Don't be a lazy sister!

[ThePiachu]

One thing I really don't enjoy in the early xeno game are the lazy sisters - those xenos that AFK in the hive, waiting to mature so they can get to mature T2/T3 before they actually go and do anything. There are so many things you could be doing in the early round that it's just a waste. Go out, slash some lights and APCs, melt some things, etc. Every little bit helps. Sure, by the time 12:25 rolls around definitely start going back to the hive, but you have those 20 minutes where you can be a productive xeno!

Don't be a lazy sister!

[FGRSentinel]

In fairness the only ones that have an excuse for staying near the hive in the first 20 minutes are the 1-2 drones assigned to/volunteering for egg/nest/hivebuilding duty, maybe 1-2 Sentinels to watch any captured survivors (and only when there's something for them to watch), and the queen herself. Once the dropships land, then they can stay near the hive.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

Nothing is absolute. What if your queen has her ovi up late and now you have a 5 tick difference from maturing and evolving ? Do you really want to be hard-working when the plasma difference when upgrading (because we still haven't fixed that for anything else but Defenders) means that you won't be able to evolve in time ? This especially applies to Runners, which have a 1 plasma/tick regen at Mature, meaning that you'll have to wait 50 seconds to get your plasma back to full.

Also, slashing APC fucks this even more. If you really want to kill the APC, you have to take the shock damage, which means that you probably can't even mature until you sit and heal up to full.

Overall, if the ovi is up a bit late, it's just too risky to try and do work, when you can just wait for mature/T2 and do your stuff then.

[Sleepy Retard]

I'm not going to lose my evo b/c I melted stuff, pretty much what Bex said.

[Pedr007]

One thing I really don't enjoy in the early xeno game are the lazy sisters - those xenos that AFK in the hive, waiting to mature so they can get to mature T2/T3 before they actually go and do anything. There are so many things you could be doing in the early round that it's just a waste. Go out, slash some lights and APCs, melt some things, etc. Every little bit helps. Sure, by the time 12:25 rolls around definitely start going back to the hive, but you have those 20 minutes where you can be a productive xeno!

Don't be a lazy sister!

The optimal strategy is to AFK in caves. Blame poor game design, not the players.

Protip: Play on DMCA and CM at the same time as xeno when DMCA is live, AFK on 1 and play on the other. Now you can be a salt farming lurker on not one but TWO communities!

[Dolth]

I just always afk.
Part of the game. Sorry m8.

[ThePiachu]

Nothing is absolute. What if your queen has her ovi up late and now you have a 5 tick difference from maturing and evolving ? Do you really want to be hard-working when the plasma difference when upgrading (because we still haven't fixed that for anything else but Defenders) means that you won't be able to evolve in time ? This especially applies to Runners, which have a 1 plasma/tick regen at Mature, meaning that you'll have to wait 50 seconds to get your plasma back to full.

Also, slashing APC fucks this even more. If you really want to kill the APC, you have to take the shock damage, which means that you probably can't even mature until you sit and heal up to full.

Overall, if the ovi is up a bit late, it's just too risky to try and do work, when you can just wait for mature/T2 and do your stuff then.

Work with the Drones to make sure you're on weeds when you want to evolve. Most APCs early on won't have any charge, so they won't zap you. Or you can just go around breaking lights or opening doors.

[FGRSentinel]

Health and plasma are easier to replenish than random parts for APCs and other crap you could be destroying. Every APC you slash is a module that needs to be sent down to the planet/station, every wall you melt another spot the marines have to watch, every light you break another bulb that needs to be replaced or flares/flashlights used instead. All of these can make life harder for survivors, but ones the dropships land you want to be destroying things early and often. The hive should be fighting a war of attrition. Make it difficult for the Marines to push while minimizing the hive's losses. Make resupply a painful, costly affair where Supply Drops are the only way to guarantee resources arrive. Ensure every source of light is destroyed and make sure it's safe for others to do so. Every point spent buying metal, sandbags, parts, and other things is one point not being spent on bullets to kill you or your sisters. The moment Cargo is forced to pick between materials and ammo, the moment marines are forced to wander through the dark because there's no flares left in their inventory and all the lights are out, the moment the engineers are forced to use their last Power Control module to get something working, the hive has won. If every beno did their part, it would be over so much faster.

[NicoDeimos]

Most APCs are unpowered at round start since the engineering generators are broken and inactive. Slashing unpowered APCs doesn't shock you.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

You know what would make it really hard for survivors ? You being T2 and T3 later. Since right now, you can get T3 at 12:10 (boiler) if the ovi is up early and you evolve on time.

Also, you're naive if you think they'll replace every single APC in the damn place. No, you're looking at tcomms, maybe FOB, maybe engineering, and that's it. Even then, you don't need power control module to fix cut up APCs. Wirecutter -> Mend all the wires will fix that easily.

And if you even for one second suggest that you need to rely on drones, when they're gonna be busy doing their own stuff (weed, building, infecting) and probably would never help you anyway. Also since most drones are probably newer players that won't even know the layout of the map, I don't see how they can help you when they can't even help themselves.

[ThePiachu]

You know what would make it really hard for survivors ? You being T2 and T3 later. Since right now, you can get T3 at 12:10 (boiler) if the ovi is up early and you evolve on time.

It's probably harder for survivors if the various places they'd set up shop are weeded, with their doors melted, and when someone notices them early on and hive ambushes them there and then. If you idle for 10+ just to get your T3 on, then they will already be bunkered up behind a wall, a welded door and a few layers of barricades.

A properly messed up colony, with weed patches everywhere, broken windows for runners, no doors to weld shut and no working APCs pays dividends through the whole match.

[DefinitelyAlone0309]

It's probably harder for survivors if the various places they'd set up shop are weeded, with their doors melted, and when someone notices them early on and hive ambushes them there and then. If you idle for 10+ just to get your T3 on, then they will already be bunkered up behind a wall, a welded door and a few layers of barricades.

A properly messed up colony, with weed patches everywhere, broken windows for runners, no doors to weld shut and no working APCs pays dividends through the whole match.

1. Most of this thread is about non-drone, so the weeding stuff shouldn't be mentioned. If it can't be fulfilled, look back to my point about not being able to rely on drones since they're mostly played by new players.

2. If the survivors get a good spawn and gather up quickly within 4 minutes, your best play is not to try and harass them, but to grow up and dunk them with T2s and T3s later. I never said to wait for T3 and then go out. I said to wait for T2 as well

3. Broken windows never need to be pre-broken before the fight. When you fight, you can break them without any miss opportunities.

4. The only properly "non-working APC" you can count on it being off for the whole match is the destroyed ones, and like I said, you're naive to think that marines will actually fix up each and every one of them. The cut APC can be fixed by both engies and survivors with 5 clicks (wire cutter -> mend -> mend -> mend -> mend).

5. How do you think survivors' firepower will last against boiler and Rav and Crusher ? Even marines' firepower can't even do that effectively if your T3s are not brain dead.

6. Layers of barricades are worthless with the cade update. That update made actually dangerous place like Prison Warden's and BR Perma so much easier. Also, since we're talking about T2/T3 here, a Spitter can stunlock the survivors inside. That's why you wait for a Spitter and not go gung ho at them with a Sentinel.

7. I've never said anything about waiting from the start till mature/evo and only do shit then. Ofc you should still gather up monkeys, but you shouldn't risk losing your evo/upgrade when it's getting close..

[misto]

even something as simple as putting weak acid onto some of the regular walls in some of the buildings can help make the map more traversible for xenos and less securable for humans