Door Kickers 2: Task Force North [PC] - Top Down Tactical Shooter

[WYBaugh]

jz, version 1 has been released!

[jztemple2]

jz, version 1 has been released!

Yup, I've been out all morning and just got home. More details and impressions this afternoon. Meanwhile:

[WYBaugh]

Looking forward to the update! I installed the original and I just suck. This really interests me but not sure I have the gray matter for it.

[jztemple2]

Impressions after a few minutes.... Hmm, they had announced that all progress in the early access would be wiped. However, they have also decided to lock a lot of the content until certain categories of missions or a certain number of missions are completed. This is going to tick some people off who don't want to have to replay all those missions they have already played. However, as I posted in a Steam thread:

Hmm, I knew about the progress reset, but wasn't aware that certain mission categories were going to be locked until completion of other categories or a certain mission count. However, I'm not really all that upset, I figure that if you allow the non-grognards to just pick whatever mission they want they'll get frustrated and complain about the difficulty of the game.

That old mods weren't going to work has been discussed many, many times. They probably would give wacky results anyway if not complete CTDs, so again best to prevent them from being used.

[jztemple2]

I wanted to do a short video on the newly released Door Kickers 2 version 1.0 highlighting the menus and the content outside of the missions themselves. There are a number of changes from the early access version, but rather than talking about the changes I aimed the video for those who might be completely unfamiliar with the game.

[jztemple2]

Oh, the game is on sale for 10% off till February 17th.

[WYBaugh]

jz, thank you again for the video!

[jztemple2]

jz, thank you again for the video!

You're welcome! I've put in a few hours on the game and this afternoon I'm planning to post another video to explain how campaigns work.

I've been working on the video but somehow I lost it . I'll try again sometime later.

[jztemple2]

And now I've got that new video ready! As a follow up to my previous video, I created this video to take a look at the campaign system of DK2. In this video I discuss the two types of campaigns. I also show how to create new squads and why that isn't always a good thing. Finally I take a look at the Random Mission Generator which has been expanded even more for the 1.0 release.

[hepcat]

Okay, I’m back into it. I love the game. I love how much there is in this game. But I find the tutorials seriously lacking. And locking the campaigns behind playing single missions confused me at first.

But man, there is so much to love about this game that I quickly forgave it for those annoyances.

Welp, at least my gaming Sherpa JZ has created tutorials for me.

[WYBaugh]

Okay, I’m back into it. I love the game. I love how much there is in this game. But I find the tutorials seriously lacking. And locking the campaigns behind playing single missions confused me at first.

But man, there is so much to love about this game that I quickly forgave it for those annoyances.

Welp, at least my gaming Sherpa JZ has created tutorials for me.

Yeah thanks jz for making me buy this Second video won me over.

[jztemple2]

Okay, I’m back into it. I love the game. I love how much there is in this game. But I find the tutorials seriously lacking. And locking the campaigns behind playing single missions confused me at first.

I'm sure it was the idea of the devs to onboard folks by limiting their access to the more complex missions. There aren't any tutorials in the traditional sense, but the missions in the FNG category, played in order, are a good way to learn the basic techniques. The advanced techniques are learned as you progress in the other categories.

[jztemple2]

One of the features I haven't described yet is a Battle Honor. These are earned by completing campaigns. In this video I take a look at where you can apply your Battle Honors.

[jztemple2]

I was about to start a new mission named Objective Silent Crow, the first on a Tour Of Duty campaign, and as I looked at this map and the situation for the first time I went through my usual pre-mission mental planning. I decided to make a video which would discuss the kinds of things I think about before I commit to starting a mission. Sorry if it rambles a bit, but so do my thoughts at times!

[jztemple2]

In my previous video I discussed the pre-mission planning I do before I actually start a mission, using an example from a Tour of Duty Campaign, Objective Silent Crow. This video is the actual replay video of that mission, recorded from the replay feature of DK2. It is not cinematic so you can see all the gameplay symbols and pathing. I didn't include any narration which would have made it a very long video indeed.

[jztemple2]

So this is interesting, I'm playing a Tour of Duty, with randomly generated missions. It's day five and I've played four missions so far, those are the ones with stars above them. They didn't all appear at once, by the way, usually only one or sometimes two will show. Towards the upper right you'll see a faded red hostage symbol, that's one I didn't get to before it timed out. I'll be choosing the one available mission, the one on the left.


And now it is the end of day seven. I've played my seventh mission and the following screen pops up. Just below the "What Are Your Orders?" is a box with a horizontal scroll bar so I can review the current state of my squad. Below that, I have three choices, although one is greyed out. The top choice is to continue for another seven days with my current squad in it's current condition. The next box is interesting, I can go on R&R for a week, which will allow some of my squad to heal. However, I need two Intel points for that to happen and I have only one. The last choice is the one I chose, to retire and earn two Battle Medals. I'm assuming that had I gone for another seven days that reward might have been four medals.


And after I chose that bottom option, this is what I see. I got a new battle ribbon, the promised two Battle Medals and twenty stars. I'm thinking that I had access to those stars as I earned them each day, rather than having to wait till the end of the campaign. I'll have to check that out further. Anyway, that's what the end of a Tour of Duty campaign looks like!

[jztemple2]

I completed my third campaign this evening, another of the hand-crafted Operations. It had fewer missions than the first Operation, but was interestingly inside of an old Crusader castle. Very cleverly designed as it took place over only two days, each day having two missions. The second day had missions with eight and ten operatives and I ended up using a few of the operatives on both missions, which meant that on the second mission they were fatigued which effected their stats and very importantly, prevented them from sprinting.

[jztemple2]

The devs gave some folk early access to version 1.0 so they could prepare some mods. Here's a couple of good examples, both from Pilzquadrat's workshop.

The first is Spiny Stubbles Campaign & Mission Pack. This pretty impressive mod adds both Operation and Tour of Duty campaigns, plus the twenty maps used for those campaigns are also available as standalone single missions.






Also available from Pilzquadrat's workshop is a new squad for the game called PMC squad. This new squad has its own roster, weapons and equipment. In the new equipment is a medic pack! Pretty clever.



Be sure to activate any mod from within the game.

[hepcat]

I have run into an issue with the game and HDR video. There's a support thread in which the developers are trying to figure out why some of us quit out of the game to discover that the screen brightness is turned down really low. The solution is to simply toggle HDR off and then back on. But they're stumped as to why this is happening so far. Not a big deal and they're very responsive in trying to figure it out. But if it happens to anyone else, the workaround above will help.

I do wish the tutorials were more than just short video clips. I find them sorely lacking in any real information on gameplay. So far I'm just using our generous friend JZ's videos and community help pages to figure things out.

[jztemple2]

I do wish the tutorials were more than just short video clips. I find them sorely lacking in any real information on gameplay. So far I'm just using our generous friend JZ's videos and community help pages to figure things out.

Maybe I'll do a video with narration that shows my actual gameplay. It might end up being a longer video as I do tend to play slowly.

In the meantime, post any questions you have.

[hepcat]

Thanks!

[jztemple2]

I'm making this video to demonstrate my planning and execution of a small map mission. This is a pretty small mission with only three operatives with a hostage rescue. I got only two stars as I lost one operative, but the Mayor did survive, so that's good.



And, as a bonus, I'm posting this video as a follow-up to my previous video where I recorded my thoughts and gameplay of the mission "Hot Room". I replayed the mission and this time got three stars, as shown in this video.

[hepcat]

Thanks so much for these. I really like the slow and deliberate explanations as you play. It allows me a chance to see what's going on.

[$iljanus]

Thanks for the videos! I'm hoping to start my first games with the new release today. I wonder if you could have put a breach charge in the copy room wall facing the tangos on the couch? In any case I really enjoy your videos!

[jztemple2]

I wonder if you could have put a breach charge in the copy room wall facing the tangos on the couch?

I'm away from my computer so I can't check right now, but you can only place a breach wall charge if you have access directly to the wall. Any object will block it. You'll find that map designers will carefully place objects like that to discourage using that tactic.

[jztemple2]

Last night I was playing another Tour of Duty campaign, that's a campaign where the missions come from the Random Mission Generator. After the first seven days I get an opportunity to either finish the campaign, earning three Battle Medals, or continue for another week; I didn't have the option for R&R because I didn't have enough Intel points.


I opted to go for another week. When I had completed that I got another screen like the above, although now if I quit the campaign I'd get five Battle Medals. As it was about 1am I decided enough was enough, plus my squad wasn't in good shape.


Here's the end of campaign screen. Of interest is that the campaign was fourteen days long, and I fought in fourteen missions. However, there were two other missions which expired before I was able to go to them, since in the Tour of Duty campaign you can only fight in one mission a day. This is unlike the Operation campaigns, which can have more than one mission a day. I'm going to submit feedback seeing if the ToD campaigns might be altered to allow more than one fight a day.


And finally my current campaign history, newest on the left. You can see why I don't fight in Iron Man mode, where a lost operative is lost forever and replaced by a rookie . In four campaigns I've lost fifteen operatives

[jztemple2]

As requested, I replayed the mission "Hot Room", this time using a wall breaching charge in the copy machine room. Things didn't go well

[jztemple2]

This is a short video, no narration. The first part is showing how I unlocked a new helmet plus a sub machine gun using battle medals, followed by a cinematic replay of the mission "Trap House". The SMG has lower stats than my other weapons, but has the advantage of not being able to be heard beyond 2.5 meters. The helmet has better protection than my previous best helmet.

The mission "Trap House" is one of those small maps where things happen fast. Do NOT watch the video if you haven't played the map and wish to be surprised!

[$iljanus]

In all fairness I was wondering about placing the charge where the copy machines were. Placing it where you chose was kinda crazy. But your sacrifice will be a teaching moment for my troops and will be honored!

Some random things for newbies such as myself:

Not forgetting to upgrade equipment as you earn stars.

Checking that squad members are upgraded. Some squadmates may not have the new shiny stuff if they're chosen after an upgrade. I did see that you can save loadouts so after getting some optimal equipment I can see myself "specializing" some of my team.

Don't go crazy shopping however in the FNG missions! I bought a door camera just because I could and thought it would be handy but didn't have enough stars to get a needed piece of equipment (breaching charge) for the Jihadi Live (I believe that's roughly the name of the mission) mission so I had to replay some old missions and do a few random generated missions to earn me some stars which was still fun. Also the camera didn't turn out to be too handy as I ended up using a "recon by flashbang or grenade" approach. But I'm sure I'll be using the sneaky stuff soon.

Really enjoying the game and every so often go back to this thread to watch some of your old videos for tips.

[jztemple2]

The spy camera is an awesome piece of kit. Unless there are no doors on the map it's almost always worth bringing one.

One of the most interesting choices during gameplay ("Give the player interesting choices" - Sid Meier) is trying to figure out which pieces of kit to bring. Only experience will teach you when a thermal torch (for instance) can come in handy, but it's worth the trouble to try different stuff.

I'm playing the Operation: Rajur Kabir campaign right now and I've discovered that these Operation campaigns can have a branch that's optional (the dotted line). It's a cool idea, tempt the player for more stars (and maybe Battle Honors?) but with the challenge of having to use more operatives on a single day. I won't post any screenshots of these hand-crafted missions, but damn they are very clever!

[jztemple2]

Completed Operation: Rajur Kabir, a really well done hand-crafted set of missions. Quite a variety and very challenging. My Ranger squad has well developed skills and has unlocked a lot of good equipment, but then they do send in only the best

[jztemple2]

Tried the final Operation campaign, Operation Chaturanga. It is structured to use the CIA squad, although that isn't mandatory. It is also very, very hard . I couldn't get past either of the first day missions.

[jztemple2]

For those playing and would like an Operation campaign that's not so overwhelming, I can recommend this mod, Small apartments only Campaign. This mod creates an Operation campaign that uses the random mission generator to create missions that use the small apartments setting and have either hostages to rescue, HVTs to abduct or just eliminate hostiles. There are eight missions, one on the first day, two on the second and three on the third, followed by four more, but two of those are on an optional branch. So you can complete the campaign by just doing six missions if you wish. The missions call for 2-4 operatives each, at least that's all that I've seen required.



If you'd like more suggestions on other mods let me know.

[hepcat]

I’m getting my butt kicked by the hostage missions. Even with sniper support, I don’t see how I can get to multiple hostages before they get killed on many of the maps.

[jztemple2]

I’m getting my butt kicked by the hostage missions. Even with sniper support, I don’t see how I can get to multiple hostages before they get killed on many of the maps.

Of course it depends on which mission you are playing, but sometimes the executioner is not triggered until an alarm condition is met. Check for that happening and try to advance your operatives without triggering the trigger. On some missions, those with timers, the executioner will execute the hostage after T-0 is reached unless he is triggered to do it sooner, as mentioned above.

If you are really hung up on certain missions, post the names and I can see if I have a video for it or maybe some hints. There are some hostage missions that are pretty difficult, requiring some split second timing and some luck.

Also the better your operatives are (skill levels) the quicker they can get kills and move on.

[hepcat]

Thanks!

I switched over to just doing a few "clear the area" missions for now, but I'll return to those timed ones and review what you mentioned.

[jztemple2]

This is a non-cinematic replay of the mission "Kajami Farmhouse" from the Steam Workshop Campaign "Fallujah Campaign V2" by Crazyvonstrazhaus. It's a rather long mission and I strongly suggest that you DON'T watch this video till you have played the mission as I found it rather clever.

The campaign "Fallujah Campaign V2" by Crazyvonstrazhaus is a bit rough around the edges, missing some map thumbnails and a few UI items, but the missions have been solid so far. {Update: Last mission is bugged in that you can't take a HVT out of a rescue zone, they are too shallow. I worked around this by blowing out a wall so I could make a zone deep enough. Other option is to kill all the tangos of course}

Direct link to Fallujah Campaign V2: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 3428977215
Link to Crazyvonstrazhaus Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/765 ... id=1239080

[jztemple2]

Completed another Steam Workshop Operation campaign this evening, Spiny Stubbles World Tour



The World Tour from the Spiny Stubbles Campaign & Mission Pack which I mentioned above. These are smaller maps with 2-4 operatives but very well designed. And they are not easy, besides the two KIA I also had three operatives incapacitated. The maps are a lot of fun.

[Punisher]

Is there an actual mission editor or is everyone pretty much coding their own missions?

[hepcat]

Thanks to one of my games yesterday, I now don't enter ANY mission without smoke grenades after finally realizing just how great they are for crossing an opening of a corridor or running across a parking lot that would normally become a killing field within seconds.