Hint: Spoiler The sniper and the rifle guy above him in the open change their facing. Solution: Spoiler Go right through the two rooms to the door outside. Wait for the sniper to turn facing up, then run past him that turn into the center complex. Go through the two rooms in the center complex without entering the room with the rocket guy. Wait for the sniper to face right and the guy above him to face up. This will happen on alternate turns. Use a fast hunter (at least 5 AP) to run to the left out of the complex and up so you're hidden behind the pillar. [ALTERNATE: Use a heavily armoured hunter to draw the guard fire of the rocket in the center (make sure your other hunters aren't near enough to catch the splash damage). Run a hunter straight up behind the pillar.] Run to the zone. You only need one hunter to reach the zone, not your whole team. If you have a hunter fast enough, and use a stimpak, you can make the run from the center room to the zone in one turn. I agree that the AI is too unresponsive in some cases. As for the rest, I prefer being the hunter and not the hunted, so I'm satisfied with just the occasional 'defend the reactor' mission where you're on the defense. And I don't know if you've tried it, but hardcore/hard is pretty damn tense and dangerous.
It's been awhile since I played that mission, but I believe the path of least resistance is up the right hand side through the large building. Just make sure your hunters never end a turn in the open. Also watch which way the enemy are facing before you make a move past them. I think I still had to kill a merc right at the end, I managed to position my chaps in such a way that they all got a shot at him (and kill him) in a turn. If you are struggling play the daily missions (they are fun) and improve your hunters.
Yes and no. The AI is rather limited in what it does, but I don't see how a more pro-active AI works given the mechanics and map sizes. If the AI actually hunted you as actively as you hunt it, every contract would devolve into a old west shootout somewhere in the middle of the map, not to mention how easy it would be to lay traps with guard. For better or worse, the mix of static sentries, active enemy hunters, and limited pursuit enemy hunters (basically the standard issue AI behaviors in every game with AI, aka, Defensive, Normal, Aggressive) is a pretty good solution given the existing mechanics. Admittedly, the AI could actually use guard more often and use more pop out of cover, shoot, duck back into cover attacks, but the mechanics and scale limit just how fun of a game this would be with more "realistic" AI. As was also pointed out, try some Hardcore and see how "static and dull" you find the given game. There's a reason why there's three difficulties plus hardcore, and if you're thinking the game is too dull, try a little Hard Hardcore and come back and let us know how that's working out for you
Found an interesting bug. When I used Massacre (with a shotgun), there were four aliens in range. First shot killed one, two more were hit, and then Massacre stopped. But I was able to activate Massacre twice more, and for the rest of the mission, any time that same hunter shot an enemy, his AP were reset to full.
It is with heavy heart that I announce that in the middle of campaign mission 7, Crows Peck the Eagles, that Polson, Level IV Sentinel, armed with his squad's best assault rifle and light armor, was KIA when his commanding officer lost concentration and spent Polson's last AP to move him within sight of an enemy soldier armed with a plasma rifle. Oh sure, some say the commanding officer could have punched out of the mission and saved Polson's life, but he recklessly decided to end the turn anyhow, muttering something about "easy difficulty" and thinking the unthinkable couldn't happen. But it did: the enemy poured every AP he had into a single deadly overload and ended Polson's too short life. Miller roasted the murdering enemy the next turn, but, for Polson, it was too late... If it is any consolation to Polson's friends and family, the rest of the squad successfully completed the mission... for Polson ----- Yes, anyone not excited enough by the normal mode, give hardcore a try. It's a completely different feeling game with the stakes they way they are. Normal mode is awesome for its own reasons, but the hardcore really hammers home the value of making smart tactical choices in a game that many find too lean on the tactical variety.
I totally agree with this. You never felt like you were in a fight with the first game. In most missions you were simply inching forward trying to catch a dumb bot in a cross-fire. No tension, no excitement and no threat beyond your own stupidity. And adding a hardcore mode just makes the problem worse as it makes caution and AI exploitation even more important. Whilst it's hardly easy to get decent AI it's not exactly rocket science either. Laser Squad on the C64 had cracking AI that made it feel like you were assaulting/defending/infiltrating/escorting. At best, Hunters feels like a puzzle game that can be beaten with patience. (The only exception being the Defend the Reactors missions but that's not enough to sustain an entire game.)
That's my feeling, too. I much prefer games that reward net performance (e.g., there's a cost to taking casualties and you can only make a net profit if you do pretty well most of the time) to games that heavily penalize a single mistake. And when you are in that model, you can stand a lot more randomness and variability, whereas once you decide that a single shot can be a disaster, then you get into a design mode where everything has to be highly predictable.
I feel like Hunters could do with a middle ground, medium core if you will, where if you failed to complete the objectives for a mission you wouldn't be able to reconstitute any dead hunters, but so long as you were victorious then your hunters could be reconstituted. This would walk the line between the punch out now or lose that hunter at 10% health forever in hardcore vs. try anything, you'll be back of normal mode. It would also make the game make more sense. It's always been a mood breaker for me that if it's so inexpensive to reconstitute these elite mercenaries, why on earth is anybody paying them all this money to assassinate a leader? However, if those who control the battlefield control who stays dead and who gets dunked in the reanimation tank, you've got a nice explanation for the standard game mechanics and a way to build more wagering into the game design.
Thanks Bullwinkle for that info. it was quite helpful. If for anything to do away with my inability to make a choice lol. On a note re: the length of the game. I to agree that the story portion [camp.] in itself is quite slow. I mean if you are better than the avg. player, and was able to reach the end with minimal use of daily contracts + replay of the campaigns, I would assume you would make it to the boss by lvl 4? [just a guess]. Give or take, that's half the max allotted levels if I am not mistaken. --- Spoiler to continue reading on idea for expansion----- Spoiler If you had created multiple last bosses to play - for example this boss carries a minigun, and is called a guardian. It would be cool, if we had to find several different artifacts, which are led by more missions + more last bosses that exemplify that type of weapon. For example if this boss exemplified the use of a minigun, it would be cool to make the subsequent bosses exemplify their weapon/ type of skillset as well [eg. hammer, shotty, L.rifle, sniper etc tc]. The story could be similar to collecting dragon balls [for those that know of that anime] I think this could lead to a story + many missions. Ex next artifact is on planet X, once you get to each planet say there is 7 missions, and the 8th mission is the boss. kind of like that
That would be great, but we can only hope. The current campain is rather short for a game that took this long to create. It took me just 3 days (about 2h a day). I think that 2 more campaigns in addition (in the next 6 months or so) would greatly boost the replay value. P.S. I don't know if you asked yourselves that, but are the effects of the daily prizes (like +5% accuracy) forever or just for a day?
Keep in mind, the design assumes you will farm the campaign for legendaries. I've played the entire campaign at least five times at this point, killed everybody on the Meet Caius mission, etc.. At the macro level, they've done nothing to address the general repetitiveness of the game design since even the campaign is meant to be "endlessly" repeated, but I am enjoying Hunters 2 a ton more than I ever enjoyed H:E1. They've managed to put the repetitiveness in context with an actual loot system that gives you a reason to chug on.
hoping for recommendations please!! I have tried a few TBS games, and they never grabbed me as they always seem slow pace. How is this game? Will a newbie to the genre like this one, or is it too much? Any other games I could try out before spending the money on this? What is the lure for these types of games? Is it a slow pace thinking game? Any advice much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
I doubt it. It's nice that you've found additional ways to enjoy the game, but I doubt this is "by design" or that more than a tiny fraction of other players are attracted to the same thing.
Slow paced; goes with the territory It's definitely not too much, some of the more core TBS players find it far too lean. I am personally loving this one as they've tweaked the system to make it work about as well as it's going to without a major overhaul for Hunters 3 (/crossing fingers), and I was very critical of H:E1's delivery. It's got just enough depth to the tactics, loot, and hunter building without being overwhelming so you can play it more casually than something like Ravenmark or more traditional games in this genre. There's a reason why everyone is so focused on the Hunters games: there's nothing in this same sub genre of TBS on iOS that compares. The closest, and that's not saying much, is Tactical Soldier: Undead Rising, and it's also $5 and a weaker game. There are some light versions for very different TBS games like Tactical Warrior and Ravenmark, but they are both very different than Hunters 2.
OK, before I just dump you on my ignore list, have you actually played this game and have an interest in it? Or are you just posting to contradict me because you enjoy it? Because based on this post, I'm pretty certain it's the latter since you can doubt it all you want, but you'd be just as wrong if you claimed the Earth was flat and elephants all speak fluent Swahili since the game explicitly tells you that you are supposed to farm the campaign for more legendaries. If you're just pulling stuff out of your butt to troll, why even post? EDIT: In point of fact, this is the text from splash screen you get when you complete the campaign: If that's not by design, considering they have everything from a "reset campaign" button to the explicit instructions you can replay it for more rewards in the launch version of the game, what would you call it?
Still enjoying this game! - Beaten campaign 5 times, keen to carry on to bag all the legendary weapons. - Not minding the level cap at the moment as have plenty of credits to re-spec and try out new stuff/talents while going through campaign again. Have just got 6 out of 6 Hunters all level 10. Can't be bothered to manage any more team members than that. - Also, recent daily missions have been a good challenge - liking the new variety giving limit on number of turns or limiting number of kills you can make. Defend the reactor missions are still my favourite though! - Still hoping for any kind of update - wondering if daily missions will be enough to keep me playing once I've got all the legendary weapons. I really hope so!!! Few points / questions if anyone can advise please Bonus 'Spins' ==> If you get a bonus effect, it applies to just the next contract. Question is whether they stack, or if it's just the last 'roll' that applies? Favourite one was heavy weapons costing 1 less AP to use. Legendary Weapons ==> Legendary "Arbitrators Shotgun" 1760 / 90% / 45% (worth 25350 credits) But Epic "Deathrip Goremanger" 2140 / 87% / 30% (worth 8000 credits) Not sure which you'd feel is better - but maybe stats for legendary weapons should be (much?) higher. But I was still pleased when I looted this epic shotgun. Armoury ==> Kills statistics doesn't always add up....taking Human plus Alien kills. Not even adding reactors destroyed works. Anything else included in the calculation? There is a "Leaders Killed" stat, but is zero for all my team? Daily Missions ==> Do they scale in difficulty depending on your level? All my 6 regulars are level 10 and struggled on a few of the daily missions.....which I'm seeing as a positive thing in terms of longevity/challenge. Game Time ==> Mine is showing as 86+ hours. That must (I hope) be time in the game including armoury/trade screens etc rather than strict mission time - I know I have played it a hell of a lot, and have definitely got my monies' worth out of the game....when did I become an addict Rocket Launcher ==> In Hunters 1, I think damage radius was a 3-by-3 tiles. In Hunters 2, it seems larger, but not sure if larger in all directions?
I've been doing a bunch of number crunching this weekend. The Deathgrip Goremanger is the best shotgun in the game. However, that is the only example of a legendary not outclassing purchasable weapons that I've seen, and I have one legendary of every type of weapon (not sure if there's more than one legendary for each type or not). It's possible that the Deathgrip Goremanger is an error since its stats are identical to the best crafted shotgun you can make, and that's the only case I've seen of a purchasable weapon having the same stats as the optimal crafted version (I'll attach a write up about crafted gear after I answer a few more questions ) They haven't come right out and said so, but based on something from the wiki explaining the "Enemy Level Bonus" at the end of missions, it looks like the enemies are scaled on the fly to the *average* level of your hunter team as soon as you begin the mission. Pretty sure it's counting all the time the app is active, even if its in the background and the OS hasn't terminated it. I've played the game a lot, not doubt, but I have not been playing it an average of 14 hours a day, which is what that running total claims I have. It's definitely bigger, I *think* it's 5x5 but don't quote me on that. ----- As for the custom vs. purchased vs. legendary, I'm taking back a lot of what I complained about the manufacturing. Made time today to do the number crunching and it was a lot better than I thought on first look at the game, at least for weapons. Manufactured armor is not worth it for anything except light armor. The best heavy armor you can craft is only about 0.2% better performing than the 92,000 credit Riveted Combat Suit, a blue quality piece of gear no less. The best crafted medium armor is outclassed by the easily purchased (purple quality) Black Arbitor Suit for 228,000 credits. However, for light armor, even though it's certainly debatable if it's worth the roughly 100,000 credits over Ranger armor for about a 3% gain in quality, you can't get better armor for credits than sinking 8 points into toughness and 4 points into resistance in manufacturing. Weapons, though, are a completely different beast. You can make an assault rifle (1200/70/35) that will perform better over the long run than even the legendary Rangers Carbine (1000/82/30). You can make a flamethrower (1440/100/20) that is only outclassed by the legendary Torch of Holy Fire (1440/100/30). You can make a hammer (3400/78/25) that is only outclassed by the legendary Mjolnir (2900/100/20). You can make a minigun (2688/62/3) that outclasses the legendary Azrael's Wrath (2192/65/11). You can make a plasma gun (1610/78/39) that outclasses even the legendary Supernova (1310/90/33). A crafted rocket launcher (3100/80/5) is only outclassed by the legendary Jericho Launcher (2600/90/15). The best crafted shotgun ties with the best purchasable shotgun, the Deathgrip Goremanger (2140/87/30) and they are better than the legendary Arbitrators Shotgun (1760/90/45). Last, the crafted Sniper Rifle (3500/80/10) is only outclassed by the legendary Ranger Sniper Rifle (3000/89/30). So while manufactured armor might be kind of meh, the weapons are a much better deal, outclassing or equalling anything you can buy from the trade screen and sometimes outclassing legendary items.
Found the first big "exploit" Finally broke the game tonight: Spoiler Hunter - Survival / Vengeance (Zealot) Survival Talents: Last Stand Vengeance Talents: Retribution, Revenge, Sadistic, and Counter Attack (this would actually work better without Counter Attack but I had given it to the hunter before I realized just how BROKEN the Last Stand & Sadistic combo was) Other talents: Medkit Spend the remaining talents wherever you need, in this case I had one point for Minigun and a point to Improved Accuracy and Improved Criticals. I used a Minigun but Assault Rifle would work equally well, just need a weapon that really can't miss 100% with good range. So long as you can keep finding someone to shoot and don't end your own turn with 0 health, you can't die. The hunter goes to 0 on the enemy's turn, Last Stand is activated, your turn you shoot something and the hunter is healed back to positive health. The only way you can die is if you can't find something to shoot (why Counter Attack is actually counter productive), and you'll still get at least one free go with the Medkit talent. I just soloed the final 3 campaign missions with this hunter on hard difficulty and it wasn't even remotely an effort. Took down the final boss in 11 turns, would have been 10 but the hammer thugs blocked me from shooting him on turn 10. Seems like "Last Stand" should have a cap of once per mission.
you are right, last stand needs to be changed : as it is, even without counting the exploit you described, it makes harcore too easy (just use medipack when you go in last stand mode) Anyway, the skill trees need heavy rebalancing : survival is very good with hunker down, last stand and juggernaut Scouting is good with scout, fleet feet and the excellent improved metabolism all the other trees are useless : in combat tree massacre is just OK and the rest is useless (second chance a little more useful than the other two) support tree is as useless as guarding is vengeance is impossible to use in hardcore if you don't use the exploit described above. If you use it, it just beaks the game. so basically an all stalker (survi/scouting) team is by very far the best (if you chose not to use the exploit above)
