Part 21: "There are no items of note."- Combat

Update 16 - Combat : "There are no items of note."

Music: Briefing

Uh, right, combat. Well, since my planned schedule has been in a state of snafu for a few days and likely won't clear up, plus a long story update, I'll keep this short.


I'm not short-changing you on this, trust me. This mission isn't very noteworthy at all, aside from giving me another thing to complain about : Defensive Missions.

Music: Practice Battle


: "Time to begin!"

Any normal person would think: "Hey, a defensive mission? I'll just hold the line and not lose my bases or my units until the timer and all will be fine, right?"


: "Hah, you're obvious!"

The game would then reply, "FAILING GRADE" and slap you across the back of your head.


And they'd quite rightly think, presuming they had a penchant for curse words like me: "What the absolute fuck, game?"


: "Engaging the enemy!"

And I would reply, "It's VC2, what do you want?"


Needless to say, this is where VC1 and VC2's focus on blitzing and not actual combat performance really bites it in the hindquarters. Defensive missions suck purely because they tell you to defend, when the only way to get a good grade is to blitz the enemy team in a short number of turns than normal. If they just called them Blitz missions and built the map's story around having very few turns to claim the enemy base, say, before the battle is called a loss of resources and triggering a retreat from overwhelming reinforcements, it'd be better.


Not good, mind you, but better because it doesn't give you much as pretense for turtling. I don't mind a tense timer, but falling anywhere short of perfect drastically decreases rewards and missions can feel like a slog sometimes.

Oh, and this is just some repositioning because I accidentally sent Mischlitt back. Anisette can hold this line. Probably.


: "Taking action!"

Only one defense mission feels like you have to stay on the defense in the game, but it's a gigantic pain for other reasons. I'll get to those in a bit.


: "Yeah!"

Of course, it's worth mentioning that with the passive HP regen at bases and with two unit classes made perfectly for the job, actual defense is trivial.


: "Come on, hit!"
Heavy gunners delete anyone they see with interception fire and counter-attack, and they're not great for offense, so...



Armor Techs, especially Fencers have ridculous defense while crouched and are immune to most attacks anyways, so they'll bodyblock a base forever.






Now going back to why these missions are sometimes frustrating, a big issue is how the AI acts in this game.




The AI is very passive on most maps, refusing to engage if not already within sight and relative distance. On defense maps, it's a bit better as most of the units are aggressive.




Yet, it won't be until the later maps that the AI even actually tries to capture your bases if you're already standing on it. At the present moment, they might only do it if you don't have a unit in the area. The AI can be very cowardly, even on attack maps.



This is case in point, given that I'm baiting them out of hiding with Anisette and what looks like an open base. Their AI demands they attack before capping the flag, and thus they get deleted by her.

And no, I have no idea what that enemy tank was doing. It rolled up and parked itself with the radiator facing my base. It didn't even fire at Anisette.



: "From the top, with feeling!"



: "Well, of course!"

That really isn't solid evidence, though- it's a rather inconsistent tactic.



: "A master stroke!"
Regardless, I've always found that there's going to be one or two units standing somewhere inane, usually a lancer or their promotions, mostly due to the fact that their attack AI is very inconsistent without a tank around.



I think the real issue is that VC2 doesn't reward true combat performance in any way, just speed. This map is rather easy, so all in all it's not really a problem here, just later.




It never matters how efficiently you clear each zone, never lose a base, never lose a unit, you will be perpetually graded by a turn allowance of 2-4, depending on the map.

Also note the cowardly mortarer. What did I just say about these jerks running away?


: "Needs more red!"

It'd really help your performance was given a bit more leeway if you hadn't lost any units, taken out a bunch of enemy units, maintained all your bases, etc.





: "I think I found my muse!"

If that makes A-ranks too easy, then lower the A-rank requirement to something really low. That way you can still make an A-rank at say, 4 turns in by clearing most of the map instead of just blitzing past everything.


Yeah, but that's about it for this mission. This last part just reiterates my point about the cowardly units.





Imagine having to chase down four of these guys across four different area maps. That's mostly why these defense missions agitate me.




That looks about right. Sorry about ranting about defense missions, but there was too much to complain about this update and I would've complained about it somehow.

Next update should be more interesting, and on time for once. There was just a lot to type for this one and real life stuff is taking priority right now.

Have some extras: