53 replies to this topic

[Space Voyager]

 Zombie, on 26th September 2011, 4:22pm, said:

While technically true that FRAPS is free, realistically it is not. There's a big difference between freeware and crippleware. The unregistered version of FRAPS is the latter. 30 seconds max recording time with a FRAPS watermark is not enough time to record much of anything.

Very true, this is why I use X-Fire, also free.

[silencer_pl]

Force of habit speeds up your familiarization when using certain weapon, but if switched to next weapon you will lose that familiarization even faster.

Familiariztaion is actualy useless in this game. It is a good concept but you won't get a chance to use it to full effect. What it does is by increasing it, you have increased RoF, Dmg, and minimilized failure rolls. I think you need to perform 100 shots to get +1 in familarization.

[Zombie]

 silencer_pl, on 29th September 2011, 2:01am, said:

Force of habit speeds up your familiarization when using certain weapon, but if switched to next weapon you will lose that familiarization even faster.

Familiariztaion is actualy useless in this game. It is a good concept but you won't get a chance to use it to full effect. What it does is by increasing it, you have increased RoF, Dmg, and minimilized failure rolls. I think you need to perform 100 shots to get +1 in familarization.

Thanks, the game's description wasn't worded very good (IMHO). Yeah, it does seem to be a worthless perk, especially early on when your team is constantly changing weapons as the "next best thing" is found or unlocked. Might be more useful later in the game when you have the best weapon for the class? Or maybe not.

Well I decided to do a quick random encounter to remember how to play (every game seems to have it's own set of controls these days).

So the team zones in, sets themselves to sneak and then runs for cover. It's a tiny map though so there's only one viable option: the building.



Now, there are a couple options for strategy on this map. First, I could split my team up into two (or more) smaller squads and spread out. The map isn't very big though, and see that smaller building on the right with 2 big fuel tanks? Not a good place to be. The other option is to stay put and try to set up an ambush or crossfire situation. I decided on this, using the garage as cover for my less than stellar sneak soldiers (Reggie, Javier and Mike) while keeping Carm and Tori in the corner with Eagle as a long range spotter.



What happens if an enemy comes around the NW corner and heads to Eagle? Well, I just had to trust that she would stay hidden in the bushes long enough to make a dash for the safety of the building. Luckily, that never happened, probably because the enemies "heard" my low-sneak team in the garage. Wasn't long before Eagle gets a nibble.



She gets a little eager and takes a sniper shot. It misses (I didn't make her take more APs to aim). The enemy (obviously confused and on some kind of mind-altering drug), decides it's in his best interest to run into the garage to take cover instead of back around the corner where he came from.



Not smart. Reggie raises his MP 40 II and takes aim.



One dead enemy. Javier quickly closes the door to the garage, everyone hides again and reloads. We know another enemy is on his way so it's best to be prepared. Wrong. It's not one, it's a bunch. One enemy is spotted by Eagle as he rounds the corner on an interrupt.



What in hell is he carrying though? It looks like a damn rocket launcher! Ok, calm down. Eagle hasn't been spotted yet so let's not get too hasty. Everyone sits tight and waits for the end of the enemies round. Holy smokes, this is bad!



So beyond the guy with the rocket launcher, there are no less than 3 more enemies around the corner. This is when I wished I would have burnt a Smiz land mine, but we have to deal with this as best as we can. Carm peeks around the corner and takes a few silenced shots with her pistol. At a 15% chance to hit, I wasn't expecting much, but she hit on her 4th shot.



It didn't do much, but made everyone feel a little bit better. Hopefully we can draw the rocket launcher dude in close without being spotted. Carm runs back around the corner and we wait.



That's a lot of enemies! Ok Eagle, you're up on deck. She takes one sniper shot and hits the RL dude, takes a second shot at the guy in back of him and he gets hit too.



Carm peeks out from behind the corner and gets spotted, but luckily no interrupt from the enemies. She plinks at the group hoping for a hit. Bingo! She takes out the guy with the rocket launcher.



(Sorry, took the screenshot kinda late in the animation sequence so you can just barely make out the damage number). Just found this stupid... all the enemies seem to be carrying potato masher grenades, yet when killed they don't drop them. Anyhow, let's stop playing around with these guys. Reggie opens fire with his MP 40 II on full auto.



The burst blew the door open and with the enemies not behind cover, the bullets caused a lot of blood.



What a mess. Cleanup on isle 3! With the door open, it actually blocked the last enemy from seeing my team, so I moved Tori out for hopefully an interrupt.



Good! She takes a shot, but misses horribly. Time to take cover again. During the enemies turn, he shoots with his smg but misses Eagle.



With the enemy spotted, Javier let's loose with his Chatellerault on full burst. It tears through the wooden door and shreds the enemy to ribbons.



All the enemies are dead so the game turns to RT. Javier rushes forward to see what that rocket launcher was.



A PIAT. It's a nice RL, but the biggest issue is that I only have two shots for it: one in the weapon and another from a PIAT I had in inventory (must've picked it up somewhere, don't remember). Basically it's a curiosity item because with only two shots it will end up being a throwaway weapon. Mike got rid of his trusty Mauser M98 in favor of a MAS 1936 rifle. It has less damage and range than the M98, but on the plus side it uses the same MAS ammo as the Chatellerault he's carrying.

Will try to get around to the next scripted mission asap.

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

When you get top tier weapons you will be one step to the Panzerkleins  (if not having them already). FG-42 and STG-44 comes far too late in the game - and will you believe it - mother of all Assault Rifles is SMG

[Zombie]

Onward to our second scripted mission.



Ok, so it looks like the team is needed to protect some VIP touring a city and there is a possibility of an ambush. What else is new? Ambushes are a constant part of S2. Next thing that happens is a cut-scene. I unfortunately cannot take screenshots during these videos so I'll just provide pics of the aftermath. The first shows the window where an enemy with a bazooka shot at the truck on the street below.



Bad news already if bazookas are involved. If that wasn't bad enough, there was an enemy on a balcony with a laser weapon who shot out the car to the right of the truck in the pic above.



Great, now we have to deal with laser weapons too. Getting better all the time. <- Sarcasm

After the cut-scene ends this note pops up:



Hmm, I guess the VIP was a guy named General Bauer and he was killed in the ambush. Idiot. Well, first things first, let's look at our objectives:



Now wait just a bloody stinking minute... why the heck is it my fault that General Bauer wasn't protected?   The game didn't even give me a chance to protect him. [rant] First of all, if I were given the chance, I would have told him not to travel in the first place, and if he must, he should travel in a nondescript lone vehicle instead of in a motorcade. Assuming he didn't take my advice and decided to travel in a motorcade anyway, he should have at least given me fair warning for when the trip was going to take place and down what streets he was to use. The president of the United States doesn't go anywhere without the secret service first scouring the streets for hazards or doing background checks of people along the route to determine the threat level, same here, no different. All that aside, the game enforcing an auto-fail objective out of the player's control shouldn't be in the objectives list at all. If you didn't read the mission brief or the top secret note, you would be left wondering what you did wrong.[/rant]

Ignoring the failed objective, it now seems we have to capture that laser weapon the second guy was using. Fine.

Everyone goes in stealth mode and run, and we spread out. Since we spawned nearest to the building with the bazooka guy, we decide to secure it. No sense to let the guy fire off his bazooka at the team when our backs are turned. Half the team runs along the back side of the building while the other half keeps an eye on the exit at the front from a distance. When the first part of the team reaches the opposite end of the building, they notice an enemy running to them from across the street. We take a knee and wait in ambush. During the enemies turn, the guy that was running to us kept running to the side of the map and then just vanished. Poof. Gone. We wait another round and the same thing happens again. An enemy exits the building from across the street, runs to the edge of the map past our squad and disappears. Nice, I don't have to fight them.

So we stay put for a little while. After a few rounds, part of the team bum rushes the guy with the bazooka and takes him out, while the other squad goes across the street to clean out that building. That takes a few rounds since there was still a baddie inside. Once that was completed, we slowly head over to the building where the laser guy was supposed to be. Nothing. The building is empty. I post a couple sentries (Javier and Reggie) at the door to make sure he isn't still in there but hiding really well. Mike goes over to investigate the building to the east of where we zoned in. He finds (and kills) a soldier inside and the game goes into RT mode. The rest of the team scour the map for the guy with the laser with no luck. He's nowhere to be seen. When I check the objectives, I now failed the objectives to capture and locate the weapon.

So after this, I reload and try again. Same deal. We never find the guy with the laser. Reload again, and try a different strategy. Instead of clearing out the buildings, everyone bum rushed the building where the guy with the laser was supposed to be. He was there. We took up some defensive positions as the whole squad was under heavy fire from machine gunners (looked to be about 3 or 4 guys with Lewis MK1's). We held fast as Eagle, Tori, Carm and Mike took rifle shots at the guys with the Lewis MGs. All of a sudden the guy with the laser appears at the doorway and runs to the east side of the map. Needless to say, in all the confusion and shooting, we let him go. A few rounds later after all the machine gunners were killed, everyone advanced to the east of the map to kill the guy with the laser. Nowhere, he's gone. We scour the buildings again but it becomes apparent the guy just disappeared. The objectives showed we failed again too.

Apparently, I cannot play this mission the way I want to (defensively and slowly taking my time to clear each building to prevent sneak attacks). The game is encouraging (heck, enforcing) me to play recklessly in order to complete the objectives. IE, I must bum rush the building with the guy with the laser and kill him at all costs ignoring all the other enemies, lest he runs off and disappears off the edge of the map. I don't like this one little bit. Game enforced strategy is not strategy anymore.

To make a long story short, I need to do this quest yet again. This time I at least know what to expect. No guarantees when though. I'm still PO'd at the game.

- Zombie

[Space Voyager]

Have you managed to kill the laser guy? I definitely do not like it when missions require reloading until find just the correct (usually the only) answer to a unique situation. This was very often in games like Commandos, which made me get tired of them very quickly.

[Zombie]

 Space Voyager, on 19th October 2011, 9:36am, said:

Have you managed to kill the laser guy?

Yup, I was able to kill him. (I'll be putting up the AAR of it soonish... maybe this weekend). He starts out with the laser but after the movie he's using a Lewis MK1 machine gun for some reason. Not too hard to kill, it's just that he has about 5-6 buddies with Lewis MK1's also. You have to concentrate all your firepower on him and ignore everyone else (unless those enemies get too close).

 Space Voyager, on 19th October 2011, 9:36am, said:

I definitely do not like it when missions require reloading until find just the correct (usually the only) answer to a unique situation. This was very often in games like Commandos, which made me get tired of them very quickly.

I'm not really sure how many scripted missions in the game require specific tactics/strategies to finish. It's a disappointment though, as the rest of the game is awesome.

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

 Zombie, on 21 October 2011 - 02:59 AM, said:

(I'll be putting up the AAR of it soonish... maybe this weekend).

Is one year weekend soon enough

Since you are lurking around zombie

[Zombie]

I'll get to it... eventually. Currently have a few things on my plate I absolutely need to finish first, then it's back to the grind here. I even found my old save so it shouldn't be hard.

- Zombie

[Zombie]

*blows cobwebs and dust off AAR* So let's continue with this fiasco, shall we?

Just to note, I didn't take very good notes while running this mission, as I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. Excuse any inaccuracies.

As before, the team zones in and immediately goes into stealth and running modes, and rushes over to the building with primary objective. There was a little resistance in getting there, but we all made it without getting injured. Everyone gathers around the door (which is closed) and waits. It doesn't take long before the first enemy peeks his head out.

[IMG]http://i579.photobuc...0213_223014.jpg[/img]

It's an interrupt for Tori, Reggie and Carm. Tori goes first, and takes a snap shot with her 33-40(?) rifle which hits for 33 damage.



How she misses on her second shot is beyond understanding. Carm goes next and fires a snap shot which does 40 damage, and kills the enemy.



Lots of enemy activity during their round, and another baddie pokes his head out of the door. Seems like a lemmings syndrome, doesn't it? Carm does a snap shot and hits for 30 damage.



Better than nothing. Her second shot misses though. No worries, Tori takes a snap shot which does a blistering 72 damage. Add another bloody corpse to the pile.



Another very active enemy turn, and more of the same: single enemy pokes his head out of the door. (I close the door after each turn which forces the enemies to waste TU opening it and giving me an opportunity for an interrupt). Tori takes one of two shots which did damage.



Carm misses by a mile.



Then hits, and finally kills.



This is beginning to sound stupid, but more of the same. Blah, blah, blah. Carm shoots twice and hits twice. This is the second shot.



Tori shoots and kills, shattering the glass in the door as well.



Up till now, Tori & Carm were getting most of the action. That's mainly because these two both needed kills for xp and also because they had rifles. Yes, Eagle also had a rifle, but never got a chance to fire as the enemy was already dead. This round, things went a little different. Our "objective" came to the door for a visit, and Javier went a step closer to the door to get a better angle and minimize misses. Unfortunately, the "objective" ran out of the door and looked to be heading for the edge of the map. "Oh no you don't!", yelled Javier as he ran after the guy and let loose with a barrage of bullets from his Chatellerault MG.



It was a quick and painful death to watch, but we salvaged the mission. It wasn't over yet though. While searching the map, Eagle spotted a baddie on the second floor of a building by a window. (That's her in the center of the next screenie standing in the middle of the road).



Eagle was keeping a, urm, "eagle eye" on Mr. Baddie while Mike ran into the building. The enemy made no effort to bolt, which gave Mike an idea: "the old shoot from below trick". With spectacular results of course.



Tori found some medicinal supplies in a chest downstairs.



And the obligatory 4-5 Lewis MK1 machine guns. I salvaged a few, but stripped the others for ammo as Eagle needs it for her Lee-Enfield rifle

After that, it was time to get out of Boston and head home. Wait, this is an Axis campaign, so make that Berlin. Anyway, Tori gets a medal.



Sorry, no screenie of the gun while in inventory. This is on purpose so as to not spoil anything. K?

Next up, is a random encounter. (I'm not going to be including every random encounter I run in this AAR as most of them are quick, boring completions, meant only for a little training to increase stats. Some of the scriped missions are very difficult unless your squad is buffed up, see)? I'll toss a few of them in for flavor every once and a while to spice things up a bit though. If someone levels up and the rest of the squad is behind, I'll train them all up behind the scenes so that I can pick enhancements at one time, instead of whenever it happens.

- Zombie

[silencer_pl]

Superb return now if only Sunny would return with his Civ5 He can take as many excuses as he want, but I see what he is doing on the steam


Btw.... again there is problem with the images (The requested content cannot be loaded). Maybe try other image hosting?

[Thorondor]

Ah, Herr Zombie. Welcome back!

Here, have some Schnapps. You deserve it after zis latest outing!

::

Quote

[to the tune of the Hokey Pokey] You put your right boot in, you take your right boot out, you do a lot of shouting and you shake your fists about. You light a little smokie and you burn down ze town, zat's vot it's all about. - Herr Flick, Allo Allo

[Space Voyager]

 silencer_pl, on 01 March 2013 - 07:37 AM, said:

Btw.... again there is problem with the images (The requested content cannot be loaded). Maybe try other image hosting?

Same here, can't open the pics. And I wanna.

[Zombie]

K, I used Image Venue instead of Postimage.org (don't really like postimage anyway as it deleted all my previous AAR images *grumbles*).

Can you guys see the images now? If not, please suggest a service which will.

Edit: now ImageVenue images don't load for me either. Tried Photobucket, but no option to create thumbnails, and it auto-sorts my uploads so that the newest is at the top of the list instead of the bottom. I give up.

- Zombie