Herman von Strab -- arrest or release?

[lionhart]

At the end of the "Hunting for Traitors" mission, you are given the choice to either arrest Herman von Strab, or accept a bribe from him. I wanted to know whether the choice made any real difference in the game, so I tested both outcomes and I also did some checking in the mission editor to confirm.

Short answer: No, it makes no difference whatsoever. Von Strab manages to escape no matter which option you choose. Also, you have the exact same number of requisition points at the start of the next mission, despite Von Strab saying something about using his resources to buy units for your army if you accept his bribe.

Anyway, I could not find any information about this online so I decided to post the results of my research here in case anyone else was curious. I really dislike meaningless choices like this in video games -- if you are going to let us make choices, then at least let them have some actual effect upon the game beyond slightly altering a few lines of dialogue.

[LilyanaKabal]

That is pretty much all the choices. Some give you different voice lines, others are literally meaningless

[lionhart]

Originally posted by LilyanaKabal:

That is pretty much all the choices. Some give you different voice lines, others are literally meaningless

That is not entirely true; there are actually two dialogue choices in the campaign that are meaningful.

The first is at the very beginning when you are asked whether you want to counter-attack, or investigate Hive Death Mire. The second is after the mission Obedience to Orders when you are asked whether you want to go toward Infernus or Hades.

You play different missions depending on how you answer those two questions. The only way to play all of the missions is to either replay the campaign from the beginning while making the alternate choices, or select the skipped missions from the Scenarios screen and play them as standalone missions.

[LilyanaKabal]

It is true because "Pretty much" is not an absolute. It is a term that refers to about 90-95% of a thing.

[lionhart]

Originally posted by LilyanaKabal:

It is true because "Pretty much" is not an absolute. It is a term that refers to about 90-95% of a thing.

If you want to quibble over terminology, I did say "not entirely true" which is a term that means part of what you said was true.

My purpose in posting this thread was not to argue with people over terminology. I simply wanted to provide a little information that someone might find helpful.

[LilyanaKabal]

And yet you are quibbling over terminology.

[lionhart]

Originally posted by LilyanaKabal:

And yet you are quibbling over terminology.

How pathetic. I am not wasting any more of my time with you.

[LilyanaKabal]

And yet you waste more time with me.