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 Evil Genius 2 is releasing March 30th, 2021 on Steam (Time TBA) Evil Genius 2 is the sequel to Evil Genius (2004) where you are the titular evil genius mastermind building a secret lair and sending minions and henchmen to do your bidding in an effort to get rich and take over the world! You also have plenty of traps to research and lay around your secret island that is constantly being invaded by the factions you steal and plot against. While Evil Genius 1 had a very unique 60's pop style look to it, Evil Genius 2 has kept that bright look but moved to a more cartoony style. Evil Geniuses In Evil Genius 1 you selected from 3 different Evil Genius characters, who had differing bonuses, but played through the game the same. With Evil Genius 2, they're saying each Evil Genius will have their own campaign, and each will emphasis a different gameplay mechanic through their bonuses, like certain kinds of minions or using traps. Only Maximillian is returning from Evil Genius 1, but Red Ivan has been promoted to one   Secret Lair Your secret lair is the most important part of being an Evil Genius! Starting on your secret island of your choice you will need to blast through the rock to build your lair made up of corridors, specialized rooms, and security cameras and traps to stop unwanted trespassers from getting too far in to your base. While this is mostly a 2D grid based layout, Evil Genius 2 raises it by adding levels to your lair. While your secret base will attract unwanted visitors from factions across the world, it will also bring in tourists! You'll be able to create tourists honeytraps in the form of casinos to keep them away from your base and to generate some income as well. Henchmen An Evil Genius needs their bodyguard and that's where henchmen come in! They are a small selection of special characters (of which you could only get up to 3 max in the first game) that stand to protect you and your base from any foe. They have special abilities to can be used offensively or defensively, and in some cases even buff your minions. To recruit henchmen you will first need to prove to them that you are a notorious enough evil genius. Minions  You'll need plenty of bodies to build and run your base as well as doing your bidding across the globe. Your recruited minions, their most basic form, can do all the tasks needed to build and run your base, but not very well. Each minion can be trained in to 3 different specialization trees: Muscle, Science, and Deception. Minions of each type can do their kind of tasks very well (i.e. muscle minions are great security guards), and can also have different bonuses when sent our across the world to do your evil tasks. Agents Countering you and your minions are the enemy agents belonging to the multiple factions across the world. As your piss each faction off and become more notorious, they will send more experience agents to your secret base. Starting with simple investigators who are just looking around and are easily taken care of, to commando groups that will breach your lair and wreak havoc inside. This can be escalated all the way to Special Agents, which are the counter to your henchmen, which are very powerful agents that may take special and unique techniques to take them out. World Domination The main goal of Evil Genius is to become to most notorious person on the planet and have complete domination of everyone. With your minions and your secret lair as a command center, you can start sending them out on assignments to gain notoriety and cash, or to capture certain characters. There are special artifacts or items that can be looted and brought back to your base for you to display and give your minions bonuses. They've release a quite a few videos showcasing the game so far, so honestly just check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrB12L-qQ44 They also got fuckin' Brian Blessed to be the voice of Red Ivan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=444qJSmyVzE&t=2s Here's a playlist of the rest of their videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt7SlVSjrlCVui6QnidxYuV_zijXszvu_ Platforms Evil Genius 2 has been announced to be on PC and Steam so far. https://store.steampowered.com/app/700600/Evil_Genius_2_World_Domination/
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Mar 11, 2021 23:49
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As janky as it is, I loved Evil Genius 1. I hope theres a fast forward though. Does seem to be more of a clone with graphical evolution than a sequel though really, everything from rooms to minions to henchmen seem like a direct copy and paste from the original.
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Mar 11, 2021 23:58
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Loved EG1, and started replaying it by coincidence back in January, which has got me very hyped for this release. It looks good so far, and I've pre-ordered it.Weasling Weasel posted:Does seem to be more of a clone with graphical evolution than a sequel though really, everything from rooms to minions to henchmen seem like a direct copy and paste from the original. I think you're right there to begin with, and I'm not upset by that. It looks like it's basically just another pass through the EG world, with different Acts of Infamy and different shaped bases. Very much more-of-the-same with modern comforts, which is basically exactly what I want out of it at first. I hope that the different islands and diferent henchmen/campaigns give enough difference to the core gameplay that it keeps that aspect of the game engaging during replays. It's worth noting that the deluxe edition already mentions inclusion of the first season pass, which I'm pretty happy with becuase it implies there's going to be some ongoing development and support to this. The sales pitch mentions that the season pass will include 1x new campaign/genius/island location pack, 1x new set of lair items, 2x new henchmen packs and 2x new minion packs.. I really hope the new campaign pack has the heft of an Anno 1800 season pass update, as that's a sizeable amount of content that will help with the game's longevity. I'm also interested to see what the minion pack includes - if it's new types of minions, that could radically change gameplay in ways that keep it exciting too. So yeh, happy with the base game at release to be much of the same, because it's a tried-and-true enjoyable concept and I am more than ready to play basically EG1 with modern comforts. If they then really begin to evolve the game at season passes, sign me up. Another thing that's interesting is that the preorder material mentons minions interacting with lair loot to gain bonuses. I'm glad they're fleshing out how loot works - the stat regeneration from EG1 was pretty basic. Keen to see how deep that plays out too. gently caress SNEEP posted:They also got fuckin' Brian Blessed to be the voice of Red Ivan Nam Taf fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Mar 12, 2021 01:50
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I'm hoping the game is moddable to hell. I still love the dumb "Realistic gunplay" mod I made as a young teenager for the first game that was just increasing the damage of gun minions, agents, and turrets by a factor of 10.
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Mar 12, 2021 02:39
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Nam Taf posted:Loved EG1, and started replaying it by coincidence back in January, which has got me very hyped for this release. It looks good so far, and I've pre-ordered it. I also played through EG1 again! Still (mostly) holds up, but the game was always a little rough around the edges... this unofficial patch I got that fixed a lot of issues also seems to have rebalanced it a bit and made the game much more easy. It was pretty tough originally so I didn't mind!
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Mar 12, 2021 05:14
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gently caress SNEEP posted:I also played through EG1 again! Still (mostly) holds up, but the game was always a little rough around the edges... this unofficial patch I got that fixed a lot of issues also seems to have rebalanced it a bit and made the game much more easy. It was pretty tough originally so I didn't mind! Eh, I dunno. A lot of EG1 is pretty much just sitting around doing absolutely nothing and it has a ton of frustrating mechanics (You can't force a minion to interrogate someone, prisoners slowly lose HP; Minions doing a task is based on proxmity ignoring walls). I think the stuff people remember about EG really fondly is the base building, which is generally pretty good, but that's like the first hour of what you do in a 20 hour game. You played it recently, but did you finish it?  They do seem to be doing a bit more for the other gameplay like letting you take an active measure to reduce heat, which does bode well at least.
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Mar 12, 2021 05:57
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I finished EG1 a few times, it was great. Janky in some ways but the base building stuff had a high ceiling for complexity, like you could still be unlocking new stuff for a long time and it was fun to create a distracting hotel in addition to a rube goldberg murder maze
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Mar 12, 2021 06:48
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The only thing that really annoyed me in Evil Genius 1 was the fact that heat could spring up on you out of nowhere, and once the Killbot Soldier Brigade was on your island you might as well give up, they could take out all your henchmen in a sneeze. Also Jet Chan could eat a dick. Dude necessitated taking Lord Kane just to paralyze him before he dropkicked all your valets.
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Mar 12, 2021 11:33
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I did not expect a sequel to Evil Genius in 2021! As said it seems like it's basically an upgrade with tweaks and fixes for more janky stuff which is exactly what that game needed.
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Mar 12, 2021 15:42
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DeathChicken posted:The only thing that really annoyed me in Evil Genius 1 was the fact that heat could spring up on you out of nowhere, and once the Killbot Soldier Brigade was on your island you might as well give up, they could take out all your henchmen in a sneeze. Ya the super agents are a really crappy part of Evil Genius 1. If you don't know the one way to take them out they will destroy your entire base. I think I've had to look it up every time I've encountered them 
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Mar 12, 2021 21:16
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Acerbatus posted:Eh, I dunno. A lot of EG1 is pretty much just sitting around doing absolutely nothing and it has a ton of frustrating mechanics (You can't force a minion to interrogate someone, prisoners slowly lose HP; Minions doing a task is based on proxmity ignoring walls). Chart me up as someone who played the first hour of EG1 and selectively remembers nothing else about it Looking forward to seeing what this sequel improves on
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Mar 12, 2021 21:20
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Been looking more into this game and they have outright improved some aspects. Take the Bodies for example. In the old game you had to make a large freezer to store all the bodies, which you may need to expand quite a bit to fit all the new bodies. In 2 they just made a new item the incinerator that your minions will take bodies to to dispose of them. The newest AMA plus gameplay demo also shows off some other little new things. Like how minion traits determine the priority for jobs and such. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZyAzAohoEw
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Mar 12, 2021 21:58
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Nam Taf posted:Another thing that's interesting is that the preorder material mentons minions interacting with lair loot to gain bonuses. I'm glad they're fleshing out how loot works - the stat regeneration from EG1 was pretty basic. Keen to see how deep that plays out too. They show a good example of this in a recent video with the Sands of Time loot item. The Sands make it so that items in it's aura don't degrade, so your science minions can ignore having to repair them. Weasling Weasel posted:As janky as it is, I loved Evil Genius 1. I hope theres a fast forward though. Does seem to be more of a clone with graphical evolution than a sequel though really, everything from rooms to minions to henchmen seem like a direct copy and paste from the original. There is a fast forward. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Mar 12, 2021 22:00
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MonsterEnvy posted:Been looking more into this game and they have outright improved some aspects. Very optimistic for this. Even if it's just largely the first game with improvements it will be nice to see. Generally it was just AI and bad design decisions holding the first game back.
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Mar 12, 2021 22:48
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I loved the first game as a kid and am very much on board with what I'm seeing so far. The first EG had a great base building and trap setting system, but the minion AI and the fact that everything on the map was kind of just idle game stuff meant you could end up with long stretches of nothing if you didn't know how to keep yourself entertained. I actually went back and played it again a bit last year and it definitely felt unfinished or rushed, so I think there is something to be said for EG2 being more of the same but with more polish and modern QOL stuff. One thing I LOVED about EG that I wish more base builders did was how they set up the campaign so that you moved to a second, brand new island to give you a chance to re-do your whole base with the full suite of toys available, compared to having to slowly flesh out your first base and expand as you unlocked more stuff. I love the feeling of hitting the second island all excited to design your ideal lair after you realize all the bottlenecks and issues with your old layout
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Mar 13, 2021 00:01
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For fun going to put some of the left over information I was going to put out when I planned on making this thread. (Was just beaten to it.) Namely the Evil Genius differences. Should note while different Evil Geniuses are going to be focused on different aspects, I don't know all the details just some basic abilities. All Characters have stats called Smarts and Morale that their abilities tend to consume that refill over time. Evil Geniuses tend to have 100 of both. Maximilian  The Evil Genius poster boy. Max serves as the balanced Evil Genius able to branch out well into the Muscle, Science, and Deception Trees as opposed to the other's tending to favor one. He is most focused on minions and having a large stockpile of specialists. Abilities. Work Harder: An aura that causes minions to focus on jobs in Max's vicinity and rally to him. Train faster: Causes any minion training near Max to instantly complete. Large work force: Max starts with extra minions, and earns gold more reliably then other Geniuses. Passive. Red Ivan  A former Henchman from the first game promoted to full Evil Genius. His focus is on the muscle tree, and if needed getting into the fray himself. Abilities. Do it now!: An aura that causes minions to focus on jobs in Ivan's vicinity and rally to him. Minions in the aura receive a combat boost. Old School: Ivan takes out his Rocket Launcher and can use it to blast anyone you wish, use with caution to avoid blowing up your own base. Might makes right: Ivan's muscle minion's are cheaper to train, and even his workers tend to come with traits making them better at battle. Passive. Emma  An ex S.A.B.R.E Spymaster that was humiliated by her defeat in the first game, and decided to take over the world in response. She is the deception focused Evil Genius for the more subtle type, who also likes to work closely with her chosen Henchmen. Abilities. Pay attention!: An aura that causes minions to focus on jobs in Emma's vicinity and rally to her. This also increases the spotting power of minions near her, allowing them to see through agent disguises easier. Plotter: Emma gives a Henchman a pep talk, resetting their cooldowns, and buffing them. Spymaster: Emma's deception minions are more efficient, and she can more easily reduce heat around the world. Passive. Zalika  A billionaire scientist zealot that thinks the world would be better in her hands. She is the science focused Genius who is also great at base management. Abilities. My plans take priority!: An aura that causes minions to focus on jobs in Zalika's vicinity and rally to her. Science Minions receive a bigger boost to preforming these jobs. Repair: Zalika instantly repairs items and puts out all fires in her aura using smarts... and nanobots. True Genius: Zalika's Science minions complete research much faster. Passive. Will go over the starting Henchmen in a bit.
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Mar 13, 2021 00:11
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rideANDxORdie posted:
They're not doing that this time. However there's 3 different islands and they have multiple floors. They showed how they are different too. One has the helipad in the middle so you build around it leaving you with less space, while the other has it outside so forces of good can use it too but you have more space
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Mar 13, 2021 00:37
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gently caress SNEEP posted:From The OP I like Brian, he's always fun. But jeesus he's phoning it in for this character. He never exactly had range, but I guess as he's approaching 85, he has more excuse now than he's ever had.
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Mar 13, 2021 00:51
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Like the four Evil Geniuses there are also four starting henchmen that you can recruit from near the start of the game. Eli Barracuda Jr  Son of original game Henchman Eli Barracuda. Eli serves as a mix of deception and muscle. Abilities Silver Revolver: Eli takes out his six shot gun. Which can be used to murder people from a range. Costs 80 morale. Silver Tongue: Eli starts charming a target, regenerating his stats while dealing resolve damage to the target. (Which will make them go home if it goes to zero.) IRIS  The AI of your computer that you can place into an android body to serve you in the field as well as giving you messages about things to do. Has a fairly powerful ranged attack and helps security. Abilities Reroute Power: IRIS takes reduced damage and rapidly heals damage she has taken. Costs 2 Morale a second. Security Network Link: Iris starts to function as a 360° camera, allowing her to summon guards to her location, and keep a better eye out for intruders. Cost 1 Smarts a second. Janet Bombe  A fan of the evil genius who wants to prove herself to them. Also an excellent hacker. More of a support type rather then a fighter. Despite her name does not blow things up. Abilities Remote Detonation: Janet hacks a targeted agent's munitions to turn them against their owners. The effects vary. Cost 25 Smarts Scramble Evidence: Janet removes a large amount of suspicion from an investigator. Cost 40 Morale. Jubei  A henchman from the original game. Now older and maybe wiser. He preforms the same role as he did in the original, serving as an assassin and enforcer. Abilities Flow: A temporary buff that makes him deal more damage while active. Costs 50 Smarts Windwalk: "Jubei becomes one with the wind and teleports to a targeted location. Just like wind can teleport." Costs 25 Morale. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 06:59 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 01:37
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It's pretty cool how Even if Lord Kane was the only good henchman. A possibly interesting video, a longform review of Evil Genius 1 by youtuber tehsnakerer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-404kgsaDA I think he's fair on it, and he had a number of points he both liked and disliked, it came out right after EG2 was announced in 2017. rideANDxORdie posted:I loved the first game as a kid and am very much on board with what I'm seeing so far. The first EG had a great base building and trap setting system, but the minion AI and the fact that everything on the map was kind of just idle game stuff meant you could end up with long stretches of nothing if you didn't know how to keep yourself entertained. I actually went back and played it again a bit last year and it definitely felt unfinished or rushed, so I think there is something to be said for EG2 being more of the same but with more polish and modern QOL stuff. The worst thing about island 2 is that all your poo poo's sitting on the lawn and your heat blasts up to 10000% because any errant agent starts taking selfies with them like a teenager on instagram. Acerbatus fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 02:29
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I worry about their "seasons" and already knowing dlc plans and their "we have nothing to announce at this time" answer to workshop mods.
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Mar 13, 2021 02:43
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Yeah, the only real way around that I found was to immediately order a big tunnel, then stuff all the treasure in there before the agents turned up. It usually bought enough time to start the base proper and move the treasure elsewhere.
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Mar 13, 2021 02:43
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wukkar posted:I worry about their "seasons" and already knowing dlc plans and their "we have nothing to announce at this time" answer to workshop mods. They have already said that mod support will be there. Also we know exactly what the planned DLC is and it looks cool.
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Mar 13, 2021 03:09
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MonsterEnvy posted:For fun going to put some of the left over information I was going to put out when I planned on making this thread. (Was just beaten to it.) Ah the true OP has arrived! Thanks for the actually effort posts, they're really appreciated 
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Mar 13, 2021 03:17
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When someone bought the original property I genuinely expected they'd shutter the IP and that'd be it so I'm gonna give them whatever they ask for this franchise is precious to me.
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Mar 13, 2021 03:24
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"An ex S.A.B.R.E Spymaster that was humiliated by her defeat in the first game" I'm vaguely curious about this. There's a lot of old and new faces, what are they saying happened in 1?
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Mar 13, 2021 06:18
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Bloodly posted:"An ex S.A.B.R.E Spymaster that was humiliated by her defeat in the first game" Ok this is more or less what has been explained. During the events of the original game, an Evil Genius took over the world. Defeating the Forces of Justice Organizations of H.A.M.M.E.R. S.A.B.R.E. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. A.N.V.I.L. and S.M.A.S.H. Said Evil Genius recruited Red Ivan, and Jubei, and was not Maximilian. Red Ivan under winning Genius was granted his own country which he called Ivania. At some point the Evil Genius that took over the world got tried of it or something and vanished. Without the Evil Genius the Evil Origination started falling apart. The FoJ took this opportunity to rebuild, and overthrow the evil organization resulting in Ivania being destroyed and other things. As a result of this the borders for the FoJ organizations have changed a lot. Here is the original game's map  And most of the new games  Anyway now a new Genius is trying to take over the world. Also John Steele is back presumably as the S.A.B.R.E. super agent.
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Mar 13, 2021 06:52
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Have they said why Maximillian looks the same despite Jubei going from a young man to old dude?
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Mar 13, 2021 07:50
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Acerbatus posted:Have they said why Maximillian looks the same despite Jubei going from a young man to old dude? he was 12 years old in the first game, obviously.
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Mar 13, 2021 07:53
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Acerbatus posted:Have they said why Maximillian looks the same despite Jubei going from a young man to old dude? Not yet. Though Maximillian does not look the same. He was much chubbier in the first game. It could be that Jubei was just older then he looked in the first game. Max was actually stated as being fairly young back in Evil Genius 1. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Mar 13, 2021 |
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Mar 13, 2021 07:54
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Funso Banjo posted:I like Brian, he's always fun. But jeesus he's phoning it in for this character. He never exactly had range, but I guess as he's approaching 85, he has more excuse now than he's ever had. Can't say I agree. He's hamming it up, which is pretty much the tone that Evil Genius as a franchise is all about? Silly cheeseball bullshit. In that regard, Blessed is delivering.
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Mar 13, 2021 07:56
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Acerbatus posted:Have they said why Maximillian looks the same despite Jubei going from a young man to old dude? I presume he's one of those people who age doesn't quite touch visually. Think Patrick Stewart.
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Mar 13, 2021 08:48
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I am looking forward to this because EG1 was fun, however hope that they make the endgame less crap and out of island missions more interesting than place your valuable agents on the map and watch them die.
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Mar 13, 2021 10:59
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MonsterEnvy posted:Also John Steele is back presumably as the S.A.B.R.E. super agent. motherfucker
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Mar 13, 2021 14:37
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Sekenr posted:I am looking forward to this because EG1 was fun, however hope that they make the endgame less crap and out of island missions more interesting than place your valuable agents on the map and watch them die. Apparently sending minions out will cost you them anyway. Minions apparently don't return to base after being sent out to the map.
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Mar 13, 2021 19:31
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MonsterEnvy posted:Apparently sending minions out will cost you them anyway. Minions apparently don't return to base after being sent out to the map. Interesting that they're making minions disposable like that considering how long it can take to train them. I have no problem sending however many yellow minions, though.
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Mar 15, 2021 05:00
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gently caress SNEEP posted:Interesting that they're making minions disposable like that considering how long it can take to train them. I have no problem sending however many yellow minions, though. Given that you've got a ton more space to work with you can probably afford bigger training complexes in vanilla, like if you mod Evil Genius 1 for 400 minions. It'll presumably not hurt as much to send eight or ten assorted minions out if you're training each class in batches of half a dozen.
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Mar 15, 2021 05:20
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gently caress SNEEP posted:Ya the super agents are a really crappy part of Evil Genius 1. If you don't know the one way to take them out they will destroy your entire base. I think I've had to look it up every time I've encountered them Spin Doctors my man! EG1 was a great game and the simplicity of the mechanics was perfect. What I don't want is having to micro my minions and I definitely don't want to do "chores" to keep gauges from filling up. Let me build my fortress as a passive defense to the various ways the game fights me including murder rooms, tourist distraction areas, interrogation etc etc.
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Mar 15, 2021 05:21
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We have some gameplay via someone playing the game. The issue is the guy playing the game is kind of annoying, and is kinda dumb, for sure not my style for LPs. I guess you can just mute and skip around if you want some extra info, and don't feel like listening to him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nckwfbeYWyQ&t=42s It does show me a cool new addition I like, Guard Posts. You can place spots in corridors that Guards will automatically move to when you place the base on alert. Meaning that you can easily send tough minions to defend important areas. gently caress SNEEP posted:Interesting that they're making minions disposable like that considering how long it can take to train them. I have no problem sending however many yellow minions, though. Complications posted:Given that you've got a ton more space to work with you can probably afford bigger training complexes in vanilla, like if you mod Evil Genius 1 for 400 minions. It'll presumably not hurt as much to send eight or ten assorted minions out if you're training each class in batches of half a dozen.
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Mar 15, 2021 06:04
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MonsterEnvy posted:Apparently sending minions out will cost you them anyway. Minions apparently don't return to base after being sent out to the map. i feel like this streamlines things. instead of having to remember to call your minions back, or leave them on the map getting attrited, you just 'spend' minions and then that's it, no more mental load required MonsterEnvy posted:We know that you can have at least 300 minions at a time in 2. While it may take a slight bit of time to replace higher tier specialists, sending out workers should not matter at all as they get replaced super fast anyway. this helps too. i always modded EG1 to allow for 200 minions, as the cap of 100 was way too restrictive - that's like 10 of each type. and then you don't have to think "well, i've got two kung fu masters in the pipeline, so with four to cover my base i can afford to send four out on a mission..." just send and forget em
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Mar 15, 2021 07:46
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