Cult Citizen

[icycalm]

This thread is about our various strategies. We'll start off with an analysis of how we'll approach the major missions, but eventually we'll also examine base-building, alliances, and more.

[icycalm]

I'll start the main Cult Strategy discussion with a brief introduction to our major mission strategy. The game currently has about half a dozen major missions? Meaning missions that are the size of a programmer minigame's entire campaign level. And we've so far finished all of them at least once, except last year's Align and Mine in Stanton, and Storm Breaker in Pyro. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think these are the only two we've yet to complete.

So CIG's bimonthly update schedule for this year is a good opportunity to take some time and go back and finish those, and I plan to start that off this coming Saturday with Storm Breaker if recoil can make it, or with Align and Mine if he can't but a Stanton Commander can. Then in June's lull, after we've played May's Tactical Strike Groups at least once, we can try the other one. Even if we don't finish either of them anytime soon, we have until the end of the year to keep trying during the bimonthly lulls, so we should be able to fully catch up with the major missions by year's end.

Now I realize these repeats won't be as exciting to people as our first attempts. Especially in the case of Storm Breaker, we've already reached the final boss fight in our first attempt, so there won't be anything new to see. At least with Align and Mine we've only played the ground part and never reached the space station part, and it's an awesome space station from what I've seen.



But it doesn't matter if we don't field full teams. Even 3-4 players can get these jobs done, and getting the jobs done is all that matters. Let's beat these missions any way we can and document our tactics in their respective threads, and then when the full capital ship refueling/repair/restocking mechanics arrive next month we can start setting aside one Saturday per month or every other month to just cruise around in an Idris and try to chain as many of the major missions as possible. That's our endgame with these missions, because the way Chris is designing the game it seems he wants you to play ALL of them regularly in order to obtain the materials to be able to fabricate everything in your base when base-building comes in later this year. So for example by the end of the year I want us to be able to cruise in an Idris commanded by shubn in Nyx and chain everything: Sworn Enemies, Operation Breaker Stations, and the upcoming Tactical Strike Groups and Levski Municipal Works, in whatever order shubn feels like on that day, and ideally completing all of them in a single session and WITHOUT returning to a station for repairs etc. And the same with Pyro's missions (with recoil in charge), and Stanton's (with the Stanton Commanders). I think this sort of challenge will be terrifically exciting and endlessly replayable, especially considering that a new major mission should be added to the roster by CIG every couple of months.

So the ideal mindset with which to view these repeat attempts is from the perspective of performance. On the first pass you want to be surprised and take it all in, so you should focus on that by avoiding spoilers and not bothering with performance concerns like looting etc., while on subsequent attempts you want to optimize your tactics and shorten completion time while minimizing injuries and maximizing returns. The added carrier operations and chaining goals should contribute greatly to keeping our interest alive indefinitely, and giving command to local leaders will make their parts of the verse feel more personal to them, and our organization more authentic.

But it's also fully understandable if some people only enjoy the first attempts and never join subsequent ones. Let's face it, that's the majority of the game's playerbase anyway, and indeed gamers in general, and there's nothing wrong with that: we are grateful for every contribution to our efforts, and don't worry about follow-ups: the rest of us can handle those just fine.

So I am in talks with the leaders right now in #cult-command to figure out which op we'll be running this Saturday. Look for news on that soon. I personally am very much looking forward to delving into these more performance-oriented sessions and seeing how far we can push our results. And hey, there are some great rewards to look forward to as well such as mechs or high-quality self-fabricated weapons and gear, and so on. Participants will get first dibs on those, but once they've all got theirs we will certainly look to similarly equip every single Cult Soldier, including clones.