| Title | Planetfall: Mission creep? More like mission pounce. |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Game diaries |
| When | March 15, 2021 |
Okay, I know I said we'd be home by the Dvar equivalent of Christmas. I might have even said turn 50. And here it is, turn 68, we've wiped out our fifth hopperhound hive, and we're still on Virginia. Where we will remain for some time. Let me explain..
So this series of Diaries has caused me to give Galactic Empire a try (I had tried it briefly when Star Kings was released but got sidetracked by the shiny Oathbound goodness), and I learned that the “secondary objective” thing is confusing.
Most secondary objectives are listed in white text and are just that: secondary objectives you can complete while going for a primary victory condition, which yield additional XP and Imperial Space Bucks.
However, some of the secondary objectives are in yellow text with a Trophy Cup icon and those are essentially “alternate primary victory conditions” which let you win immediately. Yellow objectives are pretty common and its possible to have a planet with no white objectives and only yellow objectives so I can see why Tom found it confusing. I found it confusing also.
Basically, white objectives are ways to farm Imperial Bucks and XP. Yellow objectives are ways to win, sometimes very swiftly as with the Rush an Opponent objective.
Now that I understand that, it helps me pick missions.
Oh man, Tom, Sprouting Infestation is crazy good. Free temporary units are basically awesome whenever you can get them in Planetfall. One of my favorite mods in the whole game.
Yep, I learned this the hard way. Which meant reading about it in your other post when I was already deep into a game. :(
Ah, I just discovered that the vines can tunnel around the map! That is good. I had previously thought they just sat there, limited to attacking anything that happened to be standing adjacent.
-Tom
Tom makes me think every game he writes about is awesome. He can’t help it, it’s just who he is. I don’t hold it against him. I played a couple of Galactic Empire missions and I do enjoy having alternate ways to victory. The first I just had to ally with 2 factions so I went all in on diplomacy. Of course since this is AoW there was still plenty of fighting. The damn plants forced my hand and made me choose between them or the spoiled NPC faction that complains they don’t have any good wine.
I still like most things about the game, but I still don’t like the mods. No surprise there. Just slows my anal retentive brain down way too much. I can’t help it. I do like the mechanics enough where my brain says keep playing once in a while. I still don’t know if that is a good or bad thing. I’m still as confused as the Growth faction at a really good salad bar.
A few hundred hours and you’ll still be saying things like this :)
So, let me make sure I understand correctly: After spending many hours and dozens of turns struggling to achieve various objectives furthering the goals different factions on the planet, you’re planning on ending the game completely annihilating of all life on its surface.
Seems like a bit of a wasted effort.
You don’t say. :)
Oh, I’m not working for factions on the planet. The factions transcend the planet. They span multiple worlds. Virginia is just a frontier, consisting of two Shakarn colonies, two Assembly colonies, a Kir’Ko colony, an Amazon settlement, local Psi-Fish and Therians, and a bunch of mutant animals. No one will miss them!
-Tom
I wasn’t complaining, I just didn’t know Curtis LeMay was still alive and designing video games.
The Promethean Doomsday Weapon is appropriately Doomsday-ish (BURN IT WITH FIRE!) but I like the Synthesis and Celestial “Doomsday Weapons” - the Synthesis want to bring the Singularity and the Celestians want to bring enlightenment to all. Although I suppose non-consensual Enlightenment is bad.