Fun with Lasers (Needs a nerf)


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So... I discovered that any map with a laser field is easily beaten (which is rather exploit-ish in a way) - provided you are okay with slaughtering every single enemy unit in that mission. This is especially the case for Vault maps that have a vault room and a double row of lasers (you only need one row of laser)

All you have to do is stun a guard, drag and drop him onto the deactivated laser field, move your agent out of the field, turn it on and watch him fry like an omelette.

Soon all his team mates and enforcers will descend on the room. As the AI compels them to search dead bodies, they will linger over their omelette colleague and in the laser zone (and here's when you turn on the power again).

In about 10 minutes, everyone on the map will be cooked. I would recommend a nerf (or a little tweaking at least) is in order, but I don't quite know how you'd go about it. My suggestions are:
 

  • Once AI has scouted a dead body, all enemy guards and enforcers have been notified and will avoid the same dead body tile.
  • Allow AI to scan body from one tile away or:
  • AI must know not to end their turn on a laser tile as far as possible

This unfortunately, hilarious. I'll post a picture later :grin:

I wanted to add: at higher levels, the maximum penalty you take from the deaths are approximately $1.2 - 1.3K. If you are cash rich, it is a certain way of ensuring that you succeed at the mission (and sort of a legitimate strategy within the current game design).

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It doesn't seem too strong in the normal levels so maybe just a enemy type that appears later in the endless mode that this doesn't work on? Or give lasers armor penetration of 1/2 so it wouldn't kill enforcers?

 

A third option would be a special ai that can make other ai act smarter. Maybe some sort of radio controller? This could be stuff like covering each other, circling through the guards over radio to check if they are still there, sending reinforcements to points where guards last checked in and so on.

Or, you know, just make guards not stand on tiles where there are already two bodies if it doesn't need to for pathing.

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In a mission i got in a bit of a tricky spot, after having an agent die i had to split the other 2 up to run for their lives. Internationale holed up in the vault and lazored almost all the guards in the level while Banks danced for a while with some guards around some gym equipment.

 

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=305542869

 

After leaving killing everyone execept a guard which Banks snatched and dragged around while pumping him full of paralyzers several times i got some medgel, picked up S11 and emptied everything in level for credits.

 

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=305542888

 

Truth is  i should had spent those credits before leaving in the shop.

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I think the latest update may have fixed this. On the final mission I was lasering some guards and robots and they would only get knocked out for a single turn. This of course led to me being able to knock them out every turn, but it limited the number of enemies I could do this to (since they were always occupying the squares)

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I don't think the AI will stand on a tile where an unconscious guard is about to wake up, because then he wouldn't have anywhere to stand. If that's the case then consider this bug squashed.

Someone on the design team ought to think about a guard's desire to AVOID tiles. There are plenty of ways to attract them. It would be mighty interesting if you could manipulate an enemy's fear of an area to make them stay away. Maybe a guard sees his buddy get shot and decides "I aint going in there!". This could create some interesting scenarios where your aggression causes enemies to be more defensive and you have to adapt.

Could be OP, but that's my takeaway.

Anyways all of that would be an AI development nightmare because you would have to balance desire to investigate with desire to avoid. Sadly in a hardcore game like this, the more human you make the AI, the closer you get to that "mushy" feeling that I know you are looking to avoid.

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Okay I just had a different set of lasers in a Vault kill a guard, so I'm not sure what the distinction is between lethal lasers and knockout lasers. It could be that the enemies I was knocking in the later levels were resistent. I believe it was one drone (makes sense) and one enforcer (not so much). The guy I just killed was a normal level 1 guard, unarmored. Was it the laser panel or the guard that made it different?

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Oh, that phrase is amazing! may I borrow it? 

 

But yeah, OP solution if you don't have a problem with the money penalty. 

 

 

But excuse me, my spy tragedy just became a comedy! 

 

Of course you can!

 

Anyhow, here's the picture I mentioned in the first post.

 

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=305727879

 

Edit: Link was malfunctioning

 

@Snows - as far as I know, guards will be attracted to their fallen comrades and dead bodies for 1 turn, after which they move off in search of you. The problem is they will always decide to end their turn hovering over the dead body, which leaves them in the perfect position to fry.

 

About the enforcers and drones - I know that drones will only get KO-ed in an activated laser field (I absolutely hate drones, they are my biggest bane). I've seen some hostile drones ramming into the wall, and ending their turn over the active laser field with only movement penalty. On the next turn they'll walk through it and continue searching for your agents.

 

Enforcers - they do the same thing, sometimes they will ram into the field and end their turn there (of which I flick the on-off switch and hear them go KAPOW (really it they do make that sound). No humans have ever survived the fields in my experience

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Aren't there three different walls? One that increases the alarm, one that knocks out and one that kills?

 

To be honest, I'm not sure. I've only played around extensively with the triple laser wall.

 

There is the infra-red wall, I think that did stun a drone once for me. But the guard (normal) who was unconscious in the field while I turned it on and I got an alarm +2 warning. (I was partially out of sight).

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