Generation Zero

[BinnZ]

Haha, I kind of like it! I didn't watch the entire video, it's too long for that, but this is certainly adding to the fun! More challenge, more story, more land! Nice

[BinnZ]

Oh, yes, 12 gb download. AND 10 new achievements. Yes, this is the new stuff, cool!

[BinnZ]

Okay, the download is pre-purchase. Bit of a lame trick for those not wanting to buy it, but hey, I got it now so I don't care

The new missions get triggered right away. I went for some looting first, and the looting seems to be the way it used to be. Had a fight with some 'toasters' which went quite well, although the red wired harvester took more damage than before. But well, it is the most powerful of them all, so I'm not complaining. Got a descent amount of ammo out of it.

Then I made my way to the new island. It seems relatively small, but rather interesting. A ski piste indeed. He's a couple of screenies:

The boat to the new island:
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The map, look at the lighter spots on the map. Those are supposedly the ski pistes:
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[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah downloading now, I guess I'll buy it, right? Lol. We'll have to see if we can meet up sometime. I have an experimental 6 crown rocket launcher for you if you want it.

[BinnZ]

Cool, yes that would be nice! I don't have any experimental weapons yet

[Dweller_Benthos]

Next time we're on at the same time, I'll message you. Killed a couple more rivals and got a jacket or something from one of them, and nothing from the other. So I guess two experimental rocket launchers in a row was really lucky.

[LowPolyOWG]

Well, the rivals can be leveled by killing additional machines, or, if you got plenty of adrenaline shots, get killed by them. That will increase the chances for them to drop the Prototype weapons

[Art Blade]

you should think of a career in industrial espionage, G.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I'm short on adrenaline shots, so I'll have to kill more of them, lol 

But getting experimental drops isn't all it's cracked up to be:

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Yep, experimental pants. That was worth a bunch of 50 cal AP rounds and a couple rockets. Actually, I haven't looked at the stats on the clothing page, maybe they are really good.

But had a fun time with Binn yesterday on the new island, I did record a video of us in a battle, but it only recorded his voice, not mine, as I have to set it to microphone each time to record me and I forgot about that. I suppose if I left my microphone plugged in all the time it would remember. But anyway, I didn't start recording early enough, as we had a trap all planned and set for these tanks only to have one do an end run around it and come up behind us. Ooops. They are tough and really I don't know if I could have taken them down alone.

[Art Blade]

sounds like a proper adventure

[BinnZ]

Yes it was nice! And when that tank ran around a couple of houses and surprised us from the side, he managed to shoot our trap to shreds with a single well aimed shot of something explosive. These things are indeed apocalyptic, lol!

After D_B had left to have supper with friends I kept on with the game, but not on the new island; saved that four a joint adventure next time
I went back to the main island to see if I could get some rivals up, because I want those experimental weapons! It ain't all that easy, that's for sure, but after a long and intense gaming session, starting yesterday night and continuing this morning until noon, I managed to finally get my first experimental weapon on my own, a heavy sniper version. It has a raygun-like acceleration system on the barrel. When you wear it, it starts to zoom. Really cool. But haven't tested it yet on enemies. It ought to be able to hit two enemies if they're lined up due to the higher bullet velocity. 

In order to get it I went to one area which I decided to 'level up' so rivals would start spawning. The first rival took long to spawn. I went to the big airfield (farmland area) where usually groups of hunters and tanks spawn, and I got cought by surprise that the first two tanks I encountered, (together) were apocalypse tanks! Damn, since the update they seem to spawn not just on the new island, but basically everywhere
What D_B and I already discovered is they shoot proximity bombs. They look like sea mines, and explode when you come close. And they roll over the entire place, damn hard to evade getting blown to pieces, even on the massive open field the airstrip is.
It costed me almost every round, explosive and whatnot I found looting in between to take them out. I even plundered my stash in my safe house multiple times to take them down with additional mines and such. But I managed in the end.
However, still no rival. I kept fighting what came along. Hunters, harvesters, runners, everything I found in the same region. Finally there popped up a rival. I knew already the chance of getting good experimental weapon drops on killing them will increase if you lvl them up, like GKID explained above, so I went out to kill more enemies before confronting the rival. Slowly it grew in strength and when it finally hit rank 4 (in the mean time 2 other rivals had appeared) I went out to take it down. It was a harvester, and indeed it absorbed more ammo than a regular (prototype) harvester, but it was still doable. All happy I went checking out what it dropped; a damn experimental camo pants
Well, same as D_B I thought; "Maybe this pants has amazing capabilities" but checking the stats in the menu didn't show any additional qualities other than it looks cool

Of course I went on fighting, because I really wanted that experimental weaponry, so I took out another rival when it ranked up to 4. Nothing. WTF!!!!! Okay, this *bleep* isn't easy, let's face it, regroup and keep going. And I kept going. More rivals appeared, but not ranked up yet of course, so I searched for more enemies in the farmland region to take down. At some point, I stumbled upon a tank (prototype) and just before I could deal the final blow it took me down. And, became a rival too, damn! This time I couldn't resist. The tank was already smoking, and I didn't want to wait until it got ranked up so I went for it, gave it that final blow and took it down. And... Yay!!! Finally this experimental drop! The heave sniper

I think the bigger the enemy the higher the chance of getting something nice out of it. So a tank rival is probably already good enough on rank 1 to get something nice, while a harvester needs to rank up quite a bit to give good experimental loot. And what about runners then? Or hunters? I have a runner rival in the mountains region that's still rank 2, so I'll make sure to rank it up to 4 before killing it.

Something I noticed after all the fighting is that there really is more balance to what your weapons do and what damage you pick up from enemies. For example, I always was bloody annoyed when some FNIX hunters came along, with these weird clusterbomb kind of things that would always instantly knock you on the floor and take away 70 to 90% of your health. You really only could survive a battle with a pack of these by using lots of adrenaline shots. Now, these clusterbomb things still knock you down, but only eat away 15 to 20% of health. Which gives you a much better chance in a battle. Making it much more fun.
I also noticed that the bullets of the heavy sniper (.50 cal) are much more effective. They deal more damage and are now a good option against tank components.
Landmines are a lot less effective, but I think it's better balanced. Grenades now deal more damage. Gas cannisters are still effective, but hard to make good use of. Once I made a trap to blow a tank to pieces with 7 or 8 cannisters next to each other. I stunned the tank with EMP batteries and when the cannisters were in place I shot one, and the tank bounced up in the air, at least 8 meters or so. Really spectacular. He didn't die though.
When you shoot off the delicate parts of those monsters, like its guns and the big tank they carry behind their head, they go down a lot easier.
Rockets from the grenade launcher seem to stay evenly effective, but since most tanks take more damage than before you still need to carry a lot of rockets to really be dependant on them. Anyway, the new experimental rocket launcher that D_B gave me is nice, but only on a short range. I found out that the second rocket, which gets fired a split second after the first, will be fired in a different angle, because of the backlash. So the second rocket will usually fly over the target instead of hitting it, making the weapon useless on a longer range.

Overall I think the weapon system and the damage you take from enemy fire is more balanced. You are never in a situation where it's impossible to handle things, and you can always prepare for an upcoming battle in an appropriate way. Although that means sometimes quite some looting

There's one thing that keeps surprising me though. And that is the amount of pistol ammo you get when taking out big enemies. They literally drop hundreds of rounds for one of the regular pistols, which is considered to be quite a useless weapon in most fights if you ask me. I always keep a pistol with me, but basically for moments where I have no other choices left than to shoot little enemies with the last bits I have left in my inventory.

[Art Blade]

nice post, good read

I'm pleased to hear that now there is some balance in this game and that you guys are enjoying it

[BinnZ]

Man I had so much fun again, trying to get those "experimental weapons". This rivals thing (free update) is really cool. I got an experimental pistol after a lot more fighting, and this one gives a chance to add little EMP burst on impact, stunning robots. Haven't yet tested it, but finally I seem to be able to make some good use of all those blue pistol ammo boxes I found along the way

[Art Blade]

niiiiice.

[BinnZ]

I keep getting clothing drops from those rivals. It's nice, I have 3 different experimental pants now, and an experimental vest and helmet. However, I have no idea what they do. At least they look good, very military
Weapon drops are really rare. I only had two weapon drops so far, in 10 to 12 rival fights. Keeps you busy though

The regions will level up their rival status up to 14, and then they get reset to 1. At least that's what happens to me all the time.