I was playing on legend + "I am etermes" + "better vehicles", now i am to lazy to end game(waiting for vehicles update),

last save status
12.02.2047
11 base, 3 manticore, 5 helios, 3 armadio, 1 scarab. 30 soldier (14 of them mutoids) , 2 full equipped 7lvl party and 1 more party will be complete in 6 hours.
8 fabrication, 11 research lab, mutation lab.
Diplomacy: Anu 2, Naturals 40, Stupidrion -29

引用自 mar.sch：

Diplomacy status: Anu -14%, NJ 26%, Synedrion 25%.

The Stupidrion must be humiliated!
Expensive materials to trade, low productivity, almost dont have training centers. Almost all the time loose haven under pandoras attack. - the worst ally.

@finnwalTD
What was your starting base?

引用自 mar.sch：

@finnwalTD
What was your starting base?

The game were started before update which select starting base in australia or antarctica, so starting base were on Kalyma.

引用自 mar.sch：

New run. Update 28, PX unbuffed squad, Hero difficulty. Make Pandorans Stronger and I Am Etermes checked.

To my surprise I Am Etermes is not a 5th difficulty level but a difficulty switch like Make Pandorans Stronger. I realized this after seeing a base with a free Manticore.
I’d say with fewer enemies and a bit more SP on Hero than on Legend I’m playing “Etermes light“.

# General comments
- As expected my diplomatic and research progress is slower. But it is kind of balanced as less accessible faction research projects means it is OK to have fewer resources for building Research Labs.
- Observation: 65 dmg Pincer (*1,25) vs 20 armor torso = 61 dmg. Conclusion: 20 armor might not be enough as an arm would have been disabled by a single hit.
- Antarctica starts eventually led again to not-existent To Antarctica site.
- Supportive status with a faction comes late.
- It is very likely that Trade is only possible with a single faction for a long time because diplomatic gains are halved.
- VO on day 15: Max 6 operatives can be deployed on any mission, but +100% experience. Might be the strongest VO if early in the game as the limitation to 6 soldiers then doesn’t matter and XP and effectively the SP pool points are doubled. But I then delayed both Seeking Dr. Symes mission till Feb 1.
- Mission spawn locations can be very unfortunate. E.g. The Symes Retreat in Australia. I solved this with my 4th base (Vietnam): The 3rd and 5th mist zones were nearby and this later opened up a path to Australia.
- VO Hostile haven defenders: You Are Etermes also applies to Pandoran attacks …
- I lost a naked solo explorer. I restarted 3 missions: a scavenging site with my first Etermes Acheron (buffed acid). A rich resource scavenging site (mass acid is insane*). A rich rescue soldiers site on a map I’ve never seen before (awful vehicle pathing).
- *My Heavy was hit by an Acheron acid blast. Fine. But later came a reinforcement Acheron who used FOUR acid blasts on the same turn against that Heavy. IMHO this crosses the border between being challenging and simply un-fun.
- There are Res-Vests for Blast, Fire and Poison. I wish for an Acid one.
- I don’t mind losing soldiers or aborting a mission but I wish for a fair fight.

# My status after 32 days
4 bases, 4 Manticores, 2 Helioses, 4 Scarabs, 19 soldiers.
4 Fabrication Plants, 9 Research Labs and Cybernetics Lab.
The whole world is explored.
Available missions: all Ancient sites can be explored, A favor for a friend (in Australia).
Diplomacy status: Anu -14%, NJ 26%, Synedrion 25%.

(from my Antarctica feedback thread)

引用自 al.aguilar：

I read your reports and I think, Legendary player playing Hero, just move on to Etermes difficulty level :D

Do you think feedback from continuing this Hero/Etermes run is more valuable than starting a new Legend/Etermes run?

My take is every feedback is interesting, but if you want the real thing, try Legend/Etermes starting in Australia, then you will be tested :-)

New start :
date 5.02.47
Starting base in australia
10 bases, 3 helios, 3 manticore, 1 scrub, 1 armadio(+1 will be in 15h), 19 soldiers(6 of them mutoids)
4 Fabrication Plants(+4 in construction), 4 Research Labs(+5 in construction) and Mutation Lab.

UPD:
First meeting with scylla 7.02.47
First captured scylla 7.02.47

That is huge, and I guess without stealing/raiding factions

Date 20.02.47:
18 bases (all except one for quest) 8 helios, 3 manticore, 1 scrub, 4 armadio, 33 soldiers(13 of them mutoids)
9 Fabrication Plants(+6 in construction), 17 Research Labs(+6in construction) , 18 Mist Repellers and Mutation Lab.

引用自 al.aguilar：

That is huge, and I guess without stealing/raiding factions

I trying to save world as fast as possible, dont matter how many stupidrions die on this way

There were same things when I were lucky:
1.good omen: "stupidrion must suffer" So i rade stupidrion 3 times

2. Fast enough I were ambushed with forsaken, so I kill them all until I got all necessary items (redeemer for reserch priest class, melee weapon for research berserker)

3. After thet I find a scavanging mission with Pure, at the start of the game all pure are tier1. As we all know it is the easyest pure without annoying rocket launchers and snipers without jump. So after looting all boxes and kill all Pure I obtain many resources

After I got advanced mutations I think clause to 70-85% of all pandoras are paralized, it give me alot of meat. In one Lair mission I kill only spawnery all other 20 enemies were paralized.

New run. Update 30 (+ Hotfix 1), Synedrion unbuffed squad, Legend difficulty. Default TFTV Settings and I Am Etermes checked.

# My status on the end of Feb 5
7 bases, 5 Manticores, 3 Helioses, 3 Scarabs, 20 soldiers.
5 Fabrication Plants, 8 Research Labs, Cybernetics Lab (+ Sentient AIs) and Mutation Lab.
The whole world is explored.
Available missions: 6x Establish control over the Ancient Site, Stealing Valor. To Antarctica will be done in 2h.
Diplomacy status: Anu -10%, NJ 26%, Synedrion 59%.
Resources: 974 tech, 880 materials, 2106 food, 1447 mutagens.
According to TFTV.log there are 1 nests, 2 lairs and 1 citadels.

# Comments
- I did compare several short Legend/Etermes runs (each 2-3 weeks):
An Australia start is much stronger than an Antarctica start: more POIs. In one run there were havens for all 3 factions in Australia. It’s easier to “free“ the A-team. Dr. Symes Retreat spawns in Japan vs in Australia. No spawning bug for the mission To Antarctica.
Gambling with the location of the 2nd base might work. But a systematic approach is more solid (e.g. activating the base in Vietnam for an Australia start).
Team development is RNG: in one run (PX squad = 4 soldiers) both Synedrion havens in Australia did’t have a Training Facility. In the actual run (Synedrion squad = 3 soldiers) the first exploration site was a vehicle revovery (= A-team complete on day 1).
Early game round robin sabotage missions (if available) might be the strongest start (providing much needed resources with minimal impact on diplomatic progress). In one run I did Synedrion->NJ and NJ->Synedrion.
- Idea for base defense preparations: I have Mutoid Infiltrators in Manticores at every base I care about (Australia, Vietnam, East Africa, Canada, South America*) and currently 3 Scarabs (in Vietnam, East Africa and South America*). The bases in Antarctica and New Zealand can go to hell. *Well, the South America team is in Antarctica ATM to assist the A-team for To Antarctica. A vehicle, a (Mutoid) Infiltrator (Spider Drones!) and ideally a Technician (Turrets, Remote Control, Technician repair) might be enough to do a base defense immediately. Meanwhile A- and B-team are 5 soldiers each in Helioses with Quick Response Modules (speed 750, can go to over 900 with Moon Mission Preparation) and C-team is 5 solders in Helios with FAR-M (ATM).

# Bugs
- My Technician can only Throw Turrets. There is no more icon for Deploy Turret in tactical.
- (Minor bug) The mission site To Antarctica is there but there is no entry in the Objectives list.

EDIT: Link to my detailed in-game diary.
https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0f9EkEZ0ZDMO0cKcr12QJbjBw#Legend_Etermes

EDIT2: I forgot:
# Comment about research
The intended halved research speed doesn’t work ATM.
While I agree that the research could be slowed down I think 1/2 is too much.
How about 3 research points per lab?
Another idea: instead of changing the research points per lab would it be possible to increase the costs of the projects? The formula has to be changed, though. But this would be better tunable: e.g. standard: original_research_costs*1.0, halved research speed: original_research_costs*2.0. My suggestion: original_research_costs*1.5.

Date 03.03,47
18 bases (all except one for quest) 10 helios, 3 manticore, 1 scrub, 5 armadio, 40 soldiers(18 of them mutoids)
20 Fabrication Plants, 30 Research Labs , 18 Mist Repellers and Mutation Lab.

6158 Tech, 22008 Materials, 7627 food, 2755 mutagens( mutoids all on top), 525/1600 store space.

引用自 finnwalTD：

I trying to save world as fast as possible,

引用自 finnwalTD：

Date 03.03,47
*all lot of things you don't really need*

I'd say you aren't focused.

In my game it is Feb 16.
The research Project Liberation will be finished in 22h (-> Synedrion Terraformers victory). But maybe I will delay the victory for one more day because my Masked Manticore will be manufactured in 2d1h: defeating the Behemoth gives a lot of SP.

引用自 mar.sch：

I'd say you aren't focused.

I forget about quest line with dr. Semes. I though that it is a part of ancient line. So now I flew to find ancient artifact. I save Tobes West in his fortness about 15 days ago.

引用自 finnwalTD：

I save Tobes West in his fortness about 15 days ago.

If you are that close to the NJ ending and don't have it done, yet I'd say you are doing something wrong.

Late update.

I tried to do the Behemoth mission and The Master’s Tools on Feb 18 but realized that I need more normal missions for my soldiers*. Because of exhaustion I took a 2-week break from PP.
*
Several attempts at defeating the Behemoth: 2-3 Goo Chirons without access to Goo Repellers were slowing me down too much. The closest one was: mission successful on one side. On the other side a Triton Maniac Alpha managed to position itself in a perfect position to shoot at any soldier trying to inject at the one spot and a Goo Chiron was near the other spot. I was running out of ammo. Conclusion: I need to capture a Goo Chiron on a normal mission before.
The Master’s Tools: Not all of my soldiers had enough strength to not being one-shotted by a Scylla. On normal missions against a Scylla I usually bring my trusted Scarab. I once brought a Scarab on the final mission but it was ordinary Legend difficulty. Conclusion: I need to play more missions for more SP.

# Bugs and oddities
(Several issues were resolved with Update 31/Hotfix 1 and Update 32.)
A Kaimanu restored health (Devour ability) after attacking (but not killing) an Infiltrator’s Decoy.
Never seen such a Behemoth flight path before: having emerged in Africa it travelled to South America (and sent flyers there) and back to Africa/Europe (where it went underwater).

First experimental treatment round (on Feb 11; after update #31): 5x no side effect, 5x Stamina reduced to zero, 1x Hyperalgesia, 1x Inner Sight, 1x Anxiety, 1x Faster Synapsis.