19-11-2011 05:40 AM | ||||||||
Richthofen |
OK, so I joined this forum after lurking for years just to respond to Aramazon's post. I haven't played Covert Action in a while, so most of this is personal opinion coming off the top of my head. I hope it helps. I've managed 10 mastermind arrests in 10 months (OK, I took a few advantages of the in-game mechanics to do this. I'll discuss this later in the post. Also, I'm not sure if it's 10, but it's at least 8.). Perfect scores (ie. all members turned into double agents, mastermind arrested, moles caught) are doable on Global Crisis, but it requires a lot of planning. Wall of text coming up: Quote:
Basically combat is fundamentally flawed in Covert Action. In any given building, there is only ever 20ish (I don't remember the specific number, but it was not 16 nor 32, which I found weird.) enemies in total that will ever spawn. So your main goal should be to get as many stealth kills early on, get their grenades (it's generally pointless to pack your own), and if you screw up, you should go hide in a corner, and duck and shoot or throw grenades. Throwing grenades is generally wiser, because ammo is limited. It should be noted, however, that you will have enough ammo to kill all the guards on lower levels of enemy alertness. Killing the 20ish enemies from one spot is far easier than picking them off one by one and hoping you don't screw up. If you do set off the alarm and get cornered, this should be your only action. Escape is far too much of a risk. Quote:
In principle, you don't need a bulletproof vest in this game. In practice, you're most likely to get shot and get tied up if you don't have one. It takes a lot of practice before clearing a whole building in Covert Action becomes easier. I still have lots of difficulty with enemy grenades and "snatching" the enemy body before an enemy comes in. I should mention again that moving over a living enemy instantly makes them disappear, at the cost of one bullet hole to your vest or body. It should probably be noted that this also works for the random ambushes on the city streets. I've always found those to be the most annoying, because I'll almost always get shot, which costs me a few hours. 2) I've found grenade traps to be far too risky. You have to plan ahead of time and make sure you don't get caught placing the traps. You also have to hope that the enemies actually go into the rooms you want them to. And remember, grenades only incapacitate enemies. They'll be back before you know it. I tried grenade traps once or twice on Global Crisis difficult. I failed so spectacularly that I decided to switch to my camping strategy. 3) Doesn't matter too much if you're camping from one spot. 4) I take note of this early on before I settle on camping from one spot in the building. A miss usually results in an alarm. Once I start camping, I have to kill them quickly, so accuracy is not as much of an issue. If I don't, I'll get naded, or even worse - the incapacitated enemies get up again. 5) This. Fucking this. I think that the greatest thing about taking out all the guards at once, is that I can actually use all 32 shots from my camera. Quote:
I then attempt to use this information to find the info on the mastermind by going back to the previous month (through loading of course). It's a huge challenge to arrest the mastermind while also turning all the members involved into double agents, while finding the moles and reporting them in the agency. It takes quite a few tries before you figure out what to do (and even then, the rng might play games with you and have the members go into hiding). You could also go into Athens (I think it was), load your game, and have all the organizations displayed on your loaded city. Quote:
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On a final note: I played with maxed out training and one training in wiretapping. The driving and cryptography minigames are simply too time consuming for me to play. I never could master driving in the game. The controls never seem to respond fast enough. IIRC, I always tried wiretapping because I could get some additional information, at the cost of, I believe, one hour. If the timing is correct, this usually doesn't matter since you're only really worried about your stealing/reclaiming of an object to be before 12:00 AM/PM. Wiretapping is frustrating, but for me screwing up isn't too big of a deal, because heightened awareness doesn't affect my camping strategy. Also, I believe that breaking into a building only takes a certain number of hours out of your day, no matter how long you were in the building. This can be easily be used to your advantage. I'm not sure how this affects the driving and cryptography minigames, but I suppose the effect is the same. I'm guessing that cracking the ciphertext by hand or by the game takes the same amount of in game time. For those interested, I always carry a bulletproof vest, safe-cracking kit, and camera. I don't remember if you were allowed to bring in four or five objects to a building. So the other two items remaining that I think I ever considered are the Uzi and the motion detector. I generally go searching in safes first, and safe a few shots for all the pink safes. Those are the ones usually carrying the best information (double agent, incriminating information, etc.) It's best to go for the pink safes last, because you need enough information in order to have an enemy turn into a double agent in the first place. Also, I really wish the game would have allowed us to view information without photographing it. My camping strategy involving killing all the enemies may seem like overkill - and indeed, it may be. If you can manage to use up all your photos without killing everyone - kudos to you. I've found killing everyone to be most helpful when I know the enemy is in the building. In that case, I can get shot without having to recover - if a member is arrested, the check for bullet wounds is ignored. And for those wondering about how to maximize your score - you essentially need to turn everyone into a double agent. Only the mastermind can never be turned into a double agent. You'll have to play around with the game before figuring out how to turn everyone into a double agent. It's far too hard to even describe it. Needless to say it involves taking of items over and over again. In the end, I just save and load a lot in order to find incriminating information turning them into a double agent. Otherwise it's way too easy to just arrest anyone and stop the crime. (It's actually a pretty trivial thing to do. The hardest part really, is guessing the right initial organization involved). One question for more experienced members here: Is it possible to break the game apart and tell us what is used to determine what actions occur at what time? I usually go with my gut feeling, and it generally turns out to be correct. I think that nothing occurs at all for the first few days, then everything is set in place every 12 AM/PM. Is this the case? I believe it takes about a week for the mastermind to go into hiding, and 3 days before the first enemy action occurs. If this is true, in order to achieve a high score and also arrest the mastermind while catching all the moles, you would need to find out the relevant information on the mastermind in the first 3 days (note, it's really two days because you do nothing on the first of each month). It seems like just a giant crapshoot and would make the whole gameplay mechanic behind the masterminds to have no absolute meaning (It just seems broken). It doesn't help that there doesn't seem to be any set time for an action to occur. (Given action x has occurred, action y may occur at the next occurrence of 12:00, but it might occur on the second or even third occurrence of 12:00.) There seems to be less of a delay on Global Crisis, but it still seems to occur quite often. Also, does anyone know what "trivial case" you get for choosing the wrong mastermind on a copylocked game? The ending is disappointing. /end rant |
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14-07-2011 10:54 PM | ||||||||
Japo | I jump with the cursor keys and move with the numpad. After jumping you end up crouched, you can get up or back down with numpad 5. | |||||||
14-07-2011 08:38 PM | ||||||||
Purple Toupee | Man, I love this game. I can't get it to work right in dosbox though! When I'm moving in combat, I can't jump with the numeric keypad. Shift just doesn't do anything. (Numlock doesn't help.) Has anyone run into this before? I've gotten it on several different versions of dosbox. :-( | |||||||
12-07-2011 04:33 PM | ||||||||
Servant |
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22-06-2011 06:10 PM | ||||||||
Japo | I always though it depends on luck. | |||||||
22-06-2011 04:57 PM | ||||||||
Silencium |
Does anyone here know how much I have to know about an enemy agent in order to turn him into a double agent? I know that you can find important evidence in those red safes, which will turn him into a D.A after you arrested him, but how much do I have to know about this agent (his name, his role in the crime, his photo etc...) in order to trigger a "...you found some evidence wich will turn XYZ into a double agent" message? Because it's very frustrating to enter and exit a building again and again just to open those safes and find nothing but grenades or a floor plan (and waste precious time). Can I also use one of these computer terminals during a break-in to find the important evidence (or at least something which will trigger the evidence next time I search a red safe)? |
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25-03-2011 10:32 PM | ||||||||
Japo | Yep actually I think that's in the manual, though I'm going by memory here... | |||||||
25-03-2011 06:45 PM | ||||||||
Aegeus |
Disguises aren't guaranteed even when your back is turned. If a guard stays in the same room as you for a long time and gets a good look at you, he'll raise the alarm anyway. Also, I think they'll raise the alarm if you leave desks, safes, and doors open (maybe only if you do it a lot?), since I've seen the alarm go off even when nobody's in the room with me. I do know that the guards will follow you if you leave doors open behind you when they're chasing you. Close the doors behind you and you can shake them off. |
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09-03-2011 05:51 PM | ||||||||
Japo |
Wow good job. Only once I intercepted a message from the mastermind. It might be that he's very unlikely to send any message. It also occurred to me that perhaps he always sends a message at the start of every crime, but so very early that you're unlikely to be able to intercept it, because at that time you don't even know where the hideouts are. I don't know. At any rate, to me only the computers proved useful in finding him. |
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09-03-2011 01:17 PM | ||||||||
DarthHelmet86 | Disguises are only meant to work when you have your back to the bad guys, the manual is rather clear about that. If you face them they will work out you aren't really from their group, you face the other way and they just walk by. Till an alarm sounds then all bets are off. | |||||||
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