Bullets' initial notes about KP Liberation

[=JpS=SgtRock]

The AI pathfinding- for our bots, the enemy, and civilian drivers- is absolutely fucking atrocious. If it says the enemy is attacking a sector but nobody shows up, check their likely route for their vehicles hung up on terrain or eating grass and fucking each other. If the commander recruits an AI squad and sends them somewhere but they don't ever arrive, check their route for the same GD thing. Stay off the roads if you're on foot- the civs all think they're living in a fucking Mad Max movie, and they drive accordingly.

Commander uses partial Zeus mode- numpad Delete and End are NOT disabled, despite error message claiming they are- accidentally hitting one of these could SERIOUSLY bone us, depending on what is actively selected at time of accident. (Delete erases a unit, End destroys it. We don't want that happening to our units, obviously, so be careful with your keystrokes when you're Commander and you're in the Zeus overlay.)

If factory is lost, then recaptured- built storage area destroyed? Storage area contents lost? Built facilities destroyed? I suspect answers are yes, yes, and no, respectively, but it'd be nice to find out for certain

When attacking a sector, as soon as the message pops that we've captured it, some enemies will start surrendering. Be very careful not to shoot any surrendered enemies- the second the animation starts playing, they count as civilians and shooting them carries the same penalty. This happened twice just tonight and now we're sitting at -24% civilian rep.

The civilians are really finicky about what constitutes damaging/destroying buildings. Be as careful as possible. (This restriction doesn't apply at military bases. Go hog wild.)

We have only two ways to improve our reputation with civilians- capturing sectors and helping the downed civs that sometimes spawn when capturing sectors (indicated by a purple circle on the map.)

If the enemy attacks a sector but the attack fails, a couple of them may surrender and remain there afterwards- even if they were defeated by the garrison and not us. Securing them gives us intel points.


When capturing a sector-

1st priority- one guy secures any prisoners, escapes to FOB (prisoners are worth intel points, both hella useful and hard to come by)

2nd priority- everybody else assists any downed civilians, then prepares to defend area

3rd- if defense successful, or if attack not forthcoming for whatever reason, bring in flatbed truck or unarmed helo for crate disposition (most sectors have crates)


Can build arsenal box for field reloads (though it still doesn't allow loading stuff into vehicles, wack) but how transport it? Won't go into a flatbed truck- maybe cargo humvee, or maybe gotta sling load it with helo?

DON'T KILL CIVILIANS, BLOW UP OR STEAL CIVILIAN VEHICLES, OR DESTROY CIVILIAN BUILDINGS- we're punished for this MUCH more harshly in KPL than we were in Antistasi

Can only spend resources at FOBs (with the exception of building facilities at factory sectors)


Map key:

White hotel icon- civilian reputation. Starts at 0. Sliding scale from -100 to 100. At 25 and up, they'll do stuff for us. At -25 and below, they'll do stuff to us.

Yellow exclamation point- enemy alert level/combat readiness. High numbers bad.

Blue star-  intel points

Purple circle- civilian in need of assistance, high priority

Red balloon- Lucky Charms cereal on monitor, quit eating breakfast at your PC


That's all for now. More later, if I think of more.

-Bullets

[Bullets]

Couple addendums to this, chief.

The big fuckoff artillery piece in the "static weapons" category that looks like it oughta be towable (has wheels and even folds up, FFS)? Yeah, not towable. Wack. Gonna see next if it can be slingloaded or put on a flatbed truck. (Probably not, but I'm hoping to be wrong, cause those artillery pieces are just delightful. I'll update this when I find out.) UPDATE: a flatbed won't work, (or at least, I couldn't get it to work) but these artillery pieces can indeed be slingloaded. Horray!

Will an ammo truck resupply mortars/artillery? Yes, yes it will. Also, mortars in KPL don't have smoke, but the large artillery pieces placeable at FOBs do.

Also, the Huron Repair/Fuel/Ammo containers- transportable by helo/flatbed? Find out. (My guess is "no.")

Captured prisoners despawn after a while- get them to a FOB ASAP.

Speaking of intel points- they can be spent on secondary objectives. Only three types seem available, but there doesn't appear to be a limit on how often we can do it. If we've got the points to spend, we can run the secondary objective "FOB Hunt" one right after another, dropping the enemy's readiness level considerably. (Doesn't take long for it to shoot back up, what with all the territory captures and exploding armor and Gawd knows what else, but it's something.)

Supply trucks CAN deliver to islands, despite what basic logic and common sense would indicate- none of that sling loading was necessary. Doh!

Manned static defenses count against the number of active soldiers we're allowed to deploy at once, so don't place more than we really need. The bristling porcupine of statics like we use on Antistasi really isn't workable in KPL. Having a couple unmanned ones in addition to the manned ones at each FOB is probably a good idea.

Static weapons placed outside the FOB will eventually despawn. (If disassembled, they'll despawn even within the FOB.) Try to remember to pack 'em up and take 'em with you. They aren't terribly expensive, so it's not a huge deal- but waste not, want not, y'know?

Placing helipads and tent hangars allows us to deploy aircraft, but they don't have to actually be on the helipad/in the hangar when not in use. (The hangars seem kinda buggy, too- already lost a Greyhawk placed in one when it glitched out inside the hangar and exploded.) We can only build as many aircraft as we have helipads/hangars- but they don't have to be stored at the FOB that has the helipad/hangar, only built there. Anywhere within any FOB will do. Also, captured helicopters don't count against this limit, so use them whenever you want. (Sadly, I am 100% certain that we cannot capture jets- we've already downed one intact, and we can't get in or slingload it. We might be able to tow an intact one to an FOB and recycle it, but that's about it. This fact, as the kids say, "gave me a sad," because I was really looking forward to ripping around in a stolen SU-25.)

"If factory is lost, then recaptured- built storage area destroyed? Storage area contents lost? Built facilities destroyed? I suspect answers are yes, yes, and no, respectively, but it'd be nice to find out for certain" Tested this, finally, and the answers are indeed yes, yes, and no. The storage area and its contents are destroyed (and the storage area will have to be rebuilt before the factory can resume production) but the facilities are not destroyed. Once a factory is capable of producing an additional resource type, it stays that way permanently.

"Can build arsenal box for field reloads (though it still doesn't allow loading stuff into vehicles, wack) but how transport it? Won't go into a flatbed truck- maybe cargo humvee, or maybe gotta sling load it with helo?" Tested this and no, the cargo humvee won't work either- but sling loading does. I've had someone (Triple, in both cases, but I could probably get Dark or Beef to do it too) sling load an arsenal box onto every cargo tower I've built at the FOBs for quick access to Stinger loadouts at an elevated position.

Rebel units spawn as green dots on the map, while the OPFOR is that rust-red color and we're blue. Shooting rebels does NOT lower our civilian reputation- but a lot of them are in civilian clothes, so be REALLY sure the guy is armed before you shoot him.

No vehicle breaching, but salvaging vehicles isn't quite the priority it was in Antistasi- with a steady income, we can buy our own. Still, it's worth doing- every recovered MRAP, APC, helicopter, or tank is one more we don't have to pay for. We can also recycle any we decide not to keep, for supplies, fuel, and if it's armed, ammo as well.

-B