It's a good day in the office today

[slayernz]

Pyro was pissed that he didn't hit 200, but all in all, good splatting was to be had by all.

Major Problem decided that it was a bit childish and he just let the squad work out for a bit.

[Cyrus]

Ok, that's just ridiculous!

Ridiculously awesome, I mean. At that rate, the next version of TA might not have any xenos left.

Also, I'm pretty sure you left Pyro with 199 on purpose. You're not letting him realize his true potential!

[slayernz]

Pyro is still running around with a Plasma Rifle and got 198 of his kills with his fist.
As soon as the kill tracking for Hydra weapons is resolved, I'll switch back.

[fallen]

Next release!

[Cyrus]

slayernz: I match your Eric the Mad and raise you a Heracles, King of Whack-a-Mole, OCD sufferer and Son of Shalun after his first battle!

  

[contributor]

Now that is ridiculous. Where is this going to end?

[fallen]

contributor - they are all working very hard together to prove the point that Berserkers are over-powered and need balancing!

[Cyrus]

fallen, it's true!

Berserkers are totally overpowered, those newly spawned xenos didn't stand a chance!

Did you know they start with 7 AP* and do up to 7 damage* with their starting stats?



* Devastator Axe, Berserker Powerarmor and Drakos Shield sold separately.

[johndramey]

Yeah, those are some amazing screenshots!

I would hazard a guess, though, that Cyrus and slayernz are playing on smaller maps with bunched spawn points. I think the berserkers really, really excel in the small maps where you can focus on one single direction. If there are any ranged or flanking enemies then the start to suffer. I don't really think the berserkers are overpowered, just that in these two particular screenshots they are being used in the best possible situations. Remember, their melee weapons don't have ammo. They are able to just hack and hack and hack at endless waves of low level xenos.

[slayernz]

Berserkers need to be able to cover spawn points very closely. They can't afford to have Xeno's even 2 squares away from them. Remember, I got 199 kills from a Hydra specialist and 200 kills from a scout, so the technique is the same across all units.

Biggest advantage of the Berserker is the fact that successful hits are mostlikely 0AP cost. A loop-hole is that you can give the berserker a ranged weapon, and if he is hitting successfully, he can exhaust the ammo-count in turn 1! Yes, 0AP cost works with ranged weapons too!

Bug - the ammo counter doesn't work with berserkers, even if you have a ranged weapon equipped. I'm guessing it's because your berserker is carrying it around like a club rather than actually firing it.

Finally, congrats Cyrus ... I am very impressed with your 50 Prestige berserker! I got Teehee up to 50 prestige points in 10 or 11 battles, but it does get boring after the first two hundred kills in a battle <grin>

[Cyrus]

johndramey: This wasn't anything close to a normal mission. I abused the Airlock Access mission because it has spawn points very close together and only a short run to the exit. It was mostly getting into position and then repeating a whack-turn-move-move-turn-whack routine for 250+ turns. It was extremely boring and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I just wanted to see if it could be done. Now I know that there is no turn limit (at least not at 100 or 256 or so) and that spawns don't get stronger as the turns pass (something I suspected given how often one of my Templars gets one-shot just before the end of a mission).

In fact, Heracles is now the victim of his own success. He may have 50 prestige but he still has his starting stats (+1 XP), making him quite weak in normal missions. There's really no reason to take him on missions anymore, given that my other berserker is much more experienced.

Here is surveillance footage from the slaughterhouse:



Thanks to the 7 AP and attacks costing 0 AP some or most of the time, Heracles was able to kill the first xeno then move to the other spawn (position 2, cost 4 AP) and kill that too. The captain only had to finish off the 2nd xeno maybe once in 40 turns. I didn't finish a turn with any xeno living, so the turns went very quickly. In the other room, I had two other Templars work on their prestige at a much slower rate.