melkathi

Though it can be trickier on the phone.

Werewolf: the Apocalypse - Earthblood released today. If anyone ends up playing it, I'd be interested to hear opinions.

100 hours into Troubleshooter, I took out the White Tiger gang tonight. It was a hectic but fun fight. I opted for the risky deployment, splitting my group up into two squads. The main squad took out one of the White Tiger leaders more by accident than anything else, as he ran into overwatch fire. Then they got bogged down a bit trying to clear out snipers and split off the SWAT contingent to help rebuke the White Tiger counter attack on the police cordon. All that kinda meant that instead of the second squad creating a diversion for the first squad to get to the White Tiger bossman, it found most of the gangers taking cover, facing the other direction. I had kinda hoped the Spoonists would grab the opportunity to attack the White Tiger gang themselves, but they stayed out of it so I let them stay out of it (which means, my sniper spotted the non-mission relevant characters before they spotted me, allowing me to circle around them and not have to put up with that headache as well).

C should have been for Cone to go?

This article made me chuckle in a patronising European way. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/01/us/capitol-rioters-non-voters-invs/index.html

71 hours into Troubleshooter I now have a full team of 8 characters. I think there are two more to hire from the FreeLC. I have tamed two pets and built one robo-drone. I could now either push the main story or just farm the various missions for materials and beasts to tame. And materials. Loads of materials. The jrpg farming has opened up and beckons suggestively. I mean if I get my hands on a Pure High Quality Oil Sac, I could craft that bangle to complete the Lightning Nigoori set and seriously boost Scion's damage output. Until he is high enough level to use the Draki stuff, which I expect will have an even bettererer set. And all I need to craft a Pure High Quality Oil Sac is 10 Big Oil Sac. Which I can make out of 10 Oil Sacs each. Ok, I don't have any of those either, but I should have 3 Small Oil Sacs left and I only need 7 more to make a standard sized Oil Sac. So if I get 997 more I should be set... I do like that in proper Anime/Manage/jRPG fashion, all the baddies and npcs etc have their story arcs. I understand to an extent the criticism from some reviews that the enemies felt samsie to them - is there truly a difference between an Angry Bull hoodlum with a machine gun and a White Tiger gangster with a machine gun, other than the colour of their outfit? Is there a difference between a Spoonist and a Smuggler? Other than the obvious yes, level, quality of equipment, passive abilities? Obviously. The Spoonist will share his bowl of rice with his brothers of the [Spoon]. He will welcome you to his humble table and share that bowl with you. He'll offer you the [spoon] and a chance to come along on the quest for the [coordinates] and the promise of Paradise. Spoonism will welcome all of you. OK, maybe not if you are White Tiger gang. I mean, who'd really want to welcome those guys? Especially after Starlight Junction. I mean there are limits even to divine forgiveness.

There must have been a better way to cut off the text if it doesn't fit

When you have probably outleveled a mission The tone of the story has taken a turn towards the dark Because games need sexy geriatric snipers (she is 34, which is like 169 in anime years) job interviews and for the social commentary (and to anger some people), hashbrown IStandWithRay (who got arrested for punching a guy who got hantsy (though this screenshot may have been the time her boss fired her and reported her for theft because she refused to sleep with him))

And suddenly everyone on the forum realized that LadyCrimson was Gromnir's alt account.

I am at 87 hours in Troubleshooter and ready to start the pokemon part of the game and try to tame all the beasts I can.

Reads things on the internet? Must be a villain.

Hmm, while I will of course play that game, there is a character in the game I currently play who would have a very predictable opinion about that.

So the translation of Troubleshooter gets worse as the game progresses. I guess they had help with fan edits in Early Access, so the older content had more eyes on it.

I went with the middle ground and got jurisdiction for the district the lady who runs the bar in Shooter Street lives. I think Sion has a bit of a crush on her and she had hired us to do a mission there before. Gameplay wise it isn't the most income I could get, but it means I am not at 3/5 Residential jurisdictions and havea presence in 3 different sectors.

Why should they learn? People have gone more crazy over Skyrim than they had Oblivion. Other companies are learning from Bethesda that this is the way to go.

Bah, can finally buy a troubleshooter license to get jurisdiction for a third district and can't decide which. Make an RP choice or make a gameplay choice...

So I said to myself yesternight, Let's do one quick rescue mission before going to bed. You'll sleep better knowing you haven't left these NPCs in a state of terror. It will be quick. You have a strong team. Started the mission with my team of 6 and was joined by the VCPD Inspector and SWAT. Loads of SWAT. Rushed the first terrace easily enough and took out the villains there. Was thinking how controlling 13 units in turn based combat was a bit of a drag as I made to rush the next group. One of them was a boss. Hand't encountered him before. Took out my main ranged damage dealer and my backup healer in the first 5 minutes of the mission. Oops. Decided to be more careful. Ambushed a two man patrol. Snipers on the roof noticed. And while the majority of the snipers ran up to the edge of the roof to line up targets, one ran to the opposite side to shout at the people gathered there. Within a few minutes my squad was bogged down on a street corner, hiding behind a truck and a van, while 40 or so gangsters came at them from two directions. The third was were we had come from. The fourth was the building with the snipers. Some villains tried to circle around from there, but the Hero Irene and one VCPD Stryker rushed them, and while the Stryker kept them occupied, the Hero Irene dashed up the stairs, past more villains, took out half the snipers, dashed past the other half, turned around and dashed back taking down everyone she had passed. Meanwhile, the main squad was fighting desperately, with smoke grenades tossed about by both sides. It looked really grim when two villainous swordmen broke through and took out the healer. Who then came back as a spirit to haunt them and possessed the swordman who had taken her out. That bought us some time. In the end it was past 4AM, 3 heroes and 3 SWAT officers down (miraculously not the Stryker who had accompanied Irene) but all objectives completed. Quick mission he said. It will be easy he said...

I think she is on the spectrum as kids would say nowadays. She will run past a crime scene because she is concentrating on running towards the crime scene. She can't remember faces - when everyone else says "Hey, we saw you at that crime scene," Irene is thinking "Have I seen this person before?"

Your daily dose of the Hero Irene: Now for the pop-quiz to see how well you understand being a hero: Question 1: Fear is the cowardly method of what kind of person? Answer: Question 2: Who's common weakness are rage and conceit? Answer: Bonus Question with possible story spoiler:

It is my superpower Just note, Troubleshooter needs a bit of patience for the first 10 hours as you slowly unlock access to the basics. I saw some negative reviews on Steam, and having played the game a lot now, my first reaction was "Did you even finish the tutorial? You only played 10 hours..." Then I took a step back and realized that reaction may be a bit unfair.

I haven't tried out all the options, but there is an option to set non-ally or ally unit speeds from Normal to Fast, Very Fast, Super Fast or Absolutely Fast.

It doesn't get better. I chose to watch something else. Started Duck Tales yesterday. Season 1 Episode 1 from 1987.

As I am possibly reaching the halfway mark in Troubleshooter, it may be time for that long impression-review post, with the added bonus of giving people something else to read outside the Cyberpunk discussion. Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children The game is a tactical jRPG in the vain of Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics: Ogre, or more recently Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark. It stands out from these in using Firaxis XCOM like combat. Furthermore it stands apart in the same way as XCOM: Chimera Squad did from other XCOM games (and UFO: Afterlight before that) in having only a set cast of characters. It has a few more influences from other game types. Setting: After a devastating world war, the world powers set up a neutral city named Valhalla. But as nobody was responsible for it, it descended into crime, reminiscent of Gotham on a bad day. The solution was obviously privatisation: Troubleshooter companies got licenses to fight crime and as an incentive got to request dispensations of items secured at the scene - bust a drug deal? Keep the drug money. Criminal gangs didn't like that and fought back, making it very unattractive for Troubleshooters to take them on. Meanwhile the police has their hands tied, as they have to defer to Troubleshooters so those don't lose their profit. Enter Albus (not Dumbledore), the main character who wants to become a Troubleshooter and start his own company. Albus is an orphan, raised by his mysterious aunt who he never seems to see in person and who sends him emails with money and a promise that a vague someday they may find time to meet in person. The Abandoned Children subtitle starts to explain itself. The writing is quite good. The story is not always told in order. The first tutorial plays 6 months after the start of the game for example. Various important characters will appear for a quick hello, then disappear for 30 hours of gaming, only to just pop up in a side story and disappear again. And sometimes you will control other characters to get glimpses of things that are going on at the same time. Gameplay Overview: After a series of tutorials (and I have a feeling they wrote two different tutorials but couldn't decide which one to use, so they added both), Albus will be able to rent a small office space in the back room of a bar, where he can set up a crime computer and IKEA furniture. This is your base. Here you can check what the state of the city districts is, what missions are available, and manage you character etc. As the game progresses, more options will become available - a couple of civilians you save during a mission will hang out at the bar, and will offer their services (shopkeeper). You will get access to a third room with a workbench, where you can craft equipment. And eventually you'll be told to take a stroll to Shooter Street market, the game's hub. Online/Offline: Why is there a hub? You can play the game online. It means that other player's Troubleshooter companies will exist in your game world. Practically it means that when you make a dialogue choice, you can opt to see how many people chose what options. In Shooter Street you would also see other players running about their business. I play offline. Missions: come with different objectives and two basic types: story and repeatable. Story missions will open up a new map and drive the story forward. Once you beat them, the map then will have a repeatable mission available. You are free to choose what missions you do, but the missions are the game's metric of time. Every 5 missions you get an activity report and paid by the city for your efforts. Depending on your lease and contracts signed with your team members, every few missions you will have to pay rent and salaries. On normal difficulty these expenses are insignificantly low. Combat: The tactical gameplay is at first glance very similar to XCOM. You have two actions. Using an attack ends the turn. There is light and full cover. If you run ahead blindly you may engage more enemies than you should have. The game has no player turn, but a fluid initiative ladder. Every actions costs time, and the order in which your team and the opponents act will constantly be adjusted. The higher your speed stat, the better. This part can also lead to some frustration. There are a few ways to knock an opponent down the initiative ladder. This can also happen to you. Draw the attention of too many enemies, that may result in you watching as ten gangster act three times in a row with you not getting any way to react. It doesn't happen too often, and usually is the result of you having played badly, but it does mean that some mistakes you pay for slowly. As the game has no set turn structure, mission timers are not based on number of turns. Instead they are tied to the action time. If a bomb will go off in 3000 whatever time units, then you can manage your actions accordingly. Using actions that will delay you for 80 units will give you less turns than using actions that delay you for 60 units. You can field up to 8 characters in a mission, so it takes a while until you have that many. At 57 hours I have 5 characters. Many missions will give you police backup though, so you may be controlling far more units during a mission. On some of the large maps, in missions that pertain to grand scale police operations, this means you may have half a dozen police under your control as backup. Character progression: Characters gain XP and level up, improving their stats and allowing them to use better equipment. They also gain XP in their chosen class, unlocking new abilities. A character can change class and will not forget the abilities learned from the previous classes. Classes affect the number of abilities you can use and the number of Masteries you can equip. Masteries are slotted on the Mastery Board. They include things like Lightning Reflexes to avoid reaction attacks or boosts to damage, crit chance, dodge chance etc. but also things like the ability to use Overwatch. Combining the correct masteries will also unlock set bonuses to further boost their effectiveness. These set bonuses you slowly discover through trial and error, with the game giving you hints as you get close to completing a set (or by looking them up on the wiki). Equipment has Diablo style rarity, and there even are equipment sets. You can craft a lot of really good equipment. Each character has their own crafting skill, so as you recruit more, more options will open up. you can buy materials, you can find some as loot, and you can break down loot into materials. Characters also improve their relationship with each other as they go on missions and can form bonds to fine tune party composition. So a character may get a free attack on an opponent targeted by another character or they may have increased defense if within line of sight of one another. Game Length: I know I can deploy a max of 8 characters in a mission. It took me 10 hours to get to 3 characters. At 57 hours I am still at 5. I know various characters unlock various crafting options. At 57 hours I can't yet craft jewelry (though I have a crafting schematic for a ring). I know there is a an animal sanctuary in Shooter Street where you store tamed creatures you aren't currently using with the pet class character. At 57 hours I do not think I have even encountered the character who can tame creatures - not even a glimpse on a load screen. I know there are drones you can control with a mechanic character. Maybe Kylie is the mechanic I will eventually be able to recruit? Maybe she isn't. As Mulan's love interest would say: We have a long way to go.

Well, the npcs in Troubleshooter every so often say I need to give them a day off. Then they go and get involved in some side mission that is worse than a day at work.