goatface posted:

It's just shameful that an AI hasn't gone full von Neumann/Berserker and eradicated everything already.

Shameful robots. Lazy.

anilEhilated posted:

Eliphas' voice is really a high-pitched squeaky thing. The warp filter is necessary for the Imperial scum not to laugh at him.

edit: Actually, might as well ask here. Bought Soulstorm, intending to play a campaign as the Sisters since I love me some arson. Any tips on what units/weapons are effective?

Eimi posted:

Pops posted:

Flame damage is weird in DC. Someone who understands how the game sets things up can give a more complete answer, but my experience with them has been mixed.

If you build a Hellhound (as Guard) it gives you some options that adding a flamer to a squad does not really mimic - which is presumably handy, since (in vanilla DC, anyway) Guardsmen don't get access to flamers at all otherwise. It has a special ability that lets you saturate an area in napalmpromethium that will continue to burn for a bit, and cause loads of damage (morale and otherwise) to whatever happens to be standing there.

(As an aside, this is handy for dealing with cloaked units as Guard, because - you guessed it - the computer cheats like a motherfucker. If a unit of stealthed computer-controlled infantry wanders near one of your detectors, your detector will spot whichever enemy soldier was foolish enough to come within view. Stealthed Chaos cultists are the best example of this, but there are plenty, and it usually goes down like this: one enemy trooper will suddenly be visible to your guys, who will obligingly murder the hostile into gibs. But what happens if one of your tankbustas decides to tag "Gorgutz Wuz Heer LOL" on a heavy bolter turret or other detector? Why, the ENTIRE UNIT loses stealth the instant the first guy gets detected, of course, and all the computer players immediately begin hosing down the entire unit.)

Back to Hellhounds - this is a handy ability, because burning promethium is surprisingly indifferent to whether or not a unit is visible. So, if a canny player sees those Predator-style outlines (and hears the war cries) of invisible units, he or she can hose the area down and roast 'em. Useful, though ultimately kind of situational, and subject to a special ability cooldown. Hellhounds have longer range than infantry flamers, but it's not that much better. They seem to do a lot more damage, but that may be because by the time an infantry flamer is in range, the enemy will close to melee, and all ranged options are off the table once your unit engages. (Another area where the computer cheats, incidentally: a squad of yours will either all shoot or all charge into melee, but the computer can order individual soldiers to best effect.)

Hellhounds are also said to be useful against buildings, but I haven't noticed them being particularly good at it. They're not bad, just... I never found them especially notable. Their stream of burning promethium is subject to a miss chance, just like any other attack, and though this chance is low, it's not zero. However, even the Hellhound's standard attack is capable of doing damage over time. It doesn't do a lot - a bit like splash damage, but over time instead of over distance - and the effect doesn't last long, but it's there. So, if a Hellhound attacks a building, it might not do much damage at first, but before too long the building is taking continuous (if variable) damage from the blaze the Hellhound is feeding. It's difficult to notice with units armed with flamers, since the rest of the unit is also causing damage at the same time, but the overall effect is there. It's a neat effect, but if you've broken into an enemy's base and are wrecking his buildings, then you don't usually need an anti-building specialist to finish the job.

Overall, flamers seem to do what they do pretty well - but it's so specialized, and so oddly implemented (given how the rest of the game is set up), that the effect is usually underwhelming, even if it works great behind the scenes.