Metal Gear Solid 5

[Zloth]

I've been doing that with the ToS. The game actually did notice when my internet connection dropped so it does keep in contact with something but all it did was say I couldn't play online until the problem was fixed.

Staying offline does mess with balance a little because you don't get a Forward Operations Base which adds to what you can mine. That doesn't seem to be too big of a deal, though. I'm not close to half way through the game and I've got most parts of my base to 3/4 modules. D-Dog has something that requires your security group's level to get to 20, too, which I guess I won't be seeing. You also don't get to send as many groups out on mercenary missions.

 

[joxer]

Having FOB is needed only for superhighlevel tech.
Those stuff is not needed anywhere in singleplayer game, I guess you need them only in multiplayer.

Your security group will surpass level 20, but you won't do missions with D-Dog anyway. You'll use D-Horse or D-Walker in a few and Quiet in rest of missions.

Mercenary missions are pretty much irrelevant unless you're trying to 100% the game. And the only one that matters is various plantgathering so you don't have to go grind tranquilizer necessary plants in live mode. Getting fuel is also nifty through it, but you can get it all way to the cap by checkpointscumming a certain mission.

 

[Zloth]

D-Walker has some security team level limits, too. But I don't have a security team - I presume because I don't have a FOB to put them on. Or do they open up later?

 

[joxer]

You get the security unit in main mission 21 or 22 (forgot which one).
FOB or no FOB you still get it.

 

[Zloth]

Almost finished the Voices mission. Got my chopper blown up so I restarted from last checkpoint... and the game restarted THE ENTIRE MISSION! Two nights of play are now gone thanks to the stupid, totally unnecessary checkpoint save system.

 

[joxer]

IMO it's the biggest flaw in this game (singleplayer).
Inferior hardware obsession = fail designs. The game was obviously planned for consoles that don't know what's HDD or SSD.
The design fail didn't stop PCGamer to put GOTY on it for some reason though, I'll try to explain why they should have criticized it instead of praise.

The game is openworld.
MGS5 has rare checkpoints, in some missions you'll play an hour in between two, and thanks to god or some other higher being I didn't suffer power shortage while playing MGS5 otherwise I'd hate the game.
When it comes to openworld, if there will be checkpoints, those should happen frequently and without instarespawn of mobs/ress, that's how FarCry3 works and that's why that game is great. But as seen in other openworlds, Gothic and Risen games, TES games, Beth's FO games, TW3 and DA:I, openworlds work the best if you can save anywhere (outside of combat) so you can explore without being scared you'll lose hours of game if you die somewhere.

Passing through any checkpoint causes buffer cleaning and recalculations - in MGS5 you can manually checkpointscum by passing through one checkpoint over and over (which in freeroam respawns sideop mobs/ress).
The most common abuse to get a mass of resources in Hellbound mission is to fulton 3 containers (you need wormhole fulton upgrade though), read the… the… manuscript? to force the checkpoint then press ESC and choose mission replay. Doing this over and over nets you hundreds of thousands of fuel and gems.
You need better recruits? No problem! To get a mass of superb quality staff just go on zombies sideops (wandering puppets), fulton a few of them just not all then move away from the zone to force a checkpoint which will respawn them all as long as mission is not done!
And just when I thought it can't be worse than that, someone discovered you can duplicate any vehicle as many times as you want:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/287700/discussions/0/487870763300434882/

Checkpoints idiocy that originates from stone age and ZX Spectrum/C64 games should be banned on modern PC instead of being awarded with GOTY "plaque". And PCGamer should start ignoring game graphics and concentrate more on game mechanics.

 

[Zloth]

The checkpoint save is definitely a bad thing, IMHO. I can see *some* point in it because missions count the number of times you have to use a checkpoint but that doesn't seem worth the risk of having just one save file to me.

Another annoyance: the interface. This game is complex and could use a lot of commands. To make it work on a controller, they obviously had to get a bit weird with things. Unfortunately, those weird choices got translated directly when going to PC instead of getting reworked. For instance, you only use 4 keys to select what item to use which gets really clunky given that you can carry well over a dozen items at once. Why couldn't they map to more keys? Or selection via a radial mouse menu? <sigh>

There is a lot of fun in it, too, of course. If you liked taking over bases in Far Cry 3 then you'll love this game. You'll be taking bases big and small over and over again. Being able to pick your buddy and weapon load-out adds variety (and now I'm starting to customize individual weapons).

 

[joxer]

I didn't think itemselect was bad, while could have been better unlike some other consoleports in MGS5 at least it works without a glitch.

But iDroid is plain horrible. It's basically a phone touchscreen ported on PC/consoles and as such is a disaster both on PC and consoles.

Weapon customization is a must. As soon as you can add a silencer on snipers, do it!

 

[Zloth]

Did - though they still aren't terribly good silencers.

The iDroid interface is definitely weak. The NAME, however, is classic!

I'm starting to wonder about that whole "morale" thing. Running around my own base and occasionally beating up some of my own staff is starting to wear thin.

 

[joxer]

Why are you beating them up? Just don't - the rumor that it boosts up their skills is not true.
You get them morale up a bit with salute, but it's so small and irrelevant gain you should skippit.

Concentrate on your motherbase unit levels and max them (4/4) as quality recruits depend on that. Soon after you deal with the mech boss, there will be many A++ and S soldiers to grab. Easier and faster than trying to grind them up with morale.

 

[Zloth]

I'm beating them up because I can! And every once in a while it makes a diamond or two spawn when I put a knife to their throat. Really, though, most of the time I just run by them. And maybe shoot at them with tranq guns from the chopper… (Taking a job with a business that exists only in international waters? stupid mercs! )

If the morale boost is actually supposed to be boosting their level, though, I shouldn't be bothering. Enemy levels keep going up out in the field (I don't even fulton anyone that doesn't have at least an A now and that's starting to move to A+) so they'll just get replaced anyway.

 

[joxer]

One thing I do remember is I didn't have any $ problem in the game, so those diamonds were not interesting…
Why I had no $ problems? All siege weapons (static bigguns) I fultoned and sold. These stuff is used only in MMO part.
Just don't sell vehicles if you plan to do special offteam deployment ops as different ones are required there and it can happen you lose a vehicle if a mission fails. Sure, you can grind them back, but why should you.

 

[Zloth]

Actually, you COULD use those guns in the mission that opens up the security team. I didn't, though.

I've sold off some trucks and jeeps but I've been fulton'ing every one I find (I get 50 fultons per drop now). I sold off a bunch of mortars, too. The big guns I'm keeping for a little bit because they look cool. I think I've about maxxed them out so I'll start selling them soon. If only I could set up a pet store! If I could sell gerbils, bats, and ravens for just 1GMP each I think I would be set for life.

The number of upgrades you can buy is just ridiculous! Hand guns, shot guns, assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenades, grenade launchers, grenade launchers stuck on assault rifles, hand guns stuck on sniper rifles, cardboard boxes… and that's just for Snake! It actually acts an awful lot like class advancement.

Edit: Something I just learned: when up against extra difficult enemies with health bars, the top (red) bar is health just like you would expect. The bottom (blue) bar is not a shield, though, it's awareness. Blast away with the sleep weapons to deplete that.

 

[joxer]

Or you can drop something by helicopter on top of their head to "deplete" blue.

 

[Zloth]

100 hours in and it starts chapter two!

 

[joxer]

Goodie!
Btw, ch2 is shorter. A hint:
From ACC return to motherbase frequently!

 

[Zloth]

Yeah, it seems to have a cut scene every time I head back.

 

[Zloth]

I hear the rain

A nice little MGS5 rain video... well, mostly. It is Metal Gear.

 

[Zloth]

Errr, I finished Truth and Disappearance. Is that it for the story? I've got one more picture for Paz but the rest seems to be done. (It's hard to tell with this game because it shows credits at the end of every mission!)

 

[joxer]

Ending is branched into two missions:
Episode 45: A Quiet Exit
Episode 46: Truth - The Man Who Sold the World

If you did just one of these two, you still didn't "finish" the game.

Episodes marked with total stealth, subsustence and extreme are just replays of normal episodes with the same name but harder difficulty (although still easy to 100% or S rank if you studied the game mechanics).
Paz photo cuts are irrelevant and the whole thing is one of design fails in MGS5. It's basically a love letter to suckers who paid 20 bucks for MGS5 tech demo and who know what happened to Paz there.

Hint for 100% in episode 45: weather change desertstorm.
Hint for Paz: last photo is in the hall.