Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 26, 2013 5:30:12 GMT -5
After playing at Brutal for a while and now even more in the Narvidian Dawn campaign something has been bothering me: The way the game determines whether your Templars lose defensive AP during the enemy phase.I regularly feel frustrated when my reserved AP is already gone for one Templar, but not another right next to him. I've been trying to figure out what exactly happens, and have found that the main condition seems to be line-of-fire or facing to be more precise. If the enemy is in the Templar's front 90 degree arc, the Templar keeps his AP, otherwise he loses one. I understand the idea behind this, to allow enemies to sneak up from the sides or behind. I can appreciate that, but it is rather unfair to melee units that benefit greatly from waiting around a corner to force ranged enemies closer. In fact, any Templar setting up an ambush around a corner is instead trapping himself. Here's an example in pictures: This is after the first enemy phase. The Neptune (used for demonstration purposes only) keeps his AP because the xeno is in the forward arc, even if there's no line-of-fire. The scout waiting around the corner lost 1 AP because the xeno is not in the forward arc, even though it's much closer. Neither can fire, so I pressed Turn again and got this: Both Templars lost 1 AP, because that always happens after the second enemy phase, regardless of where the xenos are. The Neptune can fire now, because he didn't lose an AP in the first phase. The scout has the xeno right in front of his gun, but since he lost his remaining AP, he can't pull the trigger and might well be xeno food before the next turn starts. To improve this (especially for melee units) I have these two suggestions: 1. Change the facing code to use a much bigger angle, something like 170 degrees. In other words everything in front of the "row" the Templar is on. This still allows the enemies to sneak close if they're really to the sides or back, but allows "around the corner" ambushes. 2. Change the AP loss for the second enemy phase to be more like the first: Lose 1 AP if no enemy is in sight OR current AP is higher than 1. This means that if you still had 2 AP you always lose one, but if you had just one left and now an enemy is in sight, you keep the one AP.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 26, 2013 1:11:40 GMT -5
I wouldn't mind having some tiering in the gear, but please don't make it so that players that like to save for fewer but bigger upgrades end up with 10k honor and no ability to buy midrange gear yet.
Also, please please please make it squad/captain based, not per Templar. If my "Titan Fleet Commander" wants to recruit a green Templar, he wants to outfit him with good gear directly. Having to babysit him through 10 missions just so his default weapon can be upgraded would suck.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 25, 2013 2:51:07 GMT -5
Prestige = 105/10 kills 6/2 levels 20 (1 campaign) 33 prestige points for one campaign. The campaign bonus is for the squad, not each Templar. So in your example, it'd be 13 prestige, 25% of the max. And if your Neptune is hogging all the kills, your other Templars will need more campaigns to max out.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 24, 2013 18:48:09 GMT -5
Fixed a few things in my post. Scouts have 50 prestige, not 100 like I posted at first. Also included the battle and kill counts so you can check if any values look off.
Btw, the badges/medals look awesome!
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 24, 2013 18:37:44 GMT -5
My Brutal difficulty squad has earned a total of 540 Prestige in 84 missions. The squad details are: Captain 100 - 84 Battles, 665 kills Soldier 5 - 5 battles, 30 kills Scout 50 - 84 battles, 472 kills Scout 50 - 84 battles, 607 kills Neptune 36 - 21 battles, 268 kills Hydra 39 - 58 battles, 108 kills (this would probably be well over 1000 if all fire kills counted)
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 24, 2013 14:23:11 GMT -5
The ones I can remember are in the Gatecrasher mission. If you don't go for the nearest corridor and take either the top or bottom corridors from the open area, you'll run into bonuses in the first room on each side.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 24, 2013 3:25:01 GMT -5
... interesting awards like purple hearts/kills/pacifist awards/support. ... Somehow I don't see the Templars giving out awards for pacifism... Other than that I like that ideas.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 23, 2013 13:02:36 GMT -5
Some campaigns have absolutely nothing, like Secrets of the Dark Age and Stardock Raid (I think).
One of the campaigns that has a bunch is Moons of Nachot-ugo. You'll typically find them in the middle of rooms that are somewhat out of the way, or in front of wall-mounted computer consoles.
I'm doing Narvidian Dawn now, which says there are 32, so roughly 2 per mission, but I've been too busy just completing the missions to really look.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 23, 2013 11:55:54 GMT -5
That's a great suggestion! I like the idea that you can trade a warrior for support options and it would fit very well with many of the missions in damaged ships and ancient decaying structures.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 22, 2013 5:17:02 GMT -5
The following question appeared on the Templar Assault FB page: "Would you like levels that required certain troops? For example, a level that required a Hydra and two Scouts?"That's a very interesting question that deserves a much longer answer (and discussion) than I like to post on Facebook. First off, I don't like the idea of Templars being required to start a level. i.e. "You have to have at least one Scout on the team to do this mission". What if you don't have the specialist in question, or worse, you lost him halfway in a campaign and now you can't progress? The only exception would be if the required Templar is provided (see "Escort VIP" below). What I would like to see is more varied levels and enemies that favor certain tactics in their design. At the moment I've mostly seen siege levels that favor stationary defense (Neptunes, Hydras and Soldiers are good at that) and the standard mazes that favor mobile tactics (Scouts, Berserkers and Hydras to some extent), especially when there's a turn limit. Here are some options to vary the levels:- Burn out or block access points (spawn points). Takes either fire (optimal) or another Templar welding up the hole (multiple AP/turns) - Sensors jammed by artifact. Shorter visibility range, favors melee over ranged. - Home turf. Templars are fighting on their own ship/base. One or more armories are available to restock ammo. Favors Neptunes and Soldiers since they can go through their ammo much quicker than Scouts or Hydras can. Obviously you combine this with defense objectives and swarms of attackers. - The Blob. Slow-moving invincible enemy, kills on touch (melee hit). Requires mobility to stay ahead of these while completing mission objectives. - Critter swarm. Not actually an enemy, this fills squares like fire does, hurting Templars that move over it. Requires either fire to remove or high plating/shield to cross safely. - Stealth mission. This mission starts with most spawn points inactive. Every kill and every shot fired add to a noise meter. More spawn points activate when the meter rises a certain amount. The Templars WILL get overwhelmed if they just shoot their way through, while melee kills will raise the meter only slowly. These mission options would affect your team choices before the level starts, but wouldn't block progress regardless of your team's composition:- Escort VIP. For this mission, one of your Templar slots gets taken up by an NPC that needs to be escorted into dangerous territory. It might be some hapless scientist that can barely manage to move his Leviathan, an ambassador that's only got a paper-thin spacesuit or a Templar hero that has his own weapons and abilities. You control the VIP for the mission like a normal Templar, but have to work with this VIPs limits and/or special weapons. - Transport Cargo. Choose one Templar that has to forfeit their main weapon to carry the artifact or other heavy cargo. Finally, special enemies in a level might warrant matching Templar choices:- Enemies with very high shielding/low plating would be vulnerable mostly to melee attacks. - Enemies with long range that *retreat* from your Templars would require more daring tactics. - Enemies that spawn stuff. Could be an FDF mine-layer or a Xeno queen that spawns eggs that in turn spawn xenos after a turn or two. - Explosion-on-death enemies: A xeno that splashes acid all over the place when it dies or an FDF flamethrower guy that explodes into fire when killed. These would need special measures to kill safely.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 21, 2013 4:12:55 GMT -5
I wanted to add one more thing to my earlier post on IAP content:
When you create premium campaigns, please add more backstory and a proper ending! I like finding out more about the templars, xenos and what those Narvidian artifacts are all about.
When I completed "Secrets of the Dark Age", I couldn't wait to dive in to the newly unlocked campaigns to see if I could hunt down that crazed Captain Malloc and his scary "Artificer's Gauntlet". Half a dozen campaigns later, I have not seen any hint of his fate or story. That's a bit of a letdown.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 20, 2013 8:47:30 GMT -5
I'm very happy to hear your dog is getting regular food! Err, I mean that your games make enough money to pay for your fulltime work. I'll be happy to pay for new campaigns in TA, though my budget for games and such is very limited. So far, it's been very good value for money and I'm confident you'll keep delivering. To add to the discussion, here's thing some things I wouldn't mind as IAPs: - New campaigns
- Different Templar skins (the whole team gets a different theme).
I'm sure some sub-order of the templars likes to dye their Leviathans black with skulls painted on the helmets...
- Luxury shortcuts that are not a normal part of the game (change captain class, change game difficulty level)
- Stronger starting teams (a shortcut past the hairy phase where your templars can't hit a barn door at 3 paces) I wouldn't buy these myself, but like the option.
- Unlocks for the free version: Extra captain classes and specialist templars.
In fact, as long as the content itself is fun to play without purchases, I wouldn't mind either if you sold honor/xp packs. If someone else wants to skip part of the gameplay while financing more work on TA, that's absolutely fine by me. The trouble starts when the choice becomes grinding vs buying, which seems very unlikely with a solid game like TA where every single turn is meaningful.
Finally, do NOT make me wait for arbitrary timers to run out.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 20, 2013 2:33:12 GMT -5
fallen your screenshot looks just like on my Galaxy S3: The slider and turn/special/weapon selection buttons are aligned a bit low. It doesn't impact gameplay, but it would be nicer if they were a tiny bit higher :-) Also, there is an ugly black space below the templar portraits that would look *much* better with templar portraits in it. Two more should do it.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 19, 2013 17:05:16 GMT -5
Actually, they do have an IFF. Try to aim at a templar directly, it won't let you. An Incinerator does however need a bit more actual thinking than a Neptune, given the splash damage.
I'm thinking all those accidents you keep having are caused by retrained former Neptunes (since Hydras put them out of a job) that are still blindly pulling the trigger, trusting their gun to do the thinking for them.
The *real* Hydras are too honorable to kick them out, even though they're making Hydras look like morons.
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Cyrus
Hero
Hydras rock! BURN BABY BURN!
Posts: 159
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Post by Cyrus on Aug 19, 2013 15:39:08 GMT -5
Heh, I'd have thought that you considered Hydras too dumb to learn new tricks. Don't you feel you're asking a lot of them?
More seriously, it seems the Incinerator has been designed to shoot a plasma ball that explodes on impact, so the explosion is centered at the first thing hit or max range if it doesn't hit anything. From that point of view, it makes sense the way it works now. If the plasma ball explodes at point blank, you have a problem.
I would in fact like to see some new options for Hydras, but more along the lines of a secondary mode that only fries a few squares in a straight line but has no backwash. An option to fire a smaller plasma ball would be nice too, so you can choose that for close targets (if you want to waste fuel on that).
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