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Valkyria Chronicles PC |OT| May the bloodline live forever

sixghost

Member
Loving the game so far but I've got a couple questions...

What do the different colors of sightlines mean? Do the commands like defense boost only last one turn?

My only complaint so far is the enemies being able to shoot you while standing still. You can pause it anytime by going into aim mode and then canceling. They should only shoot you when actually consuming AP. That would make far more sense.

It seems like blue means you can see them, but you wouldn't be able to hit them if you entered aim mode. Yellow means you have a clear shot.
 

Unai

Member
I don't think that order works on downed allies.

You can request characters who have been KO'd to come back one turn after you rescue them. (By the way in cases of Alicia / Rosie / Largo this also brings back the Extra Command Point for having them out.)



Nah, it's the same effect as going to a camp and "retreating."

Oh, yeah. I've "bought" that order last night. Indeed is the same effect as retreating at the camp. It's actually very usefull.
 

xBladeM6x

Member
After the death of
..........Isara..........
I think I went to Jane levels of wanting to kill fucking Imps.
She's such a badass.
 

kafiend

Member
It seems like blue means you can see them, but you wouldn't be able to hit them if you entered aim mode. Yellow means you have a clear shot.

That's not quite right and I'm lazy so stole the sightline explanation from an IGN walkthrough.
Blue : Enemy sighted but still unnoticed by the enemy.
Yellow : Identified by enemy but out of range for interception.
Red : Identified by enemy and target is within range.
Green : Same as red but the enemy is reloading weapon
 
Very strange after all the hype, but in the two hours I played yesterday, i haven't really enjoyed my time at all.

I know I'm still undergoing a tutorial, but so far the game seems slow, dull, repetitive, clunky, arbitrary and poorly-written.

I would expect a tutorial to be both engaging & instructive, whereas I'm feeling I'm having to trial & error my way to an understanding of the game's systems (the bits that are explained notwithstanding). And because learning how to play properly is made such a punishing chore, I find the experience very far from engaging.

It's a learning wall as opposed to a curve, and the elements in play whilst i learn appear too thin to hold my attention. I have to replay this damn tank-defence mission yet again, everything the same again and again, all the stupid dialogue and all the same tutorial speeches to keep clicking past.

It's an old-school approach and I can ultimately deal with it on the promise of better to come. I just find it strangely outdated these days. And I have other issues.

I don't like the presentation of battles, and the constant CPU-driven switching from map to 3rd person. It gives my arse an headache, and makes me wish the devs had sought a stable middle ground that showed what needed showing without yanking my perspective around. Or at least had given me the controls!

Also I always seem to be waiting for the game to catch up in it's own sweet time for me to input my next button presses. I want to be issuing commands into a well-oiled machine, not watching with smiling paternal patience as a rusty one-legged donkey does it's best to hobble around.

Why can't I exit the game, or access any options at all for that matter, whilst in play? If i want to change anything my only option seems to be to walk a critical character into a hail of bullets, which does nothing for my sense of connection to them, nor my opinion of the game. And I can't so far seem to be able to invert the camera controls, and I'm all damn thumbs with a standard camera. I'll keep trying, but it seemed that whatever I chose the controls stayed the same, and of course, I don't have access to the options whilst actually in the game in order to make checking this as simple as it should be.

The writing ... Well I can put up with it, but it's very bog-standard anime fare so far, and I can tell that down the line someone's going to be encouraged to just keep going and to believe with all their heart. There has been zero subtlety in the writing so far, no intelligence or insight expected of me as the audience. It's all on a plate, and it's all kinda dry. I'd actually rather these characters shut up, and let me draw my own conclusions, build my own story from a few given basics.

It's rather lovely-looking. And if people love it so much I'm convinced there's a great game in there. I normally try not to just shit on things, and I hope I haven't here. But my experience jarred rather badly with the universal praise I'd read on GAF, and I felt I wanted to express that. I'd like nothing better than to come back in a couple of days & be all hey guys you were so right. But if not then maybe it's a case of this game & i not being very well suited?

Caveat emptor.
 

Durante

Member
Apparently you suck at the game :p

I have to replay this damn tank-defence mission yet again
Why? You can save in battle.

I don't like the presentation of battles, and the constant CPU-driven switching from map to 3rd person.
That's one of the best things about the game. I find it far more engaging than most SRPGs.

Got texture replacing for characters working. Although I just realized I'm not actually processing all textures in a model file, so I'll need to work on the tool some more.

This is not the best angle, but here's an ingame example with Alicia:
Unmodded: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1412-srug5.jpg
High res textures: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1412-gduks.jpg
Great job!
 
Well, games just can't please everyone. That's why there are numerous genres available. I for one can't see myself enjoying FPS games.

Off I go to the 6th chapter.
 
It puzzles me how you can get bogged down in a tutorial and assume a game will have poor writing when you haven't even finished what could be called the first chapter.

Saving in battle should solve most of your complaints about repetition and options access. Reading those instructional speeches will help with the difficulty.

In the tank-defense mission you're told your infantry can't damage the enemy tank. You can literally just park the infantry behind sandbags, skip your rounds and wait until Welkin shows up with the Edelweiss. Use grenades to blow up sandbags enemies may use and you'll do even better (the tutorial says you can do this).
 

petran79

Banned
you can save during battle?
How? No menu appears for this no matter which controller button i press. I am in ch 7. Or does it unlock after?

I find it more convenient to exit the game and restart from scratch. Or else i have to wait for enemy to blow the edelweiss
 

baterism

Member
Just beat Jann's Lancer Challenge. This operation might eat 6 hours of my 18 hours gameplay so far. Man, was that feels great.

*Walter cocky mode*
I'm invincible!

Stark the Hawk was such bullshit.
 

Durante

Member
you can save during battle?
How? No menu appears for this no matter which controller button i press. I am in ch 7. Or does it unlock after?
Huh? You can save and load starting from the very first battle. In map mode, press triangle on the controller, or Y, or whatever it is on your pad :p
 
Can I downsample through DSR with my GTX 970? Or will it not work unless I use the gedosato tool? <,Stupid question I know, however I know some games don't support DSR.

I'm loving the game it was an amazing game on PS3 and it is still amazing now,60FPS and the instant load is great especially on my SSD.

EDIT: Would you guys recommend I turn off Cloud-Sync?
 
Can I downsample through DSR with my GTX 970? Or will it not work unless I use the gedosato tool? <,Stupid question I know, however I know some games don't support DSR.

I'm loving the game it was an amazing game on PS3 and it is still amazing now,60FPS and the instant load is great especially on my SSD.

EDIT: Would you guys recommend I turn off Cloud-Sync?
DSR works fine. Playing at 4K on my 770.
 
Yes. The only advantage GeDoSaTo gives you is higher-than-4x resolution (though you can't go much higher and maintain stability) and HuD toggling / HuD-less screenshots.

Thank you so much Durante, appreciate the quick reply 4K it is then, I thought the mouse and keyboard combo would be awkward, however I'm finding it pretty easy to use.

DSR works fine. Playing at 4K on my 770.

Thanks for the reply as well, Horse Armour.
 
Yeah I mean I guess we'll see. Thanks for those replies, and I especially appeciate nobody having responded as if I'd kicked their first born.

I'm quite happy to accept either that I suck at the game, or that it's not my kind of thing. Although either of those things would be a shame. I'm hoping to find it's just unfamiliar and that soon enough it will click.

I did get past that mission yesterday; and I had been quite clear on the instructions I was given. It was dealing with the shocktroopers that was causing difficulty, and I had to learn, more or less on my own, that: those guys can hurt the fuck out of you, you really can't hurt them when they're behind sandbags, that Alicia can only throw grenades for like a few yards, and that since her life is critical I may as well take a pragmatic view to avoiding the potential of her death. Ultimately the simple advice given above works amply well, and I was failing through trying to 'play' too much, really. Not being completely dumb, mind you, not standing around in the open, but trying to play more dynamically than the game required at that point.

I'm amused to learn there is a way to save mid-battle. Presumably one does this by pausing the game, and exploring the available options? Honestly no button I pressed resulted in any such state, but I guess I can do some research around that, now I know for a fact the option exists and it's not just the game being rude.
 

Alrus

Member
So are the report Ellet sells random? I'm apparently missing one that was supposed to happen quite a few chapter prior to where I am.

I'm amused to learn there is a way to save mid-battle. Presumably one does this by pausing the game, and exploring the available options? Honestly no button I pressed resulted in any such state, but I guess I can do some research around that, now I know for a fact the option exists and it's not just the game being rude.

When you're on the map screen (where you chose which unit is going to play), you can bring up a menu with the same button you use to bring up the menu during chapter selection.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
So are the report Ellet sells random? I'm apparently missing one that was supposed to happen quite a few chapter prior to where I am.

In my playthrough she sells a bunch later on but I always figured 'that' one was delayed until after 'that' mission because spoilers.

edit: Specifically (Ch14 spoilers)
Faldio figuring out Alicia is a Valkyria
 

Sectus

Member
Righto, my tool can now extract and modify all textures in model files. Using the Alicia example again, people with really good observation skills can see her right ear now looks slightly better:
Unmodded: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1412-srug5.jpg
High res textures: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1412-gduks.jpg
All high res textures: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1414-fmstp.jpg

I'll start working on a mod updating all character textures with their cutscene equivalent. This will take a while as there's a ton of textures to go through.

This is the tool I made: http://www.tzarsectus.com/tools/VCtool.rar

I've only tested it with a couple of model files, but it should work on any MLX and HTX files. I'll update the tool if something is wrong.

To use the program, either use it in command line (ie, "vctool -x valcA01bB_m.mlx" to extract textures, "vctool -r valcA01bB_m.mlx" to replace textures), or drag and drop MLX and HTX files onto the batch files in windows explorer.

Source code: http://www.tzarsectus.com/tools/source/VCtool.rar
 

bonercop

Member
I love this game, but I really dislike how the ranking system is set up. The maps all have these great scenarios that give you a lot of opportunities for setting up interesting formations and strategies with your troops, but this game rewards you for treating its maps like glorified obstacle courses. The best way to get an A rank in this game is to grab 3-5 character per map and launch your scout(s) off like a rocket, whizzing past most enemies until you can get the base camp occupied while your other 3 units basically just play supporting roles.
 

Chariot

Member
Pig with wings, a 20 year old leader... I fucking hate japanese sensibilities some times.
A 20 year old lieutenant isn't that weird, when you look at the situation at hand. Gallia is a very tiny nation that has to defend against the giant empire. The militia literally took everything that it could get, children, bakers, dancers, etc. There is a reason why the military looked down on the militia and Rosie and Largo weren't trusting this young lad. There are surely a lot squad leaders that are older, especially in the actual military. We just don't see them, but they're not idle when you read Ellet's news posts.

Don't like the pig though.
 
A 20 year old lieutenant isn't that weird, when you look at the situation at hand. Gallia is a very tiny nation that has to defend against the giant empire. The militia literally took everything that it could get, children, bakers, dancers, etc. There is a reason why the military looked down on the militia and Rosie and Largo weren't trusting this young lad. There are surely a lot squad leaders that are older, especially in the actual military. We just don't see them, but they're not idle when you read Ellet's news posts.

I can understand that, and maybe the problem here is that it's so common for Japanese stories to feature main characters that are constantly younger than you would expect for the part.

I'm really enjoying the gameplay though, although I wish I didn't have to press A to move dialog forward.
 

Durante

Member
Righto, my tool can now extract and modify all textures in model files. Using the Alicia example again, people with really good observation skills can see her right ear now looks slightly better:
That's exactly what I always felt VC was missing!

But in all seriousness, thanks for the tool/source!

I'll start working on a mod updating all character textures with their cutscene equivalent. This will take a while as there's a ton of textures to go through.
Shouldn't it be possible to automate that? Or is there no consistent naming?


Don't like the pig though.
No one likes the pig.
 

Chariot

Member
I can understand that, and maybe the problem here is that it's so common for Japanese stories to feature main characters that are constantly younger than you would expect for the part.
I get where you're coming from. But a 20 year old lieutenant is imo believable in the context, a 12 year old soldier is way more critical. Be it performance wise or morally. I mean, you can literally could command a attack squad of child soldiers to attack a professional army.

If given the choice I would happily strap ordinance on to Hans and send him waddling in to the nearest trench. Idiot.
I would love if you could use him as an Panzerabwehrhund. Strap explosives around him and send him to a tank. Kaboom! Good job, Hans.
 

Durante

Member
For all the Hans lovers I've prepared a special selection:

screenshot_2014-11-10lbp6q.jpg


screenshot_2014-11-11smr73.jpg


One thing is for sure, if someone had asked me a few months ago when VC would appear on Steam, I'd have said "when pigs fly".
 

Seanspeed

Banned
Righto, my tool can now extract and modify all textures in model files. Using the Alicia example again, people with really good observation skills can see her right ear now looks slightly better:
Unmodded: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1412-srug5.jpg
High res textures: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1412-gduks.jpg
All high res textures: http://abload.de/img/valkyria2014-11-1414-fmstp.jpg

I'll start working on a mod updating all character textures with their cutscene equivalent. This will take a while as there's a ton of textures to go through.

This is the tool I made: http://www.tzarsectus.com/tools/VCtool.rar

I've only tested it with a couple of model files, but it should work on any MLX and HTX files. I'll update the tool if something is wrong.

To use the program, either use it in command line (ie, "vctool -x valcA01bB_m.mlx" to extract textures, "vctool -r valcA01bB_m.mlx" to replace textures), or drag and drop MLX and HTX files onto the batch files in windows explorer.

Source code: http://www.tzarsectus.com/tools/source/VCtool.rar
Very cool. Its not a drastic improvement, but a welcome one.

I love this game, but I really dislike how the ranking system is set up. The maps all have these great scenarios that give you a lot of opportunities for setting up interesting formations and strategies with your troops, but this game rewards you for treating its maps like glorified obstacle courses. The best way to get an A rank in this game is to grab 3-5 character per map and launch your scout(s) off like a rocket, whizzing past most enemies until you can get the base camp occupied while your other 3 units basically just play supporting roles.
I get a D ranking on pretty much every battle. Cuz yea, I like to setup a strategy and be a bit cautious. Seems annoying the game massively rewards you for just being super aggressive.
 
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