Hostage rescue missions

[Misery]

Ok.  It's struck me that these seem to be pretty much the worst mission type by far, and could do with some sort of change.

Particularly on higher difficulties, it can be literally impossible to save even a single pod;  they cant take any damage.... and even with a big health boost they'd still last 2 turns at most, since enemy damage output can be so very high, and it's actually possible to essentially "skip" having to do these.   If you get a bot with very strong sensors, select them right away, and just move around a bit to expose most of the area, you can hit the whistle, and then just hit spacebar until the mission ends.  Of course, doing this provides you with no loot.... but chances are you're not going to get any even if you attempt to fight back.

In other words, a completely wasted campaign turn.  The best you could do is maybe opening a locked door or two, IF you get some that start really close to your initial position.  Even going on an unnecessary salvage mission gives both more reward and more challenge (in terms of surviving the mission).

So.... what does everyone think about these?   Are there any suggestions on how to make these better?

[keith.lamothe]

In your experience, is it possible to physically reach any of the pods before they die?

Not that that matters right now, but for informing possible alternate designs.

[Misery]

In your experience, is it possible to physically reach any of the pods before they die?

Not that that matters right now, but for informing possible alternate designs.

If there's one, maybe two, that starts out with absolutely nothing anywhere near it, which happens sometimes, I could stealth my way over to it to grab it before the bots in the mission wake up; just depends on the stealth stat.

Other than that, usually it'd be suicide to attempt it since the bots will cluster around them quickly.  That and it'd require an extreme amount of stealth and the area immediately around it would have to be open.

[nas1m]

In your experience, is it possible to physically reach any of the pods before they die?

Not that that matters right now, but for informing possible alternate designs.

If there's one, maybe two, that starts out with absolutely nothing anywhere near it, which happens sometimes, I could stealth my way over to it to grab it before the bots in the mission wake up; just depends on the stealth stat.

Other than that, usually it'd be suicide to attempt it since the bots will cluster around them quickly.  That and it'd require an extreme amount of stealth and the area immediately around it would have to be open.

Wait. You have to grab them ?
That might explain why I always had the feeling that I got no (extra) loot from this type of mission, even though some pods got not destroyed (on Hard) ...

[Rekka]

You sure you have to grab them? I tried to interact with the pods without any effect so I assumed you just had to exterminate all ennemies.

[Tridus]

No you don't have to grab them.

[nas1m]

Just logged this to make mission rewards a bit more clear.
Just in case you want to vote ; )...

http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=12688

[x4000]

All you have to do is not let them get destroyed, yeah.

In terms of Hard difficulty, I have not played with these missions since the rebalance late last week, but I was previously finding these fine.  Mostly a matter of using stealth and capping the enemies quickly.

THAT said, possibly these things need more health or something.  Or maybe something like a 25% chance that enemies will shoot at them instead of you, or less.  Introducing a chance instead of a certainty (and maybe as low as 10%) might solve this right out.

[Rekka]

Yeah putting a chance that they'll shoot at the pods instead of you might indeed do the trick. Well except if you are unlucky...

[Misery]

All you have to do is not let them get destroyed, yeah.

In terms of Hard difficulty, I have not played with these missions since the rebalance late last week, but I was previously finding these fine.  Mostly a matter of using stealth and capping the enemies quickly.

THAT said, possibly these things need more health or something.  Or maybe something like a 25% chance that enemies will shoot at them instead of you, or less.  Introducing a chance instead of a certainty (and maybe as low as 10%) might solve this right out.

That sounds like it'd probably make it alot better.

On Expert there simply is no way to pop that many bots before the nearby pod is destroyed;  it often takes multiple turns to kill even one or two since they have so much shielding (I ran into one that had 60,000 in the last one I did, though that's a bit extreme, usually they max at around 15,000), and it's not uncommon to find like 10 of them stationed near a pod.  And of course using AoE weapons in that situation, well.... it doesnt really help the rescue operation very much, hah.

[x4000]

Thanks!

* Rather than there being a 100% chance of bots shooting at human cryopods instead of shooting at you, there is now a 10% chance.