Dummy Not Yet Completed Generators

[Rudra]

This is a personal gripe/pet peeve. In the final timed mission from Marshall Brass in The Aeon Conspiracy, you are tasked with destroying 7 generators. Now, my complaint is extremely minor, but you have no idea how much it frustrates me. When you destroy any generator, including the roof one, you get a message that you have destroyed a dummy not yet completed generator. Except they're all obviously working. So my request is simple. Can we please get the destroyed generator comment changed to something like "You have destroyed a generator, but more remain."? I mean think about it. If they're dummy generators meant to distract you from the real one, then they aren't "not yet completed generators". If they're not yet completed but will be fully functional generators when they are, then they aren't dummy generators, they're backups.

 

Edit x5: Thinking about it, I may have previously posted a thread about this.... If I have, I apologize for the repeat.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Rudra
Edited to add missing comma. And missing question mark. And to remove last line. And again to add last three lines.

[biostem]

3 hours ago, Rudra said:

Except they're all obviously working.

Couldn't a "dummy generator" be made to appear as though it were working, when in fact it isn't producing any power at all?

[Rudra]

46 minutes ago, biostem said:

Couldn't a "dummy generator" be made to appear as though it were working, when in fact it isn't producing any power at all?

Yes, but that isn't the problem. If they are dummy generators, there to distract you from the real generator, and they appear to be functioning to distract you from the real generator, then they aren't 'not yet completed'. They are completed and serving their purpose of causing you to waste effort destroying a fake generator. So either they are dummy generators or they are not yet completed generators or they are completed backups. If you go to set up a dummy and it isn't completed? Then it isn't going to fool anyone into wasting effort on it. So still, either those are dummy generators, not yet completed but for some reason still functional in appearance, or they are functional generators that are part of a group so the building can lose it/them because they still have power from one of the not destroyed generators.

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Yes, but that isn't the problem. If they are dummy generators, there to distract you from the real generator, and they appear to be functioning to distract you from the real generator, then they aren't 'not yet completed'. They are completed and serving their purpose of causing you to waste effort destroying a fake generator. So either they are dummy generators or they are not yet completed generators or they are completed backups. If you go to set up a dummy and it isn't completed? Then it isn't going to fool anyone into wasting effort on it. So still, either those are dummy generators, not yet completed but for some reason still functional in appearance, or they are functional generators that are part of a group so the building can lose it/them because they still have power from one of the not destroyed generators.

I think you are confusing "not yet completed" from a mission briefing/intel standpoint with what the opposing factions has actually fielded.  In other words, as far as you and your team are concerned, those are 7 totally legitimate generators and you are there to stop them before they become fully operational.  From the enemy's perspective, it's all a ruse and many are fake/dummy generators to keep you from destroying the real one and/or to buy them some time;  Chalk it up to the fog of war/bad intel and all that...

[Rudra]

8 minutes ago, biostem said:

18 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Yes, but that isn't the problem. If they are dummy generators, there to distract you from the real generator, and they appear to be functioning to distract you from the real generator, then they aren't 'not yet completed'. They are completed and serving their purpose of causing you to waste effort destroying a fake generator. So either they are dummy generators or they are not yet completed generators or they are completed backups. If you go to set up a dummy and it isn't completed? Then it isn't going to fool anyone into wasting effort on it. So still, either those are dummy generators, not yet completed but for some reason still functional in appearance, or they are functional generators that are part of a group so the building can lose it/them because they still have power from one of the not destroyed generators.

I think you are confusing "not yet completed" from a mission briefing/intel standpoint with what the opposing factions has actually fielded.  In other words, as far as you and your team are concerned, those are 7 totally legitimate generators and you are there to stop them before they become fully operational.  From the enemy's perspective, it's all a ruse and many are fake/dummy generators to keep you from destroying the real one and/or to buy them some time;  Chalk it up to the fog of war/bad intel and all that...

I chalk it up to bad writing. That isn't a fog of war thing. That is a writer that had no idea how to write the objective result and so conflated different things into a single statement. It happens to everyone. Hence, my request to clean up the writing. (Edit: Because the mission briefing is there are 4 generators including the rooftop one, but there are 7 in actuality. That is fog of war/bad intel. That works. Walking up to a generator and then destroying it, but going "Oh, I just destroyed an incomplete not yet working dummy generator" is beyond even face palm moment.)

Edited December 11, 2023 by Rudra

[biostem]

8 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Walking up to a generator and then destroying it, but going "Oh, I just destroyed an incomplete not yet working dummy generator" is beyond even face palm moment.)

No, what I'm saying is, as far as your character is aware, you are destroying a real, albeit not yet completed, generator, and only after destroying it and and taking a closer look, do you realize that it was a fake.  But, hey, sure, it could also just be bad writing...

Edited December 11, 2023 by biostem

[Rudra]

Just now, biostem said:

No, what I'm saying is, as far as your character is aware, you are destroying a real, albeit not yet completed, generator, and only after destroying it and and taking a closer look, do you realize that it was a fake.  But, hey, sure, it could also just be bad writing...

Let's tackle it from the character's perspective, which is actually my focus. The character was sent to destroy 4 generators, then finds out there are 7. So the character sees what they think is a generator and destroys it. Unless the character knows about generator design or repair, the character most likely won't have any clue if the generator is complete or not, or even if it was a decoy/dummy or not, because the generator looked to be functioning. So as far as most characters would be concerned? (S)he/they/it destroyed a generator, time to move on to the next one, regardless of whether it was a decoy/dummy or an actually working generator. The writer put too much effort into trying to cover everything with the generators and wound up contradicting himself/herself/themselves with the provided destruction statement.

[JasperStone]

I do see your point @Rudra.

 

"Great job... turns out this is the not the real generator"

Tweak the mission so there is a chance you get the right one and not have to do all of them

 

(been awhile since I have don Marshall Brass arc... not sure of the last part is possible)

[Lazarillo]

Okay, but more importantly, why aren't you deliberately "failing" that mission to get double the payday for doing nothing but enjoying the show of Dr. Aeon getting taken down live on the air?

Edited December 14, 2023 by Lazarillo

[Rudra]

On 12/12/2023 at 6:45 AM, JasperStone said:

I do see your point @Rudra.

 

"Great job... turns out this is the not the real generator"

Tweak the mission so there is a chance you get the right one and not have to do all of them

 

(been awhile since I have don Marshall Brass arc... not sure of the last part is possible)

The last part is possible, but would require re-working the map for its objectives into 2 or 3 parts. If there is indeed just 1 generator, then it would be 2 parts: the actual generator and the 6 dummies. There are missions in the game that have a single listed objective consisting of multiple glowies, but only one of those glowies count. So it is doable. If the intel provided was correct and there are 4 generators to destroy, then it would be 3 parts: the actual generator, the 3 emergency backups, and the 3 dummies. In both cases, the player won't notice how many parts because the objective will most likely stay the same and say destroy the 7 generators. If the mission intel was wrong and there actually 7 generators to help ensure WSPDR stays on air after the power grid is shut down to stop them, then there would just be the 1 part we have already. If the devs want to dig that deep into the mission, that's on them. All I'm asking for is the statement we get after each generator to be cleaned up.

 

29 minutes ago, Lazarillo said:

Okay, but more importantly, why aren't you deliberately "failing" that mission to get double the payday for doing nothing but enjoying the show of Dr. Aeon getting taken down live on the air?

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, sometimes I make a show of smashing the generators and leave 1 or 2 that have no visible health left running so I can claim I did the mission and have no idea why they didn't go off air to Marshall Brass after having signaled to Amanda Vines I'm done attacking generators.

 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Rudra
Edited to correct "is" to "its" and add "after having...".