Post by contributor on Sept 26, 2015 3:18:12 GMT -5
Just wanted to give some feedback on the final (well I think it's the final Leo level (where you have to shut down the big thingy thing) Leo level. I'm all up for challenging gameplay so I'm not saying it's just too difficult, it's just difficult in very annoying ways, especially on the first play through. There are very few clues that would help you know who is going to be needed where and when, which means that if you happen to choose the wrong knights to do something you're going to spend huge amounts of time just moving knights around the board because you made a wrong decision. But there was no way to know what would have been the right or wrong decision ahead of time.
In my specific case, I ended up sending my best ranged people after the power control panels because, when I was told that was what I needed to do they were the closest ones. I was actually thinking that when they were shut down, that would be the end of the level. So obviously, once I throw the switches and find out I need my ranged people back at the thing I've got to spend my next 5 turns moving them there, except for the engineer who is sitting there plinking away at it with her side-arm. Now on a second play-through it's going to be completely different because I know how everything works, but it sort of seems like levels shouldn't depend on that. There ought to be a way, if we are reading the dialogue, to have some idea of what's coming in a level instead of being faced with making random decisions without any foreknowledge. I would really pity anyone who tries a level like this for the first time with an NMI squad.
Design wise, two things that could make it less frustrating would be putting the power controls closer, instead of way back where they are and letting melee folks attack the thing. Oh, and the power stations control panels could use some orange squares so we know where to go there.
But maybe all that could stay the same if the player were given a good heads up about what to expect.
Dialogue wise, a few things that would help would be knowing that:
1) We only really need to get the engineer back to the thing, the first time.
2) We've killed every last cultist so we can focus on protecting from the xeno now.
3) Once we've disabled the power things we're going to have to come back and destroy the thing.
4) The thing has to be destroyed by ranged people, so don't send them to do the power controls.
In my specific case, I ended up sending my best ranged people after the power control panels because, when I was told that was what I needed to do they were the closest ones. I was actually thinking that when they were shut down, that would be the end of the level. So obviously, once I throw the switches and find out I need my ranged people back at the thing I've got to spend my next 5 turns moving them there, except for the engineer who is sitting there plinking away at it with her side-arm. Now on a second play-through it's going to be completely different because I know how everything works, but it sort of seems like levels shouldn't depend on that. There ought to be a way, if we are reading the dialogue, to have some idea of what's coming in a level instead of being faced with making random decisions without any foreknowledge. I would really pity anyone who tries a level like this for the first time with an NMI squad.
Design wise, two things that could make it less frustrating would be putting the power controls closer, instead of way back where they are and letting melee folks attack the thing. Oh, and the power stations control panels could use some orange squares so we know where to go there.
But maybe all that could stay the same if the player were given a good heads up about what to expect.
Dialogue wise, a few things that would help would be knowing that:
1) We only really need to get the engineer back to the thing, the first time.
2) We've killed every last cultist so we can focus on protecting from the xeno now.
3) Once we've disabled the power things we're going to have to come back and destroy the thing.
4) The thing has to be destroyed by ranged people, so don't send them to do the power controls.
