Mansion Mission Reports (Please Contribute)

[ivandogovich]

From the reports I'm seeing... It looks like only tests in New Battle, am I right?  Has anyone tackled this in a campaign game?

Also, I still haven't seen indicators of Loot.  As an overall sense, does it feel like there is enough juicy loot to tackle these with mid game, non-voodoo armors?

[Cristao]

A few questions - I want to try this out in the scenario tester.

1 - Is the armor to be used fixed? Can one bring in their own armor?

2 - What types of weapons are allowed?

[greattuna]

Well, not the safest source of loot, but the only source of gems, so I'd say tackle.

Did I just see 111 enemies killed? 

Yes.

A few questions - I want to try this out in the scenario tester.

1 - Is the armor to be used fixed? Can one bring in their own armor?

2 - What types of weapons are allowed?

1 - You can use voodoo-related armor (ghost, seductress, witch, saviour, et cetera), nurse, thieving outfits. Everything else is replaced by maid outfits, armor is returned at the end as loot.

2 - 2x1 and 1x1 weapons (daggers, pistols, SMG\skorpion SMG\mini-cougar SMG, smasher\sawn-off), medi-kits, grenades, force blade.

[Cristao]

Sweet!! I can build a special mansion raiding squad in game!!

[Dioxine]

Probably zombies & Chryssies (they NEVER appear in proper deploys). The population maxes out at around 89 on Jack Sparrow, but maybe reaches 60-70 at most on Blackbeard. Jack Sparrow's numbers are simply ridiculous on such large deploys

[Arthanor]

Provided that there are no crazy close-quarter enemies (chryssalids especially..! that's a relief!) and that the spawns are well spread out, it sounds like something relatively manageable if you want to sink the time into doing it (and can deal with the combat stress.. on the gals, and you).

The screencap you showed with lots of small rooms make it seem like you could breach, clear, setup, probably in groups of 4, depending on how many enemies would be in a given room. I would try it, but it hasn't come up in my game (I'm much too early I would guess) and I don't want to spoil it.

[Cheshire]

 I'm rather new to X-PirateZ (an aborted 3-years campaign and a now into 2nd year of another one which was upgraded to .98C halfway) and just discovered this topic, so I wanted to share my feedback. A small token of gratitude for making this truly astounding mod 

 I unfortunately haven't kept exact note of the result of my Mansion missions, I'll do my best to remember things as accurately as possible.

 I have played 2 mansions missions now, one around the 2nd semester of the 1st year just after upgrading to .98C and doing the research (the first mansion immediately appeared) with traders, the other early in the 2nd year with academists.

 I'd say each mission took maybe 3 hours real time. Overall they were much less tedious than I feared at first: it was mostly a matter of exploration, enemies rarely went into areas I had already explored, opening every little door is not necessary (it seems enemies are always in mid-sized rooms and they let doors open so they don't hide in a toilet for the whole duration of the mission...).

 The general setup of the mansion was nearly (but not exactly) the same both times:
 - Two basement levels, bottom one with a few small caves with mutant meat, top with long corridors and a few engineering rooms. Treasure chests were there.
 - Ground floor with white tint, big corridors, kitchens, a few conference rooms
 - 1st floor with red carpet that makes a squishy sound, lots of small corridors and closet-like rooms
 - 2nd floor with green tapestry, again with small corridors and rooms and a few larger restaurant rooms
 - 3rd floor with lots of attic-like rooms that aren't connected together (you have to go through the 2nd floor to reach each one) and a few "executive suits" and big conference rooms.
 - 4th floor is the roof, though you have small "towers" going several levels higher and containing arcane items-filled rooms

 There's one thing that didn't work too well though: both times some parts of the mansions were unreachable without breaking some walls, and of course some enemies were stuck there. This seems to be particularly the case for the small arcane towers where you find some high-ranking people : the only time I've been able to enter one (out of 5 over 2 missions) without breaking a wall was through a path going through the bottommost level (2nd subterranean level).

 I found the missions rather easy; I equiped everyone with just pipes (all in Maid outfits, not that I had anything else fitting), made 9 2-people teams that each explored on their own with about half of their TU each turn and smacked everyone they found (luckily I had some black powder bombs to open the unreachable rooms). As about noone is armored and pipes require only 8 TU, resistance was very weak; enemies seemed to have only weak firearms, nothing that couldn't be adressed with a few bandages. The only difficulty was at the end, when there were few enemies left to smack to regain morale, everyone started panicking until I found the last ones - though without firearms in hand berserking isn't really dangerous. But that's probably because of the "enemies stuck in unreachable areas" problem. Can't remember exactly how many enemies there were, I'd say around 40 (I play on 2nd difficulty level), mostly low-level, with 1 high rank (Esper), 2 mid rank (Medic) and a few engineers (usually in the basement).

 I also found the loot extremely generous, several millions $ are a real boon early in the game. In both missions the notable loot I remember (not counting a lot of mutant meat, exquisite lingerie, etc.) included:
 - Treasure chests (3 or 4 in the first one, only one the second)
 - Tens of money purses and cash bags (which contained a LOT of money chips)
 - About 20 personal computers
 - About 20 Chateau de la Mort bottles
 - A few illegally enriched uranium
 - A few Liber Occultus
 - A few wands of Airlessness

 Overall it's a nice change from the usual missions, I wouldn't do only those missions, but once in a while and for such an amount of loot, that's perfect. And I'd do one of those anytime over a base defense with their atrocious sewer chases...

[legionof1]

The loot is quite good. Dismantleing money bags/purses is actually about 5-10% value lost over sell. Unless your counterfeiting with the chips.

Academy is probably the easiest mansion faction. Their mid tier units have 5-10 lower armor then the average with a distinct high tech slant for resistance. Most 2x1 weapons are not laser or plasma.

Guild is alright but guild reps still have there customary Magnum. The grunts also tend to pack decent smgs.

[Dioxine]

The towers being randomly unreachable is fully by design. You can always destroy walls, so it's more of a limit to the AI than the player. A few less avenues to control is always good in such a mission. I'm glad the mission is liked, maybe I was too generous with the loot, though (although alternative ways of acquiring gems will appear, no doubt).

[legionof1]

I don't think it is too generous from an overall balance standpoint. Extra cash early just speads up the eventual grogernaut economy. I figure it's about 3-5 mil over expenses in a given month shatter the econ. Can pull it of with a few big ships like meridian's LP after the frigate. The mansion is just a different problem similar end result.

[ivandogovich]

@Chesire:  Thank you so much for a terrific report!  It really gives me a good sense that these aren't just complete death traps, and what the loot is all about.  I never considered the Pipe as a good tool for this job!

[Arthanor]

Good move on the pipe! I'm guessing anything that scales well with stats is primordial. Pipes and (barbed) daggers actually both scale decently and could be quite useful. Even the handle isn't bad for brave gals (and could net you a few VIP captures). Then any 1x1 explosives (bombs ftw!) for the ranged side of things.

Until late in the game, it feels like pistols are just a waste of time. The place looks cramped, just take the extra few steps and whack them in the head a couple times. It'll probably work much better. The reaction fire you risk for moving in is also nothing to what you risk for firing at them. Except Fuso knifes and ninja stars on good throwers, those still have awesome damage potential.

[Cheshire]

The towers being randomly unreachable is fully by design. You can always destroy walls, so it's more of a limit to the AI than the player. A few less avenues to control is always good in such a mission. I'm glad the mission is liked, maybe I was too generous with the loot, though (although alternative ways of acquiring gems will appear, no doubt).

Note that towers were not the only unreachable areas, I've got a few rooms in the "attic" level that were unreachable except through the glass ceiling (it was fun breaking through though). Also if the towers can be unreachable by design, could there be some kind of hint about it - maybe a kind of solid metal door somewhere that can't be opened (act as a wall), afterall, how did the people enter the tower in the first place?

Regarding the loot, I didn't intend to say it should be reduced, part of the fun of those missions it the expectation to get all the goodies you find around when it's over

Good move on the pipe! I'm guessing anything that scales well with stats is primordial. Pipes and (barbed) daggers actually both scale decently and could be quite useful. Even the handle isn't bad for brave gals (and could net you a few VIP captures). Then any 1x1 explosives (bombs ftw!) for the ranged side of things.

I'm not sure trying to capture is a good idea in this mission, as it is quite long the enemies might regain consciousness and you'll have to chase them around in areas you've already explored, quite annoying...

[Solarius Scorch]

Also if the towers can be unreachable by design, could there be some kind of hint about it - maybe a kind of solid metal door somewhere that can't be opened (act as a wall), afterall, how did the people enter the tower in the first place?

Oh, I like that.
How about a runic door?

[yrizoud]

Melons!