X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

So I've gotten back to The X-COM Files, some KKKs:

- Is it just me or has the pace of missions increased? I last played 2.something, and I don't remember the first month being this mission-filled. Quite an interesting variety of missions too, I got Suspect Apprehensions, Crop Circles, Exobiological Contamination, Strange Creatures and Lunatic Madman.
- Is earlier research slower as well? Took me almost a month to research the van. I actually like how I got more time with the Car and the low-level crap gear.
- I noticed more events, especially early on in the game. I like how the events tie things better, lore-wise. I like how some of those events also bring bonuses, like the gun box you get at the start. I got the Mauser lol, which is pretty much a better Colt .45 (but only if your agents have like 70 ACC)
- I started in South America because I never did that lol, always US or Europe start. I must protect what is most important for us - eight-years old me!

 

[lightbane]

It's a shame that XCF inevitably becomes repetitive, and the endgame takes longer than Piratez' one, arguably, as there are no shortcuts.
Has anyone tried that mod that makes the game into a fantasy vs modern weapons one? Don't recall the name but it had a Stargate as a symbol. What about the Halo one? I don't like Halo but there's a submod that adds elements from Marathon, which is interesting.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Do those annoying Cult Aprehension mission stay longer than before, or am I just not hitting the right research? I swear that before they would be gone within like a month or two. Now I keep having to go chase two useless assholes with barely info or risk a -150 penalty. I'm just treating these as target practice for rookies now.

Also, what's with dog bark being treated like a ranged weapon for CQC purposes? I've had cultist goons straight out deflect barks, wtf how do you deflect a dog bark sound, do these people have sound-manipulation powers? Are people really wrestling a dog, so the dog won't bark in their face? Because that really cuts down on how useful the Dog Bark is.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yeah, XCF really has a massive amount of slog. Both in number of missions and in the length of missions. Doing 6-10 missions a month is common and its not at all uncommon to have them involve 40-80 enemies once you're past a year in. It's a shame because I rather like the low squad size risky 4-6 man missions against like 15-20 enemies but those only stay around for a small snapshot in time.

There's also the problem that several of the mission threads seemed to peter out, and I was never sure if it was just unfinished, I missed some unclear thing I was supposed to do to trigger advancing to the next stage, or whether it was just a % chance of missions being scheduled for each month and I was getting unlucky. So you kind of get stuck grinding some of the same missions over and over not knowing what to do. This happened to me with both the ghost investigations and the hybrid stuff.

I don't know about research time for stuff, but there's definitely a "correct" research line in the game to get your researcher cap increased ASAP and then speed through everything else, and much/any deviation is just limiting your long term progression since research is king. Basically you want to get your transportation and armor upgrades (which is basically required to start finishing missions reliably) and then beeline all the research improvements and skipping all the fluff.

Do those annoying Cult Aprehension mission stay longer than before, or am I just not hitting the right research? I swear that before they would be gone within like a month or two. Now I keep having to go chase two useless assholes with barely info or risk a -150 penalty.

My experience is that whatever "stage" your cult mission progression is on, you'll still get missions that are 1 or 2 stages earlier in the progression. This is to ensure that if you advance too quickly that you aren't stuck with only missions that are impossible slugfests against 50 enemies when you have 4 dudes in suits with pistols.

Good thing though is that those missions are still easy and once you get real armor you can pretty much yolo it. Maybe one agent takes a shot and has to spend some time in a medbay but those pistols they have a weak, inaccurate, and your agents have a ton of HP by that point.

 

[Average Manatee]

btw, protip for XCF. Can't remember if I posted this before, but don't research the farmers you find on the crop circles investigation. You get way more score for capturing them unresearched compared to researched. There's probably other missions where this happens but the crop circle missions are consistent and very easy to handle capturing on once you've got some decent equipment.

 

[lightbane]

Yeah, XCF really has a massive amount of slog. Both in number of missions and in the length of missions. Doing 6-10 missions a month is common and its not at all uncommon to have them involve 40-80 enemies once you're past a year in. It's a shame because I rather like the low squad size risky 4-6 man missions against like 15-20 enemies but those only stay around for a small snapshot in time.

Don't forget alien engineers locking some precious tech behind a random number of possible interrogations, forcing you to farm them over and over. Piratez had the same issue, but you have more stuff to use there, and there's no strict timelimit as in XCF.
Also, I found the Halo and the fantasy mods, as well as some extras!

https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/reach-the-fall-a-halo-mod
https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/x-chronicles
https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/start-early-for-mod-x-com-files
https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/x-com-chronicles-fantasy-music-pack
https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/brave-piranha
https://mod.io/g/openxcom/m/halo-submods