Reinstalled S2 after a long time, but some questions popped up!

[n0mel]

I was surprised to find such an active Silent Storm community. Impressive! I played S2 long ago, but now wanted a dose of nostalgia. Feels good! I have been reading the forums here but there's so much to read!

 

I made my squad on Axis. My main character is a Scout. The others in my team are Klaus, Tadas, Rocco, Ahmad and Eagle. I was doing fine. The last mission I completed was the German Manor. My characters are level 12. The three snipers have been helpful. Ahmad uses a machine gun. Rocco is trying his best to throw grenades, but I might have realized the value of grenades too late. Good to open some doors and walls, and also to damage large groups of enemies.

 

However, I went to the character screen in the HQ and realized that all the other unpicked characters have much higher stats, even though they are all level 9. For example, my main character has a shooting skill of 54. I have been using the silenced Beretta SMG, once clearing a whole map with her alone. But then I check the stats of level 9 Toki, whose services I have not used, and he has a shooting skill of 79. The difference for e.g. Rocco and another grenadier is even larger.

 

I realize that using a certain weapon increases familiarity with it. But what am I missing here? Simplified questions:

 

Simplified question: Should I stick with the same original squad, assuming it's realistic (i.e. I can make it without an engineer, as I have so far) or should I switch around my squad? Why do the unused characters have much higher developed skills than the characters I have used?

 

I have been having a lot of fun so far, and my original squad has been good. But I'm wondering, if perhaps I am missing out on something. When missions get tougher, will I hit a wall? Perhaps you experienced players can help me with this.

[Lt.Havoc]

Well one bug in Silent Strom is that the guys at the base level up much faster then those in the field. However, the perks of those left behind will be chosen randomly so you wont exactly get what you had in mind. I always would make a team that has each class in it, because you will need them and some skills will be very useful later on.

[n0mel]

Thanks for the reply Lt.Havoc. I have actually made it to the last mission without a medic or an engineer. However, this requires a careful style of play. I guess the weapon familiarity then is the biggest advantage, in addition to the freely chosen skills tree (like you mentioned). Oh well, I did take Toki with me for several of the missions towards the end of the game.

 

I will have to familiarize myself with the concept of weapon familiarity! My Scout had familiarity 10 with the silenced SMG. Not much later (after using the Ray gun or a PK) it had dropped to zero. Annoying! Great game though, regardless of some of the problems with it.

[dantedarkstar]

I always stick with the same squad throughout the game. If some of your stats seem low, it is because they CAN be higher, they are just not trained. I sometimes do "training camps", where I for example make the group shoot their weapons (preferrably automatic) at ground, to raise their shooting and automatic fire (not sure of english names, I have polish version). You can also use normal non-automatic guns, but it trains shooting only, instead of two things at once. Of course use the weapons you prefer to have relatively high familiarity with, but have either unlimited ammo (because it's form "your side", like Mauser ammo for Axis, or .303 for Allies) or because you know you have enough of it scavenged to not worry about spending 200-300 bullets.

Similarly you can train meele combat (do it one by one though, if you make group attack the same square, they may hit each other, which is bad, unless you want to train medicine too ). You can also train throwing (throw knives at a wall, though it's much more hassle than shooting and worth only for somebody really into throwing like knife-throwing ninja-scout or grenadier, since you have to retrieve knives after you throw all of them - that's why throw at wall or at least with wall behind, or it may fall beyond the map), action points (just run around in group), stealth (just hide/unhide), spotting (run around in group while hidden), medicine (wound somebody and heal, or just use some buffs, like painkillers, never really did this one though as usually the dedicated healer has enough skill from just doing the job), engineering (my preferred method, although dangerous is setting a mine and retrieving it, which increases engineering twice for just one use of anti-mine engineering item), sniper shot (for this, you need to train on random encounter, just sniper-shot a dead enemy over and over, you cannot snipe ground).

Basically the only stats you cannot train reliably are HP (not sure if they raise just by levelling, or they just always seem to max out, or raise too slow to notice), evasion (dunno when it even raises, it doesn't seem to when I get shot ocassionally), interrupting (unless you manage to find an enemy at random encounter that will try to peek from a corner, fire SMG from too far away to hit and hide, repeat).

 

I must admit the training camps are very tedious in SS. It's much better in SSS, where the skill, if much lower than level-dependent cap, raises very fast (as fast as one full point per use). In normal SS, it raises by 10% per use, only to slow down near the cap. In SSS it also slows down near the cap, but speeds up when it's lower, allowing much more efficient and less tedious training.

Still, training some basic abilities may be necessary. Train hide, shooting and automatic fire, AP and spotting, since they are all relatively easy to train and you can train entire squad at once (just select all squad and issue orders).

[Zombie]

Some points: automatic = "Burst" - either short or long. For training shooting (or shooting+burst), use a SMG or HMG with short burst capability. Short burst uses fewer rounds, and you might be able to get off two volleys per turn instead of only one with the long burst. Bring plenty of reloads. Even though you're using short burst, it'll still chew through tons of ammo.

 

I wouldn't worry about familiarity much. Most of the time, you'll want to train with the best weapon for the job, rather than what you normally use. Using a different gun for even 1 or 2 shots will completely erase the familiarity with your main weapon.

 

Training engineering via setting a mine and then defusing it is sort of a viable method. It's crazy-dangerous though, because if you roll a 1 on defusing, it'll blow up in your face. It also chews through mine probes like you wouldn't believe. You only have a limited supply of these at your base too, so once you're out, you'll need to run a scripted mission to replenish some. You can always cheat a little by opening up the console and typing /getitem 387 a bunch of times to get some free mine probes, but if you are going to do this, why bother with this risky method? I'd just as soon use lockpicks and train on an un-pickable door (like the door to the PK room back at HQ). It's much safer.

 

If you are going to train throwing, first go through all the troops in the dossier and find out what they are carrying for throwing knives, Hire those people, bring them to the weapons room and have them unload them into the safe. Then fire them and get your other team members back. With the extra knives it's now time to train. If you can find a building, train throwing inside it - that way you will not be running all over a map trying to retrieve your knives. That said, I've never lost a knife thrown near the edge of a map, and even if I would, it's only a knife. If I was that worried about it, I'd open the console and edit one in.

 

For medicine, you could get into a fistfight with one of your teammates, then use surgical plasters to heal each other up (most everyone should be able to use these and they are easy to get). Just seems like a lot of work to train a semi-useless stat (medics excluded).

 

Something to consider is the number of actions you'll need to do for one point of improvement (I use the abbreviation APP - Actions Per Point). Initially, you may only need a few actions to get your point. Subsequent points will gradually require many more actions until eventually you may only improve a sliver if at all. It's best to train till you get to a full point (if possible) and a little bit after that to gauge improvement. If it's taking too long, train something else instead. It depends on your patience too.

 

Hit Points cannot be trained, they go up as you level up. Though, there may be a mechanic involved where it'll increase a bit if you get points in another stat. Don't really know as I haven't tested this. I think evasion can be trained a little by standing in an AoE (Area of Effect) - like a grenade blast. Here again, you'll need a source of some plentiful and low-powered grenades which isn't always easy.

 

I found that you can even pseudo-train medals via random encounters. You'll need to kill a few enemies and then look in your console to see if anyone is being rolled on for a medal (it's random if you'll get it, but if your solider is being rolled on, he/she is at least in contention). If you spot this happening and you want to increase the odds, you'll need to kill more enemies with that person (keep an eye on the console to see how many VP's you get per kill). Get enough kills/earn enough VP's and eventually you are guaranteed to get a medal. Still, there is a lot of luck involved here as there are random rolls occurring.

 

- Zombie

[Ecthel013]

As far as I can tell, VPs (or Hit Points, if you prefer) go up when the character gets hurt, though I'm not sure whether the damage must be from enemy fire or not. So, have your commandos settle their issues with a fistfight or pistols at dawn, or perhaps just let them get shot a few times during random encounters. You can also use this as an opportunity to level up the Medical skill.

[Knan]

Bleeding trains evasion. Interestingly enough.