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Other Projects => Other Games => Topic started by: Micro102 on July 19, 2010, 02:23:11 am

Title: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 19, 2010, 02:23:11 am
Found the game on gametap and fell in love with it. It is comical and fun and your evil, what more could you want?

However I have encountered the most annoying thing I have ever encountered. The agents of justice keep spawning in my engine room and destroying my engines. Traps are useless as there is not enough room and they could spawn anywhere, it is becoming a real problem as it is making defending my base impossible.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Dr. Johbson on July 19, 2010, 02:26:10 am
If there's any area thats blocked off from your own minions, the agents can teleport in that space and bomb the place.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 19, 2010, 02:28:19 am
Dam. Well thank you....now I just need to figure out where to put more generators.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mini on July 19, 2010, 02:31:24 am
Research the nuclear generators if you haven't already. They only use a 2x2 space and they generate more power than the standard generators.

Here is a wiki for the game: http://wiki.n1nj4.com/index.php?title=Main_Page (http://wiki.n1nj4.com/index.php?title=Main_Page)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 19, 2010, 02:36:38 am
Spoilers dude....
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Dr. Johbson on July 19, 2010, 02:41:28 am
This is also one of my favourite games, I've played it countless times and I still love it, I wish they had more games like this one.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 19, 2010, 03:04:11 am
I absolutely love Evil Genius

But I absolutely HATE... no that isn't right... LOATHE the glitches and bugs.

It is the only reason I never beat the game.

Which is a shame because I can take down elite agents with ease.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: IceShade on July 19, 2010, 04:06:12 am
Evil Genius is brilliant, I like it a lot.

That said, I've never finished it, because the World Domination and Acts of Infamy are complete shit. It first takes 15 minutes for your dudes to get on a boat or a helicopter to destination unknown, and before you know it (the only warning is a blinking button of some kind), a superagent is attacking your dudes and half of em are dead. Considering you can only advance and make money through the world domination map, I got fed up with it.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 19, 2010, 04:35:36 am
Evil Genius is brilliant, I like it a lot.

That said, I've never finished it, because the World Domination and Acts of Infamy are complete shit. It first takes 15 minutes for your dudes to get on a boat or a helicopter to destination unknown, and before you know it (the only warning is a blinking button of some kind), a superagent is attacking your dudes and half of em are dead. Considering you can only advance and make money through the world domination map, I got fed up with it.

That said the weakest aspect of the game (other then glitches) is the World Domination map. I can't think of any other part of the game (other then glitches and bugs) that is weaker.

You have "acts of infamy" that you have NO idea if they are comming or not, no indication if you have them all or if more are comming, and as you said your units can die overseas so easily even if you could normally take on those agents.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Evilgrim on July 19, 2010, 05:08:37 am
I approve of this game.
And wasting all my money on damned useless hotels.

Whee.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Jopax on July 19, 2010, 05:09:05 am
The game is great, but it's a real shame the studio went under, they had potential, just imagine what the sequel would be like :o
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mr.Person on July 19, 2010, 06:46:46 am
I hated those stupid Super Agents. They were just impossibly hard to kill. And of course, while they're there, they kill everyone. With everyone dead, good luck getting enough trained units together to do Acts of Infamy, train other units, or even make money so you can buy more fucking units. Viscous as fuck cycle: they kill all your guys, so you have to pull some off the world map to protect yourself. Since you're making less money, you have to turn down the rate of new minions. Super Agent kills more of your minions. You have to pull more off the map to make up the shortfall, you have to spend less so you have fewer minions. Since you have fewer minions overall, the Super Agents kill MORE of your minions since the threat against them is even less than it was (and remember, they killed your minions pretty easily to begin with even if they're all commandos, never mind if you only have like 25 construction workers in your whole damn base). Oh look, you need to pull all your units off the world map just to defend yourself. You have to spend nothing on new minions. Even if you go as defensive as possible (sentry guns out the ass, always on lockdown, locked doors and traps everywhere, ect.) the Super Agents have a nasty habit of either camping outside killing your construction workers as they arrive or destroying the doors and traps without activating them. Problem was, I couldn't do shit to stop them. Being so low on minions, I could hardly ever do acts of infamy to get my fame up and I certainly didn't have an feasible sustainable way to kill them. With fame being slow to come by, it took forever to get the missions to get rid of them. And just one of them was really annoying. When three of the little fuckers started attacking me AT THE SAME GODDAMN TIME, I ragequit. Sure, I could of cheated to remove them, but I didn't see any point since they were the only real challenge in the first place.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Ephemeriis on July 19, 2010, 07:58:32 am
The trick to dealing with the super agents (well, any agents, really) is to confuse them, rather than try to kill them.

It's been a while since I played (but now I'm going to have to re-install it), so I don't remember the exact attribute to use.  Seems to me that it was the valet looking guys...

They don't actually attack anyone - they just politely direct folks to the beach, or the hotel, or offer them a drink, or whatever.  It confuses the agents and makes them forget what they're doing.  After a few rounds of this they'll wander back home without actually causing any harm.  And there are traps that affect the same attribute.

Plus, being non-lethal, it's not so painful if your own minions trigger them.

I used to fill the entry hall of my lair with those traps, and then recruit a bunch of the appropriate minions.  Never had any trouble with the super agents.  In fact, it got a little too easy.

And later in the game you can permanently remove the super agents by discovering their weakness and exploiting it.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Robsoie on July 19, 2010, 08:02:00 am
I noticed this flash game that seems extremely inspired by Evil Genius.
http://armorgames.com/play/2409/mastermind-world-conqueror
Surprisingly very well done for a flash game, and its ending is rather hilarious :)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 19, 2010, 08:28:20 am
http://www.n1nj4.com/EvilPlanet/Downloads/Patches.php <Patch your game people

Ah, an old game this is for me. I play it all the time.

Super agents aren't so strong when you realise how to do it. I just swarmed them with valets and spin doctors.

A thing to note is that agents only ever destroy trap sensors, not the traps themselves. Once you get a certain... Freaky... minion you can trap them in a pressure plate room, that is connected to an empty room in your base. Agents will never get through because they're constantly getting zapped/poisoned/blown around/magnetised/lit on fire/stung/eaten/thrown.

Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neyvn on July 19, 2010, 08:33:27 am
Here's a handy glitch...
After unlocking the map on the first island and then are told to capture the main... Don't...
You can throw all your minons into the world, pilfer millions and billions of dollars and still not be attacked due to the fact you have no real defence yet so the game don't send agents, though of course after you do, prepare to have agents gallor pour through your doors....

Another cool thing, with the treasury, build it so that it is 5x2 tiles (Expand when needed), dig it so that there is two door wide sections open to the rest of the lair, build a door at one side and a Breifcase stand at the other, FACING outwards to the lair. Have the Door knocked up to level 4 security so that your Henchmen guard it, and that no one goes in. Build this just at the edge of the mountain close to the depos and you will have the faster buying speed, Gold goes automatically into the treasury without anyone needing to enter. THOUGH MAKE SURE THAT IT HAS SPACE WHEN CAPTURING A WORLD TREASURE, you will need to move its 'blueprint' asap to move it, else it will sit at the depo and a Thief Agent will just take it...

Windtraps are your friend...

Wind Tunnels are your Comedian. Wind Tunnels that push everyone back Outside through the front door, they are FUNNY!!!

Always back up a trap or tripwire. Always connect your traps so that agents go from one to the other straight away...

Also note, Always have a clean path through the lair, I have never noticed an agent entering my treasury due to it being filled but it prevents sneaks getting into the generator room...

Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Empty on July 19, 2010, 09:08:27 am
Did you mean the maid Nevyn?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Josephus on July 19, 2010, 09:10:59 am
I noticed this flash game that seems extremely inspired by Evil Genius.
http://armorgames.com/play/2409/mastermind-world-conqueror
Surprisingly very well done for a flash game, and its ending is rather hilarious :)

The flash series is itself pretty damned funny as well. Look it up on Newgrounds, you probably won't regret it.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Metalax on July 19, 2010, 09:12:31 am
Here's a handy glitch...
After unlocking the map on the first island and then are told to capture the main... Don't...
You can throw all your minons into the world, pilfer millions and billions of dollars and still not be attacked due to the fact you have no real defence yet so the game don't send agents, though of course after you do, prepare to have agents gallor pour through your doors....
Of course, you can avoid having huge numbers of agents pour in by removing all your minions form the world map after you have acquired enough wealth, then leaving the game running for 30 mins or so. Heat slowly dissipates if there are no minions in an agency's area of the world map.

A thing to note is that agents only ever destroy trap sensors, not the traps themselves. Once you get a certain... Freaky... minion you can trap them in a pressure plate room, that is connected to an empty room in your base. Agents will never get through because they're constantly getting zapped/poisoned/blown around/magnetised/lit on fire/stung/eaten/thrown.

Indeed you can take this one step further and make a supertrap that is essentially inescapable. There is a limit on how many agents can spawn on your island and once they are all locked up in the trap then no more will spawn, letting you go about your business without interruption. Remember to add a killing trap that can be linked in, so new agents can spawn if you need agents running around outside for one of the objectives, as you don't want to release all of the hostile agents in one go.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mr.Person on July 19, 2010, 09:26:14 am
The trick to dealing with the super agents (well, any agents, really) is to confuse them, rather than try to kill them.

It's been a while since I played (but now I'm going to have to re-install it), so I don't remember the exact attribute to use.  Seems to me that it was the valet looking guys...

They don't actually attack anyone - they just politely direct folks to the beach, or the hotel, or offer them a drink, or whatever.  It confuses the agents and makes them forget what they're doing.  After a few rounds of this they'll wander back home without actually causing any harm.  And there are traps that affect the same attribute.

Plus, being non-lethal, it's not so painful if your own minions trigger them.

I used to fill the entry hall of my lair with those traps, and then recruit a bunch of the appropriate minions.  Never had any trouble with the super agents.  In fact, it got a little too easy.

And later in the game you can permanently remove the super agents by discovering their weakness and exploiting it.

I did that. Yes, I could get them stunned (trying to kill them is impossible, more on that later), but it took about 10 different spindoctors or so to do it . And believe me, I had that many spindoctors lying around. That wasn't the issue. The issue was that they would just fuck everything up and would never go away. Now I'm cool with them killing a few minions each time they show up or getting a bunch of heat by breaking into my doors or even teleporting into my base or digging down walls or what have you, but what made it suck was that they were just unstoppable. They wouldn't go away and had the annoying habit of killing all of my traps not located at the front door, killing my traps located at my front door while the spindoctors run out, killing my security system so the spindoctors don't run out anymore, and killing a buttload of minions, agents, and tourists from the exploding traps and doors, all of which costs me time, money, or both to repair. So lets just say that each time they get stunned, they take out 1 construction worker, one of each tier 1 minion (valet, guard, and technician), and a single tier two or tier three minion (any of the rest of them, this is being very generous since I usually have a swarm of spindoctors standing around them while a bunch of shit blows out). I believe they stay stunned for about 60 seconds. We'll say it takes 3 stuns to get them to leave the island. We'll say we get 5 minutes between visits to the island. We'll give the super agent two minutes of time to spend wandering around, destroying other stuff, and whatever else they decide to do. That means that every 10 minutes, three construction workers, three valets, three guards, three technicians, and three other minions have died. That's a total of 15 deaths. Now, to meet the rate of dying, I'm going to have to crank up my minion generation a notch. In addition to having to rebuy whatever the super agent destroyed, which by the way could easily be over $10,000, I also have to pay a bunch more for new minions AND spend a bunch of time retraining the minions.

Oh, that's for the ones that DON'T walk around killing your minions. For the ones that do, you're fucked. If one wanders near the depot, you don't collect any cash or get any new minions. If you're sending out or getting a bunch of minions back to or from the world map, they all die. When the Agent does get to the front door, everybody and everything there explodes and dies. Every spindoctor who interacts with the Super Agent dies. Every valet who walks over to put out the fires, every technician who walks over to fix the shit, and every contruction worker walking by with new furniture dies. We'll be generous and say that every round of stunning costs me 20 minions, 18 of which are trained at least one level. I now have to buy minions at a rate of 1 every 20 seconds just to keep pace with the deaths). That's not even getting into the tens of thousands of dollars of equipment that needs to be replaced, the shitload of time that needs to be spent retraining minions, and the occasional "fuck you" that happens when I lose all of the diplomats or commandos and need to redo an act of infamy to get more. Speaking of AoI's, I had so few minions who weren't busy training replacements, getting me money, SCIENCE!ing, or dealing with agents and super agents that I had pretty much none left over for doing AoI. So I did them very sparingly, which is a shame since reading AoI and getting rewards are pretty damn cool. Since I did them so rarely, it literally took RL weeks of playing just to get another 50 fame. My reward for that 50 fame? Like ten more minions and another super agent pissing me off. Motherfucker, I do NOT need another one running around.

Oh yeah, did I mention that three Super Agents show up at the same time? Might be four, I wouldn't know since I sure as hell never got that far (probably not since I had the AoI to get rid of the Asian guy). All of this rebuying of equipment and needing to rebuy minions constantly pretty much drained me of money, which is bad since all of my minions are now dead, leaving me with nobody to go get more cash. Oh, and since three of them are now killing at the same time, I'm either buying minions at 1 every ten seconds or losing minions constantly. Buying them at that rate takes extraordinary amounts of money, so I trained them to guards and shipped them out ASAP. When they died, I'd do it again with their replacement. At the end of it, I didn't even bother training them anymore. I just sent them out as contruction workers. It was too risky to have them walk into my base, train, and then walk back out. It was very risky just to have them walk from one depot to the other.

And the worst part was, it wasn't fun. I couldn't do anything about the super agents. I had three options: kill them, kill them with the help of my henchman, or stun them with spindoctors. Killing them with just minions takes an insane number of minions. Killing them with my henchman plus minions is retarded since that'll make your henchman lose lives. Subduing them is extremely costly, but easily the cheapest method. Problem is, it's STILL too expensive, it STILL leads to a lot of death, and it STILL leads to them blowing up everything! Doesn't matter what you do, what traps you have out, whatever, they STILL blow up everything and kill a bunch of minions. Oh, and my reward for FINALLY getting them off the island? About 5 minutes of peace before they show up again to start the whole process anew. Uuuuugh. And with three of them running around at a time, there was no peace, just moments of slightly less death than usual.

I could of modded them out of the game, yeah, but I didn't. Without them, the game's too easy and simple. Regular agents are a joke to deal with. Anything else that shows up can be easily waited out until your heat goes down OR dealt with by your henchman. So it was a "Damned if I do, damned if I don't" scenario. Rather than play and get pissed of at the super agents constantly or play and be bored constantly, I just quit. Came back a few months later with a mod that let me have a buttload more minions. Didn't help at all since it only delayed the amount of time it took for me to run out of cash and minions. It did, however, buy me enough time to race to the end of the storyline... until I got bored of that and quit, never to play the game again. I'm not even sure if I even beat the story, it was just so frustrating being unable to do anything. Hell, wouldn't shock me if I just simply couldn't get through the story due to lack of minions.

The problem with the super agents was just that they weren't fun because there wasn't anything I could do about them. The rest of the game was fun. Even bands of veterans running around killing everything is fun since they go away eventually They also don't cause my henchman to lose lives, so I'm free to use them. They ALSO don't tend to get too far into the base and are MUCH easier to kill. Bottom line, everything about the super agents was not fun, so they literally ruined the game for me. They still piss me off to this day, and I've not played the game in three years.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Zangi on July 19, 2010, 11:40:30 am
Weaken the Super Agents. 

-Life
-Psyche
-Stamina

Capture and place in jail.  Line jail up with gun turrets.  Escape = Boolets in face.
I think you can also mod the jail time to... really really long time.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Fikes on July 19, 2010, 12:57:40 pm
A couple of tricks I learned...

Build a bunch of enterances, at least 5. 1 goes into your base, the other 4 are just huge winding tunnels with nothing at the end. The agents just walk around there for ever

If you need a temporary connection to the outside world, seperate that entrance from your main base with a barracks. You can't remove corridor tiles, but you can barracks. This is extra useful when you first move to the second map and want your entrances far from the docks but want quick moving of your monies.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: mattie2009 on July 19, 2010, 01:23:38 pm
Yeah, see, I like this game, but I'm only able to play the demo because the game costs money one way or another. Amazon and all those sites want money before they'll even deliver the game, and sites like gametap want me to write them a cheque every three months or so for a service I'm going to use rarely, if at all past what I want to buy at the time.

It's a pity, because it's a really good game and I do like the idea.

EDIT: Also, the tutorial is abut as smooth and helpful as attaching a ton of bricks to your back and handcuffing you.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chaoswizkid on July 19, 2010, 01:40:55 pm
Also note, Always have a clean path through the lair, I have never noticed an agent entering my treasury due to it being filled but it prevents sneaks getting into the generator room...

Alternatively, design your generator room such that there are NO empty spaces for sneaks to get in. They won't spawn, and you don't have to worry about it so much.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 19, 2010, 01:50:34 pm
Also note, Always have a clean path through the lair, I have never noticed an agent entering my treasury due to it being filled but it prevents sneaks getting into the generator room...

Alternatively, design your generator room such that there are NO empty spaces for sneaks to get in. They won't spawn, and you don't have to worry about it so much.

So long as you never expand too quickly and experience a partial blackout. Your generators will start to take damage, your techs won't be able to reach them... and then, when stuff starts exploding, you get a full blackout. Not nice.  >:(




Super Agents aren't that bad. On first arrival, sure, they'll go bananas on your minions. (And it only gets worse with later agents - I still get nightmares about the American agent...) But once you've secured them, they're not so bad. Just like normal agents, SAs have a fixed length of time to spend on the island, so just keep shuffling them off to 'interrogations' to keep them busy. Eventually, they'll break out of jail, immediately teleport out of your base, and return home.


...alternately, do a low-Notoriety runthrough. It's boring as heck, but my first time through the game, I never even triggered the last two SAs. Of course, it doesn't feel nearly as evil, but it's much easier.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 19, 2010, 03:39:08 pm
Since the minion limit is 100, can I start deleting lockers and the limit will stay at 100?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chaoswizkid on July 19, 2010, 05:26:03 pm
Since the minion limit is 100, can I start deleting lockers and the limit will stay at 100?

Don't believe so, but you could always cheat and set the cap to 999 minions without ever needing lockers...
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 19, 2010, 05:42:02 pm
Well, how many lockers do you need? because I just kept on building them and then my minion limit started going up up by itself.

Also, my technicians seem to prefer staying in the generator room fixing generators 24/7 instead of finding stuff to research, anyway to fix this?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 19, 2010, 07:21:12 pm
Super Agents are easy to deal with

You use social minions on them. They can just keep swarming on them

Once you capture the Super Agent however you MUST immediately use interrogation devices of all kinds to keep them busy.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 19, 2010, 09:55:48 pm
Well, how many lockers do you need? because I just kept on building them and then my minion limit started going up up by itself.

Also, my technicians seem to prefer staying in the generator room fixing generators 24/7 instead of finding stuff to research, anyway to fix this?

Your minion capacity is decided by both your Notoriety and the number of lockers you've got. At certain Notoriety checkpoints, you'll get +5 minions. Every locker gives you +1. The combined total is your Minion Cap, limited to a maximum of 100 minions.


When you're close to your power limit, generators will slowly take damage over time. Build more generators, get a little extra power, and everything will become normal again.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 19, 2010, 10:25:38 pm
See, i've never had you guys problems. I've never built an inaccessible part of a base. Super agents also tend to be easy for me. Get a henchman in the armoury with a buncha pissed off military minions (Multiple time clocks can help with this) and go destroy them in a GIANT WAVE OF FIREY DOOM.

Although Jet Chan and Katrina Petranova were a bitch.

I also loved the way you got rid of each secret agent (It is possible guys). Especially John Steele. You...
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Any super agent giving you trouble is just a bi-product of poor base planning. Alot of the time my minions never encounted the super agents before they left!

My henchmen have also never lost a life.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: IceShade on July 20, 2010, 02:23:30 am
A good base layout (use common sense!) is the key to success. Have a double corridor in the entrance hall, only allow special access on these doors and don't hesitate to lock them down completely.

When an enemy raiding party is knocking on your door, lock it down, go status red to hand out a gun to everyone .. and when you're ready, you open the door. A beautiful firefight erupts.

Always make your rooms larger than you intend. You are going to expand, and nothing sucks more than realizing your room is actually too small, and you've built other things around it.. you're then forced to search a different part in the mountain for space.

A "fake" entrance helps keeping curious agents busy. Just build an entrance on the other side of the mountain, restrict access, and connect it to a few corridors with all kinds of silly traps. Make sure they don't get out alive. And if you really care, build a freezer room next to it to stack those bodies up.. but seeing as no one will ever leave, it's not necessary.

It's not a frustrating game at all, and it's quite easy when you know a few "tricks"... if it wasn't for that horrible domination screen, I'd play it again.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 20, 2010, 03:10:03 am
But if you seal off your base how are you suppose to steal money and build things when you can't reach the helipad/dock?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 20, 2010, 04:25:34 am
"I also loved the way you got rid of each secret agent (It is possible guys). "

Quite a few of them are very disapointing in how easy it is to take care of them (in fact all but one are)... Appart from assault squads and the lucky demo man... nothing really threatened you... and assault squads only came if you generated a ton of heat.

I mean... imagine playing a strategy game where you can research "Enemy heros are dead"
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neyvn on July 20, 2010, 04:48:20 am
But if you seal off your base how are you suppose to steal money and build things when you can't reach the helipad/dock?
Agents will enter any building they find on the isle to check them out and see whats inside...
I liked making those little huts and having it so as they enter the building they step on a pressureplate that pops up the pop up minion, sometimes if you are lucy the doors to the hut closes and after the agent recovers they think to themselves. "Did I check in that place.... Ah better be safe then sorry... OH SHIT WHATS THAT!!"
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Muz on July 20, 2010, 06:48:09 am
I love this game. I should post a layout of my base design.. didn't find it in any walkthroughs, but it worked very well in an evil genius way.

IMO, the best choice to beating agents in this game is non-violence. Violence becomes increasingly useless at higher difficulty levels and late in the game.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chaoswizkid on July 20, 2010, 08:26:18 am
I know there's a site somewhere that allows you to design and post you bases online, but only for the second island. something.Evilbastard.something.something etc...  I remember that evil bastard was part of the name, though. Nifty site.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: monkey on July 20, 2010, 11:25:07 am
I wish there were more of the base building games.... :P

(offtopic my clone in space http://img44.imageshack.us/g/screenshot14d.png/, in development limbo since a couple of months ago )
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Muz on July 20, 2010, 11:30:20 am
Lol, checked out that evilbastard thing. Looks like I wasn't the only person who thought of a labyrinth-style layout.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: jnecros on July 20, 2010, 11:45:31 am
I loved this game! I really don't see why there was never a 2nd unless Rebellion Developments did not make enough with their republish of Evil Genius.

I agree that we need more base buidling games, especially ones with complex trap systems
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: quinnr on July 20, 2010, 01:59:47 pm
I have had this game for a long time.

Pretty fun, I love the traps + tag system.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 20, 2010, 05:13:27 pm
I loved this game! I really don't see why there was never a 2nd unless Rebellion Developments did not make enough with their republish of Evil Genius.

I agree that we need more base buidling games, especially ones with complex trap systems

They didn't make a second because the studio went under.

Also, base planner is here: http://www.evilbastard.org/slight/egplanner.php

Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 20, 2010, 05:17:27 pm
I love my square corridor of wind traps. Can keep people endlessly detained just by sending them zooming around the square until they finally run out of stats or my henchmen can get to them.

It's well worth the price of the minions that get caught in it also.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Jreengus on July 20, 2010, 06:44:32 pm
Plus it makes you money because you're chaining traps.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: jnecros on July 20, 2010, 09:04:36 pm
I loved this game! I really don't see why there was never a 2nd unless Rebellion Developments did not make enough with their republish of Evil Genius.

I agree that we need more base buidling games, especially ones with complex trap systems

They didn't make a second because the studio went under.

No, Rebellion Developments bought Evil Genius and the company that made it, and rereleased it on Steam, they also made Aliens vs Pred 2010, so no they are still around
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Muz on July 20, 2010, 09:13:23 pm
I love my square corridor of wind traps. Can keep people endlessly detained just by sending them zooming around the square until they finally run out of stats or my henchmen can get to them.

It's well worth the price of the minions that get caught in it also.

I've avoided those wind trap corridors because it seems to make the game a bit easy, especially with the money combo. IMO, like corridors in DF that flood magma. But I'll probably try to play the game on hard and see how it works out.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 20, 2010, 09:31:37 pm
I loved this game! I really don't see why there was never a 2nd unless Rebellion Developments did not make enough with their republish of Evil Genius.

I agree that we need more base buidling games, especially ones with complex trap systems

They didn't make a second because the studio went under.

No, Rebellion Developments bought Evil Genius and the company that made it, and rereleased it on Steam, they also made Aliens vs Pred 2010, so no they are still around

... They went from Evil Genius to Alien Vs Pred?

...I'm going to erase that thought from my mind and blissfully live in the knowledge that they went under.

Such a shame that they did. :P
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: jnecros on July 20, 2010, 09:33:32 pm
yeah totally, aliens vs predator was a pile of shit imo  :-\
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Josephus on July 20, 2010, 10:43:46 pm
It was passable. I didn't like the melee combat mechanic; the hell does a marine block a Xenomorph tailstrike with his pistol?

Still loads better than Predator: Concrete Jungle, though.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Moogie on July 20, 2010, 11:17:29 pm
One of my favourite games. It started to have a budding mod community too, but unfortunately the mod support was lackluster and it never really took off until well after the company's demise.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 20, 2010, 11:19:01 pm
It was passable. I didn't like the melee combat mechanic; the hell does a marine block a Xenomorph tailstrike with his pistol?

Still loads better than Predator: Concrete Jungle, though.

Don't you get it? Each marine was trained to be a NINJA!

I did like the games online. All those pesky aliens could never beat my marine in close combat. I knew how to exploit them too well.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 20, 2010, 11:23:23 pm
I loved this game! I really don't see why there was never a 2nd unless Rebellion Developments did not make enough with their republish of Evil Genius.

I agree that we need more base buidling games, especially ones with complex trap systems

They didn't make a second because the studio went under.

No, Rebellion Developments bought Evil Genius and the company that made it, and rereleased it on Steam, they also made Aliens vs Pred 2010, so no they are still around

True, Rebellion bought them... but that was after they went under. Evil Genius was developed by Elixir Studios (published by Sierra), who went bankrupt shortly after releasing EG. All of Elixir's assets, including Evil Genius (and a few other titles, IIRC) were bought by Rebellion.



The only relation Rebellion has whatsoever with Evil Genius, is that they bought the intellectual rights after Elixir went under, and rereleased it as-is on Steam, GoG, etc. They were, in no way, shape, or form, related to the actual development of EG.

/end_rant
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 20, 2010, 11:38:08 pm
I loved this game! I really don't see why there was never a 2nd unless Rebellion Developments did not make enough with their republish of Evil Genius.

I agree that we need more base buidling games, especially ones with complex trap systems

They didn't make a second because the studio went under.

No, Rebellion Developments bought Evil Genius and the company that made it, and rereleased it on Steam, they also made Aliens vs Pred 2010, so no they are still around

True, Rebellion bought them... but that was after they went under. Evil Genius was developed by Elixir Studios (published by Sierra), who went bankrupt shortly after releasing EG. All of Elixir's assets, including Evil Genius (and a few other titles, IIRC) were bought by Rebellion.



The only relation Rebellion has whatsoever with Evil Genius, is that they bought the intellectual rights after Elixir went under, and rereleased it as-is on Steam, GoG, etc. They were, in no way, shape, or form, related to the actual development of EG.

/end_rant

Oh, well thanks for clearing that up.

I'm actually crying with joy.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 21, 2010, 02:52:03 am
It is rare that a company goes out of buisness and another company doesn't take their intellectual property unless it was considered of little value.

Given that Evil Genius was actually pretty good...

Though as Evil Genius and Ghost Master shown me... NEVER rely on patches to "fix" or "complete" a game. As neither of them were patched up. (even the latest Evil Genius Patch doesn't fix a lot of the pressing issues, and the popular one is also a cheating hack)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 22, 2010, 02:45:25 am
A few questions here.

1. Is there a way to move all your henchmen at once?

2. How do you move super agents off land? That Asian guy has been standing on this 1 area for half an hour now...I can't do anything because he wipes out 30 guys at once.

3. What are everyone's unit ratios? Would it be wise to get rid off most technicians since you only need them to repair and scientists can train people into techs?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 22, 2010, 02:51:51 am
A few questions here.

1. Is there a way to move all your henchmen at once?

2. How do you move super agents off land? That Asian guy has been standing on this 1 area for half an hour now...I can't do anything because he wipes out 30 guys at once.

3. What are everyone's unit ratios? Would it be wise to get rid off most technicians since you only need them to repair and scientists can train people into techs?

1) No

2) Super Agents stay the longest... however generally speaking you can get rid of them if you mass social attacks because unlike actual attacks social attacks interupt their attacks. After they are socially dazed you CAN capture them but if you do you must IMMEDIATELY do something with them as cells are terrible against super agents.

3) generally speaking you don't need much of anyone but the people I usually have the most of are Social minions because I can just mass capture enemies and then brainwash them. however after that are forces.

Tip: Find out what Torchure devices erase memory. Those are the ones you use to lower your heat!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 22, 2010, 05:03:32 am
A few questions here.

1. Is there a way to move all your henchmen at once?

Actually yes. Pause the game then move them.


2. How do you move super agents off land? That Asian guy has been standing on this 1 area for half an hour now...I can't do anything because he wipes out 30 guys at once.

Ugh, Jet Chan. That guy is an asshole. I suggest you get lots of ranged minions and red ivan.

Another way is to swarm him with social minions (A good security system can help with this. Once they start weakening him, get a henchman, again a ranged one is preferable due to the likelyhood of him being able you quickly pop off a punch in between shoe shinings, and tell the henchmen to kill him. Should take up his time a bit. It might be wise to ignore missions in A.N.V.I.L territory until he is gone for good.


3. What are everyone's unit ratios? Would it be wise to get rid off most technicians since you only need them to repair and scientists can train people into techs?

I generally have more higher tier minions than lower tier. If I need to move them down I just kill them off and train up a couple of plebs.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neyvn on July 22, 2010, 07:52:57 am
Kill them off with your Genius in the control room, good boost for the workers there if you set the clock to long shifts...
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Siquo on July 22, 2010, 08:27:45 am
Another trick for SA's: The henchman with "smooth operator" does a psyche hit. However, the SA will wait and stand still for the henchman to come. If the henchman is a long way away, the SA will just stand there and wait. Letting the henchman run back to the other side of the island, use ability, run back, use ability severely cripples the SA, as he's standing still, even while being attacked.

Yes, awesome game, but I never could destroy the last agent  :(
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 22, 2010, 09:00:20 am
Another trick for SA's: The henchman with "smooth operator" does a psyche hit. However, the SA will wait and stand still for the henchman to come. If the henchman is a long way away, the SA will just stand there and wait. Letting the henchman run back to the other side of the island, use ability, run back, use ability severely cripples the SA, as he's standing still, even while being attacked.

Yes, awesome game, but I never could destroy the last agent  :(

Because you can't do it till the game end :P
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Siquo on July 22, 2010, 09:29:37 am
Yes, but even then he kept escaping and being a nuisance while I was preparing... So I gave up.

I agree that it's an awesome game, but often just too annoying.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Detrevni|inverteD on July 22, 2010, 10:20:00 am
This thread inspired me to install this game again, it's been sitting on my desk right in front of me gathering dust for the past year or so. After getting through all of the compatibility issues tied with Vista (Yeah, I'm still using that pile of blegh) I'm enjoying it a lot once again.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: quinnr on July 22, 2010, 04:06:47 pm
Hey I found it!

But I heard if I try to use it on Vista, bad things will happen?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 22, 2010, 04:08:49 pm
Quote
2) Super Agents stay the longest... however generally speaking you can get rid of them if you mass social attacks because unlike actual attacks social attacks interupt their attacks. After they are socially dazed you CAN capture them but if you do you must IMMEDIATELY do something with them as cells are terrible against super agents.

Sorry, should of been more clear. I meant he was on the world map. Standing on this territory for forever so I can't complete a mission.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 22, 2010, 04:11:03 pm
Quote
2) Super Agents stay the longest... however generally speaking you can get rid of them if you mass social attacks because unlike actual attacks social attacks interupt their attacks. After they are socially dazed you CAN capture them but if you do you must IMMEDIATELY do something with them as cells are terrible against super agents.

Sorry, should of been more clear. I meant he was on the world map. Standing on this territory for forever so I can't complete a mission.

In that case, there's nothing you can do. They usually move around fairly frequently, though - keep an eye open, and eventually the territory will free up.

(And if they ever set foot on your island, consider that your golden opportunity to plunder their regions.  :D )
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Evilgrim on July 22, 2010, 04:12:36 pm
Hey I found it!

But I heard if I try to use it on Vista, bad things will happen?

It worked fine for me in Vista.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 22, 2010, 11:43:21 pm
I think my game is game-breakingly bugged. I was doing the "gather doomsday device data" missions and while I had 2 left it randomly said "task completed" and said it was completed, but it wasn't and no "purchase new island" button appeared. So I finished the objective and it said "task completed" again but the purchase button is still missing!!!!!!!

Don't tell me I have to redo the entire freaking thing.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: quinnr on July 22, 2010, 11:53:51 pm
You can get new islands?
(never got that far :P )
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 23, 2010, 12:22:58 am
Great....time for a restart.

I now understand why people hate the game for the bugs.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Siquo on July 23, 2010, 02:49:08 am
(And if they ever set foot on your island, consider that your golden opportunity to plunder their regions.  :D )
Somehow that just sounds dirty to me.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 23, 2010, 07:29:29 am
Great....time for a restart.

I now understand why people hate the game for the bugs.

Well damn, i've never had that bug, and i've completed the game a good 6-7 times.

Have you patched your game?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: mattie2009 on July 23, 2010, 09:34:03 am
Hey I found it!

But I heard if I try to use it on Vista, bad things will happen?

I have vista and it works fine. (I'm using a torrented version though because my parents won't let me buy it)
Also, you move to a new island after objective 5, I believe.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 23, 2010, 03:12:18 pm
Great....time for a restart.

I now understand why people hate the game for the bugs.

Well damn, i've never had that bug, and i've completed the game a good 6-7 times.

Have you patched your game?

I got it off gametap, don't think you can patch it, either that or it's patched already. It should be.

Where is the world domination button suppose to be (exact location)? What does it look like? I am holding onto this one last hope as I see nothing new on the world domination screen.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sowelu on July 23, 2010, 03:50:24 pm
I wish I could find a base-building mission I can enjoy again.

So much of these games revolve around "plan a good layout, implement it over time, and wait a whole lot while nothing happens until you have enough resources to finish".  The only game that was different from that was Dungeon Keeper, because you were fighting against other Dungeon Keepers that were attempting to do the same.

Theme Hospital, such a classic, but you do the same thing every level.  Rollercoaster Tycoon, occupies a lot of time, but it's still essentially the same genre.  And Evil Genius isn't that much different in the end.

...I was going to post about the Smooth Operator bug but I got beaten to it.  It's the only way I see to win against agents, since they slaughter my social minions like nothin'.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 23, 2010, 04:12:21 pm
You would think that agents of justice wouldn't be slaughtering people in a hotel around tourists who think that they are in an actual hotel.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 23, 2010, 04:41:38 pm
You would think that agents of justice wouldn't be slaughtering people in a hotel around tourists who think that they are in an actual hotel.

Because those costumes your minions wear are so subtle.

"Oh, hey, 15 guys in identical cheesy outfits! Couldn't possibly be minions for an evil mastermind, could they?"



On a side-note, I generally find hotels to be pretty darn useless. Tourists aren't exactly a threat (minor heat if they escape the island with intel... or a pair of extra body bags in the freezer... or 10 seconds of spinning around in the mixer before they forget everything and leave harmlessly...), and having all your social minions constantly wandering halfway across your island is... bad. For one, they're kind of vulnerable to everything from agents to strong breezes, and for two, having social minions halfway across the map isn't much help when you really need some agents confused back at base.  :-\

Oh, and just because I like cramming as much info as possible into each forum post: is there any (easy) way to change the frequency with which different region's tourists arrive? I've seen maybe thousands of SMASH tourists, a handful of ANVIL tourists, and I can count on my fingers the cumulative number of times I've seen tourists from the other 3 regions. It's probably in one of those text files somewhere... but I was hoping somebody who's already looked up a solution would just tell me.  :D
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 23, 2010, 05:16:58 pm
Yeah hotels definitely aren't worth it. Would be nice if the tourists spend all their time there, but I find more of them in my base instead of my hotel anyway.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 23, 2010, 05:25:59 pm
Great....time for a restart.

I now understand why people hate the game for the bugs.

Well damn, i've never had that bug, and i've completed the game a good 6-7 times.

Have you patched your game?

I got it off gametap, don't think you can patch it, either that or it's patched already. It should be.

Where is the world domination button suppose to be (exact location)? What does it look like? I am holding onto this one last hope as I see nothing new on the world domination screen.

You mean move to new island button, as for its location, a quick google search and...

http://mthec.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/egf26.png

Yeah, kinda easy to see if its there.

NOTE FOR TOTEM COLLECTORS, DO IT BEFORE YOU GET TO ISLAND TWO.

If you do it after the game either crashes or the totems don't combine.

As for hotels, one hotel room and a room full of dancefloors creates a hotel that you need not staff, and takes up a fair amount of time. It you block the optional spot on the table, you also can put those in without you minions trying to be waiters.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 23, 2010, 07:09:42 pm
its not there  :'(
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mr.Person on July 23, 2010, 07:12:44 pm
Square for square, if you assume that all things in the hotel are used equally, the best item is the bench. I just built a hotel lobby and filled it with benches. Worked alright. Stopped the tourists and gave agents and super agents more space to wander around in.

The second island doesn't have a lot of room for hotels, however. I just installed that user-patch that lets you put hotels inside the mountain (among other things).
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 23, 2010, 07:38:02 pm
Square for square, if you assume that all things in the hotel are used equally, the best item is the bench. I just built a hotel lobby and filled it with benches. Worked alright. Stopped the tourists and gave agents and super agents more space to wander around in.

The second island doesn't have a lot of room for hotels, however. I just installed that user-patch that lets you put hotels inside the mountain (among other things).

Ah, the unofficial patch. I personally use it; making Freaks less likely to trip traps is generally considered a bad thing, but besides that it's got a lot of very, very handy improvements. And some not-so-handy-but-very-neat improvements, like building glass hotel doors anywhere - my Evil Genius now has a snazzy glass door leading into his Inner Sanctum, instead of some silly solid orange door.  :D

(It's also one of the few patches that you can find without hunting down dozens of broken links, which is an obvious plus!)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 23, 2010, 08:10:50 pm
Square for square, if you assume that all things in the hotel are used equally, the best item is the bench. I just built a hotel lobby and filled it with benches. Worked alright. Stopped the tourists and gave agents and super agents more space to wander around in.

The second island doesn't have a lot of room for hotels, however. I just installed that user-patch that lets you put hotels inside the mountain (among other things).

Aha, but bench's only work in the morning and afternoon, dance floors work in the evening. But that's assuming time.

And the second base is better than the first, if you place a hotel partially in trees you clear the ones it was over, from there you just delete it and keep going till you have room
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mr.Person on July 23, 2010, 09:47:46 pm
Well, it had more to do with the fact I didn't care at all about the hotel, so I didn't feel like doing a whole lot with it. It think people have already said that not only are they ineffective at stopping tourists, they're also totally unnecessary, too, since tourists aren't a big deal. Even if they do walk in, they immediately fall for the traps at the front door, don't they? Yes they do.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 23, 2010, 10:01:09 pm
Ah, fair enough.

I guess I just liked them because its where low loyalty minions go to drown there sorrows.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 23, 2010, 10:38:27 pm
They were a big deal for me... I didn't use any traps. I kept everyone on the island out solely on valet minions. And killed whoever got in too deep.

Weird thing is I didn't have enough room in my base and was always at max generator capacity. Had to squeeze in a couple of generators here and there to hold my base.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 23, 2010, 11:11:07 pm
Ah, fair enough.

I guess I just liked them because its where low loyalty minions go to drown there sorrows.

Low loyalty minions should be drowning their sorrows in my jail cells. If that's unavailable, the freezer always has room. No other options exist.  :P



Seriously, though, I rarely have problems with loyalty. Once you've got a few dozen loot objects generously scattered through your halls, and assuming you weren't a moron and didn't place loyalty-draining traps, disloyal minions are a non-issue.



(I occasionally have problems in the early game, before I have a chance to plunder too many objects... but then again, without any high-tier units, I can safely execute any low-loyalty minions. And loyalty-draining traps suck for a reason - Agents who lose their loyalty just turn into tourists, and can apparently still investigate your base if they're already wandering around inside, while loyalty-drained Minions desert on the spot. Compare to smarts/attention, where Agents are removed from your base and/or imprisoned, while Minions are just hauled off to the appropriate stat recovery room.)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Jreengus on July 23, 2010, 11:19:36 pm
Worth noting if a minion steals from you you can tag them for capture then repeatedly zoom in on them, each time you zoom in they stop running away from your still loyal minions and turn to look at the camera. This can be invaluable if they have a large lead.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 24, 2010, 12:16:33 am
Worth noting if a minion steals from you you can tag them for capture then repeatedly zoom in on them, each time you zoom in they stop running away from your still loyal minions and turn to look at the camera. This can be invaluable if they have a large lead.

True, but it's a freakin' pain.  ;)

I prefer to just stop them becoming disloyal in the first place. No thief ever gets more than 3 steps into my base, so I'm perfectly safe leaving loot objects scattered throughout the halls. Worst they do is disrupt the traffic flow, and I never have any desertions once I've got a few bits of treasure lining the passages. (Heck, by the end of the game you'll end up with more loot than you have high-traffic areas!)

On the other hand, zooming is handy when, say, Mariana decides to 'romance' that Technician who, for whatever reason, decided the far end of the island was a good place to hunt for research objects.  >:(
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 24, 2010, 09:21:26 am
Every time a technician gets romanced by her, I let him go.

Bout time the poor soul got laid.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Dr. Johbson on July 24, 2010, 10:33:53 am
On the other hand, zooming is handy when, say, Mariana decides to 'romance' that Technician who, for whatever reason, decided the far end of the island was a good place to hunt for research objects.  >:(

"Oi, Techie..What are you doing? Get back to work!"
"I am working."
"Looks to me like you're watching the damn TV."
"I'm researching..TV."
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Megaman on July 24, 2010, 01:49:52 pm
And that's how the Flat-screen TV was conceived
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: quinnr on July 24, 2010, 03:26:54 pm
-inserts disc into disc drive-
-remembers disk drive on laptop hasn't worked for a year-
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 24, 2010, 03:45:12 pm
-inserts disc into disc drive-
-remembers disk drive on laptop hasn't worked for a year-

*points at generic torrent site 36*

Its not stealing if you've brought it.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Grimshot on July 24, 2010, 07:29:53 pm
I absolutely love Evil Genius

But I absolutely HATE... no that isn't right... LOATHE the glitches and bugs.

It is the only reason I never beat the game.

Which is a shame because I can take down elite agents with ease.

That was my problem, I played through the game twice and both times near the end my save file somehow became damaged or something. When I loaded it up the Evil Genius would always instantly die. It was extremly frustrating to say the least. Didn't have internet at the time though so I should probably download it onto the computer again and search for some patches. I enjoyed the game on both playthroughs regardless.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 24, 2010, 07:54:48 pm
If I recall, that's the bug where if your evil genius is standing in the big screens radius when its saved, he gets hurt.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Leonon on July 24, 2010, 08:22:20 pm
Ugh, Jet Chan. That guy is an asshole. I suggest you get lots of ranged minions and red ivan.

Don't get Red Ivan. Never get Red Ivan.

Trying to use Red Ivan as a henchman is like trying to use The Joker as a henchman, he just sets fire to everything and laughs with a joy that cannot be fathomed by sane men.

First time I played on the second island everything was going fine, no problems in the base when I see an investigator had somehow made it to my power room. So I designate him kill. Then Red Ivan shows up. 5 seconds later there was an unstoppable fire in my power room.

Do not get Red Ivan, he will destroy you.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 24, 2010, 08:28:58 pm
Ugh, Jet Chan. That guy is an asshole. I suggest you get lots of ranged minions and red ivan.
Do not get Red Ivan, he will destroy you.

Not to mention I believe you get Red Ivan instead of the Matron? The Matron is godly!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 24, 2010, 09:47:47 pm
ivan is HILARIOUS and rather good if you use him, and heavily micromange him.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: quinnr on July 24, 2010, 09:51:05 pm
I know, might have to.
Oh wait, CD drive randomly started working.  ::)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 24, 2010, 11:53:58 pm
The matron doesn't seem all that good. I've only unlocked one of her abilities (seems to be the hardest to level up) but it's a support item.

I would have to say that samurai guy is the best. His eviscerate pretty much guarantees him beating a super agent....and he can teleport!

Considering your henchmen like to take strolls in groups, far far away from where you need them, it turns out to be a really nice ability.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 24, 2010, 11:56:21 pm
Attack skills are useless for the most part. Her mass stuns are the point in using her.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sergius on July 25, 2010, 02:22:54 am
If you're having trouble with super agents, and can't get rid of them yet (first island?) is because you got too much notoriety too early. They're really easy if you try not to get your attention of more than one at a time and quickly look for their "retirement" mission.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: quinnr on July 25, 2010, 03:45:18 am
No room for save file...
the save file must be over 20GB big  ::)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Dr. Johbson on July 25, 2010, 03:52:48 am
The rogue samurai and sushi master is my favourite guy too, whenever a super agent comes on my island and strolls a little too close to where I want them to be, teleport, super slash, and the agent is almost always dead, or nearly there. Won't do it on Jacky Chan, though, he's tough.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: mattie2009 on July 25, 2010, 06:44:42 am
Ugh, Jet Chan. That guy is an asshole. I suggest you get lots of ranged minions and red ivan.

Don't get Red Ivan. Never get Red Ivan.

Trying to use Red Ivan as a henchman is like trying to use The Joker as a henchman, he just sets fire to everything and laughs with a joy that cannot be fathomed by sane men.

First time I played on the second island everything was going fine, no problems in the base when I see an investigator had somehow made it to my power room. So I designate him kill. Then Red Ivan shows up. 5 seconds later there was an unstoppable fire in my power room.

Do not get Red Ivan, he will destroy you.

Red Ivan is useful if only for the minefield he gets, but if you have an enemy in a critical location, DO NOT LET HIM GET NEAR.
Also, ONLY USE HIS GRENADE DANCE OUTSIDE.

Also neurocide's unlockable skills are incredibly useful. Her hallucinogen causes agents to get no heat from whatever got hit, and her poison can KO a lot of things. A pity it doesn't distinguish between friend and foe.


A nice trick I found was setting an agent to be weakened, then the moment the animation starts switch to capture or kill. The valet doesn't cancel, and the minions don't wait for him to finish. The agent will pretty much get slaughtered.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Muz on July 25, 2010, 10:36:29 am
Lol, Red Ivan is Fun. And I mean that in both ways. I get him every time, even though it's a tactically bad idea. Most of the attack skills in Evil Genius are bad, especially on higher difficulty levels. But Ivan's the best at dishing out damage from a safe distance.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 25, 2010, 03:52:12 pm
Lol, Red Ivan is Fun. And I mean that in both ways. I get him every time, even though it's a tactically bad idea. Most of the attack skills in Evil Genius are bad, especially on higher difficulty levels. But Ivan's the best at dishing out damage from a safe distance.

And how! Sure, let him loose inside your generator room and you'll have a few regrets about the battle (or, more precisely, one big regret!), but outside there's nothing but obnoxious agents for Ivan to explode.

Don't forget how powerful explosives are. Your enemies are stunned (thrown up into the air, after which they have to pick themselves up), usually set on fire (works almost as well against agents as it does against dwarves!), and of course damaged. Back him up with 10 Mercs with heavy rifles, and you can dispatch even Soldier groups with ease.


(Again, I claim no responsibility for severe internal damage caused by explosions in your own base. And watch it if your minions don't have guns equipped (although, if you're worried about collateral damage, you're playing the wrong game!))
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 25, 2010, 04:10:08 pm
Is there any downside to always having your base on yellow alert?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Evilgrim on July 25, 2010, 04:12:05 pm
Is there any downside to always having your base on yellow alert?

That annoying siren.

But otherwise, none that I can see.

Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Antioch on July 25, 2010, 04:18:59 pm
Is there any downside to always having your base on yellow alert?

That annoying siren.

But otherwise, none that I can see.

enemies shoot faster at armed minions.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mr.Person on July 25, 2010, 04:25:59 pm
Agents take pictures of your guards, instantly getting heat. It's not too bad, though, if you occasionally do some social minioning and have a few traps. Those beehives work wonders.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 25, 2010, 04:26:19 pm
Is there any downside to always having your base on yellow alert?

That annoying siren.

But otherwise, none that I can see.

enemies shoot faster at armed minions.

Does this apply to marksmen? I never really used them so i didn't find out, and they always carry a rifle.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sergius on July 25, 2010, 04:40:18 pm
Is there any downside to always having your base on yellow alert?

That annoying siren.

But otherwise, none that I can see.

enemies shoot faster at armed minions.

Does this apply to marksmen? I never really used them so i didn't find out, and they always carry a rifle.

I've never had any problem with marksmen getting heat by being spotted with their rifles.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 25, 2010, 04:49:28 pm
IIRC, agents will open fire immediately on any armed personnel. Which equals heat, eventually, if they get off the island.

Re: Hotel. It's an expensive way to keep 1/3rd of tourists out of the base. The problem is this: wherever your base entrance is, it's probably there to make your life easier and to get your minions and money inside sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, that applies to tourists too. If there is a direct line from the docks to your real base entrance, chances are many tourists will choose the base as the first place to visit when they arrive.

Here's how you do it then. Build LOTS of hotels. Lots and lots and lots. Like 5, at least. Don't pimp them out. Just build them, stick one dance floor or some benches in there, and build another. Scatter them around the island, but make sure to put one at each dock first.

Reason is this. Tourists will only spend a set amount of time in a single hotel. Then they will go out and explore. However if there are multiple hotels, tourists will spend time in more than one (if they walk by it), until they use up their vacation and head home.

So multiple hotels + multiple out buildings + dummy base entrances = almost no one getting into your base except by sheer luck, following your minions or choosing the base entrance as the first thing to explore when arriving at the island.

And do NOT place equipment in them that requires social minions, otherwise you will have tons of social minions roaming the island, getting Maria Mamba'd, or Jet Chan'd, or Katrina Frostnova'd. Build time clocks in them and set them to OFF so no one tries to work there.

I also like to put multiple bee traps in dummy rooms and such. When a swarm breaks loose from the room and starts attacking people outside...I've had huge swarms drive off assault groups before. The unfortunate part is how much micro it takes to keep that stuff working; it gets destroyed on a regular basis and has to be rebuilt. Misdirection traps are solid gold too, as stupid agents tend to give up sooner and/or forget the things they've seen, INCLUDING the traps they just set off. 
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 25, 2010, 05:04:31 pm
Is there any downside to always having your base on yellow alert?

That annoying siren.

But otherwise, none that I can see.

The siren can be disabled. Click on the "Yellow alert" button a second time, and the siren goes away. (Same for red alert.)

Trust me, this is a sanity-saver.  ;D
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 25, 2010, 05:05:12 pm
With the bee traps, if you make a room in the back of your base containing a freak9(s) and link the pressure plates to some ransom bee traps outside, those bee traps will never actually get damaged, but will go off every now and then.

Good times for all.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 25, 2010, 11:54:49 pm
How do you control where your freaks go?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 26, 2010, 12:03:10 am
heh, thats actually the hard part, you can either use the magician henchman. Or you can plan out a room in advance, and lock the freaks in there as they walk through from the lab to the base, and have a path around it for minions.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on July 26, 2010, 12:20:28 am
Trick number one to guiding Freaks: You don't.

Trick number two to guiding Freaks: Lots and lots of doors, plus micromanagement. Build lots of doors, chained between your lab and your destination. When the Freak wanders into the next room in series, lock the door behind him. (Obviously, have a locked door on any passages you don't want him walking down.) Having your trigger room close to the lab obviously minimizes the amount of work this requires... but it's a one-time investment, in exchange for a lifetime of trap execution. It's a fair trade-off.  ;)



Semi-related query: has anyone tried making an agent trap with an imprisoned Freak? We've talked about sealing off parts of your base, and how agents will handily tunnel inside those sections. What if you sealed off an empty corridor with a Freak inside? Would agents instinctively tunnel in and be brutally pummeled? Or would the Freak react... badly... to being imprisoned and die off? I've never heard of anyone trying this, so either it's a new and novel invention in an 8-year-old game (*cough* suuuuure *cough*), or it won't work... but I thought I'd throw it out there anyways.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mr.Person on July 26, 2010, 01:37:37 am
When my minions get trapped in rooms, they panic'd and were basically useless. Not sure how that applies to Freaks since I never bothered.

Lol, Red Ivan is Fun. And I mean that in both ways. I get him every time, even though it's a tactically bad idea. Most of the attack skills in Evil Genius are bad, especially on higher difficulty levels. But Ivan's the best at dishing out damage from a safe distance.

Get Red Ivan, then walk him into a closet. Set the closet to level 3 security. When somebody breaks it down, they get a face full of rocket launcher.

The main reason I didn't ever risk my henchman on the super agents was that I just simply didn't want to risk them losing lives. Sure, I was being cowardly, but they're so damn cool, you know?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 26, 2010, 03:27:44 am
The Samurai's maxed out eviscerate will one shot every super agent short of the Bond agent. (I forget his name atm.) I know he can take down the American agent and everyone below him. So I just keep him locked in a room, and TP him out to assassinate Super Agents. After three or four of those, they go home. 
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Micro102 on July 26, 2010, 04:14:49 am
Maxed out? I thought you could only unlock them? How do you level them up again?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 26, 2010, 07:16:02 am
By maxed out, I mean his level. Evis's damage is relative to that.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 26, 2010, 09:03:59 am
Surely that idea would fail anyway seeing as if there is one tile agents can't access, they seem to be able to tunnel around your entire base, not just into the inaccessible section.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on July 26, 2010, 04:37:29 pm
Surely that idea would fail anyway seeing as if there is one tile agents can't access, they seem to be able to tunnel around your entire base, not just into the inaccessible section.

Actually there are other rules with that (or glitches) as well as I have seen other units (only Ninjas and one super agent) tunnel.

However you can predict where they will go in advance and prepare by boobytrapping it.

That is what I did with my one dead end hallway.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 27, 2010, 09:50:53 am
After reinstalling the game and re-reading this thread, I was reminded to comment on something else.

Quote
Here's a handy glitch...
After unlocking the map on the first island and then are told to capture the main... Don't...
You can throw all your minons into the world, pilfer millions and billions of dollars and still not be attacked due to the fact you have no real defence yet so the game don't send agents, though of course after you do, prepare to have agents gallor pour through your doors....

This is pretty much a terrible idea. It seems great, at first, except for one thing. You're notoriety rating. The rating is actually a bigger predictor of the agent types that show up on your island than heat. It's ALSO the meter that controls the introduction of Super Agents.

So sure, it seems great milking the world for all it's cash, but you get more than just higher level agents storming the island once you advance the storyline. You get multiple super agents arriving at once at a time when you're far from being able to remove them. It's a pain in the ass, and I ruined my first game trying to be clever. I really wouldn't recommend using this "glitch". It's never going to be worth it, since a) you have to abandon the first island and b) there is a cap on how much cash you can take with you to the second island. The only thing using this method does, is in the long run, is saddle you with all the Super Agent active while you're trying to build the 2nd base.

The optimal strategy is to keep your notoriety to the absolute minimum until you reach the second island. That buys you oodles more time, and money, to build up before your notoriety peaks and Jet Chan arrives on the scene.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Metalax on July 27, 2010, 11:32:37 am
You have something odd going on if your notoriety is rising from having minions stealing on the world map, as I have never once had a notoriety increase from stealing. If you follow the steal before the maid tactic, then your heat will increase to maximum but you can safely just remove all your minions from stealing and wait for it to die down before capturing the maid without any problems.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 27, 2010, 11:34:02 am
Yeah, you've got it wrong dude. Stealing cash doesn't increase notoriety at all.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 27, 2010, 11:43:08 am
You're right. In my last game I was doing all sorts of stuff while still not interrogating the made. My notoriety shot up since I had many workers out in the field, and when I proceeded with the main quest, at like I dunno, 125 notoriety...things blew up rather quickly. In that game I think I was 250+ notoriety before I even really got into the meat of the first island.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: IceShade on July 27, 2010, 01:54:10 pm
Sigh. I must just have to play this again, and keep up the courage to finish it this time. I think both playthroughs resulted in me getting very close to building the giant rocket and then ending the game out of frustration for the domination map.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Jreengus on July 27, 2010, 01:55:02 pm
You got trashed from just having 125 notoriety?

I'm at 125 now and only getting burglars and investigators, the burglars only really started turning up since I started stealing super loot. Of course I am playing this game very carefully, non-lethal traps making sure all the investigators leave with 0 heat and making sure I send out plenty of social minions when doing completing AoI. Aside from one mistake when I maxed it out I haven't yet had my heat go above 50% for any region.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 27, 2010, 03:28:11 pm
Was more the shift from 125 to beyond...because of all the notoriety you rack up doing the main quest stuff, my total when leaving the first island was huge. And when you hit the second island, the kid gloves come off. It was pretty abrupt, but also my first game, so I didn't know about optimized base design. Still, the consequences for notoriety are sort of sneaky, especially when you're milking the early game not realizing where it can land you. (No base on the second island with all five super agents inbound.)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Siquo on July 27, 2010, 03:50:30 pm
Perhaps you mean heat instead of notoriety? Really, notoriety should not build up when only stealing...

Also a good idea when you use that glitch: you can use "planning" as well. It builds up, so all missions for all regions are uncovered. Most missions only uncover during a certain part of the storyline, but since you already "planned" 100% of an area, they instantly become visible.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sergius on July 27, 2010, 06:22:22 pm
The only time I completed this game, I edited some INI or script file and changed the maximum amount of minions you could have. I found out that I could never have enough of all types of minions to complete all missions in the later stages... it was too annoying, having to get them killed if you needed another mercenary and created too many valets, or having lots of quantum physicists to find out you need a ton of technicians...
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Muz on July 28, 2010, 04:27:22 am
Re: Hotel. It's an expensive way to keep 1/3rd of tourists out of the base. The problem is this: wherever your base entrance is, it's probably there to make your life easier and to get your minions and money inside sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, that applies to tourists too. If there is a direct line from the docks to your real base entrance, chances are many tourists will choose the base as the first place to visit when they arrive.

Here's how you do it then. Build LOTS of hotels. Lots and lots and lots. Like 5, at least. Don't pimp them out. Just build them, stick one dance floor or some benches in there, and build another. Scatter them around the island, but make sure to put one at each dock first.

Reason is this. Tourists will only spend a set amount of time in a single hotel. Then they will go out and explore. However if there are multiple hotels, tourists will spend time in more than one (if they walk by it), until they use up their vacation and head home.

Heh, money gets pretty easy to get in the mid of the game, when you really upgrade your henchment, so this is what I do. I'm not sure, but I think tourism lowers your heat a little. Haven't played the game in a long time, but I was slightly happy at having more tourists for some reason.


After reinstalling the game and re-reading this thread, I was reminded to comment on something else.

Quote
Here's a handy glitch...
After unlocking the map on the first island and then are told to capture the main... Don't...
You can throw all your minons into the world, pilfer millions and billions of dollars and still not be attacked due to the fact you have no real defence yet so the game don't send agents, though of course after you do, prepare to have agents gallor pour through your doors....

This is pretty much a terrible idea. It seems great, at first, except for one thing. You're notoriety rating. The rating is actually a bigger predictor of the agent types that show up on your island than heat. It's ALSO the meter that controls the introduction of Super Agents.

Oh, yeah, I used to do that glitch too... then everyone agreed that it was an exploit. I avoid it now.

It made the game a bit less fun too. I think it brought in some ridiculously overpowered agents too early in the game, even if you let the heat die down. It doesn't make super agents come in sooner, but I think if you steal way too much money or something, they get really pissed with you even after the heat dies down. Of course, the regular agents are nowhere near as tough as the super agents.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Duuvian on July 28, 2010, 06:18:55 am
I noticed a big reduction in the number of panicked tourists who got stuck inside my base after I built the hotel on the first island.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Siquo on July 28, 2010, 06:20:22 am
A shack multiple shacks with a door works really nice as well, as a distraction. No traps, no nothing, just a door.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Ephemeriis on July 28, 2010, 06:53:19 am
A shack multiple shacks with a door works really nice as well, as a distraction. No traps, no nothing, just a door.
I used to love this.

I'd build an assortment of shacks outside.  Put absolutely nothing in them.  Lock some of the doors, leave others unlocked.

Agents would spend all day long searching those empty shacks.

Tourists found them far more interesting than my real base.

Hilarious.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Jreengus on July 28, 2010, 08:49:36 am
I noticed a big reduction in the number of panicked tourists who got stuck inside my base after I built the hotel on the first island.
Just build a windtrap at the entrance to your base, any tourist who wanders in triggers it and is blown back out. It works on agents too and since it doesn't hurt them they don't get heat. The only annoying part is when your minions have to wait to get out or else get blown out and drop whatever they were carrying.

Anyhow I made the mistake of going to the second island with a lot of money, once I a briefcase rack in my treasury it immediately filled up with gold trapping all the minions in there in-between the stacks of gold. Now I have to spend a ton of money just to rescue them.

Oh yay! Now I've started to get pop up agents too! Really wish you could move gold stacks, If I could just reposition one or two of the stacks I could easily connect the isolated sections with the rest of my base.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Muz on July 28, 2010, 09:02:35 am
Or just build those pop-up traps at the entrance. Tourists run out of smarts very fast and your social minions will kindly escort them out while they're all confused.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on July 28, 2010, 09:55:32 am
So I've basically surrounded my first island base with entrances, and linked them into two spurs. Neither of them connect to the real base though.

And it's magical. 80 to 90 percent of agents never even see my real base. They spend hours just bouncing back and forth between doors in the dummy corridors. (The weak ones, at any rate.) '

I'm not even going to stick traps in them, because they eventually generate heat or force my minions to lead the zombies out of the base.

Although I think I'm seeing a weird side effect from it. Some groups of agents have stayed in those halls for up to 30 minutes real time. And I've noticed occasionally, a group's heat will just freeze and stop falling over time. At first I thought it was a side effect of the unofficial patch..but I think agents remaining on the island, unable to leave even though they want to, somehow prevents heat from dropping sometimes.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mr.Person on July 28, 2010, 10:06:01 am
That's what I did. Problem is, once the super agents show up, they start blowing up the doors. It gets to be kind of annoying, especially because they're taking almost no damage from the explosions.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on July 28, 2010, 02:58:58 pm
That's what I did. Problem is, once the super agents show up, they start blowing up the doors. It gets to be kind of annoying, especially because they're taking almost no damage from the explosions.

When that happens set the to level 1. Normally that'll stop them from shooting them.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Smitehappy on October 23, 2010, 11:18:23 pm
Just started playing the game on steam again, forgot have much fun building your base to take advantage of minion flow. I also stumbled across this really neat article that shows off some of the cool things you can do with room design by building 1x1 rooms and the like.
http://evilroomsandcorridors.wordpress.com/2010/01/
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: ductape on December 20, 2010, 10:20:17 pm
need some help here.

This has happened twice, when starting out the game, one fo the early objective is to capture a civilian maid and interrogate her.  get the interrogation device built and assign her to be interrogated on it, and each time while looking away somewhere while waiting, I come back and she has vanished form the jail cell and is nowhere to be found.

Now the missions wont seem to progress until I interrogate her, but she is totally gone. Why is this happening?

EDIT - nevermind, she must have escaped, i found her walking around and gave her what she deserved.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Astral on December 21, 2010, 12:32:04 am
Loved the game, sad that the studio went under shortly afterward. The game had a lot of potential, but was so horribly buggy and imbalanced in many ways.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on December 21, 2010, 12:53:59 am
I noticed a big reduction in the number of panicked tourists who got stuck inside my base after I built the hotel on the first island.

That is actually one of the points of a hotel...

The problem is that the vast majority of game ending glitches involve the hotels.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on December 21, 2010, 02:15:39 am
I noticed a big reduction in the number of panicked tourists who got stuck inside my base after I built the hotel on the first island.

That is actually one of the points of a hotel...

The problem is that the vast majority of game ending glitches involve the hotels.

Even when you don't encounter a game-ending glitch, the hotel working as intended is still very effective at destroying your base. Nothing like your entire Social division constantly wandering back and forth across the island, being totally useless and completely exposed to enemy agents.  ::)

Of course, some might argue that a hotel is better because it handles tourists automatically instead of making you tag them. Then again, I'm kind of obsessive about tagging, so this has never been a particular problem.  ;)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on December 21, 2010, 02:20:32 am
You want your Hotels close to your entrance(s) personally.

Then again I was great at handling heat (Social minions were the largest group of minions I owned)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Ephemeriis on December 21, 2010, 07:56:32 am
I always thought social stuff was the best way to go.

Build a decent hotel to take care of tourists...  Build a few fake entrances and locked doors to keep the snoops busy...  And train lots and lots of social minions.  Then you just tag the snoops as soon as they show up.

You don't have to kill anyone at all.  Your social minions keep them confused and off-balance, and eventually they just wander home without much to report.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on December 21, 2010, 08:00:45 am
Until that squad of veterans drops in, that needs no provocation, and starts murdering all your social minions responding to security alerts. Late game, Evil Genius gets pretty annoying when you're trying to keep your people alive. Done wrong you can get reduced back to having to kidnap valets to train up to Playboys. It's not fun when you've got half the world breathing down your neck.

My non-modded solution is to build dummy hotels for the tourists miles from my base entrances, with no service requirements. Solves the tourist problem and keeps most of my minions in my base where they should be, where I can deal with problems frontally and immediately rather than watching 1/3rd my minions go running in a big train around the island. It's why I quit using security cameras outdoors anywhere but in front of my base too. You're just sending minions into the fire if you order them to do something outside of your base.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Saint on December 21, 2010, 09:15:01 am
It's worth the $ it costs on steam.
Best game of the year, all years.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: KaguroDraven on December 21, 2010, 09:19:29 am
I'm reasonibly sure all agent problems can be solved with the traps that infinately keep enemies stunned.I tried one of the ones I found on the wiki when they got too annoying, once I got them all in there it was never a problem again.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: dogstile on December 21, 2010, 12:22:30 pm
I noticed a big reduction in the number of panicked tourists who got stuck inside my base after I built the hotel on the first island.

That is actually one of the points of a hotel...

The problem is that the vast majority of game ending glitches involve the hotels.

Even when you don't encounter a game-ending glitch, the hotel working as intended is still very effective at destroying your base. Nothing like your entire Social division constantly wandering back and forth across the island, being totally useless and completely exposed to enemy agents.  ::)

Of course, some might argue that a hotel is better because it handles tourists automatically instead of making you tag them. Then again, I'm kind of obsessive about tagging, so this has never been a particular problem.  ;)

Actually, just fill the hotel up with dancefloors, a room and benches. Social minions have no reason to go their, tourists stay for hours. If you ensure the tables in the danceroom have no optional spot, you can even include them :)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: ductape on December 21, 2010, 02:51:54 pm
And then we have the unofficial patch:
http://www.strategyplanet.com/evilgenius/TheGame/mod_unofficialpatch.asp

It allows building the hotel rooms inside the base, which might lead to some interesting developments. Anyone tried this?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on December 21, 2010, 05:10:24 pm
And then we have the unofficial patch:
http://www.strategyplanet.com/evilgenius/TheGame/mod_unofficialpatch.asp

It allows building the hotel rooms inside the base, which might lead to some interesting developments. Anyone tried this?

The unofficial patches really ignore the games attempt at balance which is a shame personally because it doesn't even qualify as a patch.

That is why I never downloaded the unofficial patches.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on December 21, 2010, 06:11:46 pm
I tried the interior casino thing. It works about like you'd expect. Your minions form a chain of traffic that moves through the middle of the casino. Tourists and agents follow said trail of minions to your first real door. Bodies make for horrendous amounts of heat and scared people, as they tend to get produced at your doorstep, where everyone also happens to be hanging out. The problem with EG in this regard is it relies on an unbroken chain of guys moving between the depot and the base entrance.

That's what's always taken the game from its intended goal of letting you build a sneaky base, to a tower-defense game with traps and torture.

If the maps had been designed with the helipad and the boat docks directly adjacent to each other and the mountain, it would have been a totally different game.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Kaje on August 26, 2013, 05:36:59 am
I'm sorry to necro this three year old thread....but I didn't want to start a new one if one already existed.

Anyway, on to the exciting news...

It's getting a sequel! A proper, fully featured Evil Genius 2 and not just the Facebook game!

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/26/evil-genius-to-get-fully-featured-pc-follow-up-also-erm-a-facebook-game/

ARGH! EXCITED!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chaoswizkid on August 26, 2013, 05:51:47 am
Evil Genius 2

PEOPLE HAVE ONLY BEEN WANTING THAT FOREVER.

JUST

JUST PLS

I NEED
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: ScriptWolf on August 26, 2013, 05:52:34 am
I'm sorry to necro this three year old thread....but I didn't want to start a new one if one already existed.

Anyway, on to the exciting news...

It's getting a sequel! A proper, fully featured Evil Genius 2 and not just the Facebook game!

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/26/evil-genius-to-get-fully-featured-pc-follow-up-also-erm-a-facebook-game/

ARGH! EXCITED!

Kaje you could have created a evil genius 2 thread :P

Also hnnnggggg want!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: timferius on August 26, 2013, 06:44:44 am
Must...not...get...overexcited. Could...still...be...crap.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Siquo on August 26, 2013, 07:10:55 am
... How about a very cautious "yay"?
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: BigD145 on August 26, 2013, 07:55:58 am
If it is being tailored even remotely like a facebook game, NO. All my no forever.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Metalax on August 26, 2013, 08:02:46 am
If it is being tailored even remotely like a facebook game, NO. All my no forever.

From the article it looks like there will be two separate games, the evil genius online facebook game and a more regular evil genius 2 pc game.

Going to be keeping an eye on this.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Funk on August 26, 2013, 08:04:04 am
I hope this is as good as the first one.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: BigD145 on August 26, 2013, 08:18:54 am
If it is being tailored even remotely like a facebook game, NO. All my no forever.

From the article it looks like there will be two separate games, the evil genius online facebook game and a more regular evil genius 2 pc game.

Going to be keeping an eye on this.


Yes, but which will be a version of the other? One will most likely be a stripped down version of the other. It sounds like they will just do kickstarter with stretch goals.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: timferius on August 26, 2013, 08:31:17 am
I've decided to setlle on Cautiously Optimistic, minus the Optimism. So I'm just Cautiously.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Viken on August 26, 2013, 10:47:23 am
Maybe if the games have some integration where you can set up a base with a bunch of traps and get money in the PC version for however many good-guys you shock or roast into a grave on FB; but otherwise I'm just going to ignore any sort of Online game for it.

But I am totally happy with the idea of a full fledged Evil Genius 2.  I've played Evil Genius to its grave over the years.  (Literally corrupted the game world that required a re-install with a cross between modding and some things best left unsaid). Anyway! I'm hyped, and I'm not going to bother to deny it.  I just hope it comes out good.  Otherwise the entire world is going to boo this video game company into bankruptcy.  Especially with Zygna having its claws in the Online version.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Zangi on August 26, 2013, 01:44:06 pm
... How about a very cautious "yay"?
I'm in the same boat...
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Moogie on August 26, 2013, 02:24:38 pm
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Fikes on August 26, 2013, 02:34:15 pm
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!

I am pretty sure Heroes of Might and Magic changed hands many times and none of those have been been piles of horse shit. I thought the company who owns them now did a good job of returning to the glory days of the series (HoMM 3).

I also think Civilization has changed hands, although they have always kept the same guy at the helm.

Anyways, I will throw my hat in the "That's cool, I enjoyed Evil Genius," pile. I fired it up not that long ago and thought about how nice a sequel would be.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: 10ebbor10 on August 26, 2013, 02:52:08 pm
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!
Dota 2
Command and Conquer 3

On a side note, I don't really know about Rebellion. Their track record isn't impressive, and they haven't done something like this before. (Mainly FPS, from what I can see)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: CognitiveDissonance on August 26, 2013, 02:57:39 pm
PTW

Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!
Dota 2
Command and Conquer 3

On a side note, I don't really know about Rebellion. Their track record isn't impressive, and they haven't done something like this before. (Mainly FPS, from what I can see)

And for reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion_Developments
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sensei on August 26, 2013, 03:19:52 pm
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!
Pretty much everything Obsidian did that was good? It's basically always been their jobs to fix Bioware and Bethesda games that get rushed out the door. See: Fallout New Vegas. Non-ending aside (apparently not Obsidian's fault), I really liked KOTOR II as well.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neyvn on August 26, 2013, 05:59:47 pm
I.... Just.... Do..... Not..... CARE!!! GIVE ME EVIL GENIUS 2!!!!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Leonon on August 26, 2013, 06:45:51 pm
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!
Irrational Game's System Shock 2 and SWAT 4 were pretty good. Robot Arena 2 had a different developer but was published by the old developer/punlisher and was much better than Robot Arena. Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was also pretty good.

And then there's Spec Ops: The Line.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: BurnedToast on August 26, 2013, 07:14:28 pm
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!

Xcom: EU was seriously dumbed down, but I don't think I'd call it a pile of horse shit, it was still an OK game
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on August 26, 2013, 07:27:05 pm
Oooh... a proper EG sequel? If it's similar to the original, and if the developers aren't forced to rush out the game before going bankrupt, this will be very interesting.

Not liking the Facebook version, but hey, maybe it'll act as a suction for terrible, dumbed-down mechanics and thereby improve the real game!  :)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: BigD145 on August 26, 2013, 07:54:31 pm
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!

I am pretty sure Heroes of Might and Magic changed hands many times and none of those have been been piles of horse shit. I thought the company who owns them now did a good job of returning to the glory days of the series (HoMM 3).

Never liked HoMM. Not helping.

Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!
Dota 2
Command and Conquer 3

Still not helping.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on August 26, 2013, 08:14:41 pm
The thing about Evil Genius is that it is a great game lowered to just being good because of execution but ultimately just needed tweaking.

It had every ingredient to be a great game but it needed to fix them up. It certainly needed a lot of fixing at every section of the game, but another few months with play testing would have completely turned the game around.

Heck the only reason I havn't beat it is because I hit a game breaking glitch both times, that being caused by resorts (and I have hit that but more often then that), and I even got good enough to take down multiple super agents at once.

I can get a bit more detailed but anyone who played the game can spot the flaws.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on August 26, 2013, 08:51:41 pm
Agreed, the original game was a brilliant idea with a passable execution. Most obvious flaws:

* Tourists are pointless. I've never noticed them generating much heat if you just ignore them. Building a resort is expensive as heck, distracts your social minions from the more important task of weakening agents, and forces those social minions to walk between the resort and the base, rendering them highly vulnerable to high-tier agents with itchy trigger fingers.

* Traps are mostly worthless. Set them up in your base, and they'll kill more minions than agents, guaranteed. The only effective way to use them is with 'decoy bases', full of nothing but traps, in the hopes that agents will wander into the decoy base and be killed (which usually requires complex set-ups for little benefit).

* Recalling minions from the world map reduces heat and increases your strength back at base. In other words, it's viable (but boring) to recall every minion after every Act of Infamy and wait for your heat to decay. You can beat the game without a soldier ever arriving on your island. It's the 'best' tactic, but boring as heck. Unless you intentionally antagonize the AI, the game is very easy.

Here's hoping the sequel manages to improve a few of these issues!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chaoswizkid on August 27, 2013, 07:00:44 am
Struggling to think of any game sequel that was built by a different company than the original, that didn't turn out to be a pile of horse shit. Examples are welcome, because I would so love to discover some reasons to look forward to this!
Dota 2

Wat? DotA 2 was handled by IceFrog under Valve. IceFrog made DotA: Allstars. Before then, yeah, DotA changed hands a bunch, but going from DotA: Allstars (the absolutely most popular version that got everyone's attention) to DotA 2 was not handled by anyone different.

As for sequels made by different companies...

Wasn't NWN and NWN 2 handled by different people, and isn't there a divide in which is considered the better?

There's also Matrix's acquisition of the rights to the Close Combat series, which it re-released and then produced full releases of.

Tropico 4 is considered a pretty good game, although Tropico 3 was a bit jarring, Tropico 2 was made by the original team and not considered that good and Tropico 1 was a classic. That said, Kalypso doesn't have a perfect track record (Looking at you, Patrician IV and Port Royale 3...).

On the topic of Tropico, PopTop Games, the developer for Tropico, first came out with Railroad Tycoon 2, which is also considered to be a classic, though they were not responsible for Railroad Tycoon 1.

Hmmmmm...

Hi-Rez and Tribes: Ascend from the Tribes franchise...

I got nothing after that.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Satarus on August 27, 2013, 10:47:19 am
If they can focus on the bits that were fun, like the base building and the atmosphere.  Then fix the bad parts, like teh Acts of Infamy and the tourists, I can can see this being a great game.  If they make the tourism front a way to make/launder money and distract the Forces of Justice they could fix 60% of what was wrong with the first game.  Then just fix the pacing and replace the AoI with something fun they'd fix the other 40% right there.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Puzzlemaker on August 27, 2013, 11:03:30 am
Yeah, the first one def. had some problems.

The main one for me is how they used time as a resource.  Like thexor mentioned, you could just outwait any heat.  You also had to wait to replenish your minion stock (Or you could pay money to replenish them).  I mean, it was really cool how you basically had an infinite source of minions, but I found myself just waiting until I got a full amount again.  Plus training took forever, so often it's best to leave the computer running for half an hour (Or more) while everything replenishes.  Time is used in RTS's to force the player to plan ahead.  In starcraft, if you could build anything instantly you would simply be able to react to whatever your opponent threw at you.  Time should be used to force the player to plan, not as a punishment or form of resource.  Instead of training minions up, maybe you build a special room that supports X number of special minions, or something, that cost infamy to build.  There are a ton of possibilities.

Another thing is heat.  Heat shouldn't go down passively, it should be managed by the player.  This makes it from "Wait for it to go away" to "Okay this mission would cause a lot of heat I better make sure I am ready to counter that", or something.  Maybe.  It does need fixing.

And yeah, tourists.

Personally I liked the traps, IF you could set minions patrol zones or no-go zones.  The security camera system was pretty cool, I think that should be expanded.  This area is off limits to any outsiders, anyone that enters this area gets X'ed (killed, captured, confused).  This area is off limits to minions, so hopefully agents will fall for it.  Minions should also be able to dodge certain traps, or something.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: timferius on August 27, 2013, 11:24:04 am
My biggest issue was that, having people in your base wasn't an EVENT. I mean, maybe I was doing it wrong, but the front part of my base always had people snooping around. It needs to be harder to sneak in, instead of just waiting at the door until you need to buy something, then sneaking in with the minion...
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: snelg on August 27, 2013, 01:39:11 pm
My biggest issue with the original game was how irritating it was to keep track of your minions on the world map.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Fikes on August 27, 2013, 02:15:19 pm
My biggest issue was that, having people in your base wasn't an EVENT. I mean, maybe I was doing it wrong, but the front part of my base always had people snooping around. It needs to be harder to sneak in, instead of just waiting at the door until you need to buy something, then sneaking in with the minion...

Air locks baby. It didn't totally fix the issues, but it helped. Two doors not, right next to each other, at the front and then another around the corner. After that give them a zero heat room like the break room.

My biggest issue with the original game was how irritating it was to keep track of your minions on the world map.
QFT
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on August 27, 2013, 07:08:06 pm
My biggest issue with the original game was how irritating it was to keep track of your minions on the world map.

Indeed. The whole point of the 'Hide' action was to keep your minions safe from agents on the map. Problem is, unless you're staring at the map, you'll first be informed of an agent's presence by the World Domination button flashing briefly with a number. The number indicates how many minions just died, so it's already a little late. And unless you're paying very close attention, you'll miss even this indicator.

Also, 'hiding' automatically reset to 'stealing' after... 2 minutes, I believe. Superagents could easily spend more than 2 minutes in a region, and would swiftly murder your minions once the hide command wore off. Ultimately, recalling your troops was way easier than sending them into hiding.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Neonivek on August 27, 2013, 07:26:12 pm
Quote
Traps are mostly worthless. Set them up in your base, and they'll kill more minions than agents, guaranteed

Ohh how I found ways around that. For example not all rooms are manned and empty hallways can be an advantage. As well keeping your minion attention high also aids this.

Finally, not all traps are "bad" to hurt your minions
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Thexor on August 27, 2013, 10:18:44 pm
Quote
Traps are mostly worthless. Set them up in your base, and they'll kill more minions than agents, guaranteed

Ohh how I found ways around that. For example not all rooms are manned and empty hallways can be an advantage. As well keeping your minion attention high also aids this.

Finally, not all traps are "bad" to hurt your minions

Making a completely separate section of your base, consisting of nothing but hallways and traps, is a great way to contain pesky agents. I've seen a few base designs consisting of one or more completely separate bases, consisting of a rectangular whirlwind trap (and a few lethal traps to actually kill trapped agents). Leave out the lethal traps, and you can end up hitting the limit for agents spawned into the map and completely trivialize the rest of the game!

Some traps are decently safe. Anything that does Smarts or Attention damage, for instance, will only incapacitate your minions and will still devastate agents. On the other hand, never ever use Loyalty-based traps, since depleting Agent loyalty is mostly useless while disloyal Minions tend to run straight for the exit if you don't cheese them.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Siquo on August 28, 2013, 01:52:01 am
Damnit, now all this talking made me want to play it again.

*reinstalling*
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: monkey on June 13, 2019, 07:35:46 pm
Evil Genius 2 trailer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KTvZtCOEEI

Spoiler: "base pic" (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Radsoc on June 13, 2019, 11:30:10 pm
O m g. Finally!

Dang it: 2020
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Mech#4 on June 13, 2019, 11:55:06 pm
I'm suprised at how faithful it looks to the original. The colour, style and humour are all really good and it looks like you can have multiple levels for your base.I hope they have the bizarre torture options the first one had. It was fun dropping enemies on random objects to see whether you could blend them.

I can't remember much of the first game, since I think I only ever played the demo, but it would be nice if there was more to your base having a front that you have to keep believable while in the background the sneaky stuff goes on. In the image it looks like the front is a casino so having something like a bookshelf with a hidden door behind it or a tunnel underneath a fountain would be neat ways to divide the two. I don't think the first one had much more than security doors.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Majestic7 on June 13, 2019, 11:59:11 pm
Huh, 2020 is going to be a pretty big gaming year. Cyberpunk 2077, Bloodlines 2, Evil Genius 2... the year of reboots and sequals. Not complaining, though my wallet might.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: gimlet on June 14, 2019, 12:01:49 am
Yay!  I can't wait to try it.  BTW the old one is currently on sale on GOG for 75% off, $2.49 in the US...
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Folly on June 14, 2019, 12:17:34 am
Huh, 2020 is going to be a pretty big gaming year. Cyberpunk 2077, Bloodlines 2, Evil Genius 2... the year of reboots and sequals. Not complaining, though my wallet might.

Also a ton of MMO's scheduled to launch in 2020.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Trekkin on June 14, 2019, 05:26:37 pm
I can't remember much of the first game, since I think I only ever played the demo, but it would be nice if there was more to your base having a front that you have to keep believable while in the background the sneaky stuff goes on. In the image it looks like the front is a casino so having something like a bookshelf with a hidden door behind it or a tunnel underneath a fountain would be neat ways to divide the two. I don't think the first one had much more than security doors.

Well, there was the hotel system in the first game, including the casino. It was just sometimes more trouble than it was worth to build enough separate buildings to let the tourist AI bounce between them, partly because Steele's ability could trigger on hotel tiles. They burned through social minions, too, and since they were outside it was less straightforward to replenish their loyalty.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on June 14, 2019, 09:32:30 pm
Didn't ever expect a sequel to this.

No gameplay, but I'm cautiously optimistic!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: gimlet on June 14, 2019, 09:46:10 pm
The hotel cover was a cool idea, but I remember being too short of minions to justify using some to run it.  Even with a modest minion expansion mod they were still the bottleneck, and I felt bad expanding them TOO much (plus I was running it on a potato)…
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Trekkin on June 15, 2019, 12:48:04 am
The hotel cover was a cool idea, but I remember being too short of minions to justify using some to run it.  Even with a modest minion expansion mod they were still the bottleneck, and I felt bad expanding them TOO much (plus I was running it on a potato)…

Yeah, you had to do silly things like rooms filled with nothing but benches and bars that were just dance floors (neither of which took minions to operate) to be efficient. Then, of course, something would spook the actual enemy agents and they'd set the hotels on fire.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on June 15, 2019, 01:22:15 am
Yeah, I always remember the front of my base basically being a warzone, so it got less and less sensible to build stuff there. Way better to let the agents walk in to your base past basically nothing, in to some empty rooms, where you could then deal with them. Having a front just gave them an excuse to destroy shit and cause trouble.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sergius on June 15, 2019, 04:01:52 pm
I loved this game but having to constantly retrain minions to do different missions (and using them in hotels made it worse) was a PITA. I only finished it once I figured out how to remove the minion cap or at least increase it.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Jopax on June 15, 2019, 04:25:40 pm
IIRC there's a fan patch, or just a regular patch for the version on GOG that fixes some glaring issues (some research bugs, raises the minion cap, some other stuff I can't recall atm), so it might be worth looking into for the cheap ass price they're asking for it atm.

Anyways...

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Holy shit this was long overdue, even tho we knew it was in some sort of development for a while now, having a hard confirmation like this is pretty sweet. I loved the shit out of the first one, I remember playing the demo from a random magazine DVD collection or something. Hell I remember sketching up plans for bases and traps during classes, that shit was fun as all hell.

Here's hoping they do something similar but somewhat updated to the modern times. Seeing as Rebellion is running the show there's a pretty good chance of it being atleast decent, seeing how they've been snapping up older titles and making them playable again in recent times.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Gabeux on June 15, 2019, 08:46:35 pm
It's so amazing a sequel is coming! After Two Point Hospital and this, I now just really need that the rumors of Startopia being remade/getting a sequel to be real.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sergius on June 16, 2019, 12:11:09 pm
IIRC there's a fan patch, or just a regular patch for the version on GOG that fixes some glaring issues (some research bugs, raises the minion cap, some other stuff I can't recall atm), so it might be worth looking into for the cheap ass price they're asking for it atm.

I think the minion cap was just in a text config file.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Iduno on June 17, 2019, 08:05:15 am
It's so amazing a sequel is coming! After Two Point Hospital and this, I now just really need that the rumors of Startopia being remade/getting a sequel to be real.

Hopefully it won't bug out and make the tutorial unwinnable if they remake it. I don't play games where I lose the tutorial (unless it's intentional).

I really hope Evil Genius remake/update is better than the new attempts at Dungeon Keeper (War for the Overworld, et al). I need a good game in this genre.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Gabeux on June 17, 2019, 11:23:25 am
It's so amazing a sequel is coming! After Two Point Hospital and this, I now just really need that the rumors of Startopia being remade/getting a sequel to be real.

Hopefully it won't bug out and make the tutorial unwinnable if they remake it. I don't play games where I lose the tutorial (unless it's intentional).

I really hope Evil Genius remake/update is better than the new attempts at Dungeon Keeper (War for the Overworld, et al). I need a good game in this genre.

haha, the worse thing in Startopia is that I remember ~15 year old me getting pissed at one of the campaign levels where an enemy faction would just not die - it seemed to always have money - and in the level script it had a line of code like this:
if enemyFaction.energyCredits < 5000 then enemyFaction.energyCredits = 50000
I don't remember it exactly, but it was pretty obscene cheating. No idea why you'd do something like that. Then again I was a kid and all my life I only played through its campaign once, so no idea if some level-lore-cheese protected the enemy faction by saying they had infinite credits/investors or something. I just remember it being very annoying.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Funk on June 18, 2019, 12:35:46 pm
It's so amazing a sequel is coming! After Two Point Hospital and this, I now just really need that the rumors of Startopia being remade/getting a sequel to be real.

Hopefully it won't bug out and make the tutorial unwinnable if they remake it. I don't play games where I lose the tutorial (unless it's intentional).

I really hope Evil Genius remake/update is better than the new attempts at Dungeon Keeper (War for the Overworld, et al). I need a good game in this genre.

haha, the worse thing in Startopia is that I remember ~15 year old me getting pissed at one of the campaign levels where an enemy faction would just not die - it seemed to always have money - and in the level script it had a line of code like this:
if enemyFaction.energyCredits < 5000 then enemyFaction.energyCredits = 50000
I don't remember it exactly, but it was pretty obscene cheating. No idea why you'd do something like that. Then again I was a kid and all my life I only played through its campaign once, so no idea if some level-lore-cheese protected the enemy faction by saying they had infinite credits/investors or something. I just remember it being very annoying.
The old AI not playing fair, the total war games did that too, if you kill an army full of expensive units an burn there city.
It just spawns a load of advanced units in three turns an pays no up keep.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Iduno on June 18, 2019, 01:13:59 pm
It's so amazing a sequel is coming! After Two Point Hospital and this, I now just really need that the rumors of Startopia being remade/getting a sequel to be real.

Hopefully it won't bug out and make the tutorial unwinnable if they remake it. I don't play games where I lose the tutorial (unless it's intentional).

I really hope Evil Genius remake/update is better than the new attempts at Dungeon Keeper (War for the Overworld, et al). I need a good game in this genre.

haha, the worse thing in Startopia is that I remember ~15 year old me getting pissed at one of the campaign levels where an enemy faction would just not die - it seemed to always have money - and in the level script it had a line of code like this:
if enemyFaction.energyCredits < 5000 then enemyFaction.energyCredits = 50000
I don't remember it exactly, but it was pretty obscene cheating. No idea why you'd do something like that. Then again I was a kid and all my life I only played through its campaign once, so no idea if some level-lore-cheese protected the enemy faction by saying they had infinite credits/investors or something. I just remember it being very annoying.
The old AI not playing fair, the total war games did that too, if you kill an army full of expensive units an burn there city.
It just spawns a load of advanced units in three turns an pays no up keep.

Apologies for being even further off-topic, but that's what I liked about Populous. The AI getting more than you did and how was a known part of the game. Each level, you got less power and the AI got more. No reason to hide it; we know it's not really possible to make a home computer out-think most people. Just make it part of the game and explain it.

Asymmetric games like Evil Genius are good for that. Balance (or removal of it for difficulty) can be achieved without it feeling like cheating. You're only one supervillain, and all of the agencies of the world are cooperating to take you down. You can just be outnumbered, or need to fight them while another supervillain is trying to usurp you, or whatever. That's both difficult enough to keep you entertained, and also interesting mechanically.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: monkey on August 19, 2019, 10:31:48 am
It's so amazing a sequel is coming! After Two Point Hospital and this, I now just really need that the rumors of Startopia being remade/getting a sequel to be real.

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/spacebase-startopia-is-the-next-title-from-realmforge-and-kalypso-media-coming-to-linux.14823
https://store.steampowered.com/app/840390/Spacebase_Startopia/
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: monkey on October 19, 2020, 09:22:50 am

Update https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsEjpQFGj-o
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on October 19, 2020, 09:45:06 am
Certainly has the right look.

Minion traits sound fun, a nice little touch.

Definitely looking forward to this.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on March 30, 2021, 05:56:40 pm
Evil Genius 2 is out!
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Iduno on March 30, 2021, 07:36:51 pm
Evil Genius 2 is out!

I was excited until I saw it was a Steam exclusive. Hard pass.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: micelus on March 30, 2021, 11:08:56 pm
Bought it out of nostalgia, yet to play it. Although, I'm not a fan of global map changes. I.e. the way money is acquired or that minions go poof after doing a mission.

The tutorial voice seems...very out of place to me tbh, and the cut scenes are VERY out of place (and look very cheap)

I'll probably enjoy it as a whole tho
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on March 31, 2021, 12:34:42 am
Put about 6 or so hours into it.

Wrestled with the control scheme a bit at first, mainly because when you try to build or select your Genius or w/e, the movement keys for the camera become locked. But screen edge panning still works?

So far it more or less seems like an across the board upgrade. It looks very nice, even though some of that is purely cosmetic fluff.

It definitely feels grindier though. Money seems to flow around pretty quickly. For example, there's multiple tiers of rock to cut out of your base that you need to research for. I unlocked the second tier of rock diggery and went to expand my power plant room that was along the edge of the (previously) undiggable rock....the same space in dirt cost like $8k to $10k....this cost like $100k. And that's Tier 2 of I think 3 or 4.

Global Missions had me a little confused at first too, and to some extent still have me confused. You have jobs that consume minions, that take (so far) either 3 mins or 20-30 mins to complete, and net either $10, $15k or $20k. They generate 15 or 30 heat.

Obviously, the $10k job is just....better? You get cash faster with less heat. 30 mins in this game is a long time, especially if you're pausing all the time.

And heat, as far as I can tell, is a number that when it maxes out locks down the area so you can't do new missions or upgrade the spy network there for a few minutes. Then it resets to zero. Because this is the tutorial, I have no doubt some stuff that's supposed to happen is currently turned off. What I think happens is when you max out your heat and the area locks down, you earn a little "rep" with the Force of Justice that controls that region, driving up their response when they eventually decide to investigate you, which is probably tutorial locked at the moment.

There's also missions you can run to completely eliminate heat from that region (although not your rep with the FOJ in that region....) They range from taking like 30 seconds to complete, to 20 minutes, and cost $5k or $10k. I spent a lot of money in the early game doing this and basically offsetting my earnings, thinking that if Heat maxed out I'd have agents of justice showing up. But that doesn't seem to be the case....yet?

Missions feel weirdly balanced from a risk reward perspective. At least right now. I'm sure once missions that require specific minion types unlock that the trade offs will seem more interesting/strategic. Right now though I just cue up the fast easy money, stop paying attention to heat (since it goes up naturally over time as soon as you set up a criminal network there, which means the bar inevitably fills up at some point.) To the point I have to keep expanding my treasury (and of course unlock "item wot lets you store more money per tile.") This is on Medium difficulty and I'm still clearly mid tutorial. Like I said, money just seems to kinda slosh around in thousands here, thousands there.

The fact missions consume minions is also kind of at odds which the fact they have traits and you're supposed to seem to care about at least some of them? (I've seen traits like "Really wants to be a technician" or "fast reflexes" or "sniper shot.") But there's not a good what I can see to either decide who promotes to what via training, or who gets sent on what mission and gets eaten. Minions seem to kinda work like cash right now, everything is staggered. You don't earn $10k from a mission upon completion, you earn $10k over 3 minutes. Your minion isn't really "gone" until the mission is actually over. The game seems to fudge a lot of things in order to keep everything flowing. And that seems at odds with any sort of micromanagement of your minions. Right now I pretty much just trust that my ranks will auto refill themselves over time. I spend minions on missions, the game brings new ones in all the time. (I think every 60 seconds.) It works but F trying to identify ones worth keeping or firing.

I just got done unlocking covert operations and minions, and so far they seem about as useless as they were in the first game. After having covert operations set up, gambling tables, bars, etc...the game is still telling me the income I've earned from that is zero. Several agents have walked through the whole area and not stopped or been lured by anything, whether they flagged to distract or not. When I flagged an investigator to capture, as instructed by the tutorial, one of my workers promptly ran out into the casino and started fist fighting them, got killed, left a body which the investigator then photographed. He seemed primed to run back to the docks along with all the panicking tourists but instead decided to walk toward my base where he promptly got beat up by an actual guard.

So without having spent a whole lot of time poking it, or doing anything other than repurposing the front of the house area already provided by the game, right now the whole "covert resort to keep enemies out of your base" seems as pointless as the first game. By and large none of it ever meaningfully stopped or delayed decent enemy agents in the first game, and just gave them a bunch of your stuff to start smashing before inevitably heading into your base. I hope unlocking more stuff in the second game proves otherwise. I don't have security cameras and a lot of stuff unlocked yet. Don't even have Henchmen unlocked.

I also don't have multi-level bases unlocked yet which....man almost seems like overkill. Bases can have 5 or more levels, which is crrraazzzzyyyyy. Maybe that's why everything is so grindy and cash seems like it kinda matters more in this. There's a lot of base you can build, and no doubt end up moving things around as more space becomes available. Maybe the whole covert ops thing works better when an entire floor of your base is a disguise.

Anyways, it seems like a pretty chillaxed game so far. Looking forward to spending more time with it.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: forsaken1111 on March 31, 2021, 08:24:50 am
I spent about 5 hours with it on stream, I really like it. They seem to have the essence of the old game but with their own twist. I have some specialized minions now but haven't yet researched the amazing future technology of Stairs so I can't build down into the lower island levels yet.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on March 31, 2021, 09:18:32 am
I'll also add that I think their voiced "cutscenes" don't add much. The humor isn't really there. TBH were it not for the implied murder, theft, carnage, I'd say it's all aimed at a much younger demographic in terms of the humor. Maybe it pays off later in the story missions or side stories or recruiting henchmen or w/e. But yeah, Maximillian's voice is kinda annoying and it doesn't do these little dialog cutscenes any favors.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chiefwaffles on April 01, 2021, 08:32:13 pm
I like the “cutscenes”! Sure they’re not anything fancy but the writing is nice. Though the voice acting varies WILDLY in quality. Namely the one time some one-off extra in the cutscenes was clearly talking way too close to his mic.
But overall it’s a very solid game. Feels like the first one but better and more modern.


And the trick with the cover operation is to manipulate the path agents will take and put as many distractions — ideally resolve-lowering ones in my opinion - along the path. In my experience agents tend to try to beeline towards your main base but if they see a distraction on their way they’ll probably do it for a bit first.
At this point I don’t really have any regular agents getting into my base. Only threat is super agents which are annoying. Especially the ones that spawn inside your base. That plus their insanely high stats means they pretty much just ignore traps. Any that they do encounter they just immediately deactivate and move on.

I also prefer the longer missions in the global operations map! Far better profit per minion “spent”, and requires less micromanagement.


Though one thing that stands out to me is that holy shit your minions are DELICATE. Even random agents can take down guards and mercenaries in a few hits. You have to swarm them (ideally with lots of guns) and still expect to lose a lot of minions.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on April 01, 2021, 09:11:48 pm
Based on the possible minion count, I'm sure that's the idea.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: micelus on April 02, 2021, 04:26:13 am
Main two gripes I'm having is that the trap system is very much streamlined and that the 6ish~ stats have been reduced to 3. The lack of a night/day cycle is disappointing, but too much of an annoyance.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: JimboM12 on April 02, 2021, 04:54:31 am
Main two gripes I'm having is that the trap system is very much streamlined and that the 6ish~ stats have been reduced to 3. The lack of a night/day cycle is disappointing, but too much of an annoyance.

i dont mind the stats reduction: it seems to actually be 3 "primary" needs with maybe minor needs under it. because I've noticed minions with lowering smarts pop a food thinking bubble and then go to the cafeteria. so i think each of the stats correlate to an actual need. testing will be needed but they at least act like they did in the first game which is fine except for my biggest gripe:

no yellow alert. either everyone's stood down and nothing happens or everyone's spastic. so i can't have a permanent rotation of guards posted at my entrance without the alert sirens and everyone storming around the place. sure you have the armory with a table but having armed door guards was awesome in the first game and it allowed for some very great building ideas.

edit 2: welp i stand corrected, its a research option to make guard posts that guards man outside of alerts. kudos Evil Genius 2

this brings up another issue: we can't build more cover buildings. a surefire security system was to build a few shacks with max locked doors to attract agents, so they waste all their time outside trying to open locked doors and then leave when they can't or the open it and realize it wasn't worth it. made having a single or double entrance base more manageable.

in-between these two issues: no auto tagging (that i found). so agents hacking doors doesn't auto tag the whole group for capture, then cameras and speakers would summon guards from all over the base to the fight. made keeping agents out so much easier. now i'll be managing building somewhere else and theres just a random group of agents poking around my control room for no reason with no one stopping them even if they're not in disguise.

edit 3: again, its a research option to designate intruder options for certain parts of the base: distract, capture or kill. once again, i was wrong. kudos EG2

honestly the games a slight step down from the original in terms of allowing creative defensive thinking (like the old trap combos), but an upgrade in the other management portions.

edit: some more things i like, i do like that the cover casino actually does something now in that you can make some cash while distracting those pesky tourists. agents just blow right through to my secret base, which isnt fun. i also like the decor items and the fact they decrease stat degradation. i plan on eventually making some pimp rooms after i continue getting acquainted with the game.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on April 02, 2021, 10:19:16 am
Yeah the secondary items are nice. Half cosmetic, half useful. It's unclear if it just has an effect in its radius or if a minion actually has to walk over to it and interact with it.

Traps did seem like a bit of a downgrade. There's lots of movement traps now....but very few, ya know, interesting ones. I haven't read over all of them but my impression was they're just not as kooky as the first game.

Although TBH traps in the old game was basically "build 30 of them, have a super agent destroy 20 of them, bring them down with 2+ henchmen."
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Sartain on April 02, 2021, 01:21:11 pm
Has anyone figured out how exactly the "Scam Tourists" toggle on casino items work? It gives me money obviously, but do they then not distract agents or what? I feel like Agents still use them even if they're set to Scam but I'm not 100% on it
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chiefwaffles on April 02, 2021, 03:22:45 pm
Has anyone had problems with schemes just... not starting?
I can't quite nail down the problem. The minions needed for the scheme just wait uselessly in the depot, usually overflowing if I have enough stuck schemes. Sometimes waiting helps -- likely for the ones that just have some needed minion on the opposite side of the base who has to walk all the way over. But usually it seems like they're just... stuck. The "minion" button for the stuck scheme (which should select a minion it's waiting on) either selects a minion already waiting inside the depot or is greyed out despite it not starting.

EDIT: Upon further inspection, I'm pretty sure this is due to losing required minions before they head to the depot. Like if a scheme requires 4 guards and has 3 waiting, but the fourth guard dies before he gets there. Just wish it would give some indication about this or even let me get a full minion refund on schemes cancelled before they start.


In other news, god is it annoying trying to wrangle my valets. I have 30 valets and when my casino is fully staffed it reliably turns away agents before they ever get to the front door. But it feels like a third of the time my valets just don't feel like manning a single station there.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: BigD145 on April 02, 2021, 09:57:29 pm
You might also have any of a number of bugs that will require a campaign restart.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Shooer on April 02, 2021, 10:17:56 pm
Has anyone figured out how exactly the "Scam Tourists" toggle on casino items work? It gives me money obviously, but do they then not distract agents or what? I feel like Agents still use them even if they're set to Scam but I'm not 100% on it
From what I've seen they just take money.  Never seen an agent approach a casino item set to scam.

I'm wondering how viable it would be to shut down all my criminal networks and go all in on a casino mid-early game.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Malus on April 03, 2021, 04:55:00 am
Cleared the game playing as Max on Hard. There's a point quite late in the game where, once you reach it, you're locked out of doing any side missions... so I'd highly recommend getting to work on them as soon as you unlock the last tier of research. I managed to win without actually recruiting any more henchmen besides my starter (Jubei is very effective) and without finishing any of the Super Agent quest chains, so I'm going to posit that all the posts on the Steam forums complaining about difficulty are not really grasping the game mechanics.

On the whole, I liked it! Puzzling out the ideal base layout and proper proportion of minions was interesting. I'll certainly be jumping back in once the season pass content hits (and after a few patches hopefully iron out some of the really annoying QOL issues). The end-game is really tedious, and there were several times where it really should've ended and instead it feels like they wanted to stretch the content out even further. The 300 minion cap feels very constricting as early as the mid-game, which I suppose is an intentional design decision, but the game runs so well, it feels like a waste to not bump the limit up a bit.

Oh, also, one very important mechanic that I nearly missed: you can instantly hire 5 workers for $10,000 with no cooldown. This is utterly essential, without it, it's almost impossible to recover from total base wipes. You just click on Workers in the training menu.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Chiefwaffles on April 03, 2021, 10:03:07 am
Just beat the game as Zalika. And man, it feels like they do her dirty. Her characterization and voice acting is just... amazingly good. I love her. But man, her campaign.

I still love Zalika though. She's great and I love her campaign and the game even if the campaign feels extremely disjointed and arbitrary in what you're doing. The complaints in the spoiler are basically just.. lore/fluff/flavor nitpicks beyond the arbitrary campaign thing.


My main problem with EG2 though is the goddamn side stories. They are a slog. If you want to do anything it's 1-2 researches, 1-10 world map schemes, and 1-2 base invasions. The schemes are the worst part because you have to get the upgraded network where the schemes are and you need to lower heat first to start the scheme most of the time. Which means either waiting an obscenely long amount of time for the reduce heat scheme or spending way too much intel (an incredibly annoying bottleneck) on the quick heat reduction option. Most of the time I'm just waiting for more minions to train to send on scheme or I'm waiting on getting enough intel to do the schemes.

And even better is the fact that for the worthwhile side stories -- additional henchmen and super agents -- it's something like 4-5 side stories per thing. And you can only do one side story at a time. I can't even imagine how long it'd take to get rid of all the super agents.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on April 04, 2021, 02:10:03 pm
Yeah, holy shit, the Robotist Side Story is something like 10 missions. I just want this one to be over.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Radsoc on April 05, 2021, 02:40:16 am
Got it and ran it just to get a "This game requires Windows 10" popup. Probably you could just open up OllyDbg and breakpoint it to block it jumping there. No good reason for it to run exclusively on garbo-Win 10 when nothing else requires it.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: JimboM12 on April 10, 2021, 09:07:02 pm
finished as max, replaying as ivan. i won as max by throwing money at my problems, as is maximillians trait, but i want an army this time. so as ivan i have a standing army of guards now at both entrances to my base, all armed with the best gear and all waiting at tables and guardposts to crack heads. unfortunately for them, the distract order is very powerful on anyone not a super agent or soldier so they simply escort most threats out to the casino with free game tokens by gunpoint.

its like dave n' busters if dave n' busters was run by vladimir putin
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: EuchreJack on April 11, 2021, 05:56:41 pm
finished as max, replaying as ivan. i won as max by throwing money at my problems, as is maximillians trait, but i want an army this time. so as ivan i have a standing army of guards now at both entrances to my base, all armed with the best gear and all waiting at tables and guardposts to crack heads. unfortunately for them, the distract order is very powerful on anyone not a super agent or soldier so they simply escort most threats out to the casino with free game tokens by gunpoint.

its like dave n' busters if dave n' busters was run by vladimir putin

Who says it isn't?  ;D
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: nenjin on November 22, 2021, 02:07:01 pm
So I came back to this.

Originally I only put in 25 hours. I gave up during the Roboticist side story because.....

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

More than that though, there was just a lot about the game that seemed needlessly grindy and questionably balanced.

Luckily, a lot of that appears to have been resolved in the intervening months.

-Missions for profit are largely just one type: send some minions for an hour, make a shit load of cash and build up a moderate amount of heat.
-So now you let a cash mission run to completion, then immediately switch over to a heat reduction mission. There's still options for 50 heat missions that pay out a lot of cash quickly, but no longer are you having to constantly revisit the world stage to maximize running missions. You just start some and largely forget about them. So that's pretty nice, if not overly interesting or dynamic.
-Side missions seem...faster? Like they cut out some kruft and redundancy? I haven't done any Henchmen missions besides Jubei, but by and large most missions seem to have fewer steps. Thank god.
-Digging between levels was made sane. Still kind of fiddly trying to decide exactly where to lay a stairwell, but it just seems to work better now.
-Covert operations seem to work better. Or I'm designing better. By using velvet ropes to guide people in a serpentine fashion through the front of the house, and making them pass directly by distractions the front of the house now seems to do its job pretty well. Whoever said above that the distract order is quite powerful, I'd agree. Even guys into the "meat" of my base still get caught by distract orders and sent home. So that's nice.
-Things are just kind of humming along now with upgrades and slowly expanding the base. It didn't feel so much like tedium this time. Waiting on research and upgrading my power plant for better generators is what's mostly pacing my game right now.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Radsoc on November 23, 2021, 11:53:50 am
I tried it out some months ago but was not very impressed with it compared to Evil Genius 1. I like the research system as it was and the tutorial seems to proceed into a regular campaign. Will pick it up again some time later.
Title: Re: Evil Genius
Post by: Empty on November 24, 2021, 02:57:05 am
It's out on xbox gamepass on the 30th.