Intimidate : how it works and why i cant intimidate anyone anymore

[Question]

Whenever i get the initmidation window to come up(not often, what are the chances?), i only have the "i am going to kick your ass" option....i no longer have the option to threaten them to surrender. Why?

[Anticheese]

Well, anything that sounds threatening IS an intimidate check.

Intimidate works by making it easier to remove negative -'s (passive, works during conversations with people with negative relations) and increases the chance of an enemy pilot wanting to bail during a Mecha Combat Mission.

And as I just pointed out, anything threatening in a conversation is an intimidate check.

[Question]

So what are the odds of the conversation window popping up?

[Joseph Hewitt]

It depends on the event that triggered the encounter. Usually if you're fighting against a major NPC, there will be a conversation beforehand.

[Question]

Huh, thats it? I thought every battle would have a chance for the window o.O. Otherwise it seems to have limited usefulness....

[Epsilon]

Quoting: Question

Huh, thats it? I thought every battle would have a chance for the window o.O. Otherwise it seems to have limited usefulness....

The fact that a successful check means 600-700XP and possibly a field of mecha means that it really needs to be fairly rare.

[Anticheese]

If you could make an intimidate check for EVERY encounter then the game would be insanely easy.

[palefire]

Well, you do make intimidation checks IN every encounter to make enemy pilots eject, according to the wiki.

Guy in Vespa:"Roar!"
Gigas Bomber Squadron:"No! It's the Guy in Vespa! Retreat! Retreat!"

[Anticheese]

By that I mean as in an active roll. As in "Surrender or die."

Quoting: palefire

Guy in Vespa:"Roar!"
Gigas Bomber Squadron:"No! It's the Guy in Vespa! Retreat! Retreat!"

Never underestimate a headless buru buru with one arm and one leg.

I am pretty sure the relative power of each Mech comes into play with this one.

[draconuszero]

I thought rolls for intim are done every time, its just hard to pass the roll at lower levels that it just doesn't happen that often until you have a high enough skill.

[Question]

The robot warriors arena frequently shows up with conversation windows. The only option is usually "prepare to die!". Is it possible to get them to surrender? Ive tried with absurdly high intimidate and charm and still fail.

[palefire]

Interesting idea, give the audience an unexpected talk show or melodrama instead of the super tonnage mega destruction they paid for.

[macksting]

Intimidate is Ego-based, not Charm-based, so far as I know. Force of will being, apparently, more important than raw charisma.

[Question]

Either way my stats are really high to make me almost suceed intimidate checks....

My 2nd playthrough of the game : 150+ missions with no option for a conversation window.....on average i think the chance for the window to pop up is less than 1% per encounter, unless of course the game has set most missions(such as the X is attacking city Y missions) to not even allow the conversation window, and only limited it to stuff like raider ambushes.

[macksting]

Still, it's gotta be scoring you some good salvage.