Tactical Operations, also known as "Tactical Missions" or simply "TacOps" are a mechanic introduced in This Is The Police 2. They are incidents that can appear on Sharpwood’s map that require much more intervention from the player.
Mechanics[]
These operations are turn-based. You can direct your officers to move around the crime scene yourself, as well as take actions upon suspects within range of them. Once your turn is over, the suspects will take their turn. If the alarm hasn't been triggered yet, you will be able to observe their patrols. If it has however, they will actively attempt to hunt down and kill your officers.
Though optional, with the appropriate items in storage it is possible to bribe certain witnesses and gain preliminary knowledge critical to mission completion.
Most tactical operations start in stealth mode, with suspects patrolling around here and there. The suspects will never deviate from their patrol patterns, unless they have heard or seen something suspicious, such as an officer breaking a window or another suspect handcuffed. While this can sometimes be risky, it can be used as a way of luring suspects away from their allies and into traps prepared by your officers to pick them off one by one. Officers can usually get very close to suspects without the suspect spotting them (If approaching from behind, they can get adjacent). Make sure you have an officer able to stun, kill, or try to arrest the suspect before the turn ends. If a suspect has spotted an officer on your turn, they will immediately sound the alarm on their turn, if they have not been subdued. Some abilities can allow you a last chance to prevent this happening, but only if the officer with those abilities is within range.
However, some operations begin loud right off the bat, such as assaults, and operations that mislead the responding officers into an ambush. In these cases, the suspects will actively chase down the officers and take shots at them.
Officers[]
Your officers have "Action points" that they used to either move, perform actions, or a combination of the two. When they have exhausted all their action points, they finish their turn. However, you can manually end their turn without using all their action points. However, they will not be carried over to next turn, unless the officer has been directed to use the "Patience" ability, provided they have it equipped. An officer can have up to three action points to use, per turn. When all the officers have used all their action points, your turn automatically ends. As mentioned, you can manually end your turn even if officers still have action points to use.
Your officers do not have infinite sight range, and therefore a suspect will only be visible if at least one cop can see them. The sniper can also scout out certain rooms to reveal its contents for one turn.
Evidence[]
There is usually evidence located on scene during a tactical operation, as well. These are located in enclosed cardboard boxes and the game will highlight them if they aren't within an officer's vision range anyway. To take it, the officer must be on a tile adjacent to the box (not diagonally). Picking up and dropping the box require action points, while holding it prohibits them from performing most other actions or taking cover. If they are attacked while holding it, the box is destroyed.
Evidence can be secured if delivered to an evacuation area near the police vehicle (if there is one), or if they are held by an officer as the operation ends. Because transporting them can hinder the mission, it's recommended to only focus on them after taking down most of the suspects, leaving only one or two stunned with a baton while the others grab the boxes.
To successfully win a tactical operation, all suspects must be neutralized through any means, lethal or not, in addition to any objectives. Station equipment such as tasers, batons, and pepper sprays can be used to stun suspects, allowing for a guaranteed arrest, but they have their own limitations. Otherwise, knives, firearms and sniper support can be used to kill suspects.
Combat[]
When a suspect has been stunned, a number of segments appear around its respective icon. Each one of these equals one turn in which the suspect will be stunned. It drops by one each time their turn comes around, and as long as it's there, the suspect cannot perform any actions, being also vulnerable to arrest. However, the act of stunning a suspect alerts them, and if it wears off before they can be restrained, all enemies on the map are put on alert.
Suspects can also be dealt with lethal force, and the exact consequences vary on approach:
- A suspect can be wounded with a body shot, a leg shot or an arm shot.
- A leg shot stops the target from moving entirely, but they will still be able to return fire.
- An arm shot stops the target from returning fire, but they can still move.
- A body shot essentially disables the target.
- When wounded, a suspect will bleed out for a number of turns, then die. Wounded suspects are much easier to arrest, but this does not prevent them from dying. Any suspects that survive until the end of the mission are always incarcerated.
- A suspect can be killed in a single hit by the Knife at melee range, a headshot, or if they are attacked when already wounded.
Officers can also be wounded or killed just like suspects. Wounded officers cannot be healed, but can instead receive medevac if another carries them to the evacuation point or if they survive until the mission ends, although in both cases they'll be hospitalized as a result.
If all officers are incapacitated or killed, or mission-critical events happen (hostages killed, bomb explodes, being detected in the Neckties Camp), the operation fails. The player can retry it at any point, but if they choose not to, any officers that have been killed are gone forever, and wounded ones will not be available until they recover.
All officers are equipped with standard-issue revolvers and knives. Each revolver holds six shots, and must be reloaded manually, which consumes an action point.
Cover[]
There are two types of cover in tactical operations: Partial, and Full cover. In cover, your officers are practically invisible, if in stealth. If the alarm has gone however, suspects will be aware of their location and attempt to attack from an angle they are not covered against. You can check if a spot offers cover by selecting an officer and mousing over the chosen cell to see if any shield icons show up. Full cover is indicated by a fully shaded shield, while partial cover is indicated by a shield with only the bottom half shaded in.
Full cover would be things such as walls or vans that are tall enough to completely obscure officers and suspects from view. People behind full cover cannot be attacked, unless the attacker is approaching from an angle they are not covered against.
Partial cover is things such as cars or fences that are not tall enough to completely obscure officers and suspects from view. People behind partial cover can still be attacked from that direction, but the attacker is more likely to miss. These probabilities can be manipulated based on your officers equipped abilities.
Outfitting your officers[]
Before the operation begins, your officers on scene can be equipped with up to four different abilities to give them an advantage in the operation. They will have access to the equipment provided to them at the start of the day, and cannot change this. Therefore, it's a good idea to play to their strengths and make sure to pick your responding officers carefully, before responding to the operation. Some equipment's effectiveness can be determined by the wielder's stats. For example, an officer with a high strength stat is best suited with a baton, while one with a high shooting stat is best suited with a taser.
Each stat has multiple abilities that can be unlocked from it for officers to use. These abilities are brought to use in operations. While level 2 and 3 of a stat unlock only one ability, level 1 will unlock two abilities. So it's usually a good idea to try and make each officer have at least one point in each stat. Mouse over each ability to read its effects:
- Strength
- Strength level 1: Unlocks Battering ram and Knockout.
- Strength level 2: Unlocks Jumper.
- Strength level 3: Unlocks Atlas.
- Intelligence
- Intelligence level 1: Unlocks Burglar and Sentry.
- Intelligence level 2: Unlocks Hunter.
- Intelligence level 3: Unlocked Awareness.
- Speed
- Speed level 1: Unlocks Volley and Ferret.
- Speed level 2: Unlocks Patience.
- Speed level 3: Unlocks Athletic.
- Stealth
- Stealth level 1: Unlocks Shadow and Chameleon.
- Stealth level 2: Unlocks Silencer
- Stealth level 3: Unlocks Ninja.
- Shooting
- Shooting level 1: Unlocks Interception and Shooter.
- Shooting level 2: Unlocks Lucky Shot.
- Shooting level 3: Unlocks Aimed Shot.
- Negotiation
- Negotiation level 1: Unlocks Force surrender and Interrogation.
- Negotiation level 2: Unlocks Freeze, buddy!.
- Negotiation level 3: Unlocks Negotiation.
Multiple officers can have multiple skills in common with each other (Example, two officers having Lucky Shot equipped). Before you begin, you will have a sketched-out layout of the area, including where doors and windows are marked. You can trade items in your storage to gain preliminary knowledge on certain things, such as what areas may be blocked off by barricades, where certain loot is, or even how many suspects are in what area and where they're patrolling. Kitting out your cops in response to this is crucial, as it can mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Loadout guidelines[]
As a general rule of setup, it's a good idea to have some officers specialise in some things and other cops in others. When you're bringing your officers through an area together, it's advised to try and include the following in your team where possible:
While in stealth...
- A sapper (Able to detect traps using Hunter)
- A lookout (Able to spot enemies from further away with Sentry, and use Awareness and Interrogation to highlight them all)
- A disruptor (Able to disrupt aware suspects efficiently through the use of Ninja, Interception, and/or Freeze, buddy! or any combination of the three. Silencer can be considered as another ability to use. If not in stealth however, replace Ninja with Force surrender and Freeze buddy! with Patience)
- A stunner (An officer outfitted with a baton and pepper spray at least. Can also use knockout to assure longer stun durations)
- A scout (Able to silently open doors and windows with Burglar, and also get some insight into enemy movement safely by using Shadow)
While loud...
- A sapper
- A lookout
- A courier (Able to get wounded officers out of the firing line quickly and maybe even to the car for evacuation. They use Battering ram and Atlas to quickly get around obstacles, get the wounded (Or the evidence), and get out)
- A sharpshooter (Equipped with Shooter, Interception, and Aimed Shot at least. Best at digging out suspects in cover)
- A suppressor (Basically the opposite of a sharpshooter, they are able to lay down suppressing fire for couriers to move, for example. They use Volley and Lucky Shot to provide a barrage of attacks upon target suspects)
If possible, including these optional specialists in the team can make some situations easier to control.
- An overseer (Similar to a lookout in abilities, but can also use Negotiation in hostage and bomb situations)
- A stunning specialist (An officer with high strength and shooting stats outfitted with a baton, pepper spray, and taser with a cartridge, to stun from all ranges. Also brings knockout to ensure longer stun durations with the baton. If a taser and cartridge cannot be provided, two stun bombs should be equipped instead)
- A transporter (An officer outfitted with Atlas, Athletic, Patience, and Jumper. Able to move quickly around the field as well as move wounded officers or evidence to the car quickly. Intended to be more passive than other specialists and hang slightly further back)
- A kiter (An officer outfitted with Chameleon, Ferret, Athletic, and Shooter. They are adept at keeping enemies distracted firing in their direction, while being well-shielded and hard to hit, even in partial cover. They can also fire at suspects in their own cover with an improved chance to hit them. They are also good at reaching injured officers in a crossfire - unlike a transporter - and moving them to safety, as long as they use cover all the time)
Note: All above loadout guidelines are just that - guidelines. You should not feel forced to use these concepts. They are merely suggestions, and you are free to use whatever you see fit for whomever you see fit. You can also merge specialists that have similar traits (Example: Sapper and Lookout), if you so desire and you have an officer that is able to use all the abilities/equipment listed in the specialist description.
Hints[]
- Avoid sending officers that aren't loyal, as they'll remain AI-controlled for the whole mission and become a liability in general, especially if the mission requires stealth.
- It pays to get good intel, and while it isn't exactly necessary, some missions can be easily compromised otherwise. Always keep some items in stock to bribe witnesses so they can provide key information.
- Vic Duvall can provide sniper support in most missions. While his ability to instantly remove a criminal from play tends to be detrimental during stealth, it doesn't hurt if the mission would go loud anyway.
- It may be more intuitive to arrest suspects for additional resources earlier in the game instead of killing them outright, but don't shy away from lethal force if the situation calls for it.
- An officer with Force surrender can be the bridge between incapacitating and arresting suspects, since it is much more effective on wounded criminals, which naturally reduces the risk of a mission going awry when things turn loud.
- Many missions do not have a turn limit. Patience and caution allow for a wider margin of error.
- If looking for evidence, try to make sure you have a clear route to the car at all times. If necessary, station a lookout in the route between the evidence and the car.
- Suspects have difficulty seeing officers out in the dark but not in illuminated areas.
- If suspects are alerted, they'll hunt down the officers, so there's no need to chase them. Focus on repositioning the cops behind proper cover so they have an advantage in direct action.