X-COM OpenXcom Thread

[Average Manatee]

Yeah, looks pretty impossible to fight. Everything shorter ranged than the UFO you'll just get stand-offed and everything longer ranged it either runs away before you fire even a single shot (unlike vanilla where you generally get at least 1 shot), or it attacks you if it knows its much stronger and you're gonna lose anyway. So what's the point of even arming your craft before unlocking late game elerium-fueled interceptors? You'd need to overhaul a lot of the stats to get this to work, and I don't think the UFO "seeing" your range and staying just outside of it is very fair when even the player can't do that.

 

[Alienman]

OpenXcom site seems to be down. Anyone know anything?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

OpenXcom site seems to be down. Anyone know anything?

https://steamcommunity.com/app/7760/discussions/0/3757725518099665406/

Big power outage at the server host. should be up soon.

 

[Norfleet]

Yeah, looks pretty impossible to fight. Everything shorter ranged than the UFO you'll just get stand-offed and everything longer ranged it either runs away before you fire even a single shot (unlike vanilla where you generally get at least 1 shot), or it attacks you if it knows its much stronger and you're gonna lose anyway. So what's the point of even arming your craft before unlocking late game elerium-fueled interceptors? You'd need to overhaul a lot of the stats to get this to work, and I don't think the UFO "seeing" your range and staying just outside of it is very fair when even the player can't do that.

Well, the game doesn't directly display it, but the various engagement options sort of automatically did it for you if possible, where long range meant to fight at maximum range.

The issue with "good combat AI" is, obviously, that anytime you outrange and outspeed your opponent, you automatically win if you actually use it. The thing is, aliens are supposed to regard humans with contempt and not take them seriously at first. Otherwise it would be physically impossible to intercept anything faster than you or shoot down anything both longer ranged and faster than you, which all starting aliens would be.

 

[Endemic]

I don't think the interception minigame needed to be made harder than it is, you already start with a tech disadvantage and the AI can retreat just fine. The basic missile\torpedo is marginal enough, with the dogfight AI mod it'd be useless.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I don't think the interception minigame needed to be made harder than it is, you already start with a tech disadvantage and the AI can retreat just fine. The basic missile\torpedo is marginal enough, with the dogfight AI mod it'd be useless.

Everything needs to be made harder than it already is.
MORE DIFFICULTY! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!

Plus, in vanilla, Interception is essentially getting Avalanche Missiles then sniping UFOs away beyond their range. Works with all ships except the bigger ones, these will just insta-disintegrate your plane.

Plus, this change is very useful for mods.

I think it would make sense for it to be activateable during the game. Like, early game it uses the vanilla AI which is essentially the aliens disregarding you exist, then after X number of downed planes, the Aliens get smarter (you do get warned about this somehow) and the AI changes.

 

[Average Manatee]

Best way to increase air difficulty would be to just increase UFO weapon range and reduce player weapon ranges.

 

[lightbane]

The thing with mods is that if a modder can do something, he will, regardless of the logic or sense behind it. Check Piratez's never-ending list of weapons half of which are unpractical but are there just because.

 

[Average Manatee]

In Piratez all the items add flavor and depth to the lore of the world. It wouldn't be the same without all of this weird shit with interesting bootypedia entries.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

In Piratez all the items add flavor and depth to the lore of the world. It wouldn't be the same without all of this weird shit with interesting bootypedia entries.

Its like X-COM Files' IRL Weapons. Who the fuck uses Tokarevs? Absolutely no one. But they are there because it makes sense for Tokarevs to be in-game.

 

[Average Manatee]

It's funnier in Piratez though, because there's a distinctly sci-fi vibe of "what the fuck is this thing we found, is it of any use?" Then you research it for a month and "it turns out it uses some arcane power source, operates by vague inscrutable mechancis, but is useless". Like it feels very realistic that in a sci fi setting you'd find some alien technologies that took forever to understand but turned out to be inferior to human tech. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some sci-fi dealing with this subject.

Incidentally if a games journalist was reviewing piratez they'd probably call it Dark Souls-like in its narrative.

 

[Alienman]

The tits would scare them off.

 

[Endemic]

Best way to increase air difficulty would be to just increase UFO weapon range and reduce player weapon ranges.

Yes, I think the weapons should be rebalanced.

Plus, in vanilla, Interception is essentially getting Avalanche Missiles then sniping UFOs away beyond their range. Works with all ships except the bigger ones, these will just insta-disintegrate your plane.

Like I said, how does the AI behaviour change fix Avalanches? You're just going to encourage spamming them even more.

Keep in mind you need to detect UFOs first. Your early radar setup has a low probability of doing so, not to mention that the overly generous ping interval also lets UFOs enter and leave your radar coverage without detection sometimes. If you send your Skyranger to patrol, it can only be in one place at a time (stock interceptors have very limited endurance so they're much worse at patrolling away from your base). Not to mention the skyranger is needed to transport your squad as well. The top speed of even the crappiest alien ship exceeds that of your interceptors.

If you think the game is too easy, why not make other changes like getting rid of alien drops unless you capture them (already a toggle in Openxcom)?

 

[eXalted]

Has someone played with the Brutal AI mod? Sounds pretty good but I wonder if it's too frustrating?

All enemies can see and attack what anyone on their team sees. Not only that, they can even change the order in which they operate, so that for example a spotter will wait for other aliens to act first before it decides to continue looking for enemies or to hide again. It will generally try to maximize damage-output when attacking and is very capable with using grenades. A lot of bugs in the basic AI are fixed with enabled brutal-AI. (For example arcing-shot-prediction-bug) Those bugs were deliberately not fixed in the base-AI to keep it behaving exactly as it is. An exception are bugs in the "pick up items"-code, as that's also optional for base-AI.

.. and a lot more.

 

[Alienman]

Shame it isn't formatted as the usual mods. Don't want to replace the main files

 

[eXalted]

Shame it isn't formatted as the usual mods. Don't want to replace the main files

This mod is forked from OXCE and provides a few new options both for modders as well as for players themselves.
All the while being compatible with every mod that is also compatible with OXCE.

Looks like it's just an OpenXcom installation that can load the other mods as usual.

 

[Average Manatee]

An actually intelligent AI like that would be fucking impossible considering half the aliens on a map will have the range to throw a grenade outside the skyranger on turn 1. Also imagine blaster bombs.

 

[oasis789]

I play with Brutal AI with omniscience off, prepriming off, targeting type 3. XCF is a lot more fun to play with it, especially with neutrals also getting the AI boost.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Hey guys, I thought about firing up OpenXcom again but noticed that on the website under Downloads -> Milestones there are no files listed, just an embedded YouTube tutorial on the install process. What happened with these? Was their any stable version after 1.0. anyway? Since it was so old I guess I should just install the latest nightly?

 

[eXalted]

Hey guys, I thought about firing up OpenXcom again but noticed that on the website under Downloads -> Milestones there are no files listed, just an embedded YouTube tutorial on the install process. What happened with these? Was their any stable version after 1.0. anyway? Since it was so old I guess I should just install the latest nightly?

I think they provide only Nightlies now?

OpenxCom Extended is the new cool kid in town anyway - https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,5258.0.html

 

[lightbane]

- Scorching Climate missions are a little weird. I had a gal wearing a ganger outfit and she got stunned down in one, two turns. I mean, wtf. I live in the fucking amazon and people don't pass out in five seconds because they are in the sun without being semi-naked.

Climate rules are inane. If you don't have the right gear, your gals will drop on the spot yep. On the plus side, it affects enemies too, so you can wait a little and see enemies passing out. I may be misremembering but the effects of weather are lessened inside buildings. I would rather disable it altogether.

Why there aren't Pirate Snow Climate outfits? Or didn't research that yet?

Some outfits have variations for weather, and there's one for that IIRC.

Grenades aren't as OP as vanilla, but still damn good.

Worse, they explode automatically after a few turns pass according to the timer you set, instead of waiting for you to throw them. Or perhaps they rolled back that change.

Feel like there's a small lack of research direction. Sometimes it feels like you're borderline shooting blind. Maybe its just me.

Use the tech-tree viewer for your sanity's sake. The game is SLOW though, it will take you at least 1 ingame year and half to start the endgame I would bet.

 

[Demo.Graph]

Climate rules are inane. If you don't have the right gear, your gals will drop on the spot yep.

But this makes missions more varied and forces you to pay attention to the starting conditions.
So now missions can be divided by day-night vision, map and enemy geometry, timers (prestige and weather) and special conditions (undercover gear, etc.). It adds to variety and replayability.
Since piratez aim for a long game, it's a necessary requirement.
Xcomfiles is made less ideally in this regard, since, e.g. early game cultist missions become boring rather quickly. Cult units aren't that different gameplay-wise and their missions tend to occur on the same-ish city maps. Early game variety from farmer missions and some cryptophauna missions (like 2x2 wolves rampaging through a neighbourhood with narrow passages) become very welcome.

Feel like there's a small lack of research direction. Sometimes it feels like you're borderline shooting blind. Maybe its just me.

Use the tech-tree viewer for your sanity's sake. The game is SLOW though, it will take you at least 1 ingame year and half to start the endgame I would bet.

I liked that random research. In the beginning it makes you feel like you're searching through postapoc garbage piles in search for something useful. Protracted research enforces the "digging out of the dark ages" feeling.
As a contrarian example, vanilla EOFS had completely missed this opportunity, since you could research cool units after 15-20 turns into the game (not that you needed to).

 

[oasis789]

- Why there aren't Pirate Snow Climate outfits? Or didn't research that yet?

Early on you use Tribal/Furs outfit to go on the Shambler hunt, kill or capture Shamblers for fur, and make that into hats you can use with other outfits. Later there are more even accessories for cold climate so you can go on extreme weather condition missions. But even then you will need booze to keep energy up.

 

[lightbane]

Fuck, almost went into -1000 in this month, but managed to finish with a measly 456. No idea what the hell took down my points so hard, must be enemy missions.

Sometimes enemy bases pop up and drain your score. Check the graphs. Don't fuck with the ninja catgirls early on, as they'll fight back and can generate bases from what I read.

Is making slaves out of people worth it?

YES. There are tons of techs and researchs that require slavs, for not to mention you can have an unlimited number of them reducing storage space. Some Workshop projects require slaves to be spent to boot.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

There are tons of techs and researchs that require slavs

You forgot a letter.