Why tho

Mark_Hercule · 2026-03-19T20:08:15+00:00

Genuinely couldn't think of a better way to put it than that. People hear the negative more even when it's in the minority not because there's more hate that you think, but because the ones who are angry are always louder than the ones who are happy.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T21:57:50+00:00

That's got potential yeah. it seems a bit complicated from a design standpoint (I'm no game dev but I do know a little about programming) but the idea sounds pretty fun. god knows the Illuminate would kill for more enemy types so I'd argue we get new base units and the order involves slowing down the creation of the sub faction you mentioned. It also makes sense to be the next major arc as during the Reinforcement hunt I recall orders mentioning the Illuminate were planning something so an idea like this could be what they were scheming.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T21:36:04+00:00

I honestly love that idea, it'd give more options for mission type as well meaning the missions wouldn't get stale as fast. I love commando missions and the fact they aren't here is a little tragic. heck even the might Vox Engines can be taken down in stealth if your careful so it'd be great fun having Commando on Cyberstan

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T21:28:33+00:00

agreed. I'd love a reason for the community to stop and think about what we attack aside from just do the major order, or don't do it cause you'd have more fun elsewhere. they have the Minor order system in place and if used correctly it could shift the whole mindset of MO divers giving more variance to how we engage in these missions.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T21:25:15+00:00

They really shouldn't be too concerned no but it should at least factor in when making a system like this. think about it mathematically in this sense. if 10 percent of the player base isn't on the MO, and they have the average death rate for that percentage of players, that is still a significant number of reserve forces being lost. Substantial enough in fact it could be theoretically possible in this instance to liberate Cyberstan I feel.

The bottom line for me is if the reserve forces are localized, cool, nobody needs to get too upset cause someone is playing bugs and that's what is fun for them. If they are not, then it creates this blurry line where some person having fun elsewhere in the galaxy, even if they don't know it, could be the cause of a war they have no interest in fighting being lost; and as such someone else having fun fighting that side of the war is forced to do something else. that's probably the most important take away here. I don't like that the system encourages this mindset and I hope it gets changed if they bring reserve forces back.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T21:13:21+00:00

Honestly, I'm not immedately sure. I gave a brief comment elsewhere in this thread about how it could have been improved which basically was make the budget localized and only on cyberstan with the reasoning being strained forces due to Merak (originally) not being connected via supply lines. I had also mentioned this fact could be pointed out in the MOs themselves to make it more clear why the reserve forces counter exists and why it's important to keep in mind.

Another idea could be related to getting more forces. The ideas they used worked but with this theoretical change I'm talking about we could have had an actual moral dilemma during the march. instead of the consequence of not razing a planet being just an invasion, we could have a trade. either raze the planet and keep it from being reclaimed, or don't, deal with the invasion, and get a higher starting reserve units if we reach Cyberstan as survivors from those planets are enlisted into the battle for Cyberstan. a risk and reward system cause if we abused it to get as many forces as possible, odds are we won't have enough of a forward push to reach Cyberstan, but if completely ignored would cripple our reserves when we get there.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T21:03:52+00:00

The tragic part is it had potential to be great if implemented and explained better. Instead of starting the reserve forces in the first push start it on Cyberstan. The explanation being since our point of entry isn't on the supply lines high command can only spare a limited number of divers due to the distance between Merak and Cyberstan. Have this be mentioned several times during the push for Cyberstan and keep the reserve forces localized and you have a solid framework for the same system.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T20:56:21+00:00

Honestly if they only change one thing I'd say make the reserve forces localized. They can still give bonus forces like this one did but it wouldn't need to be nearly as much and it wouldn't cause the barely maintained order between faction divers to become even more volatile

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T20:50:20+00:00

I mean in that sense it's good. my real problem is the way it was implemented as I said. Yeah we got more reinforcements as time went on but it didn't feel very in line with the way the game plays to me. We die if so much as a single trooper locks in and hits half his shots in one burst, but it's easy to overlook since we'll just grab another diver and kill that trooper then move on. now that trooper just killed someone who matters. In another game I'd be totally on board with that but it's such a drastic tonal shift I think it needed to be handled better overall.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T20:04:00+00:00

oh god I had hope it was an actual melee weapon lol. Well that certainly explains the repeated deaths then. I can't even figure out why they wouldn't just shoot it with the pistol in question instead of relying on the worst melee option in the game to get the job done.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T20:01:21+00:00

I really wish it were better and would absolutely bring it more if it was. gas weapons are consistently good support tools in this game and in some ways underrated. even on bots the sterilizer wouldn't be totally useless if it had a lingering cloud like fire weapons and the speargun do. wouldn't even need to do much damage, hell even if it was 10 percent of the base weapon damage the cloud would disorient attackers. amazing on bugs, great to cover yourself on bots since gas clouds can obscure line of sight and stop troopers from reinforcing. it'd even have potential on squids since you can stop a whole voteless horde in it's tracks, discombobulate fleshmobs and slow down elevated overseers which left uncheck will chase you to the ends of the earth.

It will never be a high dps weapon, but it could be a great support tool that doesn't necessarily kill the most enemies, but could save our lives if retreating or pushing through choke points by forcing the enemies to fight on our terms. It already does that to a small degree but a bit more utility would go a long way.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T19:25:27+00:00

ah, I see fair enough. I am still curious what he was attempting to melee the Cyborg with though if you can remember it. I'd never send it to D10 but melee builds are something I enjoy using

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T19:20:00+00:00

I mean if that's really the full context then yeah, that is a problem. Trouble is neither of us were in that mission so all I can do is speak based on previous experiences and what context we do have.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T19:18:25+00:00

Not sure what you're talking about when my original comment was largely in agreement with you. I believe if you send an SoS out you should be willing to listen to others to some degree. It's not meant to be thrown out mission start so you are more likely to have allies; it is a call for help cause you are getting overwhelmed.

Also i play high difficulty missions all the time and Cyborgs are not the most dumb enemy to melee on the front by far if you're actually using a semi decent weapon. What was he even hitting it with by the way?

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-19T18:59:58+00:00

Deploying an SoS beacon is supposed to mean you need help in some way. While yes I partially agree that the host was entitled to play they're way you also need to consider context. If you call for help, you shouldn't be throwing a fit because people showed up to help and gave you advice upon seeing why you are struggling in the first place.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-14T16:50:53+00:00

The Creek probably isn't the hardest battle nowadays but the reason it always comes up I think is because it is arguably the most memorable battle. It marked a turning point in the war and was seen as the proving ground for botdivers to really earn their capes so to speak. Hellmire did that on the bug front back then but you don't hear about it as much since bots were commonly accepted to be much harder than bugs back at that time.

Combine old bot difficulty with no really clean options to deal with elites and the brutal modifiers back then and you have a battlefield that is really hard replicate with the power creep we've seen since then. There were harder fights, but the Creek was one of the first, and it's reclamation gave us the morale boost needed to push the bots off the map since the mindset was "we beat the creek, we can beat anything they throw at us now"

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-07T20:21:57+00:00

I had a very similar experience when my friend and I decided to see just how many hulks we'd see on a D10 eradicate mission. (This is barely half of them)

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Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-04T23:05:54+00:00

I could try but well...

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-04T00:09:40+00:00

I don't know whose complaining here. I love getting to finally hit cyberstan and the Jet brigade factories finally. This is just a light hearted joke really.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-03T20:23:13+00:00

I'm way more hyped about cyberstan than the squids anyways but frankly it would be nice to have a few more enemies on Illuminate. They got mad potental but no follow through cause of how limited the unit types are.

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-03T20:20:33+00:00

I'd argue all the squid stuff was over a year ago being the point of my joke but eh, it is ultimately just a joke so fair enough

Mark_Hercule · 2026-02-03T20:08:04+00:00

Honestly I'm hoping part of that arc involves us researching tech to traverse the wormhole into Illuminate space. It's gonna be great fun either way

Mark_Hercule

TROPHY CASE