GWJ Chromehounds

Fyedaddy wrote:

There were at least five of you dirty weasels playing this last night around 10 PM CST. Any new online play impressions!? :)

Yes, my spy has been watching you guys! Spill the beans, punks! Sell me on this game!

zeroKFE wrote:

Ah, but my friends list says that Spork and ThinJ actually are playing right now. Guess the no gaming night issue wasn't enough to stiffle ThinJ's curiosity after all. ;)

Between spork and myself, and another friend of ours I figure we can probably at least manage some games against bots or something every so often.

Still burned on the gamenights.

Yes, spill the beans you dirty robot jocks!

IMAGE(http://www.jabootu.com/images/bf04rj.jpg)

That movie is AWESOME.

Chromehounds is awesome... there for I have to put it away. I'll play some thing else!

-edit-

Holy Gaming Cosmos... 1up gave Chromehounds 8.0 in review!

Damn you people for making me want to buy a 360 and Chromehounds. I need to save up for my motorcycle, tuition, and a place to live.

Impressions:

- despite the basic controls (exactly like in the demo, left trigger and bumber are unused), this game is a sim and not something you can hop right into.

- the mechs don't move too slowly, they are perfect for the pacing of the gameplay. It took me about 90 seconds to cover 25% of the map on open terrain using the base "soldier" class hound, 150 movement speed (scouts can top 250). However, my brain did need an... adjustment period. I thought for a bit that maybe I had made a mistake, but the game quickly grew on me. This isn't a twitch game, but you can dodge attacks, and the combat is not as simplistic as the negative reviews suggest. There is more thought in this game then say, Ghost Recon or Halo. Just like Halo slowed down the pace from Quake 3, CH slows things down even more to allow more thought and communication. You will take time to plan your approach, looking at all the options and deciding which direction will give you the upper hand. However, once mechs engage at close range, the lead flies and the game is anything but slow.

- I did notice the ability to target, say, the legs and cause the enemy hound to slow down.

- there is a lot of strategy in hound building, and I mean a LOT. I've got maybe 20 weapon types and have only scratched the surface of the game. Take 1 hound x 6 players + role balancing x persistent online war = 1 huge detailed game. It does feel a little bit like an RPG, in that you work your way up to better weapons, explore different uses for your equipment, etc. I spent more time putting decals on my hound than fighting with it, and had a blast.

- the 22 battlegrounds you see on the main battle map are actually broken into 3-4 maps each, or at least the ones I played on. I played in the capital city of Tarakia, and it's a huge urban city, exactly the same one you see in the intro CGI and very cool. I played on mountainous terrain, farmlands will vast fields of swaying wheat, snowy fields with a very cool fog effect, a few desert environments, etc. The visual philosophy is muted realism, some of the terrain is low(er) poly and the buildings look kinda weird, but there were quite a few times when I felt the game looked very beautiful.

- playing different sides of the war requires some strategy, since each side has access to different technology. Since your hound is all about the equipment it's made of, sneaking over to the enemy to buy their technology is an important action plan.

- the game has a very cool fog of war concept. Commanders are required to enable voice comms between players or ID enemies on the map, and then only within the range of your captured comm towers. It's more interesting in the game than it might sound. Obviously, losing a commander or comm tower can through your team into chaos. Plus, you can run on guerilla missions "behind enemy lines", etc. Possibilities!

- I'm worried that snipers will be overpowered.

- Zero and I joined in a voice chat for about an hour. He has played these games more than I and explained a lot of the game to me, so it was a cool way to "mentor" a confused person like myself. Since you can do this with any game, mark one more reason Xbox Live rocks.

- it will take at least a week to get a feel for the online war.

Souldaddy wrote:

despite the basic controls (exactly like in the demo, left trigger and bumber are unused), this game is a sim and not something you can hop right into.

Left bumper switches assist parts (mine detectors, nightvision, etc.) and left trigger activates/deactivates.

Souldaddy wrote:

I did notice the ability to target, say, the legs and cause the enemy hound to slow down.

More than that... Damaging some types of legs can actually alter how they handle entirely. Wheeled mobility bases are quite zippy and roll around like you might expect a car; they don't stop on a dime. But damage them and they start to handle a lot like tracks.

Souldaddy wrote:

I'm worried that snipers will be overpowered.

It's very easy for even a medium-speed Hound to dodge sniper fire, and heavily armored ones can take a good number of hits without a problem. I see a scout as more useful than a sniper in terms of tactics, and a sniper's only real benefit is long range. Try out the Heavy Gunner training mission and you'll see just how much more dangerous a skilled heavy gunner is than a sniper. Those cannons are indirect fire weapons but they have insane range, and can even aim higher than most other weapons.

Desram wrote:

As long as it's not just me. I'm not as overjoyed with the customization as I thought I'd be. While you can put decals anywhere, it seems like you're really limited in the decals you can choose from.

Have you checked out the emblem editor yet? You can do some pretty crazy stuff with that. I've already made a nifty Fruit F*cker emblem. Combined with the custom paint pattern stuff (buy a few extra patterns from your shop, by the way; there is some cool stuff) and you should be able to do a lot. I'm certainly looking forward to actually getting to play around with it.

Fyedaddy wrote:

There were at least five of you dirty weasels playing this last night around 10 PM CST. Any new online play impressions!? :)

It really is the GT or Forza of mech games, with all the baggage that goes with that, both good and bad. I want to wait a while before forming any final impressions, but I'll say two things for now:

1. I am very pleased with the game.
2. People would do well to pay attention to how the game is described in the TeamXbox and GameTrailers reviews (I haven't read the 1up review yet), and play the demo first to be sure that the gameplay pacing suits your tastes. If those reviews don't give you cold feet and you are cool with the demo, the Wiener Bombers need YOU for the war effort. Otherwise, give it a rent first to be sure that it is your cup of tea.

So last night I played a couple of the single player soldier missions and then decided that I'd better get online and earn some Sal Kari parts before our squad forms in Tarakia or Morskoj. After spending my starting funds of 600,000 on random parts, my goal last night (and for a short period of time this morning before I came to work) was to find the best way to make money fast. I focused on this above all else, rather than to try to develop skills and strategies within a role type.

First I tried the online "Individual Missions" where you can earn money for killing a bunch of AI drones (that is to say, not hounds) in a set period of time, and DON'T have to pay for ammo or repairs. At first I thought this was giving me a quasi respectable amount of cash (~20,000) but I was wrong (again)... it was just that after completing one mission I had 20,000 total. It turns out that the rookie level missions only give you 5,000 to 7,000. Screw that. So I decided to take the risk of running a 1 on 1 Neroimus war mission. If you win there you earn anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 depending on what value your nation is currently placing on the battlefield you choose to fight in. The problem is that you have to pay for ammo and repairs here, which can run anywhere from 10,0000 to 90,000 depending on how many rounds you fire and how many parts get damaged. So losing can hurt badly.

And I lost my first match. Ouch.

After that, though, I found my footing a bit. See, you can win a Neroimus war mission one of three ways:

1. Defeat the enemy hounds.
2. Destroy the enemy HQ.
3. Hold the most COMBAS towers at the end of the time limit (which seems to generally be about 15 minutes).

So I built a rather straight forward soldier design that could move fast, carried four HEAT rocket pods, and three decent power assault rifles. Then the strategy I used was to move out towards the enemy's side of the map, taking COMBAS towers as I went, searching for real HQ (there are three on every map, but two are decoys) while using my assault rifle to take out the AI drones and turrets that I couldn't just avoid. When I found the HQ, if it was undefended I would simply unload every bit on ammo on my hound, which was just barely enough to destroy it. It it was defended, I would try to take out the defender.

I had decent level of success, winning about 7 out 10 or so attempts. The cool thing is that when you set up a mission, if an enemy player doesn't show up you can simply run the mission against the AI. However, even if you start against the AI, a human can jump in and take it's place while the game is in progress (perhaps only before there is contact between sides? I'm not sure). In any case, I'm pretty sure that my losses were cases where a human stepped in. In those cases I came up against much better armed and armored defender and heavy gunner opponents who moved much more intelligently that the basic defender units I found in the wins where I encountered the enemy rather than simply destroying the HQ.

In any case, I was able to earn about 500,000 or so an hour. After about two and a half hours total last night and this morning, suffice it to say, I'll have a nice variety of Sal Kari parts when I join up with the squad.

Oh, and that great mobility system device I won in the lottery last night? It showed up in my regular shop this morning. D'oh. Not sure if it was because I had won it, or because I had gained reknown in the game, or simply because the Sal Kari research system had progresssed enough to make the part available for general consumption. In any case, I bought a couple of extras to share with the squad when we meet up.

Yeah I messed around with the emblem editor for a while. I was surprised that there didn't seem to be any way to get some characters in the mix other than by building them out of other distorted emblems. Did I miss something?

Desram wrote:

Yeah I messed around with the emblem editor for a while. I was surprised that there didn't seem to be any way to get some characters in the mix other than by building them out of other distorted emblems. Did I miss something?

Nope. The only thing I can figure is that they want to make it sort of hard for people to write dirty words on their hound.

Does anyone know if after a war if finished we get to keep all our parts or if everything resets to the basics?

They could have at least included numbers... There wasn't any sort of emblem painting option, was there? Like in AC?

Desram wrote:

They could have at least included numbers... There wasn't any sort of emblem painting option, was there? Like in AC?

Ah, yeah, I see what you are saying -- it's certainly not like the pixel-by-pixel icon editor that AC had. I'm afraid that the emblem editor is just the layered decal distortion thing. You could change the color of each decal amongst like 8 or 10 options though. Souldaddy, did you find a way to choose amonst a greater variety of colors? I know that in the pattern editor there are RGB sliders, but I couldn't find anything like than in the emblem editor.

Aqua Guy wrote:

Does anyone know if after a war if finished we get to keep all our parts or if everything resets to the basics?

I sure as hell hope not! But know, I haven't heard anything on that topic either way.

Fantastic, guys and gals. This is exactly the kind of feedback I'm hoping to see from the group. Please keep it up! It looks like I'm back on track towards purchasing this game after all *phew!*

Hey Zero, could you post some information about your build? I'm getting tempted to jump in with you and make some serious coin.

My current build uses some medium-strength, fairly quick legs, a heavy cockpit, 2 small bomb launchers, 2 anti-hound missile launchers, 1 light cannon, and 4 miniguns.

You can do some real damage firing off four miniguns at once, but they eat up 30 rounds each with a single trigger pull so they don't really last as long as you might hope.

If you read that Quarter to Three thread, he was making easy money by using a scout with nothing but bomb launchers and rushing to destroy the other base. You can tell the real one from the fakes by the emblem on the real one.

So I'm probably going to go all the way throught the single player campaign. Will I at least be able to sell all the junk I'm earning? Also, By finishing single player am I getting camo patterns that are otherwise inaccessible?

JimmDogg wrote:

If you read that Quarter to Three thread, he was making easy money by using a scout with nothing but bomb launchers and rushing to destroy the other base. You can tell the real one from the fakes by the emblem on the real one.

That's an okay plan, but if there is a defender in place you might have trouble with it. Also, the AI drones and turrets might give you trouble on some maps. For 1 on 1 matches, I think my strategy might be a bit better since it allows you to deal with a variety of situations. However, we'll definitely want to play around with that sort of method once we're teamed up.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Hey Zero, could you post some information about your build? I'm getting tempted to jump in with you and make some serious coin.

My current build uses some medium-strength, fairly quick legs, a heavy cockpit, 2 small bomb launchers, 2 anti-hound missile launchers, 1 light cannon, and 4 miniguns.

Sure, no problem. Like I alluded to earlier, my current design is really entirely targetted for the task of winning 1 on 1 war missions against the computer to earn cash. Basically, I kept it very simple. I have medium strength legs, cockpit, and generator, all choosen for the sake of mobility. I have only two weapon groups. One is a set of four HEAT rockets (short range, slow, but relatively high damage), and the other is a set of three decent powered assault rifles for handling AI drones and turrets, and for peppering defenders at medium range when I actually encounter them. I topped it off with a pair of armor plates to protect my weapon groups, although in the few cases where a defender has gotten the jump on me I'm still woefully under protected.

Also, I tried mounting my weapons evenly on either side of my cockpit to reduce the effects of recoil. Bad idea. I quicky moved the weapons back together on either side of the cockpit. A decent stability system device handles the recoil well enough, and the decrease in accuracy and the loss of a tight firing pattern was too great a disadvantage.

Desram wrote:

So I'm probably going to go all the way throught the single player campaign. Will I at least be able to sell all the junk I'm earning? Also, By finishing single player am I getting camo patterns that are otherwise inaccessible?

Yes, and I'm not sure. There are a lot of paint patterns in the shops, including a number of neat ones that aren't camo. But basic camo patterns also seem to be there as well. At the very least you'll save yourself 5,000 a pop by unlocking them in the single player.

Does anyone know if after a war if finished we get to keep all our parts or if everything resets to the basics?

If it DID NOT start over, there would be a problem with new players constantly getting beat by veteran players at the beginning of a war due to keeping the old gear, right?

karmajay wrote:
Does anyone know if after a war if finished we get to keep all our parts or if everything resets to the basics?

If it DID NOT start over, there would be a problem with new players constantly getting beat by veteran players at the beginning of a war due to keeping the old gear, right?

That's why you have a ranking. So you can choose to only play with people at your same level.

AFAIK, you get to keep all your parts.

What was the final verdict on team switching? My brother is playing Tarakia and started there. I was thinking about starting as Sal Kari to get goods then switching to Tarakia. Can he get amnesty to Sal Kari to join up with me then switch back to Tarakia when I do?

LiquidMantis wrote:

What was the final verdict on team switching? My brother is playing Tarakia and started there. I was thinking about starting as Sal Kari to get goods then switching to Tarakia. Can he get amnesty to Sal Kari to join up with me then switch back to Tarakia when I do?

We haven't tested it yet (although I plan to this evening) but here is how we think it works.

When you first log in, you can choose a nation freely. After that, you can change once freely. Beyond that, though, you can only change nation once every two weeks.

EXCEPT that if you are affiliated with a nation that doesn't control their capital (such as Tarakia currently) then you are offered the opportunity to "seek amnesty" with another nation. We assume that this kind of switch is possible regardless of how recently you have changed countries. BUT after that switch, we have no idea if you will have to wait two weeks or not, regardless of whether or not you have already used your "free" switch mentioned above.

So, my suggestion is this. Pick any country you want. Once you have all the parts you want, switch to whatever nation the GWJ squad is currently with. If that is Tarakia, it may be the case that the squad will eventually seek amnesty with another nation, but as long as you have satisfied your initial desires for parts, that shouldn't matter too much.

As for your brother's situation, well, I'm not sure. It may be the case that if he takes amesty to Sal Kar, he might have to wait two weeks before being able to change again. If I were you, I'd just have him stay put and bring him some good parts when you switch. Check my post earlier in the thread for details, but it is pretty easy to make enough cash to outfit both yourself and your brother in just a couple hours. If you are online this evening at the same time as me, get me in a private chat and I'll be more than happy to guide you through the process.

This is making it very, very difficult to be at work. I'm also getting a nagging urge to forego the SP and start ripping apart those who would pilfer the sauce.

I did a couple of the story missions, using a borrowed hound. How long until I get my own hound? Do you keep doing story missions until you get all the parts needed?

I got my ass kicked on my first 1v1 Neroimus War match and ended up $100k in the hole. I wasn't prepared to face that defender. Then I did two more, with a new design (some moderate close-range weapons... and a HUGE cannon). The first time, I forgot to set up my weapons, but a well-placed cannon shot had the enemy running and after that it was just a matter of tracking him down and finishing the job. In the second I'd configured everything well but the enemy was a bit harder, picking at me from over a ledge and running away. I chased him off but then lost him, so I found a nice ridge overlooking his base and started to bombard it. About 10 shots in, I notice his head pop up over the ridge... then slide back down. So I casually wander over to the edge, aim down, and place a single, fatal cannon blast right into his cockpit. Those rounds were costing me about $800 each (they're super-high power HE), but I still managed to pocket about $200,000 after repaying my $100k debt. I noticed that in the headlines the game will tell you areas that will net you some extra scratch and they don't seem any harder, just hotly contested (I guess that increases the chance of running into a human opponent). They were paying $170,000 each. However, using those nice big juicy HE rounds meant that on one mission I had to pay $37k for ammunition. Ouch. I've switched back to a lower power round ($330 per).

I picked up your wheels, Zero. I also found out that Morskoj is selling some fuel tanks for $5k. Big deal? The tanks are small and designed to be dual-function as spacers. Very nice. With the rest of my money I got some other toys, including a massive twin barrel cannon.

Propagandalf wrote:

I did a couple of the story missions, using a borrowed hound. How long until I get my own hound? Do you keep doing story missions until you get all the parts needed?

Yep, that's the idea. It shouldn't be too long before you can build a hound but it will be a while before you can build one that's better than the borrowed. If you're eager to start tinkering, log on to XBox Live. You'll get a free starter hound and a nice chunk of change (I think Sal Kar gets $600k but I only got $200k from Morskoj).

Propagandalf wrote:

I did a couple of the story missions, using a borrowed hound. How long until I get my own hound? Do you keep doing story missions until you get all the parts needed?

Yeah, pretty much. If you get S ratings, it shouldn't take too many missions.

Also, once you log on to Xbox Live you will get a full set of gear (for use in online games only) plus a bunch of cash to use at the online store (again, parts there are for online only).

Also, you should get the option on any of the missions other than the first training missions called something like "change hound" which will give you the option to go to your garage and assemble your own hound. Take a look when you are in the briefing room.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I picked up your wheels, Zero. I also found out that Morskoj is selling some fuel tanks for $5k. Big deal? The tanks are small and designed to be dual-function as spacers. Very nice. With the rest of my money I got some other toys, including a massive twin barrel cannon.

Cool.

They function as spacers, but how do they compare to spacers in terms of weight and durability?

zeroKFE wrote:

Cool.

They function as spacers, but how do they compare to spacers in terms of weight and durability?

I'll have to take a closer look but they seemed pretty much on par, with a fuel capacity of around 100. I imagine they're a lot more flammable than normal spacers.