Matrix Games Forums

Can you all post some usefull info on different situations in this game[;)]

What skills are actually useful in this game?
What type of main mercenaries did you create?
How many mercenaries you should start out with and when to add more?
How to improve mercenary’s skill fast.
What area to attack or take over first.
Which areas will determine what plot you get later in the game.
Are any spam emails actually hints to hidden goodies or freebies by talking to certain npc’s?

ORIGINAL: Stealth_Hitman

Can you all post some usefull info on different situations in this game[;)]

What skills are actually useful in this game?
I tend to like Mercs that have lots of strength and agility, because they can carry more stuff without being encumbered, and the higher the agility, the more action points they get per turn. High accuracy is good, too.

What type of main mercenaries did you create?
I created my alter ago "Slick" with no mechanical skill, but high medical skill. Knowing what I know now, I would do the reverse. Having a good mechanic is important, especially in the early game. One you reach the later stages, almost every merc can repair stuff decently. And there are also many mercs available that are good docs. As for physical attributes, see above answer as to what I believe is important.

How many mercenaries you should start out with and when to add more? I started out with four, including "Slick". IMO, you need to be very frugal until you capture the Airport. Thus, I would wait to add more mercs until you have to attack the airport road, then airport. Instead of spending money at DJ's and on more mercs, spend the money on upgrades to your facilities...then do everything to protect them. Once you capture the airport, you can really start to spend money and have fun shopping at DJ's. [:)]

How to improve mercenary’s skill fast.
I've heard that using another merc to "train" takes too long, so I didn't even bother trying. Thus, my mercs have improved their skill in the field.

What area to attack or take over first.
Go straight for the airport. Until you capture the airport, you'll be poor. The airport, once captured, allows you to travel very quickly to any threatened sectors, so you won't need any of those expensive hired merc units to protect your sectors. So...I'd go: North Road, Safari, Road Block, Train Station, Road to Airport, Airport. Once you capture the air port, you days in the poor house are over, provided that you upgrade all your facilities. In this game, you make money by spending money on upgrades.

Which areas will determine what plot you get later in the game.
I'm still trying to figure out what happens when. I'll report back after I make nice with the Dictator and turn against Janus.

Are any spam emails actually hints to hidden goodies or freebies by talking to certain npc’s?
Not that I'm aware of. They are what they are.

I use a 6 Merk Squad on the first day, and rush, get the north road, road block and Safri, 2nd day, I pick up a cheap 2nd Squad, hit the damn, and then head south, you want the City and the Trainstation, those should keep your troops and able to buy what you need (mostly ammo)

remember, you and Jabby are free

I tend to wait to go after the Airport, until my troops are armmed and good enough to take out the road to the airport

I hang around the Crossroads, the only sites, I seem to need to defend are the crossroads or the port

about that time, I tend to pick up a lone Merk, to pick up ammo and goodies (before you take the airport) plus if he has repair skills, he will fix his stuff and then work on other stuff if he is with the group

I have not seen Agl to give more AP ? (they do move faster, maybe use AP better ?) mine troops all seem to have a 25 cap on AP

once you start getting everything repaired, you only need a few troops repairing stuff, so you can either heal or train, most trains seem to be Med, Mech, and Dex, then leadership, but with training you will get Str, Agl, Acc also, but some seem to be much better at learning then others

and again, to each there own, nothing is writtin in stone on how best to play the game, or it wouldn't be much fun

I normaly start out with a 4 person team. Get the best weapons I can get my hands on. 2 grenades per trooper, 4 extra clips and I clear out the Northern Road then skip the cross roads and head for the safri. After that I clear the cross roads then move to the dam and take that. Then I'll pick up the last 2 mercs for my team.. I very seldom use more then 6 mercs for the entire game. After that I'll start pushing for the Mines or the Train station then I'll head for the airport. I try to move as fast as possible however sometimes I need to stop for a day while I heal up, I get shot up pretty bad sometimes but I'm kinda reckless with my mercs. I like shorter ranged combat.. gets boring shooting across the map at each other, Hench my troopers carrying grenades.. Or Single shot RPGs. Or whatever 40mm I can get, Those things are great if you aim at the ground not at the mercs but they still have LOS issues being a direct fire weapon.
 
Skill wise my IMP always has 85 ACC, Agi and Dex. The rest I kinda mix around depending on how I feel at the time.
 
 
Much love,
Reinforce

well, one reason, I tend to go with 2 squads, is once hurt, I can break off and leave behind my medic and wounded and still keep pushing

I try to close the range, but with in reason, keep to protected areas

Morah and her Uzi works well though out most of the early to middle battles, Dagger and that Calaco does nice damage also, but once the AI goes to the heavies, you have to start matching

[font="times new roman"]What type of custom character seems useful in this game? It seems a lot of people want a night ops and stealth character but there is no night time and people say enemies spot you right away when you enter a zone. Which skills and perks seem the most useful?[/font]
[font="times new roman"][/font] 
[font="times new roman"]As you can see i havent played this game in a while i have about 3 or 4 other games i wanna finish first, unfortunally since college classes started it will be awhile [8|][/font]

I start with throwing and auto-weapons, high stats, low skills.  Stats go up slowly, skills go up more quickly so 85 wis for sure,80-85 other stats except leadership which I put low.  45 accuracy 35 explosives/med/mech.  By the time you're at the Palace, your accuracy will be around 90.

hmmm

I go with high Str and Acc, 35 Mech and Med (that way you can repair or heal if need be) 0 for Explosives (not seen where it helps or hurts)

think I went with 55 for Leadership and Wisdom, the rest of the points in Dex and Alg

I taking my time, trying to see how well I can train my troops

odd, seems to be a couple of people who teach well and a couple who learn well (of course the trick is to train what you want, Venom learns leadership like a manwoman, Smithy is a good teacher, but she teaches Med, and so on and so on)

oh yea, my guy is just now hitting 90 for ACC, think I am in the high teens for days (figure I will take out the base next, then the ambush, and most of my training should be over)

I don't do any training.  I just fight and repair and heal as required.  Training takes far too long to get results and frankly I don't -want- to train up my mercs.  A couple points and then they level and ask for more money.  Venom is awesome but paying more for a few points added to her leadership skill is a waste imo.  Throwing grenades knifing/hand to hand will raise your dex and strength.  I know in the JA games sneaking around in view of the enemy without them seeing you raised agility.  I tried that in HS but it didn't seem to do anything for me.

agree

I was doing this game more to see what you could do, and see what you could learn, most days, I am getting between 15-20 trains for the teams

I am not sure skills, or trains really bump up the levels, most times, it does look like it is getting shot


ahhh, don't find my early notes, but

me 5 levels, 4 to ACC, 2 to Mech, 5 to Med

Jabby, 4 Levels, 4 to Agl, 4 to Dex, 1 to Str, 9 to Acc, 5 to Med

Morah, 3 levels, 7 to Acc

Pittbull, 4 levels, 3 to Agl, 4 to Dex, 2 to Str, 13 to Acc, 3 to Med

Vemon, 1 to level, 46 to Leadership !, 2 to Acc

Dagger, 1 to Level, 1 to Dex, 3 to Acc, 3 to Mech

Moby, 4 levels, 2 to Dex, 7 to Acc, 4 to Mech

Lin, 5 Levels, 3 to Agl, 7 to Dex, 9 to Acc, 11 to Med

Fisher, 3 Levels, 2 to Agl, 1 to Dex, 6 to Acc, 1 to Mech, 9 to Med

Smithy, 3 Levels, 6 to Dex, 7 to Acc, 6 to Med

CC, 2 levels, 4 to Leadership

Dragon, 3 levels, 12 to Acc, 1 to Med

Bizon, 2 Levels, 1 to Agl, 5 to Acc, 1 to Med

didn't have starting stats on the rest of the team, and most of them are "new"

I playing around looking for who are teachers and who are not, and moving troops between the squads, you can see the ones who had Smithy as the teacher for a while

doing repair or heal, can give you either Mech or Med, or Dex, normally in pairs, if you get one, the other one is following

Training will give, Agl, Dex, Str, Leadership, Acc, Mech or Med (or at least so far, those are the ones I have been able to see)

can't tell if it is all roll of the die, or not, but it does seem like some people teach well and others do not, just as some learn well, train well

I think the frequency of skill increase is totally dependant on your wisdom and how high the skill/stat is.  When you start with low accuracy, it goes up really fast to a point.  It takes a while to get through the 80's.  Additionally, the corresponding stat might go up fast or slow depending on it's current value.  I got about 8 mech points in a row without a single point of stat gain, but my Mech was 35 at the start and dex was 85.

ORIGINAL: Stealth_Hitman

[font="times new roman"]What type of custom character seems useful in this game? It seems a lot of people want a night ops and stealth character but there is no night time and people say enemies spot you right away when you enter a zone. Which skills and perks seem the most useful?[/font]
[font="times new roman"][/font] 
[font="times new roman"]As you can see i havent played this game in a while i have about 3 or 4 other games i wanna finish first, unfortunally since college classes started it will be awhile [8|][/font]

Personally, I don't think it makes any difference. I didn't notice any difference when my alter-ego Slick Wilhelm was a pyscho or skilled in stealth or anything else. I just blow right through those questions now without thinking.

Like edgewise, I don't train during the game, either. Due to the limited AI intelligence, I feel that super-trained mercs would make the game far too easy.

Besides, they get plenty of stats updates as the game progresses.

ORIGINAL: Stealth_Hitman

[font="times new roman"]It seems a lot of people want a night ops and stealth character but there is no night time and people say enemies spot you right away when you enter a zone. Which skills and perks seem the most useful?[/font]
[font="times new roman"][/font] 
[font="times new roman"][/font]

That's because people thought it would operate something like JA2. In JA2, people tended to go for night-ops/stealth, or night-ops/auto. But as you can see, HG's engine is.. well, the syphilitic bastard child of JA2, and not it's proud child people were hoping for.

You'll be mainly using single-shots from your weapons, in as you noted, full daylight. Auto weapon spec isn't really useful. Nor is night ops or stealth. Doesn't really matter what you get. Only trait to watch out for is psycho - if he is, you might want to keep your merc with a single-shot weapon, since ammo can be kind of hard to come by.

i always use single shot in turn based games execpt for cops2170 the power of law since single shot uses alot of action points.

I use burst at close range from time to time.  Auto-fire with an AR is crazy unlikely to hit your target past 20m irl, but machineguns and light machineguns on the other hand are extremely accurate provided they're used correctly.  I don't know that the game differentiates.  Hmmm... gives me an idea for the patch.