Templar Battleforce

[LordMortis]

And now I wait for you to fill in the blanks for me.

[NickAragua]

http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewt ... e#p2278401

[Carpet_pissr]

And now I wait for you to fill in the blanks for me.

IMO, it's better on a tablet than PC. Please don't ask me to explain why.

It's one of the rare "PC Perfect" ports, i.e. features and content are the same on both (or all 3 counting Android) platforms, and there are no IAP's or ads in the mobile version.

[GreenGoo]

Turn based WH40K clone with a massive skill tree, serviceable graphics, and fairly typical tactical gameplay.

[LordMortis]

Turn based WH40K clone with a massive skill tree, serviceable graphics, and fairly typical tactical gameplay.

Fairly typical, FFT? XCUFOD? Battle Bros?

[NickAragua]

Think Space Hulk, but your guys are a lot less fragile.

[LordMortis]

Think Space Hulk, but your guys are a lot less fragile.

I managed to see about two minutes of a let's play before, you know, work. It looked a bit like Dungeon of the Endless from the nothing actually happened yet perspective.

For ten bucks, I think I'll dive in this weekend. Ten dollars isn't even the cost of the weedkiller I won't be using if I'm playing video games.

[Archinerd]

I still don't understand the Stealth mechanic in this game.

Also, according to a post I saw on Steam, the flame turret upgrade on the Tac points just seems to drain life from Xeno's within 2 spaces of it. It isn't really clear though, because there is no graphics or animation to go with it. I haven't ever seen a Xeno close enough to one of mine yet to confirm if this is true.

[NickAragua]

There's a stealth mechanic?

[Archinerd]

Below is an answer the Developer gave to someone on Steam. It gives me a general understanding of it but still not super clear. That may be intended though, Xeno AI may be a bit of a Black Box to help prevent the player from abusing it.
Original Steam thread

Cory here, the developer who made the rules for Stealth, so I will do my best to explain and answer as many questions as possible about the AI and the enemies.

It is true that your Scout MUST have a Stealth buff active -- Overdrive or Null Field. Once a Scout has an active Stealth buff, the AI will use the Stealth rules.

The Library [probably needs to be expanded upon] ...

"Reduces ability of an enemy to detect characters who have an active Stealth buff. This ability is only in effect when there is an active Buff that raises the Stealth skill (Overdrive, Null Field, stealth Ordnance). Each point of Stealth reduces the ability of an enemy to detect the Templar by 1 map tile [and grants a 5% chance of being invisible per turn, up to 80% maximum. Stealth will always fail to work at range 2 or below.]"

and

"Increases damage multiplier from Critical Hits for ranged attacks made by Scouts using Sniper Rifles. Each point of Stealth skill increases Critical damage by 6% [even when no Stealth buff is active.]"

Enemies can all see between 10 and 30 tiles. The Xeno AI is divided into a couple of sub-teams. Each Tactical Point that the AI controls operates independently -- the enemies that are defending it work together and share fog of war. There is also an aggressive component of the AI that controls enemies that are hunting down the player's units (if they can be seen) or patrolling the area the player was last seen.

Stealth works by reducing the range individual Xenos can detect the Templar AND providing a percentage chance to be missed by an entire AI sub-team. If the 5% detection avoidance check is made, then enemies will be unable to target (if they are more than 2 tiles away) the Templar or move toward them.

[LordMortis]

Played some (too much?) last night. Liked what I saw. It's interesting to see how I have changed as video gamer over forty years. On my Atari 800 back in the late 70s, I'd play a game like this, say Apshai until I died and start over Now I play until I get annoyed at the specials I miss and not understanding the context of a scenario and restart the scenario. Then I see it keeps track of my failures and I rage start over because I don't like my record. I not only don't want to lose someone, I don't want it track that I lost someone and moved forward.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, losing dudes in that game is pretty annoying, especially on the harder difficulties. It's not like you have the opportunity to do some side missions and re-train your guys. But usually, getting replacements isn't that difficult. On the other hand, the enemies are always scaled to your level (+/- something depending on difficulty), so losing a dude isn't a campaign-ender.

I remember I had a pretty horrible attrition rate among my snipers and flamer dudes. I kind of made peace with it though. Those flamer dudes are so freaking good. Surprisingly low heat and incredible damage output. The overwatch guys are pretty useful, too, Soldier and Neptune. Although the Nepture really heats up something fierce.

[LordMortis]

I'm only playing normal so losing dudes just look bad on my permanent record.... Whoops. There goes my permanent record.

I was just discovering Netpune, Flamer, Bezerker, and Paladin (against advice of not going to the tech tree until I need to) when I quit, partly because the flamer became available without my having needed to tech tree him into to becoming available.

Why did I quit? Because I got annoyed at losing guys, trying to claim the 5 secondary objectives and a second tactical point in a timely fashion, on the scenario the flamer became freely available because I wanted to get max experience for 9 guys... Which makes no sense in retrospect because recruits rise to just below captain status until level 10 on normal level.

In plain English: Q: Why do I feel compelled to lose dudes on something I don't need to do and then start over after losing them but not really losing them because they are still available? A: Because I'm stupid.

[Archinerd]

That's funny. I just restarted over the weekend on a harder difficulty because I was annoyed that losing dudes didn't matter much. They would die, then magically be ready for the next mission. I upped to "Demanding" difficulty so if a soldier goes down they stay dead.

[LordMortis]

It turns out the is really scratching a Space Hulk itch I didn't know I had. I dislike the search for things timed element parts of the game. Scenarios where if you go the wrong way you lose. I really like the time pressure games to travel a path to meet an objective or the easy objective to conclude but advance as much as you can for XP stuff is great.

There is something about exploring a non "procedurally generated" map with a very real sense of you will either have great score that will influence the game moving forward if you have played the map before or you might lose due to time out if you never played the map before, well, I don't like it. The same goes for secondary objectives.

Still this is really scratching a Space Hulk itch I didn't know I had. I've always wanted a good Advance Space Crusade video game and this is filling that niche rather better than any Space Hulk licensed video game I've played to date.

[LordMortis]

Started playing Ironman and always seem to lose one of my favorite Marines (that's what I call them, because space hulk) at mission 7 (The F Lance liberation mission 2 with power relays) and then restart. I shouldn't restart. I should tough it out for as long as I can but I'm all like What if I need that 700 experienced guy later...

But in Ironman, I feel the "satisfaction" of gaming pressure, unless I play too long. Then I start getting lazy in my decision making process. And then I lose a guy in mission 7 or at worst or I just do something that costs precious time and the bonuses that time gives to "RT"

Still it's holding my attention after a few weeks and learning to settle on playing Ironman to get the proper feeling in the game.

Thank you all for mentioning this in passing. This is by far the best SpaceHulk/Advanced Space Crusade game I've played on computer.

[LordMortis]

And I think today I decided Ironman is just too hard and I scaled back to Nightmare for me next run.