Dates with Death, and a poll

General Discussion
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I’ve been thinking about play styles quite a bit since the patch (not the DLC), and I’m curious how you all handle battles with the robots. Specifically, I’m curious how you all approach death in the game.

Do you avoid death at all costs? Do you look at a stack of adrenaline as a reasonable tool to get you through combat and keep bouncing back up like some kind of Easter terminator? When you’re fighting, does the prospect of death change how you handle a situation? For example, does the size of an upcoming battle affect your strategies or do you just queue up the robots for disassembly? If you take a heavy hit during 1v1 with a tank, would you consider dying and resurrecting as an alternative to spending a big medpack?

The last example leads into a similar question about healing, too. Are you constantly applying medpacks, or do you deal with that after an engagement? Do you expect to keep topping up, or just heal if you’re dangerously close to death?

I’ve tried to condense four approaches into a poll, because I don’t know where to start with understanding this. I would love to hear the reasoning or nuance behind your answers in the posts below. Lycka till där ut!

  • I avoid death at all costs and leave combat rather than die
  • I change tactics to avoid death, but it’s just a few seconds inconvenience if it happens
  • I don’t care if I die, it makes no difference to my style whatsoever
  • I intentionally use death for refilling health and leveling my rivals

0 voters

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This is a multi-facetted question, not that easy to answer. Thank you for that! :slight_smile:

I am a looter, so I have med packs in abundance. I think I even have like 10 stacks of those 5er dark green advanced medkits back in my plundra. I always have enough healing and so I use it without thinking. Although I usually don’t heal up to 100% in order to not waste any healing points. Not even in fights.

Initially I had only used the simple ones. When I got to a stage where I got enough light green ones, I mostly stopped collecting the simple ones. But I have enough of them ~20 on me to be able to top me off after a fight or taking fall damage. Now I am sort of on the verge of transitioning to the dark green ones, I think.

I never choose dying instead of healing. If I choose a fight, it is for the honor. I always try to kill my enemies without dying. If I die it is usually because I got surprised by multiple attacks of different enemies.

After dying, I usually come back to the fight. Usually, I am not using adrenaline. Because it does not make a difference for me. Dying and respawning, or using adrenaline on myself after death, both feel equally unrealistic to me. I don’t like either, and adrenaline is not the more “game-ethical” way for me. Not dying, or dying as few times as possible, is the most important aspect for me. Adrenaline I keep for co-op situations in order to save time for my buddies.

If there is a fight where I die a lot (2-3 times), I use a field radio if the location is remote. This happened to me when I encountered “just a few runners” at the entrance to the Farmlands airfield. It got a little out of hands after the next 12 enemies decided to join the party, particularly FNIX hunters. Nevertheless, I end what I start.

As I said, I usually come back to a fight. I sometimes switch from an aggressive all-out playstyle to a more stealthy one, particularly if a lot of enemies from the surroundings are drawn into the fight and I get overwhelmed. In very (!) rare occasions I might be tempted to break off a fight if it is too resource intensive to be justified. But that might be more related to ammo (HEDP, grenades) than meds now that I am later in the game. But usually not.

I might break off a fight or change tactics right after death, a death that I did not bring willingly over me. But as I tried to avoid the death at any cost, this does not feel like cheating to me. And I can’t remember when I did that the last time.

I hope that answers your question.

EDIT: Minor in-line edits.

[…does some figfhting…]

So… I actually think that using Adrenaline for me is more cheating than respawning. I just fought a rival hunter, and just as I was about to kill it one of its three companions showed up (they were hidden before) and took me down. As I was right behind the rival walking away, I opted for the Adrenaline, got resurrected and dismantled it. It felt a little like cheating.

Oh no, I am morally compromised. :disappointed:

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Good answer, @pegnose. Not unlike me except I don’t loot quite as much as you. It takes too much time and I don’t stack up in the Plundra. And I have only played solo.

In the beginning I died a lot and got very frustrated about it. To such an extend, actually, that I almost stopped playing.

Now I rarely die due to cautions gameplay, but I don’t plan a fight for more than a few minutes. Sometimes I get stuck in a thight spot, and might try to wait it out. But I rarely run from a fight, and if I do, I usually return.

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I do not care at all about death…sort of…lol. I play single & I am old with severe arthritis in my hands. Because of that I do not play games where K/D matter. I have learned to play close/near safehouses, I use tactics to draw the Machines closer to safe houses & such. One thing I love about this game is that there is NO wrong way to play it.
SPP

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Well, I find the entire game entirely unrealistic (but the world emulation is pretty good), but as a fantasy I certainly buy in to the games premises. Adrenaline is okay for me and much better than to respawn. This mechanism has been around for as long as I’ve been playing games. I find fast travel and the Plundra much more questionable and therefore try to avoid using that.

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I can see that. I find fast travel ok, but I would like some consequence of the lost time. The plundra being shared between locations is an issue. But as long as fast travel exists, it is just quality of life.

A non shared plundra would be something for a hardcore mode. It is still a safe box across sessions, but not suited for transporting items between regions.

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By the way and out of interest, @Flick, why a poll and not just a discussion? Polls are fine and I have voted, but will the result affect how you play? Again, I’m just curious :wink:

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I was never too keen on the Plundra, but I do agree to the increased quality of life argument. I would have preferred a separate stash (not globally coupled) in each church that would persist between sessions. Then you could stash up in each region and - if necessary - one could fast travel between. Anyway, it is a very minor issue for me

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I play tactically whenever possible. I plan each encounter as well as I can, and learn to spot visual cues like lights in the distance, moving shapes and the like, and audio cues since I play without the stealth indicator. The game’s excellent sound design helps me identify the sounds of the different Machines in the game. I’ve learned to recognise a Hunter’s footsteps, or an approaching Seeker at extreme ranges, with other sounds like wind in the trees present. Knowing those things helps me prepare for a fight.

When I do fight, I play safe whenever possible. Is there a two-story barn nearby I can take cover in? What does the surrounding terrain look like? If I’m facing a Military Tank, can I find obstacles to protect me from it’s mortar cannon, or the shockwave attack? Depending on the enemy numbers I can either risk taking them on in the open, or find shelter and pick them off.

If I’m in a fight near a safehouse, I’d rather respawn to save Adrenaline Shots, even if it means I lose XP doing it.

In multiplayer, me and a friend coordinate over microphone, pick our fights and rely on guerilla tactics to turn the battle in our favor whenever we can.

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Huh, is that a thing?

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If you’re fighting in a safehouse, what’s the point of using Adrenaline Shots when you can just respawn there? You’ll lose some XP, it’ll say “Escaped Combat” but that’s fine by me.

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And I thought all the time you gain a little XP for escaping, e.g. running away with your skin intact.

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So talking about fear of death I recently started the game in the safehouse I left it from. I could hear a hunter VERY close by, but I couldn’t see it. It took me a while to venture outside and I started to believe that I was hearing ghosts. It dawned to me, that the hunter had spawned inside a shed. It took me dome convincing myself to open one if the doors :fearful:

Tactics, yes, I try to fight from buildings whenever possible (and if gas grenades don’t rain on me). Then you can almost always find somewhere to recover in peace. Outside I find tree trunks to be fine cover from tank fire (except rockets).

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Hello there, i am death incarnate…but sometimes i also die (usually with Fnix hunters in the open), i am also a hoarder, i have 2 leveled characters serving as extended storage with heavy ammo and many dark green med kits, i have 20 adrenaline in storage and some always with me,i am a lone wolf and always try to avoid death, but never combat, the only exception is when near a safehouse, if i die i will not use adrenaline to spare it.
I am used to stealth and action and tactical oriented games so i m pretty good at this game , so none of the options apply to me?
(sorry for so many “i am i am”) :sweat_smile:

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@IanForce why a poll and not just a discussion?
I want to hear from as many players as I can. Not everyone wants to leave a nuanced comment, but hopefully some will find clicking a poll easy to do.
Polls often entice curiosity, so a small reason is to boost thread visibility and engagement.

Will it affect my play? It might. I won’t get into the weeds in this thread specifically, but I’ll say that I had so much fun with this game up until the latest patch, and suddenly that fun stopped. I don’t enjoy the game at all anymore. So, I’m reflecting on my experiences and trying to work out what’s going on and if I’ve missed something.

I suspect that my top priority or goal was to stay alive, and now I feel forced into either dying more often (and messing with adrenaline and safe houses) or limiting combat engagements so much there’s no real fight, just a one sided hammer from me. What I prized most seems inconsequential in the game world, and I don’t have a lot of fun when the game style is being dictated to me.

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Could you try to explain better why you are no longer having fun ?
Did you prefer a stealth approach ?
Or are you new and do not have the necessary skill points and weapons? (in no way i wish to disrespect).
If my experience can help another to enjoy the game it`s a win for me.

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Thanks for your response, @Mr_A1992. I’d put you in the “avoid at all costs” category, or at least what I had in mind behind it, if you’re changing what you’re doing instead of accepting a death as a temporary pause.

I’ll do a separate thread about the fun. To answer your question, I finished the game solo and I can handle a lot. Like you, I can be all Jane Wick if I have to.

I don’t think there’s one right way to look at the death mechanics, and the range of responses is good to see.

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Uh, thanks a lot, @Flick, that was very thorough and much more that I expected. You put a lot of thought into this. Like @Mr_A1992 I’m a bit curious about what took the fun away? For my own part, the update that introduced Rivals and experimental weapons put me down quite a bit because I couldn’t make sense of it, and perhaps it took me out of my comfort zone. Finally I knew the game, and now the rules got changed.

Have you considered playing co-op? Somebody could have your back, and taking down machines would be easier. Are you stocked up on high level weapons? Many players are generously giving away gold duplicates.

I plan to play Alpine in December. After that I’ll probably try out co-op to keep the fun alive.

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@IanForce I also play co-op with some people with different abilities and styles to each other, and I have all the weapons. It’s not that.

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I already finished the game so i no longer am worried with bugging the missions, the thing is i play on the PS4 but i gladly give any duplicates and even ammo! With the salvage perk i never run out of it, so if it helps somebody i`l do it :smiley:

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