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The search for tactical games: Aliens not necessary.
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Also, my favorite thing to do in 1.13 is to avoid Drassen entirely at first; don't even take a single sector of it. Instead I start with a small squad of 2-3 guys and move west through San Mona (doing the side mission to unlock Tony) and then moving on to Chitzena. I take Chitzena, deal with the modest counter-attack, and then hold the town and let it build up, defending as necessary and running any guns I can find and repair over to Tony while buying anything he has that's good.
After a few in-game weeks of this, Chitzena's tiny mine finally gives up the ghost, and by then I'm fit and ready to hire on a real squad and move on to Drassen, and I won't have to worry about a better mine closing, and I can properly defend against the mine counter-attack.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Nothing is more satisfying than having my team of 3 guys creep about with silenced weapons, picking off guys in hallways and then suddenley blitzing the next room with 4 guys, gunning them all down quickly, quietley and efficientley simply because they hadn't heard a thing up until the point my team kicked open the door and gunned them all down, effectivley not giving them a chance to even aim their guns or even equip them
As soon as I started using silenced weapons and using the blitz/cautious commands the game became a lot more managble since i am able to not attract much attention and mov quickly and quietley wherever I need to.
Also:
I fucking loved that game, although I only ever played it on the Sega Genesis.
My Backloggery
It's actually aged a lot better than the majority of games from that era, especially Fallout.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
Of course, if you're familiar with tactical games, this shouldn't be a surprise for you.
With the exception of a sexy 3d engine, theres nothing that really need updating.
Does anyone have suggestions for good tactical FPS or TPSs? I tried GRAW2, and while I had an awesome mission where I spotted all the enemies with a UAV, positioned my dudes well, and took down all enemies without them firing a shot, it was generally a pretty crappy game. Cumbersome and less tactical than I wanted.
I've never played the fan patch, so maybe it adds a bunch, but I've never thought that there was all that much minutiae in JA2.
Sure, there's keeping your mercs happy, healthy, and well-armed, and keeping the populace protected, but it's more "core gameplay elements that come up all the time" than "bizarrely annoying minutiae."
Yeah - starting the game, you'll be dealing with pistols, for the most part. Pistols have short effective ranges. You can correct for this by sneaking up closer to your target before attacking them, by ambushing them, or by just laying down more fire. Also, don't underestimate the math of the game - sometimes, it's better to take two or three low percentage shots than one high-percentage shot.
A lot of this will go away once you spool up to rifles.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
i presume hiring a few decent mercs > lots of cheap mercs
It's worthwhile to hire an expensive an expensive merc even for one day, as you get to keep their equipment after their contract expires. Just remove it from them before they leave.
SWAT 4 is pretty much king of tactical FPS games.
Agreed on SWAT4
Plus its awesome to shoot people in the face with pepper balls, and taze old women with heart conditions
Alternatively, you just only attack at night where the range doesn't matter as much since you'll be up close anyway.
I often just would stealth past patrols I bumped into on the way to Drassen and save myself the frustration of hunting down the enemy with such short range weapons.
For anyone else just starting to play this, don't listen to the crap about being able to just go prone and shoot stuff. That will work early on, but if you don't learn how to fight at closer ranges in and around buildings, the later cities will smack you around hard. There are more and more buildings and less open areas the further south you go in Arulco and your tactics should shift accordingly.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Succinctly: You are there to liberate the populace. You'll find one of your contacts pretty early on, and he'll give you some hints, but beyond that, the method by which you bring sweet, sweet freedom to th'oppressed masses is pretty much up to you.
Things to keep in mind: securing air access will allow you to import gear and mercs. Expanding your air access will let you access even more of the country. Liberating a city, and then letting Deidranna's goons move back in will severly damage your rep' in the eyes of the locals.
... Eh. You're really limited in funds at the beginning of the game, and without a constant source of income (*hint, hint*) you might be hard pressed to keep them around beyond their initial contract. Also, it's possible that the merc you really want to hire's already off doing things when you want to start things off, so you'll have to make do with what's available.
I generally try to make sure that I've got at least two solid shooters (90+ Marksmanship), a doctor, and a trainer (c.f. Deidranna's goons, above). Early on, explosives experts and engineering types are nice-to-haves but not essential - you'll absolutely want to bring them along eventually, however. After that, I go with what's available.
As mentioned elsewhere, though, sometimes it's more than worth it to pick up one of the expensive guys early with no inclination to keep him around just to get access to his M-16 or whatever.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Really? I didn't enjoy it that much. Controlling my guys was a bit too cumbersome, which I guess could be fixed by co-op. Is there co-op? Also, I got really annoyed at the amount of guys I was facing. The mission briefing would say something like 'teens stole a car and are holed up here, maybe automatic weapons' and then I have to face 14 guys. Then everyone has body armour and gas masks, and it starts to get silly.
I guess what I'm saying is that the gameplay is what I'm after, but the level design gave me the shits.
it is glorious
You get a decent mechanic in the form of Dmitri after a little quest in Drassen/Omerta anyway.
Just don't try to make him do much beyond repairing your stuff or you'll be frustrated.
"I forget . . . I forget again."
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
... Is it bad that I can not only remember that, but that I can say it with the right accent?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Awww come on that thing's a rite of passage.
Also: breaklights. Pepper spray is nice addition and all, but they took out the breaklights in SWAT 4. When you think you've finished a map but the game is telling you, "Um, no, you missed a hostage, go back and find her," breaklights make it so much easier to figure out which rooms you searched and which ones you forgot. Just drop a breaklight by the doorway as you're leaving and move on.
...of course, on the downside, on the hardest difficulty setting sometimes the AI would shoot at and kill you before it had finished excuting the "level weapon and aim" animation, which is pretty suck-tastic in a game where you're only authorized to fire on actively hostile enemies.
hopefully i will take control of that mine, and get some cash flow up in hurr
great game.
My Backloggery
I played through it once.
My guys spent the battle being holed up in a little house with no windows, waiting for one of the 40 or so enemy guys to pop their head in, and then shooting said head off.
It was fun the first few times, but after that it got old very fast.
I distinctly remember being able to create 6 IMP guys from the get go, but I could not get it to work.
Origin: theRealElMucho
I believe you get an email. Did you go to the MERC website?
Origin: theRealElMucho
plus its conveniently on sale for a ridiculous price on steam right now
king's bounty + the expansion pack for $11.25
just king's bounty for $4.99
heres a random battle from the game, to see what its about. basically its a lot like HOMM, both in battle and out of battle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuFebXMbk6w
You just go back to the website and make a new one. It may be a setting in the 1.13 ini file, though.
Well SWAT 4 didn't have the videos and stuff, but they brought the break-lights back in with Stechkov Syndicate. They make a nice satisfying sound when you drop one.
All the original missions can be played with the new equipment too, although it's a little awkward to do it. Basically all the missions are available to make your own custom missions from, so you take all the missions from SWAT 4 and make a custom mission pack with them whilst telling it to use the campaign defaults. Then you can play through the SWAT 4 campaign with access to all the hardware.
Yeah, you have to edit things in the 1.13 .ini. There is a hugeass guide to what changes you can make in the .ini and what they do. I'll try to find it, even though the .ini is pretty self-explanatory.
Edit: Here it is.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
... I'm gonna be installing JA2 again, aren't I? Trying out this fan patch for the first time?
Dammit, I'm working through a ridiculous backlog already!
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Fortunately I've still got SWAT 4 installed if I feel like doing some co-op cult raiding.
That also sounds absolutely delicious. I am *so* behind in my consumption of Tom Clancy SFPSes. Dash it all.
Valkyria Chronicals, MAG, FF9, FF10, FF12, X3:TC, Dragon Age, Batman:AA, Bayonetta, Darksiders, Etrian Odyssey II, WoW, a wife to keep happy ... I'm swamped. But at least I have my health, right?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Sweet, thanks very much. Now to sink many many hours back into this game.
The first time I ever played I remember I got pretty far, but when the bugs showed up it killed it for me. I am hoping that I can beat it this time around.
Origin: theRealElMucho
You mean the sci-fi bugs? Turn that shit off, man. Use the Realistic setting. I've never even seen them.
If you mean software bugs, then all I can say is with the 1.13 mod, I don't remember hitting many. Nothing that ruined it, anyway.
I do play on realistic now but I have never been able to re-create the awesome that I had going in that very first game I played.
Also I read on that INI settings link that there was extra shit sci-fi mode adds, does anyone know what else it adds?
Origin: theRealElMucho
i left it on sci fi mode because that was the default, i figured i might get lasers or something.
You can find Rocket Rifles (or something like that) in later areas. And there's a cyborg you can find somewhere as well, though that's pretty rare. Maybe one or two other changes, I can't remember.
I actually enjoyed the aside with the giant bugs myself.