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There will be times when no aliens spawn, but yes, the aliens spawn endlessly.
This whole game is built around and trying to keep the tension and fear of aliens being around. Wiping them off would be counter to the main theme of the game.
The normal way to play this game is to try and avoid being detected, and build up your firepower for those times when hiding fails.
Stress needs to be handled, that is correct. For most players it is something to be avoided.
I have written a guide here on Steam for veteran players on how it can greatly boost your dps.
One should not believe everything one hears. There are plenty of ways to increase ammo in the mission. The timer can be disabled by selecting custom difficulty when starting a campaign.
I would advice to read my guide on Campaign Difficulty and classes here on Steam.
The only thing that increases is the Infestatiion Level. It is nothing to be afraid of. I always start my playthroughs with it on max which is level 5. That being said, yes, if you get detected long enough the aggressiveness will increase and more aliens will hunt you. That means it is normally time to extract and come back, then it resets to easy again.
Most players try to hide from aliens and do mission objectives.
But if you like to pulverize and just being a marine squad of badasses, then you should play on Story Mode difficulty. I have elaborated on this in my guide to Campaign Difficulty.
That being said, I just completed a playthrough on Medium difficulty and tried to shoot anything that was in sight, starting as many fights that I could. That was fun.
There are many ways of killing patrolling aliens without being detected. I think most players like to explore.
Correct.
You can force the game to save everytime you take an elevator, completes an objective, resting on mission, or going back to the Otago. So, most players do not find the need to save even more.
For my own part, I like to destroy aliens with overwhelming firepower. I think this game has way way too few aliens. But to each their own I guess.
1. Totally unrelated to Aliens isolation which is mainly a stealth adventure game.
2. Aliens respawn.
Spawn points are shown in map, lower difficulty for a slower respawn rate. Such respawn isn't waves of enemies respawn, only patrolling/wandering enemy respawn one by one at least at low difficulty.
3. No, you don't fight first aliens you met.
You try first not be detected, avoid them, sometimes cover and hide will do the job, silent kill with SR, SR with silencer, mines, detector to lure aliens at a place, trigger alien ambushing start move back and wait it leaves, block a door but it uses one precious resource. There's perhaps more tools to continue be undetected but I didn't noticed. One unconventional point to quote for stealth is cover and hide, then sprint to next cover hide point, which isn't intuitive.
4. Massive assault.
It's that mechanic or spawning points directly spawning occasionally waves of aliens, at least this design choice gives to dev more control on it. As far I know it's linked to the number of time or accumulated time you have been detected, not global time.
At least at low difficulty it's rarely a big difficulty only a higher tension point, rush to a strategic place, setup some turrets well positioned, use properly command points.
5. Ammo.
Mines and SR shoot don't use ammo only command point that restore with time.
You can build a hideout to rest which uses a resource but also can allow regen more ammo with the right skill for soldiers.
There's many loot in the game including for more ammo.
There's one hole often working, rest, return to main menu, continue and rest again for more ammo generation.
Each soldier has a secondary weapon with infinite ammo, mix a team with some using the secondary weapon is a tool to save ammo.
In a way turrets are an ammo saving tool because each add one ammo resource at start that is ammo of the turret, and each ammo resource are cheaper for turrets because giving much more ammo for one resource.
6. Stress.
In my opinion it's a gameplay layout not fully tuned. The core problem is it's a team factor but healing stress is with medkit resource and targets only one soldier, hence this is a half broken mechanic. Build a hideout to rest is a better mechanic but it also uses a precious resource and stress can rise up ultra fast so it's also a half broken mechanic, but you can re-balance it with the exploit quoted in point 4 allowing chain multiple rests. This left a key skill you won't have at first, Reprimand blocking stress increase, but it's only for 30s, it's for period where command points can be ultra precious, the game hasn't good reminders to when use it. Still it's the only stress mechanic less half broken. Overall with low difficulty the stress gameplay is fairly good anyway.
7. Time to make a mission and aliens aggressive level increase.
As far I know it's false, it's linked to the number of time or accumulated time you have been detected, not global time.
8. Stealth game?
No it's not a stealth game, but be undetected often enough is an important element of gameplay, and still your team can be a kill and combat force, it's no weakling like in Alien isolation. The point is it's a mix, combats, stealth, loot, exploration, management.
9. Explore all the level?
You can do it, most missions can be done in multiple run, and each run can take a lot of time.
10. Where is the fun?
What's sure is it's not at all the Alien isolation gameplay (thankfully), ADD is a lower budget but much better even if for less players, it's probably tactical game players that have most chance to appreciate ADD.
People at the beginning were using strategies such as luring Xenos to your turrets or APC via Motion detectors.
Having played so much, I managed to grasp very important information. The aliens infinitely spawn, so killing them just buys you a bit of breathing room. There's no way to completely wipe out the spawns. However
There is a cap on numbers of active Xenos. I tested this by afking for like half an hour on a map on the hardest difficulty with max infestation. That number varies depending on the map and infestation level, but there is a hard cap. Eventually you'll run out of ammo.
So while the turret lure method seemed good to start, it's a red herring and is a trap to fall into.
What you actually want to do, is place motion sensors everywhere you can, never let yourself be at max points unless a battle is about to happen (this also has the benefit of knowing exactly where the Xenos are at any time. Look at the area you want to explore. Go to the opposite side of the map, down some alleyway or dark corner. Place a bunch of motion detectors. Reposition, trigger one of the motion detectors, and watch the map screen as all the Xenos reposition. It may be worth, if you're struggling, to wait a bit for the map to populate (this will only happen once you've progressed far enough into any given map, usually a cutscene or reaching a certain place triggers them to spawn).
You then have a good minute at least to explore, and no enemies will spawn at all, sometimes they hide in a vent, but you can get around those. All present Xenos will converge on that position. Once a motion sensor wears off, check the map and wait as long as you can (so they're close to reaching your position) then trigger another one, and watch them all go right back to that hidden corner. This is the best way to handle the first mission mine shaft area, for example. If you kill the few that are there, even if silently, it may spawn an enemy near you and you've suddenly triggered a horde. So go to one side of the map, round a bend preferably, and place some motion sensors there to keep the roamers busy.
That or use a drone for the same effect (this will require you switching back and forth between your squad and your drone ping fairly often). One thing to note - while motion detectors will trigger a response from every Xeno present most times, the drone ping only alerts enemies within a certain radius, so it's worth leaving your drone near a motion detector, ping the detector, and when it breaks, switch to the drone and ping it periodically to keep any pressure off you.
Also, having one tech guy with a drone is a must. A lot of people don't like that class, but the drone alone makes him well worth it. Against Xenos, using the drone, you can fly around the map from a safe space, pinging any eggs or sleepers you see to wake them up, and coral them into a place of your choosing. This costs no command points, has infinite uses, and as long as you don't fire on a Xeno with its gun, you won't trigger hordes. You can breeze through the hardest missions, such as the terraforming plant, or in the caves in the first/last mission etc.
I recommend if you wake up facehuggers, to actually kill those due to the fact they won't respawn and the danger they represent (so set up a turret for them so they don't trigger a battle). I'll give you a hint I found worked really well against the first Queen. It can be done early as mines are one of the first unlocks. The door that you open to trigger the cutscene that activates her, place like 5 mines on top of each other, then run back once the cutscene is over, and she'll die instantly to the mines if you have enough placed. You can use this method against any Queen except maybe the Queen in the final stage of the Atmosphere processor as you'll have enemies on multiple sides.
This way not only can you reveal the entire map, but also clear out every danger in every room preemptively, and find any resources and plan a good path. You have total control over the game.
When I started playing, I did the Persona method of clearing every mission the first day it became available, since that's usually a good strategy, and there is an infestation level. However, it's actually best to take your time. Before you go back to the space station which triggers the countdown, literally redeploy as many times as you like, rescuing engineers, getting resources etc. Engineers produce material each night, so you can go to a planet, farm xp by killing aliens (you can end up with max sentry guns this way before the first boss in the first mission), unlocking all your specialisations for your squad, promoting them, getting DNA samples, etc.
By the time you come to the second mission, you could have a fully kitted out team, with new weapons, and one of each class of marine, making you able to handle any situation. If you're patient enough (I tried this when I started a new game+ with +5 everything (so one hit deaths most of the time). Each day that passes, you have a two choice decision to make. This can often be more marines, engineers and doctors, DNA, Material etc, so you can be fully stocked really early in the game, which takes a lot of the pressure of you.
And by the time I left the initial mission area, I had max level guns such as the plasma cannon, silenced snipers, flamethrowers, mines etc, enough DNA to leave all the bonuses on each mission. I melted the first boss with like 2 plasma gun special attacks and a RPG, it didn't even move from the huge hole in the wall it made. On the hardest difficulty.
As you're forced into combat in certain scenarios, this method of staying put on the first couple missions and farming those to get a full squad is advisable. (I recommend 1 Tech, 1 Gunner, 1 or two sergeants and a recon) Medic in my opinion isn't worth it until you get to the last skill which cuts time your crew spend in the infirmary. I'd write a guide myself but I'm too lazy, and people such as RayThor already have good guides.
With max sentries, mines, flamethrowers and suppressive fire/flare usage, which you can acquire from the first mission if you farm it, you'll be able to handle any situation. I personally keep one marine with the standard assault rifle, as the grenade ability is very handy at killing eggs/fast Xenos and works very well in situations the RPG can't handle (mostly hordes and fast enemies it struggles with). Recon's silenced sniper is amazing also, since it'll one tap any sleeping enemies, and can be used on Xenos suddenly spawning out of a hole nearby, to kill them in one shot without alerting the hive.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3015061122
That's an example of the power of the drone, in my first playthrough, with the entire map count of facehuggers and Xenos under my control
Ok so maybe I need to stop playing on Hard for my 1st campaign, maybe it's better to start on normal to better understand all the game design and mechanics.
I m kind of disapointed because of some points like the infinite spawn (I mean you see the hive and you can't destroy it, your soliders have C4, it's stupid role play wise) and no manual save.
But I will give the game a 2nd chance, play on normal and try to be less agressive in my playstyle.
I heard there is a NG+, so maybe Hard will be better on NG+.
There also is a mod on Nexus mod, and some others online that you can download that lets you make manual saves at anytime, if that's what you'd prefer. I ran into some game breaking sequences that required an entire mission restart three times, and since I ran it on Ironman mode (less saves) I lost hours of gameplay.
After this I manually backed up my game saves from time to time. Most of the softlocking issues or sequence breaks are fixed, but some remain. If you're not playing on Ironman though, you should have enough saves without having to worry about backing things up, but the option is there should you require it
There's no shame in not playing Hard or above on your first play through. Playing through an entire campaign on Normal will give you the skills needed to attempt higher difficulties in the next playthrough, should you want to. Plus you can make your own difficulty via the custom difficulty to make it as forgiving or as punishing as you want. Many others have expressed frustration as they also play it aggressively, which is understandable as you have a squad of fully armed marines. However as you've no doubt realised, the game is balanced around *not* engaging unless absolutely necessary.
You start out as an underequipped, undermanned force so it would make sense that you'd have to be as careful as you can so you don't up painting the walls a new shade of red and potentially dooming the crew back on the ship, as you're their only hope of going home and there aren't many of you.
While infinite respawns seem strange gameplay wise, due to you being able to clear hives and such, I think what they were intending to get across but didn't quite manage, is that it's basically a handful of marines vs *an entire moons population* of Xenos, so even a couple hundred kills and a few waves survived in one mission wouldn't even dent the overall numbers of the Hive. There's a cutscene later which I won't spoil, but accurately shows exactly what you're up against in terms of numbers, and to quote the second movie "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure." Which makes the infinite spawns make sense from a narrative, rather than gameplay reason.
Manually finding your game saves, should you wish to do it yourself without a mod, as I did, are located here (you'll need to enable viewing hidden files and folder in Windows Explorer to find appdata):
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\ASF\Saved\SaveGames
At the end of the mission, there is a pie chart that breaks down how you played it - I usually get 95-98% stealthed. So yeah, it depends on your play-style.
There are actually TWO ways to manually save your game:
1) Using an elevator
2) or, a room.
Such comment is only confirming OP comment.
The game is a lot more diverse at Easy than it seems at higher difficulties, and if you think that at easy you'll just rush through and kill everything with eyes blinded, that's wrong.
For sure at Easy it's sort of easy, but there's still some tension, and some tough parts, and occasions to screw up. Really a good gameplay.
At least you could try it and if it's really boring then try increase the difficulty.
That's a good attitude to have. If there is a choice between playing on an easier difficulty or not at all as x difficulty is too difficult, I'd choose to play it on easy. This game is an underappreciated gem in my opinion. At the end of the day you can choose to play the game in a way that best suits you, and you'll never be 'wrong' for choosing easier options, especially if that helps you to enjoy the game more. All the mechanics are present in the game on easy, it's just more forgiving. The things you'd learn on that easy playthrough would help you should you attempt a higher difficulty in the future.
Many games are just boring at easiest difficulty and for 90% of players if not more. But this game has base design of RTS, even if with a less common approach of slowtime. And RTwP is just an extra option but the real time is ultra fast. hence it's not standard RTwP.
If you don't play RTS games, Easy difficulty should not be too easy, but then there's a difficulty point, you won't be able change the difficulty later.
To temper this problem, in my opinion, the game is good to replay first parts, at replay you can choose skip the intro and skip it for a replay, but then replay first mission and first parts of second mission should work well, and it can be a long mission in multiple days, so you should get a good clue if the difficulty is ok for you or not before end of second mission and at this point replay will be fine, even a good opportunity to not get screwed up by some misunderstanding.
I wouldn't go that far, but I would say it's a flawed gem, that just invented a new gameplay I never seen everywhere with many good points even if also many clear missed opportunities or points of improvement.
And I even think that a syndicate remake should be done with this gameplay base idea, even if there's work to add more depth to combats against enemies with guns (and stealth mechanic that are important too in syndicate if I remind well).
I think the problem is a bit more complex.
As I hinted at in my Guide to Campaign Difficulty and Classes.
The problem with the difficulty slider/options is that it does not accurately reflect the real difficulty. On Story(Easy) the aliens do the same damage as on Nightmare, your marines has the same hitpoints and armor. The aliens move at the same speed on both difficulties and so do your squad.
The only real difference is the alien hitpoints. On a normal drone it goes from 10hp on Story(Easy) then jumps to 20hp on Medium, 25hp(?) on Hard and finally 30hp on Nightmare(Very Hard). As you can see, the jump from Story(Easy) to Medium is double, that is too much increase, and quite a surprise.
I would say that this game challenges the player in many different aspects, but being able to handle multiple tasks at the same time is probably the most important aspect. That means alien speed and damage is much more of a factor to a player being overwhelmed.
But those settings are the same on every diffculty.
This is how the game 'tricks' players with its difficulty setting.