thoughts on level 2

[anvil]

This is where the elevator is at the bottom.

I've played this 15 times for a few reasons. I've won once!

Here's what I have learned

For a tutorial its too hard.

I have no clue just how I won the one time.

6 games out of 15 the random skitter spawn created a scenario where the casualties on the TAC center were 1/5, meaning one hit left.I consider that when this happens the chances of winning are slim or none. I wish there was a abort key for this situation.

Once I learned how to minimize my initial losses is before activating the TAC center my chances improved.

My winning game (game 2) I activated the engineer and made a dash to the north and the new TAC center.

The next 6 failed for three primary reasons
Early casualties taken before activating TAC center1 and just plain overwhelmed enroute and not using the "kill zone" properly.

I decided to activate a soldier first. I thought the extra kill zone would help. Also I wanted to learn how to use both one and two kill zones.

What I learned is the skitters can "see" these zones and will select the best path for themselves such as hidden by corners and diagonal movement.

My last game I went back to activating the engineer and making a dash.

I also learned you could have more than 4 characters in the game. Learned this by game 5 or so. I believe in a tutorial you should make this absolutely clear.

I reached the second TAC center in relatively good shape, Luthor was holding on, and the new soldier was coming up rapidly from the rear soaking off enemy reinforcements by use of his overwatch/ killing zones.

I got the engineers dialog saying protect me for 3-4 turns so I can secure the building. My assumption(sheesh on me) was to leave him there and protect him which I did with my now 4 players. Well, nothing happened so on the fifth turn of protection I realized, much to my embarrassment, I had to play "capture the flag" and use his flag skill!

Heart in hand it took four more turns to get the next engineer dialogue stating that I had to do one more thing. In the heat of the moment, my heart dropped into the dirt, started the next turn, lost
Rachman,,, game over. Alas I'm still not sure just what I need to do next. Enter the building,,, use the flag,,,I'm sure I'll figure that out in the next ,2-3 games or do.

Trust this is not a negative from me.

However I believe you have way more explaining to do in the tutorial about how to use these different types of units...

Unless your goal is to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and run off the casual gamers early on.

You may make me hollar,,, you may make me cry,,, you may make me stomp my phone,,, but you will never run me off!

Hope you understand what I'm trying to say. I'm playing on normal

[En1gma]

anvil- I had a few rough games on that one, but I just breezed through it on Nightmare Ironman in 12 turns.

First turns run everyone out and stay to the North. Captain runs to block the northern ingress, Knight runs past the north ingress and blocks the northern gap from the west. Soldier runs *outside* the 2 range kill zone on the TP. Set him up dead center on the far west, then have him OW the southern ingress on the west flank.

Hold position until Engineer spawns, then begin matching north immediately with the Captain, Knight, and new Engineer.

Very important- run the soldier as far south as he can go on the *same column*, then have him OW the same ingress. Putting him on the bottom affects the 'heat map' so that any Xeno that spawns to the west will gravitate down into his OW and not take the north western path to the Tact Point.

Make your way to the second TP and capture it while blocking the north and east pathways with the Knight and Capn.

Worked like a charm for me, hope it helps you!

[anvil]

Thanks, I'll try it. I did try leaving a soldier to protect the TP, but he wasn't strong enough to protect TP1 long enough. Especially when the random creation of skitters on turn 1 brought TP1damage to 1_5, meaning one HP left.

[fallen]

anvil - thanks for the full feedback. I think if you read the tutorial text careful, we are doing our best to share these ideas (such as, the tutorial in level 2 talks about how you have 6 Army Cap and you can summon more Templars, and you could wait to summon a second Soldier).

What types of attacks are you making against enemies? Are you using OW? If a scittering slips through OW, do you use Burst Fire to kill the scittering and then put OW back up?

I hope En1gma's suggestions help!

Not trying to run you off -- but if you'd be willing to try the game on Easy and give us feedback, is that any better?

[anvil]

About running me off was my humor. I've been a fan for a three years give or take and love your game system. And you miss my point. It has nothing to do with what happens to me and how long it takes me to do anything. You guys are in my opinion the top game designers out there. This game is kickass, and looks like it will be your best yet.

But I'm not here to test my,, um er metal against your system. I'm here to find flaws and add my feedback on playability.

I've seen a few of your hard core fans here say the same thing. Better documentation, better differentiation between hardness levels and I agree with them. Lol, I restarted HOS just so I could go back to red hill storeroom just to see what I missed because there was no indication you couldn't go back in the dialogue! And you changed it. That's why I'm here.

I tend to play levels over and over when playtesting because it shows me things that hard gameplay doesn't.

For instance, if I play 15 or so levels and find a significant number of times, my TP is nearly destroied by the random creation of skitters, you will not see that if you play it once. That may be significant or it just may be my luck of the die rolls. But I think you should know about it.

And no, I will play on normal. Seems that should be the level to give most people a good challenge after work for fun. Anything above should be for hardcore and above and easy should be for those new to gaming in general.

So there was no wine there, just a little cheese.

[Officer Genious]

... Or some are on Easy because the first TA didn't go so well for them. ;_;

[anvil]

Found another problem

The dialogue states "you have enough points for an engineer" I usually have 598. Shouldn't there be enough when I get the dialogue?

[Cory Trese]

May 29, 2015 15:09:43 GMT -5 anvil said:

Found another problem

The dialogue states "you have enough points for an engineer" I usually have 598. Shouldn't there be enough when I get the dialogue?

We were just working on that today. We made a mistake in the way that part of the tutorial was coded, and we have to fix it.

[Officer Genious]

Playing lvl 2 on Normal, I have to agree with anvil. I'm still working on it and its to the point where I'm effectively metagaming the game. I know enemies primarily come from the upper or lower left of base 1, so I only really need Luther to sit there until I can call in another Soldier. I know there's a knot of enemies across the bridge, so I should move my Captain up first to throw grenades at them. I just learned that apparently Xeno spawn on BOTH sides of base 2 and the hallway to the left as well as on the bridge to the south (where Xenos flip coins to decide if they want to go North or South).

Its a little silly that I feel the need to memorize enemy locations to beat a level rather than being able to adapt to seen Xeno movement. Its largely because I can't see Xeno unless they just spawned in my small LoS that I have to metagame it-- otherwise, you really can't figure out where they are.

[ntsheep]

The only problem I've had with level 2 is the fact that on the second turn at least 2 to 3 Xenos make a rush and hit your TP. This has happen on Normal and Hard. Today on my first try at Hard, I did manage to kill 2 of the Xenos thanks to Overwatch, but the third got through and hit my TP 3 times. Without the Repair ability for Engineers yet, having that much damage that early makes things a little stressful. Once you learn how level two is laid out in terms of spawn point and how the Xenos react, it's fairly straight forward to beat. All that aside, this game is great so far. The TB's deserve the weekend off

[ntsheep]

May 29, 2015 15:57:07 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

Playing lvl 2 on Normal, I have to agree with anvil. I'm still working on it and its to the point where I'm effectively metagaming the game. I know enemies primarily come from the upper or lower left of base 1, so I only really need Luther to sit there until I can call in another Soldier. I know there's a knot of enemies across the bridge, so I should move my Captain up first to throw grenades at them. I just learned that apparently Xeno spawn on BOTH sides of base 2 and the hallway to the left as well as on the bridge to the south (where Xenos flip coins to decide if they want to go North or South).

Its a little silly that I feel the need to memorize enemy locations to beat a level rather than being able to adapt to seen Xeno movement. Its largely because I can't see Xeno unless they just spawned in my small LoS that I have to metagame it-- otherwise, you really can't figure out where they are.

Giggywig: You take the left flank and I'll take the right.

Pez: You always get the right flank!

Giggywig: We've never done this before, idiot!

[Officer Genious]

ntsheep:

Pez: Let's flip Winky-- belly I go right, tails I go left.
Winky: What're you-- ahhh!!
Giggywig: I get right. Ha!

[CdrPlatypus]

I haven't had a problem with lvl 2. I position the solider to gaurd the SW flank and then start an assult up the middle with the cpt, knight and engineer. The cpt hangs back a bit so he can dart back and forth with ranged and grenade if necessary and the knight and engineer slog forward.

By being aggressive early Heading north you can keep xenos coming from that direction in check while getting enough to grab a second solider then once you do send him north to help cover the engineer as he takes the enemy point.

[Officer Genious]

I can reach the second base, but some random crap always gets me first-- a Xeno striking from outside anyone's view range, my first base randomly taking damage from nothing at all, losing a character in the last two or three turns...

Rather maddening.

[ntsheep]

You should watch this movie my Queen Officer Genious. I'm sure you'll love it,

www.imdb.com/title/tt0100666/