Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus - now with Heretek expansion

[Spectacle]

I haven't. How much of visual novel does it have, and how much of turn based stuff. I don't have anything against J aesthetics, but I don't like visual novels. I enjoyed Valkyria Chronicles if it helps.

I'd say it's 70% turn based combat, 25% character building and 5% visual novel. If you liked Valkyria Chronicles then the VN parts of Troubleshooter should be ok.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

I tried to make the game harder by turning on Disciplined mode (only one class line per techpriest), which caps your techpriests at a low level, and also the setting that limits you to one copy of each wargear (which is not as big of a deal as I thought - there are a number of different weapons that sort of do the same thing). It did enhance the difficulty somewhat. This did erode eventually, and I suspect if I'd just rolled a straight Tech-Auxilium or Lexmechanic team it would have been very easy (instead I went with one of each discipline, minus xenarite), but it certainly was more challenging and engaging for much longer into the game than otherwise.

I tried it but I am not a fan of that solution. I could live without the extra skills from the other tech trees, but level capping your priests also means you don't get any new tech augmentation slots beyond level 10 and that feels really frustrating. Equipping your priests with powerful cyberware and weapons is half the fun in this game. With the disciplined mode, it's a pain to equip stuff that requires 3 slots because you'll have to get rid of so much else to free up the necessary space. I guess it introduces some extra challenge but in the wrong way imho.

I found that limiting skill use to once per battle is a neat option to increase tactical play while not being at odds with how the game should feel. Ironman + permadeath is definitely a must have though to keep the tension up at least somewhat.

 

[spectre]

I agree, gutting the pimp-my-techpriest gameplay is self-defeating cause this system is what carries the gameplay.
There is a serious snowballing issue, endgame difficulty doesn't scale well against what a decent player can muster.

 

[Galdred]

I agree, gutting the pimp-my-techpriest gameplay is self-defeating cause this system is what carries the gameplay.
There is a serious snowballing issue, endgame difficulty doesn't scale well against what a decent player can muster.

Agreed! One thing that worked well was to set CP movement cost to be +1CP per move (ie 1 CP for first, 2 CP for second, 3CP for third, instead of 1 CP each time). It really helps a lot with making positionning important. Decreasing blackstone rewards also helps slow down the snowballing effect, but balance still falls apart later on.
One issue is that there is no minimum awakening increase, so with an overpowered squad (which you can get by having 2-3 priests max 1 track and dip into some others), you can usually clear full missions without raising the awakening counter at all.



As for the COYA parts, these are from the worst school of COYA:
guess the best choice randomly. There is little logic behind it, and seldom are there difficult decisions to be made (between giving stronger rewards with harsher penalties would have been better than putting penalties for the "wrong" answer and rewards for the "right" one).

I recommend just to use the steam event guide, but that makes the game even easier. I guess picking randomly would be better (than guessing).

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Its not really random though - each glyph has a meaning, what I did was to make a table of what glyphs mean (through trial and error) and than make decisions on the basis of that. Its not ideal way to approach CYOA stuff, but I find it respectable.

 

[Galdred]

Its not really random though - each glyph has a meaning, what I did was to make a table of what glyphs mean (through trial and error) and than make decisions on the basis of that. Its not ideal way to approach CYOA stuff, but I find it respectable.

For the glyphs, that is true, but the event choices have arbitrary consequences.

 

[what am i doing]

I agree, gutting the pimp-my-techpriest gameplay is self-defeating cause this system is what carries the gameplay.
There is a serious snowballing issue, endgame difficulty doesn't scale well against what a decent player can muster.

One issue is that there is no minimum awakening increase, so with an overpowered squad (which you can get by having 2-3 priests max 1 track and dip into some others), you can usually clear full missions without raising the awakening counter at all.

How do you go about this? I could have sworn there was basically a minimum of 1-3% awakening that you'd always get each mission. Is it from taking the optional combat rooms? I know those do reduce awakening progress but I was under the impression you'd still end up with a bit at the end.

 

[Galdred]

I agree, gutting the pimp-my-techpriest gameplay is self-defeating cause this system is what carries the gameplay.
There is a serious snowballing issue, endgame difficulty doesn't scale well against what a decent player can muster.

One issue is that there is no minimum awakening increase, so with an overpowered squad (which you can get by having 2-3 priests max 1 track and dip into some others), you can usually clear full missions without raising the awakening counter at all.

How do you go about this? I could have sworn there was basically a minimum of 1-3% awakening that you'd always get each mission. Is it from taking the optional combat rooms? I know those do reduce awakening progress but I was under the impression you'd still end up with a bit at the end.

I thought so too, but maybe it has changed since I first played(I was at 45% for the roughly the same number of unlocks I now got at 27%, and I raised the difficulty since that time with extra CP cost and 25% less blackstone):
You can decrease mission awakening level by destroying the consoles before or after you scan them.
Each removes 2 levels, but some encounters have 4 of these.
You can also decrease awakening by vkilling extra groups indeed(-3 for most optional battles).

 

[Galdred]

IMO the way it could be made more difficult is if you decide to do only missions from one "faction" (ie either for the l33t speaking xenarites priestes or just for the monodominant dude). That way you will lock yourself out of about half of support troops and plenty of good gear.

Actually, if you do all missions for one of the two extremist tech priests(the one that wants to burn everything and the one that wants to study necron tech) and less of the other (I think you need to have less than 9), you get one of the two special endings.