Duck and Cover

Ok, I got to Kansas City. This is my second time playing the game (my comp fried mid-first, around Mardin). I'm a decent player - not the best reaction speed but solid tactical sense. This mission baffles me, though.

A little info:
Version 1.02.
CTB forever.
Saving enabled. I'm not a masochist.
Team of six: Five level 11s plus Stoma (for the added firepower for this mission) at level 9. Main guy (SG/Energy/Sneak, very solid stats) with CAWS, Rage and Farsight with sniper rifles, Stitch with a Neostead/Sniper Rifle, Stein and Stoma with SAWs. All but main guy (Env Mk2) and Rage (Brahmin Mk2) have Env Mk1 armor. Everyone but Stitch and Stoma has 145+ in their primary weapon skill; Stitch is at 135 SG, and Stoma is around 110 BG. I have no effective grenadier, not that it really matters for this one.

As you can imagine, my squad has a wee bit of trouble with the mission. I've tried dividing my forces in quite a few ways, mostly abandoning the North Gate or putting Stitch there. South or West invariably gets raped.

Solutions I've considered:
1) Go turn-based. This is a last resort.
2) Switch to easy. This is a last resort + 1.
3) Give Stoma a Browning M2 - tried. Not particularly effective. He needs at least another twenty points in BG.
4) Run around and level up a bit - probably the most feasible option. Unless there is a specific strategy that would enable my current team to hold the ghoul town, I'll probably do this.
5) Trade Rage and Farsight for Max and Alice. Possible with a LOT of luck, as this duo is even worse than Stoma at putting lead on target. Luck is not abundant here

Ideas? Feedback?

One thing you might want to consider is getting rid of Stoma. I know a lot of people have a hard-on for this guy, but w/his 5 AP he's more of a liability in this mission than anything.

Another suggestion would be to give Stein a Rocket Launcher, and your second Big Gunner as well. Position one of each of these at the West and South gates. They will help put serious dents in those nasty clumps of mutants. Just make sure to check back in frequently to make sure that they're not trying to use their RLs while the enemy is about to overrun them.

I also noticed that you don't have Jax along. What a pity! I have him hold the West Gate all by his lonesome while Stitch holds the North Gate and the other four members are down at the South gate. Once things lighten up a bit down south I flex my two snipers to the West Gate to give Jax a hand. (Even w/his +25% damage bonus and using a Rocket Launcher and a SAW he will eventually get overrun.)

Something I usually also do, is have someone run out of the South Gate and get in position to pour fire into groups of SMs as they pass him while he hides behind a building. Any of the automatic Shotguns work well for this, especially if loaded w/Flechette ammo. You might consider hopping whomever you're going to put in this risky position up on Psycho.

Don't feel back if you're having trouble, this mission has a large amount of luck in it no matter what solution you attempt. It always pisses me off to see Jax getting into position, only to have the SMs fire off their first burst and take out 4 or 5 Ghouls...

OTB

Put Rage and Farsight on the roof, have one of them cover the west gate and the other give back up to your squad at the south gate. Move everyone else to the south gate and get in position in front of the ghouls. Have someone lay mines while the others keep watch then fall back and let the SMs advance.

Don't worry about keeping all the ghouls alive, personally I think Osceolla makes more sense if you don't keep the ghouls alive, and sometimes you just have to fail an objective. Concentrate on not killing any ghouls with friendly fire.

Learn to love TB, CTB makes the rest of the game too easy anyway.

requiem_for_a_starfury wrote:Don't worry about keeping all the ghouls alive, personally I think Osceolla makes more sense if you don't keep the ghouls alive, and sometimes you just have to fail an objective.

You know, they could have simply inserted a CVAR here that would have affected the debrief at Osceolla, and things could have made perfect sense. I guess that's asking too much, though.

OTB

There's so many 'they could have simply' situations in this game I've given up counting. Maybe we should do an unofficial patch like the one Celestial is doing for FO2.

Nah on second thoughts it's more fun to make our own maps.

Err, Stoma must be different in 1.27. Mine has 7 AP, and with Mutate->Fastshot, he's hardly worse than Stein, other than in terms of lower skill and perception. The guy's basically an up-armoured supermutant for all practical purposes.

I do NOT have a character named Jax in my recruit pool; I'm currently ranked Senior Knight.

Jax is an Initiate and normally available from, Bunker 1, the first time you go there onwards.

Only initiates I have in there are Jo, Brian, and Trevor (as well as Farsight and Stitch on the team). Sorry but this is just version disparity.

What's your PC's charisma? Because Jax was in the unpatched game.

5 charisma. I'll check on my bunker save after level 1. Pretty sure I only had the three anyhow.

Edit: No trace of Jax in the beginning, either.

Paladud wrote:Err, Stoma must be different in 1.27. Mine has 7 AP, and with Mutate->Fastshot, he's hardly worse than Stein, other than in terms of lower skill and perception. The guy's basically an up-armoured supermutant for all practical purposes.

You may be right. It's been ages since I played the core campaign. I just have a "not enough APs" flag next to his name in my mind. This although I'm not an AP freak. I don't expect my people to have 10+ AP, but I do like them to have 8.

Paladud wrote:I do NOT have a character named Jax in my recruit pool; I'm currently ranked Senior Knight.

You are missing out. Jax is the man. He has all "guns" skills tagged, and his Kamikazi trait gives him a 25% damage bonus. He should have been available as soon as you returned from Brahmin Wood, even if you're playing the original, unpatched game. He's the "don't leave home w/o him" guy in my squad. He also compliments Stein very well, w/Jax serving as the close-in Big Gunner and Stein fighting from medium range w/heavy weapons, or pulling double duty as a sniper.

BTW, I would highly recommend playing the patched game, there were some show-stopping errors in the unpatched game, for instance the APC getting stuck in on of the bunkers and you not being able to leave w/it. However, since you already have the APC patching your game and continuing to play will solve the problem.

Cheers,

OTB

I have not seen a _human_ recruit with a starting trait, either. If I patch, I'd just be inclined to start all over to make a considerably better team

Ahwell. Looking for it.

Edit: DLed patch from Interplay's site. Says its corrupt. The DL is an hour on 56k, so i dont particularly feel like looking for another one, especially since I get the feeling that the problem originates with my OS and not the file.

heh u should patch it 1.27

in 1.25 Stoma was unchanged from the start thus did not have the Bruiser trait but still had 10 strength. In 1.27 INPLY added a Bruiser trait thus making the slow dude slower.

I did try 1.27.

Paladud wrote:I have not seen a _human_ recruit with a starting trait, either.

It sounds like you have a dicked up installation, or bad discs or something. I'd uninstall, then reinstall the game if I were you. There are plenty of 'cruits who have Traits, Fast Shot being a fairly common one, especially among the "assaulters".

OTB

Bad disks might well be it. I have not seen recruits with traits the first time around (before my old comp fried) either.

Though I get the feeling that if my squad had nearly all fast shot people, some with a second trait to mutate into Kamikaze... the game would be a wee bit on the easy side.

I checked Stoma yesterday, he does indeed have only 5 AP in v1.27. He would have 7, but having the Bruiser Trait bumps him down to 5.

Paladud wrote:Though I get the feeling that if my squad had nearly all fast shot people, some with a second trait to mutate into Kamikaze... the game would be a wee bit on the easy side.

There's usually something to balance it out. Most of the Fast Shots have PE of 6 or less, for instance, so they'll be having to get fairly close before opening fire. Also, most 'cruits don't have two Traits, so if you're looking to use Mutate! you'll be giving up their Fast Shot ability.

Cheers,

OTB

mutate Stoma to gifted/Small Frame, that increases AP to 9 with gifted he gets 9ST with SM he gets 9AP less carry weight 8ST not enough for browning but not Skill point loss of gifted.

Nightkin244 wrote:mutate Stoma to gifted/Small Frame, that increases AP to 9 with gifted he gets 9ST with SM he gets 9AP less carry weight 8ST not enough for browning but not Skill point loss of gifted.

bad choice, he is 1 of the few guys that can wield a M2 without PA, so gifted will be better + it boost his other stats as well.

Paladud wrote:Edit: DLed patch from Interplay's site. Says its corrupt. The DL is an hour on 56k, so i dont particularly feel like looking for another one, especially since I get the feeling that the problem originates with my OS and not the file.

Try DaC's server instead. MUCH faster.