X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[Endemic]

Just made 4 millions from a mission in TFTD. The economy really gets out of whack once you conserve your explosives...

Now I can buy that fully equipped base instead of just a sonar station.

Superhuman = more enemies = more loot. Even with the weapon nerfs (to the laser and plasma equivalents) in TFTD, eventually you'll break the economy.

 

[Average Manatee]

I play with laser rifles exclusively once I get them. My standard unit loadout is laser rifle, stun rod, medikit and electro flare.

They blow through any human doors easily.

This is with original XCom, though.

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Destroying_Terrain

Wiki says access lift doors are 75 DR. Explosives deal 50% damage to terrain meaning rockets would need to do 150 damage to destroy them (just the tile hit, not other tiles nearby). Large Rockets deal 100 damage, way too low. Laser Rifles deal only 75 damage and according to the same wiki page deal only 25-75% damage to terrain so that's also too low. You could destroy minor X-Com doors but not the big lift/hanger doors. Even if you could, why bother spending multiple turns shooting doors when you could be shooting aliens? That's just silly.

Just made 4 millions from a mission in TFTD. The economy really gets out of whack once you conserve your explosives...

Now I can buy that fully equipped base instead of just a sonar station.

Superhuman = more enemies = more loot. Even with the weapon nerfs (to the laser and plasma equivalents) in TFTD, eventually you'll break the economy.

Yeah, this is true. I would never say that higher difficulties become easier than lower ones but they definitely lead to quicker games.

 

[Cael]

I play with laser rifles exclusively once I get them. My standard unit loadout is laser rifle, stun rod, medikit and electro flare.

They blow through any human doors easily.

This is with original XCom, though.

https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Destroying_Terrain

Wiki says access lift doors are 75 DR. Explosives deal 50% damage to terrain meaning rockets would need to do 150 damage to destroy them (just the tile hit, not other tiles nearby). Large Rockets deal 100 damage, way too low. Laser Rifles deal only 75 damage and according to the same wiki page deal only 25-75% damage to terrain so that's also too low. You could destroy minor X-Com doors but not the big lift/hanger doors. Even if you could, why bother spending multiple turns shooting doors when you could be shooting aliens? That's just silly.

Just made 4 millions from a mission in TFTD. The economy really gets out of whack once you conserve your explosives...

Now I can buy that fully equipped base instead of just a sonar station.

Superhuman = more enemies = more loot. Even with the weapon nerfs (to the laser and plasma equivalents) in TFTD, eventually you'll break the economy.

Yeah, this is true. I would never say that higher difficulties become easier than lower ones but they definitely lead to quicker games.

Not sure how, then, but I definitely did a lot of base defence missions with that set up and killed a lot of aliens coming down the way.

 

[octavius]

Almost shat my pants when lobstermen opened the door to my Triton. The result was still a bloody mess.

 

[octavius]

Things are going quite well on my third try at TFTD on Superhuman.

No nightly terror missions yet and not any ship lanes being terrorized (that's where both my previous games on lower difficulties came to a halt).
Most difficult mission was a terror mission against Lobstermen and Bio-Drones. Didn't know aliens could open the door to your ship and I underestimated the blast radius of the drones, so had to some reloading to get a good strart on that mission.

Currently I have over 10 million in funds just from selling stuff I don't have room for in four stores. Maybe I should build labs in my sonar stations as well and hire an army of science dudes?

 

[Alienman]

Gill man most deadly. Makes me proud.

 

[Average Manatee]

Currently I have over 10 million in funds just from selling stuff I don't have room for in four stores. Maybe I should build labs in my sonar stations as well and hire an army of science dudes?

Practically speaking there's not much reason to have more than 200 scientists in vanilla/TFTD. And researching in multiple bases can just get annoying when they can't combine efforts.

 

[Endemic]

Gill man most deadly. Makes me proud.

According to this https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Alien_Appearance_Ratios_(TFTD) Gillmen are guaranteed to be the first terror mission.

 

[octavius]

Tried a ground (or seabed) assault on a Very Large ship, but quickly decided on a tactical regrouping at HQ. Landed right next to the ship and the area was crawling with Lobstermen and brains/floaters, and the ship was equipped with lots of arrowslits, making it a hopeless task. I haven't even got the option to research Vibro Blades and Thermic Lances yet.

But a Large ship was doable. Lobster was back on the menu, but at least the ship was not a fortress and there was thankfully some area between the ships. On my first serious try I thought I had cleared the perimeter, got impatient and started to breach the ship on turn 20. Lobsters flanked my squad by jumping down from the top decks of the hull (how rude) and one well placed pulse grenade spelt the end of that try.
Next serious try I was more patient and in the end there was no in-ship fighting at all. I found myself using advanced tactics like tossing proximity grenades on the upper levels of the hull just to alert me to possible movement there.

I'm starting to hate Lobstermen and Gillmen. Would have nice to more often meet something other than lobsters in the most difficult missions and not nearly always Gillmen in smaller ships.

Research is not going anywhere productive. Still can't make a new submarine, tank/hovercraft or melee weapons. Maybe I really need to research Gauss tech?
Never bothered with any of the tanks, since one uses harpoons which are too weak and with too low accuracy. The other uses Torpedoes, so can't be used on land where it would have been most useful. So I figured it was better to develop more soldiers with Sonic weapons and have more spotters.

 

[Average Manatee]

Decided to actually do one of the awful 2 part liners rather than go home immediately like I usually do. Around 70 turns taken but surprisingly few losses, all on the 2nd part (vs. gillmen, in april with gauss)

Got almost full radar coverage of the world with 5 addition radar bases, about to get sonic oscillators for aerial domination and am replacing radar with transmission resolvers.

Research is not going anywhere productive. Still can't make a new submarine, tank/hovercraft or melee weapons. Maybe I really need to research Gauss tech?

Some dissections and alien captures are more essential in TFTD.

 

[octavius]

Would have nice to more often meet something other than lobsters in the most difficult missions and not nearly always Gillmen in smaller ships.

And of course, the next small craft shot down contained Lobstermen.

 

[octavius]

Fantastic...Bio-Drones too can open doors. Must be Psi.
I guess you can see what world of butthurt this can lead to?

Spoiler

Bio-Drone opens door, square-jawed muscle brains REACT and the explosion kills half the crew "safe" in the Triton.
Isn't OpenXcom wonderful?

 

[Average Manatee]

Fantastic...Bio-Drones too can open doors. Must be Psi.
I guess you can see what world of butthurt this can lead to?

Spoiler

Bio-Drone opens door, square-jawed muscle brains REACT and the explosion kills half the crew "safe" in the Triton.
Isn't OpenXcom wonderful?

Dayum, that sucks.

What was the situation? Terror mission where it spawned next to you? Those close quarters liner missions with bio-drones can be pretty awful. Thankfully no Tentaculat terror missions though.

My first action on turn 2 of missions like that is to spam either magna-packs (not grenades, too weak) or sonic pulsars on anything detectable with motion scanners from inside the sub or visible from the doorway. Civilian casualties are regrettable but necessary sacrifices. In fact sonic pulsars are probably the best research to rush in TFTD, you get so many of them and they can pretty well handle everything except Lobstermen.

Currently in May myself. Got 6 radar bases up, mag-ion armor and two MC labs. As a rule I avoid manufacturing gauss cannons for profit since they are a bit too OP but particle disturbance sensors are pretty good as well and are turning a fine profit now with the 2nd base gearing up to just produce those. Also 2 alien bases up that I'll need to deal with...eventually.

EDIT: tfw your 4 best sniper soldiers with ~80 accuracy and 20-30 kills each all roll <25 MC Strength . Best soldier has a flat 1.

 

[octavius]

What was the situation? Terror mission where it spawned next to you? Those close quarters liner missions with bio-drones can be pretty awful. Thankfully no Tentaculat terror missions though.

Let's see...
Turn 1. Sit inside Triton and hear civilians being butchered while the enemies use their TUs. Not taking any chances against enemies that can't be one shotted.
Turn 2. Killed three Lobstermen and three Bio-Drones.
Turn 3. Two Bio-Drones appear a few squares from the Triton. Some tossers throw a couple of Sonic Pulsars (I play with grenades detonating at end of my turn, in order to not rely too much on them against non-crustacean enemies), but only one of the BDs were destroyed.
Turn 4. Hight pitched "I can't belives this is happening!" as the surviving BD opens the door, receives a broad...uh roundside(?) and then explodes .

As for research I like to start with Motion Scanners, since they are so useful, and protitable, and means minumum time for the engineers twiddling thumbs.
Then Sonic Pistols, followed by Sonic Pulsars. I find myself not researching Gauss tech, which is a bit unfortunate.

 

[Endemic]

Research is not going anywhere productive. Still can't make a new submarine, tank/hovercraft or melee weapons.

You didn't research the propulsion tech? You should have USO parts that are topics.

If you're still stuck: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Research_(TFTD)

 

[Average Manatee]

In my experience Gauss Rifles are quite good and reliable early game. Against gillmen and sectoids (and their terror buddies) they'll perform well and autofire has definitely saved me in some close quarters situations. Selling all those sonic weapons can generate a lot of cash too. Just need to get sonic cannons or the stun launcher online before you want to fight lobstermen. I think the anti-gauss sentiment is a bit exaggerated by people who fight lobstermen with them but the fact is that almost everything is bad against lobstermen, even sonic cannons take 4-5 snipers to guarantee a kill. It's also pretty quick to research.

Fighting a close quarters terror mission vs. lobstermen and bio-drones is some scary shit. I'd have noped the fuck out of their ASAP and just taken the 500 point score hit.

 

[Covenant]

I've been playing Piratez after not having checked out the last few versions, and wow, what happened to the comfy feeling it used to have? There was something really fun about building up your gals from simple thugs bashing people over the head with baseball bats, where all your early victories like beating a Warehouse Wars were really exciting. But that seems to have been put aside in favour of making the whole experience a stressful rush with all the Sky Ninja changes. If it's not a ninja attack on your base before you're even halfway through the first year, it's hunter-killers popping up out of nowhere and blowing up your ship with no chance to escape, because they're 3x as fast as you. Or just your score being tanked from the skies being full of enemy craft that you can't hope to shoot down until you get a codex craft. It's not about beating the new mission anymore, it's about constantly maximising your points on every mission by capturing everyone, and desperately trying to stay ahead of the curve of being able to somehow beat a ninja base before it evolves into a fortress.

I'm not amazing at the game but I'm not bad at it either. I've beat it on Davey Jones Ironman previously. But the experience then and now was like night and day. Perhaps the design philosophy has changed so that save-scumming's now intended. Whatever it is, it's a lot less fun than it used to be.

 

[Cael]

Always beeline Gauss Cannon first. Then you will not have any problems with money ever agan.

 

[octavius]

Research is not going anywhere productive. Still can't make a new submarine, tank/hovercraft or melee weapons.

You didn't research the propulsion tech? You should have USO parts that are topics.

If you're still stuck: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Research_(TFTD)

Seems I need to capture a Lobsterman Navigator. I've already captured several of other species. Delaying research of the thermal launcher was obviously a mistake. And when I had my guys equipped with several of the, I was like seconds away from being able to assault a landed Large supply ship full of Lobstermen.

And I've never seen a single calcinite yet. OTOH no night terror missions or any shipping lane terror missions yet, nor any base attacks. But I just entered the first Alien Contact Site. So I have a feeling I'm playing a rather untypical game of TFTD.

 

[octavius]

Ouch! The "lol, I'll just use the disruptor pulse launcher and click this path to the baddies and clear a path, lol" tactic doesn't work anymore (in TFTD), when you can't use weapons through telepads. On the bright side neither can the aliens. But it means some slow initial turns when you need to use most of your TUs to just get down to the main level. At least I hope it's only one level and not four full levels.

 

[Endemic]

I think the anti-gauss sentiment is a bit exaggerated by people who fight lobstermen with them but the fact is that almost everything is bad against lobstermen, even sonic cannons take 4-5 snipers to guarantee a kill. It's also pretty quick to research.

Sonic pistols are way more TU efficient for general combat though.

 

[lightbane]

I've been playing Piratez after not having checked out the last few versions, and wow, what happened to the comfy feeling it used to have? There was something really fun about building up your gals from simple thugs bashing people over the head with baseball bats, where all your early victories like beating a Warehouse Wars were really exciting. But that seems to have been put aside in favour of making the whole experience a stressful rush with all the Sky Ninja changes. If it's not a ninja attack on your base before you're even halfway through the first year, it's hunter-killers popping up out of nowhere and blowing up your ship with no chance to escape, because they're 3x as fast as you. Or just your score being tanked from the skies being full of enemy craft that you can't hope to shoot down until you get a codex craft. It's not about beating the new mission anymore, it's about constantly maximising your points on every mission by capturing everyone, and desperately trying to stay ahead of the curve of being able to somehow beat a ninja base before it evolves into a fortress.

I'm not amazing at the game but I'm not bad at it either. I've beat it on Davey Jones Ironman previously. But the experience then and now was like night and day. Perhaps the design philosophy has changed so that save-scumming's now intended. Whatever it is, it's a lot less fun than it used to be.

Sounds like artifically ramping the difficulty is inevitable in mods, followed by drama. Play it on lower difficulty settings just to be sure, and remove the "spotter-sniper" bullshit mechanic as well as the Freshness one. It was explained how to do so the previous page or so of this thread.

Perhaps we ought to split this thread and make one mostly for Openxcom mods.

Speaking of: How is XFiles these days?

 

[Demo.Graph]

Speaking of: How is XFiles these days?

I've tried it in December and even considered making AAR out of it. Played it for 2-3 months up to the first XCOM upgrade.
I had about 20 missions per month, 10-20% were too hard to try. Game forces you to conduct a lot of small missions (craft is small, 2-4 agents per mission). Missions become samey very fast, so I got bored and dropped it.
I must say the balance provides for a very different experience from vanilla and xpiratez. I think I'll return to the mod some day.

You're pretty much required to a) turtle (few agents, no freshness (or is it limited?)), b) get 2-3 crafts ASAP to get most of the missions, c) have the stock of rookies like in vanilla.
The craft is small and cheap, so losing the craft is bad, but not the end of the world (contrary to xcom or xpz) - the balance seems to be aimed at ironman mode.
Research balance nudges you to capture stuff, but not as hard as in xpz (because missions are abundant, but prisoners aren't that expensive). Also, since you're playing government, you're penalized for killing civvies even if some of those try to harm your meeples. Like in xpz, you have a lot of random filler research (or maybe techs that might become useful some time in the future in compendiums or something) and should choose carefully, what you're teching (because research facilities are locked and you're limited to 5 scientists).
Also, I've really liked abusing AI with darkness mechanics, so almost all my agents began running around with flashlight+pistol/taser (or in pairs where one had light+ and another had shotgun).

 

[Average Manatee]

I think the anti-gauss sentiment is a bit exaggerated by people who fight lobstermen with them but the fact is that almost everything is bad against lobstermen, even sonic cannons take 4-5 snipers to guarantee a kill. It's also pretty quick to research.

Sonic pistols are way more TU efficient for general combat though.

I dunno, are they?

Gauss rifle has better aimed accuracy, and if I'm at mid range then I'm calling in grenades/snipers/torpedoes rather than chancing a shot.

Also equipping a whole team with sonic weapons is going to mean 1-2 less radar bases on the map.

 

[octavius]

Cleared my first Alien Contact Site. Wasn't as bad as I had feared. Faced Aquatoids, Tasoth and "brainiacs". Wasted too much thermal grenades when I forgot I hadn't built an Alien Containment at Ice Station Zebra.

Ironman is mostly a pretense now, and I only lost two guys; for the first time none of my "point" guys were among the casualties.