Author Topic: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?  (Read 10521 times)

Offline sectopod

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Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« on: March 07, 2017, 01:28:44 am »
The gals raided a temple of sirius. They killed 6 and captured 12 more. On the score screen it said


Enemies killed      6        -4


So I got 6 kills, which counted -4 points.  -0.6666.... each?

I rechecked the combat history of every one of the 6 gals. They killed or stunned only church people (priest, maiden, altar boy, neophyte, sharp guy, tough girl). Are unarmed sharp guys and though girls civilians?

I can not explain this score. The whole mission, though 100% successful, was very underwhelming. Just +78 points.


Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2017, 01:38:27 am »
Yeah; while cultists are enemies who yield normal points, there are also layman civilians present (sharp guys, altar boys etc.) who are not considered part of the faction and whom governments kinda care about.

Still, 78 points is not half bad, and look at all the loot!

Offline sectopod

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2017, 01:53:42 am »
Yeah; while cultists are enemies who yield normal points, there are also layman civilians present (sharp guys, altar boys etc.) who are not considered part of the faction and whom governments kinda care about.

Thank you, that explains it. :D And now,  how do I distinguish? ::) All who are unarmed are civs per se? What if a factionista drops her weapon because she panicked? Then she looks like an unarmed civilian. :o
« Last Edit: March 07, 2017, 02:26:36 am by sectopod »

Offline sinisteragent

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2017, 02:21:01 am »
That's something that comes with experience. It might sound a bit odd, but half the point of X-pirates is that you're ignorant underdogs gradually learning how everything works, and part of that means learning by doing. If you lose some points here and there it really doesn't matter. I often do things that cost me points because it's profitable or safer or convenient or fun or a particular civilian really asks for it. You can make them up elsewhere.

Also it's worth keeping in mind the surrender system - anyone who has panicked or been knocked out at any point is forever marked. If every enemy on the map gets marked like this, they'll automatically surrender on the next turn. If a few civilians start panicking, consider pressing the advantage and hitting anyone still armed hard, to keep the panicky ones out of the fight and make a surrender more likely.

The mod is at its best when you think about it from the perspective of the starting gals, stumbling from ignorance to experience, rather than as a gamer trying to wiki their way to maximum efficiency.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2017, 02:22:52 am by sinisteragent »

Offline sectopod

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2017, 02:29:37 am »
Also it's worth keeping in mind the surrender system - anyone who has panicked or been knocked out at any point is forever marked. If every enemy on the map gets marked like this, they'll automatically surrender on the next turn. If a few civilians start panicking, consider pressing the advantage and hitting anyone still armed hard, to keep the panicky ones out of the fight and make a surrender more likely.

Thank you! This is a nice rule of thumb: Every unarmed person either is a civilian or a panicked enemy. The later surrendering anyways, so unimportant to bother with.

Another question: Do the gals reaction fire on civilians?

Offline sinisteragent

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2017, 02:36:57 am »
Thank you! This is a nice rule of thumb: Every unarmed person either is a civilian or a panicked enemy. The later surrendering anyways, so unimportant to bother with.

Another question: Do the gals reaction fire on civilians?

Unfortunately, yes, which does complicate things at times. It's partly why it pays to shrug off a few civilian casualties here and there - your hands won't discriminate and will shoot at any enemy that moves.

It's worth keeping an eye on panicked enemies, as some of them might have a grenade that they'll be able to throw if they regain their senses (guild security seem particularly fond of this). You don't have to hit them again if there are bigger threats, but don't completely disregard them.

Offline sectopod

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2017, 02:40:40 am »
Still, 78 points is not half bad, and look at all the loot!

Yeas. I always wondered though why there was so much volatility for the total score on temple raid missions for me. Sometimes low as 40 and then high as 300 points. In the later ones I didn't kill or capture civilians I guess.

Another question: Are there civs in all these basic missions: Temple of Sirius, Save a Sister, Crackhouse, Research Facility? I have never seen unarmed persons in Watchtower missions, in helping Lokk'Narrs it is obvious, that these little beeings are our friends and Ratmen Village missions just have ratmen and dogs. But eg is a unarmed hoe in the red latern villa or at the crackhouse a civ as well?

Offline Scorrpio

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2017, 08:30:24 am »
That hoe is packing a gun and will shoot you.  Anything that is a blue square on the map is an enemy and potentially deadly.
On temple raids, unless you want to carry knocked out church guys and their stuff to the ship manually, (while dodging 'civilian' bullets, just smack them.   

Offline khade

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2017, 08:40:23 am »
Civilians need to be subdued as well, unless they're neutral or you're doing a smash and grab, aka grabbing what you can and running.  Don't fear smacking some sense into them, they're not worth much of a negative rep.  Just be careful of government people, as they are worth a decent negative to your score.  Sadly, you might find some participating in pogroms, and you still have to beat them down if you expect to win.

Offline sectopod

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2017, 02:14:20 pm »
That hoe is packing a gun and will shoot you.  Anything that is a blue square on the map is an enemy and potentially deadly.
On temple raids, unless you want to carry knocked out church guys and their stuff to the ship manually, (while dodging 'civilian' bullets, just smack them.

Thanks! Checking colors on the map is a great advice!

Though I found out killing armed civilians on a civ vessel raid also incurs negative points. Best to knock them out as of my experience.

Offline KiriKaneko

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2017, 07:28:52 pm »
iGun sharp guys get a frag grenade, screw the points XD

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2017, 07:57:13 pm »
iGun sharp guys get a frag grenade, screw the points XD

Heh.  When I would use minimum crews (interceptor pilots) to take down civ traffic for profit and training, I often had one tote an RPG just for rage response for that stupid iGun guy who might get lucky and gun down one of my gals. ;)

Offline sinisteragent

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2017, 09:50:51 pm »
This is why everyone gets a free molotov to the face.

Offline KiriKaneko

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2017, 10:29:56 pm »
Sometimes I see 2 of those guys and they can go and die in a fire. I'd like to gun them down with shotguns but unless my person has 80+ aim then I wont risk them getting shot and put in sickbay. Ofc if I have enough guys I can just take many many shotgun shots

Offline sectopod

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Re: Why negative Score for killing church fanatics?
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2017, 02:36:13 am »
iGun sharp guys get a frag grenade, screw the points XD

Heh. ... I often had one tote an RPG just for rage response for that stupid iGun guy who might get lucky and gun down one of my gals. ;)

This is why everyone gets a free molotov to the face.

Sometimes I see 2 of those guys and they can go and die in a fire. ...

Hehe, blowing up everything which includes all enemies faces seems to be a quite common tactic.

This is my story on the topic:
... from the logs of Jane, the pirate queen  ;) ...
Spoiler:
It seems my pirate gang tries to operate a bit more "surgically" than other pirate gangs we had a chat about combat tactics, using projectile and melee weapons mostly - and amongst them quite often the stun versions - for optimal mission results. The upside is, all 4 prisons are full and we just opened a new hideout, because we simply didn't know what to do with 2.5m cash on hand and vaults at their limit. But the downside is ... on average 20 out of 25 gals are on wound recovery (sometimes for as long as 86 days  :o ), every month we invite 10 new hands to join us (of which 50% get fed to the fishes immediately for being outright cowards), we already lost all original escaped lunatics and no one except the really lucky ones who are fast and talented enough to kill everything in sight (Mistress Small Croc just got awarded Angel of Death) gets really old in my gang. Not even the sisters. Them gals have a high and wealthy but short life here.

Recently though we deployed a nade to the face tactic as well. More correctly stated: A crate of violence to the face tactic. ... With them werewolf beasts in them jungle lands. Two times we had to abort a raid already not to lose the craft. But this time we were back - with pre-primed crates! And we waited outside the craft for those ugly beasts to show up. The first, dumb enough to run straight at us, faced a crate and went down. The second faced a crate but just got wounded. It then panicked in the ensuing firestorm and a half-nekid gal jumped forward into the flames to stick a spear into the wolfs brains before they started to work right again. The third one took a crate into the butt, but just walked away into the smoke unharmed. After this initial cratin' the surroundings of our landing site were a tornado of fire and smoke, with the gals not beeing able to spot a hypthetical shooner through the blaze if it sailed right in front of them. So the third wolf suddenly was back and jumped from the flames right at two gals on their watchpost. But it was stupid enough to time it badly. Before it could chew them apart the two gals dropped their primed crates and ran for cover. This means after getting butt-crated this beast also took a crate to each of its balls - or tits. ... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand - it still stood upright. A bit confused, walking away into the wrong direction. But still ready for combat. Our brainers told us and thus this is a rhetorical question, but: What are these creatures made of? I got truth-faced now: Estimating that there are at least 5 more of those cursed bastards hiding somewhere, with the gals out of crates and close to no water already. If they would stay they would have the choice to die of thirst or in a futile melee combat. Two gals for one wolf. Mission aborted.

Now, a few weeks later we "surgically" removed a guild engineer and his dynamite pack from his marsec friends (getting 2 gals ghosted and 2 more lost just to get that son of a backwater paddling squid and a marsec hunk alive). Aaaaaand this dynamite pack makes me think of the werewolves again. And a - let's say - "adjusted" something-to-the-face tactic. ...
« Last Edit: March 08, 2017, 02:59:51 am by sectopod »