Questions about Mansion Invasions

[Crazy]

Ok, so far, I've only done 2 mansion invasions. Yet I've only ever found treasure chests in the underground portion of the mansion. If I'm just there for the gems, do I just need to explore the underground portions and then make off with the loot, or do treasure chests spawn in places other than the 2nd level?

[Marza]

So called 'wizard' towers spawn with gems. I think they only spawn with sapphires however.

[legionof1]

Each tower has a single gem(sapphire?). Chests are only in the basement. Given the present timer until your tech is pretty advanced clearing the basement and legging it is the best you can do. Traveling up all the widely separated stairs to the roof takes about 5-6 turns from the spawn, plus exploration time(find grab and return to stairs ~15-18) you only have about 10 turns "spare".

[Martin]

Depeds more on the competence and numbers of your crew than being high tech. Daggers, handcannons and BONAVENTURA aren’t high tech but you can clear the place with them in under 15 turns if you get lucky.

[legionof1]

True but the bonny is what really makes your example work. Less then 15 troops makes it difficult to cover the mansion in the time limit. Aside from the bonny which is one codex out of 4 high capacity transports are a decent way into the tech tree. 

[Dioxine]

Not only Bonaventura, there is one more very high capacity craft allowed, relatively low tech and accessible to all

[legionof1]

Triton while existing and satisfying the manpower issue is not guaranteed either.

[juff]

I think he's talking about the spy zeppelin

[legionof1]

IF Dioxine is using the newish mission timer feature in OXCE+, missions expire even with a craft enroute and zeppelins take forever to get places.

[Dioxine]

Not using this feature yet. Not sure if it's beneficial to Piratez or not.

[legionof1]

I can see up and downs but i would include it on the basis of gaining another lever to adjust balance with.

[Dioxine]

Well, there is the current balance of each craft representing an intelligence asset that ties down a mission site (especially Zeppelin). Which might be more important in the future, when there is more missions to choose. So there is some form of abstract choice: less fast craft, or more slow craft.
It is just that I'm so sure that this idea is really that good compared to 'have the fastest craft possible'....

[legionof1]

There would have to be alot more mission density, or more simultaneous missions for my playstyle to invest in more then a handful of craft. The most craft i've ever had at a time was 8 with most tasked as pure air combat. I tend to specialize out a craft for underwater and another for space but that's more managing equipment issues then need for additional ground crews.

There would need to be a really compelling reason for me to field multiple general purpose ground groups. Something like Long War 2's infiltration mechanics locking out a squad from other activities for a time period associated with the mission. Or combat fatigue.

Past a point in progression alot of the missions the dont die out lose meaningful impact beyond combat training and a handful more captives to exploit. Neither the loot or score really means anything compared to amassing the resources necessary for staging for the final assault. 

[RSSwizard]

Just got my first exquisite mansion!

Most of my hands were wounded so I sent a couple in the Hunter-Killer
# Never used the maid outfits before
# didnt know they had such a meager inventory arrangement
# Only Two Maids

Oh well.
But at least I got out with a Bag of Cash and a few Gold Bricks.
Wizard tower loot (blue wand and sapphire)
Data disk, Old Books, and 2 - I repeat two Govt Papers briefcases.
And I lost a bottle of Rum
(in the words of a famous pirate - why is the rum always gone?)

Killed like 6 guys too but got wounded pretty good. Had to use a couple Hellerium grenades to blow holes in walls when I got lost.
#DatCustomHandcannon
#DemHandcannonShotgunBlasts

Not using this feature yet. Not sure if it's beneficial to Piratez or not.

Its not beneficial and it would take a kinky bit of fun out of the game.

All its going to do for Pogroms is advance the mission timing to daylight, and in piratez there isnt much of a hit to performance for fighting at night (its nothing compared to the debuff night is in vanilla).

IF Anything there should be a feature to be able to send wounded soldiers off to fight, like if they have 5 Days of recovery left or less. Since they can get out of bed to fight during a base defense, there's no reason an MVP should have to stay bedridden when there's a big fight going on. Hit them with the extra lost health like it was a base defense and call it even.

# Oh there's a Pogrom going on, Dont Worry! We're sending our best and we're sending alot of them!
# All we've got to spare is a Zeppelin and it might take awhile but we're on our way! Hold on as long as you can!
# Mutant Alliance guys facepalm and start sweating. Its classic anime.

I mean someone could send an Expedition, but the only other super slow thing I know of is a Zeppelin, and it counterbalances this abuse because it requires at least 6 Hands. You cant just pop in your weakest hand and tell em to go run interference. It might be launched from a less useful base but thats 6 hands that wont be there if that base gets raided.

I dont keep the Zeppelin around for this purpose, I use it for popping up mobile radar coverage over Australia so I can follow the Excavators.

And ive only used that trick maybe 2 times so far - one time was waiting for a wounded Hand with 1 (partial) day of recovery left - other time I was waiting for ammunition to get finished manufacturing.



Pogroms despawn after a few hours just because it makes sense, but its easy enough to say that a Community was Formally Threatened with an extermination procedure to intimidate and blackmail the mutant alliance. And placing the mission on the map is a way of saying "they're coming, you better get here to stop them". So that makes sense too.

Terror Missions and other timed encounters dont really work in vanilla if they can expire while the craft is en-route. I mean you can Do that but we're talking about some kind of Hardmode version for masochists

The Skyranger and Triton in vanilla are honestly really slow. If they're already Coming Back from a mission while the Terror Mission pops then they have downtime to refuel before they can even get en-route. Although you could launch without refueling, it might not have enough fuel to get to the other side of the planet for the mission.

Ive lost several terror missions in retro TFTD because of that, the Triton was just leaving a mission and couldnt be bothered to do anything else because they were full on alien loot and bodies. Get back to base, now I have to refuel for several hours while Cruise Ship is sinking. Dont got any other transports. Just have to sit there and watch it sink.

# A Useful compromise would be to Track which craft was first dispatched to the mission. Even if you have another craft selected to intercept it - if the mission despawn has elapsed and the initial Craft breaks off pursuit then the mission despawns even if an additional interception was declared.

# This prevents using the Barracuda/Interceptor trick in vanilla that I used for delaying these missions. Send the Barracuda and then when it gets close, send the second one, when that one gets close then I send the Triton and hope daylight arrives before I do.