X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[Citizen]

Just play piratez, man. You'd kill two birds with one stone — both enjoy the finest x-com mod ever and cure yourself of gayness.

Alternatively, embrace your homosexuality and try x-com 40k, where you can burn xeno scum with adepta sororitas, VERY MODEST AND FULLY ARMORED GALS!

 

[Average Manatee]

The thing I dont like about XPiratez is how strong the melee weapon stats combine with gal stats and then how complicated they are.

Power and skill are even separated so you might end up with a gal that gets great damage on a weapon but horrible accuracy and is much better of with a different weapon. But you mostdef cannot tell by looking at stats ingame.
To top it of, the armor has a huge influence too.
I mean, its literally impossible to tell what is a better weapon.
Except for cases where a gal is visibly has uberstats and can wield the heaviest armorpiercing weapon like an ax with high accuracy so you are guaranteed high damage but high TU cost, but at least its a guarantee.

Its like you are forced to enter gal stats and melee stats into Excel. You end spending half the time outside the game. You then end up with yuge table, normalized for accuracy and tu cost...

And the same goes for armor but far less complicated... and guns but there, accuracy is king and dmg is usually comparable.

Melee weapons are complex but you can simplify it down to one weapon for high melee accuracy/low strength, one weapon for low accuracy/high strength, one for high/high. I started off with rapiers for high accuracy girls and bats for the rest. Girls in XPiratez level their stats very quickly anyway, so you'll be able to use anything decently after a half dozen missions.

Trying to look for the best weapons in these mods is guaranteed to drive you crazy, better to find a few good items to standardize everything around. Same goes for guns, e.g. in the early-midgame I just gave 80% of my soldiers scoped hunting rifles.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Just play piratez, man. You'd kill two birds with one stone — both enjoy the finest x-com mod ever and cure yourself of gayness.

Alternatively, embrace your homosexuality and try x-com 40k, where you can burn xeno scum with adepta sororitas, VERY MODEST AND FULLY ARMORED GALS!

This and the table up there just convinced me to avoid this mod at all costs.

About 40k, i'm not sure but i'll certainly be cured of my UFOmania for a while after that Area 51 playthrough.

Which supports 2 languages English and French and a sub-language, "us-english" by the way.

Spoiler

This mod have a lot of new aliens, that's nice, a lot of new missions and maps and that's all i'm asking. last missions played, a nightmarish one where i had to defend a research/maze facility from phasers and a "caviar" one where i had to defend a third party base against floater and reapers having, for once, the high ground and just having to wait and shoot.

 

[AgentFransis]

You are only forced to enter stats into excel if you fail to control your raging autism. Now, I understand it's hard. I probably spent a bit too much time staring at the damage formulas my self, but ultimately you absolutely aren't forced to do it. Just pick something you like that the gal can use reasonably well and things should work out fine. By mid-game all my melee gals are using vibro axs anyway (or amusingly, just punching people in the face. The advanced armors have a built in gauntlet weapon that does pretty good damage).

That's too simplistic. You cannot assume that all damage is equivalent, piratez is all about resistances as well as energy/stun effects, especially since ransoms are so important for income.

They are? Early game I interrogate everyone until I learn all they can tell me and then enslave the rest. Later on I feel that since you make so much dosh from manufacturing and selling booty that it won't significantly increase your income so I prefer to make slaves for the extra storage space. At this point in my game I mostly interrogated all the regular enemies I come across so I don't usually bother with trying to take people alive (unless they're VIPs of course). Most of my new slaves come from people surrendering or having luck surviving wounded until the battle ended. I do run a brothel in one of my bases so I make an effort to take guild hostesses/hoes/maidens alive.

 

[Sarissofoi]

That is how I play as well, or at least I try to. The Escaped Lunatics and Rescued Lunatics have a higher stat base and caps than the ones that you can hire, so the hired ones get put on "open the bus doors and receive reaction fire" duty.

I use dogs or wereyiffs for thats. Parrots are also great for day scouting when cats amazing at night(before getting NV or yiffs).

They are? Early game I interrogate everyone until I learn all they can tell me and then enslave the rest. Later on I feel that since you make so much dosh from manufacturing and selling booty that it won't significantly increase your income so I prefer to make slaves for the extra storage space. At this point in my game I mostly interrogated all the regular enemies I come across so I don't usually bother with trying to take people alive (unless they're VIPs of course). Most of my new slaves come from people surrendering or having luck surviving wounded until the battle ended. I do run a brothel in one of my bases so I make an effort to take guild hostesses/hoes/maidens alive.

Early? Yes. You can easily make a great dosh by mass ransoming and invest it. Even later its good source of money although later money should be no a problem. it would be if there were no protection fee or infamy bonus(esp. early). Later production beat all.

The pitch is better, still, the reason i play x-com is fighting aliens, remove my snake-men, sectoïds and chrysalids and i wouldn't play it.

Well, most enemies are humans - especially early but even then you can fight local reticulans(that are abandoned remnants of the invasion force) or cross deep ones gillmen. Zombies and chrysalids are there too.
I think most of orginal enemies are here but in expanded form.
For example 'wild' sectoids have few orginal units like - sectoogres, sirens, hybrids, mechtoids, reticulan peons or techs(probably more but didn't meet them).

The thing I dont like about XPiratez is how strong the melee weapon stats combine with gal stats and then how complicated they are.
Power and skill are even separated so you might end up with a gal that gets great damage on a weapon but horrible accuracy and is much better of with a different weapon. But you mostdef cannot tell by looking at stats ingame.
To top it of, the armor has a huge influence too.
I mean, its literally impossible to tell what is a better weapon.

Implying that its bad thing.
You use weapons based on situation and enemies. Its great. The only bad thing is dress up but even this is not that bad.

 

[AgentFransis]

Early? Yes. You can easily make a great dosh by mass ransoming and invest it. Even later its good source of money although later money should be no a problem. it would be if there were no protection fee or infamy bonus(esp. early). Later production beat all.

Obviously ransoming people nets you good money, but considering the infamy bonus you get from research and the extra cash it gives you it's not clear if ransoming even nets you more money overall. And of course interrogating progresses your tech forward. My point is I never felt that I needed the money badly enough to miss out on the research.


The melee feels a little silly though, from a simulationist perspective. Sure the gals are strong, but could one really swing an axe hard enough to slice through a tank? With later tech you can handwave it of course. As a gameplay feature of course it's great to have a high risk high reward solution to almost every problem.

 

[orcinator]

Sure the gals are strong, but could one really swing an axe hard enough to slice through a tank?

They're tankettes at best, and I think most are cutting resistant.
My issue with melee is that you have a lot of tools for chopping things up, but all the most reliable stunning tools are close range too so I always just picked a prod or a fancy whip instead, only using stuff like hammers when facing heavy armor.

 

[Average Manatee]

Yeah, there is a sort of imbalance where the stun stuff are generally just as good or better in melee than the dizzying array of melee weapons are unless fighting heavily armored stuff.

I also felt like all of the shotguns are a bit underpowered compared to sprinting 5 more tiles and making several melee attacks.

The melee feels a little silly though, from a simulationist perspective. Sure the gals are strong, but could one really swing an axe hard enough to slice through a tank?

I dunno, tanks IRL eat shit when infantry get on top of them. Slicing them in half is hard but disabling isn't too unreasonable.

If we're going full simulationist then OG laser tech makes about as little sense.

 

[orcinator]

I also felt like all of the shotguns are a bit underpowered compared to sprinting 5 more tiles and making several melee attacks.

Maybe if we're talking about raw damage per TUs, but 5 more tiles is 5 more chances for reaction fire, and then you're not likely to make it back to safety.
Unless it's the blood axe and you're fighting mercs in which case you can clear an entire ship in one turn on Jack Sparrow (technically higher difficulties make it easier) but that's an exception.

 

[Average Manatee]

Unless you kill the target in one shot shotguns are going to take the same reaction fire you would had you ran up. In my experience shotguns have a very low chance of finishing off the target without multiple turns of fire, and getting stuck with a full turn of being shot at is worse than in melee and finishing off, which is where raw damage per TUs matters. If you (unfortunately) get stuck in melee with something you can't kill, melee dodge still works against being shot at. It's actually safer to be right next to whatever is shooting at you than 5-10 tiles away.

Also, as long as you finish off the target you can always drop a pre-primed smoke grenade or throw one in from across the map.

 

[Sarissofoi]

That is why you use Blunderbases and Combat shotguns/Trench guns.
Early Sawed offs are extremely effective at close range. Any shotguns that can discharge in auto is.
To be honest early I am really scared of enemy shotguns and smgs on close range(before I get good armor).
Melee to be effective you need good skils and plenty of TU(so need for experienced gals). Any scrub can empty Blunderbuss into somebody face.
Melee is heavily dependent on TU when Firearms not(as my experience with peasant armies tell me).

 

[Average Manatee]

I must just be very unlucky with the shotties then. At close range I've unloaded multiple shotguns into targets and not gotten a kill, where a single melee probably would have.

 

[Sarissofoi]

Shotguns are amazing against non armored or low armored targets.
Against heavy armors you need specialized ammunition(like Chem). But early shotguns are great(at close) especially if you go into melee(and keep sawed off shot into QD).

 

[AgentFransis]

The better shotguns actually have a pretty decent effective range. I've used heavy shotguns very effectively in ~15 tile ranges. In the early game they're pretty easily the best firearm you've got. But yeah, totally useless against any kind of armor. I do feel like you about shotguns/smgs with chem shells - the spread on those is so huge they're pretty much effective only point blank, at which point might as well ax it in the face.

You're right about reactions but it's not always safe to run into melee. The target could have buddies around the corner you don't know about and running into melee is likely to leave you in the open. I feel it's important that your assault gals have an effective mid-range weapon they can shoot around corners with or cover a corridor with reaction fire. Of course it doesn't have to be a shotgun, can be a good pistol or smg (blossom is just amazing) or an assault rifle if you don't mid reaching to the backpack to get an ax out.

Yeah, there is a sort of imbalance where the stun stuff are generally just as good or better in melee than the dizzying array of melee weapons are unless fighting heavily armored stuff.

I don't really agree. Cattle prods are great but they are pretty slow and unwieldy. You can use is as a primary weapon but a good sword or ax can often do the job with less TU. As a side-arm fistycuffs and handles work fine but they tend to be less accurate and scale worse than a good dagger. Later on when you get neural whips then yeah, they're incredible. Still my main melee gals use a big weapon that's universally effective (just unlocked force blades - oh boy).

 

[Average Manatee]

What difficulty are you guys playing on? Harder ones buff armor, which probably makes shotguns significantly worse for max difficulty than on lower ones.

You're right about reactions but it's not always safe to run into melee. The target could have buddies around the corner you don't know about and running into melee is likely to leave you in the open. I feel it's important that your assault gals have an effective mid-range weapon they can shoot around corners with or cover a corridor with reaction fire. Of course it doesn't have to be a shotgun, can be a good pistol or smg (blossom is just amazing) or an assault rifle if you don't mid reaching to the backpack to get an ax out.

This is why you pre-prime 1 or 2 smoke grenades on everyone. Dropping a primed grenade costs something like 4 TUs. AI can't shoot what it doesn't see, and in the center of smoke sight is around 4 tiles.

Also dual wielding two-handed weapons works better, dropping the weapon you don't want is only 2 TUs vs. dozens for pulling shit out of a backpack.

I don't really agree. Cattle prods are great but they are pretty slow and unwieldy. You can use is as a primary weapon but a good sword or ax can often do the job with less TU. As a side-arm fistycuffs and handles work fine but they tend to be less accurate and scale worse than a good dagger. Later on when you get neural whips then yeah, they're incredible. Still my main melee gals use a big weapon that's universally effective (just unlocked force blades - oh boy).

I wouldn't use stuff like cattle prods on my top-tier melees designed for wiping out heavily armored enemies, instead I give them to everyone else since they don't require a ton of skill to use and are good for capturing whenever an opportune soft target presents itself. Same goes for the handles/ball bats before prods.

Cattle Prod is quite good IMO, 70 dmg/20 TUs, ignores 50% of armor, 125% base accuracy and 50% + user accuracy / 2 scaling. Only needs a 60 accuracy user to hit 100%.

 

[Incantatar]

I'm playing on easiest atm and still save scum sometimes (e.g. terminator civilians killing the whole squad). Will try to play it ironman in the future. A year ago I went pretty far on medium difficulty but I want to learn more and finish this play through.
There is so much content and depth. God, I love this mod!

And the theme is divine. I'm a fan of 80s b-movies and this really hits the vibe and expands on it.

 

[Sarissofoi]

There is so much content and depth. God, I love this mod!

Plenty of stuff and a lot of things.

 

[orcinator]

What difficulty are you guys playing on? Harder ones buff armor, which probably makes shotguns significantly worse for max difficulty than on lower ones.

They're still great on Jack Sparrow, if you're lucky you can kill guild security dudes from the back and unarmored targets from across the map with just a combat shotgun. The Flakcannon can still kill most enemies in the game too, it's especially useful against the mercs with their low base armor and huge health pools.

As a side-arm fistycuffs and handles work fine.

Fun fact, those are kinda obsolete now that you can just punch people.

but I want to learn more and finish this play through.

Hahahahahahahaha
Yeah that's not gonna happen given how fucking long it takes to actually finish X-Piratez. If you're willing to play long enough to reach late game you'll regret playing on easy considering how overpowered the lategame gear is

 

[Incantatar]

but I want to learn more and finish this play through.

Hahahahahahahaha
Yeah that's not gonna happen given how fucking long it takes to actually finish X-Piratez. If you're willing to play long enough to reach late game you'll regret playing on easy considering how overpowered the lategame gear is

I read a usual play through is 3-4 in game years and I'm at 2,5. I don't think I'll regret easy difficulty since I remember many pita enemies like Chryssalids etc. And I never saw enemies like star gods before. Even on easy you get missions that are very dangerous.

 

[Incantatar]

>implying anyone that plays a X-COM game on any difficulty level that's not superhuman (or equiv) is not a casual first-timer and/or fag.

Got an AAR of your superhuman Jack Sparrow Piratez play through? Might help an casual fag like me to become a man.

 

[panda]

>implying anyone that plays a X-COM game on any difficulty level that's not superhuman (or equiv) is not a casual first-timer and/or fag.

AFAIK in Piratez enemies get random ass 20-25% armor buff on highest difficulty which is almost as elegant and nimble design decision as fucking Oblivion's level scaling.

Important question though: whether mod(weapons dmg in this case) designed around base armor values or Jack Sparrow values? Surely you are right if it is latter.
But if it is former than the only reason to start on Jack is to indulge yourself with DF levels of FUN. As much entertaining as it might be this is also not everyone's cup of tea.

I'm actually curious about answer myself. Are there Dioxine's forum dwellers who know for sure?

 

[Incantatar]

>implying anyone that plays a X-COM game on any difficulty level that's not superhuman (or equiv) is not a casual first-timer and/or fag.

AFAIK in Piratez enemies get random ass 20-25% armor buff on highest difficulty which is almost as elegant and nimble design decision as fucking Oblivion's level scaling.

Important question though: whether mod(weapons dmg in this case) designed around base armor values or Jack Sparrow values? Surely you are right if it is latter.
But if it is former than the only reason to start on Jack is to indulge yourself with DF levels of FUN. As much entertaining as it might be this is also not everyone's cup of tea.

I'm actually curious about answer myself. Are there Dioxine's forum dwellers who know for sure?

I asked this question before in the newb question thread and nobody said it was. I'm curious too and put up a question to Dioxine.

 

[lightbane]

>implying anyone that plays a X-COM game on any difficulty level that's not superhuman (or equiv) is not a casual first-timer and/or fag.

Ah yes, the mode for those whose e-peen is short and have to prove something. How is that X-Files LP going by the way?

As for difficulty level, IIRC the game was designed with the third mode in mind.

 

[Sarissofoi]

I think its based around Vet level. As all info in

AFAIK in Piratez enemies get random ass 20-25% armor buff on highest difficulty which is almost as elegant and nimble design decision as fucking Oblivion's level scaling.

Wait, they do? That sounds like fantastic bullshit and would turn a lot of early-game enemies pretty much bullet-proof.

Not only armor get bonus but also rest of the stats like reactions or firing. Also enemy number increase which lead to more slaves and easier info.

 

[panda]

Wait, they do? That sounds like fantastic bullshit and would turn a lot of early-game enemies pretty much bullet-proof.

Well, there is that line in Piratez.rul file

Spoiler

aimAndArmorMultipliers: [0.75, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.2]

And i think other stats buffed as well, but that is inherited from original game.

Spoiler