Monaco Catch-All / Don't-Get-Caught-All

And play we did!
Cyranix played an excellent gentleman, while I swept up a few stray guards as the cleaner (which is vastly my favorite guard control character and requires far more finesse that I originally though).
So far I've only had time to really grok gentleman, hacker, cleaner, lookout, pickpocket and mole.
Not sure I really understand redhead or locksmith yet.

There's not much to understand about the Locksmith -- faster handling of doors and safes. Redhead is a real skill class, IMO.

I need to remember to toggle shared vision off when playing the Gentleman, at least when there are lots of pillars and such -- I think I kept accidentally choosing suboptimal places to try to regain my disguise.

Cyranix wrote:

There's not much to understand about the Locksmith -- faster handling of doors and safes.

In which case I'm not a terribly big fan. It seems that many of the safe situations which can be gotten around using my favorite item, the wrench (silent kills, utility unlocks, the wrench it does it all!).
Smoke bombs a close second.

Pants- Troll- Suggestion of a good night? I would prefer it not be on a Wednesday. Also, with summer coming I'd be unlikely to join before 10 or 11 when I can join. That said, if these don't work out and most people prefer a night that won't do for me- I'm fine with that. I'd just like to see a Monaco night. I do know that I won't finish this game single played- the last time I played it by myself I found it more frustrating than I preferred.

Any night that's not on the weekend is good for me. In general, I've just been logging into Steam seeing if anyone's already playing and if not re-doing some of the earlier scenarios in Single Player to either clean them out or get credit for having completed them in SP. If I'm really up for MP I just make an event like is done with TF2.

I'm getting close to being done with the Locksmith story and I've started doing some Pickpocket story solo just because the large maps are a bit overwhelming. I'm definitely up for helping people finish this game, since it's been a lot of fun playing through the campaign with a full crew. Just send me a message if you want to play any night.

If anyone's available tomorrow (5/14) starting around 10:30/11 I'm going to try and help demonbox get through the disco level again. We almost managed to clear it out tonight but was stopped at the very end in our rush to find the last 10 coins on main floor. If we could get a couple extra people that would probably help a lot

shoptroll wrote:

If anyone's available tomorrow (5/14) starting around 10:30/11 I'm going to try and help demonbox get through the disco level again. We almost managed to clear it out tonight but was stopped at the very end in our rush to find the last 10 coins on main floor. If we could get a couple extra people that would probably help a lot :)

Have a look and see if I'm on -- I might could pitch in.

I forgot my podcast is tomorrow not tonight- I will try to log in between 10:30-11 all the same. Would love to give that level a second go.

Seriously, the Pearls Before Swine mission can go to hell.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

Seriously, the Pearls Before Swine mission can go to hell.

Don't think I've done that one. I'm around for a bit if you want to try co-op.

On the bright side, after all those failures on Pearls Before Swine, I came back from dinner and had a great solo run on Devil's Trick to clear it out (as Hacker with smoke bombs). I've now cleared out every mission up to The Prestige; I've still got a few missions before that point where I've cleared only solo and a few where I've cleared only multiplayer, so I hope to fill in those gaps before long. And, of course, beating the rest of the Pickpocket's story is on the agenda.

In somewhat excellent news, my wife is going out of town from Sunday to Saturday, so I can use voice chat! Expect to see me playing every night this week, and come join!

MUCH LATER: Cleared out victory on Pearls! Great work with evilseed, nopants, and psoplayer. We poured one out for you, Lucky Wilbury.

For anybody having difficulty with the Pearls Before Swine level, here's a video of somebody getting 100% solo:

The key seems to be is good use of C4.

I have no desire to replay that level. lol

He did make it look quite a bit easier though

Fantastic work tonight, crew. Prestige and Royal Flush cleaned out with barely any hitches. In honor of our accomplishments and excellent strategy, I whipped this up using some cheesy online Flash app:

IMAGE(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q296/Cyranix/GWJmonacocrest_zps704459ad.png)

I just took One Last Job on a brief spin. Cleared out the underground floor as Gentleman using three EMPs. Then I got up to street level... which is enormous and crawling with guards. Even in multiplayer, I feel like this will be another toughie. To give you some sense of the size, these are the coin counts on each level:

Spoiler:

Underground = 42, Street Level = 48, High Stakes Floor = 53, VIP Poker Room = 48, VIP Helipad = 20. That's 211 coins across five floors. With an extra dose of guards and lasers. Hm...

Cyranix wrote:

Fantastic work tonight, crew. Prestige and Royal Flush cleaned out with barely any hitches. In honor of our accomplishments and excellent strategy, I whipped this up using some cheesy online Flash app:

IMAGE(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q296/Cyranix/GWJmonacocrest_zps704459ad.png)

Very nice. I never realized just how important a strategy that was. I mean people talk to you and ask if you've considered the afterlife. Now I have an answer. Yeah, after life I plan on being dead in the bush.

Some good 2 man runs there with Cyranix rocking gentleman and me rolling as cleaner (although later on not as deft as I would have liked from myself).
Man this game is good.

Keep sending invites for me after 2000 MST if you see me on. One of these days I'll be able to join in, I promise. I haven't played since it released though, so still very inept.

Druidpeak wrote:

Keep sending invites for me after 2000 MST if you see me on. One of these days I'll be able to join in, I promise. I haven't played since it released though, so still very inept.

I'm in his same shoes. Sorry to keep passing, but one of these days I'll say yes. Promise!

I've played 12 hours, am inept, and still really love the heck out of the game. Single Player can be really frustrating- grab a friend.

The Boogle/Cyranix dynamic duo of Cleaner and Gentleman continues to dominate the later missions. We got two-man clears on Pearls Before Swine and Royal Flush, and we're feeling pretty good about One Last Job (we settled for a basic completion and will clear it out another day).

ADD: Oh sweet mercy, I just realized that you have to clear out every previous mission in order to unlock the mission after One Last Job. I only have that one left, but sheesh...

ADD 2: Well, I cleaned it out. Didn't do it with only the Gentleman, as I would have preferred. AAR and strategy comments:

Spoiler:

On the High Stakes floor, I lost the Gentleman in the Prize Display but was super close to getting away by the skin of my teeth; will probably go better if I don't blow up the only computer on the entire floor. And then the VIP Poker Room... the right side of that floor is a piece of cake, but the actual poker table is ridiculously huge with tons of eyes. Pickpocket got caught. Cleaner almost had a pile of bodies sleeping near the circuit breaker but one bad knock-out of a waking guard alerted the 5th guard who walked in. Finally wrapped it up with the Redhead.

I used 3 EMPs on the Underground floor again, then switched to C4 for the rest of it. There are tons of coins, so it's worthwhile to blow up anything that is risky; I can think of at least three times that I exploded a laser and guard with a single bomb on Ground Level and High Stakes, and it gave me much more breathing room.

ADD 3: My hands are shaking a little bit after getting a solo clear on Au Revoir. If the coins outside had been placed less unfortunately, I could've beaten it on a single life! My Hacker managed to pick up every coin but to get the last coin, I just barged through about 15 people with smoke bombs -- used all of them before I could start the car. So it was a lay-up for my Gentleman who strolled casually down the map and instantly boosted the police cruiser. Time to see how the second storyline wraps up...

ADD 4: Very neat. I won't say anything about the epilogue until more people have had a chance to get there.

ADD 5: Sorry for the length, but I didn't want to be sextuple-posting. Just got a kick out of figuring out how to get the Silent Withdrawal achievement (finish Banque Albert without being seen) the super, super easy way.

Anyone interested in doing some of the Pickpocket story missions tonight starting around 9:30/10 PM EST?

shoptroll wrote:

Anyone interested in doing some of the Pickpocket story missions tonight starting around 9:30/10 PM EST?

I think I should be available. I have a few missions that I need a simple completion in MP on, for the trophies, so I might be working on filling in those trophies.

Everyone needs to hurry up and get through the second storyline so we can talk about the credits map!

Only four trophies left to get! Not dying in the 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-to-last missions of Pickpocket, plus single-player on the 4th-to-last. Great runs tonight, mates -- I can't believe we did such an awesome job on Identity!

Cyranix wrote:

Not dying in the 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-to-last missions of Pickpocket

O_o I'm amazed you managed to get a no-death trophy on Identity. Good times last night, I deserve an anti-achievement for dying too many times. I think I'm the biggest liability in any session for this game.

shoptroll wrote:
Cyranix wrote:

Not dying in the 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-to-last missions of Pickpocket

O_o I'm amazed you managed to get a no-death trophy on Identity. Good times last night, I deserve an anti-achievement for dying too many times. I think I'm the biggest liability in any session for this game.

... No deaths on Identity is easier than the first mission -- just follow the credits to the car!

Cyranix wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Cyranix wrote:

Not dying in the 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-to-last missions of Pickpocket

O_o I'm amazed you managed to get a no-death trophy on Identity. Good times last night, I deserve an anti-achievement for dying too many times. I think I'm the biggest liability in any session for this game.

... No deaths on Identity is easier than the first mission -- just follow the credits to the car!

Oh hey, that works. Sorry, last night was my first time playing through that level. Didn't know the "normal" route drops you off right at the exit.

BAM! All trophies obtained. Hit me up if you want some co-op action today. I'm not much of a speedrunner, so I probably won't try that (at least not solo) -- can't wait until the level editor comes out.

Cyranix wrote:

BAM! All trophies obtained. Hit me up if you want some co-op action today. I'm not much of a speedrunner, so I probably won't try that (at least not solo) -- can't wait until the level editor comes out.

Congrats! I still need to beat about 4-5 levels in the Pickpocket story so I'd be interested in getting a crew together later tonight.

I think I have five levels that I've never done (three locksmith and two pickpocket) and I have an additional four or five levels in the locksmith story that I haven't done co-op.

I tried to get the slippery achievement earlier today but kept getting exactly 1:10 and could never get under. It should be pretty easy to get with another player as either the lookout for quicker exits or the pickpocket to pick up the coins in the last part (which is the biggest variable of the run).

edit: I've been playing through some of the maps that I just need the single player trophy on and I'm finding it incredibly difficult to not try to get every coin even though I don't need to clear the levels.