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I have been obsessed with this game for the last few weeks. Nice to see it's still being developed, because I don't think I'll get tired of it anytime soon. I was super proud of myself for pulling this off last night:  Other than a rough Day 1 (I got back-to-back firewall Daemons early into my second mission), it wasn't that bad. Running Central and Monst3r fixed the power flow problems from relying on Brimstone, and the first agent I rescued was Internationale. It would have been even easier had I hit a server farm earlier, but like an idiot I waited until Day 3 to round out my programs.
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Aug 6, 2015 17:52
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TastyLemonDrops posted:One more thing is to weigh the benefits of waiting some turns vs just ramboing through cameras/guards. Yeah, you'll rack up the alarm via the latter, but you're also moving the alarm up by waiting. Yeah, this is a super important thing to realize, especially when it comes to killing. I used to think lethal options were a trap, considering heart monitors and charge packs. But Shalem and an early Flurry Gun basically won me my first attempt at Time Attack. Some guards just absolutely need to die, especially if they're unavoidable early on. I had a cyberlab mission where the lab was literally the first room after the start, and there was a stationary guard watching the door. You better believe I kicked that thing down and blew him away, because otherwise he would have been hounding me through the rest of the mission or locking down one of my agents just to pin. OMNI was a bloodbath between Shalem's starter rifle and the Flurry Gun, because so many OMNI units are armored or shielded, cutting down on your options for handling them. Plus you need your disruptors and pinning agents for those goddamned Harbingers.
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Aug 11, 2015 04:47
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fspades posted:Better yet, pair Xu with your killer agent. Kill anyone without worrying about raising the alarm level. Xu is hands-down the best agent. Some agents help with power flow, some help you move through missions faster, some help with security, but Xu's augment is so incredibly versatile that it helps with all of those things. I mean, it's an EMP with no cooldown. Even if it had a cooldown or got switched to a Buster Chip effect it would be super good. And that's not even touching the Shock Trap he starts with. That's really interesting about the MK Is, too. Though I have to say, after doing Faust/Brimstone and Endless past Day 5, daemons don't really scare me anymore.
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Aug 11, 2015 18:04
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John Dough posted:I feel like I'm walking into a trap here. Sometimes the teleport operator is just on point.  I'm up to Endless Plus, and holy Jesus it's almost like a different game. After a few false starts it doesn't feel as impossible as it did at first. It's giving me plenty of practice with my favorite part of the game, too:  Threading the needle with angry guards. Got them both got out without being spotted or KO'ing anyone.
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Aug 12, 2015 16:26
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Shumagorath posted:I'm listening to the soundtrack on YouTube right now. Please sell it to me so I can make a proper playlist for work Thirded. I found a pretty good one that put all the different alarm levels for each corp in sequence, and it's really cool to hear how they ramp up. There are subtle klaxons that come in around alarm level 5 that I never noticed while I was playing.  And speaking of sometimes I just want to put the Shopcat theme on loop for like three hours.
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Aug 16, 2015 05:03
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   I finally finished Expert Plus. I think this was the smallest OMNI map I've ever seen, but I basically had to do the whole thing and the first two rooms were stuffed full of Harbingers and the Armor 3 guys. Overall way more tense than Expert, but not as much of a pressure cooker as Time Attack. A few observations: - Archive Banks is ridiculous. I still think Xu is the best overall agent, but being able to start with an Econ Chip gets you so much money it feels like cheating. I ran her with Archive Internationale but honestly you could rank up Hacking on Banks herself and go just as nuts. - The two new starter programs are fantastic. Dynamo feels tailor-made for Expert Plus, since you're going to be doing all the real work past alarm level 2 anyway. And Mercenary is a crazy good value to start with. Every alarm level you get 2 firewalls for free, then 2 for 2 PWR which is about as good as active hacking gets, and taken as a whole it's still a better value than Lockpick v1.0 all the way up to 8 PWR cost. I actually beat Expert Plus with just Dynamo, Mercenary, a Buster Chip I, and an Oracle I got on the very last mission before OMNI because not a single server farm showed up for me. There aren't many other starting combinations I could do that with, I think.
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Aug 17, 2015 07:44
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I'm still enjoying the game just as much since the update, but the new programs really got me thinking. They've diluted the program pool quite a bit, making it harder to get specific useful ones and sticking you with really gimmicky ones much more often. If that was the intent, I can't complain because previously one good server farm or even a lucky secondary terminal could set you up for the whole run. But it does make me nervous about adding more content to the campaigns because they feel so finely-balanced already. I've thought a lot about what I'd like to see added to the game, so I hope nobody minds me vomiting up a bunch of ideas. Game Modes The main thing I want are more game modes, since they take the existing balance and stretch it into different challenges. - Weekly campaigns: Games like Spelunky and Ziggurat get a lot of mileage out of daily runs that are the same for everyone and rank players on a leaderboard. Since campaigns can take awhile to get through, a weekly one would probably be best, ranking players by a combination of net worth and XP earned if you finish it. - Daily missions: For a true daily option, I’d like to see daily missions with preset agents and programs. You could rank players by highest net worth in fewest turns or moves. - Endless Facility: I’d love a mode that’s even more focused on making do with whatever you find, so one without a mission map would be pretty cool. Start like you do in the tutorial with one agent with a disruptor, and do your best from there. This could be structured either like an endless series of missions, but what I’d REALLY like to see is one giant ever-expanding map that gets more difficult as you get further from the center, a truly endless facility. You would have to make new item pickups to boost skill points (like PRAXIS Kits from Deus Ex or something) or a new terminal that gives you access to the skill buy menu. Mission Variations After 40 hours of campaigns, there’s not a lot new to see in the different missions. Having some new variations of the same missions would help a lot. Civilian missions: Every mission is currently set in a heavily locked-down facility. I’d like to see missions that are more open and have less security, but also have civilians to deal with. What I’m imagining are units that have longer or less predictable paths, put guards on notice when they notice something, and put multiple guards on alert if they are fully alerted. Civilian missions would be less about thwarting security and more about maneuvering around civilians and interacting with new objectives. Two examples I thought of: - Secure Hospital (Alt Detention Center): Your MIA agent is being treated at a corporate hospital, structured more as long hallways with many little patient rooms off of them than normal missions. There are a few guards and several nurses making rounds through the rooms. To get into your agent’s room, you either have to shadow a nurse when she checks on them or get to the console in the high-traffic nurse’s station. - Street Bazaar (Alt Nanofab/Server Farm): A black market contact agrees to meet your agents at a public bazaar. You can either speak to stall vendors to find out where he is or hack a network hub in a security office to trace his location. Not may guards, but the civilians at the marketplace will call out any shady activity. OMNI missions: We don’t ever find out anything about OMNI, since they’re presumably wiped out at the end of the mission we meet them. It might be cool to have rare OMNI variations of regular missions that are 2 or three security levels higher than regular, but have much better rewards like a discounted nanofab vestibule or 3 or 4 cybernetic grafters instead of 2. You could even give special rewards, like marking the security or server rooms in the final level for completing an early OMNI variant. It would be a good chance to give more options in campaigns, get more background on OMNI through dialogue, and make more use of the totally sweet OMNI tileset. New Missions and Items I know I said I’m nervous about adding more stuff to the campaigns, but there are a few things that I would like to see if they could be balanced to fit. Currently the only way to get skill points is to buy them, so unless I have a very specific need (usually because of items) I wait until the very end to boost skills so I don’t miss the chance to pick up useful gear. A mission that gives some free skill points would be pretty useful, since you’d still be finding money and gear on the mission, and might actually put the rank 5 skills within reach during a normal game. I also think it’s strange that there are no items tied to Strength, making it feel more like a tax on having too many items than a useful stat. Here are a few I thought of, though I certainly can’t attest to how balanced they’d be: - Plasma Knuckles: Basically a melee Flurry Gun, one use per map - Crush Spike: A melee attack that permanently breaks mainframe devices, causes noise and alarm level, higher ranks reduce drawbacks - Sound Bomb: A reusable, throwable Ping that goes further and has a wider area of effect at higher ranks - Foot Pads - Makes the first 4/6/8 tiles you sprint silent, depending on rank I also have to say that I’m REALLY enjoying Archive Prism and the new starter programs. New starting options will always be welcome, especially if they offer completely new play styles like these do.
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Aug 18, 2015 16:53
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Holy poo poo, you guys. Endless Plus, early on Day 3, FTM Vault. I bought a card off of Monst3r and I was determined to make good use of it. Archive Prism (unarmed), Archive Sharp (Disruptor and full Hand Cannon), rescued Decker (Flurry Gun). The vault terminal and generator were both loaded with Authority daemons, so as soon as I started cracking lockboxes the alarm level shot straight to 6.  I killed the two guards watching the vault, so my flurry was out and Sharp had two rounds left (with no armor penetration!). Two guards were coming to check on the vault, one armored. Disguised Prism scouted ahead with Decker close behind, but my Sharp only had 7 AP.  Had to shoot the unarmored guard to get Sharp out, but he managed to juke the Elite. The room with all the guards there below us was the starting room. Four guards, including an Elite and a Protector. For some reason, they all wanted to check that hallway. I got Decker behind the coffee table, and on the next turn had him move to the lower right wall behind cover and sent Sharp sprinting to where Decker was before. The sound alerted all the guards, but drew them to the open door, not the coffee table.  One armored guard left.  I considered shadowing him. Even if he caught me, Sharp had a Flash Grenade he nicked from a dead vault guard.  Instead, moving Sharp through the door drew him away from the elevator. Just had to get Sharp and Decker out of the way.   Voila! All the way from vault to exit at alarm level 6.  Sorry, make that alarm level forty-seven. 
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Aug 26, 2015 08:15
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Gyshall posted:I'd love a Comedy Option agent who was just a big hulking dude with a giant gently caress-off minigun. That would be rad. Also makes me think that some kind of bonus survival mode where you have fully-armed soldiers and mow down security in waves would be fun.
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Aug 26, 2015 16:23
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oohhboy posted:I can't say I like Seed and/or Rapier or have a good use for Rapier. Seed by itself is ok, but it is hard to beat just having more power, hence why I almost always run Power Dynamo since I know it will be Alarm 2 before I really need the power, but it is good if you do find seed on a server. Can you actually find Seed on mainframe terminals? I don't remember ever seeing it, and I thought the starter power programs were off limits. I haven't really experimented with Seed but I've been meaning to. Going by the math, you could do a ton of cheap, fast hacking with Mercenary by front-loading your hacks on the first turn after an alarm level advance, then doing one a turn up to the next level. In theory, you could also hack an entire level for free with Seed and Parasite by laying one a turn. You'd just have to wait them all out, and sometimes that can take awhile...  Rapier, as far as I'm concerned, is garbage. You need programs that are either consistent or become MORE effective at higher alarm levels, not less. It's really only good if you're playing on a difficulty too low for you, because then you can tear the level apart and be gone by alarm level 3. It's not a terrible pickup later if you have more reliable tools already, but it's easily the worst starting option you can take. Honestly it would be pretty good for later days on Endless, since you're just sprinting to find the exit card and leave, as long as you didn't get the +10 alarm levels daemon at the start.
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Aug 28, 2015 16:17
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oohhboy posted:It's so annoying not seeing sight lines as you have to waste APs looking through doors twice, observing guards and looking around corners. The KO restriction was problematic at times if you weren't more ambush happy. At expert plus things sort of stops being fun as wasting so much time around doors breaks the flow. One more achievement to go. Endless plus 5 days. Archive Prism is really good for Endless Plus if you have the power to support her. While disguised, she doesn't alert guards when opening doors, and on the later days you can send her out solo to check troublesome safes for the exit key. Running Dynamo means she can stay disguised indefinitely. By day 4 I had so many guns and charge packs that if someone noticed me opening a door, it was the last thing they ever saw.
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Aug 28, 2015 19:39
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Baron Bifford posted:Is it possible for this game to generate unwinnable levels? Because I'm stuck behind a bunch of locked doors and I can't find any keys to open them. The one guard I knocked out didn't have any in his pockets. It shouldn't be. As far as I know, locked doors are only on "shortcuts" through the level. The essential path should always be unlocked. Can you post a screenshot of your map? Earlier in the thread someone asked a similar question, and it turned out there was a single unchecked square next to a bookcase where the door was.
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Oct 16, 2015 15:55
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Here's something I've always wondered. Basic locked doors are designated as "Lv1 locks" but there are no Lv2+ locks, only vault and exit doors. Were more complex locks planned and then removed prior to release, is that future-proofing against possible additions, or is it just arbitrary naming?
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Oct 16, 2015 17:15
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Shine posted:From a balancing standpoint it'd make the game way too easy (barring a big redesign) if you could disarm KO'd guards, or if you could simply cut their throats or smother then dead them while they lay helpless. Sometimes you just gotta shrug and say, "because video games." Invisible has a lot of stuff like this, and it's all pretty funny to think about. Like, Flurry Guns are the least practical weapons imaginable, because why would you ever need a gun with infinite ammo that has to be disassembled after every shot? For that at least, I write it off as a consequence of arming yourself from vending machines.
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Oct 19, 2015 16:11
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Yeah, but... that just makes it make less sense.
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Oct 19, 2015 16:55
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Baron Bifford posted:Speaking of killing, is this ever a viable option? I had the impression that if you kept killing guards, reinforcements would just keep spawning ad infinitum until you were overwhelmed ("Cut off one head, two more shall take its place!"). Extremely viable, and on Expert Plus practically required. The only real drawback killing guards has over KO'ing them is advancing the alarm tracker. Weigh that over saving you time stealthing around and removing that guard for good.
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Oct 19, 2015 21:24
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Consumable charge packs completely refill a weapon's ammo count (or clear an item's cooldown!). You can get them for 400 credits from any nanofab or find them on higher-level guards. Obviously this means that weapons with higher ammo counts are more valuable to you, since a charge pack will get you more shots back. Cookers are fine if you need an armor-piercing solution and murder sparingly, but I tend to pass on them in favor of Hand Cannons.
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Oct 20, 2015 19:29
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Fano posted:This game is incredibly fun, I've just beat it on expert after about 50 hours of gameplay or so, ran with Prism/Archive Banks with Seed and Lockpick as my starting programs. Archive Banks is kind of off in a world of her own in terms of agent balance, because you're going to have way more money to throw around throughout the campaign. You lose out on some of the specific bonuses other agents can provide, but money can smooth over a LOT of rough spots. There's supposed to be DLC coming sometime in the fall, but the last news about that was months ago and we're kinda running out of fall. Last they said, it was going to be bigger than they originally planned so it might just be taking longer to do. Expert Plus is a completely different game from Expert, so don't get discouraged! You're going to need to adopt some new habits and learn not to fear the alarm tracker, if you haven't already. If it gives you too much trouble, I found Endless and Time Attack both helped elevate my game a lot prior to Expert Plus. Endless will force you into seemingly impossible situations which can teach you way more about the game than everything going smoothly. Time Attack will make sure you've internalized everything you've learned and make you better at recognizing threats to your plans.
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Oct 21, 2015 22:04
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For anyone who missed the announcements at the beginning of the stream, release date is November 12th, $4.99. Among the additions will be new story events during campaigns and Endless mode missions now going up to level 20.
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Nov 6, 2015 00:41
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New agent: Draco - Can't raise his skills using credits. He can scan KO'd guards for temporary skill increases, or dead guards for permanent increases. New augment: Physiology Chip - Sets an agent's Strength to 3, cannot be upgraded further. Too Shy Guy fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Nov 6, 2015 |
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Nov 6, 2015 01:04
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I went all in on Draco/Rush/Burst/Golem for my new game, and two missions in it's going fine. Draco is really fun even if you don't have lethal solutions on hand. The random bonuses you get from scanning KO'd enemies can be all sorts of things... I've found credits, PWR, and AP so far. Rush is okay, starting with +1 Speed is always good. Her ability lets her annihilate people if she's sprinting, so I imagine she's perfect if you run afoul of a guard that needs to be destroyed that turn, like one that spots another agent. She doesn't really fit my playstyle, but I be people who like Nika will like her. Burst is a really cool power solution. 0 cost, +3 PWR, and +3 AP on all agents for the turn. Has a 3 turn cooldown, and during the cooldown all your agents have -3 AP. I like it because you can get a quick PWR injection or some extra AP right when you need it most, as long as you can manage the AP reduction on the following turns. Golem seems like a solid starter program since it's 2 firewalls. It starts at 4 PWR and its cost goes down by 1 every turn you don't use it, then snaps back to 4 when you do. Early on it's easy to space hacks out so that it costs 0-2, and if you're hitting terminals or have a stable PWR flow you can afford big hacks every few turns.
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Nov 12, 2015 22:21
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That free update added a mess of new programs and two new versions of some agents I don't think you've unlocked yet. The DLC came out yesterday if you want to get fully up to speed. Parasite is ridiculously good but requires a ton of planning. As you discovered, Parasite doesn't tick until after your turn starts, which means cameras switching on after Alarm Level 1 still spot you. Firewalls will also get an extra turn on you at Alarm Level 2 because they increment before Parasite gets to them. You can get a neat combo going with Seed and Parasite where if you set only one Parasite per turn, you can pretty much hack the entire mission for free. Lethal seems expensive but you should always keep the option on hand for particularly troublesome guards. Charge Packs are consumables that will refill a weapon's ammo COMPLETELY, so you can get more out of them by using them on Shalem's rifle and Hand Cannons, if you can find them. Keep an eye out for Flurry Guns, too... they have infinite ammo but can only be fired for one turn per mission.
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Nov 13, 2015 18:20
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One free kill on an Armor 2 guard every mission is probably the best use of an inventory slot you can get. A Hand Cannon or even a Cooker and a Charge Pack can get you out of more trouble on a single mission, but a Flurry Gun can be your last resort on EVERY mission. It's just a really good intersection of lethal, reusable, and armor-piercing. Managing your money is very much personal preference. For me, I don't spend any money on skills until I'm got almost all the programs, gear, and augments I want, because there's nothing worse than finding a Flurry Gun or a Shock Trap III and not being able to afford it. I mostly spend on skills to hit the requirements for the items I find, and to shore up weaknesses (Anarchy 2 if no one starts with it, Speed 2 on the 7 AP agents, etc). Maxing Speed is a big help but it doesn't give you new tactical options like weapons and programs do. Strength is probably the most important to me, since you need inventory slots to carry all your gear and loot and drag bodies out of the way. Speed is what you pump if you have no other pressing needs, Anarchy past 2 is just for item requirements, and Hacking you can generally ignore unless you have PWR problems or are running an Econ Chip. Too Shy Guy fucked around with this message at 18:55 on Nov 13, 2015 |
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Nov 13, 2015 18:53
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I got one to wipe three data stores in an executive suite that was pretty good. Hack down the stores and have an agent stand on each one for three turns for 500 credits post-mission. The stores provide cover so I hacked two with guards patrolling past freely.
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Nov 14, 2015 04:45
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Draco was a genius addition to the game because now everyone knows the joy of unbridled guard murder.
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Nov 15, 2015 02:15
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Originally, agents had only maybe one line at the beginning of the mission. The little dialogues they have now were added in a patch a few months ago. It's possible they could add more if people pushed it enough.WarLocke posted:^^^: Internationale is great but I kind of feel like I'm treating her wireless uplink augment as a crutch. I am so used to being able to hack terminals from 6 squares away, but there are so many other agents... She really is quite a crutch, because not only do you not have to navigate to the terminals, you're getting a key preview of the room's contents. Internationale allows you to hugely ignore PWR management AND navigate levels faster than you normally would. The sooner you get used to playing with other agents, the better, because even with all that in mind she's still not the best. My suggestion is to play with all of the "natural" pairings: Shalem/Banks, Nika/Xu, etc. They tend to be pretty well balanced against each other, leaving only one or two weaknesses that you'll hopefully patch with your rescued agents. Shalem/Banks might be the hardest one since it's the only pairing (in the base game) without real PWR support, so you'll need your best programs an maybe some Hacking items to keep them afloat, depending on who else you pick up. Plus, if you don't start with Internationale, there's a VERY good chance you'll pick her up from a detention center, and she's one of the best rescue picks.  Bhodi posted:This is why I dumped parasite. It's just not viable above beginner unless you go straight for an alternative program; that additional camera activation makes it too much of a liability. Parasite is super good at all levels, it just can't really carry you through the whole game on its own like some starters can. For late-game you just need to pair it with a heavy option for the things you need to bust right this second. It pairs really well with the Wrenches, for example, because it can knock firewalls down to the exact number of the Wrench.
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Nov 16, 2015 22:26
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The first mission on Day 1 is always a 12 hour flight, and then every mission thereafter is between 5 and 12 hours. That means you can theoretically get all the way up to 12 missions between that first executive terminal and OMNI. You should always go for two detention centers, and the sooner the better. Agents don't need gear or skill points to loot safes or achieve objectives, and if you rescue someone with a killer augment like Xu or Internationale, you're golden. EDIT: RoboCicero posted:I just finished my Experienced run yesterday and had a lot of fun. Draco is great, though once again that was due to Archive Shalem giving him 3 skillups per charge pack. I definitely want to try Archive Prism, though the PWR cost seems a bit steep. Unlimited stealth seems to probably be a decent enough tradeoff -- I'll have to fish for servers to deploy. If you're ballsy enough to run Faust or Dynamo, you can run her cloak indefinitely. I heartily endorse Dynamo because it gives you all the PWR you need to do anything you want, and gets you more comfortable with working at the upper alarm levels. But even if you're not running her cloak 24/7, it's super handy. I mean, it's a cloak with no cooldown. How many times have you peeked into a room full of guards and cameras and wished you could just walk in, do the thing, and walk out? Also, you'll be saving PWR on hacking cameras, turrets, and other security systems off the main path since Prism can just slip in and out. Too Shy Guy fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Nov 16, 2015 |
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Nov 16, 2015 22:56
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Congratulations on being part of the 0.1%! I don't know if I can muster the will to even try it. The 10-day achievement the first time around was my least favorite because it just went on and on and on...
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Jan 25, 2016 18:51
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RandallODim posted:a crippling swim addiction Invisible Inc: Terror from the Deep
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Jan 26, 2016 22:23
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