Great Work on this scenario KingArthur, Vuldacon. I played a lot of the first scenario(think I helped a bit with the dog units?). This is so much more polished a scenario I don't even know where to start. After a bit of a snafu getting all the folders in the right place, I fired this up over the weekend. Easily one of the most addictive Civ experiences ever. I stayed up all night Saturday and Sunday playing this, I need sleep.
All the old favorites are back, and they've brought new friends!
I started as the Farmers, since they were a new faction, and had a lot of fun, their units are well balanced I think. I had a lot of trouble early on, until I realized you can't take out the Alpha zombies in the cities in regular combat. I know you complained a bit earlier in the thread about humans using too much bombard perhaps, but there is simply no other way to beat them; they are really too tough for regular head on bashing. So I managed to take the Church, the Hospital, and the Garage(unfortunately no Mike's Auto Shop built yet...silly AI)
I stopped it there, since I wanted to try a few other factions, but I think my slowness to catch on quickly cost me a lot of time. The Monster Zombies are out in force, and scaring me a bit. I know they said in this thread that they are confined to streets, but does that apply to the Monster Dogs as well? Those puppies are Nasty! I will go back and finish that sometime soon, but I don't know if The Farmer's can survive long term. Definitely possible, but you have to play very well. Zeb and the Lawman are Godly though!
I started up a game as the Authorities and played them for three or four days. I liked the puzzle of how to save the Hospital, that was neat. After taking the South Zombie cities(Factory, Hardware Store, Gentleman's Club, Fast Food) and pretty much batting down all other Zombies in my areas, I stopped that one for now too. I plan on completeing the sweep west with the Graveyard and Armory, then we'll see what to do next. I had built up a load of riot cops, and when I got Call 911 I mass upgraded them, putting most of my cities on supplies. SWAT teams are just awesome! The Factory is a critical city, but especially for the Authorities. It's close, it can produce units quickly(or make a ton of supplies to upgrade) and it has flesh eating bacteria inside; take it and you eliminate a mutant zombie hive. The half price for upgrades just makes this city Vital for any faction. Interestingly enough, I noticed as I went about cleaning out that South section, that the other Factions seemed to get stronger as a result of my success. The warehouse has been producing a steady stream of attack dogs and they are doing so well I rarely see much headed for City Hall now. They are attacking around the convention center now. I gave the Surviors some ammo after I decided it was better to not go after their cities(it was tempting, I admit), and they have beena great trading partner, and their badasses are everywhere. It is really comforting to see a whole area become zombie-free.
Started a third game as the Survivors; AHHHH! Yes, now I remember the fear. The initial position is just filthy. I had some handy men and civilians get mugged by fast zombie units. The Zombies took the Hospital, and the Nurses are starting to show up...
That's going to be my first priority, I swear. I have the balloon keeping an eye on things there. Also Timmy and his Dog. I love those two, such a good team. Actually, Timmy is going to start his own gang, and they will all hide behind Timmy's Dog when those nasty zombies come around!
In just the first few turns, I've run into all sorts of little crises. Vuldacon tried to take out the Sewer Guard by him, and had to retreat.
Abe Peters and the civilian had to go and "take out the trash", civvie almost died. All sorts of pressure on the furniture shop, Ms. Tokugawa almost bought it on another Sewer Guard, and the bats tore my civilian guards on the handy men to pieces. Think they are dead though. In three run throughs, I've never seen more then two on the first couple turns; the zombies don't seem to want to build them??? Aren't they auto-produced??? I thought we had that in the Church...
Another thing with the Bats, I had a supreme Adventure with the reverend. I sent the car from the Garage to pick him up on turn one. I had to run over a zombie who refused the right of way, and took a lot of damage; think I had three hp left. I ran the Rev. over and hid beneath the car. Wouldn't you know it, a damn bat tried to fry him and killed itself taking the car down to one hp. I promoted to elite though., and was able to zip back down the road to safety on turn two. SCORE!!
For those wondering where Freddy was, and why he was not helping, I had sent him to get Sam Hammer. I've managed to get him in all three games so far, and he is really worth it.
I'm wondering why the AI Survivor's never build the Shinto Shrine. I've seen them finish the Auto Shop, but they never seem to get the shrine. I guess the fact I was able to trade them some ammo show just how bad the AI is at hooking it's roads up. I do see workers out there trying though, maybe they just get hit too much. I love the way this scenario puts you into siege mentality, right from the start. I love all the wonderful toys like the balloons, and all the individual leaders. Survivor's were the position that was intended for the human to play, and they have a really tough, really fun road. You run from one crisis to the next. I was wondering how I was going to take cities as the Authorities when I first started, but the SWAT/Heroes were effective, if you can get enough of them together. Like a dozen at least. I was really upset with the Survivor's I was thinking they had NO firepower enough to beat those sated Alphas, but with the detective, the reverend, and the Shinto shrine and some heroes this is workable. I hope.
Some minor issues/things I want to mention: I'm really not sure what version I have now,OK? I had to play with the files and do a few remove/overwrites, so I don't know what I ended up with. I did all my downloads on the 23rd, or 24th though. I noticed the things previously mentioned, with the two turns produced on the strippers/cars in the pedia. I also noticed them saying something about building the Chainsaw club in the Convention centre, that can't be right, can it???
That Security man in City hall the Authorities have seems weird. Per his stats in the pedia, he doesn't seem that much, but he seems to really hit hard. Gets a lot of kills with what I would have expected to be some damage. Maybe I am just imagining things though. He kills a lot of 6-7 hp goons with one shot though.
I didn't mention it before, but I absolutely loved the exploding sheep, I got tons of use out of them,and they are always fun to watch. BaaaaaaaaBOOM!
I fell out of my chair laughing when I used them for the first time. GREAT JOB!
I know what the deal is with the detective, but where the heck is the Elvis guy, and the guy to make the dalek that I saw in the pedia? Every time I look at that Revenge of the Nerds tech, it torments me so! Could someone demystify them for me, or is that a game secret? Could be related to another thing I was going to mention; the convention centre is just way too hard a nut to crack. I took a serious stab at that once as the Authorities, and realized I hadn't even gotten through all the Sated Alphas yet, with the first round of bombardment. Short of a massive stack, It's just too hard a nut. That's the main reason I went west with the Authorities in my game.
The sated Alphas...just too tough? I don't mind them having ant-air at all, but the defense of 20 is just horrendous. Only way to get through them without mass bombard, is to use a horde of attack units, and who(besides the zombies) can afford that? Even if you got one victory, I'm not sure the costs would be worth it. If you dropped the defense to 15, they would still be bears, but it wouldn't be impossible for the AI's to take a zombie city if they did really well. Give it another hp if you want, to make up for a bit of the loss, they would still be beatable, instead of invincible. I will caveat that by saying I know I have not gone past day 4 or so in my games mostly, so if the units at the end of the game change things, OK, but early on nothing can take them head on. Maybe that was intended,heh. It does make playing as the Survivors or Farmer a real death match.
I like the dogs, they are excellent, especially for the price, but getting the resource can be tough; a good balance. The Company had a dog resource available once, I didn't snap it up since I didn't realize how good they were, and the Farmer's traded for it.
Nearly as good as my National Guards, but available way earlier,way cheaper, and much faster to boot. Dogs Rule! I saw lots of Dog vs. Mutant Dog showdowns, that was cool to watch too.
Should the Aegis be so weak, outside of ranged combat? The squids have it all over them in a fight.
My own list of most imprtant buildings. the Factory as I already mentioned. The Hospital for the heal in enemy territory thing, plus you need to stop the Nurses. Likewise, somebody has to keep the zombies out of the radio station, that is a must. After that, they are pretty even. The cities that auto-produce units might be a notch more useful, but nearly every city has some special use.
The map has some nice quirks to it. I especially love that area around the dog pound, since you will see units from nearly every faction swirling around there.
Thanks, guys for another version of this, I am having even more fun this time then the first...and I had a LOT of fun with the first one!
