Stratos Orbital station impressions (spoilers!)

[ntsheep]

Yeah we're both talking about the same one pendell. That's the one that I posted the tips for on page 1 here is this thread. Give it a try next time and see how it works out. Should be able to beat it by turn 15 if you get lucky with the power nodes. Max your Overdrive talent on your Scout and put everything left into Crippling Shot. The Scout gonna feel the worst because they'll be overheating pretty bad, but should survive. Heat Sink is a good talent to have with your Engineer. You can use the Sentry Turret you have also as decoys to draw fire from the big guns and also attract xenos. They love to home in on turrets I've found.

[fallen]

Jun 2, 2016 10:53:48 GMT -5 pendell said:

it may be that my original plan is correct, and there's a way to just run through the level with the original 4 Templars. Certainly that would be optimal. I get the impression that time is not just a turn goal here; if you wait around, you'll be swamped. 

There is no path through the level that allows you to avoid all sentry guns. I think the best path (if you don't blow them up) involves through the range of 2+ guns.

[Vae Victus]

Jun 2, 2016 8:08:43 GMT -5 pendell said:

On a related point- although I was a bit inefficient in my tree unlocking and would probably be closer to a "casual" gamer than most here (I did manage to max out the Engineer Tree though), I managed to beat the levels with less difficulty and in far less turns than is mentioned by some people in this thread who (no doubt) are much more specialized and experienced players than me, so I do not think the levels are necessarily too hard.

It's postgame. You *expect* it to be harder than the main game, and for the most part it is. Some of them are quite difficult but not unsolvable. Anyone who can complete mission 2 with the sentry guns without casualties, however, I want to hear from.

I played on Normal and with Engineer max unlocked but only ran with 1 engineer on most levels--I think I had 2 Engineers on 2 levels and did not lose either. The most difficult Stratos mission, I think, was the one where we are separated and being assaulted by Narvidians while the clock runs out--I replayed it a few times to beat it with no deaths except of "one time only" Templars. The key seemed to be that certain TPs were swarmed more often than others.

Which mission is this? Are you sure it's in the Stratos expansion? I never encountered any Narvidians there. That sounds more like the third mission in the final campaign of the main game, where you are spread out all over deck 12 of the RIGHTEOUS FALLEN to fight a delaying action against a Narvidian boarding party.


Respectfully,

Brian P.

-Regarding the third point- I think you are at least partially correct and I was completely wrong about it being in stratos--though I thought that was on the Narvidian ship since it had weird geometry and we blew up the Narvidians? My memory is a little hazy.

Regarding the second point-  I think I completed Stratos Mission 2 without casualties. If that was Stratos: Defense Array, I was able it in 20 turns out of 20 goal. There is no good way to check right now since the game doesn't track where a casualty occurred for Normal difficulty but I recall Stratos as having at least 2 missions with sentry guns--one where the map has randomly generated sentry turrets-- on that one I think I got very lucky and had a straight route--I didn't have to go switch off the top right turret. I was able to blow up the 2 or 3 turrets I *had* to cross with extreme long range scouts and I think one other Templar who had really good range at the time who ran in, then retreated the 2 remaining MP out of range(the captain with a relic?)--the enemy could not hit them and I took no turret damage. The scouts damaged the turrets enough so I could run in and one-shot the turrets before they fired. I could check the turrets' range by clicking on them. On an earlier map, I did not realize that and lost a few people to miscalculation of the range.

[algesan]

Jun 1, 2016 18:29:43 GMT -5 fallen said:

ntsheep - thanks for the feedback, definitely a tough level. There are tons of levels in the game where the death of an Engineer ends the level. As the level and objectives are explicit that an Engineer is needed at the command center, I don't plan to change that either.

I took your advice to raise the starting SP to 550.

I only remember the one level when Eng loss was fatal, Prime Drop Zone IIRC.  All others you had a TP to pop a replacement.

[fallen]

Infiltration Site.

Traitor's Bunker.

Stratos Command Center.

Those are 3 I can think of without looking. I know there are more.

Thanks for the feedback!