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War Core Wednesday! War Core 3, Chapter 28.

Added 2022-06-22 20:58:39 +0000 UTC

Chapter 28.

Hugh waited, wondering what exactly would happen now. He assumed that he would be transported back to base, but there must have been some kind of delay. He had experienced pain, loss, and the fear of defeat, but the hardest thing to endure as a core was the wait. It wasn’t that Hugh was impatient, it was more that he was never really sure if it would end. What if he was dead and this was all there was, waiting, alone in the nothing. Before too long, new prompts appeared, and at least for now, he wasn’t going to be consigned to the void. .

Hugh Logan, Human War Core, Level 2.

Reward Point Calculations will now commence.

Combat Trial results, Victory: While the primary reward for this combat trial was your continued existence, it has been determined that reward points may be rewarded for this conflict.

Base reward: 25 points.

Victory bonus: 100 points.

Campaign bonus: 250 points.

Observer bonus: 50 points

Total points awarded: 425

War Core Termination Calculation: N/A, termination for the combat trials is not possible if the core is victorious.

You have been granted a 24-hour leave token to Harmony Station where you will receive a special reward package for surviving the combat trial.

Reward point total: 1150/1000.

Congratulations! You may now improve the level of your core. Do you wish to spend 1000 reward points to increase your core’s level at this time, Y/N?

Another trip to Harmony Station was a welcome reward. Not only would Hugh get a chance to return to his physical body, but he also had a chance to score some unique upgrades. Of course, he really needed to progress his level, so that might take precedence over a shopping spree. He was still at level two and needed those leveling perks to flesh out his core and unit upgrades. Hugh had also noted that the victory perks had stopped, and while the GCA never said they were a guaranteed thing after every victory, Hugh had a suspicion that it was at least partly due to him not leveling up and being at a negative reward point total for so long. It was something he’d have to bring up with the other cores when he returned home to see if they had any insight.

Hugh had no idea how much time had passed back home, but as much as he wanted to return, he really needed to take a few days on Harmony Station to at least replenish some consumables. First off, he spent the reward points needed to bring him to level three. A notification advised Hugh that he had to choose his leveling perk now, and since he hadn’t completed a traditional campaign, only a combat trial, he wasn’t going to be afforded the time to discuss his options with the team back home.

They had already agreed with his choice to focus on primarily economic upgrades with infantry units as a secondary upgrade path, so Hugh felt confident deciding on his own. His last upgrade was from the economic tree, so he would choose a combat upgrade this time, but did want to peek at the economic options just in case there was something he felt he needed right away. Hugh was tempted to dive into his new main battle mech tree, and while they were powerful, the mechs of that class wouldn’t necessarily be present in every battle, unlike infantry. He had unlocked access to a specialized infantry configuration, Assault Infantry, which helped to push them ahead of main battle mechs for upgrade potential. All his infantry were now more durable and sported heavier firepower. They were slower, easier to target, and hard to camouflage, but despite the drawbacks, he preferred the heavy-hitting Assault Infantry over the other options he had been given, and they had performed great in the campaign to defend the Krixnas homeworld.

Upgrade Options:

1. Units.

2. Structures.

3. Core.

4. Opponent Disruption.

Hugh noticed the new category; Opponent Disruption had replaced Opponent Penalty. Looking at the tree it seemed like it was pretty much the same thing. It was an intriguing upgrade path, doing nasty things to your opponent before and during the battle, but it didn’t seem consistent enough for Hugh, he would rather rely on unit upgrades for his infantry, and economic upgrades for his core.

Opponent Disruption.

1. Delay, Rank 1. This upgrade will impose a minor delay on your opponent at the start of a battle. The nature and duration of the delay will vary based on battle parameters and other factors. Choosing this upgrade unlocks rank 1 of this ability, and further upgrades are possible.

2. Resource Sabotage, rank 1. Slower resource gathering, fewer supply caches, and other problems will occur for your opponent when you select this upgrade. The type of resource sabotage will vary based on the campaign and battle parameters. Higher ranks of this ability improve its effectiveness and may unlock new options.

3. Unit Sabotage, rank 1. Production speed disruption, weapons malfunctions, and other unpleasant surprises await your foe when you choose this upgrade path. The type of unit sabotage will vary based on the campaign and battle parameters. Higher ranks of this ability improve its effectiveness and may unlock new options.

The Opponent Disruption options were interesting, but the structure upgrades were pretty bland, just options to improve durability, make the construction buildings more efficient, or install additional fixed defenses. It wasn’t something Hugh was very interested in spending his precious upgrade perk on. Core upgrades were the same as before, but with an option to further improve his Reprocessing Efficiency perk.

Reprocessing Efficiency, Rank 3. At rank 3, several improvements are unlocked for this upgrade.

1. Additional salvage and old wreckage will be found in greater quantities, and the location of the salvage will tend to be closer to your command post than before.

2. The ability to remotely reprocess your fallen mechs will improve and the delay before they can be accessed is reduced to 20 minutes. This delay can be further reduced when you level your command post.

3. This upgrade no longer requires a separate structure, and the necessary components will automatically be installed in your command post at no additional cost.

Hugh was tempted to jump on this upgrade, it was a solid improvement over the rank two version. The delay before fallen mechs could be reprocessed was still ridiculously long, something that had hampered its usefulness before, but he could see it would become better later in the battle when resources would be harder to come by. Not having to build a separate structure improved the value of the upgrade as well, saving him resources as well as construction time for his drones. Diving into unit upgrades, Hugh pulled up the infantry options.

Infantry Mech Perks, Assault Mech Variant.

1. Automatic Upgrades, Rank 1. This perk will cause your barracks with an armory upgrade to research and install all unlocked upgrades to your infantry automatically. At rank 1, the perk will only research the upgrades typically found with a tier 1 armory. Upgrades no longer consume resources but do need a short time to research before being implemented.

2. Production Efficiency. This perk will cause your barracks to occasionally produce an extra unit. The extra unit completes immediately, and does not require any resources to construct, but will count toward your unit cap. Further upgrades to this ability will improve and evolve it.

3. Adaptation. This perk grants your units the ability to slowly adapt throughout a battle based on the environmental and combat conditions. Adaptations could include enhanced armor, longer or shorter ranged weapons, and specialized gear like anti-air capability. At this rank, the adaptations are minor ones, but higher ranks will unlock more powerful options.

There were good options all around for his infantry, but of the three, Hugh was leaning toward automatic upgrades. It wasn’t super impressive at rank one, but not having to spend precious resources on infantry upgrades, especially early in the fight when his economy was slow, would give him a solid advantage. Production efficiency could be great in a long slog of a fight, but if it was a short battle, he wouldn’t get as much out of it. Adaptation sounded good, but it might not do much until it hit the higher ranks.

You have selected Automatic Upgrades, Rank 1. This perk will go into effect on your next battle.

Hugh decided to invest in the sure thing, Automatic Upgrades were useful even at the first rank and would scale well as he invested further, given that the higher tier armory upgrades for his infantry became more expensive and often more numerous. New notifications flooded his view after Hugh made his decision.

Prepare for transport to Harmony Station.

Error in routing, additional information regarding the delay will be available shortly.

Processing…

An ability activated by an outside party, Assassinate, Rank 5.

Termination calculation:

The baseline chance of termination is .002%.

Ability rank influence, +5%.

Total termination chance, 5.002%.

Additional information is processing.

Processing…

Your opponent has dedicated additional reward points toward this ability.

Reward point enhancement is active.