2968

I’d want less focus on the tactical. More RPG focus like Sorcerer King.

I know I wouldn’t get this.

2969

The tactical aspects of this series are the gold standard. I’d prefer they not be changed.

2970

A fantasy version of AoW incorporating Planet fall’s improvements would be an instant buy from me.

2971

Thanks to the awesome @robc04 in the giveaway thread I had a quarter-to-three-one moment (hey, 12:45 AM for me these days is like 2:45 AM for me when I was younger) last night with this game on the intro world. (I forget what it’s called, but after the tutorial they tell you to play a round on some training world before going on with the campaign.)

I stuck with the Vanguard because that’s what they had in the tutorial but went with the goody-two-shoes class–paragon? light bringer? something like that. (Also is “class” the right word? In AoW 3 you choose a race and class, and it seems to be the same here.)

Any tips for a beginner here? I played a bunch of AoW 3, so you can start your advice from that basis. :-)

There was some gold-level facility in a sector I wanted to annex so I sacrificed a bunch of my starting units to get it. Broad question–is it similar to AoW 3 in that I probably should not do that, i.e. is the best strategy to work carefully to keep your initial T1 and T2 guys alive so they get experience and become (moderately-to-drastically) more powerful? Or does the mods system alleviate that pressure a bit?

Also, the graphics so far seem a bit… busy. I’m having a bit of a hard time telling what’s what on the strategic map. I’m assuming I’ll get used to it with practice. Also, it’s funny how much I depend on the standard fantasy tropes to understand what units do what–when I see an elf archer or goblin warrior I have a pretty solid guess for their battlefield role, but when I come up against something called an “electrocutioner” or some floating mechanical orb I really don’t have a good first idea (1) how scared to be and moreoever (2) what do expect them to even do.

2972

You get a little more used to it but it is a problem and a frequent criticism of the game. The strategic map is really hard to read at times. Sometimes I know there’s a stack somewhere on my screen but I’ll still have to spend a few moments trying to find it.

2973

You are certainly most welcome!

I think coming from AoW3 it will be easy enough to understand the basics of the battles. Handling the overland map is different, but I think it was fairly self explanatory. The main two problems for me, and you hit on one of them is the readability of the map. The other, and related to your comment about leaning on fantasy tropes is learning what the different units do and the mods that can affect that. It requires a lot of clicking to examine units and the mods they have equipped.

You can check out units on the pre battle screen to look at their stats and abilities.

2974

Yeah the map does get busy :(.

And the units are …well more dimensional that in AoW.

In many ways it is imho a harder game, if only because there is simply more game, more info, more to keep track off.

There are numerous improvements though.

Coming from AoW3, I think the biggest change for you is that your lower tier units stick around for much longer and retain utility pretty much to the end game.

Your basic units with late game mods are…dangerous.

Each race has a basic theme going through it, so catering to that theme helps play the race.

Vanguard are the most “vanilla,” because they are firearms based.

Use lots of overwatch and grenades (assuming you are playing against the AI here)

Your “class” is secret tech and is less central to the game, because race takes up a more obvious role.

You can play the entire game ignoring your secret tech.

Not sure why you’d want to, as there are some cool toys there.

I like Psynumbra, as Malictors and Initiates are just wonderful units imho.

Also, pretty much any tech works with any race (again mostly because races are so well designed imho.)

Another change you’ll notice imho is things sometimes take more time to get rolling compared to AoW3.

2975

Thanks all!

So it looks like I should have tried to keep my dudes alive longer. Well, live and learn (for me, not them).

I am. What’s the advantage of grenades? They seem to do less damage and have less range. Occasionally they were useful when the enemy was clustered, especially around explosive things. (I’m also learning not to cluster my own troops, because there seem to be a lot more AOE abilities.)

I keep finding myself playing this like XCOM, i.e. slowly move up, keeping behind cover, overwatch every turn. I don’t think this is quite optimal, and I feel like my melee units (including my leader) are underperforming. Also the range on the assault rifles is not what I wish it were.

Ah, so “secret” by the Alpha Centauri definition, where the “secret projects” were the one thing that everyone knew you were building. ;)

2976

To address the one question directly: Unit XP isn’t nearly as important in Planetfall. It’s not bad, but also not worth worrying about all that much – vastly more power comes from mods and hero boosts.

2977

Grenades stagger (unless the enemy has stagger resistance), depriving them of an action point on their turn and canceling defense modes and overwatch. They also destroy soft cover.

2978

Stagger is a great thing.

less action points on the enemy means more time for you to kill them, and less time or opportunity for them to kill you.

With vanguard, one thing that works quite well is a laser heavy Bike Force.

Mobile and hard hitting, fairly expensive though.

If you got Promethean or Celestian you can give them healing mods.

Melee is arguably currently a bit under-powered, so don’t worry too much about it. The advantage of melee is it completely ignores armour iirc.

Or was it shields?

2979

I had similar questions about them early on. Others have already answered but I can’t stress how important/useful Stagger is. They’re primarily stagger employment devices, the damage they do is just a little bonus. Against a Full Action ability, they nullify it. For Repeat action abilities, each stagger cuts the output by 1/3. For melee units, you also just reduced how far they can move.

Stagger was something I really underrated at first.

2980

Oh, that’s great to know, thanks! Can you stagger something multiple times (i.e. further reduce its action points)?

I have really loved throwing my laser bikes way out on the flanks and getting that sweet, sweet damage bonus.

2981

Melee ignores shields and psionic ignores armor.

2982

Yes, you can stagger them to the point where they can’t perform actions the next round.

2983

I think each stagger they take gives them one level of stagger resistance or a chance to ignore or something until end of the round? Or I could be mistaken, it’s been a minute.

2984

If so that’s something I’m not aware of, I’ve been staggered into oblivion multiple times by the AI but I couldn’t tell you what my stagger resist was vs their level of stagger. Now I’m curious, though. :)

2985

If we’re talking about the AI, they seem quite fond of rushing forward to deal damage, at the expense of their own hp.

I.E. they prioritise damage over survivability.

And they love attacking heroes, or weaker (e.g. support) units.

So, you can park a hero just at the edge of their attack range (e.g. if they have 3 shot infantry, park your hero so they spend 2 actions moving to then fire once at the hero) and the hero can tank a round of damage, after which the enemy is typically in a bad position (physically) which means you can flank them, area of effect them etc.

2986

Thanks, I’ll try that. I’ve found that sometimes they do a good job finishing off one of my units (but exposing themselves) a couple times I’ve noticed them spreading damage around when they probably could have killed one instead.

What are people’s opinions on the campaigns? Disclaimer: I know folks here probably don’t like them, but I kind of enjoyed the AoW3 ones.

2987

Isn’t there one more final DLC due sometime in the next month or two? Anyone know when? I have the game and season pass but have held off playing because I want to play with all DLC, not play in bits. Thanks, google did not seem to help me.