The Blue Sun Mod

[R@S]

Entering hostile cities
There are several ways to do this, you can wear enemy uniforms and they wont turn hostile directly and that gives you a few seconds to clear the immediate area. Or you could rush for cover, it's what I usually does. Try entering through the spawn point nearest to the hospital, that buildings gives you many options. You can go inside, up on the roof or use the corners to wait out the enemy, the aim-at-point function will save you in those situations.

If you want to use dark as cover, the time between 00 and 03 is the most effective.

Militia will be "grown" if your funding is big enough, but it takes time. How fast depends on reputation and how much funding your militia has. I dunno how many militia men you can have in a city, I've had 200 when I set the funding to max and waited a few weeks. There is however a limit to how many militias there can be in a loaded city, which is 35, all else is regarded as patrols that will attack the city if an enemy patrol captures your city.

The AI doesn't pick up weapons the player drops, but it does pick up weapons fallen comrades drop and I think also their enemies' weapons.

[Vader]

nsc and enemys pick up any weapon, i have seen that for sure. and if i am not misttaken it is writen down in the booklet of the game as a warning...

as for conquering hostile cities:

i have done so out of mischief or amusement numerous times.
here are some of my strategies:
first find a secure area where you have good sight but your oponent doesent. meaning in short house fights!!!!
the KI is to dumb and also you get much better work out of grenades when fighting inside...
to do so i try to get my squad generaly inside a bar. the bars are all built the same. i position only my team on the ground lvl because when it gets to achieving unrealistic headshots the enemy is alwas better... and on the first floor the oponent can only see your head when you are crouching...
on the groundfloor i position mostly two soldiers at the rear entrance facing the door and being not seen through any windows. normaly windows are not seethrouable by the enemy but the get smashed sometimes...
one soldier is locatet at the toilet as backup for my other soldier located in the main bar room. if i got more soldiers than i put them in the Corridor that leads outside the main bar room. the guy in the main room is my char, also my main fighter. after every one is in their position and secure i await the incoming enemy. they will! get into a sloughterhouse. works always infailable.
after the initial wave of suiciders is drained he (main char) gets out hunting. i prefer silenced weapons for this. all german weapons (HK XY) are good for that early in the game. if you face more than one enemy together be sure to kill firstly the one thats facing you with a claer headshot. the other one wont be bewildered most times, also if he is alarmed then he still has to turn around and thats costing allot time for him...

one a side note: if posssible and my weaponry allows for it: a fight in a hostile city is far easier if you are on your own. the more mebers you have in your team the more you have to control. so if you plan to attack a hostile city then go alone. and as r@s says save often^^

hope i could help.....

[Xiola]

Thats reallyt interesting, Vader, as my strategy is completely the opposite.

I try and engage the enemy at long range using fast auto snipers or assualt rifles.

Each of my team has a pistol,mp5 or P90, an assualt rifle such as the tavour or HK416 6.8mm and a fast firing sniper such as the g36 sniper version(forget its name) it has a to ready of .31 and accuaracy of 71.

I try and pin the enemy down with my assualt rifles while my snipers aim their shots and fire. Seems to work good for me

I like having 6 team members as it gives me more options in a fire fight.

I hate indoor fights at close range as I always seem to get caught by grenades

[Vader]

for sniper weaponry i strongly recomend the range of stefan uribe from cali cantinos. he has a silenced 7,62 and a russian equivalent sniper rifle all silenced and rather quick. i have to give it to you that the sniper g36 is the fastest siper rifel in the game, but since this cant be equiped with a silencer it is pretty useless in the game. since every enemy (regardless Fighter or thug) has a gps spotter and nightsight and a radio to get alarmed instantly when someone is loudly inhumed, giving a clear shot unsilenced is tantamount to alarming the whole crew of his fellows...
but when you aim and shot a silenced weapon then eaven in the night you can switch off sometimes four or more enemies on one spot. my favort weapon for this is the norinco (7,62) it has but a capacity of 10 rounds but the are well placed and deadly as hell. she had about 85% accouracy, and that is as i recal the best silenced one in the game...

[Kyle]

Interesting feedback on addressing hostile towns. I'm happy to see that there is a time of night that's superior than others when attempting to use concealment to the maximum.

Also useful is the interesting tidbit that a location can have 200+ units assigned to it, but that only 35 will appear when a map's reloaded. The others are "patrolling" in the region, which is a clever explanation for the engine's limitations.

Thank you all for the feedback.

I too use the interiors for most of my engagements, but since so many of the enterable structures are identical, it starts to feel sort of like a rail-shooter. I want to be able to utilize the inside and the outside simultaneously, but the AI seem to have the eyes of a hawk and simultaneous communications with one another. As was mentioned earlier, if an AI isn't killed immediately, it seems as if all of his buddies know exactly where you are.

R@S, do you think that it would be possible to supply some extra entry points to the maps? I'm thinking about having them located in areas where it's more unlikely for AI to automatically spot the squad. Too many of them are located RIGHT UNDERNEATH STREET LIGHTS, and who, in their right mind, would decide to infiltrate there?

For example, Porto Viejo could have additional entry points at:
1) either end of the beach since the squad entered by walking along the shoreline
2) in a dark alleyway, since the squad negotiated itself through the city by deliberately staying on the routes with the least lighting
3) or, for a sizable amount of money, a NPC could be supplied near a bar who will see to it that the squad is smuggled into a region in the back of a truck. If a map has a number of trucks present, then an entry point can be assigned near the tailgate of a truck, and to make this even more interesting, this entry point could be randomly assigned to wherever trucks are parked.
4) Perhaps supply one-three randomized entry points at ideal locations, such as a park with heavy foliage and nearby walls.
5) Entry points available near sewer grates (if there are sewer grates available, I can't recall right now if they are).

And so on and so forth.

Anything that avoids having just the entry points where they are now would be an improvement. In my opinion, the default entry points are just too obvious.

[R@S]

Originally Posted by Vader

when someone is loudly inhumed

Do we have yet another reader of our dear and beloved Terry Pratchett in our midst? And one that has also discovered the joy of reading his books in English, with all the puns and play with words

Kyle
I feel that adding more spawn points, ones that gives you cover, would make the game too easy. As it is now there is a random element when you enter a town, and that causes you to alter your tactics accordingly. If you have a safe place you'd use the same tactic all the time and the game would become tedious after a while. I want the game to continue to be challenging, forcing you to try different tactics and evolve ones you already use, that way the game never gets boring.

But there could be a compromise. When working on the Field Radio I discovered that I could add a spy to the game. You could use that spy by sending him to enemy cities, and through the radio you could find out how many enemy defenders the city has. This spy could be used to "smuggle" you into a city for a fee. But I fear it would be too easily exploited and I would have to add a hefty cost to prevent it. I'd have to think about it further.

[Vader]

Hello r@s,

well it´s me matze, yep the one who done the mister sister pic^^,

and i still love terrys books to no end^^

if we would set the entry points somewhere else, the points kyle mentioned, the game would loose one major factor: frustration. dont get me wrong, normaly i would do anything to get rid of frustration in real life. but in this game when i get frustrated it shows me one thing for sure. my tactics arent worth to beat the enemy. i think we need these signs, the are to me like a slap against my head. the motivate me to try harder. and a valid point of kyle was that if you stuck to your tactics for ever the game runs like a train and gets boring. ever since the classsystem was forged^^ i went full sniper. it changed completly my few and my tactics. a whole range of guns now is more interesting as before. when i have completed my my current sniper carrer, then i want to go from stealth to screaming gunner^^. and then the range of mgs is in my reach^^.

the game is faszination pure... i havent seen another game that kept me for so long.

on another side note: since i still recall that r@s you where working on the ARM project: sometimes i miss one mission that wasnt developed. since i´ve read the metro 2033 book i imagened one situation. imagening to hold your fort. meaning an oncoming rush in bible conditions has to withheld. imagine in waves for instance twenty ore more tamgos running, yeah running i said, and you have to really burst the waves^^.
in the game we now have some truly wonderfull sniping mission, but sometimes in the wee hours^^ a man/or a woman wants to go beserk^^.
these oncoming wave mustn´t be wielding fierce weapons youst sheer mass would suffice... i think that would be fun^^

so long, lost my red thread^^

[Kyle]

R@S,

That's pretty cool that what I basically proposed could be incorporated into using the field radio. I agree with you that the intel should come with a price.

I can "sort of" understand having to be forced to use tactics at the same old entry zones, but...

The default four spawn points are almost always on the main thoroughfares, most of which are brightly lit at night. Now, I can understand perfectly well using these spawn points when casually moving through a region, but to use them for infiltration and assault purposes? I don't think even the Three Stooges would pick those spots. It just seems far more immersive to me that new entry points/methods be added wherever it's strategically and believably sensible to do so.

Those new points could be randomized, so that they're not always available when the Player is about to enter a region, forcing the Player to make more challenging decisions. A $ price tag could be added, so that perhaps only The Best of them are available if money is put in the pocket of a nebulous spy working on your behalf.

However, having to pay a hefty fee every time seems unrealistic to me as well, but could occur every now and then just to keep the Player on his/her toes.

Heck, said spies could be an asset as well as a deficit in another way: perhaps they could be caught, captured, and held hostage by the enemy. Whenever this is done, any other potential spies in the ENTIRE game-world will STOP working for the Player until that captured spy is safely rescued. Spycraft is dangerous work, and one wants to be sure that the person that one is working for is not a double agent, thus the need to rescue those who become captured before anymore spywork is done on behalf of the Player; they want to ensure that they're not being betrayed.

There are other ways that this capability could be limited, such as assigning random patrol routes for the enemy. For the life of me, I've yet to enter a map ("friendly" or not) that has patrols. Weird! If this was done, even the "best" location could be quickly compromised by a patrol of 2-4 enemies who just happen upon the scene, or come up on the squad's back as they move deeper. These random patrols could also be spawned at random times, and at random locations, perhaps entering at, or near to, these new entry points for the very sound reason that these key spots SHOULD be patrolled due to the vulnerabilities they present to those who occupy the region.

Randomized traps such as mines could be set near these areas.

And the list could go on...

Using the default entry points may chronically force tough and desperate tactical decisions, but they're almost always the same, and again, those entry points are sensible for friendly regions, but not hostile ones. By opening up more entry points/means of entry, one not only deepens immersion but also opens up gameplay.

This game is challenging to me nearly all of the time anyway. Even when I happen into a random ambush as I travel from Point A to Point B, and the enemy are far away and they've yet to determine exactly where I am, so that I have a great advantage, once the shooting begins, even my best laid plans are to the wind. And that's with everything in my favor. If randomized patrols were added along with the new entry points/means, I'm confident that this would keep the pressure high (even elevate it to greater heights not yet experienced in 7.62), force the Player to fully utilize one's wits, and lead to a very fulfilling experience.