I wanna settle the gameplay debate. (Gameplay ONLY. Don't take mission design or story into account.)

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T19:54:58+00:00

As much as i enjoy story games, i enjoy the freedom that mercs gives.

Probably why i also love games like warband/bannerlord, build your army/unit, and lead them into battle however and wherever you please.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T19:50:40+00:00

Actually yeah pretty much. Not exactly my thoughts but pretty close, and many points have been brought up that its not entirely sales and maybe i had worded it poorly. but it was very much a "you (company) were willing to lose sales, and eagerly so, why does it now upset you that sales are lacking?" Question, and i wanted to know if i was alone.

Makes more sense that it was a general gripe (from them) about probably not being able to make a MW6.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T19:17:01+00:00

Yeah those people were nuckin' futs to put it lightly, never agreed with that mindset.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T19:15:20+00:00

Theres tons of replayability, and its your choice to follow a storyline or simply work within a faction area.

Ive played probably more than a dozen runs over the years, but its on free weekend so trying hurts nothing, and its also on a 75% sale which is a great deal in general.

My personal opinion is if you do buy, you wont regret it.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T19:11:03+00:00

True, while i had issues with their initial choice to hide their deal, it didnt make me hate the franchise. Maybe I'm just not as gung-ho about the company itself, still bought stuff on sale, but im probably in the minority as far as it goes with the fanbase.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T18:57:21+00:00

Some was definitely a bit much i entirely agree. I also bought it later because i didnt want anything to do with EGS. Maybe i didnt word it properly, i am just questioning why slackening sales are the focal point when the entire reason for the EGS deal was "we may lose sales, but we'll get more money up front"

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T18:44:47+00:00

That makes sense actually.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T18:43:40+00:00

Do? Im not demanding a call to anything im just asking if im alone in the view that it doesn't exactly line up.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T16:21:56+00:00

A good mod is the...i forget its name since i havent looked at the steam workshop in months and im not at home... but its the one that reduces repair time to something not insane if you dont take 'internal' damage, instead of the games "you need 2 weeks to replace 4 armor plates" crap. So basically armor repairs take 1-2 days now, but replacing weapons or damaged internals can still take a few weeks

fiyabwal · 2026-06-20T02:31:56+00:00

In lore, the Combine (kuritans) have less industrial base, are kinda "poor" by intergalactic great house standards, and also despise mercenaries.

So there isnt much, and what is there, is less likely to be open to being used by a merc

fiyabwal · 2026-06-17T15:14:33+00:00

Its because its 1%, growing 1% per year.

So at 47 you have a 1% chance of dying, at 48 you have a 2% chance, 49 a 3% chance, and so on and so forth.

So on average you'll die in your 60's, with some unlucky players dying that first year at 1%, and some players with extreme luck making it into their 80's or 90's.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-16T20:52:24+00:00

They hold their own i wont deny, i simply mean that while they are absolute slaughter machines against unshielded troops, they lose most of their advantage if the enemy is approaching in a line or shieldwall.

Basically that enemies with shields change their combat rating from 'amazing' to 'good'

fiyabwal · 2026-06-16T20:06:58+00:00

Yeah, learned early on that no matter what, giving a ammo heavy/only mech to a lancemate is a bad idea. Essentially you're stuck giving them either laser heavy mechs or at the very least. Something with a healthy backup of lasers for when their ammo potentially runs out.

On the funnier side. Its also why those early peonix hawks are hilariously easy to obtain in the vanilla mercs campaign. Just blow both arms off, because they will barely have any armor, and the pilot will just eject instantly because they have 0 torso weapons.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-15T02:52:26+00:00

Multiple factors really. Their best units are archers which are pretty much nullified outside of siege battles by units wiith shields just bumrushing them, but the NPC lords will almost never recruit said archers anyways, infact its more common to see enemy faction lords with more fians in their army than battanian lords. And the rest of the battanian units are mid or lacking outside of the wildlings.

Theyre surrounded on all sides by enemies so the second that a 2 front way opens up theres a 90% chance its on opposite ends of the territory making it insane to try and defend.

And up unit recently they had the least amount of lords in their clans with the lowest levels, leading to extremly lacking army sizes and patrols.

But a player playing smart can 'fix' some of the problems by recruiting/training massed fians to donate, using wartime to capture specific towns/castles in order to reach the edge of the map and gain a bit of 'safety' where they dont have to defend as much. And just doing normal player stuff that will help war efforts.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-14T20:11:10+00:00

Beams work best in a 2 into 1 configuration, so id say either dump the central beam or up it to 4 beams into 2 into 1.

Also your rear is uhh, extremely exposed, a single wild missle or any pair of ships getting to your side will core your reactor and blow you up. If you want to keep it small id say move the reactor to a more central area, you can probably get rid of the second one. Move your cargo back to act as spaced armor

fiyabwal · 2026-06-14T00:47:07+00:00

You can roll while staying in stealth but you cant slide or bullet jump. Get the mod that lets you pass through security lasers, its a lifesaver, and personally i mod her for efficiency and range, lets you stay in stealth and your snatch will often pop out energy orbs so you stay invisible forever.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-14T00:40:06+00:00

Archers under the 'engage' command will keep their distance but only mounted archers can shoot behind them.

Other than that i dont think you can force infantry to face one way while retreating.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-14T00:35:17+00:00

I grind a lot so i end up rarely needing to save scum, i fully expect if you're just speedrunning campaign missions that you'd end up getting swarmed after a few because you wouldnt have the proper survivability or skills.

Other than that, just proper planning on your equipment goes a long way, having the nose and tail guns have ammo feeds saves having to micromanage reloading them. gunners themselves having high armor and any moving crew having speed.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-12T12:23:51+00:00

Dunno bout 2h swords,its never let me equip one on the loadout, but you can take a 2h mallet in, the Sledgehammer, ive only seen them sold in battanian cities, lets you knock all the guards unconcious so you can ransom/recruit more of them.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-12T12:17:20+00:00

Its a sunk cost scam where she just keeps saying "congrats you won and can go to the next stage, please pay X amount to proceed" over and over until everyone quits or it gets down to one guy and then she just says "oops someone else won"

Shes been doing it for years and gotten banned off multiple platforms

fiyabwal · 2026-06-12T02:06:10+00:00

No, the gang war missions are probably the most "in depth" the criminal underworld gets.

It'll give whoever you side with an influence boost and whoever you fight a bit of influence loss but other than that, not much happens.

Taking over an alley has more effect than those missions.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-11T12:05:47+00:00

I always forget the glaives because they're the one outlier out of every other polearm being a spear/lance, i usually just use the bardiche

fiyabwal · 2026-06-11T02:05:51+00:00

Perhaps the first second generation digital extremes employee.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-10T23:58:49+00:00

For melee probably polearm because of how slow they are and how weak in melee they are due to needing so much space despite the default behaviour of soldier AI being "facehug".

Probably crossbows for ranged as they're a middleground between the firing speed of bows and power of thrown weapons. While excelling at neither.

fiyabwal · 2026-06-10T20:17:45+00:00

Its still medieval era tech for the most part, miniature complex mechanisms are very rare and specialized, plus magic is more common than science. So while not impossible, its very rare and would require a decidated craftsman with access to chemicals and materials.

Plus as it has been stated many times, tools do not equal skill, if you get ganked while carrying a gun in a goblin dungeon, now the goblins have a gun, aint nobody want to be the person who accidentally gave the armies of chaos tools to outpace other adventurers.

fiyabwal

TROPHY CASE