Suggestion: Make Livewire's Talent less OP

[VidarNL]

Please tone down Livewire's Talent. It's so OP that it's just not fun taking her along. Maybe limit it to the starting positions and types of enemies once you enter, so you can plan better, but then once the enemy's first turn starts, you can't see them anymore. Makes sense to me; with the intel, she can check what kind of enemies were assigned to the sector, but how could she track where they move to once they start moving? (Unless she's hacking into some satellite that just happens to be constantly positioned over this country for however long your mercs are there, which I doubt, especially in 2001)

 

Actually, this kind of info in the second paragraph above could (maybe even SHOULD) all be available from the Scout Area operation (how much could maybe depend on a Wisdom check and/or amount of intel you have on a particular sector).

 

Maybe she just needs an entirely new Talent. Like... gathering some intel without having to scout (not all possible intel, just maybe hidden stashes? Sounds good to me, since she's somewhat of a thief, some of her voice lines suggest so anyway), or when she hacks machines, she gets more intel or even some intel that you can't normally get through hacking?

[Biff]

Could make it so her device only works when the weather is perfect. Or make it so the device only works in sectors that have an obvious power source.

Could even make it so the enemy has a small chance to hack Livewire's device, letting them know exactly where YOU are during the mission. There would be no setup, combat would start straight away, and the spawn area would be constantly bombarded from outside the zone.

Or just remove Livewire from the game! 😁 

[5Cents]

3 hours ago, VidarNL said:

Please tone down Livewire's Talent. It's so OP that it's just not fun taking her along. Maybe limit it to the starting positions and types of enemies once you enter, so you can plan better, but then once the enemy's first turn starts, you can't see them anymore. Makes sense to me; with the intel, she can check what kind of enemies were assigned to the sector, but how could she track where they move to once they start moving? (Unless she's hacking into some satellite that just happens to be constantly positioned over this country for however long your mercs are there, which I doubt, especially in 2001)

 

Actually, this kind of info in the second paragraph above could (maybe even SHOULD) all be available from the Scout Area operation (how much could maybe depend on a Wisdom check and/or amount of intel you have on a particular sector).

 

Maybe she just needs an entirely new Talent. Like... gathering some intel without having to scout (not all possible intel, just maybe hidden stashes? Sounds good to me, since she's somewhat of a thief, some of her voice lines suggest so anyway), or when she hacks machines, she gets more intel or even some intel that you can't normally get through hacking?

It would be enough, to know how many enemies there will be in an unfriendly sector. Its feeling a bit lame, to know that they are enemies at all, plus the exactly amount of troops and their category too, before even met them. There should be more fog of war in general, imo.

Edited August 11, 2023 by 5Cents

[Biff]

4 minutes ago, 5Cents said:

It would be enough, to know how many enemies there will be in an unfriendly sector. Its feeling a bit lame, to know that they are enemies at all, plus the exactly amount of troops and their category too, before even met them. There should be more fog of war in general, imo.

That's a good point. I'm still not even sure what the point of gathering intel is when we magically know so much about the enemy already.

[VidarNL]

15 minutes ago, Biff said:

That's a good point. I'm still not even sure what the point of gathering intel is when we magically know so much about the enemy already.

Yeah it's totally unrealistic to know a patrol or diamond shipment is moving between two points all the way on the other side of the map. Unless we have our own satellite or spies or something, which we don't. 

It's bad enough that we know the exact route they're taking.

[VidarNL]

8 minutes ago, VidarNL said:

Yeah it's totally unrealistic to know a patrol or diamond shipment is moving between two points all the way on the other side of the map. Unless we have our own satellite or spies or something, which we don't. 

It's bad enough that we know the exact route they're taking.

Actually, that's what Livewire's Talent could be changed to: see things on the map that are further away.

[sandman25dcsss]

Leave Livewire alone. If you don't like her, do not take her. She is excellent for players like me who don't want to scout the whole map before fighting. It is like asking to remove easy difficulty levels or Steam mods.

[brato]

Agreed. Leave her be. She's fine. I don't take her along, you don't need to either.

[CersaisAdvocate]

I whish there was a mod that would do that. I really like her but her talent takes away from the tactical game. Maybe just have her gather intel passively like Vicky is repairing stuff on the way. And perhaps increasing her money bonus on hacking.

[scope112]

Yes, Livewire is way OP, it destroys all the fun that she removes fog of war all the time. It's such a dealbreaker that i also decided to restart my playthrough, and to exclude her in the new one.

Edited August 11, 2023 by scope112

[Beak]

Maybe reduce some of her other stats, her wisdom and mec are too high to not make her viable.

I've not taken her on my 2nd playthrough and it's been considerable more challenging (fun).

Edited August 11, 2023 by Beak

[CersaisAdvocate]

19 hours ago, Beak said:

Maybe reduce some of her other stats, her wisdom and mec are too high to not make her viable.

I've not taken her on my 2nd playthrough and it's been considerable more challenging (fun).

That does not solve anything. If she was the shitties merc her talent would still be problematic, just a bit more expensive. 

I would like a solution that makes playing with livewire more fun not less.

[sandman25dcsss]

I am playing campaign without Livewire and this is awful. I have already had 3 missions where I spent 50+ turns to find final enemies (no, not even Good Place). If I wasn't playing with single merc, I would rage quit.

[Raeven]

3 hours ago, sandman25dcsss said:

I am playing campaign without Livewire and this is awful. I have already had 3 missions where I spent 50+ turns to find final enemies (no, not even Good Place). If I wasn't playing with single merc, I would rage quit.

Really? I have never had anything like that happen...

[sandman25dcsss]

20 minutes ago, Raeven said:

Really? I have never had anything like that happen...

Maybe I was unlucky 😞

[D13]

45 minutes ago, sandman25dcsss said:

Maybe I was unlucky 😞

Happened to me too, with 8 mercs 🤕 and the enemy being in the other end of the sector, hidden behind a wall that had to be blown up. But in that case it was questionable level design, not justification for Livewire's perk.

I think the perk itself would be fine if its use were more restricted, like with the X-ray device in JA2 that required batteries and lasted only a few turns. Just so you can't use it all the time, and that sometimes you decide not to use it because you worry about needing it more in a future sector. In my opinion the OP-ness comes more from lack of scarcity than the feature itself. If we had unlimited RPGs and 40mm grenades they would be OP too (and they actually feel OP when AI has an unlimited supply, and even the Barry perk).

There have also been some good suggestions above, where the perk would affect not combat itself but the strategic layer (like advance knowledge of enemy routes, types, or numbers).