Helldivers 2: it is very important to return every hug

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bandaid.friend: Apr 25, 2017; My first car was a stick

MechanicalTomPetty posted:

Had a hairy Challenging run - started off well, things were going good until like 3/4ths of the way through when we suddenly started getting utterly swamped by non-stop spawns and drops of bots. Seriously, it went from like a squad or two and the occasional drop to Serious Sam level of enemy density with some Dread's mixed in for good measure. It got so bad after a while that we ended up booking straight to extraction with a bunch of dropped samples left behind because we were out of spawns and more bots were STILL coming in.

Is there like, some kind of trigger that kicks in once the main objectives are done that increases the spawn rate or was it just bad luck? I should mention our squad was kinda getting slowly pushed around by the swarm so we might have been triggering patrols along the way.

Were you near a robot building with a big eye of sauron looking around? If that thing spots you, it'll call in more robots endlessly

# ? Feb 26, 2024 07:58

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# ? May 25, 2024 00:16

Away all Goats: Jul 5, 2005; Goose's rebellion

Infidelicious posted:

Breaker is great against bots if you are using an autocannon or AMR which are amazing vs. Bots at ranges the Breaker Isn't.

It is much better vs. Berserkers and it is great at chain stunning Heavy Ds or staggering small guys launching flares, and does enough damage that hitting them in the face typically kills them.

Been using the dominator and slugger lately and they're fun and good but require much more precise aim to get results out of; and if you're putting that kind effort you're better served by both the AC and AMR.

Yeah I find the Breaker still the best against bots because it covers what the Railgun and the starting pistol don't: Taking down Berserkers and clumps of troopers.

Thumbtacks posted:

hellmire skybox owns

This game is gorgeous

# ? Feb 26, 2024 07:58

Oneiros: Jan 12, 2007

Thumbtacks posted:

hellmire skybox owns

this game is incredibly pretty when you aren't socked in with fog and dust and rain

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:00

Infidelicious: Apr 9, 2013

Away all Goats posted:

Yeah I find the Breaker still the best against bots because it covers what the Railgun and the starting pistol don't: Taking down Berserkers and clumps of troopers.

This game is gorgeous

If you swap the machine pistol to semi auto it's just the starting pistol with 2x the mag btw.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:17

Galaga Galaxian: Apr 23, 2009; What a childish tactic!
Don't you think you should put more thought into your battleplan?!

Oneiros posted:

this game is incredibly pretty when you aren't socked in with fog and dust and rain

I'm glad we often are though, because thats a wonderful/terrifying aesthetic itself as well. :allears:

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:25

Owl Inspector: Sep 14, 2011

if I was a bot I would put a giant glowing LED on a random part of my body far away from my weak spot

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:25

Oneiros: Jan 12, 2007

Owl Inspector posted:

if I was a bot I would put a giant glowing LED on a random part of my body far away from my weak spot

another case where the bugs are more advanced. "yes, shoot me in my gigantic glowing orange rear end; it only drains your ammo and makes me madder!"

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:28

TheMostFrench: Jul 12, 2009; Stop for me, it's the claw!

Someone was asking about different music for the game earlier. Depending on the situation, some of the stuff from Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander is pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljDyp__ejco&t=1127s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlZV-DFVlEQ

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:36

bandaid.friend: Apr 25, 2017; My first car was a stick

I really liked the music from the high difficulty bug missions in Helldivers 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGAdRLbQkC4

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:50

Turin Turambar: Jun 5, 2011

Tensokuu posted:

The other night I decided I would drop with some pubbies and turned on SOS. Sat in matchmaking for 10-15 minutes and nothing happened. Figured maybe it was just trying to matchmake for the planet I was sitting on so I zoomed all the way out and clicked SOS again. Another 15 minutes later and no connection, I finally turned off the game.

This was after I had tried to start my own public mission and waited 10 minutes to get others to join me and no one did. Which was weird because when the servers were melting down I was getting people to join with zero issues at all.

Matchmaking is weird.

I had the same issue, quick join would never find a game, I couldn't join any player, etc. I exited the game, entered again, and it was fixed. It seems until you do that, the game won't reconnect to whatever matchmaking services behind the scenes.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 08:58

Turin Turambar: Jun 5, 2011

Oneiros posted:

this game is incredibly pretty when you aren't socked in with fog and dust and rain

I recommend playing in a nice 10 bit hdr tv, the game features so many color gradients (sky horizon, planetary views from above, planetary rings, dust, fog, faraway nuclear explosions...) that it makes a difference.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 09:01

Legit Businessman: Sep 2, 2007

Phenotype posted:

Can someone please make a sorta railgun guide? I've been trying to use it more effectively but I'm kind of a bad shot which makes experimenting hard -- did I shoot that hulk in the face and he didn't die, or did I whiff? Did I charge the railgun enough, or does it just not kill dropships? What can you kill with it, and what are you targeting? and how long does it need to charge?

Is there a way to make the gun settings stick between matches, btw? I keep forgetting to set the JAR-5 on burst fire.

Hard to give you a guide if you don't even know what you're doing/are a bad shot. Super quick on Railgun - do all of your aimed shooting in first person until you get the rhythm of the charged shots. There are visual indicators which make it very easy to see what your charge level is that is much harder to see in 3rd person. Unsafe mode charging is anything above the regular charge when the meter starts going hazy red. My understanding is that there is NO difference in damage at this stage until you hit the max, where the gun fires but explodes, killing you and destroying the weapon.

As for killin bugs/bots, start here and report back:
https://youtu.be/QHKjUIfq85c

# ? Feb 26, 2024 09:10

Ra Ra Rasputin: Apr 2, 2011

Game could really use a few extra music tracks, some battle music difference for "a few bugs are mad and promptly die" and "the entire hive is pissed and coming for you"

# ? Feb 26, 2024 09:16

Baiard: Nov 7, 2011; it's good for you

I do miss the Cyborg theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEtwaDPxqB0

# ? Feb 26, 2024 09:17

Spookydonut: Sep 13, 2010; "Hello alien thoughtbeasts! We murder children!"
~our children?~
"Not recently, no!"
~we cool bro~

suicidal difficulty seems insane i cant even imagine what helldiver is like

# ? Feb 26, 2024 10:09

Insert name here: Nov 10, 2009; Oh.
Oh Dear.

https://i.imgur.com/uHAre8T.mp4

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:01

Sestze: Jun 6, 2004; Cybernetic Crumb

Toadsmash posted:

Is it just becoming the meta already that once you complete the main objectives, you beeline for the extraction no matter how much reinforcements and time on the clock you have left, completely ignoring the rest of the map? Map markers get ignored and nobody puts up any alternatives, either. That's been my experience for my last like half dozen attempts at not playing solo in a row and it just makes for boring matches where we barely come home with any samples in the bargain. Reminds me of the worst aspects of the WoW endgame 5-man meta and a big part of what made me quit that game when I tried it most recently in Shadowlands.

Personally, anything difficulty 3 or less I'll full clear a map, PoIs included, for the medals and super credits. Less samples overall means that vaults, pods and doors have what feels like more of a chance for req/medals/super credits because other options are less likely in the loot pool (samples/strategems). PoIs are clear for 3 and less, secondary objectives are often stealthable, and nests don't spawn bugs that cause you a tremendous amount of trouble if you bring a stalwart or GL. Also, I can go solo on 3s and under and not really be under threat. Higher than 3 means random adds at PoIs, including chargers. High likelihood that if you are not coordinating a PoI one of the bugs or bots will call for friends and you'll end up in an endless fight (especially as the difficulty ramps up). That usually isn't worth it for 10-20 super credits or 1-3 medals. Nests/factories, likewise, start having chargers, brood commanders, and bile titans on the regular (hulks, devastators, tanks for robots). Robot factories are easier to clear out with orbital lasers, but nests are often dug-in and require a personal touch with grenades.

Higher difficulties also spawn additional sub objectives that either root you in one place for too long to be worth clearing (SEAF artillery, Radar tower, SEAF AA) or are must-clears to prevent deaths or failure cascades (Stalker nests, Spore Tower, Mortar Bunker, Anti-Air, Strategem Scrambler, Eye of loving Sauron). I clear the ones I have to clear, and I ignore the ones I don't.

Other modifiers that make me want to leave sooner are strategem cooldown extensions (4 minute extract timer) and spore clouds that prevent map vision. If we've lost a significant amount of equipment (our anti-armor is stranded out in a no mans land, for example) sticking around to possibly fight more poo poo we can't interact with isn't worth it either.

I'm flexible and pay attention to what my team wants, but I bug out when we're under 5 reinforcements as a team, to allow leeway during extraction.

Basically what this boils down to is - you can full clear 3s for greens, and 4s for oranges, or just play missions normally and scoop up whatever you find naturally. Pinks require you to explore on 7s or up to find the thumb of destiny, which depend on the map and day/night cycle for whether the game is going to be cooperative. If it's pitch black with fog and you're operating without a map, you're probably not finding the super samples. In the case of 7s it may be better for people to hit the main objective, and then split up into groups of 2 or groups of 1 to search for the super samples, and avoid combat entirely. Either way, the game is heavily disincentivizing combat as the difficulty cranks up, don't be surprised if most people just want to get the objective done and scoop what they can on the way out of the map.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:11

Icedude: Mar 30, 2004

The eagle rocket pods are incredibly valuable on higher level bug missions. They might not kill a charger or titan, but they'll usually strip off enough armor that you can easily finish them off with your primary. Not to mention you get two shots per rearm timer, three if you have all the eagle upgrades. I've actually been taking the grenade launcher out again because I can rely on those for the anti-armor work.

While I love the orbital laser, I wish they'd either make it better against armored targets or take away the 3 shot limit. Right now it'll take most of it's fire time to kill a single charger and won't even kill a bile titan.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:16

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Anyone else getting a lot of crashes all of a sudden, seems like the main cause on my end at least is that they happen right after someone joins the current game I'm in and deploy

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:25

Spookydonut: Sep 13, 2010; "Hello alien thoughtbeasts! We murder children!"
~our children?~
"Not recently, no!"
~we cool bro~

the spear would be great if it didnt miss half the time and actually killed chargers/titans in one shot.

failing that give it more ammo and resupply give more than 1 round per pickup

its kinda useful against bots but its really annoying getting it to lock on to what you want properly and as above loves to miss (because it doesnt fly up far enough)

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:25

Infidelicious: Apr 9, 2013

Insert name here posted:

https://i.imgur.com/uHAre8T.mp4

I got crushed by a Titan I autocannoned in the face a couple nights ago, it's pretty awesome tbh.

Icedude posted:

The eagle rocket pods are incredibly valuable on higher level bug missions. They might not kill a charger or titan, but they'll usually strip off enough armor that you can easily finish them off with your primary. Not to mention you get two shots per rearm timer, three if you have all the eagle upgrades. I've actually been taking the grenade launcher out again because I can rely on those for the anti-armor work.

While I love the orbital laser, I wish they'd either make it better against armored targets or take away the 3 shot limit. Right now it'll take most of it's fire time to kill a single charger and won't even kill a bile titan.

eagle 110's actually synergize with the laser really well vs. bugs since they tend to hit and break the top armor, where the laser hits.

The Spear really needs to 1 shot stuff period, it's just not reliable enough to be viable.

The RR also needs to at least like 2 shot Tanks from the side and Chargers reliably from the front and kill them flat out if you hit the weakpoints... it's very unrewarding to hit a weakpoint and almost kill a tank, then watch an autocannon be able to just fire 3x into the same weakpoint and the thing blows up.

Infidelicious fucked around with this message at 11:46 on Feb 26, 2024

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:29

Turin Turambar: Jun 5, 2011

Having started playing on Saturday evening, I'm still learning some of the features and systems of the game. Just yesterday night I noticed that no enemies would spawn on the final evacuation sequence. Literally, 0 enemies.The reason? Well, I don't have conclusive proof but on that mission we destroyed 100% of the hives/barracks of the map (in fact it's the only mission where I did a 100% clear).
So I learned they aren't just optional objectives to destroy and gain more xp, they actually 'work' as enemy spawners and the enemy quantities will decrease if you focus on them.

Right now i'm watching a yt video guide where it's mentioned that some enemies like Stalkers appear only from specific Stalker hives, so you can destroy them to stop them appearing.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:48

Fangz: Jul 5, 2007; Oh I see! This must be the Bad Opinion Zone!

Sestze posted:

Higher difficulties also spawn additional sub objectives that either root you in one place for too long to be worth clearing (SEAF artillery, Radar tower, SEAF AA) or are must-clears to prevent deaths or failure cascades (Stalker nests, Spore Tower, Mortar Bunker, Anti-Air, Strategem Scrambler, Eye of loving Sauron). I clear the ones I have to clear, and I ignore the ones I don't.

I usually find trying to clear the Eye of loving Sauron *is* the failure cascade. The hellbomb won't land properly, and people keep dropping orbitals on it despite it not doing anything, and piles of enemies land and kill you over and over.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:55

Oneiros: Jan 12, 2007

at lower difficulties extraction is kinda just a snooze fest. i dunno if anyone has the data yet to correlate nest/factory destruction with patrol density and extraction hoards. i do know i've had plenty of missions where we explode every enemy base and still have a good fight on our hands at the end waiting for the pelican

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:56

Darox: Nov 10, 2012

Fangz posted:

I usually find trying to clear the Eye of loving Sauron *is* the failure cascade. The hellbomb won't land properly, and people keep dropping orbitals on it despite it not doing anything, and piles of enemies land and kill you over and over.

I simply throw a laser at it. I've had the laser fail to kill AA turrets, but it always kills the eye quickly.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 11:57

Theswarms: Dec 20, 2005

Toadsmash posted:

Is it just becoming the meta already that once you complete the main objectives, you beeline for the extraction no matter how much reinforcements and time on the clock you have left, completely ignoring the rest of the map? Map markers get ignored and nobody puts up any alternatives, either. That's been my experience for my last like half dozen attempts at not playing solo in a row and it just makes for boring matches where we barely come home with any samples in the bargain. Reminds me of the worst aspects of the WoW endgame 5-man meta and a big part of what made me quit that game when I tried it most recently in Shadowlands.

My pubby experience is that they will, upon completing the last main objective, sprint to the exact opposite end of the map to do a single side objective and then run all the way back to extraction.

Surely there is a middle ground they could reach!?

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:02

JBP: Feb 16, 2017; You've got to know, to understand,
Baby, take me by my hand,
I'll lead you to the promised land.

It's quite spooky the way you suddenly acclimate to level 8 and doing scientists against bots as three people is suddenly just another mission.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:03

Hommando: Mar 2, 2012

drrockso20 posted:

Anyone else getting a lot of crashes all of a sudden, seems like the main cause on my end at least is that they happen right after someone joins the current game I'm in and deploy

I feel like 30% of my matches end with crashes at around the 30 minute mark, it has been making collecting samples very frustrating. I was playing with a friend tonight and these crashes kept happening at the same time so it isn't just my PC. When I was running with a 4 stack our best hope was that not all 4 of us crashed so we could rejoin.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:16

haldolium: Oct 22, 2016

Arrowhead needs to get in contact with Fatshark like yesterday and just copy their rejoin code. Having a good 30-40 minutes wasted upon crash or disco is luckily not as common as in Darktide but man when it happens it really sucks.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:21

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

Updated my video drivers and restarted my computer and that seems to have solved the crashing for the moment

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:21

JBP: Feb 16, 2017; You've got to know, to understand,
Baby, take me by my hand,
I'll lead you to the promised land.

haldolium posted:

Arrowhead needs to get in contact with Fatshark like yesterday and just copy their rejoin code. Having a good 30-40 minutes wasted upon crash or disco is luckily not as common as in Darktide but man when it happens it really sucks.

No, I don't think they need to talk to Fatshark at all.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:22

Fishstick: Jul 9, 2005; Does not require preheating

haldolium posted:

Arrowhead needs to get in contact with Fatshark like yesterday and just copy their rejoin code. Having a good 30-40 minutes wasted upon crash or disco is luckily not as common as in Darktide but man when it happens it really sucks.

On the flipside the host of a party can leave/crash mid-session and it's 100% seamless when it transitions to a different host.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:34

Sindai: Jan 24, 2007; i want to achieve immortality through not dying

Fishstick posted:

On the flipside the host of a party can leave/crash mid-session and it's 100% seamless when it transitions to a different host.

I would be very surprised if the host was actually acting as server in the first place. There are a lot of good reasons not to do that in a live service game.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:46

drrockso20: May 6, 2013; Has Not Actually Done Cocaine

They really need to tone down bots, pretty much always feels like the difficulty level is like 3 levels higher than a bug mission of the same level would be and not in a particularly fun way either

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:50

haldolium: Oct 22, 2016

Fishstick posted:

On the flipside the host of a party can leave/crash mid-session and it's 100% seamless when it transitions to a different host.

indeed, thats good. Also in general mostly stable, much better as DT at launch. But it would still be cool if that option exists.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:52

JBP: Feb 16, 2017; You've got to know, to understand,
Baby, take me by my hand,
I'll lead you to the promised land.

drrockso20 posted:

They really need to tone down bots, pretty much always feels like the difficulty level is like 3 levels higher than a bug mission of the same level would be and not in a particularly fun way either

Feel like the inverse of this on 7-9 imo. Bots don't unleash swarms of crushers to infinitely ragdoll you and you can actually disengage from their higher threat units.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:52

hey mom its 420: May 12, 2007

yeah, bugs are way easier on the lower difficulties, but then they become way harder. you can use cover and positioning to outsmart the bots, whereas with the bugs you just see three chargers pop out of the fog and gently caress you up

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:54

Warbadger: Jun 17, 2006

Insert name here posted:

For Devastators, AMR will one-tap headshot them and two-tap them with (good) chest shots. With the exception of the shield Devastator (because you need to shoot around the shield), AMR will handle large groups of Devastators faster and better than the railgun.

Railgun one-shots devastators through the face with safe mode shots and two-taps them with chest shots - even through the shield. The only advantage of the AMR is the ability to mag-dump into something point blank, IMO.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 12:59

Darox: Nov 10, 2012

Fighting bot bases is much more enjoyable than bug bases on any difficulty, the sole exceptions being cannon turrets and the stratagem blocker bases.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 13:00

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# ? May 25, 2024 00:16

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

Let's not pretend that the AMR having a zoomed scope(one that doesn't have an obnoxiously large dot that obscures weakpoints like the railgun's) and multiple shots before reloading aren't advantages.

# ? Feb 26, 2024 13:03

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