*might be spoilers* Taking on Duty

[mattig]

Hello all,

I'm in the process of taking on duty, but I seem to have hit a little snag.

Instead of duty holding the norther point in thier terrirory, the local stalkers are holding it.

Is there a way to take control of that point without pissing off the stalkers?

[Cajun Rabbit]

your a Merc... piss everyone off... if they dont like it, give them some free bullets (casings not included)

[mattig]

thats fair enough, but I like the stalkers.

Besides, the less bullets I have to use on people, the more I have for mutants.

[mattig]

ok, so they don't hate me. They're just neutral to me, even after the counter attack.

How did you guys manage to take duty on? Every time I make some progress towards their base, one of their counter attacks takes an entry point back, and I have to defend the other entry point.

its one step forward two steps back

Edit: omfg! hokay, I was right outside the duty base, i went to go fire, and the nother entry point fell! Taking on the duty base was canceled and I had to truck all the way back to the northern point to take it again! Seriously, I had a guys head in my sights, and was about a half second away from pulling the trigger!

[mattig]

bump

[Netherseid]

I'm not sure, but I think Freedom has a quest later on that will help you do so. I could be wrong

[mattig]

oh yea, thats what I'm doing. Already took over the garbage. now every time I take over an entry point, the other one falls. I can't even start shooting at the duty base.

[mattig]

bump

[abonamente]

You can't do anything about that. There are a maximum number of fire teams on each faction. Once you reached that, you can't get your faction to send a team to hold a specific point anymore. They must lose another one first. Just let them die when they cry 'heeelp! where are you? our guys die out there!' :) Sooner or later, the mutants and Duty will wipe them out, so you may start again, only wiser this time :)

Going with Freedom is pretty hard, especially when it comes to the roads from Garbage to Agroprom. They can't defend them by themselves, so you need to run from one point to another like crazy, until you get a lucky break and make it to Agroprom.

Then just push forward like crazy again, until Freedom secures the access points and you receive the order to conquer the Duty base. You have to do that basically by yourself. You NEED the Freedom guys to survive, in order to firmly occupy the Duty base and hold it. If you reach the base with only one or two Freedom guys beside, you are just out of luck - they won't send reinforcements anytime soon, and they will lose the base, eventually.

So, all in all, read the PDA and see which points are vital in order to win the factions war and focus on those. DON'T help them seize any other locations - there are a limited number of teams, remember? That would only spread them thin and they won't have any teams available to control the next important checkpoint towards the Duty base.

Almost forgot - when playing for hours and saving and loading a lot, the AI just gets stuck. It won't push forward, no matter what. Exit the game, restart the computer, and this might help. It saved me sometimes from mindlessly run from one point to another and do the same thing again and again.

[abonamente]

About the free stalkers - they'll become 'green' again once you helped them several times. Just help them against the bandits and the mutants at the gates of the Agroprom Institute, trainyard etc. (but NOT on the road from Garbage to Agroprom). And don't help them become too strong again. Because if this happens, as soon as you liberated the road from Garbage, they will occupy it before the Freedom gets there, and you'll have to kill them again.

Anyway, make sure you bought all the good stuff you wanted from the trader at Agroprom before 'helping' them lose the war. When they are weak, there won't be any exoskeletons available anymore, for instance.

[ALonelyPanda]

The trick to taking places and killing a faction is to just kill as many of that faction as possible to lower their squads. Plus you can just pick up their ammo to kill even more of them. Helps to have a sniper.

[mattig]

thanks all.

Noiv, Your post was a bit confusing. You said I have to do it by myself, then that I have to have a fireteam by my side. Oh and I'm defentially listening to the pda. Its actually up to the part where I have to help them secure the duty base. Yet, it seems that I can't step away from the entry points w/out them being lost to duty.

I think its just the walk each freedom fire team has to take to get to the duty territory. Oh, and not being sure who I wanted to help, I stoped the mutants for duty. So now their entire attention is focused on taking back their territory.

[abonamente]

What I meant: once the assault on Duty base begins, Freedom sends 1-2 teams to do that. At this point, you need to have long range, fully upgraded for precision weapons (I use a SVDm-2 and a SGi5K or Vintar BC, both with anti-kevlar ammo and scope). Cover those guys with the SVDm-2, don't let Duty touch them (or even better, go ahead of them and clear the road). That means you'll have to do all the killing (about 5-6 Duty teams, from the bus station, until you reach the base). Then clean the courtyard and the buildings with the SGi5K. The last thing - secure the second gate, to Yantar. Now, you may go back and take care of the other Duty teams around Garbage.

So, basically, you need to make sure Freedom takes a pleasant evening walk and nobody bothers them. This way, full teams, they may stand a chance against the respawning Duty.

Why long range? First, because I like them :) Second: at this point, Duty has elite troops, in exoskeletons and shooting at you anti-kevlar bullets and throwing frag grenades. It isn't easy to take out several groups of 4-5 such guys each, close range. Fortunatelly, they only have assault weapons, no sniper rifle :D

And my personal preferences. Why SVDm-2? Simply, because nothing beats it at long range. Most of the time you won't even get hit. Why my preference for SGi5K with scope and silencer? It is a one kill/shot kind of weapon, very precise, heavy damage, good fire rate, good handling, so good both at long and close range and against any kind of target. You can mount a scope, an under barrel grenade launcher and a silencer. And nothing is more reliable than this and the AK74 in the entire game. You can go through the entire assault on Duty base without jamming and still have plenty of time before repairs are necessary. Most of the time, this is the only weapon I carry, after I acquire it. No backup assault rifle in case it breaks, no heavy shotgun, no sniper rifle, not even pistol. Vintar BC is something in the middle, a mix of those two, and if you get used to the subsonic bullets, again you almost don't need anything else the entire game, except for a shotgun, maybe. Unfortunatelly, you don't find a lot of ammo for it.