Psionic transmitter - too difficult?

[Cerebus]

Is it me or are the psionic transmitter missions way more punishing than they should be?

The 4-turn-timer is the opposite of generous, due to the fact that there are 3 squads on the map with *heavy* reinforcements joining them soon, because you have to break stealth early to shoot the time-bonus nodes. Combined with the necessity of having to plant the C4 directly adjacent to the objective, this is easily the toughest "regular" mission type I've ever seen.

I've been playing Long War 2 a lot, so I'm really surprised to find myself overwhelmed by a vanilla mission in the second month of my (Commander) campaign.
Am I missing anything?

[Fringehunter7719]

It's certainly one of the tougher mission types, but there are at least 4 (I think 5 or 6) devices you can destroy to add a turn to the timer as you go along. It works the same way as the disarm the bomb missions from XCOM 2012, except you can shoot them from distance instead of having to move next to them.

When all is said and done it works out to be a similar time pressure as the standard hack missions are - except you can't do it remotely and get an extra turn which gets eaten by shooting at the random relay thingies.

The lightning strike resistance order, or the resistance order that pauses the turn counter till you break concealment both make this mission type much easier, but obviously that's down to luck as to whether you get those.

[Tiasmoon]

Yeah similar to bomb disarm but easier to extend the timer. I can't comment on how hard these are baseline since I have timers doubled. I did get devices very near to me each time I did the mission.

[kdmiller]

I have always found the timer was no issue at all in this mission because the time-bonus nodes are so plentiful. It does make you break stealth quickly, but you just have to fight your way to the transmitter. Maybe you have just been unlucky with the node placement?

[KRON]

I once had this mission with the Assassin and was advancing towards the objective while fighting it and shooting power nodes. When I killed the Assassin I had like 10 turns left and I was about one dash from this transmitter. It's a good thing that timers stop when you're in active combat with the Chosen.

[Soulstrike]

Originally posted by KRON:

It's a good thing that timers stop when you're in active combat with the Chosen.

That's a thing? Didn't encounter a chosen on a timed mission yet. But thats good to know :-)

[Cerebus]

Originally posted by kdmiller:

I have always found the timer was no issue at all in this mission because the time-bonus nodes are so plentiful. It does make you break stealth quickly, but you just have to fight your way to the transmitter. Maybe you have just been unlucky with the node placement?

Yeah, the placement is really bad. It's on a new multi-level city map with a big urban "valley" and two ways going around it. The nodes are on both sides of and inside the valley, with bad visibility. You basically have to go both ways and through the middle to get all the nodes.

[Lucius Kern]

Eh, Currently running a Legendary Ironman with only 4 trooper slots and these can be annoying but they remind me of the X-com 1 plasma bomb missions. I use a Templar, 2 psionics and 1 specialist on these missions. Templar momentum is excellent to destroy a Node and move further ahead, the Psionics can Inspire the Templar. The Specialist is mainly a healer incase well... woopsies.

[Angry Obnoxious Goose]

I had no problems with that mission. A sniper, a few Rangers, a Faction Soldier of choice, as well as a nice Specialist helped me out with flawlessly beating such a mission.

[suejak]

The hardest part of this mission is the weird specificity and randomness of it. You have no idea where the time limit-extending devices are, and on some maps there's no high ground to survey the whole map from. You may unknowingly take a path that spawned no devices.

Moreover, you need a full action to plant the 4x. You have to be right on the transmitter and you have to have an action left over.

Finally, you can only plant the 4x on the FRONT of the device. My Skirmisher worked his ass off to get to the transmitter in time, but his blue move could only get to the BACK of the device. I had no idea I could only plant the 4x on the front two tiles of the device.

So it's very hard, overall.

[TWB*Clell_Miller]

I'm working on operation sensless moon. Same scenario as above. The Hunter is involved in the map. So are the Lost. I'm trying to follow the objective criteria to the letter. I've played the thing at least a dozen times. I desperately need to hear from someone that has actually won the thing. Bear with me:
I am able to reach the back door of the Transmitter without detection using great caution.
I have been able to set the x4 charges.
then I take down all five? power relays the next turn. All hell breaks loose. I get on the roof and defend against endless waves of lost. In the process I manage to kill the Hunter. But the lost keep coming and the x4 charges never detonate. If I attemp an evacuation, I am informed I failed. I'm baffled.

[Veritas]

It really depends more on luck than skill. Sometimes the nodes are placed in really awful places or too far back. Plus, shooting at them breaks concealment. The only redeeming factor IMO is that it's cute to see ADVENT take cover behind the nodes, making it much easier to eliminate their cover and prolong the objective :P

Edit: Right, just to mention. Having Lost AND ADVENT on these missions is cancer. Especially with the spawning bug with Lost, where one is off in a conrer somwehre, making it impossible to beat the objective of neutralizing all targets to detonate the charges.. Lost shouldn't count for this objective, only troops should.

[TWB*Clell_Miller]

Finding and taking down the nodes has never been a problem. Niether is setting the X4 charges. I've defeated the hunter. But the Lost wave never cease. If there is a final wave, I've never witnessed any indication that they will stop, and I've taken them down ceaselessly. When do they stop? Six people no matter how well armed can't last forever. I'm beginning to think that the only reasonable course of action is to achieve the first two criteria, maybe kill the hunter, and go ahead and evacuate with a high kill count. But it is winable you say? You know what I'd love to see? I'd love to see Christopher Odd go through this very scenario and make a video. I'd pay $50.00 bucks for it gladly. Not kidding.

[Soulstrike]

Lost spawn indefinitly (sp?). You probably had some enemies left somewhere on the map. Look at the mission goals and if it states "neutralize all enemies" then start searching.

[TWB*Clell_Miller]

I understand. I finally tried an entirely different approach. Instead of going out of my way to avoid combat I plowed right into it. The greatest intitial problem was getting the Andromedon out of the way. After that I focused on relentless attrition of the lost while moving forward slowly. Fortunately the power nodes were not hard to find. By the time I was able to plant charges I was locked in a skirmish with the hunter, but the lost were pretty much gone. I spent some time reviewing a similar map which TapCat had videoed. I realized that it was important to vastly reduce the numbers of lost early in the map. I finally won the thing while suffering the loss of one squad member. Possibly the toughest map I've ever dealt with. :)

[Martin]

There's an option under advanced options when starting game to double timer length, not much help if you're half way through the game. Would be useful to enable this cheat off/on during the game for missions like these.

It's this mission that got me though. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1205323506

Crates spawn out of the map zone, on the roof you cannot access. Then you have a bizillion lost to deal with plus 2-3 groups of advent. The upgrades for the advent isn't much fun either, some of them can cross 15 tiles and attack in one move. And the snakes get so much dodge, you can't hit with with anything except explosives.

Looks like I'm going to have to edit the game to make it more fun. I like the difficulty of legendary games, but sometimes it just gets beyond silly.