Hi! I played the holy hell out of LW1 and am looking forward to diving into LW2. But I have many questions!
What, exactly, do the haven jobs do? I've read the in game descriptions, but they were awfully qualitative and make it hard to make informed decisions.
Supply: Through trail and error, I found out that this grants 1 supply per day per rebel. Should probably put that in the description.
Intel: I get that it contributes to a hidden pool that rolls against hidden ADVENT activities in the region, but I have no idea many Intel jobs I need to reliably find stuff. And due to the random nature of missions, it's hard to figure this out empirically. Is one rebel on Intel a tiny amount, relative to the mission threshold? The files say that the Avenger counts as "several" rebels doing Intel when it scans, but how many is several? Two? Six? Thirteen? I have no idea!
Also, does the Intel job produce the Intel resource, or is this concept totally unrelated to capital I Intel?
Recruit: Again, I have no idea how effective each rebel is. Is one rebel on recruiting enough to get steady growth? Nowhere near enough? I have no idea!
Hiding: This one makes sense and was easy to understand. More descriptions like this one, please.
More generally, I'm hoping to hear from beta vets about strategy. What tech orders are recommended? Does it make more sense to focus on liberation or on expanding contacts? Are labs and workshops actually worth it now (they were garbage tier in vanilla). If they are, when does it make sense to start building them? How do the vets distribute their rebels? Etc.
Questions about the strategic layer
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Antifringe
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:52 pm
Re: Questions about the strategic layer
Intel makes it easier to make the RNG rolls to detect ongoing ADVENT operations. One rebel isn't a lot, but the Avenger scanning at a haven counts as 4 rebels, so that may make it seem like its more effective than it is. You want the majority of the haven on Intel if you're looking for good, early missions. You also need a lot of Intel to find the rare missions.
One rebel on Recruit seems to be enough for one new recruit per 21 days on average. If you're trying to grow the haven, you'll want more on this. A soldier advisor also counts as another recruiter.
Most of the descriptions do not include specifics because the game text was locked over a month ago for localization, while final balance testing was underway.
One rebel on Recruit seems to be enough for one new recruit per 21 days on average. If you're trying to grow the haven, you'll want more on this. A soldier advisor also counts as another recruiter.
Most of the descriptions do not include specifics because the game text was locked over a month ago for localization, while final balance testing was underway.
Re: Questions about the strategic layer
I suggest putting an officer soldier adviser in the haven (absolutely mandatory to root out faceless and to provide additional cushion in retaliation strikes which can happen without notice), 1 rebel on recruiting (this 1 guy + officer will provide a rate of incoming rebels that "feels good" to me; any less it feels slow, any more you lose out on intel jobs), and rest on intel to give you quality missions.
I consider it a mistake to put any rebels on supplies early on; I made this mistake too because I was desperate for supplies but faceless eat up most of what you make from the pitiful 1-2 rebels you can afford on supplies. If you think about it for a second it makes completely common sense to have the majority of your rebels on intel since you're supposed to go on damn missions and intel gives you missions. You switch them out to supplies when you liberated a region since you can't get normal missions there anymore. You do need a bare minimum of rebels recruiting to "plant seeds" so your haven "grows" to maximum pop over time, but I wouldn't take this to the extreme of max on recruits; I tried this once but then you are getting no missions so you're twiddling your thumbs and not getting ranks or resources from missions.
The game I agree does a horrible job of telling you how to manage your haven, and it's easy to make the mistake the first time around of not using a soldier adviser, and to use any rebels on supplies. The default 2/2/2 is asking to get your ass kicked if you leave it that way.
There is more nuance to how you manage havens as the game goes on - sometimes advent outright uses an event on you that reduces the rate at which one job works, or even completely blocks you from using the job at all in one particular region, and sometimes there's nothing wrong with putting max rebels on recruiting if you have too many regions and are getting offered more missions that you can take on, might as well just bulid up the rebel population quietly while you finish up the regions you are actively focused on.
I consider it a mistake to put any rebels on supplies early on; I made this mistake too because I was desperate for supplies but faceless eat up most of what you make from the pitiful 1-2 rebels you can afford on supplies. If you think about it for a second it makes completely common sense to have the majority of your rebels on intel since you're supposed to go on damn missions and intel gives you missions. You switch them out to supplies when you liberated a region since you can't get normal missions there anymore. You do need a bare minimum of rebels recruiting to "plant seeds" so your haven "grows" to maximum pop over time, but I wouldn't take this to the extreme of max on recruits; I tried this once but then you are getting no missions so you're twiddling your thumbs and not getting ranks or resources from missions.
The game I agree does a horrible job of telling you how to manage your haven, and it's easy to make the mistake the first time around of not using a soldier adviser, and to use any rebels on supplies. The default 2/2/2 is asking to get your ass kicked if you leave it that way.
There is more nuance to how you manage havens as the game goes on - sometimes advent outright uses an event on you that reduces the rate at which one job works, or even completely blocks you from using the job at all in one particular region, and sometimes there's nothing wrong with putting max rebels on recruiting if you have too many regions and are getting offered more missions that you can take on, might as well just bulid up the rebel population quietly while you finish up the regions you are actively focused on.
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Antifringe
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:52 pm
Re: Questions about the strategic layer
Thanks for the replies, guys. What does everryone think about research order? In LW1, the big decision was usually "rush lasers" or "skip lasers, rush gauss." What do people prefer beelining for first in LW2? Laser weapons? Something else?