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[GAME ON] Laser Squad Nemesis
Inquisitor
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Laser Squad Nemesis!
No, no, not Laser Squid Nemesis. Don’t feel silly, it’s an easy mistake to make. Even Gabe made it:
I know, I know. You are reeling from the lack of squid. But while I still have you attention let me tell you what we do have: an awesome, nuanced, online turn based strategy games from the people behind X-Com.
But this aint your grandpappy’s turn based game, oh no. Wiki has this to say:
Yeah, let your head wrap around that for a second. Yeah, it is pretty weird isn’t it? So, you issue orders for your whole team. At the same time your enemy issues orders for their whole team. The orders are sent to the server, the server figures it all out and then the next 10 seconds of combat play out in real time.
It’s just, whoah.
And the game is nuanced as all hell. It’s a game that really rewards tactics and strategy and thinking ahead. After all, at the very least you have to be thinking at least 10 seconds ahead every turn. But you’ll probably want to think further ahead than that if you want to win.
Look at all those lines! Those beautiful, beautiful lines! But-but-but Inquisitor you say! A turn based game with that kind of depth? Will I not spend all day twiddling my thumbs waiting for my opponent? Fear not faithful reader! For this game you play by email! Ack, don’t look confused! You send your orders to the server, so does your opponent, the results get emailed back to you and then you repeat the process. This lets you put in orders at your leisure, take your time to really think things out and play multiple games at once.
So, now that I’ve got your interest let’s get down to the meat and potatoes. You’ve got 4 races:
-Laser Marines
-Machina
-Spawn
-Greys
Four races with six units each. Maybe not a whole ton by today’s standards but it keeps the game balance very tight and nuanced. I mean, chess has only got six units right?
Alright, you say. Sounds interesting, how do I get my feet wet? It’s a pretty old game, where can I find a copy?
http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com/
That is your answer my friends! It’s got a free demo that has the first mission of the game and some limited online capacity, I think. It costs $17 to buy the game from there and you download it direct from them. That $17 also gets you a month of online play. Yup, that is the only real drawback to this game, and I’ll make it clear to no one misses it:
You have to pay a monthly fee to play online.
I know. It does suck. The game is cheap initially and the monthly fee aint that steep either. $15 gets you 3 months, for example. The value only gets better if you buy for longer periods of time. $40 for a year, for example.
Links:
Here’s a really good site with links to lots of good information about the game:
http://www.countzero.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/lsn/lsnlinks.htm
Here’s a guide I found especially helpful:
http://www.3nw.com/lsn/index.htm
I just got the game recently myself, so I’m still learning. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them or find out the answer to them.
List of PAers Playing:
Forum Name / LSN Name
Inquisitor / Sunabozu
So, any interest in this?
No, no, not Laser Squid Nemesis. Don’t feel silly, it’s an easy mistake to make. Even Gabe made it:
I know, I know. You are reeling from the lack of squid. But while I still have you attention let me tell you what we do have: an awesome, nuanced, online turn based strategy games from the people behind X-Com.
But this aint your grandpappy’s turn based game, oh no. Wiki has this to say:
wikipedia wrote:Laser Squad Nemesis is a game of turn-based isometric combat, where players issue orders to a squad of soldiers or aliens.
Each turn, the player gives orders to their troops, previews probable effects of those orders, and submits them to the LSN server via the webinterface, or through email. Orders are resolved simultaneously after both players have submitted their orders, and the consequences of the round are sent back to both players. The result of the previous turn is viewed in a real time ten-second video, with pause, slow motion and rewind (multiple turns) options.
Yeah, let your head wrap around that for a second. Yeah, it is pretty weird isn’t it? So, you issue orders for your whole team. At the same time your enemy issues orders for their whole team. The orders are sent to the server, the server figures it all out and then the next 10 seconds of combat play out in real time.
It’s just, whoah.
And the game is nuanced as all hell. It’s a game that really rewards tactics and strategy and thinking ahead. After all, at the very least you have to be thinking at least 10 seconds ahead every turn. But you’ll probably want to think further ahead than that if you want to win.
Look at all those lines! Those beautiful, beautiful lines! But-but-but Inquisitor you say! A turn based game with that kind of depth? Will I not spend all day twiddling my thumbs waiting for my opponent? Fear not faithful reader! For this game you play by email! Ack, don’t look confused! You send your orders to the server, so does your opponent, the results get emailed back to you and then you repeat the process. This lets you put in orders at your leisure, take your time to really think things out and play multiple games at once.
So, now that I’ve got your interest let’s get down to the meat and potatoes. You’ve got 4 races:
-Laser Marines
-Machina
-Spawn
-Greys
Four races with six units each. Maybe not a whole ton by today’s standards but it keeps the game balance very tight and nuanced. I mean, chess has only got six units right?
Alright, you say. Sounds interesting, how do I get my feet wet? It’s a pretty old game, where can I find a copy?
http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com/
That is your answer my friends! It’s got a free demo that has the first mission of the game and some limited online capacity, I think. It costs $17 to buy the game from there and you download it direct from them. That $17 also gets you a month of online play. Yup, that is the only real drawback to this game, and I’ll make it clear to no one misses it:
You have to pay a monthly fee to play online.
I know. It does suck. The game is cheap initially and the monthly fee aint that steep either. $15 gets you 3 months, for example. The value only gets better if you buy for longer periods of time. $40 for a year, for example.
Links:
Here’s a really good site with links to lots of good information about the game:
http://www.countzero.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/lsn/lsnlinks.htm
Here’s a guide I found especially helpful:
http://www.3nw.com/lsn/index.htm
I just got the game recently myself, so I’m still learning. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them or find out the answer to them.
List of PAers Playing:
Forum Name / LSN Name
Inquisitor / Sunabozu
So, any interest in this?
Inquisitor on
0
Posts
I shall download the demo.
Yeah, email. You send your orders to the server and then when your opponent does the same it emails the results back to you. It's kind of weird but actually pretty nice once you get used to it. I'm playing a game with Poshinallo from the forums right now. What's cool about doing it by email is that it doesn't matter that we are in complete different time zones and that I have midterms and that he has a job. We can fit in our turns when we can find the time for it.
And since you can rewind the game back as far as you want and replay it, if you ever forget what's going on because too much time has passed you can just get an instant re-cap.
I think you get three free online games with the demo, so, if you want to play a game once you get a handle on things Spectre just drop me a PM.
lets get some UFO2000 going
If you give me info for UFO2000 I'll gladly add it to the OP and update the thread title. I'm down for this being a joint game on.
anyway, not to derail the read. i just associate all these games together since UFO: Enemy Unknown was one of my favorite games growing up.
Note that if one person subs they can play against non-subbers with some restrictions. Non-subbers can only choose from 3 maps and only choose marines. Let's face it, marines is enough for a n00b at this. Definitely worth a blast if your Xcom-curious.
edit: upon review of the website this game looks like EVERYTHING I HAVE EVER WANTED IN A STRATEGY GAME EVER OH MY FUCKING GOD
That is excellent to know. If anyone with the demo wants me to send you a challenge, lemme know, I'll be glad to give you a match.
The game I'm playing right now with Poshinallo has been quite fun. He was picking me off pretty well at the beginning but just now I sprung an ambush and the fight is evenly matched (oh the joys of destroyable terrain). When we are done I want to try to post up a fraps of the match or something, maybe with commentary to help people get an idea of how to play the game.
EM: Well then get the demo and lets play a game!
So, one of the big things about the game is vision. Every unit has its own vision range. You can see this by pressing the V key. Whenever you have a unit selected where it can see will be highlighted blue. This is very, very useful. Because the game uses very precise line of sight it can be very hard without this tool to tell where you can actually see and where you can't.
You should always check what your guys can see before you move. That way you can tell if that empty area is empty because there are no enemies there or if it empty because you can’t see it. You should also always check what your guys can see at the end of the turn, try to set up some good coverage so you can get an idea of what the enemy is doing.
While a unit stands still he sees 360 degrees around him. When he is moving or aiming he sees 150 degrees in front of him. You can watch and see how his vision changes over the course of the turn using V and the test orders functions. This way you can make sure you units won’t run into a situation blind.
This however, takes us to an important bit of strategy; manipulation of line of sight. Remember how you can only put in orders every 10 seconds? That means that you mainly have to make decisions based on what you can see in that specific instance, every 10 seconds. You want to control this time frame as much as you can. You want to see as much as you can of the enemy with him seeing as little of you as possible. But since if you can see the enemy it means that the enemy can also see you things can get a little tricky. It’s best to use cheap units (like grunts) for spotting while you hide your expensive units (grenadiers, snipers). Try to make it so the grunts step out at the last second in a position to see as much as possible.
Also, you can give some false impressions doing this. For example, let your enemy see a bunch of units running in one direction at the end of your turn and then make them all run in the opposite direction right at the beginning of the next. I’m still experimenting with these sort of mind games though.
But yeah, the V key is your friend, basically.
When playing marines you use grunts as spotters set to opportunity fire. Walk up to the corner of a wall, step out, look in direction, set opp fire 1 shot, step in (that 2 steps), repeat. Due to the speed the grunt walks at only other grunts can actually get a shot off at him. He's always stepping back in by the time anyone else reacts and fires. A good tactic for spotting. They can't see far but by moving quickly are good at both spotting and spooking the enemy.
I might try and run this in Crossover and join in for a game.
Hm, the web interface doesn't find you.