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the healing aura can make or break some situations
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Dec 29, 2021 03:12
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Kibayasu posted:I guess the healing aura will matter once everything isn't dying in one shot/rocket/helicopter barrage. Yeah, I saw that mutation pop up and my immediate thoughts were "Got some bigger bugs coming." Although I suppose the weakling swarms mutating into bullet Sponges is a terrifying alternative proposition.
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Dec 29, 2021 06:28
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FoolyCharged posted:I saw that mutation pop up and my immediate thoughts were "Got some bigger bugs coming." I'll spoil enough here to say that this does eventually happen, and if you're not careful it can be a real problem.
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Dec 29, 2021 15:09
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 Sudden Strike (12:55) We now get our first decision on what mission to do next - every episode will begin on the campaign map from here on out as we make our way through the branching options. For those of you scoring at home there are 33 total missions, so we're just nicely getting started. Today's frivolity is actually an 'optional plot' mission, the only one in the game, and also features 'bonus pay' as our compensation takes a significant leap at this point - fitting given than Drake's Devils are the pointy end of the stick at this stage. We also continue to get new abilities with Rally Point, I get into queued orders, and we have a new enemy: Infested Turrets. The bugs using our technology against us is a foreboding development.
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Dec 29, 2021 15:14
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Strategic Sage posted:
I'm kinda surprised there hasn't been more alien types besides from that one instant in the tutorial missions.
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Dec 30, 2021 17:07
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Are the mutations completely random? Or is there some capacity to adapt to your tactics?
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Dec 30, 2021 23:00
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Samovar posted:I'm kinda surprised there hasn't been more alien types besides from that one instant in the tutorial missions. There will be fairly soon. WhiteCoke posted:Are the mutations completely random? Or is there some capacity to adapt to your tactics? Mutations in Story missions are scripted. We will learn of the existence of another kind of mission in the next episode, in which said mutations are random within the pool available for the difficulty parameters. In terms of adapting to your tactics, that's more a Planetary Campaign thing, I don't think any of the Story mode maps actively do that. It seems to be more of a 'let's throw a bunch of crap at the wall and hopefully something will work' deal with mutations that gradually get more and more difficult to deal with.
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Dec 30, 2021 23:59
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Science Station (17:37) Despite the name of the mission, there isn't actually a Science Station anywhere around here. Dr. Cassander does get around to telling us to use the Chopper that we've already been using for a couple of maps, and we now have access to the first Random missions on the campaign map - though we won't be indulging in those for a while.
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Jan 1, 2022 15:49
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Do you get anything by saving those soldiers at the start or do they march off to get their heads blown off at the next nest over?
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Jan 1, 2022 17:19
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Apparently they hang around and defend the point just to the north of that area. So you would save a bit on not having to defend it yourself.
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Jan 1, 2022 21:55
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Samovar posted:Do you get anything by saving those soldiers at the start or do they march off to get their heads blown off at the next nest over? I'm not sure it's mathematically possible - by the time the choppers can kill all five turrets, they've had it.
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Jan 1, 2022 23:55
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Loxbourne posted:I'm not sure it's mathematically possible - by the time the choppers can kill all five turrets, they've had it. It's possible, I've done it, it requires pausing at the very start of the level, recruiting dudes from the bunker, and turning one into an officer, then racing forward and distracting the turrets
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Jan 2, 2022 00:08
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You know, I think this was the first case of anyone actually swearing in this game.
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Jan 3, 2022 02:25
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Contact (20:22) Gen. Magnusson thinks we're about to end the war here, as we've found a 'Super Hive' and the location of the alien control center/brain/overmind/whatever. Magnusson could not be more wrong. But we do get to see a new enemy for those who were waiting to see one, the first of many: Brutes. They're pretty much what their name indicates.
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Jan 4, 2022 16:31
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I finally figured out why this game feels so nostalgic. It has a soundtrack very similar to the Space Rangers II soundtrack. Honestly with how minimalistic and streamlined this game is, it could easily fit into the Space Rangers RTS section of gameplay (and be more fun).
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Jan 4, 2022 17:15
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Getting some Harry Harrison's "Death World" vibes off the aliens here, what with rapid evolution against new threats, and the super hivemind that isn't the actual main threat.
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Jan 4, 2022 18:17
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This LP inspired me to pick the game up for cheap in the holiday sale, and I've been playing along. My only criticism so far is that building a medipod seems pretty much mandatory on all maps; without it, even the first hive will kill most of your troops with poison damage from its spitter towers.
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Jan 4, 2022 19:51
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Caves (12:25) It's time to take our first visit to a 'Random' map - we end up having a fairly easy time of it but they will get worse. They will get much, much worse. Next time, Infested Planet will really begin to flex in the first map that threw me for a curve when I was learning it.
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Jan 8, 2022 16:09
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Let's not think too much about how helicopters work in caves (very well, apparently).
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Jan 9, 2022 04:38
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While this game does seem pretty good, and I am enjoying the LP of it... ...I feel somehow like it is lacking something? No, no - it's like... It's a Flash game.
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Jan 9, 2022 08:11
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a really polished flash game!
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Jan 9, 2022 08:34
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Samovar posted:While this game does seem pretty good, and I am enjoying the LP of it... It once was a Flash or a Shockwave game. Same basic idea but on a sort of whiteboard looking map. No mimics either, as far as I can recall.
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Jan 9, 2022 09:05
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Night and Day (26:21) I view this mission as the beginning of the rest of the game, as it were. The map's enforced attack and defenses phases gimmick aside, mutations begin to become painful and this is the first one that really threw me for a loop when I encountered it initially. The longer you take on Night and Day, the worse it goes for you, so I take considerable pains to shortcut the alien response by winning quickly. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Jan 11, 2022 |
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Jan 11, 2022 17:13
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This one looked like a real ballbreaker, thank goodness they let you pause and make orders.
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Jan 11, 2022 20:16
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Yeah, NOW it looks tough as all hell. Good juggling there.
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Jan 12, 2022 06:54
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Making things move a bit faster than an infant's crawl did do a lot for the difficulty. Can definitely imagine how bad that would have gotten if you had even taken a couple fewer hives on the first attack phase.
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Jan 15, 2022 03:44
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Preparations (22:22) Infested Planet's version of a convoy escort mission is next. It's not particularly well-designed though, which gives the player an incentive to *not* protect the convoys. As a result, I don't play this the intended way. For those curious what happens if you do, after saving half of the crates Dr. Cassander holds forth that they will switch paths to the west, exiting where the cluster of three hives are. This is because there 'isn't enough room' in the NE cavern. Uh, sure, whatever. We'll end up with fun mutations including Bombardment and Bulwark Spawner under that circumstance, in addition to the ones shown in the video. Given the option, I'll pass on that 'fun'.
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Jan 15, 2022 16:18
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boooooooooooo if you're gonna cheese the map you should at least move faster rather than obsessively turtle that said those mutations don't sound great but they do sound like they'd be potentially manageable if you just left the bottom-right hives alone, took everything else, and boxed them in with turrets and minefields and so on. there's one build point sorta close but I don't recall you having any trouble from the closer hive when grabbing it so I doubt the bottom-right hives would make that any harder. also I could have sworn the checkmark objectives got you bonus cash, did I imagine that or is that limited to certain maps only?
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Jan 15, 2022 18:00
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Ignatius M. Meen posted:if you're gonna cheese the map you should at least move faster rather than obsessively turtle I don't find this to be a game that rewards that. What typically happens, at least to me, is that I just end up failing an attack, lose a bunch of soldiers, get pushed back and it just ends up taking longer. Besides, I'm not a 'fast' player - that requires APM skills. I don't have those  You can't really 'box in' bombardment + rust + bulwark spawner with turrets. The spitter towers will outrange the turrets and destroy them. And more to the point at least from my perspective, you'd still need to eliminate that trio of hives in the lower-left for the last half of the convoy crates. Better to do that *before* they get the enhanced toys. There is no bonus cash for Story missions. That only comes into play on Random missions - i.e. the 'Raid' ones get bonuses for how many enemies you kill, similar to Sudden Strike. Strategic Sage fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Jan 15, 2022 |
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Jan 15, 2022 18:25
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I don't know if the game not punishing you for doing the mission 'backwards' is bad gameplay or genius storytelling.
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Jan 16, 2022 10:12
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Cheesing an escort mission that just automatically and blindly throws the units to escort into danger is good.
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Jan 16, 2022 21:40
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Mostly I just found myself annoyed that you'd put a turret right on the doorstop of a dead hive instead of taking it and replacing whatever turret at the same time, leading to multiple instances of the stupid thing regrowing. Otherwise it's a sensible approach to the BS.
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Jan 16, 2022 23:45
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You might not like the next map either, because there's more of that coming. I can see the point of the objection on Preparations, but when we're dealing with more regular mutations it's a way of keeping away from nasty surprises while in the middle of clearing out a cluster.Samovar posted:I don't know if the game not punishing you for doing the mission 'backwards' is bad gameplay or genius storytelling. Yes to both?
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Jan 17, 2022 01:49
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Kibayasu posted:Cheesing an escort mission that just automatically and blindly throws the units to escort into danger is good. I'll admit there's a certain catharsis in being allowed to let the suicidal escortees die without penalties after like decades of this mission type being probably the most reviled in gaming. Forget Aerith, why am I not allowed to use a phoenix down on Bannon? E: did I get the name of the resistance guy from 6 right?
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Jan 17, 2022 12:12
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Ah, the sniper. At first it seems an oddly overspecialised unit - oh hey, he can take out a tower from well beyond its range. That's useful but rockets do the job just as well. I'm paying a lot of BPs to avoid running out of ammo against spitter towers. Useful against Bulwark attacks but unable to do much damage to the bulwark itself, though? Then you meet some of the later mutations. And oh god do you need snipers!
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Jan 17, 2022 13:36
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Mine Shaft (22:47) Back to the random missions for the next couple as we've reached the $40k tier. We continue to gradually encounter the occasional new mutation, but mostly I'm just being cautious at this point because it gets bad if I'm not. I'll have to push a little faster next time, when we encounter our first Raid map. We're also continuing to unlock more expensive items to potentially purchase - there'll be no lack of options to spend our money on for quite some time.
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Jan 18, 2022 17:53
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The robotics upgrade sounds interesting, I wonder how that one will work out. Also I can see from this mission that they are really starting to tighten the screws, and there is so much of the game left.
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Jan 19, 2022 01:05
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No kidding on all the stuff to buy, It's popping up way faster than you can spend. All those cool guns keep getting pushed farther away and the game keeps adding more of them for you to not be able to get under your rules.
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Jan 19, 2022 04:46
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Loxbourne posted:Then you meet some of the later mutations. And oh god do you need snipers! seriously! i hardly every used snipers until i got a particularly ugly combo of mutations in a planetary campaign run, and before i knew it i was using multiple snipers in every remaining fight.
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Jan 19, 2022 05:57
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Tombot posted:I can see from this mission that they are really starting to tighten the screws, and there is so much of the game left. Infested Planet is clearing it's throat basically at this point. As a bit of a teaser, in a couple episodes there is an enemy coming up that was nerfed from it's original version, at which time it was apparently the most feared one in the game. It's still plenty scary though, and gives me at least plenty of reason to ... Sally posted:seriously! i hardly every used snipers until i got a particularly ugly combo of mutations in a planetary campaign run, and before i knew it i was using multiple snipers in every remaining fight. ... use snipers. I find this interesting because apparently I play a bit differently, I find a use for at least a single sniper fairly often starting shortly after I get them. FoolyCharged posted:All those cool guns keep getting pushed farther away and the game keeps adding more of them for you to not be able to get under your rules.. We'll catch up eventually, but it will stay this way for a while. Ofc if I were going for some of the more expensive options that screen would get even more cluttered, because I'd have less (ok Stannis, fewer) of the cheaper ones unlocked.
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Jan 19, 2022 18:23
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