In Progress X-Piratez! Ironman! No spoilers! Oldschool X-COM Total Conversion with mutant amazon pirates. Death to the star gods!

[lightbane]

If the lab is hit by a missile, fear not. It can be rebuilt, indefinitely, as long as you have moola. If it's destroyed for good though (ie: losing that base), then you're screwed that run.

 

[std::namespace]

Alright, lets see who are neighbours are.

lol worst base possible

Nice little tip this one is. Kinda not fucking true though.

why is not true? which machines explode on which of those damage types?

Oh for fucks sake. We were standing on a gas pump too.

this is like borderline retarded bro, not the gas pump but literally scouting with your most senior maxed out fucking gal, i dont even know what to say
she shouldnt be even near combat, she should stand around with a longbow or wand and get her vskill up on stumbling captures that woke up
but the game taught you a lesson soon afterwards =p
than again it has taught you this very same lesson multiple times already lol

I think xp rewards might be based on damage dealt.

nah its per hit, its just usually 50% if you get xp awarded, on some weapon types, it can be 33%

 

[oasis789]

merc base could be good, lots of rooms to hide in and close combat, so its not that bad that youre outgunned.

 

[Jaedar]

merc base could be good, lots of rooms to hide in and close combat, so its not that bad that youre outgunned.

It seems pretty bad. I think it could be worse, but mercs love their gauss weapons and hellerium grenades, and getting hit by either is an instant death sentence. The grenades in particular seem like they could easily lead to a full wipe if you get unlucky in the first few turns.

On the other hand, mercs do not handle melee very well, and their reactions are merely human. But a base is sure to have some kind of super units, which seems like it could be real bad.

 

[turkishronin]

It's their tanks that are annoying

 

[lightbane]

At some point, you weren't allowed to bring tanks to most base assaults anymore, which is annoying, as not only vehicles eventually become very good (and since they use pilots, they get EXP!), but it made bases easier, if not an hilarious cakewalk. But Dio loves to make things hard and thus this was changed. I remember in XFiles trivializing a Syndicate small base assault by bringing two tanks that the enemies couldn't damage at all with their available weaponry. It was hilarious to see enemies shooting against a steely wall of doom that annihilated everything.
For the Merc base, consider doing a quick capture of one merc and then retreating so that you get something at least.
I wonder if zombies can make bases...

 

[Jaedar]

I wonder if zombies can make bases...

Someone has to make those tech things on Singers arms, and outfit zombies with armor. No idea if they make bases. Could be interesting, and quite annoying since zombies all have SENSE(INFINITY_LUL).

as not only vehicles eventually become very good

I love the gnomedisc. I bring it every mission. I focused my gnome interrogations until I had all of them so I could turn my research gnome into an extra pilot I built an extra hideout just so I could fit the building required to manufacture infinite amounts of them. It's a flying death machine. "only" getting to fire 4 rockets per mission is an entirely acceptable drawback when you can fire two of them with 100% accuracy in a single turn, and your ""backup weapon"" can one-shot power armor dudes from the front.

I get very upset when I'm not allowed to bring it.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Well that happened.

For the Merc base, consider doing a quick capture of one merc and then retreating so that you get something at least.

A tempting idea. The problem is that the merc in question would be starting at full TUs. I suppose if I brought some sacrificial pawns in to use those up...

scouting with your most senior maxed out fucking gal, i dont even know what to say

Hey, she made it back alive despite the colossal fuckup. It was the half trained one that got obliterated by the suicide bomber (that's what I was referring to by the jab at the hint regarding using daze and such to avoid blowing enemies up) At this rate my team is just going to be entirely ogres and werewolves in a few more months. :depair:


Alright, here we go!

Abort! ABORT! That large craft could aim, apparently.

Well this is new.

Hmm, doesn't sound great for us.

Welp, thats an invasion.

Invasion thwarted! HAH!

We run some easy missions, a church raid and some tiny craft shot down. Seems like there's a new title available. As if bows weren't already incredibly good early game.

Some research. Very important.

Some less vital, but still important research. Apparently electricity bypasses purple shields! Good to know. It seems purple shields are kinda crap in general though, unless we find some freaky wizards to fight.

Not a new title, but one we hadn't recieved yet. Chem rounds on the painbringer SMGs have an extra benefit it seems.

Remember what I said about level C bounty hunts? This one is the exception. This one is actually ass, because of the fucking humanists and their bullshit spotter/sniper combos, on top of having a fucking armored car.

Still, we've taken armored cars out before with way less weaponry than we have now. We should be okay.

We are not okay.

This fucking thing just reaction fired 4 explosive rounds into us. Instantly killed Bowser Jr. and Katt.

And then it fucks off all the way over here in a single turn. Balanced.

Fucking hell, poor girl wasn't even in the line of fire, just too splash from around the corner.

While we play cat and mouse with the car, eventually this guy shows up, already wounded from stray bullets apparently.

Azira and Gumsmith are pelting the car with chem rounds and then ducking behind the craft for cover. It seems unwilling or unable to path over there and fuck us up, so we do this for like... 10 turns. We dumped a LOT of chem ammo into this thing. Wish I had a braner to see what it's armour is at now.

Modron hangs around the other side and picks off soldiers as they arrive.

They start going berserk pretty quickly after the leader went down. If we take out the car we win for sure.

However, the car decides to fuck off even further into the woods, so Azira just picks off a bunch of the soldiers instead.

Eventually I decide to risk running for the leader. Probably won't have earth shattering tech, but i want something new out of the abomination of a mission.

Oh, NOW the fucking car is willing to fire blindly at us. What the fuck. Thankfully it's aim was shit this time.

...and the leader dies the next turn, before we can heal him. Fucking hell.

I consider trying to bombard the tank with a cannon from the air, but it's in deep forest cover. Not a chance in hell.

And then the thing sprints across the entire fucking map and dumps shells into Modron at like point blank. Cool. Can I have one?

Modron, however, takes like 1/4 the damage Bowser Jr. did. Dunno how, but there it is.

Alright, if it's this close then fuck it, we'll take it down with everything we have. Eat plasma shitheads!

... uh, eat electrical rounds?

...eat... claws?

Claws did the trick apparently.

Well, that was utterly not fucking worth it.

Oh, cool, they also invaded the hideout I just invested millions in for defense against missiles. Cool.

Apparently the game thinks I should send the peasants in with a rock and a landmine. I shit you not, they all defaulted to this loadout. Not exactly what I had planned here.

Well, our first glimpse of the enemy is a pack of dogs. Thats worse than nurses, but it could have been worse.

Sadly, our own dogs equipped with armed landmines all spawned very far from the access point. The first one to arrive gets fucked up by enemy dogs before he can spy the enemy soldiers.

Fuck. Well this is probably doomed. We've got one gun that can hurt this guys, and even that won't go through the shield reliably.

... and it missed anyways, from 2 tiles away. Great!

Well, plan B is we all pull back to the far corner, hope that the storm rats all step on land mines, and the dogs get killed by shotguns.

All 3 gals over here got wiped out by this asshole. The normal combat shotgun rounds can't scratch him.

I get a dog closer, and it looks like the enemies are mostly ruffians. So we might stand a chance after all. Maybe.

The uber bees are our only real hope now. I checked their stats for melee dodge out of curiosity and... yeah I have fuck all idea what their reactions are. Not helpful.

Judging by the sounds, they're doing extremely well, as I'd expect.

However, eventually I spot this. Whether it was aimed at them or just a rando going berserk, this shit annihilates bees. A few turns later I no longer hear buzzing.

All we can do is sit facing doorways and hope for the best.

Turn 21 comes and goes, and the enemies still don't find us for 5 turns afterwards. They do mostly stop going berserk however.

Eventually we start going insane instead. Fuck. Extra morale my ass.

Our first glimpse since we started hiding. No storm rats at least... maybe those are all dead?

We trade a peasant for a troublemaker in the barracks.

And when we try to follow up by steping outside to get the drop on one, we die to reaction fire before we see the enemy.

The stats on these untrained peasants are just too bad; they were never meant to handle a real fight, just a stopgap I left here to find off the weakest of assaults.

RIP Underworld. You cost me a fuckton of money and gave me nothing in return. Fuck you.

 

[lightbane]

A tempting idea. The problem is that the merc in question would be starting at full TUs. I suppose if I brought some sacrificial pawns in to use those up...

Then do it in the second turn. Or do it on a merc not looking at you and hope you can stun him in one attack so that he doesn't counter.

Hey, she made it back alive despite the colossal fuckup. It was the half trained one that got obliterated by the suicide bomber (that's what I was referring to by the jab at the hint regarding using daze and such to avoid blowing enemies up) At this rate my team is just going to be entirely ogres and werewolves in a few more months. :depair:

Shame wwoofs can't be ranked yet as far as I know.

Some research. Very important.

So, they (re)discovered fanzines then? kek.

pparently the game thinks I should send the peasants in with a rock and a landmine. I shit you not, they all defaulted to this loadout. Not exactly what I had planned here.

Supposedly, during base defenses, the game fucks with you by having some gals be naked or similar to represent being caught offguard. There's a mod that fixes that.
Still, you have terrible luck with base defenses so far. Can't you recruit an horde of your own dogs for defense?

 

[Damned Registrations]

Then do it in the second turn

Bad idea. They could easily rush into the access point and drop grenades or worse on my party. They start very close by.

Supposedly, during base defenses, the game fucks with you by having some gals be naked or similar to represent being caught offguard.

Oh it totally does that. That wasn't what the loadouts were about though; I think it was just a combination of their low firing skills and strength; the shotguns put most of them a point or two over capacity.

Can't you recruit an horde of your own dogs for defense?

I thought 5 would be enough, combined with the peasants. Apparently I should have had like, 30. In hindsight I should have thrown a ton in there while the radars built (AGAIN) but I was expecting more missiles and didn't want to suddenly need to relocate everyone if the crew quarters blew up. I was also kind of expecting that if it was a raid, it was going to be something completely new and brutal dogs wouldn't save me from.

 

[Average Manatee]

Really looks like the peasant route is just far, far harder. What are you getting in return for not being able to hire a dozen ubers to defend anywhere? This would have been easy with them ready to go.

 

[lightbane]

The male route is hard, closer to XCOM. Default female route is easier, if focused on melee. Peasant route is impossible mode I bet. No idea about catgirl route, it's barebones for now.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Pretty sure you can still recruit gals on peasant route actually. Though I might have gotten playthroughs mixed up. You definitely still get random castaway rescue and brothel missions though. Not having access to those is just a massive fucking gut punch. You'd think we'd at least get a way to recruit zone stalkers on demand, but uh... nope. We got... trucks, I think? It mentioned something about hunting dogs too but haven't seen anything like that.

 

[Average Manatee]

Ohh, I forget, we're on male route, not peasants? How much differences are there between them? Their stat line looks pretty similar. I guess its mostly that males tend to get the better armors?

 

[lightbane]

You definitely still get random castaway rescue and brothel missions though.

These are swapped for random chance of getting zone stalkers in the male route, I think.

Ohh, I forget, we're on male route, not peasants? How much differences are there between them? Their stat line looks pretty similar. I guess its mostly that males tend to get the better armors?

Males are slightly stronger and tougher and have better armor. They're still ubers compared to peasants who are baseline humies.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Ohh, I forget, we're on male route, not peasants? How much differences are there between them? Their stat line looks pretty similar. I guess its mostly that males tend to get the better armors?

Well, the zone stalkers use all the same armours as the men, and zone stalkers, while not as good as gals, are still fairly decent, much better than peasants or the slave soldiers we can recruit. Not sure if there's a peasant equivalent to zone stalkers aside from Damsels, which... seem to be crap. There are also Heroes, which are male soldiers that are actually on par with a gal in terms of usefulness. We... haven't seen one yet. Yay RNG!

The advantage the peasants have is access to some of the stealthy mission types. And nun outfits, I guess. Actually they have a fair bit of overlap with the gals when it comes to support gear; peasants can be nurses for example, while the men cannot. They certainly get less heavy armour options, but it's not like heavy armour would save a peasant's scrawny hp pool from a quick death anyways.

 

[Jaedar]

Seems like there's a new title available.

Patches notes says it's a replacement/renaming for archer.

Pretty sure you can still recruit gals on peasant route actually. Though I might have gotten playthroughs mixed up. You definitely still get random castaway rescue and brothel missions though. Not having access to those is just a massive fucking gut punch. You'd think we'd at least get a way to recruit zone stalkers on demand, but uh... nope. We got... trucks, I think? It mentioned something about hunting dogs too but haven't seen anything like that.

You've gotten some other things as well I think. Trucks seem like the big thing. I suspect dog thing just means you got recruit dog tech for free?
I think you also immediately get the ability to turn SLAVES into soldiers, which otherwise requires a bit of teching.

 

[Average Manatee]

Well, the zone stalkers use all the same armours as the men, and zone stalkers, while not as good as gals, are still fairly decent, much better than peasants or the slave soldiers we can recruit. Not sure if there's a peasant equivalent to zone stalkers aside from Damsels, which... seem to be crap. There are also Heroes, which are male soldiers that are actually on par with a gal in terms of usefulness. We... haven't seen one yet. Yay RNG!

There's definitely a lot of unique peasant... I guess you can call them starting origins? "Wild Girls", "Peasant Revolutionary", "Peasant Sniper". All of which give pretty decent stat buffs. Unfortunately I expect they are just random to get (aside from capturing wild girls in the few missions they appear).

You've gotten some other things as well I think. Trucks seem like the big thing. I suspect dog thing just means you got recruit dog tech for free?

Trucks are kind of crap... way too exposed. The gun is a nice touch but functionally useless due to awful accuracy.

The Peasant Harvester on the other hand, that's an amazing looking ship for ground battles. 20 spots, tons of exits with doors and elevators. Horrifically bad speed and poor range though, sadly.

 

[Jaedar]

The gun is a nice touch but functionally useless due to awful accuracy.

Yeah it seemed very ineffective from the lp. And suicide lights.

The Peasant Harvester on the other hand, that's an amazing looking ship for ground battles. 20 spots, tons of exits with doors and elevators. Horrifically bad speed and poor range though, sadly.

If it can't get you to where you need to go, it's not actually a good ship, regardless of anything else. Especially considering how many troop craft types you need anyway, to cover all the angles.

 

[turkishronin]

Ohh, I forget, we're on male route, not peasants? How much differences are there between them? Their stat line looks pretty similar. I guess its mostly that males tend to get the better armors?

Well, the zone stalkers use all the same armours as the men, and zone stalkers, while not as good as gals, are still fairly decent, much better than peasants or the slave soldiers we can recruit. Not sure if there's a peasant equivalent to zone stalkers aside from Damsels, which... seem to be crap. There are also Heroes, which are male soldiers that are actually on par with a gal in terms of usefulness. We... haven't seen one yet. Yay RNG!

The advantage the peasants have is access to some of the stealthy mission types. And nun outfits, I guess. Actually they have a fair bit of overlap with the gals when it comes to support gear; peasants can be nurses for example, while the men cannot. They certainly get less heavy armour options, but it's not like heavy armour would save a peasant's scrawny hp pool from a quick death anyways.

Peasants are only really good if you take the peasant research route tbh

 

[std::namespace]

We are not okay.

why arent you flying the WHITE COCK i mean worm

 

[lightbane]

Peasants might be good for Vodoo, as demonstrated by the nun outfit. Damisels are slightly better at that but suck at combat.

 

[Average Manatee]

Peasants and Males have basically the same voodoo potential, although I assume that Peasants are the ones who get the better psi armors (males tend to get the heavy armored stuff and peasants get the castery stuff). I think by the time you can unlock the useful voodoo stuff you'll have bugeyes available anyway though. Interestingly Catgirls have the same max voodoo power as Bugeyes and only 10 less skill cap. Given that voodoo is flat TU-based and Catgirls have the best TUs while Bugeyes some of the worst, that might be a good niche for them.

In my experience dedicated voodoo min-maxing isn't really a thing, unlike X-Com you'll never get power enough to just autowin every fight with mind control. Instead voodoo is a trick you pull out of your pocket specifically against things with a weakness to it and if they are weak then a reasonably OK voodoo soldier is going to do just as well and you still want great stats elsewhere for when voodoo isn't what the enemy is weak towards. Plus there's the limitations on spamming voodoo (spells costing energy/morale/freshness). I certainly haven't gotten to the endgame though (not sure if I've even gotten to the lategame), so no idea how things might change there.

Is there any way to naturally level voodoo power outside of titles, or is the only way to get it the old "hire 30 people and fire all but the top 10%" thing? Piratez forces the normal x-com psi strength improvement option to off but I dunno if that's because it just has its own method of improvement. Sure would seem like there would be a method somewhere in the tech tree.

 

[lightbane]

Peasants and Males have basically the same voodoo potential, although I assume that Peasants are the ones who get the better psi armors (males tend to get the heavy armored stuff and peasants get the castery stuff). I think by the time you can unlock the useful voodoo stuff you'll have bugeyes available anyway though. Interestingly Catgirls have the same max voodoo power as Bugeyes and only 10 less skill cap. Given that voodoo is flat TU-based and Catgirls have the best TUs while Bugeyes some of the worst, that might be a good niche for them.

In my experience dedicated voodoo min-maxing isn't really a thing, unlike X-Com you'll never get power enough to just autowin every fight with mind control. Instead voodoo is a trick you pull out of your pocket specifically against things with a weakness to it and if they are weak then a reasonably OK voodoo soldier is going to do just as well and you still want great stats elsewhere for when voodoo isn't what the enemy is weak towards. Plus there's the limitations on spamming voodoo (spells costing energy/morale/freshness). I certainly haven't gotten to the endgame though (not sure if I've even gotten to the lategame), so no idea how things might change there.

Is there any way to naturally level voodoo power outside of titles, or is the only way to get it the old "hire 30 people and fire all but the top 10%" thing? Piratez forces the normal x-com psi strength improvement option to off but I dunno if that's because it just has its own method of improvement. Sure would seem like there would be a method somewhere in the tech tree.

I think there are some odd events where you can improve voodoo, but there are also special transformations I think, the Weirdgal being one. However, gals' psychic power is lower compared to the other choices (unless you go with the Grey Codex).
Still, it seems peasants or bug-eyes make good casters. I dunno if catgirls have special psi-armors right now. Magic is not auto-win but it has many uses.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Magic is not auto-win but it has many uses such as summoning fodder units in combat

Well that would have been an awesome surprise for me. Can you just blur shit like that from now on please?