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This campaign is the best campaign I have played in any RTS.
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This campaign is the best campaign I have played in any RTS.
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I played the campaign together with Znack almost completely aswell as GoogleFrog for a few missions.
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I played the campaign together with Znack almost completely aswell as GoogleFrog for a few missions.
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Most of what I write in this review will be directed at the brutal difficulty of the campaign and might not be directly applicable to lower difficulties and less experienced players.
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Most of what I write in this review will be directed at the brutal difficulty of the campaign and might not be directly applicable to lower difficulties and less experienced players.
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What the campaign does better than any other campaign is introducing new units with wacky mechanics which is what Zero-K gameplay excels at in my opinion.
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What the campaign does better than any other campaign is introducing new units with wacky mechanics which is what Zero-K gameplay excels at in my opinion.
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[b]Balancing[/b]
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[b]Balancing[/b]
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What is the definition of a good balance for a mission?
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What is the definition of a good balance for a mission?
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I my opinion a good balance is when the mission forces you to use the unlocks because they are simply the best option and you can win without cheesing(terraforming or just porcing and ecoing up).
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I my opinion a good balance is when the mission forces you to use the unlocks because they are simply the best option and you can win without cheesing(terraforming or just porcing and ecoing up).
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If you look at the skills required to finish the campaign, some promote expansion and raiding, some promote ecoing up but most missions promote using certain units or strategies. I like it.
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If you look at the skills required to finish the campaign, some promote expansion and raiding, some promote ecoing up but most missions promote using certain units or strategies. I like it.
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I have to say that some missions really capture the meta of some maps like the Felon mission, Altaris, and the Minataur mission, Voholon Delta, for example.
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I have to say that some missions really capture the meta of some maps like the Felon mission, Altaris, and the Minataur mission, Voholon Delta, for example.
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Now if you are a total noob in RTS or Zero-K, this aspect might be lost, because at lower difficulty levels, the difference between knowing how to eco or not can make such a huge difference, that the player will win with any strategy if they can just eco better. I think this can be deincentivized if the player starts with an established economy, and letting the allies control most of the eco for you which is done in many missions.
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Now if you are a total noob in RTS or Zero-K, this aspect might be lost, because at lower difficulty levels, the difference between knowing how to eco or not can make such a huge difference, that the player will win with any strategy if they can just eco better. I think this can be deincentivized if the player starts with an established economy, and letting the allies control most of the eco for you which is done in many missions.
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Now, the campaign doesn't seem to handhold the player much and I would imagine some new players to Spring games and Zero-K feeling lost among all the UI options or never experiencing the power of Zero-Ks UI. But I can't really review the campaign from that perspective since I'm not a new player and I would probably be bored from a campaign that promoted and tried to teach all the UI features of Zero-K.
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Now, the campaign doesn't seem to handhold the player much and I would imagine some new players to Spring games and Zero-K feeling lost among all the UI options or never experiencing the power of Zero-Ks UI. But I can't really review the campaign from that perspective since I'm not a new player and I would probably be bored from a campaign that promoted and tried to teach all the UI features of Zero-K.
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I'd say the campaign missions are really focused on making the player use the unlocks without much distraction, which I personally, really enjoy.
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I'd say the campaign missions are really focused on making the player use the unlocks without much distraction, which I personally, really enjoy.
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Coop makes the missions much easier as the AI really tries to keep their units alive and you have to watch engagements carefully to not lose units of your own aswell as targeting enemies before they retreat and repair. Being able to divide tasks to your teammate allows you to pay much more attention to the engagements.
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Coop makes the missions much easier as the AI really tries to keep their units alive and you have to watch engagements carefully to not lose units of your own aswell as targeting enemies before they retreat and repair. Being able to divide tasks to your teammate allows you to pay much more attention to the engagements.
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[b]OP commanders[/b]
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[b]OP commanders[/b]
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On some maps, commanders can have a huge impact. This can make a mission easy or hard just depending your commander level and specifications.
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On some maps, commanders can have a huge impact. This can make a mission easy or hard just depending your commander level and specifications.
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Some missions are just easy because of this and I'd imagine it would be hard to balance the missions in the middle of the galaxy for this, because the commander level combined with the amount of unlocks can make or break the balance of the mission.
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Some missions are just easy because of this and I'd imagine it would be hard to balance the missions in the middle of the galaxy for this, because the commander level combined with the amount of unlocks can make or break the balance of the mission.
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But on the other hand, you can view this as a dynamic balance, where the players might fail and return later with a stronger or very specialized commander that makes the mission easier aswell as more unlocks. Giving the AI a stronger commander doesn't really compensate as the AI isn't that good at using commanders and you can usually just avoid the commander, rush it with some raiders or just outright kill it with your commander if you have the right setup(like Personal Cloak and Disintegrator gun).
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But on the other hand, you can view this as a dynamic balance, where the players might fail and return later with a stronger or very specialized commander that makes the mission easier aswell as more unlocks. Giving the AI a stronger commander doesn't really compensate as the AI isn't that good at using commanders and you can usually just avoid the commander, rush it with some raiders or just outright kill it with your commander if you have the right setup(like Personal Cloak and Disintegrator gun).
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The Venom and Hermit mission, Hastus, being quite late in the campaign and where both sides started off quite evenly without large bases, was just ridiculously easy with an upgraded commander for example.
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The Venom and Hermit mission, Hastus, being quite late in the campaign and where both sides started off quite evenly without large bases, was just ridiculously easy with an upgraded commander for example.
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Panther mission, Aspiris:
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Panther mission, Aspiris:
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[spoiler]Panthers depend on deathballing and will trade very poorly if they don't have enough numbers to stun the enemy units since they have so low DPS.
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[spoiler]Panthers depend on deathballing and will trade very poorly if they don't have enough numbers to stun the enemy units since they have so low DPS.
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Balancing this mission for brutal is kinda hard as the player starts with a relative small force and the commander level can make or break this balance easily. In my first solo run of the campaign, I just went straight for the center of the galaxy. When the enemy sent just a few Zeus and Rockos I could barely hold in this mission, and with the subsequent expansion of the enemy and no Stinger nor Stardust, I just didn't see this mission as winnable. Also Panthers exist in this vacuum where if you have too few of them, they can't engage the enemy forces as their damage isn't great while they can't take much damage in return without needing repairs as they are just too expensive to lose when you are being outecoed. Especially units like Rockos and Zeus. Rockos outrange the Heavy Tank riot, Ogre, so using that without attrition is hard aswell. When I returned to the mission with Znack, we had went wide in the galaxy and our more upgraded commander could finnish the mission himself just barely without needing to actually gain map control with Panthers and other units.
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Balancing this mission for brutal is kinda hard as the player starts with a relative small force and the commander level can make or break this balance easily. In my first solo run of the campaign, I just went straight for the center of the galaxy. When the enemy sent just a few Zeus and Rockos I could barely hold in this mission, and with the subsequent expansion of the enemy and no Stinger nor Stardust, I just didn't see this mission as winnable. Also Panthers exist in this vacuum where if you have too few of them, they can't engage the enemy forces as their damage isn't great while they can't take much damage in return without needing repairs as they are just too expensive to lose when you are being outecoed. Especially units like Rockos and Zeus. Rockos outrange the Heavy Tank riot, Ogre, so using that without attrition is hard aswell. When I returned to the mission with Znack, we had went wide in the galaxy and our more upgraded commander could finnish the mission himself just barely without needing to actually gain map control with Panthers and other units.
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This mission might be more balanced in brutal if the player recieves more Panthers so that you can defeat the enemy in detail, while also giving the enemy more forces so that winning the mission just with an upgraded commander isn't as easy.
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This mission might be more balanced in brutal if the player recieves more Panthers so that you can defeat the enemy in detail, while also giving the enemy more forces so that winning the mission just with an upgraded commander isn't as easy.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/x0chpbjd0cvakl7/20180202_164905_TitanDuel%202_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/x0chpbjd0cvakl7/20180202_164905_TitanDuel%202_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0
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[/spoiler]
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[/spoiler]
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[b]OverPowered unit combos[/b]
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[b]OverPowered unit combos[/b]
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The following are usually the goto units that we spammed if given opportunity.
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The following are usually the goto units that we spammed if given opportunity.
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[spoiler]Shieldball.
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[spoiler]Shieldball.
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Once a shieldball is big enough with Felons, Outlaws and Aspis it can generally just walk through the enemy forces with no attrition. Attrition is something that you need to avoid if the enemy have overwhelming resources or forces, which happens quite frequently in the campaign. However getting a big enough shield ball isn't exactly easy on all missions and a shieldball will generally struggle against skirmishers that have longer range than felons and can keep draining the shields constantly.[/spoiler]
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Once a shieldball is big enough with Felons, Outlaws and Aspis it can generally just walk through the enemy forces with no attrition. Attrition is something that you need to avoid if the enemy have overwhelming resources or forces, which happens quite frequently in the campaign. However getting a big enough shield ball isn't exactly easy on all missions and a shieldball will generally struggle against skirmishers that have longer range than felons and can keep draining the shields constantly.[/spoiler]
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[spoiler]Grizzly.
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[spoiler]Grizzly.
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Grizzly is just a great all-round heavy unit which is easy to keep alive and repair which allow you to minimize attrition and deathball to finish the mission quite quickly. Unlike Felons in shieldballs, it has the range, speed and accuracy to defeat or kite basically all types of skirmishers.[/spoiler]
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Grizzly is just a great all-round heavy unit which is easy to keep alive and repair which allow you to minimize attrition and deathball to finish the mission quite quickly. Unlike Felons in shieldballs, it has the range, speed and accuracy to defeat or kite basically all types of skirmishers.[/spoiler]
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[spoiler]Shield + Dominatrix
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[spoiler]Shield + Dominatrix
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Shields + Dominatrix is arguably the most OP combo in the campaign on maps where the terrain allows them. The AI doesn't really have anything that can really hurt the Dominatrix in most missions, once you have enough shields. The AI is usually not smart enough to run from them and once you start capturing enemy units, the enemy forces are usually focused on the newly captured units, making your force just snowball while also being able to penetrate deep into enemy defences without even drawing that much fire onto the shields.
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Shields + Dominatrix is arguably the most OP combo in the campaign on maps where the terrain allows them. The AI doesn't really have anything that can really hurt the Dominatrix in most missions, once you have enough shields. The AI is usually not smart enough to run from them and once you start capturing enemy units, the enemy forces are usually focused on the newly captured units, making your force just snowball while also being able to penetrate deep into enemy defences without even drawing that much fire onto the shields.
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Shields/Domi combo is quite fun to use though and on missions where the income isn't very high and the enemy starts with Big Berthas, Merlins and such it isn't that easy to get a shieldball rolling.
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Shields/Domi combo is quite fun to use though and on missions where the income isn't very high and the enemy starts with Big Berthas, Merlins and such it isn't that easy to get a shieldball rolling.
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In the end, we just felt lazy and even spammed Domis and shields on the Detriment mission, Mannia, were we faced off against loads of Banthas, Merlins and some Berthas. It turns out it is actually easier to just capture the enemy Banthas than keeping Detriments alive. :P
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In the end, we just felt lazy and even spammed Domis and shields on the Detriment mission, Mannia, were we faced off against loads of Banthas, Merlins and some Berthas. It turns out it is actually easier to just capture the enemy Banthas than keeping Detriments alive. :P
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If the AI learns to use Thunderbirds more effectively, maybe it can spam those specifically to counter Dominatrix shield balls.[/spoiler]
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If the AI learns to use Thunderbirds more effectively, maybe it can spam those specifically to counter Dominatrix shield balls.[/spoiler]
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[b]Hardest missions[/b]
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[b]Hardest missions[/b]
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Crabe, Old Falsell. Cheesed.
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Crabe, Old Falsell. Cheesed.
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[spoiler]On this mission the enemy starts with several bases and rapidly expands to almost the whole map and just spams out units non-stop. While Crabes are a great unit to stick on cliffs and have the just endlessly lobbing cannon balls at the enemy, it is not really possible to project force all over the map agaisnt heavily armored units such as Jacks, Grizzlies and Nimbus gunships when they are spammed in such numbers.
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[spoiler]On this mission the enemy starts with several bases and rapidly expands to almost the whole map and just spams out units non-stop. While Crabes are a great unit to stick on cliffs and have the just endlessly lobbing cannon balls at the enemy, it is not really possible to project force all over the map agaisnt heavily armored units such as Jacks, Grizzlies and Nimbus gunships when they are spammed in such numbers.
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While we intially cleared out the west amphibious base, with the commander, a Crabe, some Venoms and some Spider AA, the enemy were just pouring in more and more Jacks and gunships. We couldn't hold and our commander suddenly found himself isolated and surrounded. While that were going on we also tried to take some more hills with the Crabes but we just couldn't get out enough AA to defend against gunships and they were lost quite quickly. We had terraformed some walls to prevent Grizzlies and Jacks from attacking our Ancient Fabricator but they were going around everywhere pathable and destroying our expansions even though the Crabes rained fire upon them from above. We had also taken the southeast hill because that looked easy to defend with a few Crabes, some Razors and Stardusts.
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While we intially cleared out the west amphibious base, with the commander, a Crabe, some Venoms and some Spider AA, the enemy were just pouring in more and more Jacks and gunships. We couldn't hold and our commander suddenly found himself isolated and surrounded. While that were going on we also tried to take some more hills with the Crabes but we just couldn't get out enough AA to defend against gunships and they were lost quite quickly. We had terraformed some walls to prevent Grizzlies and Jacks from attacking our Ancient Fabricator but they were going around everywhere pathable and destroying our expansions even though the Crabes rained fire upon them from above. We had also taken the southeast hill because that looked easy to defend with a few Crabes, some Razors and Stardusts.
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We were trying to establish a base with our commander, but the enemy were just expanding all around him, and the enemy patrols were growing ever larger. A Grizzly and 5 Jacks could really cause issues for him. It seems the enemy were mostly ignoring him, opting instead to go for our expansions. However, there wasn't much expansion left to go for.
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We were trying to establish a base with our commander, but the enemy were just expanding all around him, and the enemy patrols were growing ever larger. A Grizzly and 5 Jacks could really cause issues for him. It seems the enemy were mostly ignoring him, opting instead to go for our expansions. However, there wasn't much expansion left to go for.
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However, we found an opening and abandoned the base in the west that we had tried to establish with the commander. At least the commander were safe and we had some mexes on the southeast hill left which were better than our previous games on this mission. But that wouldn't last long as a large force of gunships and a horde of Jacks were comming for the hills. The Jumped on top of the hill and the Area Of Effect from the Stardusts and Crabes there was just not enough.
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However, we found an opening and abandoned the base in the west that we had tried to establish with the commander. At least the commander were safe and we had some mexes on the southeast hill left which were better than our previous games on this mission. But that wouldn't last long as a large force of gunships and a horde of Jacks were comming for the hills. The Jumped on top of the hill and the Area Of Effect from the Stardusts and Crabes there was just not enough.
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| 51 |
We ended up with only our starting area and the enemy just patrolled outside the terraformed area while our Crabes fired almost constantly. We had enough AA to ward off the enemy gunships that were attacking from different angles but they usually retreated after killing a target or 2. At some point, the AI stopped producing gunships at all.
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We ended up with only our starting area and the enemy just patrolled outside the terraformed area while our Crabes fired almost constantly. We had enough AA to ward off the enemy gunships that were attacking from different angles but they usually retreated after killing a target or 2. At some point, the AI stopped producing gunships at all.
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We ended up basically expanding with terraform walls and reclaiming the destroyed Jacks.
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We ended up basically expanding with terraform walls and reclaiming the destroyed Jacks.
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We also discovered a safe way to farm Jacks with Faradays by simply moving some spiders outside our terraformed walls, letting some Jacks be stunned and then retreating inside the terraform walls before too many Grizzlies arrived. I can't say I have farmed Jacks for metal before. :P
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We also discovered a safe way to farm Jacks with Faradays by simply moving some spiders outside our terraformed walls, letting some Jacks be stunned and then retreating inside the terraform walls before too many Grizzlies arrived. I can't say I have farmed Jacks for metal before. :P
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Incidentally, it were this mission were we discovered the OP combo of Dominatrix and mobile shields. Grizzlies were just too slow to advance against hordes of Jacks. Why destroy the jacks when you can capture them, use them to draw fire and then capture even more jacks and maybe even some Grizzlies? Maybe if we started by making Domis and shields, we could have won this mission without terraform cheese and porcing in a corner.
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Incidentally, it were this mission were we discovered the OP combo of Dominatrix and mobile shields. Grizzlies were just too slow to advance against hordes of Jacks. Why destroy the jacks when you can capture them, use them to draw fire and then capture even more jacks and maybe even some Grizzlies? Maybe if we started by making Domis and shields, we could have won this mission without terraform cheese and porcing in a corner.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/gyvday85yq7xl2k/20180212_230526_Hide_and_Seek_v03_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/gyvday85yq7xl2k/20180212_230526_Hide_and_Seek_v03_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
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Disco rave, Zhurou, cheesed[spoiler]
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Disco rave, Zhurou, cheesed[spoiler]
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Combine the spam from sea levels with 4 Big berthas and a Detriment and you have an almost impossible mission to beat with regular methods. Taking out 3 Shoguns were pretty easy to do in time with subs. We cheesed this mission by terraforming a wall to prevent being overrun by enemies and hide from Line of Sight. Then we just bombed the enemy factories in 1 go with Shadows aswell as using the Disco Rave against the enemy factories to clear all the bonus objectives just in time.
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Combine the spam from sea levels with 4 Big berthas and a Detriment and you have an almost impossible mission to beat with regular methods. Taking out 3 Shoguns were pretty easy to do in time with subs. We cheesed this mission by terraforming a wall to prevent being overrun by enemies and hide from Line of Sight. Then we just bombed the enemy factories in 1 go with Shadows aswell as using the Disco Rave against the enemy factories to clear all the bonus objectives just in time.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/macwnb2vrlf9djj/20180215_060217_Porky_Islands_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/macwnb2vrlf9djj/20180215_060217_Porky_Islands_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
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Nuke, Nashpvos, meticulously planning and executing our strategy after many failed tries.
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Nuke, Nashpvos, meticulously planning and executing our strategy after many failed tries.
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[spoiler] We made a spider factory and snuck a Widow to stun the anti-nuke and nuked the big berthas as fast as we could. We also stole some metal from our ally be reclaiming one of their crabes being built. :P Then we quickly focused all our resources on Dominatrix and with the support of the 3 mobile shields we had at start, procceded to capture the Jacks and some of the Funnelwebs in the east. Then we built more shields and capcars. We were careful to not go too far into enemy territory with the captured units as we had been surrounded by defences and funnelwebs in previous games. We captured some more funnelwebs but progress were kinda slow as going against lots of defences, especially Desolators, killed of the Drones quickly. In this game our west ally had held out which was rare and the east had barely been attacked. We had started making some Athenas to ressurect more of the wrecks in the east. So everything looked like it were going just fine. This changed quickly as the enemy had spammed a huge shieldball with Racketeers and like 5 Crabes mixed in. That army steamrolled our west ally in a few minutes. The enemy still had a huge presence of Funnelwebs in the east so we couldn't really withdraw our forces from there without losing basically the whole east so we decided to just return the com that had been resurrecting Funnelwebs and Jacks in the east which also who had cloak and Dgun. I tried approaching the Shieldball with a small Dominatrix shield ball but it were quickly shut down by the Racketeers and Crabes. Crabes and Cudgels were also going up the cliffs and destroying our defences and wind generators there. I had some extra Stingers but they were being destroyed by air, Crabes and Cudgels. I tried using some Recluse to kill Crabes and Cudgels but they were lost to Crabes, forced back by Fleas and Cudgels or Disarmed by Rackeeters. The shieldball were now in range of the factories and the nuke and Spiders were pooring up the cliffs. They destroyed all our factories, caretakers and the nuke. Luckily we still had the resurrected starting Desolator which finished off the Crabes on our cliff before they could destroy all our wind generators. I started making Bandits and snipers with the Athenas we still had left to counter the Cudgels, Fleas and Crabes, while our commander would go in every once in a while to destroy Crabes or Felons in the shieldball. With the help of the cloaked commander and snipers, we turned the tide and started to wear down the last remnants of the shieldball. We started the production of Dominatrix and Shields again and proceded to capture the enemy Crabes and shieldball, and from there it was just a clean-up mission with our force in the east gaining critical mass with funnelwebs and slowly wearing down the defences there. It was a somewhat frustrating mission but winning it was rewarding in itself.
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[spoiler] We made a spider factory and snuck a Widow to stun the anti-nuke and nuked the big berthas as fast as we could. We also stole some metal from our ally be reclaiming one of their crabes being built. :P Then we quickly focused all our resources on Dominatrix and with the support of the 3 mobile shields we had at start, procceded to capture the Jacks and some of the Funnelwebs in the east. Then we built more shields and capcars. We were careful to not go too far into enemy territory with the captured units as we had been surrounded by defences and funnelwebs in previous games. We captured some more funnelwebs but progress were kinda slow as going against lots of defences, especially Desolators, killed of the Drones quickly. In this game our west ally had held out which was rare and the east had barely been attacked. We had started making some Athenas to ressurect more of the wrecks in the east. So everything looked like it were going just fine. This changed quickly as the enemy had spammed a huge shieldball with Racketeers and like 5 Crabes mixed in. That army steamrolled our west ally in a few minutes. The enemy still had a huge presence of Funnelwebs in the east so we couldn't really withdraw our forces from there without losing basically the whole east so we decided to just return the com that had been resurrecting Funnelwebs and Jacks in the east which also who had cloak and Dgun. I tried approaching the Shieldball with a small Dominatrix shield ball but it were quickly shut down by the Racketeers and Crabes. Crabes and Cudgels were also going up the cliffs and destroying our defences and wind generators there. I had some extra Stingers but they were being destroyed by air, Crabes and Cudgels. I tried using some Recluse to kill Crabes and Cudgels but they were lost to Crabes, forced back by Fleas and Cudgels or Disarmed by Rackeeters. The shieldball were now in range of the factories and the nuke and Spiders were pooring up the cliffs. They destroyed all our factories, caretakers and the nuke. Luckily we still had the resurrected starting Desolator which finished off the Crabes on our cliff before they could destroy all our wind generators. I started making Bandits and snipers with the Athenas we still had left to counter the Cudgels, Fleas and Crabes, while our commander would go in every once in a while to destroy Crabes or Felons in the shieldball. With the help of the cloaked commander and snipers, we turned the tide and started to wear down the last remnants of the shieldball. We started the production of Dominatrix and Shields again and proceded to capture the enemy Crabes and shieldball, and from there it was just a clean-up mission with our force in the east gaining critical mass with funnelwebs and slowly wearing down the defences there. It was a somewhat frustrating mission but winning it was rewarding in itself.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pd5ut3497hcqc1/20180217_211848_DigSite_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pd5ut3497hcqc1/20180217_211848_DigSite_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
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Thunderbird mission. Fel Diacia.
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Thunderbird mission. Fel Diacia.
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[spoiler]Grizzly spam.
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[spoiler]Grizzly spam.
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| 64 |
While being one of the hardest missions, this mission were beatable by standard means while also promoting the use of one of the mission unlocks, Thunderbird. The other unlocks, Swift and aircon, Crane, isn't that useful as losing them is too easy against enemy AA and especially Raptors. Just using Thunderbirds were not the way though, but Thunderbirds were certainly a nice unit to have against the Shieldballs. We were close to beating all the objectives in one go(we missed winning in less than 20 minutes by a few minutes) so I'd rate this mission highly in terms of balancing. We spammed mostly Grizzlies and the Lances/penetrators, hover laser arty, were certainly a threat to our Grizzlies but we could just retreat them after taking some damage and the Lances would waste most of their time shooting at the allies units.
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64 |
While being one of the hardest missions, this mission were beatable by standard means while also promoting the use of one of the mission unlocks, Thunderbird. The other unlocks, Swift and aircon, Crane, isn't that useful as losing them is too easy against enemy AA and especially Raptors. Just using Thunderbirds were not the way though, but Thunderbirds were certainly a nice unit to have against the Shieldballs. We were close to beating all the objectives in one go(we missed winning in less than 20 minutes by a few minutes) so I'd rate this mission highly in terms of balancing. We spammed mostly Grizzlies and the Lances/penetrators, hover laser arty, were certainly a threat to our Grizzlies but we could just retreat them after taking some damage and the Lances would waste most of their time shooting at the allies units.
|
| 65 |
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pa2bc6xmj7v9a0j/20180210_225337_Valles_Marineris_v2_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
|
65 |
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pa2bc6xmj7v9a0j/20180210_225337_Valles_Marineris_v2_104.0.1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
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| 66 |
Sea missions
|
66 |
Sea missions
|
| 67 |
The pure sea missions felt quite difficult and spammy. I'm not saying spammy is bad, just that it is different. It might be due to the balance of ships and my lack of understanding of using ships but also due to that most ships are fast, and Torpedo defences being relatively cost effective but individually weak.
|
67 |
The pure sea missions felt quite difficult and spammy. I'm not saying spammy is bad, just that it is different. It might be due to the balance of ships and my lack of understanding of using ships but also due to that most ships are fast, and Torpedo defences being relatively cost effective but individually weak.
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| 68 |
On the mission where you get Corsair and Seawolf, Juliburg, the enemy would continously pull through the frontline with their faster ships and raid us in the back. They were also extremely fast at rebuilding in lost territory with plenty of defense. We didn't finish the mission in time.
|
68 |
On the mission where you get Corsair and Seawolf, Juliburg, the enemy would continously pull through the frontline with their faster ships and raid us in the back. They were also extremely fast at rebuilding in lost territory with plenty of defense. We didn't finish the mission in time.
|
| 69 |
\n
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69 |
\n
|
| 70 |
[b]Dynamic difficulty[/b]
|
70 |
[b]Dynamic difficulty[/b]
|
| 71 |
There are a lot of factors more or less under the players control which can make a mission easier.
|
71 |
There are a lot of factors more or less under the players control which can make a mission easier.
|
| 72 |
\n
|
72 |
\n
|
| 73 |
Com level and com setup
|
73 |
Com level and com setup
|
| 74 |
Generally it is best to go with a com with lots of DPS or enough range to compete with skirmishers.
|
74 |
Generally it is best to go with a com with lots of DPS or enough range to compete with skirmishers.
|
| 75 |
On missions where the enemy starts with a lot of stuff and it is too risky to use the com, it is arguably best to use a resurrecting com with additional buildpower. Cloaking the com is a great way to just sneak by enemy units, while Dgun is a great secondary weapon to use if there is a heavy unit that needs to be killed.
|
75 |
On missions where the enemy starts with a lot of stuff and it is too risky to use the com, it is arguably best to use a resurrecting com with additional buildpower. Cloaking the com is a great way to just sneak by enemy units, while Dgun is a great secondary weapon to use if there is a heavy unit that needs to be killed.
|
| 76 |
\n
|
76 |
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|
| 77 |
Clearing mission objectives one by one.
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77 |
Clearing mission objectives one by one.
|
| 78 |
While me and Znack had initially set out to clear all mission objective in one go, we sometimes didn't feel like replaying the mission just to finish all the objects if we failed some. If you have the goal of clearing all Bonus Objectives, clearing them in separate games can sometimes make them much easier to do.
|
78 |
While me and Znack had initially set out to clear all mission objective in one go, we sometimes didn't feel like replaying the mission just to finish all the objects if we failed some. If you have the goal of clearing all Bonus Objectives, clearing them in separate games can sometimes make them much easier to do.
|
| 79 |
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79 |
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|
| 80 |
Pause micro and game speed.
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80 |
Pause micro and game speed.
|
| 81 |
Since there is no buildup phase in most missions, it can be hard to know what you are facing unless you have played the mission before and as such, I am really tempted to pause the game or lower the gamespeed to better be able to assess the enemy assets aswell as microing my units. The AI can have infinite APM so why shouldn't the player be able to abuse that aswell. :P
|
81 |
Since there is no buildup phase in most missions, it can be hard to know what you are facing unless you have played the mission before and as such, I am really tempted to pause the game or lower the gamespeed to better be able to assess the enemy assets aswell as microing my units. The AI can have infinite APM so why shouldn't the player be able to abuse that aswell. :P
|
| 82 |
[spoiler]On the Lucifer and Desolator mission, Sapphire, we had Scorpion that snuck by our defences, into our base, used manual attack to stun a Lucifer and destroyed it, destroyed most of our caretakers near our factories and then went on to attack our main body of singularity reactors that we had built greedily next to eachother. Luckily I paused the game, started building raiders, made terraform and overran the Scorpion with newly built raiders and a few bombers.
|
82 |
[spoiler]On the Lucifer and Desolator mission, Sapphire, we had Scorpion that snuck by our defences, into our base, used manual attack to stun a Lucifer and destroyed it, destroyed most of our caretakers near our factories and then went on to attack our main body of singularity reactors that we had built greedily next to eachother. Luckily I paused the game, started building raiders, made terraform and overran the Scorpion with newly built raiders and a few bombers.
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| 83 |
https://www.
dropbox.
com/s/yqfryufvy5ikkat/20180218_172631_Craterv01_104.
0.
1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.
sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
|
83 |
https://www.
dropbox.
com/s/ifbkcddplnb7j52/20180218_230112_SapphireShores_Dry_V2_104.
0.
1-151-g11de57d%20maintenance.
sdfz?dl=0[/spoiler]
|
| 84 |
\n
|
84 |
\n
|
| 85 |
Memorization
|
85 |
Memorization
|
| 86 |
Once you have failed the mission a few times, it is generally much easier to tailor your strategy to fit the mission. So even as you are failing, you are getting closer to victory.
|
86 |
Once you have failed the mission a few times, it is generally much easier to tailor your strategy to fit the mission. So even as you are failing, you are getting closer to victory.
|
| 87 |
\n
|
87 |
\n
|
| 88 |
\n
|
88 |
\n
|
| 89 |
[b]Some notes about AI:[/b]
|
89 |
[b]Some notes about AI:[/b]
|
| 90 |
AI Thunderbirds
|
90 |
AI Thunderbirds
|
| 91 |
I often saw Thunderbirds just fly around, not doing much and just get killed. Sometimes they would attack static buildings. I rarely if ever saw them attacking just mobile units. The campaign would be a lot harder if they actually attacked the mobile forces of the player. On the other hand, it might be more frustrating than fun to have your forces randomly disarmed throughout the game and your cloaked units randomly decloaked depending on AI targeting.
|
91 |
I often saw Thunderbirds just fly around, not doing much and just get killed. Sometimes they would attack static buildings. I rarely if ever saw them attacking just mobile units. The campaign would be a lot harder if they actually attacked the mobile forces of the player. On the other hand, it might be more frustrating than fun to have your forces randomly disarmed throughout the game and your cloaked units randomly decloaked depending on AI targeting.
|
| 92 |
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|
92 |
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|
| 93 |
AI Gunships
|
93 |
AI Gunships
|
| 94 |
It seems the enemy stopped making gunships after a while. Maybe it is them responding the amount of AA the player has. However, I think that gunships are some of the best anti-cheese there is in regards to terraforming or porcing.
|
94 |
It seems the enemy stopped making gunships after a while. Maybe it is them responding the amount of AA the player has. However, I think that gunships are some of the best anti-cheese there is in regards to terraforming or porcing.
|
| 95 |
\n
|
95 |
\n
|
| 96 |
Gunships are arguably one of the best anti-cheese/terraform units and would really have annoyed our cheese on the few missions where we terraformed.
|
96 |
Gunships are arguably one of the best anti-cheese/terraform units and would really have annoyed our cheese on the few missions where we terraformed.
|
| 97 |
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|
97 |
\n
|
| 98 |
[b]Cheesing[/b]
|
98 |
[b]Cheesing[/b]
|
| 99 |
In general, cheesing isn't a fun way to win as that typically goes against the missions goal of using certain types of units or strategies. On the other hand, it is hard to prevent all possible forms of cheese. When I played the original Total Annihilation missions, I mostly cheesed them by just porcing and winning with air units as the enemy had such weak AA defences.
|
99 |
In general, cheesing isn't a fun way to win as that typically goes against the missions goal of using certain types of units or strategies. On the other hand, it is hard to prevent all possible forms of cheese. When I played the original Total Annihilation missions, I mostly cheesed them by just porcing and winning with air units as the enemy had such weak AA defences.
|
| 100 |
I think the campaign is good at incentivizing the player to play the missions as intended, and the situations presented in the missions are usually trying to make the unlocks the best way to win. However, winning a mission by cheesing, while clearing all Bonus Objectives in time is usually a puzzle in itself and is kinda fun and interesting. Maybe it is fine or even desirable that the players can cheese missions if they really struggle with it, but on the other hand it feels cheap to win a mission by terraforming and abusing the AI.
|
100 |
I think the campaign is good at incentivizing the player to play the missions as intended, and the situations presented in the missions are usually trying to make the unlocks the best way to win. However, winning a mission by cheesing, while clearing all Bonus Objectives in time is usually a puzzle in itself and is kinda fun and interesting. Maybe it is fine or even desirable that the players can cheese missions if they really struggle with it, but on the other hand it feels cheap to win a mission by terraforming and abusing the AI.
|
| 101 |
\n
|
101 |
\n
|
| 102 |
\n
|
102 |
\n
|
| 103 |
[b]Randomness in difficulty[/b]
|
103 |
[b]Randomness in difficulty[/b]
|
| 104 |
The targeting of the AI in some missions can really make a mission difficult or easy.
|
104 |
The targeting of the AI in some missions can really make a mission difficult or easy.
|
| 105 |
Particularly the difficulty on the Zombie mission, where you get Ultimatums, Tempest, an early death of heavy unit can snowball into the enemy losing their defences early in the game.
|
105 |
Particularly the difficulty on the Zombie mission, where you get Ultimatums, Tempest, an early death of heavy unit can snowball into the enemy losing their defences early in the game.
|
| 106 |
This randomness is probably less impactful in lower difficulty settings, as the player should have an easier time just improving and overpowering the enemy defences. I wouldn't consider this a big issue, and it is easy to argue that some randomness is good, as it forces the player to adapt, rather than just memorizing all the things the mission throw at you if play the mission several times.
|
106 |
This randomness is probably less impactful in lower difficulty settings, as the player should have an easier time just improving and overpowering the enemy defences. I wouldn't consider this a big issue, and it is easy to argue that some randomness is good, as it forces the player to adapt, rather than just memorizing all the things the mission throw at you if play the mission several times.
|
| 107 |
\n
|
107 |
\n
|
| 108 |
[b]Replayability.[/b]
|
108 |
[b]Replayability.[/b]
|
| 109 |
Personally I don't see much reason to replay the missions except just finishing off the few Bonus Objectives that we haven't already finished. Some of earlier missions will be ridiculously easy with higher com levels, more unlocks and especially, if you gear the commander specifically for that mission. I suppose you could gimp yourself by removing all the com modules or restrict yourself to only winning with a few units if you really wanted, but then you are just making your own challenges.
|
109 |
Personally I don't see much reason to replay the missions except just finishing off the few Bonus Objectives that we haven't already finished. Some of earlier missions will be ridiculously easy with higher com levels, more unlocks and especially, if you gear the commander specifically for that mission. I suppose you could gimp yourself by removing all the com modules or restrict yourself to only winning with a few units if you really wanted, but then you are just making your own challenges.
|
| 110 |
A lot of the difficulty in the first run of the campaign is figuring out what you need to do in each mission. Now, if we had played the campaign on lower difficulty settings, we could replay the campaign on higher difficulties, but now we played it on the hardest difficulty, and I feel that raising the difficulty even more, would most likely just force the player to cheese which would decrease the enjoyment of playing the campaign, as you basically would have to abuse the AI, use porc and terraform to win on the harder missions.
|
110 |
A lot of the difficulty in the first run of the campaign is figuring out what you need to do in each mission. Now, if we had played the campaign on lower difficulty settings, we could replay the campaign on higher difficulties, but now we played it on the hardest difficulty, and I feel that raising the difficulty even more, would most likely just force the player to cheese which would decrease the enjoyment of playing the campaign, as you basically would have to abuse the AI, use porc and terraform to win on the harder missions.
|
| 111 |
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|
111 |
\n
|
| 112 |
Edit:Added replay links.
|
112 |
Edit:Added replay links.
|
Zero-K Brutal Coop Campaign review