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Great exclusive Turn-based mission/encounter

naossano

Cipher
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Aug 26, 2014
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Marseilles, France
YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER SOME COMBAT SPOILERS HERE ! ! !

I am not sure if the title of the thread is explicit enough, but i didn't want it to be too long and have to reduce it afterward. It is also a thread for combatfag, not storyfag.

I was wondering if you would recall some very memorable encounters that felt like they were really enhancing the Turn-Based combat system and wouldn't have work as much in real-time. I am not talking about turn-based in general. I prefer it than real-time and some aspects specific to Turn-based are recurrents and mentioning them would mean a long list of games. I also confess that, while liking TB, i didn't play a huge number of them so far (i have a pretty big "to play" list that increase faster than i finish one game, especially with current incline), so i might have been impressed by something that is common in some other TB games.

I got quite well surprised when i played the first two 2010s Shadowrun games during some missions when i felt like. "Well, this would never had happened in a real-time game. Or if they tried, they would have failed to convey the feeling of everything happening at the same time, bringing a lot of tension, and yet, at the same time, allow you to participate in each part of it, instead of feeling too rushed".

For those who played those two games, i was thinking about those missions :
- In DMS, when you have in the meatspace to protect the hacker agains't unkillable enemies, while the hacker fight her way in the Matrix.
- In DMS, when you are only able to kill the enemy with a special weapon, only if you can do it in a single turn, otherwise your previous efforts would be wasted.
- In DF, when you have two characters in two different rooms in the Matrix, defending themselves agains't other deckers & programs, while trying to control meatspace turret, while three other characters must defend two access and several computers, agains't classic enemies, big robot, and enemies that attack your Action points.
- In DF, the two missions in which you have a limited number of turns. It conveys a sense of urgency, while still giving you time for your next move.
- I also liked the unreliable control of the cybertroll in DF, but that kind of thing could have worked well in RT too. (although a bit less good)

I also recall using various squad of mercenaries in the same map in Jagged Alliance 2, to attack the map from various sides and various layers, then having some group stuck by enemies, while other tried to clean around them, but it was mostly a choice rather than the mission design.

I am not sure i am conveying this that well. Maybe it shouldn't have to be the same kind of exemple.
Just some fighting situation that is not so frequent in TB games and that give you the feeling that kind of fight/encounter/situation would never happen in RT, or wouldn't be able to convey the same feelings. (provided you liked those feelings)

Also, i am not saying that a TB games HAS to put you in those kind of situations in order to be good. TB games can be good on their own right.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I know many of these, and in RtwP games I often have situations where I think "yeah, this would be much more intense if it were turn based".

Most of the difficult fights in Knights of the Chalice would have been shit in a real time game, as would most of the epic boss fights in the old Gold Box games, as would many fights in ToEE.

I like real time in RTS games, in Total War battles, and in RPGs where you control a single character. For a game with a party, or a small compay of mercs rather than large armies (like JA2 in comparison to something like Total War), turn based is the only way to go.
 

Luka-boy

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Definitely the Drassen counterattack in JA2 1.13, in particular the mine sector.

There are so many ways of dealing with it and many of them would never feel so tense if it wasn't for the TB system where you have to see the enemy move towards you and set up their positions as you need to depend on interrupts to save the day.

For example, there was this time I set up my entire team on a rooftop with a couple of snipers. Eventually the enemy managed to defeat the militiamen I recruited and surrounded the building, so I had to switch to sidearms and SMGs and moved the team to the center of the rooftop covering all sides. For the next few turns, the enemy tried to climb on the rooftop, which was enough for the redshirts to not have enough points to shoot or rush me, but it still meant during the next turn I HAD to kill them all. The real problem were the elites, who had enough time units to climb and rush me with a knife. I had to fully depend on any of my mercs looking in that direction triggering an interrupt and then headshotting the elite, which also meant I had to manage the redshirt interrupts to not waste the APs on them. Managing reloads and first aid was also critical during those turns. In the end I won, and I'm 100% sure that with RtwP it wouldn't have been half as intense since I would have just paused every time one enemy climbed on the roof, target him with most of my soldiers, rinse and repeat, all the while reloading orderly.

Another time I played the counterattack I tried to cheese the game by not recruiting any militia, moving my team inside the bar and setting them up against the bottom wall so every time an enemy walked through the door he'd get wrecked by interrupts. It worked fine for a while until at the end of one enemy turn something suddenly blew up inside the bar (I later found a dead enemy carrying an empty RPG-7) sending half of my team flying across the room and a couple of enemies managed to sneak in. I had to use a merc that had the best armour I had and some bonuses to dodging while sprinting to run behind the pool table so she could attract most of the enemy interrupts just so I could also run with my thankfully intact LMG merc behind the pool table too, set up the bipod and make a very short spray with his remaining APs to get some suppression going on. After that, I had to divide my remaining mercs between two covering the door, the armoured dodger covering behind the bar counter in a very specific place and the sniper taking position behind the pool table next to LMG guy, taking some other risks later to patch up some ugly wounds. The way I had to manage the situation, calculating the AP costs of every single plan wouldn't have felt so good in RtwP, where I would have needed to just keep track of enemy movement to pause the moment someone entered the room and also wait for the instant the knocked back mercs could get up and take cover.
 

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