KickStarter Skyshine's BEDLAM: REDUX!

[toro]

 

[Bubbles]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/367600/discussions/0/517142253869229943/

We are considering allowing only 3-4 players on your away team. We’ve noticed a lot of good players play this way because the less targets you provide the enemy A.I the more likely you are to keep your units out of their sites with only two turns. With 6 units and an advancing enemy almost someone is always left to ‘take one for the team.

That doesn't sound like they have much faith in their own system.

 

[toro]

That doesn't sound like they have much faith in their own system.

You don't need more than 3 characters in each fight.

And the difficulty is off once you get 3 elite fighters.

Edit: And I'm wrong. Finished the trip from Byzantium to Aztec on Normal but then you have to go back and Viscera has some huge health (69 !?) which means that my party was wiped.

Transfiguring Roar : I cannot beat second incarnation of Viscera with my current party. What is the next step?

 

[Jaedar]

That doesn't sound like they have much faith in their own system.

They shouldn't have.

And the fact that they failed to anticipate this shows how poorly they understood their own system, since they actually give you extra rewards for bringing less people.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

You don't need more than 3 characters in each fight.

And the difficulty is off once you get 3 elite fighters.

Edit: And I'm wrong. Finished the trip from Byzantium to Aztec on Normal but then you have to go back and Viscera has some huge health (69 !?) which means that my party was wiped.

Transfiguring Roar : I cannot beat second incarnation of Viscera with my current party. What is the next step?

The only way I've been able to deal with Viscera easily is by leveling one of the elites (Gunslingers are my preference because of their range and movement) as high as possible before the end game and to have high energy reserves for healing and shielding (health has to be at max each round and shields have to always be up when Viscera is in range). I'd have to say the best thing to do is restart.

To help with the leveling, select the crew member you want to level up and unleash a dozer weapon (my preference was the nuke, except against mutants I used Skyshine twice to clear the whole screen because mutants start with 2 hp). Wipe as many enemies as you can and watch the levels roll in.

There are four King Viscera Incarnations. The third, a Gunslinger, can be nasty but is dealt with the same as the second and last incarnations. The last is a Deadeye and has around 90 hp. There are also two elites (Trenchers), each with 25 hp but they're not much of a problem.

BTW, nice score!

 

[Jabber]

I don't know what my score is because the stupid game keeps crashing at victory, but having won 2 out of 3 normal runs, the way to trivially beat King Viscera is to have a ton of power stored up (north of 500) and then just spam equalizers to beat his 4 forms. The invulnerability and damage bonus equalizers are particularly broken. Btw the game tries to convince you to hurry to Aztec as "bedlam breaks out" or whatever, but don't. Go at your own pace and show up when you have a lot of power stored up. Game difficulty hits cap (which isn't that hard) and then doesn't go any higher, so no actual reason to hurry.

Anyhow, a game with a lot of great aspects that comes together poorly...

 

[toro]

The only way I've been able to deal with Viscera easily is by leveling one of the elites (Gunslingers are my preference because of their range and movement) as high as possible before the end game and to have high energy reserves for healing and shielding (health has to be at max each round and shields have to always be up when Viscera is in range). I'd have to say the best thing to do is restart.

To help with the leveling, select the crew member you want to level up and unleash a dozer weapon (my preference was the nuke, except against mutants I used Skyshine twice to clear the whole screen because mutants start with 2 hp). Wipe as many enemies as you can and watch the levels roll in.

There are four King Viscera Incarnations. The third, a Gunslinger can be nasty but is dealt with the same as the second and last incarnations. The last is a Deadeye and has around 90 hp. There are also two elites (Trenchers), each with 25 hp but they're not much of a problem.

BTW, nice score!

This means that I have to visit everything before reaching Aztec.

I could do that but I won't because it pisses me off, I cannot stand bad design like this ... thank you for the info but I think I'm done with the game.

Edit: By the way, I got constant crashes from the game. So is not ready yet, at least 1 or 2 more patches.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

This means that I have to visit everything before reaching Aztec.

I could do that but I won't because it pisses me off, I cannot stand bad design like this ... thank you for the info but I think I'm done with the game.

Just in case you didn't know, points of interest respawn. That allows you to easily keep fighting and finding new stuff without the need to traverse every area on the map.

 

[toro]

Just in case you didn't know, points of interest respawn. That allows you to easily keep fighting and finding new stuff without the need to traverse every area on the map.

Yep. I figured that out.

By the way, the end game is bugged - the game will freeze after you beat Viscera for the 4th time. Lots of complaints on Steam.

 

[Pope Amole II]

The easiest way of busting Viscera's ass (at least from the ones I've found - I haven't played that much of the game as replayability value here is, like, zero) is invisibility. Especially the improved 2-turn one as it is much easier to use economically. You just grind about 500 cells before the final fights, then you simply use them smartly. Invisibility is so crazy that even Viscera can't see through it - you mop up his crew with nukes then you just cast it and whack him with your leveled up elite. 2-4 casts (depending on his stage) and he's done.

Obviously, that's a deeply tactical approach.

 

[dextermorgan]

Apparently, deadeye scoring a headshot can one-shot anything, Viscera included. I don't know if their chance of scoring a headshot goes up as they level though.

 

[toro]

Does the game have a difficulty slider? What was that on?

That was on Easy. You don't really have to fight Viscera.

On Normal you have to go back from Aztec to Byzantium and fight 4 times with Viscera.

 

[Alfons]

Transfiguring Roar how do you deal with encounters on bedlam? I have a pretty good team a nuke and a fair amount of cells, but I progressively start to use more than I gain. Encounters where your guys are on one side and enemies on the other are pretty straight forward but I'm having trouble with the ones where your guys are in the middle surrounded from all sides. If I don't nuke, invis, or shield constantly they start to lose chunks of their health.

 

[toro]

Transfiguring Roar how do you deal with encounters on bedlam? I have a pretty good team a nuke and a fair amount of cells, but I progressively start to use more than I gain. Encounters where your guys are on one side and enemies on the other are pretty straight forward but I'm having trouble with the ones where your guys are in the middle surrounded from all sides. If I don't nuke, invis, or shield constantly they start to lose chunks of their health.

The same thing happened for me. I had a great run but then the game started to flood me with enemies. And I started losing more cells than I gained.

So, I guess after some point the game starts to cheat. This is some bullshit artificial difficulty.

 

[eXalted]

Hello All!

We're proud to bring you our first patch! We've been hard at work getting things tweaked and adjusted and we're very happy with how things have turned out. Below you'll find the patch notes and known issues for this update - and we're already working on getting the known issues as well as a few other tweaks fixed too! Expect our next update sometime next week.

Release notes

• Bug fixes include end game show stopper, various event outcomes, performance related issues and reduced overall map memory to fix never-ending battle loading screens Increased the size of many battle maps and spread out the enemy and player spawns to prevent ambushes at the beginning of combat in every map
• Powercell pickup awarded immediately in battle
• Weapons now use 1 action point Balance of equalizers vs. powercell cost
• Rookies will reach Veteran status after 3 kills with the first level up at 2 more kills and each level up after that requiring 5 more kills
• Heal time has been adjusted so having fewer health points means faster healing Lowered the overall number of enemies
• Threat level ramp up tightened
• The Away Team now has a 4 crew member maximum Away Team sizes of 3 or less will net twice the crude and meat rewards after battle
• Instead of missing, cover now provides a 50% damage reduction with the exception of directly adjacent attacks
• Deadeye rookie and enemy health increased from 2 to 3
• Deadeye veteran movement increased from 2 to 3
• Elite battles are more like mini-boss fights against an entire team of one weapon class The encounter spread for Elites is better balanced
• Rogue A.I. now teleport/shield but do not attack
• Faction dozers now have starting faction crew
• Updated Double Down Map now has boundary lines
• Balanced the powercell reward based on threat level
• The entire board and all of the valid movement tiles are now displayed
• Movement flood tiles are now much more prominent
• Removed the forced encounter outside the gates of Bysantine
• Changed S.O.L to 3 outcomes and more resources rewarded in good outcome Passengers die off quicker when the Dozer is out of meat

Known Issues

• End game shows 0 passengers saved
• Unexplored POIs vanish from the map when the player resumes a save
• All rewards are given at Aztec City regardless of passenger count
• Saves are only generated after traveling to a new location and does not currently save after battles.
• Nicknames will not be saved unless you travel to a new location before quitting. Unlocking Legendary Mechanic achievement does not automatically unlock the other score achievements below it.

Once again - huge thank you for all of the amazing feedback and comments!

--Skyshine

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Transfiguring Roar how do you deal with encounters on bedlam? I have a pretty good team a nuke and a fair amount of cells, but I progressively start to use more than I gain. Encounters where your guys are on one side and enemies on the other are pretty straight forward but I'm having trouble with the ones where your guys are in the middle surrounded from all sides. If I don't nuke, invis, or shield constantly they start to lose chunks of their health.

Basically, I get the 5 elites, level them up to the point where they can one-hit any enemy, and when the difficulty ramps up to bedlam, I'll use a dozer weapon (usually the Electric Guillotine if I have it because it has a great AOE) and then rely on the shield equalizer 'Blitzer Sceen' to minimize damage, and heal only if I have to (i.e., so elites don't die). I use 3 crew at a time and rotate the damaged ones with the healthy ones. Usually I use less than 50 energy a battle this way, and collect 50 energy after the battle (involves getting pick-ups, but I don't go out of my way to get the pick-up, sometimes it's not worth the potential damage), allowing my energy to stockpile, which in turn allows me to use more in the battles where the crew are surrounded. The strategy remains more or less the same for those battle - I'll use the nuke where the enemies are most concentrated so my guys have somewhere to fall back to, use Blitzer Screen, and heal as needed. Usually I break even or use a little more.

To minimize damage, I tend to concentrate on taking out deadeyes and trenchers first (preferably with the dozer weapon), and let the shielded elites mop up the gunslingers and frontliners. This makes a huge difference because, obviously, you end up using the equalizers less.

Although invisibility is really awesome, I don't tend to use it much because of the high energy cost. Also there are two healing equalizers, one that heals 2hp and the other 4hp, and two shielding equalizers, one lasting one turn and the other two turns - I try to think ahead and use which ever will result in less energy expenditure.

The other thing I do is explore ALL points of interest, and concentrate on picking up energy from traders.

On my current run I've managed to have anywhere from 300 to 600 energy.

My current run (using Detrigore, comes with elite gunslinger Biv Trumble):

Spoiler

653 days in and I have plenty of energy to continue exploring Bedlam. I'm trying to unlock the Combustor dozer on this run, and look for clues on the secret dozers (from the kickstarter, I think there are 2).

Spoiler

Electric Guillotine only does 6 damage, but has great AOE and leaves only Frontliners standing. Yet to get the upgraded healing and shielding equalizers.

Edit: So with the new update, my strategy might need tweaking. No more x2 bonus for energy from battles... Electric Guillotine does 8 damage now.

Edit: I played for about an hour, and the strategy remains the same. I just had to be a little bit more sparing with the energy.

 

[Alfons]

Is there a way to raise the chances of getting weapons? I went through an hour or two of a couple of zig zag runs like yours and in all of them I only found the nuke once. I started dropping skyshine on groups, but that's really a half ass solution from a damage standpoint since the AI's retardation often carries over to their drunk turns, not to mention the fact that the other group of 5 guys who aren't drunk might get both actions.

Overall I can't get a strategy that I feel comfortable with. I forfeited a couple of probably won runs because fucking Abe started getting bum rushed by deadeyes and I was too cheap to drop some heals on him. I will say this, playing without Abe is no fun, yeah the cyborg dude is practically identical but he's not a giant, mutant, zombie, cowboy who's dual wielding machine gun revolvers.

How do you guys start the game BTW? I have a somewhat easy yet unreliable method of getting a vet out of the first encounter but it seems more about the luck of the draw. The brilliant strategy basically amounts to having a trencher and a deadeye on your first encounter and going in on mutant territory. Both the trencher and the deadeye have 3 turns where they can oneshot any of the mutants so unless the AI does suicide runs to take out that one guy you're good, sometimes it does. I usually run with the deadeye, frontliner, and trencher until I get an elite. The only thing I do with upgrades is not overdoing them until I have my first elite encounter. I want to be able to use equalizers twice, but you can probably get away with dumping all of them into upgrades as soon as possible I just like having an oh shit button available.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Overall I can't get a strategy that I feel comfortable with. I forfeited a couple of probably won runs because fucking Abe started getting bum rushed by deadeyes and I was too cheap to drop some heals on him. I will say this, playing without Abe is no fun, yeah the cyborg dude is practically identical but he's not a giant, mutant, zombie, cowboy who's dual wielding machine gun revolvers.

Agree, mate, Abe's fucken cool!

As far as I can tell, there's no way to increase the chances of getting other dozer weapons. I've managed to pick a couple up each run simply by doing all POI and entering different faction territories.

My start game is almost identical to yours. Only difference is I upgrade the dozers crude efficiency before I make a move.

I restart a fair bit and I always have a few casualties on the way.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Spoiler

Even with the new patch, getting energy isn't a problem. Pick-ups in the battle help. At this point I was having a harder time maintaining meat. It dropped from around 4000.

Spoiler

Finished up this run. Even though I got a few events leading up to the Combustor battle, I didn't manage to acquire it.

Going to attempt Bedlam difficulty next.

Edit: Biv Trumble ended up doing 101 damage.

 

[toro]

I finally had the patience to finish one run.

These were my guys:

A lot of items which I don't know what they are doing.

End stats:

In the end, my team was overkill - one guy with ~30 dmg is enough to kill Viscera in all his forms (however it could be risky cause it depends on the initial battle positioning).

I only used once a dozer weapon through the entire run. And yes, getting cells is easy if you loot at least 1 crate per fight.

To keep it short: the game still has bugs, the random quests sucks and the combat system is unbalanced. A somewhat messy implementation of FTL (however I would not compare it so easily with FTL).

 

[toro]

How do you guys start the game BTW? I have a somewhat easy yet unreliable method of getting a vet out of the first encounter but it seems more about the luck of the draw. The brilliant strategy basically amounts to having a trencher and a deadeye on your first encounter and going in on mutant territory. Both the trencher and the deadeye have 3 turns where they can oneshot any of the mutants so unless the AI does suicide runs to take out that one guy you're good, sometimes it does. I usually run with the deadeye, frontliner, and trencher until I get an elite. The only thing I do with upgrades is not overdoing them until I have my first elite encounter. I want to be able to use equalizers twice, but you can probably get away with dumping all of them into upgrades as soon as possible I just like having an oh shit button available.

Yes, mutant territory is the best for starting. Also I start by optimizing the oil usage and then the equalizers usage - in fact I never use the equalizer unless the upgrade level is 5.

As for the initial team, it doesn't matter except for the deadeye. Then I try to level him up as fast as possible because that means I can two-shot the first elite encountered (like Abe or Biv). From then on, I go for 3 elite warriors but you can use a different setup (two elites + 1 deadeye if you feel adventurous).

My strategy was to always use the cover system and maximize the use of equalizers - don't use one unless is necessary.

For example: Don't heal before ending the battle because your team might get healed on the next POI move.

For example: There is one equalizer who gives you +6HP for only 11 cells (overpowered I would say). Each fight I pushed with the least hurt team member and I tried to use this equilazer only when all of my team members were hurt. I basically rotated them for damage and it worked for me.

The game on Normal seems to be harder that it is (you can survive even if you lose Elite warriors). However you'll need like 400 cells and some heavy damage dealer by the end of run (stupid Viscera fights).

 

[Alfons]

Then I try to level him up as fast as possible because that means I can two-shot the first elite encountered (like Abe or Biv).

If I can't get an elite on the first encounter I just restart. As far as equalizers I found them invaluable on the first elite encounters depending on the position. I had one instance where shielding a throwaway crew member resulted in the elite staying long enough in place to get killed.

 

[Jimmious]

So this is on sale, 50% off. What is the Codex consensus, is it worth the 10 euros?

 

[pippin]

I like that artstyle. Comic book aesthetics should be a nice replacement for fugly 3d models everywhere.

 

[roshan]

Is the game really only an hour long?