[CHALLENGE] Operation HED

[KazaaakplethKilik]

HED standing for Hyper-Explosive-Diarrhea

This challenge is about being super-stealthy and passive in your playsyle. It is not super-hard, until you &%^K up one time. This one expects you to have exceptional skill set and perfect plays each single turn. You are supposed to survive as much missions as you can. My personal record is two, but I can't wait for what the community come up with.

Custom game mode rule settings:

REWINDS - 0 (IRONMAN)

LEVEL RETRIES - NONE

AUTO-ALARM - OFF

CAMPAIGN HOURS - ENDLESS

MISSION START PWR - 0

ALARM STAGES - NORMAL

CREDIT MULYIPLIER - 0.75

GUARDS PER LEVEL - MORE

SAFE GUARD PATROLS - OFF

ADDITIONAL KO TIME - negative 1

ALARM WHEN GUARDS KO - ON

SHOW DANGER ZONES - ON

ALLOW MELEE WHILE SEEN - ON

INCREASED FINAL RESISTANCE - ON

ALARM MULTIPLIER - 5

STARTING MONEY - 0

CONSOLES - MORE

SAFES - MORE

ROOMS - 10

DAEMON QUANTITY - NORMAL

TIME ATTACK -OFF

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P.S. - Feel free not to include any proof, this one is totally for fun, i will tryhard to make a highscore list at the top and update it a lot, but i may be a little be slow about it. Share strats please, I just can't make it to mission three!

[Nxf7]

Idk man. Anything with alarm increment disabled sounds like a walk in the park. However once past day 5, instant level 6 alarm from Blowfish2.0 is probably a game-ender or at least forcing you to bail the mission.

 

If you want advice though, take archive Banks if you weren't already. With safes set to more and alarm increment off, you have all the time in the world to siphon all the money on the map.

[KazaaakplethKilik]

 and alarm increment off, you have all the time in the world to siphon all the money on the map.

I suffer from not being able to properly KO anything - with guards set to many, KO timer of only 1 and getting an alarm level from every attack is just pain to me. I found it a bit challenging, so did a suggestion. It is up to you to test or not, but i will check out Banks mk. II, thanks

[KazaaakplethKilik]

Idk man. Anything with alarm increment disabled sounds like a walk in the park.

You know, thinking about your words - I want to add a couple of mine. This set of settings resembles a minefield to me. If you are above a  certain level of skill, this may seem easy, but for those, who just lack a nimble bit of it this can result in a restart every third minute. You know what? If you really mind spending your time, then ignore the text ahead, but if you don't and have like 5-10 minutes, I want you to try it out. If it will turn out to be easy as it seemed to you from the start, I will oficially apologise for spending your time.

Best wishes, KazaaakplethKilik

[Celestael]

Honestly this could be harder, I don't believe it's worthy of that colorful name yet =P

My only problem with the alarm level is it's max being 6 and after that the mission gets much easier. Decision making isn't really tested too much as long as you play cautiously, which without the alarm prodding you to not waste time, it just becomes a game of patience. There really isn't enough of a dynamic shift to force that alarm level to increase outside of mistakes made. If nothing is affected differently, then it remains static and much more predictable to complete a level.

 

As for KO'ing guards, even that can be avoided with some practice and smart misdirection. As I said, I don't think that's sufficiently hard enough for it's namesake. =P

[Celestael]

Re-read and you also asked for tips/strategy ideas. Also found out I don't know if I can edit posts, so....

 

Here's my advice: For stealth minefields, every mission you go to you should aim to not take out a guard unless absolutely necessary. Starting out it's often the first plan of attack, later it becomes plan B, then C. Treating it like plan F is more appropriate for this type of challenge, but even then 6 screw-ups that raise the alarm isn't that much a threat on it's own based on what you did. Camera seeing you, totally fine. KO'ing a guard, not great but manageable. Killing a guard, also manageable. Killing a guard and not being able to drag the body out of guards coming to investigate the sound of the bang, REALLY bad, but still possible.

 

The more guards hunting for you the more difficult navigation will get until likely you get cornered. If each time guards are 'homing in' on your location, their aggro is reset by sounds or strange sights. Namely, short-

range sprinting. Let's say a guard is blocking a path. If within sound detection range (5 tiles in a circle), turn on sprint, move a tile or two, turn it off, and hide. Guard comes to investigate, since you're not pressed for time, do it again, then maneuver around him. If not in sound detection range, you should be able to trigger his peripheral vision for him to walk over. Sometimes the level layout will make a section extremely difficult to get by without killing, KO'ing or just being detected. That's when smart choices prevail, either to figure a way of baiting him to investigate empy spots, or just avoiding entirely. It's very rare you come across an obstacle decision making won't get you out of.

[lixxi]

Also, Decker makes stealth minefields a lot easier. The early cloak means at least one man always has a clever way out; in particular, it also allows him to create distractions for others to escape.

[KazaaakplethKilik]

I tested arch banks, going to test decker, but I still continue to **** up because of not being attentive and cautious enough. I guess, it's my personal problem and that's why I consider it hard, huh.

[Nxf7]

I tested arch banks, going to test decker, but I still continue to **** up because of not being attentive and cautious enough. I guess, it's my personal problem and that's why I consider it hard, huh.

Don't beat yourself up over it. There's too many things for the human brain to focus on and remember that you can't do it perfectly without making a mistake eventually. The same idea occurs in chess; every turn you have to think of all possibilities which might include something like "his piece could take my piece" and you have to rethink this possibility every turn and if you forget it then you might make a move that backfires because you forgot what was right in front of you the whole time. 

 

I gave it a whirl too and after several turns of dancing around a patrol I put an agent in a position that would get her seen from the same patrol, but from an angle that I suddenly forgot wasn't safe from the direction the guard was moving from. It's a silly mistake but one that I'm confident that can't be fixed with any amount of hours of experience put into the game because I've been making them for the past 294 hours. Just a flaw of the human brain because we aren't as consistent as a computer. And that's why I prefer playing with a rewind... and without x5 alarm multiplier.

[Celestael]

I tested arch banks, going to test decker, but I still continue to **** up because of not being attentive and cautious enough. I guess, it's my personal problem and that's why I consider it hard, huh.

 

This may be a bit of a plug, but w/e. I'd personally recommend you try playing expert and win using only one agent. I posted about this very recently here so please, do check it out. It really does encourage you to think more tactically and responsibly when your actions are more limited in potential yet simpler to make as well. There is fair bit more pressure to keep moving but you learn more closely what an individual's capabilities are, and despite the alarm you just learn to plan ahead on how to deal with it. Even if you don't succeed day 1 to OMNI it's still a really beneficial learning experience, I find it quite fun too.

 

So give it a shot, let me know how it goes. ^-^