Death confusion

[damien]

I'm a really big fan of this game but unlike everyone else on the forum I am awful at it.

I tried a campaign on Normal but wound up with way too many deaths.  I made a new squad (Templar Battleforce) on Easy since it said deaths wouldn't be permanent in the menu.

However after a few initial levels I did manage to incur my first death on Easy (because I am really that bad at this game) and my Soldier is now marked Dead in the menu and I see no way to use him again.  It said this difficulty level didn't have permadeath so.. how do I revive him?

[slayernz]

Weird ... your soldier shouldn't be marked anything other than ready for action in the next briefing. Maybe (and now I'm only guessing here), you have to finish the campaign or the next mission before that knight is restored? In terms of you dying a lot, have you read many of the tips and tricks that some of the forumites have written up? It's a great game, but those Xenos can be vicious if you let them close on you unexpectedly, especially from the sides or behind. The key early on is to keep the squad together as much as possible, especially with overlapping fire. Buying range-4 weapons (hint hint, Plasma Rifle) is really important, and most maps allow you to work reasonably cautiously (leave 2AP for the second phase of a turn). Finally, if you have the Templar Force, you'll have Neptunes and Hydras in your squad. The Hydra should always be covering your rear when on the move, and your Neptune is lethal when being swarmed.

Oh oh oh ... and to get movement to maximum as quickly as possible, get Quickness + Tactics up to 6 quickly. Get your primary attack up to say 15 (Ranged typically, but sometimes you rely on Warrior if you are a Melee or Hydra specialist). Then pump lots of points into Evasion because that will mean you can walk up to some Xeno's and laugh in their face when they try in vain to actually bite or claw you.

Plasma Rifles + Storm Fists are great until you can afford some better gear.

[Jacob]

damien, don't worry. I completely fail at TA, too. That actually doesn't matter to me, I'm good at CK! You should try that one, too..

Sent from Bravestar Control Center, Boston Core. Causing Havoc and Chaos in the NBZ since its beginning.

[slayernz]

Hahaha I fail at CK ...
Star Traders - I'm a Ninja in the sky, taking my Steel Song foe out one by one
Templar Assault - I'm cool, calm and collected as I spread Xeno blood in the corridors before me
Cyber Knights - I have no clue what to do, where to do it and with whom to do it against!

[Jacob]

slayernz: And they named a building after you... now I don't know why anymore...


Srsly, why TB did that??

Sent from Bravestar Control Center, Boston Core. Causing Havoc and Chaos in the NBZ since its beginning.

[damien]

Thanks for all of the help & advice. I'll try pushing through this campaign and see if the dead soldier perks back up after a few rounds. If not, perhaps, bug report time?

EDIT: Odd.. my game just crashed with a Null Pointer Exception when trying to start another mission and when I came back into the Squad screen he was no longer dead.  Nifty? 

[Jacob]

HM... A crash that lets your squad retreat from the grave?! Wow, necrophone!

Sent from Bravestar Control Center, Boston Core. Causing Havoc and Chaos in the NBZ since its beginning.

[damien]

Nov 11, 2013 15:16:40 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Finally, if you have the Templar Force, you'll have Neptunes and Hydras in your squad. The Hydra should always be covering your rear when on the move, and your Neptune is lethal when being swarmed.

It seems like most of the early campaigns only allow for Captain + 3 others, are you recommending I focus on 2 Soldiers (or Scouts?) and a Hydra?  I feel like squad composition matters quite a bit in this game!

[fallen]

damien - that is very, very strange. And now he is just alive and okay again? Do you remember the details of his first death? Died by fire ... die by ..?

[evmaker]

Nov 12, 2013 7:10:45 GMT -5 damien said:

Nov 11, 2013 15:16:40 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Finally, if you have the Templar Force, you'll have Neptunes and Hydras in your squad. The Hydra should always be covering your rear when on the move, and your Neptune is lethal when being swarmed.

It seems like most of the early campaigns only allow for Captain + 3 others, are you recommending I focus on 2 Soldiers (or Scouts?) and a Hydra?  I feel like squad composition matters quite a bit in this game!

It really is a personal preference/situation thing, some people will recommend scouts while others soldiers, and same with neptune vs hydra (long battles over those, though from general lurking it seems those that prefer soldiers to scouts, or neptunes to hydras are in the minority).

Having two of your preferred scout/soldier and a specialist hydra/neptune is a good idea though, possibly one less soldier/scout if you would prefer an extra melee specialist (like the berserker) or something else (upcoming Chaplain, though that will be a later on acquisition due to prestige/honor)

[slayernz]

damien
It's not so much a matter of what your squad composition is, but rather how you use the squad that you have chosen.

For example, if you have the captain, two Soldiers/Scouts and a Neptune, and you decide to split the team up, then it makes good sense for one of the Scouts to follow behind the Neptune. The Neptune can be very useful to clear out rooms, but if a Xeno is right in front of him at the beginning of a turn, it might be better for a Scout (or Soldier) to take out that Xeno so the Neptune can advance a few squares.

Similarly, having a Soldier/Scout stay just in front of a Hydra will allow the hydra to only have to worry about rear and side attacks.

Some missions call for you to move from one corner of the map to the other, and you usually want to have a bit of speed, so taking a squad of 3 Neptunes will definitely cramp your style. I've got three scouts trained up for just this scenario. In fact, this squad has been used to complete entire campaigns with great success.

I also have a squad of three Neptunes for those siege type missions. They hunker down and lay waste to anything stupid enough to try and advance.

So the guidance is - don't just rely on 3 units for every mission and every campaign. There is a place for every unit but tactics should be adjusted accordingly

[Lt. Hathaway]

Soldiers are better if you might get caught, scouts if you won't get caught. Scouts also have the best gear, possibly unbalancingly* so. You'll notice this when you make a Chaplain Captain and learn how much better scout armor is than officer armor (of course, getting shot at in scout armor does suck, but a Neptune prevents that from ever, ever happening.

* If armor was adjusted recently, I missed it.

[damien]

Unfortunately it looks like my problem is back..

I was on the last mission of Stardock Raid and had 2 of my 4 Templars die right on the last turn before I finished.

Now when I go start up a new campaign (Tour of Duty, below Stardock Raid) and those two guys are still dead. On Easy!

If there are any logs or screenshots or anything I can gather for you guys I'll be happy to do so.. just let me know!

EDIT: More follow-up to this!  If I just go into the mission (TO BATTLE!) and immediately abort, they're alive again at the squad screen.  So weird.

[fallen]

damien - it seems like ... well crap, it's fixed again? What the heck! Ok ... I was going to say, they died right on the last turn before game over. That seems to be the repeatable thread?