June 2, 2008
New Exteel Dev Paper
NCsoft has released a new developer
paper for the free-to-play and download giant robot fighting game, Exteel. The
Exteel dev paper provides strategy tips for the Trooper Mechanaught, a variety
of weapons and the “Last Stand” battle mode.
Exteel Dev Paper: The Trooper
Mechanaught – Weapon Highlights – Battle Mode: Last Stand
Following the entry- and low-tier
Mechanaughts like the Pinkett or Mekhi, the Trooper is a solid representative of
the next, more powerful group of Mechanaughts available for purchase. At this
point in the pilot’s progress, Mechanaughts become more specialized towards
specific tasks and styles. Pilots will start to upgrade their own Mechanaught
not as a whole set, but part by part in order to create the best mix that suits
themselves. The Trooper is a well-rounded offensive and defensive design and is
one of the most popular Mechanaughts available in the Exteel universe.
The Trooper is the successor to the
venerable Frontliner and bests it at nearly every angle except cost, energy
output, and size. Totaling in at 54,000 credits, the Trooper set costs over
twice as much as the Frontliner, but is well worth every credit for the pilot
who just wants to get into combat and wreck the enemy. The Trooper can absorb
more damage, use energy more efficiently (not to mention regenerate energy
faster), is much more responsive, and is a lot more accurate. A Trooper head has
two Mechanaught Processing Units (MPU), so a pilot can purchase and equip two
skills at any one time for a battle.
When you’re in a flat-out
competition to out-fight a similarly-ranked enemy, it’s hard to go wrong with
the Trooper. It’s good for all situations and uses, from melee fights to
long-range duels and everything in-between.
Weapon Highlights
-
Omega Tristone Launcher – The
Omega Tristone Launcher is closely related, in capability, to its sister
cannon, the Colony Burster. It has good overheat and damage ratings, and has
the highest lock-on rate amongst the cannons. The Omega Tristone Launcher also
has a longer range than many other cannons. -
Particle Blade – A definite
upgrade from the early model melee weapons like the Crimson Edge, which looks
like a medieval sword, the Particle Blade generates a focused beam of intense
energy from its hilt, in the shape of a blade. Used like any normal sword, the
Particle Blade does more damage and attacks faster than any heavier, metal
sword. It does have a tendency to overheat a little faster, however. -
Metal Helix – Another melee weapon
upgrade, the Metal Helix works similarly to the spear-like Penetrator. The
main difference is that the Metal Helix features a large drill attachment on
its business end, increasing its ability to damage opponents greatly. It even
allows the pilot to hit two opponents at once. However, the Metal Helix also
has a tendency to overheat a little faster than the Penetrator. -
Echo Blaster – The Echo Blaster
represents the top tier of all available SMGs. With its low rate of fire it
doesn’t generate nearly as much heat as other SMGs yet can deliver more damage
per burst. These advantages come at a price, as the Echo Blaster’s accuracy is
woeful in comparison to other SMGs and it takes some skill and effort to use
it effectively.
Last Stand Battle Mode
What happens when you can’t get enough people to form a large-scale
competitive match, or you just want to make some money for the next group of
Mechanaught upgrades? The answer is Last Stand, which allows a group of players
to take on waves of computer-driven opponents.
In Last Stand mode the player team
must prevent the AI from capturing two Aerogates, which are typically located a
fair distance apart from each other. Every minute or so, groups of AI-controlled
Mechanaughts will approach an Aerogate from various directions. While they’ll
attack any players that get in their way, their main objective is to capture the
Aerogate by occupying it for a period of time. You can check on the Aerogate’s
status via its occupation meter on the screen or the map; if the bar’s color is
blue, that means the players control it, a grey bar indicates it’s “neutralized”
(the players still own it, but cannot use it to spawn from or use the nearby
healing pads). If the occupation bar is red, that means the AI now controls the
Aerogate and it’s game over. Each Last Stand match lasts ten minutes.
Players have certain advantages;
each Aerogate usually has a healing pad or two nearby to repair Mechanaughts (if
the Aerogate isn’t already neutralized). All players are also equipped with an
extra skill slot that when activated (with the “5” key) will completely restore
all of the Mechanaught’s hit points. Each Aerogate also has a finite number of
approaches the AI can take to get to it, meaning they are usually easily
defensible—the problem is that they only attack one Aerogate at a time, so
players will need to guess which the AI will attack next, or split up their
resources to cover both. At the lower difficulty levels, the AI Mechanaughts are
easy to kill, though each wave can consist of dozens of attackers at once.
However, on higher difficulty levels, the AI will be harder to kill, and they’ll
hit with a lot more damage.
Players will also accumulate a
separate Last Stand score, based on killing AI Mechanaughts and accomplishing
separate objectives, like destroying enemy “infiltrators”, shooting down a
flight of enemy bombers, or beating a boss AI Mechanaught. During the weekly
maintenance period, Exteel awards each player a nice credit bonus based on the
accumulation of points that week on each map, compared to how everyone else did
on each map. Players will also be rewarded points and credits for winning the
match (and not so much for losing), just like Exteel’s other battle modes.
Last Stand is an extremely useful
mode for players. They can battle against scores of AI opponents and hone their
skills, winning matches and accumulating hard-earned money for PvP battles.
Plus, Last Stand matches can be played with a fewer group of players without
having to worry about getting enough people for balanced teams. All you need is
some friends and that’s it.
