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[Tormuse]

I beat the Queen!  Yay!  :D

Now that I have a better idea how the game works, I thought I'd try a more challenging class than the HW specialist, and found that the medic turned out quite well!  :)

I experienced ammo shortages for 90% of the game because I didn't find any weapons that used anything other than 9mm or 5.56mm ammo until I found the Combat Shotgun on level 7.  (The Combat Shotgun made the endgame *possible;*  I don't know how I would have dealt with groups of Praetorians at the end otherwise, especially when they started teleporting in next to me)  :|  At one point, early on, I ran myself completely out of bullets and had to use a stimpack to make a mad dash through the Storage tower and, luckily, gathered enough ammo to reestablish myself.  I'm sure I wouldn't have survived if I hadn't found the Compact Pistol.  I don't know much about how damage works in this game, but it seems to use ammo much more efficiently than any of the other 9mm weapons, and especially once I got advanced sidearm skill, it became quite an effective weapon that I used right until the end of the game.  I mostly used it on enemies at range and I liked to keep the shotgun handy for close encounters.  ;)

-- AliensRL 0.8.2 Post Mortem ----------------------------------------

  Name     : Tormuse
  Class    : Medic
  Rank     : Veteran
  Result   : killed the queen and escaped
  Score    : 16436

  Total experience  : 10875
  Experience left   : 75
  Game length       : 194590 turns

  Security keycards : 8
  Military keys     : 0

  Armor   : Power armor [4]
  Sidearm : M4A5 compact pistol (7/7)
  Primary : 12g. combat shotgun (5/5)
  Medpacks: 5

-- Graveyard ---------------------------------------------------------

                               #X.#                             
                               #..#                             
                               #..#                             
                               #..#                             
  ##############################//##############################
  ............................./../.............................
  ............................./../.............................
  ##############################--####################-#####/###
  ...°..°.#...°.#...°....#..þ..#..#....#..þ.aþ.....#....a#...°.°
  ........#.....#.......°#.....#..#....#..........|.....|......
  °..°....#..Ü..#°.Ü..Ü..#..Ü..#..#...°#..ÜÜÜ.ÜÜÜ..|....%|..Ü...
  ##/######.....#........#.....#..#....#...........|....]|%.....
  ...þ..þ.#..Ü..#..Ü..Ü..#..Ü.þ#..#....|..ÜÜÜ.ÜÜÜ.þ|.....|..Ü...
  ........#°....|........#.....#..#a...#...........|.....|°.....
  /ÜÜ.ÜÜ..#..Ü..#||......|..Ü..#..#....#þ|ÜÜÜ.ÜÜÜ..|.....|..Ü...
  .......þ#°....#a....°.a#þ....#..#....#..%........|.....|......
  .ÜÜ.ÜÜ..#..Ü..####-#####.þ...#..#....#.|ÜÜÜ.ÜÜÜ..|.....|......
  .......þ#°....#..°.°..a####-##..#°..°#a%.........#a....#..%...
  ........#.°...#........#/....|..#....#..........####-#####/##
  ..%%%...####-##..Ü..Ü.a|....°#..#..°.#....þ.þ.þ..#.þ...|....þ
  ###/#####.°...#°......°|..Ü..#..####-####-------##.....#þ.....
  ........#°...°#a.......|.....#..#......#a°.......#..Ü..#......
  ........#.°...#.|..°...#...°a#..#.....°#°........#þ....#.....þ
  ....~~~.##---###------###-####..#..Ü...#..Ü..Ü...#..Ü.þ####-##
  ....~~~.#...................a#..#°.....#.........#.....#.þ...þ
  ....~~~.#....................|..#a.Ü...#°.Ü..Ü...#þ.Ü..#þ.....
  .%......#....................#..#......#a........#.....#......
  ##/#############-###--------##..#°.Ü...|..Ü..Ü..°#...þ.#..þ.þ.
  .þ.þ.þ..#.........#..........#..#......#.........##---###-####
  ........#.........#].........#..#..Ü...#..Ü..Ü...#.......#..°
  .ÜÜÜ.Ü..|.........#.%......|.#..#......#°........|........#...
  .%......#.........|.......%..#..#°.....#.........#þ.ÜÜ.Ü..#a..

-- Skills ------------------------------------------------------------

  Sidearms      : advanced
  Light weapons : basic
  Heavy weapons : untrained
  Technical     : expert
  Medicine      : master
  Fitness       : basic
  Perception    : basic

-- Ammunition --------------------------------------------------------

  9mm ammo      : 173/400
  5.56 ammo     : 400/400
  .44 ammo      : 150/150
  M309 ammo     : 500/500
  M250 ammo     : 5/500
  60mm gren.    : 24/40
  12g. shells   : 121/200
  napalm cartrid: 20/20
  frag grenade  : 4/4
  inc grenade   : 2/4
  krak grenade  : 1/4

-- Other items -------------------------------------------------------

  5 * medpack
  5 * painkiller pack
  3 * stimpack
  4 * multi-tool
  5 * armor pack
  8 * security key
  1 * military medpack
  1 * sentry turret kit

-- Kills (676) -------------------------------------------------------

  159 juveniles
  77 warriors
  22 elites
  17 praetorians
  133 scavengers
  107 hunters
  19 stalkers
  99 drones
  38 workers
  4 overseers
  1 queen

-- Messages ----------------------------------------------------------

 You pick up 12x 12g. shells.
 You activate the elevator. Entering
 Storage Tower, level 1...
 There is a medpack lying here. The
 hunter slashes you!
 You pick up a medpack. The hunter
 shreds you!
 The hunter dies.
 You reload your weapon.
 There is 4x 12g. shells lying here.
 You pick up 4x 12g. shells.
 There is 12x 12g. shells lying here.
 You pick up 12x 12g. shells.
 You enter the corridor. Entering
 Civilian Tower, level 1...

----------------------------------------------------------------------



[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Interesting! Technically I thought that Shotgun/Pistol is no longer viable for the latter levels -- cool emergent balance xP

[Tormuse]

Well, if the Combat Shotgun isn't supposed to be viable in the later levels, then you need some rebalancing, because the Combat Shotgun kicks serious ass!  :D  I was able to kill Praetorians with six or seven shells, and that's with basic light weapons skill.  (Of course, that's at point-blank range, which meant I was frequently impaled while I was shooting them, but having Power Armour and expert medical skill (later Master) made it doable)  :)  EDIT:  Oh, and I hit the Queen with two Incendiary grenades and a Krak grenade and finished her off with Shotgun fire.

For most of the game, though, I was using a combination of whatever pistol I had at the time and a primary weapon that fires 5.56mm bullets.  (I can't remember the name of the weapon, but it held 30 bullets and fired six rounds per volley)  I found a sniper rifle at one point, which appeared to be more ammo efficient, but didn't kill enemies fast enough.  I preferred to use the above-mentioned rapid-fire weapon when I wanted things dead fast, (like Stalkers and Elites) and switched to the pistol when I wanted more ammo efficiency.  (for killing smaller or individual enemies)  Using the pistol so much meant that I tended to take a fair bit of damage, but expert medical skill took the edge off of that.  (I might as well play to the character's strength)  ;)

So, it required a different play-style from my earlier HW Specialist game, but still perfectly viable.  :)

[Matt_S]

Tormuse, the lean, mean, rogueliking machine.

[skarczew]

Gratz.

Without having Medicine at Master level you won't do it that easily :P .

I didn't find any weapons that used anything other than 9mm or 5.56mm ammo

I think you have not explored enough - I had no single late game without Heavy weapon found. It was more like few - several of them, each game.

Interesting! Technically I thought that Shotgun/Pistol is no longer viable for the latter levels -- cool emergent balance xP

Pff. Bad memory! Bad Kornel, bad!
http://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,4892.msg39695.html#msg39695

For most of the game, though, I was using a combination of whatever pistol I had at the time and a primary weapon that fires 5.56mm bullets.  (I can't remember the name of the weapon, but it held 30 bullets and fired six rounds per volley)

H&K G36 rifle. Not-so-common one.

I don't know much about how damage works in this game, but it seems to use ammo much more efficiently than any of the other 9mm weapons, and especially once I got advanced sidearm skill, it became quite an effective weapon that I used right until the end of the game.

M4A4 gun is quite decent as well, just to mention.

The only thing I would change in Combat Shotgun now is damage spread mechanism. Sometimes it is too hax (like explosions from grenades / RPG) and bypasses some objects it should not, probably.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

It's quite sad that this balance seem to be there when the next update is going to blow it apart... but still great gameplay ^^.

[skarczew]

It's quite sad that this balance seem to be there when the next update is going to blow it apart... but still great gameplay ^^.

Don't worry.

[Tormuse]

I think you have not explored enough - I had no single late game without Heavy weapon found. It was more like few - several of them, each game.

Well, I completely explored four or five Security levels and partially explored two or three Military levels.  I also explored most of the Storage levels.  So, I think I explored a fair bit; I guess I was just unlucky.  In my previous (HW Specialist) game, I found two Heavy weapons in the whole game and both of them were the one I already had.

M4A4 gun is quite decent as well, just to mention.

I found one of those too.  I also found a [something] 88 combat pistol that carried 18 9mm bullets, but it took a lot more shots to kill each of the aliens than the Compact pistol, so I ditched it.  I found a gun that fired M250 ammo, but I never found any more than the 5 shots that it had, so I never got to try it out.  :(  I was disappointed that I didn't find a pulse rifle in this game, since I had full ammo for it, and I have yet to see a weapon that uses the 60mm grenades or the napalm cartridges.

[thelaptop]

We need a lexicon of ChaosForge words.  Here's a contribution:

Tormusian Adj. Used to describe a juggernaut of a rogue-like player that aids in demolishing ranged combat rogue-likes.

2devian Adj. A specialisation of Tormusian with respect to a specific rogue-like related to Doom.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

Tormuse, your suggestions in terms of combat balance would be invaluable. We will be redesigning the damage/tohit system for the next beta to be less random, and any ideas are really welcome.

[Tormuse]

OKay, well, setting aside the (overpowered?) combat shotgun, there needs to be some adjustment to the armour balance.  Even without technical skill, I acquired way more armour packs than I could use and my armour was never remotely in any danger of being destroyed.  (And even if it did, there were enough extra suits of armour around that it wasn't an issue)

Other than that, I'd say the balance is pretty good;  ammo was scarce enough to make things tense and interesting, but there was still enough for the game to be doable.  It would have been nice to have found some more interesting weapons, but like I said, I probably just had an unlucky game this time.

Just out of curiosity, are there any plans to have a game mechanic having to do with the aliens having acid for blood?

EDIT:  Oh yeah, one more thing.  Is there a way to scroll the map around without actually walking to the location?  It seems to me that I should be able to actually know where the elevators are when I look up their location on terminals.

[skarczew]

OKay, well, setting aside the (overpowered?) combat shotgun (...)

I won't touch power of shotgun now, because it is rare enough. And once Kornel changes code, it will probably need rebalancing anyway.

(...) there needs to be some adjustment to the armour balance.  Even without technical skill, I acquired way more armour packs than I could use and my armour was never remotely in any danger of being destroyed.  (And even if it did, there were enough extra suits of armour around that it wasn't an issue)

I agree. And I have a very easy solution for it :P .

I'd say the balance is pretty good

I agree

EDIT:  Oh yeah, one more thing.  Is there a way to scroll the map around without actually walking to the location?  It seems to me that I should be able to actually know where the elevators are when I look up their location on terminals.

There is no such thing implemented, afaik (and I know pretty lot of stuff). But ...it could be a nice feature for (l)ook mode!

[Tormuse]

Another thing, not balance related, but I noticed a couple of typos:  (I hope it's okay for me to mention them here)

When you step on the elevator, the hint message says "eleveator."  (that extra e shouldn't be there)

Also, if you (l)ook at the "sturdy glass," it says "strudy glass."  (u and r are switched)  I don't know why, but that one made me giggle.  :)

[thelaptop]

I fixed the elevator one in repo, but lemme go fix the typo for the sturdy one.

[Ed: I fixed that too, apparently.  =) ]