation) grangers at work, which keep the humans singled out over the entire map, then aliens feed on those stray humans, and then, after they've grown big and fat, they eat human base for dessert, or at least attack randomly, causing humans to camp, rebuild base while humans stop egghunting, and then kill human base from a fully recovered powerbase.

[Venkman]

If it's not willy and neither is it nilly... aren't they called forward bases?

Pretty much. What I was looking to do was designate specific terms for each type of forward. So, instead of having to tell your Granger, "go build fwd and not a dumb one [here]..." You could say "We need anchor-forward!" And if they say, "I didn't read that thread because it was on the forum and, thus, made of words. What's an anchor-forward?" You could tell them "One outside of base but close enough to flank/defend..." And if he builds a dumb forward anyway, at least we tried.

Egg spamming can be a very good tactic if properly utilized and won't work in a good portion of situations.

Probably the simplest and best way to describe my personal test-results, thus far. Sir, you are a poet.

Works well if there are two (or even more, depends on the situation) grangers at work, which keep the humans singled out over the entire map, then aliens feed on those stray humans, and then, after they've grown big and fat, they eat human base for dessert, or at least attack randomly, causing humans to camp, rebuild base while humans stop egghunting, and then kill human base from a fully recovered powerbase.

More games have been lost this way because of over-spamming. Often what happens is humans will feed off of the forward eggs and when they attack, you can't defend because you spawned too far away. It's a live by the sword, die by the sword type deal. Although in large pub games, it's almost always a die by the sword.

It seems to come down to this:

1.) With a good team, it CAN be very effective to strategically egg-spam.

2.) With a bad team, it WILL mean a devastating loss if you egg-spam.

Both are good to know.