A thread for little questions

[Nilex]

Your insight has been paramount in unraveling many mysteries in my voyage. Thanks man.

[Alex the KatanaCutlass]

Yea, ATTN does mean attention. Old school. Before the @. Guess that means ATTN today. And yea, Exhalts, just as SG Novices (or better Masters?), Catgals and other inviso are a real pain. I mean, can a cat claw kill an armored car?!? LOL. C'MON!

[RSSwizard]

Ahh I think I found the way through the RNG block. Besides having a Provost on the way - I also had my first professional base raid with a breaker ship and the Academy gave me Plasma Scorcher, Heavy Plasma, and some other bitz.

But looking those up and the reasons I couldn't research anything I found - I didn't have the Psi-Unlock. Simply having the Provost probably wont give me much at this point and you need a 2nd one to break them.

I also found my First Enemy Hideout (Trader Joe's hole in the wall) and this is Year 3 mind you. Which gave me a Microwave Cooker and I actually could research that... and a Basilisk Cannon following that which I havent finished researching.

I blasted 2 Academy Campuses and didnt find a Provost there. And I already had Guildmasters broken so I didn't really need the one from the Enemy Hideout.

My playthrough has been rather heavy on the RNG to circulate Trader missions. I dont have the Church Cardinal circuit done either - im sorta hoping for Hotrods because the Brave Whaler can reach 6000mph with the thrusters.

[legionof1]

Ye top VIPs can be a big pain the rear. It's why you are allowed to buy them in the first place. If all else fails throw money at the problem is something of a pillar of the mod. Because well eventually you just end up with more industry income then expenditures while waiting for a handful of spawns, so just let the spawns be bought and end the run.

[RSSwizard]

Nope even with a broken Provost it still didn't unlock Plasma and I dont know why. Topics didn't appear and manufacture option didn't pop up either. Still no Heavy Plasma.

Ive got a serious issue to bring up about Bank Robberies.

Where the actual hell is the bank vault? I went upstairs and there's nothing but solid stone. I went downstairs and there's a (Spaceship Hull) that you cant actually step close to do melee on because it takes up part of the tile. And even if you blow it away with explosives (Plasma Rocket in this case) the Solid Stone Bricks do not reduce down far enough with melee damage for you to step into. Description text said yknow its a bank vault, not a mountain you have to tunnel into.

Are you just supposed to kill the mobs everywhere else on the map? Will any of them spawn in inaccessible areas of the bank? If its bad map design or an incomplete map all its going to result in is im just going to STUNLEVEL the savegame every time and endure a game reload because its faster.

And ive also got a serious issue with Hidden Valleys...
No Exit Grid... WTF?
My first Hidden Valley mission and all the locals are Mk. 801 Terminators. And there's no way to exit the mission. And I didn't have anything that could damage them (I came with Stun equipment to bag civvies).
Bad Map design... ill just load my Geo save I made before I went to the mission and avoid even going. I could go back with the mansion robber gals in Looter and running Heavy Laser but whats the point?
Is it always Terminators?

- - -
and to avoid double posting in the main thread since nobody's replied in days...

Anyway I just played Siberia for the first time in several revisions and was really caught off guard by the new Tundra mapset. I came planning on using the Lokk'Narr Bombard (Hell Shells) and there was nothing above ground to hit. Still, that one cavern is a honey hole for lobbing shells and ATGMs into and I killed 3 Tanks this way, and a Supersoldier too. Somehow 2 Gals in Blitz armor ended up rather suddenly freezing up completely unable to move (Energy = 0). I was surprised the badguys had Baby Nukes... but there was no free room for them to use them so I had some Stormtroopers kinda fidget around and do a double take because they couldn't find a safe angle to shoot me from 6 tiles away.

I was also surprised that my Ship didn't appear on the map, just an exit grid. This is Bad Form because it exposes your Equipment Pile to explosive damage (which at this point should have some kind of engine workaround to put your Equipment Pile into a hidden Locker - similar to the Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 merchant equipment lockers that are located outside of the map).

And it doesn't make sense either, you land, you strike fast and hard. It makes sense for some maps like Sirius Temples but not for a big mission like Siberia. In fact its a real bad idea tactically to approach on foot... and there's no air defenses either.


Also played the Raynerd map and managed it despite not bringing "break in tools". I have a Pickaxe in the ship but forgot about it. Plasma Rocket is standard for me and I guess it blows a hole in the prison wall just fine. Thing is that description in the mission prep is ambiguous. I thought it was saying Thief Gear only despite the what-to-wear button not showing (I wore Blitz and Harbinger TYVM).

The Enforcer locked in the punching bag room was a nice touch, I had to get all the way up to bug hunt mode to find him there (and used Plasma Rocket #2 to blast the wall out). I find it funny some of the cops had mini-smgs and some had plasma stuff.

Im wondering why the hell the Medical Slicer cant melee through the prison bars, the gal using it had pretty much elite stats (170 reactions, 60 voodoo and 40 voodoo skill and 100+ melee). Like 12 hits and HIGH damage medical slicer wouldn't lightsaber the bars. But a Raygun pops it and so does a Death Blossom.

[Nilex]

After Broken Provost you need to have Plasma Rifle in stores to continue plasma research (after Unlocking Stellar Empire Weapons). Dunno what else could it be.

Bank Robbery puzzled me too. Check this: https://youtu.be/xv3wEeZXIMk?t=2549. You can break walls with a Hammer provided the wielder is strong enough. Using Fusion Torch is highly annoying in that confined space but doable. On my first attempt I had to edit save file and make 3 people inside the vault surrender coz I only brought weak Peasants and even weaker LokkNaars. Easier alternative was debug but I didn't know it at the time. After the wall there are couple more nasty surprises in there. I wish I could see your face when it happens.

Hidden Valley I have no recollection off (Isolated Valley: Shelter Guy/Girls + Genius Loci?) but in general you will have a better time adjusting to the little flaws and just going with the flow. Enemies are random but determined at start of month I think (my last one had Zombies). Regarding equipment pile, mine got completely wiped on 3rd stage of Winter Palace but luckily I spotted it on time and reloaded. What a blow that would be... Anyway ye of little faith, stuff will improve as it has been for the relatively short time I've been around. Until then, remember - suffering is always better shared! Especially when it's the other guy lol.

[legionof1]

For the bank, the ideal method to get at the vaults is to tunnel in from outside at ground level on the back of the building. The exterior walls are far less sturdy then trying to go through the fortified and mined vault entrances. There are some guards within the vaults themselves, so unless you force a surrender your gonna need to get in there. This is working as intended. Banks in the real world of significant size or value have guards stationed within the vaults.

Valley against terminators is bad luck. It's the rarest version. But your on the right track with bringing lasers. But word of advice always bring alternate equipment. Lots of missions and crafts can have multiple layouts and multiple factions that run them. What works on one faction can fail hard against another. And even beyond that because a run takes so long to complete, unless you chose not to upgrade to newest versions the missions get tweaked pretty often.

As to blitz armor and Siberia you probably reached minimal freshness, which tanks your recovery of everything. Any armor that has TU buffs tends to have substantially accelerated freshness drain. And then add the natural energy drain from cold environment which the blitz suffers at 200% normal and yeah they bitterly freeze up very quickly. I do agree that the new Siberia is more exposed for the gear pile, but it's far safer then the old version for the crew since your not on an open plane with a buncha tanks and supersoldiers right away. I dunno how many of the old version i was just forced to not play because of spawn RNG.

The medical slicer has .25 vs terrain modifer, so it only does 25% dmg of the post dmg roll value. The guns don't. A max stat gal without accounting for armor and commendation buffs will only deal about 25 points to terrain.

[Apocca]

"For the bank, the ideal method to get at the vaults is to tunnel in from outside at ground level on the back of the building."
Why didn't I ever think of that? I always try to tunnel my way around the almost unbreakable Spaceship Hull wall and then throw some satchel charges in.
The real annoyance is the hidden stun bombs in the vault's hallways.

[Jimboman]

"For the bank, the ideal method to get at the vaults is to tunnel in from outside at ground level on the back of the building."
Why didn't I ever think of that? I always try to tunnel my way around the almost unbreakable Spaceship Hull wall and then throw some satchel charges in.
The real annoyance is the hidden stun bombs in the vault's hallways.

Up until now I deal with banks by rushing 2 gals in Juggernaut armour with fusion torches to the bank to break in via the 'spaceship hull' walls in the basement and then trip the bombs as they aren't affected by them.  I also have two other gals following them (not too close!) to deal with the guards (the jugger gals kneel at the entrance and the others fire over their shoulders).  So far it only takes two or three turns to clear out the basement using that method, once you actually get to the bank of course!  Two other gals clear out the upper floors of the bank while the rest of the team (using a Menace-class or bigger ship) clear the other buildings in the town.

One thing is that I don't feel that the rewards are enough sometimes, particularly in later stages of the game when money and reward tokens are plentiful.  Maybe if there was some super-special weapon or hard to get Cydonia codes in there it might be more worth it.*

*Somebody's now going to tell me there are and I've been having bad RNG!

[Nilex]

Besides the initial confusion I feel the Bank mission and its loot are fine. A nice early mid-game break from the usual and after that we're free to ignore it. Don't think it's intended to be more than that.

* * *

Believe it or not (I couldn't) just got my very first Viper Fighter. Marsec Lasgun here I come! Or maybe... not?

After 10 attempts Viper gets "blown to pieces" every time. No crash site, no landing, no lasgun. C'mon man.
Viper has 10 armor and strong regenerative shields so I'm attacking with 6x 36 power Lascannons and single 25 power Beam Laser (mind you damage is always lower: 50-100%). Even when finished with Beam, Viper still gets atomized. I know it's not the case of Ninja Jetbike which doesn't have a map so it's coded to destruction no matter what but Viper has its own damn map. What gives?

UPDATE
Ended up making a save with a landed craft to learn about its properties so I could apply it to the Viper. That worked but I still needed to repeat the ground mission because their equipment is random and there was still no Marsec Lasgun on first attempt lol. Btw the rules state Viper is the only place in the whole game where ML can appear hence all the fuss. Anyway my mind is finally at peace. Case closed.

[legionof1]

Vipers are configured so that they roll a 50/50 on if they fight to destruction or try and run when losing. Only the latter case can spawn a crash. The roll is made when the fighter is spawned.

[RSSwizard]

Only the latter case can spawn a crash. The roll is made when the fighter is spawned.

Damn I didn't even think that was a thing in the engine.

Good to know about the bank robbery. I think I had noticed a hollow space in there casually clicking around but I thought it might be a place youre not supposed to reach ingame. For baddies like that I usually bring a Knockout Bomb with power armor gal and just hand it to them. Always have like 2 knocout grenades with power armor for that purpose alone, if you dont need to throw it... thats pretty fast and strong.

Due to Printer base having close to 300 runts and a Refinery im mass producing juggernaut and harbingers. Even got several Tetsudos (LOVE) for my slave soldiers who are up into elite stats... lotsa baby nukes from Siberia and Hideout Supply Ships giving me those batteries.

Medical Slicer 25% terrain damage modifier... well that, sucks. And makes no sense. I sure hope the Force Blade sword isnt like that too, its literally a lightsaber. But for Banks I really will need to use Anchor/Pickaxe because it needs a projectile to reduce the half-destroyed Brick tiles down - Melee will say nobody is there but it isnt crumbled enough to walk into. Was ironically using a Barbaric Axe to "chop" my way in and it was sorta working.

Fusion Torches and Mining Lasers are too slow, up front 90+ percent cost can lose you a turn setting up while an Anchorwoman can get started right away.

Im thinking of fielding Nuke Demo Charges more now, the damage is lower than a baby nuke and its hellerium produceable. If I get a Escape Tower itll pretty much one-shot their ship. I can nuke charge the Bank with the Armored Car then sweep in with tools and butcher or knockout whos left. Boom mugafuga.

[legionof1]

Sorry to disappoint, force blade has the same modifier and worse maximum potential dmg. But at least it gets half armor pen and is part of the concealable category.

I surmise that dioxine wanted to avoid one size fits all tools after melee functions where updated to hit be able to affect terrain. But there is a limit of simulation vs realism issue. A lightsaber style weapon is very good at penetrating defenses/armor but takes time/multiple strikes to actually get through a wall because it's area of impact is so focused and doesn't benefit from impact shock propagation like a blunter instrument does. But the engine handles terrain as a black body is/is not state. there is no substance or shell to whittle down over multiple strikes against a given object state. 

[RSSwizard]

Oh I figured out my RNG block.
It was the damned Science Vessel. Which I actually brought down before and somehow Did Not retrieve the blueprints. I guess whoever was holding the blueprints got nuked by the Lokk'Narr.
So I reasonably added it back to my save and carried on.
I also shot down a 2nd one over the ocean. In principle I actually love the science vessel because its like a midweight between the terror ship and og battleship. What I do not like is that they are often HKs.

Btw ive noticed that HK behavior seems to target crafts differently than normal approach engagement. Whats the priority? They often go after the craft escorting my intended attacker... like itll go after the Nightmare instead of the Metallic - and the nightmare is escorting it.

If they're going after the Fastest then does that mean I need to have a couple Shadowbats with a fat missile payload to escort? They're slower than the Metallic so the group can just sit in the path of an HK.

[legionof1]

It's dependent on craft. there are 3 settings, First in range, escorts, transports.