Awakening progress.

[StellarSkys]

So when i played and got access to the awakening timer i did some math played a couple missions past that, and mathed out i'd only get like maybe 13 missions in a playthrough. in all my missions i did i never saw any mechanic to say lower awakening. Now having played say x-com 2 a similar but not same game the number 1 thing i hated above all else was the stupid atlus game over timer if you didn't bounce it just right.

so seeing this mechanic marked up the extreme just made me instantly uninstall after seeing no ways to reduce the timer after like 3 more missions. i don't find the idea of having to be extremely selective with my research which missions i choose and basically just being locked out of stuff purely because i don't and cannot have time for it fun. like i don't mind the missions themselves being hard. but like i felt like i don't even have time to experiment and get things because they could help and am just forced to picked what i think will help best because i won't be able to ever get it because limited time.

i did a little searching online and found no mentioned way to extend time either. so with basically every mission being around 10% awakening...

how are people in this discussions saying things like they've unlocked almost everything in like 1 play through? how is that mathematically possible? have i just missed something? every mission gives on average 10% awakening. so once that starts you only get 10 matches to play. most missions before awakening don't give tech or anything.

so i feel like i have to of missed something and i just really hope i did because i couldn't find a way to avoid this timer. is there some mod that just removes it? did i just miss some mention of missions that lower it so i can balance it? what i played was fun, but that timer is just a straight deal breaker.

[NGDBSS]

You're playing too slowly. Speed is key to keeping awakening down. Here's what affects it by default (you can change some of these in the difficulty settings):
-Going to each new room in the mission map gives 2 ticks.
-Each turn in combat past the first gives 1 tick.
-Some events increase or decrease awakening. *MOST* increase it, so unless you're feeling adventurous or have the list of events on hand you should probably avoid these choices.
-Destroying a terminal removes 2 ticks. Keep in mind that you can still do this to terminals you've already scanned for blackstone.
-At the end of the mission, every *full 5 ticks* gives +1% awakening. If you have 0-4 ticks, that still counts as +0% awakening; this is a case where rounding down is in your favor.

I'm amazed that you've gotten close to 10% awakening on a single mission. Either you're exploring all the rooms (don't do this, the rewards aren't great on a per-room basis compared to what you get in combats and at mission end), you're stalling far too long in combats (killing enemies faster means less damage dealt to you and thus more blackstone at the end), or both.

[StellarSkys]

Originally posted by NGDBSS:

You're playing too slowly. Speed is key to keeping awakening down. Here's what affects it by default (you can change some of these in the difficulty settings):
-Going to each new room in the mission map gives 2 ticks.
-Each turn in combat past the first gives 1 tick.
-Some events increase or decrease awakening. *MOST* increase it, so unless you're feeling adventurous or have the list of events on hand you should probably avoid these choices.
-Destroying a terminal removes 2 ticks. Keep in mind that you can still do this to terminals you've already scanned for blackstone.
-At the end of the mission, every *full 5 ticks* gives +1% awakening. If you have 0-4 ticks, that still counts as +0% awakening; this is a case where rounding down is in your favor.

I'm amazed that you've gotten close to 10% awakening on a single mission. Either you're exploring all the rooms (don't do this, the rewards aren't great on a per-room basis compared to what you get in combats and at mission end), you're stalling far too long in combats (killing enemies faster means less damage dealt to you and thus more blackstone at the end), or both.

i remember the missions themselves having if you complete this mission you will get this much awakening, and then you can get awakening during missions as well.

but it basically sounds like if i want to play the game, don't play the game? avoid rooms, avoid fights avoid the game. and therefore i will get more missions. pray i get some terminals.

is there some popular mod i haven't seen to just get rid of the mechanic?

[Wiawyr]

Originally posted by StellarSkys:

Originally posted by NGDBSS:

You're playing too slowly. Speed is key to keeping awakening down. Here's what affects it by default (you can change some of these in the difficulty settings):
-Going to each new room in the mission map gives 2 ticks.
-Each turn in combat past the first gives 1 tick.
-Some events increase or decrease awakening. *MOST* increase it, so unless you're feeling adventurous or have the list of events on hand you should probably avoid these choices.
-Destroying a terminal removes 2 ticks. Keep in mind that you can still do this to terminals you've already scanned for blackstone.
-At the end of the mission, every *full 5 ticks* gives +1% awakening. If you have 0-4 ticks, that still counts as +0% awakening; this is a case where rounding down is in your favor.

I'm amazed that you've gotten close to 10% awakening on a single mission. Either you're exploring all the rooms (don't do this, the rewards aren't great on a per-room basis compared to what you get in combats and at mission end), you're stalling far too long in combats (killing enemies faster means less damage dealt to you and thus more blackstone at the end), or both.

i remember the missions themselves having if you complete this mission you will get this much awakening, and then you can get awakening during missions as well.

but it basically sounds like if i want to play the game, don't play the game? avoid rooms, avoid fights avoid the game. and therefore i will get more missions. pray i get some terminals.

is there some popular mod i haven't seen to just get rid of the mechanic?

Not sure about any mods, but the options for this are under the "Difficulty Settings" menu from the Settings button. You can change the amount of progress per room, per combat turn, and a bunch of other things, but it will disable achievement progress.

Honestly, some of these encounters feel like they were written with madlibs, and I feel like they're not worth suffering through. Like this one where your cohort picks up random vox transmissions while on a mission to plant vox-casters inside a tomb, and it turns out it's a Skitarii with a non-standard augment (how did he acquire that?) that he installed on his own (I guess his mind-linked techpriest just ignored this?) to play classical human music for himself (how would he have obtained this?) during a mission on a Necron Tomb World (perfect time for combat troops to space out) while assigned to one of the biggest and therefore strictest void ships in the Mechanicus, but somehow his ill-gained music player started broadcasting over the cohort's receivers.

It's such a complete disconnect with all the existing lore about the Mechanicus, and the results are often a random guess about what will happen with little wisdom to employ aside from save-scumming.

[jerome_lee]

I was averaging 3 awakenings per mission until I decided to restart. Lower map awakening meter does make the fights less difficult and the resulting lower global meter will allow more missions though in short term probably some equipment and blackstone may have been sacrified (then again they are all RNG). Currently 11 in the meter with 7 missions done.

[The Rusty Shack]

Gotta say I hate the awakening mechanic.

[Water Ｖａｐｏｒ Merchant]

You need to be fighting the telegraphed room battles indicated by Red Necron units on the map. Completing these reduces your awakening on the mission by a full 5 ticks. Plan your route accordingly to complete these when you will be over 5 ticks, and destroy terminals whenever possible. I didn't know any of this until I was already at about 70% awakening after like 15 missions. 10 missions later and I've managed to only accrue another 20.
Currently at 98% though, so I think I have to just bite the bullet and fight Szaregon + the 2 bosses I haven't killed individually yet.

[.:Jj:.]

Originally posted by Mr. Black:

Gotta say I hate the awakening mechanic.

I'm split on this. I think it's executed and implemented really well. That being said I also don't like ticking timers. Especially as somebody that likes thorough exploration, min-maxing etc.

I'd love to see a sequel with a different take on it. Hell, even maybe (partially?) in a different genre. Honestly, a lot of genres, FPP, RPG or strategy could fit the general concept of the game.
Sticking with RPG formula (expanded from Mechanicus, or mixed with Battle Brothers, Divinity Original Sin or whatever), Awakening could be restrained to (some) dungeons and not the game as a whole. And of course negative outcomes, mixed with additional hardcore/ironman etc. mechanics still could impact the rest.

I'd be fine with it staying, if players could go a few extra miles to really give themselves extra time to do what they want to do, to explore quest lines, collect all special gear etc.

[Rimster]

I think it adds the perfect amount of pressure to force you to decide in which moments you take longer and explore more moves or if you should rush to the objective. learning the combat and how the classes synergize jsut adds to the speed and more importantly the fun and satisfaction of learning the game

[Koros Antavo]

Treat it as a puzzle game. I averaged ~3% each mission until I figured out I can just keep it at 0 all the time if I try hard enough. Starting at 20%, I've been gaining a single percent every dozen or so missions.

To do that, you need a lot of options at your disposal. Deploy as many units as you can, load each tech-priest with as much weaponry and abilities as you can, prioritise multi-target weapons, strengthening abilities and cognition-restoring abilities. Use canticles wisely. Machine spirit canticle is your best friend, as is cognition gaining canticle. Before I maxed out my crit percentage, I used the "ignore all armour" canticles extensively as well.

Often you'll only have the leeway of a single turn to execute everything you need in a combat mission. That is why you need to make sure you can deal damage as many times in a single turn as you can. Each priest can potentially hold up to 3 weapons, and some of their other actions can deal chip damage as well, like certain claws or servo-skulls.

There are amny ways to achieve this, I may write more if you're interested. But if you treat it as a puzzle game, it will be more satisfying to find your own solutions.

[killtastic201]

ok so a big thing I missed until half way through the game is that you can shoot those access panels you sometimes see. the ones that you can scan for blackstone.... every time you destroy one it subtracts 2 from the awakening meter. Once I started doing that, I've completed a few missions that haven't given me ANY awakening because I was able to manage it thanks to shooting those little panels. you also should fight red necron room battles. each one subtracts -4 from the awakening meter. in general though, dont go out of your way to explore every single event room. they're immersive and fun, but allot of the decisions are pretty tough calls, and often times the rewards may not be worth it.... you could get a STC, or you could get +3 cog points when your bar was already full.... meanwhile if you flub the guess, you could give necrons first turn alpha strike, lose cog points, damage a unit, or omnissiah forbid they get something insane like +4 awakening .... as a rule though, any mission that give you +10% awakening is a utter disaster for the metallican. when it comes to the tombs, and combats, you have to be as quick as you can. you don't have to dodge everything, but you shouldn't be touring every map.

[chlpatysirak]

It slows down as the game progresses because you simply get better. By the end of the game I could clear every non-boss mission with 0 increase because my cohort was absolutely overpowered. I'll be frank, I think the game is too easy. Finished every mission with 80% exactly, and I wasn't even tryharding, just playing for fun. If you want a tip, spec one of your tech priests into full explorator, give him augments to increase speed as much as possible, focus the rest on energy armour. Use him to destroy terminals (lowers awakening in mission) and to keep collecting cog from the nevironment, keeping the rest of the cohort stocked up, and with their focus free for killing Necrons. I mean, 10% does sound a bit high, even for the first missions, but I'm sure that once you get a better feel for the name, that number will drop drastically.