Silent Storm: guides, tips?

[sheek]

Just started with this game, I have my squad all at level two or more and I'm about to start the first main mission. I read the manual and think I understand how everything works but there are already so many weapons though - does anybody know of any guides or walkthroughs which go through them all?

Eg, should I take an MP40 or MP38 or M3A1 or Sten MkII as my close combat weapon? What kind of equipment should different types of troops have? Also the different character ability upgrades aren't that clear in how they will benefit me. Should my generalist/soldier main character take things like 'free look' or just focus on one particular branch?

I had a look on the internet and the only guide I can find is a badly written GameFAQs thing, which just describes the missions which isn't really what I want. Strategycore seems like the place that covers it the most but doesn't have much either.

I am using a few mods, AP cost for inventory, Headshots kill, no PKs, improved grenade range and an ammo/renaming/flavor mod (which is strange since my British/American guns now use 9mm parabellums - aren't they German calibers?)

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Hmmm... Strategy Gaming, General Gaming or outside chance of General RPG Discussion?

 

[OSK]

I read the manual and think I understand how everything works but there are already so many weapons though - does anybody know of any guides or walkthroughs which go through them all?

You really don't need a guide for the weapons. The differences between most are negligible. Just choose the ones with the stats you desire the most.

What kind of equipment should different types of troops have?

Outfitting classes is pretty straight forward. Give your sniper a sniper rifle. Give your scout weapons that allow him to attack and stay hidden. Give your grenadier lots of grenades. Soldiers and grenadiers are typically rather tankish, so give them automatic weapons to blow away enemies who get close. Engineers are good with rocket launchers, but they're bulky (and expensive in Sentinels) so I don't bother, so medics and engineers can pretty much be given whatever.

My setup tends to be like this:

Everyone:
Pistol
Bandages
Those easy medic items that stop bleeding (forgot what they are called)
A few light grenades
Plenty of ammo

Soldier:
Machine gun

Grenadier:
Submachine gun
Tons of grenades of all sizes

Scout:
Silenced pistol/throwing weapons
Melee weapon

Medic:
Rifle then later an assault rifle (Assault rifles may be in Sentinels only)
Forceps & bandages
Some misc. medical items

Engineer:
Rifle then later an assault rifle
Lockpicks
Mine probes

Sniper:
Sniper rifle (I prefer the SVT-40)

You could always give everyone an MG/SMG and a rifle, but that seems pretty cheap and unrealistic so I always give them one main weapon and a sidearm.

I had a look on the internet and the only guide I can find is a badly written GameFAQs thing, which just describes the missions which isn't really what I want.

The GameFAQs guide does a pretty good job at telling you which character progression skills are worthwhile and which aren't.

I am using a few mods, AP cost for inventory, Headshots kill, no PKs, improved grenade range and an ammo/renaming/flavor mod (which is strange since my British/American guns now use 9mm parabellums - aren't they German calibers?)

Make sure you get the Skill Watchdog mod. It helps with the broken skill progression.

 

[MetalCraze]

I played Silent Storm pretty long ago. But I remember that close-combat weapons are ridiculously underpowered at first - in other words until your guys get used to it - they are pretty much useless.
however long range weapons (rifles) are always good throughout the game. my recommendation will be obvious:

if your mission will be in the open - take as many rifles as your men can handle (medics of course won't - they suck almost with any weapon, but I suggest you to give them close-combat weapon - so by the start of underground battles or battles inside buildings they will learn their weapon).
however when you start fighting in the buildings - give them some close quarter weapons - they won't miss from 1-2 meters - and that's how most of close-combat fights will go (I even didn't bother myself taking close-combat weapons from the base - I took them from the dead soldiers - and you will never run out of ammo for such weapons - guess why)

and here comes another advice.
I remember your men tending to get used to a weapon they are always using - so here - think carefully what to give them - they will make the best out of weapon only by using it always.

that's about it.

also this should go into the Strategy Gaming because it's an awesome tactical game. not rpg, not action.

 

[spacemoose]

snipers are pretty much king. once you get extended visual range (or whatever its called) and auto-crit, its a meatgrinder.

don't underestimate handguns - the ones with low AP per snapshot are better than smgs in close quarters

 

[psycojester]

if your mission will be in the open - take as many rifles as your men can handle (medics of course won't - they suck almost with any weapon, but I suggest you to give them close-combat weapon - so by the start of underground battles or battles inside buildings they will learn their weapon).

Calling bullshit on this one, the Indian medic guy is a damn fine shot with a rifle.

 

[MetalCraze]

if your mission will be in the open - take as many rifles as your men can handle (medics of course won't - they suck almost with any weapon, but I suggest you to give them close-combat weapon - so by the start of underground battles or battles inside buildings they will learn their weapon).

Calling bullshit on this one, the Indian medic guy is a damn fine shot with a rifle.

really? I replayed the game 2 times long ago, but never took him.
anyway the most important tip still remains: rifles own this game.

 

[abstract]

Just spam hmg fire from long range.

 

[psycojester]

I advise taking the Australian soldier, for his wandering accent and hilarious incorrect slang.

 

[sheek]

OK I'm about mission 7 or so, "Small English Town" and I'm finding this game way too easy. I only has men go unconscious three times in missions or random encounters (one casualty each time) and I never need to reload - I hardly form a strategy and it's just not that challenging.

Does it get more difficult later on?

About close combat weapons, I find they are working pretty well now my guys are level 5-6. You just need to be close enough, five to ten squares away an SMG is obviously better than a rifle and I try to use buildings because sniping is boring. In my last mission I shot and killed a guy at full health from ten squares away on the other side of a wall. Grenades are pretty cool as well. The fixed machine guns have been useless every time I've tried to use them.

The camera is a fucking pain, so is the elevation cut-off thing, which sometimes changes for no reason while you're moving along a flat surface. The destructible environment are pretty cool but I could do without the ragdolls which just slow the game down for no reason after you've seen them the first few times.

The missions are totally inadequately explained, you just learn of a new location turn up having no idea what's going to happen (how often will you arrive just when a fight is starting out?) and have to look at mission objectives which tell you things your characters shouldn't know yet.

It's fun but I don't see how it's the X-COM of the 2000's.

I advise taking the Australian soldier, for his wandering accent and hilarious incorrect slang.

I've got a multi-cultural team of:

A Scottish soldier (me)
An Afro-American grenadier
A French medic
An American female engineer
A Swedish sniper
A Korean scout

Strangely, the engineer and medic have been the most impressive in combat so far, the sniper just can't get enough shots off (to be able to have 2, you can't move or do anything else in a turn), the grenadier seems to attract most of the enemy fire and the scout can do pretty well but has to get really close (didn't give him a rifle) but as soon as he gives away his position has to be rescued before he's shot to pieces.

 

[Crichton]

You should definitely use the "watchdog" script.

From a practical standpoint, you might as well give everyone one SMG (or MG if they're soldiers), one scoped rifle and one rocket launcher, they can carry all that and still have plenty of room for loot. I think we can all agree that that's pretty silly, so I generally limit everyone to one long-arm save that I'll let a Grenadier have an SMG and a rocket launcher because otherwise I'd never use a rocket launcher.

I would also generally avoid using silenced weapons and the sniper class. They both exploit the same huge hole in the AI, if it's hit by something that it can't see, it just plain has no idea what to do. So standing back with a scoped rifle, you can just pick them off one by one because they'll never think to sweep the area and a scout with a silenced pistol can just sit in the same bush shooting people about 10 ft away from him and they never think to check the bush.

edit:

About close combat weapons, I find they are working pretty well now my guys are level 5-6. You just need to be close enough, five to ten squares away an SMG is obviously better than a rifle and I try to use buildings because sniping is boring. In my last mission I shot and killed a guy at full health from ten squares away on the other side of a wall.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. Anytime that one of your characters can see someone, he telepathically communicates the location to everyone else, so they can all "spot" for each other and the fact that the guy doing the shooting can't actually see or hear his target because it's 50m away on the other side of a bush, a brick wall and a cabinet doesn't make a damn bit of difference. There's no real way around it, but long range weapons make it much worse.

 

[sheek]

You should definitely use the "watchdog" script.

From a practical standpoint, you might as well give everyone one SMG (or MG if they're soldiers), one scoped rifle and one rocket launcher, they can carry all that and still have plenty of room for loot. I think we can all agree that that's pretty silly, so I generally limit everyone to one long-arm save that I'll let a Grenadier have an SMG and a rocket launcher because otherwise I'd never use a rocket launcher.

At the moment I have:

Soldier,
MG 40/II SMG (has 64-magazine capacity), Sten MkV SMG, Webley-Scott revolver, Mauser M98 Rifle, Large combat knife and grenades

Grenadier,
Mauser M98 Rifle, MG 34 machine gun, Colt M1911 Pistol, M3 Knife and a ton of grenades of different types

Sniper,
Lee-Enfield Scoped Rifle, Browning Automatic M1922 machine gun, Mauser C-96 Pistol, a few grenades

Engineer,
G41 (W) Scoped Rifle, MG 40/II SMG, Mauser C-96 Pistol and loads of dynamite and TNT

Scout,
Silenced M3A1 SMG, Sten MkIV SMG, Silenced Tranquilizer Pistol (which doesn't work), two different knives, a club, throwing knives, shuriken's, grenades

Medic,
G41 (W) Scoped Rifle, Luger .45 cal and medical stuff

I would also generally avoid using silenced weapons and the sniper class. They both exploit the same huge hole in the AI, if it's hit by something that it can't see, it just plain has no idea what to do. So standing back with a scoped rifle, you can just pick them off one by one because they'll never think to sweep the area and a scout with a silenced pistol can just sit in the same bush shooting people about 10 ft away from him and they never think to check the bush.

Yeah I noticed.

 

[another dumbfuck]

You're probably having an easy time of the first missions because you've made a decent party (most especially, given them long range weapons) but it will get tougher. Weapon range matters quite a bit in this game, though.

Don't forget you can aim for body parts with the keypad, either. It makes for instant kills with most sniper shots even before the always critical thing.

Grenadiers and medics completely suck ass unless you play on a brutally hard mode with permanent death in which case you won't get far without one.

Engineers are pretty questionable, too. The smart thing is to let one sit back at the base then pick him up later. For some reason they level their skills immensely fast in the base and otherwise they won't be able to do jack shit.

Give your snipers heavy machineguns to use in addition to the sniper rifles when you ahve enough to go around - with their shooting perks these give them immense power to mow down waves and waves of enemies.

 

[sheek]

Grenadiers and medics completely suck ass unless you play on a brutally hard mode with permanent death in which case you won't get far without one.

There's a permanent death mode? Or is it a mod? How do I get it?

edit: nm, I see Impossible game difficult has that feature

Engineers are pretty questionable, too. The smart thing is to let one sit back at the base then pick him up later. For some reason they level their skills immensely fast in the base and otherwise they won't be able to do jack shit.

I'm not sure how levelling and experience gain works.. time doesn't seem to go buy so how would they gain experience? Does each character get experience for each main quest mission completed even if he wasn't there?

Give your snipers heavy machineguns to use in addition to the sniper rifles when you ahve enough to go around - with their shooting perks these give them immense power to mow down waves and waves of enemies.

I gave him the Browning Automatic, it doesn't seem to be an HMG exactly but it does have burst fire and can shoot snap shots as well so it's the only weapon I found that could fit that role so far.

 

[another dumbfuck]

No, the submachineguns are retarded because they have shitty range. They are good for close in, but close in pistols are as good or better until you get tommy guns.

They pick up levels at the same absic rate as the character in your party.

Also, give your scout throwing knives and have him throw them constantly. They are actually the most effective weapon in the game against anything but the panzerkleins, once he gets some skill.

 

[sheek]

The Browning isn't an SMG. Anyway I did the first German level and yes it's suddenly a lot better, I was too confident and then thought I was going to lose.

 

[MetalCraze]

there will be one mission for which you will hate this game

you will have to kill 1 guy
the game will automatically go into the tb mode

nothing special eh?

well the thing is there's like 30-40 civilians on that map - and each one of them must make a move.

and the primary objective of the mission - not a single civilian must get hurt.

now think how cool it will be to make 1 move per 1-2 minutes on a very large map searching for 1 goddamn soldier

 

[Tagaziel]

You're axing half of the fun the game has if you take out Panzerkleins. Anyways...

I always went for a party equipped with rifles, starting with Lee-Enfields, ending with SVTs or G40s. One weapon you'll definitely love for your sniper will be the silenced Mauser Kar. 96k you can procure from an enemy sniper in a certain German mansion (you'll know what it is when you find it). It will allow you to snipe enemies while remaining stealthed.

I'm biased when I say you should take the Polish soldier. Apart from having great stats, give him an MG-42 and a supply of ammunition and you have yourself a literal plow. Give him as much ammo as he can carry and a few bandages and send him in with a medic to cover his back and you'll have little problems taking the enemy out. Or deconstructing the building.

The grenadier is an useful guy when it comes to demolishing buildings. Give him some high explosive grenades with a big area of effect and make your own doorways. It's actually quite important to do, since close quarters combat is never safe. With a grenadier, you can simply blow half of the building up and have your snipers pick off the enemy inside.

Damn, I'll have to replay it now...

 

[psycojester]

does axing mean improve in your country?

Panzerklien look cool but are fucking awful for the game, before you had a balanced game where all the classes were useful, after they arrive, the only thing that can kill a panzerklien is another panzerklien.

Their slow, awkward to use and remove all of the fun from the game.

 

[Tagaziel]

In my experience Panzerkleins are useful and play an important role in the game. They are slow and godawful cumbersome, but what can you expect from a man-sized tank?

About them being unstoppable - they have extremely poor sight and hamper detection, and an average sneaker won't have any problems walking past it. Headshots with high powered sniper rifles, rockets and machinegun bursts work wonders too.

I think in the end it all boils down to "whatever floats your boat".

 

[psycojester]

Calling bullshit on that one, my first play through i forgot to mount my squad into Panzerklien after the german factory mission, just marched out of the facility without them, as a result i didn't have them for the later missions. I did alright up until the german munitions factory with the panzerklien squad in the sub-basement.

It is borderline impossible to take on panserklein with conventional weaponry, the only thing that did even the slightest amount of damage was my heavy machine guns, and that was only in the 1s and 2s, most rocket launchers just bounced off as well, i finally managed to take one out by constantly dodging in and out of a doorway and then when it chased me blowing away the floor and dropping it down a level, which causes some nasty damage to them. But its hardly a strategy you can employ repeatedly, because the later panzerklien stages are single level bunker complexes.

 

[Crichton]

It's perfectly true the only the heaviest non-laser weapons can penetrate the armor of the mech, but for whatever stupid reason, the stupid mechs leave the head pretty much exposed. This leads to easy non-laser / super-heavy weaponry solutions:

Headshots with a sniper

Blows to the head with a katana (or lesser melee weapon)

A high level scout is basically invisible once he gets like 5 squares away, so I'd have mine run up to a mech, take 1-2 slashes to the head and then run away.

Naturally lasers are a lot more practical. In the final mission for my first playthrough (in subsequent playthroughs I just played all the non-mech missions and then quit) I used three mechs with laser cannons, two infantry with laser cannons and one scout with a katana (he may have had a laser cannon too, I don't remember). The lasers are so good that it made more sense to have those two guys on foot with laser cannons than in mechs without them.

 

[Tagaziel]

Not to mention that Thor Panzerkleins have some awesome, uh, bodyart on them. Though my favourite remain the Axis Panzerkleins... something about them makes me all warm and fuzzy-like.

 

[psycojester]

They do look cool, but theres nothing that Panzerklien do that wouldn't have been more entertaining with troops.

 

[Trash]

(medics of course won't - they suck almost with any weapon, but I suggest you to give them close-combat weapon - so by the start of underground battles or battles inside buildings they will learn their weapon).

My medics where great with long range rifles like the mauser and enfield. I kinda used them as a long range back up to pick of enemies. They had almost as many kills as my sniper in that role.

Engineer:
Rifle then later an assault rifle
Lockpicks
Mine probes

This depends on how you use your engineer. Mine were used to blow up enemy strongpoints and open doors and gather equipment. In that role lockpicks and mine probes are invaluable. However explosives and a sub machine gun are also rather handy. There is nothing as cool as having your engineer place some big explosives in a house filled with enemy troops and watching it all come down when they go off.