Post by pendell on Jun 1, 2016 9:30:54 GMT -5
So I just finished the Straxus optional post game and wanted to discuss my impressions of the scenario. If you don't want to be spoiled, bail out of thread now! 
All set? Good.
For the next postgame , I hope we can meet some of the other xeno species, such as the Dark Terror or the Krangg. The majority of enemies in the new scenario are the Terrox again, and TBH I feel like it's a step backward. After fighting the Narvidians at the end of the main game, seeing the Terrox again, last seen on Moklumnue Prime,
seems a step back. Even if there is a great heaping lot of 'em.
One improvement that Trese made that I appreciate is that there are a lot more destroyable spawn points, and they are not nearly as common as they were on the earlier levels. So it proved possible, on many levels , to have a real defense 'line'.
There are lots of enemies. Auto-block helped a lot: Palace Blade plus Defender's Shield plus aegis wiring plus points in focus meant that 2/3rds of all enemies attacks were negated by auto-block. Very nice!
I also unsay everything bad I've ever said about hydras. I sent them in with slayer-C and respec'd to use Hellstorm 10 talent. A single use
would clear out 8 or 9 enemies at a time, then leave fires hot enough to continue killing more enemies trying to run through the plume. They're a useful defensive asset , now!
The evasion skill also rocks. I had put 9 to 10 points in it, with the result I saw a fair number of -0 results from enemy damage; I assume they were dodged. In any event , evasion plus auto-block seems to have really saved the bacon of my Templars.
Mission 1 was a by-the-numbers 'Take these tac points, go to the next stage' scenario. An excellent warmup.
Something funky happened though: The bugs stopped attacking up through the southern hatch of the center chamber. I could see them piling up in the southern corridor
underneath the door but they wouldn't come in. I didn't mind the break but it seemed a little strange.
Mission 2 was ... really tough. This is the mission with the network of security turrets. First try, I attempted to carefully sneak around to all the first line turret switches, but was beset by an overwhelming wave of enemies; I ran out of time and space.
Did some reading online and found exactly which turrets are switched off is random within their tier -- a first-tier switch will always turn off a first-tier turret, but exactly which one within the tier is random.
Next time around snuck around to the southwestern switch and threw it -- this shut down the turret next to the tac point right above it. Took my team up to take the tac point, but was again overwhelmed; there were simply too many enemies from too many directions.
Third time I decided not to bother with tac points or whatever and just headed out straight northwest -- and bumped right into an unguarded tac point with a turret guarding it. There was also a second-tier switch nearby. We circled around the tac point to the far side away from the turret, added a paladin and a hydra to the team, flipped the switch to open a gap in tier-2 security, then abandoned the tac point and headed directly northwest.
Ran smack into an intact turret which I couldn't circumvent. Pecked at it with scouts, then charged and finished it with a Hydra. This took time and overwhelming numbers were closing on my position from all directions. There was still one more turret in our way but we were out of time. So we just ran right past the position and took the shots. Of our 6 Templars , 3 made it to the next level.
The next mission I remember was the three-deck mission where you use an elevator to transit between the decks.
Took deck 1 first -- scouted it, found a tac point, captured it. Left a garrison to hold the tac point, took the engineer and the rest of the team to the second deck.
I could not find a tac point on the second deck, and I spent double-digit turns sweeping it. Meanwhile, the first dec tac point was being heavily damaged, so I detached the engineer to return to the tac point and repair it while My captain and a hydra continued to deck 3.
On deck 3 we ran smack into a sentry turret and had to call up a scout -- from deck 1 -- to help snipe it from range, all the time defending against swarms of enemies. All of my characters were down to 20HP and I did, I'm sorry to say, cheat. Not proud of it but I'd been playing for hours of real time and I didn't want to start over.
We made it past the sentry turret and NOW we find a tac point. So call the engineer down from deck 1. She got killed on the way, so had to call another one. She gets here safely, takes the tac point. it is now about turn 75. We bring in reinforcements to hold the tac point and move to deck 2.
it is now turn 80+, and the game has been filling deck 2 with monsters for all that time. Unlike deck 1, where my garrison kept the numbers down, deck 2 is almost completely overrun with xeno of every type.
Nonetheless, our Hydra cuts a promethium path through the monsters and we run to the control console we found on our previous visit there. Meanwhile, the troops on deck one stage a break out from the tacpoint to the tac point there. Since the deck 3 console is right next to the tac point, the garrison is already in position to press that button. Our scout makes a mad dash through a horde of enemies to press the button, and she is sure to die next turn. But everyone else pushes their buttons that turn and the scenario ends. *whew*.
Is there *supposed* to be a tac point on deck 2? I forget.
Given an option to choose between two missions -- decide to hit the command center so we can gather critical intelligence, which is more important IMO than rescuing survivors. We need to know what happened here so it won't happen again.
The next two missions are fairly straightforward; I had no special difficulty with them.
The last mission made no sense -- the station is about to explode but we insist on running down to the reactor core to destroy the aliens with our own hands anyway?
I say "Screw that!" But the Templars are mad, IMO. There is absolutely no reason to waste time fighting creatures next to a void reactor going critical when our primary mission must be to escape with intelligence and/or survivors we have collected. At any rate, finish the mission.
So that's my impression. It was long, it was gruelling. Still grateful to have it, all the same!
Respectfully,
Brian P.
All set? Good.
For the next postgame , I hope we can meet some of the other xeno species, such as the Dark Terror or the Krangg. The majority of enemies in the new scenario are the Terrox again, and TBH I feel like it's a step backward. After fighting the Narvidians at the end of the main game, seeing the Terrox again, last seen on Moklumnue Prime,
seems a step back. Even if there is a great heaping lot of 'em
. One improvement that Trese made that I appreciate is that there are a lot more destroyable spawn points, and they are not nearly as common as they were on the earlier levels. So it proved possible, on many levels , to have a real defense 'line'.
There are lots of enemies. Auto-block helped a lot: Palace Blade plus Defender's Shield plus aegis wiring plus points in focus meant that 2/3rds of all enemies attacks were negated by auto-block. Very nice!
I also unsay everything bad I've ever said about hydras. I sent them in with slayer-C and respec'd to use Hellstorm 10 talent. A single use
would clear out 8 or 9 enemies at a time, then leave fires hot enough to continue killing more enemies trying to run through the plume. They're a useful defensive asset , now!
The evasion skill also rocks. I had put 9 to 10 points in it, with the result I saw a fair number of -0 results from enemy damage; I assume they were dodged. In any event , evasion plus auto-block seems to have really saved the bacon of my Templars.
Mission 1 was a by-the-numbers 'Take these tac points, go to the next stage' scenario. An excellent warmup.
Something funky happened though: The bugs stopped attacking up through the southern hatch of the center chamber. I could see them piling up in the southern corridor
underneath the door but they wouldn't come in. I didn't mind the break but it seemed a little strange.
Mission 2 was ... really tough. This is the mission with the network of security turrets. First try, I attempted to carefully sneak around to all the first line turret switches, but was beset by an overwhelming wave of enemies; I ran out of time and space.
Did some reading online and found exactly which turrets are switched off is random within their tier -- a first-tier switch will always turn off a first-tier turret, but exactly which one within the tier is random.
Next time around snuck around to the southwestern switch and threw it -- this shut down the turret next to the tac point right above it. Took my team up to take the tac point, but was again overwhelmed; there were simply too many enemies from too many directions.
Third time I decided not to bother with tac points or whatever and just headed out straight northwest -- and bumped right into an unguarded tac point with a turret guarding it. There was also a second-tier switch nearby. We circled around the tac point to the far side away from the turret, added a paladin and a hydra to the team, flipped the switch to open a gap in tier-2 security, then abandoned the tac point and headed directly northwest.
Ran smack into an intact turret which I couldn't circumvent. Pecked at it with scouts, then charged and finished it with a Hydra. This took time and overwhelming numbers were closing on my position from all directions. There was still one more turret in our way but we were out of time. So we just ran right past the position and took the shots. Of our 6 Templars , 3 made it to the next level.
The next mission I remember was the three-deck mission where you use an elevator to transit between the decks.
Took deck 1 first -- scouted it, found a tac point, captured it. Left a garrison to hold the tac point, took the engineer and the rest of the team to the second deck.
I could not find a tac point on the second deck, and I spent double-digit turns sweeping it. Meanwhile, the first dec tac point was being heavily damaged, so I detached the engineer to return to the tac point and repair it while My captain and a hydra continued to deck 3.
On deck 3 we ran smack into a sentry turret and had to call up a scout -- from deck 1 -- to help snipe it from range, all the time defending against swarms of enemies. All of my characters were down to 20HP and I did, I'm sorry to say, cheat. Not proud of it but I'd been playing for hours of real time and I didn't want to start over.
We made it past the sentry turret and NOW we find a tac point. So call the engineer down from deck 1. She got killed on the way, so had to call another one. She gets here safely, takes the tac point. it is now about turn 75. We bring in reinforcements to hold the tac point and move to deck 2.
it is now turn 80+, and the game has been filling deck 2 with monsters for all that time. Unlike deck 1, where my garrison kept the numbers down, deck 2 is almost completely overrun with xeno of every type.
Nonetheless, our Hydra cuts a promethium path through the monsters and we run to the control console we found on our previous visit there. Meanwhile, the troops on deck one stage a break out from the tacpoint to the tac point there. Since the deck 3 console is right next to the tac point, the garrison is already in position to press that button. Our scout makes a mad dash through a horde of enemies to press the button, and she is sure to die next turn. But everyone else pushes their buttons that turn and the scenario ends. *whew*.
Is there *supposed* to be a tac point on deck 2? I forget.
Given an option to choose between two missions -- decide to hit the command center so we can gather critical intelligence, which is more important IMO than rescuing survivors. We need to know what happened here so it won't happen again.
The next two missions are fairly straightforward; I had no special difficulty with them.
The last mission made no sense -- the station is about to explode but we insist on running down to the reactor core to destroy the aliens with our own hands anyway?
I say "Screw that!" But the Templars are mad, IMO. There is absolutely no reason to waste time fighting creatures next to a void reactor going critical when our primary mission must be to escape with intelligence and/or survivors we have collected. At any rate, finish the mission.
So that's my impression. It was long, it was gruelling. Still grateful to have it, all the same!
Respectfully,
Brian P.
