Settlement Massacre at a Military Base that was "Tipped Off" - wow.

[Angelpichu]

This

Right, the energylink overload is an instant silent kill against unshielded targets (despite the stars like a knockout icon on the nameplate, it is a kill), and if you do it out of sight range of others, you can proceed to still be visible to guards without them immediately opening fire. Keep in mind though if they scan you they will discover you killed and open fire, but outside of the range where they tell you to stop so they can scan you, they won't aggro. Just stay away from the body for a while once someone finds it, though, as they'll be cautious, and I'm not sure if or if not they'll aggro you on sight when they're cautious around a body. After a while they'll lose their caution and it'll be safe to be in their line of sight again.

You can still use stealth to a limited degree if you've aggroed a base, you simply have to stay out of everyone's line of sight and don't make much noise. Crouching and moving silences your footsteps. Moving without crouching while the base is hostile makes NPCs investigate the sound, even if it's in another room out of their line of sight.

Keep in mind that if you really need the guard type NPCs to be somewhere else, as long as the alarm systems are on, there are certain actions you can take that will pull most of the guards to a distraction. Things like opening sample containment units, shutting down the power center, etc, will draw guards to the location at which point they'll undo whatever you did and look around for a while, giving you the chance to do other things. Now, I may be wrong about this, but I believe uploading things like spyware to a data port, despite causing monitors to start showing alarm states, don't actually alarm an entire settlement, but if an NPC sees the data port during this, they will investigate. I learned this from two missions: One where I had to upload spyware to a power plant data link that was behind a console the NPC in there couldn't see, and a pillar I kept sneaking around to not get seen either. Then I had a tourist site uploading mission where I uploaded spyware to a data port in the bar area, then hid around a corner, after which a bartender noticed something wrong with the data port and eventually found me, turning hostile.

 

[lysan]

Tried a couple of these today at threat 4 asking me to clear a settlement of 'criminals'. As soon as I took off from the station where I was given the mission I received a message saying the settlement had been tipped off and was expecting me. On arrival, I had nearly landed on the settlement's pad when suddenly turned hostile and began firing on me - I assume I was scanned by one of the several lawless System Authority ships flying around. These came in everything from Eagle to Anaconda varieties and ranged from Competent to Expert rating. My first attempt, I killed them all off plus some respawns, then while I was beginning my attack run on the settlement - which had a goliath and several anti-ship turrets firing at me - I had some weird issue when I was boosting over the settlement where my framerate plummeted and my ship appeared to teleport and collide with something, resulting in instant destruction.

Coming back with a similar mission, I wasn't even able to destroy all the waves of system authority ships as they just kept respawning. Eventually, after reinstancing a few times to see if the ship numbers were anomalous, and then 10 or 12 more kills in the final instance, I tried having my fighter pilot distract the next set of reinforcements while I conducted an attack run on the settlement - but the damage I was receiving from its defenses was too much for my Krait and I was forced to withdraw.

I wouldn't expect a raid on a military settlement to be easy, but this felt like a significant step up from anything else I've experienced. I loved the ship-to-ship combat mere kilometres from the ground but it really felt like it should've been advertised as a team mission - with a couple of ships running interference while a couple of team members landed on foot to attack the settlement's personnel. Or maybe I was supposed to land without getting scanned, or to land a few kilometres away and approach on foot, but that really didn't seem like a good idea with 5 or 6 potentially hostile ships circling above and "expecting me".

Anyone else had experience of these?

Yes, you need to land a bit from the settlement use the SRV to get close and then take them out one by one, turning off turrets and alarms, anyways that’s how I did it.

threat level is bugged, 3,4,5 it doesn’t really matter.

 

[Phoenix13]

The problem was that they apparently had anti-fps weapons, too

Anti fps wont shoot if they don't know where you are. Don't request docking. Land 500m+ away, walk right in avoiding skimmers.

 

[Han Zulu]

What?
I guess you are playing the wrong game.

The mission giver tells you that they are expecting you. It should be obvious that you shouldn't ask for landing permission...

What? The big red circle painted on my ship with the text, "Shoot here!" was just a bit too obvious?

Must say, even though I probably wouldn't be able to do a mission like that on my own, it's a great expansion of game play. Many have complained the game is too shallow and doesn't have interesting enough missions... isn't this one quite interesting? Have to work the attack from multiple angles, different tactics, and perhaps preferably in team? I'd say it's pretty cool.

 

[babelfisch]

What? The big red circle painted on my ship with the text, "Shoot here!" was just a bit too obvious?

Must say, even though I probably wouldn't be able to do a mission like that on my own, it's a great expansion of game play. Many have complained the game is too shallow and doesn't have interesting enough missions... isn't this one quite interesting? Have to work the attack from multiple angles, different tactics, and perhaps preferably in team? I'd say it's pretty cool.

Actually all Odyssey missions are pretty good. Like a million times better than the base game. Which, to be fair, isn't a great benchmark...

 

[Han Zulu]

Actually all Odyssey missions are pretty good. Like a million times better than the base game. Which, to be fair, isn't a great benchmark...

Agree. I tried most of them and personally I don't agree with the "elite odyssey is shallow" critique out there. I love the Odyssey's missions. There could be more types of missions however, but hopefully they'll start adding those over time.

 

[dm06]

It also had anti-personnel turrets

This is actually a good observation.
I've seen terminals for the turret controls inside some buildings.
Also I've seen in ground combats that some turrets tried to attack my ship, I guess because I picked "wrong" side and I was against the base.
But I've never seen the anti-personnel turrets to fire. What did I miss?

 

[Ydiss]

So it warns you in the mission to fly away then return and land nearby and approach silently? Explain how you approach silently?

Oh so you want the game to treat every mission like a tutorial? Ok.

What?
I guess you are playing the wrong game.

The mission giver tells you that they are expecting you. It should be obvious that you shouldn't ask for landing permission...

I actually made this mistake first time I tried one of these missions because I hadn't read that properly haha. I was in alpha and raging and all about to come here to post about this bugged settlement I found and then I read the mission again and... oh... doh.

Said mission then got completed without any fuss because I used my head.

Obviously, one can just go in all guns blazing too, in the right gear (goliaths are easy enough to kill and the turrets can be avoided and disabled very easily) but it's not necessary and the whole "THEY KNOW YOU ARE COMING" thing screams "DON'T ANNOUNCE YOURSELF ANYWAY" to me but hey ho.

The only thing that I think could be changed is the way the settlement says "We don't allow criminals to dock here" or something like that. That threw me and made me think I had a criminal bounty and I'd been scanned or something. Docking should just be denied and something like "We don't allow aggressors here" to make it a little more obvious.

But certainly it doesn't need "You can't dock because you've got a mission to come and kill us. Please go away then land somewhere else and then sneak in on us quietly so you can complete your mission".

 

[babelfisch]

Agree. I tried most of them and personally I don't agree with the "elite odyssey is shallow" critique out there. I love the Odyssey's missions. There could be more types of missions however, but hopefully they'll start adding those over time.

Even the salvage missions are quite atmospheric (pun intended), although a bit repetitive. But the game really shines when you need to steal or sabotage something. Using your tools, disabling the alarm, the terminals to find stuff and personnel, copying security profiles... There are quite a lot of layers and mechanics and they all work really well together in a giant galaxy with thousands of factions and stations.

 

[Han Zulu]

Even the salvage missions are quite atmospheric (pun intended), although a bit repetitive. But the game really shines when you need to steal or sabotage something. Using your tools, disabling the alarm, the terminals to find stuff and personnel, copying security profiles... There are quite a lot of layers and mechanics and they all work really well together in a giant galaxy with thousands of factions and stations.

Yup.

One of my best Odyssey experiences was when I looted a crashed Anaconda on a blue-sky planet in alpha. Granted, the graphics glitched out and switch me into a alternate fractal world at the end, but just the whole feeling was immersive.

I just hope they'll fix the stupid buried access panel on the satellites. It'll cost you 100k fines every time for failed mission.

 

[Ydiss]

Even the salvage missions are quite atmospheric (pun intended), although a bit repetitive. But the game really shines when you need to steal or sabotage something. Using your tools, disabling the alarm, the terminals to find stuff and personnel, copying security profiles... There are quite a lot of layers and mechanics and they all work really well together in a giant galaxy with thousands of factions and stations.

And because there are 28 layouts and multiple different places as mission targets, the ultimate variation is huge.

I did a digital theft mission last night in an Agri I'd never seen before and my word was it hard. I had to try four times before I got it done (thankfully it wasn't covert). If anyone ever sees an Agri that only has one airlock into it's entire complex, then get ready for a rough ride if you have a mission to do anything in its PWR centre... It's right at the back and you have to get through three restricted areas and past 2 guards (obviously with cloned ID on you, so if you get too close you're done).

I both hated it and loved it because it's so unique. Not every mission is like that. But it was completable, easily once I had worked out the settlement (and that's the key in a lot of these missions).

There is nothing like this in Horizons. Nothing at all. So if people call Odyssey shallow they're just ignorant.

 

[Ydiss]

And in contrast, I just did a digital download mission that I took from a starport and it was for a tourist centre on the planet the starport was orbiting. The data port (the only one in this settlement, I know it well) is in the bar and not defended whatsoever so I waltzed in, downloaded the data whilst whislting a tune and walked right out. Had to do a bit of guard doging on the way out which upped the tension a bit but otherwise this was a nice easy mission (and now I can upgrade my weapon to faster reload )

Totally unique. Compare that to doing any similar mission in space.

 

[babelfisch]

And in contrast, I just did a digital download mission that I took from a starport and it was for a tourist centre on the planet the starport was orbiting. The data port (the only one in this settlement, I know it well) is in the bar and not defended whatsoever so I waltzed in, downloaded the data whilst whislting a tune and walked right out. Had to do a bit of guard doging on the way out which upped the tension a bit but otherwise this was a nice easy mission (and now I can upgrade my weapon to faster reload )

Totally unique. Compare that to doing any similar mission in space.

Yes, it's like they finally listened. It's exactly what I always wanted them to do with all the POIs they added in space. Hopefully the people who worked on the mission design in Odyssey are going to take a look at space gameplay next.

 

[askavir]

Tried a couple of these today at threat 4 asking me to clear a settlement of 'criminals'. As soon as I took off from the station where I was given the mission I received a message saying the settlement had been tipped off and was expecting me. On arrival, I had nearly landed on the settlement's pad when suddenly turned hostile and began firing on me - I assume I was scanned by one of the several lawless System Authority ships flying around. These came in everything from Eagle to Anaconda varieties and ranged from Competent to Expert rating. My first attempt, I killed them all off plus some respawns, then while I was beginning my attack run on the settlement - which had a goliath and several anti-ship turrets firing at me - I had some weird issue when I was boosting over the settlement where my framerate plummeted and my ship appeared to teleport and collide with something, resulting in instant destruction.

Coming back with a similar mission, I wasn't even able to destroy all the waves of system authority ships as they just kept respawning. Eventually, after reinstancing a few times to see if the ship numbers were anomalous, and then 10 or 12 more kills in the final instance, I tried having my fighter pilot distract the next set of reinforcements while I conducted an attack run on the settlement - but the damage I was receiving from its defenses was too much for my Krait and I was forced to withdraw.

I wouldn't expect a raid on a military settlement to be easy, but this felt like a significant step up from anything else I've experienced. I loved the ship-to-ship combat mere kilometres from the ground but it really felt like it should've been advertised as a team mission - with a couple of ships running interference while a couple of team members landed on foot to attack the settlement's personnel. Or maybe I was supposed to land without getting scanned, or to land a few kilometres away and approach on foot, but that really didn't seem like a good idea with 5 or 6 potentially hostile ships circling above and "expecting me".

Anyone else had experience of these?

No, but sounds great.

 

[Ydiss]

Yes, it's like they finally listened. It's exactly what I always wanted them to do with all the POIs they added in space. Hopefully the people who worked on the mission design in Odyssey are going to take a look at space gameplay next.

Yeh I agree. Only thing to consider is... how much can we actually do with a ship? I think they've about reached the logical limit with the four things we do now:

1. Scan it
2. Shoot it
3. Scoop it
4. Carry it

And all of that basically has to be done in empty space. Installations and megaships were an attempt to "add variation" and they sort of work but it's still just those four things, done with a pretty thing nearby to look at.

I feel like they'd need to add more in terms of how we can interface with things in space in our ship but that always takes me back to "get out and go there on foot/EVA"

It's not as though we'd fly our ship to "Restore the megaship" and then just do the whole thing in our cockpit, right? I think that all this has done is to reiterate that vehicular games are very much limited to doing certain things when compared to the FPS genre. Where Fdev can shine here is by meshing the two together more (missions that properly require both ship and foot, or a mix of the two). And that's a big ask right now.

 

[askavir]

Even the salvage missions are quite atmospheric (pun intended), although a bit repetitive. But the game really shines when you need to steal or sabotage something. Using your tools, disabling the alarm, the terminals to find stuff and personnel, copying security profiles... There are quite a lot of layers and mechanics and they all work really well together in a giant galaxy with thousands of factions and stations.

My only gripe is that the threat levels kind of spoil the element of surprise / tension... It would be much more atmospheric and tense salvaging / scavenging something if I didn't knew in advance if someone is going to show up or not. Although I understand why the threat levels exist...

 

[babelfisch]

Yeh I agree. Only thing to consider is... how much can we actually do with a ship? I think they've about reached the logical limit with the four things we do now:

1. Scan it
2. Shoot it
3. Scoop it
4. Carry it

And all of that basically has to be done in empty space. Installations and megaships were an attempt to "add variation" and they sort of work but it's still just those four things, done with a pretty thing nearby to look at.

I feel like they'd need to add more in terms of how we can interface with things in space in our ship but that always takes me back to "get out and go there on foot/EVA"

It's not as though we'd fly our ship to "Restore the megaship" and then just do the whole thing in our cockpit, right? I think that all this has done is to reiterate that vehicular games are very much limited to doing certain things when compared to the FPS genre. Where Fdev can shine here is by meshing the two together more (missions that properly require both ship and foot, or a mix of the two). And that's a big ask right now.

Good points.

I think they could improve gameplay quite a bit using the current mechanics though. It already starts with the environment of CZs. Instead of limiting them to empty space, how about a CZ in a RES? Next to a megaship or station? Just above the surface of a planetary outpost?
Why are there no missions to steal stuff from the cargo hatch of mega ships? Disable turrets to prepare for a raid?
Instead of letting us run randomly into scenarios, spawn a mission where you need to rescue someone who ran out of fuel? Generally use missions to start scenarios. Instead of visiting a mega ship and waiting for a random scenario, just guide me there using a mission.
I think this would make missions much better.

 

[DarkStarSword]

1. Scan it
2. Shoot it
3. Scoop it
4. Carry it

5. Probe it
6. Tractor it
7. Beam it
8. Warp it
9. Transwarp it
10. Ram it
11. Self destruct near it
12. Do the Picard near it
13. Do the Riker near it
14. Yell at Wesley near it
15. Research it
16. Engage it
17. Power it
18. Deflect it
19. Buzzard collect it
20. Ignore it

 

[zimms]

21. Bop it
22. Twist it
23. Press it
24. Flick it
25. Pull it
26. Spin it

 

[Imathil]

Yeh I agree. Only thing to consider is... how much can we actually do with a ship? I think they've about reached the logical limit with the four things we do now:

1. Scan it
2. Shoot it
3. Scoop it
4. Carry it

And all of that basically has to be done in empty space. Installations and megaships were an attempt to "add variation" and they sort of work but it's still just those four things, done with a pretty thing nearby to look at.

I feel like they'd need to add more in terms of how we can interface with things in space in our ship but that always takes me back to "get out and go there on foot/EVA"

It's not as though we'd fly our ship to "Restore the megaship" and then just do the whole thing in our cockpit, right? I think that all this has done is to reiterate that vehicular games are very much limited to doing certain things when compared to the FPS genre. Where Fdev can shine here is by meshing the two together more (missions that properly require both ship and foot, or a mix of the two). And that's a big ask right now.

Covert insertions or combat insertions were something I was hoping for:

Covert - You have 5 mins from breaking the atmospheric boundary to get your team on the ground. Have to get them within 500 m of the site, >15ish meters above the ground they see you on radar if you are within 8km of the site. Bit of nap of the earth flying. With settlements nested in some pretty rough terrain - HMC planets mostly - it should be a pretty good test of the pilot's ability. Restrict the ops to the Federal Dropship maybe.

Combat insertion - Land a combat team in middle of fire fight at a settlement having to deal with incoming fire - could do the same with an extraction. This would be pretty great if they could support the on ground fire team being other players in your squadron or some type of lobby mech but instancing is such an issue I am not sure that wouldn't be too many points for the game to fail on.

Combat rescue - land in middle of firefight and lift off with injured combatants - maybe sort of like passenger missions - longer you can stay on the ground more people you rescue more payout.

Evac settlement - like rescue station missions -

Lots of stuff they haven't even scratched the surface yet.

Once they get the FPS issues smoothed out and some of the interface issues it should be interesting. So far the missions on foot I have done have been 50/50 - stuff buried you can't get at, sent to planets you can't disembark but the ones I have done have been a step above the show up and pull the trigger and collect the reward type. Most require a little oblique thinking which I like (mostly after the fact though lol).