Duskers: a for however long its last AAR

Started by -budd-, January 14, 2018, 05:30:17 PM

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-budd-

This game has been on my wishlist for awhile. Sounded interesting but i was concerned it was a lot of typing, and it wasn't much to look at. Well looks can be deceiving, and while there is typing, which is frequent but minimal fits the theme as does the look of the game. I'm hooked, the game is fun, tense, and atmospheric [especially with headphones, the sounds is good as well]. For full disclosure i've got 6 hours into the game and this will  be my 10th restart :DD, the third since i decided to do an AAR. My deaths can be contributed to greed, stupid decisions and well that's about it. It a perma-death game and while you can switch on a save system[nice option] it's just more tense when you have everything to lose. This may be the shortest AAR known to man, does Groghead's have an award for that? I'm playing with all the defaults....except...yup..i put my pride aside and went with the easy start option, everything else is at default. I cleared the game data so the tutorial tips would be present again. Off we go.

Opening screen

It seems that something is wrong in the universe. I'm by myself with six days of fuel. Dam straight i'd like to send a distress signal.


Who or what has been messing with my logs and whose giving me the objectives? Survival seems important so i'll follow along.i'm very familiar with the reset button ;)



My starting system. At the bottom of the screen its shows i have 6/6 propulsion which is how you get around the system. I recognize those icons on the map, there derelict ships and the blue number is what it costs in propulsion to get there, +0 is my reserve. I have two jumps, which is how you get to another system.


Galaxy map, 2 other systems to jump to.



Lets see what i rolled on my drone setup and swap any modules i need to before boarding. Budd will be my point man as he has the motion and gather modules, motion is a motion tracking for scanning rooms and only drones with the gather module can pick up stuff. Bobo is the power man, hooking up to any generators we find to power some systems on the derelicts. Holly will hang back until needed. She has the tow modules so if i come across any salvageable drones she can tow them back to the mothership, she also has the interface module...yippeee, of the 10 starts i've gotten this module 3 times, it interfaces with any consoles we find on the derelicts that we can get power too, i'll explain when i use it.


So i enter the derelict and get a report on the vessel. Looks like a small vessel with no danger and we get a snippet of a salvageable communication. So this must be the easy start, a straight salvage job.



Small ship, no danger, easy peasy. This is the schematic view, I dock my ship and crack door A1 and send drone 1[budd] in to investigate. There's scrap and a generator, so i send power man Bobo in to get the generator working while Budd gathers the scrap. In the console box at the right what i type is green.



This is the view when your controlling the drones, you use the arrow keys. Once Bobo gets the power up i send Budd around to explore and pick up any salvage. budd comes across a fuel access point, unfortunately its empty...damn. Below picture budd finds a dead drone, Robbie, he can't be salvaged but he does have some modules we can grab.



We finish up searching the small vessel, grab the module from Robbie and detach from the vessel. Summary report, the teleport module i've had before, if you can find a teleport pad on the derelict ship with power or you can provide it power you can then teleport your drones...cool.


Ship one complete, i don't think its going to be this easy for long.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

bob48

'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

Jarhead0331

Got this awhile ago on sale. Never tried it. You have my attention!
Grogheads Uber Alles
Semper Grog
"No beast is more alpha than JH." Gusington, 10/23/18


JasonPratt

I shall be squinting attention in this direction!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

-budd-

We travel to our next derelict ship and prepare to board. Budd has the probe module which i haven't used yet in any of my play, i understand you drop it and it probes the area ;D, The yellow color indicates its damaged. Below is the ship report. One infestation, hull integrity stable, heavy metal cargo.




We dock, and i move Budd up to door A1 and run the motion scanner. There is green, yellow, and red for colors. Green is clear, yellow is maybe, maybe not, and red is defiantly infested. I've learned that just because its green your not always safe, that area is safe but there might be doors attached to that green area that are open and infestations can travel into what is green.





R2 turns out to be clear. Budd explores, grabs some scrap and finds a generator. We send in Bobo to hook up the power. Once the power is on i send Budd around to R3 and run another motion scan....AAA an infestation. In the ship report it said one infestation but that refers to the type, not the number aboard the ship. There's also another generator in R3, but a drone can only run one at a time so if i bring Bobo over to power the generator in R3 what's powered by the generator in R2 goes out. Need a plan.....OK the plan is to send Budd up by room R4 run another scan and see if that room is clear.


R4 turns out to be clear, we find a fuel access point with 1 propulsion fuel.



After clearing R4 i run a scan to see whats connected to R4. R6 has an airlock, so i open D7 and the infestation travels to R6. Now to blow it out the airlock and into space. Thats the plan, but i have to get Bobo over to the other generator to power the airlock door. Bobo goes over, i crack the door and bye-bye infestation. Now you can't keep the airlock open long or it will contaminate the whole compartment and make it off limits, and you'll also probably lose anything in there to salvage. Now i'm clear to search R5 and R6.



i have to run Bobo back to the other generator to get power to D5 so Budd can enter R5. We find Kellee a salvageable drone, time to get Holly over here to tow Kellee back to the ship.


As expected nothing in R6, probably blew out the airlock. We round everyone up and head back to the mothership, mission summary. To repair Kellee it will cost 11 scrap, we only have 12, it will have to wait.



So far so good.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

-budd-

So we've cleared two ships out of four in the system. I must say this start has been much easier than previous runs, that setting certainly works. Status check, we have 2/6 fuel left and 3 jumps, were doing OK.


Derelict report:

Ships docks, Budd scans......seemly clear.


Budd ventures forth, R3 is clear but the door D11 is open :hide: ....yellow indicates there something in there. Budd finds a generator and a computer interface. Time to get Bobo over asap to power up so i can close that door. We know there is something on the other side of D5.


We run Bobo over to power up, we then shut the D11 door for now and then bring Holly over to hook up to the computer. We have Holly run a shipscan to see whats aboard. We have more scrap and a drone up in R5.......looky, looky....we have a turret in R6. Time to have Holly arm that gun and take out whatever is in R6.


R6 is now clear.


I send Budd over to investigate. i don't know what it is....but its dead, Budd gathers the scrap. Got to remember to turn off the defenses before going in :)


Budd gathers the scrap and runs a scan, some more bad news in R2. If you notice D6 is open, so the red signal is moving back and forth. There's currently no power to D6. The other side of D10 is green so ill send Budd in there to take a look.


i was hoping there was an airlock in whatever is attached to R2, nope. There was a generator in R7, so i bring Bobo to fire it up. I lure the infestation to R8, R5 and finally R6. once i got it to R5 i had to move Bobo and Budd to the other generator and close all the doors that access R6. Once in R6 i had Holly fire up the turret and take care of business. All clear, search at will.


We go up to R5 to check out the drone, its dead but has a mine module. We get everyone back aboard the mothership and exit.

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

-budd-

System-1
Ship#4
Days survived=7

I forgot some screens for the ship 4 incursion. This will be more informative than anything.

Before i board ship 4 i invest in repairing Kellee now that i've got some spare scrap.


Here's the highlights from the salvage. Picked up another drone "Hailey" but more importantly i got the remote power upgrade, which means i won't need Bobo to go to the generator to power up i can do it remotely. Also i can now use two generators at once, Bobo on one and remote on the other. I haven't got to use my new toys yet, namely the probe and mine modules, not sure how to work them but we'll figure it out.



Something i didn't know, your propulsion is refilled when you jump to another system.


Here's the layout of the new system. I don't know what that symbol means at X.


I'll remember more screenshots the next time.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

-budd-

Duskers
System 2
Ship #1
Days survived 20

The jump to another system advanced the time about 13 days. I cruise to the closest ship.

Vessel report.
Space time, cosmic event and military in the same report doesn't sound good. Lets see what we can find on this military vessel.



I dock the ship and roll out Budd to scan before entering the ship. 4 drones is the limit you can bring, Kellee is along this time. I'll repair Hailey when i get more scrap.


Send Budd in........ find a generator and computer interface. 


i use the remote upgrade to start the generator and bring Holly out to interface with the computer. Budd then fires up the motion detector, surrounded by 2 yellows and a red....hmmmmm...what to do. i also noticed that each computer interface is different, this time the only choices i get are to control the defensive turrets, no ship scan.


After a few minutes all kinds of shit starts happening. The plan i decide on was to bring Kellee out and use her probes to scan the rooms. She drops a probe[smiley face], i probe R5 successfully and get the probe through D4 and flash messages start hitting the console. First message, a pipe is leaking in R4 and radiation is flooding the room, then D12 fails and as i'm trying to digest what this means more messages start popping in.......a seal on a airlock yet unseen is failing and 30 seconds later the seal fails and radiation starts moving through rooms toward me.......Ok...OK... I'm thinking its time to bug out. I'm not sure when or if D12 will fail and radiation will flood the rooms i'm in, not even sure what that means for drones but other electronics are getting destroyed as the radiation moves forward. Check the messages.......time to GO.



Not much treasure this trip. Its strikes me as very strange that all that shit started to go wrong quickly, was there something on the ship i wasn't supposed to find? Sabotage? Military ship scanned as stable, crazy AI....hmmmm...coincidence or maybe i'm just paranoid :uglystupid2: 

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

-budd-

Duskers
System 2
Ship #2
Days survived:23

Vessel Report
Government ship, classified directive, volatile hull integrity.....sounds like fun.


i've been rethinking my strategy, i don't think sending Budd in first is the best strategy. Budd is my only drone that can gather scrap and use the motion detector. If Budd goes down and i cant recover those modules i'm screwed, no more scrap gathering. With that in mind i send in Kellee, after Budd scans when we dock. Kellee finds a generator, i use the remote to fire it up.



Kelle also finds a computer interface, so i send in Budd and Holly. Holly interfaces with the computer and Budd scans the rooms. There's a new command i haven't seen before "survey" it shows the layout of the ship. The scan shows 2 yellows and a red, time to have Kellee release a probe.


I get Kellee next to D10 to release the probe and i can see a turret on the other side, is it armed???


i back Kellee off and release a probe, crack open D10 and the probe goes in and i shut the door behind it. i work the probe through all the doors i have power too,D10-D8-D20-D19-D18-D12, all the way to the corner. The probe scans the rooms as it goes...handy.


i send Kellee into R5 to check it out, all the way to the drone "Kyle". One thing, that object in front of Kellee is a vent, a vent is what an infestation i call the swarm uses to move from one part of the ship to another. haven't met the Swarm in this play through yet.


I'm just doing my thing, Budd picking up the scrap, got Holly at another computer terminal when a flash message appears....shit. Potential asteroid collision in 6m 37 sec. ....see message below, R10 is where Holly is....time to bug out again. i do have six minutes and i am going to tow that drone out and retrieve my probe. It seemed to take forever, there was no countdown so your just guessing on the time, never did see another message. Part of me wanted to wait to see what would happen when/if it hit.....i bugged out.


End of search summary. i got a new module "Sonic"  it says it repels organic enemies or something to that effect.


I've now survived as long as any other run, of course this one is on easy start ;D. i do wonder if that message was bullshit about the asteroid just to get me off the ship.....hmmm...don't know and i'm no closer to finding out.
This is as far as i've played, so you know as much as i do.......to be continued.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

JudgeDredd

Alba gu' brath

-budd-

Duskers
system 2
Ships searched 2
Days survived:23

Status check or what have we learned,what do we do, and what the hell is going on.

Sometimes I start playing a game by just going full tilt and don't stop to consider what the game is trying to tell me, what messages i've received, what i should be upgrading or doing. With that in mind time for a little recap.

What do we know:
1. Some kind of cosmic event with time/space has screwed shit up.....check
2. I'm apparently the only known survivor at this point.....check.....I weep for mankind :'(
3. From the log communications something to do with an AI.......check......getting a Shodan feeling here.
4. I'm on a 5 year mission...wait..wait..that's another story.

did i miss something...yea..probably.

Objectives........ or...... what the hell should we do.
1.Keep scavenging for fuel/scrap.....check....seems important to survival.
2.Look for survivors......check.......no luck so far, unless we count infestations.
3.Gather ships logs for further information.....check
  3a. Focus on military ship logs....check

What's our current status......or..... have we fuc*ked things up beyond repair yet.
Current Galaxy Map. Seems we uncovered another system "I" and it looks like it takes 2 jumps to get there, 2 is all i have at the moment.



Current system map. 2 ships searched[yellow], still no idea what that other icon indicates. i have 4/6 propulsion with 4 in reserve. Side note, you can't revisit ships once you leave them.


Ship status: not much going on here, i have one upgrade, remote power inlet. I have to keep an eye on the failure probability, currently 6.9%


Didn't know you could create modules, see what actually paying attention to the screens does. Thinking about shuffling some things and putting Budd back on point.


I decide to scrap Kyle for 7 and buy the speed upgrade for Budd for 5 scrap. 70 HP doesn't seem like a lot, i already have Holly at 70HP.


Current line up.I swapped some stuff around, gave Budd the probe module and Kellee the offensive stuff. The sonic module says it repels organic matter..huh...have i met anything organic yet?


So did something really happen with the time/space and i'm the last survivor or is it all an AI construct or something in between........is this the Matrix? :wow:
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

JasonPratt

I'm going with "warp demons".

It's the only way to be sure.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

-budd-

Duskers
System 2
Ship #3
Days Survived:25

No un-corrupted communication logs


Usual Routine; Dock ship, scan, if yellow drop probe open A1 and close behind probe.


Remote power the generator in R2 and then R5 to advance the probe. probe takes damage [turns red] in R4, get probe out then close D12. infestations remains in R4. Find a ship upgrade in R3, bring in Holly to tow it back.



Search all rooms around infestation gathering scrap. After that lure infestation through D8 so i can get to R4 as there is a fuel access point in there, unfortunately its empty. Pack up and leave after that.


My scrap total is building, which is a good because my equipment is wearing out.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

-budd-

Duskers
System 2
Ships 3&4
Days survived:28

I'm going to hit the high points of the next 2 ships. Fuel is running low and I've reached a new point in the game.

Ship 3, no logs again.


This shot is as i'm departing. A probe gets KIA'd in R7 and dies in the doorway so i cant close the door D14. I close D13 and D3 to contain the infestations but i have to assume that it can travel between R7 & R5. There's a fuel access point i have to get to, turns out its empty...again. i end up luring the infestations to R10 and leaving it there as i had already searched that area. I bring Holly in to interface with the console in R7, nothing unusual.The upgrade in R8 is fixed so i can't tow it back. all i got was some scrap.


i'm up to 40 scrap...bad news..my interface module breaks and.........it cant be repaired, shit. i fix the rest up, scrap is going quick.



Ship 4
Got access to a log this time.Looks like i'm suppose to search outposts also, haven't see any yet.



Another ship, another lost probe...sigh. i dock at A1 and send out the probe, the probe starts getting attacked in R7, and goes down. There's a turret in R8 but since i lost the interface module its of no use to me. i do end luring the infestations into R8 and leave it there as i search. A pipe ruptures in R6, radiation starts filling the room...now you would think i would think close D8 to contain it...nope both rooms get contaminated. Not much else here, i re-dock my ship at A3 and take off. i'm up to 11 scrap but now the probe module needs repair, cost 10 scrap.




Again this is me not paying attention. Turns out you can highlight the icon on the system map and it will show what it is to the right. Well looky here, we have a Stargate. Now I've seen the movie "Stargate" so kind of have expectations of how this will work. I have 0/6 propulsion but 4 in reserve, 1/50 scrap and still 2 jumps. it will cost 3 out of the 4 reserve to get to the stargate. My current universe map is blank, that should change soon.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

-budd-

Duskers
Galaxy 2

I hop through the stargate and end up in a new galaxy "H". The new galaxy has 4 systems, the system my ship is in has 8 icons for searching.


Here's the new icons. My propulsion refilled with the jump so i have 6 to travel with. The stargate made the jump free, got a message after the jump that my long range scanner is breaking down, i put it in inventory until i have the scrap to repair.


To be continued.
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.