To help you out mud
Aliens have a fairly complex structure to their upgrades, abilities and resources. It's tough to learn, but once you know it it's pretty clear.
Resources:
They are for each individual alien. There is no pooling. This is a good structure for the kharaa as they usually fight individually
Buildings and Upgrades
The Buildings on the alien side are:
Hive
Resource Chamber
Offense Chamber
Defense Chamber (UPGRADE CHAMBER)
Sensory Chamber (UPGRADE CHAMBER)
Movement Chamber (UPGRADE CHAMBER)
Hive:
Aliens start with one Hive. It's as important as the command center. Objective is to build a 2nd and a 3rd to get some awesome abilities. You can build ONE type of UPGRADE CHAMBER for each hive you build. SO with Hive One we would build a sensory chamber - we could not build a defense chamber or movement chamber until we get hive 2, and say we pick defense chamber when our 2nd hive is up. We could not build a movement chamber until we have hive 3. The order of how you build the chambers is completely up to the team but we usually go with sensory first for the cloaking
Hives also play an extremely vital role in the TYPE of aliens we can evolve to and the abilities that they have.
We can't evolve to a FADE (the human like alien with a clan on each hand) until we have 2 Hives and we can't evolve to an ONOS (the rhino) until we have 3 hives. Our abilities are also restricted to the amount of hives we have. For instance, with only one hive the SKULK only has a bite attack and a parasite attack. With a 2nd Hive he gets the leap attack and with a 3rd Hive he gets the xenocide that allows him to explode
All aliens are governed by the Hive Abilities. Be very afraid when we get 3 Hives as our abilities and aliens will slaughter even marines with hmg and heavy armor without too many problems. A Marines OBJECTIVE is to stop the aliens building at least ONE hive - Hive 2 ALIENS aren't that powerful - so make it your mission, your passion or you WILL DIE
Resource Tower:
These work exactly like a marines Resource Chamber. Same Cost, Same Hit Points.
Offense Chamber:
Fires Spit Balls - Not very strong but a good deterrant as they do do 50 damage if they hit. There is little difference between the marine sentry and the offence chamber - just until Hive 3, aliens have a hard time taking down marine sentries due to no good range attacks.
Defense Chamber:
Allows researching of defense upgrades. It also provides healing at the rate of about 10 health per second to any buildings and aliens around. You can stack them up to 3 in an area to get 30 health per second. The upgrading works like this:
There are 3 levels of research for most of the alien upgrades. However to get that we only have to have 3 of the type of upgrade chamber ON THE MAP to get the levels. So 1 defense chamber = level 1, 2 = level 2, 3 = level 3. The upgrades are done by each alien - and they have to be redone every time we die (evolving doesn't reset them though so if as a skulk we had cloaking we will have it when we evolve to ONOS).
Sensory Chamber:
Allows researching of sensory upgrades. Also parasites any marine it touches (means we can see that marine on HIVE SIGHT at ALL times until he dies - no way to remove it). AND it also gives us warnings of any marines in its range with "THE ENEMY IS APPROACHING" shouted out.
Movement Chamber:
Allows researching of movement upgrades. Also allows us to teleport to the HIVE the longest distance away! Like the marine phase gate - just can't teleport us to where we want to go but great for hive defense and moving to other side of map instantly.
UPGRADES
As stated before they are done by each individual alien and have to be redone everytime they die - but they are worth it! Each upgrade costs us 2 resource points, but that isn't too much
As an alien you can only research one of each TYPE of upgrade each time. So once you research cloaking (sensory) you cant research scent of fear or enhanced sight until you die.
Sensory Upgrades:
CLOAKING
Makes us cloak when we stop moving - takes about 1 second to shift into after we go motionless.
Level 1: Faded Alien
Level 2: Outline of Alien
Level 3: Invisible completely
ENHANCED SIGHT
Think of it as NIGHT VISION - we see every structure and alien/marine with a white glow.
No Levels.
SCENT OF FEAR
We can DETECT on hive sight any marine that is low on health. Pretty effective for choosing targets
No Levels.
Movement Upgrades:
SILENCES
Reduces the noise we make when moving and attacking.
Level 1: 33% Reduction
Level 2: 66% Reduction
Level 3: 100% - Completely Silent, even when attacking. YOU MARINES SPOOKED YET?
SILENCES
INCREASES our energy regen (the yellow bar on right that we use for all our moves)
Level 1: 33% INCREASE
Level 2: 66% INCREASE
Level 3: 100% INCREASE
CELERITY
INCREASES our speed.
Not Sure if Level Based - but with a skulk it makes you fly like a tfc scout
Defense Upgrades:
CARAPACE
INCREASES our ARMOR ABILITIES
Level 1: +20% DAMAGE REDUCTION, Increase armor points
Level 2: +20% DAMAGE REDUCTION, Increase armor points
Level 3: +20% DAMAGE REDUCTION, Increase armor points
REGENERATION
ADDS HEALTH/ARMOR REGEN
Level 1: 1 Hit Point per second.
Level 2: 2 Hit Point per second.
Level 3: 3 Hit Point per second.
REDEMPTION
WHEN close to dieing and in battle we teleport back to closest hive
Very nifty, but it is bugged at times and the actually skill has a % to not work.
Level 1: TELEPORT. Increases chance of successfully teleporting back.
Level 2: TELEPORT. Increases chance of successfully teleporting back.
Level 3: TELEPORT. Increases chance of successfully teleporting back.
HOPE that gives you an insight into how powerful the aliens are, and how vulnerable they can be to a marine squad and commander who knows what they are doing. Pretty surefire that if you let us get to a THIRD HIVE you are in a tonne of trouble - our attacks are just too amazing. Even the flying lerk who is usually weak gets a SPORE CLOUD which is on par with the power of a charging ONUS. I went from 20 frags to 60 frags late last night in a game just with 5 minutes of playing a lerk
BEWARE MARINES! We're watching you.