Shoot Many Robots -- 2-2: Dirtfield Drive, Oil Fields
1Yep! We're back! ...to... this... thing... yeah! Keep on truckin' and git 'er done! ...or something! That's a big 10-4 good buddy. Wait, I'm getting my overblown and offensive generalizations crossed here, I think. (Don't worry, the pain won't last much longer.)
Sure, okay, that's normal... let's put our oil fields right next to the grain processing, there can't possibly be any threat of contamination or anything like that. (Although I'll admit up front that I have no experience in anything to do with grains or oil, much less both and their possible interactions with one another.)
We begin with a brief stopover in the mobile command center while I make the tough choices about how to outfit myself in the most appropriate haute country couture for sure!
So, my initial plan of being insistently different from what's expected of me didn't really pan out, since individual attacks of only moderate strength with no capacity for precise aim isn't really playing to the game's strong suit... but what can I say? I'm insistently resistant to being told what to do (which is why I don't play many RPGs for YouTube, because my favorite thing to do is do everything BUT what I'm supposed to, as you might've noticed in a few... as yet ongoing projects...), so I decided that there's still one other low rate of fire option to pursue that might provide enough stopping power: a shotgun!
My follow-up philosophy to gunplay, in the event that I'm playing that sort of game, is: if accuracy isn't sufficient (and trust me, mine often isn't), spray your targets carefully with liberal helpings of pain at a range where you CAN'T miss. This... obviously presents its own interesting and unique challenges, principally according to the matters of position and movement, seeing as how closer quarters will rapidly change the vector between two unfixed points. Then you get to consider such fun variables as cover and your weapon's maximum range in more intimate fashion than most other firearms will have to worry about. It all but turns a long-range battle into a mid-to-short-range one... because as everyone knows, searing pellet projectiles immediately evaporate past a certain distance, but are almost guaranteed to be lethal any closer than that... riiiight?!
Anyway, the merits and misconceptions of this philosophy are matters open for endless debate and subject to personal taste, particularly relevant to the specific setting, but there you have one overly simplistic take, thus leading us to focus on how it plays out in Shoot Many Robots.
...the answer is... not very well, but I could've told you that anyway by what happened last time, but let's explore WHY such failures deserve analysis and how we might learn from the follies of the past! ...also, one might claim that I did this on purpose because I wanted to see how badly the game structure might want to beat me down for trying something different...
I'm not entirely certain that the game has elected to forgive me for breaking the level curve by attaching myself to a much higher leveled cohort's escapades... but would it really be any better with the situation reversed, and all lesser stages laid to waste under the steel-spurred boot of one player with a clear level advantage? (Which I've actually learned DOES impart a permanent strength boost, although I'm not really sure how it quantifies out in the long run... bad for mixed drop-in player balance, for sure.)
More specific tactical analysis indicates that trying to play with deliberately limited range... probably won't let you get in many kills, seeing as how a constant stream of bullets will outpace you every time.
For that matter, you might notice the general trend of run and gun emphasizing running... and then gunning, especially since you see it can be rather easy for some players to just rush ahead and keep on shooting, so while you might want to play range-specific or even aim-intensive (in an aiming-unfriendly environment, at least without a continuous stream of bullets to trace a path for you), the simplest answer really is rendered the most effective for all things considered. Oh, and the final nail in the coffin, which should really have been the first cue in all this theoretical gunslinging... primary weapons have unlimited ammo. If you want to emphasize some other approach, best to do it with the secondary, ammo-limited options. (Seriously, to double down on my miscalculations, watch as a rapid-fire weapon eats through its ammo like popcorn... I thought it was also a shotgun, I swear!)
Wah, wah, someone can't play the game they'd prefer to... boo hoo, pick up a full auto and let things fly like a REAL 'mur'c'n! ...I'm guessing. No one country can have a monopoly on such cultural markers!
Oh hey, is that a boss? Neat! ...although I'd say the contrast between safe and unsafe spaces is really low until things light up, and there's just shy of enough time to get there, depending on how far apart the blind spots are placed.