Something for ja2 and xcom fans

[bn880 5]

Oh yeah, except a shot from a 7.9 mm rifle straight in the head of a soldier at 30-50m causes 80 dammage. The guy is still standing and on the next turn unloads his machine gun into my perfectly healthy sniper and kills him.

This game engine is very good, however they totally screwed up on the configuration and need to tweak every single aspect of fighting. I was quite impressed at the start, but ocne you play a little you will realize how silly the fighting gets. Basically you don't get anything for sneaking up on people either, nothing for very good and aimed shots. Throwing a gnife is like throwing a rock in real life.

Yeah my beef is, someone should be allowed to make a JA2 type of mod for this, but it looks like the engine won't support most of the features for such a mod. Better do it in OFP than SS.

[Gollum1 0]

I know, weapons do too little damage (I once shot a German at point-blank range 5 times with a revolver and he was still standing). But the game isn´t that focused on ultra-realism anyway, the main thing is that the weapon damage values *WORK*  Battles would be very easy and quick if enemies could take 1-2 hits, and if your guys can take 1-2 hits...well, you know how that would turn out. Fire-quickload-quickload-quicksave-fire-quicksave-quickload...you are right about the fact that you aren´t rewarded when you sneak up on enemies, I remember that was an issue with ole JA2 too

Which brings me to another issue: The game is a total ripoff from JA2. Total. Ripoff. Not saying that´s a bad thing, but they could have modified it a little to make it its own game . Ok so I´m exaggerating but still...

I´ve found a few patchable gripes:

The ragdoll effect is exaggerated. If a corpse is lying on the ground a few MG bullets will roll it 5 meters back. Riight...

But on the other hand, I just love the it. I´ve had a number of very cool kills with the ragdoll effect. In the allies mission I sniped a german sniper on the 4th floor of a ruined building and he tilted forward and tumpled into the bowels of the building, hitting a lot of edges of half-destroyed floors until he stopped at the bottom floor and was left staring at the sky. In a related incident, a German was trying to escape my MG by retreating towards a window which he was probably going to climb through. I hit him with a long burst that lifted him into the air, blew half his head off and blasted him through the window. Just gave him a helping hand, that´s all

And MGs are too powerful. You can snipe people while STANDING UP and firing bursts at them

Otherwise, I have simply fallen head-over-heels in love with the game! I urge everyone to try the demo, the graphics and animations are perfect, and I just love the usage of cover, multi-storeyed buildings and the intense city fighting. Once I had to defend a ruined building against 8 Germans with my MG while my medic had to sprint across the street to come help my half-dead commando who was bleeding at the back of the building. Once the medic had healed her they both sprinted to the window and helped my MG gunner in fending off the Wermacht. Great stuff, great stuff...

BTW will someone tell me why some Brits are using DsHKs and PPD40s?

[Bluesman 0]

Well the reason it feels like JA2 is because they had JA2 team members work on SS(all the bios are made by the same person who did JA2 bios). That explains parts of it.

And to be fair. Laser Squad was the first to use this type of combat. Then came XCOM and finally JA.

Btw, I've killed soldiers with throwing knives in one attempt(note that weapon familiarity and perks make a huge diff). Getting one shot kills with a sniper rifle is no problem once you learn the ropes and ladders. All it takes is some aiming (same goes for aimed shots).

Lastly. Just like XCOM/JA2 the mercs are usually crappy at first and gets better when they gain levels. Some guy who played the Russian version says he lobbed a grenades 3 stories.

BM

[Gollum1 0]

Well the reason it feels like JA2 is because they had JA2 team members work on SS(all the bios are made by the same person who did JA2 bios). That explains parts of it.

You mean they developed the characters and gave them their lines or did they just write the bios in the character tab?

The things the mercs say are SO JA2.

And yes you are right, the first to use the general combat system was Laser Squad (never played it, though) and then Xcom, now, I´ve only played XCOM: terror from the deeps which sucked BIG time. I´ve heard that "enemy unknown" was better...

IMHO JA2 does it best and it´s the latest example, so...  

BTW defragging my HD helped my performance problems a LOT...silly me...I think I´ll still get that extra memory.

[bn880 5]

Otherwise, I have simply fallen head-over-heels in love with the game! I urge everyone to try the demo, the graphics and animations are perfect, and I just love the usage of cover, multi-storeyed buildings and the intense city fighting. Once I had to defend a ruined building against 8 Germans with my MG while my medic had to sprint across the street to come help my half-dead commando who was bleeding at the back of the building. Once the medic had healed her they both sprinted to the window and helped my MG gunner in fending off the Wermacht. Great stuff, great stuff...

Yeah I think anyone with some spare time should check this demo out. The ruined buildings are more realistic then I have ever seen in any game title. It brings some of the real urban combat strategy out. Unfortunately I haven't seen too much furniture and boobytraps and the like.

Over all about the realistic weapon dammage: I would prefer 100% realistic dammage and large number of men (like 12) vs a smaller number of enemies (like 15). Now because it is 5 members taking on 30 they have made everything a little unrealsitic.

[Gollum1 0]

I think it would be pretty hard and work slowly to control 12 men with the current system.

And I see your point about realism, but as it has been stated before, this isn´t a simulation and your characters are Characters and not faceless grunts. Wonder why only 2 of the 10 soldiers you have controlled so far have helmets? Your guys are supposed to be superhero-esque.

[Bluesman 0]

All dialogs, remarks and texts in Silent Storm are made by Shaun Lyng who made the same in JA2

I love the Indian guys remarks. He sounds like Peter Sellers in The Party .

The battle yells are really nice too.

Regarding weapon stats. Every aspect of those will be editable so that is 100% confirmed.

I agree with Gollum. It's a game first and forthmost. Just like OFP is. Both are damn good at it.

Regarding the "odd" weapons. These guys arent normal soldiers but rather SpecOps types (well sort of) and they work behind enemy lines under cover sort of. That's probably they have odd weapon selectiosn.

BM

[bn880 5]

Well superheroes is mercenary talk not soldier talk, if this is WW2 soldier stuff I don't quite follow why each man is meant to take on 4 or 5 enemies. Anyway, yeah it's a game.

[Bluesman 0]

Well superheroes is mercenary talk not soldier talk, if this is WW2 soldier stuff I don't quite follow why each man is meant to take on 4 or 5 enemies.  Anyway, yeah it's a game.  

Probably a simple case of challenge and balance.

Otoh that wasnt uncommon in JA2. It was fun sending Raven off with a pair of Night Goggles and a scoped auto rifle to a full sector. Mass slaughter is the right term .

In OFP that isn't uncommon either ;)

BM

[GoOB 0]

The ragdoll thing should (read: SHOULD) be relatively easy to fix once the game is out. This was very easy to do with RS:3 Raven Shield. I don't remember exactly how to do it (I did it when the MP demo was just released) But I kind of like the overdone ragdoll effects. Now I want to try out them mech thingies

[ripvanfish 0]

I love this game already. First tried the russian demo, and nothing says that a game is good like playing it for hours without understanding any text from it.

I had a great experience in the allied map with three germans left in the house near the fountain. I sealed the exits with Viper (whose Russian voice I liked better, now he sounds like a redneck) and the medic aiming with their sniper rifles, then I had the Romanian guy and L.A. with MGs and Elf and Taras with SMGs enter the house through windows and doors.

Taras and Viper shot one MG fellow trying to escape. Elf shot one guy who tried to surprise her point blank, sending him flying towards a window, breaking it and tumbling next to it. Then the medic and Elf finished the last one easily.

Man, what a way to jump on my this years most wanted games list. It even has the Suomi SMG in it, great.

[Gollum1 0]

I was really surprised when I picked up the Suomi SMG (what was that German soldier doing with it anyway?)

And if you´re playing the Axis map in the near future, try looking into the crate in the middle train carriage with the machine gunner. You won´t have much use for what you find at that point, but it´s damn cool

Also, have you tried shooting people on floors above you? I had a sound contact above the room in which Viper, the spaniard and Elf were in. I tried shooting him through the ceiling, but I didn´t know where he was exactly. I peeked up onto the floor above with Viper and there he was, just sitting there. Now that I had some fire control I fired a long burst from the MG through the ceiling. It blasted a big hole in the ceiling and ripped the German to shreds, then threw him up against the wall that he had been crouching by. My MG guy could see his kill looking at him with empty eyes through the hole in the ceiling! Now that was stylish!

[bn880 5]

From Nival forum:

Quote[/b] ]8,768 Gamespy Fileplanet downloads since the demo came out Thursday night (second behind the demo for the BF1942 expansion), 2739 Fileshack dowloads (only demo in the top 10 downloads - and the Comand and Conquer Generals demo came out last week too). Pretty impressive considering the number of ppl (including myself) who had never heard of Silent Storm before the demo came out.

Yeah the ruins in the maps are not really predesigned static models like with other titles, look this was a normal outpost before I unleashed some serious lead onto it:

[GoOB 0]

Hihi, I love that feature in the game. And the static machineguns are really fun to use aswell. And shooting trough walls/floors is excellent aswell. Using grenades is also heaps of fun, and excellent for making new cover for you and your squad. But it is sad that snipers aren't as effective as was advertized, or it's just that I haven't figured out how to use them with 100% efficiency.

[EiZei 0]

Yeah, snipers do way too little damage.

[Gollum1 0]

Headshots should do much more damage since they´re so hard to get. A headshot should be critical every time.

And as I said, MGs are WAY too powerful. Can anyone tell me the DISADVANTAGES of using an MG? Mike just owns the brits when he gets the "good shot from any pose" skill almost immediately. He´s like Rambo and everyone else just basically watches.

Did anyone notice how lacking the tutorial was? It didn´t walk you through aiming modes, skill points, vehicles, static machineguns, grenades/explosives, HEALING, etc.

But minor (?) gripes aside, the game just rocks. Try using Taras´ Heavy grenades. Boom! Kind of surprising that his heavy grenades can blow holes in walls (a great thing I liked about JA2) but L.A´s Explosive Charge can´t. What are you going to use it for, then?

[Bluesman 0]

Well the sniper rifle is even more powerful . That's how you get lethal head shots. Aim for a full round, fire at head. Result = no more head.

While the LMG is very powerful I still see benefits from the SMG:s in close quarter battles. If you are good at shooting with SMG you could waste a few units per round while a LMG costs quite a few AP:s to get the kills.

BM

[Gollum1 0]

While the LMG is very powerful I still see benefits from the SMG:s in close quarter battles. If you are good at shooting with SMG you could waste a few units per round while a LMG costs quite a few AP:s to get the kills.

BM

You´d have to be about lvl 10 with an SMG to be a bit deadlier than a 4th level soldier is with an MG, and then I´d also use an MG since you can hit with it at incredible ranges, too. 3 out of 4 times one of my men(/women) die, it´s because of a long burst from an MG.

That aside, Taras was standing in the middle of the main street today and a German manned the MG34 on the motorcycle and seriously wounded me before I got to cover I didn´t know the AI could take that kind of initiative! In the same map, Viper was on the 3rd floor of the first left-hand building and was dealing some serious damage to the enemy (he shot the head off a machine gunner and threw him back through a window, leaving only his feet dangling out ) After Ramon died the ground floor was completely uncovered by me. So a German with an MP40 fired at me from the ground floor (the building is like Swiss cheese) Each turn he was trying to hit me with SMG bursts and I heard that his buddy was running through the building, heading in my direction. I shrugged it off, thinking that the AI was too stupid to climb through the bulding to get to me anyway. By the time the flanker had climbed up to the second floor(!!!) I was bleeding from his buddies´MP40 rounds. I retreated to bandage myself and the next turn the flanking German climbed up and offed me with his MP40. So basically the "primitive" AI on the ground floor had suppressed me while his buddy flanked me! (don´t tell me it was just coincidence!) The lesson of today´s story is: Never underestimate SS AI!

Edit: A guy on the Nival forums says his sniper hit an enemy in the hand and it made him let off a burst by accident, hitting the man next to him! Aaah, details...:)

[Bluesman 0]

VS 1 guy perhaps. But can you really kill 2 enemies standing in different locations on one turn with a LMG? I'm not sure about that.

Someone said knifes were bad but I've actually managed 2 one hit kills now with those lovelly throwing knifes. Luck perhaps but I really long to see what she can with a few more levels . (it's possible that the enemies were damaged before but still)

BM

[Gollum1 0]

Yes yes, but the gains of and SMG in close quarters are minimal compared to the all-round power of the MG. (and to be sure to kill a man in CQ you´ll still have to fire a long burst, using up all your ap. And if you manage to kill a soldier in a room with 2 short bursts you´ll only have 1 burst left, which won´t kill the other guy with 95% probability) But let´s just drop the MG subject!

I registered in Nival´s forums as "Tarc", it´s the only way I can express my opinions and hopefully influence the patch a little by supporting popular voices calling for grenade and CQB improvement, among other things...

[Bluesman 0]

Not quite yet . Yes but a big but. With a SMG you can fire two short bursts and still have some movement left to take cover behind a wall or similar. If you for some reason miss you LMG burst you are toast.

There

Nades could have a slight range improvement. I use them alot to clear out rooms.

BM

[GoOB 0]

Hmmm, I agree with Gollum one about the MG's being a bit to overpowerd. Perhaps too accurate. But we got to keep in mind that the characters in the demo are already leveled up quite a bit. Mike is level five or something similar. But I tend to use MG's alot. Like with Carm I got ahold of a MG and I was virtually unstoppable in both CQB and at medium distances.

[Bluesman 0]

Ah. Well it could be the case. However, I've become fond of those throwing knives after learning to use them. It's fun sneaking onto people and cutting their heads off. Some fun comments when you do that too.

Btw the game is out already this friday if you live in the Benelux countries (which I dont).

BM

[Gollum1 0]

Silly me, I only today realized that you can "hide" and move at the same time! Makes the Axis mission much more fun.

I blame the tutorial! It only covers the essential parts (moving and shooting) and leaves you to figure out the rest for yourself

Any idea when it´s out in Finland, Bluesman?

[Bluesman 0]

Up here in the cold north I think we are looking at late September or October. Probably because it's handled by Big Ben in UK which has a UK date of 25th.

Well it will be ample time to play other stuff .

Anyone tried the Commandos 3 demo? Still looks like the regular puzzle game to me.

BM