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I beat X-COM2: Terror From the Deep on Superhuman

Lord Chambers

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Jan 23, 2006
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I just finished TFTD on Superhuman difficulty. Am I just too experienced to be playing this game, or is this surprisingly easy to achieve?

I did about 80 missions before finally getting the Leviathan built. The tactical casualties looked something like this:

casualties.JPG


The major challenge was logging in and playing at least 3 missions a day so I could get through the game. They are such a boring slog most of the time that I've always lost interest before getting to T'leth. By the end of the fifth month I had 8 bases with Sonic Oscillator-armed Barracudas, 20,000,000 in the bank, 11,000 points, and was finishing most missions with one or two wounded soldiers and no casualties. By virtue of attempting every crashed USO mission available, I had amassed over 50 captured aliens, which after some internet research, I discovered was the limit the game could handle. I had to research several handfuls of my stocks while taking pains to drop pulsars on anything that didn't die in the tactical missions until I had created enough room to capture a live Tasoth (MC Disruptor), Lobsterman Navigator, and Commmander, afterwhich I continued to shoot things down but didn't do any missions.

Have any other X-COM veterans found the game tremendously easy? I recall so many hair-pulling moments as a youth that the contrast of this recent play-through surprises me. I figured the boosted alien stats would make them more difficult in missions, but conventional scout and snipe tactics still overwhelm them, Lobstermen or not. In the tight quarters of cruise ships and USOs where conventional tactics can't work drills and MC Readers smooth everything out. Ion Armor makes your risk-takers about 10 times more likely to survive the one or two reaction shots you expose them too, at which point it's hard to find a way to die unless you face MC-strong aliens before you're able to identify your MC-weak Aquanauts.

I'm not trying to brag, I just expected to have to apply my whole gamer brain to beat TFTD on Superhuman, but when I did it just made things boring. And the finish was anticlimactic.
 
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Ulminati

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Go watch the Let's Play of TFTD currently ongoing in the Codex Playground.

Base defense in the first month and massive clusterraep so far
 
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Its true that when you play completely 100% optimally TFTD isn't that hard anymore. You are drawing on a decade and a half of accumulated knowledge about the game, a great deal of it non-obvious and more than a few tactics being borderline exploits that weren't intended and shouldn't be used by the standards of what the game was supposed to play like. Lose just a few of those tricks you or others have found over years of play and your death rate can easily skyrocket.
 

ravinhood

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Yeah I'd wager a large sum he reloaded everytime he lost a big battle. X-Com is anything but easy. Of course he will say he didn't but well we all know what AOL stands for. hahahahah Another Online Liar.
 

Haba

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Initially X-Com is hard. Then it becomes easier. Then you get bored. Then you start making mistakes, and people die.

If you can manage a cautious play style through the end it is "easy" but at least I've never found an infinite supply of patience, thus usually losing quite a few of my key soldiers even in the endgame.
 

someone else

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Remove psionic and MC from the games. Makes the starting easier but the end harder. I used to win alien bases with only using psionics, my soldiers never fired a shot.
 

kyrub

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Lord Chambers said:
Have any other X-COM veterans found the game tremendously easy?
Nope. I actually fired up the game, superhuman lvl, some 4 years ago hoping to "show THEM" my experience and tactical nous... playing Ironman... and I had to retreat in shame after few missions. It's pretty damn horribly frustrating and hard. Really.

Ion Armor does not solve more than half of the equation - you still have those flying horror-egg-hatchers that ignore armor completely. And PSI control. Unless you use the "drop-gun at end of turn" tactics, which means micro-management beyond any imagination, you're cooked. And then there are situations that cannot be solved, like the beast in the tunnel.

I disagree with TFTD being easy, it is one of the hardest game ever. No game has ever instilled me with so much angst for my characters. One turn and all is over. Incredible.

I figured the boosted alien stats would make them more difficult in missions
Perhaps you ran into the infamous beginner difficulty bug, no? The game can reset the difficulty, if I remember correctly. It was fixed in some patches later (Xcomutil etc.).
 
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kyrub said:
Ion Armor does not solve more than half of the equation - you still have those flying horror-egg-hatchers that ignore armor completely.

Use a tank as bait outdoors. When assaulting the alien bases most of their spawns are fixed, and even if you don't have them memorized you pretty much know where to expect them to be in a Doom 3 sort of way.

kyrub said:
And PSI control. Unless you use the "drop-gun at end of turn" tactics, which means micro-management beyond any imagination, you're cooked. And then there are situations that cannot be solved, like the beast in the tunnel.

The fact that the AI always focuses on the weakest target means you can isolate 1 or 2 as the PSI pincushion of the team who permanently goes unarmed and diverts all PSI attacks away from anyone with a useful role.
 

kyrub

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Overweight Manatee said:
most of their spawns are fixed
...
the AI always focuses on the weakest target means you can isolate 1 or 2 as the PSI pincushion of the team

These recipes scream "boredom". If you know where the AI spawns, what's the point in playing the game? And using the lowliest sorts of AI exploits is not equal to beating the game... in my book at least. I avoid these sort of tricks as a rule. On the other hand, I admit TFTD may push one to rely on exploits. You win, but without just fight. That's annoying about the game. :/
 

chzr

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itt: if you abuse the shit out of ai, singleplayer strategy games are easy.
 
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kyrub said:
Overweight Manatee said:
most of their spawns are fixed
...
the AI always focuses on the weakest target means you can isolate 1 or 2 as the PSI pincushion of the team

These recipes scream "boredom". If you know where the AI spawns, what's the point in playing the game? And using the lowliest sorts of AI exploits is not equal to beating the game... in my book at least. I avoid these sort of tricks as a rule. On the other hand, I admit TFTD may push one to rely on exploits. You win, but without just fight. That's annoying about the game. :/

Yes, I agree. But if you are playing the game to win and you use them then its no wonder you find it easy like the OP did.
 

Lord Chambers

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Ulminati said:
Go watch the Let's Play of TFTD currently ongoing in the Codex Playground.
I can't. I've seen a few lets plays of XCOM over the years, and they are almost always infuriating to spectate. One minor reason is the inclusion of forum members into the game as soldiers. I cannot understand how this makes the game more fun or meaningful for either the LPer or the viewers and what I cannot understand, my handlers will tell you, makes me angry. The major reason is horrendous tactical decision making. Rather, as it is in XCOM, rule breaking.

On your turn, move scouts first, starting with the scouts on the edges of the map. Snipers later. This preserves the Time Units of the snipers for firing at what the scouts discover, so the scouts don't have to fire. You will want to move your soldiers so that they can bring the biggest force to bear on the smallest point possible. This sometimes means climbing guys up to higher elevations to shoot over objects, or having them slowly wander out into open areas with good lines of fire. Depending on what aliens I'm facing and what technology and quality of soldiers I have, I scout more slowly. If I have Blasta rifles against Lobstermen, each scout is going to have at least three soldiers who can shoot in the direction he is scouting. This is painstaking. If later I face Gillmen with Sonic Cannons and crack troops, perhaps I will rely on only a single sniper to cover a given scout, out on the edge of the map while everyone else focuses on the USO. Its riskier, as one missed shot means the scout has to fire or hide, but it's faster.

1. Never fire at an alien with a unit that can see the alien.
If you can see it, it can see you. Aliens can only reaction-fire at aquanauts in their viewing range, therefore you can fire from beyond that viewing range with 13 soldiers and endure 0 reaction shots. Alternatively, fire with that single soldier that spotted the alien and he will either kill the alien and live, fail to kill the alien and get shot. Armor makes this infrequently fatal. Proper tactics make it never occur in the first place.

2. Keep valuable guys in the the back.
An alien unit can only attack what it can see,* including with Pulse launchers. You have no such restrictions. People in the back will live forever, as they are only threatened on missions where the people in the front die, which is mostly a function of tactics.

3. Take your time.
Aliens don't move. Except to shoot things they've seen on HIDDEN MOVEMENT. So, if you kill each alien the turn you come across it, the game is a shooting gallery. No alien buddies come to investigate. Thus the majority of the time you can slowly advance and make sure to cover down important fields of fire, check corners, and otherwise support the aquanauts in harms way; no Aliens will mount an attack on your flank or otherwise threaten you. They just sit there, out on the map, waiting for your execution squad.

If you don't kill an alien the turn you spot it, retreat your scout outside the target's viewing range. Since the Alien probably won't move very far, you can respot it the next turn. It's important you don't just hide your scout somewhere in viewing range that provides cover, because when you move out the next turn to spot again, you will be reaction fired. If you had to hide in range, spot the alien with someone else.

4. Don't do night missions.
Or if you do, take off and abort. The default viewing range for human and alien units is equal, and the moment that the units spot each other, no reaction fire is allowed--this is when your soldier stops and you notice the flashing 1 in the bottom right. After this point, any actions taken are subject to the rules of reaction fire,** which, the aliens will always win. The problem with dark conditions is that it reduces your viewing range by 5 squares or something. So essentially you either luck into discovering aliens with their backs turned, or you suicide your soldiers. Chemical flares helps alleviate this, but the amount of interface-fu required to mimic normal lighting conditions makes patrol exploiting a better option***.

5. Someone is going to die, choose wisely. Since you want to have the greatest firepower possible, it seems like a good idea to bunch up in USO doorways and spring in, all at once. And it is. But eventually all that HIDDEN MOVEMENT racket is going to cause an alien to walk over and investigate, and that's going to be bad, because a reactions rating of less than 60 is essentially worthless. It's also the maximum an aquanaut can start with. So keep someone shitty in front of the doors so they take the bullets, not your more valuable guys.

Early in the game this should be soldiers with bravery less than 30, and if all those guys are dead, soldiers with shooting accuracy less than 60. Later in the game it should be anyone with an MC strength of less than 30, or who has been MC controlled (since that probably means his or her MC strength is less than 30).

*MC attacks can target any unit anywhere on the map. So have your MC weak guys walk around with their clips in their hands or something, until you know you're not facing Aquatoids or Tasoths.
**You can retreat one square, out of the aliens range, and thereby avoid a reaction attack.
***Missions expire after X amount of hours of not being targetted. You can target a mission site currently in darkness, then patrol for 59minutes, then retarget as the clock starts the next hour, then patrol, the retarget, then patrol, as much as you need to for the daylight to engoulve the mission location, assuming you don't run out of fuel. This is an exploit.


I didn't intend to write a post on my tactics, but now an hour is gone and here this is. I'm off to work, hope it's not utter shite!
 

PorkaMorka

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How many playthroughs/attempts and how much reading did it take you to figure all that out?

It is obviously possible to figure out a single player game and greatly reduce its difficulty, but I doubt you knew how to do all that without doing a lot of practice and/or reading.
 

kyrub

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@Lord Chambers
Ayayay. The more you write, the less probable your deeds seem. These rules are hardly new, yet they won't help you in TFTD. Coral cliffs map, no LOS for scouts, you're cooked. Large USOs, what for are my snipers? Step out of sight range in USO? Meh. Not speaking of big foes squeezed in small rooms on terror missions... boom boom.

You say you don't like LPs because of how other people write it. Why don"t you write it then, properly? Surprising. Maybe you don't have to write the whole LP. Just show us 1 terror mission (not a cruiser one since you said these were hard), with mixed alien crew (Lobstermen et al.). You said you did not avoid any battles, eh? On Superhuman in TFTD, the mixed crew terrorsite happens on month 2 (sometimes even earlier), so you can take equipment you research up until then.

Now, I want to see your rate of death.
 

Lord Chambers

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kyrub said:
On Superhuman in TFTD, the mixed crew terrorsite happens on month 2 (sometimes even earlier), so you can take equipment you research up until then.
I was still regularly fighting Gillmen crews all the way up to August. Tasoth were more frequent in smaller USOs at the time, but I had previously only faced them on an Artefact Mission and a Tanker Ship Terror. My other Cruise Ship Terror (there were only two, on months 4 and 5 IIRC) was a Mixed crew. Lobstermen were seemingly rare, as I only got them on a couple very large USO missions, and one smaller. Basically, when I stopped investigating crashed USOs, Smalls were Tasoths, Medium and Large were Gillmen, and Very Large were Lobstermen. My last base defense was on month 7, against Tasoths (very stressful, I had only produced 3 MC Disrupters by the time it happened, and had 8 MC experts dropping them on the ground to reuse each turn, and I spawned with no drills therefore had no way to stop Biodrone's without gibbing). I did no Alien Colony missions, as the first one was built around month 7 and I had gotten my Commander and Navigator on a Very Large USO.

Blah blah blah. Your mileage may have varied, but the Mixed races didn't start on month 2 in my game.

Initially I was resigned to my "feat" going unproven, as the concept of doing a Lets Play seems like a tremendous timesink I can't justify, but I like talking about the game and if I really have done something amazing by going through it so easily, perhaps a recorded repeat is in order. What do the kids use these days to capture video from dosbox? I can't commit to accepting your challenge, but it's not too hard to get the software setup, perhaps I'll post videos to youtube which will educate the unwashed masses.
 

commie

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Eh, why the suspicious rage? If the OP did it then good for him. Personally I find such play akin to grindan, something more like a chore than something fun which is what games should be.

I tend to play games at a difficulty where the AI is as good as it can be without cheating and excessive bonuses/uber creatures/whatever, unless the game in question is so easy anyway that you need the AI to get extra help just to approximate a challenge(as in the TW games). RPG's I play at a level where the damage is even for both sides rather than a 50% bonus for computer or 50% penalty for you as that defeats the whole point of the stats and formulas, balanced as they are so that a Kobold is a piece of shit and not a tank.

Strategy have to be as 'realistic' as possible, no super units, morale boosts that make peasants like veteran knights or hordes of spam units where applicable. Indeed games like Fantasy Wars are balanced for Normal difficulty and hard is just a bullshit difficulty in many cases whereby the enemy gets so many units that you can never get a Gold victory because you just don't have the time to cut through them all.
 

kyrub

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Lord Chambers said:
I was still regularly fighting Gillmen crews all the way up to August. Tasoth were more frequent in smaller USOs at the time, but I had previously only faced them on an Artefact Mission and a Tanker Ship Terror. My other Cruise Ship Terror (there were only two, on months 4 and 5 IIRC) was a Mixed crew. Lobstermen were seemingly rare

This really does not sound like superhuman. Are you sure you did not play DOS version?

ufopaedia said:
The DOS version had a problem where no matter what difficulty level you choose, it will rever to "Beginner" level after the first mission. This is caused by one incorrectly set bug in all Dos versions of the game( 1.0 through to 1.4).

The Collectors Edition Windows port (also commonly known as UFO Gold or CE) does not have this problem.
 

Gondolin

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Lord Chambers said:
I can't commit to accepting your challenge, but it's not too hard to get the software setup, perhaps I'll post videos to youtube which will educate the unwashed masses.

By all means. We're all eyes and ears.
 

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