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Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


We breaknet live to a new commander fighting the war against the Bugs.

After the sub par results on Klendathu, we are now moving to secure the mining world of Kwalasha - this has the resources humanity needs to rebuild and take the war to the Bugs!

Troops are still landing on the planet, but we are sure that with the help of Captain Grey Hunter of the Mobile infantry, the planet will be bug free in days!

Welcome to Starship Troopers: Terran Command.




This is a fun little RTS set in the Verhoeven film version - which leans super heavy into the living under a fascist eternal war will make us strong government. Losses are always acceptable as long as we get results, and hordes of bugs are no reason to move to another planet.

The campaign will begin now - and remember, viewership guarantees Citizenship.

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Szarrukin
Sep 29, 2021
Verhoeven adaptation, with the greatest origin story ever (Verhoeven read the book, thought "what a fash piece of crap" and created parody of Heinlen's book), was highly satirical, is it also present in game, or is it played with straight face?

sirtommygunn
Mar 7, 2013



This game is solid but a little longer than it should have been.

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


Let's clear some tunnels then help out in a in no way rushed Execution!

wiegieman
Apr 22, 2010

Royalty is a continuous cutting motion


Szarrukin posted:

Verhoeven adaptation, with the greatest origin story ever (Verhoeven read the book, thought "what a fash piece of crap" and created parody of Heinlen's book), was highly satirical, is it also present in game, or is it played with straight face?

The game absolutely gets the joke.

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


Okay, I get overconfident and this one does not go well!

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON
Oh hearing those words makes me happy.

Because well, that's greyhunter.txt sometimes. (Looks in Distant Worlds, WITP, The Great War etc.)

neurobasalmedium
Sep 12, 2012
I was thinking about making this thread, glad to find it. Just finished mission 16.

Would you like to know more?

Game mechanics are similar to Company of Heroes in that there is no resource gathering and the base building is limited to capturing control points and ordering up support structures at designated points to unlock units beyond the basic Mobile Infantry rifle squad.

Leans in to the Verhoeven attitude with mission debriefs presented at FedNet propaganda broadcasts. Smiling children with guns, happy miners and factory workers, physically perfect soldiers. The debriefs always present the MI as a victorious army driving the bugs back at every engagement while the missions make clear that the humans are stuck in a stalemate under the best case or sometimes being entirely overrun. "Command" never seems to give you enough troops to do the job and you often need to link up with survivors or find additional ways to call in squads on the map (secure ammunition crates, etc).

Missions basically fall in 2 categories:
1. tunnel clean-outs that are mostly linear. These either happen underground or in canyons that constrain your movement along a pre-determined path.
2. Urban or desert levels where you have more options on how to proceed. You often start with a base that grants some initial options for troop squads. Additional resources are scattered across the map as are bug nests which must be cleared. While you can take almost any path you like, bug nests are numbered to signal their strength clearing out weaker nests may give you access to additional troops that will be helpful to assault the stronger nests. Beware that bug nests may also strengthen as you accomplish mission objectives.

Both categories also feature defense phases where you have to survive against one or more waves of bugs converging on your position. Be glad you spent all those hours playing tower defense.

You have 3 "resources" to manage. Meeting mission objectives may grant you extra points for these categories during the mission:
1. Population. Each type of squad costs a different amount. You can call down additional squads via dropship if you have enough points available. If you lose a squad, its point cost is returned to your pool. Beware that some missions do now allow you to call in dropships at all (generally the subterranean missions), so in those missions you need to be methodical in how you advance as any lost squads are gone for the rest of the mission, which can be devastating if you lose your only scout sniper or combat engineer.
2. Dropship transports. These regenerate passively up to a cap. Most missions give you 3-5 at a time. You will rarely find this to be a meaningful constraint unless you lose several squads at once or are moving a large force across the map using your transports.
3. War support. Used both to requisition support buildings and to construct turrets using combat engineers. You will have to pick between unlocking extra unit types and constructing turrets which significantly enhance your ability to clear and hold key locations on the map. If you never use a particular squad type, don't build its support building. There aren't enough points to do everything.

Squads can only be deployed at radio stations or by using the "designate dropzone" function available to the radio operator squad or the fleet liaison unit to reinforce squads "in the field. All squads can use the 'dropship transport' function to 'fast travel' between radio stations or to the radio operator's dropzone. This allows you to bypass fierce bug resistance to move around the map (at the cost of dropship transports) or to quickly bring new squads to the front line from the rear radio stations. Squads that have lost soldiers can call down reinforcements via dropship to return to full strength. Reinforcing a squad preserves its veterancy level.

Bugs on the other hand do not face the same limitations that humans do. On maps with bug nests, each nest has a "population" number between 1 and 4. This represents how many reinforcement waves (not squads, waves) are in the nest. As you approach, the nest will send its 'first' wave to attack you and then if you still have surviving troops in the area, the second, third, and then fourth wave will each release after a short delay. The nest also has a recharge time to add a new wave if it has free space (from sending a wave to attack you). Nests may also be connected to tunnels that have their own population number and send out waves to attack you independently of the nest. There are also bug hives and brood nests around the maps which release bugs intermittently until they are destroyed with conventional weapons. In addition, many missions have triggers or timers that will release additional bug units onto the map that will then automatically proceed to assault your base or other strategic objectives. The timer may or may not be visible to you the player.

How you beat bug nests? You have to deplete a nest by drawing out all of its reinforcement waves, then send a squad into the empty nest to "clear" it. This requires a group of squads that can withstand multiple bug assaults. In order to efficiently deplete a nest, you need to close the distance to the nest entrance with one (ideally many) of your squads which will shorten the time between reinforcement waves coming out of the nest. This will decrease the advantage of your ranged weapons against the bugs which are primarily melee unit. Once no waves remain in the nest, you can send a squad in to "clear" the nest. This takes several seconds as all members of the squad enter the nest, light it up, and then leave. If you manage to do that before any new reinforcement waves become available to the nest, you have succeeded in destroying it and no more bugs will come out of it for the rest of the mission. Beware of connected tunnels, however. If a squad is sent into an "empty" nest with a connected tunnel that still have reinforcement waves waiting, the squad will be either completely or almost destroyed as the tunnel feeds reinforcements back to the nest you entered. If you are lucky, a single soldier might stumble out of the nest.

If you succeed in destroying the bug nest, all tunnels connected to that nest are destroyed as well. There is no other way to destroy a tunnel. This creates interesting tactical situations as you may have to advance beyond a tunnel in order to deplete the nest, so watch out for bug reinforcements hitting you from behind once the tunnel recharges with a new wave.

Humans have access to rifle squads, snipers (long range scouts), rocket squads (slow anti armor), Mk II squads (like the rifle but good against armor), combat engineer (builds turrets and has a FLAMETHROWER), E-squad (beefed up rifle squad with short range), tactical officer (local rate of fire buffs + personal anti-armor weapon), Radio operator (the only way to drop or reinforce squads away from radio stations), fleet liason (only way to get close air support), and Marauders (giant mechs that come in 3 varieties with different weapons and abilities). Squads start with 1 secondary ability (rifle squad can throw grenades) and have "elite" abilities that can be unlocked at their third veterancy level. These are generally a choice between short range special attack, long range special attack, or a support power. Most units can only fire while stationary. The game uses line-of-sight and line-of-fire mechanics, so units can't fire up or over hills without another squad providing vision and certain squads (rifles, engineers, and Mk II's) can't fire through other squads in front of them. This means that you need to set up kill zones where multiple squads have a line of fire and be careful moving through choke points that will prevent some of your squads from being able to engage. Human soldiers die in 1-2 hits from bug units. Squads consist of 2-12 soldiers depending on type while tactical officers and fleet liasons are single soldiers.

Bug units include the regular melee variety - drones are weak units, warriors are the ones you know from the movie, and Tigers are armored warriors. A a rifle squad can hold off a squad of warriors, but not tigers. 2 squads of warriors will inflict losses on the rifle squad. Mk II's are designed to kill tigers. Bug units slow down when under fire. A bug unit can catch up to a fleeing human squad and attack it, but if it's under fire from a different squad, it will be slowed down enough to let the humans escape.
They also have ranged, flying, and exploding units that are only a threat if you aren't paying attention or forgot to use attack-move.
Bug units can scale walls, albeit slowly and can be kept under fire while they do. One climber is not a threat, but several moving up at the same time can alllow warriors to reach the top and start killing the soldiers on top.

Then there are the "heavy" bug units. You'll know who these are because they have a health bar.
Royal Guard: A upgraded Tiger that appears around high-level nests and take multiple rockets to kill, then "rage" back to full health with a 50% speed penalty and a 'death' timer. This lets them rip apart squads if they were killed right nest to your front line.
Tanker: The bug equivalent of a main battle tank. Heavily armored, slow, and armed with a medium-range flame attack that leaves deadly residue on the ground that damages any squad that walks over it. Takes multiple rockets or grenades to kill. Can be stunned.
Scorpion: Armed with a long-range beam weapon, can take out multiple soldiers in one shot. Requires careful positioning of rocket squads and scout squads to be able to match their range.
Mortar: medium range and inaccurate. Does damage in a small area. Easy to dodge if you are paying attention
Plasma Bugs: The big boys you know from the movie. Will be revealed on the map if present. Launches a plasma attack that will be indicated on the tactical map and the minimap. Can be highly accurate and capable of destroying several squads on once. You will have 15-20 seconds to reposition your forces after an audio warning. This can be dangerous if your front line is within range of a plasma bug, as squads in active combat are hard to move and become vulnerable to counterattack when they do. The bug itself creates a large explosion when killed, killing any nearby squads friendly or hostile. Should be taken out from maximum range.

Favorite dialogue of the game so far:
Psychic Officer: "You and your squad are to retreat with the Fleet officer"
CO: "What about the other guards"
Psychic: "They will...buy you time."

neurobasalmedium fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Jul 26, 2023

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


This update sees things go a bit badly for the Federation.

Grey Hunter fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Aug 2, 2023

ilmucche
Mar 16, 2016

does this play like a busier infested planet?

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets

ilmucche posted:

does this play like a busier infested planet?

Not really, Infested planet has more defined waves, STTC has more structured goals that kill all the points.
I can see the comparison though, I should play Infested planet again!

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


This game is great, the federation is so lovingly incompetent, well now you can give out standing orders to prioritize certain target types so a bit easier, I constantly wish for an active pause but that's the micro RTS way.

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON
So, some of these mission bonus goals are just sadistic aren't they?

Also, it seems like those e-troopers just chew through anything. Is there any reason not to replace your basic infantry with them when you get them?

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


E-gun troopers are good at short range and terrible at all others, regular troopers are good allrounders with many, many guns resulting in pretty good suppression and great against light targets at range and morita 2 troopers are great at popping mildly armoured targets and grenading the gently caress out of anything else but get really, really bad at short range.

There's opportunity costs to spec out of regulars, you'll leave behind other options for other roles and regulars are quite serviceable all in all.

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


There are bugs everywhere, and I'm cut off behind enemy lines. Command may or may not want me dead!

Things are going great!

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON
You lost the first time becuase you kept having your stragglers eaten while you focused on the bug nests. The goal is keeping at least 20 troops alive

Edit: I realized that came off more dickish than I intended. Sorry. What I saw was in the first attempt you had an entire rifle squad overrun, when you could have provided one or two squads ofncover fire. That snowballed into defeat

bunnyofdoom fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Aug 2, 2023

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


Things are definatly getting tougher - but the big boys are on the scene!

bunnyofdoom posted:

You lost the first time becuase you kept having your stragglers eaten while you focused on the bug nests. The goal is keeping at least 20 troops alive

Edit: I realized that came off more dickish than I intended. Sorry. What I saw was in the first attempt you had an entire rifle squad overrun, when you could have provided one or two squads ofncover fire. That snowballed into defeat

It's fine, It did take a bit for that one to click.

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON
Oh jeez, that maruader AoE self defense attack did more damage to your second marauder than the bugs did

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON
New video comment: drat Scorpion bugs make me not want to play this game. It just seems like it makes it really un-fun. Massive wall of health, massive damage, long range and constant spawns.

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


Scorpions are a pain, less so now that you can have rocket troopers auto prioritize them.


Also you can pretty trivially mod the game and turn them into weak, short-ranged, squishy things, also I hate them.

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


These missions are turning into a grind of mass bug killing! Thankfully this one has less Scorpian Bugs!

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


The restart is going much better - so lets get into those hives!

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


Rotary gun mechs have an overheat mechanic on the rotary gun, flame mechs have no such problem and have less range but very good suppression, personally I favor them, I also note don't value officers and radio guys as much as I do.

Veloxyll
May 3, 2011

Fuck you say?!

SIGSEGV posted:

Rotary gun mechs have an overheat mechanic on the rotary gun, flame mechs have no such problem and have less range but very good suppression, personally I favor them, I also note don't value officers and radio guys as much as I do.

Radio guys are super for keeping your units topped up.

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


It is great to be able to top up all your units at will and be able to push into that hive right when it buckles.

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON
Oh god, this mission seems like a total nightmare. At least you finally got that one hive dead.

ARe you gonna to try and get traffic control at all?

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets




The war seems to be swinging back the Federations way, but there are so many annoying bugs out there!

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON
That second mission was much easier and nicer that the first. I mean, there was still some bs (Scorpions on a limited force mission) but still seemed easier

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets
Yeah, I kept expecting the hammer to drop!

bunnyofdoom
Mar 29, 2008
THE HATE CRIME APOLOGIST HAS LOGGED ON

Grey Hunter posted:

Yeah, I kept expecting the hammer to drop!

Like the swarm you had to stop at the end, was just drones really. Not big bugs, not even tigers. Just drones? Hell even one HMG woulda kept them at bay.


So, you realize next mission all you will have is radio officers, and every hive will deploy 8 scorpions

Veloxyll
May 3, 2011

Fuck you say?!

bunnyofdoom posted:

Like the swarm you had to stop at the end, was just drones really. Not big bugs, not even tigers. Just drones? Hell even one HMG woulda kept them at bay.


So, you realize next mission all you will have is radio officers, and every hive will deploy 8 scorpions

The scorpion cannot fire its laser if you disable its hand!
Knife only run

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets

Veloxyll posted:

The scorpion cannot fire its laser if you disable its hand!
Knife only run

Sarge! They ain't got no hands!

White Coke
May 29, 2015
DLC announced today: Raising Hell

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


They did promise lava was next, I wonder what tileset will be in the next one, I also saw ad lot of interesting things moving around on the ground on both sides.

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


Secure the line!

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


With air power being the bugs main weakness, we now have to retake the airfield!

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets


The campaign will come to an end if I can gt this Brain bug!

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SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


I think you forgot to link part 15, or my brain isn't fully there but that's nothing new.

E: About getting level 3 combat engineers, there's some sort of mistake in the files defining their veterancy that means that getting them to level 3 is particularly annoying.

SIGSEGV fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Aug 27, 2023

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