Re: [MAIN] XPiratez - N9.7.7 12-Sep-2024 Second Coming

[alinare]

Hello Dioxine:

 misspoke. I was referring to the stress suffered during combat by hands, not in the geosphere. I had a little lapse.

[Dioxine]

Then it's all laid out in the Pedia article screenshot I've posted.

[Rince Wind]

Rince Wind with 10 bravery, and probably high voodoo power because the star gods did not gave her a try. Very fitting.

By the way, the quick draw slot put a few grenades in limbo in the inventory screen. Nothing I cannot sort with some save editing but it is worth the warning.

I do have a question, does the surgery room has an effect besides unlocking manufacturing?

That is insulting. I am not a coward! I repeat, I am not a cowa...omg, is he carrying a gun? Tell me he is not carrying a fun.. SAVE ME! He is carrying aa goddam gun!

[Solarius Scorch]

Unsurprisingly, the morale decay turned out to be quite controversial, to the point of eclipsing all the other changes and additions (those Destroyers... D: ). Therefore, I'd like to give my two cents on it after playing a couple missions.
My impression: while it is a bit disconcerting to see the morale bar not full before you even start, the difference in actual gameplay between this system and vanilla is approximately zero.
It could be argued that my missions were of the faster type, being mostly against Hoppers and an Escort. Nevertheless, after 2 turns there are typically at least two or three dead enemies, which more than makes up for how much morale you could lose. Since it would require four or five turns of not killing anyone for your most weak-willed girls to start losing it, the decay is almost solely a psychological trick to put the player under pressure rather than actually change the mechanics.
Of course one can think of situations where this is not accurate, for example when you can't find enemies. These situations are rare though and can be remedied with... well, nothing special at the moment, but I believe it'll change. For now, just:



If you actually have any trouble concerning morale decay, please don't hold me responsible - I've only played for one evening, which is hardly a comprehensive test.

[doctor medic]

Are the enemies affected by this too?They seem to be panicking more quickly than last time.

[moriarty]

I have to admit that I haven't gotten around to playing the newest build yet, but I like the idea of Combat Stress very much. It got me thinking though: do you think this could be taken even further, like instant-morale-losses for seeing especially fearsome enemies? perhaps then alleviated by having them researched?

For example, I would think that the gals would panick when facing powerful enemies (especially the terror units), but they wouldn't panick as much once they have a full autopsy of it... "if it bleeds, we can kill it"

[niculinux]

Hey, nice idea the stress! But i tend to face battles at a slower pace so i'm not very enthusiast!  Weel, on one hand women are prone to stress and but remember the gals in the game are mutants, so things should be quite difference..hence i'd slow the morale loss, and make it start after 40 turns or more...or maybe tie it to certain conditions, still don't know

[ivandogovich]

I'll chip in on the stress conversation and say that it freaks me the heck out. 

I feel like it is designed to negate a certain playstyle (Camping).   As such, its really an arbitrary decision to force an aggressive playstyle on the player. 

I realize it will have little to no impact on some players, but others (like myself) were blown away at how devastatingly hard the mod could be even before extended and the new combat stress mechanic.  Its really a matter of playstyles.  I had to adapt/change mine to gain any ground, and even with my adaptations, I think that I would still have squad panics with this new mechanic.   So by forcing playstyles, it kind of feels to me like you are narrowing the game down into only certain solutions.... more like a puzzle game.  Once you figure out the solution, the game gets easy, but you are punished otherwise.  That goes against what I appreciate about many well designed games (OpenXcom, Jagged Alliance 2, Civ, etc) that allow you multiple paths to success.   

Anyway, thats just my two cents on Game Design.

And yeah, if morale is going to be that much bigger of a factor, ensure that the antidotes are readilly available... booze, etc, and maybe quicker to use.

[Hobbes]

Weel, on one hand women are prone to stress

Some may see this association as insulting to women, and there are actually a few of them on these forums. I'm sure you meant no offense though

Just to chip in the issue of the automatic morale loss: what's the need of such a system?

[Yankes]

To recreate https://www.darkestdungeon.com/ in OXC?

[Soyden]

My own experience with combat stress in game so far today is its bad for mind puppet heavy strategies that focus on live capture. I'm using a save from the last version that I've been continually sliding over since before .94. Its on the easiest difficultly because I wanted to learn the mod first before really cranking it up. I've been running very aggressive capture operations using voodoo. My squad is composed of 5 witches and the rest are in blitz armor. It lasted around 7-8 turns I think and 3 of the blitz armor girls stared freaking out on turn 6 but the witches were still in the low seventies on morale. I was running this as a capture operation, meaning I only shot and killed one enemy who was to far to bother catching with voodoo. I do wonder if this was the lower difficulty making things tougher. Higher difficulties mean increases in the numbers of hostiles, yes? I did notice the +2 stress on the blitz armor description does that mean its more stressful to wear? I was assaulting a trader cruiser that I had shot down if that's important.

[Soyden]

I hadn't realized the plasma destroyers changed too. It was very surprising to see the UFO corridor suddenly bathed in fire like that but also very cool. I do wonder what it would be like if the heavy plasma guns or the star god plasma attack had a similar but smaller effect like a energy blast of 1 or 2?

[LexThorn]

Played few missions with battle stress. Discovered that this mecanic not fitting with my playstyle (maximum live captives). I suggest to make this mecanic optonal or swichable or difficulty-level-dependent. It would be nice, if such time-restricting mecanics (battle stress and ships self destruction) will be optional. Maybe it is not difficult to separate them as couple costom rulsets that can be disabled?

[Meridian]

Maybe it is not difficult to separate them as couple custom rulesets that can be disabled?

That's a good idea, I support it...

[Boltgun]

Played few missions with battle stress. Discovered that this mecanic not fitting with my playstyle (maximum live captives). I suggest to make this mecanic optonal or swichable or difficulty-level-dependent. It would be nice, if such time-restricting mecanics (battle stress and ships self destruction) will be optional. Maybe it is not difficult to separate them as couple costom rulsets that can be disabled?

The best is to tune them until acceptable values and give ways to combat it.

In higher difficulties there is more enemies and so more morale to gain. Also I'd get that hitting 40 or so will train them and over time, making them more resistant to psy panics.