To what degree can dark events break a campaign

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Icarus
Posts: 151
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 12:26 pm

To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Icarus »

I have always been quite lucky with DEs before, but my newest campaign (Commander) started off with the one giving 15 defense and armour to OWers and Center Mass. That got me thinking.

Is there a point where you should abandon a campaign based (mainly or peripherally) on the DEs you got? How much do you take DEs into accounts when deciding whether a campaign is lost or not?

And which DEs do you consider worst, and how do you deal with their consequences?
Clibanarius
Posts: 205
Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2017 1:33 am

Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Clibanarius »

I like the Liberation = Counter a DE angle to An Easier War - Dark Events mod, personally. Some of those tactical research upgrades can be a bitch. Tactical Sense is one of them. Center Mass is one of them. Combat Awareness on Sentries is not, thankfully. It's just an annoyance. The real queen bitch is in Counterintelligence Sweep, which makes almost every mission slip by you for a fuckin' month. Don't ever let that one happen or it really is game over.
Franzy
Posts: 69
Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 9:05 am

Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Franzy »

In the beginning +1 damage or HP to Advent surely seems like a lot... But even midgame it's nothing. When most enemies have over 20 hp and deal lots of damage it just does not make any real difference. No amount of permanent DE can break your campaign. They will make it a bit harder, but not impossible.
Antifringe
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Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Antifringe »

The game is balanced and designed around the assumption that ADVENT will eventually get all of the DEs. They're just not that bad. I used to get more than a full page of tactical DEs, and it didn't matter. In 1.3, they changed the cooldown mechanics so that you get less (you used to get like, 3-4 tactical DEs per month), so it's even more lax now.
Psieye
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Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Psieye »

Tactical DEs aren't so bad. Strategic DEs are bad but are temporary and iirc can only spawn in Str 3+ contacted regions. That makes them manageable.
My three 8-man GOp squad Commander campaigns:
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Icarus
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Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Icarus »

Tactical DEs are the permanent ones, while steategic DEs are the temporary ones, is that correct?
Saph7
Long War 2 Crew
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Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Saph7 »

Icarus wrote:I have always been quite lucky with DEs before, but my newest campaign (Commander) started off with the one giving 15 defense and armour to OWers and Center Mass. That got me thinking.
Combat Awareness (the Sentry one) only affects 50% of Sentries and only when they're on overwatch. Just grenade them or flashbang them or suppress them or bait their overwatch with Lightning Reflexes or . . . you get the idea. It's one of the least threatening DEs out there.

Centre Mass is much worse, but it's only a 16% chance per enemy. So +0.16 average primary weapon damage. It matters, but not much.

Tactical DEs really aren't very important in the long run, and players tend to overestimate how harmful they are. Force Level progression is what you should be scared of, not Dark Events. An Advent Advanced Trooper with no Dark Events at all is more dangerous than a basic Advent Trooper with every single Dark Event in the game.
Icarus wrote:Tactical DEs are the permanent ones, while steategic DEs are the temporary ones, is that correct?
Yes. Unlike tactical ones, Strategic Dark Events are actually a big deal. Events like Alien Infiltrators, Infestation, or Rapid Response can make missions much harder, while ones like Counterintelligence Sweep or Hunter UFO can give you a headache on the strategic layer. But they're always temporary, so it's just a matter of waiting them out.
Dwarfling
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Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by Dwarfling »

Clibanarius wrote:The real queen bitch is in Counterintelligence Sweep, which makes almost every mission slip by you for a fuckin' month. Don't ever let that one happen or it really is game over.
That will mostly hurt you on the small havens trying to do Intel job and only lasts a bit more than 2 weeks. Also it doesn't hurt the Avenger scan (there's DE for that). You should still be getting doable missions on moderate sized havens (7-9) doing full intel with the Avenger scanning on top.
LordYanaek
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Re: To what degree can dark events break a campaign

Post by LordYanaek »

Dwarfling wrote:
Clibanarius wrote:The real queen bitch is in Counterintelligence Sweep, which makes almost every mission slip by you for a fuckin' month. Don't ever let that one happen or it really is game over.
That will mostly hurt you on the small havens trying to do Intel job and only lasts a bit more than 2 weeks. Also it doesn't hurt the Avenger scan (there's DE for that). You should still be getting doable missions on moderate sized havens (7-9) doing full intel with the Avenger scanning on top.
It's extremely annoying if you get it early (i did in my current campaign) as it will slow you down a lot but even that one isn't really "game over". No DE, Tactical or Strategic is game over apart from an AVATAR breakthrough when you were running the knife's edge on the Doom Clock.

As far as permanent upgrades are considered, i've developed a real dislike for the Shredder DE as it seems there's always an enemy who can shred me to the point i sometimes wonder why i bother equipping medium armors rather than powered armors and go shredder gun crazy :roll:
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