Do the missions change at all?

[Freedomtacos]

I've reached the 2nd area and so far all the missions seem basically identical. Rob the bank, rob the hq of prototypes etc. You just walk into a door and get the stuff and escape, except the enemies are harder.

Does the game's missions change at all or is it like this the whole game? I heard there's like 40 hours of content but I don't think I can do the same mission style for that long.

[Gillsing]

The last mission doesn't have a facility for you to breach. But yes, all the other missions work the same way. It's not the end of the mission that's the gameplay, it's how you get there. If you feel that makes all the missions too similar, maybe you could focus on the differences instead of the similarities? That seems to work fine for all the political parties and their voters in every country on the planet.

[hackerx31337]

There are a few differences here and there. Assasination missions, escort missions, tracking down a person and bribing them for information, etc...

There are also missions you can completely skip through bribery, the gear you earn can be bought from the black market if you don't feel like doing a particular mission, and although I haven't tried it yet I think you can just shoot your way through the security checkpoints.

But the four primary sectors do all have a set of common missions such as robbing the bank. One thing to note is it does make a big difference who is sent in on some missions. On a bank you can have your hacker go in and increase how much you get from hacked ATMs every second OR you can send in a soldier and get a big lump of money at once.

[Caldor]

With the bank missions you can actually just send in the hacker and then the soldier to get both extra income and the extra cash.

What makes missions different is also that elements are added to the compounds you are to go into. More will have poison gas, there will be more defense turrets, you will begin to see mechs. Also your agents will get more skills with the augmentations and level upgrades, making it possible to use vents, zip lines. cloak past stuff and so on.

[Luke]

Originally posted by hackerx31337:

I think you can just shoot your way through the security checkpoints.

I recently started a game and snuck through all the checkpoints with starting level characters, there are certainly a number of ways to approach the missions.

This has the added consequence of causing higher leveled guards (heavies, jammers, and captains) to come out -- upping the difficulty somewhat.

[Aragosnat]

Have to agree. It is all about how you approch each and every mission.

[Caldor]

Originally posted by Luke:

Originally posted by hackerx31337:

I think you can just shoot your way through the security checkpoints.

I recently started a game and snuck through all the checkpoints with starting level characters, there are certainly a number of ways to approach the missions.

This has the added consequence of causing higher leveled guards (heavies, jammers, and captains) to come out -- upping the difficulty somewhat.

Yes, I have been trying to speedrun this game, others have as well. I managed to complete this game in about 3½ hour I think it was, Gillsing has then found a way to complete this game in, I think it was 2 hours? The main difference was that I was going for certain skills, like getting grenades for the soldier and a certain hacking level for the hacker, but after one of the latest patches it seems you can just hijack a cop with a shotgun if you play with uber damage on, and shotguns are a bit overpowered in that mode so they can one shot anything it seems, even a quad mech which should be the thing with the most shield, armor and health in the game. So with it you can just blow away power stations, doors and so on and you can find cops with this shotgun who are level 1, so they do not need you to level up at all, you just need to find a cop with a shotgun.

[Luke]

Haha, nice.

I wasn't actually going for speed, I was just trying to get a basic savegame created which had everything open and all the low level ATMs hacked, but none of the upgrades taken or missions completed.

I was intending to use it as a starting point for pickup multiplayer games, so the world would be open and mission order wouldn't be a big issue.

[Jeslis]

Originally posted by Luke:

Haha, nice.

I wasn't actually going for speed, I was just trying to get a basic savegame created which had everything open and all the low level ATMs hacked, but none of the upgrades taken or missions completed.

I was intending to use it as a starting point for pickup multiplayer games, so the world would be open and mission order wouldn't be a big issue.

If you end up with a save with all relays and atm's hacked (at least the low level ones), PLEASE post it somewhere... Id love a copy.

[Gillsing]

I have a save with all ATMs, data terminals and relay beacons hacked (except for the Dracogenics Tower beacon). All banks, guard stations, Ronin and CSA facilities have been breached, and all side missions to prepare for hitting a compound have also been completed. So all that's left is the major compounds, plus the Dracogenics Tower area in CBD.

The agents have 20-22 skill points total, though most of those have already been allocated.

Uploaded it to TinyUpload[s000.tinyupload.com].

[Luke]

I had some regrets about that save, with regards to doing some of the missions and spending some points.

I'm working on a fresh one with no points spent and no missions complete, except a couple that came from hacking random public terminals.

I might miss some ATMs due to not doing the bank runs and not having all their locations on the map, but I'll get most of them. I'm even managing to get a few level-4's.

I expect by the time it is done, agents will have about 6 points to spend. The intro missions (rescue hacker and sniper) gained shotguns and machine pistols, so all the gear and all the side missions are still there for people to unlock in play.

Has anyone made a save editor for this, yet? I imagine there can't be much data there, since it does not store party or enemy location, or any environmental details like disabled cameras or destroyed walls. I think I can count the number of bits it should take,,,

[hackerx31337]

Originally posted by Luke:

I had some regrets about that save, with regards to doing some of the missions and spending some points.

I'm working on a fresh one with no points spent and no missions complete, except a couple that came from hacking random public terminals.

I might miss some ATMs due to not doing the bank runs and not having all their locations on the map, but I'll get most of them. I'm even managing to get a few level-4's.

I expect by the time it is done, agents will have about 6 points to spend. The intro missions (rescue hacker and sniper) gained shotguns and machine pistols, so all the gear and all the side missions are still there for people to unlock in play.

Has anyone made a save editor for this, yet? I imagine there can't be much data there, since it does not store party or enemy location, or any environmental details like disabled cameras or destroyed walls. I think I can count the number of bits it should take,,,

Don't underestimate. Keep in mind it has a record of every single clone and all their stats including their different physical appearences and names. And while I could be mistaken, I don't think those are truly random either. I think they are pulled from a pool of hundreds and named after backers and such.

[Luke]

Just had a look at the save, found it in XML. Thats pretty generous!

Also, it tracks way more information than I thought -- and way more than it uses. It is keeping track of some unit spawns, although that all seems to be reset each time I load. It also has some odd behavioral stats like Bravery and Respectability.

Found this thread with some details:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/268870/discussions/0/604941528473671533/?ctp=2

Also, took this from a save I had with all ATMs hacked. 8 more than in the save I just setup by playing, but I think it is okay to leave a few level 4 and 5 and ones inside compounds:

<m_HackedATMs>
<int>102</int>
<int>129</int>
<int>48</int>
<int>128</int>
<int>135</int>
<int>13</int>
<int>103</int>
<int>126</int>
<int>130</int>
<int>91</int>
<int>23</int>
<int>99</int>
<int>127</int>
<int>121</int>
<int>125</int>
<int>105</int>
<int>22</int>
<int>32</int>
<int>101</int>
<int>90</int>
<int>115</int>
<int>107</int>
<int>25</int>
<int>11</int>
<int>114</int>
<int>112</int>
<int>84</int>
<int>117</int>
<int>85</int>
<int>33</int>
<int>29</int>
<int>122</int>
<int>88</int>
<int>104</int>
<int>37</int>
<int>87</int>
<int>18</int>
<int>38</int>
<int>89</int>
<int>44</int>
<int>100</int>
<int>19</int>
<int>123</int>
<int>27</int>
<int>113</int>
<int>93</int>
<int>40</int>
<int>134</int>
</m_HackedATMs>

[Luke]

Originally posted by hackerx31337:

I think they are pulled from a pool of hundreds and named after backers and such.

makes it that much easier. One byte gets you 256 values. two bytes should be enough for all the names in the game, and probably half a bite for the various appearances.

Looks like 48 ATMs, so that many bits to track those (or 6 bytes)... similar principal for data terminals.

But since it is in XML, that is all moot. It uses way more space than it needs to, just to support the human readable structure.

And thanks to the developers that it does, makes it way easier to fiddle with.

[Luke]

Originally posted by Jeslis:

If you end up with a save with all relays and atm's hacked (at least the low level ones), PLEASE post it somewhere... Id love a copy.

Here you go: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=76949560499581019965

[Caldor]

I made a post and a guide about how to edit save games a while ago. You can make all items researched, even a few not in the game, but they usually do not do anything since they were never finished, you can also give your agents any stats you would like and the clones you have, like give them a mana or health regen of 5000, and 50000 health or whatever.

It can be a good way to test certain things, I mainly did it to see how much could be changed by editing the save games.