What am I doing wrong in Silent Storm?

[fnordcircle]

I bought this game a while ago but just never got around to investing much time in it. Started a new campaign a few days back and am getting into it, finally. Playing on normal, though, and it seems very very hard.

2nd mission, in the middle of combat mode, I have two guys crouching, hiding and watching a door with both having the SMG's out, ready to unload a clip on the dumbass that walks in. Neither of these dudes have moved for 2+ turns, so they have plenty of AP's to burn in the course of an interrupt. The enemy proceeds to open the door, waltz in and wax one of the two, I don't even get a shot until they do. Both guys are set to look towards the door.

Rewind to when my guys do this sort of thing the computer gets the first shot almost always.

There's a lot to like about this game but this and the stupid hiding stuff is ruining it for me. By 'stupid hiding stuff' I mean I see a guy, I shoot him, he ducks down and hides, I move ten squares and never see him until he pops out of hiding even though he is RIGHT THERE.

 

[Whipporowill]

Interrupt is a skill, so that might be why your guys doesn't gets to go first. Simply put, their reflexes suck. Try not staying in his possible line of sight - corner beside the door or something could work. The hiding stuff is based on Spot, simply put - your guy probably sucks at spotting and the guy hiding is a scout. Although I agree that it sometimes pretty weird not being able to see someone crouching in daylight 4 meters in front of you.

Good luck!

 

[operf1]

Although I agree that it sometimes pretty weird not being able to see someone crouching in daylight 4 meters in front of you.
Good luck!

And sadly this wasn't corrected in the Sentinels...

 

[dipdipdip]

How is Sentinels?

 

[Whipporowill]

It's good.

 

[Nightjed]

sentinels has anoying "you are suddently surrounded by 8 soldiers with machineguns and have nowhere to hide!" and "there is no way they can see your hidden characters, but they know you are here!" scripted events, and "someone is slaughtering me with throwing knives ... hmm, bah, screw it, ill just keep smoking" moments

 

[fnordcircle]

sentinels has anoying "you are suddently surrounded by 8 soldiers with machineguns and have nowhere to hide!" and "there is no way they can see your hidden characters, but they know you are here!" scripted events, and "someone is slaughtering me with throwing knives ... hmm, bah, screw it, ill just keep smoking" moments

All in all things like this are what annoy me about SS and why I prefer real-time pause games.

I feel pretty lame crouch-strafing from behind cover, lobbing a grenade and crouch strafing back, but that's what the computer does, no matter how unrealistic it is.

Realism uber alles.

 

[kenney bounces]

How well he hides depends directly on the enemy's hiding skill versus your spot skill.

Easy solution is to hire an expensive scout before entering the area. Either that or guess where the enemy is and lob a grenade.

Later on if you hire toki, you'll be sneaking around hidden, and using your samurai sword and wacking everyone dead before they can react. Muahahahaha.

*bounce bounce*

 

[fnordcircle]

How well he hides depends directly on the enemy's hiding skill versus your spot skill.

Easy solution is to hire an expensive scout before entering the area. Either that or guess where the enemy is and lob a grenade.

Later on if you hire toki, you'll be sneaking around hidden, and using your samurai sword and wacking everyone dead before they can react. Muahahahaha.

*bounce bounce*

Sure, but it's still stupid.

I've got all my dudes camping inside a little cottage. Scout Toki watching the window. It's all quiet, so I decide to send Toki out through the window.

Bam, 4 feet in front of the window IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD WHERE THERE IS NO COVER WHATSOEVER, there's red outline full-auto gunning down Toki.

That's just bullshit and stupid. Lobbing grenades every 10 squares is not what I call strategy. As a player it gets frustrating to have your only recourse in a situation is to reload because you have no control over whether or not your guys are going to see someone 4 feet in front of them directly in your character's line of sight.

I can't believe folks here found this game to have more strategy than UFO:Aftermath. I don't run my dudes out in the open, I have them backing each other up and watching a path for a while before venturing into it, and I still get fucked by, once again, something I can't control.

It's frustrating getting gunned down when you should have seen the shooter well in advance and it's a hollow victory to reload and get it right.

 

[Nightjed]

All in all things like this are what annoy me about SS and why I prefer real-time pause games.

hmm, i dont know what you are smoking, but none of the problems i pointed out have anything to do with the game being turn based, they have to do with the crappy level and skill design.
I just want to make this clear, turn based is everything for SS, there is NO WAY i would play it without tb combat, and even if tb action might be slow (VERY slow in some games) when the game is hard enough every battle is a new, different challenge, in rl games the combat is always mechanic and repetitive, and the fact it needs a pause so that you can somewhat manage the caos indicates the game should use TB instead

 

[kenney bounces]

I played on normal difficulty. I never ran into guards that could hide from toki.Usually, most guards never detected toki. Most of the time i would just crouch up to them hidden, whoop out the samurai sword, slash the head and laugh demonically at the gore.

Are you playing on hard difficulty?

 

[fnordcircle]

All in all things like this are what annoy me about SS and why I prefer real-time pause games.

hmm, i dont know what you are smoking, but none of the problems i pointed out have anything to do with the game being turn based, they have to do with the crappy level and skill design.

I'm not smoking anything. They do stuff like this to increase the difficulty of turn-based games because rather than everyone acting simultaneously and realistically turn-based games with action points allow you to do all sorts of game-breaking 'tactics' such as step out from behind cover, blast off a few shots and move back into cover before your dweeb PC opponents.

Taking UFO:Aftermath as an example of real-time with pause, they didn't have to have foolish things like 'there's a red outline 10 squares in front of you in the middle of the road that is a soldier you can't see', because everything happens at once, when it happens.

I just want to make this clear, turn based is everything for SS, there is NO WAY i would play it without tb combat

You gain +10 Rpgcodex alignment points.

and even if tb action might be slow (VERY slow in some games)

What are you smoking? Slow action isn't the problem for me. I love turn-based games but I like the challenge of realism more than anything and there are some elements of turn-based tactical games that I just don't consider realistic.

when the game is hard enough every battle is a new, different challenge,

The problem is that in order to supplement the difficulty in SS, they put in a foolish implementation of hide and spot.

in rl games the combat is always mechanic and repetitive, and the fact it needs a pause so that you can somewhat manage the caos indicates the game should use TB instead

That's your point of view. Obviously the two implementations offer different things. Real-time is more about being johnny-on-the-spot with the pause button, granted, but I don't think it is mechanic and repetitive.

I played on normal difficulty. I never ran into guards that could hide from toki.Usually, most guards never detected toki. Most of the time i would just crouch up to them hidden, whoop out the samurai sword, slash the head and laugh demonically at the gore.

Are you playing on hard difficulty?

I'm playing on normal and Toki is level 4.

Again, the problem isn't that Toki or whomever else can't spot some dude crouch hiding inside a shrubbery, it's there isn't anywhere near enough of a negative modifier for enemy hides when they are in the clear and in a < 10 distance from one of my dudes that is looking in that direction.

 

[fnordcircle]

One other thing, this game needs a 'peek around the corner' action if there isn't one that I missed.

It's plenty annoying to have to push open a window and get gunned the fuck down to figure out if there is anyone there. With a quick peek action you would still run the risk of getting shot but only a very small portion of you would be visible and as such chances of getting hit would be drastically reduced.

 

[operf1]

How is Sentinels?

It's better than original, but not perfect.
Damned panzerkleins, ubermensh scout, dumb AI, and awful design of some missions, especially "Base Defence".
What I like it's customizable difficulty, and more powerful grenades and bazooka - now you can destroy PK with ease.

 

[miserychick]

What I like it's customizable difficulty, and more powerful grenades and bazooka - now you can destroy PK with ease.

Oh good. My inability to take out the damned PKs the first time I ran into them is what caused me to stop playing SS the first time through. I started a new game today, this time with a mod that fixes the skill progression.

 

[kenney bounces]

Toki is level 4???
Are you talking about silent storm or silent storm sentinels?

Toki is a lvl 14 nasty scout in sentinels that has like 120 spot and hiding. Nothing can go through him. He's hirable for about 40,000 dollars.

If you're playing the original silent storm, just use ONE character, go level him up to level 10, come back and hire the npcs. You'll notice that all of them has levelled to 10, and has all their skills maxed out. The original silent storm was plain dumb. =(

 

[Anonymous]

I'm playing the original solo, and yeah, I just leveled off random encounters (to get better at the game and make my dood ubar).

I've only done the first mission and i'm level 10 with a bunch of high skills, heh (playing a Sniper).

 

[fnordcircle]

Yeah, I'm playing the original and I'm playing with a full squad. At this point my sniper, Tadas, is around 52 in spot, so he's getting there. I still have the occasional 'there's a dude standing 12 squares down the hall from you, standing in plain view, blasting at you with an SMG' problem, but when he's around it isn't so bad.

Is it more or less of a challenge playing with a full squad?

 

[operf1]

I'm playing the original solo, and yeah, I just leveled off random encounters (to get better at the game and make my dood ubar).

I've only done the first mission and i'm level 10 with a bunch of high skills, heh (playing a Sniper).

In Sentinels, it's the only way to get some money. The beginning of the game is quite hard - no money, no allies, all you have are pistol and axe, and you have to take out dozens of well-armed enemies in first missions. Thats when scout proofs to be ultimate weapon. You don't need any ammo or SMG - just throwing knives and good stealth skill (hint: you can improve your skills at the base for money).
I've spent many exiting minutes trying to take as many loot as I can. New after-mission screen is very useful here.